Submissions

Author Guidelines

Authors are invited to make a submission to this journal. All submissions will be assessed by an editor to determine whether they meet the aims and scope of this journal. Those considered to be a good fit will be sent for peer review before determining whether they will be accepted or rejected.

Before making a submission, authors are responsible for obtaining permission to publish any material included with the submission, such as photos, documents and datasets. All authors identified on the submission must consent to be identified as an author. Where appropriate, research should be approved by an appropriate ethics committee in accordance with the legal requirements of the study's country.

An editor may desk reject a submission if it does not meet minimum standards of quality. Before submitting, please ensure that the study design and research argument are structured and articulated properly. The title should be concise and the abstract should be able to stand on its own. This will increase the likelihood of reviewers agreeing to review the paper. When you're satisfied that your submission meets this standard, please follow the checklist below to prepare your submission.

Individual calls for submissions may include more detailed author guidelines with additional information beyond what is given here.

JARPS will accept submissions in the sections listed below the checklist.

General Guidelines

Please follow the guidelines below when you prepare a submission for the Japanese Journal of Analog Role-Playing Game Studies (JARPS). JARPS contributions are published in HTML and PDF format.

Please note: To allow easy referencing of the HTML format (which does not include page numbers), JARPS uses paragraph numbers (e.g., [1.1] for the first paragraph under heading 1, [4.6] for the sixth paragraph under heading 4). However, we ask you not to number paragraphs in your manuscript, as this will be done in production.

Please ensure instead that you only use first-level headings (e.g., 1. Introduction, 2. Background, or other section title fitting your manuscript.). JARPS cannot accept lower-level headings, such as 1.1 or 2.1.3. (as these numbers are reserved for the paragraphs). Acknowledgments, Notes, References, and the Ludography are not numbered. Please order the text according to the structure below.

• Structured Abstract (except Book Review, Short Letter)
• Keywords (at least three, maximum six)
• Main Text with first-level, numbered headings
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• References
• Ludography

If you submit an Original Research Article, a Theoretical Article, a Case Report, Explorative Paper, or Educational Material, omit the author name(s) and their affiliation for peer-review. The name is not omitted for Book Reviews, Short Letters, and Notes/News.

Please upload supplementary files, such as images, together with the manuscript. Do not embed them directly in the paper.

For contributions by several authors, a single author needs to be designated as the corresponding author, who will be responsible for the submission through the submission and publication processes.

Hyperlinks can be included under words if the label [external link] is added after the word(s). Shortened URLs, however, will not be accepted (e.g., shortened via TinyURL).

File Preparation

JARPS accepts submissions in DOC or DOCX format. We encourage the use of our template file.

Before submissions, all information within the text and all metadata identifying the author(s) should be deleted from a file’s properties. Files must be uploaded through JARPS's online submission system.

Markdown: Authors familiar with and using Multi-Markdown may additionally upload their submission in MD format as a supplementary file during the production process (after review and acceptance). If you use pandoc and BibTex, please include your bibliography in JSON format as a supplementary file as well.

Supplementary File Formats

JARPS encourages the use of images and figures where appropriate. Authors may upload supplementary files during the submission process (following the screen instructions.).

1. Images: We accept JEPG, PNG, and WEBP files (please see size limits during upload).
2. Tables: Please send them as separate XLS or XLSX files.
3. Videos: JARPS does not host video files directly. You may include links to videos hosted elsewhere, e.g. Youtube or niconico. If relevant, ensure that the URL conceals the identity of the author so as to retain blind peer review. If no embed code is provided by YouTube, for example, then permission has been withheld for such embedding by the creator. In these cases, JARPS will include only a link.

Images and tables should not be embedded in the main text. Instead, refer to images, tables, and videos sequentially in the text giving their number: figure 1, figure 2, figure 3; graph 1, graph 2, graph 3; table 1, table 2, table 3; video 1, video 2, video 3. Files should be named accordingly, following the format below:

• Ex. Figure 1): manuscripKeyword-figure-1.jpg
• Ex. Table 1): manuscriptKeyword-table1.xlsx

Refer to this filename in the text where you want the image or video to appear. Similarly, place a video URL where you want the video to show.

All figures and videos need to be provided with a caption, describing the image, table, or video, and listing credits where necessary. Place the caption under the filename in the text. For images, please also provide an alternative description of the content to accompany the image in the HTML version of the article (cf. accessibility). JARPS may resize or reformat images and other supplementary files during the production process.

Permissions

Authors, not JARPS, are responsible for obtaining and paying for permissions. The Japanese Journal and the Association of Analog Role-Playing Game Studies are committed to the free expression of ideas, particularly in the context of scholarly activity about amateur role-playing games and artworks. Therefore, we do not require the consent, explicit or implicit, of the original author of a work under discussion, such as a replay or a scenario. All citation URLs to such texts need only be open to the public. JARPS permits screenshots of media sources, such as video replays, and clips to be printed under our rationale of fair use.

Citations & References

JARPS uses inline citations (Author, Date) and follows the Chicago Manual of Style 17th Edition for English-language submissions. For Japanese-language texts, we follow recommendations by the Japan Sociological Society's style guide (JSS). Authors using bibliographical software, such as Zotero or JurisM, can download a multilingual CSL Style from our website (for the style to correctly recognize Japanese references, include a “ja” in the language field).

If you use Non-English sources in English-language submissions, include an English translation in square brackets [ ] after the source title. You may list special sources, such as movies or games, separately (a second heading with “Ludography,” for example, when referencing games).

Please see our Writing Style Sheet for example citations and references.