Manuscript Requirements and Formatting Guidelines

Before submitting your manuscript, please carefully read the guidelines below. Strict adherence to these requirements optimizes the editorial process and significantly increases the chances of a positive publication decision resulting from double-blind peer review. Our standards align with international indexing database metrics (Scopus, Web of Science) and contemporary scientific excellence frameworks.

I. Manuscript Content Requirements

The Editorial Board of the “Ukrainian Journal of Constitutional Law” invites original research papers in the fields of constitutional law, comparative constitutional law, and related academic disciplines (philosophy of law, legal theory, and political sciences). Submitted manuscripts must be entirely original and must not have been previously published elsewhere.

Exception: This rule does not apply to materials submitted under the “National Heritage of Constitutionalism” and “World Heritage of Constitutionalism” sections, which feature fundamental historical texts by eminent jurists of the past or extracts from them.

Every submitted paper must comply with the following criteria:

• Clear alignment with the Journal’s scope and scientific profile.
• Advanced academic style and rigor (precision, logical cohesion, conciseness, structural integrity, and completeness).
• Mandatory inclusion of the following structural sections within the text:
  • Introduction: outlining the research problem in a general context and its connection to critical scientific or practical tasks.
  • Literature Review: reviewing recent studies and baseline publications that the author builds upon, highlighting the previously unresolved aspects of the problem addressed by the paper.
  • Research Objectives (Aim): a clearly formulated goal of the study.
  • Methodology: description of methods, approaches, and legal instruments applied. If AI tools (LLMs) were used for data processing or text assistance, it must be transparently disclosed here.
  • Results and Discussion: presentation of the core research material with comprehensive substantiation of the scientific findings, evaluating legal doctrine and practice.
  • Conclusions: scientific summaries of the study and future research prospects in the respective field.

II. Manuscript Length Limitations

The total length of the scientific article must not exceed 25 pages. This limit is exhaustive and includes all elements of the manuscript: titles, abstracts, main body text, footnotes, and the final reference lists.

III. Formatting and Metadata Sequence

A) Language: Manuscripts are accepted in Ukrainian or English. The Editorial Board highly encourages submissions in English to maximize international reach and citation metrics.

B) Technical Standards: Texts must be processed in MS Word; paper format – A4; page orientation – portrait. Text alignment – justified. Paragraph indentation – 1.25 cm. Margins: top, bottom, and left – 2 cm; right – 1 cm. Font: Times New Roman (size – 14 pt); line spacing – 1.5. The use of automatic word hyphenation and macros is strictly prohibited.

C) Metadata Structure and Sequence:
To maintain a strict double-blind peer review workflow, authors must submit their manuscript completely anonymized (without any personal or institutional identifiers in the text or file properties). However, the final layout structure of the published paper follows this sequence:

1. UDC Index (left-aligned, no paragraph indentation).
2. Article Title in both Ukrainian and English (centered, bold, CAPITAL letters, without abbreviations or acronyms). The title must accurately reflect the core focus and outcome of the research.
3. Author Information Block (provided in both Ukrainian and English; right-aligned in the final layout) includes:
   • Full name of the author(s);
   • Academic degree and academic rank/title;
   • Membership details in the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine or the National Academy of Legal Sciences of Ukraine (if applicable);
   • Honorary titles, current institutional position;
   • Official institutional affiliation, city, country;
   • Corporate e-mail address;
   • International identifiers: ORCID ID, Researcher ID, GICID ID (mandatory).

   Note: A maximum of three co-authors is permitted per article. AI tools cannot be listed as co-authors.

4. Abstract and Keywords in Ukrainian: at least 1,800 characters (including spaces), including keywords.
5. Abstract and Keywords in English: at least 1,800 characters (including spaces), including keywords. The English abstract must be comprehensive and well-structured.
6. Main Text of the Article (structured into mandatory sections).
7. Funding and Acknowledgments (if applicable): If the research was sponsored by funds, grants, or organizations, authors must state the sources of funding and briefly outline the role of the sponsors at the end of the text.
8. List of Sources (in the original script/Cyrillic).
9. References (the Romanized list of sources formatted according to international standards).

IV. In-text Citations and Footnote Regulations

4.1. Citation System: The Journal utilizes the footnote system. In-text citations are indicated by a superscript numerical index (e.g., text¹) corresponding to an automatic footnote at the bottom of the current page containing bibliographic data. Footnote numbering runs continuously from “1” until the end of the article. These footnotes form the basis of the final reference lists.

4.2. Quotation Rules:

• Short In-line Quotations (up to three lines) must be enclosed in single quotation marks (‘…’) without changing the grammatical form of the original text. The footnote index is placed immediately after the closing punctuation marks.
• Block Quotations (four or more lines) must be formatted as a separate paragraph with a full block indentation, without quotation marks. A single line spacing must separate the block quote from the preceding and following text.
• Omissions within a quote are indicated by ellipses (…). Changes must not distort the primary meaning intended by the original author.
• Indirect Citations (paraphrasing) do not require quotation marks but must be accompanied by an accurate footnote citation.
• Author Emphasis: If the author of the article emphasizes certain words within a quote, a notation must be added in parentheses at the end of the quote, such as: (italics ours. – Y. P.) or (underlining mine. – Y. P.).

4.3. Illustrative Materials: Tables, charts, diagrams, and figures must be directly relevant to the text. All tables must be generated directly in MS Word (scanned or photocopied graphics from print sources are not accepted). Captions and figures numbers must be placed clearly above or below the graphic. In-text cross-references are enclosed in parentheses: (Fig. 1), (Table 2).

4.4. Mandatory DOIs: If a cited scientific source (journal article, monograph, book chapter) has an assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier), the author is strictly required to provide its active URL link both in the footnote and in the final reference lists.

V. Reference List Specifications (References)

The final reference lists are placed at the end of the text and must comprehensively reflect the scientific foundation of the study.

The Journal enforces a strict structural division of sources by category. Both the original list and the References section must be divided into two independent parts, arranged in alphabetical order within each section:

1. «Bibliography»: includes exclusively academic sources – individual or collective monographs, textbooks, peer-reviewed journal articles, conference proceedings, and analytical reports.
2. «List of legal documents»: includes statutory acts, constitutions, international treaties, laws, regulations, and judicial decisions (e.g., rulings of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, ECHR, Supreme Court, etc.).

Formatting Standard: Bibliographic descriptions must follow the MLA (Modern Language Association, 9th edition) international standard.

Transliteration Policy: Authors are not required to manually transliterate Cyrillic sources into Latin script. The Journal’s Editorial Office performs automated transliteration using proprietary software in accordance with official national rules. Authors are only required to provide the source list in the original language and, for non-English works, supply an English translation of the title in square brackets [ ] following the original title.

VI. Submission Procedure

Manuscripts must be submitted through the official portal of the Journal under the “Submit Article – Send Article” section according to the following procedure:

1. The author fills in all mandatory fields of the online metadata registration form.
2. Using the “Upload” button, two separate files must be uploaded:
   • The Anonymized Manuscript (devoid of author names or institutional markers within the text and file properties), labeled as “Manuscript”.
   • The Author Information Sheet (a separate file detailing the author metadata as specified in Section III), labeled as “Author Profile”.

Authors bear sole and ultimate responsibility for the accuracy of facts, empirical data, original authorship, absence of academic integrity breaches, and the quality of translated foreign citations.

Materials submitted in violation of these guidelines will not be considered for peer review and will be rejected.