Policy on Publication Ethics

The journal expects all authors to be compliant with best practices in publication ethics and research integrity, including avoiding any and all misrepresentations as to due authorship, data presented within text, figures, and tables, and avoiding plagiarism, falsification, fabrication, or manipulation of data in the entirety of the manuscript and all supplementary data files submitted for editorial and/or peer review.

Editorial Review Process

The journal follows a rigorous peer review process, with an emphasis on double-anonymous peer review model. All submitted papers are initially reviewed by the journal associate editors who meticulously check the papers’ quality and suitability for the journal. Papers that match the aims and scope of the journal are sent out for reviews by at least two external referees. The referees’ comments and suggestions are instrumental to making the “accept” or “reject” decisions. Authors whose papers pass this test are invited to revise and resubmit their papers. The journal editor, in consultation with the managing editor, makes the final decisions on revised papers and publication in the journal.  

Instructions for Authors

• NSJPGS will accept research papers, book review essays, and book reviews, if submitted in free format version initially. NSJPGS accepts research papers, book review essays, book reviews, and commentaries in English language only.
• If accepted after peer review, authors will be requested to revise research papers to conform with the journal format style as outlined below.
• Commentaries may be submitted online any time and will be published on the journal website once accepted after review by the Editor.  Contributions for the Online Commentary section should approximate the format guideline given below.
• Research papers, book review essays, book reviews, and commentaries are to be submitted at the journal website by selecting the submissions tab and proceeding as directed (see web link above).
• Research papers should represent theoretical, empirical, qualitative or quantitative research discussions consistent with the author(s)’ discipline of expertise, or otherwise as appropriate to interdisciplinary and/or multidisciplinary research methods in use.
• The word count for submitted research papers should be between 6,000 and 10,000 words (including footnotes and references).  The maximum word count for book review essays is 3,000 words. The maximum word count for book reviews is 700 words. Online Commentaries are intended to be short discussions (maximum 1500 words) on a current topic related to the aims and scope of the journal, without having the usual scholarly apparatus of footnotes or references.   
• Research papers should not be submitted simultaneously to, or be under review by, another journal when submitted to NSJPGS.
• If the paper has been placed on a preprint platform prior to submittal, then a statement to this effect (along with the URL for the preprint) should be provided on the title page upon submittal.  Preprint publication does not rule out consideration of a paper for publication in the journal; but, the submitted paper should be a revised and updated version of the preprint.  The corresponding author is expected to provide a statement clarifying the differences in content between the preprint and submitted version of the paper.
• The main manuscript file of a research paper should be anonymized for peer review, including removal of author information from the document properties file data.
• Use a separate title page providing the research paper title and author(s) information, including names of author(s), institutional affiliation(s), and contact email address for the corresponding author.  The same information is to be provided for book review essays and book reviews.
• All research papers should have an abstract of up to 250 words and up to five keywords, both placed after the research paper’s title.
• For formatting of the main text of research papers, use sequential page numbering, 12-point Times New Roman font, bold face type in title case format for the main title and for section titles, italics for sub-sections, double-spacing throughout the main text and footnote text, tab-indented block quotes for citations having four or more sentences, double-quotation marks for citation within the main text, margins of 2.5 inches on all sides, and full justified text format.  If foreign language content is included in citations then a PDF version of the research paper should be submitted to assure proper capture of foreign language text.
• Use the (Author surname, Year, page) style format for all citations in the main text.
• Include a References List (in alphabetical order by author surname) at the end of the paper for all works cited: e.g.,--
• Book: Dillon, R. (2022). Book Title Here in Italics. City: Publisher Name.
• Journal Article: Dillon, R. (2022). “Journal Article Title.” Journal Title Here in Italics, 1(2): 44-55 (include URL and date of access if electronic version is accessed).
• Edited Book: Dillon, R. (2022). “Chapter Title Here.” In: Howard, A. Name of Edited Volume Here in Italics. City: Publisher Name, 44-55.
• Internet Source: Dillon, R. (2022). “Title of Article Here.” Name of Internet Source Here. URL here, accessed day/month/year.
• Footnotes (not endnotes) may be used and are to be numbered sequentially in superscript in the main text, but only for additional explanation or remarks and not for bibliographic information.
• The journal expects authors conform to standards of publishing ethics.  The NSJPGS does not accept papers that have content involving any use of generative AI (e.g., Chat GPT) in the production, analysis, or interpretation of data or narrative text.  Authors are expected to include a disclosure statement when submitting the paper that no generative AI tool has been used.