Australian Journal of Political Science

AUTHOR GUIDE

 The Australian Journal of Political Science (AJPS) publishes articles of high quality at the cutting edge of the discipline, characterised by conceptual clarity, methodological rigour, substantive interest, theoretical coherence, broad appeal, originality and insight. AJPS invites the submission of articles (of up to 7,000 words in length, inclusive of references) relating to the following subject areas: Australian politics, New Zealand politics, the government and politics of any country or region around the world, political philosophy, international relations, gender politics, political economy, political sociology, political development, public policy and public-sector management.

 The Journal features a lively exchange of views and therefore publishes critical comments and responses as well as research notes reporting on current research projects, research designs and preliminary findings. These Critical Commentaries, Symposia and Research Notes are typically shorter manuscripts (up to 3,000 words).

 A book review section appraises all significant books by Australasian political scientists and those investigating Australasian politics. Review articles, which deal with either a set of books or emerging themes in the discipline, provide comprehensive coverage of current research.

 Contributors of articles, research notes and critical commentaries are asked to attend closely to the matters raised below.

How to Present and Submit Your Manuscript

Preliminaries

Manuscripts that do not conform to the requirements below will not be considered for publication.

All submissions should be made online at Australian Journal of Political Science's on-line presence (http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cajp). New users should first create an account. Once a user is logged onto the site submissions should be made via the Author Centre. For assistance with this platform please consult this guide (http://journalauthors.tandf.co.uk/submission/ScholarOne.asp).

Authors should prepare and upload two versions of their manuscript. One should be a complete text, while in the second all document information identifying the author should be removed from files to allow them to be sent anonymously to referees. When uploading files authors will then be able to define the non-anonymous version as File not for review.

Only the title should appear on the manuscript itself, followed by an abstract of not more that 150 words. Australian Journal of Political Science is produced using Microsoft Word for Windows software. The final version of any paper accepted for publication must conform to referencing style detailed below. A few sentences of biographical detail will also be required.

It is a condition of publication that authors assign copyright or licence the publication rights in their articles, including abstracts, to the Australian Political Studies Association. This enables us to ensure full copyright protection and to disseminate the article, and of course the AJPS, to the widest possible readership in print and electronic formats as appropriate. Authors retain many rights under the Taylor & Francis rights policies, which can be found at: http://www.informaworld.com/authors_journals_copyright_position. Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyright material from other sources.

Order of Contents

The original manuscript not for review should be structured as follows:

·          cover sheet, with title, author's name, affiliation and address on one copy only

·          abstract (with article title at top): 130 words maximum

·          text

·          acknowledgements, optional

·          appendix, if necessary

·          references

·          List of tables.

·          List of figures.

Editorial Style

General

For matters of style not otherwise covered in this guide, follow the recommendations of the latest edition of the Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers published by the Australian Government Publishing Service.

Headers

Article titles, subtitles, and text subheadings should be selected carefully with consideration to appropriateness and succinctness. Normally a maximum of two levels of subheads should be used.

Spelling

AJPS uses Australian English in accordance with the Macquarie Dictionary.

Hyphens

Some phrases contain hyphens when used as adjectivally but not otherwise; for example, ‘Middle-class values may be held by individuals not conventionally regarded as members of the middle class'. The Macquarie is particularly useful as an up-to-date guide to current hyphenation of particular words. The tendency in recent years has been to use fewer hyphens, and many words which formerly consisted of two components have now become one, e.g. longstanding, seashore, sociopolitical, socioeconomic.

Quotations

Short quotations within the text should be indicated by quotation marks. Use single quotation marks, except for quotations within quotations. Long quotations or extract material should be indented about 1.27cm along the left and right margin. Words, punctuation, or italicisation not present in the original should be enclosed in square brackets or noted in the relevant citation as (emphasis or italics added).

Capitalisation

AJPS uses uppercase for formal organisations, institutions and certain titles (for example, ‘President Obama', ‘the Prime Minister, Ms Gillard'). The following list of examples gives an indication of the journal's approach to capitalisation:

Numbers

Spell out the numbers one to nine and spell out even hundreds, thousands and millions, except if they include a decimal point or fraction (for example 4.25, 4¼), or where they refer to page numbers, or where there are sets of numerals, some of which are higher than ten (for example, ‘14, 9 and 6'). Use Arabic numerals (11, 12, 13 …) for other numbers. Percentages are expressed as figures followed by ‘per cent' even if the number is less than 10. Always write out a number or year if it begins a sentence, though it may be better to rewrite the sentence in this circumstance. Large numbers should be written with a comma rather than a space (for example 50,000). Dates should be written in the following form: 9 January 2001. Periods of time should be written in the following form: 1990s (not 1990's); 1994–95 (not 1994–5); 1999–2000. Avoid Roman numerals wherever possible.

Tense

Some general rules for the use of tense:

·          Historical or chronological pieces. Use the past tense (‘Aristotle argued').

·          An author as subject. Use the past tense (‘Chen showed….').

·          An author's work as subject. Use the present tense (‘Chen's survey shows….').

·          Your procedures. Use the past tense (‘I surveyed').

·          Your findings. Use the present tense (‘The findings indicate').

Gender-neutral language

Avoid inappropriate gender-specific language, including gender-specific terms for groups of people, or the characterisation of groups as male or female. Recast sentences rather than using male pronouns where the male is not intended.

Non-English Words and Phrases

Non-English words and phrases which are often used in English but are not yet fully naturalised are italicised. This does not apply to common terms such as per capita, vis-à-vis, laissez faire, ad hoc, ex gratia, harakiri, bête noire, schadenfraude, or vox populi. As a rule of thumb, any non-English word or phrase not listed in the Macquarie Dictionary should be italicised (for example belle époque).

Full Stops

• For titles. In general, AJPS does not use full stops for titles such as Ms, Mrs, Mr, Dr, Prof, or Rev
• For abbreviations. Where an abbreviation ends with a letter which is not the final letter of the word being abbreviated, use a full stop. For example, editor → ed.; but editors → eds without a full stop. Thus Vic., but Qld without a full stop.
• For acronyms. Avoid the use of full stops (for example, NSW, NATO, ANZUS). The full title should be spelt out when first used.

Active voice

Active voice (‘The party leadership decided that…') is preferable to passive voice (‘It was decided that…') because it requires and conveys to the reader a more specific and precise message.

Tables

Be sparing in the use of tables. Use them when they display trends, findings or relationships; do not use them merely to provide information already detailed in the text. Wherever possible, combine tables. For all tables, consider the mechanics of typesetting on an AJPS will the table be too large; can it be reduced without impairing readability? Tables must be included on separate pages and not included as part of the text. Tables should be numbered by Arabic numerals. The approximate position of tables and figures should be indicated in the manuscript in square brackets, for example [INSERT TABLE 1 HERE]. Captions should include keys to symbols. Check carefully that quantities are correct and correctly labelled. Footnotes to tables should be superscripted in the table body and indicated beneath the table body by the use of lower case ‘a', ‘b', ‘c', etc. Table source material should follow lettered footnotes, as one paragraph headed by ‘Sources'. Table sources can be cited in-text (see section 6 below) if they appear in the References, or cited in full if they do not. An example follows:

Table 1: House of Representatives Primary Vote, Swing, and Seats Won, 2010

Source: Australian Electoral Commission (2010a).

^*Coalition comprises Liberal, National, the Northern Territory's CLP and Queensland's merged LNP

^# The Independents' seat share increased by two, and not one, since 2007, because Rob Oakeshott won the seat of Lyne at a by-election from the Nationals on 6 September 2008.

Artwork and Graphs

In general, artwork should be prepared for same-size use at a maximum size of 120mm wide by 180mm deep (or landscape orientation to the same dimensions). Oversize artwork should be prepared to the same proportions (i.e. 12:18), taking into consideration that any lettering should be somewhat oversized so as to remain legible when reduced. As with tables, use a reference line in square brackets in the text to indicate the placement of figures. Captions for figures should accompany artwork. Subordinate caption material such as explanatory keys or source materials should be handled like table footnotes. Three-dimensional artwork, particularly if it contains shading contrasts, can cause printing problems. If you intend to submit such artwork, please contact the editors to discuss the best method of presentation.

Documentation

Citations and Footnotes

AJPS follows a version of the Harvard system. The basic citation in the author-date system consists of the last name of an author and the year of publication of the work, followed (where appropriate) by the page numbers. No comma separates the author and year. Pages, chapters and so forth follow the date, preceded by a comma. For page numbers, do not use ‘p.', ‘pp.' or ‘page'. Terms such as ‘ibid.' and ‘op.cit.' are not used. Most citations should indicate the relevant pages. To cite an entire book or article for a specific point is normally unacceptable. Footnotes can be used to expand on points in the text. They may also be used to provide information on citations of interviews and personal communications. But they should be used sparingly. The material in a lengthy, discursive footnote may be better placed in the body of the text, or left out altogether. Notes should be numbered consecutively and placed at the bottom of the page. The corresponding note number in the text should be written or typed as a superscript, ^Thus.

Examples:

a)      If author's name is in the text, follow with year in parentheses:

Considine (1999) has argued that …

b)      If author's name is not in the text, insert last name and year:

Some have claimed (Brighouse and Fleurbaey 2010) that …

c)      Where appropriate, pagination follows year, separated by a comma:

According to Fenna (2007, 305) …

d)     If there are four or more authors, specify the first-named author followed by ‘et al.':

According to survey evidence (Davis et al. 1993, 131) …

e)      If there is more than one reference to same author and year, insert ‘a', ‘b', and so on, in the text and references:

As previously suggested (Orr 2007, 163–65) …

f)       For institutional authorship, it is acceptable to supply a minimal form of identification for which the later reference list will provide a complete citation:

(ABS 2003, 12)' [where ABS refers to the Australian Bureau of Statistics]

g)      Separate a series of references with semicolons:

… as many have noted (Bean 1991; Bean and Papadakis 1998; Bell 2004).

h)      For authorless articles or studies, use name of magazine or of sponsoring organisation, not the title of the article:

… has been stated definitively (Australian Financial Review 2009).

i)        For Internet references:

As far as possible, adapt the referencing system used for hardcopy books and articles. If there is an author and publication date, use them as in clauses (a) to (e) above. If there is no clear publication date, use the date that the Web page was last updated. If there is no clear author, trying using an institutional title along the lines of clause (h) above. The full citation to the Web address belongs in the reference list (see below), not in the text reference itself.

References

All references are listed alphabetically by author's surname, and contain the surname, initial (or initials, with no space in between) followed by the year of publication, and then other details. When there are several works by the same author, place them in chronological order. The list of references contains details of all works cited in the text and notes of your article, including newspaper, web sources and Parliamentary debates. Works not cited in the text should be omitted from the bibliography.

Examples:

a)      Book with single author:

Parsons, C. 2007. How to Map Arguments in Political Science. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

b)      Book with two or more authors:

Obinger, H., Leibfried, S. and Castles, F.G., eds. 2005. Federalism and the Welfare State: New World and European Experiences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

c)      Edited Collections:

Balzacq, T., ed. 2010. Securitisation Theory: How Security Problems Emerge and Dissolve. London: Routledge.

d)     Chapters in Collections:

Schmidt, V.A. 2011. ‘Reconciling Ideas and Institutions through Discursive Institutionalism'. In: D. Béland and R.H. Cox, eds. Ideas and Politics in Social Science Research. New York: Oxford University Press.

e)      Reprint Editions:

Marx, K. and Engels, F.. [1848] 1964. The Communist Manifesto. Reprint. New York: Monthly Review Press.

f)       Journal articles:

The article title is placed without quotation marks, employing capital letter for all nouns, followed by the journal name then the volume number and numbers of the first and last pages; an En Dash (–)  is used to separate these. If the pagination of the journal begins anew with each issue, put the issue number in parentheses and add a space after the colon.

McNevin, A. 2007. ‘The Liberal Paradox and the Politics of Asylum in Australia'. Australian Journal of Political Science 42: 611–30.

g)      Government publications:

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade [DFAT]. 1999. Annual Report 1998–99. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.

Wiluna Shire Council. 1989, 1990. Minutes of Meetings.

h)      Newspaper and Magazine sources:

Foroohar, R. 2005. ‘Where the Money Is'. Newsweek 6 September, 42–7.

Rudd, K. 2006. ‘Howard's Brutopia'. The Monthly, November, 46–50.

i)        Internet reference:

As far as possible, apply the same principles as outlined above for conventional hardcopy sources. Web documents may have some or all of the same attributes as conventional hardcopy documents: an author, a title, a date of publication, a place of publication and a publisher. Creative substitution or omission may be unavoidable where these details are absent. Two specific details do need to be included: the URL address and the date at which that address was consulted (since Web addresses can disappear or change). For example:

Gillard, J. 2011. ‘We remember them with our silence, Speech at the ANZAC Day service', 25 April. Media Centre. Canberra: Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. URL: <http://www.pm.gov.au/press-office/we-remember-them-our-silence-speech-anzac-day-service-seoul>. Consulted 26 May 2011.

Welch, D. 2011. ‘Taxpayers could pay for defence scandals'. The Age 18 April. URL: <http://www.theage.com.au/national/taxpayers-could-pay-for-defence-scandals-20110417-1djrx.html>. Consulted 18 April 2011.

j)        Parliamentary debates:

Debates in the Australian parliament are recorded in Hansard, and may be referred in the text of your article in the following manner: ‘Senator Joyce supported the motion (Hansard 2009).' Please provide full details of the specific debate in the reference list in the following way:

Commonwealth Parliament of Australia. 2009. Senate Parliamentary Debates, official Hansard, 1 July, column 4521.

Appendixes

If your article draws on data not documented in standard sources or in the text of the article, an Appendix describing these data may be necessary. For example, with respect to survey data, you might wish to include a description of the sample, including a definition of the geographical area and details about how the sample was drawn, to permit replication; the response rate (for quota designs, the number of refusals); and the exact wording of survey questions.

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