Skills Soft Skills Academic Journal Submission Checklist

Academic Journal Submission Checklist

v20260724
phg-submission
A comprehensive preflight checklist for authors submitting to academic journals, specifically modeled after the requirements for Progress in Human Geography (PiHG) via SAGE Track. It guides users through critical steps, including maintaining double-anonymity, confirming the genre (review article vs. empirical study), adhering to strict word counts (~8,000 words), and following specific style guides (SAGE Harvard). Use this tool immediately before the final upload to ensure submission compliance.
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Overview

Submission Preflight (phg-submission)

The last check before pressing submit on SAGE Track. PiHG is double-anonymous and has a short, inclusive word cap, so the two most common avoidable failures are an under-anonymized manuscript and an over-length one — plus the fatal misfit of sending an empirical study to a review journal. Verify volatile specifics on the official pages before relying on them (检索于 2026-07-16;以官网为准).

When to trigger

  • "Submitting tomorrow" — last pass before upload
  • Unsure which files/metadata SAGE Track expects
  • Confirming the essay is a review (not an empirical study), within cap, and anonymized

Process facts (verify volatile items on the official page)

  • Owner / publisher: SAGE (PiHG founded 1977 at Edward Arnold).
  • Portal: SAGE Track (ScholarOne-based), via the SAGE journal page.
  • Genre: free-standing review article (open submission) vs. commissioned Progress Report / PiHG Lecture (invited — do not submit cold). Confirm the piece is a critical review, not an empirical study — PiHG does not publish empirical results or detailed cases.
  • Review model: double-anonymous peer review. Anonymize the manuscript; provide a separate title page.
  • Length: review article ~4,000–8,000 words, incl. endnotes, excl. bibliography. (待核实 — confirm current cap)
  • Abstract & keywords: unstructured abstract ~100 words; minimum 5 keywords. (待核实)
  • Style: SAGE Harvard author–date referencing, consistent throughout.
  • ORCID: SAGE commonly requests ORCID for the submitting author (verify whether mandatory). (待核实)
  • Ethics: COPE member; follow SAGE research-integrity and generative-AI policies; disclose per policy. Positionality/competing-interests statements where relevant.
  • Fee: no submission or publication fee stated for standard articles; open-access options handled by SAGE. (待核实)

Preflight checklist

Genre, fit & length

  • Piece is a critical review / theory essay, not an empirical study (delete-the-data test passed)
  • Genre correct: review article (open) vs. Progress Report / Lecture (invited only)
  • Within ~8,000 words including endnotes (excl. bibliography); count computed over the whole essay
  • One-line statement of the intervention/contribution ready for the cover letter

Abstract, keywords & style

  • Unstructured abstract ~100 words, stating the intervention (not just the topic)
  • 5+ specific keywords present
  • SAGE Harvard referencing, consistent; reference list complete

Anonymity (double-anonymous)

  • No author names, affiliations, or acknowledgments in the manuscript
  • Self-citations neutralized; no "as we argued in…"
  • File metadata stripped (document properties, comments)
  • Separate, non-anonymous title page prepared as a distinct file

Metadata, exhibits & compliance

  • ORCID ready for the submitting author (verify requirement)
  • Conceptual exhibits meet format specs (vector, grayscale-legible) — see phg-tables-figures
  • Cover letter states the genre, the intervention, and fit with PiHG
  • Competing interests / funding / AI-use disclosed per SAGE policy; positionality where relevant
  • For a structured/systematic review: search documented (databases, dates, queries) if applicable

The misfit trap (PiHG-specific)

The fastest rejection is an empirical paper sent as a review. Before upload, re-confirm: the essay's spine is an argument about a literature, its conclusion exceeds any single cited work, and there is no findings section. If any of these fails, this is the wrong journal — do not submit.

File set for SAGE Track (verify current requirements)

  • Anonymized main manuscript (no identifiers, clean metadata)
  • Separate, non-anonymous title page (authors, affiliations, ORCID, acknowledgments)
  • Conceptual figures/exhibits at required resolution (vector where possible)
  • Cover letter (genre, intervention, fit); any supplementary material; disclosures per policy

Anti-patterns

  • Sending an empirical study "framed as a review" (top desk-reject cause)
  • Overrunning the short cap once endnotes are counted
  • Leaving author identifiers in text, self-citations, or file metadata
  • Topic-only abstract; fewer than 5 keywords; non-Harvard citations
  • Submitting an uncommissioned "Progress Report"

Output format

【Genre / fit】review article / Progress Report(invited) · is-a-review-not-a-study? [Y/N]
【Word count】total incl. endnotes vs. ~8,000 cap (excl. bibliography)
【Abstract / keywords】~100-word intervention abstract + 5 keywords? [Y/N]
【Anonymized】text + self-refs + metadata clean? [Y/N]
【Style / ethics】SAGE Harvard + ORCID + disclosures? [Y/N]
【Next】await decision → phg-review-process (what to expect) → phg-rebuttal on revision

Supplementary resources

Info
Category Soft Skills
Name phg-submission
Version v20260724
Size 6.36KB
Updated At 2026-07-28
Language