Policies

Focus and Scope

IIPJ welcomes scholarly articles that relate directly to Indigenous People or Peoples and have policy relevance. An article may focus on a single group, community, country, or population, but it must have policy implications or lessons that are relevant to other Indigenous Peoples or countries. Work that involves international comparison is a priority.

IIPJ publishes four types of articles:

  • Research articles use a systematic methodology, which should be described in the article, to analyze a specific research question or questions. IIPJ welcomes submissions using historical methods, qualitative and quantitative approaches, and mixed methodologies. Research using Indigenous or decolonizing methodologies are of particular interest. The article structure should typically include an introduction; literature review and/or theoretical framework; method; results or findings; discussion, including policy recommendations; and references. Articles should be between 4,000 and 7,000 words, excluding the reference list. Longer papers will be considered under special circumstances.
  • Policy articles analyze or evaluate a program or policy. The author(s) may draw upon primary and/or secondary sources. The article structure should typically include an introduction; background, literature review, and/or theoretical framework; analysis; discussion, including policy recommendations; and references. Articles should be between 4,000 and 7,000 words, excluding the reference list. Longer papers will be considered under special circumstances.
  • Editorial articles provide a short commentary or opinion an issue or policy that may aim to interpret or explain, criticize, or persuade. Editorials must contribute to scholarly discourse. Editorial articles that are simply intended to be inflammatory, libelous, slanderous, or derogatory will not be considered. Articles should generally have fewer than 1,500 words.
  • Book reviews provide a brief description and critique of a published work related to Indigenous issues. Authors are encouraged to submit a proposal prior to the completion of the book review in order to ensure the book is not currently under review or outside of the scope of IIPJ. Priority will be given to books published in the last 2 years.

Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement

IIPJ is committed to ethical publishing practices that:

  • Are fair, impartial, and transparent
  • Maintain editorial independence
  • Promote high quality scholarship
  • Adhere to ethical standards in research and scholarship, including those specific to work with Indigenous Peoples
  • Support academic freedom and intellectual property rights
  • Respect copyright and other legal standards in publishing
  • Our publication ethics and publication malpractice statement is based on the Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors (Committee on Publication Ethics [COPE], 2011, see the COPE website for full details).

    Duties and Responsibilities of Editors

    IIPJ’s Editors are responsible for:

    • Setting, in consultation with the editorial and advisory boards, the policies of the Journal and ensuring these policies are adhered to in practice.
    • Overseeing the peer review process, including adherence to double blind peer review procedures.
    • Making decisions, based on the results of peer review and/or editorial board review, about which submissions should be accepted and published in IIPJ. These decisions will be based on the extent to which the work falls within the scope of IIPJ; the scholarly merit of the work, including adherence to ethical standards; its originality, clarity, and potential to contribute to knowledge in the area; and legal requirements that include copyright and plagiarism.
    • Investigating and resolving issues related to submitted and published content, including allegations of misconduct. IIPJ follows the COPE Flowcharts for handling allegations of misconduct.
    • Maintaining editorial independence by preventing commercial and financial needs from influencing intellectual and ethical standards.
    • Keeping information about submissions confidential. Information about a submission will only be shared with the authors, peer reviewers and potential peer reviewers, and members of the editorial board as appropriate to carry out the publishing policies of IIPJ. Editors may not disclose or use materials that have been submitted to IIPJ but are not yet published without permission from the author(s).
    • Disclosing conflicts of interest. In cases where an editor has a vested interest in a submission that would prevent a fair and impartial assessment, he or she will not be permitted to participate in decision making about the submission.

    Duties and Responsibilities of Reviewers

    Individuals who agree to serve as a reviewer are responsible for:

    • Providing the editor and author(s) with a detailed written report that outlines the strengths and weaknesses of the submission, as well as recommended revisions. The report should provide justification for the reviewer’s recommendation to the editors as to whether the submission requires no revision, minor revision, major revision, or should be rejected. Personal criticism of the author(s) or criticisms that are not constructive in terms of improving the manuscript are not appropriate.
    • Bringing evidence of misconduct to the attention of the editor promptly.
    • Informing the editor if he or she is unable to carry out his or her duties as a reviewer. Reasons include, but are not limited to, being unqualified to provide an assessment, being unable to review the submission objectively because of a conflict of interest or because the author(s) is/are known to the reviewer, or he or she is unable to complete the review in the agreed upon timeframe.
    • Submitting the review within the specified timeframe so that the editors can provide the author(s) with their decision in a timely manner.
    • Keeping submissions under review in confidence. No unpublished material from a submission may be used without the permission of the author(s)

    Duties and Responsibilities of Authors

    Authors are responsible for:

    • The content of the submission. Should errors or inaccuracies in the work be identified by the author(s), these must be brought to the attention of the Journal’s editors immediately.
    • Adhering to reporting standards. For research submissions, this includes providing a description of the methods and results that is detailed and accurate. It should allow the veracity of the work to be evaluated and the study to be replicated. Ethical issues should be described, including ethics approvals as required. Policy submissions should present an accurate and comprehensive description of relevant cases or literature. Editorial submissions should be clearly identified as such. For all types of submissions, making false or misleading statements is unethical and unacceptable.
    • Ensuring the submission is entirely original; that is, it must not present work that is essentially the same as a submission to another journal or previously published work. Authors must notify the editors in writing if a submission duplicates sections of another published work or an entire published work. Authors are responsible for securing written permission from the copyright holder(s) prior to submitting the work to IIPJ.
    • Citing materials paraphrased or quoted from other sources, including the author’s own work, appropriately. Individuals or works that have been influential in shaping the work described in the submission should also be credited.
    • Ensuring the submitted manuscript has only been submitted to IIPJ and is not submitted elsewhere until it has been released by the editors of IIPJ via a decision letter.
    • Ensuring the list of authors is complete and accurate. Only individuals who have made a significant contribution to the work, were involved in the drafting or revising of the manuscript, and have approved the final draft for submission should be listed as an author. Others who made contributions but do not meet the criteria for being an author should be listed in the Acknowledgements section.
    • Disclosing any conflicts of interest that may be seen as influencing the work.
    • Retaining raw data, where applicable, in the event that it is required to support the published work. The data should be accessible for a period of 10 years unless prohibited by other legal or ethical requirements.
    • Language

      At this time, IIPJ will be published in English. The advisory and editorial boards will consider changes to this policy as the journal progresses.

      Open Access Policy

      Open access publishing is an international movement designed to accelerate and improve access to research literature that is often publicly funded as a means to improving the health, well-being, and economic viability of those impacted. IIPJ has adopted an open-access policy to help ensure that valuable knowledge is transferred without barriers in order to effect change among Indigenous Peoples, governments, non-government agencies, and/or researchers.

      IIPJ is free of charge to all readers and authors (i.e., there are no submission or publication fees and no charge to access the full text of articles). Articles are posted to the website immediately upon publication. Readers are not required to subscribe to IIPJ to access the articles published herein.

      Archiving

      Articles from past issues will be archived for continued retrieval in following IIPJ’s open access policy.

      Dissemination

      IIPJ encourages readers to copy articles and disseminate them widely to interested individuals and groups for non-commercial purposes. In so doing, we ask that IIPJ is recognized as the publisher of the articles in question. IIPJ's copyright policies are described in detail on our Copyright Notice page.

      Turnaround Time

      IIPJ's Editorial Board is committed to completing the initial peer review process within eight (8) weeks of acknowledgement of receipt of a submission.

      Online Submissions

      There are no established deadlines for submissions with the exception of special issues. All submissions should be sent to: http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cgi/myaccount.cg

      Resubmissions

      There are no established deadlines for resubmissions (i.e., submission of a revised draft of the article following peer review) for regular issues. Articles will be slotted into the next available issue in the order in which they receive final acceptance. Articles for which a revised draft is not submitted within a year of the last decision letter will be removed from consideration unless the authors have contacted the editors for an extension.
      Deadlines for special issues will be specified in the decision letter emailed from the editors.

      Editorial Policy

      The International Indigenous Policy Journal does not endorse the views expressed in any of the articles, and the opinions expressed in the articles published by IIPJ are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of IIPJ's editors, the editorial or advisory board, publisher, or sponsors. Furthermore, IIPJ does not take any responsibility for the content, accuracy, or reliability of the information in the articles.

      Please download the IIPJ Author's Guide for detailed submission information.