Journal Details

Construction Management and Economics

Construction Management and Economics


Published By: Routledge
Volume Number: 28
Frequency: 12 issues per year
Print ISSN: 0144-6193
Online ISSN: 1466-433X

Instructions for Authors

Further information about Construction Management and Economics including links to the online sample copy and contents pages can be found on the journal homepage.

Submission
Papers for consideration should be uploaded electronically to Construction Management and Economics' Manuscript Central site to facilitate rapid accessibility of work to readers. New users should first create an account. Once a user is logged onto the site submissions should be made via the Author Centre. File format would preferably be Microsoft Word; however, other popular file formats may be acceptable. Please note, Manuscript Central will automatically compile a pdf for the purposes of refereeing. However, if files have been created in LaTeX, please convert to Postscript or PDF before uploading. Papers will be anonymously refereed by acknowledged experts in the subject. Only those receiving favourable recommendations from the referees will be accepted for publication. If an author is uncertain about whether a paper is suitable for publication in the Journal, it is acceptable to submit a synopsis first.

Effective communication
The paper should be written and arranged in a style that is succinct and easily followed. An informative but short title, a concise abstract with keywords, and a well-written introduction will help to achieve this. Simple language, short sentences and a good use of headings all help to communicate information more effectively. Discursive treatment of the subject matter is discouraged. Figures may be used to aid the clarity of the paper but only where this is more concise than verbal description. The reader should be carefully guided through the paper. Always think about your reader.

Manuscript - papers

Length
While there is no limit on length, papers should normally be 2000-5000 words in length. Longer, more discursive papers are welcomed, where the topic and approach warrants a longer paper. To be clear about the distinction, these are referred to as Extended Papers. These papers will be expected to deal with real theoretical contributions, and draw on a wider literature than the usual papers. Authors are requested to state in their covering letter how many words their paper contains. The manuscript must be in English, typed in double spacing, with a 4 cm margin on the left-hand side. There should be no separate addenda or notes or other explanatory material. The manuscript should be arranged under headings and subheadings.
 
Abstract and keywords
An abstract and up to five keywords for the purposes of indexing should be included, preferably chosen from the keyword list in Manuscript Central.
Please avoid adding your own 'user keywords' in Manuscript Central. The abstract must not exceed 200 words and must précis the paper giving a clear indication of the conclusions it contains. Advice for writing informative abstracts is available via the link at the top of this page.
Keywords must be carefully selected to facilitate readers' search. Make sure that the first page of your paper includes the title, the abstract and the keywords, but not authorship, affiliation or address details.

Tables
Tables should be included at the end of the manuscript or uploaded as separate files. Tables should not be included in the main body of the text. They should be referred to in the text as 'Insert Table 1 here' and the actual tables and information should be included at the end of the paper, numbered in the order they will appear in the text as 'Table 1' Table 2' etc.

Illustrations
Illustrations must accompany the manuscript but should not be included in the text. Monochrome photographs, and black-and-white figures, diagrams and charts should be referred to as 'Figure 1', 'Figure 2' etc. They may be uploaded as separate files. They should be numbered in the order in which they are referred to in the text, and presented one per page. No colour should be used.
 
Illustrations should be submitted in a form ready for reproduction. Figures will normally be reduced in size on reproduction and authors should draw with this in mind. With a reduction scale of 2:1 in mind the authors should use lines not less than 0.25 mm thick, and upper and lower case lettering, the capital of which should be 4 mm high. Lines should be a consistent thickness, and block arrows should be avoided. To keep within the type area of the Journal, drawings for a 2:1 reduction should not exceed 280 mm in width. If you draw for any reduction other than 2:1 please indicate your intentions. Figures and diagrams should be line drawings and hatching should be used in place of grey scale. Figures need no border around the edge, and all 3D, shadow effects and backgrounds should be removed. Labels in Figures should not be in capitals, but lower case lettering with upper case for the first letter of the first word and proper nouns. Generally, computer screen-dumps should not be used as illustrative material. Pie-charts and histograms with only a few data points should be omitted, and replaced with text, unless the text takes up more space than the chart

Measurements
Metric units should be used; if other units are used then metric equivalents should be given in parentheses.

References
The Harvard system is used. References in the text should be quoted in the following manner: Smith (1975) or (Brown and Green, 1976) or if there are more than two authors, Jones et al. (1980). References should be collected at the end of the paper in alphabetical order by the first author's surname. If references to the same author have the same year, they should be differentiated by using 1980a and 1980b etc. The style should follow the examples below:

Ranasinghe, M. and Russell, A.D. (1993) Elicitation of subjective probabilities for economic risk analysis. Construction Management and Economics, 11(5), 326-40.

Reynolds, C.E. and Steedman, J.C. (1988) Reinforced Concrete Designer's Handbook, 10th Edn. E & FN Spon, London.

Barrett, S. (1981) Implementation of public policy, in Barrett, S. and Fudge, C. (eds) Policy and Action, Chapman & Hall, London, pp. 1-33.

If no person is named as the author the body should be used - for example: Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (1980) Report on Urban Planning Methods, London.
 
Endnotes
A limited number of explanatory endnotes is permissible. These should be numbered 1, 2, 3, consecutively in the text and denoted by superscripts. They should be typed on separate pages at the end of the text. Endnotes should not be used for academic or project citations.

Manuscripts - short papers or notes
Short papers or notes should be as short as possible, and should not be longer than 2000 words. The specifications from the previous section apply in all respects. Short papers or notes may offer comments on other papers published by this Journal, as well as offer original contributions.

Letters to the Editor
Letters are intended to be short unrefereed contributions dealing with, for example, an opinion on some aspect of research or current thinking, a debate carried out in the pages of the journal, recent discussions on e-mail networks and obituaries. Not all contributions will be published as space is limited and valuable. The ultimate decision about publication will be the Editor's. Depending on other items in the issue, no more than four pages per issue will be devoted to these letters. Letters should begin with the text "Dear Sir" and the author's name, affiliation and country should appear at the end.

Proofs
Proofs will be sent to the corresponding author for correction. The difficulty and expense involved in making amendments at proof stage makes it essential for authors to prepare their manuscript carefully: any alterations to the original text are strongly discouraged. Our aim is rapid publication: this will be helped if authors provide good copy following the above instructions, and return their proofs as quickly as possible.

Free article access
Corresponding authors will receive free online access to their article through our website (www.informaworld.com) and a complimentary copy of the issue containing their article. Reprints of articles published in this journal can be purchased through Rightslink® when proofs are received. If you have any queries, please contact our reprints department at reprints@tandf.co.uk

Copyright
It is a condition of publication that authors assign copyright or licence the publication rights in their articles, including abstracts, to Taylor & Francis. This enables us to ensure full copyright protection and to disseminate the article, and of course the Journal, 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 www.informaworld.com/authors_journals_copyright_position. Authors are themselves responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyright material from other sources.