Here are a few reminders, most of
which are taken directly from the APA Guidelines:
- Please remember to use the “spell check” and “grammar
check” on your computer before you submit your manuscript. Whether you are a native speaker of
English or not, please ask a colleague whose native language is English to
proofread your article to be sure that the text sounds idiomatic and that
punctuation and spelling are standard.
- Remember that with the APA guidelines, notes (footnotes or endnotes) are
discouraged — such information is considered to be either important enough
to be included in the article itself or not significant enough to be
placed anywhere. If notes are necessary, however, they should be endnotes.
- Do not use
automatic footnoting or end noting programs available with your
computer. Simply use raised superscripts in the text and superscripts in
the notes at the end. Automatic endnote/footnote programs present major
problems as we prepare an article for publication.
- Do not use automatic page numbering,
since such programs often prove to be impossible to remove from a
manuscript.
- Please double-space
everything in your manuscript.
- The required
font throughout is Times New
Roman 12.
- There should be only
one space after each period, according to APA format.
- Periods and
commas appear within quotation marks. Semi-colons and colons should appear outside of quotation
marks. Quotation marks and
exclamation points appear inside the quotation marks only when they
are part of the actual quoted material. Otherwise, they should appear
outside of the quoted material (as, for instance, when the author of the
article is asking a question or reacting strongly to something).
- All numbers
above “nine” must appear as Arabic numerals [“nine school districts”
vs. “10 textbooks”].
- Please remember that page number references in parentheses are not part of the
actual quotation and must be placed outside of the quotation marks
following quoted material.
- Use standard
postal abbreviations for states in all reference items [NC, IL, NY,
MS, etc.], but not in the text itself.
- Please do not
set up tabs at the beginning of the article (i.e., automatically);
rather you should use the tab key on your computer each time you begin a
new paragraph, which is to be indented only ¼ inch.
- Please note the differences between the use and
appearance of hyphens and dashes. Note that dashes (which should be used sparingly) should appear as the
correct typographic symbol (—) or as two hyphens (--). If your computer
automatically converts two hyphens to a dash, that is fine. APA
guidelines, as well as those for other style manuals, suggest that commas,
parentheses, and other marks of punctuation are generally more effective
than dashes.
- Please observe
APA guidelines with respect to the use of initials instead of the first
and middle names of authors cited in your list of References. Also
note the use of the ampersand (&)
instead of “and” to cover joint ownership in both parenthetical and
bibliographical references. Use “and,” however, to refer to joint
authorship in the body of your article.
- Please reflect
on the title of the article. Quite often titles do not give readers
the most precise idea of what they will be reading.
- Please remember that according to APA guidelines, the
References section does not
consist of a list of works consulted, but rather of the list of works you actually use in your article. Before you submit your manuscript,
please check to make certain that each reference in the article has a
matching citation in the References section. Then be sure that all items
in the References section have been cited within
the article itself. In unusual circumstances, authors may plan to
include as an appendix a separate selected bibliography of items useful to
readers, but not among the sources cited in an article. Please double check all Internet
addresses before you submit the manuscript.
- Do not imbed
boxes and other macros in your text. Remember that your manuscript
will have to be reformatted to fit the size of
the published volume. Therefore, a table with lines and boxes that you set
up so carefully in your 8 ½”x11” manuscript page will not necessarily fit
on our journal pages.
- Please makes certain that the components you submit
are in the following order:
- First page
— with the article title, names and titles of authors, their preferred
mailing addresses, home and office phone numbers, FAX numbers, E-mail
addresses, and an indication as to which of the joint authors will serve
as the primary contact person [also, times in the summer when regular and
E-mail addresses may be inactive];
- First page
of the manuscript — should have the title of the article and the
abstract.
- The text of the article
- Notes;
References, Appendices — in
this order
- The short, biographical paragraph (no more than 4-5 lines).
