We are excited to go on this journey with you. As journal we commit to:

• Inclusive, respectful and collaborative staff-student-volunteer interactions.
• Awareness and transparency in how academic publishing works. 
• Foster engagement with issues of social justice, fairness and decolonisation in Criminology and allied subjects. 
• Actively demonstrate commitment to the value of student research. 

Support we provide

We know that the idea of publishing may feel daunting and people may not feel ready to submit an article. Therefore, we provide weekly workshops and writing groups. The workshops been trialled since September 2022 and are open to all potential writers. 

You can sign up using our contact form.

The editorial process

We employ an anonymous peer review process, recognising the inherent power of language and therefore emphasising its mindful and sensitive use. We strongly welcome voices that bring direct personal experience to the forefront, challenging systemic assumptions and prejudices about knowledge within the academic system.

We are an open-access journal ensuring we can be read and submitted to by as many people as possible. We enthusiastically embrace different, creative, and innovative research methodologies and writing styles. 

Below are some of the common pathways from initial inquiry to publication.

Submission guidelines

GJCJ welcomes the submission of articles, comments and feedback from undergraduates, graduates, MSc/MA/MS, MPhil and PhD students. All material submitted must not have appeared elsewhere, nor be submitted for publication elsewhere while under consideration by GJCJ. All articles must correspond to the prohibition of plagiarism outlined by the Society of Authors.

Proposals and submissions should be uploaded via the contact form as two Word documents, one the anonymised article and one the article submission form (see below). By sending in the article submission form, it is taken that the authors have given their consent to publish the article under the conditions outlined by the GJCJ.

The editors ask that authors strictly adhere to the maximum word-count permitted as this is a requirement for acceptance of submissions so that GJCJ can maintain a coherent and consistent style and an unambiguously equal standard for all authors.

Articles: The recommended length for articles is 4,000–5,000 words (including footnotes but excluding bibliographic references).
Thought Pieces: The recommended length for thought pieces is 1,500–2,000 words. Thought pieces can cover debates, case studies and research notes. They provide space for ideas and projects that represent work in progress and as such might benefit from peer review and public discussion.
Review Essays: Review essays are more substantial and longer than book reviews, considering two or more texts on a particular subject but locating them within the broader literature. The books are still reviewed in some sense, but also compared and linked to broader academic debates. The word limit for review essays is between 1,000-2,000 words.
Event Feedback: The recommended length for event feedback is 1,000 words. This is for reports of any relevant conferences, seminars and lectures. Additional details should include the speaker, the organisers, title of event, the location and date.

Manuscript preparation and referencing

All manuscripts submitted to the Graduate Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, including in-text citations and reference list, should be prepared and formatted in accordance with the APA Style as specified in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th Edition).

Both American and British English spellings are acceptable as long as their usage is consistent throughout the manuscript.

If English is not your native language, we can publish your article both in English and in your native language. To do this you should submit two versions of your article, identical in content, one in English and one in your native language.

Where your work is about people in minoritised contexts, we encourage authors to consider publishing in both English and the language of the people that minoritised context use so that the work is accessible to them (although this is a suggestion rather than a requirement). To do this you should submit two versions of your article, identical in content, one in English and one in the language of the people in the minoritised context.

Please submit two files – an article submission file and the anonymised article file.

---

The article submission file should contain:

• The article title which should be concise and informative. Avoid abbreviations where possible, unless they are established and widely understood (e.g., DNA).
• Author name(s) in the format of given name(s) and family name(s) for each author. Carefully check that all names are accurately spelled.
• Affiliations – please include institutional affiliation, including the country name, for when the research was produced and, where relevant and different, institutional affiliation, including the country name, now. These should be located immediately after each authors’ name.
• Correspondence Email: Please provide an email address for correspondence relating to your article at all stages of the refereeing and publication process. This might include answering queries about your results, data, methodology and materials. It is the author(s) responsibility to keep the Journal updated with any changes of email address to ensure correspondence reaches the author(s).
• Abstract which should be concise and factual abstract stating the purpose of the research, principal results and major conclusions in up to 250 words. Avoid references in your Abstract, if any are essential to include, ensure that you cite the author(s) and year(s).
• Keywords: suggest up to five keywords or short phrases.Keywords should be written in English.

The article submission file should also contain two of the following statements:

I confirm that I have not used AI tools such as ChatGPT or Large Language Models in the writing of this article, production of images or graphical elements of the paper, or in the collection and analysis of data except in the writing process to improve the readability and language of the manuscript.

OR

I have used AI tools such as ChatGPT or Large Language Models in the writing of this article, production of images or graphical elements of the paper, or in the collection and analysis of data, and have been transparent in disclosing in the Methods (or similar section) of the article which AI tool was used and how it was used.

AND

I accept I am fully responsible and accountable for the content of this article and am thus liable for any breach of publication ethics. I confirm that I have not submitted this article, or one substantially like it, to any other journal or publication except in the form of an abstract, a published lecture, academic thesis or registered report. If accepted, the article will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, including electronically, without the written consent of the Graduate Journal of Criminology & Justice Board.

---

Where you have used open source information or data, please ensure you check that the links are still live at the point of submission.

Ensure your article file is fully anonymised to allow for a masked peer-review process.

Both submissions should be in a standard 12pt font (Calibri is preferred) with 1.15 line spacing and 2cm margins all round and in a single-column format.

Please use spell-check and grammar-check functions before submission to avoid errors.

Please submit the article submission file and anonymised article file as editable .doc/.docx Word files (including figures, tables and text graphics). Pdf is not a suitable format for submission.

Inclusive Language and Consideration of Positionality

As with all academic subjects, criminology and allied disciplines have been (or are) involved in discriminatory, colonial and neo-colonial relationships. As such, we ask all authors to pay attention to inclusive language and critical reflection on their positionality.

Inclusive language acknowledges diversity, conveys respect to all people, is sensitive to differences, and promotes equity. Authors should ensure their work uses inclusive language throughout and contains nothing which might imply one individual is superior to another on the grounds of:

• age
• gender
• race
• ethnicity
• culture
• nationality
• sexual orientation
• disability or health condition

The relevant characteristics above should be addressed within the article or declared as a limitation to the generalizability of the research. The definitions used for the relevant characteristics should be explicitly stated to enhance the precision, rigor and reproducibility of the research and to avoid ambiguity or conflation of terms and the constructs to which they refer. This is not to suggest that discrimination or discriminatory language should not be discussed as part of your article’s findings.

We recommend avoiding the use of descriptors about personal attributes unless they are relevant and valid. Write for gender neutrality with the use of plural nouns (“clinicians, patients/clients”) as default. Wherever possible, avoid using “he or she”, “he/she” or “s/he”. The use of “they” and “them” is acceptable. No assumptions should be made about the beliefs of readers and writing should be free from stereotypes, slang, reference to dominant culture and/or cultural assumptions. These guidelines are meant as a point of reference to help identify appropriate language but are by no means exhaustive or definitive.

Positionality acknowledges that as social beings we are all located within complex networks of position and meaning. Authors should ensure that they have reflected on their positionality, particularly, but not exclusively, in relation to historical colonialism and contemporary neo-colonialism. We are committed to decolonising work in criminology, related fields, academia more generally and academic publishing because decolonising work is ethically the right thing to do. Decolonisation is a long-term process that seeks to recognise the integral role of empire and a reappraisal of our knowledge, institutions and histories and an effort to address colonial structures and approaches. Academic publishing is itself a transaction through colonial power structures. Decolonising criminology and related fields relies on transparency about the assumptions, frames-of-reference, representation and power and privilege of authors and relevant institutions. This includes acknowledging and reflecting on relevant colonial relationships between peoples, nations and within criminology and associated disciplines themselves.