Political Economy Journal | Studies in Political Economy

SPE is pleased to accept submissions for inclusion within the Journal.
Authors may submit either five printed copies of each article OR one electronic version and three printed copies.

Address for electronic files: spe@carleton.ca
Address for print-outs: SPE. Dunton Tower. Carleton University. 1125 Colonel By Drive. Ottawa, Ontario. K1S 5B6 Canada

Manuscripts may be submitted to Studies in Political Economy in English or French, with a maximum length of 7,500 words. Submissions should be free of sexist or racist language and written in an accessible style. Please see below for further information about submitting an article.

SPE is a refereed journal. Manuscripts deemed suitable for SPE are assigned to an editor and read by at least two other reviewers familiar with the topic. The review process is open and both authors and reviewers are encouraged to disclose their names, although this is not required. Reviewers are asked to judge a manuscript on its scholarly merit, its congruence with SPE editorial policy, its political importance, topicality, breadth of appeal and literary quality/entertainment value. They are asked to recommend whether a submission:

Should be accepted for publication without qualification (i.e. as is);
Should be accepted subject to the author making specified revisions;
Should be revised and resubmitted before any commitment to publish is given;
Should be rejected.

Reviews are submitted to the editorial committee, which then makes the final decision with respect to publication. Most submissions fall into categories 2 or 3. Authors are encouraged to take suggestions for revision seriously and must be prepared to follow the instructions for revision provided by the editorial committee in cases where a submission receives qualified acceptance. In cases where an author is advised to revise and resubmit, resubmissions will be sent to the original reviewers.

Please be advised that the initial review process takes at least three months and normally takes six months. Studies in Political Economy has limited space and we have thus far found it possible to publish approximately twelve of every fifty manuscripts submitted.

Notes For Authors Regarding Submissions

Some points to keep in mind when submitting a paper:

In order to be published, your article must comply with SPE's style guide (see abbreviated version below), BUT SPE style is not required until AFTER paper is accepted for publication.
You must submit 5 copies of your article OR 3 hard copies and one electronic copy.
Guidelines concerning length (maximum 7,500 words for full length articles) are to be respected. Manuscripts which exceed the prescribed length will have to be cut and publication may be delayed in consequence.
Tables, graphs, figures and formulae should be included only when necessary to illustrate central points within the text. If your article does contain a figure you may be asked to alter it in order for us to obtain the best results from the printing process.
If you received funding from any granting agency in order to complete your work, it is wise to include a brief word of thanks at the beginning of your notes. Acknowledgements should also be listed at the beginning of your notes.

Some points to keep in mind once your paper is accepted:

When you send the final version of your paper to your editor you should also include a sentence describing your current status and institutional affiliation (if any) to include in the Notes on Contributors.
We require both a hard copy and an electronic (disk or e-mailed) version of your final manuscript. Because of file conversion problems, we do not accept disks in Macintosh format. If you have used a Macintosh computer to write your paper please translate it yourself into a PC wordprocessing format or into ASCII. Please ensure that nothing has been lost (ie. endnotes) in translation before sending the disk.
Send figures, charts and graphs to us in separate files (e.g.,not embedded in word processing document) or as "camera ready" hard-copy. Please note that scanning can reduce the qulaity of the image. Our printed page area is 3 1/2" by 6 3/4". If you send us larger figures or graphs we will have to shrink them so use a font size which will be legible if shrunk. It is very important when making graphs and figures for publication, to use fills which contrast greatly between each other - patterns are often more clearly read by the printer than are shadings. Do not include the title within the figure, chart or graph, rather indicate, in the text approximately where you would like the figure or graph to be placed and what its title should be. If you have created these tables, figures or graphs on a computer and can send it to us on disk that would be appreciated, please send them as bitmap files or as spreadsheet files with charts attached. If you are sending them as bitmap files, please send each figure or graph as a separate file.
In the process of copyediting your paper, we may have to make changes which we would need to verify with you. In order to assist us, please include a current address and a phone number where you may be reached during the day.
You retain copyright on your piece. Should you wish to re- publish it in whole or in part in another work authored or co- authored by yourself, three months after the piece has appeared in SPE you are free to do so. We would request acknowledgement of the original publication in such cases. We retain the right to negotiate reprint fees in case of requests from third parties. The amount of the fee reflects the volume, scope and uses for which the reprint is requested and is split evenly between yourself and SPE. You should notify us in case of change of address so that we can contact you should we receive such a request. If you do not wish your piece to be reprinted, you should let us know as soon as possible.

Style Sheet

In order to maximize the clarity and consistency of SPE articles, all contributing authors are asked to follow the guidelines listed below in submitting the final revised version of their accepted papers.

1. Reference Style

Use consecutively numbered endnotes rather than scientific citations, keep these to a minimum, and omit or incorporate into the text all substantive footnotes;
When referring to works already cited, use the "short title" method rather than op.cit., loc.cit., etc. but use ibid. for consecutively repeated references. (Ex. Clement and Williams, New Canadian, p. 108.)
Where several references are made to different pages of the same source, cite only the first page and the most important subsequent pages: Marx, Capital, 3: 33, 60-62, NOT Marx, Capital, 3: 33, 36, 39, 45, 46n, 49, 50, 52, 56, 58, 60-62, 65, 67, etc.;
Avoid placing note numbers within sentences.

2. Reference Format

For books: author, title (place: publisher, year of publication), and page number(s). e.g. W. Clement and G. Williams (eds.), The New Canadian Political Economy (Kingston: McGill-Queen's Univ. Press, 1989), pp. 108-112.
For articles: author, "title," journal name volume/number (year), page number(s). e.g. P. A. Buckner, "`Limited Identities' and Canadian Historical Scholarship: An Atlantic Provinces Perspective," Journal of Canadian Studies/Revue d'études canadiennes 23/1&2 (1988), pp. 177-198.
For government publications: country (if not part of the department or agency's title), department, title (place, year of publication), page number(s). e.g. Canada, Department of National Health and Welfare, Pensions in Canada (Ottawa, 1972), pp. 1-10.

3. Spelling

Use the Canadian spellings set out in any current Canadian dictionary.

4. Abbreviations and Acronyms

Use as few as possible and spell out in full when first used (with the short form in parentheses);
Show acronyms without periods: NATO, CBC, etc.;
Abbreviate only long names of countries, provinces or territories and show as acronyms: USSR, NWT, etc.

5. Quotations

Include all but the longest quotations (over 50 words or 4 lines) in the text;
Long quotations should be indented;
Indented quotations should be enclosed by quotation marks only when dialogue is being repeated.

Do not use three dots at the beginnings of quotations.

6. Lists

For lists within paragraphs, employ a colon, semi-colons, and the conjunction 'and';
For lists set off from paragraphs, use Arabic numerals followed by a period for each item.

7. Other Stylistic Questions

Please refer to The Chicago Manual of Style, 13th ed. (Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 1989).