Submission - Timeline and standards

Publishing Process

The entire period between submission and publication lasts six months. This may be deviated from in individual cases.

Articles will go through the four phases of submission, review, editing and production:

1. Submission

In order to submit an article, at least one of the authors must register. You can upload your article in the dashboard of the website (button: "Submit article"). Follow the instructions and select the section you want (Thematic/ Open or Forum). The entire subsequent work flow and communication with the editorial team and publishers takes place via the dashboard.

Click-for-Click-Instruction for this step

Once the article has been submitted by the authors, the journal's editorial team will be informed automatically. The article must be submitted anonymously. Subsequently, an editor will be assigned to each article. This editor will start the review phase after reviewing the submitted articles.

2. Review

The anonymised manuscripts are passed on to at least two peer reviewers selected by the editors. On the basis of the expert feedback, the editorial board decides on the progress of the publication. If necessary, the authors receive detailed suggestions for revision.
On average, the review process takes two to three months. In principle, four recommendations are possible:

1. Accepted
2. Revision required (minor)
3. Resubmission for review (major)
4. contribution rejected / no publication

The authors will be informed of the decision and the reasons for it. In the case of 2. and 3. the revised version will be sent again to at least one reviewer for examination before publication.

3. Copy-Editing

After the peer review process has been successfully completed, the editorial review follows. The editorial office carries out the orthographic, formal and content-related check and any adjustments. Intervention and consultation by the editors with the authors only takes place if there are serious concerns or open questions cannot be clarified without consultation.

4. Production

The editorial team then produces the so-called proof as a pdf and releases it to the authors for final review. In this phase, only absolutely necessary adjustments are made. At the end of this phase, the articles are published on socialpolicy.ch and get a DOI.

General Timeschedule

Submissions for journal sections