Submission Guidelines

The Ante Portas – Security Studies publishes three categories of peer-reviewed manuscripts: Research Articles, Reviews, and Commentaries and Opinions.

Research Articles

Research articles are detailed, original, and substantive works in the realm of security studies. Research articles are long-form submissions that set out first-rate, well-researched, and fully-developed theoretical arguments on an issue related to security. Research articles should be 8,000-12,000 words (excluding supplementary information, but including footnotes, endnotes, bibliography, and tables).

Reviews

Reviews are short-length studies of new publications in global security that make a novel empirical or theoretical point. Review essays range from 1,000-3,000 words and typically review one book as well as related research, with the bulk of the paper dedicated to the reviewer’s analysis.

Commentaries and Opinions

Commentaries and Opinions are a compilation of shorter essays arranged around a theoretical or empirical question or theme related to security issues. Paper contributions range from 3,000-4,000 words.

Formatting and Style

We require accepted articles to conform to the Ante Portas – Security Studies Editorial Requirements and the principles of style and presentation discussed there. This includes the following:

• In all manuscripts, authors should use a clear, accessible, and engaging writing style (favouring short sentences, avoiding unnecessary jargon, and using acronyms sparingly).
• Abstracts and introductions should include a clear statement of the manuscript’s scope, central argument(s), findings, and wider significance.
• The articles should contain from 5-10 keywords.
• All notes must be footnotes, not endnotes.
• Figures and tables should be placed in-line and as close as possible to the first reference made in the text. Tables must be formatted for legibility and comprehensibility.
• Limit the number of citations to the author’s work. Instead of omitting self-citations or using placeholders such as ‘author’ authors should write citations to their work in the third person.
• Citations should use an ‘author-date’ citation style. Manuscripts must have a references section at the end.
• Even when attached to paraphrased material, citations should usually include references to specific pages or locations in a text.
• Please opt for the traditional British spelling of words that have both U.S. and British spellings (liter/litre, analyze/analyse, etc.).

Data Presentation

Authors should present quantitative data and elucidate statistical models in forms that are accessible to a general audience. All tables, graphs, figures, etc. should be numbered consecutively, accompanied by a title and footnotes where necessary.

Review Process

The Ante Portas – Security Studies employs double-blind peer review (both the author and reviewers are anonymous) for most of its editorial decisions.

Editors of  Ante Portas – Security Studies make the initial verification of the submitted texts,  comparing its subject with the journal’s profile and confirming the compliance with editorial requirements.

Manuscripts will receive two independent reviews, with reviewers selected by the editorial team. At least one of the reviewers is affiliated with a foreign institution.

Reviewers evaluate manuscripts in the Review Form. The Review Form is posted on the journal’s website. The detailed rules for reviewing the articles conform to the guidelines of the Polish Ministry of  Education and Science.

The editorial team will view mixed reviews as opportunities to ask the author(s) to engage with critiques, and the editorial team will make the final judgment on how well the author has accomplished this task. The review has a consultative function, which means that the final decision regarding the acceptance of the text for printing is made by editors of Ante Portas – Security Studies.

The peer-review process should generally take no longer than 3 months. All final decisions are reviewed by the editorial board and the editor-in-chief.

Important Policies

Ante Portas – Security Studies requires that all submissions constitute original work. The editors will not consider manuscripts either concurrently under review or already published elsewhere.

According to the guidelines of the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education for scientific journals, the Ante Portas – Security Studies requires from the authors not only the reliability and accuracy of the merits but also the compliance with ethical requirements relating to the publication of academic papers. Therefore, information about all persons who contributed to the article in content, factual, financial, or any other terms should be given.

Hiding contribution to the creation of the publication is a reprehensible practice known as ‘ghostwriting’. In addition to a list of all the authors of the text, should be included:

• Their workplace (affiliation),
• Information about the contribution of individuals in the article (ie. who is the author of methods, concepts, principles),
• Information on the sources of funding of the publication (with a number of the grant),
• The contribution of scientific research institutions, associations, and other entities (ie. financial disclosure).

Copyright in articles published in Ante Portas – Security Studies rests with the publisher.

Open Access

Ante Portas – Security Studies is an open-access journal, the electronic version of each volume is shared online for free on the journal’s website under the Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0