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Author Guidelines

Longitudinal and Life Course Studies (LLCS) publishes four issues a year comprising peer-reviewed papers reporting original work, news of recent developments in funding and data collections in longitudinal and life course studies, notifications of meetings and conferences, and book reviews in due course. Since LLCS provides adequate word length (see under ‘Preparation of Texts' below) to permit longer papers than may be usual in some disciplines, we encourage authors to include, as appropriate in the Discussion section, consideration of the broader theoretical implications of their findings for life course study and the policy implications of their findings.

All papers must be in the English language, and should be submitted through the LLCS website for review - all subsequent processes involving the author are carried out electronically via the website.

Notification of books and monographs for review, including a summary, should be sent electronically to the Editor.  LLCS cannot guarantee that reviews will be undertaken.

It is a condition of publication in LLCS, that authors grant it first license to publish. The Creative Commons license agreement used by LLCS also permits authors to retain copyright for subsequent use of their material in other publications, provided that LLCS is acknowledged as the original place of publication. Articles are accepted for publication on condition that they are contributed solely to LLCS, and are not being considered by any other Journal. Authors are also responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyright material from other sources.

The editors cannot enter into correspondence about papers considered unsuitable for publication, and their decision is final.

Submission of Papers

All papers should be submitted via the LLCS website as a Microsoft Word 2003 file, or in a compatible format.  If there is a good reason why this is not possible, authors are requested to contact the Journal Manager before submitting the paper. 

Author Details

Names, affiliations and emails of all co-authors must be entered on the website by the submitting author.

Competing Interests

A Competing Interests statement for each named author must be completed during the submission process. Guidance and templates are provided.

Preparation of Texts

Length. The paper should normally be approximately 5000 words, with longer papers also accepted up to a maximum of 7000 words. This word count excludes tables, figures and bibliography.  An appendix can be used for supplementary material. 

Font and Line Spacing.  Please use Calibri (or similar sans serif) font, 12pt, with 1.5 line spacing in all main text, single space in figure or table captions.

Page Layout.  All text should be justified to the left hand margin (all margins of at least 2.5cm) with no indents at the start of paragraphs and a line space separating paragraphs.  All headings and sub-headings used within the body of the paper should also be left justified. 

Weblinks.  To help our readers to look up cited references or other information available on the web, authors should ensure that all such references are activated.  Guidelines on how to do this are as follows:

Step 1 - go to the online document/publication/website that you want to cite in your paper, and copy the full URL (web address) that appears in the box towards the top of the screen (highlight the URL by left-clicking on it, then press Ctrl plus C on your keyboard - Ctrl is at bottom left usually so you can do it one-handed).

Step 2 - return to your paper on-screen (these instructions specifically relate to Word documents but are similar for other word-processing packages), and highlight the words that you want to use to indicate the live link (could be the title of a paper or publication, or maybe the name of a person or of an organisation if you want them or a particular page of their website to be featured, etc.)

Step 3 - find ‘Insert' in the top toolbar and click on that word, and then look for the word ‘Hyperlink' in the menu choices offered, and click that - a template box will appear.

Step 4 - at the top of the template will be a box with the words you highlighted from your paper already displayed.  All you have to do is click inside another box, labelled ‘Address' found towards the bottom of the template, and then paste the URL from Step 1 into this box by pressing Ctrl then V.

Step 5 - click OK, the template will disappear and the words you originally highlighted in your paper will now show in blue, and you will be able to click them (sometimes this needs a double click, or requires Ctrl plus click) and go directly to the intended webpage to view the additional information.

Ensuring an Anonymous (Blind) Review. Please submit papers with a full detailed title page. Once a paper has been submitted to LLCS via the website, it will be 'anonymised' by the removal of all author name(s) and institution names on the title page, and any identifying electronic document properties will also be removed. Use of this anonymised version of the paper for the review processes, will help to ensure that the identities of author(s) and reviewers will remain unknown to each other. Authors do not need to remove their name(s) from the main text or references but any reference to their work or themselves should be expressed in the third person.

Title. The main title should be brief and specific. Subtitles may be used to amplify the main title. If a paper is accepted for publication, over-long titles may be shortened on the page header.

Author Names. Please list full names on the title page, but no titles or qualifications, and indicate the corresponding author by an asterisk; give the email address for this author just below the list of names.

Abstract. The abstract should be no more than 250 words (not part of the main word count). Please do not use subheads in the abstract, which should briefly describe the subject of the study, how it was carried out, the salient results and what can be concluded from the results.

Keywords.  These should be included just below the author list.  For indexing purposes, please list some keywords (minimum 3 maximum 10) - authors should ensure that the words they choose will help others to locate this paper via the main search engines.

Abbreviations. Words to be abbreviated should be spelt out in full the first time they appear in the text with the abbreviations in brackets. Thereafter the abbreviation should be used.

References. Authors are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of reference lists. References in the Harvard Style should be given in the text with the first author's name (followed by et al if more than three authors) and the date of publication - e.g.  (Blake et al 1942), (Bernal 1939; Werskey 1971; Pemberton 2002), (Zuckerman 1978, p.121, pp. 324-344).

 

The full list of references should appear in alphabetical order at the end of the article and include the surnames and initials of all authors. For papers give the full title, the full name of journal (italicised), year, volume number, and first and last page numbers:

e.g. Bynner J and Joshi H. (2007) Building the evidence base from longitudinal data: the aims, content and achievements of the British birth cohort studies. Innovation: the European Journal of Social Research, 20, 159-180.

References to chapters, sections or quotations from books should give the names and initials of the author(s) of the chapter, section or quotation, the date of publication, the title of the chapter, section or quotation, the name(s) and initials of the editor(s) of the book, the title of the book (italicised), the edition if not the first, the page number(s) (first and last if more than one page) of the chapters, sections or quotations, the name of the publisher and the place of publication:

e.g. Dearden L, Goodman A and Saunders P. (2003) Income and living standards. In Ferri E, Bynner J and Wadsworth MEJ. eds. Changing Britain, changing lives: three generations at the turn of the century. Pp 148-193. Institute of Education Press, London.

References to books should be in the same style:

e.g. Ferri E, Bynner J and Wadsworth MEJ. eds. (2003) Changing Britain, changing lives: three generations at the turn of the century. Institute of Education Press, London.

References to material from web-pages and e-books should be in the same format as those for papers or books, as appropriate, and should give a full reference to the site and the date when posted on the site.

e.g. Parsons S and Bynner J. (2005) Measuring Basic Skills for Longitudinal Study. NRDC Research Report, Institute of Education, London

http://www.nrdc.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=424&ArticleID=331.

References to unpublished material should be indicated with the words (unpublished observations) or (personal communication) as appropriate in the text. Manuscripts (in press) may be cited and details may be added later if LLCS accepts the paper for publication.

Authors not complying with these reference guidelines will be asked to make all the necessary alterations themsleves, if their paper is accepted for publication.

Acknowledgements.  These should be placed after the References, and should include, as appropriate, details of funding and data sources (giving the full name of each funding source, the title of the grant, and the grant reference), and details of all ethical permissions (giving the granting authority and a reference number) and any interests declared.

Notes. As a general rule, supplementary notes should be avoided, but if thought to be essential, they should not appear on the page as ‘Footnotes', but instead, be included as Endnotes.

Supplementary material. Supplementary material may be added if it is considered important for the reader. It might include, for example, more detailed information about methods and measurements used, extended analysis, data sets,or additional figures.  It will be accesible to the reader of a published paper, via a link on hte RHS of the screen.

All additional material must be submitted (uploaded)at the same time as the main text, following the usual uploading procedure, and cannot be altered or replaced after the paper has been accepted for publication.

Submissions containing graphs, tables, illustrations or mathematics. All graphs and tables should be embedded in the text, and have a clear, self-explanatory title, including information on any units of measurement. Tables should be designed to fit across an A4 page width (portrait format) wherever possible. Comments on the material that is presented should be placed in the main text, not in the captions. Scales on graphs should be carefully chosen and axes should be clearly labelled.

Illustrations should also be embedded in the text, each with a short caption. The illustrations should be cited consecutively with Arabic numbers in the text.

Mathematical expressions should be created in Word 2003 (or a compatible package) with equation editor 3.0, unless the author has good reason to use other software, in which case please contact the Journal Manager.

All equations in display format that are referred to in the text, should be consecutively numbered. It will be the author's responsibility to ensure that the mathematical expressions in a final accepted paper are correct.

When reference is made to a statistical technique or model, the author should state clearly what the component parts are, and any relevant assumptions that are made. In the case of a standard model such as multiple regression a verbal description will normally suffice. In the case of more advanced or complex techniques, such as multilevel modelling, a formal statement of the model should be included (possibly in an appendix) with a clear statement of the assumptions made. Please note that it is not an acceptable alternative merely to refer to a specific computer package.

Units. All biological measures should be reported in SI units, as appropriate, followed, in the text, by traditional units in parentheses. For general guidance on the International System of Units and some useful conversion factors, see 'The SI for the Health Professions' (WHO, 1977).

Author Citation. If the paper is accepted for publication, a version of the paper with all authors cited in full on the title page will be used. Only individuals who have contributed substantially to the production of the paper should be included.

Author Affiliations. The affiliations of each author must also be given in the published version. If an author's present affiliation is not that under which the work was done, both should be given.

Copy Editing. All accepted manuscripts are subject to copy editing, with reference back to author with suggested edits and queries for response. The editors reserve the right to make minor grammatical and other changes at the final stage before publication. Particular care should be taken by the author to re-read and check reference lists at this stage.

Proofs. The corresponding author will be able to view a layout proof of the article on the website. At this point, only minor errors or omissions may be notified - changes in content or expression should be avoided. Reference lists should be checked again also.

Corrections to the proofs should be notified within 3 days. Delay may result in publication of the paper being held over until a later issue.

 

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.

  1. The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided to the Editor).

  2. The submission file is either a Microsoft Word 2003 document, or a compatible format. (If there is a good reason why you cannot comply, please email the Journal Manager).

  3. Where available, web addresses (URLs) for the references have been provided and activated.
  4. The text is 1.5 spaced; uses a 12-point sans serif font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
  5. The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines (these can also be found by clicking the 'About' tab at the head of the Home Page and selecting from the list under Submissions, or via the 'Information for Authors' link in the right side of the Home Page, followed by clicking the embedded link in the text paragraph).
  6. I understand how to check the progress of my submission by going to my 'Active Submissions page, and clicking the link that is level with the paper title and under the word 'STATUS' at the right hand side of the screen (e.g the words 'QUEUED FOR REVIEW' will appear there throughout the peer review period)
 

Copyright Notice

Authors who publish with Longitudinal and Life Course Studies agree to the following terms:

  • 1. Authors retain copyright and grant the Journal right of first publication with the work, simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  • 2. Following first publication in this Journal, Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal, provided always that no charge is made for its use.
  • 3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g. in institutional repositories or on their own website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.

 

 

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