About the Journal
The Independent Review is published four times annually by the Independent Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, scholarly research and educational organization that sponsors studies of the political economy of critical public issues. The editor invites submission of articles that deal with important issues in political economy. Authors may adopt the approaches of economics or other social sciences, history, law, or political philosophy. Both positive and normative analyses will be considered. Because The Independent Review seeks a broad audience, papers should be interesting and comprehensible beyond narrow disciplinary bounds.
Manuscript length & submission format — Manuscripts of articles for The Independent Review should not exceed 10,000 words and should be submitted via our online submission system. The author’s name, address, and phone number should appear on the title page only. Please include an abstract of about 150 words. Submissions should be uploaded as Microsoft Word files (.doc or .docx) through the official submission portal.
The Independent Review is not an open access journal. Authors do not pay any submission or initial review fees. If a manuscript is accepted for publication, a one-time publication fee of 1,550 USD will be required. After acceptance, the corresponding author will receive a payment link via email to complete the process. There are no charges for color figures or online hosting; the fee covers editorial production and dissemination.
This fee applies only to accepted articles; there is no cost for withdrawn or rejected manuscripts.
Style & formatting requirements
Accepted manuscripts must conform to The Independent Review’s style requirements, which are guided by The Chicago Manual of Style (17th Edition) and Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (11th Edition). Citations should be in the author-date format, with full bibliographic information in a reference list and substantive notes prepared as numbered footnotes. Quotations of more than 100 words should be indented from the left and preceded and followed by an extra line of space.
Author-date reference examples
| Category | Example |
|---|---|
| Book | Higgs, Robert. 2006. Depression, War, and Cold War. Oakland, CA: Independent Institute. |
| Journal article | Stringham, Edward. 2018. “The Extralegal Development of Securities Trading.” The Independent Review 23(2): 197–214. |
| Chapter in edited book | Leeson, Peter T. 2020. “Pirates, Prisoners, and Preferences.” In The Oxford Handbook of Public Choice, edited by Roger D. Congleton, Bernard Grofman, and Stefan Voigt, 251–67. Oxford: Oxford University Press. |
For multiple citations, order chronologically within the same author. In-text: (Higgs 2006, 88) or Stringham (2018).
Block quotations
Quotations exceeding 100 words must be set off as a block: left-indented (0.5 in), no quotation marks, with an extra blank line before and after. Example structure:
Artificial intelligence (AI) policy
The Independent Review affirms the value of human creativity and scholarly integrity. Authors may use AI tools to assist with tasks such as proofreading, citation formatting, or summarizing sources, but all core ideas, arguments, and prose must originate from the author. Submissions may be screened using AI detection tools and manuscripts exhibiting signs of unacceptably high AI use—particularly in the generation of content, structure, or analysis—may be automatically rejected at the editors’ discretion.
Any use of AI for non-trivial tasks should be briefly described in the cover letter; this information will be kept confidential. The editorial board follows COPE guidelines on AI authorship.
Peer review & ethics
All contributions are subjected to double‑blind peer review (typically two referees). The journal pledges to provide constructive feedback and timely decisions (average 10 weeks). Manuscripts must not be under simultaneous consideration elsewhere. Plagiarism, falsification, or redundant publication will result in immediate rejection and possible reporting to institutional bodies.
Submission checklist
- Title page (separate) with full names, affiliation, postal address, e‑mail, and phone number.
- Abstract of approximately 150 words (no citations, no abbreviations).
- Main text (including tables, figures, references) does not exceed 10,000 words.
- References complete, in author‑date format (Chicago 17th).
- Footnotes (if any) are numbered and used only for substantive remarks — not for citations.
- Block quotations (≥100 words) properly indented with extra spacing.
- All illustrations and tables are prepared at the end of the manuscript, with placement hints in the text.
- AI assistance, if any, disclosed in cover letter (not in manuscript file).
Journal website: http://www.independentreview.tech/
Online submission portal: http://www.independentreview.tech/index.php/about/submission
Editorial contact (for inquiries): david@independentreview.tech
Only Microsoft Word files (.doc, .docx) are accepted via the submission portal. The corresponding author will receive an automatic confirmation upon successful submission.
