Journal of
Social Sciences: Transformations & transitions
ISSN 2792-3843
Guide for authors
Quick access:
1. Overview
JOSSTT publishes original research articles related to social sciences, including the following fields, in accordance with ASJC:
Social Sciences
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General Social Sciences
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Social Sciences (miscellaneous)
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Law
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Linguistics and Language
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Sociology
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Social Psychology
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Political Science
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Communication & Journalism
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Cultural Studies
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Demography
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Gender Studies
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Political Science
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International Relations
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Public Administration
Art & Humanities
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History
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History and Philosophy of Science
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Philosophy
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Religious studies
Authors are required to check the Aims & Scope of the Journal before submission.
When a paper is designated for special issues, you should choose the right option during submission.
Papers that previously have been submitted to preprint servers are acceptable for peer-review and further publication. Meanwhile authors must provide the required details within the submission form.
For bilingual publishing please see the details in the item No. 18.
2. Manuscript Preparation
All manuscripts shall consist of following sections:
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Title
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Abstract
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Authors (and their affiliation)
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Introduction
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Theory/Methodology
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Result/Hypothesis
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Research/Discussion
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Conclusions
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Patents (if any)
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Data Availability Statement
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Declaration of Interest
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Funding Disclosure
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Authors Contribution
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Acknowledgement
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References
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Supplementary Material (if applicable)
The information about authors and their affiliations, authors contributions, and acknowledgement shall be removed, in a separate file, since the review process is double blind. Therefore, the corresponding author is obliged to remove all the above-mentioned identifying information from the text, as well as author/proprietary data from the submitting files.
To remove hidden personal data from Microsoft files, you should go to File/Info/Inspect Documents, and inspect the document for Document Properties and Personal Information, removing all results. To learn more, check the Microsoft Support.
Articles shall be prepared in Microsoft Word. There is no restriction on the paper’s layout.
The recommended font is Times New Roman, 12 pt.
There is no limitation on the length of the paper, provided that the text is concise and comprehensive with all necessary details enabling reviewers and readers reproduce the results. We encourage researchers, however, to not exceed 8,000 words – excluding notes, references, figures, tables, images, or any supporting material that will appear as supplemental online appendices – whenever it is possible without negatively impacting the study.
The abstract shall contain 150-250 words.
Citations in the text shall use the author-date method in parentheses;
list the last names of the authors (up to three authors can be mentioned), then the year. The formats are as follows: one author (A, 2018); two authors (A, B, 2019); three authors and more (A et al., 2018).
For citing data resources, if there is no author, you should mention the name of the dataset (as the author) and the year. You should check, however, if there is a suggested citation in each dataset.
All references shall be mentioned at the end of the paper using the APA Style, listing them alphabetically by last name of the first author. For anonymous reports and standards, alphabetize by the issuing institution.
In the citations, the DOI shall be provided; if that is not applicable, the URL of the original source, where the paperwork is published, shall be mentioned.
Footnotes should appear at the bottom of the page on which they are referenced and shall reflect any additional notes. Do not use footnotes for citations or linking to datasets.
Mathematical equations, tables, and figures shall be editable texts of Microsoft World or Excel, not images.
Equations, tables, and figures must be placed in the appropriate place in the main text, provided with a title followed by a descriptive legend.
Abbreviations should be defined in parentheses the first time they appear.
SI Units (International System of Units) should be used. Imperial, US customary, and other units should be converted to SI units whenever possible.
Supplementary materials shall have common formats, i.e., PDF, Excel, GPEG, PNG, TIFF.
Video files are acceptable as supplementary materials, and can be published with the research.
Table files should have either the .doc/.docx or .xls/.xlsx file extensions.
Figure file extensions can be .ppt, .tiff, .jpg, or .png format.
3. Submission Checklist
(We accept preprint submissions as well.)
Please ensure that:
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The research subject is within JOSSTT’s Aims & Scope;
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The article is original, and is not published or under consideration in any other journal, regardless of country and language;
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There is a full consensus of all authors to submit a paper, and that all authors have approved the content of manuscript;
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The Publication Ethics have been considered, appropriately;
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The manuscript is in the Microsoft Word format;
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The submitting paper includes Declaration of Interests and Funding Disclosure;
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The data used in the manuscript are cited appropriately or provided as supplementary materials.
4. Author's Responsibility
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Authors of submitted papers are obligated not to submit their paper for publication elsewhere until an editorial decision is rendered on their submission.
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Usage of previously published works of other authors must be cited appropriately. Copying text, ideas, images, or data from another sources - even from authors' own publications - without giving any credit to the original source shall be considered plagiarism.
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Authors must assure that the submitted article and associated materials are original and do not infringe on the copyright of anyone.
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If an article includes already published figures or images with copyright, authors are obliged to obtain the necessary permission from the copyright holder to publish them under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0).
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Image files must not be manipulated or adjusted in any way that could lead to misinterpretation of the information provided by the original image.
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Authors should not be engaged in excessive self-citation, and must avoid citing advertisements or advertorial material.
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Authors are obliged to participate in the peer review process and to provide the editorial team with required data/details or clarification. Ignoring editorial queries, or providing them, but with unreasonable delay, may lead to rejection.
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All authors are obliged to provide retractions or corrections of mistakes.
5. Authorship
Only those who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status. If a person has contributed to the work but does not meet the authorship criteria, such as funders, translators, etc. may be listed in the acknowledgments. A submitted manuscript shall contain a statement of fulfilling the authorship criteria confirming that have not been omitted other authors, and taking responsibility for the integrity of those contributions.
To learn more about authorship criteria visit the Ethics.
6. Conflicts of Interest
All authors, while submitting their papers, must disclose any existing or potential conflicts of interest, along with any relationships that could influence the content or bias their work, including both financial, non-financial and competing interests.
This may include any paid or unpaid positions in entities whose position, goals, or financial interests relate to the submitting article and any relationship, including familiar relationships with the owners, beneficiaries, or managers of such entities.
The declaration of interests shall be included in the manuscript, and, if there is no conflict of interest, it must be stated clearly:
“The authors declare no conflicts of interest.”
7. Funding Disclosure
All sources of funding of the research and/or preparation of the article should be disclosed. Authors must identify the organizations, institutions or people who provided financial support.
The information about funding bodies must be included in the article. Otherwise, it should be stated that:
“The research did not receive external funding.”
8. Accuracy of Research
A submitted manuscript must consist of a well-researched subject, with objective and comprehensive discussion based on data retrieved from competent sources or generated by experiments or observations without any manipulations.
Publishing data or conclusions that were not generated appropriately, but, instead through data manipulation, data invention, or falsification is considered fraud.
9. Data Availability
Authors should make sure that the research objects associated with their publications are openly available, unless there is ethical, legal or privacy issues. Data and methods used in the research need to be presented in sufficient detail, so that other researchers can replicate the work.
Data Availability provides details regarding where relevant data can be found, including links to the publicly archived datasets analysed or generated during the study. This includes research data, software, and methodologies enabling peer reviewers to better assess the foundations of claims made and enabling the research community and wider public to similarly validate authors’ works.
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When above-mentioned data are available via public links, they shall be included in the citations. When data is available upon request, it shall be provided as supplementary material with proper source citation.
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When data is generated within authors experiments, it shall be provided as supplementary material included used methodology.
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When a software has been used it should be indicated.
10. Inclusive Language & Objectivity
According to the Linguistic Society of America, inclusive language acknowledges diversity, conveys respect to all people, is sensitive to differences, and promotes equal opportunities.
We encourage all authors to follow Elsevier’s inclusive language guidelines to avoid the use of certain expressions or words that might be considered exclusionary of particular groups of people.
Download the inclusive language guidelines in PDF.
Authors must ensure that the submitted article is free of bias, stereotypes, slang, references to dominant culture, and cultural assumptions.
11. English Editing
If you submit your manuscript in English, please ensure that it is submitted in grammatically correct English for a proper peer review.
All manuscripts will be checked by an English Editor before publishing, therefore we recommend you provide us with a manuscript edited by a native English speaker or that you use our services.
We provide authors with translation and proofreading services at a low additional cost. To find out more about services for authors check this page.
12. Additional Services
Pre-submission Service: If you wish to have professional feedback on your paper, you may use the pre-submission guide provided by external reviewers.
Please note that the use of additional services does not affect the editorial decision regarding your manuscript and does not guarantee the acceptance of your paper.
13. Review Process
Duration: The review process takes approximately 21 days from submission to publication.
If reviewers require revision or re-submission, duration will depend on the authors.
The manuscript Review Process consists of several stages:
A. Technical Review
During the technical examination, the editorial team decides if a manuscript:
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is within the Aims & Scope of the Journal;
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meets author’s guidelines;
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contains appropriate research;
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is provided with data availability;
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includes valid links and competent sources;
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and is written in English meeting the required level.
B. Ethical review
During the Ethical review, the editorial team examines manuscripts on:
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Plagiarism & Originality
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Authorship
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Citations & Resources
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Research fraud
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Conflicts of Interest and Funding Disclosure
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Data availability
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Inclusive Language and Objectivity
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Other ethical issues
C. Peer-Review
All submitted papers are subject to a rigorous peer-review process by one or two reviewers that are experts in the area of a particular manuscript. The peer-review process is double-blind, which means that the identities of both the reviewer and author are concealed from the reviewers, and vice versa, throughout the review process.
The final decision shall be made by a topic editor or by editorial board considering the overall quality of a paper and the issued reports of reviewers.
The factors that are considered in a peer-review process include, but are not limited to, originality, relevance, soundness, significance, and accuracy.
The possible decisions include acceptance, acceptance with revisions, resubmission required, and rejection.
The corresponding author is obliged to participate in the peer review process and provide the editorial team with required information. Ignoring the editorial queries or refusing to provide additional information will lead to rejection.
If authors are invited to revise or resubmit a manuscript, there is no guarantee that the revised submission will be accepted.
Rejected articles will not be re-reviewed.
The editorial board provides authors with the reason for rejection, whenever possible.
D. Post-publishing Investigation
Any allegations of publication misconduct after publishing will be investigated carefully. The editorial team may contact authors, their institutions, or funders, if necessary. If evidence of misconduct is found, the appropriate action will be taken to correct or retract the publication.
If authors discover any errors in the published research, they are obliged to inform the journal immediately and provide retractions or corrections of mistakes.
14. Publication Fee
The Article Processing charges (APC) have been removed for all submission. Therefore, all accepted articles will be published FREE.
There are no submission fee or page/figure charges for authors.
Rejected papers are not subject to any charges.
15. Copyright Notice
Articles published in JOSSTT are open-access articles distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), where authors remain the copyright holders and grant third parties the right to use, reproduce, and share the article according to the Creative Commons license agreement.
The relevant note will be inserted in all published articles.
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0):
This license allows readers to share, copy, and redistribute the material in any medium or format, and to adapt, remix, transform, and build different versions, such as translations, for any purpose, even commercially.
The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as users follow the license terms, credit the authors with the link (DOI link) to the publication, and indicate if changes were made. All of these uses are permissible, as long as they don’t claim that the author endorses their adaptation, and don’t damage author's reputation.
16. Privacy Statement
Personal information provided by authors, including name and surname, e-mail, ORCID, and affiliation, will be indicated in the published paper and on the journal’s website. Authors, by submitting their papers, express their consent to the publishing of the above-mentioned personal data as a term of publication.
The provided data, including additional personal information – phone number, mailing address, etc. – will be used by the Journal and Publisher exclusively for the purposes of communicating with authors, and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.
Meanwhile, authors should be aware that the publications are open access and that the published personal data is publicly available to everyone.
17. Article withdrawal
When an article has been submitted, authors can request a withdrawal only if it is obligatory and reasonable, provided that a withdrawal request explaining the reasoning is signed by all authors. When a withdrawal request is submitted, it does not mean that the article has been withdrawn unless a confirmation letter has been sent by the editorial team, and authors are required to wait for that before any further submissions. The Journal reserves the right, however, to impose a financial sanction on these authors and ban them from further submissions.
Therefore, authors are required to consider all issues before submitting and to avoid such unethical practices.
18. Bilingual publishing
All articles must be in English for submission, peer-review and publication purposes. However in order to provide research articles with higher visibility, we can publish accepted manuscripts that were originally made in languages other than English in a bilingual form, as an appendix.
For bilingual publication authors are required to make the same revisions in both versions. The final manuscript will be checked by our specialists to ensure the full compliance of the second version.
The bilingual publication is an additional service with EUR 50 charges.
Authors may select the bilingual publication and send the manuscript versions via submission form.
We accept second version in Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Persian, French, German, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Portuguese and many other languages.