Official Journal of the Western Social Science Association



Manuscript Submission
From 1 May 2008 authors are requested to submit their articles electronically to the Editor, N. Prabha Unnithan, by using the journal's online submission and tracking tool at http://ees.elsevier.com/socsci

This site will guide authors stepwise through the submission process. Authors should upload the source files of their articles in the preferred format of Microsoft (MS) Word, RTF, WordPerfect, or LaTeX for text and TIFF or EPS for figures. The system automatically converts source files to a single Adobe Acrobat PDF version of the article, which is used in the peer-review process. Please note that even though manuscript source files are converted to PDF at submission for the review process, these source files are needed for further processing after acceptance. Authors, reviewers, and editors send and receive all correspondence by e-mail.

Paper submissions are accepted and should be sent to: N. Prabha Unnithan, Social Science Journal, Department of Sociology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA.

Persons wishing to write book reviews or to suggest titles should contact: Rich Greene, Department of Geography, Northern Illinois University, Dekalb, IL 60115, USA. Publishers likewise are requested to forward announcements of new and forthcoming titles which may interest our readers. Book reviews are to be approximately 4-5 pages, typed, double-spaced.

Correspondence regarding membership, the annual meeting, or other Association business should be sent to the Executive Director of the Association: Larry Gould, Northern Arizona University, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Box 15700, Flagstaff, AZ 86011-5005, USA

Submission of a manuscript clearly implies commitment to publish in this journal. Previously published papers and papers under review by another journal are unacceptable.

To ensure anonymity in the review of manuscripts, keep identifying material out of the manuscript. Attach a cover page giving authorship, institutional affiliation, the biographical statement, and acknowledgments. Provide only the title as identification on the manuscript and abstract.

Manuscripts should not exceed 25 typed pages.

The entire manuscript, including abstract, quotations, tabular material, and references, must be typed double-spaced with at least 1 inch margins on all four sides.

Each table or figure must appear on a separate page. Placement in manuscript should be indicated by a phrase such as "Insert Table 1 about here" set off from the rest of the text. A clean, camera-ready original of each figure with the figure legends listed on a separate page must be supplied by the author upon acceptance of manuscript for publication.

Reference Style
The Journal will review manuscripts in any standard academic style. For publication, however, accepted manuscripts must be in the APA (American Psychological Association) style. See the most recent issue of APA for further information.

When using APA format, follow the author-date method of citation. Include the author's last name and year of publication in your text - For example: in a recent study of reaction times (Smith, 1995).

Books
Freeman, D. A. (1994). Political concepts: an introduction. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt.

Periodicals
Worswick, G. D. N. (1972). Is progress in economic science possible? The Economic Journal, 82, 893-896.

Collections
Mather, B. A. (Ed.). (1964-1972). Progress in experimental personality research. New York: Academic Press.

See the most recent issue of APA for further examples.

At the end of your manuscript, list in alphabetical order all the references you cited in the text. For example, Andreoni, J. (1989). Giving with impure altruism: applications to charity and ricardian equivalence. Journal of Political Economy, 97, 447-458. For example, Shimanoff, S. B. (1980). Communication rules: theory and research. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

Research Notes
Research Notes are works in progress where the Note seeks to make a contribution to the "established" body of knowledge and/or where the Note raises important questions and seeks solutions to recognized problems.

Research Notes are refereed as are articles.

Research Notes are to be approximately 10 pages, typed, double-spaced, and in the APA style (including abstract, quotations, tabular material, references, etc).

Conflict of interest
All authors are requested to disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest including any financial, personal or other relationships with other people or organizations within three years of beginning the submitted work that could inappropriately influence, or be perceived to influence, their work. See also http://www.elsevier.com/conflictsofinterest

Proofs
One set of page proofs in PDF format will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author (if we do not have an e-mail address then paper proofs will be sent by post). Elsevier now sends PDF proofs which can be annotated; for this you will need to download Adobe Reader version 7 available free from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. Instructions on how to annotate PDF files will accompany the proofs. The exact system requirements are given at the Adobe site: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/acrrsystemreqs.html#70win. If you do not wish to use the PDF annotations function, you may list the corrections (including replies to the Query Form) and return to Elsevier in an e-mail. Please list your corrections quoting line number. If, for any reason, this is not possible, then mark the corrections and any other comments (including replies to the Query Form) on a printout of your proof and return by fax, or scan the pages and e-mail, or by post.

Please use this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the text, tables and figures. Significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission from the Editor. We will do everything possible to get your article published quickly and accurately. Therefore, it is important to ensure that all of your corrections to the PDF proof are sent back to us in one communication: please check carefully before replying, as inclusion of any subsequent corrections cannot be guaranteed. Proofreading of the PDF proof is solely your responsibility. Note that Elsevier may proceed with the publication of your article if no response is received.

Offprints
The corresponding author, at no cost, will be provided with a PDF file of the article via e-mail. The PDF file is a watermarked version of the published article and includes a cover sheet with the journal cover image and a disclaimer outlining the terms and conditions of use.

Author Enquiries
For enquiries relating to the submission of articles (including electronic submission where available) please visit this journal's homepage at http://www.elsevier.com/locate/soscij. You can track accepted articles at http://www.elsevier.com/trackarticle and set up e-mail alerts to inform you of when an article's status has changed, as well as copyright information, frequently asked questions and more.

Contact details for questions arising after acceptance of an article, especially those relating to proofs, are provided after registration of an article for publication.