NOTES FOR AUTHORS

SHODH KHANIJ: A Multidisciplinary Peer Reviewed Journal

1. Submissions

Authors should send all submissions and resubmissions to shodhkhanij@gmail.com  or publicationmudit@gmail.com some articles are dealt with by the editor immediately, but most are read by outside referees. For submissions that are sent to referees, we try to complete the evaluation process within one month. As a general rule, Shodh Khanij operates a double-blind peer review process in which the reviewer’s name is withheld from the author and the author’s name is withheld from the reviewer. Reviewers may at their own discretion opt to reveal their name to the author in their review, but our standard policy is for both identities to remain concealed.

Absolute technical requirements in the first round are: ample line spacing throughout (1.15), an abstract, adequate documentation using the author-date citation system and an alphabetical reference list and a word count on the front page (include all elements in the word count). Regular articles are restricted to an absolute maximum of 8,000 words, including all elements (title page, abstract, notes, references, tables, biographical statement, etc.).

2. Types of articles

In addition to Regular Articles, Shodh Khanij publishes the Viewpoint column with research-based policy articles, Review Essays, Book Review and Special Data Features.

3. The manuscript

The final version of the manuscript should contain, in this order:

(a) title page with name(s) of the author(s), affiliation

(b) Abstract

(c) Main text

(d) List of references

(e) Biographical statement(s)

(f) Tables and figures in separate documents

(g) Notes (either footnotes or endnotes are acceptable)

Authors must check the final version of their manuscripts against these notes before sending it to us.

The text should be left justified, with an ample left margin. Avoid hyphenation. Throughout the manuscripts, set line spacing to 1.15.

The final manuscript should be submitted in Kokila Hindi Unicode Font MS Word for Windows.

4. Language

Shodh Khanij is a Bilingual Journal, i.e. English and हिंदी (Kokila Hindi Unicode Font Size 16). The main objective of an academic journal is to communicate clearly with an international audience.

Elegance in style is a secondary aim: the basic criterion should be clarity of expression. We allow UK as well as US spelling, as long as there is consistency within the article. You are welcome to indicate on the front page whether you prefer UK or US spelling.

5. The abstract

The abstract should be in the range of 200-300 words. For very short articles, a shorter abstract may suffice. The abstract is an important part of the article. It should summarize the actual content of the article; rather than merely relate what subject the article deals with. It is more important to state an interesting finding than to detail the kind of data used: instead of ‘the hypothesis was tested’, the outcome of the test should be stated. Abstracts should be written in the present tense and in the third person (This article deals with...) or passive (... is discussed and rejected). Please consider carefully what terms to include in order increasing the visibility of the abstract in electronic searches.

6. Title and headings

The main title of the article should appear at the top of pg. 1, followed by the author’s name an institutional affiliation. The title should be short, but informative. All sections of the article (including the introduction) should have principal subheads. The sections are not numbered. This makes it all the more important to distinguish between levels of subheads in the manuscripts – preferably by typographical means.

7. Notes

Notes should be used only where substantive information is conveyed to the reader. Mere literature references should normally not necessitate separate notes; see the section on references below. Notes are numbered with Arabic numerals. Authors should insert notes by using the footnote/endnote function in MS Word.

8. Tables

Each Table should be self-explanatory as far as possible. The heading should be fairly brief, but additional explanatory material may be added in notes which will appear immediately below the Table. Such notes should be clearly set off from the rest of the text. The table should be numbered with a Roman numeral and printed on a separate page.

9. Figures

The same comments apply, except that Figures are numbered with Arabic numerals. Figure headings are also placed below the Figure. Example: Figure 1.

10. References

References should be in a separate alphabetical list; they should not be incorporated in the notes. Use the APA form of reference.

11. Biographical statement

The bio sketch in Shodh Khanij appears immediately after the references. It should be brief and include year of birth, highest academic degree, year achieved, where obtained, position and current institutional affiliation. In addition, authors may indicate their present main research interest or recent (co-)authored or edited books as well as other institutional affiliations which have occupied a major portion of their professional lives. But we are not asking for a complete CV.

12. Proofs and reprints

Author’s proofs will be e-mailed directly from the publishers, in pdf format. If the article is co-authored, the proof will normally be sent to the author who submitted the manuscripts. (Corresponding author). If the e-mail address of the corresponding author is likely to change within the next 6–9 months, it is in the author’s own interest (as well as ours) to inform us: editor’s queries, proofs and pdf reprints will be sent to this e-mail address. All authors (corresponding authors and their co-authors) will receive one PDF copy of their article by email.

13. Copyright

The responsibility for not violating copyright in the quotations of a published article rests with the author(s). It is not necessary to obtain permission for a brief quote from an academic article or book. However, with a long quote or a Figure or a Table, written permission must be obtained. The author must consult the original source to find out whether the copyright is held by the author, the journal or the publisher, and contact the appropriate person or institution. In the event that reprinting requires a fee, we must have written confirmation that the author is prepared to cover the expense. With literary quotations, conditions are much stricter. Even a single verse from a poem may require permission.