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Submission Guidelines
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Submission Guidelines Submission Requirements Peer Review ProcessSubmission Guidelines
Inquiries:
Please review the author submission guidelines carefully. Noncompliance will result in the return of the manuscript before review.
For specific questions regarding submission to The Field Notes of Applied Conflict Science contact the
For questions regarding submitted manuscripts already under the peer review process, contact the managing editor assigned to your manuscript.
Style Authorities:
The Field Notes utilizes the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA) (6th edition) as the authority used to generate and edit scholarly publications. Please refer to this publication, including chapters 3 and 4, before submission. An APA checklist can be accessed at /manuscript-submission-guidelines">https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/resources/manuscript-submission-guidelines; however, please note that while all Field Notes guidelines fall into APA standards, some are even more specific (e.g., use 12 pt. Times New Roman throughout the entire manuscript).
Ethics and Copyright:
Manuscripts submitted to the Field Notes of Applied Conflict Science should not be currently under review by another journal or have been made available in print (e.g., working paper series) or on the Internet.
Authors must secure permission from appropriate institutional review boards for use of human participants in research.
Authors are responsible for obtaining copyright permissions for previously published material, including graphics and data. Author contributions found to use plagiarized or self-plagiarized material will not be accepted for publication or retracted.
When a submitted manuscript after peer review is accepted for publication, authors have agreed to grant Field Notes the right to copyedit and publish.
Submissions
When submitting articles follow all directions and complete all sections of the NSUWorks submissions process. Questions regarding the submission process should be directed to the .
Submission Requirements
Cover Letter:
A separate cover letter allows for blind review. ALL identifying information is featured only within the cover letter. Ensure that no information identifying the authors, their institutions, or the institutions cited in the original research are present in the abstract, text, tables, or figures.
Limit titles to 15 words.
Note all copyright constraints.
Provide contact information from appropriate oversight agencies on use of human participants, as appropriate.
List names and affiliations of each author. Contact information is required for the lead author, but e-mail addresses of other contributors must be included.
Include full mailing addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail contact information of every author. (Only the author email is included in the published manuscript)
Include a short biographical summary of each author (No more than 150 words), which shall be included into the published manuscript. The information authors’ offer varies, but typically, contributors include degrees earned, positions held, research interests, and past publications.
Clearly identify the corresponding, or lead, author. This person will be responsible for ushering the manuscript through the review and publication process. The lead author is responsible for keeping contact information updated and signing the copyright agreement.
Author Bio’s should be copied from the cover letter and pasted into the appropriate section of the submissions portal.
Cover letters should be uploaded in the submission portal as a separate document.
Abstract:
The abstract should be included in the manuscript and uploaded in the abstract submission window. Abstracts should review the purpose, results, and significance of the paper.
Do not exceed 250 words.
Do not cite references.
Do not use undefined acronyms or abbreviations.
Use numerals.
Abstracts should be copied from the cover letter and pasted into the appropriate section of the submissions portal
Key Words:
Authors are highly encouraged to submit key words within the manuscript. Key words help others find their research in a full Internet search.
Submit up to six unique, informative key words or short phrases (avoid overly general terms).
Avoid undefined abbreviations or acronyms.
Editors reserve the right to replace key words.
Keywords should be copied from the cover letter and pasted into the appropriate section of the submissions portal.
Manuscripts
Upload a separate Word .docx or .doc file that includes the title, abstract, key words, manuscript, and references. No identifying information (authors or institutions where the research took place) should be included in this manuscript file.
Please consult APA and Webster’s extensively when preparing a manuscript.
The type of manuscript submitted defines the submission page limit. See submission styles and corresponding rubrics at the end of this document.
Submit all manuscript files as docx or .doc or a compatible file.
Use Times New Roman 12 pt. font in the entire file, including tables, figures, headings, captions, and table notes (page footnotes, generated properly in Word, will be smaller).
Double space the manuscript.
Use 1-inch margins on all sides.
Place page number in the upper-right corner.
Do not use space bar or soft returns to align text or apply tabs. Only indent the first sentence of a paragraph.
Do not use section or page breaks in the running text.
Do not use footnotes or endnotes, incorporate all relevant information into the body of the text..
Equations:
The author is responsible for ensuring that equations are rendered properly. Use the Word equation function.
Tables:
Authors should not apply pre-set or custom styles, shading, or spacing to make the tables look a certain way.
Number all tables (Arabic) as they are to appear in the text. Ensure that all tables are mentioned in the text.
Use Word table generator; do not apply styles, shading, or underlining.
Do not copy and paste a table from Excel.
Do not use the space bar, soft returns, tabs, or hard returns to space table data.
Use a distinct table row or column for data points. Do not separate data in one cell with hard returns or tabs.
Do not use preselected column and row heights; use fit-to-contents option.
Single space all rows; do not allow lead or following spaces in the paragraph option.
Use *, **, †, ††, in this order, not bold or italics, to indicate significance of data.
Use superscript a, b, c, and so forth sparingly for table notes.
Figures:
Do not use figure if tables accurately relate the information.
Number all figures (Arabic) as they are to appear in the text.
Do not use color in graphics; all Journal of Interdisciplinary Conflict Science publications are printed in black and white. To distinguish bars or lines, use patterns or very distinct shading.
The author is responsible for securing permission to use graphics or data from other sources.
If re-creating a graphic from another source, secure permission to adapt the figure.
Do not send a scanned or photocopy of a graphic.
Appendices:
Sometimes Field Notes of Applied Conflict Science features appendices to help readers’ further study the issue presnted. If more than one appendix is featured, use capital letters to refer to them in the running text: Appendix A, Appendix B, etc. Follow guidelines for tables or figures, as appropriate, when formatting appendices.
References:
The author is responsible for ensuring that all references are cited completely in the text and in the bibliography.
Use the APA 6th edition reference feature of Word to generate reference lists. Citations must not be linked to any other part of the manuscript.
Turn off or delete hyperlinks.
Do not use hard returns or tabs for each line of a citation in the reference list. Use a single hard return only at the end of each complete citation.
Inclusion of doi numbers for journal articles is strongly encouraged.
Ensure that URLs lead to the article cited, not a home page or a broken link. Doi numbers are rapidly replacing URLs as more stable means of citing online references.
Peer Review Process
Field Notes uses a two stage, double blind peer review process.
Initially submission receive a general editorial review by an assigned editor to determine if the manuscript meets the Field Notes guidelines.
Manuscripts are then classified and assigned a managing editor (within 15 days) to oversee the peer review process.
The managing editor will re-review the manuscript for appropriateness and classification decision and assign 2 peer reviewers (within 15 days) based on article content and reviewer expertise.
Peer Reviews are allotted 30 days for their initial review.
Peer reviews decisions:
- Accept without need for revision
- Accept with minor revisions
- Accept with major revisions
- Reject submission
(Split reviewer decisions are refereed by the managing editor.)
Once notified of the review decision, authors must make any appropriate edits and resubmit the edited version through the NSUWorks submissions portal. Questions regarding clarification of peer review revision requirements can only be directed to the managing editor.
Author revision deadlines:
- Accept without need for revision
- No action necessary
- Accept with minor revisions
- Return edited version within 14 days
- Accept with major revisions
- Return edited version within 21 days
- Definition of the problem or issue.
- Analysis of the policy: data/findings/recommendations (define/present qualitative or quantitative data used to arrive at findings/recommendations)
- Summary of your findings and recommendations. Provide specific recommendations or
findings in response to specific problems and avoid generalizations.
- Explain the key assumptions underlying your analysis
- When and where appropriate address possible counterarguments, alternative interpretations, reservations or caveats to your recommendations and/or your findings (think of the counterarguments a decision-maker will have when considering your recommendations)
- Suggest next steps and the implications of the findings or recommendations. You may briefly address the feasibility of next steps or explore the implications of your analysis.
- Provide succinct conclusions, big picture, overall goal, the urgency of action (“who cares and why?”) (10-15 pages)
- Brief conflict background description and analysis,
- Including the historical background; main drivers of conflict and their dynamics (conflict parties/main actors);
- Brief review of the literature supporting the development and assessment of program
- Outcomes, critiques and recommendations for improvement and/or donor support (10-15 pages)
Edited manuscripts are then returned to the original peer reviewer for conformation of required edits and approval (within 14 days). Field Notes only allows one peer re-review per manuscript. Revised manuscripts are either accepted or rejected in the second round.
Accepted manuscripts are submitted to publication editing for formatting preparation for publication (14 days). Field Notes reserves the right to format manuscripts without author approval.
Once manuscripts are formatted for publication, they are returned to the editor-in-chief for issue assignment.
Issues are published when new content is available.
The entire peer review process can take up to 90 days, not including time allotted for author editing, however, historically the process is completed in 30 – 60 days.
Acceptable Articles
The following is a list of article types accepted by the Field Notes for publication consideration. Final article classification is at the discretion of the Field Notes Editorial Board.
Policy Analysis and/or New Policy Development
Manuscripts which examine previous policies, provide policy analysis and new policy proposals, and present new alternatives or builds upon previous work. Manuscripts must contain:
Applied Fieldwork: Practice
Observations/Implementation/Monitoring/Evaluation/Analysis
Manuscripts which examine current conflict and applied field work, single or comparative case studies. The manuscript that highlights conflict and/or peacebuilding practice (for prevention, intervention, mitigation of conflict, including humanitarian aid, international development projects, security assistance, justice, law and governance, etc.) to provide new analysis and offer insight and a deeper understanding of the conflict/practice methodology being examined. Articles must contain:
Applied Fieldwork: Personal and/or Collective Trauma Narratives
Stories from the field that portray personal and/or collective narratives of conflict traumas. Powerful accounts from victims, perpetrators, bystanders, interventionists who have been impacted by trauma and want their voices heard and give others a voice. We recognize that speaking about traumatic events can be retraumatizing for some people, and that is not the intention of this call. We encourage submissions only from individuals who feel comfortable reflecting on their experiences and contributing their life stories to enrich the collective understanding of the complex conflict spaces around the world. Given the sensitive nature of the topic, if contributors wish to remain anonymous, the Journal will protect their privacy by not publishing their names and/or use alias only. (5-10 pages)
Field Notes Article Reviews
Review of previous articles presented in Field Notes (10 pages). (Non Peer Reviewed, Editorial Board Refereed.
Letters to the Editors, Commentary or Reactions
(5 pages)
Podcast: The Field Notes will be featuring a monthly podcast series with those who contributed articles and/or other conflict practitioners. If you’d like to participate, please email the editors.
