Guide for Authors
An International Journal of Research and Studies
See also Elsevier Educational Research Programme home
Authors are requested to submit their papers electronically by using the
Teaching and Teacher Education online submission and
review web site (
http://ees.elsevier.com/tate
). This site will guide authors stepwise through the submission process.
Authors are requested to submit the text, tables, and artwork in electronic form to this address. Authors who are unable to provide an
electronic version or have other circumstances that prevent online submission must contact the Editorial Office prior to submission to
discuss alternate options; email:
tate@cardiff.ac.uk. The Publisher and Editors regret that they are not able to consider
submissions that do not follow these procedures.
Submission of Manuscripts
General
It is essential to give
a fax number and e-mail address when submitting a manuscript. Articles must be written in good English.
Submission of an article
implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture
or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and
tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published
elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, without the written consent of the copyright holder.
Upon acceptance
of an article, authors will be asked to sign a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' (for more information on this and copyright see:
http://www.elsevier.com/copyright).
Acceptance of the agreement will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. An e-mail (or letter) will be sent to the corresponding
author confirming receipt of the manuscript together with a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' form or a link to the online version of this
agreement.
Subscribers may reproduce tables of contents or prepare lists of articles including abstracts for internal circulation
within their institutions. Permission of the Publisher is required for resale or distribution outside the institution and for all other
derivative works, including compilations and translations (please consult:
http://www.elsevier.com/permissions).
If
excerpts from other copyrighted works are included, the author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit
the source(s) in the article. Elsevier has preprinted forms for use by authors in these cases: please consult:
http://www.elsevier.com/permissions.
Funding body agreements and policies
Elsevier has established agreements and developed policies to allow authors who publish
in Elsevier journals to comply with potential manuscript archiving requirements as specified as conditions of their grant awards. To
learn more about existing agreements and policies please visit:
http://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies.
Authors' rights
As an author you (or your employer or institution) retain certain rights; for details you are referred to:
http://www.elsevier.com/authorsrights.
Ethical approval
For information on Ethics in Publishing and Ethical guidelines for journal publication see:
http://www.elsevier.com/authorethics
and:
http://www.elsevier.com/ethicalguidelines.
Role of the funding source
You are requested to identify
who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article and to briefly describe the role of
the sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in
the decision to submit the paper for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement then this should be stated. Please
see:
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorshome.authors/funding.
Contributors
All authors must have materially
participated in the research and/or article preparation. The statement that all authors have approved the final article should be true
and included in the disclosure.
Conflict of interest
All authors are requested to disclose any actual or potential conflict
of interest including any financial, personal or other relationships with other people or organizations within three years of beginning
the submitted work that could inappropriately influence, or be perceived to influence, their work. See also:
http://www.elsevier.com/conflictsofinterest.
Acknowledgements
List here those individuals who provided help during the research (e.g., providing language help, writing
assistance or proofreading the article, etc.).
Revision Time
Should authors be requested by the Editors to revise the
text, the revised version should normally be submitted within
3 months. After this period, the article will be regarded as a new
submission.
Online submission to the journal prior to acceptance
Submission to this journal proceeds totally
online. Use the following guidelines to prepare your article. Via the homepage of this journal (
http://ees.elsevier.com/tate
)
you will be guided stepwise through the creation and uploading of the various files. The system automatically converts source files to
a single Adobe Acrobat PDF version of the article, which is used in the peer-review process. Please note that even though manuscript
source files are converted to PDF at submission for the review process, these source files are needed for further processing after acceptance.
All correspondence, including notification of the Editor's decision and requests for revision, takes place by e-mail and via the author's
homepage, removing the need for a hard-copy paper trail.
The above represents a very brief outline of this form of submission. It
can be advantageous to print this "Guide for Authors" section from the site for reference in the subsequent stages of article preparation.
Electronic format requirements for accepted articles
General points
We accept most wordprocessing
formats, but Word, WordPerfect or LaTeX is preferred. Always keep a backup copy of the electronic file for reference and safety. Save
your files using the default extension of the program used.
Wordprocessor documents
It is important that the file be saved
in the native format of the wordprocessor used. The text should be in single-column format. Keep the layout of the text as simple as
possible. Most formatting codes will be removed and replaced on processing the article. In particular, do not use the wordprocessor's
options to justify text or to hyphenate words. However, do use bold face, italics, subscripts, superscripts etc. Do not embed "graphically
designed" equations or tables, but prepare these using the wordprocessor's facility. When preparing tables, if you are using a table
grid, use only one grid for each individual table and not a grid for each row. If no grid is used, use tabs, not spaces, to align columns.
The electronic text should be prepared in a way very similar to that of conventional manuscripts (see also the Guide to Publishing with
Elsevier:
http://www.elsevier.com/guidepublication). Do not import the figures into the text file but, instead, indicate
their approximate locations directly in the electronic text and on the manuscript. See also the section on the preparation of electronic
illustrations.
To avoid unnecessary errors you are strongly advised to use the "spell-check" and "grammar-check" functions of your
wordprocessor.
Preparation of text
Presentation of manuscript
General
Please write your
text in good English (British usage is preferred). Italics are not to be used for expressions of Latin origin, for example, in vivo,
et al., per se. Use decimal points (not commas); use a space for thousands (10 000 and above).
International Comprehensibility
Please note that every paper must be comprehensible to an international audience. National colloquialisms and idiomatic use of language
should therefore be avoided to the extent possible.
You are strongly advised to consult a recent copy of the journal to familiarize
yourself with layout and conventions. A free sample copy is available to download from:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/0742051X.
Language Polishing
Authors who require information about language editing and copyediting services pre- and post-submission
please visit:
http://www.elsevier.com/locate/languagepolishing or contact:
authorsupport@elsevier.com for
more information. Please note Elsevier neither endorses nor takes responsibility for any products, goods or services offered by outside
vendors through our services or in any advertising. For more information please refer to our Terms & Conditions:
http://www.elsevier.com/termsandconditions.
Review Policy
Please note that the journal has adopted a double blind reviewing policy, so Authors should use separate
pages for all identifying information (name, affiliation, etc.). Replace all references to the author in the main paper with "Author,
2003", "Author et al, 2006", etc. In the reference list, use the format "Author 2003 [details removed for peer review]".
Papers that
have not had all such features removed will be returned without review to the author for alteration. Reviewers' names will not be
made available to authors under any circumstances.
Authors are requested to
suggest up to three names for possible reviewers
for their paper. Reviewers must be located in a different country to the author. Please provide full contact details for each reviewer.
One or more reviewers may be selected by the Editors but they are under no obligation to do so. Please note that it is a condition of
having a paper accepted in TATE that you also agree to review at least one paper when requested to do so by the Editors.
Title
Page
Provide the following data on the title page (in the order given).
Title. Concise and informative. Titles are
often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.
Author names and affiliations.
Where the family name may be ambiguous (e.g., a double name), please indicate this clearly. Present the authors' affiliation addresses
(where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the
author's name and in front of the appropriate address. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name,
and, if available, the e-mail address of each author.
Corresponding author. Clearly indicate who is willing to handle correspondence
at all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication.
Ensure that telephone and fax numbers (with country and area code)
are provided in addition to the e-mail address and the complete postal address.
Present/permanent address. If an author
has moved since the work described in the article was done, or was visiting at the time, a "Present address" (or "Permanent address")
may be indicated as a footnote to that author's name. The address at which the author actually did the work must be retained as the main,
affiliation address. Superscript Arabic numerals are used for such footnotes.
Abstract. A concise and factual abstract is
required (maximum length
100 words). The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results and
major conclusions. An abstract is often presented separate from the article, so it must be able to stand alone. References should therefore
be avoided, but if essential, they must be cited in full, without reference to the reference list. Non-standard or uncommon abbreviations
should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined at their first mention in the abstract itself.
Keywords. Immediately
after the abstract, provide a maximum of
6 keywords, avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example,
"and", "of"). The controlled list of keywords is based on the ERIC list of index descriptors (for more information, please see:
http://www.eric.ed.gov/);
however authors may include one or two additional 'free' keywords if they wish to do so. These keywords will be used for indexing purposes.
Abbreviations. Define abbreviations that are not standard in this field at their first occurrence in the article: in the
abstract but also in the main text after it. Ensure consistency of abbreviations throughout the article
N.B. Acknowledgements.
Collate acknowledgements in a separate section at the end of the article and do
not, therefore, include them on the title page,
as a footnote to the title or otherwise.
Word Limit
The suggested word limit for articles is between
5,000 and 9,000
words. The suggested limit for research notes is 2,000 - 2,500. Authors should also
provide a word count at the end of their MS.
Arrangement of the article
Subdivision of the article. Divide your article into clearly defined and
numbered sections. Subsections should be numbered 1.1 (then 1.1.1, 1.1.2, ), 1.2, etc. (the abstract is not included in section numbering).
Use this numbering also for internal cross-referencing: do not just refer to "the text." Any subsection may be given a brief heading.
Each heading should appear on its own separate line.
Introduction. State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate
background, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results.
Results. Results should be clear and concise.
Discussion. This should explore the significance of the results of the work, not repeat them. A combined Results and Discussion
section is often appropriate. Avoid extensive citations and discussion of published literature.
Conclusions. The main conclusions
of the study may be presented in a short Conclusions section, which may stand alone or form a subsection of a Discussion or Results and
Discussion section.
Appendices. If there is more than one appendix, they should be identified as A, B, etc.
Acknowledgements.
Place acknowledgements, including information on grants received, before the references, in a separate section, and not as a footnote
on the title page.
References. See separate section, below.
Figure captions, tables, figures, schemes. Present
these, in this order, at the end of the article. They are described in more detail below. High-resolution graphics files must always
be provided separate from the main text file (see the section on the preparation of illustrations, below).
Specific Remarks
Footnotes. Footnotes should be used sparingly. Number them consecutively throughout the article, using superscript Arabic
numbers. Many wordprocessors build footnotes into the text, and this feature may be used. Should this not be the case, indicate the position
of footnotes in the text and present the footnotes themselves on a separate sheet at the end of the article. Do not include footnotes
in the Reference list.
Table footnotes. Indicate each footnote in a table with a superscript lowercase letter.
Tables.
Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text. Place footnotes to tables below the table body and indicate
them with superscript lowercase letters. Avoid vertical rules. Be sparing in the use of tables and ensure that the data presented in
tables do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article.
Preparation of supplementary data
Preparation
of supplementary data. Elsevier accepts supplementary material to support and enhance your scientific research. Supplementary files
offer the author additional possibilities to publish supporting applications, movies, animation sequences, high-resolution images, background
datasets, sound clips and more. Supplementary files supplied will be published online alongside the electronic version of your article
in Elsevier Web products, including ScienceDirect:
http://www.sciencedirect.com. In order to ensure that your submitted
material is directly usable, please ensure that data is provided in one of our recommended file formats. Authors should submit the material
in electronic format together with the article and supply a concise and descriptive caption for each file. For more detailed instructions
please visit our artwork instruction pages at:
http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.
References
Responsibility
for the accuracy of bibliographic citations lies entirely with the authors.
Citations in the text: Please ensure that every
reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Any references cited in the abstract must be given
in full. Unpublished results and personal communications are not recommended in the reference list, but may be mentioned in the text.
If these references are included in the reference list they should follow the standard reference style of the journal and should include
a substitution of the publication date with either "Unpublished results" or "Personal communication" Citation of a reference as "in press"
implies that the item has been accepted for publication.
Citing and listing of Web references. As a minimum, the full URL
should be given. Any further information, if known (DOI, author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be
given. Web references can be listed separately (e.g., after the reference list) under a different heading if desired, or can be included
in the reference list.
Text: Citations in the text should follow the referencing style used by the American Psychological
Association. You are referred to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Fifth Edition, ISBN 1-55798-790-4,
copies of which may be ordered from:
http://www.apa.org/books/4200061.html or APA Order Dept., P.O.B. 2710, Hyattsville,
MD 20784, USA
or APA, 3 Henrietta Street, London, WC3E 8LU, UK. Details concerning this referencing style can also be found
at:
http://linguistics.byu.edu/faculty/henrichsenl/apa/apa01.html.
List: References should be arranged first
alphabetically and then further sorted chronologically if necessary. More than one reference from the same author(s) in the same year
must be identified by the letters "a", "b", "c", etc., placed after the year of publication.
Examples:
Reference
to a journal publication:
Van der Geer, J., Hanraads, J. A. J., & Lupton R. A. (2000). The art of writing a scientific article.
Journal of Scientific Communications, 163, 51-59.
Reference to a book:
Strunk, W., Jr., & White, E. B. (1979).
The elements of style. (3rd ed.). New York: Macmillan, (Chapter 4).
Reference to a chapter in an edited book:
Mettam,
G. R., & Adams, L. B. (1994). How to prepare an electronic version of your article. In B. S. Jones, & R. Z. Smith (Eds.),
Introduction
to the electronic age (pp. 281-304). New York: E-Publishing Inc.
The digital object identifier (DOI) may be used to cite and
link to electronic documents. The DOI consists of a unique alpha-numeric character string which is assigned to a document by the publisher
upon the initial electronic publication. The assigned DOI never changes. Therefore, it is an ideal medium for citing a document, particularly
'Articles in press' because they have not yet received their full bibliographic information.
The correct format for citing a DOI
is shown as follows (example taken from a document in the journal
Physics Letters B):
doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2003.10.071
When you use the DOI to create URL hyperlinks to documents on the web, they are guaranteed never to change.
Preparation of
illustrations
Preparation of electronic illustrations
General points
- Make sure you use uniform
lettering and sizing of your original artwork.
- Save text in illustrations as "graphics" or enclose the font.
- Only use the
following fonts in your illustrations: Arial, Courier, Helvetica, Times, Symbol.
- Number the illustrations according to their sequence
in the text.
- Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files.
- Provide all illustrations as separate files.
- Provide
captions to illustrations separately.
- Produce images near to the desired size of the printed version.
A detailed guide on electronic
artwork is available on our website:
http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.
You are urged to visit this site;
some excerpts from the detailed information are given here.
Formats
Regardless of the application used, when your
electronic artwork is finalised, please "save as" or convert the images to one of the following formats (Note the resolution requirements
for line drawings, halftones, and line/halftone combinations given below.):
EPS: Vector drawings. Embed the font or save the text
as "graphics".
TIFF: Colour or greyscale photographs (halftones): always use a minimum of 300 dpi.
TIFF: Bitmapped line drawings:
use a minimum of 1000 dpi.
TIFF: Combinations bitmapped line/half-tone (colour or greyscale): a minimum of 500 dpi is required.
DOC,
XLS
or PPT: If your electronic artwork is created in any of these Microsoft Office applications please supply "as is".
Please
do not:
- Supply embedded graphics in your wordprocessor (spreadsheet, presentation) document;
- Supply files that are optimised
for screen use (like GIF, BMP, PICT, WPG); the resolution is too low;
- Supply files that are too low in resolution;
- Submit
graphics that are disproportionately large for the content.
Captions
Ensure that each illustration has a caption. Supply
captions separately, not attached to the figure. A caption should comprise a brief title (
not on the figure itself) and a description
of the illustration. Keep text in the illustrations themselves to a minimum but explain all symbols and abbreviations used.
Line
drawings
The lettering and symbols, as well as other details, should have proportionate dimensions, so as not to become illegible
or unclear after possible reduction; in general, the figures should be designed for a reduction factor of two to three. The degree of
reduction will be determined by the Publisher. Illustrations will not be enlarged. Consider the page format of the journal when designing
the illustrations.
Do not use any type of shading on computer-generated illustrations.
Photographs (halftones)
Remove
non-essential areas of a photograph. Do not mount photographs unless they form part of a composite figure. Where necessary, insert a
scale bar in the illustration (not below it), as opposed to giving a magnification factor in the caption.
Colour illustrations
Please make sure that artwork files are in an acceptable format (TIFF, EPS or MS Office files) and with the correct resolution. If,
together with your accepted article, you submit usable colour figures then Elsevier will ensure, at no additional charge, that these
figures will appear in colour on the Web (e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites) regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced
in colour in the printed version. For colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier after
receipt of your accepted article. Please indicate your preference for colour in print or on the Web only. For further information on
the preparation of electronic artwork, please see:
http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.
Please note: Because
of technical complications which can arise by converting colour figures to "grey scale" (for the printed version should you not opt for
colour in print) please submit in addition usable black and white versions of all the colour illustrations.
Proofs
One
set of page proofs in PDF format will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author (if we do not have an e-mail address then paper proofs
will be sent by post). Elsevier now sends PDF proofs which can be annotated; for this you will need to download Adobe Reader version
7 available free from:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. Instructions on how to annotate PDF files will
accompany the proofs. The exact system requirements are given at the Adobe site:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/acrrsystemreqs.html#70win.
If you do not wish to use the PDF annotations function, you may list the corrections (including replies to the Query Form) and return
to Elsevier in an e-mail. Please list your corrections quoting line number. If, for any reason, this is not possible, then mark the corrections
and any other comments (including replies to the Query Form) on a printout of your proof and return by fax, or scan the pages and e-mail,
or by post.
Please use this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the text, tables and
figures. Significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission from the
Editor. We will do everything possible to get your article published quickly and accurately. Therefore, it is important to ensure that
all of your corrections are sent back to us in one communication: please check carefully before replying, as inclusion of any subsequent
corrections cannot be guaranteed. Proofreading is solely your responsibility. Note that Elsevier may proceed with the publication of
your article if no response is received.
Author Benefits
Offprints
The corresponding author, at no cost, will
be provided with a PDF file of the article via e-mail or, alternatively, 25 free paper offprints. The PDF file is a watermarked version
of the published article and includes a cover sheet with the journal cover image and a disclaimer outlining the terms and conditions
of use. Additional paper offprints can be ordered by the authors. An order form with prices will be sent to the corresponding author.
Discount
Authors are entitled to a 30% discount on Elsevier books (excluding major reference works).
Fast Electronic
Publication
Once the article has been proofed by the author, it will be published immediately on the journal's 'Articles in Press'
section online, thus making it available to subscribers to read and cite. For more information, visit:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/0742051X.
Author Enquiries
For enquiries relating to the submission of articles, please visit the journal's homepage at:
http://www.elsevier.com/locate/tate.
From here you can also track your accepted articles (
http://authors.elsevier.com/TrackPaper.html) and set up e-mail alerts
to inform you of when an article's status has changed, as well as viewing detailed artwork guidelines, copyright information, frequently
asked questions and more. Contact details for questions arising after acceptance of an article, especially those relating to proofs,
are provided after registration of an article for publication.