Social Sciences — Instructions for Authors
Please first read the section 'Aims & Scope' to have an overview, and to assess if your manuscript is suitable for this journal.
Shortcuts
- Submission
- Manuscript Preparation
- Review
- English Corrections
- MDPI Publication Ethics Statement
- CrossCheck/iThenticate
- Supplementary Material
Please use a template file to prepare your paper.
Submission of Manuscripts
- Submission: Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form.
- Accepted File Formats:
- MS Word: Manuscript prepared in MS Word must be converted into a single file before submission. When preparing manuscripts in MS Word, the Social Sciences Microsoft Word template files must be used. Please do not insert any graphics (schemes, figures, etc.) into a movable frame which can superimpose the text and make the layout very difficult.
- LaTeX: ensure to send a copy of your manuscript as a PDF file also, if you decided to use LaTeX. When preparing manuscripts in LaTeX, please use the MDPI LaTeX template files.
- Coverletter: Check in your cover letter whether you supplied at least 5 referees. Check if the English corrections are done before submission.
Manuscript Preparation
- Paper Format: A4 paper format, the printing area is 17.5 cm x 26.2 cm. The margins should be 1.75 cm on each side of the paper (top, bottom, left, and right sides).
- Formatting / Style: The paper style of Social Sciences should be followed. You may download a MS Word template file from the Social Sciences homepage to prepare your paper.
- Reference Formatting: All the references mentioned in the text should be listed separately and as the last section at the end of the manuscript, and be numbered consecutively throughout the paper. Do not repeat any single reference with different pagination.
Reference numbers should be placed in square brackets [ ], and placed before the punctuation; for example [4] or [1-3]. For embedded citations in the text with pagination, use both parentheses and brackets to indicate the reference number and page numbers. The page range is preceded by a comma; for example ([5], p. 10). or ([6], pp. 101–105).
Chicago style bibliography entry should be used for entries of References list and Selected Bibliography. See the Reference Preparation Guide, and download Chicago Reference List and Citations Style Guide. - Reference Preparation: References should preferably be prepared with EndNote®, ReferenceManager™ or a similar bibliography software package. If references are prepared manually they must be checked for integrity and correctness (you may use ISI Web of Knowledge, PubMed/MEDLINE or Google Scholar). The Editorial Office will charge additional CHF 10 per citation for which extensive corrections must be made.
- Footnotes: Use MS Word in-built footnotes sparingly, numbered consecutively throughout the article, using superscript Arabic numbers.
- Selected Bibliography: For some particularly relevant works that are not cited in the text, or a list of works by one author or the like can be listed as Appendix following the References section, usually titled “Selected Bibliographies [Relevant to So-and-So]” or “Selected Works [Relevant to So-and-So]” and “Published Works [of So-and-So]” or “Writings [of So-and-So]”. Such list should be arranged alphabetically or chronologically.
- Authors List and Affiliation Format: Authors' full first and last names must be given. Abbreviated middle name can be added. For papers written by various contributors a corresponding author must be designated. The PubMed/MEDLINE format is used for affiliations: complete address information including city, zip code, state/province, country, and email address should be added. All authors who contributed significantly to the manuscript (including writing a section) should be listed on the first page of the manuscript, below the title of the article. Other parties, who provided only minor contributions, should be listed under Acknowledgments only. A minor contribution might be a discussion with the author, reading through the draft of the manuscript, or performing English corrections.
- Abstract and Keywords: The abstract should be prepared as one paragraph (about 200 words). A list of three to ten keywords must be given, and placed after the Abstract.
- Figures, Schemes and Tables: Authors are encouraged to prepare figures and schemes in color. Full color graphics will be published free of charge. Figure and schemes must be numbered (Figure 1, Scheme I, Figure 2, Scheme II, etc.) and a explanatory title must be added. Tables should be inserted into the main text, and numbers and titles for all tables supplied. All table columns should have an explanatory heading. Please supply legends for all figures, schemes and tables. The legends should be prepared as a separate paragraph of the main text and placed in the main text before a table, a figure or a scheme.
- Abstract/Table of Contents Graphic: Authors are encouraged to provide a graphical representation of the paper (in either JPEG, GIF, PNG or PDF format) to be used as a graphic of the paper, along with the abstract, on the Table of Contents. The graphic should not exceed 500 pixels width/height. As an example, authors may review the abstract graphic of following papers:
- http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/9/1/490
- http://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/14/1/378 - Electronic Supplementary Information (ESI): Conference slides, video sequences, software, etc., can be included with the submission and published as supplementary material. Please read the information about Supplementary Material Deposit beneath.
Review / Referees
Authors should suggest at least five potential referees with the appropriate expertise, although the Editor will not necessarily approach them. Please provide as detailed contact information as possible (address, homepage, phone, e-mail address). The proposed referees should be experts in the field who can provide an objective report - they should not be current collaborators of the authors nor have published with any of the authors of the manuscript within the last 5 years. Proposed referees should be from different institutions than the authors. You may identify appropriate Editorial Board members of the journal as potential referees. Another possibility is to select referees from among the authors that you frequently cite in your paper.
English corrections
This journal is published in English, so it is essential that for proper refereeing and quick publication all manuscripts are submitted in grammatically correct English. For this purpose we ask that non-native English speakers ensure their manuscripts are checked before submitting them for consideration. We suggest that for this purpose your manuscript be revised by an English speaking colleague before submission. Authors can also use the services of American Journal Experts (AJE) for this purpose. Authors of articles submitted to MDPI journals benefit of a one-time 10% discount on AJE's charges. Simply follow the above link to make use of the referral discount. Additional fees of CHF 250 will be paid by authors if extensive English corrections must be done by the editors.
MDPI Publication Ethics Statement
Social Sciences is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). MDPI enforces a rigorous peer-review process that adopts strict ethical policies and standards to ensure that we contribute high-quality scientific works to the field of scholarly publication. Unfortunately, cases of plagiarism, data falsification, inappropriate authorship credit, etc., occasionally arise. MDPI takes such publishing ethics issues very seriously and our editors are trained to proceed in such cases with a zero tolerance policy.
CrossCheck/iThenticate
Social Sciences is a member of CrossCheck powered by iThenticate. iThenticate is a plagiarism screening service that verifies the originality of content submitted before publication. iThenticate checks submissions against millions of published research papers, and billions of web content. Authors are encouraged to use iThenticate to screen their work before submission by visiting www.ithenticate.com.
Supplementary Material Deposit
We wish to encourage the submission of supplementary data in electronic formats, so that important (scientific) information is retained in full. Supplementary data can be submitted by e-mail with the main manuscript file.Additional Submission
Authors of papers in the fields of social sciences are encouraged to send the final, published version of their papers to the Social Science Research Network (SSRN, http://www.ssrn.com/).