Submissions

Submissions

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Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
  • The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
  • The submission file is in OpenOffice, or Microsoft Word document file format.
  • Where available, URLs or DOIs for the references have been provided.
  • The text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
  • The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines Section below.
  • If submitting to a peer-reviewed section of the journal, the instructions in Ensuring a Blind Review have been followed.
  • Any use of AI tools has been disclosed according to the journal’s AI policy, and no AI tool is listed as an author.

Author Guidelines

Fail to follow the guidelines will cause unnecessary delays in processing and publishing your
articles. Please use these guidelines and the following checklist prior to your submission.

Types of contributions

IJoL includes Featured Articles, Reports From the Field, Reviews and Commentaries: 

  • Featured Articles consist of original research or comprehensive and in­depth analyses. Although longer works may be considered, manuscripts of 3,000 to 5,000 words are most common.
  • Reports From the Field contain articles that describe the implementation and assessment of innovative practices in libraries of all types, and report distinguished Chinese librarian who contributes greatly to the profession.
  • Reviews of books, journal articles, or conference papers relevant to the field of the librarianship. Reviews are descriptive and substantially evaluative.
  • Commentaries provide a forum for varying perspectives on the topic under consideration.

Style conventions

Articles submitted to IJoL must provide full references, following the American Psychological Association (APA) guidelines. All aspects of style and format (headings, figures, tables, and citations) should follow the guidelines in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA) 7th Edition.

a. Articles should be typed in a word processing software using single spacing and Times New Roman font with one ­inch margins on all four sides.

b. Word document

  • Body of text—Times New Roman 12­ point font  
  • Section headers—Times New Roman 14 point font, centered
  • Title of article—Times New Roman 16 point font, centered

c. All copy aligned left; do not justify.

d. Please do not include page numbers.

e. Please do not include headers and footers.

f. Please send images separately as .gif or .jpg files.

g. Please include an abstract (50­-200 words).

h. Please include a brief biography (50 words) for each author.

i. Please supply four to six keywords for your article.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy

Purpose
The International Journal of Librarianship (IJoL) adheres to the highest standards of publication ethics and follows COPE guidelines. All parties involved in the publishing process—authors, editors, and reviewers—share responsibility for maintaining integrity and transparency.
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1. Permitted Use
Authors may use AI tools (including generative AI) only for language improvement and grammar correction prior to submission.
2. Disclosure Requirement
Any AI use must be disclosed in the manuscript:
- Acknowledgements Section: ‘This manuscript was edited using [Tool Name] to improve clarity and grammar under author supervision.’
3. Authorship
AI tools cannot be credited as authors. Authorship must be limited to individuals who meet the journal’s criteria for intellectual contribution and accountability.
4. Responsibility
Authors remain fully accountable for the originality, accuracy, and integrity of the work. Misrepresentation or failure to disclose AI use may result in rejection or retraction in line with COPE guidelines.
5. Screening
All submissions will be checked using iThenticate, which includes AI-detection features, to safeguard against plagiarism and undisclosed AI-generated content.
6. Editors and Reviewers
- Must maintain confidentiality and must not upload manuscripts or any part of them into AI tools.
- Peer-review reports should be written independently, without AI assistance, to preserve integrity.

Anonymity

Authors should ensure that manuscripts are fully anonymous. Manuscripts should not contain any identifying information. The main file of the submission should include the article title, but not the author’s name; all first­person references in the primary text or footnotes must be removed before submission.

Author Charges

IJoL does not charge authors submission or processing fees.
Any further questions about submissions should be addressed to the editors.

Featured Articles

This section contains featured articles on original research in LIS field.  The articles should contain the usual sections expected in any scholarly articles, including but not limited to an abstract, a literature review, methodology, findings, and a conclusion.

Reports From the Field

This section contains articles that describe the implementation and assessment of innovative  practices in libraries of all types, and report distinguished librarians worldwide who contribute  greatly to the profession. The articles focus on sharing ideas and experiences with fellow practitioners.

Commentaries

This section is to provide a forum for varying perspectives on the topic under consideration.

Reviews

This section contains reviews of books, journal articles, or conference papers. Reviews should be  descriptive and substantially evaluative.

Copyright Notice

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:   

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and the initial publication in this journal.      

Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.      

Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to  productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.