Editorial policy
Submissions to the Youth Voice Journal (YVJ™) can be made at any given time. Once accepted, submissions are published online and indexed. Occasionally, the Journal publishes Special Issues and the deadlines relating to these publications are included in the related Calls.
Step 1: Check that your paper fits within the Journal’s objectives
Step 2: Check that your paper complies with our submission and editorial guidelines as well as our Publication Ethics Guidelines
Step 3: Fill out the Youth Voice Journal Copyrights Form
Step 4: Email in Microsoft Word format the following attachments:
- Anonymised Manuscript without authors’ details for peer review. All pages of the manuscript must be numbered. You must also include a running head (short title) appearing in all pages of the manuscript. The file should be named as “manuscript” and should not include the authors’ details.
- Title Page to include: The full and short title of the paper, the author’s name and affiliation, contact details including email and postal address and short biography of authors. Details of all funding sources for the work in question should be given in a separate section on the same page entitled ‘Funding’. This should appear before the ‘Acknowledgements’ section if any.
- Anonymised Abstract page without authors’ details. Each manuscript requires an abstract of no more than 250 words. Please also include in the same page the full title of the article and up to 5 keywords.
- Youth Voice Journal Copyrights Form
The YVJ is a proud member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). COPE provides advice to editors and publishers on all aspects of publication ethics and, in particular, how to handle cases of research and publication misconduct.
Youth Voice Journal is ranked and indexed by EBSCO information services, Scopus, ORCID, Kudos, The European Reference Index for the Humanities and the Social Sciences (ERIH PLUS) and Criminal Justice Abstracts.
Original Articles:
We accept only original contributions that have not been published elsewhere. We publish research papers of theoretical and empirical nature as well as book reviews, article reviews, conference papers and commentaries. The Journal has an international readership and scope.
Each article must aim to provide critical analysis on a policy area/piece of legislation/piece of research that affects young people. Each article should address the journal’s international audience, which includes academia, policy makers, young people, practitioners and decision makers. The review process normally takes less than 7 weeks.
Abstracts
Authors must supply a structured abstract that clearly outlines the core elements of the paper such as: its purpose, background, methodological approach, findings, and implications.
Abstract must not exceed 250 words in total (including title, keywords, and article classification).
Authors should avoid the use of personal pronouns within the structured abstract and body of the paper (e.g. “this paper investigates” rather than “I investigate”).
Word count and referencing format
Your manuscript should be double-spaced, between 5,000 and 7,000 words (including tables, references, and appendices), and conform to APA format.
References should be indicated in the text with the author’s name and year of publication in parenthesis. If there are more than two authors, all should be given on the first occasion, and then the first author “et al.” should be used subsequently. All references should be given in alphabetical order on a separate sheet with titles of books and journals given in full. The APA guidelines should be followed for references to a fault.
Examples:
Articles from Journals: Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year) ‘Title of article’ Title of Journal volume number(issue number): pages
Books: Author, A. A. (Year of publication) ‘Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle’ Location: Publisher
Electronic sources: Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication) ‘Title of article’ [Online] http://www.someaddress.com/full/url/ [Accessed on date]
Other non print sources: (E. Robbins, personal communication, Jan 4, 2001).
Opinion Pieces
The journal accepts Opinion Pieces (perspective, commentary, viewpoint). These are succinct, stimulating non-peer reviewed high quality papers that are published alongside research papers. They are not necessarily based on original research, but they do offer an original perspective on the Journal’s interests. You do not need to be a senior researcher or an expert to express your opinion. In fact, this Journal was set up to encourage a plurality of voices and thus we encourage anyone to submit their pieces.
Opinion pieces are reviewed by the Editor only. They are first for eligibility by the Secretariat, and if approved, they are published in pre-print and in a scheduled issue. They should follow the Journal’s objectives and referencing style. They can be between 2,000 – 3,500 words including references and follow the same submission steps as with the research papers. They should be clearly indicated as an opinion piece at the point of submission.
Submission does not imply acceptance as we publish only novel ideas and challenging positions.
Book Reviews & Article Reviews
The Editor-in-Chief welcomes Reviews of Books and Articles that fall within the Journal’s interest. Your Review should be double-spaced, between 800-1000 words and conform to APA format. It should include all details of the reviewed book including page numbers, ISBN and price.
Language Editing
Particularly if English is not your first language, before submitting your manuscript you may wish to have it edited for language. This is not a mandatory step, but may help to ensure that the academic content of your paper is fully understood by journal editors and reviewers. Language editing does not guarantee that your manuscript will be accepted for publication.
All submissions are first reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief, and if judged suitable for this publication, they are then blind-reviewed anonymously and separately by at least two external, expert reviewers. The Journal has a double, blind review policy.
Acceptance of an invitation to review is taken as signifying that the reviewers consider themselves qualified to assess the submission and know of no reason why it would be inappropriate for them to comment on its quality and make a recommendation as to whether or not it should be published. We encourage all our reviewers to follow the COPE Guidelines for Peer Reviewers.
If, as reviewers read a submission, they realise that for any reason it is inappropriate for them to review that article, they are asked to return it to the Editor-in-Chief forthwith and another reviewer will be assigned. If reviewers, for any reason, know, or can guess, who has written an anonymous submission which they have been asked to review, they are expected to consider whether a conflict of interest is involved if they know the author to be a close friend or a previous departmental or research colleague; or where they know themselves to be prejudiced either in favour of, or against, specific perspectives, topics or authors.
Authors are responsible for obtaining permission from copyright holders to reproduce in both print and online form those illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. Permission must be obtained before submission to the publisher. The acknowledgment should be added to the typescript and the source and copyright of photographs or figures credited in the accompanying captions.
It is a condition of publication that authors vest or license copyright in their articles, including abstracts, in RJ4All Publications. This enables us to ensure full copyright protection and to disseminate the article, and the journal, to the widest possible readership in print and electronic formats as appropriate. Authors may, of course, use the material elsewhere after publication providing that prior permission is obtained from IARS Publications. Authors are themselves responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyright material from other sources. Authors whose publication has been accepted by the Journal must complete and sign the YVJ Contributors Release Form prior to the publication of their work.
Funding statements provide transparency to the research reported and give authors the opportunity to demonstrate the impact of their work for future career development.
In line with the COPE guidance of declaring funding sources for research, authors must provide a clear funding statement during submission. The statement should include details of the funding sources, clarify which authors and activities were supported, and specify the role of the funder(s), if any, in the research and publication process.
RJ4all Publications supports the ethical and responsible use of AI tools to assist research or writing.
As part of our commitment to academic integrity and transparency, we require that all submissions reflect original scholarly work and that any use of generative AI tools be clearly acknowledged and used in accordance with COPE position on the use of AI tools.
Because AI tools cannot take responsibility for the work and therefore do not meet the requirements for authorship, authors are expected to be transparent in disclosing in their paper how and which AI tools have been used. Authors should declare and describe in detail in the methods section (or similar section) the name of the AI tool, the purpose of the use and the extent of its application. By acknowledging the use of AI, authors foster and build trust among reviewers, readers and distributors and ensure that the tools are used in line with the permitted guidelines.
Similarly, guest editors and peer reviewers have the responsibility to ensure the work we publish aligns with principles of credibility, accountability, integrity, and transparency. Within this work, guest editors and peer reviewers should promote adequate use of AI tools in their evaluation and decisions with clear feedback that is helpful for authors. Both editors and peer reviewers must refrain from using AI tools in their evaluations and decision processes as this might violate the author’s confidentiality and property rights. Furthermore, is it possible that AI tools might generate biased and incorrect evaluations, negatively impacting trustworthy production and dissemination of research.
R4All publications is committed to ensuring dissemination of original and ethical research that represents a positive contribution of knowledge.