Information for Authors

Parliamentary Affairs publishes original academic articles of around 7000 words that will be of interest to a range of academic, practitioner and more general audiences. Its principal remit since being established in 1948 has been to publish research articles based upon legislative and parliamentary studies, as well as commentary pieces designed to inform its readership of current issues in the field and stimulate debate on these topics. Given its link with the Hansard Society the journal has mainly focused on British politics and government, although it has always included articles on other parliamentary systems where they provide information that contextualises the British case or contribute to our wider understanding of representative politics in general.

The Editors seek to sustain Parliamentary Affairs's established character and so continue to welcome submissions from those interested in these established themes and subjects. In addition they seek contributions that further our understanding of contemporary representative politics by more explicitly:

Adopting an historical perspective;
Situating political processes in their cultural and/or social context;
Employing a rigorous comparative framework; and
Assuming a theoretical perspective.

Parliamentary Affairs also includes a review article section, to which authors may submit contributions.

All articles published in the journal will be submitted to a process of independent peer-review in order to ensure the highest standards of rigour and appropriateness in its output. Given the journal's role as a source of up-to-date information on British politics and government, the Editors are committed to rapid turn-around of submissions and rapid publication of accepted articles. With that end in mind, all accepted articles will be published in electronic format on the Parliamentary Affairs website within approximately six weeks of acceptance of the final version, in advance of print publication.

Potential contributors should send submissions to the Editors at parl.affairs-pch@salford.ac.uk. Only electronic submissions will be accepted: hard copy submissions will NOT be considered. A style-sheet is available on request from the Editors (style information below). Authors should follow this style-sheet as closely as possible in their submission to avoid delays.

1. Article Submittal
Electronic files should be submitted to: parl.affairs-pch@salford.ac.uk

The present position of the author(s) with contact email and postal addresses are to be provided.

2. Preparation of Manuscripts
Title/Abstract
The name of the author(s) should appear immediately under the title. An Abstract of approximately one hundred words is to be included for publication.

Style Conventions
Please refrain from using italics unless emphasis is really necessary. The following should not be italicised: phrases, e.g. ad hoc or coup d'état; party names, i.e. foreign partners; foreign phrases. Single quotation marks are used with double quotes only within a quotation. Quotations should be run-on within the paragraph, long quotes only should appear separately. Avoid short paragraphs. Run-on text in paragraphs, e.g. the report covered four issues: ... ; ... ; ... ; ... (rather than separate lines). Sometimes separate line lists are useful but no bullets. Capital letters should only be used where a real title is involved, e.g. Minister of Finance, Permanent Secretary not for ministers without such a description, i.e. civil service, government. Numerals one to ten should appear in words, higher figures to be in numerical form. However, orders of magnitude should be written as i.e. more than a hundred people were present. Use the % symbol, percentages should be rounded up in both the text and tables where small samples are involved.

Headings
Please use headings sparingly. There should be no introductory heading at the start of the article and subheadings should be avoided; if it is necessary to clarify a section, use small capitals at the start of the first paragraph of each subsection.

Tables and Illustrations
Tables should be kept simple without vertical lines and they should be headed, e.g.: 1. Votes cast at 1996 election; (not Table 1). Diagrams must be drawn in black on a white background and labelled with the figure number and the author's name.

Funding
Details of all funding sources for the work in question should be given in a separate section entitled 'Funding'. This should appear before the 'Acknowledgements' section.

The following rules should be followed:

• The sentence should begin: ‘This work was supported by …’
• The full official funding agency name should be given, i.e. ‘National Institutes of Health’, not ‘NIH’ (full RIN-approved list of UK funding agencies) Grant numbers should be given in brackets as follows: ‘[grant number xxxx]’
• Multiple grant numbers should be separated by a comma as follows: ‘[grant numbers xxxx, yyyy]’
• Agencies should be separated by a semi-colon (plus ‘and’ before the last funding agency)
• Where individuals need to be specified for certain sources of funding the following text should be added after the relevant agency or grant number 'to [author initials]'

An example is given here: ‘This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health [AA123456 to C.S., BB765432 to M.H.]; and the Alcohol & Education Research Council [hfygr667789].

Endnotes
These should be kept to a minimum and numbered consecutively at the end of the article. Endnotes should be used (1) to refer readers to background reading, and (2) to attribute quotations from other authors or to avoid changes of plagiarism, use your own words and do not cite unless you feel the need for 'authority' to back your statement. Newspaper references should appear in brackets e.g. (Economist, 3.10.95). Cite papers if you wish to draw attention to a particular journalists' view, not for information in the 'public domain' i.e. that will have been mentioned in many papers; ditto for 'Commons Debates, 3.10.95'. Avoid endnotes to unpublished material. The endnote style is as follows:

A. Smith, British Government, Macmillan, 1995, p. 10. (Initials only for name; no place of publication; page number only if vital - avoid if work is cited several times, try to cover with one reference.)

A. Smith, 'British Government' in B. Jones (ed.), Governments of the World, ...

A. Smith, 'British Government', Parliamentary Affairs, 58, 2005, 171–88.

3. Preparation of Manuscripts for Book Section
Please follow instructions as above and refer to recent issues for style of listing books reviewed. Initials only should be used, no forenames; the book title to appear in italics with initial capitals; colon to separate main from subtitle; publisher (not place of publication); year; pages (pp.); price (£21.95, pb. £10.95); books run-on, separated by a semi-colon.

4. Proofs
Authors will receive PDF files of their page proofs by email. Only essential corrections should be made at this stage. If vital additions or deletions have to be made, please compensate by adding or deleting the same number of words. You may be charged if there are a large number of corrections.

5. Offprints
Contributors will receive free online access to the text version of their articles. Hardcopy offprints may be obtained in multiples of 25, 50, 100, 200 (rates and additional information are indicated on the order form that accompanies the proof). Further details can be obtained from Journals Subscriptions Department, Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6BD, UK (jnl.orders@oupjournals.org, tel: +44 (0)1865 267907, fax: +44 (0)1865 267485). Orders from the UK will be subject to a 17.5% VAT charge. For orders from elsewhere in the EU you or your institution should account for VAT by way of a reverse charge.  Please provide us with your or your institution’s VAT number.

6. Copyright
It is a condition of publication in the Journal that authors license copyright to Oxford University Press. The licence to publish form can be downloaded here. This ensures that requests from third parties to reproduce articles are handled efficiently and consistently and will also allow the article to be as widely disseminated as possible. In licensing copyright, authors may use their own material in other publications provided that the Journal is acknowledged as the original place of publication, and Oxford University Press is notified in writing and in advance.

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