Submissions should be made electronically through this website. Once submitted, the author can track the submission and communicate with the editors via the online journal management system.

Please ensure that you consider the following guidelines when preparing your manuscript. Failure to do so may delay processing your submission.

Submissions should be made in PDF format.

Article length

Articles must not be longer than 8,000 words in length, including all referencing, citation and notes.

Templates

Authors wishing to submit their paper using the journal template can do so by downloading the below files. Submissions will be typeset after editorial acceptance.

• Word
• LaTex

Structure

Title page

To ensure blind peer review, please only list the title and abstract on the submitted manuscript title page.

The names of all authors, affiliations, contact details, biography (optional) and the corresponding author details must be completed online as part of the submission process.

Author names should include a forename and a surname. Forenames cannot include only initials.

• J. Bloggs is not preferred. The full name, Joe Bloggs is required (this will enhance the 'findability' of your publication)

The affiliation should ideally include ‘Department, Institution, City, Country’, however only the Institution and Country are mandatory.

Abstract
Research articles must have the main text prefaced by an abstract of no more than 250 words summarising the main arguments and conclusions of the article. This must have the heading ‘Abstract’ and be easily identified from the start of the main text.

A list of up to six key words may be placed below the abstract (optional).

The Abstract and Keywords should also be added to the metadata when making the initial online submission.

Main text
The body of the submission should be structured in a logical and easy to follow manner. A clear introduction section should be given that allows non-specialists in the subject an understanding of the publication and a background of the issue(s) involved. Methods, results, discussion and conclusion sections may then follow to clearly detail the information and research being presented.

Up to three level headings may be present and must be clearly identifiable using different font sizes, bold or italics. Headings should be numbered (see templates for examples)

Supplementary Files (optional)
Any supplementary/additional files that should link to the main publication must be listed, with a corresponding number, title and option description. Ideally the supplementary files are also cited in the main text.

e.g. Supplementary file 1: Appendix. Scientific data related to the experiments.

Note: additional files will not be typeset so they must be provided in their final form. They will be assigned a DOI and linked to from the publication.

Reproducibility (if applicable)
If the content of your submission relates to data or software that has been deposited in a code or preservation repository, please provide summary information here, along with a DOI that links to the deposited code/data.
If data used in the research project has not been made available, a statement confirming this should be added, along with reasoning why.

The journal's data policy is available on the Editorial Policies page.

Ethics and consent (if applicable)
Research involving human subjects, human material, or human data, must have been performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Where applicable, studies must have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee and the authors should include a statement within the article text detailing this approval, including the name of the ethics committee and reference number of the approval. The identity of the research subject(s) should be anonymised whenever possible. For research involving human subjects, informed consent to participate in the study must be obtained from participants (or their legal guardian) and added to this statement. If a study involving human subjects/tissue/data was exempt from requiring ethical approval, a confirmation statement from the relevant body should be included within the submission.

Experiments using animals must follow national standards of care. For further information, click here.

Acknowledgements (optional)
Any acknowledgements must be headed and in a separate paragraph, placed after the main text but before the reference list.

Funding Information (if applicable)
Should the research have received a funding grant then the grant provider and grant number should be detailed. 

Competing interests
If any of the authors have any competing interests then these must be declared. A short paragraph should be placed before the references. Guidelines for competing interests can be found here. If there are no competing interests to declare then the following statement should be present: The author(s) has/have no competing interests to declare.

Authors' contributions
A sentence or a short paragraph detailing the roles that each author held to contribute to the authorship of the submission. Individuals listed must fit within the definition of an author, as per our authorship guidelines.

References
All references cited within the submission must be listed at the end of the main text file.

Permissions

The author is responsible for obtaining all permissions required prior to submission of the manuscript. Permission and owner details should be mentioned for all third-party content included in the submission or used in the research.

If a method or tool is introduced in the study, including software, questionnaires, and scales, then where the license is available and any requirement for permission for use should be stated. If an existing method or tool is used in the research, it is the author's responsibility to check the license and obtain the necessary permissions. Statements confirming that permission was granted should be included in the Materials and Methods section.

Language & Text

Capitalisation
For the submission title:

Capitalise all nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs and subordinate conjunctions (i.e. as, because, although). Use lowercase for all articles, coordinate conjunctions and prepositions.

• Slip-Sliding on a Yellow Brick Road: Stabilization Efforts in Afghanistan

Headings within the main text:

First level headings in the text should follow the same rule as the main title.

For lower-level subheadings, only capitalise first letter and proper nouns.

Headings should be under 75 characters.

Spelling
Submissions must be made in English. Authors are welcome to use American or British spellings as long as they are used consistently throughout the whole of the submission.

• Colour (UK) vs. Color (US)

When referring to proper nouns and normal institutional titles, the official, original spelling must be used.

• World Health Organization, not World Health Organisation

Grammar
American or English grammar rules may be used as long as they are used consistently and match the spelling format (see above). For instance, you may use a serial comma or not.

• red, white, and blue OR red, white and blue

Font
The font used should be commonly available and in an easily readable size. This may be changed during the typesetting process.

Underlined text should be avoided whenever possible.

Bold or italicised text to emphasise a point are permitted, although should be restricted to minimal occurrences to maximise their efficiency.

Lists
Use bullet points to denote a list without hierarchy or order of value. If the list indicates a specific sequence then a numbered list must be used.

Lists should be used sparingly to maximise their impact.

Quotation marks
Use single quotation marks except for quotes within another speech, in which case double quotation marks are used.

Quotations that are longer than three lines in length must be in an indented paragraph separate from the main text.

The standard, non-italicised font must be used for all quotes.

It must be clear from the text and/or citation where the quote is sourced. If quoting from material that is under copyright then permission will need to be obtained from the copyright holder.

Acronyms & Abbreviations
With abbreviations, the crucial goal is to ensure that the reader – particularly one who may not be fully familiar with the topic or context being addressed – is able to follow along. Spell out almost all acronyms on first use, indicating the acronym in parentheses immediately thereafter. Use the acronym for all subsequent references.

• Research completed by the World Health Organization (WHO) shows …

A number of abbreviations are so common that they do not require the full text on the first instance. Examples of these can be found here.

Abbreviations should usually be in capital letters without full stops.

• USA, not U.S.A

Common examples from Latin origin do not follow this rule and should be lower case and can include full stops.

• e.g., i.e., etc.

Use of footnotes/endnotes
Use endnotes rather than footnotes (we refer to these as ‘Notes’ in the online publication). These will appear at the end of the main text, before ‘References’.

All notes should be used only where crucial clarifying information needs to be conveyed.

Avoid using notes for purposes of referencing, with in-text citations used instead. If in-text citations cannot be used, a source can be cited as part of a note.

Please insert the endnote marker after the end punctuation.

Data & Symbols

Symbols
Symbols are permitted within the main text and datasets as long as they are commonly in use or have explanatory definition on their first usage.

Hyphenation, em and en dashes
There is no set rule on the use of hyphenation between words, as long as they are consistently used.

Em dashes should be used sparingly. If they are present, they should denote emphasis, change of thought or interruption to the main sentence and can replace commas, parentheses, colons or semicolons.

• The president’s niece—daughter of his younger brother—caused a media scandal when…

En dashes can be used to replace ‘to’ when indicating a range. No space should surround the dash.

• 10-25 years
• pp. 10-65

Numbers
For numbers zero to nine please spell the whole words. Please use figures for numbers 10 or higher.

We are happy for authors to use either words or figures to represent large whole figures (i.e. one million or 1,000,000) as long as the usage is consistent throughout the text.

If the sentence includes a series of numbers then figures must be used in each instance.

• Artefacts were found at depths of 5, 9, and 29 cm.

If the number appears as part of a dataset, in conjunction with a symbol or as part of a table then the figure must be used.

• This study confirmed that 5% of…

If a sentence starts with a number it must be spelt, or the sentence should be re-written so that it no longer starts with the number.

• Fifteen examples were found to exist…
• The result showed that 15 examples existed…

Do not use a comma for a decimal place.

• 2.43 NOT 2,43

Numbers that are less than zero must have ‘0’ precede the decimal point.

• 0.24 NOT .24

Units of measurement
Symbols following a figure to denote a unit of measurement must be taken from the latest SI brochure.  If units are in a different system, then the SI units must be given along with the other units, e.g. 2.5 m (8 ft 2.4 in).

Formula
Formulae must be proofed carefully by the author. Editors will not edit formulae. If special software has been used to create formulae, the way it is laid out is the way they will appear in the publication.

Figures & Tables

Figures
Figures, including graphs and diagrams, must be professionally and clearly presented. If a figure is not easy to understand or does not appear to be of a suitable quality, the editor may ask to re-render or omit it.

All figures must be cited within the main text, in consecutive order using Arabic numerals (e.g. Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.).

Each figure must have an accompanying descriptive main title. This should clearly and concisely summarise the content and/or use of the figure image. A short additional figure legend is optional to offer a further description.

• Figure 1: 1685 map of London.
• Figure 1: 1685 map of London. Note the addition of St Paul’s Cathedral, absent from earlier maps.

Figure titles and legends should be placed within the text document, either after the paragraph of their first citation, or as a list after the references.

The source of the image should be included, along with any relevant copyright information and a statement of authorisation (if needed).

• Figure 1: Firemen try to free workers buried under piles of concrete and metal girders. Photo: Claude-Michel Masson. Reproduced with permission of the photographer.

If your figure file includes text then please present the font as Ariel, Helvetica, or Verdana. This will mean that it matches the typeset text.

NOTE: All figures should be placed within the text file upon submission and during the review process. You do not need to upload individual figure files at the submission stage, although you have the opportunity to do so, should you wish to provide high-resolution files for review. If the submission is accepted for publication you will be asked to upload the files individually to ensure that the publication retains the highest quality. Images should be in colour and at a resolution of at least 300dpi. Each file should not be more than 20MB. Standard formats accepted are: JPG, TIFF, GIF, PNG, EPS. For line drawings, please provide the original vector file (e.g. .ai, or .eps).

Tables
Tables must be created using a word processor's table function, not tabbed text.

Tables should be included in the manuscript. The final layout will place the tables as close to their first citation as possible.

All tables must be cited within the main text, numbered with Arabic numerals in consecutive order (e.g. Table 1, Table 2, etc.).

Each table must have an accompanying descriptive title. This should clearly and concisely summarise the content and/or use of the table. A short additional table legend is optional to offer a further description of the table. The table title and legend should be placed underneath the table.

Tables should not include:

• Rotated text
• Colour to denote meaning (it will not display the same on all devices)
• Images
• Vertical or diagonal lines
• Multiple parts (e.g. ‘Table 1a’ and ‘Table 1b’). These should either be merged into one table, or separated into ‘Table 1’ and ‘Table 2’.

NOTE: If there are more columns than can fit on a single page, then the table will be placed horizontally on the page. If it still can't fit horizontally on a page, the table will be broken into two.

Reproducibility

In the interests of open scholarship and the reproducibility of results, TISMIR strongly encourages all authors to deposit the data/code relating to their publication in an open code or preservation repository. There are two main types of repository, which have slightly different purposes:

• A source code repository holds many versions of the software as it being developed
• A preservation or institutional repository will preserve a set of files deposited for the long term

We ask that the version of software or data described in your paper, if applicable, is available in at least one repository that satisfies the criteria below. Ideally the software will be available through both types of repository. A good source code repository for software should:

• Allow the deposit of software under the correct licence
• Provide a unique, persistent identifier which references a particular version of the source code
• Has a published backup policy and terms of service that do not allow deletion without warning
• Have a sound business/sustainability model

A good preservation repository for software should:

• Allow the deposit of software under the correct licence
• Provide a unique, persistent identifier (e.g. a DOI) which references the deposited software
• Have a published preservation strategy that guarantees long term preservation

TISMIR does not dictate which repository is used, as long as the repository fits the need of the data. If required, the Ubiquity Press Dataverse is available for authors to deposit their data. If you would like more information on this subject, please contact us.

References

In-text citations 
Every use of information from other sources must be cited in the text so that it is clear that external material has been used. Please use parenthetical citations according to the 'Author: Year style'.

If the author is already mentioned in the main text then the year should follow the name within parenthesis.

• Both Jones (2013) and Brown (2010) showed that …

If the author name is not mentioned in the main text then the surname and year should be inserted, in parenthesis, after the relevant text. Multiple citations should be separated by semi-colon and follow alphabetical order.

• The statistics clearly show this to be untrue (Brown, 2010; Jones, 2013).

If three or fewer authors are cited from the same citation then all should be listed. If four or more authors are part of the citation then ‘et al.’ should follow the first author name.

• (Jones, Smith & Brown 2008)
• (Jones et al., 2008)

If citations are used from the same author and the same year, then a lowercase letter, starting from ‘a’, should be placed after the year.

• (Jones, 2013a; Jones, 2013b)

If specific pages are being cited then the page number should follow the year, after a colon.

• (Brown, 2004: 65; Jones, 2013: 143)

For publications authored and published by organisations, use the short form of the organisation’s name or its acronym in lieu of the full name.

• (ICRC 2000) NOT (International Committee of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies 2000)

Please do not include URLs in parenthetical citations, but rather cite the author or page title and include all details, including the URL, in the reference list.

In-text tables, figures and equations
All tables, figures and equations used in the manuscript must be referenced somewhere within the text. Wherever they are referenced, please type out the name in full and add the number in which they appear. The number should not be placed within parentheses.

• Table 1; Table 2; Table 3 etc.
• Figure 1; Figure 2; Figure 3 etc.
• Equation 1; Equation 2; Equation 3 etc.

Reference list
All citations must be listed at the end of the text file, in alphabetical order of authors’ surnames. References should not be listed if they are not cited in the main text.

NOTE: If multiple works by the same author are being listed, please re-type the author’s name out for each entry, rather than using a long dash.

NOTE: DOIs should be included for all reference entries, where possible.

Reference format

This journal uses the APA system – see below for examples of how to format:

• Books:

Author, A. A. (year). Title of work. Publisher. https://doi.org/xx.xxxxxxxx

Leaver, B. L., Ehrman, M., & Shekhtman, B. (2005). Achieving success in second language acquisition. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511610431

• Chapter within books:

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (year). Title of chapter or entry. In A. Editor, B. Editor, & C. Editor (Eds.), Title of book (pp. xxx-xxx). Publisher. https://doi.org/xx.xxxxxxxx

Jacobs, G. M., & Hall, S. (2002). Implementing cooperative learning. In J. C. Richards & W. A. Renandya (Eds.), Methodology in language teaching: An anthology of current practice (pp. 52-58). https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511667190.009

• Journal articles:

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (year). Article title. Journal Title, volume number (issue number), page numbers. https://doi.org/xx.xxxxxxxx

Radford, M. (2001). Aesthetic and religious awareness among pupils: Similarities and differences. British Journal of Music Education, 18(2), 151-159. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0265051701000249

• Newspaper articles (online):

Author, A. (year, date). Article title. Newspaper..URL

McMahon, S. (2010, July 19). Fund new Victorian era. Herald Sun. https://www.heraldsun.com.au/

• Newspaper articles (print):

Author, A. (year, date). Article title. Newspaper. pp. page number

Parker, K. (2008, December 3). Plea for languages. Koori Mail, pp. 19-20

• Conference papers:

Author, A. (year, month). Title. Paper presented at Conference title, Location, Country.

Liu, C., Wu, D., Fan, J., & Nauta, M. M. (2008, November). Does job complexity predict job strains? Paper presented at the 8th Biannual Conference of the European Academy of Occupational Health Psychology, Valencia, Spain.

• Organisational publications/Grey literature:

Organisation. (year). Title. Series/publication number. URL/Source

World Bank. (2008). Textbooks and school library provision in secondary education in Sub-Saharan Africa (World Bank Working Paper No. 126. Africa Human Development Series). EBL database.

• Theses and dissertations:

Author, A. A. (year). Thesis title (Doctoral dissertation, Institution, location). https://doi.org/xx.xxxxxxxx

Murray, B. P. (2008). Prior knowledge, two teaching approaches for metacognition: Main idea and summarization strategies in reading (Doctoral dissertation, Fordham University, New York)

• Webpages / PDFs:

Author, A. A. (year, month date). Title of work. Source.

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2011, March 23). Australia's health 2004. https://www.aihw.gov.au/publications/index.cfm/title/10014

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms (if a submission is rejected or withdrawn prior to publication, all rights return to the author(s)):

1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).

Submitting to the journal implicitly confirms that all named authors and rights holders have agreed to the above terms of publication. It is the submitting author's responsibility to ensure all authors and relevant institutional bodies have given their agreement at the point of submission.

Note: some institutions require authors to seek written approval in relation to the terms of publication. Should this be required, authors can request a separate licence agreement document from the editorial team (e.g. authors who are Crown employees).

Articles accepted for publication will be asked to pay an Article Publication Charge (APC) to cover publication costs. This can normally be sourced from your funder or institution. This fee covers all publication costs (editorial processes; web hosting; indexing; marketing; archiving; DOI registration etc) and ensures that all of the content is fully open access. This approach maximises the potential readership of publications and allows the journal to be run in a sustainable way.

Tax will be added to all fees charged, when applicable (includes VAT/Sales tax or any other applicable taxes).

Many institutions have funds available to support open access publications by their staff, therefore we ask that you contact the relevant body to cover the APC.

If you do not know about your institution’s policy on open access funding, please contact your departmental/faculty administrators and institution library, as funds may be available to you.

Reviewer Compensation

At this time, a 30% APC discount is being offered to any reviewer who has completed a review for the journal within the 12 months prior to submission. To receive this token of our appreciation, we simply ask that the review is completed and received on time (including any agreed extensions) and of reasonable detail. If you then intend to submit your work to TISMIR, then please mention your review (ideally article title and date) in your cover letter when submitting to the journal.

Waiver information

If you do not have funds available to pay the Article Publication Charge (APC) (e.g., because your institution/funder will not cover the fee), you may request a waiver via support from ISMIR. Include your waiver request in the submission details, such as the cover letter, though you can submit it through the submission system at any stage of the review process. In your request, outline in no more than 100 words why you require the waiver. The decision on your request will be made by the Editors-in-Chief (EiC).

Should you have any questions about this waiver option or the APC in general, please contact the EiC at your earliest convenience.

Institutional Agreements

Ubiquity Press is a fully open access publisher with a mission to provide equitable publishing options at a fair cost. The publisher is proud to have led APC price transparency (see below and the Ubiquity Press website) and aims to keep APCs well below the industry average. To enhance this mission, Ubiquity Press offers a publishing agreement with institutions/libraries, who can directly support authors when publishing in any of our open access journals. The agreement removes the author from any of the payment process whilst also providing a 10% discount on the APC.

Should you wish your institution to sign up to this agreement, UK-based institutions can do so via JISC. Non-UK based institutions, or those that wish to know more about the agreement should contact brian.hole@ubiquitypress.com for more information.

We encourage all authors to refer their library to the Ubiquity Press publishing agreement so that these benefits can be gained by as many institutions as possible.

Institutional Agreement Enquiry

APC Cost Breakdown

In order to establish trust with authors, institutions and funders, we provide a transparent breakdown of how the APC is calculated. The framework used follows the structure created by the FAIR Open Access Alliance (FOAA. p3), as recommended by Plan S, thus ensuring that all Ubiquity Press journals are compliant with key open access funder requirements.

The table below shows how the publishing costs are broken down (2023 data). 

Definitions for each of these categories, along with the Ubiquity Press average APC breakdown can be found at https://www.ubiquitypress.com/site/publish/.