Guidance for contributors
Submissions
JCCP invites submissions of original, previously unpublished articles in English, Chinese or both languages. Please read our guidelines, which you will find under the following headings.
- Dual languages
- Articles and themes
- Book reviews
- General submission guidelines
- Reviewing procedures
- Title page and affiliation
- Abstract, Summary, and Keywords
- Word limits
- Presentation
- Referencing
- Tables and figures
- Permissions
- Notes on rendering Chinese names
- Email addresses for submissions
- Examples of topics and themes of China in comparative perspective
Important: Please check requirements as set out in the sections listed before submission. Articles that do not meet our requirements will be returned without consideration.
Dual language elements
- We strongly encourage our contributors to submit articles in both English and Chinese versions because we produce spearate English and Chinese editions of JCCP.
- If this is impossible, articles can be submitted in either English or Chinese without translation.
- In such cases, we ask authors to provide a one-page Summary of approximately 500 characters in Chinese for articles written in English or of 500 words in English for articles written in Chinese.
- It is the contributors’ responsibility to ensure the quality of the translated version meets our standards. If we find it to be 60 per cent unsatisfactory we will be unable to send it to our reviewers straight away and will require an improved translation to be provided. JCCP offers a translation service at lower than market rates.
Articles and themes
- Articles submitted should be consistent with the aims of the Journal. Please read our statement of aims carefully before submitting.
- We also welcome proposals for whole issues of JCCP focused on a common theme. If accepted, the proposers of successful subjects for theme-based issues are invited to act as Guest Editors of the Journal. Note that each contribution to a specially edited themed issue will have to pass through the normal reviewing process.
Book reviews
- We have compiled a list of more than 170 titles for review. The list can be accessed here: www.journal.ccpn-global.org/booklist
- We also welcome reviews of books and other related published materials not on this list and of interest to readers of JCCP.
- If you would like to write a book review or a review essay, please complete the book(s) request form www.journal.ccpn-global.org/bookreviews from the JCCP website. We can then arrange for the book(s) to be posted to you at the address you specify on the online form.
- The Guidance for Contributors presented in this document applies to both book reviews and review essays.
General submission guidelines
- The preferred maximum length for an article is 6-8,000 English words, or 10-12,000 Chinese characters.. If your proposed article exceeds this limit, please correspond with editors via email journal@ccpn-global.org.
- Please submit your article as an attached file by email. Please save files in Microsoft Word, or as a text file.
- Manuscripts should be typed and double-spaced throughout.
- Refereeing is anonymous, so please exclude your name from the title. Authors’ names, titles and affiliations, with complete mailing addresses and telephone/fax numbers, should appear on a separate cover page.
- Please supply an Abstract of no more than 150 words.
- Please supply five Keywords for the final version of your article. This is important for searches.
- The editors will not consider manuscripts that are under consideration by other publishers. Once submitted to JCCP, it is assumed that articles will not be sent to other publishers until a decision has been made about inclusion.
Reviewing procedures
- All articles submitted are blind-read by two editors, who decide whether they are in principle suitable for publication in the Journal.
- If yes, the manuscript is then sent to a member of the Editorial Board and at least two recommended assessors from the International Advisory Board for further review. The manuscript will then be returned to the contributor(s) with comments for revision and recommendations for final submission.
- The whole reviewing procedure should in normal circumstances take no longer than three months. We expect any required or recommended revisions to the submitted manuscript to be completed within four weeks. We reserve the right to decide whether the revisions have been sufficient to warrant publication.
Title page and affiliation
The title page of the article should be separate from the main body and should include:
- The full name(s) of the author(s)
- Academic or other personal affiliation
- Article submissions should be consistent with the aims of JCCP. Please read our statement of aims carefully before submitting.
- We also welcome proposals for whole issues of JCCP organized around a common theme. If accepted, the proposers of theme-based issues are invited to act as Guest Editors of the Journal. Note that each contribution to a specially edited themed issue will have to pass the normal reviewing process.
Abstract, summary and keywords
- Each submission should include an Abstract of maximum 150 words.
- Submissions in English need a Summary of 500 characters in Chinese after the Abstract. Submissions in Chinese need a Summary of 500 words in English after the Abstract.
- Each submission should present a list of five Keywords or key phrases after the Abstract and Summary.
Word limits
- Research reports: up to 5,000 English words; 8,000 Chinese characters
- Commentaries or short articles: up to 3,000 words; 5,000 Chinese characters
- Review essays: 2,000–4,000 English words; 3,000-5,000 Chinese characters
- Book reviews: 1,000–2,000 English words; 2,000-3,000 Chinese characters
- Letters and news: up to 500 English words; 800 Chinese characters.
Presentation and copy-editing
We are not able to provide copy-editing services: please ensure that all manuscripts sent to us are ready for typesetting:
- Microsoft Word file
- Font: Times New Roman
- Font size: text 12; notes 10
- Line spacing: double lines (including notes and list of references)
- Right-hand margins should not be justified
- Footnotes (no endnotes).
Referencing
We accept three styles:
- Author-Date style (also known as Harvard style). Most social scientists are used to Author-Date, so please go ahead and use it.
- Footnote style. If your article tends to the textual and incorporates sizeable quotes, the footnote format may be more suitable. The Journal prefers that authors give quotes in English translation in the main text; however, footnotes have the benefit of allowing the quote in the original language to be viewed at the same time.
- ‘One journal two styles’: Author-Date style + Footnote style.
- For English articles please visit www.journal.ccpn-global.org/English_guidelines for details.
- For Chinese articles please download the style of the Chinese Social Science Publishing House at the following address: www.journal.ccpn-global.org/Chinese_guidelines
Tables and figures
- Tables and figures should be provided separately (e.g. as email attachments) from the submission of the main text. Authors should indicate their preferred location for each Table or Figure with a note in the main text, e.g. Figure 1 around here.
- Line diagrams should be in a format suitable for immediate reproduction and without any need for redrawing.
- Illustrations should be high resolution.
- Photographs should be black and white and presented using a wide range of contrast.
- All tables, figures and illustrations should be accompanied by a brief caption or title.
- The text above and below, and preferably in, tables and figures should be in the same font as the main text, where possible, but smaller.
- Please check consistency of rendering of words and phrases between figures and tables and the main text, e.g. use the same spacing between numbers and units of measurement, spell words in the same way, use consistent capitalization.
- The title and caption of a figure should be positioned below the figure, in this format:
- Figure 1: Inheritance tree for family K. [full stop at the end]
- Figures with several parts to them may be captioned thus:
- Figure 1: Spin-polarized lasing at room temperature. (a) Angle-resolved luminescence images at lasing threshold. (b) Energy vs in-plane momentum. [notice punctuation]
- The title of a table should be positioned above the table, in this format:
- Table 1: The inheritance of family K [no stop at the end]
Permissions
Authors are responsible for obtaining permissions from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, figures, tables or lengthy quotations from previously published works.
Note for displaying Chinese names
- Normally a Chinese surname (or family name) is composed of one single Chinese character (e.g. Zhao, Qian, Sun or Li), occasionally two Chinese characters (e.g. Ouyang).
- In common usage Chinese names are written surname (typically shorter) first, followed by first names (typically longer because they are composed of two Chinese characters, e.g. Wang Laowu, sometimes with ‘-’ in the middle).
- In practice, overseas Chinese always put their surnames last in accordance with English name order, e.g. Laowu Wang. Some Chinese first names are composed of a single character, e.g. Zhang San, or ZHANG San, in some cases.
- In this journal, if you see a surname in front of first names you can assume that person is mainland Chinese. All Chinese names are written in pinyin form, which is not italicized, as is the case for names of places, e.g. Beijing or Shanghai.
- There are exceptions, as individuals sometimes present their English names in their own way, which is acceptable.
Detailed guidance to English articles
Examples of topics and themes on China in comparative perspective
The coverage of JCCP is very broad. For your reference, we list 30 themes below. Most of them were initiated by Professor Stephan Feuchtwang in 2006 as the core of the MSc course in China in Comparative Perspective, LSE. The list has been updated over the last 10 years based on teaching and research experiences:
- World systems and views of tianxia (天下)
- Occidentalism and Orientalism
- Civilizations and culture
- Religions and believe
- Empire and bureaucracy
- Long-term historical and political–economic comparisons
- Industrial revolution
- Demographic transitions
- Race, nations and states
- Revolution and Cold War
- Socialism and Post-socialism
- The countryside and rural areas
- The city and town
- Migration and immigration
- Family and gender
- Medicine and health care
- Economy and finance
- Science and technology
- Schooling and education
- Sports and arts
- Rule of law and rule of li (礼治)
- Media and communication
- Environment and climate change
- Defence and military affairs
- Political parties and governments
- Democracy and social governance
- Foreign affairs and international relations
- Civil society and the global society
- Area studies and China studies
- Social science theory, methodology and the Chinese way of thinking
Email addresses for submissions
© CCPN Global
(Updated in 2016)
