Adelaide Journal of Social Sciences

The Adelaide Journal of Social Sciences (AJSS) is a multi-disciplinary journal published by post-graduate students from the School of Social Sciences at the University of Adelaide. The journal is a peer-reviewed, open-access platform for academic research in all areas of social science, with a particular emphasis on interdisciplinary scholarship from disciplines such as anthropology, Asian studies, criminology, development studies, environmental and population studies, geography, gender studies, international relations, political science, and sociology.

We aim to support the work of emerging scholars and early career researchers, particularly those undertaking post-graduate studies. While the AJSS focus is on academic contributions to theoretical and empirical scholarly discussions, we also welcome book reviews, opinion pieces and creative textual work and visual artwork (e.g., photo essays). All publications should reflect our values of community-building, intellectual integrity, and our passion for fostering a respectful space for shared learning.

All submissions undergo a double-blind review process to ensure the highest standards of scholarship.

Editors-in-chief

• Ainoa Cabada (Department of Politics and International Relations)
• Aisha Sultan (Department of Anthropology)

Editorial board

• Jaye Litherland-De Lara (Department of Anthropology)
• Seenying Lau Meaney (Department of Anthropology and Development Studies)
• Yanyan Hong (Department of English, Creative Writing and Film)
• Anand Sreekumar (Department of Politics and International Relations)
• Haisen Liang (Faculty of Sciences, Engineering and Technology)
• Lucas Scheel (Department of Politics and International Relations)
• Arefa Sultana (Department of Politics and International Relations)

Peer review policy

Manuscripts submitted to the AJSS undergo a rigorous double-blind peer review.

A manuscript is first received by the editor-in-chief, who sends it to a member of the editorial board for initial screening. Manuscripts may be rejected at this initial stage if they do not meet the criteria of the journal. Manuscripts that pass the initial screening are then allocated by editors-in-chief to two independent reviewers to assess their quality and academic merit. The reviewers give their comments and suggestions to editors-in-chief, who then makes the decision, in communication with the desk editor, to accept or reject the manuscript for publication. There will follow a final revision and editing process between the author and editors.

Editors-in-chief manage the review process. The identities of author and reviewers are concealed from each other to ensure an objective, unbiased, and honest review process. 

The AJSS shall endeavour to complete the review process within six weeks from submission. 

Authorship

Listed authors should include all people who have made a substantive contribution to a submitted manuscript. Authorship order must reflect the degree of contribution, with whoever made the most substantive contribution being listed as first author, and so on.

Acknowledgements 

Acknowledgements should be given to any contributors to a manuscript who do not meet the authorship criteria. 

Declaration of conflicting interests 

Authors, reviewers, and editors of the AJSS should declare any conflicts of interest that may influence their decisions. 

Conflicts of interest could arise in the following scenarios (this list is not exhaustive, and conflicts may co-exist):

• Financial ties or relationships (e.g., employment, consultancy, stock ownership, or paid expert testimony).
• Academic commitments (e.g., strong beliefs or intellectual ‘passion’ in a particular idea, method, theory etc.).
• Personal relationships (e.g., if the reviewer or editor handles the article of a friend, family member, colleague, or competitor).
• Political or religious beliefs (e.g., having a strong political or religious view that is affirmed or challenged by the submitted manuscript).
• Institutional affiliations (e.g., being employed by or associated with an institution that may benefit or suffer from the publication of a submitted manuscript, such as a company that manufactures a product being described in the manuscript).

Authors shall declare any funding they have received as part of writing, researching, or contributing to the manuscript.

The editor-in-chief, members of the editorial board, and reviewers shall maintain the utmost rigour in identifying, declaring, and avoiding conflicts of interest. They shall not derive any financial gain from their participation in the journal. 

Declaration of any conflicts of interest will not result in manuscript rejection. 

Publication ethics

The AJSS is committed to academic integrity and upholds the International Standards for Editors and Authors of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). 

Prospective authors should refer to the International Standards for Editors and Authors on the COPE website.

Plagiarism

The AJSS is strictly against plagiarism, copyright infringement, and other forms of academic malpractice. 

By submitting a manuscript, the author attests that the manuscript is free from plagiarised content, and that proper referencing is provided for all content.

The AJSS reserves the right to apply duplication-checking software to all submitted manuscripts to screen for plagiarised content. 

Strong action will be taken against proven cases of plagiarism, and responses may include but are not limited to publishing corrections, retracting the article, pursuing the matter with relevant organisations, or taking legal action.

Permissions 

It is the responsibility of the author to obtain any necessary permissions from copyright holders when reproducing previously published works. 

Prior publication

Any manuscript that has been published prior in another publication or is currently under consideration for publication by another journal will not be accepted for publication in the AJSS.

Contributor’s publishing agreement  

Prior to publication, authors must sign a publishing agreement granting the AJSS the sole and exclusive rights to publish and licence the manuscript in question for the duration of the copyright period. The author retains copyright ownership of the manuscript. 

Word limit 

Manuscripts should be maximum 8000 words (or equivalent for non-traditional submissions), including all referencing (in-text citations and final reference list), graphs, tables, figures etc.

Formatting your manuscript

Specific formatting requirements are as follows: 

• Font: Calibri.
• Font size: 12-point.
• Spacing: double-spaced.
• Orientation: portrait.
• Margins: normal.
• Spelling: UK/Australian English.
• Page numbers: bottom right, first page number 1

Referencing style

Authors may use any referencing style when they submit their manuscript if it is consistent. 

If the manuscript is accepted, authors will be required to reformat the manuscript into Harvard UofA referencing style. Harvard UofA referencing style is an author-date style that requires both in-text referencing AND a full reference list at the end of the manuscript. 

For more information on how to correctly use the Harvard UofA referencing style, see the online referencing guide.

Footnotes

Use of footnotes should be as sparing as possible. There should be no endnotes. Appropriate usage of footnotes should provide concise contextual information that would otherwise disrupt the text or explain something that would be known to few readers but is key to understanding the text. 

Artwork, figures, and other graphics

Authors must hold or obtain copyright permissions for all artwork, figures, and images in their manuscript.

• File type: JPEG files are preferred for images without texts or graphs. EPS or PNG files are preferred for images with graphs or line art. 
• Submission: Figures, charts, or tables created in Microsoft Word should be placed in their relevant position in the body of the text, rather than at the end of the manuscript. Figures, charts, tables, or images not created in Microsoft Word should be submitted separately, with placeholders in the manuscript (e.g., [insert Figure 1. here]).
• Resolution: Line drawings and graphs should have a minimum resolution of 800 dpi. Photos or images should have a minimum resolution of 350 dpi. 
• Captions: All figures, charts, tables, and images must be appropriately titled and captioned, and the font and sizing shall not vary too much from the body text of the manuscript. 

Acronyms

Any terms that use acronyms shall be stated in full at their first use, followed by the acronym in brackets. The acronym shall be used for subsequent uses of the term. 

Submitting your manuscript

• Submissions should be sent to ajss@adelaide.edu.au.
• Manuscripts should be submitted as Microsoft Word documents. 
• Authors should submit two copies of their manuscript. 
  • The first copy should include a front page with the following information: 
    • Full names and academic institutions of all authors.
    • A title.
    • An abstract up to 100 words in length.
    • Six keywords for search engines.
    • Any statements if applicable, such as to declare funding or a conflict of interest. 
  • The second copy will be a ‘clean’ copy for blind review, and should include no identifying details (name, institution, etc.) 

Procedure

After a manuscript is accepted, there is a final round of copy editing. The editor sends the final copy to the author for proofreading. 

The author should complete required edits by the dates specified by the editor-in-chief. 

If there are any changes to the authorship of the manuscript at this final stage, all authors must provide written approval. 

Access to your published article  

Upon publication of a manuscript, the author/s will be notified and provided with the weblink to the issue featuring their work.

Occasionally the editorial board will announce a Special Issue of AJSS. Special Issue manuscripts should follow the guidelines for regular issues, align with the aims and scope of the journal, while also addressing the topic of the Special Issue. The same submission procedures apply, and Special Issue manuscripts are submitted to the same double-blind peer review process. Like manuscripts for regular AJSS issues, they should similarly reflect our values of community building, intellectual integrity, and our passion for fostering space for shared learning.