Submissions

The International Journal of Nuclear Security (IJNS) is CLOSED for submissions as it prepares its 2026 volume. The journal will reopen for submissions on January 1st, 2027.

General Submission Process

The submission process consists of the following steps:

  • Read and accept the Article Submission Agreement
  • Provide information about yourself
  • Provide information about any authors
  • Upload your article and related items

Also, before you begin, please have the following items:

    • Article title
    • Article in the following format: Microsoft Word
    • An abstract (separate from the article body)
    • At least five (5) keywords for your manuscript
    • Up to three (3) recommended reviewers (full name and contact email) for your manuscript (optional)
    • Cover letter (optional)
Note: Manuscripts must be submitted as a Microsoft Word document.

Authors: You may later revise any of these elements by clicking the submitted article's title on your My Account page. You must assume all responsibility for the accuracy of the information in your submission, as well as the clearance of your submission for dissemination to the public. It is your responsibility to clear the content of your article with your organization, your government, and whatever other agencies or organizations—professional, academic, national, or international—are relevant to the release of the information in your submission. IJNS and the University of Tennessee Institute for Nuclear Security are not responsible for the accuracy and clearance of any information in your submission.

In addition: you must not submit to IJNS any material currently under review at another journal (electronic or print) or other form of publication, and you must not submit the same material to another journal (electronic or print) or any other form of publication, until the IJNS editorial decision process is complete. Authors wishing to pursue other venues for publication for material they have submitted to IJNS must first withdraw their manuscript from consideration by IJNS. Any concerns about IJNS submission rules should be directed to the Editor-in-Chief Jackson Stanley at jstanl28@vols.utk.edu.

Correspondence Upon Submission

After you complete the submission process, you will receive a confirmation email. Please retain this email for your records. Please do not disregard email correspondence from the JaneWay system, as it may indicate the movement of your submission through the approvals and review process. When inquiring about the status of a submitted article, please include the article title, author names, and contact email to ensure a prompt response.

Style Guide

IJNS adheres to the IEEE Editorial Style Manual for all formatting, citation, and language guidelines. Authors are encouraged to use the official IEEE conference templates to prepare their manuscripts. Templates in both Word and LaTeX are available via the IEEE Author Center: IEEE Conference Templates. The IEEE Editorial Style Manual can be accessed directly here: IEEE Style Manual (PDF). Note that while manuscripts may be formatted utilizing LaTeX in compatible editors (such as Overleaf), IJNS utilizes Microsoft Word for submission review. If you have questions about grammar, citations, punctuation, or other style-related issues, please consult these resources or contact IJNS with your concerns. Authors will not be penalized for minor errors while utilizing the IEEE style guide. However, only manuscripts prepared in an IEEE style will be considered for review.

Note: Only manuscripts utilizing the IEEE style and conference proceedings format will be considered for review.

IJNS uses the Merriam-Webster English language dictionary for spelling and definitions. Merriam-Webster is primarily US English, and IJNS publishes in US English. If you need to look up a word or check spelling, please consult this dictionary. It is free to use and can be accessed here.

Proper and thorough citation is vital in publications. IJNS follows the IEEE citation style, which uses numbered in-text citations enclosed in brackets (e.g., [1], [2], etc.). Each citation corresponds to a full reference entry in the References section, listed in the order of citation. If a source is cited multiple times, it retains the same number. All quoted, paraphrased, or summarized material must be cited appropriately to avoid plagiarism.

Formatting Requirements

Submission Format:

On your initial submission, include the title of your submission, the abstract, and keywords for your submission. If AI is utilized in the submission, authors must transparently disclose their use of AI in the submission. This includes specifying the models and versions employed and the nature of their application. Do NOT include the author(s)’s names or institutional affiliations in your submission, either on a cover page or in the manuscript. This information is included in the online form completed during the initial submission process. In addition, do not include page numbers in your submission. These are provided automatically by the system.

Example Conflict of Interest Statement:
“The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this submission.”

If your institution requires a disclaimer or acknowledgment, please include this in the Acknowledgment section at the end of the paper per IEEE format.

Note: Author names and affiliations must not appear in the manuscript or cover page to ensure a double-blind peer review process.

Tables, Equations, and Figures:

Include all tables, equations, and figures where they should appear in the manuscript. Tables should be editable using Microsoft Word’s table function. Equations should be created using Word’s equation editor. Figures should be images (such as JPEGs) inserted inline with the text, not anchored.

References:

Include references at the end of your manuscript following IEEE format. References are numbered in the order cited and must include DOIs where available.

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About

The International Journal of Nuclear Security (IJNS) is a peer-reviewed, open-access, and multi-disciplinary journal published in English by the Institute for Nuclear Security at the University of Tennessee. IJNS aims to act as a forum to share and promote research and best practices in all areas of nuclear security. The journal encourages diversity in theoretical foundations, research methods, and approaches, asking contributors to analyze and include implications for policy and practice.

IJNS was launched in 2015 to provide an open, international platform for rigorous scholarly discussion on nuclear security. It facilitates the exchange of insights among scholars, students, and practitioners. Participants include experts from academia, government, and industry, as well as representatives from the intelligence, military, and law enforcement communities.

IJNS holds the distinction of being the oldest academic journal at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. It has reached over 4,000 educational, governmental, and private institutions across more than 200 countries.

IJNS is CLOSED for submissions for its 2026 call for papers. The journal looks forward to publishing the volume in September 2026. The journal will reopen for submissions on January 1st, 2027.

Focus and Scope

Philosophy

IJNS’ philosophy is to incentivize novel and impactful scientific work in areas of nuclear security that tangibly contribute to global nuclear security. The journal is built upon what it views as the three foundational pillars of nuclear security:

  1. Physical Security IJNS goes beyond the traditional "guns, gates, and guards" model to include novel threat types such as UAVs
  2. Cyber Security The accelerating threat-space of cyber warfare is posing a unique challenge in the face of non-traditional warfare.
  3. Social Security Countering insider threats, non-state actors, and extremist ideologies continues to be a primary focus of IJNS.

Within and between these three pillars lies a “Grey Nexus”, an intersectional region in which nuclear security concerns may manifest and amplify. As such, the journal is multidisciplinary in scope and encourages contributing authors to consider how their research is relevant throughout the Grey Nexus. By encouraging authors to consider these interconnected perspectives, IJNS promotes systematic, integrated, and comprehensive solutions to both established and emerging global nuclear security challenges.

Scope

The journal encourages diversity in theoretical foundations, research methods, and approaches, asking contributors to analyze and include implications for policy and practice. It invites submissions in the following areas:

  • Science and Technology: Discoveries and developments in science and technology that impact nuclear security. These include relevant developments in cyber-security, forensic chemistry, and radiochemistry, as well as new operational systems, new understandings of the threat space, and novel methods of discerning or discovering threats.
  • Operational and Intelligence Capabilities: Initiatives in improving operational capabilities (military and civilian) as well as intelligence systems that bear on nuclear security. This includes descriptions and analyses of security issues involving the detection, manipulation, transportation, and guarding of nuclear materials, as well as studies in counterterrorism, extremist ideology, global policing, insurgencies, irregular warfare, radicalization, risk management, violent crimes regarding nuclear materials or facilties, failing/fragile states, transnational crime, etc.
  • Policy, Law, and Diplomacy: Studies of political initiatives and processes, and legal developments that impact proliferation or nonproliferation, export control, monitoring/verification, physical, cyber, or social safety, and other issues relevant to nuclear security.
  • Education and Training: Reports and scholarly investigations on pedagogical initiatives for nuclear security, as well as programs for professional development and training (“continuing education”).
  • Human Reliability: Science and technology for risk mitigation in the areas of insider threats, human assurance, and human performance risk factors. Modern studies and advances in psychological screening, credibility assessment technologies, techniques, investigations, monitoring, etc., as well as retrospective analyses of historical cases in espionage and crimes related to nuclear security.
  • Real-World Missions: Reports and analyses of engagements with counterterrorist operations, nuclear smuggling interdictions, espionage prevention, inspections, investigations, materials recovery operations, law enforcement initiatives, etc.
  • Networking, Partnering, Engagement, Promotion: National, regional, and international initiatives promoting cooperation in nuclear security among government agencies, universities, centers, institutes, sponsors, donors, political figures, etc.—as well as events and outreach affecting public opinion and awareness related to nuclear security.

Submission Checklist

Who May Submit?

Anyone may submit an original article to be considered for publication in IJNS, provided he or she owns the copyright to the work being submitted or is authorized by the copyright owner or owners to submit the article.

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

The International Journal of Nuclear Security (IJNS) is committed to upholding the highest ethical standards for publication in the interest of contributing to the international nuclear security conversation. IJNS adheres to the publication guidelines outlined by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Editors' Responsibilities

  • IJNS editors will be responsible for selecting which manuscripts will be published. In some instances, publication decisions may require several rounds of correspondence and peer review before a final decision is made. Additionally, in an effort to avoid cases of plagiarism, we run all manuscripts through the iThenticate detection online software. Publication decisions will be based exclusively on the academic merit of the submission, criteria which include an article’s originality, clarity, cogency, validity, importance to the global nuclear security conversation, and relevance to the journal’s purview.
  • Editors will not disclose any information about submitted manuscripts to anyone other than the corresponding author(s), reviewers, potential reviewers, other editors of the journal, and the journal’s publisher.
  • Editors, members of the editorial board and reviewers will not use unpublished materials of submitted manuscripts for their own research purposes without the explicit written consent of the manuscript’s author.

Authors' Responsibilities

  • Authors must ensure that the submission has not been previously published and is not under current consideration for publication elsewhere.
  • All listed authors must have significantly contributed to the content of the submission. All contributing authors must confirm their level of involvement with their co-authors prior to submission.
  • All submissions must be the original work of the author(s). Original work means that the references to other sources should be clearly and properly documented, including references to the authors' previously published work.
  • Authors should acquire all relevant permissions prior to submission. If an image is used that is not the original creation of the authors, the authors must obtain reuse permission from the owner of the image.
  • Authors must notify journal editors of any possible conflicts of interest that could affect, or be perceived to affect, the content of the article. For example, conflicts of interest could consist of sources of research funding, including financial support and supply of equipment or materials.
  • If at any point (before or after publication) an author notices a significant factual error in the manuscript, the author will be responsible for writing a retraction statement or correction.

Reviewers' Responsibilities

IJNS adheres to a double-blind peer review model, in which neither the author(s) nor the reviewers are aware of each other’s identities. After a submission is screened for relevance to the journal, the article will be reviewed by at least two external peer reviewers with relevant subject-matter expertise. These reviewers will provide reports on the article and recommendations regarding publication. The editors base their publication decisions on these reports and recommendations, which will be made available to the author(s) when a publication decision is made.

  • Reviewers must keep the contents of all manuscripts received confidential.
  • Reviewers must make the editors aware of any significant similarity between the manuscript under consideration and published articles of which the reviewer is aware.
  • Reviews must be conducted objectively and should present their views about the manuscript being considered in clearly reasoned arguments.
  • Reviewers must inform editors of any conflicts of interest arising from relationships with any parties affiliated with the journal or with submissions under consideration.
  • If a reviewer cannot complete a review promptly, the reviewer should inform the editor and withdraw from the review process.
Note: If you would like to participate as a reviewer for IJNS, please contact the Editor-in-Chief.

AI Use Policy

IJNS recognizes the value of artificial intelligence (AI) as a tool that can empower scientific research and scholarship, enhancing activities such as writing, formatting, data analysis, and critical review. As such, the journal permits the responsible use of AI in submissions, provided that authors transparently disclose their use of AI. This includes specifying the specific models and versions employed and the nature of their application. Regardless of whether AI tools are utilized, all authors retain complete responsibility for their papers, including but not limited to factual accuracy, analytical rigor, and adherence to scholarly integrity, including originality and proper attribution. All submissions must also continue to comply fully with applicable regulations related to export control, classification, and privacy.

Note: IJNS permits the responsible use of AI in submissions, provided that authors transparently disclose their use of AI. This includes specifying the specific models and versions employed and the nature of their application.

Copyright Notice

Author Rights/Attribution/Usage

In keeping with best practices for open access publication IJNS licenses all works under the Creative Commons CC Attribution (CC-BY) license. Considered a gold standard in open access publishing, a CC-BY does not replace a copyright. Rather, by accepting its terms, a copyright owner participates in a standardized method for granting certain permissions to users, ensuring maximum dissemination of their works as well as optimal circulation of research and ideas.

All CC licenses require attribution. The CC-BY is the most flexible, allowing users to distribute, adapt, or build-upon the works so long as the copyright holder is attributed. Works licensed under the CC-BY are considered “Approved for Free Cultural Works”, which are defined as readily used, shared, and remixed by others, and go furthest in creating a commons of freely reusable materials.

Authors Who Publish With This Journal Agree to the Following Terms:

1. Copyright holders retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International CC-BY that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

2. Copyright holders are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.

3. All accepted articles will be available without delay with no embargo period.

Article download statistics are available for authors with registered accounts.

Indexing

IJNS is currently indexed with:

Scopus DOAJ Ulrichsweb Google Scholar OCLC (WorldCat)

Our license terms and self-archiving policies are listed with JISC.

VOL Journals: General Terms and Conditions of Use

The publisher of this journal is in a partnership with UT VOL Journals, the Volunteer Open-Access, Library-hosted Journals of the University of Tennessee University Libraries. Users of the website, services, and/or software(s) affiliated with VOL Journals agree not to misuse the website, services, or software(s) in any way. Users also agree to abide by The University of Tennessee System Acceptable Use of Information Technology Resources policy.

Peer Review

This journal operates a double-anonymous peer review policy.

Licences

The following licences are allowed:

  • Copyright
    © the author(s). All rights reserved.
  • CC BY 4.0
    Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
  • CC BY-ND 4.0
    Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. NoDerivatives — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
  • CC BY-NC 4.0
    Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
  • CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
    Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes. NoDerivatives — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
  • CC BY-SA 4.0
    Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Publication Fees

IJNS is free to publish and charges no publication fees. 

Publication Cycle

IJNS Editorial Process

IJNS utilizes an approximately eight-month editorial lifecycle for paper submission, review, and publication.
 
January 1 – April 1

Call for Papers: IJNS invites scholarly submissions on topics related to nuclear security.

April 1 – July 1

Adjudication: The IJNS Editorial Board reviews submissions and issues decisions on a rolling basis.

July 1 – September 1

Publication: IJNS staff work with authors to finalize accepted manuscripts for publication.

IJNS publishes technical and policy-related articles, book reviews, and other content relevant to nuclear security, as well as descriptions of new educational programs or courses in nuclear security.

Sections

Section or article type Public Submissions Peer Reviewed Indexed
article Yes Yes Yes
front Yes Yes Yes
bookreview Yes Yes Yes
announcement Yes Yes Yes
special_editorial Yes Yes Yes
student_competition Yes Yes Yes