JSE AUTHOR INSTRUCTIONS

JSE AUTHOR INSTRUCTIONS

1.  Choose the most appropriate of our Current Themes to submit your work.  Please familiarize yourself with the themes for which we are currently soliciting submissions.  If your work is on a topic that is not covered, and you believe it warrants a full issue of JSE devoted to that topic, then we encourage you to contact the editor with your idea.  JSE occasionally publishes works, especially media reviews, that are not explicitly addressing one of our current themes.

2. Choose the right category of submission for your work. JSE publishes well-researched scholarly submissions, as well as timely Reports, Opinions, Case Studies, Media Reviews and Sustainability Journeys related to the currently open themes:

Scholarly Feature Articles. These longer, peer-reviewed articles should be between 3,000 and 7,500 words in length, including an abstract of up to 300 words and all references. Occasionally, longer articles may be accepted for publication.   Please provide up to six keywords.  We strongly encourage the submission of supporting media, including photographs, images, video and more.  These can be embedded in the manuscript or submitted separately as a file or link, as appropriate.  They fall into three categories:

  • Original research: Present results from original research project and follow the general format of a research article (introduction, review of literature, methods, results, discussion, references).
  • Theoretical and Conceptual Articles: These articles develop new theories, terms, or concepts or seek to clarify, further refine, or further develop existing theories, terms, or concepts relevant to the field of sustainability education
  • Program and Practice Features: These articles put the spotlight on educational programs and experiences, showing how they use logistics (staff, materials, places, or spaces) to implement a plan that achieves specific outcomes related to sustainability education. Digital photographs are expected to complement the text by showing participants engaged in activities while participating in the program. Publication priority will be given to programs and experiences that assess outcomes with rigor and depth.

Reports and Briefings: These articles report preliminary findings, phenomenological studies, case studies, insights, proposed syntheses of historically separate fields, or small sample-sized studies that generate new hypotheses for further research. Research briefings include reviews of research on specific areas in sustainability education or short summaries of significant research studies. Reports should be 500-3,000 words and have fewer than 10 references.

Editorials/Opinions: These 500-3,000 word essays offer commentary on current events related to sustainability education, issues in sustainability, or recent articles in this journal.

Book and Media Reviews: Book and media reviews are between 500 and 3,000 words in length. Reviews should be approved by the editor before submission. Please be candid with conflicts of interest. The review should focus on how the book, film, or other media contributes to sustainability education.

Case Studies.  These are descriptions of courses, programs or experiences with students.  At their best, they give enough detail to visualize how the experience or course was done, but leave enough of an open framework to allow the reader to envision using and adapting the experience or course.

Photo Essays and Images of Sustainability Education: These digital photographs or other media and their 100 word maximum captions help demonstrate a more holistic view of sustainability education and engage a broad audience.

Sustainability Journeys:  These are personal stories about some poignant aspect of the author’s journey to be, or to be part of , sustainability education.

3.  Format your work to be publication-ready.

a.  Include figures, images, tables, with captions, within the text, where you would like them to appear, formatted as you would like them to appear.  If you have other media to include with your article, like sound or video, you can include your own hosted link for those media, or contact the editor if you would like JSE to host them.

b.  Title page of the manuscript should include the following:

    • Title, left-justified, 14-point, bold, Times New Roman type
    • Each author’s name in 12-point bold, Times New Roman Type
    • Each author’s name should be followed by their institutional affiliation and email (only in 12-point, non-bold, Times New Roman)
    • Abstract or short description of the article
    • 4-8 keywords for indexing your article.
    • A short 2-3 sentence biography of each author.  You can include contact information here if you would like.
    • Everything should be single-spaced with one line–space skipped between each element of the title page.
c.  Font and formatting for the article:
    • 1-inch margins top, bottom, left, right throughout the article
    • No headers or footers (this is so we can add JSE running heads).
    • 12-point Times Roman for entire article, single-spaced
    • Headings should follow A.P.A format.

Multi-Media works.  JSE encourages the submission of visual, audio and video works, as stand-alones, or accompaniments to written works.  These works still require a title page and abstract.  We prefer that authors host their own audio and video and provide JSE with a link to the work.  However, if you would like JSE to host the work, please contact the editor.

References, Citations, and Formatting:  Use A.P.A. formatting.  Avoid footnotes on each page.

Author Thumbnail Photos and icon image for article:  Please add a final page to your upload file with a thumb-nail photo of each author, and a thumb-nail image that is representative of the article.  These images will appear on the JSE Home Page, along with the article abstract.  By adding these images to the article, you are giving JSE permission to use them.

Optional “Blinding” of your work for review:  If you choose to blind authors’ names for review, then please be sure your submitted work is free of identifying features, including the author name on the cover page or author thumbnail on the last page.  These can be submitted later if the work is accepted for publication.  Please see information below on the JSE review process.

Email the editor for further information about how to submit your manuscript. By uploading your revised article, you are granting permission for JSE to publish your work and any media that accompanies it under a Creative Commons copyright—see details by clicking on the icon at the bottom of each article on the JSE website.

Thanks for your contribution and please contact the editor if you have any questions.  We are not able to respond to emails during the North American summer months.

editor (at) susted (dot) com

SOME BACKGROUND ON THE JOURNAL:

As an open source publication that does not charge to publish, or to read, we work from a very limited budget, and all of the staff do this as a labor of love on top of other responsibilities during the academic year. Please be aware that you will not receive any  communication from us until we start work on the edition to which you have submitted your work.  This is generally 4 months ahead of the estimated publication date.  Our rough schedule of publication is as follows:

General Issues: Articles sent out for review November through January; communications and revision requests to authors in January; layout and final publication work in February and March.

Special Issues: Timeline will be noted in the call for papers.

THE JSE OPEN REVIEW PROCESS

Every submission is initially reviewed by a member of the JSE staff or editing team.  This initial referee determination is based on the aptness of the article to the theme it has been submitted, whether the article follows the JSE formatting guidelines, and the overall quality and importance of the work.  Once the work is refereed, it will either be posted as open for review to the JSE Review Article and Tracking System (RATS) or the author will be contacted with suggestions to improve the work for JSE submission.

Once posted to RATS, the article will be available to all registered peer reviewers for comment and evaluation.  Reviewers have the option of submitting a five-star rating with short comments, or a longer form-based review of the work.  PLEASE NOTE:  Authors and Reviewers names will be posted with their work, unless they opt out and choose to blind their name when submitting.  The goal of this open review system is to open a dialogue that improves the work and that highlights its importance to the field of Sustainability Education. Once a work received an adequate number of reviews (in general this would be at least two long-form reviews), the author will have the opportunity to reply to the reviews.

The Open Review movement has been spreading throughout academic publishing, taking advantage of online venues to facilitate the process, over the last 10-15 years.  Authors and Reviewers are invited to contact the editor with any comments on the JSE approach to this process and any suggestions for improving it.  Our goal is to provide the best quality product, taking advantage of the collective contribution from motivated members of the Sustainability Education community.  Thank you for your participation in this process. Former published authors are highly encouraged to review works of other potential authors.