Author Guidance Code
Author Guidance Code
The Oxford Compendium is a general reader’s guide to state responses, indicating sources of controversy and novelty rather than providing a definitive list of contrasting national viewpoints and complete universe of measures. The use of detailed and accurate references in footnotes is therefore essential as it will assist other researchers to carry out deeper work on select themes, as will the possibility of contacting The Oxford Compendium network for further information. All references will be permanently archived by Phase 2 of the project in order to avoid ‘link rot’.
This AGC serves as the template of common questions that each Country or Territory Report will answer. Each report is structured identically using the categories given below.
Each category is complex and the extent of detail will necessarily be constrained. We have asked authors to be extremely concise and to use citations in footnotes to refer readers to controversies.
The tone of the Country Report should aim to be strictly non-partisan and neutral. It should approximate a ‘civil service’ approach, remaining neutral between the political parties and avoiding any policy judgments. Country Rapporteurs will have the opportunity to blog and use The Oxford Compendium forum more generally to express judgments about their or other countries’ performance.
The preparation of reports on federal countries should follow the bespoke guidance inserted in the relevant parts of this AGC. As a general rule (1) authors will have chosen two sub-federal jurisdictions as exemplars; (2) the selection criteria should be a combination of geographical size and importance, representativeness of state-level policy, policy-variation and health impact of the pandemic, eg number of infections and deaths. Federal jurisdictions will have received more space than other reports and the selection of sub-national jurisdictions is carried out in consultation with the area editor for Federalism and Multilevel Government (Professor Nico Steytler).
This AGC is kept under review and may be issued from time to time with updates.
