Irish Journal of Sociology

Manuscript Submission Guidelines: Irish Journal of Sociology

This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics.

Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/mijs to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.

Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Irish Journal of Sociology will be reviewed.

There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this journal.

As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you.

1. What do we publish?
   1.1 Aims & Scope
   1.2 Article types
   1.3 Writing your paper
2. Editorial policies
   2.1 Peer review policy
   2.2 Authorship
   2.3 Acknowledgements
   2.4 Funding
   2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
   2.6 Data
   2.7 Special Issues Procedures
3. Publishing policies
   3.1 Publication ethics
   3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
   3.3 Open access and author archiving
4. Preparing your manuscript
   4.1 Formatting
   4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
   4.3 Supplementary material
   4.4 Reference style
   4.5 English language editing services
5. Submitting your manuscript
   5.1 ORCID
   5.2 Information required for completing your submission
   5.3 Permissions
6. On acceptance and publication
   6.1 SAGE Production
   6.2 Online First publication
   6.3 Access to your published article
   6.4 Promoting your article
7. Further information

1. What do we publish?

1.1 Aims & Scope

Before submitting your manuscript to Irish Journal of Sociology, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.

1.2 Article Types

The journal reviews contributions that address an important topic in the sociological study of Irish society or that address theoretical, substantive, or methodological topics not related to Ireland.

Submissions should be 35 pages (original articles), 2-3 pages (book reviews), 6-7 pages (archives, databases, debates, overviews, and trends), or 10-20 pages (research notes). Page limits are inclusive of the main text, references, tables, and figures. Submissions in the Book Reviews section do not require an abstract or running head. Abstracts are required for submissions in the Archives, Databases, Debates, Overviews, and Trends sections.

1.2.1 Book Reviews

The journal publishes reviews of recently published books (within the last 2 years). These consist of a critical evaluation of the arguments put forward in a particular book. Occasionally, the journal publishes reviews of 2-3 books together, but the bulk of accepted reviews are for single books.  Note the following general guidelines for Book Reviews:

• Book reviews must be submitted via the journal’s online submission site.
• The word count for book reviews is 2,000 words.
• The timeframe for completing a review is 2 months (from receipt of the book from the publisher).
• Reviews should be completed within the timeframe agreed with the Book Reviews Editor.
• The Book Reviews Editor may request revisions, edit, or reject a Book Review.
• Personal comments about an author(s) are not allowed

Unsolicited book reviews are not accepted for publication in the IJS. If you wish to review a book for the IJS please contact the Book Reviews editor, Brian Conway (irishjsoc@gmail.com) using ‘IJS Book Review’ as the subject line of your email.

1.2.2 Archives

These pieces involve documents relevant to the historical origins and development of Irish sociology including letters of correspondence, syllabi, meeting minutes, etc. accompanied by a short commentary explaining their origin, meaning, and relevance.

1.2.3 Databases

These pieces describe the dataset(s) sociologists are working with, what is in them, and how they have been used by other researchers.

1.2.4 Debates

These pieces involve engaging with a current hot or urgent debate in society or in sociology, which can take the form of an essay or an interview. Debates pieces may also involve a response, reply, or reaction to an article published in a previous issue of the journal.

1.2.5 Overviews

These pieces provide a start-of-the-art general overview of the current situation in Ireland with respect to such things as moral values, marriage and family life, social inequalities etc.

1.2.6 Trends

These pieces involve analyses (including about 2-3 figures) of some macro societal/cultural/political trend, placing Ireland in comparative perspective (in relation to one other country) or in a comparative European or global context. They can look back in time or they can look forward.

1.2.7 Research Notes

The journal also publishes research notes. Usually, these pieces report on new directions in sociological research or present fresh ways of approaching a given subject matter. Research notes can be up to 25  double-spaced pages.

1.2.8 Teaching Notes

These pieces present research about pedagogical approaches that have practical use in the classroom or lecture hall.  Data or evidence is required, but not at the same level as an original article. Teaching notes can be up to 25 double-spaced pages.

1.2.9 SAI News & Notices

The journal publishes short (1-2 page) news pieces relating to the Sociological Association of Ireland. These may take the form of summary reports of conferences/seminars/workshops organised by SAI members or reactions of SAI members to attending international sociological conferences/meetings.

1.3 Writing your paper

The SAGE Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources.

1.3.1 Make your article discoverable

When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines such as Google.

Please submit a separate title page containing the following information:

• Title
• Author information (position, affiliation)
• Date
• Word count
• Acknowledgements (including presentation of paper at professional meetings, data sources, grants, and other credits)

Please also supply a brief abstract (150-200 words) and keywords to accompany your article. The abstract should be included in the manuscript and submitted along with it. The title of the manuscript should also be included at the top. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article online through online search engines such as Google.

For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.

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2. Editorial policies

2.1 Peer review policy

All manuscripts are reviewed initially by the Editor and only those papers that meet the scientific and editorial standards of the journal, and fit within the aims and scope of the journal, will be sent for outside review. The IJS’s goal is to render the ‘pre-review’ decision within 1 week of submission. The journal reserves the right to reject manuscripts that do not conform to the submission guidelines.

IJS adheres to a rigorous double-blind reviewing policy in which the identity of both the reviewer and author are always concealed from both parties. Each manuscript is reviewed by at least three referees, with the exception of in-brief pieces, which are reviewed by 1-2 external reviewers. As original articles and in-brief pieces are quite different, the reviewing of in-brief pieces differs somewhat to original articles. In the former, reviewers are asked to evaluate the clarity of the argument and the evidence-base to support it. The journal endeavours to render a first editorial decision on every manuscript sent for review within 5 weeks.

As part of the submission process you will be asked to provide the names of peers who could be called upon to review your manuscript. Recommended reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Please be aware of any conflicts of interest when recommending reviewers. Examples of conflicts of interest include (but are not limited to) the below: 

• The reviewer should have no prior knowledge of your submission
• The reviewer should not have recently collaborated with any of the authors
• Reviewer nominees from the same institution as any of the authors are not permitted

You will also be asked to nominate peers who you do not wish to review your manuscript (opposed reviewers).

Please note that the Editors are not obliged to invite/reject any recommended/opposed reviewers to assess your manuscript.

2.2 Authorship

All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.

2.3 Acknowledgements

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.

Please supply any personal acknowledgements separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.

2.4 Funding

Irish Journal of Sociology requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading. Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the SAGE Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. 

2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests

Irish Journal of Sociology encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the SAGE Journal Author Gateway.

2.6 Data

SAGE acknowledges the importance of research data availability as an integral part of the research and verification process for academic journal articles.

Irish Journal of Sociology requests all authors submitting any primary data used in their research articles to be published in the online version of the journal, or provide detailed information in their articles on how the data can be obtained. This information should include links to third-party data repositories or detailed contact information for third-party data sources. Data available only on an author-maintained website will need to be loaded onto either the journal’s platform or a third-party platform to ensure continuing accessibility. Examples of data types include but are not limited to statistical data files, replication code, text files, audio files, images, videos, appendices, and additional charts and graphs necessary to understand the original research. The editor may consider limited embargoes on proprietary data. The editor can/will also grant exceptions for data that cannot legally or ethically be released. All data submitted should comply with Institutional or Ethical Review Board requirements and applicable government regulations. For further information, please contact the editorial office at irishjsoc@gmail.com.

2.7 Special Issues Procedures

About once a year, the journal publishes a special issue on a select topic (usually, but not always, edited by a guest editor(s)). The adjudication process for special issues rests with the editor and editorial board, who will meet to discuss proposals at the bi-annual Editorial Board meetings. Currently, there is a “backlog” of special issues awaiting publication. Thus, the journal is not currently accepting proposals for special issues. Future calls for special issues will be publicised on the journal homepage. The peer review process for special issues is somewhat different than for general issues. Contributions for special issues undergo external peer review individually and, if the subject matter demands it, collectively as well. In general, proposals for special issues should be 2-3 pages in length and include the following:

Why a particular subject matter/topic/issue is worthy of a special issue.
The names and expertise of the proposed guest editor(s), including a CV.
Why the IJS is an appropriate outlet for the special issue.
Draft Call for Papers for the special issue, including possible topics and deadlines.
List of number of contributions to the special issue and approximate page extent.
List of suggested reviewers.

Note that the guest editor(s) is responsible for all aspects of the special issue, including putting together and publicising the Call for Papers, communicating with the editor regarding the progress of the issue and any changes to the schedule, ensuring the timely submission of manuscripts, communicating with prospective authors, co-ordinating the reviewing of manuscripts, rendering decisions on manuscripts, ensuring manuscripts conform to the journal style, sending accepted manuscripts to production, and ensuring the timely delivery of corrections of the article proofs. To facilitate this, the guest editor(s) will be assigned as editor on the journal’s online manuscript submission and review platform, ScholarOne and will receive guidelines on how to use this online system. Completed proposals should be emailed (with ‘Proposal for Special Issue of the IJS’ as the subject line) to the editor at: irishjsoc@gmail.com.

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3. Publishing Policies

3.1 Publication ethics

SAGE is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the SAGE Author Gateway.

3.1.1 Plagiarism

Irish Journal of Sociology and SAGE take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.

3.1.2 Prior publication

If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a SAGE journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the SAGE Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.

3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement

Before publication, SAGE requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. SAGE’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants SAGE the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than SAGE. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the SAGE Author Gateway.

3.3 Open access and author archiving

Irish Journal of Sociology offers optional open access publishing via the SAGE Choice programme. For more information please visit the SAGE Choice website. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit SAGE Publishing Policies on our Journal Author Gateway.

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4. Preparing your manuscript for submission

4.1 Formatting

The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.

4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics

For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit SAGE’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.  

Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from SAGE after receipt of your accepted article.

4.3 Supplementary material

This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files.

4.4 Reference style

Irish Journal of Sociology adheres to the SAGE Harvard reference style. View the SAGE Harvard guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.

If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the SAGE Harvard EndNote output file.

4.5 English language editing services

Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using SAGE Language Services. Visit SAGE Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.

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5. Submitting your manuscript

Irish Journal of Sociology is hosted on SAGE Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/mijs to login and submit your article online.

IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created.  For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.

Manuscript submissions should consist of the following (in this order): (1) Title page (2) Title (3) Abstract (4) Keywords (5) Text (6) Notes (7) References (8) Tables (9) Figures and, (10) Appendices.

Before submitting the final version of your manuscript, please refer to the IJS checklist for final manuscripts.

5.1 ORCID

As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process SAGE is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities ensuring that their work is recognised.

We encourage all authors to add their ORCIDs to their SAGE Track accounts and include their ORCIDs as part of the submission process. If you don’t already have one you can create one here.

5.2 Information required for completing your submission

You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).

5.3 Permissions

Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the SAGE Author Gateway.

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6. On acceptance and publication

6.1 SAGE Production

Your SAGE Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be sent by PDF to the corresponding author and should be returned promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate. Please note that if there are any changes to the author list at this stage all authors will be required to complete and sign a form authorising the change.

6.2 Online First publication

Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the SAGE Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.

6.3 Access to your published article

SAGE provides authors with online access to their final article.

6.4 Promoting your article

Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The SAGE Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice. In addition, SAGE is partnered with Kudos, a free service that allows authors to explain, enrich, share, and measure the impact of their article. Find out how to maximise your article’s impact with Kudos.

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7. Further information

Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Irish Journal of Sociology editorial office as follows:

irishjsoc@gmail.com