Music & Science

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1. Open Access
2. Article processing charge (APC)
3. Article types
4. Editorial Policies
    4.1 Peer review policy
    4.2 Authorship
    4.3 Contributorship
    4.4 Acknowledgements
    4.5 Funding
    4.6 Declaration of conflicting interests
    4.7 Data
    4.8 Research ethics and participant consent
    4.9 Redundant publication
    4.10 Editor/Assistant Editor Submissions
5. Publishing Policies
    5.1 Publication Ethics
    5.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
6. Preparing your manuscript 
   6.1 Word processing formats 
   6.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics 
   6.3 Supplementary material 
   6.4 Reference style 
   6.5 English language editing services
7. Submitting your manuscript
   7.1 ORCID
   7.2 Information required for completing your submission
   7.3 Corresponding author contact details
   7.4 Permissions
8. On acceptance and publication
   8.1 Sage Production
   8.3 Promoting your article
9. Further Information
10. Feedback, Complaints & Appeals

 

This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics

This Journal recommends that authors follow the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals formulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

Please read the guidelines below then visit the journal’s submission site http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/mns 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 Music & Science will be reviewed.

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.

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1. Open Access

Music & Science is an open access, peer-reviewed journal. Each article accepted by peer review is made freely available online immediately upon publication, is published under a Creative Commons license and will be hosted online in perpetuity. Publication costs of the journal are covered by the collection of article processing charges which are paid by the funder, institution or author of each manuscript upon acceptance. There is no charge for submitting a paper to the journal.

For general information on open access at Sage please visit the Open Access page or view our Open Access FAQs.

2. Article processing charge (APC)

If, after peer review, your manuscript is accepted for publication, a one-time article processing charge (APC) is payable. This APC covers the cost of publication and ensures that your article will be freely available online in perpetuity under a Creative Commons licence.

The APC is 854 USD. The APC is based on the date of original peer review submission. 

If you do not have grant funding to cover the APC costs, or genuinely cannot raise the funds to cover the Article Processing Charge (APC) then the corresponding author should submit a discount request to Sage, by emailing apcqueries@sagepub.com when payment is requested. More information can be found here: https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/gold-open-access-article-processing-charge-waivers.

 A 50% discount on the prevailing APC rate is available to all members of SEMPRE.

If the paying party is based in the European Union, to comply with European law, value added tax (VAT) must be added to the APC. Providing a VAT registration number will allow an institution to be exempt from paying this tax, except for UK institutions.

 3. Article types

Music & Science publishes research articles, theoretical critical papers, position papers, discussions, and reviews that make a novel contribution to the field of music and science as broadly conceived. Articles are expected to be of 4,000-7,500 words, though the journal does not specify any set length. Concise contributions are particularly welcome to facilitate timely publication. If your paper is based on a specific dataset arising from your research, you should be prepared to provide it to Sage in an appropriate format on acceptance or to provide a link to where it may be found online; in cases where you are not providing access to the dataset via Sage, we strongly suggest that you use an appropriate publicly-accessible repository (please see section 4.7 on Data).

The journal will also accept news items which are of core interest to the Music & Science community, at their sole discretion. These will not be subject to peer review, but will be published only with the Editors' approval.

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4. Editorial policies

4.1 Peer review policy

Music & Science follows a double-anonymous peer-review process through to the point of publication, at which point the reviewers have the option of remaining anonymous or being named. A minimum of two reviewers are selected to review a submission.

Sage does not permit the use of author-suggested (recommended) reviewers at any stage of the submission process, be that through the web-based submission system or other communication. Reviewers should be experts in their fields and should 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

•  The reviewer has provided a personal (e.g. Gmail/Yahoo/Hotmail) email account and an institutional email account cannot be found after performing a basic Google search (name, department and institution). 

4.2 Authorship

Papers should only be submitted for consideration once consent is given by all contributing authors. Those submitting papers should carefully check that all those whose work contributed to the paper are acknowledged as contributing authors. The list of authors should include all those who can legitimately claim authorship. This is all those who:

(i) Made a substantial contribution to the concept or design of the work; or acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data,
(ii) Drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content,
(iii) Approved the version to be published,
(iv) Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.

Authors should meet the conditions of all of the points above. When a large, multicentre group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript.  These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship.  A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.

Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute authorship, although all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgments section. Please refer to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) authorship guidelines for more information on authorship.

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.

Authors should check prior to submission that their manuscript does not contain any information that could reveal their identity so as to ensure anonymity during the review process. Parts that should be checked are the Acknowledgements section (please leave blank until the manuscript has been accepted), information regarding the Ethics committee, self-citations (these can be included as long as they do not point directly to the authors, e.g., “as Miller & Smith (2017) have shown before” is acceptable whereas “as we have shown before (Miller & Smith, 2017)” is not), links to cloud services (Google Drive, Dropbox etc.), and any other information that could reveal the authors’ identity.

4.3 Contributorship

Please provide information on the contributorship on the title page, e.g. "Contributorship: IC and MK researched literature and conceived the study. GW was involved in study design, gaining ethical approval, participant recruitment and data analysis. IC wrote the first draft of the manuscript. All authors reviewed and edited the manuscript and approved the final version of the manuscript."

4.4 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.In order to ensure anonymity during the reviewing process in accordance with the journal's procedures, the Acknowledgements section should not be included until a manuscript has been formally accepted. Authors should therefore add it only when they receive the PDF page proofs.

4.4.1 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.

4.4.2 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.

4.5 Funding

Music & Science 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.

4.6 Declaration of conflicting interests

Music & Science encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.
For guidance on conflict of interest statements, please see the ICMJE recommendations.

4.7 Data

Sage acknowledges the importance of research data availability as an integral part of the research and verification process for academic journal articles.

Music & Science requests authors to submit any primary data used in their research articles alongside their article submissions for publication in the online version of the journal, or to provide detailed information in their articles on how the data can be accessed. This information should include links to third-party data repositories or detailed contact information for third-party data sources. Data available only on an author-maintained website would need to be loaded onto either the journal’s platform or a third-party platform to ensure continuing accessibility. Examples of data types include but are not limited to statistical data files, replication code, text files, audio files, images, videos, appendices, and additional charts and graphs necessary to understand the original research.

The editor may consider limited embargoes on proprietary data. The editor can also grant exceptions for data that cannot legally or ethically be released. In exceptional circumstances, and with the agreement of the journal, authors may retain control over access to research data.

All data submitted should comply with Institutional or Ethical Review Board requirements and applicable government regulations. In making your dataset available, please ensure that it is appropriately labelled (e.g., it should be easy to identify data pertaining to particular variables, etc.) in order that a reviewer or reader is in a position to replicate the analyses that you have undertaken. For further information, please contact the editorial office at mnseditorial@sagepub.co.uk

Data Availability

The journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages.

Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to:

• share your research data in a relevant public data repository
• include a data availability statement linking to your data. If it is not possible to share your data, we encourage you to consider using the statement to explain why it cannot be shared.
• cite this data in your research

4.8 Research ethics and participant consent

Music & Science expects that ethical issues (in terms of benefits, risks, and harms as a result of participation in and publication of the research) are considered as an integral dimension of the research process. Authors will be asked to identify the relevant ethics committee or institutional review board that has provided (or waived) approval. Please ensure that you have provided the full name and institution of the review committee, in addition to the approval number. Where an appropriate body has deemed that the research does not require ethical approval (in general, research that does not involve (i) fieldwork or (ii) experiments involving human participants or animals or (iii) the use of personal data), this should be specified, with reasons and justification provided.

However, if it is not feasible to provide confirmation of institutional ethical review, authors should provide a clear explanation as to why ethics approval was not sought for a given study in a specific country or region. Statements such as “Ethics approval was not required for this study” or “Not applicable” do not provide a sufficient amount of detail; suitable reasons, and citations where applicable, should be provided. Authors must make clear in the submission as to how and why it can be concluded that no significant harms are associated with the participation in and publication of the research.

Ethical approval statement

All authors (even those whose research did not require ethical approval) must provide details of ethical review or of ethical considerations in ScholarOne upon submission, and within an ‘Ethical Approval’ statement at the end of your manuscript under a separate heading. To help ensure anonymity during the peer review process, please remove all identifiers from this statement in the manuscript until it has been formally accepted.

Informed consent or animal welfare statement

Authors are also required to state in the methods section whether participants provided informed consent and whether the consent was written or verbal; if the latter why that was the case (plus how the consent was recorded). Where informed consent has been obtained, it should be specified what the consent was for (for inclusion, collection/use of data or samples, and/or publication, as applicable).

For animal studies, statements on animal welfare should be provided, and confirm that the study followed international, national and/or institutional guidelines for humane animal treatment and complied with relevant legislation; that it involved client-owned animals and demonstrated a high standard (best practice) of veterinary care and involved informed client consent; or that guidelines for humane animal treatment did not apply to the present study, including the reason.

4.9 Redundant publication

The Editors of Music & Science ask authors to declare if any data reported in their submission have been published previously wholly or in part. For example: the reanalysis of a previously published dataset by a different set of authors would need to be declared. The publication of multiple articles using the same dataset with somewhat related outcomes could be considered inappropriate. Within the cover letter and methods section, authors should declare if datasets or participants reported in their submission overlap with any prior published work to help a thorough Editorial assessment of the study.

4.10 Editor/Assistant Editor Submissions

In the interest of transparency, the journal’s policy on submissions by journal board members or Editors or Assistant Editors with a role in administering the peer review process or their families or associates, is as follows:

• Board members and Editors take no part in the review process of their own submissions, those of their family member or their associates and have no access to Editorial information concerning such submissions.
• No preference or favour is given in the decision or peer review process dependent on the author’s relationship to the journal.
• Papers are processed consecutively irrespective of the author’s relationship to the journal. That is, the journal does not ‘expedite’ papers at the expense of others as journal resources are distributed evenly.

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5. Publishing policies

5.1 Publication ethics

Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway.

5.1.1 Plagiarism

Music & Science 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 plagiarized 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.

5.1.2 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 see our guidelines on prior publication and note that Music & Science may accept submissions of papers that have been posted on pre-print servers; please alert the Editorial Office when submitting (contact details are at the end of these guidelines) and include the DOI for the preprint in the designated field in the manuscript submission system. Authors should not post an updated version of their paper on the preprint server while it is being peer reviewed for possible publication in the journal. If the article is accepted for publication, the author may re-use their work according to the journal's author archiving policy. If your paper is accepted, you must include a link on your preprint to the final version of your paper.

5.2 Contributor's publishing agreement

Before publication Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement.  Music & Science publishes manuscripts under Creative Commons licenses. The standard license for the journal is Creative Commons by Attribution Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC), which allows others to re-use the work without permission as long as the work is properly referenced and the use is non-commercial. For more information, you are advised to visit Sage's OA licenses page.

Alternative license arrangements are available, for example, to meet particular funder mandates, made at the author’s request.

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6. Preparing your manuscript

6.1 Word processing formats

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.

6.2 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.

6.3 Supplementary material

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

6.3.1 Guidelines for submitting video material as part of an article

Video content can be streamed within the HTML version of your article. If you would like to submit a video as part of your article, please read the appended video properties guidelines carefully, ensure that you make a note within your manuscript as to where the video should be placed and upload it under the file type 'Additional Video Content' when you upload your manuscript via the manuscript submission site.

Video properties:

• At least 640x480 resolution and at least 20 fps.
• The video compression should be of high quality. The Journal expects compression technology to evolve and so does not wish to be prescriptive over compression types. Today H.264 codec in an MP4 or AVI contained is a good choice. MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 are portable but have lower quality and larger files than the more modern codecs. We expect videos to be able to play on Windows 8 and back, Linux and Mac so proprietary formats, such as WMV and FLV, are discouraged.
• Note the Music & Science Editors reserve the right to request authors to change the compression codec before publication.
• Videos should be below the 50MB mark and any video over this amount should provide a short preview to be hosted alongside the full file. Exceptions may be made at the discretion of the Editors.

How to submit your video

Video content should be submitted via ScholarOne Manuscripts, a web based online submission and peer review system. Please visit http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/mns to login and submit your video online.

6.3.2 Guidelines for submitting a podcast/vodcast

A podcast/vodcast is a short introduction to your article, which can be linked to from the Table of Contents on Sage Journals, promoted via Social Media, and shared directly by you with your networks. It is intended to be an addition to, rather than replacement of, your text abstract.

The aim is to provide an insight into the research that’s reported in your paper that complements what's on the page. This could consist of your evaluation of the significance and implication of your research; it could illuminate your motivations for undertaking the research, or even for becoming involved in the research field in the first place; it could focus on how the research fits into, or extends, or even transgresses the boundaries of, the broad domain of music and science. What we are interested in is an audio or video excerpt that complements the paper by adding to its interest and significance.

For further information regarding vodcasts please see the Music & Science Vodcast Guidelines: Vodcast Guidelines

Please note that an audio-visual release from must be completed for each individual contributor to the podcast/vodcast. This form should be signed and submitted as 'audio-visual release form'. The form is located here.

6.4 Reference style

Music & Science adheres to the APA reference style. Please review the guidelines on APA to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.

6.5 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.

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7. Submitting your manuscript

Music & Science is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/mns 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.

7.1 ORCID

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. Please ensure that ORCID IDs for all authors are supplied at the submission stage; it is not possible, at present, to add ORCID IDs once a paper has been accepted.

If you do not already have an ORCID ID please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.

7.2 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).

7.3 Corresponding author contact details

Provide full contact details for the corresponding author including email, mailing address and telephone numbers. Academic affiliations are required for all co-authors. These details should be presented separately to the main text of the article to facilitate anonymous peer review.

7.4 Permissions
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.

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8. On acceptance and publication

If your paper is accepted for publication after peer review, you will first be asked to complete the contributor’s publishing agreement. Once your manuscript files have been check for Sage Production, the corresponding author will be asked to pay the article processing charge (APC) via a payment link. Once the APC has been processed, your article will be prepared for publication and can appear online within an average of 30 days. Please note that no production work will occur on your paper until the APC has been received.

8.1 Sage Production

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.

8.2 Continuous Online Publication

One of the many benefits of publishing your research in an open access journal is the speed to publication. With no page count constraints, your article will be published online in a fully citable form with a DOI number as soon as it has completed the production process. At this time it will be completely free to view and download for all.

8.3 Promoting your 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.  

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9. Further Information

Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Music & Science editorial office as follows:
mnseditorial@sagepub.co.uk

10. Music & Science Complaints and Appeals

For information on the journal's appeals procedure please click here.

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