Manuscripts
The Editors invite authors to submit original manuscripts on all issues related to global economic governance. Because the World Trade Review (WTR) is multidisciplinary and the intended audience includes a broad cross-section of professionals interested in trade issues, prospective authors are strongly encouraged to ensure that their contribution is accessible to readers from disciplines other than their own.
It is assumed that the submission of a manuscript to the WTR signals that it has not been, and will not be, submitted elsewhere at the same time. If a paper is under review elsewhere, this will be considered grounds for an a priori rejection of the manuscript. Papers scheduled for future publication in book form will be considered, provided they appear first in the WTR (papers in this category must be clearly identified as such when they are first submitted).
With a global, multidisciplinary readership spanning academia, policy and practice, a publication in WTR guarantees high visibility and impact. The WTR prioritizes submissions that are of high scholarly quality and that develop clear policy implications from their analytical work. Since a demonstration of impact is increasingly desirable in the profile of academics, the WTR offers a platform for those eager to bridge academic silos and to shape international economic policy.
The WTR aims for a short turnaround of papers with feedback based on peer-review within 2 to 4 months. For papers that are out of scope for the journal or are poorly written and not accessible to a large and diverse audience, the editorial board reserves the right to desk reject, with a quick decision within 2 to 4 weeks after submission.
· Original articles (max. 14,000 words, including notes and references) are original and high-quality contributions that produce innovative, methodologically rigorous, and policy-relevant research that meets the best practices as established in the fields covered in this journal.
· Research notes (max. 7,000 words) offer a novel contribution to our understanding of international trade and investment. This can include the presentation and discussion of new or updated datasets, pieces that introduce new archival data, analyses that challenge conventional wisdom in the respective disciplines, or novel theoretical or conceptual insights. For this type of manuscript, we do not require the same level of theoretical contribution and empirical rigour as for a regular research article.
· Comments from readers (max. 3,000 words) are opportunities for readers to engage with already published research articles and challenge, rebut, or amplify published articles. Before a comment on a published article is accepted for publication, a copy will be sent to the original author giving him/her the opportunity to submit a brief reply, which will also be published in the same issue of WTR.
· ‘From the Trenches’ contributions (max. 5,000 words) are opportunities for practitioners and experts to reflect on, and analyse, the actual practice of economic diplomacy in the fields of international trade and investment law.
Manuscripts in all categories are sent to referees for comment prior to a decision being taken about their acceptability for publication in the WTR.
Special issues and themes sections (Symposia)
WTR intends to publish a special issue once a year. WTR also occasionally publishes symposia which consist of three or four research articles on a timely subject and preferably inter- or transdisciplinary in nature. See detailed information on the call for proposals for special issues and symposia here.
Submission
All manuscripts should be submitted via our online system at: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/wtr
All submissions should be written in good English (UK or US spelling is accepted). Authors, whose first language is not English, should consider having their work checked by a native English speaker or professional proofreading service before submission. Cambridge University Press offers a language-editing service in conjunction with a third-party provider American Journal Experts: www.cambridge.org/academic/author-services . Authors will need to pay for this service individually and there is absolutely no commitment that their paper will be accepted for publication by a Cambridge journal if they use this service. Cambridge is providing this service in order to provide a convenient option for prospective authors, which comes with the reassurance that we have checked the quality of the provider, and will be continuously monitoring the quality of the service.
Because many readers are not lawyers, words and phrases in Latin should be kept to an absolute minimum. When they are used, they should be followed immediately – in parentheses or in a footnote – by the English equivalent and, where necessary, a brief explanation of the word or phrase’s meaning.
All submissions must include on a separate page the name(s) of the author(s), current affiliations, and contact information for the corresponding author (email address).
Manuscript specifications
Manuscripts must include an abstract of approximately 150 words (not containing sentences from the article) and should be followed by three to seven keywords on a separate line.
Heading levels
Ideally no more than three levels of heading should be used and numbered as follows:
1.
1.1
1.1.1
2.
Etc.
Maximum capital letters should be used.
Abbreviations
Abbreviations that are in common use (UN, EC, EU, US) need not be given in full on first use. Other abbreviations should be spelt out on first use with the abbreviation given immediately following in parentheses, e.g. ‘World Health Organization (WHO)’. However, do not use an abbreviation if the name in question is only mentioned a few times – always give it in full.
Acronyms and lettered abbreviations will be rendered with no stops.
Dates
Use the form day–month–year, e.g. 2 November 2020.
Numbers
Numbers should be written out up to and including ten; 11 and above will be given in figures.
Number spans should be elided as follows: 375–376.
Punctuation
· Single quotation marks should be used, except for quotations within quotations (which will have double quotation marks) and extracts broken off from the text (which will be set off from the text with no quotation marks).
· Punctuation will follow closing quotation mark except for grammatically complete sentences beginning with a capital – e.g. He maintained: ‘The book under discussion breaks new ground.’
· The serial comma (e.g. the one before ‘and’ in ‘red, white, and blue’) is used.
Quotations
Quotations of fewer than 40 words are to be included in the main text, between single quotation marks. Longer quotations should begin on a new line, without quotation marks, and be indented from the left to indicate that it is to be set as a separate block of text.
The original capitalization, spelling etc. of the quotation should be preserved. Place any change made to a quoted text between square brackets. Where you use an ellipsis to indicate an omission within the quoted text, do not enclose it in square brackets. If you wish to add specific emphasis to part of the quoted text, this should be done by the use of italics, and ‘(emphasis added)’ should be added to the source note. Quotations should always be followed by a footnote with a reference to the source.
Tables and figures
Tables and figures should be included in their proposed position within the text on submission but after acceptance any figures should be supplied as separate files with their location indicated in the text. Tables should be kept as simple as possible and column headings should be as brief as possible without losing descriptiveness.
Tables, figures and artwork should be prepared following these instructions. Colour figures will be in colour online but printed black and white as standard. If you request colour figures in the printed version, you will be contacted by CCC-Rightslink who are acting on our behalf to collect Author Charges. Please follow their instructions in order to avoid any delay in the publication of your article.
Referencing
Due to the interdisciplinary nature of this journal, authors may follow either the author/date referencing style, with a reference list at the conclusion of the paper (as described in The Chicago Manual of Style) or footnotes in the OSCOLA referencing style, provided that same style is employed consistently throughout the manuscript. Authors should indicate clearly which of the two reference systems they have chosen to use when submitting their paper via Scholarone. Regardless of which referencing style is chosen, authors should use footnotes for legal references and should follow the guidance below when citing WTO sources.
Citation of WTO Sources
WTO Dispute Settlement Reports and Arbitration Awards and Decisions
Appellate Body Report, United States – Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act of 2000, WT/DS217/AB/R, WT/DS234/AB/R, adopted 27 January 2003 (hereinafter Appellate Body Report, US – Offset Act (Byrd Amendment) (2003)).
Panel Report, Mexico – Measures Affecting Telecommunications Services, WT/DS204/R, adopted 1 June 2004 (hereinafter Panel Report, Mexico–Telecoms (2004)).
Award of the Arbitrator, Canada – Certain Measures Affecting the Automative Industry – Arbitration under Article 21.3(c) of the DSU, WT/DS139/1, WT/DS142/12, 4 October 2000 (hereinafter Award of the Arbitrator, Canada – Autos (Article 21.3(c)) (2000)).
Decision by the Arbitrator, Canada – Export Credits and Loan Guarantees for Regional Aircraft – Recourse to Arbitration by Canada under Article 22.6 of the DSU and Article 4.11 of the SCM Agreement, WT/DS222/ARB, 17 February 2003 (hereinafter Decision by the Arbitrator, Canada – Aircraft Credits and Guarantees (Article 22.6 – Canada) (2003)).
All references to WTO dispute settlement reports and arbitration awards and decisions should be given in footnotes and appear in full at first mention (including the short title and the year of adoption by the DSB or the arbitrator), followed by the short title and year of adoption for later mentions.
Authors may find it helpful to consult the following WTO dispute settlement report citations here or
WTO Agreements
Specific provisions from any of the WTO agreement should be referenced in text, as follows:
Article 23 of the Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes (DSU). (Article 23 of the DSU after the first mention). Article 1 of the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Agreement. (Article 1 of the TBT Agreement after the first mention).
WTR-Style for Reference List (applicable to Author/Date System)
Manuscripts prepared with the author/date system, may rely on the following WTR- style recommendations for the reference list prior to submission.
Book
Haskel, J. and S. Westlake (2017) Capitalism without Capital: The Rise of the Intangible Economy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Chapter in Edited Book
Costinot, A. and A. Rodriguez-Clare (2014) ‘Trade Theory with Numbers: Quantifying the Consequences of Globalization’, in G. Gopinath, E. Helpman, and K. Rogoff (eds.), Handbook of International Economics, Vol. IV. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Journal Article
Borchert, I, B. Gootiiz, and A. Mattoo A (2014) ‘Policy Barriers to International Trade in Services: Evidence from a New Dataset’, World Bank Economic Review 28(1), 162–188.
Thesis
Horridge, M. (1987) ‘The Long Term Costs of Protection: Experimental Analysis with Different Closures of an Australian Computable General Equilibrium Model’, Doctoral dissertation, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
Working papers
Pohl, J. (2018) ‘Societal Benefits and Costs of International Investment Agreements’, OECD Working Paper on International Investment 2018/01, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris.
Grossman, G.M. and E. Helpman (2014) ‘Growth, Trade, And Inequality’, NBER Working Paper No. w20502, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA, www.nber.org/papers/w20502.
WTO Panel and Appellate body Reports
See above.
Other documents
All other documents should follow the official style as used by the organization itself.
For any questions regarding this reference guidance, please contact the editors by email at worldtradereview@yahoo.co.uk.
Data transparency
From November 1, 2022, the World Trade Review (WTR) will implement the research transparency policy described here. Any authors submitting their paper from November 1, 2022 onwards agree to abiding by this policy should they be accepted for the journal.