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.
Concurrent review: Submissions may be concurrently under review at one or more other outlets. Please note that it is polite to (1) notify us if your paper is accepted elsewhere and you wish to publish it there, not Qualitative Criminology, and (2) comply with other outlets’ policies on concurrent review.
Email a Word version of your paper to the editor. Please allow 24 hours for a response indicating the editor received the manuscript.
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.
Tables and figures can go in text or at the end. The author(s) should format tables following the guidance provided in the “Format” section below.
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. Download and use the form below to submit the list of potential 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.
On acceptance: The editor will give you the requisite information for getting your paper ready for publication.
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.
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.