SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

The Yonsei Journal of International Studies (YJIS) seeks to foster scholarly discussion on pressing issues in the field of International Studies. We welcome submissions from scholars of all academic and professional levels.
 The submitted manuscript is judged based on its:

    • Quality,
    • Relevance to the field of study,
    • Originality,
    • Clarity of arguments, and
    • Unique contribution to the field.

Type(s) of Submissions

Currently, the YJIS only accepts regular articles:

    1. Regular Articles  

Full-length research articles should be between 5,000 to 8,000 words in length (including tables, figures, endnotes, and bibliography). For more information regarding the requirements refer to the Manuscript Formatting page.

Submission Requirements

    • The submitted manuscript must be an original, unpublished work that is not under consideration in another academic journal.
    • Authors must submit the following documents along with the manuscript:
      1. A Similarity Report (produced by tools such as Turnitin, PlagiarismChecker, or equivalent)
      2. An AI usage disclosure statement (see the AI Usage Policy for reference) 
      3. Author’s short biography (100-150 words)
      4. Conflict of Interest and Funding Disclosure (Authors must declare any financial or personal relationships that could be perceived as influencing their work. Any funding received in support of the research should also be acknowledged. If there is no conflict of interest and/or funding, a brief statement declaring that is sufficient).
    • Please refer to the Manuscript Formatting tab for detailed information on formatting guidelines for submissions. Manuscripts that do not meet our submission criteria will not be considered for review.  

Authorship

For multi-author submissions, one author should be designated as the corresponding author, responsible for all communication with the editorial board. All individuals listed as authors should have meaningfully contributed to the research and writing of the manuscript, and should have read and approved the final version prior to submission. Honorary or courtesy authorship is not permitted. Authors retain copyright over their work.

Review Process

    • All submitted manuscripts undergo an initial desk screening by the editorial board which is composed of graduate student editors assigned by the Editor-in-Chief. Each manuscript is reviewed by at least two student editors.
    • Manuscripts that pass the screening stage are then evaluated through a double-blind peer review by two anonymous reviewers (Yonsei University faculty members and external experts, Ph.D. holders). After 3 weeks of review, each manuscript is sorted into one of the following categories:
      1. Accept
        The manuscript is of sufficient quality to be published in its current form. No additional editing or revision is necessary.
      2. Publish with revision
        The manuscript is accepted and pending publication after it undergoes minor stylistic editing conducted by the student editor team. No second round of peer review is necessary. After the editing process, the authors are given a week to check and confirm the adjustments and after that, the manuscript is ready to be published.
      3. Revise and resubmit
        The manuscript is under consideration pending revision. It may be published after undergoing a round of editing usually including structural reorganization, methodological clarification, scope expansion, or additional data analysis. The reviewers’ comments and concerns are communicated to the authors and relevant adjustments are requested. The authors are given 3 weeks to make the corrections, after which the manuscript undergoes a second round of peer review (2 weeks) to determine if the concerns were sufficiently addressed. Then, the paper undergoes editing (1 week) and is returned to the author for 1 week for checks and confirmation. After all the steps have been completed, the manuscript is ready to be published. However, YJIS does not provide a guarantee to publish a revision should it fail to meet the requirements after revision.
      4. Reject
        The manuscript’s quality is deemed insufficient for publication at this time. The manuscript is returned to the author along with the reviewers’ comments. Once the author feels that they have addressed all the issues, they are free to resubmit the manuscript during any of the following publication cycles. 

*In cases of conflicting recommendations, the editorial board will make the final decision.

Tips

Since our journal aims to maintain a 50% rejection rate, it is inevitable for some submissions to get rejected. To improve the chances of your manuscript being accepted, we encourage the authors to consider the following checklist:

    • The manuscript should be written in a clear way so that readers unfamiliar with the field of study would have no difficulty understanding it (i.e., do not assume the reader is familiar with the theories and concepts used in the paper and make sure to provide clear explanation).
    • Consider including sections a “methodology” or “research design” section, explaining (if applicable) how your research was designed and structured, which theories and/or approaches were applied, which software was used, how the data was collected, etc.
    • Make sure to clearly state your research question and thesis statement in the Introduction part of your manuscript. Most of the time the research question is causal, i.e., designed to determine whether one or more independent variables affect one or more outcome (dependent) variables. The thesis statement summarizes the topic of the paper and your position on the issue, it can be introduced beginning with a phrase such as “This paper argues that…”
    • Make sure all the important concepts used in your research are consistent, clearly conceptualized, and operationalized if needed.
    • Make sure to separate your original ideas from those of the cited sources. Do not be afraid to use active voice to highlight your point (e.g., “I argue that …”). If your original arguments blend in with other people’s arguments, it may be difficult for the reviewer to accurately judge your academic contribution.

Rights and Permissions

    • The Editor-in-Chief retains final authority over publication decisions.
    • Editors may make stylistic and formatting adjustments to align with the journal’s standards.
    • Published articles may not be republished elsewhere without written permission. However, authors are permitted to share their work on personal websites, academic networking platforms, or institutional repositories, provided that YJIS is credited as the original publication venue.