Submissions

This journal is not accepting submissions at this time.

Author Guidelines

Authors are invited to make a submission to this journal. All submissions will be assessed by an editor to determine whether they meet the aims and scope of this journal. Those considered to be a good fit will be sent for peer review before determining whether they will be accepted or rejected.

Before making a submission, authors are responsible for obtaining permission to publish any material included with the submission, such as photos, documents and datasets. All authors identified on the submission must consent to be identified as an author. Where appropriate, research should be approved by an appropriate ethics committee in accordance with the legal requirements of the study's country.

Forms of contribution

Collaborative and co-authored submissions are encouraged, particularly work developed through equitable partnerships between individuals, organisations and communities.

We recognise that valuable knowledge does not always take the form of a conventional academic article. Contributions may include:

  • reflections and personal or collective perspectives;
  • accounts of practice and case studies;
  • emerging ideas and provocations;
  • conversations and interviews;
  • community-led contributions;
  • creative, visual or audio work;
  • teaching and practice resources;
  • responses to previously published contributions;
  • accounts of uncertainty, resistance, difficulty or failure;
  • and more traditional research and scholarship.

Contributions are not expected to follow a specified structure, writing style or format and do not necessarily require a literature review, formal methodology, abstract, specialist terminology or extensive referencing. 

We recognise that thoughtful, critical and reflective engagement can that a variety of of forms. 

The form of each contribution should be appropriate to what the contributor wishes to communicate and to the audience they hope to reach. 

Editorial approach

We have a supportive and developmental editorial process. The purpose of this process is to help authors communicate their work clearly, responsibly and in a way that preserves its distinctive voice, purpose and context. Contributions are considered on the basis of their relevance, integrity and potential to encourage learning, reflection or dialogue.

Ethics and responsibility

Contributions should be respectful of the people and communities represented, transparent about authorship and collaboration, accurate where factual claims are made, and appropriate for public sharing.

Where a contribution reports research involving people, communities, personal data, culturally sensitive knowledge or other material requiring ethical oversight, authors must declare that ethical approval was sought and obtained through the appropriate process. Where formal ethical approval was not required, contributions should explain the basis on which this was determined.

Contributions should also describe how consent, confidentiality, anonymity, community permissions and the responsible use of knowledge or cultural material were addressed, where relevant.

Authors are responsible for securing any necessary permissions and for ensuring that they have the right to share written, visual, audio or other materials included in their submission.

We may request clarification, further context or revisions where this is necessary to protect contributors, participants, communities or readers, or to ensure that work is communicated responsibly.

Reviewer Guidelines
 
Contested Ground's peer review process is "Open, Transparent, Review". This means that Reviewers and Authors are aware of each others' identities, and that we expect to publish at least the final iteration of Reviewer feedback alongside a contribution. 
 
Reviewers may choose to publish their review in a number of formats, including for example as a comment on the contribution, an address to the author/contributor, or as a narrative on the work's broader contribution to the field.
 
We hope that this encourages the Author-Reviewer relationship to be one of open, constructive support and mentoring, not gate-keeping of entry. We also intend that the policy allows the work of Peer Review to be credited via the transparent publication of (at least one round of) that feedback.

We ask Reviewers to consider each article for publication through committing to a core principle of developmental review. We recommend that Reviewers consider two kinds of response to a Contribution they are assigned: 

  1. Some contributions may require only a little work to reach publication standard. In this case, we will publish the (single round of) Reviewer feedback alongside the (revised) contribution.
  2. Other contributions may be suitable for publication, but require more development. In this case, Reviewers may wish to propose a Resubmission of the Contribution after revisions. Reviewers should provide Developmental Peer Review, where the aim of the Reviewer is to provide constructive feedback and guidance on how to improve any aspects of the contribution which need significant work. The Resubmitted Contribution will be reassigned to the same Reviewer, and we would expect to publish only the final round of Reviewer feedback with the (final, revised) Contribution. 
Authors who expect their submission to require more support may explicitly opt-in to Developmental Peer Review, in which case we would expect the role of the Reviewer to be unambiguously of the second type above.
 
This developmental review process is intended to ensure that very few Articles need to be rejected entirely, and this should largely be on grounds of unsuitability of topic, rather than quality. We hope that it will allow readers to encounter a variety of vital perspectives on shared issues, and  appreciate a wide range of methods of engaging with critical material.  The Editors hope to spot these issues before they reach reviewers!

Submission Preparation Checklist

All submissions must meet the following requirements.

  • This submission meets the requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines.
  • This submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration.
  • All references have been checked for accuracy and completeness.
  • All tables and figures have been numbered and labeled.
  • Permission has been obtained to publish all photos, datasets and other material provided with this submission.

Articles

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