Submissions

Author Guidelines

MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION

• By submitting a manuscript, authors warrant that their contribution to the journal is their original work, that it has not been published before, that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, and that its publication has been approved by all co-authors (if any) and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities at the institution where the work was carried out.
• Authors are exclusively responsible for the contents of their submissions and the validity of the experimental results therein. They must make sure that they have permission from all involved parties to make the data public.
• Authors wishing to include figures or text passages that have already been published elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright holder(s) and to include evidence that such permission has been granted when submitting their papers. Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors.
• Authors must make sure that only contributors who have significantly contributed to the submission are listed as authors and, conversely, that all contributors who have significantly contributed to the submission are listed as authors.
• Manuscripts are pre-evaluated at the editorial office to check whether they meet basic publishing requirements and quality standards. They are also screened for plagiarism.
• Authors will be notified by email upon receiving their submission. Only those contributions that conform to the following instructions can be accepted for peer review. Otherwise, the manuscripts shall be returned to the authors with observations, comments, and annotations.

• Two Word files have to be uploaded during the submission procedure:

  1) A file (e.g. Main-text.docx) that contains the manuscript with no information about authors and supporting agencies should be uploaded as 'Article text' by choosing this option from the drop-down menu of article components in the 'Upload submission file' section.

  2) A file (e.g. Authors.docx) that contains information about all authors of the article (including their full names and affiliations – academic titles, research/scientific positions, emails, and ORCID numbers) and acknowledgments (if they exist) should be uploaded as 'Affiliation' by choosing this option from the drop-down menu of article components in the 'Upload submission file' section. Information about all authors and possibly acknowledgments must also be entered through the web form when submitting the manuscript. One author will need to be identified as the corresponding author. Please note that no change to the authors’ affiliations can be made after your paper is accepted.

MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION

• Authors must follow the instructions for authors strictly. If they fail to do so, their manuscript will be rejected without review.
• Manuscripts shall be submitted in English or Serbian (including all standard variants of the former Serbo-Croatian language), with extended summaries in English (or in native language for native speakers of Serbian/Serbo-Croatian language who submit a manuscript in English).
• The manuscript should be written in Microsoft Word (2013 or later) in .doc or .docx format. The text formatting should be as simple as possible.
• Here, you can download the Word template in dotx to easily prepare your manuscript. It contains predefined styles and author guidelines as well.
• The manuscript should be single-spaced, justified. The use of italic, superscript, and subscript is encouraged, as is the use of equation editors embedded in text processors. Two levels of subheadings are allowed. Footnotes are numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals. References quoted in the text should not be included in the footnotes, but in the reference list.
• The manuscript can be up to 8,000 words long, not including the list of references and the extended summary. In specific cases, the editorial board may accept longer papers. In determining the length of the text, tables and illustrations (figures, cartograms, etc.) are counted as 400 words (whole page) or 200 words (half page).
• Writing style and language competencies should be briefly commented upon in the process of peer review; the journal’s proofreader corrects minor glitches. However, manuscripts full of spelling and grammatical errors cannot be accepted for publication. Authors should use gender-neutral language.

The manuscript should be divided into the following ordered sections: title, abstract, keywords, the text of the manuscript (introduction, methodology, results, discussion, and conclusion), list of references, list of tables and illustrations (if any), and extended summary. Figures should also be submitted as separate files.

The title describes the manuscript and/or the main relations among variables; it should be clear, not too long, but explanatory (no more than 10 words). Abbreviations should be avoided in the title if possible.

The abstract should be between 150 and 200 words long, concisely reflecting the structure of the manuscript (background, objective and aims, methods, results, conclusions and comments) so that its original text can be used in referential periodicals and databases. Do not include citations in the abstract. The abstract should be provided in the same language as the manuscript.

Keywords (concepts, locations, results) are listed in a separate line at the end of the abstract. Keywords should be relevant to the topic and content of the paper. An accurate list of keywords will ensure the correct indexing of the paper in referential periodicals and databases. There should be five keywords provided in the same language as the manuscript.

The text of the manuscript should consist of the following sections: introduction, methods, results, discussion, and conclusions (not necessarily under these names). Depending on the type of the manuscript, it might be possible to omit some of the sections. For example, in a review article, it is possible to omit sections on methods and results, while scientific criticism or polemics may include only sections on the motives of the work, specific research problems, and discussion.

• The introduction should provide, in a logical and critical manner, a clear, concise, and informative overview of selected recent literature relevant to the topic of the manuscript, a description of the problem addressed in the manuscript, and the aim of the work.
• In the methods section, the author should demonstrate the procedures used to achieve the objectives stated in the manuscript and clearly describe the empirical research plan, the sampling procedure, data series, instruments, and procedures (novel methods and procedures should be described in more detail). This section can start with a hypothesis and can be divided into appropriate subsections.
• The results section should clearly and concisely present the researchers’ findings. It can be divided into subsections, each with a concise subheading, as appropriate. Data processing and statistical analysis should be clearly explained (especially in the case of new or rarely used procedures). Results should be presented in a logical sequence; in addition to the numerical expression of statistical analysis, the authors should include a narrative explanation of the findings. Interpretation of the results should be left for the discussion section.
• The discussion section should provide an interpretation of the results, which should be expressed in the context of the models, theories, and findings presented in the introduction. This section can optionally be divided into appropriate subsections, each with a concise subheading. It should clearly specify which of the earlier studies were supported, opposed, or promoted by the findings presented in the manuscript and then, if possible, offer new models or frameworks for the findings; only logical arguments should be provided. Authors are urged to avoid overloading this section with excessive citations and lengthy reinterpretations of related literature and are urged to instead focus on their findings. Authors should avoid conclusions for which they have not provided sufficient research data. In exceptional cases, the results and discussion section of the manuscript can be combined into a single section entitled Results and Discussion.
• The conclusion of the article should provide a general, brief, and appropriate summary of the presented findings, not longer than two pages in total. This section must not merely repeat parts of the abstract. The discussion and conclusion combined may cover up to 30% of the article, but in any case, these two sections altogether should not be shorter than the introduction.

References shall be cited in Roman script to allow rapid, accurate indexing, and easy comprehension by the journal users. The list of references shall only include papers that are cited in the text. Place them in alphabetical order, and do not number them. Include all names of authors. When there are eight or more authors, include the first six authors’ names and then use ellipsis points (...) before concluding with the last author’s name. Most of the references should be published recently, thus demonstrating the current scientific importance of the presented research. In case more than one reference by the same author is cited, the most recent work is listed first. If an article is submitted to a journal and publicly available as a pre-print, the pre-print may be cited. Authors should limit the number of cited references by referring to the most relevant papers. Cyrillic references must be transliterated into Latin. Where available, indicate at the end of a reference its DOI or URL. Stanovništvo follows the APA style for listing references.

Stanovništvo highly recommends that authors utilize reference management software such as Zotero, Mendeley, and Endnote. These software programs are invaluable tools that can greatly facilitate the citation management process. By using citation plug-ins, authors can simply select the appropriate journal template when preparing their article, allowing for automatic formatting of citations and bibliographies in the journal's prescribed style. To ensure seamless integration of your references into your manuscript, we strongly urge authors to take advantage of these tools. By doing so, authors will not only save valuable time and effort but also minimize the risk of citation errors.
As a helpful resource, the Zotero style for Stanovništvo is readily available for download, enabling authors to efficiently and accurately format their citations in accordance with our journal's guidelines.

Examples of different types of references:

• Monographs, books:
  Alho, J. M., & Spencer, B. D. (2005). Statistical Demography and Forecasting. New York: Springer.
  https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-28392-7
• Monographs, books with more editions:
  Todaro, M. P., & Smith, C. S. (2012). Economic Development (11th ed.). Boston: Mass Addison-Wesley.
• Chapters in edited books/monographs or collection of papers in print:
  De Abreu, B. S. (2001). The role of media literacy education within social networking and the library. In D. E. Agosto & J. Abbas (Eds.), Teens, libraries, and social networking (pp. 39-48). Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.
• Chapters in edited books/monographs or collection of papers found online:
  Nikitović, V. (2018). The End of Demographic Transition in Kosovo: Does the Meaning of the Population Factor Change? In D. Proroković (Ed.), Kosovo: Sui Generis or Precedent in International Relations (pp. 299-320).  https://www.diplomacy.bg.ac.rs/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/2018_Kosovo_Dusan_Prorokovic.pdf
•  Journal articles:
  Lutz, W., Sanderson, W., & Scherbov, S. (2001). The end of world population growth. Nature, 412(6846), 543–545. https://doi.org/10.1038/35087589
• Conference paper or poster presentation:
  Rašević, M. (2006). Abortion problem in Serbia. Paper presented at EPC 2006 "Population Challenges in Ageing Societies", Liverpool, UK. http://epc2006.princeton.edu/papers/60355
• Research reports, working papers:
  Dudel, C., & Schmied, J. (2019). Pension adequacy standards: an empirical estimation strategy and results for the United States and Germany. Rostock: Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR Working Paper WP-2019-003).  https://www.demogr.mpg.de/papers/working/wp-2019-003.pdf
• Doctoral dissertation found on a database:
  Galjak, M. (2022). Premature Mortality in Serbia. University of Belgrade.  https://nardus.mpn.gov.rs/handle/123456789/21191. Accessed 20 February 2023.
• Website content:
  Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia (2018). Vital Events - Data from 2011. Statistical Database. http://data.stat.gov.rs/Home/Result/18030102?languageCode=en-US
• Act (statute / legislation):
  Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992. (2013, December 16). https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1992/0096/latest/whole.html
• Newspaper articles in print:
  Frost, L. (2006, September 14). First passengers ride monster jet. The Salt Lake Tribune, p. A2.
• Newspaper articles found online:
  Cohen, P. N. (2013, November 23). How can we jump-start the struggle for gender
  equality? New York Times, SR9.  https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/23/how-can-we-jump-start-the-struggle-for-gender-equality/?_r=0
  
  Reference citations within the text should include the author’s surname and the year of publication, as follows:
• A direct citation of a reference: Lee (1998);
• An indirect citation of a reference: (Rašević 2009; Stanić and Matković 2017).
• References following direct quotations: “The conclusion is that improvements in education, rather than fertility declines, are the main driver of subsequent economic growth”. (Lutz 2014: 530).
• In case of four or more authors: (Alkema et al. 2011).
• When two or more papers by the same author are cited together: (McDonald 2002, 2006).
• With more than one reference to an author in the same year: (Raftery et al. 2012a, 2012b).

Tables should not exceed one page and should not be overloaded with auxiliary lines; 9-point font should be used for letters and numbers presented in tables. Tables should have a clear, self-explanatory title. Tables should be numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals in the order in which they are referred to in the text. Editorial staff need to have full control over the tables, that is, to be able to click inside the tables to edit the font of the words written inside the tables to match the journal style and correct the spelling. All tables should be incorporated in the text of the manuscript.

Figures, cartograms, pictures, drawings, and other illustrations should also be submitted as separate PDF vector files (resolution-independent). Authors are encouraged to submit colour versions of their figures/cartograms/illustrations for the electronic issue. However, it should not be forgotten that the printed issue is black and white. All illustrations should be labelled as ‘Figure’ and numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals in the order in which they are placed in the text (e.g. Figure-1.jpg).

The data and/or calculation used for producing graphical charts and tables should also be separately submitted. For example, if charts/figures are generated in MS Excel, access should be granted to the original data used for their production.

The title of a table should be placed above the table, and the title of a figure below the figure. The table/figure legends should provide information on the applied statistical procedures. The legend of a table/figure including data source(s) should be placed beneath the table/figure, while notes, if they exist, should follow in the next line. Referencing to the figures/tables in the text of the manuscript should follow the numbering of the graphs/tables (for example, in Table 1) instead of their position in the text (for example, in the above table).

Please do not:

• Supply files that are optimised for screen use (e.g., gif, bmp, pict, wpg); these typically have a low number of pixels and limited set of colours;
• Supply raster files; 
• Submit graphics that are disproportionately large for the content.

The extended summary in English should follow the structure of the manuscript, but it must be longer than the abstract (350-400 words), representing a short version of the paper; it should be placed after the list of references or the list of tables and figures (where applicable). The editorial staff will, then, translate the title, extended abstract and keywords into Serbian. This short version of the paper is intended for broader academic audience and media in the region of former Yugoslavia. An important note for authors who are native speakers of Serbian (including all standard variants of the former Serbo-Croatian language) when submitting a paper in English: you should also provide the title, extended abstract and keywords in your native language.