The editors welcome contributions on co-operative education, management, governance and leadership, and related subject areas of relevance to the co-operative sector. This includes worker, consumer, retail, housing, credit, insurance, information technology, environmental, and other forms of co-operative endeavour; international co-operation; and other sectors within the social economy, including mutual businesses, co-operative banks and building societies, community businesses and member-based non-profits.

The Journal is published three times a year. We operate a "green" open access policy. This allows authors to self-archive a copy of their accepted manuscript (the final, peer reviewed edit of a paper without the publisher's formatting/typeset etc) in their institutional repository. This final published version of the paper is subject to an embargo period of six months after it is published in the Journal. After this time, it will be made publicly available on the Journal website and can made be available via the author repository.  

Papers are published in line with Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). This permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.

We welcome contributions on most aspects of co-operation, co-operative management, governance and leadership, and related subject areas, in relation to a range of co-operative sectors. 

The types of submissions are detailed below. Please ensure that you have read the submission and style guidelines before submitting your paper for review. There are no fees payable to submit or publish in the Journal.

ISSN 0961-5784


  • Peer reviewed/research articles of 4,000-7,000 words, which either by reporting the results of empirical research or through developing theoretical and/or practitioner perspectives will contribute to knowledge about co-operation and related subject areas. These articles will be subject to anonymous peer review by two specialist referees. 
  • Editorial reviewed shorter articles, generally of between 2,000-4,000 words are assessed on the basis of their general interest and readability. Such articles are not subject to external peer review although the editor may seek comments and suggestions from members of the Editorial Advisory Board, which would be discussed with the author as part of the editing process.
  • Think pieces/new developments - 1,000-2000 words - papers aimed at stimulating discussion and possible future new directions for co-operative research and practice. Practitioner accounts of new co-operative enterprise and activities.
  • Book reviews (600-1000 words) and review articles (2,000 words)

Submissions should be emailed as Word documents to:

[email protected]

Please be sure to read the submission guidelines before submission. If you have any queries, please address these to the editor.

UK Society for Co-operative Studies is registered in England and Wales as a charitable incorporated organisation Number 1175295. Our registered office is Holyoake House, Hanover Street, Manchester, M60 0AS.
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