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Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
  • The manuscript has been submitted solely to this journal and is not published, in press, or submitted elsewhere. Authors should disclose any prior posting, publication or distribution of all or part of the manuscript to the Editor.
  • The corresponding author certifies to be authorized by all of the co-authors to submit the manuscript in its presented form.
  • The article, or any part thereof, does not violate any existing original or derivative copyright.
  • All personal identifiers are removed from the text and the properties to ensure the integrity of the blind peer-review.
  • Authors do include a statement about any potential or perceived conflicts of interest in the Comments for the Editor.
  • Authors whose mother tongue is not English do understand and agree to the obligation to send the final version of the paper to a native speaker of English with a sound academic background in the social sciences for language editing, immediately after the paper is accepted by the editor. These authors shall commission language editing to a native speaker of their own choice and at their own expenses.

Author Guidelines

ORCID

All authors must specify their ORCID identifier when submitting a manuscript. If authors do not have such an identifier, they can register here: https://orcid.org/.

General

Please prepare and format the manuscript according to the guidelines below and submit it via the submission system. The contents of the manuscript should fit the journal’s scope. The manuscript must not be under review, accepted for publication, or published elsewhere.

Length

We welcome articles of various lengths but usually around 8,000 words (incl. figures, tables and appendices, excl. references). Shorter manuscripts are welcome. Please contact the Editorial Office should you wish to publish a longer text. Supporting material which is not essential for inclusion in the main text of the manuscript can be made available as online-only content.

File Format

Manuscripts should either be in the Microsoft DOCX- format (please do not submit DOC-files), or in the free ODT-format (e.g. LibreOffice). Do not submit PDFs.

Important! Removal of personal identifiers from the manuscript

Every effort should be made to prevent that authors and reviewers are able to identify each other. This involves the authors, editors, and reviewers (who upload documents as part of their review), who should check if the following steps have been taken with regard to the text and the file properties: The authors of the document have deleted their names from the text, with "Author" and year used in the references and footnotes, instead of the authors' name, article title, etc. With Microsoft Office documents, author identification should also be removed from the properties for the file (see under File in Word), by clicking on the following, beginning with File on the main menu of the Microsoft application: File > Save As > Tools (or Options with a Mac) > Security > Remove personal information from file properties on save > Save.

Main Text

The manuscript should be formatted as plain as possible, for example use 1.5 line-spacing, 12 pt. font, may use italics but no underlining (with the exception of URLs). All illustrations, figures und tables should be placed at an appropriate position in the text.

Figures and Tables

Figures and tables should be numbered consecutively in the text as Figure 1, Figure 2, Table 1, Table 2 etc. and they should be titled properly. Please include figures and tables at the correct location in the main document for peer review. Make sure that the references in the text to the figures and tables are correct. When a manuscript is accepted for publication in the journal, images should be supplied as separate files with a resolution of at least 300 dpi (dots per inch). For tables and simple diagrams and charts, the version generated in MS Office or LibreOffice / OpenOffice suffices. Line art should be submitted as vector-based, separate .eps files with a resolution of 600 dpi. It is important that space markers for overviews, tables and graphical material in the text are numbered accordingly and that the numbers and titles are identical in the non-textual files. Figures and tables can be submitted in color.

Page Numbering

All pages of the manuscript should be numbered consecutively.

Structure of the Manuscript

The text should be structured as follows:

Title page

Please prepare a separate title page, containing the title, all authors and their affiliation(s) as well as their contact details.

If you wish to include acknowledgments, include them on the title page. This section may include supporting grants, presentations, and so forth.

Title and authorship information

Please provide a clear and concise title for your manuscript, remove authors‘ names.

Abstract and key words

Each manuscript must include a structured abstract of about 200 - 225 words, in the following format:

  • Objective (1 sentence): Describe the main question of the paper.
  • Background (2-3 sentences): Briefly locate the study in the research context.
  • Method (2-3 sentences): Briefly describe the sample (size, population, type), design, measures, and analytical approach.
  • Results (2-3 sentences): Summarize main findings of the study.
  • Conclusion (1 sentence): Briefly state the main message of the paper.

Authors must further supply at least 3 keywords that are not in the title of the manuscript.

Please note that, upon acceptance, the abstract and key words are needed in German language, too. You will be asked to provide both in the course of the production process. The editorial office may provide support, if the author does not speak German.

Introduction

This should cover the main research question and the motives for that question. This section should be succinct, with no subheadings.

Main Body of Manuscript

The main body of a manuscript should include the main components of the research, including theoretical framework, methodology, data, and analyses. It should contain sufficient details so that all procedures can be followed and, if possible, repeated. It can be divided into subsections if necessary.

Again: make sure that all possible identifiers to the author have been removed, including the data from the document’s properties.

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments should be placed on the title page and must include a note on possible conflicts of interest as well as a statement about the availability of data and code used in the mansucript.

Citation and reference guidelines

Upon acceptance, authors need to supply their citations and their references according to our guidelines.Please note that the manuscript will be returned to the authors if these guidelines were not apllied correctly.

Information in German

Upon acceptance, authors need to supply the title, abstract and key words of the article in German language. German speaking authors will be asked to provide this information. Authors, who do not have a sound background in German writing, may receive help from the Editorial Office upon request.

Privacy Statement

Privacy statement

The data collected from registered and non-registered users of this journal falls within the scope of the standard functioning of peer-reviewed journals. It includes information that makes communication possible for the editorial process; it is used to inform readers about the authorship and editing of content; it enables collecting aggregated data on readership behaviors, as well as tracking geopolitical and social elements of scholarly communication.

This journal’s editorial team uses this data to guide its work in publishing and improving this journal. Data that will assist in developing this publishing platform may be shared with its developer Public Knowledge Project (PKP) in an anonymized and aggregated form, with appropriate exceptions such as article metrics. The data will not be sold by this journal or PKP nor will it be used for purposes other than those stated here. The authors are responsible for the human subject data of all figures that are reported in the article published in this journal.

Those involved in editing this journal seek to be compliant with industry standards for data privacy, including the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) provision for "data subject rights" that include (a) breach notification; (b) right of access; (c) the right to be forgotten; (d) data portability; and (e) privacy by design. The GDPR also allows for the recognition of “the public interest in the availability of the data,” which has a particular aliency for those involved in maintaining, with the greatest integrity possible, the public record of scholarly publishing.

Data Privacy Statement, University Bamberg