Instructions to Authors

Manuscripts that do not meet all of the requirements below may be returned to the authors for completion.

For support and more information please contact the Q Open editorial office ([email protected]). 

Article type guide

The journal welcomes the following article types:

• Standard research articles
• Review articles, which provide a review of state-of-the-art of a particular field or subject area
• Replication articles, which attempt to replicate earlier work
• Registered reports, where a research study is submitted for review prior to the research being carried out. The rationale and associated methodology are reviewed and if accepted then the resulting article will also be accepted conditional on the research being carried out as described. Only the resulting article is published in Q Open.

Submissions

Q Open considers all manuscripts on the condition that:

• the manuscript is your own original work and does not duplicate any other previously published work, including your own work
• the manuscript is not under consideration or peer review or accepted for publication or published elsewhere.
• the manuscript contains nothing that is abusive, defamatory, libellous, obscene, fraudulent, or illegal.

All manuscripts are submitted and reviewed via the journal’s web-based manuscript submission system. New authors will need to create an account prior to submitting a manuscript.

Peer review

Q Open operates a fast and efficient double-blind peer-review process. The editors aim to provide a first decision within 4 weeks of submission, though this is not a commitment.

Sound science

Q Open operates ‘sound-science’ peer review, where the focus is on scientific rigour and reflects the state-of-the-art in the field. The editorial decision on acceptance/rejection relies less on the often subjective evaluations of likely impact, novelty, or breadth of interest. The practice of existing journals in the field shows that the editorial process has limited success in evaluating along these dimensions of manuscript quality and it may be a source of publication bias, as currently discussed in the scientific community in general. The editors welcome submission of replication studies and null results. All submissions to the journal are initially reviewed by one of the journal editors and may be passed to one of the associate editors. Submissions may be rejected at this stage without peer-review if felt to be out of scope, inappropriate, poorly prepared or written, or otherwise unpublishable. Q Open values the time of its referees as a scarce resource, and the editors will not send manuscripts to referees that they believe have little chance of being accepted.

No-revision option

At the submission stage, authors may choose a no-revision option, which means that they will not receive a revise decision. They may still be required to make minor revisions under a conditional-accept decision. Submissions requiring major revisions will be rejected if the no-revision option is chosen. It is therefore recommended that the no-revision option is chosen only if the author is confident that the manuscript is very close to being publishable, and in that case choosing the no-revision option is a way for the author to signal this to the editors.

Sharing reports from previous submissions

Authors are encouraged to share the reports and decision letter from a previous submission, particularly where the submission was to a leading disciplinary or field journal, where they believe this will facilitate the review process on Q Open. These files can be uploaded as part of the submission process. Nevertheless the editors reserve the right to send the manuscript to referees. It is the author’s responsibility to get permission to share the files with Q Open.

Manuscript preparation

Manuscript format, structure, and style

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. 

Production process

Q Open is an online-only journal. Accepted articles are copy-edited and typeset and authors receive proofs to check before the final version is published. We aim for rapid publication within 4-6 weeks of acceptance.

Open access

Q Open is a fully open access journal, and all articles are published in the journal under an open access licence immediately upon 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.

CC BY, CC BY-NC, CC BY-NC-ND licence - £1,427

Corresponding authors based in countries and regions, that are part of the developing countries initiative are eligible for a full waiver of publishing fees in our fully open access journals. For further details, please see our APC Waiver Policy.

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.

Self-archiving policy

Information on the journal’s self-archiving policy is available.

Data policies

Availability of Data and Materials

Where ethically feasible, the Journal strongly encourages authors to make all data and software code on which the conclusions of the paper rely available to readers. From Volume 3, 2023 onwards authors are required to include a data availability statement in their paper. When data and software underlying the research article are available in an online source, authors should include a full citation in their reference list. For details of the minimum information to be included in data and software citations see the OUP guidance on citing research data and software.

Whenever possible, data should be presented in the main manuscript or additional supporting files or deposited in a public repository. Visit OUP’s Research data page for information on general repositories for all data types, and resources for selecting repositories by subject area.

Data Availability Statement

The inclusion of a data availability statement is a mandatory requirement for papers published in the Journal from Volume 3, 2023 onwards. Data availability statements provide a standardized format for readers to understand the availability of original and third-party data underlying the research results described in the paper. The statement should describe and provide means of access, where possible, by linking to the data or providing the required unique identifier.

More information and example data availability statements.

Data Citation

Q Open 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.

Preprint/working paper policy

Authors retain the right to make an Author’s Original Version (preprint or working paper) 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.

Ethical policies

Falsification or fabrication of data, plagiarism, including duplicate publication of the authors’ own work without proper citation, and misappropriation of work are all unacceptable practices. Any cases of ethical malpractice are treated very seriously and will be managed in accordance with the Commission on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines. Further information about OUP’s ethical policies is available on the Publication Ethics page.

Plagiarism

All manuscripts submitted to Q Open may be screened with iThenticate anti-plagiarism software to detect and prevent plagiarism.

Disclosure

Any financial interests or connections, direct or indirect, or other situations that might raise the question of bias in the work reported or the conclusions, implications, or opinions stated—including pertinent commercial or other sources of funding for the individual author(s) or for the associated department(s) or organization(s), personal relationships, or direct academic competition—should be disclosed. For further information see the FAQ.

Permissions regarding re-use of OUP material

Guidelines on permissions for the reuse of OUP material can be found on the Rights & Permissions page.

Third-party permissions

In order to reproduce any material where the copyright is owned by a third party, including tables, figures, or images, in an article authors must obtain permission from the copyright holder and be compliant with any requirements the copyright holder may have pertaining to this reuse. When seeking to reproduce any kind of third party material authors should request the following:

• non-exclusive rights to reproduce the material in the specified article and journal;
• print and electronic rights, preferably for use in any form or medium;
• the right to use the material for the life of the work; and
• world-wide English-language rights.

Further guidelines on clearing permissions can be found in the Permission Guidelines for Authors document.

Manuscript Transfer

Q Open receives transfers from other journals on related topics published by Oxford University Press. All transfers are sent according to the choice of the authors. Unless a reviewer declines to have their feedback shared, reviewer reports and the original decision letter are included in the transfer, but the reviewer identities are not shared. Transferred manuscripts may be sent out for additional peer review, and a decision will be made on the manuscript based on the feedback from all reviewers and the judgment of the editorial team.