Submissions

Author Guidelines

Please note that you need to register as a user before you can upload your manuscript to the CJAS online submission system.

Submissions 

The Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies uses online submission only. The CJAS publishes research articles, reports from the field, research notes and book reviews. The Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies welcomes proposals for Themed Sections and Special Issues.

Guidelines for themed sections and special issues

A Themed Section or Special Issue consists of 3-5 articles that are accompanied by an introduction. All research articles in the Themed Section/Special Issue are double-blind peer-reviewed publications.

If a Themed Section/Special Issue has guest editors, it will be their responsibility to follow up on the reviews and liaise with the authors, ensuring that final submissions adhere to the CJAS Style Guide. Final copy editing and proofing will be undertaken by the CJAS team.

Proposals for Themed Sections/Special Issues should be made directly to the editors (CJAS @ hum.ku.dk) by email and should include:

1. A proposal outlining the overall theme and individual contributions (maximum 1,000 words). Please also indicate a realistic submission date.
2. 5-8 keywords and abstracts (200-250 words) for each article .
3. A list of author details, including name, e-mail, and affiliation.
4. A list of 3-4 recommended referees for each submission. Please note that the journal editors reserve the right to choose alternative reviewers.

submission Guidelines

A complete submission of a research article includes (1) a title page, (2) the blinded manuscript, and (3) figures/tables, if any.

Length

Double-blind peer-reviewed articles: We accept manuscripts of no more than 8,000 words, including notes and references.

Reports from the field and research notes should not exceed 4,000 words.

Book reviews should be between 1,500 and 2,000 words.

Please include a word count in your submission.

Title

The title of the manuscript is a tool to help readers discover the article. It should therefore be informative, accurate and comprehensible.

Abstract

The abstract should be 150-200 words. Summarise your article (without repeating the exact wording of the text in the manuscript) to provide peer-reviewers and readers with enough information to interest them in the full article. Use key phrases and words that facilitate finding your article in online searches after publication.  

Keywords

Include 5-8 keywords or search terms after the abstract. Keywords should not repeat words used in the title of the manuscript.

Anonymity

The manuscript itself must not contain any identifying information, as we use a double-blind review process. Please ensure that anything which could identify you is removed from the text, including references to your publications, previous research, and acknowledgements. Please also make sure that author names are not included in filenames and in the submitted file’s registered properties.

Formatting

Submit the manuscript in Microsoft Word. Manuscripts should be double spaced, in 12-point font, but formatted as little as possible. All pages should be numbered. Make headings and sub-headings identifiable. Sub-sub-headings are normally unnecessary. Please consult the latest issue of the CJAS as an example when you format and organise your submission.

Notes

Endnotes, used sparingly, should be double spaced at the end of the manuscript.

References

Citations in text using author/date system. Cited references must be listed alphabetically by first author’s last name and double-spaced at the end of the paper. Please consult the style guide for the appropriate format.

Figures (illustrations, tables, graphs)

Please clearly indicate where each figure should be placed in the text. Use the following format: Insert Figure 1 here.

Ensure that each figures has a caption. Make the captions brief. The captions must  directly follow the Insert Figure placeholder in the body of the manuscript.

Any illustrations must be clear and of a minimum quality of 300 dpi. They are uploaded separately. Please make sure that the file names correspond to the placeholders used in the manuscript. It is the author’s responsibility to obtain written permission from copyright holders for using any illustrations that are not the author’s original. Please include the copyright information in the caption.

All captions should be formatted in the following way:

Figure 1: The Namibian children’s kung fu performance in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Source: Photo by Author, 2023.

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements, if any, should be written as a separate paragraph on the title page, which will not be sent to reviewers.

Funding Statement

Please provide a statement about the funding sources for the research on which the article is based in the Acknowledgements or in a separate endnote. The funding statement should include the name of the funding body and grant number. If the funding body has played any role in the research, this should also be stated.

Authors

A brief biographical statement (2-3 sentences) for each author must also be included. It should give title, institutional affiliation and email address. You may also add recent publications or areas of research interest.

This brief biographical statement should be written as a separate paragraph on the title page, which will not be sent to reviewers.

Preparing the Manuscript 

Spelling

CJAS publishes articles in British English. We ask authors to use the British English “-ise” spelling variant (not “-ize”). For example: finalise; organise; realise.

We ask that authors avoid excessive usage of other languages. In general, where a non-English word or phrase is cited or otherwise used, it should be written in Roman script and italicised. Please use the following Romanization: Chinese: Pinyin; Japanese: Hepburn; Korean: McCune-Reischauer. 

Graphs/tables

Please ensure that you create your own original graphs and tables and indicate clearly where they should be inserted. Please ensure that they fit with the page margins, are of high quality and clearly readable.

Photographs and images

Please ensure that any photographs you include in your article are clear and of a minimum quality of 300 dpi. It is the author’s responsibility to ensure written permission to use any photographs that are not the author’s own original.

Numbers

Spell out one to ten. For 11 and more, use numerals.

For numbers with four or more digits, use commas. E.g.: 3,456.

For numbers above 1,000,000, e.g.: 5.3 million, seven billion

For decimals, use a full stop. A zero always precedes decimals less than one. E.g.: 0.75.

Do not elide numbers.

Use hyphen (not en dash) for year ranges and page ranges.

Write out ‘per cent’ in the text; the per cent sign (%) may be used in tables only. Use numerals when using percentages. E.g.: 10 per cent.

Time

To remove ambiguity, write dates as day month year without punctuation. E.g.: 16 February 1998.

Decades are written with numerals and without apostrophes. E.g.: 1980s (not eighties, '80s, 80's, or 1980's).

Centuries are spelled out. E.g.: nineteenth century (not 19th century).

Titles

Use lower case initial letters where writing generally about a president, prime minister, king, minister of finance, etc. Where the word forms a proper title (Queen Elizabeth, President Clinton) it should be capitalised.

Quotations

Use single quotation marks, e.g., 'quote'. Double quotation marks should only be used for a quote within a quote.

Following British convention, full stops and commas fall outside quotation marks.

Quotations longer than four lines or about 40 words should be indented, without quotation marks. Ellipses (points of omission) should not be used at the beginning or end of a quote.

Serial commas

Do not use a comma before the words ‘and’ or ‘or’ to separate items in a list of three or more items:

‘He took his suitcase, umbrella and hat.’

‘She did not speak Chinese, Japanese or Korean.’

References

Citations

For sources in the main body of the text, put author's last name, date of publication, and page numbers, if applicable, in parentheses as follows:

(Smith 2007: 174-177) or 'According to Smith (2007: 174-177)...'

(Smith and Thompson 1999)

Use ‘et.al’ for sources with three and more authors: (Smith et al. 2001a: 99-102)

Multiple references should be organised alphabetically. References by different authors are separated by a semicolon.

(Gleiser 1992; Richmond 1998; Schwinn 2001)

List of references

All sources cited in the text must appear in the References. All items in the list of references must be cited in the text. However, references to non-scholarly material, such as blogs and websites, should be put in endnotes rather than the reference list.

The list of references should be ordered alphabetically by the first author's (or editor's) surname. If you cite more than one work of an author, the works should be listed from the earliest to the most recent. If you cite more than one work of an author in a single year, use a, b, c, etc. (1998a, 1998b, 1998c).

For multi-author or multi-editor publications, use up to five names. If there are more, use 'et al.' after the first author’s name.

Single-authored book

Sun, Wanning. 2006. Media and the Chinese Diaspora: Community, Communication and Commerce. Routledge.

World Health Organization. 2005. Demographic Tables for the Western Pacific 2005-2010. World Health Organization, Regional Office for the Western Pacific.

Book with two or more authors

Brødsgaard, Kjeld Erik and Susan Young. 2000. State Capacity in East Asia: Japan, Taiwan, China, and Vietnam. Oxford University Press.

Journal article

Kumar, Rajesh and Verner Worm. 2003. 'Social Capital and the Dynamics of Business Negotiations between the Northern Europeans and the Chinese'. International Marketing Review 20 (3): 262-285.

Chapter in a book

Heilesen, Simon. 1976. 'Chinese Pottery Collections in Scandinavia'. In C. G. Glenn et al. (eds.) Chinese Pottery through the Ages. University of California Press, pp. 168-193.

Dissertation, thesis or paper

Chew, Kean Hong. 1996. Beyond Individualism-Collectivism: Additional Constructs to Consider. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Oregon.

Ong, Aiwa. 1989. Gender and Power in Southeast Asia. Paper presented at 'Workshop on Research Methodologies', Penang, 2 October 1989.

Non-English references

For works published in Chinese, Japanese, Korean or any other Asian script, please provide a transcription, original characters and an English translation in parentheses. Translations of journal names are not required.

Sun, Liping 孙立平. 2004. Shiheng: Duanlie Shehui de Yunzuo Luoji 失衡：断裂社会的运作逻辑 (Imbalance: The Logic of a Fractured Society). Shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe.  

Yu, Keping 俞可平. 2025. ‘Teda Chengshi yu Zhongguoshi Xiandaihua 特大城市与中国式现代化 (Megacities and Chinese Modernisation)’. Shehui zhengce yanjiu 社会政策研究 3: 3-17. DOI: 10.19506/j.cnki.cn10-1428/d.2025.03.005.

Please take extra care to list Asian author names in the correct format in the bibliography.

ONLINE SOURCES

Online sources should follow the same format as print sources as much as possible but with the addition of the URL. All online sources should be cited in the text (author, date) and listed in an endnote rather than the bibliography. Date of access (month and year) should be indicated.

Website

Columbia University 1998. SARAI South Asia resource access on the Internet. New York: Columbia University Libraries. http://bibpurl.oclc.org/web/813. Accessed December 2020.

DOI reference

If a publication has a DOI number, please include this at the end of the reference.

Hsing, You-tien. 2012. The Great Urban Transformation. Politics of Land and Property in China. Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199568048.001.0001.