Pre-publication versions of papers, reports, and articles by researchers affiliated with CISS
Mission
The Center for Innovation in Social Science is pleased to announce the debut of its new working paper series. The Working Paper Series makes available new research by projects and scholars affiliated with CISS. The series is intended to facilitate communication between CISS researchers and other social scientists and publicizes the broad scope of CISS research activities. Working Papers are typically pre-publication manuscripts that are disseminated to stimulate comment or to make results quickly available.
Eligibility
Faculty affiliates, graduate affiliates, faculty in CAS social science departments, and other members of the BU community whose work has been supported by CISS are eligible to participate in the working paper series. CISS’s mission is to use state-of-the-art social science concepts, methods and approaches to improve human lives, Authors may submit unpublished papers that fit this mission to the Working Paper series. Students require mentor approval to submit a paper, which should be sent to ciss@bu.edu at the time of initial abstract submission.
These papers have not been peer reviewed. The purpose is to share preliminary findings with the larger community and to stimulate discussion and feedback from scholars working on related topics. Authors may have the opportunity to present their work at a CISS-sponsored brownbag session, in which they receive detailed peer feedback on their paper. Authors interested in this opportunity should indicate this at the prompt on the manuscript submission site.
How to Submit
The process of submitting a working paper is simple. Using Word, submit an abstract of up to 250 words, with key words at the end, and a draft of the paper to Deborah Carr, CISS director, to ensure it fits the CISS mission. After a paper is determined to be an appropriate fit for the series, the author will be notified and can the proceed to upload their manuscript as a single Word file including abstract, text, references, tables, and figures to our submission portal here. All papers should be double-spaced and in 12-point font. Authors should use the referencing format appropriate to their academic discipline.
After the manuscript is uploaded to the submission site, a CISS editorial intern will format the paper for the series and include a PDF version of the formatted paper on the Working Paper webpage. After the author reviews the edit and finalizes the paper, the paper is posted on the Working Paper website. Papers will receive a number corresponding to the year of submission and order in which it was submitted. The paper series begins with number CISS WP 2022-001.
Revisions to Working Papers
Some authors may wish to revise their paper in response to feedback from reviewers or other developments in the field. Authors may submit a revised version of their working paper. Depending on the magnitude of revisions, we will either revise the current working paper and note the revision date on the cover page or, in the case of major revisions, will reissue the working paper under a new series number. Please upload the revised manuscript to the our submission portal here.
Publication in a Journal, Book, or Other Venue
When a paper is accepted at a journal, authors must notify ciss@bu.edu of the change in status. Authors also must consult the journal guidelines to find out if pre-publication is allowed. A list of academic publisher pre-publication policies is available here. After the paper is published in a journal, we will update the working paper and link to the published article. In all cases, authors retain complete copyright for their working papers. CISS has distribution rights only. Authors are reminded to follow copyright law in using any portion of these papers.