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Call for Submissions: Working Paper Series

Overview
One of the core goals of the Arab Council for the Social Sciences (ACSS) is to encourage the production and publication of independent, high-quality social science research in the Arab region. Towards this end, the ACSS has launched a Working Paper Series to disseminate new and exciting academic papers related to the field and the region, and explore ideas through scholarly discussion.
 
The Series offers authors the chance to receive peer feedback on their work in progress, and provides them with an early means of publication prior to further development of their work. It also gives them exposure to a broad audience, which can result in possible collaborations with researchers in and outside the Arab region.
 
Submission Policy
The ACSS publishes a Working Paper Series in Arabic, English, and French throughout the year. We welcome submissions of original works from all social scientists, particularly grantees and fellows from any one of our research programs, as well as participants in our organized activities, such as conferences and workshops. There is no topic restriction within the social sciences, but preference is given to papers that lie within the current themes and research and grants programs of the ACSS. We welcome papers addressing issues of a substantive, theoretical, methodological or technical nature. While the research approach can be empirical, theoretical, or both, we are especially interested in papers that present new data, which can consist of either field, textual, or archival data.
 
Authors should make sure that the materials they submit are not copyrighted by another person or entity. Working papers will be available at the ACSS as hard copies (in limited numbers) as well as downloadable PDFs on the ACSS website free of charge. The ACSS may use the author’s name and bibliographical information in connection with the advertising and promotion of the work. A group of working papers might be put together (with the approval of authors) as a themed issue of a journal, or an edited volume.
 
Submission of a paper to the ACSS Working Paper Series is construed as permission to post the paper on the ACSS website, and/or possibly translate it to other languages.
 
Review and Editing
Submissions to the ACSS Working Paper Series will be subjected to a blind review by the ACSS Editorial Review Board, an independent review board composed of distinguished regional and international scholars. The overall process from submission to publication is estimated to take between four to five months. Generally, authors are advised to first submit an abstract of 450-550 words. If abstracts are accepted, authors are asked to develop their papers within a particular timeframe. Upon receipt and acceptance of the full paper, the text is sent for review. The review process is estimated to take approximately two to three months. Authors will be asked to make revisions before papers are published.
 
The ACSS reserves the right to decline papers that prove to be plagiarized or potentially libelous or defamatory, and that are not considered sufficiently well developed or relevant to the ACSS.
 
The views and opinions reflected in the published working papers are solely those of the original authors, and do not necessarily represent those of the ACSS.
 
Copyright
Copyright for papers included in the ACSS Working Paper Series remains with the authors, who are free to publish their papers elsewhere after they have been published by the ACSS. If authors choose to publish their papers elsewhere, they should include a reference to the ACSS publication. It is the responsibility of authors to notify the ACSS when their work has been accepted for publication elsewhere, which may be noted online in their work published with the ACSS, or referenced with a link to the eventual publication.
 
Submission Instructions
Papers should be submitted electronically as a Microsoft Word email attachment to the Publications Unit at publications@theacss.org. The subject of the email should be labeled “ACSS Working Paper Series”. Papers should be spell-checked and in good order, with bibliography and endnotes. Papers should follow the ACSS Style Guide. Authors should provide any figures, tables, or other illustrations in a separate file, indicating in the body of the paper where they should go.
 
Abstracts should be submitted with the following information:
  • Title of paper and subtitle (if any)
  • Author(s); date (month, year)
  • Institutional affiliation (if any)
  • Address(es) for correspondence (postal and e-mail)
  • Keywords (3-6)
  • Length: 450-550 words

Visit this page for tips on how to write a successful abstract. 


Papers should be submitted with the following information:
  • Title of paper and subtitle (if any)
  • Author(s); date (month, year)
  • Institutional affiliation (if any)
  • Address(es) for correspondence (postal and e-mail)
  • Abstract (450-550 words)
  • Keywords (3-6)
 
Typescript 
Papers should be formatted as follows:
  • Page Format: A4 (21 x 29.7 cm)
  • Line Spacing: 1.5, with the following exceptions:
    • Block quotations, table titles, and figure captions should be single-spaced.
    • A prose quotation of five or more lines should be blocked.
    • A blocked quotation does not get enclosed in quotation marks.
    • An extra line space should immediately precede and follow a blocked quotation.
    • Blocked quotations should be indented 1.27 cm as a whole.
    • Notes and bibliographies should be singled-spaced internally; however, leave an extra line space between note and bibliographic entries.
  • Margins: Top, bottom, left and right, 2.5 cm; header and footer, 1.7 cm
  • Font: Standard such as Times New Roman and Arial, 12 points for English and French texts, 14 points for Arabic texts
  • Text Alignment: Justified without indentation or hyphenation
  • Length: 4,000-5,000 words (excluding references)
 
For help structuring your paper, think of the IMRAD (Introduction-Methodology-Results-And-Discussion) Format.
 
 
House Style
The ACSS uses an adapted version of the Chicago Manual of Style. Please consult the links below for detailed instructions for writing, referencing, translation and transliteration.
If you have any questions, please contact the ACSS Publications Unit at publications@theacss.org. 

How the ACSS Working Paper Series can help you advance your career