Publication Standards

1. Only original work which is submitted exclusively for publication within the journal is accepted. No work which has been previously published fully or in part will be considered for publication in Ostour. Similarly, no work which substantially resembles any other work published in either print or electronic form, or submitted to a conference other than the conferences held by the ACRPS will be considered for publication.  

2. Submissions must be accompanied by a curriculum vitae (CV) of the author, in both Arabic and English. 

3. All submissions must include the following elements: 

i. A title in both Arabic and English together with the author’s institutional affiliation. 

ii. An abstract, ranging between 100 and 150 words in length, in both Arabic and English as well as a list of keywords. The abstract must explicitly and clearly spell out the research problematic, the methodologies used, and the main conclusions arrived at. 

iii. The research paper must include the following elements: specification of the research problematic; significance of the topic being studied; statement of thesis; a review of literature emphasizing gaps or limitations in previous analysis; a description of the research methodology; hypothesis and conceptual framework; bibliography. 

iv. All research papers submitted for consideration must adopt the referencing guidelines adopted by the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies (See Appendix I for a complete guide to the reference style used across all of our journals). 

v. Extracts or chapters from doctoral theses and other student projects are only published in exceptional circumstances. Authors must make clear in all cases when their submissions are extracts of student theses/reports, and provide exhaustive information on the program of study for which the manuscript was first submitted. 

vi. All submitted works must fall within the broad scope of Ostour, including economics, demographics, and environmental science.

vii. Book reviews of between 2,800 and 3,000 words in length will be considered for submission to the journal, provided that the book covers a topic which falls within the scope of the journal and within the reviewer’s academic specialization and/or main areas of research. Reviews are accepted for books written in any language, provided they have been published in the previous three years. Book reviews are subject to the same quality standards which apply to research papers. 

viii. Ostour carries a special section devoted to discussions of a specific theme which is a matter of current debate within the social sciences. These essays must be between 2,800 and 3,000 words in length. They are subject to the same refereeing standards as research papers. 

ix. All submissions are to be between 6,000 and 8,000 words in length, inclusive of a bibliography, footnotes, appendices and the caption texts on images. The editors retain the right to publish longer pieces at their discretion. 

x. All diagrams, charts, figures and tables must be provided in a format compatible with either Microsoft Office’s spreadsheet software (Excel) or Microsoft Office’s word processing suite (Word), alongside high-resolution images. Charts will not be accepted without the accompanying data from which they were produced. 

4. The peer review process for Ostour and for all journals published by the ACRPS is conducted in the strictest confidence. Two preliminary readers are selected from a short list of approved reader-reviewers. In cases where there is a major discrepancy between the first two readers in their assessment of the paper, the paper will be referred to a third reviewer. The editors will notify all authors of a decision either to publish, publish after modifications, or to decline to publish, within two months of the receipt of the first draft. 

5. The editorial board of Ostour adheres to a strict code of ethical conduct, which has the clearest respect for the privacy and the confidentiality of authors (cf. Annex II).

i.  The sequencing of publication for articles accepted for publication follows strictly technical criteria.   

ii. Ostour does not make payments for articles published in the journal, nor does it accept payment in exchange for publication.

Author’s name, Title of the book in italics (Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication), page number. As an example: 

Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (New York: Penguin, 2006), pp. 99-100. 

Successive footnotes would be in the form: Pollan, p. 3.

If there is more than one reference by the same author, we use a short title: Pollan, Omnivore’s Dilemma, p. 3.

The corresponding bibliographical entry: Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. New York: Penguin, 2006.

Books written by four or more authors should follow the same rules as above, but only the first author is named, followed by “et al.”. As an example: Dana Barnes et al., Plastics: Essays on American Corporate Ascendance in the 1960s (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982), p. 142. 

In successive footnotes: Barnes et al., p. 142.

The corresponding bibliographical entry: Barnes, Dana et al. Plastics: Essays on American Corporate Ascendance in the 1960s, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982.

Author’s name, “Title of the article,” Name of Journal in italics, volume number, issue number, page number. As an example: 

Robert Springborg, “State-Society Relations in Egypt: The Debate Over Owner-Tenant Relations,” Middle East Journal, vol. 45, no. 2 (Spring 1991), p. 247.

Corresponding Bibliographical Entry: Springborg, Robert. “State-Society Relations in Egypt: The Debate Over Owner-Tenant Relations,” Middle East Journal, vol. 45, no. 2 (Spring 1991), pp. 232-249.  

Newspaper articles should be cited only in the footnotes (not in the Bibliography). As an example: 

Ellen Barry, “Insisting on Assad’s Exit Will Cost More Lives, Russian Says,” The New York Times, 29/12/2012.

Author’s name (if available), “The electronic resource's title,” The website name, Date of publication (if available), accessed on d/m/y, at: shortened URL. As an example:

“Sovereign Wealth Fund Rankings 2015,” Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute, accessed on 9/8/2016, at: http://bit.ly/1sQqBfr