INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS

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Submission of manuscripts

Manuscripts should be submitted by e-mail to either of the Executive Editors: s.kettell@warwick.ac.uk or p.kerr@bham.ac.uk in word or odt format. The title page should be a separate file, or may be included in the covering e-mail.

In extreme circumstances we will accept paper submissions, but this may considerably delay the review of the paper. Authors should submit one copy of their article (with any original illustrations and including all references and notes) to:

  • Steven Kettell
    Department of Politics and International Studies
    University of Warwick
    Coventry
    CV4 7AL
    UK

and one copy to:

  • Peter Kerr
    Dept of Political Science & International Studies
    University of Birmingham
    Edgbaston
    Birmingham
    B15 2TT
    UK

Authors should confirm at point of submission that their article is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.

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Presentation of the paper

Articles should be in English, typed in double spacing (including all notes and references).

Articles should not normally exceed 10,000 words in length. Print a word count at the end of the text, together with the date of the manuscript. Provide an abstract of 150-200 words with the article, plus a list of up to 6 keywords suitable for indexing and abstracting services. Give authors' full postal and e-mail addresses as well as telephone and fax numbers.

British Politics will feature an innovative section entitled 'Forward Thinking' which aims to promote the very latest research and theoretical reflection from within the field. Ph.D. students are especially encouraged to submit to this section. Submissions should be around 3,000 words in length; authors are invited to contact the Executive Editors prior to making a submission to this section.

Notes

Keep textual notes to a minimum, indicate them with superscript numbers, and provide the note text as a list at the end of the article before the references. Please do not use footnotes.

References in the text

In the text, refer to the author(s) name(s) (without initials, unless there are two authors with the same name) and year of publication. Unpublished data and personal communications should include initials and year. Publications which have not yet appeared are given a probable year of publication and should be checked at proof stage on author query sheet.

  • Example:

    Since Paterson (1983) has shown that ... This is in results attained later (Kramer, 1984, 16). Results have been reported (Robinson, 1989, personal communication) which suggest ....

Publications by the same author(s) in the same year should be identified with a, b, c (e.g. 1974a, 1990b) closed up to the year. If there are two authors for a publication, put both names separated by 'and' (not &). If there are more than two authors, put the name of the first author followed by et al. References to material on the internet must be given in brackets in the text, not in the reference list. The full URL must be given.

  • Example:

    www.nature.com/onc/v18/n1/1234567.html

List of References

References are placed in alphabetical order of authors. Examples of correct forms of references for alphabetical style:

  • Paper in journal

    Higgott, R. (1998) 'The Asian economic crisis: a study in the politics of resentment', New Political Economy 3(3): 333-336.
    Blinder, A.S. and Solow, R.M. (1970) 'Analytical foundations of fiscal policy', Journal of Finance XXV: 47-54.
    Bender, J., Bloggs, B. and Swistak, P. (1997) 'The evolutionary stability in cooperation', American Political Science Review 91(3): 290-297.

  • Book

    Giddens, A. (1990) The Consequences of Modernity, Cambridge: Polity.
    Kay, J., Mayer, C, and Thompson, D. (1986) Privatization and Regulation, Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 105-129.
    Brown, C. (ed.) (1994) Political restructuring in Europe: Ethical Perspectives, London: Routledge.

  • Chapter in book

    Hook, G.D. (1998) 'Japanese Business in Triadic Globalization', in H. Hasegawa and G.D. Hook (eds.) Japanese Business Management: Restructuring for Low Growth and Globalization, London: Routledge, pp. 19-38.

  • Conference paper

    Altenstetter, C. (2001) 'Multi-level implementation networks: The case of medical devices and patient care'; Seventh Biennial Conference of the European Community Studies Association (US), Madison, Wisconsin, 31 May-2 June.

  • Thesis

    Zito, A. (1994) 'Epistemic communities in European policy-making' Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Political Science, University of Pittsburgh.

  • Newspaper article

    Barber, L. (1993) 'The towering bureaucracy', Financial Times, 21 June.

Spelling

Use either US or UK spellings consistently throughout. For UK spellings, take as a guide the new edition of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary and the Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors; Websters Collegiate for US spellings. UK spellings will therefore prefer -ize to -ise, as a verb ending (e.g. realize, specialize, recognize, etc.).

Illustrations and tables

Supply tables and figures on separate sheets at the end of the article, with their position within the text clearly indicated on the page where they are introduced. Provide typed captions for figures (including sources and acknowledgements) on a separate sheet. Present tables with the minimum use of horizontal rules (usually three are sufficient) and avoiding vertical rules except in matrices.

Figures should be provided in separate (image) files.

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Proofs

These are received as PDF attachments to an email to only the first (or nominated) author of a multi-authored article. Please print the PDF attachment, correct your proofs within the time period indicated and return your proofs as directed. Please make no revisions to the final, edited text, except where the copy editor has requested clarification.

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Offprints

A copy of the printed journal and article offprints (25, to be shared with co-authors) and Book Review offprints (2 only) are dispatched to authors shortly after publication.

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Clearing Permissions

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission from copyright holders for reproducing through any medium of communication those illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. Add your acknowledgements to the typescript, preferably in the form of an Acknowledgements section at the end of the paper. Credit the source and copyright of photographs or figures in the accompanying captions.

The journal's policy is to own copyright in all contributions. Before publication authors assign copyright to the Publishers , but retain their rights to republish this material in other works written or edited by themselves subject to full acknowledgement of the original source of publication.

The journal mandates the Copyright Clearance Center in the USA and the Copyright Licensing Agency in the UK to offer centralised licensing arrangements for photocopying in their respective territories.