Guidelines for contributors

We will consider and publish a range of articles:

  • Peer-reviewed academic papers, up to 6,000 words, including abstract and references
  • Short reflections or commentaries on research, policy or practice, up to 2000 words
  • Methodological papers from doctoral studies
  • Accounts of relevant conferences, training updates and book reviews, between 500-1000 words
  • Letters and correspondence from readers.

Contributors are asked to follow these guidelines:

  • Contributions should be written in an accessible style appropriate for a multi-disciplinary and international audience.
  • Authors are asked to consider the wider application of their work, particularly to the practice setting.
  • The language of the Journal is English.
  • Spelling must be consistent within an article and use British English.
  • Spelling in references should follow the original.
  • Contributions should be carefully proof-read before submission. Poorly proofed articles may be returned without review.

Ethics

Empirical research will only be published if the research has been conducted in full accordance with ethical principles, and the paper details the appropriate ethical procedures.

Format

  • Contributions must be word processed, preferably using Microsoft Word.
  • Authors should provide a title page separate to the main text of their manuscript. This should include the article title, authors' names and affiliations, brief biographical details, corresponding author's contact details, and any appropriate acknowledgements (for example, sources of funding).
  • Articles (other than correspondence and book reviews) should be accompanied by four keywords and an abstract of 200 words (max).
  • A maximum of two levels of headings within the article is preferred.
  • The font used is Verdana, 11 points.
  • Text should be double-spaced with good margins.
  • Tables, graphs or other graphics should be set out on a separate page for each item, with a note in the main text indicating the location. Items must be appropriately captioned and labelled.
  • Endnotes may be provided but should be kept to a minimum.

Quotations

  • 'Quotation' is preferred to 'quote' as the noun, reserving 'to quote' for the verb.
  • Use single quotation marks, with double quotation marks for an inner quotation: 'xxxx "yyyy" xxxxx'.
  • Longer quotations (more than 40 words) should be in blocked text, on a separate line and indented, with no quotation marks.
  • Quotations should follow the original (for example, where US spelling is used).
  • Page references should be provided for all quotations.
  • Punctuation follows single quotation marks. For example: Jones (2009, p.17) asserts that 'all cats are magnificent'.

References

The referencing system is APA6. We advise using software for formatting citations and references (for example, Endnote). Alternatively, there are several free online guides for manually formatting according to APA6.

Submitting manuscripts

Please submit your manuscript to sjrcc@strath.ac.uk with the title of the contribution in the subject line of the email, and provide a brief description of the nature of your contribution in the body of the email.

All submissions will be acknowledged. The review process may take up to six weeks. But if there is a delay, please feel free to get in touch about its progress.

The decision of the Editors is final, but we will provide feedback for unsuccessful articles.