Author Guidelines
Please respect your editors’ and reviewers’ time and prepare your manuscript in conformance with these guidelines.
GENERAL GUIDELINES
We consider two types of submissions, solicited and unsolicited.
Authors of solicited (or commissioned) articles should follow the specific guidelines below and directly submit via their author account or else contact Editors@EPSJournal.org.uk .
Authors wishing to submit unsolicited articles are expected to first contact ManagingEditor@EPSJournal.org.uk with an extended abstract or overview of the intended article. Set out the context, the main hypothesis or line of argument, the main theoretical element and/or the data sources, procedures, and findings, as well as the main policy implication, if any. Remember that articles in this journal are for readers to learn more about peace and security than about war and insecurity. If we find your proposed article to be of likely interest, you will be invited to submit an article for formal internal and external review. (A note to younger or relatively inexperienced authors: As a general rule, it usually helps authors to try to think about their paper from editors' and reviewers' points of view.)
SPECIFIC GUIDELINES
Note that all submissions are subject to similarity (plagiarism) checks. Also note that we permit authors to choose single- or double-blind review. If you choose double-blind review, leave out your name and contact details.
Your Manuscript
Please prepare your work in Microsoft Word, OpenOffice, or RTF. EPSJ is composed in Microsoft Word. Submit your manuscript as a single document/file.
Keep sentences to a readable length, try not to exceed 25 words. Use American English spelling.
Unless you have prior consent from the editors, keep your manuscript to between 4-6,000 words (including notes and references) and follow this style sheet. Keep any literature overview brief and to the point. Expert readers will be familiar with the literature. Nonexpert readers need only understand the literature to the extent that it provides context for your piece. Thus, unless the point of your article is a substantive review of the literature, keep any literature overview brief and to the point.
Please structure your manuscript as follows (without the numbering):
1. Title
2. Author [the author’s name in bold type-face followed by position, affiliation, and how the author may be reached. Keep it simple and to the point. For example, “Author is [title, position] at [Institution], [City], [Country], and may best be reached at [email].”
3. Abstract [not to exceed 150 words, including a statement about the problem/topic and the main finding/view]
4. 3-5 keywords, 1-3 JEL codes [see http://www.aeaweb.org/journal/jel_class_system.html]
5. Text [do not start with “Introduction,” as it is understood that the beginning of the text is the introduction].
6. Heading
7. Text
8. Subheading
9. Text
10. Repeat steps 6 to 9 as required
12. References
13. Appendix/Appendices [as needed]
We discourage the use of further subdivisions.
Tables and Figures
Since Figures generally do not always translate smoothly between formats, we may ask you to submit raw data that will permit us to recreate any Figures you submit. Keep Tables and Figures simple and to the point. For readability, the content of figures and tables must be at least 9 point in size and no larger than 18cms wide.
References to Tables and Figures in the text are capitalized (e.g., “As Table 1 shows,” not “as table 1 shows”). Please be sure to include proper units of measurement and the source of the data; when applicable provide explanatory notes to aid the reader’s understanding.
Citations
Do not embed literature citations in the text, instead we ask that authors place citations in footnotes. For instance, instead of “It has been shown that the budgetary cost of switching from an all-volunteer to a conscripted force in the United States results in marginal budgetary savings only (Simon and Warner, 2007)", write the same sentence but place the citation in a footnote (and corresponding reference in the Reference section). This is to maintain readability of the text.
Citations in the footnotes should read as follows: Sandel (1998) or Sandel (1998, p. 113), or Sandel (1998a, p. 113), or Sandel (1999a, pp. 113-114). Separate multiple citations by a semi-colon, e.g., Sandel (1998); Galston (2004).
References
Except for survey articles, keep notes and references to a minimum. There is no need to show off your erudition or your perusal of all the latest newspapers and web sites.
Use the Harvard Referencing style for all references. There are many online tools to assist with this (e.g. https://libguides.ioe.ac.uk/c.php?g=482485&p=3298733, Google Scholar, https://www.citethisforme.com/harvard-referencing, etc.). Examples include:
Book.
Sandler, T. and K. Hartley. 1995. The Economics of Defense. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.
Brauer, J. and H. van Tuyll. 2008. Castles, Battles, and Bombs: How Economics Explains Military History. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
Edited book.
Levine, P. and Smith, R. eds., 2003. The Arms Trade, Security and Conflict (Vol. 5). Routledge.
Article in edited book
Rip, A. and Kemp, R., 1998. Technological change. Human choice and climate change, 2(2), pp.327-399..
Journal/magazine article
Warner, J.T. and Asch, B.J., 2001. The record and prospects of the all-volunteer military in the United States. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 15(2), pp.169-192.
Document [government, international organizations, NGOs, etc.]
Great Britain. Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. (2011). Bigger, better business: Helping small firms start, grow and prosper. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/32225/11-515-bigger-better-business-helping-small-firms.pdf (Accessed: 21 June 2013).
International Chamber of Commerce, Commission for Air Transport (2010). The need for greater liberalization. Available at: http://www.iccwbo.org/liberalization (Accessed: 8 February, 2014).
Newspaper [signed articles]
Lewis, S. (2015). ‘Rainbow support for York pride’, The Press, York, 18 June, p.6.
Web site [no author]
BBC News (2014). ‘Lights out’ ends day of WW1 centenary commemorations. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-28632223 (Accessed: 17 October 2012).
First paragraph
The first paragraph needs to introduce your article, however, do not start with “Introduction,” as it is understood that the beginning of the text is the introduction. It ought to be a clear problem and/or thesis statement, your main finding or point of argument, and the sections by which the article proceeds. (Note that we use “article,” not “paper”).
Mathematical expressions
Mathematical expressions where helpful in exposition, are welcome as part of the narrative, but keep in mind that the journal is aimed in part at a non-economist audience. It may be preferable to place any math in a self-contained appendix.
Currency
Use the official ISO 4217 currency codes. In the rare cases where there is not one (unofficial currencies and cryptocurrencies), a useful resource can be found here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_4217#Non_ISO_4217_currencies [Accessed 13 April 2020].
The format uses a space after the currency code. Abbreviations follow “m” for million, and “bn” for billion (for further refence see https://worldinfigures.com/abbreviations [Accessed 13 April 2020]). To avoid international confusion, avoid the use of trillion and express as thousands of billions—e.g., EUR 1.54m, USD 2bn, SEK 1,064bn.
Punctuation
We punctuate U.N., U.K., and U.S. but not EU, IMF, NATO, SIPRI. We do not hyphenate policymaker, decisionmaker, neoliberal, warlord. Note that U.N., U.K., and U.S. are spelled out as United Nations, United Kingdom, and United States when used as stand-alone references. In contrast, use U.N. policy, U.K. nuclear program, or U.S. administration. We do not capitalize geographic identifiers or wars. Thus, we write Korean peninsula, Malacca strait, Jordan river, not Korean Peninsula, Malacca Strait, Jordan River. Instead of post-Cold War, World War II, Vietnam War, we write post-cold war, world war II, and Vietnam war.
