Author Guidelines

Manuscript Submission

Manuscripts submitted for consideration must be original work and should not be simultaneously under review for publication in another journal or any other publication outlets.

All manuscripts must be submitted online. Only articles in English are accepted.  The submission and publication of a manuscript is free of charge.

We strongly recommend that authors whose first language is not English have the text professionally proofread before submitting the manuscript.

Checklist:

• Does the article fit into the aims and scope of the journal?
• Is the title explicit, brief and appropriate and is the abstract a concise account of the article including the main conclusions?
• Are the keywords appropriate and effective? Do they portray an accurate representation of you article?
• Does the introduction include compelling statement of purpose?
• Have you presented a conceptual grounding/literature review and a review of previous research?
• Are your hypotheses/research questions clear, meaningful, answerable, inter-related, ad do they flow logically from the introduction?
• In the case of empirical research, is your methodology appropriate presented? Do the procedures/measures offer enough information for replicability/trust?
• Are the analysis, results and discussion systematic and sensible?
• Conclusion: What are the main results and how do the paper add to the field? Are there important limitations?

Research papers

Research papers should not  exceed 8 000 words, even if reviewers have asked for additional material. The number of words includes all text from the abstract through the references list, tables and figures. Manuscripts that substantially exceed the word limit will be returned.

Essay

P&P mainly publishes traditional research articles, but we also accept essays. Essays should be a bit shorter than regular articles and should not exceed 6 000 words. Essays refer to an argumentative style of writing, and these submissions may be problematizing, explorative and discursive engaging with topics within the state and scope of the journal. Essays bring original insights to the field of professions and professionalism by, for instance interpreting past developments in the field, perhaps with a personal or biographical tone bringing attention to emerging and important but previously overlooked or repressed topics, research questions, theories or areas of inquiry in the field. Essays may also provide reflections on the field from an 'outsider' perspective and 'fertilizing' it with concepts, theories and discussions from other fields of inquiry.

We expect the same high quality for essay publications as for research articles; they need to be focused on specified topics; follow a clear argument with a logical progression; and engage with updated research literature in the respective field. Essays do not go through double-blind peer review, however, but they are reviewed by the journal editors. The number of words includes all text from the abstract through the references list. Interested authors may discuss their ideas with the Editors-in-Chief.

Manuscript Specifications for research articles and essays
The cover page of the manuscript must include the title of the paper (and preferably a running head (short title of 40 or fewer characters) for the article header), a list of five to eight keywords, and a word count.

Authors should double-space all text, and number all lines (except in figures). All pages except figures must be numbered at the bottom and author identifications should be removed (see below). Articles should be uploaded in Word format, font Times New Roman, 12 point. Use margins of at least 2.5 cm.

Title: Most people will decide whether to read a paper solely on the basis of its title. Indexing and abstracting services and Internet search engines also depend heavily on the information conveyed by the title. Titles should be clear and concise, and not exceed 70 characters with spaces (approx. 10-12 words).

Subtitles: Subtitles should also be informative and concise, and not exceed 50 to 60 characters with spaces (approx. eight words). The articles in Professions and Professionalism do not start with a subtitle «Introduction».

Abstract: The abstract should state concisely the aims, methods, principal results, and major inferences of the work. Do not include acronyms in the abstract. It should not include literature citations. The abstract should not exceed 150 words.

Keywords: Following the abstract the author should include a set of keywords for the article. These will be used as metadata tags when the article is published online. Include five to eight words or phrases that will be useful for indexing and literature searches.

Footnotes: Authors should avoid footnotes if possible. If they are deemed necessary, they should be used sparingly.

References: References should be indicated in the typescript by giving the author's name, with the year of publication in parentheses, as detailed in the American Psychological Association (APA) 6 style guide. If several papers by the same author and from the same year are cited, a, b, c, etc. should be put after the year of publication. The references should be listed in full at the end of the paper in standard APA format. The reference list should provide full title of the cited journals, not the abbreviations. For more on the APA style, see http://www.apastyle.org

Supporting Elements (Tables, Figures, and Supporting Information)

Content: Tables and figures should be self-explanatory and should supplement rather than duplicate the text. Do not present large amounts of data in tables. A reader should be able to interpret tables and figures without referring to the text. Consequently, all abbreviations and terms unique to the paper must be defined in the table caption or figure legend. Common statistical notations need not be defined. Use the same terminology in supporting elements and in the text.

Figures and tables should not be embedded in the manuscript, but they can be placed at the end. Authors should indicate where they would like to have their figures and tables placed in the text. It is also preferable that tables and figures are included in Excel format in a separate file.

Tables: (Table 1) in text. Table 1. Title initial cap only (ranged left above table). Use the legend to describe the contents of the table as it relates to the topic of the paper. A list of the table’s columns or row headings is not an informative table legend.

Figures: (Figure 1) in text. Figure 1. Caption initial cap only (ranged left under figure). Figures must be of sufficient quality and resolution to remain clear at 60 % reduction.

Language and Grammar

Clear language is critical: Clarity in language is important, especially for authors whose first language is not English. We strongly recommend that you ask a professional proofreader with experience in publishing in scholarly journals to read your manuscript.

Colloquialisms and jargon: Avoid colloquialisms and jargon.

Abbreviations and acronyms: Do not begin a sentence with an abbreviation. Use abbreviations sparingly. Define all abbreviations, initializations, and acronyms at first use, however common they may seem to be. For example: analysis of variance (ANOVA). Furthermore, authors should not use latin abbrevations like 'i.e.', 'e.g.', 'etc.' and the like outside of parentheses. The following would be acceptable: «The Nordic region (i.e., Norway, Sweden, etc.) is ...».

Active voice: Most of the sentences should be in the active voice. Authors should not hesitate to use we or I, even for the section on methods.

'And/or': Do no use 'and/or'; pick either 'and' or 'or', or, if necessary, use instead 'or' and then 'or both' afterwards. For example, the phrase 'cars and/or bicycles' should be 'cars or bicycles, or both,'.

Tense: Use past tense in the Methods (describing what you did), Results (describing what your results were), and in the Discussion (referring to your results). Use the present perfect tense or present tense when you refer to publications. The abstract should be in the present perfect tense.

Spelling: UK or US spellings may be used with '-ize' spellings as given in the Oxford English Dictionary (e.g. organize, recognize).

Quotations: For quotations within the text please make sure to use double inverted commas on all occasions: “This is what we want." There is an exception when a quotation appears within a quotation, where single inverted commas should be used: “When he said ‘I will not go,’ the rest of us refused also." Commas and full-stops are placed inside inverted commas.

Quotations longer than 40 words should be put in an indented paragraph format without the use of inverted commas.

Numbers: Authors should write out the numbers zero to ten in the text; any other number can be expressed as numerals.

Split infinitives: Avoid split infinitives.

Ensuring a Blind Peer Review of research articles

Following the reception of a submission, one or more editors will screen the article. If it is suitable for the journal, the editors will send the article to at least two referees for further reviewing.

There are four possible results: rejection, accepted, accepted if revised, and resubmit for review.

If accepted on the condition of revision, the editors will decide if a new process of reviews is necessary.

Remove author identifications: To ensure the integrity of the double blind peer-review for submission to this journal, every effort should be made to prevent the identities of the authors and reviewers from being known to each other. This involves the authors, editors, and reviewers (who upload documents as part of their review) checking to see if the following steps have been taken with regard to the text and the file properties:

1. The authors of the document have deleted their names from the text, with "Author" and year used in the references and footnotes, instead of the authors' name, article title, etc.

2. With Microsoft Office documents, author identification should also be removed from the properties of the file. Click on the ‘File’ tab on the Ribbon of Microsoft Word 2010. Once you’re in the ‘File’ tab, select the option ‘Info’ to proceed. Once you click that option, you need to select the option ‘Check for issues’ to proceed further. Once you click on ‘Check for issues’ you need to select the option ‘Inspect document’. After you click that option a small window would appear on the screen where you would find the option ‘Document Properties and Personal Information’. Select that option form the checkbox for that and select ‘Inspect’ to proceed further. Once you click ‘Inspect’ you’d be shown another screen in the same window. You need to select the option ‘Remove all’ from that window to remove your personal details from the Microsoft Word 2010 document.