Submission Guidelines

Make a new submission or view your pending submissions.

Online Submissions

Already have a Username/Password for The Lab's Quarterly? Go to Login

Need a Username/Password? Go to Registration

Registration and login are required to submit items online and to check the status of current submissions.

Author Guidelines

To submit a paper, you need to log in to our site, which requires you to be registered. If you are not registered, please complete the form on our registration page (which will log you in after it is submitted). If you are registered, please go to the paper submission page (which will ask you to log in if you are not already logged in).

  • The submission must default to the journal editorial norms: ITA - ENG
  • Research articles should range between 6,000 and 9000 words (all-inclusive). Articles exceeding 9,000 words will be automatically rejected.
  • Tables and figures must be included in the main manuscript at the appropriate locations, numbered, and accompanied by appropriate captions/Titles. Tables must be editable and not embedded as images. Original images (with a resolution of 300 dpi) must also be uploaded to the platform in JPG or PNG.
  • Authors must obtain the appropriate permissions to use materials originally produced by others, and require that any permission letters be provided.
  • An abstract and 3-5 keywords are required for an article submission.
  • If you are requested by the Editor to submit revisions for review, you can upload a revised version to the system.
  • This journal uses double-blind review, which means that both the reviewer and author identities are concealed from the reviewers, and vice versa, throughout the review process.
  • To ensure anonymity, authors must prepare their manuscript as follows: by ensuring that all document properties have been removed; by omitting acknowledgements and references to research projects (these may be added at the final stage); by referring to their own works in the third person.
  • Please see the Submission Preparation Checklist for specific guidelines.

Book Review Guidelines

The following are some guidelines for a book review essay. Your book review should concern only the book(s) that you’re reviewing with a word count of about 1,500 words (including the references). It should provide readers an engaging, informative and critical discussion of the work, considering:

  • The intended audience for the book and those who would find it useful
  • The main objectives of the book and how effectively these are accomplished
  • A comparison of other works on this subject
  • Constructive comments about the strengths and weaknesses of the book

Please lead your essay with the following listing:

  • Author(s) or editor(s) first and last name(s) and please indicate if it is an edited book
  • Title of book
  • Publisher's city and state and name of publisher
  • Year of publication
  • Total # of page expressed as pp. XXX
  • Image of the book cover

Es. Antonio De Simone. SIMMEL E IL DENARO. La cifra dell'essere. Simbolo forme e vita sociale. Milano, Mimesis, 2025, 236 pp.

Under this listing, please include your information:

  • Your first and last name
  • Institution affiliation

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions that do not adhere to these guidelines may be returned to authors.

      1. The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for publication consideration (or an explanation has been provided in "Comments to the Editor").

      2. The submission file is in .doc or .docx format and should not exceed 9000 words (all-inclusive). 

      3. To avoid plagiarism, all the submitted work are checked for plagiarism via Turnitin Originality Check provided by the University of Pisa. By submitting their work, authors are agreeing to originality checks during the peer-review process. Further information on our conduct on plagiarism can be found on our Code of Ethics.

      4. All URL addresses in the text (e.g., https://thelabsq.sp.unipi.it) are deactivated.

      5. The text is single-spaced; uses a 10-point font (Times New Roman); employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate reference points, rather than at the end of the article. We strongly encourage authors to request the journal .docx template by contacting thelabs@sp.unipi.it 

      6. For texts in Italian, double quotation marks (“ ”) are recommended for direct quotations, and single quotation marks (‘ ’) should be used for quotations within quoted text. For texts in English, single quotation marks (‘ ’) are conventionally used for direct quotations. Quotations exceeding three lines should be set off from the main text with a blank line before and after and indented by 0.5 cm..

      7. The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Submission Guidelines.

      8. The text has had the authors' names removed. The author's name has also been removed from the document's Properties.

        Ensure there is no author information in the metadata of any of the files submitted. Remove acknowledgments, grant funding, or other author-related information from the manuscript. Check the figures for appearance of any author names.

        When referring to your own work within the paper, consider:

        a) Avoiding the first-person in association with any citation (e.g., replace “As we have shown (Jones, 2012) …” with “As Jones (2012) has shown…”).

        b) Remove references to your own unpublished/in press work except where essential; where such work is cited, delete the author’s name (i.e., cite as “Author, forthcoming”) and remove from the reference list.

        c) Avoid references that by implication identify the author (e.g., delete “This work is part of a larger grant project; Author, 2013, 2014”).

        d) Avoid excessive self-citation.

      9. Research articles should range between 6000 - 9000 words (including the abstract, images with captions, footnotes, references, and appendices, if any - ALL INCLUSIVE). Book reviews should range between 1200 - 1500 words.

      10. Any endnotes should be converted to footnotes.

      11. Authors must include their profile, including affiliation and position, when completing the bio information.

      12. All articles should include an abstract of no more than 150 words and 3 to 5 keywords.

      13. All articles must follow the journal editorial norms: ITA - ENG.

      14. All articles must include a references list at the conclusion of their manuscript that conforms to the 7th edition of APA style.

      15. Only one submission by an author will be considered at a time, and at least one year must have elapsed since the author’s previous publication in the journal. The journal nevertheless reserves the right to assess exceptions at its discretion, for example in cases where an author’s work still appears in the “Online First” section despite more than one year having passed.

      16. Articles and features are double-blind reviewed and therefore these papers must be anonymized. This journal uses double-blind review, which means that both the reviewer and author identities are concealed from the reviewers, and vice versa, throughout the review process. To facilitate this, authors need to ensure that their manuscripts are prepared in a way that does not give away their identities.

AI Guidelines

The Lab's Quarterly acknowledges that LLMs and GenAI can support and accelerate research and scholarly communication, but cannot replace human creativity and critical thinking.
Following other editors, we distinguish between assistive uses, which do not require disclosure; generative uses, which must be disclosed; and prohibited uses, providing guidance for authors, reviewers, and editors on the ethical use of AI.

Assistive use (no disclosure)

Tools that only help authors or reviewers improve their own text, for example by suggesting changes to language, grammar, clarity, or structure, are considered assistive AI and do not need to be disclosed.

Generative use (disclosure encouraged)

Authors should disclose the use of GenAI when it contributes substantively to the research or publication process. This includes support with literature searches, source compilation, translation during the research process, AI-generated or AI-assisted code, data visualization, illustrative materials such as infographics, error-checking of code, or reference management.

Prohibited use

Undisclosed or inappropriate use of GenAI may result in rejection at any stage of the publication process. Reviewers must not use GenAI tools to produce review reports in ways that compromise the integrity or confidentiality of peer review; such reviews may be excluded, and reviewers may no longer be invited by the journal. The journal and publisher may take appropriate action when the use of GenAI breaches peer-review confidentiality.

Inappropriate uses include generating inaccurate or fabricated content, producing data or submissions through prompting, replacing human participants with GenAI in qualitative research, using GenAI to analyse experiences or themes, plagiarism or improper attribution, presenting AI-generated images as original research outputs, fabricating references or claims, and using GenAI to perform editorial or peer-review work.