Our focus: We only publish papers that share new research results. On our homepage, we specify the types of research we publish.
First to publish: Qualitative Criminology does not publish papers with a “Version of Record” published elsewhere or under contract elsewhere.
AI-Generated Content in a Manuscript: Content in a journal submission shall not contain AI-Generated Text. Where the author(s) utilize AI-Generated tools to develop an idea(s) that aid the author(s) in developing the structure of a manuscript or a section of it, the author(s) should give credit in a footnote or in an acknowledgement section.
Where to Submit
Email a Word version of your paper to the editor. Please allow 24 hours for a response indicating the editor received the manuscript.
What to Submit
Your paper should include the following, in this order:
Author names, affiliations, and contributions per CRediT. For each author/contributor, the submission should list single or multiple categories of contributions to the submitted manuscript.
Abstract and keywords.
Standard sections of an article (by any title), such as introduction, literature review, method, findings, and discussion. The journal encourages the author(s) to develop descript headings for the literature review section (other than “literature review”).
In addition to the standard items, the manuscript should conclude with a section, “Implications.” This manuscript portion can be short as a paragraph or considerably longer. In this section of the manuscript, the author(s) should clearly spell out the implications for (1) qualitative criminal justice/criminology, (2) quantitative criminal justice/criminology, and (3) policy or practice.
References, contributor bio(s), and acknowledgment sections. In-text citations and reference lists must conform to APA guidelines at the time of submission. DO NOT include website links at the end of citations for academic journal articles with complete citation elements (volume, issue, and page numbers). Sparingly include website links at the end of a citation when finding the reference may be difficult for a reader. The Journal’s policy is not to provide links to cited references. In the reference list: 1) capitalize each word for the journal, news, or other source and italicize the complete source name (Journal of Qualitative Criminal Justice and Criminology), and 2) capitalize only the first word of the title of the paper, article, book, etc., and capitalize the first word following a punctuation mark or a formal title used in the title (for example: Hope and despair: A critical qualitative analysis of discourse in the Shawshank Redemption).
Tables and figures can go in the text or at the end. The author(s) should format tables following the guidance provided in the “Format” section below.
Include a statement concerning IRB (Internal Review Board) or human subjects approval for studies involving human subjects.
Acknowledge persons or institutions that contributed to the work that led to the manuscript's development. For instance, in a circumstance where the author(s) collected the data that informs the manuscript while a graduate student or under the employ of a prior institution, the author(s) should acknowledge the prior institution in an acknowledgment or a footnote.
A list of 10 people qualified to review the manuscript as a subject-matter expert. Include their institutional affiliations and emails. They should have a PhD and hold a faculty, “Postdoc”, or equivalent research position; they should not have an educational/mentoring, professional, or close relationship with any contributing author. You or a co-contributor should not have personally sent them the paper for comments or other reasons. The Journal suggests that you identify potential reviewers who either 1) published relatively recently on the topic or research question the manuscript addresses or 2) havean understanding of the qualitative method you utilize in the manuscript. Please identify potential reviewers who are currently active in the discipline and in academics. Download and use the form below to submit the list of potential reviewers. If the required number of reviewers are not identified from the list, the Journal will make a concerted effort to identify reviewers.
We review papers sent to the journal formatted in Word. When constructing tables, to ensure that the copyediting process is as efficient as possible (the journal does not have to reproduce a table), the journal requires that authors use the Insert-Table feature of Word located on the toolbar. See this video for an overview covering table insertion into a Word document.
Your Paper Has Been Accepted for Publication
On acceptance: The editor will give you the requisite information for getting your paper ready for publication. The Journal provides basic copyediting services for the body of the manuscript. This means that each manuscript accepted for publication be run through Grammarly for basic spelling and grammar checks. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all in-text citations appear in the reference list, that all referenced sources are cited within the body of the text, and the in-text citations and reference list comply with the Journal’s guidelines.
Copyright: By submitting a paper to Qualitative Criminology, you agree that if accepted for publication then it will be published as CC BY 4.0. For more information about that open access license, see How We Publish. It means you can use and share your article without restrictions.
Questions?
Within reason, you are always welcome to email us for an update about your paper’s status in the review or publication process. It is not a knock against you to check in with us. We aim to make a decision on each paper within two months of submission.
