Submissions

Login or Register to make a submission.

Author Guidelines

All essays should be written in English, using British grammar and spelling. Please make sure to cite your sources using Chicago footnote referencing style. We will not publish essays that have been previously published or are under consideration for publication elsewhere. All submissions should be between 800 and 6,000 words. Papers submitted in the range of 800 to 2,500 words will be considered for our commentary  and book review section. Essays submitted containing above 2,500 words will be considered for our articles section.  

All essays need to fall within the scope of the journal. The scope includes, but is not limited to, the following fields:  

  • - Security and Conflict (for example: atrocities, terrorism, war, organised crime)
  • - Criminological Theory and Justice (for example: theoretical essays, alternative justice models, post-conflict societies, international criminal tribunals)
  • - Discrimination and Human Rights (for example: issues of gender, race, sexuality, ethnicity, human and environmental rights)
  • - Policing and Prisons (for example: police and prison reform/abolition, mass incarceration, crime control, including technological advances)
  • - International Crimes (for example: war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, crimes of aggression)
  • - Short Commentaries, Case Law Reviews (any jurisdiction) and Book Reviews pertaining to the aforementioned themes.

Moreover, all essays should contain a short written abstract, summarising the main argument of the work. Publishable work will qualify as showing a critical engagement with existing academic literature and providing an original argument to academic discussions. All essays should contain a high degree of relevance to the field and make a compelling case for their own salience. Lastly, we do accept and encourage the submission of essays that have been submitted for grading for courses previously taken. We do not include a minimum grade requirement, however we require that work submitted be academically rigorous in content, structure and writing.  

How to Submit

Follow these steps for submitting a paper to the CCJ Journal:

  1. 1. Login to the Contemporary Challenges Website. If you do not have an existing login, you will need to register. Follow these steps to register an account:
    1. a. Under the register tab, fill in the required information. (Under affiliation, please include your University name).
    2. b. Set up a username and password
    3. c. Click to accept the privacy statement and to allow announcements from the Journal. This will assist us in communicating with authors.
    4. d. After completing registration, you will need to verify your email. Then you will be able to submit.
  2. 2. To submit, click the “Make a Submission” button. This will take you to the submission page.
  3. 3. Choose whether your paper is an article or a commentary and confirm that your paper is within the submission guidelines.
  4. 4. Upload your paper.
  5. 5. Upload a 50 word author biography.
  6. 6. Provide your article title, subtitle, abstract, and any relevant keywords.
  7. 7. Review your submission.
  8. 8. Submit

Submission Preparation Checklist

All submissions must meet the following requirements.

  • 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).
  • Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
  • The text uses a 12-point Arial font; uses italics rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); & all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
  • The line spacing for the text is 1.5 and the alignment is 'justify'
  • The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines.
  • The file should be named: 'Author Name_Title/Topic of Paper_CCJ'. Eg- if the author is Ayma Naseem and the paper is about 5 Critical Elements of Genocide, the file name should be AymaNaseem_ElementsOfGenocide_CCJ
  • The submission has already received a final grade if it was a part of coursework. Where this is not the case (for example, you have already turned your essay in but are still waiting for feedback) an explanation is provided in the comments to the editor.
  • The submission file is in OpenOffice (.odt), Microsoft Word (.docx), or RTF (.rtf) document file format.

Copyright Notice

Please read our Copyright & Licensing Policy.

Privacy Statement

Please read our Privacy & Consent Policy.