1. EDITORIAL POLICY

The Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Refugee Law maintain an editorial policy of strict independence. Neither the Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board, nor the publishers accept responsibility for the views authors express in their contributions.

2. SUBMISSION OF ARTICLES

From 4th November 2008 all article submissions must be made online through Manuscript Central

Articles should be between 10,000 and 12,000 words, although the Journal can accommodate more substantial pieces. Shorter notes and comments will also be considered. Authors are reminded that the Journal has an international circulation and are therefore encouraged to ensure that the context of laws and policies is clearly explained (in footnotes, if appropriate) to readers who may be unfamiliar with the details of particular national or regional systems.

Articles submitted for publication must not be under consideration for publication elsewhere.

Authors will be notified as soon as possible (normally within three months) of the Editorial Board's decision on the acceptability of their paper.

3. PREPARATION OF ARTICLES

Online Submission

PREPARING YOUR MANUSCRIPT - Please ensure that the required formats for text submission are followed strictly

Follow the instructions to authors regarding the format of your manuscript and references.

Prepare your manuscript, including tables, using a word processing program and save it as a .doc or .rtf file. All files in these formats will be converted to .pdf format upon submission.

Prepare any other files that are to be submitted for review, including any supplementary material. The permitted formats for these files are the same as for manuscripts. Other file types, such as Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and Powerpoint presentations may be uploaded and will be converted to .pdf format.

When naming your files, please use simple filenames and avoid special characters and spaces. If you are a Macintosh user, you must also type the three-letter extension at the end of the file name you choose (e.g. .doc, .rtf, .jpg, .gif, .tif, .ppt, .xls, .pdf, .eps, .mov).

Submitting your Manuscript

Now that your files are ready, visit the online submission website.

Note: Before you begin, you should be sure you are using an up-to-date version of Netscape or Internet Explorer. If you have an earlier version, you can download a free upgrade using the icons found at the bottom of the 'Instructions and Forms' section of the online submission web site.

• First, you will need to log into the online submission site.
• If you know your login details (i.e., you have submitted or reviewed a manuscript in this journal before), use your User ID and Password to log on. (Your user ID will usually be your email address.)
• If you do not know your login details, check to see if you are already registered by clicking on the 'Forgot your password' button and following the on-screen instructions. If you are not already registered, you can register by clicking on the 'Create account' button on the login screen and following the on-screen instructions.
• If you have trouble finding your manuscripts or have other problems with your account, do not create another account. Instead, please contact the journal's editorial office.

To submit a new manuscript, go to the 'Author Centre', and click on “Click here to submit a new manuscript', and then follow the on-screen instructions. There are up to 7 steps for you to follow to submit your manuscript. You move from one step to the next by clicking on the 'Next' button on each screen or back to the previous screen by clicking on the 'Previous' button. Please note that if you click on the 'Back' or 'Forward' buttons on your browser, the information you have entered will not be saved. At any stage you can stop the submission process by clicking on the 'Main Menu' button. Everything you have typed into the system will be saved, and the partially completed submission will appear under 'unsubmitted manuscripts' in your 'Author Centre'. To return to the submission process you will need to click on the button 'Continue Submission' against the relevant manuscript title.

When submitting your manuscript, please enter your manuscript data into the relevant fields, following the detailed instructions at the top of each page. You may like to have the original word-processing file available so you can copy and paste the title and abstract into the required fields. You will also be required to provide email addresses for your co-authors, so please have these to hand when you log onto the site.

• When you come to upload your manuscript files via the 'File Upload' screen:
• Enter individual files using the 'Browse' buttons and select the appropriate 'File type’ from the pull-down menu. The choices may vary from journal to journal but will always include a 'Main Document' (your manuscript text).
• Upload your files by clicking on the 'Upload files' button. This may take several minutes. Click on the SAVE button to confirm the upload. Repeat these steps until you have uploaded all your files.
• Once you have uploaded all your files, indicate the order in which they should appear in your paper. This will determine the order in which they appear in the consolidated PDF used for peer review.
• After the successful upload of your text, you will need to view and proofread your manuscript. Please do this by clicking on the blue HTML button or a PDF button.
• If the files have not been uploaded to your satisfaction, go back to the file upload screen where you can remove the files you do not want and repeat the process.

When you are satisfied with the uploaded manuscript proof click on 'Next' which will take you to the 'Review & Submit' screen. The system will check that you have completed all the mandatory fields and that you have viewed your manuscript proof. It will also present you with a summary of all the information you have provided and give you a final chance to edit it. If there is a red cross next to any section this will indicate that not all the fields have been filled in correctly.

After the manuscript has been submitted you will see a confirmation screen and receive an email confirmation stating that your manuscript has been successfully submitted. This will also give the assigned manuscript number, which is used in all correspondence during peer review. If you do not receive this, your manuscript will not have been successfully submitted to the journal and the paper cannot progress to peer review. If this is the case your manuscript will still be sitting in the 'Unsubmitted Manuscripts' section of your 'Author Centre' awaiting your attention.

If you return to your 'Author Centre' you will notice that your newly submitted manuscript can be found in the 'Submitted Manuscripts' area. The ‘Status' section provides information on the status of your manuscript as it moves through the review process.

Submitting a Revised Manuscript

Logon to the online submission web site as before and, in the 'Author Centre', click on 'Manuscripts to be Revised'. You will then see the title of any manuscripts you submitted that are under revision.

If you click on 'View comments/respond' you will see the editor's letter to you together with the referees' comments. If you wish to briefly detail changes made, please use the box provided at the bottom of the screen (optional).

If you click on the manuscript title you will reach the 'File Manager' screen. Here you can upload the files that constitute your revised manuscript. To facilitate the production process, it is essential that you upload your revised manuscript as a .doc or .rtf file, and not in .pdf format.

Getting Help

If you experience any problems during the online submission process please use the 'Author Help' function, which takes you to specific submission instructions, or 'Get Help Now', which takes you to the Frequently Asked Questions page. Alternatively, contact the Manuscript Central support line by email (support@scholarone.com) or telephone (+1 434 817 2040 x167).

4. FOOTNOTES, REFERENCES AND LAYOUT

Authors will be expected to follow the style sheet which can be obtained from the Editor or downloaded from the OUP website. Please do not use automatic cross-referencing in your footnotes, or please convert it to text before you submit.

Authors can also obtain further guidance from previous issues of the IJRL. As contributions accepted for publication must be put into Journal style, excessive formatting (including to DTP quality) should be avoided. We do not have the resources for both copy-editing and re-formatting and regret that contributions which depart substantially from IJRL style will be returned to authors for revision. Authors are responsible for checking the accuracy of all references.

5. PROOFS

Unless otherwise requested, proofs will be corrected by the International Journal of Refugee Law. Authors will receive a copy of their contribution prepared for the printer, on which typographical or other minor changes can be made.

6.EXCLUSIVE LICENCE AND OFFPRINTS

It is a condition of publication in this Journal that authors grant an exclusive licence to Oxford University Press. 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 granting licence, Authors may use their own material in publications provided that the Journal is acknowledged as the original place of publication, and Oxford University Press is notified in writing and in advance. Please complete and return a Licence to Publish form, as soon as possible. In consideration for granting licence, the publisher will supply the author with 25 offprints without covers of each paper, free url to the article and 1 gratis copy of the issue. Further offprints may be ordered at extra cost by returning an offprint order form.

7. BOOK REVIEWS

Publishers submitting books for review should send them to the Book Review Editor, address below. Reviewers should include full publishing details including the ISBN and publisher/location.

8. CORRESPONDENCE

All correspondence should be sent to:

Book Reviews:

9. LANGUAGE EDITING

Particularly if English is not your first language, before submitting your manuscript you may wish to have it edited for language. This is not a mandatory step, but may help to ensure that the academic content of your paper is fully understood by journal editors and reviewers. Language editing does not guarantee that your manuscript will be accepted for publication. If you would like information about one such service please click here. There are other specialist language editing companies that offer similar services and you can also use any of these. Authors are liable for all costs associated with such services.

10. CONFLICT OF INTEREST INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF REFUGEE LAW

Conflict of interest defined

A conflict of interest is construed as a personal involvement in a case or other matter being reported; a meaningful financial interest in the matter, or a connection with an author, including personal relationships or direct academic competition, that might raise the question of bias in reviewing and judging work submitted for publication.

Policy for editors and reviewers

Editors will refrain from participating in the evaluation and selection of articles as to which they may be reasonably perceived to have a conflict of interest. Similarly, outside reviewers will be expected to refrain from participating in the evaluation and selection of articles as to which they may be reasonably perceived to have a conflict of interest, and they will be advised that, by agreeing to review a submission, they are warranting that they are aware of no such conflict.

Legal cases and funding

When a court case is the focus of an article published in the journal, the author will declare any involvement he or she may have had in the case (as advocate, judge, or litigant) in a footnote on the title page. Similarly, any such involvement by the International Journal of Refugee Law editor will be disclosed.
Authors will be asked to declare any financial support related to their papers published in the International Journal of Refugee Law so that these too may be disclosed in a footnote.

AUTHOR SELF-ARCHIVING/PUBLIC ACCESS POLICY FROM MAY 2005

For information about this journals policy, please visit our Author Self-Archiving policy page.