The editors of Food Policy welcome proposals for special issues on topics that fall within the scope of the journal. Please
click here
to see the aims and scopes of Food Policy.
Each special issue is the responsibility of guest editor(s). Those wishing to
guest edit a special issue should prepare a proposal as outlined below, then send this to foodpolicy@soas.ac.uk.
As Food Policy is only able to publish one to two special issues per year, the editors will seek to identify the proposals of the
highest quality for publication by the following competitive process. There are two deadlines each year for submission of special issue
proposals: April 15th and October 15th. As soon as possible after each of these dates, the editors of Food Policy will consider
all special issue proposals that conform to the journal's guidelines and which have been received in the previous six-month period, up
to close of business on the deadline date. All potential guest editors who have submitted proposals will be informed by e-mail of the
success or otherwise of their proposal.
For prospective Guest editors please see the guidelines for the process by which the editors
will select special issues:
Authors are requested to submit their articles online. Please prepare
your manuscript in accordance with the guidelines below, and then go to the online submission page of this journal at http://ees.elsevier.com/foodpolicy/.
Authors will be guided stepwise through the creation and uploading of the various files. The system automatically converts source files
to a single Adobe Acrobat PDF version of the article, which is used in the peer-review process.
A typical Food Policy article
is around 6000 words in length, although longer articles will be accepted on an occasional basis if the topic demands this length of
treatment. These word lengths are for the complete submission, including abstract, end notes, tables, references and appendices.
Contributions
are received with the understanding that they comprise original, unpublished material and are not being submitted for publication elsewhere.
All articles are refereed to ensure both accuracy and relevance, and amendments to the script may thus be required before final
acceptance. Authors will receive proofs for approval before publication.
Manuscript Preparation
Manuscripts should be
prepared in Word or Wordperfect files. We recommend that authors print out and carefully read through their manuscript before
submitting it to the journal.
The authors' contact details (institutional affiliation of all authors, plus full postal address,
email address, telephone and fax number of the corresponding author) should be contained in a separate file from the manuscript itself.
There should be no reference anywhere in the manuscript which would identify an author.
Manuscripts must be double-spaced with wide
margins and a font size of 12 or 10. Pages should be numbered. The Editors reserve the right to adjust style to certain standards of
uniformity.
The text should be organized under appropriate section headings which, ideally, should not be more than 600 words apart.
All headings should be placed on the left-hand side of the text, with a double-line space above and below. Figures and tables should
be submitted in a separate style.
Endnotes should be indicated in the text by superior Arabic numerals which run consecutively through
the paper. They should be grouped in a section at the end of the text in numerical order and double spaced.
Abstract: Each
paper should be provided with an Abstract of about 150 words, outlining in a single paragraph the aims, scope and conclusions of the
paper. Authors will also be required to provide the text of the abstract separately during the manuscript submission process.
Units: All measurements should be given in metric (SI) units.
References: All publications cited in the text should be presented
in a list of references following the text of the manuscript. In the text refer to the author's name (without initials) and year of publication
(e.g. "Since Peterson (1993) has shown that..." or "This is in the agreement with results obtained later (Kramer, 1994)"). For three
or more authors use the first author followed by "et al.", in the text. The list of references should be arranged alphabetically by authors'
names. The manuscript should be carefully checked to ensure that the spelling of authors' names and dates are exactly the same in the
text as in the reference list. References should be given in the following form:
Jaeger, W.K., 1992. The causes of Africa's food
crisis. World Development 20 (11), 635-647.
Kaynak, E. (Ed.), 1986. World Food Marketing Systems. Butterworths, Borough Green.
Wilson,
J.G., Fraser, F.C. (Eds.), 1977-1978. Handbook of World Development, vols. 1-4. Plenum Press, New York.
Tables: Tables should
be numbered consecutively and given a suitable caption. Each table should appear on a separate page at the end of the manuscript. A suitable
phrase (e.g. "TABLE X ABOUT HERE") should be inserted within the manuscript text to show roughly where the table should eventually appear.
Footnotes to tables should be typed below the table and should be referred to by superscript lowercase letters. No vertical rules should
be used. Tables should not duplicate results presented elsewhere in the manuscript, (e.g. in graphs).
Figures: Photographs,
charts and diagrams are all to be referred to as "Figure(s)" and should be numbered consecutively in the order to which they are referred.
Each electronic figure should appear on a separate page at the end of the manuscript. A suitable phrase (e.g. "FIGURE X ABOUT HERE")
should be inserted within the manuscript text to show roughly where the figure should eventually appear. Figures should be provided in
high resolution, suitable for reproduction (which may include reduction) without retouching. The file name should be clear with the figure
number and the author's name. All figures are to have a caption. Captions should be supplied on a separate page. Line drawings: High quality images are required. All lettering, graph lines and points on graphs should be sufficiently large and bold to permit
reproduction when the diagram has been reduced to a size suitable for inclusion in the journal. Dye-line prints or scanned photocopies
are not suitable for reproduction. Do not use any type of shading on computer-generated illustrations. Photographs: Original
photographs must be supplied as they are to be reproduced (e.g. black and white or colour). If necessary, a scale should be marked on
the photograph. Please note that scanned photocopies of photographs are not acceptable.
Colour Illustrations: Please make
sure that artwork files are in an acceptable format (TIFF, EPS or MS Office files) and with the correct resolution. If, together with
your accepted article, you submit usable colour figures then Elsevier will ensure, at no additional charge, that these figures will appear
in colour on the Web (e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites) regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour
in the printed version. For colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt
of your accepted article. Please indicate your preference for colour in print or on the Web only. For further information on the preparation
of electronic artwork, please see http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions .
Please note: Because of technical
complications which can arise by converting colour figures to "grey scale" (for the printed version should you not opt for colour in
print) please submit in addition usable black and white versions of all the colour illustrations.
Proofs
Proofs will
be sent to the author (first named author if no corresponding author is identified of multi-authored papers) and should be returned within
48 hours of receipt. Corrections should be restricted to typesetting errors; any others may be charged to the author. Any queries should
be answered in full. Please note that authors are urged to check their proofs carefully before return, since the inclusion of late corrections
cannot be guaranteed.
Offprints
Twenty five offprints will be supplied free of charge. Further offprints, minimum order
50, can be purchased from the publisher.
Copyright
All authors must sign the "Transfer of Copyright" agreement before
the article can be published. This transfer agreement enables Elsevier Ltd to protect the copyrighted material for the authors, without
the author relinquishing his/her proprietary rights. The copyright transfer covers the exclusive rights to reproduce and distribute the
article, including reprints, reproductions and translations. It also includes the right to adapt the article for use in conjunction with
computer systems and programs, including reproduction or publication in machine-readable form and incorporation in retrieval systems.
Authors are responsible for obtaining from the copyright holder permission to reproduce any material for which copyright already exists.
Supplementary material: Elsevier accepts electronic supplementary material to support and enhance your scientific research.
Supplementary files offer the author additional possibilities to publish supporting applications, movies, animation sequences, high-resolution
images, background datasets, sound clips, and more. Supplementary files supplied will be published online alongside the electronic version
of your article in Elsevier web products, including ScienceDirect.
To ensure that your submitted material is directly usable, please provide data in one of our recommended file formats. Supplementary
data must be saved in files separate from those for the manuscript and figures, and all file names must be supplied. Supplementary files
should either be referred to from within the text of your manuscript in the same way as for figures or tables, or their presence be indicated
by adding a paragraph entitled 'Supplementary data' at the end of the manuscript, detailing which data are supplied. In addition, authors
should also provide a concise and descriptive caption for each file.
When supplying supplementary data, authors must state whether
the data files are either (i) for online publication or (ii) to be used as an aid for the refereeing of the paper only. All supplementary
data will be subject to peer review. For more detailed instructions, please visit http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions,
and click on 'Multimedia files'.
Author Enquiries
Contact details for questions arising after acceptance of an article,
especially those relating to proofs, are provided after registration of an article for publication.
Peer Review Policy on Food Policy
The practice of peer review is to ensure that good science is published. It is an objective process
at the heart of good scholarly publishing and is carried out on all reputable scientific journals. Our referees therefore play a vital
role in maintaining the high standards of Food Policy. Manuscripts are peer reviewed following the procedure outlined below.
Initial
manuscript evaluation: The Editor first evaluates all manuscripts. It is rare, but it is entirely feasible for an exceptional manuscript
to be accepted at this stage. Those rejected at this stage are insufficiently original, have serious scientific flaws, have poor grammar
or English language, or are outside the aims and scope of the journal. Those that meet the minimum criteria are passed on to at least
2 experts for review. Authors of manuscripts rejected at this stage will normally be informed within 3 weeks of receipt. Type
of Peer Review: This journal employs double blind reviewing, where both the referee and author remain anonymous throughout the process.
How the referee is selected: Referees are matched to the paper according to their expertise. Our database is constantly being
updated. We occasionally ask authors for suggestions for referees, though these recommendations may or may not be used. Referee
reports: Referees are asked to evaluate whether the manuscript:
- Is original - Is methodologically sound - Follows appropriate
ethical guidelines - Has results which are clearly presented and support the conclusions - Correctly references previous relevant
work - Makes clear links into food policy debates of international interest
Referees are not expected to correct or copyedit
manuscripts. Language correction is not part of the peer review process.
How long does the review process take? Typically,
two reviews of a manuscript will be received within 2-5 months of submission. Should the referees' reports contradict one another or
a report is unnecessarily delayed a further expert opinion will be sought. Revised manuscripts are usually returned to the initial referees
within 2 weeks. Referees may request more than one revision of a manuscript. If referees are not satisfied that the manuscript is ready
to proceed to publication after two revisions, the manuscript will usually be rejected. Final report: A final decision to
accept or reject the manuscript will be sent to the author along with any recommendations made by the referees, and may include verbatim
comments by the referees. Editor's Decision is final: Referees advise the editor, who is responsible for the final decision
to accept or reject the article. Submission to Food Policy by staff members of School of Oriental and African Studies
(SOAS): In the event of a submission to Food Policy by staff members of Imperial College, selection of reviewers and generation
of recommendations based on these reviewers' comments will be undertaken by one of the following External Editors: Edward Clay, Overseas
Development Institute Lionel Hubbard, School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, Newcastle University
Peer Review
for Special Issues
It is the responsibility of the Guest Editors of a special issue to organise the peer review of articles that
are being considered for inclusion in that special issue. Guest Editors may consult the journal editors during the conduct of the peer
review process and, once the review process is complete, are normally required to provide the editors with copies of correspondence entered
into and reviews received during the process. Guidelines for potential Guest Editors interested in editing a special issue of Food
Policy are available from this web site.
Becoming a Referee for Food Policy
If you are not currently a
referee for Food Policy but would like to be added to the list of referees for this title, please contact the editorial office
at foodpolicy@soas.ac.uk. The benefits of refereeing for Food Policy include the opportunity to see and evaluate
the latest work in your research area at an early stage, and to be acknowledged in an annual statement in Food Policy if you have reviewed
one or more manuscripts in the preceding 12 months. You may also be able to cite your work for Food Policy as part of your professional
development requirements for various Professional Societies and Organisations.
