Submissions

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Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
  • The article has not been published elsewhere (i.e. it is an original manuscript) and has not been submitted for publication to another journal. The submission must also not be a revised version of a previously published work.
  • The manuscript is submitted as doc, docx or rtf file.
  • The manuscript is written, and the bibliography formatted, in accordance with the journal’s guidelines for authors, which are based on the 7th edition of the APA Publication Manual (see guidelines for authors).
  • The manuscript was written by the stated author. The author in contact with the journal is responsible for naming all the authors involved in the article.
  • The manuscript follows the publishing ethics guidelines set out by Kriminologie – Das Online-Journal | Criminology – The Online Journal (see below).
  • The manuscript and the file(s) in question (including file properties) have been anonymised so that a double-blind peer review can be ensured.
  • If possible, authors are requested to also submit their ORCID iD (https://orcid.org) together with their manuscript.
  • Articles written in English have been checked for grammar and spelling errors by a professional translator and/or a native speaker of English.
  • The contribution represents my personal intellectual creation (cf. § 2 para. 2 UrhG). In particular, I have not created this work predominantly by using AI systems.

Author Guidelines

Guidelines for authors

 

Submissions

Articles can be submitted either via email (info@kriminologie.de) or online. Online submissions require user registration or login. Authors who submit articles via email must also return a signed copy of the following document.

The following manuscripts may be submitted:

  • Academic articles
  • Conference reports

 

Peer review process

After submission, each article will first be reviewed by the editors, who will make sure the manuscript meets the requirements of the submission checklist (see above) as well as the guidelines for authors. They will also check that there is a sufficient link to the field of criminology. Manuscripts that do not meet these requirements will be returned to the author. In some cases, the editors may ask the author to revise their manuscript before it is passed on to the reviewers. The editors also reserve the right to reject individual manuscripts, even those that have not yet been submitted for review (desk rejection).

After the submitted articles have been screened, the editorial team will contact suitable reviewers and begin the peer review process. Each manuscript that is accepted (with the exception of editorials, conference reports and book reviews) will undergo a double-blind peer review, i.e. it will be reviewed by two independent external experts, with the identities of both the reviewers and authors anonymised. If the two reviewers fail to agree, the editors shall make the final decision, which may require a third review. A peer review is conducted using a standardised evaluation sheet that is completed by the reviewer and returned to the editorial team. The reviews are then checked by the editors. The author is immediately informed of the outcome of the review process, which will be one of the following:

  • accepted without revisions
  • accepted with revisions
  • rejected

If an article is accepted with revisions, the reviewers may, if required, check the article a second time to ensure that the necessary changes outlined in the review have been incorporated into the revised text. In some cases the author may be requested to further revise their manuscript. The editors will then make a final decision on the publication of the revised article. Accepted manuscripts will be formatted for publication before being sent out to the author in contact with the journal for a final check. Once the author has given their approval, the manuscript is submitted for final editing and will appear in the following issue of Kriminologie – Das Online-Journal | Criminology – The Online Journal.

 

Publishing ethics guidelines

In order to ensure the relevant ethical standards are adhered to during the peer review and publication process, Kriminologie – Das Online-Journal | Criminology – The Online Journal complies with the code of conduct and best practice guidelines set out by the Committee On Publication Ethics and the Directory of Open Access Journals’ Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing. The authors of any research involving human subjects must obtain the prior consent of those participating in the study and abide by the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki.

By submitting their article to the journal, the author guarantees that the submitted manuscript is their own work and that all third-party research findings are credited appropriately and identifiable as such through the use of citations and references (plagiarism clause). Copyrighted material may not be used without the prior permission of the copyright holder and must be credited appropriately within the manuscript. The author is responsible for crediting third-party research findings. Any manuscript that contains scientific misconduct, such as plagiarism, redundant publication or the manipulation of diagrams, tables, etc., will be excluded from publication in Kriminologie – Das Online-Journal | Criminology – The Online Journal. If scientific misconduct is found in an article that has already been published, the article in question will be removed from the KrimOJ website and replaced by a notification explaining the reason for its removal.

Kriminologie – Das Online-Journal | Criminology – The Online Journal requires that authors declare all potential conflicts of interest and financial aid that have influenced the research findings discussed in their paper. Failure to adhere to this rule will lead to the article being removed from the journal’s homepage. Authors must also immediately inform the editors if a published article contains errors of which the author is aware.

Kriminologie – Das Online-Journal | Criminology – The Online Journal ensures that reviewers, authors and editors, as well as all those involved in the peer review process and the publication of articles, adhere to Kriminologie – Das Online-Journal | Criminology – The Online Journal’s publishing ethics guidelines.

 

Copyright and licence agreement

All articles will be provided under licence CC BY 4.0. Users have the right to copy and redistribute, remix, transform and build upon the material in any format or medium, and for any purpose, even commercially. However, users must always provide the name of the author, the title of the work, a link to the material, as well as a link to the licence, and indicate if changes were made. The author of each article retains copyright.

 

Data protection/confidentiality

Kriminologie – Das Online-Journal | Criminology – The Online Journal ensures all those involved in the peer review and publication processes treat submitted manuscripts with the strictest confidentiality. No confidential data, information or research findings will be passed on to third parties without the agreement of the author. To ensure anonymity during the double-blind peer review process, those involved will only be granted access to the information and/or data required to complete a review.

 

Kriminologie – Das Online-Journal | Criminology – The Online Journal is listed in:

 

Archives

A long-term archive of issues is kept by the University and City Library of Cologne as well as the German National Library and the PKP Preservation Network. Authors are free to deposit any version of their published articles on their own website, on the institutional repository or any archive of choice (self-archiving), but must ensure to apply to the criteria listed in the Copyright and licence agreement.