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About the Journal

The Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs (JIPA) is a professional journal of the Department of the Air Force and a forum for worldwide dialogue regarding the Indo-Pacific region, spanning from the west coasts of the Americas to the eastern shores of Africa and covering much of Asia and all of Oceania. The journal fosters intellectual and professional development and informs decision makers and academicians around the globe.

Editorial Board

General Kenneth S. Wilsbach, commander, Pacific Air Forces, air component commander, US Indo-Pacific Command; and executive director, Pacific Air Combat Operations Staff; (chair of this board)

Brig General Anthony J. Mastalir, commander, US Space Forces Indo-Pacific

General Herbert J. "Hawk" Carlisle, USAF, retired

Ambassador Daniel L. Shields, DOS, retired

Editing Team

Dr. Ernest Gunasekara-Rockwell, editor in chief

Jon Howard, deputy editor in chief

Dr. Achala Gunasekara-Rockwell, assistant editor in chief

Catherine Smith, illustrator

Diana Faber, print specialist

Sandhu Aladuwaka, intern

Shalini Singh, intern

Tharishi Hewavithanagamage, intern.

Submission Guidelines

Prospective authors should submit their Feature (4,000–6,500 words), View (<3,500 words), Commentary (<2,500 words), or Senior Leader Perspective (flexible) articles to jipa@au.af.edu. Prospective book teview authors should contact this address before putting pen to paper or purchasing a book since JIPA updates its online list of books for review on a routine basis. Those interested in participating on our Indo-Pacific Affairs podcast or Indo-Pacific Visions vodcast should contact Dr. Jared McKinney or Dr. Achala Gunasekara-Rockwell, respectively. For all outreach, kindly:

Ensure the content adheres to the prescribed length parameters;

Include a brief, 2–3 sentence biography;

Verify that yours is an original submission not under consideration by another publication; and

Attach any visual aids as a separate document and include written permission or attribution license information.

Note, authors must obtain written permission from the owner to use any graphics not in the public domain (USG) or of their own creation. It is insufficient to cite the source of the graphic (copyright on graphics is different in fair use than copyright on written material).

View Acceptance (Peer-Review) Process

The abstract will consist of no more than 150 words.

The abstract must explicitly include these elements:

Thesis in one-two sentences

Research approach

How the article differs from other work on the same subject (what is new?)

Why is it relevant to the operational force?

Example:

China's growing influence in the Indo-Pacific region has raised concerns among regional countries and the United States. This article examines China's malign influence in the Indo-Pacific, arguing that Beijing's strategic objectives and its assertive behavior pose significant challenges to regional stability and US interests. The article takes a comprehensive approach, analyzing China's use of economic, diplomatic, and military tools to advance its interests, and assessing the impact of its actions on regional states and US allies. The article contributes to the existing literature by providing a detailed analysis of China's multifaceted influence in the region and its implications for US security interests. Unlike other works on the subject, this article examines the challenges posed by China's malign influence in the Indo-Pacific from the perspective of the operational force. By highlighting the security implications of China's actions, the article provides insights that are relevant to the US Air Force, US Space Force, and their sister services as they plan and execute their operations in the region.



The editor-in-chief will review the submitted abstract alongside the manuscript and decide whether to decline it or request the article for review.

The assistant editor in chief will review the results of the double-blind peer reviews and decide whether to decline it, send it back to the author(s) for revision and resubmission, accept pending author(s) revisions, or accept for publication as written.

In the case of “revise and resubmit,” the assistant editor in chief will review the author(s) revisions to determine if the author(s) sufficiently addressed the concerns of the peer reviews and decide to decline or accept the article for publication, or, in some cases, send it for another peer review. JIPA will not send resubmitted papers to the reviewers if the authors have made a serious attempt to address the constructive feedback.

The final judgment for publication resides with JIPA’s editor-in-chief who, having seen all papers and associated peer-review feedback, has a broad context from which to view the manuscript.

Once an article has been accepted, the article will undergo a security review, mechanical edit, fact check, and substantive/developmental edit. The results of Team JIPA edits will be returned to the author(s) for review, with a strict deadline for that review.

After the author reviews the proof and returns it, the article will undergo a final round of detailed copyediting to correct any remaining punctuation and grammar errors.

Once the article has been returned to JIPA, the article will be formatted and proofed. Content changes will not be allowed during this stage.

This is a highly iterative process that may take six months or longer determinant of the quality of the submission and Department of Defense (DOD) security review. JIPA will facilitate this compulsory step on behalf of all authors; however, US interagency authors should check with their organizations on any internal requirements prior to submission to JIPA. In cases of significant delays between acceptance and publication, JIPA will notify the author(s) of the opportunity to update text and references. JIPA reserves the right to make last-minute determinations regarding the issue in which the article will feature.

Disclaimer

The views and opinions expressed or implied in JIPA are those of the authors and should not be construed as carrying the official sanction of the United States Air Force, the Department of Defense, Air Education and Training Command, Air University, or other agencies or departments of the US government.

JIPA is an open access journal, which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or their institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.

Publication Ethics Statement

Publication Ethics: These statements from the Air University Press quarterly journal, Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs, are based on the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) core practices. More information may be found here: https://publicationethics.org.

Allegations of misconduct: The editor in chief of the Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs takes any form of fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism, or other practices negatively impacting the trustworthiness of our publications or attributions seriously and will conduct or cooperate with investigations regarding allegations of misconduct. Regardless of whether misconduct is found and proven to be committed intentionally, disclosure of the identity of defendants or petitioners will be limited to a need-to-know basis.

Authorship and contributorship: Individuals submitting monographs or articles to be considered for publication will only be credited authorship and/or contributorship if they have provided substantially through research, writing, editing, and approval for publication. Authorship and/or contributorship disputes may be resolved by the EiC of the journal. Acknowledgements may be noted for those contributors not meeting authorship or contributorship requirements. Ghost authors are not permitted as all authors and/or contributors meeting authorship and/or contributorship requirements should be listed. Artificial intelligence (AI)-generated submissions are not permitted. If AI is used to generate specific text in an article, it must be used very sparingly, be treated as a quote, and be sourced accordingly, per Chicago Manual of Style guidelines for AI content. If it is used to create a graphic, it must also be sourced. Violators will be ineligible for future publication consideration in the journal. 

Complaints and appeals: Complaints against the journal, its staff, or editorial board may be submitted through the editor in chief at jipa@au.af.edu.

Conflicts of interest: Transparency is vital to academic research and publishing in the journal. Conflicts of interest (COI) occur when an author and/or contributor has an activity affecting the validity of research by influencing their work for personal gain. COI complaints may be addressed to the editor in chief at jipa@au.af.edu.

Data and reproducibility: Articles containing data will be considered factual when published. If there is suspected data manipulation, falsification, or fabrication, the editor in chief will investigate. You may address your concerns to jipa@au.af.edu.

Ethical oversight: The Press and Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs enjoy academic freedom and encourage researchers to provide results in the form of articles or monographs for publication consideration. In doing so, the journal follows strict ethical guidelines for consent, conduct, confidentiality, and promotion. If the manuscript involves data collection from, or about, living humans, prior to submission the author must contact the Human Research Protection Program, which will determine whether the research in question requires review by an Institutional Review Board and, if so, provide proper documentation regarding the Board’s determination.

Intellectual property: The Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs is subject to Title 17 United States Code § 101 and 105. It is in the public domain and may not be copyrighted by any entity other than the covered author. Generally, no copyright exists for a manuscript prepared either as part of one’s official government duties (to include direct support of a lecture, instruction, curriculum development, or special duty assigned to the individual), during duty hours, or with substantial government clerical or administrative support. However, a limited exception exists for faculty members at covered institutions who own the copyright to literary works produced for a publication by a scholarly press or journal. In that instance, the author may be directed to provide the Federal Government with an irrevocable, royalty-free, world-wide nonexclusive license to reproduce, distribute, perform, or display such literary work for US Government purposes. If you wish to retain copyright, the Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs will include a copyright notice on the published manuscript in the author’s name (e.g., ©2020 Jane Doe). The Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs will grant reprint requests only for government purposes; private-sector requests for reprints will be referred to the author.

Journal management: The Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs is an official Department of the Air Force periodical, published quarterly by the Air University, which has determined that publication of this periodical is necessary in the transaction of the public business as required by law of the Department. Use of funds for publishing this journal has been approved by the Secretary of the Air Force in accordance with Air Force regulations.

Peer-review process: The Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs is a refereed forum for contemporary strategy, international relations, airpower, and spacepower issues. It furthers the education and professional development of senior military officers and members of government and academia concerned with national and international security affairs. Publishing a submitted article is contingent upon a blind peer review by subject-matter experts. If the article is deemed acceptable, it will be edited by professional Press members, reviewed by the author(s), and published in print and/or online.

Post-publication discussions: Dissenting views to articles are encouraged to be emailed to post-publication discussions and/or posted to the journal’s social media feeds. After review and acceptance, the editorial may be published in our Commentaries section. Corrections, revisions, or retractions will be published as soon as possible and as close to the front of the subsequent issue.

Source: Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) website: https://publicationethics.org.

Contact Information

For general inquiries, please email us at jipa@au.af.edu. If you have a specific question or concern, please feel free to contact the appropriate member of our editorial team or editorial board. We look forward to hearing from you!