Author Guidelines
General
A&K publishes twice a year: May and November. The journal includes work that falls into one of three categories – Focus, General Part, and Discussion: articles centering on a topical focus, articles with content falling within A&K’s scope, shorter articles commenting on work published in A&K or work (articles, books) in A&K’s scope. A&K does not publish book reviews.
A&K can be reached via two websites:
Submission of Manuscripts
Manuscripts should be sent to one of the editors:
jculp@aup.edu
leist@philos.uzh.ch
tranow@uni-duesseldorf.de
Scope
A&K is an interdisciplinary journal. Purely metaphysical, conceptualist or normative articles, as well as exclusively empirical research is usually not published in this journal. A&K publishes articles in which conceptual or normative argumentation and empirical enquiry strengthen each other reciprocally, as well as articles which are primarily empirical but include methodological and conceptual reflection.
Authors are encouraged to present their arguments in a way that makes them accessible to a broad, preferably interdisciplinary readership within social and political theory broadly conceived. Technical material, if included, should be accompanied by informal exposition of the data, evidence, or argument.
No more than one article may be submitted by any corresponding author during any given twelve-month period.
Manuscript Format
Papers should ideally be no longer than 8.000 words and must not exceed 10.000 words, including footnotes and bibliography. Abstracts of 150-200 words and 6-10 keywords are needed.
Footnotes should be kept to a minimum.
References must follow an in-text citation format (author name, year of publication, page number).
Use double quotation marks for quoted text and provide a precise reference by indicating the relevant page number. Single quotation marks should be employed for figurative or stylistic usage as well as for quotations within quotations. Longer quotations should be indented, and quotation marks deleted.
For reference lists Chicago style rules are binding.
A&K publishes only in English. Articles should be written consistently in either British or US spelling of words.
Peer Review
In case the journal editors decide to send out a manuscript for review, the manuscript is usually sent out to two independent peer reviewers. This journal uses a double-anonymous peer review model. The identities of both the peer reviewers and the authors are kept anonymous.
In the interests of transparency, all reviewers’ comments will be sent to the authors, unless they are deemed offensive or are confidential comments for the editors. Editorial decisions are made with reference to the comments that the editors receive from the reviewers. However, the editors should not be taken to endorse the content of the reviewers’ reports and reserve the right to give a different verdict from that recommended by the reviewers.
We aim to complete the review process within three months.
If your manuscript is accepted for publication, the article will go into the production process, which is handled by de Gruyter and starts with the typesetting stage. De Gruyter will contact you via the email address you have used when submitting your manuscript.
Open Access
A&K supports the maximal use of open access. Due to its own in-house website every publication will automatically be accessible for public use two years after publication. Specific funding is necessary, however, for securing open access within the first two years after the publication. Normally open access funding comes from the author’s institution.
If you are uncertain whether you are required to publish open access, please do clarify any such requirements with your funder or institution. De Gruyter will also address you on this matter during the article production process.
Linguistic Gender Policy
A&K recommends a gender style in manuscripts which shows sensitivity concerning the unequal social status of women and non-binary people. As the linguistic situations relevant for gender-adequate or problematic use are too numerous, laying down strict rules of how to answer them is impossible. Here are the two typical occasions when gender-policy decisions come up:
- Choice of pronoun: he, she or they? We definitely suggest avoiding the generic or neutral he. We also suggest avoiding a binary solution on all occasions and suggest showing awareness of transgender or gender non-conforming individuals.
To illustrate, the first sentence should be transformed into the second or third:
- Each participant returned his portfolio.
- The participants returned their portfolios.
- Each participant returned a portfolio.
- Generic words for humans
We suggest that gender-neutral language should be preferred for words like man, men or mankind to refer to a person or people of unspecified sex or to persons of both sexes. We suggest making use of words like humankind or humanity.