Author Guidelines

1) GENERAL INFORMATION

  1. Narrative Works accepts for publication the original texts in psychology, sociology, anthropology, gerontology, literary studies, gender studies, cultural studies, religious studies, social work, education, healthcare, ethics, theology, and the arts.
  2. The Editorial Team accepts and assesses manuscripts continuously throughout the year. All the volumes are published in the digital version.  
  3. Manuscripts should be submitted by the Open Journal System (see Submission)
  4. Please note that by submitting an article for publication, you confirm that you are the corresponding/submitting author and that the paper has not been published. All cases of unethical behavior (plagiarism, ghostwriting, guest authorship) will be taken extremely seriously: we shall reveal them and inform the institutions with which the alleged author is affiliated.
  5. All texts that meet high academic standards will be subject to a double-blind peer-review process (review form).
  6. Editorial Team reserves the right to make minor corrections to the text and shortcuts
  7. The Journal is published under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International. Submission of a manuscript is treated as implying an agreement to the terms of the license.
  8. The authors do not get paid for the articles they publish.

2) TYPES OF MANUSCRIPTS CONSIDERED

Narrative Works will accept the following kinds of manuscripts:

  • Research Article: (peer-reviewed)

This section contains original research and theoretical manuscripts. The original articles should include the most recent and relevant references in the field. The structure for a quantitative study should consist of an Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusions (optional) sections, and for a qualitative study Abstract, Keywords, Research objectives with justification, Methods, Sampling, Description of the research process, Research ethics, Analysis of empirical data, Presentation of results. Please refer to the journal web page for specific instructions and templates. Original research papers should be approximately 6,000 to 8,000 words in length. Please e-mail the journal editor if you want to propose a different length (shorter or longer) or a different format (e.g., including multiple images).  

  • Book Review (not peer-reviewed)

Book reviews are short literary criticisms analysing the content, style, and merit of a recently published book. Full book details should be provided at the beginning of the article. The structure should only include an Introduction and be a discussion of critical points with no sections or conclusions. The maximum allowable word count is 1500 words.

3) FORMATTING GUIDELINES

  • Submissions should include:
    • a title page with author contact information: name, title, affiliation, contact e-mail address, ORCID number
    • an unstructured abstract (300 words or less)
    • three to five keywords
    • a brief bio for all authors (3 to 5 sentences).
  • Any funding or other acknowledgements should appear after the reference list. 
  • Either MLA or APA citation guidelines should be used throughout. 
  • Please be consistent with spelling format (American or British).
  • Use inclusive, respectful language throughout.
  • If possible, please provide reviewer recommendations (1 or 2). 
  • You do not need to remove self-references in the paper text or citations list. Author(s) names will be removed from the title sheet before being sent for peer review. 
  • If applicable, use footnotes, not endnotes. Please use footnotes sparingly (no more than 2 per page).
  • Tables should be submitted in Microsoft Word or as a high-resolution PNG or JPG file.
  • Any photos or images should be submitted as a high-resolution PNG (preferred) or JPG file. 
  • Manuscripts must be submitted in Microsoft Word or a Word-compatible program. Please do not submit PDF versions of your article. Manuscripts submitted in other formats and styles will be unsubmitted. Manuscripts should be one-half spaced in 12-pt Times New Roman font. The text should be adjusted.
  • Tables should be submitted as editable text and not as images. They should be placed next to the relevant text in the article. Tables should be numbered consecutively and provided with a title. The source should be provided under the illustration.

4) REFERENCE STYLE GUIDELINES

  • Submissions to Narrative Works should follow the style guidelines described in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.).
  • References should be cited parenthetically in the text by author surname(s) and year, by APA 7 Publication Manual guidelines.

5) SUBMISSION PREPARATION CHECKLIST

  • As part of the submission process, authors must check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors who do not adhere to these guidelines.
  • The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
  • The submission file is in Microsoft Word format.
  • Where appropriate, URLs for the references have been provided.
  • The text is double-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
  • The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines
  • Use footnotes rather than endnotes (if applicable.) Footnotes should be used sparingly and only when a brief explanation within the text is not possible or appropriate.
  • I agree that the article, if editorially accepted for publication, shall be licensed under the following license: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International.
  • I hereby declare that I do not violate the ethical publishing standards adopted by this Journal.

6) REVIEW THE PROCEDURE

In Narrative Works, the review rules conform with standards recommended by COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics)  (for more information, see our Publishing Ethics).

  • The Editorial Team undertakes a preliminary assessment of the manuscripts' content and form.
  • Editors, frequently with the assistance of electronic databases of reviewers kept by Narrative Works' office and Publons, choose reviewers whose expertise most closely matches the manuscript's topic. The academic achievements confirm a reviewer's competencies to guarantee a high standard and reliability of reviews, including their methodological competencies.
  • The names of the reviewers of each issue are confidential.
  • Reviewers must conduct objective, reliable, and substantive reviews.
  • Reviewers are autonomous and independent in their opinions.
  • An independent external reviewer is appointed to evaluate each manuscript.
  • The condition of accepting an article for publication is obtaining positive reviews. 
  • In cases of controversy or strong disagreement regarding the merits of the work, the Editorial Team may decide to appoint the next reviewer.
  • Each paper is evaluated in the double-blind review process, in which authors do not know the identity of their reviewers, nor do the reviewers know the authors' identities.
  • The reviewer selection process and the Journal's internal policies address the issue of potential bias by excluding reviewers with any potential conflict of interest with the author(s) of the manuscript (the review cannot have any personal or professional connection to the author(s), i.e., they cannot be related to each other, there cannot be any official relationship between them, they cannot be connected by cooperation during the two years preceding the review).
  • The review procedure respects the principle of confidentiality.
  • Reviewers may decline to review when a conflict exists with the author.
  • Any manifestation of scientific misconduct that the reviewer notices in the assessed work should be reported to the Journal's Editorial Team.
  • The reviewers' recommendations are presented to the author in writing, and the conclusions are unambiguous.
  • The reviewer may accept the text without needing changes, approve the text for publication conditional on the author's amendments requested by the reviewer, propose a text correction and re-review, or reject a manuscript.
  • The average number of weeks between the submission of an article and publication is 20 weeks.
  • The average time for the initial assessment of manuscripts is 7 days.
  • The average time for manuscript review is 50 days.
  • The average time for article publication is 180 days 

Review form

7)  SHARING PUBLISHED JOURNAL ARTICLES POLICY

The Narrative Works allows authors to use the final published version of an article for self-archiving (author's website) and archiving in an institutional repository (on non-commercial websites and repositories) just after the publication of the manuscript on the Journal's website. The authors can add their work to any scientific database (for example, ORCID, Academia.edu, Research Gate, and Google Scholar) for better visibility to the research community.