Article Style and Submission Guidelines

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RSF Journal Submission Guidelines

When you submit your article, please be sure to adhere to the following guidelines or your paper will be returned to you. The issue will not be advanced until all papers have been correctly submitted for publication.

Initial submissions, as well as revised papers for peer review, must be submitted as both a single pdf and a single Microsoft Word file, including any tables, figures, references, and appendix. Call outs should appear in the text for placement of tables and figures. Once a paper has been accepted for publication, you will need to supply two or three documents: a Word document with the article text, footnotes, and references; a Word document with any tables and figures; and a pdf of an online appendix if you have one.

Length

 

Individual paper submissions should be no longer than 35 pages. They should be double-spaced with 1-inch margins, Times New Roman, 11-point font. Tables and figures are included in the page count as are notes and references, which can be set single-spaced.

Tables and Figures

 

Tables should be no more than 9 columns wide in a vertical or “portrait” orientation (this includes row headings). They should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numbers.

Please do not use vertical lines to show space distinction (use only horizontal lines and additional blank space if necessary). Please do not include shading in your tables.

Use Panel A and Panel B to denote sections of a table. Do not abbreviate column headings.

 

If an entire column contains percentages, spell out “percent” in the column head and do not use the percent sign in the column. Place a zero in front of the decimal point in all decimal fractions (that is, 0.357, not .357).

For notes pertaining to specific table entries, please use lowercase italicized letters (a, b, c, etc.) in both the table itself and the notes. These notes should follow the more general table Sources and Notes. For notes on significance levels (also called probability notes), we use asterisks as reference marks. Per Chicago, “If two or three standard significance levels are noted, a single asterisk is used for the lowest level of significance, two for the next higher, and so on.” If values other than these three are given, other symbols may be used. Per Chicago, “In the note, the letter p (probability) is usually lowercase and in italic. Zeros are generally omitted before the decimal point. Probability notes follow all other notes.”

* p < .05; ** p < .01; *** p < .001

Submitting Art: Tables and Figures

Authors must submit two versions of their tables and figures. For the copyeditor, tables and figures need to be supplied in a single Word document separated from the text. The tables and the figure titles and notes must be editable, not embedded images. For the typesetter, we need underlying table data and individual figure files in editable file formats. The production manager will send you a list of acceptable file types along with the production schedule for the book.

 

Art will be in color in the e-book and in grayscale in print. The typesetter will convert color art to grayscale, but it’s helpful if you can supply color art that will work easily in grayscale (color with sufficient variation or lines rendered as dots and dashes). There should be no reference to color in the text, captions, or legends.

 

All tables and figures must have a source line. The source should be in author-date style where applicable with a corresponding entry in the reference list. If the source is the author’s own research, please use “Author’s calculations,” “Author’s diagram,” etc. as appropriate.

 

Authors should label each file for the typesetter with the figure and or table number.

 

Permissions

 

Written permissions are required for reproducing any table, figure, image, etc., for which you do not hold the copyright. This includes, but is not limited to, tables, figures, advertisements, screenshots of webpages, maps, diagrams, corporate logos, etc. You are responsible for acquiring the permission to reprint the material and paying any associated fees. Usage must be requested for unlimited, worldwide, open-access distribution in print and electronic formats. Permissions should be secured as soon as possible, and written permission must be submitted along with your article. Please see the “Russell Sage Foundation Permissions Request Form.”

Additional Items That Need to Be Submitted Along with Your Paper

 

Contributors should supply a short abstract for their paper consisting of 150 words or less.

Contributors should supply a list of key words (between 6 and 9 words) for their article.

 

Affiliations for all authors must be listed on the first page of the article along with contact information for at least one author. Please provide affiliations for each author in the following format: Jane Smith is professor of x at y university.

After the affiliations, please add a paragraph in the following format: List any acknowledgments. Follow them with: Direct correspondence to: name, at email address, snail mail address.

Copyright

 

All work must be original, and the copyright will be held by the Russell Sage Foundation. Every contributor must submit a signed “RSF Contributor Agreement Form” along with their article. Terms of usage are outlined on the form. Permission to republish will need to be made through the Copyright Clearance Center, which administers the permissions requests for Russell Sage.

Please note that RSF only publishes original work that has not been previously published. Submissions may not be under review for publication elsewhere and submissions that appear in working paper series and draft versions can only be posted with the written permission of Russell Sage. Please contact RSF’s director of publications for permission.

 

 

 

Appendix

 

An article may have an appendix of no more than five pages that may include tables, figures, etc. Any material more than that length will not be edited or typeset as part of the issue but will be made available through links on the issue’s webpage. There is no limit to the additional material that can be posted on that website.

 

HOUSE JOURNAL STYLE

 

Authors should follow the style below as best they can. The copyeditor will adjust the text as needed.

 

The copyeditor should keep a thorough style sheet and use Microsoft Word’s Comment feature for queries.

 

We follow the most recent edition of Merriam- Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary for spelling. We follow the most recent edition of The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) for usage and for most style and citation matters not covered below. Authors and copyeditors should pay close attention to subject-verb agreement, dangling modifiers, verb tense, and pronouns lacking antecedents. They should also pay particular attention to the following points of style.

1. Use the serial comma:

 

This book is brilliant, incisive, and timely.

 

2. Numbers

 

  • In most contexts spell out figures up to one hundred as well as large round numbers. An exception is made for numbers that begin a sentence (spell out), for page numbers and units of measure (use numerals), and when following this rule would result in mixed styles within the same paragraph:

“Of 129 voters, 57 were Democrats and 72 were Republicans.”

 

  • In stating percentages, the word percent is always spelled out, but the number is always a figure: 75 percent.

 

  • Keep the traditional style for dates (July 16, 1987).

 

  1. Observe the important distinction between that and which. (See the explanation in Words into Type if you are in doubt.)

 

  1. Implement proper capitalization for all titles and heads in text and notes. Prepositions of 5 or more letters should be capitalized.

 

  1. Year ranges should be changed from 1978–79 to the full years (1978–1979).

 

 

 

6. Abbreviations

 

  • The use of i.e., e.g., vs., and etc. is not acceptable, even in parentheses and notes. Please spell out or reword.

 

  • Acronyms should be spelled out at first use.

 

  • Do not italicize “et al.”

 

  • The words Hispanic, Latina, Latino, Latinx, Latin@, African American, and other ethnic and racial appellations derived from proper nouns should be capitalized. When black and white refer to race, they must be either both capitalized or both lowercased. If they are capitalized, all racial designations must be capitalized. For questions about particular terms, please speak with the press.  

 

7. Use of biased, derogatory, or offensive language

 

  • In quoted texts within scholarly works the preference is to elide the word (n––, r––, g––, etc.). It is acceptable to add an s at the end of the dash to make the sentence grammatically correct. We encourage the author to include an explanation for why the word has been changed. If the word is used repeatedly (for example, in an ethnography where the respondents use the word as part of their normal responses), a note of explanation must be included in the front matter, whether as a separate note or as part of the introductory material.

 

  • If the author wants to retain the full use, they must speak with the director of publications to get approval to do so, and the author must include some kind of explanation in a note attached to first use.

 

  • If the author cites the title of a published work in-text, the word or words should be retained but a note should be added to explain why it was retained.

 

  • Be alert to sexism and racism. The copyeditor should change or tactfully query the author.

 

  

  1. Identifications and first names of people should be provided at first mention in the text (and throughout the references—see below). Copyeditors should query omissions. 

 

“Psychologist Judith Wallerstein has stated that . . .”

 

  1. The use of they, their, or them as singular gender-neutral pronouns is acceptable (as is the generic “he” or “she” but avoid gender role stereotyping).
  2. Reword any references to material “above” or “below.”

 

  1. Drop ellipses from the beginning and end of quoted material.

 

  1. Tables and figures should be sequentially numbered. In-text references to them should be lowercase: “see table 2.” For table footnotes, use italicized letters in the table itself and in the note. All tables and figures must list a source, even if it is “Author’s tabulations.”
  2. Equations should be set in roman type, not italic. Variables should be set in italics in equations as well as in the text.

14. References and In-text Citations

 

We typically use the author and date system of citation: “McFate 1995” parenthetically in the text, with a complete citation appearing in a reference list at the end of the article. To include page numbers with a string of citations, please use the following style: (McFate 1995, 9; Jones and Murphy 1992, 6–10; Hardin 1990, ch. 4).

 

For substantive notes and legal citations, we use footnotes.

 

Footnotes should use Microsoft Word’s Notes feature, which links the superscript notes in the text to the notes themselves.

 

Copyeditors should check all citations against the reference list and query authors regarding references that do not appear in both places or that have mismatched years of publication.

 

If an author has used a citation generator, the copyeditor can remove fields by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+F9.

 

Avoid note numbers in mid-sentence, unless placing them at the end of a sentence would confuse what is being cited.

 

In references if an offensive word is used in the title of a published work, it should be retained.

 

Ibid. should not be used in notes. Repeat the short citation.

 

Contra CMOS, unpublished manuscript citations should still be listed in the reference list.

 

 

15. Authors should use subheads to break up the text but should not start the article with a subhead or use “Introduction” as a subhead. Subheads and sections of the text should not be numbered (i.e., please do not divide the paper into sections using Roman or Arabic numerals).

16. Any references to color art—in text, captions, or the key within the art—need to be worded so that they will work when the art is printed in black and white and when it appears in color in the online version of the journal.

 

  1. Copyeditors should code all elements of the manuscript (titles, subheads, lists, extracts,

equations, etc.) except for tables and figures. Use indents to make clear levels within tables. Do not use boldface or italics.

 

 

 

 

Sample References:

 

Please use first names, not initials, in reference-list entries. Access dates are not needed unless there is no publication date. Omit place of publication for books. For journal articles, include both volume and issue numbers but omit month and season. Do not use the 3-em dash to replace an author’s name in entries. For works by the same author, repeat the author’s name at the start of each entry. Up to six authors are listed in a reference list entry; if more than six, only the first three are listed, followed by “et al.” In an author-date text citation, up to two authors are listed; if more than two, only the first is listed, followed by “et al.”

 

Standard entry for a single-author book:

Grubb, W. Norton. 1996. Learning to Work: Reintegrating Job Training and Education. Russell Sage Foundation.

 

Standard entry for a multi-author book:

Spain, Daphne, and Suzanne M. Bianchi. 1996. Balancing Act: Motherhood, Marriage, and Employment Among American Women. Russell Sage Foundation.

 

In text: Spain and Bianchi 1996.

 

Standard entry for a journal article:

Avery, Roger, Frances Goldscheider, and Alden Speare. 1992. “Feathered Nest/Gilded Cage:

Parental Income and Leaving Home in the Transition to Adulthood.” Demography 29(3): 375– 88. https://www.doi.org/10.2307/2061824.

 

In text: Avery et al. 1992.

 

Chapter in edited volume:

Bianchi, Suzanne M. 1993. “Children of Poverty: Why Are They Poor?” In Child Poverty and Public Policy, edited by Judith A. Chafel. Urban Institute Press.

 

 

Two entries/same author (order from earliest to latest; then alpha order by title):

Cherlin, Andrew. 1978. “Remarriage as an Incomplete Institution.” American Journal of Sociology 84(3): 634–50. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2778258.

 Cherlin, Andrew. 1992. Marriage, Divorce, Remarriage. Harvard University Press.

 

 

Newspaper article:

Constable, Pamela. 1995. “Md. Church, Holy Matrimony Times Six.” Washington Post, June 26, B1, 3.  

 

Gerstein, Terri. 2024. “More People Are Being Classified as Gig Workers: That’s Bad for Everyone.” New York Times, January 28. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/28/opinion/rights-workers-economy-gig.html.

 

Occasional paper/working paper:

Danziger, Sheldon, and Jonathan Stern. 1990. “The Causes and Consequences of Child Poverty in the United States.” Innocenti occasional paper 10. UNICEF International Child Development Centre.

 

Institutional author:

Families and Work Institute. 1995. Women: The New Providers. Whirlpool Foundation.

 

 

 

Conference paper:

Hughes, James W. 1994. “Economic Shifts and the Changing Home Ownership Trajectory.” Paper presented to the Office of Housing Research, Fannie Mae, Conference on Understanding Household Savings for Homeownership. Washington (November 12, 1994).

 

Authored article in government publication:

O’Connell, Marin. 1991. “Late Expectations: Childbearing Patterns of American Women for the 1990s.” Current Population Reports, series P23, no. 176. U.S. Government Printing Office for U.S. Bureau of the Census.

 

Dissertation:

Robinson, James Gregory. 1988. “A Cohort Analysis of Trends in the Labor Force Participation of Men and Women in the United States: 1890 to 1985.” PhD diss., University of Pennsylvania.

 

Unpublished paper:

Romano, Angela. 1995. “Changing Gender Ideology: 1977–1993.” Unpublished paper. University of Maryland, College Park.

 

Government publication:

U.S. Department of Commerce. U.S. Bureau of the Census. 1953. Census of Population and Housing: 1950, vol. 2, part 1. U.S. Government Printing Office.

 

U.S. Department of Labor. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 1984. Employment and Earnings. U.S. Government Printing Office (January).

 

Website:

Google. 2009. “Google Privacy Policy.” Last modified March 11, 2009.

http://www.google.com/intl/en/privacypolicy.html.

 

Dataset:

Steven Ruggles, Sarah Flood, Ronald Goeken, Megan Schouweiler, and Matthew Sobek. 2022. “IPUMS USA: Version 12.0 [dataset].” Minneapolis, MN: IPUMS.

https://doi.org/10.18128/D010.V12.0.

 

ACS/U.S. Census Bureau:

U.S. Census Bureau. 2020. “American Community Survey, 2007–2012.” Washington: U.S. Department of Commerce. https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs.

 

Legal Cases

Contra Chicago, the names of court cases are italicized in text and notes, and there should be a full citation in an endnote directly following the first mention. Court cases are not listed in the reference list. Otherwise, the full citation adheres to Chicago style (which mostly follows The Bluebook). For example:

In text: “ … with the Supreme court decision in Grutter v. Bollinger.”

Note: “Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 306 (2003).”

In text: “In 1973, Adams v. Richardson concluded that…”

 

Note: “Kenneth Adams et al. v. Elliot L. Richardson, Individually, and as Secretary of the

Department of Health, Education and Welfare, et al., 356 F. Supp. 92 (D.D.C. 1973).”

 

18. Cross Referencing

 

Contributors are actively encouraged to engage other articles in the issue. Please refer to the other work as (author X, this issue) and include a full citation in the reference list. The reference should be formatted as follows:

Last name, first name. year. “Title of paper.” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences. Volume number (Issue number): Page range. DOI.

[The page range and DOI will be supplied by the press once the volume is in production.]

 

Edwards, Frank. 2019. “Family Surveillance: Police and Reporting of Child Abuse and Neglect.” RSF:

The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 5(1): 50–70. https://doi.org/10.7758/RSF.2019.5.1.03.

 

 19. How to Correctly Cite the Journal and Information about Posting after Publication

 Currently, we are working to improve the discoverability of our articles. We have noticed that contributors from previous issues have been incorrectly referencing the name of the journal on their home websites and CV’s. The full name of the journal is RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences. Listing the journal with just the subtitle can impact the discoverability. The following shows the correct format to use when citing the journal:

 

Last name, first name. year. “Title of my paper.” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences. Volume number (Issue number): Page range. DOI. (Number will be listed on our article.)

 

Edwards, Frank. 2019. “Family Surveillance: Police and Reporting of Child Abuse and Neglect.” RSF:

The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 5(1): 50–70. https://doi.org/10.7758/RSF.2019.5.1.03.

 

Until publication, no drafts should be shared or publicly posted because the work is embargoed.

 

We appreciate and enthusiastically encourage your linking the article title on your homepage directly with our website once the issue has been published. Note that we said, please post a link. Please do not post a pdf. Open access publishing is expensive, and we need to capture the downloads as a measure of our success. This does not happen when a pdf can be downloaded from your website.

 

Similarly, once the paper is published, please do not send a pdf of your paper to the institutional repository at your home institution. You should have them link to our site instead. Most repositories are used to this request and do not have a problem accommodating it, but I am happy to speak with them if they have questions or concerns.