House Style

House Style Guidelines

The Journal of Practice Theory is fully open access, with no submission or publication fees for authors. This ensures that all articles are immediately and freely available for reading, downloading, and sharing upon publication.

As an autonomous and open-access journal we rely on in-house copyediting and publication preparation. This means that we ask authors to adhere closely to the formatting and referencing guidelines set out below and to collaborate with us during the production process. This shared effort helps us maintain the journal's high standards and provides all of the functionality of a subscription journal, while supporting the open-access model.

Submissions can initially follow any style, but authors must implement the journal's House Style upon acceptance. We ask authors to provide complete references with DOIs. Doing this at the time of submission is preferable but can be updated following acceptance. Articles will be returned for adjustments post-acceptance as part of the production process.

General Formatting

  • Language: English
  • Spelling: British (In general: colour, programme, realise, conceptualise, theorise, criticise. Some common Americanizations are fine e.g. organization. We leave it to the author’s judgement.)
  • Font: Readable, basic font (e.g., Arial, Calibri, Times New Roman)
  • Font Size: 11 or 12
  • Line Spacing: 1.15
  • Pagination: Add page numbers in the footer
  • Titles and Subtitles: Use Capitalised Titles
  • Oxford Comma

Title Hierarchy:

  1. Title 1: Bold, One Size Larger than the Body Text (e.g., 12–14 pt)
  2. Title 2: Bold, Same Size as Body Text (e.g., 11–12 pt)
  3. Title 3: Italics, Same Size as Body Text (e.g., 11-12 pt)

In-Text Citations

  • Use the format: (Author Last Name Year, XX);
  • Two authors: (Author Last Name and Author Last Name Year, XX)
  • Three or more authors: (Author Last Name et al. Year, XX)
  • Multiple texts: (Author Last Name Year; Author Last Name Year; Author Last Name Year)
  • Avoid abbreviations like ibid.; we prefer full citations where possible.

Quotes and Quotation Marks

  • Use “double quotation marks” for direct quotes.
  • Separate and indent direct quotations over two lines in length.
  • Unless it is part of the direct quote, punctuation and footnote references go outside the quotations marks.
  • Use single quotation marks in-text ‘Journal Article and Chapter Titles’. (Italicise in-text Book and Journal Titles.

Footnotes

  • Limit the use of footnotes.
  • Use in-text citations for references.
  • Include qualifying or side information in the main body of the text wherever possible.
  • Footnotes may be used sparingly for additional clarification or to point to a text without direct referencing (e.g., Cf. [compare]).

References

  • Follow the House Style for the reference list upon submission.
  • Present references at the end of the paper/contribution, first in alphabetical order by author last name and then by most recent.
  • Include DOIs at the end of each reference in the format https://doi: and embed the link.
  • DOIs can normally be found relatively easily via google.
  • If DOIs are unavailable, note this clearly at the end of the reference [No DOI available]; the editorial team will confirm and omit them or find and add them.
  • Exclude place of publication; include only the publisher.
  • Italics are not supported in the reference list.
  • Translators: List at the end (e.g., Translated by D. Mackay).
  • For original publication dates, include them in brackets, e.g., ([1234] 2025) both in-text and in the reference list.
  • Use pp. (pages published) for journal articles and book chapters in the reference list but do not use p. or pp. in main body/in-text citations.

Author List in Bibliographic Reference:

The journal lists up to five authors. For six or more authors, list the first three and refer to the others with et al.

The journal lists authors’ first initial only.

  1. Barad, K.
  2. Barrett, M. and Orlikowski, W.
  3. Hollan, J., Hutchins, E. and Kirsh, D.
  4. Hollan, J., Hutchins, E., Kirsh, D. and Barad, K.
  5. Hollan, J., Hutchins, E., Kirsh, D., Barad, K. and Orlikowski, W.
  6. (or more) Hollan, J., Hutchins, E., Kirsh, D. et al.

Examples:

Books

Barad, K. (2007) Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822388128

Bourdieu, P ([1972] 1977). Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge University Press. Translated by R. Nice. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511812507

Lave, J. (1988) Cognition in Practice: Mind, Mathematics and Culture in Everyday Life. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511609268

Mol, A. (2002) The Body Multiple: Ontology in Medical Practice. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/978082238415

Pickering, A. (1995) The Mangle of Practice: Time, Agency, And Science. University of Chicago Press. [No DOI available]

Schatzki, T. (2002) The Site of The Social: A Philosophical Account of the Constitution of Social Life and Change. Penn State Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780271023717

Suchman, L. (2007) Human-Machine Reconfigurations: Plans and Situated Actions. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511808418

Journal Articles

Barrett, M. and Orlikowski, W. (2021) ‘Scale Matters: Doing Practice-Based Studies of Contemporary Digital Phenomena’, MIS Quarterly, 45(1), pp. 467–472. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.65097

Feldman, M. and Orlikowski, W.  (2011) ‘Theorizing Practice and Practicing Theory’, Organization Science, 22(5), pp. 1240–1253. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1100.0612 

Hollan, J., Hutchins, E. and Kirsh, D. (2000) ‘Distributed Cognition: Toward a New Foundation for Human-Computer Interaction Research’, ACM Trans. Comput.-Hum. Interact., 7(2), pp. 174–196. https://doi.org/10.1145/353485.353487 

Orlikowski, W. (1993) ‘Learning from Notes: Organizational Issues in Groupware Implementation’, The Information Society, 9(3), pp. 237–250. https://doi.org/10.1080/01972243.1993.9960143

Orlikowski, W. (1996) ‘Improvising Organizational Transformation Over Time: A Situated Change Perspective’, Information Systems Research, 7(1), pp. 63–92. https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.7.1.63

Orlikowski, W. (2000) ‘Using Technology and Constituting Structures: A Practice Lens for Studying Technology in Organizations’, Organization Science, 11(4), pp. 404–428. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.11.4.404.14600 

Orlikowski, W. (2006) ‘Material Knowing: The Scaffolding of Human Knowledgeability’, European Journal of Information Systems, 15(5), pp. 460–466. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.ejis.3000639 

Orlikowski, W. and Scott, S.V (2014) ‘What Happens When Evaluation Goes Online? Exploring Apparatuses of Valuation in The Travel Sector’, Organization Science, 25(3), pp. 868–891. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2013.0877 

Orlikowski, W. and Scott, S. (2023) ‘The Digital Undertow and Institutional Displacement: A Sociomaterial Approach’, Organization Theory, 4(2), pp. 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1177/26317877231180898 

Edited Collections

Bijker, W., Hughes, T. and Pinch, T. (1987) The Social Construction of Technological Systems: New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology. MIT Press. [No DOI available]

Schatzki, T., Knorr-Cetina, K. and von Savigny, E. (2001) The Practice Turn in Contemporary Theory. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203977453

Chapters in Edited Collections

Nicolini, D. (2016) ‘Is Small the Only Beautiful? Making Sense of “Large Phenomena” from a Practice-Based Perspective’. In Hui, A., Shove, E., and Schatzki, T. (Eds.) The Nexus of Practices: Connections, Constellations, Practitioners, pp. 110–25. Routledge. Part of: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315560816

Orlikowski, W. (2010) ‘Practice in Research: Phenomenon, Perspective and Philosophy’. In Golsorkhi, D., Rouleau, L., Seidl, D. and Vaara, E. (Eds.) Cambridge Handbook of Strategy as Practice, pp. 23–33. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511777882.002

Reports

Spurling, N., McMeekin, A., Shove, E., Southerton, D. and Welch, D. (2013) ‘Interventions in Practice: Re-Framing Policy Approaches to Consumer Behaviour’, University of Manchester, Sustainable Practices Research Group. Available at https://pure.manchester.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/32468813/FULL_TEXT.PDF

Presentations

Turner, S. (2024). ‘"Is Popper Still Relevant to Social Science?"’ Karl Popper and Twentieth-First Century Philosophy of Science', Division of Humanities, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 12-14 June 2024. [No DOI available]

Another Type

If you want to reference something else, just use the above style to inform how you set it out and we will update this list.

Acknowledgment of Effort

Adhering to this style helps to distribute the work of producing a high-quality publication between the editorial team and the authors and supports the journal’s commitment to open access. Preparing the DOI links enhances discoverability for readers and cross-referencing for authors and the journal.

If you have questions or need assistance with the House Style, please contact the editorial team. We appreciate your cooperation in maintaining the quality and discoverability of the Journal of Practice Theory.