On this page, you will find all the necessary information about publishing in the World Customs Journal including types of contributions that can be published, peer review policy and process, submission guidelines and requirements.
Types of contributions
The WCJ publishes the following types of contributions.
Articles
Original articles (3,000−7,000 words) are original contributions following theoretical and conceptual innovation, development of theories and concepts, methodological perspectives, and rigorous empirical analysis.
Research notes and commentaries
Research notes (2,000−3,000 words) offer a novel contribution to our understanding of customs and border management. This can include the presentation and discussion of new or updated datasets, the introduction of new data, policy debate, analyses that challenge conventional wisdom, novel theoretical or conceptual insights, as well as practical applications, case studies, issues and solutions.
Special reports and reviews
This category includes various types of contributions (300−1,000 words) such as reviews of books, publications, systems and practices.
Letters to Editor
To provide opportunities for readers to engage with items previously published in the Journal we invite Letters to the Editor that address, challenge, rebut, or amplify published articles. Before a comment on a published article is accepted for publication, a copy will be sent to the original author giving them the opportunity to submit a brief reply, which will also be published in the same issue of the WCJ.
Editorial and peer review process
All submissions to this journal undergo rigorous peer-review which assures that contributions meet the highest standards. The WCJ follows a two-stage process in evaluating submissions starting with initial screening by the Editorial Team, which evaluates submissions for content, suitability for the journal and prospect of eventual publication. The Editorial Team may reject the submission based on the initial screening. Submissions that pass the review by the Editorial Team are then sent to external reviewers. Only the most promising and original contributions may be sent for external peer review.
Articles, research notes and commentaries are subjected to review by at least two reviewers who are experts in the field, and may include members of the Editorial Board and external academic experts and professionals. Our peer review process is confidential and double-blind, which means that both the reviewer and the author identities are concealed from the reviewers, and vice versa, throughout the review process.
The Journal’s policy is to provide an initial assessment of the submission within 30 days of its receipt. In cases where the contribution requires an external review, this period may be extended. This process may result in delays in publication, especially where modifications and revisions are requested by the reviewer(s). Any revisions or corrections should be returned within the scheduled dates and timeframes. The Editors reserve the right to make alterations to style, punctuation, grammar and expression. By submitting your paper to the WCJ, you are agreeing to originality checks during the peer review and production processes.
Once all required revisions have been made and all submission requirements have been satisfied, the contribution will be accepted for publication and the authors will be advised accordingly, and the submission will be scheduled for publication in the next forthcoming edition.
Publication ethics
Our journal’s editors take all reasonable steps to identify and prevent the publication of papers where research misconduct has occurred. If the editors are made aware of any allegation of research misconduct, the editors shall deal with such allegations appropriately. The WCJ editors follow the Retraction Guidelines developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics and are always willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed.
By submitting their contribution for publication in the WCJ, authors warrant and represent that their contribution does not contain infringing, libellous, obscene or other unlawful matter.
Copyright
The copyright of the text stays with the author(s), and so does responsibility for content.
Licence
This is an open access journal distributed under the terms of an implicit license, which means that when an author has submitted an article for publication and subsequently sent revised drafts after peer review, the author has implicitly granted a right to publish the contribution.
Both parties agree to the attribution of an article as follows: the World Customs Journal agrees to acknowledge the author(s) in the Table of Contents and the About the Author(s) section at the end of their published work, and the author agrees to acknowledge the World Customs Journal as the place of original publication of the article. In respect of all material published in the WCJ and on its website, the authors grant to us a worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to use, reproduce, adapt, publish, translate and distribute such material in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, together with the right to sub-licence such rights.
Submission requirements
Please ensure that you follow these instructions carefully when submitting your contribution to avoid rejection and unnecessary delays and to reduce administrative burden.
Manuscripts and any additional files/information need to be submitted by the corresponding author through the Scholastica journal management platform. To submit a contribution to the WCJ, you must register as an author on Scholastica.
It is assumed that the submission of a manuscript to the WCJ means that the contribution is original and has not been previously published elsewhere, it is the final version and it has not been, and will not be, submitted elsewhere else at the same time. If a paper is under review elsewhere, this will be considered grounds for a priori rejection of the manuscript.
You must ensure that manuscripts and any additional files/information follow all format and style requirements contained in the WCJ Style Guide.
