Author Guidelines

AJSoTL welcomes articles covering all aspects of pedagogy. The journal publishes two types of articles:

  • Research or Original Articles: 8000 words (excluding abstract, tables, figures and references)
  • Reflection Pieces or Commentaries: 2000 words (excluding abstract, tables, figures and references)

Submissions should be made in editable Word format via the online submission system.

Double-Blind Peer Review

The journal operates a double-blind peer review. Each manuscript, unless otherwise stated, is reviewed by two anonymous peer reviewers. Reviewer and author identities are concealed. Please anonymise your manuscript. Author information should be included on the title page.

Originality and Authorship

All manuscripts submitted to the AJSoTL must be original works which have not been previously published, must be submitted exclusively to the AJSoTL, and all authors must have read the manuscripts and approved their submission for review.

Authorship of articles should be limited to those who have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for the content. These include:

  • Conception and design, or analysis and interpretation of data, or both;
  • Drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and
  • Final approval of the version to be published.

All other forms of participation, such as general support by colleagues, financial and material support, grants, secretarial support, scientific advice, etc, should be mentioned as acknowledgements in the title page.

Any change in authors (e.g. additions, deletions, or changes of order) after the initial manuscript submission must be approved by all authors. An explanation of the change must be submitted to the AJSoTL and signed by all authors, including the added/moved/removed authors.

Required Sections

Your submission should include a title page and an anonymised manuscript.

Title Page

The title page should include

  • A concise, informative title containing the key words but no abbreviations
  • The full names, institutional affiliations, and email addresses of all authors, with the corresponding author indicated
  • A short running head of no more than 40 characters (letters and spaces all counted)
  • Acknowledgement, including the list of funding sources, if any
  • Optional elements related to ethics and integrity, including
    • Data availability statement
    • Conflict of interest statement

Anonymised Manuscript

The anonymised manuscript entails:

  • The same concise, informative title, which appears on the title page
  • The short running head and page number in the header
  • Abstract
  • Main text
  • References
  • Footnotes (if any)
  • Tables (or inserted in the main text)
  • Figures (or inserted in the main text)

Abstract

A succinct and factual abstract is required (maximum length 250 words). The abstract should state the purpose of the research, the method(s) used, the major results obtained, and key conclusions. Please indicate up to five keywords.

Main Text

Important: The journal operates a double-anonymised peer review policy. Please anonymise your manuscript and supply a separate title page file.

If it is necessary to cite your own work, please use the word “author” in the text to maintain anonymity. For example:

  • Citation in the Main Text: “Author (date) found...” or ending the sentence with (Author, date).
  • Citations in the Reference List: Author (date). Journal Title. (Please do not include the article’s title or its volume and page number information.)

The main text should be properly sectioned. For research articles, a typical structure entailing Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion is recommended, but flexibility in the organisation is allowed.

Institutional Review Board (IRB): For all manuscripts reporting data from studies involving human participants (or animals), approval must be granted from a formal IRB. Manuscripts must mention this approval in the Methods section.

Statistical Methods: Any statistical method used should be detailed in the methods section of the paper, and any not in common use should be described in detail and supported by references.

References

The author(s) will take full responsibility for the accuracy of citations included in the article.

Citations in the text: Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is included in the reference list (and vice versa). Only published and readily accessible works must be included in the reference list; unpublished results and personal communications may only be mentioned in the text. Works that have been accepted for publication must be cited as “in press”. The full URL and the last date of access should be given for web references. Web references should also be included in the reference list.

References should be formatted in compliance with the American Psychological Association (APA) style (http://www.apastyle.org/).

Figures and Tables

Tables should be self-contained and complementary to the text. They should also:

  • Be submitted in an editable format, rather than as images.
  • Be numbered (in Roman numerals, e.g. Table 1, 2, etc.) and carry a title. The numbering should be in the order in which they are mentioned in the text.
  • Have abbreviations defined in the footnotes. Asterisks (*, **, ***, etc.) should be reserved for p-values.

Figures should also be understandable without reference to the text. This requires the inclusion of concise but comprehensive legends and titles, which define, e.g., the symbols and abbreviations used. A resolution of 300 dpi or higher is preferred to ensure the quality of the final presentation. It is preferable for line figures (e.g., charts) to be presented in black and white, unless necessary. Figures should be numbered in the order in which they are mentioned in the text.

If any copyrighted figure, table, audio or video material is used in the submitted manuscript, please obtain all the necessary permissions to reproduce the material in print and other media from the publisher of the original source. You will be asked to sign a declaration to this effect before the final publication of the manuscript, and you will be responsible for supplying the permission received upon request.

General Style Points

  • Abbreviations: Abbreviations should be introduced sparingly, only when they are used repeatedly in the manuscript and are helpful for readers. When an abbreviation is first introduced, use the word in full, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses.
  • Spelling: This journal adopts British spelling. However, you can use either American or British spelling in the manuscript submitted, as long as the spelling is consistent throughout the manuscript. When the manuscript has been accepted, spelling will be converted in the production stage.
  • Numbers: Numbers under 10 are spelt out, except for measurements with a unit, age, or lists with other numbers. Numerical figures starting a sentence should be avoided. If leading a sentence, numbers should be spelt out in words.
  • Units: System Internationale (SI) and SI-derived units should be used for measurements.