Introduction

Articles submitted to UDI should be original contributions and should not be under consideration for publication in any other journal.

The manuscript will be subjected to blind review by up to two referees. Revisions may be required before a decision is made to accept or reject the paper. Please note that once a manuscript has been accepted for publication, no further changes can be made. Therefore please ensure your manuscript is as complete and up to date as possible prior to submission.

Manuscripts that are not finalised and submitted for review on our system within 185 days will be treated as 'abandoned' and will be automatically withdrawn. This includes first submissions and revisions. If there is a reason why the manuscript cannot be amended and/or submitted within 185 days it is the responsibility of authors to notify UDI at udi@palgrave.com.

Also note that papers submitted to UDI will be assessed against the submission guidelines as part of an initial Quality Check. If papers fail to meet these requirements, we will ask the authors to revise and resubmit before considering sending them for review.

Original Articles, Editorials and Guest Editorials

Authors should submit papers electronically via the journal's electronic submission system.

The submission system is designed to be self-explanatory but help is available within the submission site via the 'Author Instructions' tab.

Authors should submit a minimum of two files. For articles and technical notes, they should contain the following elements:

1. Author Information File:

  • the title of the article
  • the author(s)' names and affiliations
  • full contact details (including email, postal address and phone and fax numbers) for the corresponding author

2. Article:

  • the title of the article
  • a summary or abstract of not more than 150 words
  • 3-6 keywords
  • the article in full, including references (for more information about the types of articles published in UDI, see below)

3. Figures and Tables


If you wish to include any figures (images, diagrams, photographs, etc) and/or tables within your article, please do NOT upload them within the main article file.

Please upload them to our online manuscript management system as separate individual files, ensuring that each file includes the caption and - where necessary - sources and acknowledgements.

Please do NOT upload them within the main article file.

Figures should be uploaded to the manuscript system as 'Figure 1, 'Figure 2', 'Figure 3', etc; Tables should be uploaded as 'Table 1', 'Table 2', 'Table 3', etc.


Submitting a paper


Research article

A research article should be no more than 8000 words inclusive of the following elements in the following order:

  • title page
  • abstract of 150 words maximum
  • between 3 and 6 keywords
  • main text including: introduction, literature review, methodology, findings, discussion and conclusion
  • acknowledgements should not exceed 100 words
  • appendices (as appropriate) will not be published online or in print. However, you can include these during the review process
  • declaration of interest statement (should be included after paper acceptance)
  • references
  • table(s) should be uploaded separately with caption(s) individually
  • figure(s) should be uploaded separately with caption(s) individually

Practice article

Practice articles should be no more than 3000 words, inclusive of the following elements in the following order:

  • title page
  • abstract
  • main text introduction
  • literature review
  • methodology
  • results
  • discussion
  • conclusion
  • acknowledgements
  • declaration of interest statement
  • references
  • appendices (as appropriate)
  • tables and figures (see above guidelines).

Submitting a book review

Authors should submit book reviews electronically via the journal's electronic submission system.

Book Reviews should, in general, be no longer than 1500 words and should be developed with reference to the general instructions for authors.

The following information is required about the book being reviewed:
Book Title, Author/s or Editor/s Name/s, Publisher, Year of Publication, Price, Number of pages, ISBN: 000-0-00-000000-0

Book Reviews should consider the:

  • intended audience for the book
  • aims, objectives and key ideas outlined in the book
  • degree to which the writer/s have achieved these aims and objectives
  • strengths and weaknesses of the book with constructive feedback
  • appropriateness of methods and information sources

Submitting a proposal for a special issue

Proposals for a special issue should be submitted directly to udi@palgrave.com rather than through the electronic submission system. Before sending a proposal, we recommend authors read the journal guidelines.