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Basic Income Studies

Ed. by de Wispelaere, Jurgen / Haagh, Louise / Mulvale, James / Widerquist, Karl / Clua-Losada, Monica / Fontcuberta-Estrada, Xavier / Perez-Munoz, Christian

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Basic Income Studies (BIS) is the first peer-reviewed journal devoted to basic income and related issues of poverty relief and universal welfare. An exciting venture supported by a major international network of scholars, policymakers, and activists, Basic Income Studies is the only forum for scholarly research on this leading edge movement in contemporary social policy. Articles discuss the design and implementation of basic income schemes, and address the theory and practice of universal welfare in clear, non-technical language that engages the wider policy community. The journal's editors represent the forefront of research in poverty, political theory, welfare reform, ethics, and public finance, at institutions such as the University of Montreal, Georgetown University-Qatar, Université Catholique de Louvain, Australian National University, Stockholm University, National University of La Plata, University of York, University of Hamburg, Columbia University, Universitat de Barcelona, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

BIS Sponsors

BIS is sponsored by the Spanish basic income network, Red Renta Básica (RRB), the Spanish Instituto de Estudios Fiscales (IEF), and the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN), and supported by the U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network (USBIG). BIS gratefully acknowledges the support of these organizations and their members.

Publication History

Three issues/year
Content available since 2006 (Volume 1, Issue 1)
ISSN: 1932-0183

What scholars are saying about Basic Income Studies

The proposal of an unconditional basic income is a simple idea that is at the core of radical thinking about poverty and unemployment, social justice and social cohesion in a wide variety of countries, and increasingly throughout the world. BIS's ambition is to stimulate and disseminate rigorous, undogmatic discussion about this and related ideas. The young international and interdisciplinary team that launched the project is well equipped to live up to this ambition.

Philippe Van Parijs, Chaire Hoover d'éthique économique et sociale, Université Catholique de Louvain and Visiting Professor of Philosophy, Harvard University

Basic Income is on the cusp of becoming a veritable social movement, with this journal serving as its intellectual wing. It will serve as an important source of information about the movement for outsiders, and as an important venue for key debates within the movement. I will be watching its development over the coming years with the keenest of interest.

Robert E. Goodin, Joint Professor of Social and Political Theory and Philosophy, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University

Basic Income Studies will help bring what is an already flourishing debate to the attention of a larger number of scholars, and help develop, sharpen and clarify the issues for all those involved in universities, policy arenas and in the growing grass roots campaigns in a wide variety of countries. The editors deserve thanks for their very welcome initiative.

Carole Pateman, Professor of Political Science. Department of Political Science, University of California, USA

Basic Income Studies provides an innovative and valuable venue for research on one of the most vital and intractable social problems facing the discipline of economics and the social sciences in general.

Douglas Bowles, Professor of Economics and Director of the Social Science Consortium, University of Missouri, Kansas City

Basic Income Studies covers cutting edge research in an area of social justice that is central to my research.

Darrel Moellendorf, Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Institute for Ethics and Public Affairs, San Diego State University

This is a major source of high quality articles on the basic income grant initiative; of interest, I believe, to economists, political scientists and others in the social sciences, as well as philosophers.

Len Krimerman, Professor of Philosophy and Director of Public and Community Engagement, University of Connecticut

Basic Income Studies News

BIS Essay Prize

The 2009 BIS Essay Prize has been awarded to Wesley Pech (Wofford College) at the 7th USBIG Congress in New York for his paper "Behavioral Economics and The Basic Income Guarantee". Chandra Pasma (Citizens for Public Justice) received an Honourable Mention for her paper "Working Through the Work Disincentive".

The 2008 BIS Essay Prize has been awarded to Ian Gareth Orton (International Labour Organisation) at the 10th BIEN Congress in Dublin for his paper "Eliminating Child Labour: The Promise of a Basic Income". Bill Jordan (University of Plymouth) received an Honourable Mention for his paper "Basic Income and Social Value".

The 2007 BIS Essay Prize was awarded to Laura Bambrick (University of Oxford) at the 6th USBIG Congress in New York for her paper "A BIG response to Wollstonecraft's Dilemma." Richard Caputo (Yeshiva University) received an Honourable Mention for his paper "The Death Knoll of BIG or BIG by Stealth: A preliminary assessment of BIG political viability around the globe."

The 2006 Essay Prize was awarded to Michael Howard (University of Maine) for his article "A NAFTA Dividend: A proposal for a guaranteed minimum income for North America." Three other essays were awarded an Honourable Mention:"Good for Women? Advantages and risks of basic income from a gender perspective" by Julieta Elgarte (Universidad Nacional de La Plata/Université Catholique de Louvain); "Why Switzerland? Basic income and the development potential of Swiss Republicanism" by Eric Patry (University of St. Gallen); and "Australia's Disabling Income Support System" by Jennifer Mays (Queensland University of Technology).

The BIS Essay Prize, organised annually in association with Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) and USBIG respectively, encourages promising research on basic income and related policies and is awarded to an essay that exemplifies a high standard of quality and original basic income research. BIS Prize Essays are published in a forthcoming issue of Basic Income Studies.

 

Aims and Scope

Basic income is a universal income grant available to every citizen without means test or work requirement. Academic discussion of basic income and related policies has been growing in the fields of economics, philosophy, political science, sociology, and public policy over the last few decades — with dozens of journal articles published each year, and basic income constituting the subject of more than 30 books in the last 10 years. In addition, the political discussion of basic income has been expanding through social organizations, NGOs and other advocacy groups. Internationally, recent years have witnessed the endorsement of basic income by grassroots movements as well as government officials in developing countries such as Brazil or South-Africa.

As the community of people working on this issue has been expanding all over the world, incorporating grassroots activists, high profile academics — including several Nobel Prize winners in economics — and policymakers, the amount of high quality research on this topic has increased considerably. In the light of such extensive scholarship on this topic, the need to coordinate research efforts through a journal specifically devoted to basic income and cognate policies became pressing. Basic Income Studies (BIS) is the first academic journal to focus specifically on basic income and cognate policies.

BIS publishes peer-reviewed research papers, book reviews, and short accessible commentaries that discuss a central aspect of the debate on basic income and related schemes. Contributions to BIS will typically discuss the empirical or normative analysis of basic income but may also include articles on related policies such as citizens’ pensions, stakeholder and sabbatical grants, negative income tax or earned income tax credits, and various job guarantee policies. Articles that discuss the state of modern welfare regimes or aspects of social security or employment regulation in more general terms will be considered provided there are clear implications for basic income research. Although BIS places considerable emphasis on rigorous conceptual development and/or thorough empirical analysis, all articles must be written in clear, non-technical language to ensure that they are accessible to non-specialists.

BIS encourages publication both by established scholars and by researchers at the beginning of their careers.

BIS has an international scope, aims to publish original articles and review essays on basic income in all countries, and strongly welcomes papers from non-Western countries.


BIS Essay Prize

Basic Income Studies awards Essay Prize in collaboration with the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) and the U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network (USBIG). A panel of judges chosen by BIS and the co-chairs of BIEN choose the best English-language essay at the BIEN biennial congress and every second USBIG conference (on the years when BIEN does not have a conference). The winning paper is published as the BIS Prize Essay.

Supplementary Materials

Instructions for Authors

Final Manuscript Preparation Guidelines

Please find here details on copyediting, typesetting, and layout requirements pertaining to final manuscript submission to this journal. All manuscripts must have correct formatting to be considered ready for publication.

COPYEDITING

The EdiKit system has been designed to improve the scholarly publication process for authors. Among the many improvements we offer over traditional journals, the most significant is that we have dramatically shortened the period between the initial submission and the final publication of a peer-reviewed article. Much of this time savings is due to the innovative use of electronic publication. These innovations, however, require certain changes in the way authors need to prepare accepted manuscripts for electronic publication.
De Gruyter does not copyedit manuscripts for this journal until further notice. However, De Gruyter does offer support to authors during the process. Authors are their own copyeditors and typesetters. This means that authors need to pay greater attention to the editing and look of their manuscripts than is typically required by print journals. If you have reasons to doubt your proficiency with respect to spelling, grammar, etc. (e.g., because English is not your native language), then you may wish to employ—at your expense—the services of a professional copyeditor.

Please get in touch with the copyeditors directly to discuss details.

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FORMATTING REQUIREMENTS

CONTENT and STRUCTURE

ALL MANUSCRIPTS

  • Copyedit your manuscript.
  • Do not include a title page or abstract. (Begin the document with the introduction. The title page and abstract will be added to your paper by the EdiKit system.)
  • Do not include page numbers, headers, or footers. (The EdiKit system will add the appropriate header with page numbers).
  • Do not identify author names in the actual text of your manuscript; all such information is discarded when we receive your submission. To add or edit co-authors, you must use the “revise submission” form.
  • Make sure all author and co-author information is complete. Click on “Preview submission” to make sure that all your co-authors' names and affiliations appear correctly.
  • Do not include acknowledgments in your manuscript. Instead, enter acknowledgments in the coverpage footnote section on the “revise submission” form, so that they may be incorporated into the title page produced for publication.
  • Write your article in English (unless the journal expressly permits non-English submissions).
  • Submit your manuscript, including tables, figures, appendices, etc., as a single file (Word, RTF, or PDF files are accepted).
  • Use the following document structure (keep in mind that there is no title page):
    1. Introduction (titling this section is optional)
    2. Subsequent sections which include all tables, figures, and footnotes referenced in the text
    3. Appendices (if any)
    4. References - Include a proper bibliography following the guidelines in the References section below.

BOOK REVIEWS

  • Book reviews must start with the citation of the book at the top of the first page.

PAGE LAYOUT and SPACING

  • Page size must be 8.5 x 11-inches (“letter” size). Do not use A4.
  • All margins (left, right, top and bottom) must be 1.5 inches (3.8 cm), including your tables and figures.
  • Single space your text.
  • Use a single column layout with both left and right margins justified. (Footnotes and references must be both left- and right- justified as well.)
  • Indent all paragraphs except those following a section heading.
  • An indent should be at least 10 em-spaces.
  • Equations, long quotations, theorems, propositions, special remarks, tables, figures, etc. should be set off from the surrounding text by additional space above and below. Otherwise, do not insert an extra space between paragraphs of text.
  • Do not “widow” or “orphan” text; make sure that headings are on the same page as the text that follows them, and do not begin a page with the last line of a paragraph. This also applies to titles or notes attached to tables.
  • There should be no pages where more than a quarter of the page is empty space, unless it is absolutely impossible to do so.
  • All text should be fully justified, left and right (i.e., flush with the left and right margins).

FONTS
TYPE and SIZE

We cannot accept Type3 fonts. The following is a brief guide to fonts with respect to layout.

  •  Font:
    • Main Body—12 pt. Times or the closest comparable font available
    • Equations—12 pt. Times or the closest comparable font available
    • Footnotes—10 pt. Times or the closest comparable font available
    • Tables, graphs & figures—Text accompanying graphs, figures and tables should be no smaller than 8 pt.   

FONT FACES
Use Times or the closest comparable font available, except, possibly, where special symbols are needed. If you desire a second font, for instance for headings, use a sans serif font (e.g., Arial or Computer Modern Sans Serif).

COLORED TEXT

  • Set the font color to black for the majority of the text. De Gruyter encourages authors to take advantage of the ability to use color in the production of figures, maps, images, and graphs. However, you need to appreciate that this will cause some of your readers problems when they print the document on a black and white printer. For this reason, you are advised to avoid the use of colors in situations where their translation to black and white would render the material illegible or incomprehensible.
  • Please ensure that there are no colored mark-ups or comments in the final version, unless they are meant to be part of the final text. (You may need to “accept all changes” in track changes or set your document to “normal” in final markup.)

EMPHASIZED TEXT, TITLES, and FOREIGN TERMS

  • To indicate text you wish to emphasize, use italics rather than underlining. The use of color to emphasize text is discouraged.
  • Foreign terms should be set in italics rather than underlined.
  • Titles of books, movies, etc., should be set in italics rather than underlined.

HEADINGS
Headings (e.g., title of sections) should be distinguished from the main body text by their fonts or by using small caps.

  • Use the same font face for all headings and indicate the hierarchy by reducing the font size.
  • Put space above and below headings. Spacing must be consistent around all headings.
  • Be consistent in whether or not you use headline case, or you capitalize the first word and leave the rest in lower-case.

FOOTNOTES

  • Footnotes must appear at the bottom of the page on which they are referenced rather than at the end of the paper.
  • Footnotes must be in 10 pt. Times or closest comparable font available.
  • They must be single spaced, and there must be a footnote separator rule (line).
  • Please make sure there is no excess blank space above or below the footnote line divider.
  • Footnote numbers or symbols in the text must follow, rather than precede, punctuation.
  • Excessively long footnotes are better handled in an appendix.
  • All footnotes should be fully justified, left and right (i.e., flush with the left and right margins).

TABLES, FIGURES & GRAPHS

  • If figures are included, use high-resolution figures, preferably encoded as encapsulated * PostScript (eps).
  • To the extent possible, tables and figures should appear in the document near where they are referenced in the text.
  • Large tables or figures should be put on pages by themselves.
  • Make sure to use at least 8 pt. font size in tables, figures and graphs.
  • Everything must be easily readable when viewed on a computer screen at 100% and when physically printed.
  • In no case should tables or figures be in a separate document or file. All tables and figures must fit within 1.5" margins on all sides (top, bottom, left and right) in both portrait and landscape view.

MATHEMATICS and EQUATIONS

  • Roman letters used in mathematical expressions as variables must be italicized. Roman letters used as part of multi-letter function names should not be italicized. Subscripts and superscripts must be a smaller font size than the main text.
  • Use 12 pt. Times or the closest comparable font available
  • Type short mathematical expressions inline.
  • Longer expressions must appear as display math, as must expressions using many different levels (e.g., such as fractions).
  • Important definitions or concepts can also be set off as display math.
  • Number your equations sequentially.
  • Insert a blank line before and after each equation.
  • Whether equation numbers are on the right or left is the choice of the author(s). However, make sure to be consistent in this.
  • Avoid symbols and notation in unusual fonts. This will not only enhance the clarity of the manuscript, but it will also help ensure that it displays correctly on the reader's screen and prints correctly.
  • When proofing your document, pay particular attention to the rendering of the mathematics, especially symbols and notation drawn from other-than-standard fonts.

REFERENCES
REFERENCES WITHIN TEXT

  • Within the text of your manuscript, use the author-date method of citation. For instance, “As noted by Smith (1776).”
  • When there are two authors, use both last names. For instance, “Edlin and Reichelstein (1996) claim … ”
  • If there are three or more authors give the last name of the first author and append et al. For instance, a 1987 work by Abel, Baker, and Charley, would be cited as “Abel et al. (1987).”
  • If two or more cited works share the same authors and dates, use “a,” “b,” and so on to distinguish among them. For instance, “Jones (1994b) provides a more general analysis of the model introduced in Example 3 of Jones (1994a).”
  • After the first cite in the text using the author-date method, subsequent cites can use just the last names if that would be unambiguous. For example, Edlin and Reichelstein (1996) can be followed by just Edlin and Reichelstein provided no other Edlin and Reichelstein article is referenced; if one is, then the date must always be attached.
  • When citations appear within parentheses, use commas—rather than parentheses or brackets—to separate the date from the surrounding text. For instance, “ … (see Smith, 1776, for an early discussion of this).”

REFERENCE SECTION
It is the author's obligation to provide complete references with the necessary information. Our editors do not check this.

  • After the last sentence of your submission (text or appendix), please insert a line break—not a page break—and begin your references on the same page.
  • Do not split an individual reference between two pages. If the entirety of the reference does not fit on the page it starts on, then move the entire reference to start on the following page.
  • References must be in alphabetical order and have margins that are both left- and right- justified. You may choose not to right-justify the margin of individual references if the spacing looks too awkward.
  • Use hanging indents for citations (i.e., the first line of the citation should be flush with the left margin and all other lines should be indented from the left margin by a set amount). Citations should be single-spaced with extra space between citations.
  • Within the references section, the citations can be formatted as you like, provided (i) the formatting is consistent and (ii) each citation begins with the last name of the first author. That is, the following would all be acceptable:
          Smith, Adam (1776) The Wealth of Nations, …
          Smith, A., The Wealth of Nations, … , 1776.
          Smith, Adam: The Wealth of Nations, 1776, …

Basic Income Studies is covered by the following abstracting and indexing services:

  • ABI/Inform

  • EconLit

  • Intute

  • PAIS International (CSA)

  • RePEc

  • Risk Abstracts (CSA)

  • Scopus

  • Social Services Abstracts (CSA)

  • Social Work Abstracts

  • Sociological Abstracts (CSA)

  • WorldCat

  • Worldwide Political Science Abstracts (CSA)

Editor-in-Chief
Rafael Pinilla-Pallejà Ministry of Public Affairs, Spain

Editors
Jurgen De Wispelaere University of Montreal, Canada
Louise Haagh University of York, UK
James Mulvale University of Regina, Canada
Karl Widerquist Georgetown University, Qatar
Book Review Editor
Cristian Pèrez Muñoz Washington University in Saint Louis, USA


Managing Editors
Mònica Clua-Losada Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain
Xavier Fontcuberta Estrada Agència d'Avaluació i Prospectiva de l'Educació, Spain

Consultant Editors
Carole Pateman University of California - Los Angeles, USA
Keith Dowding Australian National University, Australia
Remedios Melero Melero CSIC, Spain
Steve Pressman Monmouth University, USA
Francisco Ramos Martin Catalan Ministry of Employment, Spain


Associate Editors
Simon Eli Birnbaum Stockholm University, Sweden
Jim Bryan Manhattanville College, USA
David Casassas University of Oxford, UK
Harry Dahms University of Tennessee, USA
Kruti Dholakia University of Texas-Dallas, USA
Julieta Elgarte National University of La Plata, Argentina
Manfred Füllsack University of Vienna, Austria
Loek Groot University of Utrecht, Netherlands
Louise Haagh University of York, UK
Ingrid Hohenleitner University of Hamburg, Germany
Michael Lewis State University of New York, USA
Sascha Liebermann Ruhr University Bochum / ETH Zurich
Søren Flinch Midtgaard University of Aarhus, Denmark
Eri Noguchi Columbia University, USA
José Antonio Noguera Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain
Cristian Pérez Muñoz Universidad de la República, Uruguay
Ingrid Robeyns Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, Netherlands
Corina Rodríguez Enríquez CIEPP, Argentina
Shlomi Segall Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Yannick Vanderborght Facultes universitaires Saint-Louis, Belgium
Almaz Zelleke The New School, USA


International Advisory Board
Jordi Arcarons University of Barcelona, Spain
John Baker University College Dublin, Ireland
Brian M. Barry Columbia University, USA
María Julia Bertomeu National University of La Plata, Argentina
Claude Gamel Université Paul Cézanne d'Aix-Marseille, France
Robert E. Goodin Australian National University, Australia
Nanna Kildal University of Bergen, Norway
Sally Lerner University of Waterloo, Canada
Rubén Lo Vuolo Interdisciplinary Centre for the Study of Public Policies (CIEPP), Argentina
Michael Opielka University of Applied Sciences Jena, Germany
Daniel Raventós University of Barcelona, Spain
Guy Standing International Labour Organization, Switzerland
John Tomlinson Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Robert van der Veen University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
Philippe Van Parijs Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium & Harvard University, USA
Stuart White University of Oxford, UK
Erik Olin Wright University of Wisconsin, USA

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