Publication Procedures & Guidelines for Authors of Working Papers
The ERF Working Papers achieve these goals with a focus on the MENA economies. They are indexed in IDEAS/RePEC, one of the largest bibliographic databases dedicated to economics. Over many years, the ERF Working Papers have attracted a considerable volume of online publications that have emanated from various ERF activities and beyond. While the material for the series comes mainly from ERF conferences, workshops, and thematic research projects, over the years the growing reputation and wider readership have also increased their attraction for a number of free-lance – or ‘walk-in’ – submissions that are independent of ERF activities.
All submissions are reviewed by ERF prior to publication and should meet the following conditions:
- They represent original work, and do not duplicate other previously published work without appropriate acknowledgements.
- They do not contain abusive, defamatory, libellous, obscene, fraudulent, or illegal content.
- Please note that ERF cannot update, replace or delete an ERF Working Paper once it has appeared in the series.
- The guidelines below aim to assist authors and potential contributors with their submissions.
Submission:
- Timely production of WPs is important. This is particularly true of annual conferences that are time sensitive and also research projects and workshops that involve a collection of simultaneous publications.
- Much of the series’ output comes after reviews and competitive selection for presentation in conferences and workshops. This process involves receiving feedback from discussants and their suggestions for improvement. Submitted papers should be revised versions reflecting the feedback received from reviewers and discussants.
- ERF does not provide a universal styles guideline for authors but it expects consistency and coherence in whatever editorial style is adopted by authors.
- All work should be fully referenced and contain all figures and associated tables, exhibited in an academic and scholarly fashion that is ready for publication (for samples, please refer to published Working Papers readily available on the ERF publications site).
- If a working paper is the result of a funded ERF project, ERF should be the first publications outlet and its financial support must be acknowledged.
- We allow publication of walk-in submissions in multiple websites as long as they are relevant to ERF’s regional economies.
- ERF welcomes and encourages final publication of ERF Working Papers in academic journals nd books. Good practice would require an acknowledgement of ERF funding, if applicable.
Production:
- The WP Series Editor provides a final stage quality check before publication is approved (expected revisions, originality, similarity index, etc).
- The ERF Production team will aim to turn around electronic submissions received within 6-8 weeks from the date of receipt.
- This broad timeline is, however, likely to vary during busy periods such as when a large number of accepted conference papers are being processed for publication.
- Priority will be given to output of ERF activities although walk-in submissions will also be considered (these may take longer given our limited resources and other priorities).
- All submissions are checked for similarity index typically using i-iThenticate or other appropriate software. By submitting their drafts, authors agree to any necessary originality checks during the review and production processes.
- A high similarity index will be flagged for the attention of author/s (or may lead to rejection of a paper).
- ERF inserts a disclaimer to all working papers stating that the views expressed are those of the author(s) only and do not reflect ERF’s own view.
- The ERF team will liaise with the authors over any final steps (revisions or missing elements) and supporting materials (photos, CV, etc).
- ERF will publish approved submissions on its website as a serially numbered PDF file and will publicize it through appropriate social media channels.
