Author Guidelines

Author Guidelines

We encourage submissions in a range of formats, with the intent that this journal is valuable to researchers, practitioners, and students.

We recommend that the main text of scholarly articles should range from 15 pages to an upper limit of 50 pages. (using standard 1″ margins and 12 point font), although we also recognize that there may be exceptions.  Papers that fall within this broad guideline are more likely to be reviewed, edited and published faster.  We also encourage authors to use appendices to present important supplemental material. Without prior permission we will be likely to decline manuscripts longer than 50 double-spaced pages or containing more than 6 tables

Please use the style of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.) for manuscripts. Please pay particular attention to places of common errors in manuscripts, including citations, table, figures and headers.

All submissions should be submitted to Dana Mitra at dana@psu.edu.

Abstract and questions

Our journal has two requirements that most journals do not:

* USER-FRIENDLY ABSTRACT. All submissions must include an abstract that is understandable in common language such that young people, practitioners, and researchers can understand the significance of the piece and the main ideas/contribution. The abstract should define any complex terms and describe all aspects of the work in easy to understand language.

Most abstracts will have a maximum length of 400 words.

* ONLINE DISCUSSION/QUESTIONS. All articles should also include a set of discussion questions. As an online journal, we encourage discussion of the articles. The questions will serve as a starting point for the online conversation. Further, the comments of the peer reviewers will be published along with the article as the starting point of dialogue on the piece.

Manuscript Guidance

  • All articles should be created using an easy-to-read 12-point font on an electronic document that has 1” margins on each side. While there are no hard and fast rules on manuscript length, please use the following as a general framework:
  • Scholarly articles could range from 15 pages to an upper limit of 50 pages.
  • Practitioner Reflections: Please, plan to submit between 2,000-4,000 words .
  • Student Dialogue: Please, plan to submit between 1,000-4,000 words (or equivalent: please contact the editorial board with any queries).
  • Research-focused: Please plan to submit between 4,000-8,000 words.
  • Book reviews: Please, plan to submit between 1,000-2,000 words.

Artwork Guidance

All artistic work should be camera-ready. Artwork can be in any form: painting, drawing, sculpture, collage, photography, but should reflect the artists’ experiences with student voice and student advocacy.

Submission Preparation Checklist

Please review the following checklist before submitting.

  1. Authorship is clear and submission is reviewable:
    ◦ The manuscript is entirely the work of the authors
    ◦ Any necessary permissions for extensive excerpts have been acquired prior to submission.
    ◦ The submission is not before another journal for consideration, nor has it been previously published (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
    ◦ The article’s topic is education policy.
  2. A title page that includes name of paper, author names, affiliations, and email addresses, and three keywords
  3. A user-friendly abstract and online discussion questions have been included
  4. The manuscript itself is properly prepared:
    • The submission is in a single file, without supplementary files.
    • The submission file is in a Microsoft Word or PDF format.
    • All identifying information has been removed from the document. If an author is cited, “Author” and year are used in the text and references, instead of author’s name, paper title, etc.
    • Authors should also ensure that the document does not contain any comments or track changes.
    • The text generally adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.).
  5. The authors understand the common professional obligations of a manuscript submission:
    ◦ If the research for a manuscript involved human participants, the manuscript’s authors are compliant with the applicable legal obligations for their countries, including the approval of institutional review boards. Included in these requirements, authors understand their professional obligation to maintain notes and data sets for a minimum of three years after publication.
  6. The prose is written in readable, professional American English and has been appropriately proofread. Before submitting manuscripts to this journal, non-native speakers of English should consider using a copyediting and language editing service that specializes in academic journal preparation assistance.