Guide for Authors

About the journal

Aims and scope

She Ji is a peer-reviewed, trans-disciplinary design journal. We focus on economics and innovation, design process, and design thinking in today’s complex socio-technical environment. We are an open access journal with no fees. Our mission is to further design innovation in industry, business, non-profit services, and government through economic and social value creation. Innovation requires integrating ideas, economics, and technology to create new knowledge at the intersection of different fields. She Ji provides a unique forum for this inquiry. Articles in She Ji address the creation, development, distribution, and use of goods and services by societies, organizations, and individuals; the creation and control of socio-technical systems; the strategic and managerial issues these entail; the way that organizations use design; and how design thinking informs wider social, managerial, and intellectual discourses. We also publish articles in research methods and methodology, philosophy, and philosophy of science that support our core journal area.

She Ji welcomes articles on a wide range of topics. These include:

• Design for complex socio-technical systems

• Scientific, technical, and philosophical problems in fourth-order design

• Design driven innovation for social and economic change

• Design practices in management, consulting, and public service

• Design for alternative economies and industrial transformation

• Design for sustainability

• Design for social innovation, organizational change, and education

• Design, computation, and algorithms

• Design and cybernetics

• Cultural and societal aspects of design and innovation

• Philosophy of design

• Philosophy of science for design research

• Design theory, methods, and methodology

• Research methods and research skills for the design field

She Ji encourages three new dimensions in the literature of design and innovation: (1) rigorous research in design using the methods of the natural sciences, social sciences, and economics; (2) economic and management inquiry; (3) methodological contributions that deploy innovative research methods and processes.

She Ji publishes seven types of articles:

• Original research articles. She Ji welcomes conceptual, theoretical, and empirical articles. All research articles move through double-blind peer review. Following peer review, She Ji works with authors on a final round of copy editing to ensure highly readable articles that will reach and influence a wide audience of scholars, researchers, and professional designers, teachers, and students, as well as leaders in business, industry, and government.

• Review articles. She Ji encourages literature review and research review. Review articles use double-blind peer review followed by copy editing.

• Project articles. She Ji welcomes reports on innovative projects involving careful design reasoning and in-depth reflection. We see these as the practitioner’s viewpoint by artifact. Project articles are reviewed by expert practitioners.

• Viewpoint articles. Viewpoint articles involve informed opinion and comments by distinguished experts. While viewpoint articles present expert opinion, these articles use double-blind peer review to check facts and to ensure rigorous argumentation followed by copy editing.

• Book reviews. Books reviews focus on analysis and discussion of individual books as well as extended book reviews covering several books. Book reviews use double-blind peer review followed by copy editing. She Ji also publishes short book notes. Short book notes are not subject to peer review.

• Discussion articles. Discussion articles include interviews, opinion leader commentary, and dialogues. Discussion articles are not subject to peer review.

• Letters. Letters to the journal comment on published articles. Letters are not subject to peer review.

Editorial Board

Language

Authors should write in good, standard English. Manuscripts may be prepared in either British English or U.S. English, but not a mixture of these. However, She Ji publishes all accepted articles in U.S. English, which is consistent with the journal’s citation and formatting standards under the Chicago Manual of Style. During our copyediting process, accepted manuscripts will be edited to U.S. English to ensure consistency across the journal.

Article types

She Ji publishes seven types of articles:

1. Original research articles. She Ji welcomes conceptual, theoretical, and empirical articles. All research articles are subject to double-blind peer review.

2. Review articles. She Ji encourages literature review and research review articles. Review articles use double-blind peer review.

3. Project articles. She Ji welcomes reports on innovative projects involving careful design reasoning and in-depth reflection. We see these as the practitioner’s viewpoint by artifact. Project articles are reviewed by expert practitioners.

4. Viewpoint articles. Viewpoint articles involve informed opinion and comments by distinguished experts. While viewpoint articles present expert opinion, these articles use double-blind peer review to check facts and to ensure rigorous argumentation followed by copy editing.

5. Book reviews. Books reviews focus on analysis and discussion of individual books as well as extended book reviews covering several books. She Ji also publishes short book notes. Book reviews are not subject to peer review.

6. Discussion articles. Discussion articles include interviews, opinion leader commentary, and dialogues. Discussion articles are not subject to peer review.

7. Letters. She Ji encourages written responses to articles and original comments on issues relevant to the journal. Letters to the editor are limited to 1,500 words. All letters commenting on articles will be sent to the author of the original article for response. Selected letters will be published in She Ji. Letters are not subject to peer review.

Please ensure that you select the appropriate article type from the list of options when making your submission. Authors contributing to special issues should ensure that they select the special issue article type from this list.

Peer review

This journal follows a double anonymized review process. Your submission will initially be assessed by our editors to determine suitability for publication in this journal. If your submission is deemed suitable, it will typically be sent to a minimum of two reviewers for an independent expert assessment of the scientific quality. The decision as to whether your article is accepted or rejected will be taken by our editors. This decision is final.

Our editors are not involved in making decisions about papers which:

• they have written themselves.

• have been written by family members or colleagues.

• relate to products or services in which they have an interest.

Any such submissions will be subject to the journal's usual procedures and peer review will be handled independently of the editor involved and their research group.

1. All manuscripts are reviewed by the editorial office. Any papers which fail to meet the basic standards of the journal will be desk-rejected for reasons like out of scope, ethical conflicts, high similarities, lack of originality, flaws in research design or methods, etc. The editorial office will reassign selected papers to the Editor-in-chief.  

2. The Editor-in-chief will invite multiple reviewers to review the paper or assign an editorial board member to invite reviewers to review this paper.

3. After at least two reviewers give their reviews and comments, the Editor-in-chief (or the assigned Editor) provides feedback to the authors, based on reviewer comments and his own review comments.

4. When the author submits the revised manuscript, the assigned editor and Editor-in-chief will collaborate to make a final decision.

5. For submissions from the Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editors, Guest Editor(s), other journal Board members, and authors who have conflicts of interest with them, we ensure that the paper is handled confidentially by a different team member.

6. For submissions to Special Issues; if there are conflicts of interest between the Guest Editor(s) and authors, the submissions will be handled by another Editor from the Editorial Board who will manage the peer review process and make the decision whether to accept or reject the paper after peer review.

Read more about peer review.

KeAi Guide for authors: Open Access

This is an open access journal: all articles will be immediately and permanently free for everyone to read and download. To provide open access, this journal has an open access fee (also known as an article publishing charge APC) which needs to be paid by the authors or on their behalf e.g. by their research funder or institution.

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND)

Allows users to: distribute and copy the article; and include in a collective work (such as an anthology). These uses are permitted only for non-commercial purposes, and provided the user: gives appropriate credit to the author(s) (with a link to the formal publication through the relevant DOI); provides a link to the license; and does not alter or modify the article. 

If you need to comply with your funding body policy you can apply for a CC BY license after your manuscript is accepted for publication. 

Article Publishing Charge (APC)

As an open access journal with no subscription charges, a fee (Article Publishing Charge, APC) is payable by the authors, or their institution or funders, to cover the costs associated with publication. This ensures your article will be immediately and permanently free to access by everyone.

The Article Publishing Charge for this journal is:

Article type	Article Publishing Charge (excl. taxes)
All articles	USD 1500

All APCs for articles submitted to the journal are covered by Tongji University.

Ethics and policies

Ethics in publishing

Authors must follow ethical guidelines stated in Elsevier's Publishing Ethics Policy.

Submission declaration

When authors submit an article to a journal it is implied that:

• the work described has not been published previously except in the form of a preprint, an abstract, a published lecture or academic thesis. See our policy on multiple, redundant or concurrent publication.

• the article is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.

• the article’s publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out.

• if accepted, the article will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, including electronically without the written consent of the copyright-holder.

Submissions to KeAi journals are automatically screened using iThenticate's CrossCheck within the editorial system to detect plagiarism issues including instances of overlapping and similar text in submitted manuscripts. Details can be found here. High similarity papers will be desk rejected.

ORCiD ID: Our journal supports the use of ORCiD ID. Authors are encouraged to provide ORCiD ID at submission.

Authorship

All authors should have made substantial contributions to all of the following:

1. The conception and design of the study, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data.

2. Drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content.

3. Final approval of the version to be submitted.

Authors should appoint a corresponding author to communicate with the journal during the editorial process. All authors should agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work to ensure that the questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Changes to authorship

The editors of this journal generally will not consider changes to authorship once a manuscript has been submitted. It is important that authors carefully consider the authorship list and order of authors and provide a definitive author list at original submission.

The policy of this journal around authorship changes:

• All authors must be listed in the manuscript and their details entered into the submission system.

• Any addition, deletion or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list should only be made prior to acceptance, and only if approved by the journal editor.

• Requests to change authorship should be made by the corresponding author, who must provide the reason for the request to the journal editor with written confirmation from all authors, including any authors being added or removed, that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement.

• All requests to change authorship must be submitted using this form. Requests which do not comply with the instructions outlined in the form will not be considered.

• Only in exceptional circumstances will the journal editor consider the addition, deletion or rearrangement of authors post acceptance.

• Publication of the manuscript may be paused while a change in authorship request is being considered.

• Any authorship change requests approved by the journal editor will result in a corrigendum if the manuscript has already been published.

• Any unauthorized authorship changes may result in the rejection of the article, or retraction, if the article has already been published.

Declaration of competing interests

All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence or bias their work. Examples of potential competing interests include:

• Employment

• Consultancies

• Stock ownership

• Honoraria

• Paid expert testimony

• Patent applications or registrations

• Grants or any other funding

• Affiliation with the journal as an Editor or Advisory Board Member

The declarations tool should always be completed.

Authors with a journal affiliation to declare should enter the following text under “Other Activities” within the declarations tool and should inform the journal and publisher prior to completing the submission process: Given their role as [insert journal role title], [insert your name] had no involvement in the peer-review of this article and has no access to information regarding its peer-review. Full responsibility for the editorial process for this article was delegated to another journal editor.

Authors with no competing interests to declare should select the option "I have nothing to declare".

The resulting Word document containing your declaration should be uploaded at the "attach/upload files" step in the submission process. It is important that the Word document is saved in the .doc/.docx file format. Author signatures are not required.

Funding sources

Authors must disclose any funding sources who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article. The role of sponsors, if any, should be declared in relation to the study design, collection, analysis and interpretation of data, writing of the report and decision to submit the article for publication. If funding sources had no such involvement this should be stated in your submission.

List funding sources in this standard way to facilitate compliance to funder's requirements:

Funding: This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health [grant numbers xxxx, yyyy]; the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, WA [grant number zzzz]; and the United States Institutes of Peace [grant number aaaa].

It is not necessary to include detailed descriptions on the program or type of grants, scholarships and awards. When funding is from a block grant or other resources available to a university, college, or other research institution, submit the name of the institute or organization that provided the funding.

If no funding has been provided for the research, it is recommended to include the following sentence:

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Declaration of generative AI in scientific writing

Authors are encouraged to declare the use of generative AI in scientific writing upon submission of the paper. The following guidance refers only to the writing process, and not to the use of AI tools to analyse and draw insights from data as part of the research process:

Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies should only be used in the writing process to improve the readability and language of the manuscript.

The technology must be applied with human oversight and control and authors should carefully review and edit the result, as AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that can be incorrect, incomplete or biased. Authors are ultimately responsible and accountable for the contents of the work.

Authors must not list or cite AI and AI-assisted technologies as an author or co-author on the manuscript since authorship implies responsibilities and tasks that can only be attributed to and performed by humans.

The use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in scientific writing can be declared by adding a statement at the end of the manuscript when the paper is first submitted. The statement will appear in the published work and should be placed in a new section before the references list. An example:

Title of new section: Declaration of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process.

Statement: During the preparation of this work the author(s) used [NAME TOOL / SERVICE] in order to [REASON]. After using this tool/service, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as needed and take(s) full responsibility for the content of the published article.

The declaration does not apply to the use of basic tools, such as tools used to check grammar, spelling and references. If you have nothing to disclose, you do not need to add a statement.

We advise you to read our policy for authors on the use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies for Elsevier.

Please note: to protect authors’ rights and the confidentiality of their research, this journal does not currently allow the use of Generative AI or AI-assisted technologies such as ChatGPT or similar services by reviewers or editors in the peer review and manuscript evaluation process. We are actively evaluating compliant AI tools and may revise this policy in the future.

Preprint sharing

Authors may share preprints in line with Elsevier's article sharing policy. Sharing preprints, such as on a preprint server, will not count as prior publication.

We advise you to read our policy on multiple, redundant or concurrent publication.

Writing and formatting

File format

We ask you to provide editable source files for your entire submission (including figures, tables and text graphics). Some guidelines:

• Save files in an editable format, using the extension .doc/.docx for Word files and .tex for LaTeX files. A PDF is not an acceptable source file.

• Format Word files in a single-column layout. Double-column formatting is only permitted for LaTeX submissions.

• Remove any strikethrough and underlined text from your manuscript, unless it has scientific significance related to your article.

• Use spell-check and grammar-check functions to avoid errors.

We advise you to read our Step-by-step guide to publishing with Elsevier.

Double anonymized peer review

As this journal follows a double anonymized review process, author identities are concealed from reviewers and vice versa. To facilitate this process, submit your title page (including author details) and anonymized manuscript (excluding author details) as separate files. Next to the items mentioned in the title page section of this guide, the title page should also include:

• Acknowledgements. Include any individuals who provided you with help during your research such as help with language, writing or proof reading in the acknowledgements section. Include acknowledgements only in the title page, do not add them as a footnote to your title, or anywhere else in your article.

• Declaration of competing interests (when a separate declaration of interest file is not submitted)

• Corresponding author address (full address is required)

• Corresponding author email address

The anonymized manuscript should contain the main body of your paper, including references and tables. It is important that your manuscript does not contain any identifying information such as author names or affiliations, or acknowledgements.

Read more about peer review.

Title page

You are required to include the following details in the title page information:

• Article title. Article titles should be concise and informative. Please avoid abbreviations and formulae, where possible, unless they are established and widely understood, e.g. DNA.

• Author names. Provide the given name(s) and family name(s) of each author. The order of authors should match the order in the submission system. Carefully check that all names are accurately spelled. If needed, you can add your name between parentheses in your own script after the English transliteration.

• Affiliations. Add affiliation addresses, referring to where the work was carried out, below the author names. Indicate affiliations using a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author's name and in front of the corresponding address. Ensure that you provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name and, if available, the email address of each author.

• Corresponding author. Clearly indicate who will handle correspondence for your article at all stages of the refereeing and publication process and also post-publication. This responsibility includes answering any future queries about your results, data, methodology and materials. It is important that the email address and contact details of your corresponding author are kept up to date during the submission and publication process.

• Present/permanent address. If an author has moved since the work described in your article was carried out, or the author was visiting during that time, a "present address" (or "permanent address") can be indicated by a footnote to the author's name. The address where the author carried out the work must be retained as their main affiliation address. Use superscript Arabic numerals for such footnotes.

Abstract

You are required to provide a concise and factual abstract which does not exceed 200 words. The abstract should briefly state the purpose of your research, principal results and major conclusions. Some guidelines:

• Abstracts must be able to stand alone as abstracts are often presented separately from the article.

• Avoid references. If any are essential to include, ensure that you cite the author(s) and year(s).

• Avoid non-standard or uncommon abbreviations. If any are essential to include, ensure they are defined within your abstract at first mention.

Keywords

You are required to provide 1 to 6 keywords for indexing purposes. Keywords should be written in English. Please try to avoid keywords consisting of multiple words (using "and" or "of").

We recommend that you only use abbreviations in keywords if they are firmly established in the field.

Highlights

You are required to provide article highlights at submission.

Highlights are a short collection of bullet points that should capture the novel results of your research as well as any new methods used during your study. Highlights will help increase the discoverability of your article via search engines. Some guidelines:

• Submit highlights as a separate editable file in the online submission system with the word "highlights" included in the file name.

• Highlights should consist of 3 to 5 bullet points, each a maximum of 85 characters, including spaces.

We encourage you to view example article highlights and read about the benefits of their inclusion.

Tables

Tables must be submitted as editable text, not as images. Some guidelines:

• Place tables next to the relevant text or on a separate page(s) at the end of your article.

• Cite all tables in the manuscript text.

• Number tables consecutively according to their appearance in the text.

• Please provide captions along with the tables.

• Place any table notes below the table body.

• Avoid vertical rules and shading within table cells.

We recommend that you use tables sparingly, ensuring that any data presented in tables is not duplicating results described elsewhere in the article.

Figures, images and artwork

Figures, images, artwork, diagrams and other graphical media must be supplied as separate files along with the manuscript. We recommend that you read our detailed artwork and media instructions. Some excerpts:

When submitting artwork:

• Cite all images in the manuscript text.

• Number images according to the sequence they appear within your article.

• Submit each image as a separate file using a logical naming convention for your files (for example, Figure_1, Figure_2 etc).

• Text graphics may be embedded in the text at the appropriate position. If you are working with LaTeX, text graphics may also be embedded in the file.

Figure captions

All images must have a caption. A caption should consist of a brief title (not displayed on the figure itself) and a description of the image. We advise you to keep the amount of text in any image to a minimum, though any symbols and abbreviations used should be explained.

Read how to add captions to your submission here.

Artwork formats

When your artwork is finalized, "save as" or convert your electronic artwork to the formats listed below taking into account the given resolution requirements for line drawings, halftones, and line/halftone combinations:

• Vector drawings: Save as EPS or PDF files embedding the font or saving the text as "graphics."

• Color or grayscale photographs (halftones): Save as TIFF, JPG or PNG files using a minimum of 300 dpi (for single column width: min. 1063 pixels, full page width: 2244 pixels).

• Bitmapped line drawings: Save as TIFF, JPG or PNG files, using a minimum of 1000 dpi (for single column width: min. 3543 pixels, full page width: 7480 pixels).

• Combinations bitmapped line/halftones (color or grayscale): Save as TIFF, JPG or PNG files using a minimum of 500 dpi (for single column: min. 1772 pixels, full page width: 3740 pixels).

Please do not submit:

• Files that are too low in resolution.

• Disproportionally large images compared to font size, as text may become unreadable.

Color artwork

If you submit usable color figures with your accepted article, we will ensure that they appear in color online.

Please ensure that color images are accessible to all, including those with impaired color vision. Learn more about color and web accessibility.

Generative AI and Figures, images and artwork

Please read our policy on the use of generative AI and AI-assisted tools in figures, images and artwork, which can be found in Elsevier’s GenAI Policies for Journals. This policy states:

• We do not permit the use of Generative AI or AI-assisted tools to create or alter images in submitted manuscripts.

• The only exception is if the use of AI or AI-assisted tools is part of the research design or methods (for example, in the field of biomedical imaging). If this is the case, such use must be described in a reproducible manner in the methods section, including the name of the model or tool, version and extension numbers, and manufacturer.

• The use of generative AI or AI-assisted tools in the production of artwork such as for graphical abstracts is not permitted. The use of generative AI in the production of cover art may in some cases be allowed, if the author obtains prior permission from the journal editor and publisher, can demonstrate that all necessary rights have been cleared for the use of the relevant material, and ensures that there is correct content attribution.

Supplementary material

We encourage the use of supplementary materials such as applications, images and sound clips to enhance research. Some guidelines:

• Supplementary material should be accurate and relevant to the research.

• Cite all supplementary files in the manuscript text.

• Submit all supplementary materials at the same time as your manuscript.

• Include a concise, descriptive caption for each supplementary file, describing its content.

• After submission supplementary files can only be added or replaced in the revision stage of the editorial process.

• Be aware that all supplementary materials provided will appear online in the exact same way as received. These files will not be checked, formatted or typeset by the production team.

Video

This journal accepts video material and animation sequences to support and enhance your scientific research. We encourage you to include links to video or animation files within articles. Some guidelines:

• When including video or animation file links within your article, refer to the video or animation content by adding a note in your text where the file should be placed.

• Clearly label files ensuring the given file name is directly related to the file content.

• Provide files in one of our recommended file formats. Files should be within our preferred maximum file size of 150 MB per file, 1 GB in total.

• Provide "stills" for each of your files. These will be used as standard icons to personalize the link to your video data. You can choose any frame from your video or animation or make a separate image.

• Provide descriptive text in your manuscript to refer to the video content. This text helps ensure accessibility for visually impaired readers who rely on descriptive information. For journals publishing in print this is also essential, as video and animation files cannot be embedded in the print version.

We publish all video and animation files supplied in the electronic version of your article.

For more detailed instructions, we recommend that you read our guidelines on submitting video content to be included in the body of an article.

Research data

We are committed to supporting the storage of, access to and discovery of research data, and our research data policy sets out the principles guiding how we work with the research community to support a more efficient and transparent research process.

Research data refers to the results of observations or experimentation that validate research findings, which may also include software, code, models, algorithms, protocols, methods and other useful materials related to the project.

Please read our guidelines on sharing research data for more information on depositing, sharing and using research data and other relevant research materials.

Research data deposit and citation

For this journal, Option A instructions from our research data guidelines apply. This means that you are encouraged to:

• Deposit your research data in a relevant data repository.

• Cite this dataset in your article.

Data linking

Linking to the data underlying your work increases your exposure and may lead to new collaborations. It also provides readers with a better understanding of the described research.

If your research data has been made available in a data repository there are a number of ways your article can be linked directly to the dataset:

• Provide a link to your dataset when prompted during the online submission process.

• For some data repositories, a repository banner will automatically appear next to your published article on ScienceDirect.

• You can also link relevant data or entities within the text of your article through the use of identifiers. Use the following format: Database: 12345 (e.g. TAIR: AT1G01020; CCDC: 734053; PDB: 1XFN).

Learn more about linking research data and research articles in ScienceDirect.

Mendeley data

This journal supports Mendeley Data, enabling you to deposit any research data (including raw and processed data, video, code, software, algorithms, protocols and methods) associated with your manuscript in a free-to-use, open access repository.

Before or during the submission process, you can deposit the relevant datasets to Mendeley Data. Please include the DOI of the deposited dataset(s) in your main manuscript file.

The datasets will be listed and directly accessible to readers next to your published article online.

Learn more about Mendeley Data for journals.

Article structure

Article sections

Divide your manuscript into clearly defined sections covering all essential elements using headings.

Introduction

The introduction should clearly state the objectives of your work. We recommend that you provide an adequate background to your work but avoid writing a detailed literature overview or summary of your results.

Methods

The methods section should provide sufficient details about your materials and methods to allow your work to be reproduced by an independent researcher. Some guidelines:

• If the method you used has already been published, provide a summary and reference the originally published method.

• If you are quoting directly from a previously published method, use quotation marks and cite the source.

• Describe any modifications that you have made to existing methods.

Results

Results should be clear, concise and reproducible. We advise you to read the sections in this guide on supplying tables, artwork, supplementary material and sharing research data.

Discussion

The discussion section should explore the significance of your results but not repeat them. We recommend that you avoid the use of extensive citations and discussion of published literature in the discussion section.

Conclusion

The conclusion section should present the main conclusions of your study. You may have a stand-alone conclusions section or include your conclusions in a subsection of your discussion or results and discussion section.

Glossary

Please provide definitions of field-specific terms used in your article, in a separate list.

Author contributions: CRediT

Corresponding authors are required to acknowledge co-author contributions using CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) roles:

• Conceptualization

• Data curation

• Formal analysis

• Funding acquisition

• Investigation

• Methodology

• Project administration

• Resources

• Software

• Supervision

• Validation

• Visualization

• Writing – original draft

• Writing – review and editing

Not all CRediT roles will apply to every manuscript and some authors may contribute through multiple roles.

We advise you to read more about CRediT and view an example of a CRediT author statement.

Appendices

We ask you to use the following format for appendices:

• Identify individual appendices within your article using the format: A, B, etc.

• Give separate numbering to formulae and equations within appendices using formats such as Eq. (A.1), Eq. (A.2), etc. and in subsequent appendices, Eq. (B.1), Eq. (B. 2) etc. In a similar way, give separate numbering to tables and figures using formats such as Table A.1; Fig. A.1, etc.

References

References within text

Any references cited within your article should also be present in your reference list and vice versa. Some guidelines:

• References cited in your abstract must be given in full.

• We recommend that you do not include unpublished results and personal communications in your reference list, though you may mention them in the text of your article.

• Any unpublished results and personal communications included in your reference list must follow the standard reference style of the journal. In substitution of the publication date add "unpublished results" or "personal communication."

• References cited as "in press" imply that the item has been accepted for publication.

Linking to cited sources will increase the discoverability of your research.

Before submission, check that all data provided in your reference list are correct, including any references which have been copied. Providing correct reference data allows us to link to abstracting and indexing services such as Scopus, Crossref and PubMed. Any incorrect surnames, journal or book titles, publication years or pagination within your references may prevent link creation.

We encourage the use of Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) as reference links as they provide a permanent link to the electronic article referenced.

Reference style

This Journal uses both footnotes and reference list following the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition. Authors should follow the detailed instructions and examples in Paper Template. Notes should be numbered consecutively and placed at the bottom of the page where the in-text citation is located. The manuscript should conform to the Chicago Manual of Style note style. Quotations from foreign language sources should be translated into English in the text. If necessary, original-language quotes may appear in footnotes. Use a reference list at the end of the article, ordered alphabetically by last name of the first author. Use the Chicago Manual of Style reference format.

Careful referencing

She Ji requests precise, fine-grained references that permit the reader to locate quoted material at the exact location in the source document. Authors should treat direct quotations, indirect quotations, and paraphrases the same way, providing precise page numbers or page ranges in references for all quotations and cited sources. This practice helps the reader while building and supporting the knowledge of the field. Please refer to the "Twelve Principles of Reference and Citation" for detailed referencing guidelines. Use this short guide to understand the reasoning and principles behind notes and references in She Ji.

Citation in text

The reference list should include only works cited in the text that have been published or accepted for publication. References cited in the abstract must be given in full. Unpublished results, unpublished reports, and personal communications should not appear in the reference list, but may be cited in the text in footnotes. The designation "in press" in the reference list means that the item listed has been accepted for publication.

Web references

For web references, authors must provide a full URL and the date when the reference was last accessed. Any other available information should be provided if it is visible on the web site. This includes author, dates, publishers, references to source publication, or DOI.

Data references

This journal encourages you to cite underlying or relevant datasets in your manuscript by citing them in your text and including a data reference in your Reference List. Data references should include the following elements: author name(s), dataset title, data repository, version (where available), year, and global persistent identifier. Add [dataset] immediately before the reference so we can properly identify it as a data reference. The [dataset] identifier will not appear in your published article.

Preprint references

Where a preprint has subsequently become available as a peer-reviewed publication, the formal publication should be used as the reference. If there are preprints that are central to your work or that cover crucial developments in the topic, but are not yet formally published, these may be referenced. Preprints should be clearly marked as such, for example by including the word preprint, or the name of the preprint server, as part of the reference. (The preprint DOI should also be provided.)

Reference management software

This journal has standard templates available in key reference management packages EndNote (http://www.endnote.com/support/enstyles.asp) and Reference Manager (http://refman.com/support/rmstyles.asp). Using plug-ins to word processing packages, authors only need to select the appropriate journal template when preparing their article and the list of references and citations to these will be formatted according to the journal style which is described below.

Reference style

The following examples illustrate citations using the notes-and-references system. For each citation, we provide both the footnote format (Fn) and the reference format (Ref). Please note the difference between the two. For more details and many more examples, see chapter 14 of The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th Edition.

• Book: Authored book

  Fn:

  1. Herbert A. Simon, The Sciences of the Artificial, 3rd ed. (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996), 99-100.

  2. William McDonough and Michael Braungart, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things (New York: North Point Press, 2002), 24.

  Ref:

  Simon, Herbert A. The Sciences of the Artificial, 3rd ed. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996.

  McDonough, William, and Michael Braungart. Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. New York: North Point Press, 2002.

• Book: Edited book

  Fn:

  1. Richard Buchanan and Victor Margolin, eds., Discovering Design: Explorations in Design Studies (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1995), 23.

  Ref:

  Buchanan, Richard, and Victor Margolin, eds., Discovering Design: Explorations in Design Studies. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1995.

• Book: Translated edition

  Fn:

  1. Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception, trans. Colin Smith (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1962), 42.

  Ref:

  Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. Phenomenology of Perception. Translated by Colin Smith. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1962.

• Chapter or article in an edited book

  Fn:

  1. Gernot Grabher and Jonas Konig, "Performing Network Theory" Reflexive Relationship Management on Social Network Sites," in Networked Governance, ed. Betina Hollstein, Wenzel Matiaske, and Kai-Uwe Schnapp (Cham: Springer, 2017), 121-40.

  Ref:

  Grabher, Gernot, and Jonas Konig. "Performing Network Theory" Reflexive Relationship Management on Social Network Sites." In Networked Governance, edited by Betina Hollstein, Wenzel Matiaske, and Kai-Uwe Schnapp, 121-40. Cham: Springer, 2017.

  A paper included in the published conference proceedings can be treated like a chapter in a book.

• Journal article: One to three authors

  Fn:

  1. Richard Buchanan, "Wicked Problems in Design Thinking," Design Issues 8, no. 2 (1992): 5, https://doi.org/10.2307/1511637.

  2. Fabrizio Ceschin and Idil Gaziulusoy, "Evolution of Design for Sustainability: From Product Design to Design for System Innovations and Transitions," Design Studies 47 (November 2016): 118-63, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2016.09.002.

  3. Yoonyee Pahk, James Andrew Self, and Joon Sang Baek, "Covalent, a Method for Co-designing Value Exchange in Community-Centred Design," CoDesign 14, no. 4 (2018): 275-92, https://doi.org/10.1080/15710882.2017.1325908.

  Ref:

  Buchanan, Richard. "Wicked Problems in Design Thinking." Design Issues 8, no. 2 (1992): 5-21. https://doi.org/10.2307/1511637.

  Ceschin, Fabrizio, and Idil Gaziulusoy. "Evolution of Design for Sustainability: From Product Design to Design for System Innovations and Transitions." Design Studies 47 (November 2016): 118-63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2016.09.002.

  Pahk, Yoonyee, James Andrew Self, and Joon Sang Baek. "Covalent, a Method for Co-designing Value Exchange in Community-Centred Design." CoDesign 14, no. 4 (2018): 275-92. https://doi.org/10.1080/15710882.2017.1325908.

• Journal article: Four or more authors

  Fn:

  1. Chunlei Chai et al., "Behavioral Analysis of Analogical Reasoning in Design: Difference among Designers with Different Expertise Levels," Design Studies 37, no.1 (2015): 30, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2014.07.001.

  Ref:

  Chai, Chunlei, Fei Cen, Weiyu Ruan, Cheng Yang, and Hongting Li. "Behavioral Analysis of Analogical Reasoning in Design: Difference among Designers with Different Expertise Levels." Design Studies 37, no.1 (2015): 3-30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2014.07.001.

• Non-English journal article

  Fn:

  1. Guanzhong Liu and Lingtao Tang, “创新的悖论——‘制造型工业经济’的文化现象 [Paradox of Innovation—The Cultural Phenomenon of ‘Industrial Economy of Manufacturing Type’],” 装饰 , no. 12 (2007): 12.

  Ref:

  Liu, Guanzhong, and Lingtao Tang. “创新的悖论——‘制造型工业经济’的文化现象 [Paradox of Innovation—The Cultural Phenomenon of ‘Manufacturing Type of Industrial Economy’].” 装饰 , no. 12 (2007): 12-15.

• Thesis or dissertation (published or unpublished)

  Fn:

  1. Kees Dorst, Describing Design: A Comparison of Paradigms (Delft, the Netherlands: Delft University of Technology, 1997), 123.

  2. Mariana V. Amatullo, "Design Attitude and Social Innovation: Empirical Studies of the Return on Design" (PhD dissertation, Case Western Reserve University, 2015), https://etd.ohiolink.edu/apexprod/rws\_olink/r/1501/10?p10\_etd\_subid=102719&clear=10.

  Ref:

  Dorst, Kees. Describing Design: A Comparison of Paradigms. Delft, the Netherlands: Delft University of Technology, 1997.

  Amatullo, Mariana V. "Design Attitude and Social Innovation: Empirical Studies of the Return on Design." PhD dissertation, Case Western Reserve University, 2015. https://etd.ohiolink.edu/apexprod/rws\_olink/r/1501/10?p10\_etd\_subid=102719&clear=10.

• Unpublished materials or informal communications

  Fn:

  1. Patricia Burns, e-mail message to author, December 15, 2008.

  2. Cory Cotter, "The Weakest Link: The Argument for On-Wrist Band Welding" (unpublished manuscript, last modified December 3, 2008), Microsoft Word file.

  Only use note. Do not include in the reference list.

• Web page with unknown author or unknown publication date

  Fn:

  1. "Style Guide," Wikipedia, last modified February 23, 2023, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Style\_guide.

  2. Thomas Thwaites, "A Holiday from Being Human (GoatMan)," Thomasthwaites.com (personal website), accessed July 14, 2021, http://www.thomasthwaites.com/a-holiday-from-being-human-goatman/.

  Ref:

  "Style Guide." Wikipedia, last modified February 23, 2023. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Style\_guide.

  Thwaites, Thomas. "A Holiday from Being Human (GoatMan)." Thomasthwaites.com (personal website). Accessed July 14, 2021. http://www.thomasthwaites.com/a-holiday-from-being-human-goatman/.

• Web page with known author and date

  Fn:

  1. Don Norman, "Why Design Education Must Change," Core77, last modified November 26, 2010, https://www.core77.com/posts/17993/why-design-education-must-change-17993.

  Ref:

  Norman, Don. "Why Design Education Must Change." Core77. Last modified November 26, 2010, https://www.core77.com/posts/17993/why-design-education-must-change-17993.

• Online multimedia

  Fn:

  1. "Hans Rosling's 200 Countries, 200 Years," YouTube video, 4:42, from The Joy of Stats: Documentary Film by BBC Four on December 7, 2010, posted by BBC, November 26, 2010, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbkSRLYSojo.

  Ref:

  "Hans Rosling's 200 Countries, 200 Years." YouTube video, 4:42, from The Joy of Stats: Documentary Film by BBC Four on December 7, 2010. Posted by BBC, November 26, 2010. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbkSRLYSojo.

• Film, Television, and other recorded mediums

  Fn:

  1. Objectified, directed by Gary Hustwit (2009; Brooklyn, NY: Plexifilm, 2010), DVD.

  Ref:

  Objectified. Directed by Gary Hustwit. 2009. Brooklyn, NY: Plexifilm, 2010. DVD.

• Report

  Fn:

  1. World Commission on Environment and Development, Report of World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future, transmitted to the General Assembly as an Annex to Document A/42/427- Development and International Co-operation: Environment (United Nations, 1987), accessed March 3, 2023, http://www.un-documents.net/wced-ocf.htm.

  2. City of Chicago, "A Recipe for Healthy Places" (report, published by the City of Chicago Department of Housing and Economic Development, 2013), accessed March 3, 2023, https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dcd/supp\_info/a\_recipe\_for\_healthyplaces.html.

  R:

  World Commission on Environment and Development. Report of World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future, transmitted to the General Assembly as an Annex to Document A/42/427- Development and International Co-operation: Environment. United Nations, 1987. Accessed March 3, 2023, http://www.un-documents.net/wced-ocf.htm.

  City of Chicago. "A Recipe for Healthy Places." Report, published by City of Chicago Department of Housing and Economic Development, 2013. Accessed March 3, 2023, https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dcd/supp\_info/a\_recipe\_for\_healthyplaces.html.

Web references

When listing web references, as a minimum you should provide the full URL and the date when the reference was last accessed. Additional information (e.g. DOI, author names, dates or reference to a source publication) should also be provided, if known.

You can list web references separately under a new heading directly after your reference list or include them in your reference list.

Data references

We encourage you to cite underlying or relevant datasets within article text and to list data references in the reference list.

When citing data references, you should include:

• author name(s)

• dataset title

• data repository

• version (where available)

• year

• global persistent identifier

Add [dataset] immediately before your reference. This will help us to properly identify the dataset. The [dataset] identifier will not appear in your published article.

Preprint references

We ask you to mark preprints clearly. You should include the word "preprint" or the name of the preprint server as part of your reference and provide the preprint DOI.

Where a preprint has subsequently become available as a peer-reviewed publication, use the formal publication as your reference.

If there are preprints that are central to your work or that cover crucial developments in the topic, but they are not yet formally published, you may reference the preprint.

Reference management software

Most Elsevier journals have their reference template available in popular reference management software products. These include products that support Citation Style Language (CSL) such as Mendeley Reference Manager.

If you use a citation plug-in from these products, select the relevant journal template and all your citations and bibliographies will automatically be formatted in the journal style. We advise you to remove all field codes before submitting your manuscript to any reference management software product.

If a template is not available for this journal, follow the format given in examples in the reference style section of this Guide for Authors.

Submitting your manuscript

Submission checklist

Before completing the submission of your manuscript, we advise you to read our submission checklist:

• One author has been designated as the corresponding author and their full contact details (email address, full postal address and phone numbers) have been provided.

• All files have been uploaded, including keywords, figure captions and tables (including a title, description and footnotes) included. This includes any supplementary materials and videos.

• Spelling and grammar checks have been carried out.

• All references in the article text are cited in the reference list and vice versa.

• Permission has been obtained for the use of any copyrighted material from other sources, including the Web.

• For open access articles, all authors understand that they are responsible for payment of the article publishing charge (APC) if the manuscript is accepted. Payment of the APC may be covered by the corresponding author's institution, or the research funder.

Submission to this journal takes place entirely online. Use the following guidelines to prepare your article. Via the homepage of this journal (https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/she-ji-the-journal-of-design-economics-and-innovation) you will be guided stepwise through the creation and uploading of the various files. The system automatically converts source files to a single Adobe Acrobat PDF version of the article, which is used in the peer-review process. Please note that even though manuscript source files are converted to PDF at submission for the review process, these source files are needed for further processing after acceptance. All correspondence, including notification of the Editor’s decision and requests for revision, takes place by e-mail and via the author’s homepage. There is no need for a hard-copy paper trail. Authors who have any questions about submission can contact the editorial office by e-mail before submission: majin.sheji@icloud.com.

A Submission should include the following components, each as a separate file uploaded in the online editorial system:

• a manuscript (Microsoft Word ONLY) containing 5,000–8,000 words (excluding footnotes, references, tables, and appendixes) and images and tables embedded within text and appropriately placed;

• a title page including each author’s current affiliation, email address, and the acknowledgment section (if there is one);

• a summary of highlights including 3 to 5 bullet points (maximum 85 characters, including spaces, per bullet point) that convey the core findings of the article;

• an author biography page including every author’s brief biographical statement, each running 50–100 words. Biographies are published on the Contributors Page for authors of accepted submissions;

• a declaration of interest statement; and

• high-resolution images uploaded as separate files through the submission system in addition to the manuscript. If source files for figures, tables, and text graphics are not submitted through the editorial system, the journal Editor will require these files via email after the article is accepted.

After receiving a final decision

Copyright

Authors will be asked to complete a publishing agreement after acceptance. The corresponding author will receive a link to the online agreement by email.

Permission for copyrighted works

If excerpts from other copyrighted works are included in your article, you must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit the source(s) within your article using Elsevier’s permission request and license form.

Proof correction

To ensure a fast publication process we will ask you to provide proof corrections within two days.

Corresponding authors will be sent an email which includes a link to our online proofing system, allowing annotation and correction of proofs online. The environment is similar to Word. You can edit text, comment on figures and tables and answer questions raised by our copy editor. Our web-based proofing service ensures a faster and less error-prone process.  

You can choose to annotate and upload your edits on the PDF version of your article, if preferred. We will provide you with proofing instructions and available alternative proofing methods in our email. 

The purpose of the proof is to check the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of your article text, tables and figures. Significant changes to your article at the proofing stage will only be considered with approval of the journal editor.  

Post-publication amendments

Errata and Corrigenda

We will publish a correction of your article if a significant error is discovered after publication. An Erratum will be published if we introduced the error; a Corrigendum if the author introduced the error.

Retractions

Articles may be withdrawn, retracted, removed or replaced after publication if they contain substantial errors that cannot be corrected by publishing an Erratum or a Corrigendum, or if ethical violations come to light after publication.

Responsible sharing

We encourage you to share and promote your article to give additional visibility to your work, enabling your paper to contribute to scientific progress and foster the exchange of scientific developments within your field. Read more about how to responsibly share and promote your article.   

Resources for authors

Elsevier Researcher Academy

If you would like help to improve your submission or navigate the publication process, support is available via Elsevier Researcher Academy.  

Elsevier Researcher Academy offers free e-learning modules, webinars, downloadable guides and research writing and peer review process resources.

Language and editing services

We recommend that you write in American or British English but not a combination of both.   

If you feel the English language in your manuscript requires editing to eliminate possible grammatical or spelling errors and to conform to correct scientific English, you may wish to use the English Language Editing service provided by Elsevier’s Author Services. 

Getting help and support

Author support

We recommend that you visit our Journal Article Publishing Support Center if you have questions about the editorial process or require technical support for your submission. Some popular FAQs: 

• How can I track the status of my submitted article? 

• When will my article be published? 

Journal contacts

Authors who have any questions about submission can contact the editorial office by e-mail before submission: majin.sheji@icloud.com.