Submissions

Author Guidelines

Open Access

The Privacy Studies Journal is fully open access (OA). The journal is generously supported by the Danish National Research Foundation and does not charge article processing fees. Articles are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License and remain the intellectual property and responsibility of authors.

Submission System

Submissions must be made electronically through the online Privacy Studies Journal Management System. Authors can communicate with editors and follow the review process via the system. Please use the submission checklist to ensure compliance.

Ensuring Blind Peer Review

Authors must ensure that no identifying information is included in their text. If authors must reference work written by themselves, they should refer to their work in the third person, in order to ensure the blind peer-review process.

Types of contributions

The following genres of submission go through double-blind peer-review in addition to the editorial review:

• Research articles present original research that fits within the scope of PSJ, and make a significant contribution to the knowledge community. They contain references, illustrations, figures, analysis of data, or other source material, in support of a well-structured argument.
  Length: ca. 7000 words.
• Systematic Review Articles are usually commissioned by the editorial board, and provide the current state of the art for a particular area of privacy studies. They provide a summary overview of scholarly work that has been written on the topic. Length: ca. 7000 words.
• Position papers present a professional opinion of a scholar on a relevant subject. They give background information, present a given position with a view to opposite stances, and offer a discussion. Length: ca. 3000 to 7000 words.
• Book Reviews are usually commissioned by the editorial board, and provide an informed, scholarly reaction to a recently published book in areas relevant for privacy studies. Length: ca. 2000 words

The following genres of submission go only through editorial review:

• Editorial pieces offer an overarching introduction to a PSJ issue. The editors convey the connection between the individual articles, pointing to fruitful intersections and tensions between them, and positioning the issue within a broader scholarly horizon. Length: 2000-6000 words, depending on the nature of the piece.
• Interviews are edited conversations with a specialist whose work has relevance to privacy studies. Interviews are usually commissioned by the editor-in-chief or otherwise agreed in advance with the editorial board. They can be written in Q/A form or as an integrated text, and must be formally approved by the interviewee. Length: 2000-4000 words.
• Other formats are welcomed by the editorial board of PSJ. Audio, video, photographic essays, and other material can be published by the journal upon agreement with the editor-in-chief and the editorial board. The scholarly value of the work must be explained in writing upon submission, including its scientific criteria and its approach to research argumentation. For submissions presented in non-textual form, the refereeing process may require special arrangements and might take longer. In certain cases (e.g. artistic research), where the name of the artist is publicly available, the process is single-blinded.

Text Structure for Articles

Manuscript length: abide by the standards for each genre (+/- 500 words), including references and citations, but excluding bibliography.

Articles must be accompanied by a separate abstract of 200 words summarizing the main arguments, as well as five keywords. The abstract should be written in a clear language and be aimed at a non-specialist reader.

The text should be well structured, with clear and logically defined paragraphs. Articles should have an introduction section. Subsections such as methods, results, discussion, and conclusion can be used but are not required. Specialized vocabulary should be kept to a minimum. If field-specific words are used, we recommend that the authors provide a brief explanation on the first use, to ensure that an audience of non-specialists can follow the argument.

PSJ peer-reviewers follow the instructions listed below in their review process. Authors are encouraged to refer to these instructions as they develop their text:

• Content: Is the article a good fit for PSJ? Does the text contribute original insights to current debates on the topic at hand? Do the authors provide relevant source material in their text to support their argument? Are the conclusions adequately built upon evidence presented in the text? Does the author adequately explore existing methodologies and scholarly literature in the text of the article? Is the argument rigorous and relevant? How do you assess the author’s depth of understanding demonstrated in the written text?
• Structure and argument: Is the structure of the article adequate to support the argument? Are the points logically organized? Does the article give enough information about the methodology used? Do the authors make good use of topic sentences and of signposting throughout the text?
• Language: Is the text written in a competent, clear, and concise language? Do the authors succeed in communicating their argument to an audience of non-specialists? Do the authors explain the meaning of technical words? Does the text adhere to the PSJ guidelines on spelling and grammar (see below) or does it need extensive copy-editing?
• Figures and Tables: Are figures and tables legible, captioned, and referenced in an adequate manner? Do these figures and tables help support the argument presented in the text?
• Formatting: Are the text and references formatted according to the PSJ guidelines on referencing style and formatting (see below)?

Spelling and grammar

The language of publication is English with Oxford spelling, which follows the use of British spelling (honour, favour, centre; please refer to the Oxford English Dictionary or its derivatives) in combination with the suffix -ize. Thus, please attend to the following exceptions from British spelling:

• End words with –ize/–izing (as in generalize/generalizing, formalize/formalizing, industrialize/industrializing), except words that end in -yse (as in analyse/analysing, catalyse/catalysing) and where –ise is part of a longer word element rather than a separate ending (as in advertise/advertising, exercise/exercising).
• Use place names in their native language, unless the English form of the name is widespread.

A translation must accompany quotes in languages other than English. When transcribing foreign names, be consistent in using one spelling throughout the text.

Use Oxford/serial comma; that is a comma used before the final conjunction (and/or) in a list of three or more items (e.g. spelling, grammar, and language).

References

When submitting an article, authors will be prompted to paste their reference list separately in an appropriate field called "References," to be found under the rubric "Enter Metadata." This step allows us to comply with citation-tracking services such as Crossref.

Referencing style

Authors must use the Chicago Manual of Style 17th Edition, with Footnotes and Bibliography (find a citation guide here). Be aware that references are not listed in the same manner in the notes as in the bibliography nor across types of publications. Articles that do not comply will be returned to the authors for correction.

Authors must use the automated insertion function in their word processor to insert footnotes. This will ensure the correct order is preserved when edits are made. If a bibliography manager (Zotero, Endnote, Mendeley, etc) is used, please unlink citations before submitting the text. A footnote must the inserted after the end punctuation. Explanatory footnotes should be used sparingly.

When citing publications in foreign languages, preserve the original language rather than translating the title to English, unless you are using a published translation.

Formatting

• Font: use a readable font, size 12. Avoid underlined text and bold typeface. Italicizing text for emphasis must be kept to a minimum.
• Tables and Figures: upload images and tables as separate files in the PSJ management system. Please ensure that they are formatted as JPG, TIFF, GIF, PNG, EPS, have a resolution of 300 dpi, and the file is a maximum of 20 MB. Figures and tables must be labelled with consecutive numbers following the order they appear in the text. They must be clear and look professional.
• Quotation marks: use double quotation marks within the text. Use single quotation marks only for quotes within quotes. If the quote is longer than three lines, place it in an indented paragraph as a blockquote. Do not italicize blockquotes. Use an ellipsis to indicate truncated text from a quote. Words added to the quote must be placed inside square brackets. Include an adequate reference to the quote.
• Acronyms and abbreviations: Spell out acronyms on the first time they appear. Afterward, use the acronym.

Policy on Proofreading

Before submitting an article to PSJ, authors must ensure that a skilled speaker of English proofreads the text. The responsibility for hiring, negotiating, and paying for the copy-editing service done before acceptance of the article remains the responsibility of the authors.