Journal Author Information

Welcome to NISC's Author Information page. We are pleased that you are considering publishing in a NISC journal. We have provided some relevant information below to answer any questions you may have. Should you have any queries that have not been answered by our site please don't hesitate to contact us.

Submit an Article

Should you wish to submit an article to a NISC journal, please download and follow the Instructions to Authors document relevant to that journal. Click on a journal below to view its Instructions to Authors:

Peer Review

All articles submitted to a NISC journal undergo rigorous review process before they can be considered for publication. Our journals all use either a single-blind or a double-blind peer-review system. Editorial boards are comprised of individuals who are prominent researchers in their field and have complete autonomy with regards to the selection of articles. While NISC as the publisher does support the manuscript selection process (e.g. by providing access to an online submission and review system) we have a strict non-interference policy.

NISC Production

There is a growing trend in the publishing industry to cut costs by doing only minimal copy editing of author manuscripts. At NISC we believe that your article should be presented to the world in a professional manner that is consistent with the standing of the research contained therein. Once your paper is accepted for publication it will be sent to NISC for production. Our copy editors all have post graduate qualifications in a relevant field and understanding of the subject matter of the journal they work on. This allows them to engage meaningfully with the manuscript and with the authors on any style or language queries that might arise. Copy editing of articles, including language editing and reference formatting, ensures that they are coherent. The final copy-edited manuscripts are typeset and figures are adjusted by a graphics expert to meet the technical requirements for print and online publishing and to ensure style uniformity. Copy-edited articles are always signed off by both the author and the journal’s editor-in-chief before being published.

Publishing Ethics

NISC subscribes to a range of publishing ethics. By submitting to any NISC journal you agree that your article and research complies with our ethics requirements for scholarly research publication.

NISC Ethics Statement

Articles are checked for originality using the iThenticate system, which guards against plagiarism. Manuscripts are also evaluated for any potentially libellous material that could have litigation implications.

Publication Agreement

When publishing an article with NISC, authors need to sign a publication agreement. The purpose of this agreement is to:

Establish that the author has the right to publish the article
Ensure that the author has complied with the NISC Ethics Statement
Ensure that NISC has obtained the necessary rights to publish the article

NISC has various types of publication agreements on offer:

Agreement Type	Availability	Key Features
Author Assigns Copyright to NISC	Standard on NISC subscription-based titles	Copyright assigned to NISC. NISC to defend cases of copyright infringement. Sharing and posting of article as per relevant NISC policies.
Author Licences Copyright to NISC	Available on request on NISC subscription-based titles	Copyright retained by author. Author to defend cases of copyright infringement. Sharing and posting of article as per relevant NISC policies.
Open Access (CC BY 4.0)	Standard on most NISC Open Access titles (Fully OA) and when publishing Open Access in NISC subscription-based titles (OAoptions journals).	Copyright retained by author. Author to defend cases of copyright infringement. Sharing and posting of article as per relevant Creative Commons licence.
Open Access (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)	Available on request on NISC Open Access titles (Fully OA) and when publishing Open Access in NISC subscription-based titles (OAoptions journals). Standard on Open Access titles that do not use CC BY 4.0.	Copyright retained by author. Author to defend cases of copyright infringement. Sharing and posting of article as per relevant Creative Commons licence.

Note: We do make special provision for employees of institutions which mandate publishing only under certain publication agreements e.g. US National Institutes of Health (NIH). Should you be an NIH employee/collaborator or employed by another institution which mandates that you publish your article via an agreement not listed above please contact us. We will endeavour to accommodate your particular needs where possible.

Copyright assignment

Assignment of copyright (in a subscription-based title) is the simplest method of enabling NISC to publish, disseminate and protect your article from plagiarism and piracy. There is a common misconception that by assigning copyright to a publisher you are waiving all ownership of your research and ideas. NISC publication agreements only cover the actual published article; any novel ideas, patentable inventions and/or research findings remain the property of the author.

Article Use, Reuse and Citing

There are various publication agreement options (see above) which will affect the way you and others are able to use your article after it is published in a NISC journal. If you sign an Open Access publication agreement such use will be governed by the Creative Commons licence associated with that agreement. All other articles need to comply with NISC's standard use and reuse policies.

Sharing of articles

Authors retain the right to distribute their own article to their peers, for personal study or promotional purposes. Articles may not be distributed in an automated or systematic means such as via bulk e-mail lists or through posting on list servers. Articles may not be reused for any commercial purposes without express written permission from the copyright holder – usually NISC.

Self-Archiving (Online hosting and institutional repositories)

Authors may not place the final pdf version of their article online or in an institutional repository. Certain versions of an article may be placed online. For clarification on which article versions you may place online please refer to the full NISC Self-Archiving policy.

Reuse of articles

Authors may reproduce their own articles in lecture notes, provided these are not for sale to students. Authors may also reproduce their articles or parts of their articles in a thesis, with appropriate acknowledgement of the original source.

Other articles from NISC journals not written by the author may be reproduced in lecture notes, etc. provided your institution is signed up to an affiliate national member of IFRRO (e.g. DALRO in South Africa) and subject to the collection of royalties by such bodies.

Commercial reuse of figures, tables, the entire text or significant parts of text in books, magazines or other publications is subject to written permission from the copyright holder (usually NISC) and may attract a permissions fee. Contact us for details.

Appropriate acknowledgment of reused articles

In whatever way an article or parts of an article is reused, we require that the source or the article and the copyright holders be acknowledged in the form

For any use or reuse of NISC articles outside of the limits detailed above please contact us for permissions and/or clarification.

Open Access

NISC supports various Open Access initiatives and programs. For further information on Open Access at NISC please visit our dedicated Open Access page.

Supplementary Materials and Multimedia

NISC encourages authors to submit relevant supplementary materials and/or multimedia along with the submission of their manuscript. These will be hosted in an appropriate manner and referenced in your final article with links to where they are available.

Page Charges and Colour Pages

Some NISC journals have a page charge system. Page charges are common where small-circulation, society journals require additional revenue to offset production costs. Where these charges apply, the intention is that they are covered by an author's institution, by way of research funding or a publication subsidy. In most cases, NISC has systems in place to waive (or discount) page charges for those authors whose institutions do not make funds available for such fees. In some cases there is a separate charge for printing of pages in colour, although this fee may be waived if colour is deemed essential to understanding. Please refer to the relevant journal's Instructions for Authors document, which will clearly state the relevant page charges, cost of printing colour pages, if applicable, as well as the relevant waiver/discount policy and application procedure.

Marketing of Your Research

At NISC we believe that discoverability and not just availability is key to getting your article noticed, used and cited. As your publisher, NISC will market your article to the world in ways that allow it to stand out within the global academic community. All our journals are hosted on high profile online platforms which are well indexed by Google and Google Scholar. Our journals are included in the most relevant and prominent indexes and marketed around the world by ourselves and our publishing partners. We continually market particular articles and groups of articles by offering windows of free access through our subscribed mailing lists and social media. Our journals are also available free of charge in many low-income countries through various philanthropic initiatives.

As an author you can also assist to improve the discoverability and impact of your research by marketing your own article through your own networks. You can visit our co-publisher's site for various methods of marketing your own research. Taylor & Francis promoting your research page.

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