Aims and scope
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
Testimonials
Contact us

Aims and scope

Work in the Global Economy is an interdisciplinary peer-reviewed journal that promotes understanding of work, and connections to work, in all forms and dimensions. This can mean a focus on labour processes, labour markets, labour organising and labour reproduction. The editors welcome wide-ranging contributions that extend and deepen connections between all aspects of the division of labour: from the production networks that underpin the global economy, to the gendered and racial divides that shape how work is allocated and organised.

The journal is associated with, and rooted in, the traditions of the International Labour Process Conference (ILPC) which was established in 1983. The labour process tradition reflects certain priorities, including analysis of the pathways between capitalist political economy and the changing workplace; the centrality of work and its management and regulation to economy and society; and the development of a variety of materialist understandings of those principals.

However, like the conference, the journal adopts a pluralist approach to theory, method and discipline. We also encourage contributions from both emerging and existing scholars. Foregrounding the diverse interests that compose labour and capital in the Global South and North, the journal promotes interdisciplinary and international agendas that have broad appeal to scholars and students of the sociology of work, employment relations and human resource management, organisational studies, political economy, labour geography, labour history and development studies.

We recognise that the journal is being launched at a time of profound change in economy and society that impact on work and employment. Consequently, Work in the Global Economy will be at the forefront of analytical and policy debates exploring issues such as digitalisation, automation, climate change and global health crisis as sites of contestation and transformation.  

The journal has an independent editorial structure that reflects geographic, disciplinary and social diversity. We are committed to delivering an intellectually rigorous, supportive and fair reviewing process that can strengthen the vitality and engagement of academic communities.

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

Our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion statement outlines the ways in which we seek to ensure that equity, diversity and inclusion are integral to all aspects of our publishing, and how we might encourage and drive positive change. 

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Testimonials

“Amid the resurgence of interest in work and labour around the world, this new journal, with its impressive editorial team, is a promising addition to the field.”

Ruth Milkman, Distinguished Professor of Sociology, City University of New York Graduate Center, USA

“The future of work in the global economy is a very hot topic that needs the serious scholarship, grounded in the nature of work and the labour process, that this new journal will provide.”

Jill Rubery, Professor of Comparative Employment Systems, University of Manchester, UK

“At last! A much-needed high-quality, interdisciplinary, international and critical journal covering all aspects of labouring in the global economy.”

Neil Martin Coe, Professor of Economic Geography, National University of Singapore, Republic of Singapore

Contact us

Editorial enquiries:

Editorial team: editors.workintheglobaleconomy@gmail.com 

Open Access, subscriptions and free trials:

Bristol University Press: bup-journals@bristol.ac.uk

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Read our instructions for authors for guidance on how to prepare your submissions. The instructions include the following: 

What are we looking for?
How to submit an article
Ethical guidelines
Copyright and permissions
Style
Alt-text
References
English language editing service
Open Access
Self-archiving and institutional repositories
How to maximise the impact of your article
Contact us

Visit our journal author toolkit for resources and advice to support you through the publication process and beyond.

What are we looking for?

The journal aims to publish original contributions that broaden our understanding of ‘work in the global economy’ (please see the journal's aims and scope for a fuller discussion). Work in the Global Economy welcomes the following contributions:

• Research articles:
  We welcome the submission of papers that advance understanding of ‘work in the global economy’ and draw upon empirical findings to support and develop theory. Papers that forge interdisciplinary linkages through their empirical, conceptual and theoretical content are especially welcome. The editors also encourage papers that propose new conceptual and theoretical approaches; papers based upon rigorous qualitative and/or quantitative research methods; and accounts which demonstrate innovation in furthering our understanding of work in the contemporary political economy.
  
  Papers submitted to the journal are normally 7,000 to 9,500 words in length. This word limit includes all text in the article (abstract, title page, keywords, acknowledgements) but excludes references and any appendices.  Abstracts should be a maximum of 250 words. Submissions that exceed this word limit may be returned for reduction prior to review.
   
• Theory into practice: 
  The journal will contain a section called ‘Theory into practice’. Within this section, we welcome shorter papers of 6,000 words (excluding references and tables) from academics (possibly with practitioner and/or activist co-authors) exploring how the theoretical underpinnings of their research have impacted upon practice, or how theoretical ideas have made a difference on the ground. The focus of these shorter pieces could range from policy-driven interventions to more activist campaigns at the workplace, organisational or global level. Contributions to Theory into practice will be also subject to the peer-review process.

Supporting Early Career Researchers: Particular attention will be placed on supporting Early Career Researchers (ECRs) to secure publication in the journal (subject to the normal reviewing process). We ask ECRs to indicate their status upon submission to facilitate this. We define ECRs as an individual within eight years of the award of their PhD or within six years of their first academic appointment.

Promoting diversity: We expect authors to problematise race, ethnicity and gender and to reflect diversity in terms of citations and references.

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How to submit an article

All submissions should be made online at the Work in the Global Economy Editorial Manager website: https://www.editorialmanager.com/wge/default.aspx.
Please ensure you follow the below anonymisation and formatting guidelines.

Initial manuscript submission via Editorial Manager

Manuscripts must be in Word or Rich Text Format (not pdf). New users should first create an account, specify their areas of interest and provide full contact details.

Preparing your anonymised manuscript

Your initial submission must consist of the following separate files:

1. A cover page including: the article title, author name(s) and affiliations (institution affiliation and country only, no department details required), the article abstract up to 250 words, up to five key words/short phrases and the article word count. A cover page template is available to download here.
2. A fully anonymised manuscript which does not include any of the information included in the cover page. It should not include any acknowledgements, funding details or conflicts of interest that would identify the author(s). References to the author's own work should be anonymised as follows: 'Author's own, [year]'. If submitted by e-mail, the file should not have any document properties or personal information that would identify the author(s) (see guidance on how to remove hidden data and personal information from a Microsoft Office file for further help). Please note that submissions that have not been sufficiently anonymised will be returned.
3. If you have any figures and tables, these must be uploaded as separate files at the end of the manuscript. Please indicate where they should be placed in the text by inserting ‘Figure X here’ and provide numbers, titles and sources where appropriate. If submitted by e-mail, these files should not have any document properties or personal information that would identify the author(s) (see guidance on how to remove hidden data and personal information from a Microsoft Office file for further help).
4. In order to improve our accessibility for people with visual impairments, we are now required to ask authors to provide a brief description known as alt text to describe any visual content such as photos, illustrations or figures. It will not be visible in the article but is embedded into the images so a PDF reader can read out the descriptions. Guidance on how to write this is available here: Bristol University Press | Alt-text guidance for authors.

For help submitting an article via Editorial Manager, please view our online tutorial.

Once a submission has been conditionally accepted, you will be invited to submit a final, non-anonymised version via Editorial Manager.

Checklist: what to include in your final non-anonymised manuscript:

A cover page including:

• Title: short and concise running title and, if necessary, a (short) informative subtitle;
• Author names and affiliations;
• Abstract: no longer than 250 words, outlining the central question, approach/method, findings and take-home message;
• Up to five keywords.

The main manuscript including:

1. The non-anonymised text of your article: please ensure this does not exceed the maximum word count for your article type (9,000 words for Research Articles; 6,000 words for Theory into practice articles).
2. Funding details: list any funding including the grant numbers you have received for the research covered in your article as follows: ‘This work was supported by the [Funding Agency] under Grant [number xxxx].’ 
3. Conflict of interest statement: please declare any possible conflicts of interest, or state ‘The Author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest’ if there are none.
4. Acknowledgements: acknowledge people who have provided you with any substantial assistance or advice with collecting the data, developing your ideas, editing or any other comments to develop your argument or text. 
5. Figures and tables: should be submitted as separate files. Figures should ideally be in an Encapsulated PostScript (.eps) file format. Please indicate where figures and tables should be placed in the text by inserting ‘Figure/Table X here’ and provide numbers, titles and sources (where appropriate).
6. In order to improve our accessibility for people with visual impairments, we are now required to ask authors to provide a brief description known as alt text to describe any visual content such as photos, illustrations or figures. It will not be visible in the article but is embedded into the images so a PDF reader can read out the descriptions. Guidance on how to write this is available here: Bristol University Press | Alt-text guidance for authors.
7. Supplementary data: We recommend that any supplemental data is hosted in a data repository (such as figshare) for maximum exposure, and is cited as a reference in the article.
8. Journal Contributor Publishing Agreement: please upload a scanned copy of the completed and signed  agreement with your final non-anonymised manuscript. The Journal Contributor Publishing Agreement can be downloaded here.

Editorial review process

All submissions are first desk-reviewed by the editor(s) who will assess whether the manuscript fits the aims and scope as well as the quality standards of the journal. Research articles that are selected to be sent out for review will be evaluated through double anonymous peer review by at least two referees. Work in the Global Economy aims to return the reviews along with an initial decision within two months of submission. 

Please also see our Journals editorial policies.

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Ethical guidelines

At Bristol University Press we are committed to upholding the highest standards of review and publication ethics in our journals. Bristol Univeristy Press is a member of and subscribes to the principles of the Committee of Publication Ethics (COPE), and will take appropriate action in cases of possible misconduct in line with COPE guidelines.

Find out more about our ethical guidelines.

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Copyright and permissions

Work in the Global Economy is published by Bristol University Press. Articles are considered for publication on the understanding that on acceptance the author(s) grant(s) Bristol University Press the exclusive right and licence to publish the article. Copyright remains with the author(s) or other original copyright owners and we will acknowledge this in the copyright line that appears on the published article.

Authors will be asked to sign a journal contributor agreement to this effect, which should be submitted online along with the final manuscript. All authors should agree to the agreement. For jointly authored articles the corresponding author may sign on behalf of co-authors provided that they have obtained the co-authors' consent. The journal contributor agreement can be downloaded here.

Where copyright is not owned by the author(s), the corresponding author is responsible for obtaining the consent of the copyright holder. This includes figures, tables and excerpts. Evidence of this permission should be provided to Bristol University Press. General information on rights and permissions can be found here.

To request permission to reproduce any part of articles published in Work in the Global Economy, please email Bristol University Press: bup-info@bristol.ac.uk.

For information on what is permissible use for different versions of your article, please see our policy on self archiving and institutional repositories.

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Style

• British English spelling and punctuation is preferred.
• Non-discriminatory language is mandatory. See our guidelines to sensitive language (appendix C of document).
• Explanatory notes should be kept to a minimum. If it is necessary to use them, they must be numbered consecutively in the text and listed at the end of the article. Please do not embed notes in the text.
• Please do not embed bibliographic references in the text, footnotes, live links or macros; the final submitted file should be clear of track changes and ready for print.
• Tables and charts should be separated from the text and submitted in a Word or Excel file, with their placement in the text clearly indicated by inserting: ‘Table X here’. Please provide numbers, titles and sources (where appropriate).
• Figures, diagrams and maps should be separated from the text and, ideally, submitted in an Encapsulated PostScript (.eps) file. Figures created in Word or Excel are acceptable in those file formats. If the figures, diagrams and maps are in other formats (i.e. have been pasted into a Word file rather than created in it) please contact dave.j.worth@bristol.ac.uk for advice. Please indicate where figures should be placed in the text, by inserting ‘Figure X here’ and provide numbers, titles and sources (where appropriate).

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Alt-text

In order to improve our accessibility for people with visual impairments, we are now required to ask authors to provide a brief description known as alt text to describe any visual content such as photos, illustrations or figures. It will not be visible in the article but is embedded into the images so a PDF reader can read out the descriptions. See our guidance on writing alt-text.

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References

Download the Endnote output style for Policy Press and Bristol University Press journals.

Bristol University Press uses a custom version of the Harvard system of referencing:

• In-text citations: give the author’s surname followed by year of publication in brackets.
• List all references in full at the end of the article and remove any references not cited in the text.
• Book and journal titles should be in italics.
• Website details should be placed at the end of the reference.
• Spell out all acronyms in the first instance.

Example of book reference:
Aghtaie, N. and Gangoli, G. (2015) National and international perspectives to gender based violence, Abingdon: Routledge.

Example of journal reference:
Williamson, E. and Abrahams, HA. (2014) ‘A review of the provision of intervention programmes for female victims and survivors of domestic abuse in the UK’, Journal of Women and Social Work, 29(1): 178-191.

Example of chapter within edited / multi-authored publication:
Hester, M. (2012) ‘Globalization, activism and local contexts: Development of policy on domestic violence in China and England’, in MT Segal, EN Chow and V Demos (eds) Social production and reproduction at the interface of public and private spheres, London: Emerald, pp 273-294.

Example of website reference:
Womensaid (2016) What is domestic abuse? https://www.womensaid.org.uk/information-support/what-is-domestic-abuse/.

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Editorial Management Board

Sian Moore, Co-Editor in Chief, University of Greenwich, UK
Kirsty Newsome, Co-Editor in Chief, University of Sheffield, UK 
Donna Baines, Associate Editor, University of British Columbia, Canada
Paul Brook, Associate Editor, University of Leicester, UK
Rachel Cohen, Associate Editor, City University of London, UK
Martin Krzywdzinski, Associate Editor, WZB Berlin Social Science Center, Germany 
Safak Tartanoglu-Bennett, Editorial Assistant and Social Media Editor, University of Sheffield, UK
Abigail Marks, Managing Editor, Newcastle University, UK
Paul Thompson, Consulting Editor, University of Stirling, UK 

Editorial Advisory Board

Jake Alimahomed-Wilson, California State University, Long Beach, USA
Mark Anner, Penn State University, USA
Maurizio Atzeni, CONICET Center for Labor Studies and Research, Argentina
Kendra Briken, University of Strathclyde, UK
Minjie Cai, University of Greenwich, UK
Chris Chan, Royal Holloway University of London, UK
Gabriella Cioce, Sheffield University Management School
Neil Coe, University of Sydney, Australia
Virginia Doellgast, Cornell Univeristy, USA
Tony Dundon, University of Limerick, Ireland
Anita Hammer, King's College London, UK
Bill Harley, University of Melbourne, Australia
Katy Fox-Hodess, Sheffield University, UK 
Johanna Hoffbauer, University of Vienna, Austria
Jean Jenkins, Cardiff University, UK
Marta Kahancová, Central European Labour Studies Institute, Bratislava, Slovakia
Anne Kovalainen, University of Turku, Finland
Bridget Kenny, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
Mingwei Liu, Rutgers University, USA
Paula McDonald, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Siobhan McGrath, Durham University, UK
Alessandra Mezzadri, SOAS University of London, UK
Phoebe Moore, University of Leicester, UK
Pun Ngai, Hong Kong University, Hong Kong
Florence Palpacuer, University of Montpellier, France
Harry Pitts, University of Bristol, UK
Seppo Poutanen, University of Turku, Finland
Phil Taylor, University of Strathclyde, UK
Steven Vallas, Northeastern University, USA
Alex Wood, University of Birmingham, UK

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