INFORMATION FOR AUTHORS

Aims and Scope

The Journal of Official Statistics is published by Statistics Sweden, the national statistical office of Sweden. The journal publishes theoretical and applied articles on survey methodology for statistics production within official statistics, policy decision making, and the economic and social sciences. It is an open access journal, which gives the right to users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of all articles.

We encourage articles on the following topics:

Methodologies and policies for the collection, processing, analysis, presentation, and dissemination of statistics based on surveys, censuses or registers. Examples of such topics are: sampling design; questionnaire design and evaluation; measurement process; estimation; analytical uses of data; index methodology; time series analysis; quality control within official statistics production; confidentiality; total survey error; systems and architectures for statistics production; ethics; dissemination; presentation of quality; training of statisticians; the role of statistics in today's society; the relations between producers, users, and respondents; intra-organization collaboration; international statistical cooperation; and evaluation and identification of statistical needs. Articles may present theoretical contributions, interesting applications of existing methods, comparisons of different methods, or authoritative reviews.

Letters to the Editor provides a forum for the airing of opinions on issues pertinent to the statistical community or offers commentaries on articles that have appeared in the journal.

There is a Book Review section and an Index that appears at the end of every volume.

Submission of Manuscripts

Manuscripts should be submitted via the Journal of Official Statistics (JOS) Manuscript Management Portal (http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/joffstats ). It accepts formats .doc(x) and .pdf. The maximum file size is 100 MB (if you need to submit a larger file, please contact the JOS office by email).

All manuscripts are refereed and evaluated on content, language and presentation.

When submitting a manuscript, the authors will be asked to confirm that the manuscript:

 a) has not already been published in a peer-reviewed journal in the same or a very similar
    version, or in another language,
 b) is not under consideration for publication in any other peer-reviewed journal,
 c) treats a topic that is within the scope of JOS (available at www.jos.nu),
 d) follows the JOS style guide (see below),
 e) is blinded and that a separate title page with complete information on all the authors has been prepared.

Evaluation Procedure and Outcomes

After evaluation, a manuscript is accorded one of five decisions:

Acceptance (A). The manuscript is of sufficient quality and is accepted for publication without any need for revision.

Minor Revision (MiR). The manuscript is of sufficient quality but some minor revisions need to be made regarding content, structure, presentation, or formalities. The manuscript meets the criteria for a publishable scientific contribution and is accepted for publication conditional on the author’s satisfactorily addressing the issues raised in the decision letter.

Major Revision (MaR). The manuscript is of sufficient quality but it requires clarification, rewriting, reorganization, cutting, more detailed explanation of certain points, and so on. The manuscript meets the criteria for a publishable scientific contribution and is accepted for publication conditional on the author’s satisfactorily addressing the issues raised in the decision letter.

Reject and Resubmit (RR). The manuscript is promising but needs major revisions. JOS encourages revisions being made and will be happy to receive a revision, which will be subject to a new round of evaluation.

Reject (R). The manuscript is not accepted for publication.

Preparation of Manuscripts (JOS style guide)

Manuscripts should be blinded before submission. This means removing all identifying information from the title page and any other parts of the manuscript. The authors are asked to submit a separate title page with complete author information for all the authors: name, affiliation, postal address and email address.

Body of the manuscript. The manuscript:
  - should have generous margins, at least 2 cm on all sides,
  - should be double-spaced throughout, including the abstract and references,
  - while JOS does not have a maximum manuscript length, the manuscripts should be kept as short and concise as possible without loss of clarity,
  - JOS discourages use of footnotes.

Title. The title should be brief and specific.

Abstract and Key words. The abstract should be short (maximum of 150 words), descriptive and free of references. The key words should not repeat words used in title.

Authors are strongly encouraged to compose an abstract that succinctly summarizes the content of their manuscript, as the abstract and not the manuscript is enclosed with the initial email when experts are invited as referees. Abstracts written with little care will find few or no referees, thereby degrading considerably the timeliness of the evaluation process.

Acknowledgments, if any, should be placed after the abstract and key words.

Sections should be numbered; sub- and sub-subsections may be used.

Tables, Figures and Diagrams. A table should be numbered and have a caption above it. A figure or diagram should be numbered and have a caption below it, legend and clearly marked axes. When formatting figures, please note that JOS is not printed in colour.

Mathematics. Equations cited in the text should be numbered, with the number placed to the right of the equation. All other symbols should be in italics.

Reference citation. JOS uses the name and date system for citing a work in the text. For example: Dalenius (1974), Cox and Iachan (1987), Boruch and Cecil (1979, p. 154).

To distinguish between works by an author published in the same year, use a, b, c, etc. References in the text should conform to the following style:

1. When a reference is cited directly:

... as discussed by Dodge and Romig (1944) ...

2. When a reference is cited indirectly

... as discussed previously (Dodge and Romig 1944) ...

3. A quotation requires a page number:

... their general conclusion was that “the impact of the improved design was smaller than expected” (Smith 1985, p. 379)

4. When a reference is made to a particular page/s, section, chapter, appendix, the abbreviations p., pp., sec., ch., app., are used.

The Reference List. References should be arranged alphabetically and for a given author, chronologically.

1. Author’s name and year of publication.
2. Title
3. Details of publication. Complete name of journal. Publication site: Publisher, pages.

References to works inaccessible to general audience are strongly discouraged.

References should be given in accordance with the following style:

Lininger, C. and Warwick, D. (1975). The Sample Survey, Theory and Practice. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Millar, M.M., O’Neill, A.C., and Dillman, D.A. (2009). Are Mode Preferences Real? Technical Report 09-003 of the Social and Economic Sciences Research Center. Pullman, WA: Washington State University. Available at: URL=http://www.sesrc.wsu.edu/dillman/papers/2009/Tech%20Report%20FINAL%20Feb%2023.pdf (Accessed December 2009.)

National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) (1965). Health Interview Responses Compared with Medical Records. Vital Health Statistics, P.H.S. Publication no. 1000, Ser. 2, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.

Platek, R., Singh, M.P., and Tremblay, V. (1978). Adjustment for Nonresponse in Surveys. In Survey Sampling and Measurement, (ed). N.K. Namboodiri, New York: Academic Press.

Pomeroy, W.B. (1963). The Reluctant Respondent. Public Opinion Quarterly, 27, 287-293.