JOURNAL SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Publishable Content
The Mapping China Journal (MCJ) accepts submission of research papers and essays of original scholarly articles by students on all levels, including students at the early stages of their PhD and recent graduates that engage in scholarly discussion. More information about the Journal itself can be found here.
Topics of discussion vary each year; for a detailed look please refer to our Call for Papers. Only manuscripts relevant to the topic of the relevant volume of the MCJ will be considered.
MCJ does not accept any work that has been published before or is set to be published elsewhere. This includes previous self-publishing of the author and articles that are mainly based on previously published manuscripts. Submission of a manuscript implies that the author is committed to publishing with MCJ if the manuscript is accepted. By submitting, authors attest that their work is entirely their own. Authors ensure proper acknowledgement and citation. Please read Statement of Publication Ethics for further information.
Additionally, authors wishing to publish work that has been submitted and graded as part of a University degree should make sure that their University guidelines allow publication. This sole responsibility lies with the author.
Regulations for Handing in Work
Mapping China regularly posts Call for Papers for the MCJ. Please refer to any conditions of those in the original Call for Papers.
Additionally, Mapping China accepts submission through the online portal or after contacting info@mappingchina.org. Research paper should feature original analysis or research, include a section on theory and have a length of 6000 to 8000 words. Essays should discuss opinions on a contemporary topic and have a length of three pages to 3000 words. Kindly include a cover page with the title of the submission, the author’s name, affiliation, email address and phone number. Additionally, kindly include a 500 word (or one page) abstract for any work handed in.
Process after Submission
MCJ employs a double-blind peer review policy whereby research papers that pass the original in-house editorial assessment are sent to at least two expert referees for evaluation. Essays are sent to at least one expert for evaluation. Authors should therefore be careful to avoid any personal information in text or endnotes that might reveal their identity.
Authors should be prepared for multiple stages of review. First corrections might be necessary after in-house editorial assessment. Manuscripts are then either rejected before peer-review, after peer-review, accepted on the condition of revise and resubmit or accepted as is. In exceptional cases manuscripts might be accepted on condition of “rewrite and resubmit”. The whole process might take up to six months. Work that cannot be featured in the MCJ might still be published as part of the Mapping China Working Paper Series. Accepted authors for the MCJ will sign an author’s agreement with Mapping China e.V. All papers are reviewed based on their structure and coherency, theoretical quality, empirical quality, their research design and their analytical quality.
All accepted manuscripts are copyedited by MCJ for language and style. All changes will be tracked and approved by the author. The author will also receive the first galley proofs for inspection. At this stage, no changes are to be made in the text or notes, except for corrections of errors. Authors are responsible for obtaining permission from copyright holders where necessary – for example, stanzas of a poem, maps, photographs, illustrations, posters, tables, figures, or text exceeding the maximum length permitted by copyright law.
Manuscript Preparation
- Kindly use British English for texts written in English.
- Tables and figures may be included in the text and should be numerically ordered. They may contain captions.
- Any use of Mandarin Chinese is allowed and encouraged. Citation should be: pinyin in italics followed by characters followed by a direct translation in square brackets.
- Co-authored submissions are accepted. Kindly provide all authors’ details on the cover page.
- Research papers are accepted in both English and German.
- If the author is not a native English speaker, kindly ensure a high level of language competency before submission. This means that the paper should be proofread by a native or almost-native English speaker.
- Papers whose arguments are not clear due to language issues cannot be accepted for the MCJ.
- Kindly use Times New Roman font with a text size of 12. Main titles should be in size 16, titles in size 14 and subtitles in 12. The text should be 1.5 spaced throughout.
- All paragraphs should be justified.
- Kindly only leave one space between sentences and after colons.
- Research Papers should have a length of 8,000 to 10,000 words.
- Mapping China encourages the use of qualitative and quantitative methodology.
- Research Papers should be theory-based, meaning that they derive their arguments and hypotheses from theory. A section on methodology or the findings of the paper should be included.
- Kindly use scientific language in all parts of the research paper.
- Essays should have a length of minimum 4,000 and maximum 5,000 words. Please contact info@mappingchina.org to discuss individual cases.
- Essays are arguments-based, meaning that they do not require a section on theory. Nonetheless, they should be based on current academic discourse. Essays are discussing opinions on a contemporary topic.
- The language of an essay is allowed to be more non-scientific.
- While essays are not subjected to the same level of academic requirements as research papers, authors should make sure to include a wide variety of research sources, including academic texts.
- MCJ uses Harvard Citation Style (footnotes used for additional comments, authors cited in brackets in text)
- within the text, authors should use a minimal citation style like (Black 2019). No comma!
- to cite two authors, use (Black & Weasley 2019)
- to cite three authors, use (Black, Weasley & Snape 2019)
- to cite more than four authors, use (Potter et. al. 2019)
- if you cite two (or more) different authors for the same passage for your text, use ; to separate the authors (Black 2019; Weasley 2017).
- to cite page numbers within the text use either (Black 2019:10) or (Black 2019:10-15). For German authors: do not use the f. or ff. when writing in English!
- if you cite the same author within the same year use (Black 2019a) and (Black 2019b)
- all direct quotes need page numbers!
- use single quotation marks to cite direct quotes
- if your direct quote is longer than three lines, distinguish the quote from the text by indenting the quote
- sort alphabetically
- if you cite authors with works in different years, start with the most recent (Black 2019 would go before Black 2016).
- cite the full names of the authors. Put surname before given name: Granger, Hermione or Black, Sirius
- quote books like this: Granger, Hermione (2019) An Updated History of Hogwarts, London, Thomas Telford Publishing.
- quote chapters in books like this: Lovegood, Luna (2019) Magical Kniffleknaffles and their Stone-Work in Hogwarts, in: Granger, Hermione (ed.) (2019) An Updated History of Hogwarts, London, Thomas Telford Publishing, 456-480.
- quote journal articles like this: Lupin, Remus (2019) Healing Lycanthropy with Specialized Potions, Journal of the Studies of Magical Beings, 45 (10), 134-176.
- quote anything that can be found online like this: Lupin, Remus (2019) Healing Lycanthropy with Specialized Potions, Journal of the Studies of Magical Beings, 45 (10), 134-176. Available from: put the link here [Accessed 18th June 2019].
- quote organizations like this: Ministry of Magic (2018) Defeating Voldemort: Twenty Years on. Available from: put link here [Accessed 4th June 2018].
- For newspaper articles: if the author’s name is given, quote them like journal articles or online sources. If the author’s name is not available, the rules for quoting organizations apply.
- if you want to quote anything else (direct speech, email, conference papers…), contact your editor directly
- put . after each of your references
- within the text: pinyin (without tones) in italics followed by characters followed by a direct translation in square brackets.
- if the translated text (English or German) is Ionger than three lines: put the original Chinese source in a footnote
- cite in references:
- Bai, Tiande (2017) 论公务员政治责任追究机制的完善 (Discussion on improving the political accountability systems for public servants), Journal of Hebei North University (Social Science Edition), 33 (2), 79–83.
- School of Rule of Law and Government (2019) 突出党的领导划出行为底线拓宽精神渠道——王敬波教授 参与新公务员法亮点解读 (Foregrounding party leadership, drawing out bottom lines for behaviour, expanding channels for promotion: professor Wang Jingbo interprets the highlights of the new civil servants law), Fazhi zhengfu yuanjiu yuan. WeChat public account. Available from: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/ZA7JQgLqn7Bg1os-QRY7sg. [Accessed 20th November 2019].
- Xi, Jinping. (2016) 在全国高校思想政治工作会议上的讲话 (Speech at a national meeting on thought and political work at institutes of higher education). Available from: http://jhsjk.people.cn/article/30440485. [Accessed 20th November 2019].