Submissions

These are the recommended guidelines for full paper submissions:

• Manuscripts must respect the minimum length of 6000 words, the maximum length of 8000 words, and other formatting guidelines (the word counting includes references and all the content in the document);
• Only Word or RTF documents are accepted;
• The submission has to be made through anonymous files. The manuscript should not have any reference to the authors or the institution they belong to. The authors must ensure that their manuscripts are prepared in such a way that they do not reveal their identities to reviewers, either directly or indirectly;
• File properties should not contain author-related information;
• The authors of the document should delete their names from the text, and replace them with placeholders such as [author]. The same procedure should be adopted for any information related to author or affiliation, e.g. replace the name of a project by [project];
• All submissions will be selected by double-blind peer review.

Formatting

• Standard formatting of 12-point font, 1.5-spaced, Times New Roman, 2.54 cm (1.0 inch) margins should be used throughout. The use of italics is preferred to underlining. Notes should be converted to footnotes. Page numbers should be added on the top right corner (header) on every page;
• Page numbers should be added on the top right corner (header) on every page;
• The tables should be editable text and not as images;

First Page

• Title: it should be written in Times New Roman 12, italics, bold, upper case, justified. It should not be longer than two lines. Should there be quotes or other expressions that justify it, they should always appear between straight quotation marks. The authors should avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.
• Sub-title (optional): should there be a sub-title, it should be written in Times New Roman 12, italics, bold, upper case, justified. It should not be longer than two lines. Should there be quotes or other expressions that justify it, they should always appear between straight quotation marks;
• Abstract: under 300 words and under 1000 characters in standard formatting;
• Keywords: 5-7 keywords in Times New Roman 12, italics, single space, justified.

Page End of Main Text

• Bibliography (roman alphabet – English): References should be formatted according to the most current APA style; references should start on a new page, be double-spaced and subsequent lines should have a hanging indent of 1.25 cm (0.5 inches).

Bibliography Examples:

Hodent, C. (2017). The Gamer's Brain: How Neuroscience and UX Can Impact Video Game Design. CRC Press.

Lieberoth, A., Wellnitz, K. B., & Aagaard, J. (2015). Sex, violence and learning - Assessing game effects. In P. Lankoski & S. Björk (Eds.), Game research methods (pp. 175-192). ETC Press.

Toh, W. & Lim, F. V. (2020). Using Video Games for Learning: Developing a Metalanguage for Digital Play. Games and Culture, 16(5), 583-610. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1555412020921339

In uncovered aspects, the manuscript must be formatted following the 7th edition of APA (Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, see http://www.apastyle.org/).

Code of Conduct

Author contributions

Authors should submit an author statement outlining their individual contributions to the paper using the relevant roles (some examples: conceptualization; methodology; writing - original draft; writing - review & editing). Authorship statements should be formatted with the names of authors first and the role(s) following at the bottom of the title page.

Sample author statement example

Carla Sousa: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing - Reviewing and Editing, Filipe Luz: Writing-Original draft. Micaela Fonseca: Validation, Writing - Reviewing and Editing. Pedro Neves: Writing - Reviewing and Editing.

Data Protection

Protecting the confidentiality of individual information is a guarantee of commitment by the Editors. The Editors will demand from the authors of the empirical research articles the guarantee of the same procedure and that the research subjects have expressed their written consent to participate in the research. This problem does not arise when it is understood that empirical research articles, even without the consent of the research subjects, do not harm the dignity of the subjects involved.

Copyright Notice

Authors who publish in this journal agree to the following terms:

• Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work’s authorship, with no commercial intent and under the same license.
• Authors can 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. Please, contact the Editorial team before.
• Authors are not requested submission or processing fees. Under open-access politics, articles are fully available upon publication. 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).

Plagiarism

IJGSI takes issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism, or other breaches of best practice in publication seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarized other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of the department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.

Prior Publication

The submission must be original, not previously published, and not under consideration by other publications. If the material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in IJGSI. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please contact the Editor for further discussion.

All submissions will be selected by double-blind peer review. The author’s name, profile, ranking, and institutional affiliation should only be mentioned in the appropriate file. Revised articles will also be treated confidentially until the date of their publication.

All authors give the IJGSI's wording the right to index, in international networks, the published articles. The content of the texts and the opinions expressed therein, as well as the reference to figures or graphics already published, are the sole responsibility of the authors.

The favourable opinion of the reviewers does not imply the automatic publication of the articles. The immediate non-publication is related to IJGSI's editorial policy and the volume of articles submitted to the journal and positively evaluated. If the article is not published within one year, the author may submit it to other publications with prior information to IJGSI management.

The Editor’s final decision can be one of the four following categories: “Accept as is”, “Minor Revision”, “Major Revision”, and “Decline”. The revised article will usually be returned to initial referees for re-evaluation in a second round of review.

Use of inclusive language

Inclusive language acknowledges diversity, conveys respect to all people, is sensitive to differences, and promotes equal opportunities. Content should make no assumptions about the beliefs or commitments of any reader; contain nothing which might imply that one individual is superior to another on the grounds of age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability, or health condition; and use inclusive language throughout. For further guidance, you can check inclusive language guidelines such as this.

Open Access Statement

This is an open-access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or their institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking the publisher's or the author's prior permission.

The full text of all content must be available for free and open access without delay.

• No embargo period
• No requirement for users to register to read content

 IJGSI follows the DOAJ definition of open access.

Peer Review Process

A manuscript submitted to the International Journal of Games and Social Impact will be assessed by an editor to make sure the article falls within the journal’s scope and proposed themes. If so, the manuscript is selected for peer-review and sent to two reviewers for blind review (i.e., the names of the authors and the reviewers will not be disclosed). At this moment, authors are notified about the rejection of their manuscript or its selection for peer-review. Authors will then receive feedback from their reviewers along with a publication decision made by an editor.

When a manuscript is accepted, the author is asked to submit a final copy. If the manuscript is accepted with revisions, the author will be asked to submit a change note with his final submission, explaining how he revised his article in light of the reviewers’ comments.

An editor will then check that the reviewers’ comments have been addressed before accepting the article for publication. Editors may request further revisions if necessary. Final publication decisions are made by the editors of the journal.

Appeals

If an article is rejected by IJGSI, the authors may appeal the decision by writing to the editor-in-chief. The appeal should be justified by taking into consideration the reviewers’ comments. The editorial board will analyse the appeal and consider the possibility of further blind reviews of the manuscript.