Editorial Instructions

Guidance for authors

Journals of University of Lodz are publishing scientific articles only after double-blind review, language and technical edition. We do not share our articles in pre-publication.

Editorial instruction

The preferred length of papers is between 32 thousand and 40 thousand characters (10-15 pages) together with graphics or/and tables. The first title page below the author’s name ought to include academic affiliations.

Please use Times New Roman font, size 12, 1.5 spacing.

Margins : left and right 2.5 cm; top and bottom 2 cm.

Source references in the text: please put the references in parentheses according to the scheme: author’s name, publication year: page number. Examples:

(Mazur 2002:78)

(Dahrendorf 1999, as cited in Judt 2011:108)

Author’s annotations may be formed as footnotes.

References: please prepare the bibliography according to the following example: author’s last name, initial of the first name, publication year (in parentheses), title (in italics), publishing house, place of publication; e.g.:

Bauman Z. (1993), Postmodern ethics, Blackwell publishing, Oxford

Clarke, Peter B. (ed.) (2009), The Oxford Handbook of Sociology of Religion, Oxford University Press, Oxford/New York

Jonston R.J. (1976), Residential Area Characteristics [in:] Herbert D.T., Jonston R.J. (eds.), Social Areas in Cities, vol. 1, Wiley, New York

Grant D.S., Wallace M. (1991), Why Do Stokes Turn Violent?, American Journal of Sociology, vol. 96, No.5

 Illustrations, graphics, figures, etc.: Please name and number them continuously (above the illustration, graphics), and below please note source references.

Abstract should be placed before keywords and the main text and consist of between 15 and 20 lines.

Manuscript layout: please note the order of sections:

  • Author’s full name
  • Affiliations
  • e-mail
  • Title (aligned to center)
  • Abstract
  • Keywords
  • Article (possibly divided into sections: introduction, main chapters and subchapters, conclusions etc.)
  • References

Please submit manuscript files in Word (as doc.), RTF or ODT as only these formats can be used during the production process.

Digital accessibility - alternative texts

Please include alternative descriptions for all illustrations in the journals

Alternative texts

An alternative text is textual information about what you see in a graphic element that is relevant to the text or topic that the element illustrates. Alternative texts are read by a screen reader and allow people with blindness or vision impairment to see what is, for example, in a given graphic, photo, chart or table. Graphic elements without an alternative description will be read by the assistive software for visually impaired people as the word ‘graphic’, so they will not get any other information that this ‘graphic’ is supposed to convey.  

What should an alternative text look like?  

  • Above all, the description should be concise and succinct – try to describe the graphic as accurately as possible, doing so in the shortest possible way (the optimum length of an alternative text should not exceed 250 characters)
  • It should describe the meaning and content of the graphic element in question 
  • It should contain key information for the viewer (e.g. a repetition of the content written on the graphic, or in the case of photos, a description of the most important elements building the message: “Rector presenting the habilitation diploma to Dr Anna Kowalska”) 
  • When creating alternative texts for charts and infographics, remember to include, in addition to the title, a summary and description of the trends resulting from the graphic. Often, due to the length and level of complexity of the data being described, it is worth including the chart description in the proper body of the text, below the graphic itself 
  • You do not need to use alternative descriptions for graphics that are purely decorative (in which case mark them as decorative by selecting the “Mark as decorative” option).

Function of adding alternative description in Microsoft Word  

 To add alternative text for graphics/charts added into a Microsoft Word document, right-click on the object and select “Format image” -> “Accessibility” -> “Alternative text”; • or “Review” -> “Check accessibility “-> “Alternative text” 

For graphic elements that only have a decorative function in the document, also fill in the alternative text field – instead of the content in the “Alternative text” field, tick the “Mark as decorative” option. 

Another possible solution could be to provide a complete set of descriptions for the entire notebook in an Excel table.