Manuscript Submission Guidelines

(Short Version)

New Manuscripts (see Revisions below)

Contribution Statements Required (new!)

  • Every submission must have a contribution statement (for the review process only). This statement should be placed after the author note and before the abstract. For more information and instructions, see the Contribution Statement Page

Similar Manuscripts (new!)

  • Please provide the citations or titles for all similar papers (of yours) published elsewhere or under review at another journal. Please list these citations and titles in your notes to the editors. We may contact you to ask to see a copy of one or all of these other papers.

General

  • Authors should submit their manuscripts through the JCR online system (not email). Please read the instructions carefully prior to submission. If you have not followed the instructions, we will notify you and ask you to resubmit.
  • Authors should suggest the names of the associate editor and reviewers they consider most appropriate for their manuscript, as well as the editor (in your notes to the editor). Brief explanations should accompany these suggestions. While it cannot be guaranteed that author recommendations will be followed, they will be taken into consideration. Please do not suggest colleagues, friends, advisors, or people who have already seen the manuscript.
  • Please do not identify yourself or your school in your data section for the review process. If the paper is accepted, the school names will be added, but they must be removed during the review process. Terms such as “large public university” should be used (again, for the review process only).
  • Following the JCR Style Sheet completely is not required for the review process, but if you submit a paper in another journal’s format, the reviewers will assume your paper has already been rejected elsewhere.

Basic Formatting

  • Everything must be double spaced (including interviews). Times New Roman 12 font must be used. Nothing is underlined. Numbering begins on the title page (page 1), and is in the upper right corner. The paper must be left justified. There must be one-inch margins on all sides. Please use letter format (not A4 or international).
  • Please be sure that all electronic comments (track changes) and corrections between authors have been removed (not just turned off).
  • Please proofread your paper carefully before submission (or use a copy editor if necessary).
  • There should be no footnotes or endnotes in your manuscript.
  • Please include an excellent abstract (150 words max) that carefully summarizes your work. Your abstract should contain: 1) Motivation/Problem (what gap your research will fill; 2) Approach/Methods; 3) Results; 4) Implications and Conclusions. Use keywords within your abstract (very important for indexing and abstracting). Do not include any citations, tables, figures, or any information in your abstract that is not in your manuscript.
  • Do not submit separate keywords (work them into your abstract).
  • All identification information must be provided for each author.
  • Please note that the manuscript file must be complete (title page, author note, contribution statement, abstract, main text, appendix, references, tables, figures--in this order) as one file only. Please use black and white for figures and photos to reduce the file size. We cannot accept multiple files or incomplete information.
  • Please note: Files for review must not be any larger than 2 MB. Please do not send any zipped or compressed files. Please check with your tech support people at your university if you have questions about preparing your file for submission. Once a file is accepted for publication, there will be no file size constraint.

Revisions

  • Revisions must follow the guidelines above.
  • When you resubmit your paper, please include a set of overview revision notes first describing how you addressed the broad issues and reviewer concerns summarized in the decision letter and AE report. You may also provide separate comments to each reviewer explaining your choices, but this is not necessary. Please keep your notes as brief as possible, with no repetition (under eight pages).
  • Keep in mind that your goal is to win the support of the associate editor and the editor, not all the reviewers on all details. Reviewers advise the editors about potential weaknesses, and the editors decide whether the weaknesses are serious or not. We are not looking for votes from the reviewers, not unanimity nor a majority vote. We want to see the quality of their critique and its arguments, and then the editors make up their minds. Again, use the decision letter and AE report as your guide and use the reviews for more detail on issues raised by the AE. Your revision notes should explain any choices that you made in your resubmission that are not apparent in the paper itself.
  • Please be sure to follow the editor's instructions from the decision letter.
  • Please return your revision in a timely manner.

Questions

Style Sheet This is an Adobe PDF type document