Journal

The Shortage of America's Foreign Language Teachers: A Review of the Literature

Improved Hiring Practices that May Impact Teacher Retention

Toote' American Indian Teachers? Challenges, Assets, and Decolonizing Practices

Guidelines for Preparation of Manuscripts

1. We use the most recent APA [American Psychological Association] Guidelines, and not those of the Modern Language Association (MLA) or the Chicago Manual of Style. Please use the latest edition (6th ed., 2010) of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association as your guide. Most journals follow the APA style with minor deviations (and those being primarily changes in level headings within articles). Citations within articles, bibliographical entries, punctuation, and style follow the APA format very closely. You can visit the following web sites, which give you abbreviated versions of the APA guidelines:
   1. APA Formatting and Style Guide: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/ — this excellent site offers guidelines for using the 6th edition of the APA guidelines.
   2. APA 6th Edition, Wake Forest University: http://zsr.wfu.edu/research/guides/apa.html
   3. APA — http://www.apastyle.org/. This is the very source...the APA, with all sorts of help and assistance.
2. Do not submit a diskette with article you are submitting. Instead, submit your article electronically to rterry@richmond.edu. Please follow these guidelines carefully to expedite the review and publishing process:
   1. Use a PC- or Mac-compatible word-processing program, preferably Microsoft Word 2003 or a later version.
   2. Do not use the rich text format.
   3. Use a font size of 12 points and use only one font throughout — we require Times New Roman.
   4. Use italics and boldface type when necessary, but do not use underlining.
3. Please think carefully about the title of your article. Although “catchy” titles are permissible, even desirable in some cases for conference presentations, the title of your article should be more academic in nature, allowing the reader to determine at once what subject the author(s) will be addressing. It should be brief, preferably without subtitles, and no longer than 12 words.
4. We require an abstract of your article.
5. Articles will not be accepted if they appear to endorse or sell software, hardware, books, or any other products.
6. Do not include the names of the author(s) of the article on the first page of the actual text.
   1. On the first page of the submitted article, authors should provide the following information:
      1. The title of the article
      2. Names and titles of the author(s)
      3. Preferred mailing addresses
      4. Home and office phone numbers
      5. Fax numbers (if available)
      6. E-mail addresses
      7. For joint authorship, an indication as to which author will be the primary contact person (not necessarily the first author listed on the manuscript itself).
   2. The first page of the manuscript itself should have the title only, followed by the abstract, then the text.
   3. It is essential that there be no direct references to the author(s) in the manuscript to be read by the reviewers. Any “giveaways,” such as references to a particular institution, when it is obvious that the institution is that of the author, should be avoided as well.
   4. If your article is accepted for publication, you will be able to make the necessary changes in the final manuscript. For the present, however, authors should refer to themselves in the third person and refer to studies or projects at “X Middle School” or “X University.”
   5. The APA guidelines suggest ways that authors can achieve this necessary degree of anonymity. We do understand, however, that references to certain websites may necessarily reveal the identity of the authors of certain articles.
7. Include a short biographical paragraph (this will appear at the bottom of the first page of the article). Please include this paragraph on a separate page at the end of your article. This paragraph should include the following information (no longer than 4-5 lines):
   1. Your name
   2. Your highest degree and what school it is from
   3. Your title and your employer’s name
   4. If you are a teacher, indicate what level(s) you have taught in your teaching career: K-12, elementary school, middle school, high school, community college, college/ university, other.
   5. Your credentials.
   
   Example:
   Charles Jones (Ph.D., Duke University) is Professor of Spanish and Foreign Language Pedagogy at the University of Montana. He teaches/coordinates …. His research …. He has published ….
   
8. Please note that the length of manuscripts averages approximately 20-25 double-spaced pages, including notes, charts, and references. This does not mean that a slightly longer article is out of the question.
9. Authors should read the manuscript very carefully before submitting it, verifying the accuracy of the citations (including the spelling of names, page numbers, and publication dates); the accuracy of the format of the references; punctuation, according to the APA Guidelines; spelling throughout the article.
10. Please consult the Checklist for Manuscript Publication. Promising articles have been rejected because authors did not spend enough time proofreading the manuscript. Proofreading includes not only reading for accuracy but for readability, flow, clarity. Using the Checklist will help ensure accuracy. Authors are encouraged to have several colleagues read the article before it is submitted.

A Checklist for Manuscript Preparation

1. 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.
2. 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.
   1. 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.
   2. Do not use automatic page numbering, since such programs often prove to be impossible to remove from a manuscript.
3. Please double-space everything in your manuscript.
4. Do not use full justification in the article; use left justification only.
5. The required font throughout is Times New Roman 12.
6. There should be only one space after each period, according to APA format.
7. 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).
8. All numbers above “nine” must appear as Arabic numerals [“nine school districts” vs. “10 textbooks”].
9. 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.
10. Use standard postal abbreviations for states in all reference items [NC, IL, NY, MS, etc.], but not in the text itself.
11. 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.
12. 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.
13. 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.
14. 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.
15. 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.
16. 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.
17. Please makes certain that the components you submit are in the following order:
    1. 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];
    2. First page of the manuscript — should have the title of the article and the abstract.
    3. The text of the article
    4. Notes; References, Appendices — in this order
    5. The short, biographical paragraph (no more than 4-5 lines).