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Policies

Contents

Who Can Submit?

Anyone may submit an original article to be considered for publication in the Journal of Rural Social Sciences provided he or she owns the copyright to the work being submitted or is authorized by the copyright owner or owners to submit the article. Authors are the initial owners of the copyrights to their works (an exception in the non-academic world to this might exist if the authors have, as a condition of employment, agreed to transfer copyright to their employer).

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General Submission Rules

Submitted articles cannot have been previously published, nor be forthcoming in an archival journal or book (print or electronic). Please note: "publication" in a working-paper series does not constitute prior publication. In addition, by submitting material to the Journal of Rural Social Sciences, the author is stipulating that the material is not currently under review at another journal (electronic or print) and that he or she will not submit the material to another journal (electronic or print) until the completion of the editorial decision process at the Journal of Rural Social Sciences. If you have concerns about the submission terms for the Journal of Rural Social Sciences, please contact the editors.

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Submission Fee

The Journal of Rural Social Sciences requires payment of a submission fee. Because it is an open-access journal, this is one of the primary forms of support for the work of the editorial office. Payment of the submission fee guarantees desk review by the editorial office, and if found suitable, a round of peer review. Payment does not guarantee publication.

The submission fee is $40 if the first author is a member of the Southern Rural Sociological Association and $50 if the first author is not a member. Checks payable to the Southern Rural Sociological Association (or SRSA) may be sent to:

Robert Zabawa, 
110 Henderson Hall,
G. W. Carver Ag. Exp. Station,
Tuskegee University,
Tuskegee, AL 36088

If a manuscript is recommended for publication, the author must submit a production fee of payment of $80 if the first author is an SRSA member or $100 for a non-member. This payment is due at the time of signing the author agreement and review of page proofs.

The submission fee may also be submitted via PayPal. Please contact the editors to request an invoice be sent to you.

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Formatting Requirements

The Journal of Rural Social Sciences requires that authors format articles according to Journal guidelines, including use of in-text citation and reference formatting rules from the American Sociological Association. See JRSS Manuscript Preparation Guidelines for details. Although the Journal's Editorial Office and bepress can provide limited technical support, it is ultimately the responsibility of the author to produce an electronic version of the article as a high-quality Microsoft Word file that can be converted to a PDF file.

It is understood that the current state of technology of Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) is such that there are no, and can be no, guarantees that documents in PDF will work perfectly with all possible hardware and software configurations that readers may have.

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Rights for Authors and Journal of Rural Social Sciences

As further described in our submission agreement (the Submission Agreement), in consideration for publication of the article, the authors assign to the Southern Rural Sociological Association (owner of the Journal of Rural Social Sciences) all copyright in the article, subject to the expansive personal-use exceptions described below.

Attribution and Usage Policies

Reproduction, posting, transmission or other distribution or use of the article or any material therein, in any medium as permitted by a personal-use exemption or by written agreement of the Journal of Rural Social Sciences, requires credit to the Journal of Rural Social Sciences as copyright holder (e.g. Journal of Rural Social Sciences © 2024).

Personal-use Exceptions

The following uses are always permitted to the author(s) and do not require further permission from the Journal of Rural Social Sciences provided the author does not alter the format or content of the articles, including the copyright notification:

  • Storage and back-up of the article on the author's computer(s) and digital media (e.g., diskettes, back-up servers, Zip disks, etc.), provided that the article stored on these computers and media is not readily accessible by persons other than the author(s);
  • Posting of the article on the author(s) personal website, provided that the website is non-commercial;
  • Posting of the article on the internet as part of a non-commercial open access institutional repository or other non-commercial open access publication site affiliated with the author(s)'s place of employment (e.g. a social science professor at the University of Southern North Dakota can have her article appear in the University of Southern North Dakota's Department of Social Sciences online publication series); and
  • Posting of the article on a non-commercial course website for a course being taught by the author at the university or college employing the author.

People seeking an exception, or who have questions about use, should contact the editors.

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General Terms and Conditions of Use

Users of the Clemson OPEN website and/or software agree not to misuse the Clemson OPEN service or software in any way.

The failure of the Journal of Rural Social Sciences or Clemson OPEN to exercise or enforce any right or provision in the policies or the Submission Agreement does not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. If any term of the Submission Agreement or these policies is found to be invalid, the parties nevertheless agree that the court should endeavor to give effect to the parties' intentions as reflected in the provision, and the other provisions of the Submission Agreement and these policies remain in full force and effect. These policies and the Submission Agreement constitute the entire agreement between Clemson OPEN and the Author(s) regarding submission of the Article.

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