Information for authors

Note: Please read the following FAQs and the Information for Authors carefully before making a submission—submissions that do not abide by them will be rejected.

FAQs

1. Why should I publish with IDPL?

IDPL was the first double-blind peer-reviewed, internationally-oriented scholarly law journal devoted solely to data protection and privacy law. Since our first issue in 2011, we have become a leading authority in the world of data protection and privacy law scholarship, and our articles are widely cited. Our subscribers include university libraries, data protection authorities, law firms, central banks, private companies, and individuals all over the world. As part of the Oxford University Press Law Collection, IDPL is accessible in thousands of libraries worldwide.

2. What chance is there of my article being published?

IDPL is a selective journal that aims to publish pieces of the highest quality. While we do have high standards, we welcome submissions from both established authorities and new authors. We have a rigorous but fair review process that considers each manuscript carefully before making a publication decision.

3. My article does not concern the law, will you consider it?

IDPL is a law journal, and the pieces we publish must have some relationship to the law. Thus, we do not publish articles that are purely focused on other areas (such as, for example, computer science, economics, or sociology), and that would not be intelligible to a legal audience. However, we do welcome articles that are interdisciplinary or policy-oriented in nature, and will generally consider submissions that are not purely legal in nature, as long as they have a strong legal component. It is up to the author to decide whether to submit his or her article. A decision on whether an article is suitable for IDPL will be made as part of the review process; the editors are not able to pre-approve articles as being suitable before they have been submitted via the online system.

4. Can I submit my article to other journals as well?

IDPL requires exclusive submission. Please do not submit your article if it is currently under consideration by another journal.

5. I am ready to submit, can I e-mail the manuscript to one of the editors?

All material to be considered for publication in IDPL should be submitted via the journal's online submission system at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/idpl. Submission by e-mail cannot be accommodated. All revisions, e-mails, and other communications and documents relating to a submission must be sent online via the journal’s online submission system. The editors cannot consider any submissions sent to them via e-mail. The editors also cannot review a manuscript prior to online submission.

6. How long does it take before I receive a publication decision and see my article in print?

Submissions that pass an initial desk review by the editors are subject to double-blind peer review. The high volume of submissions and other circumstances beyond out control may cause delays to occur before a decision is made. The publication of accepted articles on our website prior to their hardcopy publication helps facilitate speedy distribution.

7. Will my article be made freely available on the Internet?

Online access to IDPL is via subscription. However, we do make at least one article per issue (which is in the discretion of the editors) freely available online.

8. My article is above or below the word limit, what should I do?

Long articles must not exceed 10,000 words (including footnotes). Comment & Analysis pieces are shorter articles focused on a specific topic (such as a major policy development, judgment, book) and must not exceed 5,000 words (including footnotes). The editorial team have discretion to determine what submissions fall within which category and may allow longer pieces to be published in exceptional cases. Should your submission necessitate an exception to the word limit, please contact the Editors-in-Chief.

9. Can I publish the article on SSRN or some other repository before submitting it?

Generally we allow this for draft and pre-publication versions only, but please consult our Author Self-Archiving policy page for information about the IDPL policy regarding making article versions available on personal websites, institutional and other repositories, etc.

10. How should I cite references?

For citation style, contributors should consult the Oxford Standard Citation of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA) (i.e., the Harvard Blue Book and other styles are not acceptable). We use the legal method of citation rather than the social sciences method; thus, all references in the text to materials must be footnoted (rather than having references included in the body of the text). Please do not include a bibliography of sources cited or a table of cases. Italics and underlining in the body of the text should be avoided; however, foreign words and phrases and the names of cases should be italicized (except for words that are in common usage in legal English such as ultra vires and a priori, and commonly used abbreviations such as ie and eg). Please note that the following styles should be used for some materials commonly-cited in data protection and privacy scholarship:

EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation), OJ 2016 L 119/1.

EU Directive 95/46: Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, OJ 1995 L 281/31.

Papers of the Article 29 Working Party (example): Article 29 Working Party, ‘Opinion 2/2003 on the application of the data protection principles to the WHOIS directories’ (WP 76, 13 June 2003), at 4

EU Charter of Fundamental Rights: Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, OJ 2010 C 83/389.

European Convention on Human Rights: European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, Sept. 3, 1953, ETS 5, 213 UNTS 221.

Judgments of the Court of Justice of the EU (example): Bodil Lindqvist, Case C-101/01, [2003] ECR I-12971 (ECLI:EU:C:2003:596), at para. 74. All judgments and opinions of the Court of Justice should include an ECLI reference when one is available.

Council of Europe Convention 108: Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data 1981, ETS 108

Authors should in particular note the following:

All EU materials must have an official OJ citation, when one is available; this includes the GDPR and other legislation.
Punctuation should be inside footnote reference marks.
Please do not include a bibliography at the end of your submission.

11. Should I include references in endnotes or footnotes?

All references should be given in footnotes, identified in the text by Arabic numerals and numbered in the order cited. Citation of references in the style used in the social sciences (i.e., in footnotes included in the text) is not acceptable and such manuscripts will be rejected.

12. Will the editors help complete the references in the footnotes or clean up the language?

No,you must do all work to ensure that references in the footnotes are complete and in proper style. Articles must be linguistically correct or they will not be accepted.

13. My article has already been published, can I republish it in IDPL?

No, we do not republish pieces that have already been published elsewhere. Exceptions may be made for translation of pieces that have been published in a language other than English.

14. Will I have the chance to approve proofs of my article?

If your article is accepted you will receive proofs to check before it is published. However, this is only for correcting minor mistakes, not for revision.

Audience and scope

Combining thoughtful, high level analysis with a practical approach, International Data Privacy Law (IDPL) has a global focus on all aspects of privacy and data protection law.

Peer review policy

Submissions that pass an initial desk review by the editors are subject to anonymous, double-anonymized (meaning that the author’s identity is hidden from reviewers, and the reviewers’ identities are hidden from authors) peer review. Papers that are outside the scope of the journal, that do not comply with our guidelines, or are otherwise judged to be unsuitable by the editors may be rejected without peer review. Appropriate papers are sent to an independent reviewer for evaluation, who does not know the identity of the author, nor is the author told the name of the reviewer. Reviewers advise on factors such as the originality and merit of the paper, but decisions about publication are within the sole discretion of the editors; all publication decisions are final. The editor will make every effort to find external reviewers for a paper. Where an external reviewer cannot be located, in exceptional circumstances the paper may be reviewed in-house by the editorial team. For full details about the peer review process, see Fair editing and peer review.

OUP author FAQs

Presubmission advice and preparation

Writing should be clear and simple, avoiding excessive use of the passive, and written in UK English.

I. Manuscripts and tables

In order to be processed by our production team, all files should be editable, prepared in an appropriate word processing package and saved as .doc or .rtf. Please note: PDF (.pdf) is not a .doc or .rtf file format and is therefore not an appropriate file type. Manuscripts should be double line spaced with 1inch margins.

Headings

Title head - Left aligned. CAPITALS. Bold:

CENTRED CAPITALS FOR TITLE

Section heading - Left aligned. CAPITALS (precede by roman I, II, etc, if required):

I. SECTION HEADING IN CAPITALS/SMALL CAPITALS

Subheading level 1 - Left aligned. Title Case (Capitalise Important Words). Italic:

‘Subheading in Italics with Title Case’

Subheading level 2 - Align left. Sentence case (Capitalise first word only). Italic (precede by arabic numbering if required):

‘1. Subheading 2 in italics with sentence case’

Quotations

Of more than about 30 words (unless in footnotes) should be indented from the text without quotation marks. Generally single quotation marks should be used, with double quotation marks for quotations within quotations.

Punctuation

Such as full stops should be outside closing quotation marks. Full stops should also be outside closing parentheses unless the parenthesis is a complete sentence.

Abbreviations

Written out in full at first mention. Abbreviations consisting of initials (such as BMA, D or H and CSM) should omit the full stops unless the reference is to a law report or journal or in a case citation (as in Med. L.R., L.Q.R. and H.A.). Otherwise abbreviations should retain the full stop (ed., L.J., J.).

Dates

Should be in the style 1 January 1993; 1993-94; 1990s.

Italics

Should be used (and indicated by underlining in the text) for case names, latin words except those in common legal usage, for example, prima facie; ultra vires or (obiter) dictum. Also the following abbreviations should be italicised: cf., e.g., ibid., i.e., loc.cit., op.cit., per, viz, supra, infra. Notice versus (v.) in case citations is in roman.

Citations

References should be given in footnotes, identified in the text by Arabic numerals and numbered in the order cited. Complete information should be given for each reference cited. See requirements for specific papers below.

For citation style, contributors should consult the Oxford Standard Citation of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA). However, please note that the following styles should be used for some materials commonly-cited in data protection and privacy scholarship:

EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation), OJ 2016 L 119/1.

EU Charter of Fundamental Rights: Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, OJ 2010 C 83/389.

European Convention on Human Rights: European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, Sept. 3, 1953, ETS 5, 213 UNTS 221.

Judgments of the Court of Justice of the EU (example): Bodil Lindqvist, Case C-101/01, [2003] ECR I-12971 (ECLI:EU:C:2003:596), at para. 74. All judgments and opinions of the Court of Justice should include an ECLI reference when one is available.

Council of Europe Convention 108:Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data 1981, ETS 108

Note that all EU materials must have an official OJ citation, when one is available.

II. Figures

Figures should be prepared in an appropriate graphic package, saved as follows and named according to DOS conventions, e.g. 'figure1.tif'.

Do not embed your figure files in the main document.

Line work (vector graphics) and combined images (photographs with lines/ bars)- .ai (Adobe Illustrator)/ Encapsulated PostScript (.eps). There is a ‘save as’ function in most statistical/ spreadsheet packages such as Microsoft Excel that allows files to be saved in eps format.

Lines should not be thinner than 0.25 pts and in-fill patterns and screens should have a density of at least 10%. Use 10pt Helvetica font for labels.

The optimal resolution for these images is 600-1200dpi.

Photographs should be saved as high resolution (300dpi) .tif files at 1.5x desired print size. Lower resolutions (<300 dpi) may compromise output quality.

Figure accessibility and alt text

Incorporating alt text (alternative text) when submitting your paper helps to foster inclusivity and accessibility. Good alt text ensures that individuals with visual impairments or those using screen readers can comprehend the content and context of your figures. The aim of alt text is to provide concise and informative descriptions of your figure so that all readers have access to the same level of information and understanding, and that all can engage with and benefit from the visual elements integral to scholarly content. Including alt text demonstrates a commitment to accessibility and enhances the overall impact and reach of your work. 

Alt text is applicable to all images, figures, illustrations, and photographs.

Alt text is only accessible via e-reader and so it won’t appear as part of the typeset article.

Detailed guidance on how to draft and submit alt text.

III. Permission to include others work

Permission to reproduce material within the manuscript must be obtained in advance by the corresponding author. Oxford Journals can offer information and documentation to assist authors in securing online permissions: please see the Guidelines for Authors or email Oxford Journals Rights department on [email protected]

Once granted, upload a copy of the approval as a supporting file. An acknowledgement to the source must be made in your text, exactly as stipulated by the particular institutions. The following information may be useful for obtaining permissions:

Journal: International Data Privacy Law

IP address: idpl.oxfordjournals.org/

Method of limiting access: password or IP address depending on subscription type

Users: individual subscribers and members of licence holding institutions

Fees charged: depends on subscription

Rights required: World rights, one language (English), print and online publication in perpetuity.

IV. Funding

In order to meet your funding requirements authors are required to name their funding sources, or state if there are none, during the submission process. Further information on this process and the CHORUS initiative.

V. Availability of Data and Materials

Where ethically feasible, IDPL strongly encourages authors to make all data and software code on which the conclusions of the paper rely available to readers. We suggest that data be presented in the main manuscript or additional supporting files, or deposited in a public repository whenever possible. Information on general repositories for all data types, and a list of recommended repositories by subject area.

VI. Data and Software Citation

IDPL supports the Force 11 Data Citation Principles and requires that all publicly available datasets be fully referenced in the reference list with an accession number or unique identifier such as a digital object identifier (DOI). Data citations should include the minimum information recommended by DataCite:

[dataset]* Authors, Year, Title, Publisher (repository or archive name), Identifier

*The inclusion of the [dataset] tag at the beginning of the citation helps us to correctly identify and tag the citation. This tag will be removed from the citation published in the reference list.

Software citations should include the minimum information recommended by the FORCE11 Software Citation Implementation Group:

Author/Developer, Release date, Title, Publisher (repository or archive name), Identifier

If there is an article describing the software, it is recommended to cite both the software and the article.

Manuscript requirements

I. General requirements

IDPL is a DOUBLE blinded (author and reviewer anonymised) journal. Self-referencing that would give away the author’s identity should be excluded. All submissions should adhere to the following:

Title Page Document – Please note that information provided here will be reproduced in the published manuscript

File designation ‘Title Page’
Title and running head (short title);
Article category — choose from: Article/Comment and Analysis;
Names and institutional affiliations of all authors. If you would like to add a contact email address(es), please do so here, but note that this is not obligatory. Please be aware that any personal details you give here will be reproduced in full in the published manuscript; we will ask for your contact details for the purposes of contacting you regarding your submission separately;
Declarations/ Acknowledgements: indicate at the end of the text before references:
1. Any necessary ethical approval(s);
2. Any conflict of interest. This includes ownership of shares, consultancy, speaker's honoraria or research grants from commercial companies or professional or governmental organisations with an interest in the topic of the paper. If in doubt, disclose; and
3. Acknowledgements of people and organisations.

Article File

File designation ‘Main Document – Anonymous’
Title;
Article category — choose from: Article/Comment and Analysis
A summary (refer to II. Guidelines on specific papers for style)
Six appropriate keywords in alphabetical order;
Main body containing sections on background, methods, results and conclusions, with the appropriate heading.
Tables – if appropriate, in tabulate text. Do not embed tables.
Figure legends – if appropriate, in a list following the tables.
(Figures must be uploaded additionally as individual graphic files. See presubmission advice and preparation, II figures).
References as OSCOLA style foot notes (refer to II. Guidelines on specific papers, below)

Other Files (may be required)

Permissions - File designation ‘supplementary data for review
Figures - File designation ‘image’

II. Guidelines on specific papers.

Original Articles

Summary to include salient points set out in 3-5 full sentence bullet points.

Maximum words – 10,000 (includes references) / maximum figures and tables – 5

Comment and Analysis

Contributions for the “Comment and Analysis” section, analysing recent key cases, legislation and topical matters, should be kept to a maximum of 5,000 words. .References must be made in footnote. Please use the following template for the article file:

Title (descriptive)
Summary to include salient points set out in 3-5 full sentence bullet points
Text of the piece

Submission

There is no deadline for submissions - papers are published online on a rolling basis.

Submissions must have been read and approved by all authors. Submission of a manuscript implies that it reports unpublished work and that it is not under active consideration for publication elsewhere, nor been accepted for publication, nor been published in full or in part (except in abstract form).

All material to be considered for publication in IDPL should be submitted via the journal's online submission system

A user ID and password can be obtained on the first visit. If you have any queries please contact Lou Whelan, International Data Privacy Law Editorial Office. [email protected]

Once you are ready to submit, check:

You have created a separate title page file and included everything listed as a requirement;
Your main document is anonymised and includes everything listed as a requirement
Any figures are uploaded separately as EPS or TIFF files;
Any supporting documents are uploaded: eg permission; and
You have completed all submission steps.

Failure to do so will result in your files returned to your author centre. You will receive an email detailing corrections required.

Acceptance

I. Copyright

It is a condition of publication in the Journal that authors grant an exclusive licence to Oxford University Press. This ensures that requests from third parties to reproduce articles are handled efficiently and consistently and will also allow the article to be as widely disseminated as possible. As part of the licence agreement, authors may use their own material in other publications provided that the Journal is acknowledged as the original place of publication, and Oxford University Press is notified in writing and in advance. Upon receipt of accepted manuscripts at Oxford Journals authors will be invited to complete an online copyright licence to publish form.

Please note that by submitting an article for publication you confirm that you are the corresponding/submitting author and that Oxford University Press ("OUP") may retain your email address for the purpose of communicating with you about the article. You agree to notify OUP immediately if your details change. If your article is accepted for publication OUP will contact you using the email address you have used in the registration process. Please note that OUP does not retain copies of rejected articles.

II. Proofs

The corresponding author will receive a PDF proof of their article by email. Proofing instructions will accompany the PDF file but the proof should be checked immediately and returned to the production office within three days; authors are encouraged to use E-annotation tools available in Adobe Acrobat Professional or Acrobat Reader (version 7.0 or above) to e-annotate the PDF copy of their proofs.

Author rights and benefits

I. Open access

International Data Privacy Law offers the option of publishing under either a standard licence or an open access licence. Please note that some funders require open access publication as a condition of funding. If you are unsure whether you are required to publish open access, please do clarify any such requirements with your funder or institution.

Should you wish to publish your article open access, you should select your choice of open access licence in our online system after your article has been accepted for publication. You will need to pay an open access charge to publish under an open access licence.

Details of the open access licences and open access charges.

OUP has a growing number of Read and Publish agreements with institutions and consortia which provide funding for open access publishing. This means authors from participating institutions can publish open access, and the institution may pay the charge. Find out if your institution is participating.

II. Author self-archiving/public access policy

For information about this journal’s policy regarding making article versions available on personal websites, institutional and other repositories, etc., please visit our Author Self-Archiving policy page.

III. Back issues

The current plus two back volumes are available from Oxford University Press. Previous volumes can be obtained from the Periodicals Service Company, 11 Main Street, Germantown, NY 12526, USA. Tel: +1 (518) 537 4700; Fax: +1 (518) 537 5899.

Orders from the UK will be subject to the current UK VAT charge. For orders from the rest of the European Union, OUP will assume that the service is provided for business purposes. Please provide a VAT number for yourself or your institution and ensure you account for your own local VAT correctly.

Contact

I. Editorial office

For pre and post submission queries, please contact the Editorial Office:
[email protected]

II. Production office

For post acceptance and proofing queries, please contact the production office:
[email protected]