Irish Journal of Sociology
This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Although the journal's readership is primarily sociologists, it also seeks to appeal to – and welcomes submissions from – scholars in other social science disciplines including anthropology, geography, politics, social policy, social work, and social care. The journal seeks to publish peer-reviewed quantitative and qualitative or mixed-method work. The journal is particularly interested in attracting comparative papers having to do with other small societies, but which need not necessarily be related to Ireland.
The journal's goal is to render a first editorial decision on every manuscript submitted within 5 weeks.
Mastoureh Fathi | University College Cork, Ireland |
John O'Brien | University College Cork, Ireland |
Kieran Keohane | University College Cork, Ireland |
Maggie O'Neill | University College Cork, Ireland |
Michael Biggs | University of Oxford, UK |
Lorenzo Bosi | Scuola Normale Superiore, Italy |
John Brewer | Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK |
Ciaran Burke | University of the West of England, UK |
Mary Corcoran | Maynooth University, Ireland |
Mathew Creighton | University College Dublin, Ireland |
Mary Daly | University of Oxford, UK |
Honor Fagan | Maynooth University, Ireland |
Peter Gardner | University of York, UK |
Jane Gray | Maynooth University, Ireland |
Thomas Grund | University College Dublin, Ireland |
Heather Hamill | University of Oxford, UK |
Sari Hanafi | American University of Beirut, Lebanon |
Mark Haugaard | National University of Ireland Galway, Ireland |
Bernadette Hayes | University of Aberdeen, UK |
Jonathan G. Heaney | Queen's University Belfast, UK |
Mary Hickman | Maynooth University, Ireland |
Sinisa Malesevic | University College Dublin, Ireland |
Catherine B. McNamee | Queen’s University Belfast, UK |
Aogan Mulcahy | University College Dublin, Ireland |
Máiréad NicCraith | Heriot Watt University, UK |
Maggie O’Neill | University College Cork, Ireland |
Seán Ó’Riain | Maynooth University, Ireland |
Sara O’Sullivan | University College Dublin, Ireland |
Louise Ryan | London Metropolitan University, UK |
Marc Scully | Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick, Ireland |
Sally Shortall | Newcastle University, UK |
Arpad Szakolczai | University College Cork, Ireland |
Iarfhlaith Watson | University College Dublin, Ireland |
Manuscript Submission Guidelines: Irish Journal of Sociology
This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics.
Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/mijs to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.
Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Irish Journal of Sociology will be reviewed.
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal. Open Access options are available - see section 3.3 below.
As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere. Please see our guidelines on prior publication and note that Irish Journal of Sociology may accept submissions of papers that have been posted on pre-print servers; please alert the Editorial Office when submitting (contact details are at the end of these guidelines) and include the DOI for the preprint in the designated field in the manuscript submission system. Authors should not post an updated version of their paper on the preprint server while it is being peer reviewed for possible publication in the journal. If the article is accepted for publication, the author may re-use their work according to the journal's author archiving policy.If your paper is accepted, you must include a link on your preprint to the final version of your paper.
- What do we publish?
1.1 Aims & Scope
1.2 Article types
1.3 Writing your paper - Editorial policies
2.1 Peer review policy
2.2 Authorship
2.3 Acknowledgements
2.4 Funding
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
2.6 Special Issues Procedures
2.7 Research Data - Publishing policies
3.1 Publication ethics
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
3.3 Open access and author archiving - Preparing your manuscript
4.1 Formatting
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
4.3 Supplemental material
4.4 Reference style
4.5 English language editing services - Submitting your manuscript
5.1 ORCID
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
5.3 Permissions - On acceptance and publication
6.1 Sage Production
6.2 Online First publication
6.3 Access to your published article
6.4 Promoting your article - Further information
Before submitting your manuscript to Irish Journal of Sociology, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.
The journal reviews contributions that address an important topic in the sociological study of Irish society or that address theoretical, substantive, or methodological topics not related to Ireland.
- Original Research Papers
Submissions should be between 7,000 and 9,000 words in length, including the main text, references, tables, and figures. These submissions will be double-anonymize peer reviewed. Research articles should contribute to advances in knowledge, theory, or methods.
Please submit a separate title page containing the following information:
- Title
- Author information (position, affiliation)
- Word count
- Acknowledgements (including presentation of paper at professional meetings, data sources, grants, and other credits)
Please also supply a brief abstract (150-200 words) and keywords to accompany your article. The abstract should be included in the manuscript and submitted along with it. The title of the manuscript should also be included at the top. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article online through online search engines such as Google.
- Book Reviews
The journal publishes reviews of recently published books (within the last 2 years). These are short pieces of up to 1,000 words. These submissions will be Editor reviewed. Book Reviews should include a concise summary of the book’s main argument and subject matter, assess its originality and contribution to its field and relevance to its intended audience. Longer review articles (up to 3,000 – 4,000 words), covering several books on one topic, may also be submitted. Contributors should discuss the suitability of the books selected with the Reviews Editor in advance.
Note the following general guidelines for Book Reviews:
- Book reviews must be submitted via the journal’s online submission site.
- The timeframe for completing a review is 2 months (from receipt of the book from the publisher).
- Reviews should be completed within the timeframe agreed with the Book Reviews Editor.
- The Book Reviews Editor may request revisions, edit, or reject a Book Review.
- Personal comments about an author(s) are not allowed.
Unsolicited book reviews are not accepted for publication in the IJS. If you wish to review a book for the IJS please contact the Book Reviews editor at irishjsoc@qub.ac.uk using ‘IJS Book Review’ as the subject line of your email.
The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources.
1.3.1 Make your article discoverable
When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines such as Google.
For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.
All manuscripts are reviewed initially by the Editor and only those papers that meet the scientific and editorial standards of the journal, and fit within the aims and scope of the journal, will be sent for outside review. The IJS’s goal is to render the ‘pre-review’ decision within 1 week of submission. The journal reserves the right to reject manuscripts that do not conform to the submission guidelines.
IJS adheres to a rigorous double-anonymize reviewing policy in which the identity of both the reviewer and author are always concealed from both parties. Each original research paper is reviewed by at least two referees. The journal endeavours to render a first editorial decision on every manuscript sent for review within 8 weeks.
As part of the submission process you will be asked to provide the names of peers who could be called upon to review your manuscript. Recommended reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Please be aware of any conflicts of interest when recommending reviewers. Examples of conflicts of interest include (but are not limited to) the below:
- The reviewer should have no prior knowledge of your submission
- The reviewer should not have recently collaborated with any of the authors
- Reviewer nominees from the same institution as any of the authors are not permitted
You will also be asked to nominate peers who you do not wish to review your manuscript (opposed reviewers).
Please note that the Editors are not obliged to invite/reject any recommended/opposed reviewers to assess your manuscript.
All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.
Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.
Please supply any personal acknowledgements separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.
2.3.1 Third party submissions
Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:
- Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input
- Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
- Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.
Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.
Irish Journal of Sociology requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading. Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
Irish Journal of Sociology encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.
The Journal welcomes proposals for Guest Edited Special Issues and works closely with colleagues to prepare for publication. Publishing timelines need to take account of several rounds of peer review, and that there may consequently be a long delay in publishing.
Please submit Special Issue proposals to irishjsoc@qub.ac.uk, outlining the following:
- names and affiliations of proposed guest editors
- a description of the theme
- a rationale for the collection, connected with the overall remit of the journal.
- a proposed overall word count
- a realistic timeline for submission,
- abstracts for all proposed papers.
All pieces in guest edited issues should be original contributions not published elsewhere, in English or in another language, at the time of publication. Copyright for all articles remains with the Irish Journal of Sociology.
Note that the guest editor(s) is responsible for all aspects of the special issue, including communicating with the editor regarding the progress of the issue and any changes to the schedule, ensuring the timely submission of manuscripts, communicating with prospective authors, co-ordinating the reviewing of manuscripts, rendering decisions on manuscripts, ensuring manuscripts conform to the journal style, sending accepted manuscripts to production, and ensuring the timely delivery of corrections of the article proofs. To facilitate this, the guest editor(s) will be assigned as editor on the journal’s online manuscript submission and review platform, ScholarOne and will receive guidelines on how to use this online system. Completed proposals should be emailed (with ‘Proposal for Special Issue of the IJS’ as the subject line) to the editor at irishjsoc@qub.ac.uk.
The journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages.
Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to:
- share your research data in a relevant public data repository
- include a data availability statement linking to your data. If it is not possible to share your data, we encourage you to consider using the statement to explain why it cannot be shared.
- cite this data in your research
Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway.
3.1.1 Plagiarism
Irish Journal of Sociology and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.
3.1.2 Prior publication
If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the Sage Author Gateway.
3.3 Open access and author archiving
Irish Journal of Sociology offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.
4. Preparing your manuscript for submission
The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.
Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article.
This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplemental files.
Irish Journal of Sociology adheres to the Sage Harvard reference style. View the Sage Harvard guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.
If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the Sage Harvard EndNote output file.
4.5 English language editing services
Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.
Irish Journal of Sociology is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/mijs to login and submit your article online.
IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created. For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.
Manuscript submissions should consist of the following (in this order): (1) Title page (2) Title (3) Abstract (4) Keywords (5) Text (6) Notes (7) References (8) Tables (9) Figures and, (10) Appendices.
Before submitting the final version of your manuscript, please refer to the IJS checklist for final manuscripts.
As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.
The collection of ORCID IDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID ID you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID ID will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID ID is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.
If you do not already have an ORCID ID please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. The affiliation listed in the manuscript should be the institution where the research was conducted. If an author has moved to a new institution since completing the research, the new affiliation can be included in a manuscript note at the end of the paper. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).
Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway.
6. On acceptance and publication
Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be sent by PDF to the corresponding author via our editing portal Sage Edit or by email, and corrections should be made directly or notified to us promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.
Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.
6.3 Access to your published article
Sage provides authors with online access to their final article.
Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.
Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Irish Journal of Sociology editorial office as follows: