Maybe, in today's globalised scientific communication it does not matter anymore.

The native speaker who goes through all my papers before I send them in usually puts everything as "-isation", i.e. BE-like, and I do not mind. Sometimes however, this is a little bit strange, namely when a certain techincal term was introduced in the AE literature first. And yet, I have never insisted on "-ization" instead. After all, from my point of view, there are many much more important aspects about academic papers than the question of BE/AE-spelling.

(And, let me add this, sometimes I think, it might not be that bad in the end to make sure there are some bits of 'European' spelling in your text because international academic life currently does not really benefit from the fact that there is a tendency towards a US hegemony in academic journals. But then, of course, "-isation" instead of "-ization" will certainly not change this to a significant degree. So this clearly is an emotional aspect on my part.)

My two bits:

While both forms -ization and -isation are officially correct BE (in AE only -ization is correct), I know of BE scientists who consider -isation the "BE spelling", probably in exactly as reaction of the US domination with regard to scientific journals, which Londoner described.

If you are targeting a British journal, I would thus strongly support Londoner's suggestion to include a bit of "European spelling". Consistently for the whole manuscript of course.

- in

Falls dein Journal keine eigenen Stilrichtlinien hat, schadet es bestimmt nicht, sich an die Richtlinien eines anderen angesehenen britischen Fachblatts zu halten, z.B. an die des British Medical Journal. Die bevorzugen "s-spellings": http://resources.bmj.com/bmj/authors/bmj-hous...