Call For Papers pdf

Submission Guidelines pdf

Call For Papers

The Journal of Spurious Correlations

The Journal of Spurious Correlations (JSpurC) is a new publication affiliated with the Research Commitee On Logic And Methodology Of The International Sociological Association. The Journal aims to further the methodological debate in social sciences, in particular to discuss problems of scientific inference at a practical level by reflecting on empirical analysis in relation with its underlying theoretical expectations. The first issue is dedicated to opening areas of investigation into the definition and use of negative results in the social sciences.

Submissions to the first issue of JSpurC are invited in three forms: full papers, reports of actual negative results and proposals for topics and authors.

Papers are expected to address the meta-analysis of social science methodology, touching on but not limited to the questions of ‘what is a negative result?’, ‘what are ‘good’ and publishable negative results?’, and issues such as the critique of specific methods and the reconciliation of qualitative and quantitative approaches.

The ‘negative results’ are a form of publication particular to JSpurC and will form its core content. JSpurC Negative Results are (previously) unpublishable by-products of social science research that do not fit the conventional constraints of their narrow research, but once published will aid social scientists at large working from alternative perspectives to refine theory or method. JSpurC will collect and publish negative results accompanied by the author’s and third party comments moderated by the editorial board.

Papers and negative results will pass a blind referee process. Negative Results will additionally acquire third party comments through a moderated communication process between authors and commentators. The proposals will be evaluated by the editorial board. As an experiment, the Journal seeks to pioneer the use of ‘triple blind publication’ as an option for the authors of negative results only. This allows authors to register their negative results anonymously until such time as the practice of publishing negative results becomes more widely accepted. This exercise is intended to provide an opportunity to receive comments and to further the discipline without placing undue burden on the researcher who produced the results.

For further details, please refer to Submission Guidelines (see below).

Completed papers and Negative Results will be considered on rolling basis. Proposals for topics and authors are also welcome at any time.

Proposals for topics and authors should be submitted as e-mail attachments to:

editor (at) jspurc.org

Completed papers and Negative Results should be submitted to the address below.

editor (at) jspurc.org

Submission Guidelines

The Journal of Spurious Correlations

JSpurC accepts three broad types of submissions: full papers, negative results and proposals for topics and authors. All submissions are subject to the following editorial policy and submission guidelines.

Editorial Policy

Data PolicY

The objective of the Journal’s policy is to ensure that any published result can be replicated by other researchers. Papers submitted for publication should contain sufficient detail about computation procedures and adequate reference to the data sources to permit readers to reconstruct the analytic procedure leading to the published results. Authors are required to provide detailed reference to any data, programs or computational procedures that were used in papers containing empirical work, simulation or experiments, so as to permit the replication of results during the review process. The editors should be notified of any use of proprietary data at the time of submission. They should also be notified if for any reason the above data disclosure requirements cannot be met.

Disclosure Policy

Authors are expected to disclose to the editorial board any potential conflict of interests associated with the submission, including conflicts of interest that may arise from financial interests, academic or non-academic activities.

Submission Policy     

The Journal accepts full-length papers, short reviews of negative results and proposals for topics and authors. Papers and negative results are invited by the editors or submitted in response to the official Call for Papers. Proposals are accepted on a rolling basis.

Style Conventions

Reference Style

Please note that this is not an exhaustive list. References should correspond to the citations in text (e.g. Smith 2004). List references ordered alphabetically by last name and year of publication in descending order if there are several titles by the same author. If two or more works of the same author have the same year, they should be distinguished by using a, b, etc. in both the list of references and the text. Book and article titles should be capitalized.

The general citation format follows the next examples:

Books:

King, G., R. Keohane and S. Verba (1994) Designing Social Inquiry (Princeton: Princeton University Press).

 

Journal articles:

Charlton, B.G. (2004) ‘Why a Journal of Negative Results?’ Journal of Negative Results in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, 1, pp. 6-7.

 

Chapter in edited volumes:

Habermas, J. (1976). ‘A Positivistically Bisected Rationalism’ in T.W. Adorno, H. Albert, R. Dahrendorf, J. Habermas, H. Pilot, and K.R. Popper (ed.) The Positivist Dispute in German Sociology (London: Heinemann).

 

Abstract style

Abstracts are required both for full length papers and for reports of negative results. Abstracts should not exceed 100 words in length and are expected to represent an overview of the paper, excluding formulas or references.

Submission format

Electronic format is strongly preferred and recommended. Manuscripts should be submitted as PDF files. The standard format includes double spacing, use of 12 point Times New Roman font and 2.5 cm space at all margins of the page. Footnotes and endnotes should be formatted as above. Tables and figures are expected to be added at the end of the manuscript on independent pages. Formulas in text should be inserted on separate lines and numbered from first to last in the main text of the paper or appendix by Greek numerals between round parenthesis.

The number of notes and appendices is expected to be reduced to the minimum. If necessary, please use endnotes not footnotes.

All submissions will be read by members of the editorial board for the benefit of stylistic clarity and format fluency. Editors assume the freedom to make minor changes; only substantial editorial comments will be referred back to the author before the work is submitted to peer review. Final versions of articles will be sent to authors for their approval prior to publication.

Style guidelines for full-length papers

Full length papers should not exceed 7000 words, excluding tables, figures and formulas. Manuscripts exceeding this length are expected to motivate their length: those in excess of thirty pages are discouraged.

Style guidelines for negative results

Negative results should not exceed 2500 words, excluding tables, figures and formulas. The following structure is suggested: introductory statement on initial research question, description of data and method, display and analysis of results, explanation of why results are negative or ‘unexpected’ and of their potential further use. Extensive literature overview is not necessary, only references relevant for the discussion should be included. Ideally, negative results should be signed by their authors, but anonymous submissions are also accepted under the rules of the triple blind review procedure of JSpurC.

In addition to the usual peer review process, the negative results will be published together with two comments on substance and method. Authors will have the opportunity to reply to these comments in the case of signed negative results. Anonymous negative results and comments are subject to the mediation of the editorial board.

The recommended reference guides are the Chicago Manual of Style and Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary.