DPRU Research Paper Series: Author guidelines and editorial policies
Author guidelines
If you have a proposal for a paper for publication in the series, please email us (dpru@crim.ox.ac.uk) with a draft title and a short summary of what you’d like to write about, as well as a short author bio (50 words max).
You can also submit a draft article if you’ve developed it already. We will contact you and discuss further steps and a timeframe. Please keep these guidelines in mind when planning and drafting an article:
- Articles should be written in English, the original work of the contributor, and proofread for style and accuracy before submission.
- Articles should be about 4-5,000 words long, though can be closer to 6,000 with the editor’s permission.
- Include an abstract: 100-300 words (concise, informative and easily understood by non-experts).
- Include key words: 3-6 key words.
- Include author information: Full name, affiliation, contact details and a short biography.
- Include acknowledgments (if necessary).
- Submission Format: MS Word, Calibri, 12pt, double line spacing.
- Writing style: Please use British spelling - set your Word document to ‘English (UK)’.
- References should be cited in the OSCOLA style, using endnotes rather than footnotes.
- Visual information: graphs or tables inserted as images into the document (where required).
- While articles should be written in an academic style, and follow the conventions of academic publishing, they should be avoid jargon and verbosity.
- While academics will read your article, it’s important to reach a wider, non-academic audience too (such as readers from outside your country or those who do not conduct research in universities) so wherever possible, connect local issues to global concerns and try to avoid concepts or technical language that only an academic or a lawyer would understand (where this is unavoidable, do your best to explain those terms).
- While the death penalty is a sensitive topic and can attract strong feelings, submissions should not contain content that could be considered offensive, abusive, derogatory or potentially defamatory. Similarly, they should not reveal confidential information about a case, a crime victim, a prisoner (including his or her family), or a legal representative.
- The Editor has the discretion to determine whether to accept a submission for publication in this series and to make editorial suggestions.
- Once published as a DPRU Research Paper, authors are welcome to further develop their articles for publication elsewhere on the condition of acknowledgement of the DPRU paper in the later publication. Authors are also welcome to publish articles which summarise or develop parts of existing publications as DPRU Research Papers. However, the series editors wish to avoid republishing work that is wholly or largely published in the same form elsewhere.
Editorial policies
While the Editor is committed to working with contributors to facilitate publication where possible, we cannot guarantee that all articles submitted will be published. We will only publish work that we deem to be of high quality and that complies with the guidelines set out here. We reserve the right to edit content, spelling, grammar, etc. upon approval from the author and the right to reject a submission. We remain committed to timely publication of articles but at busy times there may be delays (please tell the Editor if you think your piece is time-sensitive). Copyright and all rights therein are retained by the author(s).
As the aim of the DPRU is to promote dialogue and debate, and disseminate research and ideas, we are keen that you share your article once published, including through social media, tagging the DPRU on Twitter @DPRUOxford
Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions relating to your article. We look forward to your contribution!