AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples
AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples is an internationally peer-reviewed interdisciplinary journal. We aim to present scholarly research on Indigenous worldviews and experiences of decolonization from Indigenous perspectives from around the world.
Since 2005, AlterNative has been the leading source for scholarship by Indigenous peoples and for those working alongside and with Indigenous communities.
AlterNative was launched by Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga, New Zealand’s Māori Centre of Research Excellence, to provide an innovative new forum for Indigenous scholars to set their own agendas, content and arguments and establish a unique new standard of excellence in Indigenous scholarship. The intention was not only to showcase themes of Indigenous knowledge and epistemologies, but also to document the emergence of different Indigenous methodologies and value systems within an academic environment. Today, AlterNative provides the latest thinking and practice in Indigenous scholarship, has created an international Indigenous academic community and has generated an understanding of Indigenous academic discourse.
AlterNative is a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary journal that publishes scholarship across the Social Sciences, Humanities, Education, Health, Business, and Law.
It publishes articles engaging with a variety of theoretical debates in areas including:
- Cultural studies
- Education
- Human Geography
- Health
- Business
- Law
- History
- Politics
- Philosophy
- Literature
- Visual and Performing Arts
- Environmental studies
- Psychology
- Sociology
AlterNative is published continuously online as well as in quarterly print issues. It publishes articles in English but also welcomes submissions in Indigenous languages, as well as ones that have been previously published in an Indigenous language and are translated into English.
AlterNative is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). AlterNative is committed to meeting and upholding the standard of ethical behaviour at all stages of the publication process. Contributors are expected to meet internationally accepted guidelines on carrying out ethical and culturally competent research involving Indigenous peoples and conform to the standards for authors set out by COPE.
AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples is a peer-reviewed interdisciplinary journal. We aim to present scholarly research on Indigenous worldviews and experiences of decolonization from Indigenous perspectives from around the world. The journal spans themes of transforming places, peoples, communities, cultures, histories and colonialism.
AlterNative seeks to build bridges between the academic study of Indigenous affairs and theory and practical or empirical issues in the modern world. Articles should link theory and practice in a way that sheds light on the present state of Indigenous theory, thinking and practice, and make sense out of concrete issues, whether they are at local, national or global levels.
AlterNative publishes papers that substantively address and critically engage with Indigenous issues from a scholarly Indigenous viewpoint. All papers must address and engage with current international and national literature and academic and/or Indigenous theory, and make a significant contribution to the field of Indigenous studies.
AlterNative is a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary journal that publishes scholarship across the Social Sciences, Humanities, Education, Health, Business, and Law.
AlterNative publishes articles engaging with a variety of theoretical debates in areas including:
- Cultural studies
- Education
- Human Geography
- Health
- Business
- Law
- History
- Politics
- Philosophy
- Literature
- Visual and Performing Arts
- Environmental studies
- Psychology
- Sociology
| Tracey McIntosh | University of Auckland, New Zealand |
| Carwyn Jones | Te Wananga o Raukawa, Otaki, New Zealand |
| Serafín M. Coronel-Molina | Indiana University, USA |
| Kiri Dell | University of Auckland, New Zealand |
| Gloria Emeagwali | Central Connecticut State University, United States |
| Dolores Figueroa Romero | Center of Advanced Studies in Social Anthropology and Ethnology (CIESAS), Mexico |
| Elizabeth S. Huaman | University of Minnesota, USA |
| Ana Magdalena Hurtado | Arizona State University, USA |
| David Newhouse | Trent University, Canada |
| Dominic O'Sullivan | Charles Sturt University, Australia |
| Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio | University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA |
| Hannah Rapata | University of Auckland, New Zealand |
| Shannon Speed | University of California Los Angeles, USA |
| Troy Storfjell | Pacific Lutheran University, United States |
| Linda Te Aho | University of Waikato, New Zealand |
| Kanako Uzawa | Affiliated Researcher|Hokkaido University, Japan |
| Deborah Walker-Morrison | University of Auckland, New Zealand |
| Linda Tuhiwai Smith | Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi, Whakatane, New Zealand |
| Marie-Chanel Berghan | University of Auckland, New Zealand |
| Wiremu Meha | University of Auckland, New Zealand |
This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics.
Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/aln to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.
Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Alternative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples will be reviewed.
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal. Open Access options are available - see section 3.3 below.
As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you.
- What do we publish?
1.1 Aims & Scope
1.2 Article types
1.3 Writing your paper - Editorial policies
2.1 Peer review policy
2.2 Authorship
2.3 Acknowledgements
2.4 Funding
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
2.6 Indigenous research ethics and patient consent
2.7 Research Data - Publishing policies
3.1 Publication ethics
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
3.3 Open access and author archiving - Preparing your manuscript
4.1 Formatting
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
4.3 Supplemental material
4.4 Reference style
4.5 English language editing services - Submitting your manuscript
5.1 ORCID
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
5.3 Permissions - On acceptance and publication
6.1 Sage Production
6.2 Online First publication
6.3 Access to your published article
6.4 Promoting your article - Further information
Before submitting your manuscript to Alternative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.
Articles
AlterNative seeks to build bridges between the academic study of Indigenous affairs and theory and practical or empirical issues in the modern world. Articles should link theory and practice in a way that sheds light on the present state of Indigenous theory, thinking and practice, and make sense out of concrete issues, whether they are at local, national or global levels.
The manuscript should offer new, original insights or interpretations that have not been published before or are under consideration for publication at another journal. If the manuscript has emerged from an academic thesis, authors should ensure that it works as a stand-alone article rather than a slightly modified thesis chapter.
Articles should range between 5,000–7,000 words, including title, abstract, keywords, acknowledgments, glossary and references. Articles must include a 100–150 word abstract and have up to six keywords.
AlterNative publishes articles in English but also welcomes submissions in Indigenous languages or ones that have previously been published in an Indigenous language and are translated into English.
All articles must be original. The work cannot have been previously published in the same form nor can its substance be drawn from previously published books or articles. Submissions to AlterNative must not be under consideration in any form by other publishers.
Commentaries
AlterNative publishes short and timely commentaries on critical issues concerning Indigenous peoples. Commentaries are expected to be sharp in their analysis, thought-provoking and new. Commentaries are peer reviewed to different criteria, allowing novel opinion to be expressed. Commentaries are normally between 3,000-4,000 words long, including title, abstract, keywords, acknowledgments, glossary and references. Commentaries must include a 100-150 word abstract and up to six keywords.
Situation Reports
We also welcome short pieces of up to 2,000 words that describe a critical issue for an Indigenous people, with no scholarly analysis. Examples could include developments within an Indigenous people with few members, a critical language regeneration project in the Indigenous language, a group under threat or similar. These will only be considered by the Editors if there is no potential for Indigenous scholarly research to describe the situation; for example, a language with few speakers that is under threat. These are reviewed by the Editors and Editorial Board, not by peer review.
Book Reviews
Book reviews are up to 1,000 words long and should be guided by a discussion of the engaged debate, position the book in its field of literature and give a few points of information on the author’s background. Book reviewers should neither be uncritically advocating for the book by offering an overly meticulous summary without analysis, nor should they take the book that is to be discussed as an occasion for presenting the reviewer’s own views on a theme or topic. Book reviews are assessed by the Editors.
AlterNative acknowledges the long history of harmful Western research practices that have appropriated Indigenous knowledges and cultures and been enormously damaging to Indigenous peoples and communities. As such, please consider the following questions in writing your review:
- What is the standpoint from which the author speaks in relation to Indigenous peoples? Does the author respect Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing on an equal basis with the knowledge-ways of the West?
- How does the author describe Indigenous peoples and knowledges? Does the author employ language that implicitly assumes that Indigenous systems are inferior to Western systems (for example by describing Indigenous knowledges, cultures and histories using terms such as: irrational, primitive, unscientific, naïve, simple, folklore, stone age, or pre-history)
To the extent that this can be determined, what was the research process for producing the work and was that process ethical? For example, if the work being reviewed includes Indigenous knowledge such as a cultural narrative, the issues to be considered include whether the rights of Indigenous knowledge-holders have been protected (for example, do they hold copyright in their narrative) and what (if any) benefits the knowledge-holders and/or their communities derive from the research. Some jurisdictions will have best practice guidelines for research relating to Indigenous peoples that give an indication of the issues in relation to research – for example, in Australia, the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Guidelines for Ethical Research, the Te Ara Tika guidelines in New Zealand, or in Canada, the SSHRC Aboriginal Research Statement of Principles
The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance their article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.
1.3.1 Make your article discoverable
When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines such as Google. For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.
AlterNative operates a strictly blinded peer review process in which the reviewer’s name is withheld from the author and, the author’s name from the reviewer. The reviewer may at their own discretion opt to reveal their name to the author in their review but our standard policy practice is for both identities to remain concealed.
Peer Review Process: All manuscripts are reviewed initially by the Editors and only those papers that meet the scientific and editorial standards of the journal, and fit within the aims and scope of the journal, will be sent for outside review. Some papers are rejected without peer review owing to lack of novelty, not meeting the standard required for academic Indigenous scholarship or work lying outside the scope of the journal.
AlterNative is peer reviewed to international standards and our aim is for all papers to be reviewed by Indigenous scholars from within the group under discussion as well as by international Indigenous or non-Indigenous experts in the research discipline. All papers are peer-reviewed by a minimum of two reviewers. The editors will use these reviews in making a decision on your paper. All manuscripts are reviewed as rapidly as possible, and an editorial decision is generally reached within 6-8 weeks of submission.
Revised articles are usually sent for re-review to the original peer reviewers if these indicate their willingness to review the article again. Revision of an article gives no guarantee of acceptance and in some cases revised articles are rejected if the improvements are not sufficient or new issues arise. All authors should be prepared to return revised papers and proof corrections to the deadlines required for publication.
As part of the submission process you will be asked to provide the names of 3 peers who could be called upon to review your manuscript. Recommended reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Please be aware of any conflicts of interest when recommending reviewers. Examples of conflicts of interest include (but are not limited to) the below:
• The reviewer should have no prior knowledge of your submission
• The reviewer should not have recently collaborated with any of the authors
• Reviewer nominees from the same institution as any of the authors are not permitted
You will also be asked to nominate peers who you do not wish to review your manuscript (opposed reviewers).
Please note that the Editors are not obliged to invite/reject any recommended/opposed reviewers to assess your manuscript.
The Editor or members of the Editorial Board may occasionally submit their own manuscripts for possible publication in the journal. In these cases, the peer review process will be managed by alternative members of the Board and the submitting Editor/Board member will have no involvement in the decision-making process
Papers should only be submitted for consideration once consent is given by all contributing authors. Those submitting papers should carefully check that all those whose work contributed to the paper are acknowledged as contributing authors.
The list of authors should include all those who can legitimately claim authorship. This is all those who:
- Made a substantial contribution to the concept or design of the work; or acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data,
- Drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content,
- Approved the version to be published,
- Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.
Authors should meet the conditions of all of the points above. When a large, multicentre group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship.
Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute authorship, although all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgments section. Please refer to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) authorship guidelines for more information on authorship.
Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.
2.3.1 Third party submissions
Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:
• Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input
• Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
• Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.
Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.
2.3.2 Writing assistance
Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance.
It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.
Please supply any personal acknowledgements separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.
Alternative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading. Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
Alternative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.
It is the policy of Alternative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples to require a declaration of conflicting interests from all authors enabling a statement to be carried within the paginated pages of all published articles.
Please ensure that a ‘Declaration of Conflicting Interests’ statement is included at the end of your manuscript, after any acknowledgements and prior to the references. If no conflict exists, please state that ‘The Author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest’. For guidance on conflict of interest statements, please see the ICMJE recommendations here.
2.6 Indigenous research ethics and patient consent
Any submission to a journal that has data collected from human subjects requires ethics approval. Authors should explicitly state that any necessary ethics committee approval was secured for the study reported. Research must have been approved by relevant bodies such as institutional review boards, research ethics committees, and national authorities. If ethics committee approval was required, authors should state the name, location and the approving ethics committee(s) or provide an explanation of why ethical approval was not required.
Authors of research that involves Indigenous communities should also have approval from recognized knowledge holders of the band, tribe, sub-tribe or nation involved. The manuscript should reflect the author’s understanding and respect of Indigenous worldviews. If the research reported directly involved an Indigenous community, the author should have ensured the community contributed to the design of the research and interpretation of results in the context of cultural norms and traditional knowledge.
Authors must guarantee the community and individual participants were given say in the anonymity and use of data. Dishonest, false or culturally incompetent statements and research conduct constitute unethical behaviour and are unacceptable. Authors must declare that appropriate consent was obtained from all research participants and include a statement on the consent procedure in the submitted and published paper. The editor or publisher may require proof of ethics committee approval and proof of participant consent to be produced.
2.6. Research Data
At Sage we are committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research. Where relevant, Alternative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples encourages authors to share their research data in a suitable public repository subject to ethical considerations and where data is included, to add a data accessibility statement in their manuscript file. Authors should also follow data citation principles. For more information please visit the Sage Author Gateway, which includes information about Sage’s partnership with the data repository Figshare.
Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway.
3.1.1 Plagiarism
Alternative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.
3.1.2 Prior publication
If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the Sage Author Gateway.
3.3 Open access and author archiving
Alternative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.
4. Preparing your manuscript for submission
The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.
AlterNative has its own house style. Please click AlterNative House Style.
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.
Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article.
This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files.
Alternative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples adheres to the APA reference style. View the APA guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.
In the Text
When referencing or quoting directly from a source, the APA style requires author-date citation in the text (Smith, 1999). For direct quotes, page numbers are also required (Smith, 1999, p. 20). When referencing from online references, which don't have page numbers, a paragraph number should be used in such instances. If two or more authors are cited at the same point in the text then they are included in the same citation, separated by a semicolon (Jackson, 2007; Smith, 1999).
For up to one or two authors, list all authors when cited in the text.
For three to five authors, list all authors on first citation, and thereafter only the first author followed by ‘et al.’
For six or more authors, use the first author followed by ‘et al.’ for the first and subsequent citations.
We encourage authors to use a separate in-text citation for each quote and to avoid Ibid, as this increases clarity for the reader and reduces the potential for confusion if the paper is subsequently revised and the order of citations changed.
Reference List
At the end of the article, authors are required to provide the full bibliographic information for each source. References must be listed in alphabetical order by surname of the first author. Each reference should include authors and/or editors, date, title, page spans, and publisher details, including publisher location and state abbreviations behind the city for US publishers.
Titles should be first written in their original language, followed by a translation in brackets [ ] (not parentheses).
4.5 English language editing services
Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.
Alternative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/aln to login and submit your article online.
IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created. For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.
As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.
The collection of ORCID iDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID iD you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID iD will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID iD is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.
If you do not already have an ORCID iD please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. The affiliation listed in the manuscript should be the institution where the research was conducted. If an author has moved to a new institution since completing the research, the new affiliation can be included in a manuscript note at the end of the paper. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).
Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway
6. On acceptance and publication
Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be made available to the corresponding author via our editing portal Sage Edit or by email, and corrections should be made directly or notified to us promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.
Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.
6.3 Access to your published article
Sage provides authors with online access to their final article.
Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.
Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Alternative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples editorial office as follows: