Information For Authors

Journal Description
The Pakistan Journal of Women’s Studies: Alam-e-Niswan, founded in 1993, is the first scholarly journal in women’s studies in Pakistan which through its timely and regular publication has raised critical social and political questions with the purpose of making significant changes in the lives of women, men and children. As an autonomous journal, we value and promote critical feminist thinking and thus seek out new ways to ensure that women’s human rights are protected, gender equation is fairly maintained and a culture of research and enquiry is promoted. As we continue to move ahead, we continue to make partnerships with new scholars with fresh perspectives on feminism and activism both locally and globally.

Aims and Scope
Pakistan Journal of Women’s Studies: Alam-e-Niswan is a peer-reviewed interdisciplinary journal with double blind review policy. It aims at providing a holistic understanding of the civil society by creating, disseminating and sharing women’s studies research and feminist scholarship globally. The Journal encourages and welcomes a variety of contributions that focus on women’s experiences, gender issues, feminist theory and consciousness with the purpose moving towards gender equity.

How to Submit: Manuscript Submission Guidelines
PJWS welcomes submissions in all disciplines and is especially interested in papers written from an interdisciplinary approach on women and gender issues with feminist perspectives.
The following guidelines are obligatory for all authors. Only manuscripts of good quality that are consistent with the aims and scope of Pakistan Journal of Women’s Studies: Alam-e-Niswan will be accepted for review.
Your first step, before sending us your paper, is to ensure the following:

You are submitting your original work.
This paper is not under consideration elsewhere.
This paper has not been published elsewhere.
The paper has necessary permissions for copyright works included in it.
The author's name is on a separate title page and not on the manuscript itself.
In order to protect your anonymity for the purpose of reviews, make sure that there are no hints in the paper that disclose author’s identity.

Violations of any of the above may result in rejection of the paper by the Editor, reporting the matter to your institution, and blocking your future submissions.

How to prepare your manuscript?

Choose the title of your article carefully with minimum words that reflect the research and arguments of your study. The title serves as the main key in opening your study for a wider audience through search engines.
An abstract of the paper, not exceeding 150-200 words, should be submitted. Abstract is the soul of your paper and should be written effectively. Remember that most search engines and indexers only index the abstracts. This should be typed on a separate page following the title page.
All abstracts must have 4-6 keywords. Select your keywords in order to make your article searchable and discoverable.
Title page of the paper should be typed separately and should include the author’s name, mailing, fax, phone and e-mail address.
In case of more than one author, identify the corresponding author with contact details (E-mail address and full postal address). We prefer one author.
In case of more than one author, explain the role of all the authors, identifying the main author.
All the authors are required to send an undertaking to confirm their role in writing the paper submitted.
An undertaking by the author(s) that this article is not submitted to any other publication.
A statement of two or three lines about author/s should be typed on a separate page.
All articles must be written in English, using British spellings throughout, except the quotes.
Articles should be no longer than 9,000 words, including endnotes and references.
Quotations of about 50 words should be set out as extracts and be indented.
Spell out numbers from one to nine, 10 and above to remain in figures. Use ‘19th century’, ‘1970s’.
We prefer qualitative studies. In case where statistics have to be included, minimise the use of tables, charts, graphs and diagrams.
All tables and figures included in the paper should be indicated by number separately (see Table 1) and not by placement (see Table below).
Present each Table and figure on a separate sheet of paper, at the end of the paper. Check that the numbers of the Table are the same as mentioned in the text of the paper.
Tables and figures must mention their source.
All papers must include a bibliography at the end of the paper (after the endnotes) listing books, articles, theses, web-sources, newspaper articles or stories, including the sources for the tables, graphs and maps.
For all field-based studies, a letter of permission given by the concerned institutions/organisations to conduct interviews and surveys must be submitted separately.
Paper must be thoroughly proof-read before submission.
All articles should be typed double-spaced, using font size 12 in Times New Roman with page numbers marked. The file should be electronically sent as Word document and not as PDF. Please send the electronic file to pakistanwomenstudies@gmail.com

Citations/ references and bibliography

All submissions should document cited material by using parenthetical references in the text (author-date system), with minimal endnotes. Notes, references, and parenthetical citations should follow the style specified in the Chicago Manual of Style (We follow the16th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style (CMS) documentation style. Abbreviations like ed. and trans. are not included in the parenthetical listing. Specific page(s) follow the year of publication, preceded by a comma (Ahmed 1992, 152). Other examples are: (Lorber and Farrell, 1991) for dual authorship /editorship); (McFarlane et al, 1991) for more than three authors; (Appadurai, 1986a, 1986b) for two works by the same author in a single year.
Endnotes are used for material commenting on or adding to the text and should be used instead of parenthetical citations for references to more than three works, manuscript/archival sources, unpublished interviews, and legal cases. Endnotes are placed at the conclusion of the article and before the references/bibliography.
Full references must be given in the reference list/bibliography to all works cited in the article, including citations in endnotes. List works alphabetically by author.
In each reference, all authors’ names are inverted (last name first).
In case of more than three authors, list the first three authors and then use et al. (not in italics) after the third author’s name.
In case of more than one work by the same author(s), list them in order by the year of publication, starting with the earliest. In case of more than one publication by the same author(s) in one single year, identify the text by placing
References not cited in the text will be removed from the reference list. Please consult a recent copy of the Chicago Manual of Style for proper manuscript form and citations.
Authors cited in the text of the paper must be included in the Bibliography.

Acknowledgements

All those who have contributed, at any stage of the writing of this paper, including students, should be acknowledged in a separate note at the end of the paper.
All those who have contributed, at any stage of the writing of this paper, including students, should be acknowledged in a separate note at the end of the paper.

Our Plagiarism Policy

All submissions go through plagiarism check.
As per joural policy, 5% plagiarism is admissible in any submission to the journal. It is more convenient to submit Turnitin report while submitting paper to the journal.
We reserve the right to take appropriate action against all authors for submitting plagiarised papers by reporting the matter to the concerned academic institutions of such authors, to the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (in case the submission is from Pakistan). Authors who have submitted plagiarised will be blacklisted.
We stand against misappropriation of students’ work by authors in writing and submitting a paper. If this misconduct is found out later, we reserve the right to remove the paper from our archives and to report the matter to concerned bodies for appropriate action.

Manuscript Review Procedure

Manuscripts submitted to Pakistan Journal of Women’s Studies: Alam-e-Niswan go through plagiarism check.
All articles are sent for review to two referees, one internal and the other external.
PJWS follows a blind review process (the name of the reviewer is withheld form the author(s), and the author(s) name is withheld from the reviewers.
Relevant excerpts from the review reports are mailed to the corresponding author.
All changes are to be made on a separate sheet of paper and not in the original text of the paper.
The final draft will be sent to the corresponding author for final approval. The paper must be returned within the specified time. At this stage also, no additions are to be in the original text of the paper as made by the author at the previous stage.

Check-list

Check spellings (British English) and grammar. Papers with spelling and grammatical errors will not be accepted.
Check all references and endnotes.
Order of authors as mentioned in the paper submitted. No change will be made after the final approval of the paper.
Unless agreed otherwise, all accepted and published papers become the copyright of PJWS.

Publication Fee

Pakistan Journal of Women’s Studies charges processing fees for submission of papers for the journal. At the time of submission, payment of Rs. 3,000/- is required to cover the initial process. Once the paper is peer-reviewed and finalized for publishing the author/s will be intimated to deposit Rs. 15,000/- for further processing. After each bank deposit, email us proof of payment.
Publication fee for foreign authors is $100.

For bank details please contact:
Editor, Pakistan Journal of Women’s Studies
E-mail: pakistanwomenstudies@gmail.com
info@pakistanwomenstudies.com