Police Quarterly Journal: Scope and Submission Guide
The Police Quarterly journal is a specialist destination for empirical research on policing, but a promising study still needs a clear scope match, a defensible method, precise reporting, and careful compliance with the journal’s author instructions. Researchers often arrive at the submission stage with a manuscript that is academically valuable yet not fully adapted to the journal: the practical contribution may be buried, the paper may be too descriptive, identifying details may remain in the review file, or the abstract may not show why the study matters to policing scholarship and practice.
Police Quarterly is published by Sage and appears four times a year. Its stated focus is primarily empirical research on policing, including qualitative and quantitative studies with policy relevance for academics and practitioners. That description is important because the journal is not simply a general criminal-justice outlet with “police” added to the title. The research question, data, analysis, findings, and implications should all make a recognizable contribution to knowledge about policing. Authors should be able to explain that contribution in one or two direct sentences before they begin formatting.
The technical requirements also deserve close attention. The journal uses double-anonymized peer review, follows APA Style, seventh edition, and provides specific expectations for length, spacing, margins, abstract, keywords, title-page information, declarations, data availability, figures, and submission files. The official guideline page includes both a 150–250-word abstract instruction and a later 150–200-word instruction; preparing 150–200 words is the safest way to satisfy both unless the live submission system states otherwise. Authors should always recheck the official page immediately before uploading because publisher requirements may change.
This independent guide translates the current author instructions into a practical workflow for PhD scholars, policing researchers, first-time journal authors, and multidisciplinary teams. It explains fit, preparation, anonymization, ethics, common mistakes, and the role of responsible academic editing services. It does not replace editorial judgment or the official journal page. Instead, it helps authors prepare a cleaner, more transparent manuscript while retaining responsibility for the research, claims, data, citations, and submission decisions.
Quick Answer: What Authors Should Know About Police Quarterly
Police Quarterly is a peer-reviewed Sage journal that publishes primarily empirical, policy-oriented research on policing. It welcomes qualitative and quantitative work, but the manuscript should move beyond simple description and show a clear contribution for policing scholarship, policy, or practice.
The official instructions currently call for English-language manuscripts that are fully double-spaced, no more than 40 total pages, and ordinarily no more than 25 narrative pages. Authors should use APA Style, seventh edition, 12-point Times Roman, one-inch margins, sequential page numbers, an unstructured abstract, and three to five keywords. The journal uses double-anonymized review, so identifying information belongs on a separate title page rather than in the review manuscript.
The most important next step is to compare your question and contribution with the official Police Quarterly journal page and the current submission guidelines. Do this before deep formatting, then repeat the check immediately before submission.
Key Takeaways
- Police Quarterly focuses primarily on empirical research in which policing is the central subject.
- Both qualitative and quantitative studies can fit when the analysis is rigorous and policy relevance is explicit.
- The journal discourages purely descriptive studies and think pieces except in unusual circumstances.
- Manuscripts should not exceed 40 total pages, and the narrative should ordinarily stay within 25 pages.
- The journal uses APA 7 and double-anonymized peer review.
- Authors need separate identifying and anonymized files plus complete ethics, funding, conflict, and data statements.
- Editing can improve clarity and compliance, but authors remain responsible for all scholarly decisions and disclosures.
What This Page Covers
- The journal’s aims, audience, publication model, and distinguishing features
- How to judge whether a policing study fits the scope
- Current manuscript length, abstract, keyword, formatting, and file requirements
- A step-by-step preparation and submission-readiness workflow
- Double-anonymized review, ethics, authorship, data, and AI-use considerations
- Common reasons a manuscript may be returned or desk rejected
- Practical examples, checklists, and ethical editing options
Table of Contents
Methodology and Academic Sources
This guide is based on the official Sage pages for Police Quarterly, including the journal description, author instructions, and peer-review information available when this article was prepared. It also draws on established publication-ethics and reporting principles from the Committee on Publication Ethics, the APA Style resource, and Sage guidance on responsible research data practices.
Publisher expectations can change, and individual studies may require additional reporting standards, legal review, institutional approval, or data-protection safeguards. Researchers should therefore verify the live author instructions, their institution’s research policies, applicable ethics approvals, and discipline-specific reporting guidance. Contentxprtz can assist with ethical editing, proofreading, manuscript assessment, and formatting, but the research team remains responsible for the study, evidence, interpretation, disclosures, and final submission.
What the Police Quarterly Journal Means in an Academic Context
Police Quarterly is best understood as a focused policing-research journal rather than a general outlet for every criminal-justice topic. The official description says it publishes primarily empirical studies on issues related to policing and seeks qualitative and quantitative work that emphasizes policy-oriented research of interest to practitioners and academics. It is peer reviewed and published quarterly.
For authors, the word empirical means that the paper should be grounded in systematically collected or analyzed evidence. The evidence may come from surveys, interviews, administrative records, observations, experiments, quasi-experiments, body-worn-camera footage, case files, policy documents, organizational data, mixed methods, or other defensible sources. The exact method matters less than whether it matches the research question and is reported transparently.
The phrase policy-oriented does not mean that every paper must prescribe a new law or operational directive. It means the study should explain why the findings matter beyond the dataset. A theoretically driven article can still be policy relevant when it clarifies officer behavior, organizational processes, public trust, accountability, implementation, training, supervision, or outcomes that decision-makers need to understand.
Do not confuse the title
Police Quarterly is different from The Police Journal: Theory, Practice and Principles, another Sage publication. Authors should verify the title, journal code, scope, and submission page before preparing files. Following the wrong journal’s instructions is a preventable error that can affect length, formatting, and submission routing.
What a strong contribution statement looks like
A useful contribution statement connects four elements: the policing problem, the evidence gap, the study’s method, and the practical or scholarly value of the findings. For example: “This study uses multi-agency administrative data to test whether a supervisory intervention changes the frequency and context of discretionary stops, addressing a gap in evidence about implementation and organizational accountability.” The sentence is specific enough to help an editor understand why the paper belongs in a policing journal.
Is Your Study a Good Fit for Police Quarterly?
A study is more likely to fit when policing is central to the research question, the paper presents empirical analysis, and the contribution is relevant to both scholarship and policy or practice. A manuscript is less likely to fit when police are merely one setting among many, the analysis is mainly descriptive, or the practical implications are generic.
| Journal element | Current guideline | What the author should do |
|---|---|---|
| Primary scope | Empirical studies on policing with policy relevance | Make policing central and state the contribution directly |
| Methods | Qualitative and quantitative research are welcomed | Use a design that answers the question and report it transparently |
| Publication frequency | Quarterly | Do not infer review speed or acceptance likelihood from frequency alone |
| Article type | Original research articles | Confirm the live page if submitting a nonstandard format |
| Length | Maximum 40 pages total; narrative ordinarily no more than 25 pages | Budget pages before final formatting and move supporting material only where permitted |
| Abstract | The page currently displays both 150–250 and 150–200 words | Use 150–200 words unless the live system specifies otherwise |
| Keywords | Three to five | Choose specific terms that describe the policing topic, population, and method |
| Style | APA Style, seventh edition | Audit citations, references, headings, numbers, tables, and figures |
| Peer review | Double anonymized | Separate identifying information and inspect hidden metadata |
| Fees | No standard submission or publication fee; optional open access may cost | Verify current institutional open-access agreements before choosing |
This table is a preparation aid, not a substitute for the official author instructions. The strongest scope check also includes reading recent papers and asking whether your manuscript participates in the same scholarly conversation while contributing something distinct.
Topics that can fit naturally
- Police legitimacy, trust, procedural justice, and community relationships
- Use of force, stops, arrests, discretion, and officer decision-making
- Organizational culture, leadership, supervision, and internal justice
- Training, recruitment, retention, officer safety, stress, and wellbeing
- Body-worn cameras, data systems, artificial intelligence, and policing technology
- Accountability, misconduct, complaints, discipline, and transparency
- Crisis response, homelessness, mental-health encounters, and interagency practice
- Community policing, problem-oriented policing, and policy implementation
Warning signs of weak fit
- The paper could remove every reference to policing and remain essentially unchanged.
- The results section reports frequencies but does not answer an analytical question.
- The practical implications are broad statements such as “more training is needed” without evidence.
- The literature review is about crime generally, while the study’s policing contribution appears only at the end.
- The manuscript is primarily advocacy or commentary without a clear empirical basis.
Free, Low-Cost, and Professional Preparation Options
Authors do not need to purchase a service simply because they are submitting to a journal. Many manuscripts can be prepared successfully through careful self-review, supervisor feedback, coauthor review, university writing support, library consultation, reference-management software, and the official Sage guidance.
| Option | Best use | Main strength | Important limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Official author instructions | Scope, format, files, declarations, and submission steps | Authoritative journal-specific requirements | Do not rely on an old downloaded copy |
| Coauthor or supervisor review | Substantive argument, methods, interpretation, and contribution | Deep knowledge of the project | Familiarity can hide clarity problems |
| University writing center | Structure, academic communication, and writer development | Often free or institutionally supported | Specialist journal knowledge may vary |
| Reference manager | Citation organization and APA consistency | Efficient handling of large bibliographies | Imported metadata still requires verification |
| Professional manuscript assessment | Fit, organization, reporting gaps, and submission readiness | Independent document-level review | Cannot repair weak research design after data collection |
| Academic editing and proofreading | Clarity, flow, grammar, terminology, and final quality control | Useful for complex or multilingual manuscripts | Must not replace authorial analysis or accountability |
Expert help is most useful when the problem is clearly defined. “Make this publishable” is too broad. “Check whether the abstract reflects the study, whether the policy contribution is visible, whether the discussion overclaims causality, and whether APA references correspond” is a responsible and reviewable editing brief.
When Self-Preparation Is Enough and When Expert Review Is Safer
Self-preparation is often enough when the research team knows the journal, the manuscript has already received strong disciplinary feedback, the methods and reporting are stable, the English is clear, and someone can perform an independent technical audit. The authors should still allocate time for anonymization and final verification rather than uploading immediately after the last substantive revision.
Specialist review can be safer when the manuscript crosses disciplines, uses complex methods, has been revised by many coauthors, is written by an ESL team, or must be reduced significantly to meet the page limit. It can also help when reviewers of a prior submission identified unclear contribution, weak flow, inconsistent terminology, incomplete reporting, or an abstract that did not match the results.
The relevant service should match the need. Manuscript assessment evaluates the document at a higher level; manuscript editing improves organization and language; proofreading support targets final-stage errors; and publication support can assist with guideline checks and submission materials. None of these services can guarantee editorial review, acceptance, or publication.
How to Prepare a Police Quarterly Submission: Step by Step
1. Confirm the journal identity and current instructions
Open the official Police Quarterly page and verify that you are not reading the instructions for a similarly named journal. Record the date you checked the guidelines. Note the scope, article type, length, abstract, keywords, style, peer-review model, required declarations, and accepted files.
2. Write a one-sentence journal-fit statement
Complete this sentence: “This manuscript belongs in Police Quarterly because it uses [evidence and method] to answer [policing question], producing [scholarly contribution] with implications for [policy or practice].” Use the sentence to test whether the paper’s title, abstract, introduction, and discussion tell the same story.
3. Audit the research question and claims
Check that the design can answer the question and that the language reflects the design. Cross-sectional associations should not be described as causal effects. Qualitative findings should be grounded in the sampling, analytic process, and evidence presented. Policy implications should follow from the results rather than from the authors’ preferences.
4. Align the title, abstract, keywords, and main text
The title should identify the main policing topic without exaggeration. The abstract should state the problem, purpose, method, main findings, and conclusion in the permitted range. Choose three to five precise keywords that help editors, reviewers, and databases understand the topic and method.
5. Reduce the manuscript strategically
Use the 40-page total and 25-page narrative limits as planning constraints. Remove repetition across the introduction, literature review, results, and discussion. Combine overlapping tables where clarity improves. Do not hide essential methods in supplemental material unless the journal permits it and the main article remains understandable.
6. Prepare the identifying title page
Include the full author list and affiliations, corresponding-author contact details, acknowledgments, conflict declaration, funding statement, ethics and consent information, data availability statement, and other identifying material requested by the journal. Confirm that every author meets authorship criteria and approves the submitted version.
7. Create a fully anonymized review manuscript
Remove names, affiliations, acknowledgments, author biographies, identifiable headers, file names, document properties, and embedded comments. Review self-citations, repository links, ethics committee descriptions, and location details for unnecessary identity clues. Preserve enough information for reviewers to assess the scholarship.
8. Format text, references, tables, and figures
Apply APA 7 consistently. Use 12-point Times Roman, double spacing, one-inch margins, and sequential page numbers. Match every in-text citation to a reference entry and every reference entry to a citation. Number tables and figures in order, cite each in the text, and verify permissions and resolution.
9. Complete the ethics and transparency check
Confirm approvals, consent, conflicts, funding, data availability, authorship, permissions, preprint information, and any third-party writing or editing assistance. Review Sage’s policies on publication ethics, research integrity, and generative AI. AI tools should not be listed as authors, and authors must verify any AI-assisted output.
10. Perform an independent submission audit
Ask a coauthor or editor who did not do the final formatting to inspect the files. Check page counts, abstract length, keywords, anonymity, declarations, references, tables, figures, file names, and the submission-system fields. An independent audit often catches errors the primary author no longer sees.
Research Design and Reporting for a Policing Journal
Strong writing cannot compensate for a design that does not answer the research question, so submission preparation should include a reporting audit rather than only a grammar check. Reviewers need enough information to understand what was studied, why the design was appropriate, how the evidence was analyzed, and where uncertainty remains.
Define the unit of analysis clearly
Policing studies may analyze officers, encounters, calls for service, incidents, complaints, agencies, neighborhoods, time periods, policies, or jurisdictions. Ambiguity about the unit of analysis can create incorrect standard errors, duplicated observations, or overgeneralized conclusions. State the unit, sampling frame, inclusion criteria, and dependence structure.
Separate prediction, association, and causation
Use causal language only when the design and assumptions support it. A regression coefficient in observational data is not automatically an intervention effect. Explain temporal ordering, confounding controls, identification strategy, sensitivity checks, and limitations. For qualitative work, distinguish participant interpretations, analytic themes, and the authors’ broader claims.
Report measurement choices
Terms such as force, misconduct, legitimacy, stress, effectiveness, compliance, and depolicing can be operationalized in different ways. Define variables and constructs, explain coding, report reliability or validation where relevant, and discuss what the measure does not capture.
Address context and transferability
Police organizations and legal systems differ. Report the institutional, geographic, legal, and policy context needed to interpret the findings. Avoid implying universal relevance from a single agency or location. Instead, explain which mechanisms may transfer and which depend on local conditions.
Make practical implications proportionate
A useful implications section identifies what decision-makers can reasonably learn, what remains uncertain, and what further evidence is needed. Avoid recommendations that are broader than the data. Policy relevance becomes more credible when it acknowledges constraints, implementation conditions, costs, equity effects, and unintended consequences.
Where a study design has a recognized reporting guideline, consult an appropriate source such as the EQUATOR Network. Not every policing study maps neatly to a health-research checklist, but the principle of complete and transparent reporting remains valuable.
Formatting, Anonymization, and Submission Files
The submission package should make it easy for the editorial office to verify compliance and send a clean manuscript to reviewers. Treat the title page and anonymized manuscript as separate products rather than as two copies of the same file.
Title page
- Full article title
- All author names and institutional affiliations
- Corresponding-author name, address, telephone number, and email
- Acknowledgments and contributor information
- Funding statement, including a no-funding statement where applicable
- Declaration of conflicting interests
- Ethics approval and informed-consent information where applicable
- Data availability statement
- Other identifying information required by the journal
Anonymized manuscript
- Article title without author names
- Unstructured abstract in the current required range
- Three to five keywords
- Main text, notes, references, tables, figures, and appendices in the prescribed order
- No identifying acknowledgments, biographies, institutional headers, or document metadata
- Neutral handling of self-citations and masked details only where anonymity requires it
APA 7 quality-control points
Check heading levels, author-date citations, reference capitalization, italics, DOI formatting, table notes, figure captions, statistical notation, abbreviations, numbers, and quotations. Reference software can accelerate the process but cannot determine whether the correct source has been cited or whether imported metadata is accurate.
Figures, permissions, and supplementary material
Number figures consecutively and ensure that every figure is discussed in the text. The guideline requests 300-dpi figure resolution. Obtain permission for copyrighted tables, figures, illustrations, or long quotations that you do not own. If supplemental files are included, confirm that the file type is accepted and that the manuscript remains understandable without material reviewers may not open immediately.
Ethical Academic Editing and Author Responsibility
Ethical support improves communication without taking ownership of the scholarship. Authors remain responsible for the research question, data, analysis, claims, citations, authorship, disclosures, and final submission.
Police research can involve sensitive personal information, institutional records, vulnerable participants, operational details, and legal restrictions. The manuscript should accurately report ethics committee or institutional review board approval, waivers, consent procedures, data protection, and limitations on sharing. A data availability statement should explain whether data are available, where they can be found, or why access is restricted. Sage’s research data sharing guidance provides further context.
Authorship should reflect genuine scholarly contribution and agreement. Every listed author should approve the submitted version. Contributors who do not meet authorship criteria should be acknowledged appropriately. The journal asks authors to disclose third-party writing or editing assistance in the acknowledgments and cover letter when applicable.
Generative AI systems should not be listed as authors. Any AI-assisted wording, coding, searching, translation, or summarization must be verified by the human authors. Do not trust generated references without opening and checking the original source. Sensitive or confidential police data should not be entered into an external tool without authorization and appropriate safeguards.
Editing may include language correction, clarity improvement, structural suggestions, reference consistency, and journal-format checks. It should not fabricate findings, hide limitations, create a false policy implication, or promise acceptance. This distinction protects the author, the participants, the journal, and the scholarly record.
Common Police Quarterly Submission Mistakes to Avoid
- Following the wrong journal page. Police Quarterly and The Police Journal are different publications.
- Treating a policing setting as sufficient scope. The paper needs a clear contribution to policing knowledge.
- Submitting a descriptive report. Frequencies and local observations need an analytical question and interpretation.
- Exceeding the page budget. Count narrative and total pages before the last week of preparation.
- Using causal language for correlational findings. Match claims to design and assumptions.
- Hiding practical relevance. Explain the policy or practice significance throughout, not only in the final paragraph.
- Incomplete anonymization. Inspect file names, metadata, tracked changes, headers, self-citations, and ethics details.
- Abstract-main text mismatch. The abstract must reflect the actual method, findings, and conclusion.
- Reference correspondence errors. Every text citation needs a matching reference and vice versa.
- Generic declarations. Provide accurate conflict, funding, ethics, consent, data, and assistance statements.
- Unverified AI-generated material. Check every fact, quotation, citation, and interpretation.
- Last-minute uploading. Leave time for an independent file and submission-system audit.
Practical Examples: Preparing Different Policing Studies
Example 1: A body-worn-camera study with an overclaimed conclusion
Situation: A research team analyzes observational data from one municipal department and finds an association between camera activation and complaint outcomes.
Common mistake: The draft title says cameras “reduce complaints,” although activation was not randomized and assignment may reflect incident type, officer behavior, or policy compliance.
Correct approach: Reframe the question as an association, explain the data-generating process, identify confounders, report robustness checks, and describe the institutional context. The implications can focus on implementation, measurement, and future causal evaluation rather than claiming a universal effect.
Ethical expert guidance: A manuscript assessor can flag the gap between design and language, while an editor can align the title, abstract, results, and discussion without changing the findings.
Example 2: An interview study on officer wellbeing
Situation: A PhD scholar conducts semi-structured interviews with officers from several units about workload, support, and psychological health.
Common mistake: The manuscript presents long quotations and themes but gives limited information about recruitment, reflexivity, coding decisions, saturation, negative cases, or how organizational context shaped the accounts.
Correct approach: Explain the qualitative design, sampling, interview process, analytic method, research-team positioning, evidence for themes, and limits to transferability. Connect the findings to policing organizations and policy without implying prevalence from a qualitative sample.
Ethical expert guidance: Editing can improve the balance between participant voice and analytic explanation while preserving confidentiality and the researcher’s interpretation.
Example 3: A first-time author studying community trust
Situation: An early-career researcher uses a cross-sectional community survey to examine perceived procedural justice, police legitimacy, and willingness to cooperate.
Common mistake: The paper repeats a large literature, uses several overlapping scales without clear measurement explanation, and ends with generic calls for “better community policing.”
Correct approach: Define the theoretical mechanism, justify the measures, report reliability, state the sampling limitations, distinguish association from directionality, and develop implications tied to the actual findings and local context.
Ethical expert guidance: A structured edit can reduce repetition, strengthen signposting, and make the contribution visible without inventing novelty or overstating representativeness.
Police Quarterly Manuscript Readiness Checklist
Scope and contribution
- Policing is the central analytical subject, not merely the setting.
- The manuscript presents empirical evidence and a clear research question.
- The contribution to policing scholarship is stated directly.
- Policy or practice relevance follows from the evidence.
- Recent Police Quarterly articles have been reviewed for fit and conversation.
Methods and reporting
- The unit of analysis, sample, setting, measures, and analytic method are clear.
- Claims match the design and uncertainty is reported honestly.
- Ethics approval, consent, confidentiality, and data handling are described accurately.
- Limitations address design, measurement, context, and generalizability or transferability.
- Relevant reporting guidance has been checked.
Manuscript requirements
- Total pages do not exceed 40 and the narrative ordinarily does not exceed 25 pages.
- The abstract is within 150–200 words unless the live system instructs otherwise.
- Three to five specific keywords are included.
- APA 7, 12-point Times Roman, double spacing, one-inch margins, and page numbering are consistent.
- References, tables, figures, notes, and appendices appear in the correct order.
Files and anonymity
- The title page contains all identifying details and declarations.
- The review manuscript contains no unnecessary identifying information.
- File names, metadata, tracked changes, comments, headers, and footers have been inspected.
- Every table and figure is cited, numbered, legible, and permission-cleared.
- All required submission files are ready in accepted formats.
Final integrity check
- Every author has approved the manuscript and author order.
- Funding, conflicts, data availability, preprint status, and third-party assistance are disclosed.
- AI-assisted material has been verified and handled according to policy.
- No reference, quotation, result, or statistic has been invented or left unverified.
- An independent reader has completed the final technical audit.
How Contentxprtz Can Help
Contentxprtz supports researchers who need an independent review of manuscript clarity and submission readiness. For a Police Quarterly paper, the most relevant services are usually manuscript assessment, academic editing, proofreading, and journal-submission support rather than broad writing assistance.
A focused engagement may examine whether the abstract reflects the paper, whether the policing contribution is visible, whether methods and limitations are reported clearly, whether policy implications are proportionate, whether APA references correspond, and whether the files follow the journal’s structure. ESL academic editing can improve grammar and readability while preserving technical meaning and author voice.
Contentxprtz does not make acceptance decisions and cannot guarantee publication. The authors remain responsible for the research, ethics, data, citations, claims, disclosures, and final approval. Where third-party editing assistance is used, authors should follow Sage’s disclosure requirements.
Summary: Police Quarterly Journal Submission Guidance
Police Quarterly is a specialized, peer-reviewed Sage journal for empirical and policy-relevant policing research. A suitable manuscript places policing at the center of the question, uses a rigorous qualitative or quantitative design, reports the evidence transparently, and explains what the findings contribute to scholarship and practice.
Authors should plan around the 40-page total limit and 25-page narrative limit, use APA 7, prepare an abstract that safely fits the overlapping guideline ranges, include three to five keywords, and create separate identifying and anonymized files. Funding, conflicts, ethics, consent, data availability, preprints, permissions, and writing assistance should be disclosed accurately.
Technical compliance does not guarantee peer review or acceptance, but it prevents avoidable errors from obscuring the research. A disciplined process—fit, design, writing, anonymization, formatting, verification, and submission—gives editors and reviewers the clearest possible basis for evaluating the work.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Police Quarterly journal and what does it publish?
Police Quarterly is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal published by Sage that focuses primarily on empirical research about policing. Its stated scope welcomes both qualitative and quantitative studies, especially work that produces policy-relevant knowledge for researchers and policing practitioners. Suitable manuscripts may examine police behavior, organizational practices, training, leadership, legitimacy, accountability, technology, officer wellbeing, community relationships, use of force, decision-making, or other clearly policing-centered questions. The journal is published quarterly. It generally favors analytical studies with a defensible research design rather than purely descriptive reports or opinion pieces. Before submitting, authors should compare their research question, sample, methods, and practical contribution with the journal’s official aims and recently published articles. A manuscript can be methodologically sound yet still be a poor fit if policing is only a background setting or if the paper does not explain how the findings matter for policy, practice, or policing scholarship.
Is Police Quarterly the same as The Police Journal?
No. Police Quarterly and The Police Journal: Theory, Practice and Principles are separate Sage journals with different titles, journal codes, scopes, and author instructions. This distinction matters because search results can display both publications, and an author who follows the wrong guideline page may prepare the wrong length, structure, reference style, or submission files. Police Quarterly emphasizes empirical, policy-oriented policing research and uses its own submission portal and author requirements. The Police Journal has a broader theory-practice framing and a separate set of instructions. Verify the journal title at every stage: when reading the aims and scope, downloading author guidelines, reviewing recent articles, creating the cover letter, and selecting the destination in the manuscript submission system. Also check the journal abbreviation and ISSN in library or indexing records. A few minutes of verification can prevent a technically avoidable return before peer review.
What research topics are a good fit for Police Quarterly?
A strong fit is a manuscript in which policing is the central analytical subject and the study offers evidence that can inform scholarship, policy, or practice. Potential topics include police legitimacy and public trust, officer decision-making, body-worn cameras, use of force, organizational justice, leadership, recruitment, training, police culture, technology adoption, accountability, community policing, crisis response, officer health, misconduct, supervision, and police-public encounters. Both quantitative and qualitative methods can fit when the design is rigorous and the contribution is clear. A weaker fit is a paper that mentions police only incidentally, presents local statistics without an analytical question, summarizes opinions without evidence, or offers a broad criminal-justice argument that could be submitted unchanged to a non-policing journal. Authors should read the official journal description and several recent articles, then write a one-sentence fit statement: “This study advances policing research by…” If that sentence is vague, the scope case probably needs further development.
What are the manuscript length, abstract, and keyword requirements?
The official Police Quarterly instructions state that manuscripts should be in English, fully double-spaced, and no more than 40 pages including tables, notes, references, and other material, with the narrative ordinarily limited to 25 pages. The guideline page currently contains two abstract ranges in different sections: 150–250 words and 150–200 words. A practical approach is to prepare an unstructured abstract of 150–200 words unless the submission system or editorial office gives a more specific instruction, because that range satisfies both statements. Include three to five specific keywords after the abstract. The journal also identifies a preferred order for manuscript components, including title page, abstract, keywords, main text, notes, references, tables, figures, appendices, and a biographical sketch where required. Authors should recheck the live guideline page immediately before submission because publisher instructions can be revised.
Does Police Quarterly use double-anonymized peer review?
Yes. Police Quarterly states that it uses double-anonymized peer review, meaning the reviewers should not know the authors’ identities and the authors should not know the reviewers’ identities. Authors therefore need two cleanly separated files: a title page containing names, affiliations, acknowledgments, funding, conflicts, contact details, and other identifying information; and an anonymized manuscript that removes author names and other clues. File names, headers, footers, tracked changes, document properties, self-citations, ethics statements, repository links, and acknowledgments can all reveal identity if they are not handled carefully. The journal explains that manuscripts first receive an initial evaluation and may be returned for technical corrections or desk rejected if they are out of scope or unsuitable. After that stage, peer review proceeds under the journal’s policy. Anonymization should preserve scholarly clarity: do not delete necessary citations; instead use neutral wording where temporary masking is genuinely required.
How should a Police Quarterly manuscript be formatted?
The journal’s author instructions specify APA Style, seventh edition, with 12-point Times Roman, double spacing throughout, one-inch margins, and sequential page numbering. The manuscript should have clear heading levels and a logical separation of the title page, abstract, keywords, main text, references, tables, figures, appendices, and biographical information where requested. In-text citations and reference-list entries must correspond exactly in author spelling and year. Tables and figures should be numbered in the order cited, and authors should secure permission for copyrighted material they do not own. The preferred manuscript format is Word, although authors should always check the current accepted-file list in the submission system. Formatting is not merely cosmetic: it helps the editorial office assess compliance, supports anonymous review, and reduces production problems. Before uploading, run a document-wide check for font, spacing, margins, heading consistency, citation correspondence, table callouts, figure resolution, and hidden identifying metadata.
Is there a fee to submit or publish in Police Quarterly?
The official submission page states that there are no fees to submit or publish a standard article in Police Quarterly. Online color figures can be published without a color charge, while print color may involve a separate fee. The journal also offers optional open-access publishing through Sage Choice or eligible institutional agreements, and that route may involve an article processing charge unless an agreement provides a discount or full coverage. Open access is therefore an optional publishing model, not a requirement for ordinary submission. Authors should distinguish among submission fees, standard publication charges, optional open-access charges, print color costs, and any unrelated third-party editing expenses. Funding rules and institutional agreements can change, so the corresponding author should verify the current Sage open-access information and ask the institution’s library or research office about available agreements before making a financial decision.
Does Police Quarterly accept manuscripts that have appeared as preprints?
Yes. Police Quarterly states that it will consider manuscripts previously posted on a preprint server. Authors should provide the preprint DOI in the designated submission field and inform the editorial office where instructed. The guideline also advises authors not to post an updated version of the manuscript on the preprint server while the paper is under peer review. If the article is later accepted, the preprint should be linked to the final published version in accordance with the journal’s archiving and reuse policy. Preprint acceptance does not remove the need to confirm originality, rights, permissions, authorship consent, and exclusive consideration by the journal. Authors should also anonymize any repository references in the review manuscript when a direct link would reveal identity, while supplying the complete information in the title page, cover letter, or submission fields as appropriate.
What common problems can lead to return or desk rejection?
Common avoidable problems include submitting a topic outside the journal’s policing scope, presenting a descriptive report without a clear analytical contribution, exceeding the page limits, using the wrong journal’s instructions, failing to anonymize the manuscript, omitting required declarations, or providing an abstract and keywords that do not accurately represent the study. More substantive concerns include a weak research question, unsuitable design, unclear sampling, underdeveloped theoretical framing, unsupported causal language, limited discussion of practical implications, and conclusions that exceed the data. Citation problems, inconsistent APA formatting, missing table or figure callouts, poor language clarity, and incomplete ethics or data statements can also delay evaluation. Technical compliance cannot guarantee review or acceptance, but it prevents the manuscript from being disadvantaged by errors that are unrelated to the underlying research. A final scope, methods, ethics, formatting, and anonymity audit is therefore worthwhile.
When can professional editing help with a Police Quarterly submission?
Professional editing can help after the authors have completed the research and developed the manuscript’s substantive argument. A qualified academic editor can improve sentence clarity, organization, transitions, terminology consistency, abstract precision, table presentation, APA consistency, and alignment between the stated question, methods, results, and conclusions. A manuscript assessment can also identify whether the journal-fit explanation, policy implications, limitations, and reporting structure are visible enough for an editor and reviewers to evaluate. Ethical editing must preserve the authors’ ideas, findings, interpretation, and responsibility. It should not invent data, create citations, conceal authorship, guarantee acceptance, or make undisclosed substantive decisions on behalf of the research team. Sage asks authors to disclose third-party writing or editing assistance in the acknowledgments and cover letter where applicable. Contentxprtz can support manuscript editing, proofreading, and publication readiness while the authors retain full control of the scholarship and final submission.
Conclusion: Prepare the Research, Not Just the File
The main challenge in a Police Quarterly submission is not merely converting a document into the correct font and spacing. Authors must show that the study belongs in a policing journal, that the research design supports the claims, that the evidence is reported transparently, and that the practical implications are proportionate to the findings.
Self-service preparation may be sufficient when the team has strong disciplinary feedback, clear writing, and time for an independent audit. Expert-assisted editing or publication support may be safer when the manuscript is complex, over length, multilingual, inconsistently revised, or unclear about contribution and policy relevance. The appropriate support improves clarity and compliance without replacing author judgment or responsibility.
Before submission, verify the live Sage instructions, inspect every file for anonymity, confirm all declarations, and ask one independent reader to assess the package as an editor would see it. For ethical support with manuscript assessment, editing, proofreading, or submission readiness, authors can request a focused review from Contentxprtz.
“At Contentxprtz, we don’t just edit; we help ideas reach their fullest potential.”
