Authors’ guidelines

Online platform

To submit a contribution, the corresponding authors must register on the aforementioned site and use their credentials both for the submission and for all subsequent activities (resubmission of the article following revisions, submission of new articles, assignment of revisions).

Peer review process

The publication of contributions on the Azienda Pubblica takes place on the basis of the following procedure:

1. The contributions, in Italian or English, with an approximate length of 40,000 characters, must be uploaded to the online platform of the Journal in word format and anonymized. The submission of a contribution to the Journal commits the authors not to propose this contribution for other publications for the duration of the entire evaluation process. Contributions that do not comply with the following conditions will not be admitted to the referee:
   1. the manuscripts submitted to Azienda Pubblica must not have already been published or are being evaluated in other journals or for other publications;
   2. manuscripts must comply with the standards of structure, abstracts, notes, tables, bibliographical references specified below;
   3. any reference that could allow direct or indirect recognition of the authors and consequently undermine a correct referencing process must be avoided.
2. All the submitted contributions are subjected to scrutiny by the editorial board which, having ascertained their compliance with the aim and scope of the journal and the editorial standards required, sends them, together with the referee form, anonymously, to two referees chosen from the editorial board, the steering committee, the scientific committee and past authors based on their field of expertise.
3. Regardless of the decision of the referees, their comments are sent anonymously to the authors with the request, if necessary, to make the revisions indicated.
4. The new draft, accompanied by the letter from the authors in which the changes made in response to each of the referees' findings are described, is submitted to the same initial referees for a definitive judgment (or any request for further changes).
5. Once the final positive evaluation has been obtained from the referees, the article is accepted for publication.

In accord to the journal periodicity, we also share the names of reviewers who collaborated to the peer review process on a yearly/two-year/three-year basis. This list may be published online or on the printed issue, depending on the journal preference.

Preparing your paper

Format of contributions

The authors must upload to the platform, in addition to the contribution to be submitted for review, an additional file in word format containing information on the authors. This supplementary file is composed as follows:

The first page must indicate:

• title of the contribution
• names and affiliations of the authors, with indication in the footnote of the author who takes care of the correspondence and his postal and e-mail address
• any thanks

The second page must contain a short biography of each author (maximum 5 lines). This biography must indicate, for each author, information relating to:

• Qualification
• Discipline
• Research areas

Main file

The main file must contain the text of the article and must be structured as follows:

• Title and abstract
• The first page must contain:
  • title (in Italian and English)
  • abstract in Italian, English and French (maximum 10 lines)
  • keywords in Italian, English and French (up to a maximum of three)
  • summary
• The second page must contain an "extended abstract" written in English and whose length must be between 400 and 600 words. The extended abstract must be structured in the following sections: title, purpose, methodology, findings, relevance and implications for research and policy / practice.
• On the third page, after repeating the title, the article begins.

Text structure

The text is divided into: Title of the contribution, numbered titles of the Paragraphs (eg 1. Introduction). There is no provision for sub-paragraphs (e.g. 1.1, 1.2, etc.). On the other hand, unnumbered "subtitles" in italics are allowed. Initial summary is required.

Length

The contribution is approximately 40,000 characters (word count of words, including spaces, abstracts, tables and figures, bibliography, etc.). Contributions that deviate significantly from this standard will not be admitted to referee.

Formatting

Text: Arial 12
Margins: 3x3x3x3
Note: The notes are intended at the foot of the page and must be identified by a cardinal number. The number of notes and their length must be reduced to a minimum to favor the slenderness of the text. It is not recommended to use the notes for citations or bibliographic references, which should preferably be inserted in the text according to the author-date system. It is the author's responsibility to adapt the layout of the notes to the standards of the journal.
Tables and figures: Figures and tables must be numbered, have a caption and be referenced in the text. Figures and tables must be provided in one or more files other than the one containing the text. Please note that the journal is in black and white: color figures will therefore not be accepted.

Style and form

A linear and flowing style is required. The text must of course have already been spell-checked. Abstracts in English and French must be carefully prepared. The use of the impersonal form is recommended.

Bibliographical references

The references included in the bibliography must be limited to those expressly cited in the text. For citations in the text, the Journal uses the author-date system. More specifically:

• The citation in the text has the following form: (Rossi 1997).
• For contributions with two authors use the form (Rossi and Bianchi 1997), for contributions with more than two authors use the form (Rossi et al. 1997).
• If an expression is cited verbatim by another author or by other authors, the text must be written in quotation marks («») and the citation must include the page number, assuming the form (Rossi 1997: 347).
• For multiple citations by the same author and in the same year, a, b, c, etc. must be followed. per year, both in the citation in the text and in the bibliography.

In the bibliography, in accordance with the author-date system, the references must be reported in the following form:

• Monographs
  BRUNETTI G. (1979), Il controllo di gestione in condizioni ambientali perturbate, Milano: Franco Angeli
• Collective volumes
  BRUNS W.J., KAPLAN R.S. (a cura di) (1987), Accounting and management. Field study perspectives, Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
  [NB: it is generally preferable to quote the specific essay within a collective volume, rather than the entire volume]
• Book chapters
  KAPLAN R.S. (1985), "Accounting lag. The obsolescence of cost accounting systems", in CLARK K., LORENZE C. (a cura di), Technology and productivity. The uneasy alliance, Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, pp. 195-226.
• Articles published on journals
  MENEGUZZO M., DELLA PIANA B. (2002), "Knowledge management e Pubblica Amministrazione. Conciliare l'inconciliabile?", Azienda pubblica, 21(3), pp. 489-512.
• Reports/record
  OECD (1999), Principles of corporate governance, Parigi: OECD.
• Unpublished reports / documents / records
  ZITO A. (1994), "Epistemic communities in European policy-making", Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Political Science, University of Pittsburgh.