Author Guidelines

Submissions should be made electronically through this website. Once submitted, the author can track the submission and communicate with the Editors via the online journal management system.

Please ensure that you consider the following guidelines when preparing your manuscript. Failure to do so may delay processing your submission.

Article types

Research articles must describe the outcomes and application of unpublished original research. These should make a substantial contribution to knowledge and understanding in the subject matter and should be supported by relevant figures and tabulated data. Research articles should be no more than 8,000 words in length.
Commentaries should reflect upon or critique a specific 'happening' such as a release of a major study or other notable occurrence related to journal focus. Authors interested in submitting a commentary piece should discuss the content with the editor before submitting a manuscript. Commentary articles should be no longer than 3,000 words in length.
Reviews can cover topics such as current controversies or the historical development of studies as well as issues of regional or temporal focus. Papers should critically engage with the relevant body of extant literature. Review articles should be no longer than 8,000 words in length.
Debates should allow a range of views on a subject relevant to the journal’s focus to be aired in a lively manner by at least two authors taking contrasting positions and reacting to each other’s interventions, referring to the literature as appropriate. Debate articles should be no more than 5,000 words in length.
Interviews will present the opinions of influential figures from the world of active travel and associated fields through the medium of interview conducted by knowledgeable researchers. Participants can write their answers to questions or can be interviewed conventionally, subject to subsequent editing to ensure the final text achieves the journal’s standards of precision and clarity. Interviews must not exceed 5,000 words in length.
Viewpoints will offer informed analysis and critical views surrounding key and emerging issues in active travel research with suggestions for future directions as well as comment on emerging trends in the literature. These may be of length 3,500 to 8000 words in length.

All word limits include referencing and citation.

Structure

Multi-media submissions
The Editors welcome submissions in non-standard formats. If you would like to submit your work using audio and/or video materials (either in conjunction with a written component or on their own), please get in touch with the Editor to agree a way forward.

Title page
To ensure blind peer review, please only list the title and abstract on the submitted manuscript file.

The names of all authors, affiliations, contact details, biography (optional) and the corresponding author details must be completed online as part of the submission process. All authors must conform to the journal's definition of an author, available here.

Author names should include a forename and a surname. Forenames cannot consist only of initials.

J. Bloggs is not acceptable. The full name, Joe Bloggs is required (as this will enhance the 'findability' of your publication).

The affiliation should ideally take the form: ‘Department, Institution, City, Country’ but only the Institution and Country are mandatory.

Abstract and Keywords
The main text of research articles must be preceded by an abstract of no more than 250 words summarising the main arguments and conclusions of the article. This must have the heading ‘Abstract’ and be easily distinguished from the text of the article itself.

A list of at least three and up to six key words should be placed below the abstract, separated by semi-colons.

The abstract and keywords should also be added to the metadata when making the initial online submission.

Main text
The body of the submission should be structured in a logical and easy to follow manner. A clear introduction section should be given that provides non-specialists in the subject with an understanding of the issue(s) involved and the contribution made by the research being described. Methods, results, discussion and conclusion sections may then follow as appropriate; it is the authors’ task to ensure that the article has a suitable structure and that readers will be able to navigate it with ease.

Up to three levels of heading may be used and these must be clearly distinguishable (through use of different fonts, bold or italic text etc). To ensure consistent application throughout your document, we suggest using defined styles in your word-processing application; if using Microsoft Word’s, consider choosing styles in accordance with its outline levels.using different font sizes, bold or italics. We suggest using Headings 1, 2 and 3 in MS-Word’s ‘Style’ section.

Data accessibility
If data, structured methods or code used in the research project have been made openly available, a statement should be included to inform the reader how/where to obtain these files. This should include the repository location and the DOI linking to it. Read our reproducibility guide for more information on best practice and maximising the impact of your open data.

If it is not possible to use a repository then the journal can host supplementary files. Such files must be listed in the data accessibility section, with a corresponding number, title and optional description. Ideally the supplementary files will also be cited in the main text.

e.g. Supplementary file 1: Appendix. Scientific data related to the experiments.

Supplementary files will not be typeset so they must be provided in their final form and must be submitted for review during the original submission process. They will be assigned a DOI by the publisher and the publication will link to this.

NOTE: If data used in the research project have not been made available, a statement confirming this should be added, which explains their absence.

The journal's data policy is available on the Editorial Policies page.

Ethics and consent (if applicable)
Research involving human subjects, human material, or human data must have been performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Where applicable, studies must have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee and the authors should refer to this approval within the article text, including the name of the ethics committee and reference number assigned. The identity of the research subject(s) should be anonymised whenever possible. For research involving human subjects, informed consent to participate in the study must have been obtained from participants (or their legal guardians) and included in the ethics statement. If a study involving human subjects/tissue/data was not required to obtain ethical approval, a statement confirming this from the relevant body should be included within the submission.

Experiments using animals must follow national standards of care. For further information, click here.

Acknowledgements (optional)
Any acknowledgements must be included as a separate section, placed after the main text but before the reference list.

Funding Information (if applicable)
If the research is funded in whole or by part by a grant, the grant provider and grant number should be included in a separate section.

Competing interests
If any of the authors has any competing interests then these must be briefly declared. Guidelines for competing interests can be found here. If there are no competing interests to declare, the following statement should be included: The author(s) has/have no competing interests to declare.

Authors' contributions
A sentence or a short paragraph should be included which explains the contribution of each author to the submission. All individuals listed must conform to the definition of an author, as per our authorship guidelines.

References
All sources cited within the submission must be listed in full in the final section of the main text file.

Permissions

The author is responsible for obtaining all permissions required prior to submission of the manuscript. Permissions and owner details should be stated for all third-party content included in the submission or used in the research.

If a method or tool is introduced in the study, (including software, questionnaires, and scales), any licence under which this has been made available and/or permission for use should be stated. If an existing method or tool is used in the research, it is the author's responsibility to check the licence and obtain any necessary permissions. Statements confirming that permission has been granted should ordinarily be included in the methods section.

Language & Text

Capitalisation
For the submission title:

Capitalise the first word and any proper nouns:

Walking and cycling to peace: active travel in Afghanistan.

Headings within the main text:

Headings in the text should follow the same rule as the main title.

Headings should be under 75 characters.

Spelling
Submissions must be made in English. Authors are welcome to use American or British spellings as long as these are used consistently throughout the submission.

Colour (UK) vs. Color (US)

When using proper nouns and institutional titles, the official, original spelling must be used.

World Health Organization, not World Health Organisation

Grammar
American or British grammar rules may be used as long as they are used consistently and are consistent with the spelling format (see above). For instance, you may use a serial comma (standard in American English) or not (commoner in British English).

red, white, and blue OR red, white and blue

Typeface
The typeface used should be commonly available and in an easily readable size. It may be changed during the typesetting process.

Underlined text should be avoided whenever possible.

Bold or italicised text (to emphasise a point) is permitted, but it should be use sparingly to maximise its effectiveness.

Lists
Use bullet points to denote a list without hierarchy or order of value. If the list indicates a specific sequence then a numbering system should be used.

Lists should be used sparingly to maximise their impact.

Quotation marks
Use double quotation marks except for quotations within a quotation, in which case single quotation marks should be used.

Quotations that are longer than three lines must be in an indented paragraph separate from the main text.

The standard typeface (non-italicised) should be used for all quotations.

The source of any quotation must be clear from the text and/or citation and page numbers should be provided. If quoting from material that is under copyright then permission will need to be obtained from the copyright holder for material that would not be covered under fair dealing, fair use and educational exceptions. If you are uncertain regarding what may be permissible, please contact the University of Westminster Press directly.

Acronyms & abbreviations
With abbreviations, the crucial goal is to ensure that the reader – particularly one who may not be fully familiar with the topic or context being addressed – is able to understand your text. Write all names in full on first use, putting the abbreviation in parentheses immediately thereafter. You may use the abbreviation in all subsequent references.

Research completed by the World Health Organization (WHO) shows …

A few abbreviations are so common that it is reasonable to assume any reader will be familiar with them. Examples of these can be found here.

Abbreviations should usually be in capital letters without full stops.

USA, not U.S.A

Common abbreviations of Latin phrases do not follow this rule and should be in lower case, including full stops.

e.g., i.e., etc.

Use of footnotes/endnotes
Use endnotes rather than footnotes - we refer to these as ‘Notes’ in the online publication. These will appear at the end of the main text, before ‘References’.
Notes should only be used where it is essential to provide additional information which would be a source of distraction if included in the main text.
Avoid using notes for purposes of referencing, using in-text citations instead. If in-text citations cannot be used, a source can be cited as part of a note.
Please insert the endnote marker after any end punctuation.

station.¹ not station¹.

Data & Symbols

Symbols
Symbols are permitted within the main text and any supplementary files as long as they are in common use or a definition is provided when they are first used.

Hyphenation, em and en dashes
There is no set rule on the use of hyphenation between words, as long as it is done consistently.

Em dashes should be used sparingly. If they are present, they should denote emphasis, change of thought or interruption to the main sentence and can replace commas, parentheses, colons or semicolons.

The president’s niece—daughter of his younger brother—caused a media scandal when…

En dashes can be used to replace ‘to’ when indicating a range. No space should surround the dash.

10-25 years
pp. 10-65

Numbers
For numbers zero to ten please spell the whole words. Please use figures for numbers 11 and above.

We are happy for authors to use either words or figures to represent large whole numbers (eg. one million or 1,000,000) as long as the usage is consistent throughout the text.

If a sentence includes a series of numbers then figures must be used in each instance.

Artefacts were found at depths of 5, 9, and 29 cm.

If a number appears as part of a dataset, in conjunction with a symbol or as part of a table then figures must be used.

This study confirmed that 5% of…

If a sentence starts with a number it must be spelt, or the sentence should be re-written so that it no longer starts with the number.

Fifteen examples were found to exist…
The result showed that 15 examples existed…

Do not use a comma for a decimal point.

2.43 NOT 2,43

Numbers of a magnitude less than 1 must have ‘0’ preceding the decimal point.

0.24 NOT .24

Units of measurement
Symbols following a figure to denote a unit of measurement must be taken from the latest SI brochure. See http://www.bipm.org/utils/common/pdf/si_brochure_8_en.pdf for the full brochure.

Formulae
Formulae must be carefully checked by the author(s) as editors will not edit them. If special software has been used to create formulae, they will appear in the publication as laid out by the software.

Figures & Tables

Figures
Figures, including graphs and diagrams, must be professionally and clearly presented. If a figure is not easy to understand or does not appear to be of a suitable quality, the editor may ask the author(s) to re-render it or may omit it.

All figures must be cited within the main text, in consecutive order using Arabic numerals (e.g. Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.).

Each figure must be accompanied by a descriptive main title. This should clearly and concisely summarise the content and/or relevance of the figure. A short additional figure legend (offering a fuller description) is optional.

Figure 1: 1685 map of London.
Figure 1: 1685 map of London. Note the addition of St Paul’s Cathedral, absent from earlier maps.

Figure titles and legends should be placed within the text document, either after the paragraph in which they have first been cited, or as a list following the references.

The source of the image should be included, along with any relevant copyright information and a statement of authorisation (if applicable).

Figure 1: Firemen try to free workers buried under piles of concrete and metal girders. Photo: Claude-Michel Masson. Reproduced with permission of the photographer.

If your figure file includes text, please use Arial, Helvetica, or Verdana, which will match the typeset text of the finished article.

NOTE: All figures must be uploaded separately as supplementary files during the submission process, if possible in colour and at a resolution of at least 300dpi. Each file should not be more than 20MB. Standard formats accepted are: JPG, TIFF, GIF, PNG, and EPS. For line drawings, please provide the original vector file (e.g. .ai, or .eps).

Tables
Tables must be created using a word processor's table function, not tabbed text.

Tables should be included in the manuscript. The final layout will place the tables as close to their first citation as possible.

All tables must be cited within the main text, and numbered with Arabic numerals in consecutive order (e.g. Table 1, Table 2, etc.).

Each table must be accompanied by a descriptive title. This should clearly and concisely summarise the content and/or relevance of the table. A short additional table legend (offering a fuller description) is optional. The table title and legend should be placed beneath the table.

Tables should not include:

Rotated text
Colour intended to convey meaning (as it will not display in the same way on all devices)
Images
Vertical or diagonal lines
Multiple parts (e.g. ‘Table 1a’ and ‘Table 1b’). These should either be merged into one table, or separated into ‘Table 1’ and ‘Table 2’.

NOTE: If there are more columns than can fit on a single page in portrail format, the table will be placed on a landscape page. If this is not possible, the table will be divided into sections as appropriate.

References

Authors are asked to use Cite Them Right Harvard - full details are at https://libguides.westminster.ac.uk/referencing

Where names of organisations are lengthy authors are asked to write out the name of organisations in full when they are first mentioned, providing the abbreviated name in parentheses. Thereafter, the abbreviated name can be used in both citations and references. For example, "The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published its findings on this subject (OECD, 2018)."