General Guidelines

What do I need to know to prepare and submit my article?

In accordance with academic and professional protocols, Inderscience cannot accept an article if it is not the author's original work, has been published before (but see below regarding conference papers), or is currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. The article must not contain any libellous or unlawful statements or in any way infringe the rights of others. All authors must declare they have read and agreed to the content of the submitted article. A full statement of our Ethical Guidelines for Authors is available on this website.

An author may submit an article if that article (either the same or substantially similar) has previously been under consideration with another publisher or journal (including other Inderscience titles). However, the author must have formal written evidence of the rejection or withdrawal of the article from the original place of submission. Once the article has been submitted, the author must email this written evidence to submissions@ijapp.org.

The author must be the owner of the copyright and be entitled to sign the Author Copyright Agreement. In submitting an article, the author complies with these conditions. In addition, the publisher reserves the right to re-referee and/or reject an accepted paper if the paper does not meet the criteria outlined in the review form or if the paper is in some other way deemed possibly unsuitable. If the author wishes to abandon the review process or remove his/her article from elsewhere in the system before publication, the article must be formally withdrawn in writing before it can be submitted to another journal. Non-compliance with any of the above conditions may result in reject of the submission. 

What if my article has been published elsewhere?

The submission cannot have been previously published in English, nor can it be before another journal for consideration.

What do I need to know when writing my article (word count, format, templates, etc.)?

The text must meet the formatting requirements outlined at Preparing Articles (refer to the website).

How do I go about adding co-authors?

You must provide the definitive list of all authors when you submit your article. Make sure you all agree on who the corresponding author will be and the order of co-authors, and check all affiliations and contact details before submitting. Changes to the authorship are only permissible during the review process. You will need to get approval for any changes by contacting the journal's Editor in Chief with your change request and a clear reason for the change. This request must come from all the authors, including the person you are adding or removing and they must be copied into the email you send.

No changes are allowed after your article has been accepted.

What should I keep in mind regarding the use of AI technology?

In line with COPE guidelines, artificial intelligence tools (e.g. ChatGPT) cannot be listed as named authors on submitted articles. Authors are fully responsible for the content of their article, even those parts produced by any AI tool, and are thus liable for any inaccuracies or breach of publication ethics.

Authors who have used AI tools to develop their article and/or to write, generate or edit text must include a note in the article's Acknowledgements section describing the technologies used and their purpose.

Please note that this policy does not apply to software such as spelling or grammar checkers or reference managers. Authors using such tools do not need to include a note about them in the Acknowledgements section.

What happens after I have submitted my article?

All articles published by the International Journal of Applied Public Policy place great emphasis on quality. Initially, every submitted article is evaluated by the editorial team. They decide to either accept it for peer-review or desk-reject it immediately if, for example, it does not fulfil basic academic standards.

Manuscripts that are selected by editors for further consideration undergo a double anonymized peer review process. Double anonymized means that neither the authors nor the reviewers know the identity of the other. Reviewers are ordinarily members of InnovaPolis's Advisory Board, or other experts whose work and interests are comparable to those of the work submitted. Based on the reviews the editorial team come to a decision (accept, minor/major revisions, reject) and inform the author.

Submitted articles are put through a full double-blind refereeing process in which:

  • The editorial team screens the submission for scope, formatting and quality.
  • Articles not meeting basic requirements may be returned for revision or rejected without peer review.

If accepted for review:

  • The manuscript is anonymized and forwarded to reviewers.

IJAPP uses a double-blind peer review process, meaning:

  • Reviewers do not know the authors’ identities, and vice versa.
  • Each submission is reviewed by 1-2 experts
  • Turnaround time for reviews is typically 6-8 weeks.

Reviewers evaluate based on:

  • Originality and innovation
  • Policy relevance and applicability 
  • Methodological rigour 
  • Clarity and coherence
  • Contribution to the field of applied public policy

Review outcomes:

  • Accept (with terms and conditions around deadlines and required revisions)
  • Accept (with revisions)
  • Revise and resubmit
  • Reject

Authors receiving a ‘revise and resubmit’ decision are expected to resubmit their manuscript within the specified deadline (4-5 weeks). The editorial board makes the final decision around acceptance or rejection after revision.

The average review time (from submission until first post-review decision) of our journal is 4 months. The average time from submission to publication is 7 months. The length of the process can vary and heavily depends on different factors such as the timeliness of reviews or the schedule of editors. Accepted manuscripts undergo professional copy editing and formatting. A final proof is sent to authors for review before publication. 

The article is published in the next (bi-annual) issue of IJAPP. Published articles are hosted online on the journal archive and indexed in relevant policy and social science databases.The average review time (from submission until first post-review decision) of our journal is 4 months. The average time from submission to publication is 7 months. The length of the process can vary and heavily depends on different factors such as the timeliness of reviews or the schedule of editors. 

The Editor in Chief reserves the right to refuse any article, whether invited or otherwise, and to make suggestions and/or modifications before publication. The publisher shall furnish authors of accepted articles with proofs for the correction of printing errors. The proofs shall be returned within 14 calendar days of submittal. The publishers shall not be held responsible for errors which are the result of authors' oversights.