International Journal of Rural Management

International Journal of Rural Management

This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics

International Journal of Rural Management is hosted on Sage Peer Review, a web-based online submission and peer review system. Please read the Manuscript Submission Guidelines below, and then visit https://peerreview.sagepub.com/ijrm to login and submit your article online. Remember you can log in to the submission site at any time to check on the progress of your paper through the peer review process.

Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of International Journal of Rural Management will be reviewed. 

There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal. Open Access options are available - see section 3.3 below.

As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere. Please see our guidelines on prior publication and note that International Journal of Rural Management will consider submissions of papers that have been posted on preprint servers; please alert the Editorial Office when submitting (contact details are at the end of these guidelines) and include the DOI for the preprint in the designated field in the manuscript submission system. Authors should not post an updated version of their paper on the preprint server while it is being peer reviewed for possible publication in the Journal. If the article is accepted for publication, the author may re-use their work according to the Journal's author archiving policy.
If your paper is accepted, you must include a link on your preprint to the final version of your paper.

If you have any questions about publishing with Sage, please visit the Sage Journal Solutions Portal
 

1. What do we publish?

1.1 Aims & Scope
1.2 Article types
1.3 Writing your paper

2. Editorial policies

2.1 Peer review policy
2.2 Authorship
2.3 Acknowledgements
2.4 Funding
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
2.6 Research data

3. Publishing Policies

3.1 Publication ethics
3.2 Contributor’s publishing agreement
3.3 Open access and author archiving

4. Preparing your manuscript

4.1 Formatting
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
4.3 Supplemental material
4.4 Reference style

5. Submitting your manuscript

5.1 ORCID
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
5.3 Permissions

6. On acceptance and publication

6.1 Sage Production
6.2 Online First publication
6.3 Access to your published article
6.4 Promoting your article

7. Further information

1. What do we publish?

1.1 Aims & Scope

Before submitting your manuscript to International Journal of Rural Management, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope

1.2 Article types

There could be two to three sections in the journal:

• Research Articles 
  The research article should be between 5,000 to 8,000 words inclusive of references, notes, tables and figures. A figure would be considered as 250 words.
• Research Notes
  The research notes should be between 2,000 to 3,000 words inclusive of references, notes, tables and figures. An ideal article for this section should not include findings of any completed research study. It is aimed to be an account by the researcher/development practitioner of any important aspect of the field or community that excites him or her while being based in field. It has to be least technical in exposition and should attempt to bring out an important but mostly unreported aspect of field/fieldworker. A reflective account of self and the field should also be acceptable for this section. Research notes would be peer reviewed.
• Book Review
  Book review should not be longer than 3,000 words. An ideal submission for book review should be a review of any important book relevant to the field of rural management. Book review could either be commissioned by the editors or accepted from willing contributors. Book reviews must contain the name of the author and title/sub-title of the book reviewed, place of publication and publisher, date of publication, number of pages and price. The decision for Book Review publication would be taken by editors.

The manuscript should be structured as follows:

• The cover page should carry the title of the article, the author(s)’ name(s), institutional affiliation(s), address(es) (postal, email and web), and phone and fax numbers. In case there are two or more authors, then corresponding author’s name and address details must be clearly specified on the first page itself; all correspondence, including those of the proof of the article would be sent to her/him.
• Each article should be accompanied by an abstract of 150–200 words.
• The main body of the text may be divided into sections with appropriate headings and subheadings. Please note that the headings and subheadings should be typed on a separate line. Do not number, indent or use bold or italic typeface for headings and subheadings.
• The author identifying information should not appear on any other page of the manuscript, except for the first (cover) page.
• Headings: Limit the levels of heading within an article to two, or at most three. Avoid lengthy headings and do not number them. The printed style will distinguish their weighting adequately without recourse to an explicit structure such as 1.1.1.
• Notes should be numbered serially and presented at the end of the article. Notes must contain more than a mere reference.
• The language and spellings used should be British (UK), with ‘s’ variant, e.g., globalisation instead of globalization, labour instead of labor.
• Single quotes should be used throughout. Double quote marks are to be used within single quotes. Spellings of words in quotations should not be changed. Quotations of 45 words or more should be separated from the text.
• Use of italics and diacriticals should be minimized but consistent. For non-English and uncommon words and phrases, use italics throughout the text. Meaning of non-English words should be given in parenthesis just after the word when it is used for the first time.
• If a second passage from the same source is quoted close to the first and there is no intervening quotation from a different source, ibid. (set in roman) may be used in the second parenthetical reference (e.g., "ibid., 114"); ibid. alone may be used if the reference is to the same page. Avoid overusing ibid.: for more than the occasional repeated reference to the same source—as in an extended discussion of a work of fiction—only a parenthetical page number is necessary.
• Please pay attention to consistency in the hyphenation of words. Do not alternate, for example, between ‘psycho-social’ and ‘psychosocial’, ‘decision making’ and ‘decision-making’. (A distinction is, however, often made between noun and attributive adjective: for example: ‘the middle class’ but ‘middle-class ethics’.)
• Use capitals sparingly and double-check the logical application of any distinctions you wish to make between specific and general use.
• Abbreviations are spelled out at first occurrence. Very common ones (US, GDP, BBC) need not be spelled out.
• Spell out numbers from one to nine, 10 and above to remain in figures. However, for exact measurements use only figures (3 km; 9 per cent). Use 'per cent' in text and '%' in tables and figures. Use thousands and millions, not lakhs and crores.
• Use ‘per cent’ instead of % in the text. In tables, graphs, etc., % can be used.
• Give specific dates in the form 22 November 1980. Decades should be referred to as ‘20th century’, ‘the 1990s’.
• Number ranges should be truncated, for example, 2017–18.
• Tables and figures should be indicated by number separately ('Table 1'), not by placement ('Table below'). Present each table and figure on a separate sheet of paper, gathering them together at the end of the article.
• Book reviews: Should contain name of author and book reviewed, place of publication and publisher, year of publication, number of pages, price and ISBN. Book reviewers must also provide their affiliation and designation and complete mailing address. Please use the following style:Stephen R. Covey, Principle-Centred Leadership. London: Simon and Schuster Ltd, 1992, 326 pp., US$ 29.95, ISBN: 978-0684858418.

1.3 Writing your paper

The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources.

1.3.1 Make your article discoverable

For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online

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2.  Editorial policies

2.1 Peer review policy

International Journal of Rural Management adheres to a rigorous double-anonymize reviewing policy in which the identity of both the reviewer and author are always concealed from both parties.

International Journal of Rural Management is committed to delivering high quality, fast peer-review for your paper, and as such has partnered with Publons. Publons is a third party service that seeks to track, verify and give credit for peer review. Reviewers for International Journal of Rural Management can opt in to Publons in order to claim their reviews or have them automatically verified and added to their reviewer profile. Reviewers claiming credit for their review will be associated with the relevant journal, but the article name, reviewer’s decision and the content of their review is not published on the site. For more information visit the Publons website.

The Editor or members of the Editorial Board may occasionally submit their own manuscripts for possible publication in the Journal. In these cases, the peer review process will be managed by alternative members of the Board and the submitting Editor/Board member will have no involvement in the decision-making process.
 

2.2 Authorship

All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.
No change in authorship and order of appearance of authorship is permitted after submission.

Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.

If the named authors for a manuscript change at any point between submission and acceptance, an Authorship Change Form must be completed and digitally signed by all authors (including any added or removed) . An addition of an author is only permitted following feedback raised during peer review. Completed forms can be uploaded at Revision Submission stage or emailed to the Journal Editorial Office contact (listed on the journal’s manuscript submission guidelines). All requests will be moderated by the Editor and/or Sage staff.

Important: Changes to the author by-line by adding or deleting authors are NOT permitted following acceptance of a paper.

2.3 Acknowledgements

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.

Please supply any personal acknowledgements separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.

2.3.1 Writing assistance

Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance. It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.

2.4 Funding

International Journal of Rural Management requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading.  Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests

International Journal of Rural Management encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the Sage Journal Author Gateway

2.6 Research Data

The journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages.

Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to:

• share your research data in a relevant public data repository
• include a data availability statement linking to your data. If it is not possible to share your data, we encourage you to consider using the statement to explain why it cannot be shared.
• cite this data in your research

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3. Publishing Policies

3.1 Publication ethics

Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway

3.1.1 Palagiarism
International Journal of Rural Management and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.

3.1.2 Prior publication

If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.

3.2 Contributor’s publishing agreement      

Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the Sage Author Gateway

3.3 Open access and author archiving

International Journal of Rural Management offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies. 

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4. Preparing your manuscript for submission                                                       

4.1 Formatting

The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.

4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics

For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines  

Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article.

4.3 Supplemental material

This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files

4.4 Reference style

International Journal of Rural Management adheres to the Chicago Manual of Style. View the guide here to ensure your manuscript conforms to this style.

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5. Submitting your manuscript

International Journal of Rural Management is hosted on Sage Track Sage, a web-based online submission and peer review system. Visit https://peerreview.sagepub.com/ijrm to log in and submit your article online.

IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created.

5.1 ORCID

As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.

The collection of ORCID iDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID iD you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID iD will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID iD is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.

If you do not already have an ORCID iD please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.

5.2 Information required for completing your submission

You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).

5.3 Permissions

Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway

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6. On acceptance and publication

6.1 Sage Production

Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be sent by PDF to the corresponding author and should be returned promptly.  Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate. 

6.2 Online First publication

Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.

6.3 Access to your published article

Sage provides authors with online access to their final article.

6.4 Promoting your article

Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.

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7. Further information

All editorial correspondence should be addressed to journal administrator at https://peerreview.sagepub.com/ijrm