Social & Legal Studies
Criminal Justice | Criminology & Criminal Justice (General) | Criminology (General)
Social & Legal Studies is a leading international journal, publishing progressive, interdisciplinary and critical approaches to socio-legal study. The journal was born out of a commitment to feminist, anti-colonial and socialist economic perspectives to the study of law. It offers an intellectual space where diverse traditions and critical approaches within legal study meet. We particularly welcome work in new fields of socio-legal study, as well as non-western scholarship
In addition to its review section the journal has developed an innovative occasional Debate & Dialogue section. This feature allows more direct and immediate engagement between authors.
The Board of Social & Legal Studies would like to remind readers of the journal that it is able to offer limited financial support to people organising a workshop or conference on a theme which would be of interest to readers of Social and Legal Studies. Proposals are considered in a competitive process at board meetings in February, June and October of each year. Colleagues wishing to apply for funds should contact Carl Stychin (Carl.Stychin@sas.ac.uk) with an outline of the conference theme and goals, the papers being given and details of the financial support requested. The Board is able to make contributions in the region of £500-1000.
"...it is clear that the editors have worked hard to achieve their aims... However, the value of this journal goes beyond achieving these goals. Its real value lies in the quality, level, and kind of material being published within it." Times Higher Education Supplement
Electronic access:
Social & Legal Studies is available to browse online.
SOCIAL & LEGAL STUDIES is a leading international journal, publishing progressive, interdisciplinary and critical approaches to socio-legal study. The journal was born out of a commitment to feminist, anti-colonial and socialist economic perspectives to the study of law. It offers an intellectual space for theoretically informed and empirically grounded work, where diverse traditions and critical approaches within legal study meet. We particularly welcome work in new fields of socio-legal study, as well as non-western scholarship.
| Alison Diduck | University College London, UK |
| Marie B Fox | University of Liverpool, UK |
| Vanessa Munro | Warwick University, UK |
| Carl F Stychin | Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, UK |
| Henrique Carvalho | University of Warwick, UK |
| Simon Halliday | University of York, UK |
| Carl Stychin | Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, UK |
| Tom Webb | Lancaster University, UK |
| Sol Picciotto | University of Lancaster, UK |
| Carol Smart | University of Manchester, UK |
| Anette Ballinger | Keele University, UK |
| Emilios Christodoulidis | University of Glasgow, UK |
| Richard Collier | University of Newcastle, UK |
| Sharon Cowan | University of Edinburgh, UK |
| Máiréad Enright | University of Birmingham, UK |
| Michelle Everson | Birkbeck University of London, UK |
| Lindsay Farmer | University of Glasgow, UK |
| Prabha Kotiswaran | King's College, London, United Kingdom |
| Ambreena S Manji | Cardiff University, UK |
| Kirsten McConnachie | University of East Anglia, UK |
| Kieran McEvoy | Queen's University Belfast, UK |
| Sol Picciotto | University of Lancaster, UK |
| Devyani Prabhat | University of Bristol, UK |
| Sinéad Ring | Maynooth University, Ireland |
| Sally Sheldon | University of Kent, UK |
| Celine Tan | University of Warwick, UK |
| John Charney | Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Chile |
| Eve Darian-Smith | University of California at Irvine, USA |
| Margaret Davies | Flinders Law School, Australia |
| Dennis Davis | Francis King Carey School of Law, University of Maryland, USA |
| Jonathan Goldberg-Hiller | University of Hawai’i at Mãnoa, USA |
| Huri Islamoglu-Inan | Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey and Central European University, Budapest, Hungary |
| Ratna Kapur | Jindal Global Law School, India |
| Dario Melossi | University of Bologna, Italy |
| Bronwyn Morgan | University of New South Wales, Australia |
| Tamar Pitch | University of Perugia, Italy |
| Monika Platek | University of Warsaw, Poland |
| Austin Sarat | Amherst College, USA |
| Maximo Sozzo | Universidad Nacional del Litoral, Argentina |
| Julie Stewart | Southern and Eastern African Centre for Women’s Law (SEARCWL), University of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe |
| Alison Young | University of Melbourne, Australia |
Manuscript Submission Guidelines: Social & Legal Studies
Please read the author guidelines and the submission guidelines below and then visit the Journal’s submission site http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/sls to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.
Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Social & Legal Studies will be reviewed.
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal. Open Access options are available - see section 3.3 below.
As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you.
- What do we publish?
1.1 Aims & Scope
1.2 Article types
1.3 Writing your paper - Editorial policies
2.1 Peer review policy
2.2 Authorship
2.3 Acknowledgements
2.4 Funding
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests - Publishing policies
3.1 Publication ethics
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
3.3 Open access and author archiving - Preparing your manuscript
4.1 Formatting
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
4.3 Supplementary material
4.4 Reference style
4.5 English language editing services - Submitting your manuscript
5.1 ORCID
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
5.3 Permissions - On acceptance and publication
6.1 Sage Production
6.2 Online First publication
6.3 Access to your published article
6.4 Promoting your article - Further information
Before submitting your manuscript to Social & Legal Studies, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.
1.2 Article Types
Social & Legal Studies welcomes full length articles with a maximum word count of 10,000 words (including notes and references). In addition, it welcomes the submission of book reviews. Furthermore, the journal has an innovative occasional section, Dialogue & Debate, which allows direct scholarly engagement between a range of positions on a topic of general interest to the socio-legal community. In addition, in 2017, the journal launched Review of a Field, an opportunity for authors to reflect upon their fields of study and to offer critical appraisals of the key literature and concepts.
Finally, Social & Legal Studies welcomes the submission of proposals for special issues, which will be considered by the Editorial Board. Prior to submission of a proposal, reference to the Guidelines on Special Issues should be consulted.
1.3 Writing your paper
The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance their article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.
1.3.1 Make your article discoverable
For information and guidance on how to make your article more discoverable, visit our Gateway page on How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.
2. Editorial Policies
2.1 Peer review policy
Social & Legal Studies adheres to a rigorous double-blind reviewing policy in which the identity of both the reviewer and author are wlways concealed from both parties.
Sage does not permit the use of author-suggested (recommended) reviewers at any stage of the submission process.
Reviewers should be experts in their fields and hould be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Our policy is that reviewers should not be assigned to a paper if:
- The reviewer is based at the same institution as any of the co-authors
- The reviewer is based at the funding body of the paper
- The author has recommended the reviewer
SLS is committed to delivering high quality, fast peer-review for your paper, and as such has partnered with Publons. Publons is a third party service which seeks to track, verify and give credit for peer review. Reviewers for SLS can opt in to Publons in order to claim their reviews or have them automatically verified and added to their reviewers profile. Reviewers claiming credit for their review will be associated with the relevant journal, but the article name, reviewer's decision and the content of their review is not published on the site. For mroe information visit the Publons website.
2.2 Authorship
All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status. In particular, where junior colleagues, including research assistants, have significantly contributed to collecting data their role should be acknowledged in any publication arising from that research. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.
Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.
2.3 Acknowledgements
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.
2.3.1 Third party submissions
Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:
- Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input
- Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
- Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.
- Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.
2.3.2 Writing assistance
Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance. It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.
Social & Legal Studies requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading. Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
Social & Legal Studies encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.
3.1 Publication ethics
Social & Legal Studies expects all authors to take responsibility for their own ethical research practice, and recommends consulting the guidance laid down by the Socio-Legal Studies Association (https://www.slsa.ac.uk/images/2019summer/SLSA_Ethics_Statement_Final_2.pdf). We would particularly draw attention to Principle 4, regarding the attribution of authorship, which aligns with Social & Legal Studies policy.
“Principle 4. Socio-legal scholars should credit appropriately contributions in research collaboration.
- Members should always acknowledge the contributions of colleagues to research work. In particular, where junior colleagues, including research assistants, have significantly contributed to collecting data their role should be acknowledged in any publication arising from that research. Colleagues are advised to discuss the arrangements for accrediting contributions in published work before embarking on research.
- The names of everyone who has made a substantial contribution to a piece of research should be credited in publications and any other outputs that arise out of that research and, conversely, the names of those who do not make a substantial contribution should not appear in publications.
- Members should take care to acknowledge the publications or other sources of ideas they have used in their work.”
3.1.1 Plagiarism
Social & Legal Studies and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.
3.1.2 Prior publication
If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the Sage Author Gateway
3.3 Open access and author archiving
Social & Legal Studies offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.
4. Preparing your manuscript for submission
The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines
Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article.
This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files
Social & Legal Studies adheres to the Sage Harvard reference style. View the Sage Harvard guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.
If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the Sage Harvard EndNote output file
4.5 English language editing services
Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.
Social & Legal Studies is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/sls to login and submit your article online.
IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created. For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.
As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.
The collection of ORCID iDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID iD you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID iD will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID iD is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.
If you do not already have an ORCID iD please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).
Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway
6. On acceptance and publication
Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be sent by PDF to the corresponding author and should be returned promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.
Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.
6.3 Access to your published article
Sage provides authors with online access to their final article.
Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.
Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Social & Legal Studies editorial office as follows:
Lead Editor, Carl Stychin: Carl.Stychin@sas.ac.uk