Journal of Educational Controversy

References should comply with the APA style manual. (Publication Manual (5th Edition) of the American Psychological Association.)  See http://www.apastyle.org/. Number notes consecutively in the text, but place the notes themselves at the end and not within the text or at the foot of each page.

This document provides details on typesetting and layout requirements pertaining to final manuscript submission to Journal of Educational Controversy.

Formatting Requirements

• Do not include a title page. (Begin the document with the introduction; a title page, will be added to your paper by the editors.)
• Do not include page numbers, headers, or footers. These will be added by the editors.
• Write your article in English (unless the journal expressly permits non-English submissions).
• Submit your manuscript, including tables, figures, appendices, etc., as a single file (Word, RTF, or PDF files are accepted).
• Page size should be 8.5 x 11-inches.
• All margins (left, right, top and bottom) should be 1.5 inches (3.8 cm), including your tables and figures.
• Single space your text.
• Use a single column layout with both left and right margins justified.
• Font:
  1. Main Body—12 pt. Times New Roman or the closest comparable font available
  2. Endnotes—10 pt. Times New Roman or the closest comparable font available
• If figures are included, use high-resolution figures, preferably encoded as encapsulated PostScript (eps).
• Copyedit your manuscript.
• When possible, there should be no pages where more than a quarter of the page is empty space.

Additional Recommendations

Indenting, Line Spacing, and Justification

Indent all paragraphs except those following a section heading. An indent should be one tabulation.

Do not insert extra space between paragraphs of text with the exception of long quotations, theorems, propositions, special remarks, etc. These should be set off from the surrounding text by additional space above and below. Furthermore, long quotations (more than three lines) should be indented .5 on both sides.

Don't widow text (i.e., ending a page with the first line of a paragraph or beginning a page with the last line of a paragraph).

All text should be left-justified (i.e., flush with the left margin—except where indented). Where possible, it should also be right-justified (i.e., flush with the right margin). Where possible refers to the quality of the justification. For example, LaTeX and TeX do an excellent job of justifying text. Word does a reasonable job. But some word processors do a lousy job (e.g., they achieve right justification by inserting too much white space within and between words). We prefer flush right margins. However, it is better to have jagged right margins than to have flush right margins with awkward intra- and inter-word spacing. Make your decision on whichever looks best.

Language & Grammar

All submissions must be in English. Except for common foreign words and phrases, which should be italicized, the use of foreign words and phrases should be avoided.

Authors should use proper, broadcast English grammar. The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White (now in its fourth edition) is a standard guide, but other excellent guides exist as well.

Article Length

Because this journal publishes electronically, page limits are not as relevant as they are in the world of print publications. We are happy, therefore, to let authors take advantage of this greater bandwidth to include material that they might otherwise have to cut to get into a print journal. This said, authors should exercise some discretion with respect to length.

Text Color

Set the font color to black for the majority of the text. We encourage authors to take advantage of the ability to use color in the production of figures, maps, etc.; however, you need to appreciate that this will cause some of your readers problems when they print the document on a black and white printer. For this reason, you are advised to avoid the use of colors in situations where their translation to black and white would render the material illegible or incomprehensible.

Please ensure that there are no colored mark-ups or comments in the final version, unless they are meant to be part of the final text. (You may need to accept all changes in track changes or set your document to normal in final markup.)

Emphasized text

Whenever possible use italics to indicate text you wish to emphasize rather than underlining it or using quotation marks. The use of color to emphasize text is discouraged.

Font faces

Except where special symbols are needed, use Times New Roman or the closest comparable font available. If you desire a second font, for example for headings, use a sans serif font (e.g., Arial or Computer Modern Sans Serif).

Font size

The main body of text should be set in 12pt. Avoid the use of fonts smaller than 6pt.

Foreign terms

Whenever possible, foreign terms should be set in italics rather than underlined or in quotation marks.

Headings

In APA style, there are different levels of headings, which are demonstrated below. Use the same font face for all headings, and leave a line space above and below headings.

Main text

The font for the main body of text must be black and, if at all possible, in Times New Roman or closest comparable font available.

Titles

Whenever possible, titles of books, movies, plays, etc., should be set in italics rather than underlined or in quotation marks.

Endnotes

The JEC uses endnotes rather than footnotes. A separate page, with the Level 1 heading Notes, is situated after the reference page. The notes should be in 10 pt. Times New Roman or closest comparable font available, and single-spaced,. Endnote numbers in the text follow, rather than precede, punctuation. Notes should appear in the order in which they appear in the manuscript and numbered accordingly. They should be written in paragraph style, with first line indented and following lines flush left. Double-space between endnote entries.

Tables and Figures

To the extent possible, tables and figures should appear in the document near where they are referenced in the text. Large tables or figures should be put on pages by themselves. Avoid the use of overly small type in tables. In no case should tables or figures be in a separate document or file. All tables and figures must fit within 1.5" margins on all sides (top, bottom, left and right) in both portrait and landscape view.

Mathematics

Roman letters used in mathematical expressions as variables should be italicized. Roman letters used as part of multi-letter function names should not be italicized. Whenever possible, subscripts and superscripts should be a smaller font size than the main text.

Short mathematical expressions should be typed inline. Longer expressions should appear as display math. Also expressions using many different levels (such as fractions) should be set as display math. Important definitions or concepts can also be set off as display math.

Equations should be numbered sequentially. Whether equation numbers are on the right or left is the choice of the author(s). However, you are expected to be consistent in this.

Symbols and notation in unusual fonts should be avoided. This will not only enhance the clarity of the manuscript, but it will also help insure that it displays correctly on a reader's screen and prints correctly on a printer. When proofing your document under PDF, pay particular attention to the rendering of the mathematics, especially symbols and notation drawn from other than standard fonts.

References

All sources cited in the body of the manuscript and endnotes must be included on the reference list. Note that the first line of each reference is flush left, with all following lines indented one tabulation.

Authors must provide complete references with the necessary information. After the last sentence of your submission, please insert a line break—not a page break—and use a Level 1 heading called References. References should appear right after the end of the document, beginning on the last page if possible. References should have margins that are both left and right- justified. You may choose not to right-justify the margin of one or more references if the spacing looks too awkward. Each reference should give the last names of all the authors, and their first and middle (if available) initials. Several examples follow to show the different formats for different types of references. While formats seem arbitrary, they allow a reader to know exactly what kinds of sources you have used.

Articles in traditional journals:

Required: Author's (authors') name(s), title of article, name of journal, year of publication (or "n.d." if no date), volume number, page numbers.

If available: issue number. For forthcoming (in press) articles, put expected year of publication and substitute forthcoming for the volume and page numbers.

Optional (but desirable): A hyperlink to the article. Example:

Hiebert, E. H., & Mesmer, H. A. (2013).Upping the ante of text complexity in 
	the Common Core State Standards: Examining its potential impact on 
	young readers.Educational Researcher, 42(1), 44-51.

Books:

Required: Author's (authors') name(s), title of book, year of publication (or "n.d." if no date), publisher, publisher's address, edition (if not first). For forthcoming (in press) books, put expected year of publication and add forthcoming. Example:

Snow, C. E., Griffin, P., & Burns, M. S. (Eds.). (2005). Knowledge to support the
	teaching of reading: Preparing teachers for a changing world. San 
	Francisco,CA: Jossey-Bass.

Chapters in edited books, collections or anthologies:

Required: Name(s) of author(s) of chapter, name(s) of editor(s) of book, title of chapter, title of book, year of publication (or "n.d." if no date), publisher, publisher's address, and edition (if not first). For forthcoming (in press) books, put expected year of publication and add forthcoming. Example:

Pearson, P. D. (2013). Research foundations of the Common Core State 
	Standards in English language arts. In S. Neuman & L. Gambrell (Eds.), 
	Quality reading instruction in the age of Common Core State Standards
	(pp. 237-262). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Newspaper articles:

Required: Name(s) of authors, if authored article, year, date, title, publication name, and page numbers. If the article is not authored, start with the title of the article, followed by the year and date. Example:

Higgins, J. (2015, November 19). Small district has big success over truancy. 
	The Seattle Times,pp. A1, A7.

Online sources:

Required: Use formats for print sources as a guide, but also include the digital object identifier (doi) if available, or the uniform resource locator (URL) when it is not. If the information is likely to be updated or might otherwise change over time, include at the end of the entry the date the information was accessed.: Examples:

Murphy, P. K., Wilkinson, I. A. G., Soter, A. O., Hennessey, M. H. &
	Alexander, J. F.(2009). Examining the effects of classroom discussion 
	on students'comprehension of text: A meta-analysis. 
	Journal of Educational Psychology,101(3), 740-764. doi:10.1037/a0015576

Nelson, J., Perfetti, C., Liben, D., & Liben, M. (2012). Measures of 
	text difficulty: Testing their predictive value for grade levels and 
	student performance.  Washington,DC: Council of Chief State School 
	Officers. Available at www.achievethecore.org/content/upload/nelson_
	perfetti_liben_measures_of_text_difficulty_research_ela.pdf

Lectures, speeches, or conference presentations:

Required: Name(s) of speakers, date, title, organization/occasion, location. Example:

Tomei, L. J. (2015, April 9). Designing high quality rubrics. Speech
	presented at the spring CAEP conference, Denver, CO.

Citations

There must be a one-to-one match between citations in the body of the manuscript and endnotes and the references. There are different ways to cite sources in the manuscript:

Within the text of your manuscript, use the author-date method of citation. For example,

. . . as noted by Smith (1776).

When there are two authors, use both last names. For example,

Edlin and Reichelstein (1996) claim that . . .

After the first citation in the text using the author-date method, subsequent citations can use just the last names unless this would be ambiguous. For example, Edlin and Reichelstein (1996) can be followed by just Edlin and Reichelstein.

For more than two authors, cite all names (up to six authors) the first time. For subsequent citations of the same source, use the last name of the first author and add et al. For example, a 1987 work by Abel, Baker, and Charley, would be cited the second time and thereafter as

Abel et al. (1987) further noted that . . .

If two or more cited works share both the same authors and dates, use "a" "b," and so on to distinguish among them. For instance,

Jones (1994b) provides a more general analysis of the model  
introduced in Example 3 of Jones (1994a).

For such citations, you must always use the date and designated letter so that readers can distinguish between the two sources.

When citations appear within parentheses, use commas—rather than parentheses or brackets—to separate the date from the surrounding text. For example,

...(see Smith, 1776, for an early discussion of this).