Please read through this guide in its entirety before you begin work on your project and keep it nearby as you proceed through the course of development. We are happy you have chosen to publish with us and look forward to working together.
Nordicom offers a complete in-house editorial team devoted to providing personalised and professional service and minimising the length of the publication process. One of our dedicated editors will be your direct contact during the writing and evaluation processes. Our manuscript editor will be your contact throughout the editorial stages after final delivery and formal acceptance for publication. Our communications officer will assist with promotional activities and marketing and work to increase your readership. Finally, our managing editor will ensure smooth hand-offs throughout the publication process and will be available to answer any questions.
From proposal to publication and promotion
Below outlines what you can expect the publication process at Nordicom to look like, from when you propose your idea to the final publication and our efforts to promote it.
Nordicom retains the right to withdraw from the process at any point until the letter of agreement is signed. The agreement then allows withdrawal with two months’ notice from either party if the agreed upon schedule or commitments are not being followed.
Nordicom’s academic books are submitted to Similarity Check – a Crossref service utilising iThenticate text comparison software – and published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence.
- Step one: Questionnaire
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When you contact the editors at Nordicom about a book proposal, you will be sent a questionnaire to fill out, asking you to provide details about the proposed title, the objectives and topicality, your previous experience, and the approximate schedule you have in mind.
- Step two: Full synopsis
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If Nordicom wishes to proceed with your proposal, you will be invited to submit a full book synopsis. After a satisfying synopsis has been delivered, the editorial team at Nordicom will invite you for a discussion about both parties’ expectations and responsibilities. Among the topics discussed are the timeline and reviewing process. Based on this and the information provided in the questionnaire, the editorial team decides whether Nordicom will proceed with the proposed project.
- Step three: Letter of agreement
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If Nordicom decides to proceed with the project, you will be asked to sign a letter of agreement, a legal contract. This document lays out your rights and responsibilities as author, as well as Nordicom’s.
- Step four: Development
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After the agreement is signed follows the stage where the full manuscript is prepared. All submissions that are accepted for publication must adhere to our editorial policies and will have to meet our final (post-review) manuscript delivery requirements, and we find it helpful to provide these at the beginning of the process. We strongly encourage you to follow the provided guidelines from the moment the writing process begins. Spending the last weeks before the delivery deadline correcting errors that could easily have been avoided is not recommended. We provide a manuscript template to assist in correctly formatting manuscripts:
Although this is a period of less contact between you and Nordicom, we expect you to keep your editor at Nordicom informed about any substantial changes that may occur.
- Step five: Full submission
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Full manuscripts should be submitted to your assigned editor at Nordicom. Please follow the full submission checklist at the end of this guide.
- Step six: Review process
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First, the editor will review your manuscript and provide comments on anything that needs to be addressed regarding the content and scientific integrity.
Peer review will commence after the editor has reviewed your submission and you have addressed any comments you may have received.
While we try our best to make the review process as quick and efficient as possible, we must allow for enough time in order to receive a thorough and professional evaluation.
- Step seven: Final manuscript delivery
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When the revisions have been made and approved by the editor, you will make the final manuscript delivery, and the manuscript must meet our final manuscript delivery requirements outlined in the instructions for authors.
- Step eight: Editorial process
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Upon acceptance of the final manuscript, the manuscript editor will be your main contact throughout the editorial process. All stages of editing are tracked and saved, and before any editing commences, the original file is preserved.
Language editing
The manuscript first goes through language editing. It is crucial that you adhere to the final manuscript delivery checklist in the instructions for authors in order to gain the full benefit of the editing process. Therefore, we reserve the right to return for revision any manuscript that does not meet the requirements before language editing commences. After the language editing, you will receive the manuscript back for a final review. This is the last opportunity for changes.
Proofs
After the final review, the article is typeset and proofs are sent to you for approval. The purpose of the proof is to catch missed typos and potential errors introduced during typesetting. No other changes should be made. It is much more time consuming to make corrections at this stage, which is why it is important to take the time needed during language editing while the manuscript is still in a Word document.
- Step nine: Publication
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Once the PDF has been submitted for publication, absolutely no further changes can be made.
The managing editor coordinates the publication on NordPub, the publication platform of the Nordic Council of Ministers. The book will be assigned a DOI number and will available to read free of charge and without requirement of registration.
Nordicom’s books are also printed in a limited quantity to make available for purchase at a cost-covering price and to libraries. The number of printed copies you receive is agreed upon and laid out in the letter of agreement that you sign.
- Step ten: Promotion
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Nordicom promotes your publication in different ways, as we strongly endorse the idea that scientific results and findings should be accessible to a wide readership. You will set up a plan together with your editor and our communications officer in good time before your book is due to be released. If you have specific ideas for promotion, please let us know early in the process.
All books are promoted via our social media and our website, and we announce the book’s publication via relevant Nordic and international mailing lists for researchers. Other activities are decided by you and the communications officer in order to make the book reach its target audience. Our communications officers have prepared some ideas and strategies – along with successful examples – of various promotional activities you can engage in to increase the reach of your publication.
It is important that you engage in the promotion, as you know the book and the target audience best. Our evaluations two weeks post publication show that authors’ engagement on social media greatly improves the reach.
Final words
We are very happy that you have chosen to publish with Nordicom. While your contact with us will be most frequent after the final manuscript is delivered, we have wished to highlight that there are many different steps and we expect you to stay with us throughout the process – and we will stay with you. Should any questions or problems arise, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Providing a clear, consistent, and complete manuscript will allow Nordicom to effectively and efficiently review the book; therefore, the following checklist must be followed for the full submission.
Full submission checklist
- General
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All use of material, either direct or indirect, is accompanied by an appropriate in-text citation, including material previously published by the author, which should be rewritten or summarised to avoid text-recycling or self-plagiarism.
Any permission needed to use third-party material under copyright has been obtained.
- Content
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The structure and length of individual chapters are consistent.
Titles are formatted consistently. If subtitles are used, they are used consistently for all chapters (i.e., either all chapters have subtitles, or none of them do).
Only two levels of headings are used, and they are brief and descriptive.
A preface, including any funding information, has been written.
To prepare for peer review, references involving the author are anonymised and funding information is not included in the manuscript.
- References and citations
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Empirical research material (e.g., interviews, content analysis) cited in the text includes relevant information (e.g., name or anonymous, job title, date of interview, gender or age; newspaper name, date; etc.) within parentheses. Publicly available material must have an entry in the reference list; unpublished material, such as interviews, do not. Please consult our guide for citing and referencing empirical material to ensure you meet the requirements.
“ibid.” is not used in in-text citations.
- Endnotes
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Endnotes are limited as much as possible. When used, they are only used for valuable additional information that is too long to include in the body text. They are not used for URLs or other references.
- File submission
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All files are clearly labelled.
Charts, graphs, diagrams, and the like are provided in an editable format in a separate file clearly labelled with figure number (charts and graphs submitted as image files will not be accepted).
Information regarding funding and/or acknowledgements is included separately.
Additional material, such as supplementary material, table of contents, and other supporting material, is provided separately.
After review
After the peer review process and upon formal acceptance for publication, the manuscript must meet the final manuscript delivery requirements laid out in the instructions for authors before final editing of the manuscript can commence:
Contact
Josefine Bové, managing editor: josefine.bove@nordicom.gu.se
Page last updated July 2024