Submission Preflight (demog-submission)

The last check before pressing submit on ScholarOne Manuscripts (Demography moved off Editorial Manager in 2024). Demography is double-blind, so the most common avoidable failure is a manuscript with self-identifying references. Verify volatile specifics on the official page before relying on them.

When to trigger

• "Submitting tomorrow" — last pass before upload
• Unsure which files/metadata ScholarOne expects
• Confirming the chosen type's limits are met and the manuscript avoids self-identifying references

Process facts (verify volatile items on the official page)

• Owner / publisher: Population Association of America (PAA) / Duke University Press.
• Portal: ScholarOne Manuscripts (since May 31, 2024 — confirm the current submission link).
• Review model: double-blind — avoid self-identifying references; do not name yourself as author.
• Article types: Research Article (<= 8,000 words main text), Research Note (<= 4,000), Commentary (<= 2,000). Main-text counts exclude abstract, keywords, footnotes, acknowledgments.
• Front matter: abstract <= 200 words; up to 5 keywords/phrases; 3-5 highlights (each a complete sentence <= 85 characters incl. spaces).
• Exhibits: Articles up to ~8 tables/figures (recommend <= 75 references); Notes <= 4 (recommend <= 15 references); loosely APA reference style; Merriam-Webster spelling.
• Access model: Subscribe to Open (S2O) — free to readers; not an APC journal.
• Fees: $35 submission fee at submission (confirmed current 2026-06-22); $1,000 editorial-management fee at acceptance (waivable; not an open-access charge). Re-verify amounts/waiver eligibility on the live page before submission. 待核实.

Preflight checklist

Type & length

• Article type chosen and its main-text word cap met (Article <= 8,000 / Note <= 4,000 / Commentary <= 2,000)
• Abstract <= 200 words; 3-5 highlights each <= 85 chars; <= 5 keywords
• Tables/figures within the limit (~8 Article / 4 Note); references within recommendation

Anonymity (double-blind)

• No author names, affiliations, or acknowledgments in the manuscript
• No self-identifying references ("as we showed in…"); self-citations neutralized
• Identifying file metadata stripped (document properties, comments)
• Separate (non-anonymous) title page prepared if required by ScholarOne

Format & metadata

• Loosely APA house style; consistent author-date citations; Merriam-Webster spelling
• Figures/tables self-contained and accessible (see demog-tables-figures)

Compliance & files

• Ethics / human-subjects compliance and disclosures complete
• Data availability statement drafted; materials staged for a FAIR repository at acceptance (see demog-data-and-reproducibility)
• $35 submission fee ready (and waiver path noted if eligible)

Anti-patterns

• Leaving author identifiers in the text, acknowledgments, or file metadata (breaks double-blind)
• Abstract over 200 words; highlights over 85 characters; more than 5 keywords
• Sending a long paper to the Research Note track, or exceeding the table/figure limit
• Reusing an old Editorial Manager link instead of ScholarOne
• Describing the $1,000 fee as an open-access APC (it is not)

Compliance pre-screen: what the desk checks first (by article type)

Demography — the Population Association of America flagship at Duke University Press — runs a compliance pre-review before suitability. A failure here can bounce the manuscript before any reviewer sees it. Map your type to its caps (confirm current numbers against the journal's submission guidelines):

Referee/editor pushback at the desk and the submission-side fix

• "Self-identifying references compromise the double-blind." -> Neutralize self-citations ("prior work [Author] showed" not "as we showed"), strip document-property metadata, and split off a non-anonymous title page.
• "This Note exceeds the Note caps." -> Either trim to <= 4,000 words and <= 4 exhibits or move it to the Research Article track; do not submit an over-length Note hoping for leniency.
• "The data availability statement is missing." -> Stage the statement and FAIR-repository deposit now, even though it is finalized at acceptance (see demog-data-and-reproducibility).
• "Was this submitted through the right portal?" -> Use ScholarOne Manuscripts; an old Editorial Manager link routes nowhere since the 2024 migration.

Output format

【Type】Article / Note / Commentary (main-text cap met? Y/N)
【Anonymized】text + self-refs + file metadata clean? [Y/N]
【Abstract / highlights / keywords】<= 200 words / 3-5 (<= 85 chars) / <= 5? [Y/N]
【Exhibits + references】within limits? [Y/N]
【House style】loosely APA + Merriam-Webster? [Y/N]
【Data statement】drafted + repo staged? [Y/N]
【Fees】$35 submission ready (waiver if eligible)? [Y/N]
【Next】await decision -> demog-rebuttal on R&R

Supplementary resources

• ../../resources/external_tools.md — reference managers, anonymization, FAIR repositories
• ../../resources/official-source-map.md — official Demography URLs behind every fact in this pack