Guidance for Contributors

1. The Journal of Social Policy carries high quality articles on all aspects of social policy in an international context. It places particular emphasis upon articles which seek to contribute to debates on the future direction of social policy, to present new empirical data, to advance theories, or to analyse issues in the making and implementation of social policies.
   
   
2. The Journal of Social Policy accepts article and book reviews. The journal does not accept systematic literature reviews.
   
   
3. All papers should clearly contextualize their study so that it is intelligible to an international readership. We also encourage authors to be clear as to how their work fits with, extends or critiques debates previously published in the broader social policy literature and Journal of Social Policy.
   
   
4. As a social policy journal, we expect contributions to be sensitive to issues of structural inequalities and power imbalances in the societies studied.
   
   
5. All papers should provide a succinct outline of the methods used in their study and any ethical issues of relevance. With regard to quantitative analysis, we discourage the use of unnecessary formulaic notation to explain models and encourage a style that is also intelligible to a non-specialist audience.
   
   
6. The quality and speed of the review process for the Journal of Social Policy depends upon a community of scholars who are willing to give over some of their time to read and review the papers submitted in the knowledge that their work will at some point also benefit from this process. Authors submitting papers to the journal should therefore expect to be asked from time to time to be part of the review process.
   
   
7. Articles should generally contain between 6,000 and 8,000 words including abstract, notes and bibliography, although shorter articles may be accepted by arrangement with the editors.
   
   
8. Submission of an article is taken to imply that it has not been previously published, or is not being considered for publication elsewhere. If an author has presented or distributed an earlier version of the article submitted (for example, as a conference or working paper) or is intending to publish or has published a related article elsewhere, this should be expressly acknowledged and details of the output in question should be provided.
   
   
9. Contributions should be accompanied by an abstract of between 100 and 200 words plus up to six key words and details of any acknowledgements. Abstracts should disclose the substantive argument or finding of the article and not merely its subject and formal structure.
   
   
10. Contributions should conform exactly to the Journal of Social Policy style, and authors should check the format of their own contribution with that of a recent issue of the journal, paying particular attention to references and tables. Articles should be written clearly in English and to a publishable standard.
    
    
11. Discriminatory language should be avoided. Further guidance on avoiding sexist, racist and disablist language is published by the British Sociological Association (BSA). The editorial team are happy to advise authors on the most suitable terminology to use, particularly with respect to subjects not covered by the BSA guidelines such as age.
    
    
12. References must be arranged alphabetically under author(s) surname(s) followed by initials and then in chronological order if several papers by the same author(s) are cited. The full title of the paper must be given together with the first and last page numbers. Book titles should be followed by the place of publication and the publisher. Examples are as follows:
    
    BBC (2010), ‘Theresa May pledges immigration abuse crackdown’, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11688994 [accessed 04.11.2010].
    
    Bonoli, G. (1997), ‘Classifying welfare states: a two-dimensional approach’, Journal of Social Policy, 26, 3, 351-72 Castles, F. (2004), The future of the welfare State: Crisis Myths and Crisis Realities , Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    
    Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) (2010), ‘The Coalition: Our Programme for Government–Jobs and Welfare’, London: Department of Work and Pensions, http://dwp.gov.uk/docs/pfg-jobs-welfare.pdf [accessed 05.11.2010].
    
    Martin, R., Nativel, C. and Sunley, P. (2003), ‘The local impact of the New Deal: does geography make a difference?’, in R. Martin and P. Morrison (eds.), Geographies of Labour Market Inequality, London: Routledge, 175-207.
    
    Siaroff, A. (1994), ‘Work, welfare and gender equality: a new typology’, in D. Sainsbury (ed.), Gendering Welfare States, London: Sage, 82-100
    
    Williams, Z. (2011), ‘Jargon is spreading like nits in the coalition’s playground’, The Guardian, 11 November.
    
    
13. Such notes as are essential should be referred to in numerical order throughout the text and the numbers shown as superscript. These notes should be placed after the body of the text and before the references.
    
    
14. Tables and figures should be in monochrome (not colour), clearly laid out and designed to fit onto a page 234 mm by 155 mm. Vertical lines between columns should be omitted, and horizontal lines limited to the top and bottom of the table, with an additional one below the column headings. Totals and percentages should be labelled, and units identified.
    
    Line artwork should be supplied in tif or eps format, black and white1 (also known as 1- bit), resolution 1200 dpi at final size. Combination artwork (line/tone) should be supplied in tif or eps format, grayscale (also known as 8-bit), resolution: 800 dpi at final size.
    
    Colour images may be submitted, but will normally only be appear on the online version of the journal. Charges apply for all colour figures that appear in the print version. At the time of submission, contributors should clearly state whether their figures should appear in colour in the online version only, or whether they should appear in colour online and in the print version. There is no charge for including colour figures in the online version of the Journal. If you request colour figures in the printed version, you will be contacted by CCC-Rightslink who are acting on our behalf to collect Author Charges. Please follow their instructions in order to avoid any delay in the publication of your article.

The Social Policy Association: The Social Policy Association supports the study of all aspects of Social Policy through the sponsorship of the Journal of Social Policy, Social Policy and Society, the Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy, the publication of a blog series, the organisation of an annual conference and a small grants scheme. It represents its members through contact with a range of bodies, including the ESRC and other learned societies. For further information about the activities of the SPA, contact the SPA secretary: admin@social-policy.org.uk. The SPA website is at www.social-policy.org.uk.

Competing interests declaration: All authors must include a competing interests declaration in their separate title page alongside their author details and acknowledgements. This declaration will be subject to editorial review and may be published in the article. Competing interests are situations that could be perceived to exert an undue influence on the content or publication of an author’s work. They may include, but are not limited to, financial, professional, contractual or personal relationships or situations. If the manuscript has multiple authors, the author submitting must include competing interest declarations relevant to all contributing authors. Example wording for a declaration is as follows: “Competing interests: Author A is employed at company B. Author C owns shares in company D, is on the Board of company E and is a member of organisation F. Author G has received grants from company H.” If no competing interests exist, the declaration should state “Competing interests: The author(s) declare none”.

Use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools

We acknowledge the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the research and writing processes. To ensure transparency, we expect any such use to be declared and described fully to readers, and to comply with our plagiarism policy and best practices regarding citation and acknowledgements. We do not consider artificial intelligence (AI) tools to meet the accountability requirements of authorship, and therefore generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and similar should not be listed as an author on any submitted content.

In particular, any use of an AI tool:

• to generate images within the manuscript should be accompanied by a full description of the process used, and declared clearly in the image caption(s)
• to generate text within the manuscript should be accompanied by a full description of the process used, include appropriate and valid references and citations, and be declared in the manuscript’s Acknowledgements.
• to analyse or extract insights from data or other materials, for example through the use of text and data mining, should be accompanied by a full description of the process used, including details and appropriate citation of any dataset(s) or other material analysed in all relevant and appropriate areas of the manuscript
• must not present ideas, words, data, or other material produced by third parties without appropriate acknowledgement or permission

Descriptions of AI processes used should include at minimum the version of the tool/algorithm used, where it can be accessed, any proprietary information relevant to the use of the tool/algorithm, any modifications of the tool made by the researchers (such as the addition of data to a tool’s public corpus), and the date(s) it was used for the purpose(s) described. Any relevant competing interests or potential bias arising as a consequence of the tool/algorithm’s use should be transparently declared and may be discussed in the article.