Instructions for authors

Thank you for considering the Journal of Behavioral Data Science as an outlet for your research. The following instructions are for the purpose to move your paper through peer review, production and publication smoothly. Please take the time to read and follow them as closely as possible, as doing so will ensure your paper matches the journal's requirements. 

Journal of Behavioral Data Science  is an international, peer-reviewed, free-to-publish, and open-access journal, publishing high quality, original research. Please see the journal’s Aims & Scope for information about its focus. Please note that the journal only publishes manuscripts in English.

Every accepted paper is freely published and openly accessible online. The paper format of the journal is available for order.

We are committed to peer-review integrity and upholding the highest standards of review. We firmly believe the authors know best about their research and who can evaluate their research. Therefore, Journal of Behavioral Data Science adopts an open review process. We allow an author to recommend two potential guest editors and five potential reviewers who are familiar with the topic of their paper. An associate editor will make the final decision on selecting a guest editor, and the guest editor will then select at least two reviewers. The guest editor makes a recommendation on acceptance, revision & resubmission, or rejection of the manuscript based on the reviews. The associate editor finally approves and concludes the review process. A manuscript is either declined or accepted after that. The review process is illustrated in the flowchart below.

To speed up the review, a guest editor or an associate editor can make a recommendation on the acceptance or rejection of a paper at any phase of the review process. For example, if a guest editor or an associate editor believes a paper is of high quality, it can be accepted for publication with a sufficient justification/review from the guest editor or the associate editor.

Our associate editors, guest editors, and reviewers have contributed a lot of time to the journal. There is no charge to publish in the journal. Therefore, we hope you can share the burden to prepare your paper according to the guidelines of our journal for the smooth publication of your research.

A typical article for this journal should be no more than 20 single-spaced pages or 40 double-spaced pages. However, both longer and shorter manuscripts are acceptable.

Papers can only be submitted in pdf format, prepared using LaTex or LyX. To assist you in preparing your paper, we provide a LaTeX template for you to use.

Manuscript prepared using other formats such as Microsoft Word, converted to pdf before submission, are also acceptable in the peer review phase. However, the final version has to be prepared using LaTeX. The editorial team of the journal can help you convert other formats of your manuscript to LaTeX for a fee upon acceptance for publication. See details in the Publication charges section.

Please use the APA style for your references when preparing your paper.

This journal uses a simple system to manage the peer-review process. If you haven't submitted a paper to this journal before, you will need to become a free member of ISDSA first. Then follow the submission page for paper submission.

A submission requires two parts of information: manuscript information and review information.

This part requires you to input the basic information of your paper.

• Provide a list of authors of your paper, including yourself. If you have multiple authors, separate the author names using semicolon (;).
• Provide email address for each author, separated by semicolon (;). Each author will receive an email about the paper submission.
• Provide the institution information, e.g., university or company name, for each author, separated by semicolon (;). Repeat the institution for each author even if they are from the same institute.
• Upload your manuscript in PDF format.

You have to recommend one associate editor, two guest editors, and 5 reviewers. Although it is OK to recommend a former coauthor and colleague, reasonable consideration should be given on conflict of interest.

• Select an associate editor from the dropdown list. For a list of current associate editors, see our editorial board.
• For both guest editors and reviewers, please input their Member ID number in ISDSA.
  • You can find the Member ID number on this page if they are already a free member of ISDSA.
  • If the guest editors and reviewers are not members of ISDSA, please help register them as a free member here.
• Please recommend two guest editors who know your research well. For a list of current guest editors, see our editorial board.
• Please recommend five reviewers who know your research well.

There are NO submission fees or page charges for this journal in the electric format. The printed journal is available for order and subscription by the authors and library if needed. If a submission is prepared according to our guidelines, no fee in whatever way should be incurred. However, we DO charge for significant formatting and copyediting of a manuscript. Please read the following carefully.

• Light copyediting (fewer than 4 corrections a double-spaced page) and formatting (conversion from other LaTeX style to JBDS style with 30 minutes of work) are free.
• Convert from Word or other format to LaTeX: \$10 a page (text only, double-spaced, additional \$5 with ¼ or less formulas, additional \$10 with more than ¼ formulas); \$5 a table or a figure. The author will be informed and provided a bill in advance and the option to do the conversion themselves.
• Heavy copyediting such as rewriting and significant grammatical error correction is charged for \$30 a page (around 500 words a page). The author will be informed and provided a bill on the service in advance.
• All fees will only occur after a manuscript is accepted but before publication.

Please contact editing@isdsa.org for more information.

The authors reserve the copyright to the accepted papers. However, every paper is published as open access under the license of Creative Commons. 

Should you have any questions, please contact us at jbds@isdsa.org.

Updated March 2021