Author Guidelines

These guidelines provide detailed information for authors wishing to submit manuscripts to Politics & Security. Please read all requirements carefully before submitting.

General Provisions

Scope and compliance. Politics & Security accepts original, previously unpublished research articles that fall within the journal's thematic scope as defined in the Aims & Scope. Manuscripts that do not align with the journal's focus will be declined at the desk review stage without peer review. The manuscript must not be under consideration by any other publication at the time of submission.

Mandatory template. All manuscripts must be formatted using the official journal template. Submissions that do not conform to the template will not proceed to review. [DOWNLOAD TEMPLATE]

1. Formatting Requirements

  • File format: Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx)
  • Font and spacing: Times New Roman, 12 pt, single spacing. Footnotes: Times New Roman, 10 pt.
  • Margins: 2.54 cm (1 inch) on all sides
  • Text alignment: Justified
  • Section headings:
    • Level 1: Bold, centred, sentence case
    • Level 2: Bold, left-aligned, sentence case
    • Level 3: Italic, left-aligned, sentence case

2. Article Structure

Title page

  • Title: maximum 15 words, bold, sentence case, centred.
  • Author information: full names, institutional affiliations, email addresses, and ORCID iDs for all authors.
  • Conflict of interest statement: disclosed in a footnote on the title page.
  • Funding acknowledgement: disclosed on the title page if applicable.

Abstract

  • Maximum 300 words.
  • Structured as follows: purpose and research question; methodology; key findings; conclusions and significance.

Keywords

  • 5–6 terms, preferably drawn from the UNESCO Thesaurus or UNBIS Thesaurus.

Main body The manuscript should follow this structure: Introduction — Literature Review — Methodology — Results/Findings — Discussion — Conclusion — Acknowledgements — Data Availability Statement — References.

Variations in structure are acceptable for review articles and analytical papers, provided the manuscript includes a clear statement of purpose, methodology, and conclusions.

Tables and figures

  • Embedded in the text at the point of reference.
  • Table titles placed above the table; figure captions placed below the figure.
  • All tables and figures must be numbered and referenced in the text.

3. Length and Language

  • Length: 5,000–8,000 words, including references and appendices.
  • Language: English. Authors whose first language is not English are strongly encouraged to seek professional language editing prior to submission. Manuscripts with significant language issues will be returned without review.

4. Author Contributions (CRediT)

All submissions must include a Author Contributions statement listing the role of each author according to the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) framework. The following roles should be assigned as applicable:

Conceptualization; Methodology; Formal analysis; Investigation; Data curation; Writing — original draft; Writing — review and editing; Visualisation; Supervision; Project administration; Funding acquisition.

Example: "A.B.: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing — original draft. C.D.: Formal analysis, Writing — review and editing. E.F.: Data curation, Visualisation."

5. Data Availability Statement

All manuscripts must include a Data Availability Statement immediately before the reference list. This statement should indicate whether the data supporting the findings of the study are available, and if so, where and how they can be accessed.

Acceptable statements include:

  • "The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request."
  • "The datasets used in this study are publicly available at [repository name and URL]."
  • "This study did not generate new datasets. The analysis is based on publicly available sources cited in the reference list."

6. Citation and Referencing (APA 7th Edition)

All references must follow APA 7th edition format. DOIs must be included for all sources where available, formatted as active hyperlinks.

Journal article: Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of the article. Title of the Journal, volume(issue), pages. https://doi.org/xxxx

Example: Smith, J., & Doe, R. (2020). The role of cybersecurity in national security. Politics & Security, 5(3), 45–60. https://doi.org/10.1234/ps.2020.56789

Book: Author, A. A. (Year). Title of the book. Publisher.

Example: Johnson, P. (2018). Cybersecurity essentials. Academic Press.

Book chapter: Author, A. A. (Year). Title of the chapter. In B. B. Editor (Ed.), Title of the book (pp. xx–xx). Publisher.

Example: Lee, T. (2015). Global security challenges. In R. Smith (Ed.), Security studies handbook (pp. 123–145). Springer.

Conference proceedings: Author, A. A. (Year). Title of the paper. In Editor(s) (Eds.), Title of the proceedings (pp. xx–xx). Publisher.

Example: Green, K. (2019). Cyber threats in emerging economies. In L. Brown & T. White (Eds.), Proceedings of the International Security Conference (pp. 89–95). IEEE.

Websites: Author/Organisation. (Year). Title of the webpage. Retrieved from URL

Example: United Nations. (2021). Global security and development. Retrieved from https://www.un.org/security

7. Ethical Requirements

Originality. Submitted manuscripts must be original. Plagiarism in any form, including self-plagiarism, is prohibited. All submissions are screened using iThenticate. Full details are set out in the journal's Publication Ethics policy.

AI tools. Use of generative AI is permitted only for grammar and language editing. All AI tool usage must be disclosed in the Acknowledgements section or a footnote. AI may not be listed as an author. Full details are set out in the journal's Publication Ethics policy.

Conflict of interest. All authors must declare any financial or other conflicts of interest on the title page.

Informed consent and ethics approval. Where a study involves human participants, authors must confirm that appropriate ethical approval was obtained and that participants provided informed consent. The approving body and approval number should be stated in the manuscript.

8. Co-authorship Policy

Authorship is limited to individuals who have made a substantive intellectual contribution to the work. Gift authorship and ghost authorship are not permitted.

Manuscripts may list up to 6 authors. If the number of authors exceeds 6, the corresponding author must provide a written explanation of each author's contribution at the time of submission, using the CRediT framework.

9. Cover Letter

All submissions must be accompanied by a cover letter addressed to the Editor-in-Chief. The cover letter must: confirm that the manuscript has not been published previously and is not under consideration elsewhere; state the relevance of the manuscript to the journal's aims and scope; disclose any conflicts of interest; and confirm that all authors have approved the submission.

10. Submission Process

Manuscripts are submitted exclusively through the journal's online submission portal: 

Submissions sent by email will not be considered.

11. Review and Decision Timeline

  • Desk review (scope and formatting check): within 5 working days
  • Peer review: up to 30 days
  • Editorial decision communicated to authors: within 3 weeks of review completion

12. Revisions

Authors invited to revise their manuscript will be given 21 working days to submit a revised version. The revised manuscript must be accompanied by a point-by-point response to all reviewer comments. Requests for extensions must be submitted before the deadline. Revised manuscripts that do not adequately address reviewer concerns may be declined without further review.

For any questions regarding submission or editorial process, contact the editorial office: editor@politics-security.net