Submissions

Author Guidelines

The following author guidelines apply to all those who submit an article to the Journal of Indigenous Social Development (JISD). At this time submissions are accepted via online registration and submission on the Journal website. Submissions will not be accepted via email.

Types of Submissions

JISD publishes three types of articles:

Research articles use a systematic methodology, which should be described in the article, to analyze a specific research question. The article structure should typically include an introduction; literature review and/or theoretical framework; method; results or findings; discussion, including policy recommendations; and references. Articles should be between 4,000 and 7,000 words, not including the reference list. Longer papers will be considered under special circumstances.

Policy articles analyze or evaluate a program or policy. The author(s) may draw upon primary and/or secondary sources. The article structure should typically include an introduction; background, literature review, or theoretical framework; analysis; discussion, including policy recommendations; and references. Articles should be between 4,000 and 7,000 words, not including the reference list. Longer papers will be considered under special circumstances.

Editorial articles provide a short commentary or opinion an issue or policy that may aim to interpret or explain, criticize, or persuade. Editorials must contribute to scholarly discourse. Articles that are simply intended to be inflammatory, libelous, slanderous, or derogatory will not be considered. Articles should be less than 1,500 words.

General Guidelines for Submissions

The manuscript must not be under consideration by another journal. All materials submitted to JISD must be:

1. Unpublished
2. Original

Submissions must include:

1. Title Page (saved separately), see details below.
2. Blinded manuscript
3. Include figures, tables, and images at the end of the article. Each should start on a new page.

An email confirming receipt of the document(s) will be sent by the Managing Editor. The JISD is not obliged to publish an article submitted for consideration. Author(s) of articles not accepted for publication in an upcoming issue may or may not be invited to resubmit a revised article for a later issue.

Length of Articles

Articles are expected to be 4000 to 7000 words (20-25 double spaced pages) in length.

*As of September 8th, 2025, reference lists are no longer included in the word count. The word count includes all other text in the manuscript (title, abstract, tables, etc.).

Peer Review

Once you submit your article, it will be assessed for suitability, adherence to JISD's Indigenization policy, and formatting by the Operations Manager. Authors will normally be informed within three weeks if their article is rejected without review. Articles accepted for review will be sent to two reviewers. JISD uses a double-blind review process, which means that reviewers will not receive any information about the author(s) of the article.

Indigenization Policy

The Journal of Indigenous Social Development (JISD) assumes that scholars, researchers, educators, and practitioners submitting manuscripts of their work with Indigenous communities utilize respectful, ethical, decolonizing methods[1].  To prevent further colonization or cultural appropriation, JISD requires that authors substantiate their relationship to the specific Indigenous group written about.  Whenever possible Indigenous practitioners, scholars, or individuals who directly participated in the study or provided information toward its development should be included as first authors, co-authors, or credited for their contributions. 

As of May 29^th, 2025, JISD requires an Indigenization Statement from all authors as a separate section appearing after the abstract. The Indigenization Statement should include a few sentences clearly addressing all author’s relationships to the Indigenous communities discussed in their manuscripts. Authors must also disclose their positionalities with respect to their research and the lands which they reside upon.

[1] Ethical and decolonizing research involves accepting and trusting cultural protocol processes, transcending one’s own perspectives, acknowledging, and respecting different meanings and ways of being (Harvey (2003).

Manuscript Preparation

General: The submission system used by JISD requires that the body of your article be in Microsoft Word or Rich Text (RTF) format without a title page, abstract, acknowledgements, headers, footers, or page numbers.

Please ensure there is no identifying information anywhere in the body of the article.

You will enter information about the article’s authors, title, short title, abstract, keywords, academic discipline area, acknowledgements, and cover letter using the Journal’s online submission system (Please see Submission of Articles above for more information)

Document format

Page size should be 8.5” x 11”. Most pages should use portrait orientation; however, landscape orientation may be used for wide tables, figures, or images.

Text: 12-point Times New Roman type.

Spacing: Double-space all text including footnotes and references.

Margins: all set to 1” or 2.5 cm.

Paragraph Alignment: Left aligned. Do not justify lines.

Language: Canada, US or UK English is acceptable provided it is used consistently throughout the article. We regret that we are not able to accept articles in other languages at this time.

Abstract: The article abstract should be separate from the body of the article. The abstract should be a single paragraph in block format (i.e., no paragraph indentation). It should be between 150-250 words. The abstract will state the purpose of the study or intervention, basic procedures, major findings, and main conclusions. No abbreviations or reference citations should be included in the abstract.

Keywords: List 3 to 10 keywords for indexing purposes.

Tables, Figures, and Images:

Include figures, tables, and images at the end of the article. Each should start on a new page.

Tables are numbered consecutively in the order in which they are mentioned in the text. Tables are identified in text by the word Table and its number. Tables are double-spaced. Table titles should begin with the word Table and its number. On the next line, begin a concise, descriptive title of the table’s contents using italics with principal words capitalized.

Column heads and subheads are centered and only the first word is capitalized unless subsequent words are proper nouns. If the table is longer than one page, column heads should be repeated on subsequent pages.

Table notes are flush left, double-spaced and appear underneath the table.

Tables use horizontal rules to separate title, headings, and the body. No vertical rules are used.

Figures are number consecutively in the order in which they are mentioned in the text. Figures are identified by the word Figure and its number. Each figure must have a caption that is placed outside of and below the figure. It includes the word Figure and its number followed by a period in italics. On the same line provide a concise, descriptive title. Images must be at least 150 dpi.

Article Format

Consult the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7^th edition (APA 7). 7^th edition. Papers that do not align with the stated formatting guidelines will not be considered for publication. Authors are responsible for verifying the accuracy of facts, names, and reference details. Though mistakes may be identified through editorial, peer or copyedit review, this should not be relied upon to rectify inadvertent errors in the submission. All submissions must include DOI or ISSN for every reference.

Title Page Submission

• Please submit title page in a separate document from manuscript, in a Word document
• Title
• Author(s): Full name(s) and title or designation
• Where applicable, academic degree(s), affiliation(s), and/or the name of the department and institution to which the work is attributed

• Corresponding author identified
  • Full contact information for corresponding author (if the manuscript is submitted online, this information will be entered in the author profile)
  • Statement that corresponding author will respond promptly to JISD correspondence regarding reviewer comments, copyeditor revisions and publishing agreement
• Authorship statement
  • Authors must confirm that they have contributed to the research, analysis and development of the article and grant permission for the final version to be published
• Original submission statement
  • Corresponding author must confirm that the manuscript is unpublished and not under consideration by another journal
  • Must be original: manuscript can be based on prior research findings but must present a new argument, analysis and conclusions
• Names and contact information for four potential peer reviewers
  • Two university based
  • Two community based
  • Suggested reviewers may not include people that you have worked with in the last two years.
• Authors may submit unblinded Authors and Acknowledgements sections in the Title Page of Submission or by email prior to publication.

JISD POLICY STATEMENT ON THE USE OF AI/ LLM TOOLS

Use of AI tools

JISD acknowledges that the use of generative AI, such as ChatGPT, Gemini and other Large Language Models (LLMs) are productivity tools that can assist authors in manuscript preparation. They are useful in generating summaries, initiating prompts, and in editing. We recognize however that AI and other LLMs have limitations and biases and as such advise all authors to be mindful of such limitations.

We emphasize the following:

• Accuracy: AI and LLMs are known to ‘hallucinate’ that is, prone to generating false or misleading content, especially if, or when, used outside of its domain or when, for example, speaking to Indigenous knowledges systems within western research frameworks or paradigms. There is a likelihood that they may generate inaccurate information that could be culturally affirming yet scientifically implausible; they may get facts wrong or fail to honor the “lived” Indigenous experience.
• Contextual understanding: AI and LLMs cannot fully appreciate nor apply human understanding to the context of a text, especially when dealing with traditional practices, cultural knowledge, or nuanced metaphor or analogies. This may lead to errors and misinterpretations of expressions in one’s Indigenous language.
• Data: LLMs require large volumes of aggregated data to achieve optimal performance. In some domains such data may not be readily available, inaccessible, or simply does not exist.
• Objectivity: Be aware that all LLM published content that contains either implicitly or explicitly racist, sexist, misogynistic, or other biased viewpoints will appear in generated data and possibly decontextualized making it more difficult to detect. Indigenous perspectives, standpoints, beliefs and meaning, as such, may intentionally or not, be minimized or dismissed.

Guidelines for authors

The JISD editors require authors to:

1. Specify use of Al tools in their manuscripts, including what models are used and for what purpose. This can be outlined in your Methods or Acknowledgement sections, as and when appropriate.
2. Verify and validate accuracy and appropriateness of content and all AI generated citations as you would for non-AI appropriated content. We also require that you check for and correct any AI-generated errors or inconsistencies.
3. Provide a list of sources used to generate AI content and citations and re-check these to ensure they are accurately referenced.
4. Be aware of plagiarism when using AI generated text. Check with original sources to ensure you are not inadvertently plagiarizing other people’s work.
5. Recognize the limitations of AI and LLMs in the manuscript, including potential for bias, error, and gaps in knowledge.
6. Note AI chatbots such as ChatGPT should not be listed as authors.

We will take appropriate action when or where we identify published articles with undisclosed use of AI tools. If you have any questions or concerns, we suggest you contact the JISD journal managers or editors for further clarification.

Note to editors and reviewers

Editors and reviewers should evaluate the appropriateness of AI and LLM use to ensure accuracy and validity of AI generated content. Reviewers should not use artificial intelligence tools, like ChatGPT, to generate reviews.

American Psychological Association (APA) citation guidelines on use of AI-generated content

As mentioned, if you use ChatGPT or other LLM tools, how you use these tools should be outlined in your Methods or Acknowledgement sections. For literature reviews or all other types of submissions you should describe your use in your Introduction section.

APA states ChatGPT chats “are not retrievable by other readers, and although non-retrievable data or quotations in APA Style papers are usually cited as personal communications, with ChatGPT-generated text there is no person communicating. Quoting ChatGPT’s text from a chat session is therefore more like sharing an algorithm’s output; thus, credit the author of the algorithm with a reference list entry and the corresponding in-text citation.” (para. ADD KM)

Please refer to the APA website below for ‘How To’ citation details:

https://apastyle.apa.org/blog/how-to-cite-chatgpt

APA policy on the use of generative AI in scholarly materials:

For this policy, AI refers to generative LLM AI tools and does not include grammar-checking software, citation software, or plagiarism detectors.

•   When a generative artificial intelligence (AI) model is used in the drafting of a manuscript for an APA publication, the use of AI must be disclosed in the methods section and cited.
•   AI cannot be named as an author on an APA scholarly publication.
•   When AI is cited in an APA scholarly publication, the author must employ the software citation template, which includes specifying in the methods section how, when, and to what extent AI was used. Authors in APA publications are required to upload the full output of the AI as supplemental material.

DUPLICATE AND REDUNDANT PUBLICATION POLICY

The Journal of Indigenous Social Development (JISD) is committed to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics and integrity. Authors are expected to ensure that manuscripts submitted to JISD are original works that have not been published elsewhere in substantially similar form and are not under consideration by another journal at the time of submission.

1. Duplicate Submission

Authors must not submit the same or substantially similar manuscripts to more than one journal at the same time. Duplicate submission wastes editorial and peer review resources and may constitute research misconduct.

2. Redundant Publication

Redundant (or duplicate) publication occurs when two or more papers, without full cross-reference, share the same hypotheses, data, discussion points, or conclusions. Manuscripts that overlap substantially with already published work, without clear and transparent citation, will not be considered for publication in JISD.

3. Acceptable Secondary Publication

In some circumstances, secondary publication (for example, a translation or an expanded report for a different audience) may be acceptable if:

• The editors of both journals provide written approval in advance.
• The secondary version faithfully reflects the data and interpretations of the primary version.
• The primary source is clearly cited in the secondary publication.
• Readers are explicitly informed that the work has been previously published elsewhere.

4. Salami Publication

Segmenting one study into multiple smaller manuscripts (“salami slicing”), with minimal new insights or contributions, is strongly discouraged. JISD will consider related manuscripts only if each submission makes a unique, significant contribution to the field, and prior related publications are fully disclosed.

5. Editorial Action

If JISD identifies a case of duplicate submission, redundant publication, or salami publication:

• The manuscript may be rejected outright or retracted if already published.
• Authors may be asked to provide clarifications, corrections, or appropriate citations.
• In cases of confirmed misconduct, JISD reserves the right to notify the authors’ institutions and funding bodies, consistent with COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) guidelines.

6. Author Responsibility

At the time of submission, authors must disclose:

• Any related manuscripts (published, in press, or under review) that overlap substantially with the submitted work.
• Previous dissemination of the work, including in conference proceedings, institutional repositories, or preprint servers.

By submitting to JISD, authors affirm that their manuscript complies with this policy.

End Note

The JISD policy will be subject to ongoing discussion and updates as we become more familiar with, and responsive to, how emerging technologies advance or hinder the process of preparing manuscripts and research for publication. We will review in due course.

 JISD Editors