Policy and practice articles should have a length of 2000-4000 words.

The content should be relevant for the religion and development discourse and be of interest to both practitioners and scholars.

The nature of the articles is relatively flexible. Contributions can, for example, include:
- reflections on and lessons learned from specific programmes, projects or interventions,
- scoping studies and thorough mappings of specific themes,
- contributions highlighting specific needs for research or action,
- essays of argumentative character or
- perspectives of local actors, religious communities or religious leaders.

It is essential that the article is well-written and well-structured, and the argumentation is both clear and coherent.

The reflective depth is a crucial evaluation criterion in the review process. Articles should not be merely descriptive in nature, but provide a critical engagement with the material presented.

Kindly avoid advertising a specific organisation or religious community.

Policy and practice articles will be subjected to peer review. Each submission will be reviewed (double blind) by a practitioner and a scholar.

Citation of relevant documents and academic literature can be used but does not need to be extensive.

Each policy and practice note needs to include an abstract and keywords. The abstract should not exceed 250 words. Keywords should be taken from the Library of Congress subject database.

Book Reviews

Reviews are usually between 800 and 1,000 words and 3000 words for a review article (which usually discusses four titles).

Please submit the review as an email attachment in MS Word for Windows with subject ‘Book Review/Review Article for Journal of Religion and Development’ to our book reviews editor: Barbara Bompani, the University of Edinburgh, email: B.Bompani@ed.ac.uk

Please do not use references or footnotes in a review, though they are allowed in a review article.

When quoting from the book under review please always include a page number, in brackets after the quote, e.g. (p.20). It is not necessary to give page numbers if not quoting directly.

Please head the review with the title of the book in bold, by (author). Place of publication: publisher, date of publication + page number. If applicable please also provide paper, hardback or e-book price and ISBN. For example:

Africa Works: The Political Instrumentalization of Disorder, by Patrick Chabal and Jean-Pascal Daloz. Bloomington, IN: James Currey and Indiana University Press, 1999. Pp.192. Paperback: $24.95, ISBN 0253212871.

Please end the review with your name, institutional affiliation and your email address. It is our policy to print your email address, unless you specifically ask us not to. For example:

BARBARA BOMPANI                                                   Center of African Studies,
                                                                                     The University of Edinburgh
                                                                                             B.Bompani@ed.ac.uk

If this is your first book review, this is what we are expecting in a good submission:
- A concise summary of the book’s contents and any overarching argument. In case of edited collection, please try to provide a summary around themes and do not simply list the contents of each chapter.
- There should be an overall assessment of the book.
- The book should be placed in the context of other work on the same subject.
- Criticism, when possible, should be tempered with positive comments. 

General guidelines and style

The journal has a strict non-discrimination policy. We kindly ask all authors to use inclusive language. Discriminatory language will lead to the rejection of an article.

Referencing should be done according to the Chicago Manual of Style Author-Date referencing system.

Spelling can follow British English or American English, but should be consistent throughout.

Abbreviations and acronyms should only be used if the abbreviated term is used multiple times in the manuscript. In the abstract, abbreviations and acronyms should be only be used in exceptional cases.

To ensure a smooth review process, we kindly ask all authors to make sure that their manuscripts are proofread before submission and adhere to the referencing style guidelines.