About the Journal

Aims and Scope

Social Inquiry provides a unique forum for discussing contemporary social issues through the promotion of cross-cutting research. It is an interdisciplinary journal in social sciences and humanities publishing theoretical and empirical work that uses a variety of methodological approaches to study the different aspects of the lifeworld of individuals, social groups and institutions. The journal promotes inquiry into the questions of contemporary society and social entities, and promotes analytic social epistemology on the personal, collective and institutional levels. It welcomes research articles on all aspects of social developments and actual knowledge practices that contribute to the improvement of social science knowledge and to the setting of a policy-focused national, regional and international research agenda. Papers will enhance and develop theoretical, empirical and methodological insights and knowledge in the field and a greater understanding of different social science issues and policy actors operating nationally and internationally.

Publication Frequency

The journal is published biannually in April and October.

Subscription

Members can subscribe to the journal at the discounted annual rate of $50 (print only). Email socialinquiry.journal@gmail.com to subscribe.

Subscription type	Customer type	Price*	Period
Print	Personal	USD 50.00	Annual
Print	Institution	USD 100.00	Annual
Online	Personal	Free	Permanent
Online	Institutional	Free	Permanent

Copyright Notice

Authors retain the copyright; however, they grant Sustainable Development and Empowerment Forumthe exclusive right to first publish their article under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Open Access Policy

Social Inquiry adheres to the basic norms of open access policy and thus provides immediate open and free access to its content to support a greater global exchange of knowledge. Therefore, users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It means, once the article is published in Social Inquiry, readers are free to copy, adapt and share (under the same license as the original) the published materials for non-commercial purposes, provided that Social Inquiry and the authors are duly accredited and cited.

Sources of Support

To reach the goal of self-funding, Social Inquiry accepts sponsorships and advertisements. Moreover, subscription of hard copies and institutional support will be welcome.

Peer Review Process

All manuscripts submitted to Social Inquiry undergo a double-blind peer review process and follow the following steps:
The manuscript is first screened by the editorial review office for basic structural elements, appropriateness of formatting and scope. At this stage, the paper will also be screened for the suitability in terms of theme, content, style of presentation and relevance. Papers judged by the editorial review office to be of insufficient interest or otherwise inappropriate for the journal are rejected outright.
The Editor-in-Chief or an Executive Editor, having judged the manuscript to be of potential interest to our readership, and most likely to meet the editorial criteria (quality, originality, accuracy and contribution to the field), sends the manuscript for formal review process. Manuscripts are sent for formal review, to at least two reviewers in a full ‘double blind’ refereeing process. Papers judged by the Editor-in-Chief to be of insufficient interest or otherwise inappropriate for the journal are rejected outright without external review and the author(s) are advised accordingly.
The Editor-in-Chief then makes a decision on the paper based on the reviewers' reports, from among several possibilities, which will be shared with the author. These are:

Accept, with or without minor editorial revisions
Accept with major revisions (as suggested in the peer review reports)
Reject, but invite for resubmission after major rewriting or additional data collection and analysis
Reject outright

Reviewers' critiques are taken seriously. Additional reviewers may be requested to resolve serious contradictions in a paper that is otherwise very promising.

Usually, the peer review process takes around a month. Social Inquiry aspires to notify authors about the decision within two months from submission date. When manuscripts are accepted subject to revision, the revised manuscript should be returned within 30 days. Accepted articles are published online ahead of print approx. 2 weeks after acceptance.

Instructions for Peer Reviewers

We ask all peer reviewers to make every reasonable effort to adhere to the following ethical guidelines for Social Inquiry articles they have agreed to review:

Reviewers must give unbiased consideration to each manuscript, and should judge each on its merits. Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.
Reviewers must keep the peer review process confidential; information or correspondence about a manuscript should not be shared with anyone outside of the peer review process.
Reviewers should provide a constructive, comprehensive, evidenced, and appropriately substantial peer review report.
Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse her- or himself from the review process.
Reviewers should assist the editors in making editorial decisions and through the editorial communications with the author may also assist the author in improving the paper.
Reviewers should make all reasonable effort to submit their report and recommendation in a timely manner, informing the editor if this is not possible.
Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported should be accompanied by the relevant citation. Reviewers should also call to the editor's attention any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they are aware.
Social Inquiry strongly recommends that reviewers also adhere to the COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers.

Instruction for Editors

We ask all journal editors to make every reasonable effort to adhere to the following ethical guidelines for Social Inquiry articles that are worthy of peer review:

Journal editors should give unbiased consideration to each manuscript, and should judge each on its merits, without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.
Journal editors must keep the peer-review process confidential; information or correspondence about a manuscript should not be shared with anyone outside of the peer review process.
Journal editors may reject a submitted manuscript without resort to formal peer review if they consider the manuscript to be inappropriate for the journal and outside its scope.
If a journal editor receives a claim that a submitted article is under consideration elsewhere or has already been published, then he or she has a duty to investigate the matter with Social Inquiry.
Journal editors should make all reasonable effort to process submitted manuscripts in an efficient and timely manner.
Journal editors should arrange for responsibility of the peer review of any original research article authored by themselves to be delegated to a member of the editorial or advisory board as appropriate.
Journal editors are responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published. The editor may be guided by the policies of the journal's editorial board and constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The editor may confer with other editors or reviewers in making this decision.
If a journal editor is presented with convincing evidence that the main substance or conclusions of an article published in the journal are erroneous, then, in consultation with Social Inquiry, the journal editor should facilitate publication of an appropriate corrigendum or erratum.

Publisher

The journal is published by the Sustainable Development and Empowerment Forum

Sustainable Development and Empowerment Forum (SDEF) is entirely a non-profit making, non- political, non-governmental and social motive organization that aims to work in the field of children, women’s empowerment, environment, energy, health, education, mapping, consultation, advocacy of human rights and publication based on these themes. It aims to empower women, children, socially excluded groups through awareness, trainings and education. Also it aims to provide knowledge and enhance communities on health, sanitation and water, environment, energy, mapping activities, consultation and academic/research based publications in this issues.