The Journal of Digital Social Research (JDSR) provides a forum for research within all areas of the social sciences interacting with digital issues. We welcome submissions from neighboring research fields if they are relevant to a social science audience. JDSR's target audience is researchers, academics, professionals and students who are interested in the intersection of social sciences and digital technologies.
We prioritize research articles with clearly stated objectives, empirical grounding, and a solid theoretical framework. Sometimes, we also publish essays, book reviews, research overviews, opinion pieces, and legal case commentaries, but please check with the journal before submitting for all of these types of publications.
JDSR offers open access, online publication and double-blind peer review. Also, we are nice, friendly people. We do not require you to change your manuscript to suit our style guide at the review stage, and we do not charge any fees for review or publication.
JDSR is published solely online, using a continuous publication model. This means that articles are generally published online (in PDF format) once they have completed the peer review process and been approved for publication. Upon publication, the article is complete, with proper formatting, page numbers and DOI number, and can be cited immediately. Published articles are gathered into volumes and issues for ease of identification and referencing. Exceptions to this rule are special issues under a common theme, where publication of individual articles is deferred until the whole issue is completed. Completed issues number 3–4 per year/volume. Articles are archived at the National Library of Sweden (KB), ensuring long-term access.
JDSR is a full (no bullshit) open access journal (naturally). All new articles are published under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license. This means you retain the right to use your publication as you see fit and upload it wherever you want without permission from us (see our copyright policy).
Authors publishing with JDSR retain the unrestricted copyright to their submissions and can use their text in any way they see fit, including republishing it in different forms, such as online, in books, popular science articles or similar once it has been published in the journal.
Read our full open access policy.
We require original and exclusive submission. The former means that the research in question has not been previously published in its finished form (though it may have been presented as a conference paper, workshopped or made available as a draft), the latter that it may not be simultaneously submitted to any other journal. As part of the submission process you will be asked to confirm that your contribution is original and exclusive. We also require authors to follow the JDSR ethics policy available here.
At the time of submission, your manuscript does not have to follow the JDSR style guide. We will review it for scientific value and, following a positive peer-review decision, you will be asked to make changes if needed to comply with our style guide. The manuscript should, however, at the time of submission be clear, transparent and coherent in its language and citations to enable proper scientific scrutiny.
JDSR does not employ a maximum length for contributions, but a submission should be no longer than necessary. A clear and concise submission will have a greater chance of publication. Similarly, JDSR does not have a minimum word requirement. However, submissions shorter than 2.000 words are normally not classified as research articles.
Submissions should normally be in English. For special issues, other major languages may be used, at the discretion of the editors.
The process of publication follows these six steps:
1) Submission
You submit your contribution via our online submission system. Follow the instructions provided by the system. If you want to check with the editors to see if your article fits the scope of the journal before submitting your manuscript, you are welcome to contact us.
Please observe that you need to submit two versions of your contribution, one with your name and affiliation and one that is anonymized (all information identifying you as the author should be removed), to allow for double-blind peer review. Any tables, graphs and figures, as well as annexes, should be should be placed in the text at appropriate points. We may ask you to submit higher resolution versions at a later stage if necessary. You must also include an abstract of no more than one page, which is used in the peer review process.
Upon submission you will receive an automatic reply, acknowledging that your contribution has been received.
2) Editorial Review
Usually within 1-2 weeks you will receive the result of the editorial review. The editorial review is limited, examining whether the submission is complete, suitable for peer review, and thematically relevant for publication in JDSR.
3) Double-Blind Peer Review
Assuming that your contribution passes editorial review, it will be sent for double-blind peer review. JDSR is supported by a strong international network of academics in the field of digital social research. All submissions that fit within the scope of the journal are subject to double-blind peer review by experts in the field.
The aim of the peer review process is for it to be constructive, thorough, and not take longer than necessary.
4) Decision
Following peer review the editor will make and communicate a decision regarding publication. If the decision is to decline publication, the process ends here. If the editor finds it necessary for the submission to be revised before publication, further information and instructions will be given. If substantial revisions need to be made, you may be asked to resubmit your paper for a new round of peer review.
5) Final Editing, Typesetting and Proofreading
Once the article is accepted, you will be asked to format your manuscript so that it follows our style guide. As the author, you are responsible for copyediting, proofreading, and ensuring the submission is ready for publication, whereafter you provide us with the revised, Author Accepted Manuscript. This is followed by a brief process of typesetting the article in JDSR’s publishing format.
6) Publication
Once cleared for publication, your contribution is normally published online immediately and provided with full metadata (including page numbers) and a DOI number. You are free to share the article and use it in any way you see fit. Your article will subsequently be collected into an issue which is more prominently featured on our website; this will, however, not delay the publication of your article, and you will be provided with complete referencing information for your article upon publication. Exceptions to this direct mode of publishing can occur, in particular when we publish special thematic issues (subject to a call for papers), where we will instead publish your contribution online once the thematic issue is completed.
If you have any questions about submitting an article to JDSR, please contact us.
Authors should ensure correct citing of sources in their articles, including the provision of DOI numbers in the bibliography, when available. As stated in our submission guidelines, pinpoint references should be used when referring to specific parts of works.
Figures, images and graphs provided by authors should be accurate, of sufficient quality for publication, and not misrepresent the underlying data. Authors should ensure that the publication of illustrations provided to JDSR as part of a submission is not in violation of intellectual property rights.
Authors should ensure that their submitted articles do not include research that has been conducted in violation of applicable standards of research ethics or applicable laws.This includes regulations relating to data protection and the processing of personal data, such as the GDPR. Authors are responsible for ensuring that their submission does not infringe on the intellectual property rights of others, taking into account, of course, applicable fair use norms or right to citation and scientific critique.
Authors should disclose any potential conflicts of interest or financial interests which may impact the integrity of the work, or the appearance of integrity from the viewpoint of reasonable observers. This means authors should consider not only their own view, but that of outside observers. This is best illustrated through examples. Let’s assume the author works for EvilCorp and wants to publish a study about EvilCorp. The author should, of course, disclose this connection to the company. The same goes if the author’s collaborator, partner, close relative, close friend or mortal enemy works there or is dependent on the company (or their competitors) in some way. Has EvilCorp (or their competitors) funded the author’s position, study or in some way influenced the conception, design, execution or interpretation of the research? These are all examples of disclosures that should be made. The same goes for research which the author(s) stand to gain from financially.
Author affiliations should be provided. If funding for the research has been provided by a party that is not included in the author affiliations (i.e. beyond the salary that is connected to the author’s employment with the affiliated institution), this should be acknowledged. Examples of this are when research is funded by research grants, stipends or through generous contributions by the authors’ parents, who want the author to get a real job and move out of their basement already.
We all make mistakes. Should you discover or be made aware of a mistake or inaccuracy in the work you have published in JDSR, you should let us know promptly and help us correct or retract the published work. We aim to follow relevant COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) guidelines for reports from third parties about issues with research published with JDSR. Authors should cooperate with our editors in addressing such reports and, where necessary, in the correction or retraction of published work. Relevant COPE processes for such matters are available here: https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Flowcharts
About the journal
JDSR seeks to publish high-quality original research within all fields of social sciences interacting with digital issues. Social science is defined broadly to include, inter alia, sociology, informatics, pedagogy, education science, gender studies, law, economy, social work and geography. We welcome submissions from neighbouring research fields if they are relevant to a social science audience. Learn more →
JDSR is supported by a strong international editorial board of leading researchers in the field and is run by genuinely nice people.
Journal of Digital Social Research (JDSR) | ISSN (Online) 2003-1998
Published by DIGSUM (Centre for Digital Social Research), Umeå University, under the terms of a CC BY-SA License
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