Focus and Scope
Water Alternatives is a peer-reviewed interdisciplinary electronic journal addressing global politics and development related to water. Manuscript submission, peer review and publication are all online and there is no parallel print process. WaA welcomes contributions that address any dimension of water resources development, governance, policy, management and use, in relation with society or the environment. We do not publish technical or descriptive papers: click here for more on subject coverage.
WaA publishes articles that may be empirical or theoretical in scope but are written in a style that is accessible to practitioners, decision makers and students.
The Response option allows readers to interact and further the debates and questions raised by a particular article. Responses are published in subsequent issues and linked to the relevant article.
We encourage readers to submit proposals for special ‘themed’ issues. A set of papers, for example, could be submitted from a common session in a conference or from a research project, or authors could send in manuscripts in response to a Water Alternatives call for themed papers. Papers must include a substantial introductory and/or summary manuscript.
Special Issue editors must collect and submit a minimum of five high-quality papers (in addition to the introductory article) which will go through the normal review process. The editors-in-chief retain the option (in coordination with guest editors) to reject a particular manuscript. If you are interested in submitting a proposal for a Special Issue, please contact the Water Alternatives managing editor for more details: managing_editor[ at ]water-alternatives.org
Peer-Review Process
The editors take about one month to make an initial appraisal of each manuscript. If the topic and treatment are deemed appropriate for the journal, the manuscript is sent to three referees who are selected for their knowledge of both the subject matter and the region under discussion in the paper. Once the review process has been completed, the manuscript is either accepted, referred back to the author for revisions, or rejected. The final decision is made by the editors-in-chief. This procedure is designed to ensure that papers accepted for publication are of the highest scientific quality and reflect the wide interests of an international readership.
Water Alternatives has a ‘double blind’ review process: authors’ names are not revealed to reviewers nor reviewers’ names to authors (though a particular reviewer may wish to communicate their identity to an author or authors). An author can expect a decision on their manuscript within four to eight months of submission. Although the peer review process is accelerated by the use of electronic communication, conventional high quality peer review standards are applied to all manuscripts, and delays in obtaining reviews may thus prolong the process.
Manuscripts are sent out for review electronically and all correspondence takes place via email.
Publication Frequency
WaA publishes a new issue three times per year (including Special Issues). New issues come out in the first week of February, June and October.
Once the article is accepted in its final form and copy-edited, it is made accessible on the website under ‘Issue in Progress’ and then formally published in the subsequent issue. Following formal publication of the new issue, all persons registered as members of the Water Alternatives Network will receive an email alert with a detailed table of contents.
Open Access and Fee Policy
Water Alternatives provides open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. Such access is associated with increased readership and increased citation of an author's work. Rates of downloading from an open access ejournal like Water Alternatives tend to be much higher than those of paid-for journals.
We do not charge publication fees. However, contributors are kindly encouraged to financially support this journal and critical water studies. Authors who have access to funds (e.g. through research projects or institutional publication allowances) can be billed a standard Article Processing Fee (APF) of €350 that includes professional final copy-editing. This optional financial support is critical for keeping our journal accessible to all.
AI policy
Water Alternatives discourages the use of AI for uses other than language polishing. We believe AI contributes to amplifying the industrialisation of academic production, works against quality ‘slow science’, and undermines the intellectual qualities that promote creative and critical thinking.
The editors reserve the right to reject the paper if they consider the use of AI to breach Water alternatives ethics and, more broadly, academic integrity.
Copyright
Op
en access: Water Alternatives is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license, which permits any non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided the original author(s) and source are credited. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/fr/deed.en
As a result:
i) the copyright of the article remains with its author(s),
ii) authors can reuse parts of their work (for example, figures) without restriction, provided mention is made of the first publication in Water Alternatives,
iii) they can also have their full paper republished as a book chapter or in another language as long as the first publication in Water Alternatives is duly mentioned.
Text Formatting Guidelines
Articles, opinions and book reviews should be written in (British) English. Authors with English as a second language may choose to have their manuscripts professionally edited before submission to improve the English, as papers with poor expression will not be accepted.
To reduce the costs of formatting and copyediting it is very important that authors carefully read and follow these guidelines. Use this MSword template to start your article. It contains all the standard formats and styles of the journal. Papers submitted in MSWord but without using the template format will not be accepted. For formatting the reference list, please follow the styles defined below; or use WaA EndNote profile - EndNote Style. Contributors using Zotero, Mendeley, Papers, Paperpille, ReadCube or Colwiz can use this csl file (courtesy of L. Ansorge). In particular cases where contributors use another word-processor the template should be imported and the final text saved in RTF format. In other cases, please contact the Managing Editor.
Authors' contacts: The first page of the submission must include title of submission, detailed contact data and affiliation of coauthors, and acknowledgements. This page is not communicated to reviewers.
Style: To create your article use the template provided above.
Abstract: Start your article with an abstract of, preferably, 200 words (or less). Written in the third person e.g. ‘this chapter discusses’, rather than ‘I discuss’ - Self-contained, without abbreviations, footnotes, or incomplete references, preferably one paragraph.
Acknowledgements: Acknowledgements must appear on the cover page, after authors' contacts (they will not be communicated to reviewers).
Keywords: Provide around 5 keywords, including one geographic keyword (if relevant).
Body text: The body text should be formatted by using the Normal style of the list. The space between paragraphs is already included in the style (12pt). The font defined is Verdana 11.
Length: There is no fixed length for articles but the number of words should preferably be kept between 6,000 and 10,000 (excluding references). Viewpoints can be down to 5000 words in length.
Main formatting guidelines (import full details as pdf)
Checklist
Before you submit a paper, please thoroughly check consistency of your text with the following guidelines. In particular check:
¨ The text is created with the Water Alternatives template (saved as .doc or .docx)
¨ use our template or the fonts indicated below
¨ Format of the reference list has been checked [use the checklist below]
¨ The reference list matches the citations in the text
¨ Tables and Figures are created and inserted 'in line with text' (not imported as images)
¨ Text in figures is legible (even after reduction by 50%)
¨ Figures are inserted in mode 'in line with text'
¨ The dynamic fields are removed (if you use EndNote or Zotero)
¨ Spelling is British English
Abbreviations
No full points within acronyms (e.g. UK or USA not U.S.A.; Washington, DC; "around 1500 BC"; PhD thesis), no full point after contractions. Exceptions include: et al., Ltd., Inc., Jr. (not Jnr.), Co., No. (for number). Note: i.e. and e.g. are not followed by a coma.
Capitalisation
Geographic features. Use: Nile River Basin, Van Vieng Province, Chitradurga District, Jordan Valley, Mediterranean Sea, Gezira Irrigation Scheme, Lake Victoria, Hoover Dam, etc. the Middle East, West Africa, sub-Saharan Africa.
Cold War, World War II, the French Revolution, the Middle Ages, the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization, but "the state".
Comma
Do not use a comma before "and" or "or" in a series of three or more words or phrases, unless the propositions are long and it helps clarify meaning.
Dashes
A spaced en dash (the character – with one space on each side) – rather than an em dash – is used to introduce parenthetical material or a positive phrase where commas might result in confusion (Example: The agent's promises – reallocation of land, equitable water distribution, and lower fees – never materialised). For page or date range, use normal hyphens.
Figures
Figures should be inserted in the Word document. Right click on the picture and use option "in line with text". Centre them or, better, use the 'Figure' style of the style sheet. Please ensure that all text in your figures is legible, even after a 50% reduction in size. Arial font should be used preferably. Before each figure add a brief descriptive caption (style: caption_figure) on a separate line.
In the text refer to the figure as follows: "… as shown in Figure 3 and Table 4 (see also Table 5)" (upper case). Indicate the source in a separate paragraph below the figure, not in the caption.
Footnotes
Use automatic MSWord footnotes. When associated to a word that ends a sentence, the footnote number must be inserted after the period, as in: (…) was reported by various observers.1
Foreign words
Foreign words such as warabandi, subak, zanjera, mirab, junta, acequias, wadi, saquia, khettara, confederación, etc. and local names of growing seasons (maha, yala, rabi, boro, etc.) should be used in italics and defined at first use, and may not be italicised subsequently.
Common Latin words or expressions such as: a priori, a fortiori, de jure, de facto, status quo, etc. should not be italicised.
Headings
Use the headings pre-defined in the template. When selecting the styles "heading 1", "heading 2", "heading 3" from the list, your titles will adopt the styles included in the template. Use no more than three levels of headings.
Only the first word is capitalised.
Hyphenation
The rules governing the use of hyphens are not stable. In general, use hyphens as little as possible. Examples: microanalysis, overexploited, multilevel, nonagricultural, underpricing, cooperation, etc. But: pre-eminence, counter-hegemonic, pre-existing, non-existent, in-depth, etc. In case of uncertainty refer to http://www.askoxford.com/dictionaries/?view=uk.
Compound adjectives (adj+noun, noun+adj, noun+noun, noun+verb -ing) are hyphenated (small-scale system, low-income groups, price-based incentives, site-specific mixes, state-level agencies, cost-recovery practices, etc.); but worldwide. "The decision-making process was transparent", but "Decision making can be a difficult process".
Never use the hyphenation option of wordprocessors
Numbers
In text spell out numbers up to ten, but use numerals for 11 onwards and in all cases where the number is followed by a unit of time, length, area, volume, or weight. Always use numerals when a unit is given (e.g. 7 ha). Use a comma as separator for a number with 5 digits or more (e.g. 12,500, but 7000).
Quotes
Straight double quotation marks (" ") are used for direct quotations. Short quotations should be embedded in the text and are not italicized, but quotations of more than 45 words (4 lines and over) should be shown as separate indented paragraphs, without quotation marks (use the "Long quote" predefined style). Single quotation marks (' ') are to be used for a quotation that occurs within another quotation
Also use double quotation marks for words defined by the author, words used in unusual contexts, or given a special meaning.
Note that commas or periods ending the quote are not included within the quotation marks, as in: "(…) must be subject to the test of "reasonable use". In case the quote is followed by a reference, insert the reference before the full stop, as in: (…) and unfavourable research was ignored" (Banerjee et al., 2006).
When a part of the quote is not reported, insert (…) where the quote is discontinued.
References
Before submitting the manuscript, check all citations in the text against the References to ensure that they match exactly. Delete references from the list if they are not actually cited in the text of the article.
Citations in the text
According to Smith and Coward (1995) and Powel's (2003) declaration,…
…as shown by recent research work (Mollinga, 1999; Sardoy and Hume, 2000; Svendsen et al., 2007) and surveys (Abott, 1998a, 1998b, 2000)... Note the chronological order of citations (not mandatory). Indicating page reference as in (Abott, 1980: 10) is welcome but not mandatory. Use (Kibaroglu, n.d.), when the date of the document is unknown.
Use 'Smith and Powell (2012)' for two authors, and Smith et al. (2012) for three authors or more.
Personal communications should be cited as normal references (Harvey, 1999) and details given in the reference list.
When referring to a reference not on hand and cited in another document use normal entries, list the two reference in the bibliography and add " Cited in xxx" at the end, as in:
Rhodes, R. 1997. The new governance: Governing without government. Political Studies 44(4): 652-667. Cited in Bell and Quiggin (2008).
References (in the reference list) (follow the styles defined below, or the EndNote style provided above))
Article in a print journal
Malano, H.M.; Bryant, M.J. and Turral, H.N. 1999. Management of water resources: Can Australian experience be transferred to Vietnam? Water International 24(4): 307-315.
Article in an online journal
Cumming, G.S.; Cumming, D.H.M. and Redman, C.L. 2006. Scale mismatches in social-ecological systems: Causes, consequences, and solutions. Ecology and Society 11(1): 14, www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol11/iss1/art14/
(Note: if there is no page range, the number of pages is indicated)
Books
Mollinga, P. and Bolding, A. (Eds). 2005. The politics of irrigation reform. Contested policy formulation and implementation in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Ashgate.
Organisation as author or government publications
GWP (Global Water Partnership). 2000. Integrated water resources management. TAC Background Paper No. 4. Stockholm: Global Water Partnership.
[but in the text, refer to GWP (2000)]
World Bank. 2003. World Bank water resources sector strategy: Strategic directions for World Bank engagement. Washington, DC: The World Bank.
Chapter in book
Molle, F. 2003. Allocating and accessing water resources: Practice and ideology in the Chao Phraya delta. In Molle, F. and Srijantr, T. (Eds), Perspectives on social and agricultural change in the Chao Phraya delta, pp. 45-70. Bangkok: White Lotus.
Conference papers (with proceedings)
Heyns, P.S.H. 2004. Strategic and technical considerations in the assessment of transboundary water management with reference to southern Africa. In Proceedings of the International Expert Workshop on Water, Development and Cooperation, pp. 120-134. Bonn, Germany, 27 February 2004.
Frederick, K.D. 1993. Adaptive responses to climate change: Demand management. In Ballentine, T.M. and Stakhiv, E.Z. (Eds), Proceedings of the First National Conference on Climate Change and Water Resources Management, pp. IV/54-60. Alexandria, VA, USA: Institute for Water Resources.
Conference papers (no proceedings), unpublished reports
Meinzen-Dick, R.; Mendoza, M.; Sadoulet, L.; Abiad-Shields, G. and Subramanian, A. 1994. Sustainable water user associations: Lessons from a literature review. Paper presented at World Bank Water Resources Seminar, Lansdowne, Virginia, USA, 13-15 December 1994.
NIA (National Irrigation Administration). 1986. Irrigation water management: Precluding activities, requirements and practices. Quezon City, The Philippines: NIA. Mimeo.
Reports
Keller, A.; Keller, J. and Seckler, D. 1996. Integrated water resources systems: Theory and policy implications. Research Report No. 3. Lanka: International Irrigation Management Institute.
Theses
Smith, J. 2000. Water politics in the Middle-East: New threats and opportunities. MSc (or PhD) thesis, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
Newspaper articles
Middle East Times. 2006. Turkey, Israel scrap water project. 23 April 2006.
Kenon, H. 2003. Deal to buy water from Turkey finalized. Jerusalem Post, 23 July 2003.
Others
Harvey, J.H.M. 1999. Personal communication. By email. 12 October 1999.
FAO. 2001. The challenges after Rio. www.fao.org/ag/magazine/0102sp1.html (accessed 2 September 2002) [There is no need for ‘http://’ before www]
Work accepted for publication but not yet published should be referred to as "in press".
Copyright
If you include material, whether figures or tables, from other published sources (even your own work), permission to reproduce such material must be sought from the copyright owner.
Technical problems or questions:
For all technical queries please contact Support: info[ @ ]water-alternatives.org