Guidance for Authors

Articles in Security Studies contribute to scholarly knowledge in the field of international security, broadly construed. Security Studies articles provide an answer to an explanatory puzzle, present original empirical research (using a range of methods), critically engage core theoretical concepts, or otherwise intervene in disciplinary debates. 

Security Studies welcomes manuscripts that reflect the substantive and methodological diversity of the field. We welcome scholars from all disciplines in our journal’s pages, and we do not insist that articles conform to narrow disciplinary norms. In short, there is no one right way to write an article for Security Studies. But a successful submission will generally:

  • Establish the significance of its central analytical question(s). Successful submissions will effectively address the proverbial “so what” question by clearly articulating the article’s stakes—theoretical, empirical, political, and/or normative;

  • Clearly specify the theoretical framework used for analysis, referencing the necessary literature(s);

  • Adhere to rigorous methodological standards, as understood by the intellectual tradition within which the article is situated, in setting forth the evidentiary bases of its argument;

  • Engage with work outside of its immediate field of research and approach to scholarly inquiry. Authors who publish in Security Studies are speaking to the field as a whole, not just to scholars working within their specific area and research tradition.

  • Spell out the implications of their findings for further research. 

We urge authors to pay close attention to their article’s abstract and introduction. Both should include a clear statement of the manuscript’s scope, central argument(s) and findings, and wider significance. Readers and reviewers should not have to read many pages into a manuscript before encountering its central claims. Straightforward abstracts and introductions not only encourage readers and referees to engage with the article, but also help prevent them from misunderstanding the argument. 

Security Studies is committed to ensuring that editorial decisions are not made based on the author’s identities or professional networks. To that end, initial in-house review of manuscripts is conducted anonymously: the Editor-in-Chief, in deciding whether to send out an article for review by expert referees, is unaware of the author’s identity. Security Studies employs “double-blind” external peer review for nearly all other editorial decisions (except response articles, which are subject to only in-house review). Manuscripts will normally receive at least two independent external reviews. All decisions are made by the Editor-in-Chief, based on the recommendation of an Associate Editor. Security Studies aims to dispose of all articles within 3 months of submission, barring exceptional circumstances.

Article Formats

Security Studies publishes four categories of peer-reviewed manuscripts: research articles, review articles, responses to published articles, and special issues and forums.

Research Articles

A research article is the standard long-form submission to Security Studies. As noted earlier, Security Studies articles provide an answer to an explanatory puzzle, present original empirical research (using a range of methods), critically engage core theoretical concepts, or otherwise intervene in disciplinary debates. Research articles should have a well-developed theoretical argument that is supported by rigorous substantive analysis appropriate to the manuscript’s methodological approach. As with all contributions, they should reflect original work. 

Security Studies expressly adopts a broad understanding of the subject matter that falls within its purview. If your article does not match up neatly with at least some of our subject-matter keywords, it may mean that Security Studies is not the right outlet for your research.

Authors may find it helpful to understand what a Security Studies article is not. Although Security Studies articles are often motivated by policy questions and often have policy implications—and we encourage authors to spell those out—Security Studies is not a policy journal; its articles are directed primarily toward generating scholarly knowledge, rather than arguing for a particular policy. Similarly, although Security Studies has traditionally been, and remains, sympathetic to careful and deep historical research, it is not a history journal; our authors engage with historical materials to answer analytical questions and address analytically-framed debates. Articles that are purely descriptive—for instance, of a particular region’s contemporary or past security challenges, of a government’s decision-making process, of a historical case—will not pass muster. We urge authors to be explicit about their article’s central analytical pivot and to frame their article around those analytical questions and contributions. 

Research articles are normally no longer than 13,000 words (excluding online-only supplementary information, but including footnotes, figures, and tables). However, in light of the journal’s commitment to publishing rich qualitative research, Security Studies will review articles up to 15,000 words. A manuscript that exceeds the 15,000 word limit will be returned without review unless the author specifically requests and justifies an exemption, and the Editor-in-Chief grants the request.

Review Articles

Review articles are critical, agenda-setting surveys of specific debates and research themes or analytical and methodological approaches of relevance to the field of security studies. Reviews may, but need not, be oriented around a set of recently published books. They may address cutting-edge scholarship, or they may make the case for reviving long-forgotten debates. Regardless, review articles should not merely describe and summarize lines of research, but should engage critically with one or more of the substantive or methodological arguments of the works covered. In doing so, review articles not only orient the reader to the field, but constitute an original scholarly contribution.

Authors of prospective review articles should submit a 1-2 pp. proposal to the Editor-in-Chief that specifies the works or research themes to be reviewed and outlines the argument(s) the author(s) intend to develop. The decision to invite the submission of a review article will be made jointly by the Editor-in-Chief and a designated Associate Editor. Submitted review articles will be subject to double-blind peer review in accordance with the journal’s general procedures.

Submitted review articles should not exceed 13,000 words, including footnotes, figures, and tables. When the essay reviews a related set of published works, these should be listed at the beginning of the article, with complete bibliographical information in accordance with the Security Studies style guide.

Responses to Published Research

Security Studies wishes to sponsor productive theoretical and empirical debates in response to articles published in the journal. These debates may take place in two forms. First, authors may propose individual responses, which will normally run no longer than 3,000 words, excluding online supplementary material. Second, these debates may also take place in forums comprised of three or more responses, written from diverse perspectives and normally no longer than 3,000 words each, to a given article or special issue.

Authors may propose individual and forum responses by writing to the Editor-in-Chief. On occasion, the editors may issue a call for response forum articles to the Security Studies community or may solicit response forum articles from particular scholars. Please note that response articles are not subject to external peer review and will be published either online or in the journal at the discretion of the editors. Typically, authors of the article that had prompted the response will be given an opportunity to reply. 

Special Issues and Forums

Security Studies invites proposals for special issues or forums at any time. Both special issues and forums involve the publication of linked research articles on an important topic or approach. Special issues normally begin the review process with 7-9 linked research articles (including an introductory, and possibly a concluding, paper) and occupy an entire issue of the journal. Special forums involve 3-4 linked research articles and occupy a portion of an issue. In both cases, the main criteria for evaluating the proposal are the importance of the topic or approach, the novelty of its promised contribution, its relevance to the journal’s mission, the justification for the submission being considered as a whole, and the diversity of the contributions and contributors. Examples of recent special issues can be found here and here.

Security Studies deeply values diversity in all its forms and aims particularly to diversify our field. The journal therefore notes the degree to which special issues and forums include articles employing a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches and involve contributors from diverse stages of career and with diverse backgrounds (notably, with respect to gender and geography). Security Studies therefore encourages editors to consider issuing an “open call” for papers consistent with their vision for the special issue or forum.

To propose a special issue or forum, please submit the following, in a single PDF, to the Editor-in-Chief:

  • Title page—with the title of the special issue or forum, and with brief biographical sketch(es) of the proposed issue/forum editor(s), noting which editor will be the point of contact for all editorial communication

  • 3-4 page description and clear rationale for the special issue/forum, describing its scope and contents, highlighting the value of publishing the papers as a special issue/forum (as opposed to individual submissions), and situating the papers within the special issue/forum as a whole

  • Abstracts (max. 250 words) of each paper submission

  • Note on diversity (intellectual, career stage, gender, geography)

If, upon review of the proposal, the editorial team decides to invite submission of the special issue/forum, the Editor-in-Chief and a designated Associate Editor will jointly supervise the review process. All contributions should be submitted individually via the regular submission process, under the “special issue” designator (not as a “regular article”). The entire special issue/forum will be evaluated by the same expert referees, using the journal’s standard double-blind peer review process. Referees will be asked to consider if each constituent submission independently meets Security Studies’ publication standards. Referees will also be asked to assess the constituent paper’s fit with the special issue and to judge the merit of the special issue as a whole.

If individual articles fail to meet Security Studies’ publication standards, the editors may nevertheless invite publication of the special issue/forum, based on the remaining successful submissions. If an insufficient number of articles from a special issue proposal passes muster, the editors may nevertheless invite its publication as a special forum.

Data Presentation and Transparency

Data Presentation

Authors should present quantitative data and elucidate statistical models in forms that are accessible to a general audience. Submissions should include discussions of substantive, as well as statistical, significance. For example, authors could include predicted probabilities across ranges that are relevant to the dataset in tables or include figures that demonstrate substantive and statistical significance across the range of the important independent variables, along with rug plots to show the distribution of these variables. Statistical results should generally be part, rather than the whole, of empirical evidence presented in an article. Authors are strongly encouraged to include summary statistics, a correlation matrix, and the like as supporting information.

Statistical tables should include names for both variable rows and model columns that are comprehensible and report both coefficients and standard errors in the main body. Models should be named uniquely throughout the paper (e.g., if Table 1 has Models 1-3, Table 2 should start with Model 4). Asterisks or other indicators to denote statistical significance should be included where relevant, but must be consistent across the manuscript. All coefficients should be reported in tables, although complete tables may be submitted as supporting information instead of in the main body. Similarly, the full results for robustness checks are strongly encouraged to be included in supporting information.

Data Transparency

Security Studies values and seeks to encourage research transparency with respect to empirical evidence and the logic of inquiry. At the same time, the journal recognizes that our diverse intellectual community encompasses a wide range of research traditions. Our interest in data transparency and availability does not mean that we value only research that engages in hypothesis-testing and permits for straightforward replication. However, such standards are appropriately applied to many articles that appear in this pluralistic journal’s pages. To that end:

Quantitative Data. At the time of final submission of accepted papers, authors of papers using quantitative data must (except as indicated below) provide the data set and accompanying materials and code to reproduce tables presented in the paper and any other specifications referenced in it (for example, results verbally described in the main text or in footnotes). Please also provide a read.me file which explains which software was used, an inventory of files (command files, data files), and which combination of files was used to create specific figures and tables. Additional materials, such as codebooks, that clarify data collection and compilation, are also welcome. Unless otherwise requested, authors do not need to send quantitative data until their article is accepted.

Data sets and accompanying files should be uploaded to the Security Studies Dataverse in an entry that includes the article title and abstract. The Security Studies Dataverse can be found at https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataverse/securitystudies.

Upon saving the data in Dataverse, a citation record is generated that includes a DOI (a permanent identifier). At the end of the article, authors should include a Data Availability Statement that refers to the DOI of the data. For example:

Data Availability Statement: The data and materials that support the findings of this study are available in the Harvard Dataverse at https://doi.org/...

If cited data are restricted (e.g., classified, require confidentiality protections, are owned by a third party and under proprietary constraint), authors must notify the Editor-in-Chief at the time the manuscript is submitted for review. The Editor-in-Chief has full discretion to follow the journal’s policy on restricted data, including declining to review the manuscript or granting an exemption with or without conditions. The Editor-in-Chief will inform the author of that decision prior to review.

Where data are not shareable, the Editor-in-Chief will require authors to provide details about the location of the data and whether and how they may be obtained by other researchers as well as the command files used to analyze the data and produce all figures and tables in the paper and supplementary materials. This information will be reported in the article’s Data Availability Statement.

 Qualitative Data. Believing that transparency is the hallmark of science and that further it facilitates intellectual dialogue and debate, Security Studies aims to promote greater access to the qualitative data on which our articles’ analytical claims rest. At the same time, the journal recognizes that not all data can be safely shared with the larger scholarly community. We therefore urge, but do not require, our authors to consider depositing their data at Syracuse University’s Qualitative Data Repository, where Security Studies has established a site at https://data.qdr.syr.edu/dataverse/security-studies/. The QDR offers extensive guidance on how to prepare qualitative data for sharing, while maintaining the confidentiality and protecting the safety of human participants. By agreement between Security Studies and the Qualitative Data Repository, data deposited to supplement articles accepted for publication in Security Studies do not incur deposit fees.

 If you do decide to store and share your article’s qualitative data via the Qualitative Data Repository, you should initiate a data project as soon as your article has been accepted to allow sufficient time for consultation with QDR staff. Upon saving the data in the QDR, a citation record is generated that includes a DOI (a permanent identifier). At the end of the article, the author should include a Data Availability Statement that refers to the DOI of the data. For example: 

Data Availability Statement: The data and materials that support the findings of this study are available through the Qualitative Data Repository at https://doi.org/...

Human Subjects and Research Ethics

Security Studies expects all authors to comply with the ethical obligations outlined in APSA's A Guide to Professional Ethics in Political Science (2012) and Principles and Guidance for Human Subjects Research (2020).

For studies that constitute human subjects research (i.e., involve living individuals from whom data was obtained by intervention or interaction or about whom identifiable private information was collected), the submitting author must:

  • Declare whether the research received IRB (or equivalent institutional body) approval or exemption.

  • Discuss in the text or an appendix the ethics of the human subjects research, including consent, deception, confidentiality, potential harm, and compensation.

Authors whose institutions do not have an IRB (or equivalent institutional body) should:

  • in an appendix intended for circulation to reviewers, indicate the absence of such an institutional body and describe in detail their research practices with respect to human subjects.

  • for the editorial office only, at the time of submission, provide official documentation substantiating the absence of such an institutional body.

Upon conditional acceptance for publication in Security Studies, authors of studies involving human subjects must upload evidence of IRB (or equivalent institutional body) approval or exemption (unless otherwise indicated by the editorial office) and other relevant documentation, such as survey instruments or interview guides.

Originality

Security Studies requires that submissions constitute original work. The journal will not consider articles that are simultaneously under review elsewhere or have already been published. We generally follow a rough “50 percent rule”: at least half of the manuscript’s content—its key concepts, ideas, theoretical claims, and/or evidence—must never have been published, or be currently under consideration for publication, elsewhere. If authors have previously published (or have currently under review) a piece that overlaps significantly with the current submission—that is, 25 percent or more overlap—they must indicate that in their cover letters and provide a brief explanation as to why the current submission is sufficiently different that it justifies consideration.

Security Studies uses Crossref™ to screen papers for unoriginal material. By submitting your paper to Security Studies, you are agreeing to originality checks during the peer-review and production processes.