Instructions to Authors

About the Journal

The Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A (Statistics in Society) is a peer-reviewed journal that publishes 4 issues per year in print and in online formats. Some papers in Series A (Statistics in Society) may have associated charges. Please refer to the Charges section below. Once a paper is accepted, Series A (Statistics in Society) will publish a pre-copyedited, pre-proofed version of the paper online within 48 hours of receiving a signed licence. This is replaced by a copyedited, proofed version of the paper as soon as it is ready. Please read these instructions carefully and follow them closely. The Editors may return manuscripts that do not follow these instructions.

Scope of the Journal

Series A looks at how innovative statistical thinking, design, methods, and analyses play a vital role in all walks of life and benefit society. For example, medicine and biomedical sciences, business and commerce, industry, economics and finance, education and teaching, the law, government and politics, demography, psychology, sociology and sport all fall within its remit.

The journal’s emphasis is on clearly written quantitative approaches to problems of current relevance rather than the exposition of technical detail. Of particular interest are papers on topical or contentious statistical issues that give reviews or exposés of current statistical concerns, and papers that contribute to our understanding of important substantive questions. Historical, professional and biographical contributions are also published, as are discussions of methods of data collection and of ethical issues.

Discussion papers

Series A (Statistics in Society) also publishes papers which have been presented for discussion at meetings of the Society. Forthcoming discussion papers are available from the society’s web pages.

Editorial Policies

Details of Oxford University Press’s editorial policies are available.

Peer Review

This journal uses single blind peer review. Full details about the peer review process are available.

Preprint Policy

Authors retain the right to make an Author’s Original Version (preprint) available through various channels, and this does not prevent submission to the journal. For further information see our Online Licensing, Copyright and Permissions policies. If accepted, the authors are required to update the status of any preprint, including your published paper’s DOI, as described on our Author Self-Archiving policy page.

Self-Archiving Policy

You may self-archive versions of your work on your own webpages, on institutional webpages, and in other repositories. If you want more information about the reuse rights you retain if you publish with us, please visit our Author Self Archiving Policy page.

Conflict of Interest

When submitting a paper, you and your co-authors must declare any potential conflicts of interest by including a Conflict of Interest statement in the covering letter to the Editor. At the Editor's discretion, this information may be printed at the end of the paper if it is published.

A detailed definition of conflicts of interest is available.

Submission

We will consider your manuscript as long as

• it is your own original work and does not duplicate any previously published work, including your own;
• it is not under consideration, in peer review, or accepted for publication in any journal other than Series A (Statistics in Society);
• it has not been published in any other journal;
• it contains nothing abusive, defamatory, libelous, obscene, fraudulent, or illegal; and
• except for discussion meetings papers, manuscripts that are longer than 24 journal pages are unlikely to be accepted for publication.

Authors should observe high ethical standards and obey publication best practices. The following are all unacceptable:

• data falsification or fabrication
• plagiarism, including duplicate publication of your own work without proper citation
• misappropriation of work

Natural language processing tools driven by artificial intelligence (AI) such as ChatGPT do not qualify as authors, and OUP will screen for them in author lists. The use of AI (for example, to help generate content or images, write code, process data, or for translation) must be disclosed both in cover letters to editors and in the Methods or Acknowledgements section of manuscripts.”

We treat any case of ethical or publication malpractice very seriously. We will address them in accordance with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines. Further information about OUP’s ethical policies is available.

How to Submit

You must submit your paper via our web-based submission system ScholarOne. If you have not published with Series A (Statistics in Society) before, you will need to create an account. More information is available on the ScholarOne Manuscripts FAQ and help page. Questions about submitting can be sent to the editorial office at journal@rss.org.uk.

The Journal of the Royal Statistical Society is published in three series: Series A (Statistics in
Society), Series B (Statistical Methodology) and Series C (Applied Statistics). Each series publishes
contributed papers as well as papers (with discussion) which have been read at Discussion Meetings
of the Society. Manuscripts must be original contributions which are not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Except for discussion meetings papers, manuscripts that are longer than 24 journal pages are unlikely to be accepted for publication.

Discussion Papers

Authors are invited to consider submitting papers to be read at a Discussion Meeting of the Royal Statistical Society. These meetings have been held since the Society’s beginnings as ‘ordinary meetings’ and are one of the great traditions of the Society. Colloquially known as ‘read papers’, many of the major advances in statistics were first presented for discussion in this way.

Papers for discussion may contain a significant advance in statistical methodology, focus on a particular statistical debate or have some other wide relevance to the profession. The criteria for acceptance in all cases are the quality of the paper and the potential to attract discussion. Discussion papers should be written to draw in a large and varied audience and to stimulate people to attend the meeting and to contribute to the discussion in person or at least in writing.

Series A (Statistics in Society) publishes papers that demonstrate how statistical thinking, design and analyses play a vital role in all walks of life and benefit society in general. There is no restriction on subject-matter: any interesting, topical and revelatory applications of statistics are welcome. For example, important applications of statistical methods in medicine, business and commerce, industry, economics and finance, education and teaching, physical and biomedical sciences, the environment, the law, government and politics, demography, psychology, sociology and sport all fall within the journal's remit. The journal is therefore aimed at a wide statistical audience and at professional statisticians. Its emphasis is on well-written and clearly reasoned quantitative approaches to problems in the real world rather than the exposition of technical detail. Thus, although the methodological basis of papers must be sound and adequately explained, methodology per se should not be the main focus of a Series A paper. Of particular interest are papers on topical or contentious statistical issues, papers which give reviews or exposés of current statistical concerns and papers which demonstrate how appropriate statistical thinking has contributed to our understanding of important substantive 3 questions. Historical, professional and biographical contributions are also welcome, as are discussions of methods of data collection and of ethical issues, provided that all such papers have substantial statistical relevance.

Discussion papers can be aimed at any of the three series of the journal, A, B or C. Papers describing new statistical methodology are usually published in Series B, whereas those with a more applied, policy, or societal focus on themes of general interest or motivated primarily by statistical applications are likely to appear in Series A or Series C. There are no submission deadlines for papers that are aimed at Series A or Series C. These papers will be reviewed individually upon passing the initial screen.

Discussion Contributions
Discussion contributions are comments on a specific RSS journal discussion paper that is due to be read or has been read at a Society’s discussion meeting. The comments are expected to be no longer than 400 words, unless they are from an invited speaker – a proposer or seconder of the vote of thanks – in which case they should be around 800 words. The maximum word length doesn’t include tables, references or figures. All contributions must be submitted to the ScholarOne system within two weeks of the meeting date unless otherwise specified. You will need to select the Series in which the discussion paper will be published. For this information and for further details, please see https://rss.org.uk/training-events/events/key-events/discussion-papers/ for further details.

See ‘How to Submit’, above, for guidance on submitting your written contribution.

For important information on licensing and Open Access options for Discussion Papers and Discussion Contributions please see Licence to Publish and Open Access Options.

Book Reviews
Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A accepts reviews which must be submitted to the ScholarOne system for acceptance. Significance magazine also accepts book reviews. For an explanation of the difference between the two and for full details of the process, please see https://rss.org.uk/news-publication/publications/journals/review-pages/. Note that you will first need to contact the Book Reviews Editor to express an interest in reviewing one of the listed books and to receive a copy for review. The Editor will arrange for you to be invited to submit your finished review to the ScholarOne system for Series A and provide you with full instructions on how to make your submission.

Obituary
Obituaries are published in Series A and are usually commissioned. They should be around 600 words for a short obituary and 1200 words for a full/long obituary. There is, however, some flexibility. Longer obituaries are usually intended for those statisticians who were particularly celebrated during their long careers.

References, if any, should be included in the main body of the text rather than listed at the end. There are exceptions for those statisticians who during their long career have so many references it would not be feasible to include them in the main article. The expected format for submission is a Word (docx) document with photo file if appropriate.

See ‘How to Submit’, above, for guidance on submitting your obituary.

Third-Party Permissions

If you wish to reproduce any material for which you do not own the copyright—including quotations, tables, or images—you must obtain permission from the copyright holder. The permissions agreement must include the following documents:

• nonexclusive rights to reproduce the material in your article in Series A (Statistics in Society)
• both print and electronic rights, preferably for use in any form or medium
• lifetime rights to use the material
• worldwide English-language rights

Further information on obtaining permissions is available.

Manuscript Preparation: Format, Structure, and Style

Presubmission Language Editing

If you are not confident in the quality of your English, you may wish to use a language-editing service to ensure that editors and reviewers understand your paper. Language editing is optional and does not guarantee that your manuscript will be accepted. Edited manuscripts will still undergo peer review by the journal.

Title Page

Please include the following:

• the title of your paper
• all author names and affiliations
• mailing address and email address of one corresponding author
• a short running head of 50 characters or less
• to ensure that a Discussion Paper manuscript is flagged on submission for consideration for reading at a Discussion Meeting of the Society, the author should mention this in the title page/covering note

ORCID Identifiers

An ORCID identifier is a unique and persistent identifier that distinguishes individual researchers from every other researcher, by connecting them with their research activities. Series A (Statistics in Society) requires the submitting author (only) to provide an ORCID identifier when submitting a manuscript.

Abstract and Keywords

Abstracts have a maximum length of 200 words and should be included at the beginning of the manuscript, together with five or six keywords or key phrases arranged in alphabetical order, to describe the content of the paper. Although not compulsory, it is helpful for choosing referees also to supply these details in completing the submission form. Reference citations and abbreviations should not be cited in the abstract.

Style

Please refer to journal style requirements when preparing your manuscript. More information on the style guide is available. UK spelling should be used throughout, except in quotations and in references.

Abbreviations

Please define nonstandard abbreviations at the first occurrence. Abbreviations should be given in capital letters (without full stops) and always defined in full at the first place of mention.

Tables

You must number all tables (e.g., table 1, table 2, table 3) and reference them in the text. All illustrations and tables should be referred to sequentially in the text.  Tables should be in an editable format, and not embedded as an image file. Tables can be either included within the text near the point of mention or separately at the end of the manuscript. 

Tables should be numbered with Arabic numerals and referred to consecutively in the text. They should not duplicate information that is already given in the text or contain material which would be better presented graphically. Tabular matter should be as simple as possible, with brief column headings and the minimum number of columns. No vertical lines should be used to separate the columns and no horizontal rules within the body of the table. Numbers in tables should be right justified or with decimal points lined up where appropriate. Numbers should also be appropriately rounded. The order of symbols for footnotes in tables is †, ‡, §, §§, *, **, ††, ‡‡.

References

You may format references in any readable style at submission. You are responsible for the accuracy of reference information. The citing of references to unpublished material or publication which are not in the public domain should be avoided if possible. 

Acknowledgments and Funding

Acknowledgments and funding information should be included at the end of your manuscript. Please fully cite any relevant funding information, including specific grant numbers.

LaTeX

Our class files are available online at Overleaf. For Series A, please use modern, medium, single column, numbered headings, and author-year references. 

Overleaf is a free, collaborative online LaTeX editor that allows you to write your manuscript in a TeX or rich text environment, to generate PDF outputs as you write, and to share your manuscript with co-authors and collaborators. When ready for submission, the manuscript files can be downloaded from Overleaf and submitted to the journal’s online submission system.  

If you choose not to use the Overleaf template, then we recommend you generate your output using article.cls, where possible avoiding any local macros or special formatting that may be difficult to replicate in the final publication process.  

Submissions to RSS can be made using TeX or Word. Manuscripts will be typeset according to journal style, and so the layout and placement of certain elements will differ from the accepted manuscript. 

Further guidance is available within the file package. Find general help in using LaTeX. 

Figures

You must include figure titles and legends within the manuscript file—they should not be included in the image file. Illustrations can be either embedded within the text near the point of mention or separately at the end of the manuscript.  All illustrations should be referred to sequentially in the text.  
You must submit each figure as an individual image file. Submit all panels of a multipanel figure on a single page as one file. For example, if the figure has 3 panels, the figure should be submitted as one file. Each panel should be labeled as a letter (A, B, C, D, etc.) in the upper-left corner of each panel.
Images of photographs or paintings can be provided as raster images. Common examples of raster images are .tif/.tiff, .raw, .gif, and .bmp file types. The resolution of raster files is measured by the number of dots or pixels in a given area, referred to as “dpi” or “ppi.”

• minimum resolution required for printed images or pictures: 350dpi
• minimum resolution for printed line art: 600dpi (complex or finely drawn line art should be 1200dpi)
• minimum resolution for electronic images (i.e., for on-screen viewing): 72dpi

Images of maps, charts, graphs, and diagrams are best rendered digitally as geometric forms called vector graphics. Common file types are .eps, .ai, and .pdf. Vector images use mathematical relationships between points and the lines connecting them to describe an image. These file types do not use pixels; therefore resolution does not apply to vector images.

Figures prepared as .doc/.docx or .jpeg/.jpg files will not be accepted.

All graphs and tables should have a brief, clear, self-explanatory title, including information on any units of measurement. 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 both axes should be clearly labelled. Keys should be removed from figures and the material put into the caption instead. If the paper is accepted for publication, it is helpful if short captions are provided in a list, typed with double line spacing, on a separate page at the end of the manuscript. The illustrations should be cited consecutively with Arabic numbers in the text.

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. 

Supplementary Material

You must submit supplementary data or supplementary material at the same time as the main manuscript.

• Supplementary material must be cited in the text of the main manuscript.
• Supplementary material will be available online only and will not be copyedited or typeset.
• Style and formatting of supplementary material should be consistent with that of the manuscript.
• Supplementary material should be formatted to function on any internet browser.
• Supplementary material files should be no larger than 2MB each.

Data Sets and Computer Code

In the interests of transparency and reproducibility, it is the policy of the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A that published papers should be accompanied by details of where the data and computer code used in the analyses could be found.   In situations where authors are unable to release their data, e.g., because of data access agreements, this must be justified clearly at the time of submission.

The preferred way to share large datasets is via public repositories. Some of these repositories offer authors the option to host data associated with a manuscript confidentially and provide anonymous access to peer reviewers before public release. These repositories then coordinate public release of the data with the journal’s publication date. It remains the responsibility of the author to communicate with the repository to ensure that public release is made on time for online publication of the paper.

Unstructured repositories, such as Figshare and Dryad, are suitable alternatives. Datasets can also be made available as Supplementary material files, which will be freely accessible upon publication. If data files cannot be deposited in an accessible repository, authors must make the data available to editors and peer reviewers if requested. After publication, authors must likewise arrange to make the data available to any reader directly upon reasonable request.

Source code for any specialized, in-house scripts or programs, that are necessary for the reproduction of results, must be deposited in a public repository (e.g., GitHub), or uploaded as Supplementary material.

The Editors reserve the right to refuse publication of any paper for which the justification for failing to provide details of how to access data or the code is deemed inadequate.  Authors must include a Data Availability Statement in their published article as a separate section before the Acknowledgements, and where datasets or code have a persistent identifier, or DOI, this should be cited in both the text and the reference section. Further information can be found here https://dbpia.nl.go.kr/pages/open-research/research-data#Citing%20research%20data%20and%20software.

Lists of Displayed Items

Text lists of items should be identified as sequences (a), (b), (c), .... Further itemization within these should be denoted by (i), (ii), (iii), .... ‘Bullet’ points, (A), (B), (C), ..., (I), (II), (III), ... or other symbols are not used.

Theorems, Propositions, and Corollaries

Statements of theorems, lemmas, corollaries, propositions, remarks etc. should be numbered
sequentially and individually by type and not by section, e.g., theorem 1, theorem 2, proposition 1,
proposition 2 ..., not theorem 1, proposition 2, theorem 3, proposition 4 ..., or theorem 2.1, theorem
3.1, ....

Mathematical Equations

Mathematical equations or complicated expressions should be typed on lines separate from the text
(‘displayed’). Important equations should be numbered consecutively and punctuated in the normal
way as text, if necessary. Such equations should be centred along the line and numbered to the right
of the expressions. The numbering can be either of the form (1), (2), (3), ... (preferred) or (2.1), (2.2),
(2.3), .... For groups of equations, (1a), (1b), (1c), ... may also be appropriate, but (1 ́), (1 ́ ́), ... are not
used.

Matrixes should be indicated by italics and vectors by bold. The development of mathematical expressions, if essential, should be presented in appendixes and only the relevant equations should be given in the body of the text. Each appendix should have a short title.

Brackets

The order of brackets in nested expressions is [{()}].

Exponential Function

The expression ‘exp’ rather than ‘e’ should preferably be used in text and with complicated arguments.

Publishing Agreement and Charges

Please read each section on the publishing agreement and charges carefully. Even if your publishing agreement (also called a licence) does not carry a charge, colour charges may apply.

Publishing Agreement

After your manuscript is accepted, you will be asked to sign a licence to publish through our licencing and payment portal, SciPris. The Journal offers the option of publishing under either a non-open access (assignment RSS) licence or an open access (Creative Commons) licence. There is a charge to publish under an open access licence, which allows your paper to be freely accessible to all readers immediately upon online publication. Editorial decisions occur prior to this step and are not influenced by payment or ability to pay. The assignment RSS makes your paper available only to Journal subscribers and there is no licence charge. 

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 check with your funder or institution before selecting your licence.

Papers can be published under the following:

• Assignment RSS
• Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY)
• Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial licence (CC-BY-NC)

Please see OUP guidance on licences, copyright, and re-use rights for more information regarding these publishing agreement options.

Complying with Funder Mandates

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 before selecting your licence.

Further information on funder mandates and direct links to a range of funder policies.

Note on Discussion Papers and Discussion Contributions

Authors of accepted Discussion Papers and Discussion Contributions will be asked to sign a licence for their manuscripts, and can select our RSS assignment, or an Open Access option (CC BY or CC BY-NC licences). The licence status of Discussion Contributions is not governed by the licence of the associated Discussion Paper, rather each constituent component has its own licence.

Where the corresponding author of a Discussion Paper is a member of a qualifying institution, their paper may be eligible for Read and Publish funding, meaning authors can publish Open Access at no cost to themselves. Discussion Contributions are not eligible for Read and Publish funding, so Open Access publication for these pieces will incur a cost to the Author.

Please note, however, that where authors have selected RSS assignment, Discussion Papers and Discussion Contributions are published “Free to View”. While this “Free to View” status does not confer the more liberal re-use rights of an Open Access licence, authors may wish to note that the “Free to View” status does mean that access is not restricted to users with a subscription.

Open Access Charges

Please see the details of open access licences and charges. If you select an open access licence, you must pay the open access charge or request to use an institutional agreement to pay the open access charge through our licencing and payment portal, SciPris.

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

To be eligible for one of OUP’s Read and Publish agreements, the corresponding author must provide their qualifying institution as their primary affiliation when they submit their manuscript. After submission, changing the corresponding author in order to access Read and Publish funding is not permissible.

Colour Charges

You must pay any applicable colour charges through our licencing and payment portal, SciPris, when production of your paper is complete.

The Journal charges £50 per printed colour image. The price is exclusive of value added tax, goods and services tax, and any similar sales or exercise taxes. Any applicable taxes will be added to the invoiced charge at the prevailing rate. Colour charges can be avoided by submitting grayscale images for print along with full colour images for the online paper.