Getting Published in SSQ
The first and most important step in getting an articles published in SSQ or any journal is having a good idea, researching it well and writing it up clearly. The SSQ Editor cannot be of much help here. This short, plain English guide to "Getting Published in SSQ is where the Editor can help.
The second step is picking the "right" journal to try. "Getting Published in SSQ is a brief guide to our journal for authors at any stage of the process. Because this is short and to the point, there are details that are not covered here. We have found, though, that about 95 percent of questions authors are likely to ask are answered here.
The Social Science Quarterly is an interdisciplinary journal that welcomes manuscripts that have reader interest across more than one discipline or that have broad appeal within a single discipline. Manuscripts with social and public policy implications and those with comparative or international focus are especially welcome. Most SSQ articles are based on the analysis of empirical data, although this is not a requirement. "Think pieces" and advocacy papers are, however, discouraged. All articles besides invited comments are refereed
Submitting a Manuscript
Submitting a paper that is not only appropriate for the journal's readership but in its preferred style is a time saver for the author and the journal.
1. Submitted manuscripts should be no longer than twenty-five pages total, double-spaced throughout (including indented material, tables, references and notes), with 1" margins and 10 CPI font.* Research notes should not exceed eighteen pages total. First-time authors sometimes wonder if they should send in a paper they know is too long, hoping that the readers and editor will tell them where to cut. Seasoned authors know that readers almost never suggest places to cut but bring up new issues that should have been treated in the first place.
2. To ensure prompt evaluation, five copies of the manuscript should be submitted. Manuscripts cannot be returned. They should be submitted in "hard copy" form and not through electronic means. There is no submission fee.
3. Manuscripts are evaluated using a double-blind process. Therefore, the author should be identified only on the cover page. References to the author's work can be included in the references, but clues to the author's identity should be avoided (e.g., "as we showed in our previous work [1991]").
4. Place an asterisk at the end of the title on the cover page and note at the bottom of the page: "Direct all correspondence to" followed by the complete name and address for the corresponding author. Any additional information or acknowledgments can follow as a part of the same note.
5. An abstract of 100-150 words should follow the cover page, indicating the author's objective, methods, results and conclusion.
6. Footnotes, references, and tables should each begin on a separate page and be placed after the last manuscript page. In the text, indicate a guideline to the placement of tables (e.g., "Table 2 about here") at the appropriate place in the text.
7. Footnotes should be numbered sequentially. use footnotes only for substantive observations. Authors should organize their article so as to minimize the need for footnotes. Technical appendices should be avoided.
8. All references to books, monographs, articles, and statistical sources should be identified at the appropriate point in the text by the last name of the author, year of publication and page numbers where appropriate, all within parentheses, e.g., (Smith et al., 1999) or (Brown, 1997:363). A useful guide to Internet citations is Melvin E. Page, "A Brief Citation Guide for Internet Sources in History and the Humanities (Version 2.0)," PS: Political Science and Politics, March 1996, pp. 83-84.
9. The paper should not be submitted to another journal while under consideration at SSQ.
10. Journals provide "value added" to the scholarly process. Although journals' policies in this area are evolving, papers already "published" through electronic means whose publications in SSQ would substantially reduce the value of the copyright, should not be submitted and cannot be published.
Revisions
Very few manuscripts are accepted on the first round. The Editor's letter to the corresponding author will indicate an accept or reject decision or invite a revision. Revisions are invited for about a third of all papers submitted. Papers are considered "active" for one year after the Editor's letter is written. Thus, a revision is as important to eventual publication as the original submission. The author should first satisfy himself or herself that the length and the style requirements of the journal are met (see above). Second, the author should attend to the most important (though not necessarily all) of the reader comments. A revision should be accompanied by a substantive letter to the Editor reviewing the responses to the readers. Although some revisions will be treated de novo, most will be sent to a combination of previous and new readers.
The Publication Process
Once an article is accepted, provisionally or finally, an article needs to be readied for publication. The SSQ staff will work with each author to avoid any problems that can be headed off before we submit the paper to the publisher.
Replication Policy
It is the policy of SSQ to publish papers only if the empirical data used in the analysis are clearly and precisely documented and are readily available to other researchers for purpose of replication. Details of the computations sufficient to permit replication must be provided to other scholars on request. The Editor should be informed upon submission if, for some reason, this requirement cannot be met. Our policy does not mean that the data could be reconstructed from some source (e.g., the Census or the ICPSR) but rather that the author agrees to make the data set available to other interested scholars.
Where to Send Manuscripts
Manuscripts should be submitted to the Editor
Professor Robert L. Lineberry
Department of Political Science
447 Philip G. Hoffman Hall
University of Houston
Houston, TX 77204-3011
E-mails: SSQ@mail.uh.edu
Phone: 713-743-3935
FAX: 713-743-3927