About the journal
1. Editorial policy
Alter, European Journal of Disability Research is a peer-reviewed quarterly journal published in two languages, English and French. It is dedicated to research in the humanities and social sciences on disability and otherness. Its multidisciplinary and international editorial board is composed of experts. Alter aims to disseminate new knowledge on this subject.
A multidisciplinary journal. Multidisciplinarity means, first and foremost, openness to all the humanities and social sciences: sociology, anthropology, ethnology, history, demography, geography, social epidemiology, economics, law, social psychology, education sciences, science and technology of physical and sporting activities (STAPS), etc.
A cross-disciplinary journal. As research on disability and otherness involves a multitude of approaches and issues, Alter adopts a cross-disciplinary perspective. From the individual to the environment, from disability to participation, from discrimination to the exercise of citizenship, Alter addresses all social, economic, political, educational and health issues analysed in the humanities and social sciences. This cross-disciplinary perspective also reflects a desire to connect academic and fundamental knowledge on the one hand, and applied knowledge and knowledge derived from experience of disability on the other.
An international journal. Based in Europe and run by an international community, the journal aims to publish research work covering a variety of geographical areas. Although it is originally rooted in a European perspective, it is open to contributions beyond this scale. It pays particular attention to the relationships between the Norths and the Souths, the lasting effects of colonial ties and emerging issues in these political spaces. The international dimension implies multicultural openness, reasoned comparisons, and consideration of controversies that transcend national borders.
Several types of contributions are published in the journal: research articles (peer-reviewed), critical reviews of the literature, viewpoints, key textes revisited, short report, and book reviews. For more details, please consult the guide for authors.
Created in 2007, Alter is owned by a learned society: Alter – European Society for Disability Research. Since January 2022, it has been published in print by Éditions de l'EHESS and in digital format by OpenEdition. The journal is supported by the CNRS Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences (InSHS), Cermes3 and Fedrha.
2. Organisation
Alter is a peer-reviewed journal that publishes only original articles in French and English. With an international scientific committee, it is managed by an editorial board and editors-in-chief who ensure the scientific quality of the journal and compliance with its editorial policy.
All contributions received that comply with the editorial policy and instructions to authors are submitted to the editorial board. Then, depending on its nature, it is evaluated either externally (research articles, critical reviews of the literature and viewpoints), as part of a procedure respecting the double anonymity of authors and reviewers, or internally (key texts revisited, short report, book reviews). In the first case, each article is monitored by a member of the editorial board, from the appointment of reviewers to publication. The decision to publish is made in agreement with the editors-in-chief and, where applicable, the thematic issue coordinators. The publication time for articles is approximately 12 months.
Proposals for thematic issues should be sent to the editorial board for internal evaluation (alter.journal@alter-asso.org).
All articles follow the same evaluation process, whether they are varia articles, articles for thematic issues (two or three articles), or special issues (five to six articles).
3. Ethical rules for publishing
Alter follows international rules on preventing bad practices in scientific publishing. So, any article submitted for publication in the journal must come with a statement from the authors saying they’ve followed these rules:
– The submitted article is an original article whose content (or a significant part thereof) has not been published or submitted to another journal at the same time.
– The author undertakes to declare any conflict of interest in relation to the submitted publication.
– All sources of funding for the work must be mentioned.
– In the case of a publication signed by several authors, the corresponding author must ensure that the co-authors have approved the submitted version, as well as the final version of the article accepted for publication.
– Authors are responsible for the accuracy of the information provided in the text and bibliographical references.
– Plagiarism (including self-plagiarism) is considered unethical and illegal. The journal uses anti-plagiarism software (Compilatio). Authors guarantee that they have ensured that: they have appropriately cited the authors (including themselves) whose work they use; they have not paraphrased or copied excerpts from another author’s publication without mentioning them; they have not appropriated the results of research conducted by others.
– Authors guarantee that the research has been conducted in accordance with the ethics of research in the humanities and social sciences.


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