Author Guidelines
INSTRUCTIONS FOR CONTRIBUTORS
1. Scope of the journal
Društvena istraživanja embraces thematic and disciplinary openness and therefore publishes works from various social and humanistic disciplines: sociology, psychology, politics, history, law, economics, demography, linguistics and other disciplines.
The journal publishes theoretical, empirical and review articles, and given the wide range of readers, priority is given to articles that are of wider social and international interest, in particular empirical research and international comparative research that are not locally specific and thematically narrowly specialized.
Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Društvena istraživanja will be reviewed.
2. Submission of the manuscript
Editorial board receives only unpublished manuscripts in Croatian or English.
Manuscripts should be submitted only in electronic form online via the Open Journal System: http://drustvena-istrazivanja.pilar.hr .
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this journal.
The journal supports an open approach, which means that all of its contents are freely available without charging to users and their institutions.
3. What do we publish?
Društvena istraživanja publishes:
• Scientific articles (original scientific articles and review articles (up to 7,000 words without abstract);
• Reviews of books and conferences (full-length up to 2,000 words).
Exceptionally, the journal publishes professional articles and short communications.
The journal publishes periodically special thematic issues. Call for proposal for thematic issue is continually open. Guide for proposal is available here: http://drustvena-istrazivanja.pilar.hr/index.php/drustvena-istrazivanja/pages/view/thematic-issues
The journal may also publish supplements that exceed the number of the regular 4 editions of the journal annually, and may also be funded from various sources. Additional editions are submitted and prepared under the same editing policy that applies to thematic issues.
4. Editorial policy
4.1. Peer Review Policy
All manuscripts undergo initial editorial check in order to assess whether the manuscript comply with the scientific and editorial standards of the journal, and if it fits in the objectives and themes of the journal.
Those manuscripts that pass this initial scrutiny are sent to a double blind review that does not reveal the identity of either the author or the reviewer. Therefore, the authors are asked to remove from the text and list of references, as well as from the properties of the electronic document, all the information that can reveal their identity (name, project information, acknowledgments).
All manuscripts submitted in English language require prior proofreading and editing by native speaker or professional editor to eliminate grammatical or spelling errors and possibly in writing style.
After receiving the reviewers’ reports, the authors, in addition to the new version of the manuscript, submit to the Editorial board a cover letter stating which reviewers’ proposals were accepted and in what way, and which were not (with explanation and argumentation).
4.2 Compliant policy
Authors can write an appeal letter regarding the review process or the decision on the manuscript to the Editor in chief. In case of repeated appeal, the Editor decides on the basis of a discussion at a meeting of the Editorial board or upon recommendation of an independent adjudicator.
4.3. Plagiarism Check
All received manuscripts are subject to routine disclosure of similarity with exiting literature (plagiarism and self-plagiarism) through iThenticate Similarity Check program: https://www.crossref.org/services/similarity-check/)
In the case of suspected plagiarism and redundancy, the editorial board will act in accordance with the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE): (https://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts).
4.4. Publishing fee and funding
The authors are not charged by the journal for the cost of receiving, reviewing and publishing papers. The journal is funded by the Ministry of Science and Education of the Republic of Croatia, by subscription to the print edition and funds from the publisher.
4.5. Open access
The journal supports open access. The full content of the journal is immediately and permanently free for everyone to read, download, disseminate or use in any other legal way without requesting explicit permission from the author or publisher.
4.6. Copyright Notice (Creative Commons Licence)
Copyright for articles published in this journal is retained by the authors, with first publication rights granted to the journal (this applies to both print and electronic issue). Papers published in the journal are licensed under the Creative Commons license CC-BY-NC (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which means that the content can be used with attribution for non-commercial purpose.
The use of psychological measurement instruments and computer programs should be in accordance with applicable regulations, and the authors should submit a statement on the use of legitimate copies or possession of written permission for the rights to their use.
4.7. Preprints and Advance Communications
With the development of communication channels and the Internet, as well as the need to speed up the exchange of scientific information, it has become common for the authors to make the results of their research publicly available before being published in scientific journals through preprints and other forms of informal communication. Preprint is usually defined as scholarly or scientific work that precedes publication in a peer reviewed journal and can be publicly available in the form of article, review, various data, comments, etc. It is assumed that preprints accelerate scientific communication, enable public evaluation and thus contribute to improvement of scientific works as well as to the access of contents that otherwise would be lost to the scientific community.
Author(s) can make the results of their research publicly available before submitting them to Društvena istraživanja through working materials, preprint platforms, blogs, and other informal communication channels. Such public availability of research or manuscript does not represent publication in the journal. When submitting a manuscript to Društvena istraživanja, author(s) must inform the Editorial Board of any previous disclosures of this manuscript or its earlier versions.
Abstracts and posters of works presented at the conferences are also accepted in the review process. However, papers published within the conference publications are not acceptable for review.
In case the manuscript has been published in Društvena istraživanja, author(s) should provide a link to the published article by adding a sentence: "This manuscript was published in the journal Društvena istraživanja and is available online (add link) with the following DOI (enter the DOI, which has been awarded by the journal Društvena istraživanja).
4.8. Ethical issues
4.8.1. Author's responsibility
Authors are responsible for the originality and authorship of their manuscripts and should behave in accordance with the ethical principles and rules of scientific honesty for the authors of the European Association of Scientific Editors (EASE): http://www.ease.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/EASE-Guidelines-2017 English.pdf
If they use other knowledge or their own previously published knowledge, this should be properly referred and cited. The description of the research process should contain all the information relevant for judging the ethics of research implementation. Editorial board may also request confirmation that the research has been approved by the ethics committee of the competent institution. Authors are required to obtain permission to print pictures, documents and other materials from the appropriate copyright holders. Authors should list the organizations, scientific projects or institutions that have supported research, which are published in the article.
In case of suspicion of unethical scientific conduct (plagiarism, self-plagiarism, manipulation of data, redundant manuscripts, changes in authorship etc.) the Editorial board will act in accordance with the guidelines of the international association - "Committee on Publication Ethics" (COPE): http://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts).
4.8.2 Changes to authorship
According to the guidelines for authors of the European Association of Scientific Editors (EASE) http://ease.org.uk/publications/author-guidelines, authors are expected to consider carefully the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of the original submission. Any addition, deletion or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list should be made only before the manuscript has been accepted and only if approved by the journal editorial board. To request such a change, the editorial board must receive the following from the corresponding author: (a) the reason for the change in author list and (b) written confirmation (e-mail, letter) from all authors that they agree with the changes. In the case of addition or removal of authors, this includes confirmation from the author being added or removed. Only in exceptional circumstances will the Editorial board consider the addition, deletion or rearrangement of authors after the manuscript has been accepted. If the manuscript has already been published in an online issue, any requests approved by the Editor will result in a corrigendum.
4.8.3. Responsibility of reviewers
Reviewers are required to handle each manuscript as confidential, and to protect the integrity of the author and manuscript.
Reviewers should consider the received manuscript in a highly responsible, constructive and objective way and warn the editors if they are not sufficiently qualified for the topic of work.
Reviewers are required to disclose potential conflicts of interest regarding the manuscript that they review, and in case of conflicts of interest, are excluded from the review procedure. It is equally valid for members of the Editorial boards who are excluded from the editorial process if they are in conflict of interest (co-operation or other form of relationship with the authors).
Reviewer guidelines are available here: http://drustvena-istrazivanja.pilar.hr/index.php/drustvena-istrazivanja/pages/view/reviewer
CONTRIBUTORS ARE REQUESTED TO CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING:
Articles:
1. The length of articles (including references, notes, figures and tables) should not exceed 7000 words.
2. Contributions should be double-spaced and all pages should be numbered.
3. The first page should contain the author’s name and surname, the name and address of the institution in which the author is employed, and the title of the article written in capital letters
(The Editorial board will delete this information before sending the manuscript to be reviewed).
4. The journal uses APA style (Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition – http://www.apastyle.org/) to format references in the text and bibliography.
5. In the reference list or bibliography, the author should provide full references for all the works mentioned in the text; also, the reference list should contain only those sources mentioned in the text. They should be listed alphabetically according to the surname of the author, and chronologically if a particular author has more than one work. If several works by the same author were published in the same year, they should be differentiated by letters (a, b, c, etc.) following the year of publication. If a work was written by several authors, all authors should be listed instead of using “et al.” or “and collaborators”.
When an article or bibliographic record has a DOI, use the DOI number in the reference list (it is possible to look up the DOI number here: http://www.crossref.org/SimpleTextQuery/).
For works accessible through the internet, the main information (title, author etc.) and the source (http://) should be provided.
6. A summary written in Croatian and English should also be included. The summary should not exceed 180 words and should indicate the aim of the work, the methodology used, and the most important findings and conclusions. Authors should specify up to five keywords.
7. Graphical appendices (tables and graphs) need to be in black and white, saved in original format, with their size and complexity adjusted to the format of the Journal so that all elements are clear and visible. They must be numbered consecutively in order of appearance and include title. The graphic appendixes are part of the manuscript and should be enclosed in the text. Exceptionally, they may be placed at the end of the manuscript, while their exact position should be indicated in the text of the manuscript.
Formatting references in the text according to APA style:
The sources should be cited in the text, not in the footnotes. The reference should be in brackets, containing the author’s surname and year of publication e.g.:
(Mumford, 1962) or
Mumford (1962).
The page number should be included for quotations or references to books e.g.:
(Mumford, 1962, p. 99).
If the reference was written by two authors, both should be mentioned e.g.:
(Berger & Luckmann, 1992).
If the work was written by three or more authors, the form "et al." is used from the first citation on, e.g.:
(Prelog et al., 1979) or
Prelog et al. (1979).
All references in the text should be given as they were given the first time, i.e., forms such as "Ibid.", "Op. cit." and the like, are not used. Authors should use footnotes exclusively for commenting on or expanding on what is referred to in the text.
The reference list should be written in APA style as in the following examples:
Book – one author:
Mumford, L. (1962). The city in history. Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc.
Book – several authors:
Portes, A., & DeWind, J. (2008). Rethinking migration: New theoretical and empirical perspectives. Berghahn Books.
Work from an anthology:
Greenberg, M., & Hughes-Evans, D. (1980). Air pollution. In J. Aldrich (Ed.), Atmosphere, weather and climate (Vol. 3, pp. 35–75). Methuen.
Article in a journal with a DOI number:
Leach, S., & Lowndes, V. (2007). Of roles and rules. Analysing the changing relationship between political leaders and chief executives in local government. Public Policy and Administration, 22(2), 183–200. https://doi.org/10.1177/0952076707075892
Article in a journal without a DOI number:
Galešić, M., & Stepanić, J. (2003). Toward parameterisation of E-mail mediated communication. Interdisciplinary Description of Complex Systems – INDECS, 1(1–2), 54–65. http://indecs.znanost.org
Unpublished doctoral dissertation:
Surname, X. (Year). Title of dissertation. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Name of institution..
Published conference paper:
Author of Paper, A., & Author of Paper, B. (Year, Month date). Title of paper. In A. Editor, B. Editor, & C. Editor, Title of published proceedings. Paper presented at Title of Conference: Subtitle of Conference, Location (inclusive page numbers). Place of publication: Publisher.
Laws and regulations:
Act on vocational rehabilitation and employment of persons with disabilities. Official Gazette, 143/2002, 33/2005.
Article in newspaper (unsigned):
Article title. (Date of issue). Name of newspaper, p. xx.
Article in newspaper (signed by author), electronic source:
Author, A. A. (Year, Month, Day). Title of article. Title of Newspaper. Available at URL of specific article.
Other examples can be found at http://www.apastyle.org/
Reviews
Croatian and foreign publications that were published less than two years ago (counting up to the day the review is received by the Journal) can be reviewed. The length of a review should not exceed 2000 words. On the first page, the first line should include the name and surname of the author of the reviewed work. The second line should include the title in capital letters and, if necessary, the subtitle in small letters in the third line. The fourth line should include: the name of the publisher, the place of publication, the year of publication and the number of pages. Reviews are also provided in electronic format via the online journal editing system (Open Journal System) posted on the journal's website: http://drustvena-istrazivanja.pilar.hr, section reviews.
Example:
Peter Singer
ONE WORLD
The Ethics of Globalization
Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2000, 208 pgs.
A review should be signed at the end.
Reviews of journal issues are also published. Their titles should contain the following information: the name of the journal, the volume and number. Reviews of journals should be signed at the end.
Notices and Information
The journal also includes notices and information about lectures, debates, scientific conferences and other interesting and important events in Croatian and international scientific circles. They should not exceed 1000 words and should be signed at the end.
