Call for Papers| DCPCR’s Journal- Children First: Journal on Children’s Lives: Submit by Mar 15

About the Children First

Children First: Journal on Children’s Lives, a bi-annual and peer-reviewed journal has been launched by Delhi Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) with the aim of deepening and broadening the discourse on child rights by providing a platform to all persons who are engaged with the rights of children in varied capacities to share their learnings, views and experiences in this context. The first issue, published in October 2021, focused on the theme Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic on Lives of Children.

Call for Submissions

DCPCR’s Journal- ‘Children First: Journal on Children’s Lives’ is inviting submissions for its 2nd Issue which is scheduled for publication in April-May 2022.

Theme

‘Second Year of COVID-19 Pandemic- Disrupted Childhoods, Disrupted Education’

More About the Theme

The first issue of the journal captured the initial impact, experiences and mitigating efforts in the context of the first year of the Covid 19 pandemic. COVID-19 has not yet ended and nor has our curiosity and need to understand the monumental impact it has left on young children. Children may not be the face of this pandemic, but the corona crisis has created significant disruption in their learning and development – emotionally, mentally and educationally.

To further document, analyse and address the continued impact on children in the Indian context in the second year of the pandemic, the next issue of Children First – Journal on Children’s Lives welcomes contributions from researchers, activists, parents, teachers, health personnel, children and all others who work with or have concern for children, on the specific themes of

how children’s lives have continued to be disrupted by the pandemic in diverse domains of their development, be it health, nutrition, education, care and protection; and
critical documentation of and learnings from diverse initiatives undertaken on the ground to mitigate the impact of these disruptions to support children’s care, development and learning.

It is expected that the contributions will further understanding of the extent of this impact on children, suggest strategies to combat or mitigate the adverse effects and help government authorities and other stakeholders to come forward to assist children to come out of these traumatic experiences in an informed manner. While contributions in all relevant domains are welcome, this issue will include a special section on the theme of Learning and Education.

Eligibility

Researchers, activists, parents, teachers, health personnel, children and all others who work with or have concern for children

Submission Categories

The Journal invites papers under five distinct categories:

Original research, explicitly or implicitly related to children’s rights.
Best practices of implementation of policies, schemes, legislations; programmes, implementation mechanisms; administration, access to the justice system, and analysis of relevant court’s judgments, etc. in the field of children’s rights.
Voices from the Field: These would include submissions which discuss operational challenges, learnings and experiences of practitioners from the field working in the domain of child rights.
Critique and commentary on various policies, schemes, legislations, programmes, implementation mechanisms; administration, access to the justice system, and analysis of relevant court’s judgments, etc. which directly or indirectly affect children’s rights and lives.
Reviews of any existing or recently published books in the field of child rights. In case the book is not explicitly related to children’s rights, the reviewer should be able to make a definite, relevant connection to the aforementioned domain for the submission to be acceptable.
In exceptional cases, wherein the person(s) interested in featuring their work in the Journal do not themselves engage actively in writing, abstracts or summary of their work can be submitted. If selected, the Editorial Board would speak to people who they deem as a good fit for the issue to understand how best their work can be featured
in the Journal.

Submission Guidelines

Maximum Word limit
- Original Research: 4000
- Best practices: 2000
- Critique/Commentary/Articles: 2000
- Book review: 750
- Voices from the ground: 2500
Authors should ensure that:
- The submitted work is their own and has not been previously published. The suthor should not have sent their work to multiple journals/publishers.
- Professional briefs of all authors are to be uploaded separately with the submission in the google form. Each Bio should not be more than 100 words, and should be written in third person. A clear, coloured professional photograph must be included with the bio of each author. For pieces submitted by more than 5 authors, only the first 5 Principal authors should submit their bios with photographs. In case submissions are being made by a particular organization(s), include a 150-words brief about the organization(s) only.
- Their work does not infringe on any rights of others, including privacy rights and intellectual property rights.
- The data used in the submission is original and/or the source of the data is clearly identified. In cases wherein the author is using data from other sources, appropriate citations should be included and permissions from owners obtained for the illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations being reproduced in the Journal. Receipts of such permissions, wherever applicable, should be included with the submissions as an Annexure to the submission.
- In cases where the submissions stand any conflicting or competing interest, each and every such conflict must be clearly stated under a heading titled ‘Declaration of Conflicting Interests in the submission.
- Adhere to all research ethics guidelines of their discipline, particularly where human or animal subjects are involved.
- In case there is any material error that has been identified, whether prior or subsequent to publication of their work, the Authors must ensure that the Editorial panel is immediately informed about the same.
- The Journal mandates all authors to clearly acknowledge their source of funding in their submission under a separate heading titled ‘Funding’ directly after their ‘Acknowledgements’.
- Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be appropriately included, and it must be ensured that all who participated are credited and their consent for publication has been sought.
- An undertaking would be required to be physically/digitally signed and attached with the application to formally accept the ‘Transfer of the Copyright’ as well as provide DCPCR with an exclusive right to publish the submission, if selected.
- In case any other party wishes to reproduce parts/whole of the document, this party would need DCPCR’s consent to reproduce the material. This undertaking would include that any discrepancies, inaccuracies or lacks in the submission are the responsibility of the author, and no such liability would lie on the Commission or the Journal. The Commission would liberally provide its consent to reproduce parts of the Journal except in cases of commercial purposes.
- All critiques and commentaries need to be supported with evidence, and should not be aimed at a particular individual or a group of individuals because of their political affiliation, faith, or community.
- Reliable monitoring and evaluation processes (qualitative and/or quantitative), preferably independent, should be incorporated to reduce the possibility of biases when discussing best practices. Discussions of limitations and/or challenges faced in the implementation of an initiative/project/policy whose best practices are being submitted are encouraged.
No paper shall be accepted after the deadline. Incomplete submissions will not be considered for review.
There is no bar on the number of submissions based or on the number of nationalities, institutions, etc. One submission may have multiple authors within or across geographies, nationalities, institutions, organizations, backgrounds, etc.

Formatting Guidelines

For Headings: Times New Roman, size:13, Bold
For the main body: Times New Roman, Alignment: Justified, size: 12, spacing: 1.5
For Footnotes: Times New Roman, size:10, Spacing: 1.0 Margins: 1 inch on all sides.
Paragraphs should be formatted in sequence and avoid text box insertion.
Mention your full name, contact number, postal address and email ID clearly in the paper.
The papers should be submitted in English.
In the case of tables, it should be in an open-editable format. (like Excel and Docx)
In the case of graphs, it should be in an open-editable format. In case of a noneditable format, ensure it is a high quality PNG or JPG (300 dpi or more) or PDF (high quality).
In the case of infographics, it should be in an open-editable format. In case of a non-editable format, ensure it is a high-quality PNG or JPG (300 dpi or more) or PDF (high quality).
Authors are encouraged to upload/share images that align with their paper in the following format:
- No less than 150 dpi.
- Formats – PNG, JPG, TIFF and RAW
- An open editable source file is preferred.
The papers shall be submitted in Word document (.doc/.docx) format only.
The word limit shall include footnotes which would elaborate all sources being cited in APA (American Psychological Association) format.
The manuscript needs to be proofread for proper vocabulary usage, including grammar, punctuation, spelling, and overall structure before submission.