Guidelines for Contributors

Editor: Stefano Prato (stefanop@sidint.org)
Associate Editor: Arthur Muliro Wapakala (amuliro@sidint.org)
Editorial Assistant: Kitt Bohn-Willeberg (kbohn@sidint.org)
Journal Communication Officer: Alice Di Pace (adipace@sidint.org)

Development is published as a quarterly journal in March, June, September and December by Palgrave Macmillan UK (now Springer Nature) on behalf of the Society for International Development (SID). For more information, please visit:
https://www.sidint.org/development-journal
http://www.palgrave.com/gb/journal/41301

Structure of the Journal

Each quarterly issue will preserve a thematic focus for at least 50-60% of its content but would also provide greater space than currently available to include articles on selected recurrent themes and contemporary policy issues. While the thematic content would remain primarily solicited, the remaining content could increasingly feature unsolicited contributions. Each issue would normally comprise 12-15 articles which could be organized across the following sections (always retaining flexibility to best shape individual issues):

Thematic Section (7-10 articles)

  • Framing the issue: This section will include the Guest Editorial (in case of Guest Editorship) and 1-2 key articles or interviews that frame the thematic issue.
  • Understanding the issue: It will include 3-4 articles that address different key aspects of the issue which is being addressed by the Journal. These tend to be articles that take a deeper dive into the issues and might be longer in length and feature greater depth of analysis.
  • Exploring alternatives & controversies: It will include 3-4 articles that aim to capture the diversity of opinions and perspectives on the issues being addressed. If the previous section looks for depth, this section looks for breadth and therefore features diverse views on the issues as well as captures thoughts by constituencies and social groups which might often be on margins of the debate. It may also provide space to document local and regional struggles and experiments.

Unplugged Section (4-7 articles)

  • Development Hotline (working title): This section will feature 1-2 solicited/unsolicited articles not directly related to the theme of the issue. These pieces would be submitted following the related call for articles (short commentaries - 2500 words max) on contemporary policy discussions.
  • Critical development policy outlook (working title): This section will feature 3-5 unsolicited articles unrelated to the thematic issue and submitted following the related calls for articles for thematic streams/focus areas.

While consolidated over time, this structure is not fixed and can be flexibly interpreted and adapted to the circumstances of each journal issue.

Submission

Most journal articles are solicited from selected authors. However, a call for papers is published on the journal website for each thematic issue with a deadline for abstracts and, once approved, for full articles. Additionally, unsolicited articles may be accepted (mostly for the ‘Unplugged’ section of the journal) after review by an external referee. A review process undertaken by Editor, Guest Editors (if appropriate) and Selected Peer Reviews (potentially including members of the Editorial Board) will determine if the article is to be published and provide for feedback and editorial guidance to authors (double anonymous peer review system). Please note that the journal enjoys a large and diversified readership interested primarily in the policy angle of selected themes. The journal does not therefore publish excessively technical articles and/or articles for a very narrow geographic and/or thematic focus. Please find below details of the house style and copyright information.

Unless otherwise stated, articles should not exceed 5,500-6,000 words including references. Authors are invited to observe word limits. Unsolicited articles that do not conform with word limits will not be considered.

An electronic submission system is currently at testing stage and will soon be implemented. In the meantime, articles should be sent as attachments (Word or Open Document Text format) to development@sidint.org accompanied by the following information:

  • Title of the article, author(s)’ full name(s) with indication of corresponding author in case of coauthorship, including position and affiliation, physical address, telephone and e-mail address for each of the authors.
  • Max 100-word biographical note for each of the authors.
  • Max 5-line abstract.
  • 5-7 keywords to describe the article (other than words featuring in the title).
  • A conflict-of-interest statement, indicating that the contribution is free from any conflicts of interest, including all financial and non-financial interests and relationships.

This information will be used while preparing the article, for the Who’s Who section and for follow-up on the journal’s publication. Articles should be submitted in English. Special care will be taken to edit articles submitted by authors whose first language is not English.

Editorial process for both solicited and unsolicited articles

Once the draft article is submitted, the corresponding author will receive an acknowledgement and, unless major changes are necessary as a result of the editorial and/or peer review process, editing will be carried out by the Editor (and Guest Editor) to ensure that the article is clear and coherent, and all references are adequately included. An initial copy-editing will also be completed. If necessary and appropriate, this will be followed by a review process by selected members of the Editorial Advisory Board. At this stage, the corresponding author will receive the edited version of the article (both revision format and clean version) for his/her review (unless edits were of minor relevance).

Once the review and editorial process is complete, the article will be sent to production at Palgrave Macmillan. There, it will undergo another round of copy-editing and typesetting, and will then be shared with the corresponding author for final review through the Palgrave ‘e.Proofing’ system. Authors will be sent an URL which is valid only until the article is published online. The link is for proofing purposes only and may not be shared with third parties. The system will show an HTML version of the article that authors can correct online. In addition, authors can view/download a PDF version of the proof for their reference.

As authors review the proofs, they are invited to keep the following in mind:

  • This is the only set of proofs they will see prior to publication;
  • Only errors introduced during production process or that directly compromise the scientific integrity of the paper may be corrected at this stage;
  • Any changes that contradict journal style will not be made;
  • Any changes to scientific content (including figures) will require editorial review and approval.

Upon publication of the article, authors will receive a printed copy of the journal and a PDF version of their article. Additionally, authors are encouraged to join the SID promotional and launch activities, and suggest names of people and institutions whom they would recommend receive a copy of the journal, with a view to subscription. SID invites authors to subscribe to the journal and to register on the Palgrave Macmillan/Springer Nature website to receive the free table-of-contents alerting service – e-alerts – by e-mail.

House Style

Please respect the following indications to minimize editing:

  • Please write in a clear and accessible style, free from jargon and specialized technology. Essential technical terms should be defined, and acronyms spelt out when used for the first time. • Please use non-sexist language, e.g., ‘chairperson’ not ‘chairman’, ‘humankind’ not ‘mankind’, ‘they’ not ‘he’, etc.
  • Sections and levels: Please do not number titles and limit the number sub-headings.
  • Title and main headings: Please mark these in bold text. Use initial capital letters for important words before any colon but for only the first word after the colon, e.g. The Politics of Aid: A new framework for development cooperation.
  • Sub-headings: Please mark these in bold and italic text. Use lower case after the first word, e.g., Conclusions and policy implications.
  • Layout: Please do not use complicated systems of indentation. Use bullet points not numbers.
  • Spelling is based on the New Oxford Dictionary of English. Use British English spelling (e.g., neighbour not neighbor, colour not color, etc.), and ‘ize’ ending (e.g., organize not organise, organization not organisation).
  • Use capital letters for North, South, East, West but not northern, southern, eastern, western.
  • Numbers: Please spell out one to twelve and use figures from 13 onwards. Please give a US dollar (US$) equivalent of other currencies.
  • Percentages: Please spell out ‘percent’ rather than using the symbol %.

Quotations

Quotations longer than two lines should be indented and do not need quotation marks. Short quotes should be included within the body of the text, marked with single quotation marks.
Quotations should be followed by indication of source with the full stop after the source and not before, e.g.:
The ‘new information society’ has nothing to do with the traditional concept of ‘information’. Today ‘information’ includes many disciplines which – in terms of channels, contents, applications and components – are found in every process in contemporary society (Savio, 2002: 19).
The source should be indicated for all quotes (even very short ones) or any reference made to the work of other writers. Information obtained by means of personal communications should be acknowledged as such.

Notes

Explanatory notes should be indicated as numbered footnotes, with reference number inserted following the punctuation of the sentence to which it refers. Authors are invited to use the word processors’ footnotes facilities.

References

Please use the Chicago-style system for all references:
http://www.citationmachine.net/chicagob
References to material on the Internet should be given in a footnote, not in the reference list. The full URL should be given as well as the date of access.
Example: (http://www.unrisd.org/, accessed 15 July 2003)
All references in the text should be listed alphabetically in the References section at the end of the article.

Copyright

Clearing Permissions. Authors are responsible for obtaining permission from copyright holders for reproducing through any medium of communication those illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. Authors can add their acknowledgements to the typescript, preferably in the form of an Acknowledgements section at the end of the paper. Credit the source and copyright of photographs or figures in the accompanying captions.

Granting of rights. Authors are required to grant an exclusive publishing licence to SID to publish, reproduce, distribute, display and store the version of the article that has been submitted for inclusion in the Journal in all forms, formats and media whether now known or hereafter developed. However, authors can freely re-use their articles – or parts of their articles - after they have been published in Development, acknowledging Development as the original place of publication. Furthermore, authors will receive a PDF of the article upon publication that they can use for their own distribution purposes. To assist authors in sharing their published articles with colleagues and the wider community, they will also be provided with a special link to their articles. Anyone with the link will be able to access a full-text, view-only version of the article for free and to use Enhanced PDF features such as annotation tools, one-click supplements, citation file exports and article metrics. There are no restrictions on the number of people authors may share this link with, how many times they can view the linked article or where they can post the link online. More information on Springer Nature’s commitment to content sharing is available here.