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Submission Guidelines

Submitting an Article Online

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Article Types

Articles

Research papers that describe the outcomes and application of unpublished original research. These should make a substantial contribution to knowledge and understanding in the fields covered in this journal (Sustainable Development Goals) and should be supported by relevant data. If the research is the result of your final bachelor thesis, please be aware there is a limitation of 9000 words.

Optional: Supporting data necessary to interrogate the conclusions drawn from them may be uploaded as a supplementary file alongside the manuscript during submission. If accepted for publication, the data must be  uploaded to an open-access repository and will be linked to from the publication.

This section is peer reviewed.

Case Studies

Case studies that outline examples of practice based on real-world experiences and that are instructive and interest for workfield members in the fields we cover. They should provide a substantial contribution to the fields, therefore we admit case studies that clearly can illustrate, explore, report, analyse, summarise and challenge experiences that can contribute to the development of the particular field. They may be approached from the following perspectives:

  • Application, critique, or evolution of a method, process, theory, or tool
  • Unfolding trends in the practice of an specific domain/topic
  • Innovation
  • Design of a specific experience, discussing lessons learned
  • Management and Strategy of research and design in organizations
  • Great designs and 'Big Ideas' - and how to make them happen
  • Pilot studies preceding and informing larger-scale investigations
  • Challenges to existing notions of Research, Design, Theory, and Practice
  • Revisiting definitions of practice
Although case studies differ from archival research papers and do not define themselves as part of the potentially longer term body of academic research, they can present novel and original insights, and show potential for the practice, which is important for students in universities of applied sciences. Case studies submitted will be peer reviewed by experts and professionals in the working field. We will take a look to the clarity of the description and the possibilities of replicate the activity in another environment, therefore we recommend to include a detailed summary of the protocol followed and establish replicability within the body of the paper.

This section is peer reviewed.

Essays

Essay research papers that cover topics related to the journal, specially from the perspective of global and local focus. These papers should critically engage with the relevant body of extant literature,  critically evaluate emerging themes in the related areas or present original insights and points of view inspiring further research to other fellow scholars. Use of illustrations and figures will be encouraged.

This section is peer reviewed.

Author Guidelines

Submissions should be made electronically through this website. Once submitted, the author can track the submission and communicate with the editors via the online journal management system.

Please ensure that you consider the following guidelines when preparing your manuscript, and please ensure that your name is not recorded anywhere on the paper to ensure the viability of the double blind review system.

Length
Submissions should be between 6,000 and 9,000 words in length for Research Papers, and between 3,000 and 7,000 for Case Studies and Essays, although submissions of all lengths will be considered. All submissions should include an abstract of no less than 150 and no more than 400 words.

Social Media
To aid promotion of your publication on social media platforms, please provide a 120 character summary of your paper. This should be provided as an 'Comment to the Editor' during the opening stage of the submission.

Structure

Abstract
Research articles must have the main text prefaced by an abstract of no more than 250 words summarising the main arguments and conclusions of the article. This must have the heading ‘Abstract’ and be easily identified from the start of the main text.

A list of up to six key words may be placed below the abstract (optional).

The Abstract and Keywords should also be added to the metadata when making the initial online submission.

Main text
The body of the submission should be structured in a logical and easy to follow manner. A clear introduction section should be given that allows non-specialists in the subject an understanding of the publication and a background of the issue(s) involved. Methods, results, discussion and conclusion sections may then follow to clearly detail the information and research presented.

Up to three level headings may be present and must be clearly identifiable using different font sizes, bold or italics. We suggest using Headings 1, 2 and 3 in MS-Word’s ‘Style’ section.

Supplementary Files (optional)
Any supplementary/additional files that should link to the main publication must be listed, with a corresponding number, title and option description. Ideally the supplementary files are also cited in the main text.

e.g. Supplementary file 1: Appendix. Scientific data related to the experiments.

Note: additional files will not be typeset so they must be provided in their final form. They will be assigned a DOI and linked to from the publication.

Data availability (if applicable)
If data used in the research project has been made available, a statement should be added to direct the reader on where to access these files.
If data used in the research project has not been made available, a statement confirming this should be added, along with reasoning why.

The journal's data policy is available on the Editorial Policies page.

Ethics and consent (if applicable)
Research involving human subjects, human material, or human data, must have been performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Where applicable, studies must have been approved by an appropriate ethics committee and the authors should include a statement within the article text detailing this approval, including the name of the ethics committee and reference number of the approval. The identity of the research subject(s) should be anonymised whenever possible. For research involving human subjects, informed consent to participate in the study must be obtained from participants (or their legal guardian) and added to this statement. If a study involving human subjects/tissue/data was exempt from requiring ethical approval, a confirmation statement from the relevant body should be included within the submission.

Experiments using animals must follow national standards of care. For further information, click here.

Acknowledgements (optional)
Any acknowledgements must be headed and in a separate paragraph, placed after the main text but before the reference list.

Funding Information (if applicable)
Should the research have received a funding grant then the grant provider and grant number should be detailed.

Competing interests
If any of the authors have any competing interests then these must be declared. A short paragraph should be placed before the references. Guidelines for competing interests can be found here. If there are no competing interests to declare then the following statement should be present: The author(s) has/have no competing interests to declare.

Authors' contributions
A sentence or a short paragraph detailing the roles that each author held to contribute to the authorship of the submission. Individuals listed must fit within the definition of an author, as per our authorship guidelines.

References
All references cited within the submission must be listed at the end of the main text file.

Permissions

The author is responsible for obtaining all permissions required prior to submission of the manuscript. Permission and owner details should be mentioned for all third-party content included in the submission or used in the research.

If a method or tool is introduced in the study, including software, questionnaires, and scales, the license this is available under and any requirement for permission for use should be stated. If an existing method or tool is used in the research, it is the author's responsibility to check the license and obtain the necessary permissions. Statements confirming that permission was granted should be included in the Materials and Methods section.

 

Language & Text

Capitalisation
For the submission title:

Capitalise all nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs and subordinate conjunctions (i.e. as, because, although). Use lowercase for all articles, coordinate conjunctions and prepositions.

      • Slip-Sliding on a Yellow Brick Road: Stabilization Efforts in Afghanistan
      • Person Recognition Is Easier from Faces than from Voices

Headings within the main text:

First level headings in the text should follow the same rule as the main title.

For lower-level subheadings, only capitalise first letter and proper nouns.

Spelling
Submissions must be made in English. Authors are welcome to use American or British spellings as long as they are used consistently throughout the whole of the submission.

      • Colour (UK) vs. Color (US)
      • Centre (UK) vs. Center (US)

When referring to proper nouns and normal institutional titles, the official, original spelling must be used.

      • World Health Organization, not World Health Organisation

Grammar
American or English grammar rules may be used as long as they are used consistently and match the spelling format (see above). For instance, you may use a serial comma or not.

      • red, white, and blue OR red, white and blue

Font
The font used should be commonly available and in an easily readable size. This may be changed during the typesetting process and will not necessarily be the published font.

Underlined text should be avoided whenever possible.

Bold or italicised text to emphasise a point are permitted, although should be restricted to minimal occurrences to maximise their efficiency.

Lists
Use bullet points to denote a list without hierarchy or order of value. If the list indicates a specific sequence then a numbered list must be used.

Lists should be used sparingly to maximise their impact.

Quotation marks
Quotations that are longer than 40 words in length must be in an indented paragraph separate from the main text without quotation marks.

The standard, non-italicised font must be used for all quotes.

It must be clear from the text and/or citation where the quote is sourced. If quoting from material that is under copyright then permission will need to be obtained from the copyright holder.

If some of the original quote is being omitted then an ellipsis with a space on either side must be used to break the text.

      • “each sample … was processed in identical environments”

Words added to the original quote text must be placed within square brackets.

      • “the country [France] was ranked number one for cuisine”

Acronyms & Abbreviations
With abbreviations, the crucial goal is to ensure that the reader – particularly one who may not be fully familiar with the topic or context being addressed – is able to follow along. Spell out almost all acronyms on first use, indicating the acronym in parentheses immediately thereafter. Use the acronym for all subsequent references.

  • Research completed by the World Health Organization (WHO) shows …

A number of abbreviations are so common that they do not require the full text on the first instance. Examples of these can be found here.

Abbreviations should usually be in capital letters without full stops.

  • USA, not U.S.A

Common examples from Latin origin do not follow this rule and should be lower case and can include full stops.

  • e.g., i.e., etc.

Use of footnotes/endnotes

Use endnotes rather than footnotes (we refer to these as ‘Notes’ in the online publication). These will appear at the end of the main text, before ‘References’.

All notes should be used only where crucial clarifying information needs to be conveyed.

Avoid using notes for purposes of referencing, with in-text citations used instead. If in-text citations cannot be used, a source can be cited as part of a note.

Please insert the endnote marker after the end punctuation.

Data & Symbols

Symbols

Symbols are permitted within the main text and datasets as long as they are commonly in use or have explanatory definition on their first usage.

Hyphenation, em and en dashes

There is no set rule on the use of hyphenation between words, as long as they are consistently used.

Em dashes should be used sparingly. If they are present, they should denote emphasis, change of thought or interruption to the main sentence and can replace commas, parentheses, colons, or semicolons.

  • The president’s niece—daughter of his younger brother—caused a media scandal when…

En dashes can be used to replace ‘to’ when indicating a range. No space should surround the dash.

  • 10-25 years
  • pp. 10-65

Numbers

For numbers zero to nine please spell the whole words. Please use figures for numbers 10 or higher.

We are happy for authors to use either words or figures to represent large whole figures (i.e. one million or 1,000,000) as long as the usage is consistent throughout the text.

If the sentence includes a series of numbers then figures must be used in each instance.

  • Artefacts were found at depths of 5, 9, and 29 cm.

If the number appears as part of a dataset, in conjunction with a symbol or as part of a table then the figure must be used.

  • This study confirmed that 5% of…

If a sentence starts with a number it must be spelt, or the sentence should be re-written so that it no longer starts with the number.

  • Fifteen examples were found to exist…
  • The result showed that 15 examples existed…

Do not use a comma for a decimal place.

  • 2.43 NOT 2,43

Numbers that are less than zero must have ‘0’ precede the decimal point.

  • 0.24 NOT .24

Units of measurement

Symbols following a figure to denote a unit of measurement must be taken from the latest SI brochure. See http://www.bipm.org/utils/common/pdf/si_brochure_8_en.pdf for the full brochure.

Formulae

Formulae must be proofed carefully by the author. Editors will not edit formulae. If special software has been used to create formulae, the way it is laid out is the way they will appear in the publication.

Figures & Tables

Figures

Figures, including graphs and diagrams, must be professionally and clearly presented. If a figure is not easy to understand or does not appear to be of a suitable quality, the editor may ask to re-render or omit it.

All figures must be cited within the main text, in consecutive order using Arabic numerals (e.g. Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.).

Each figure must have an accompanying descriptive main title. This should clearly and concisely summarise the content and/or use of the figure image. A short additional figure legend is optional to offer a further description.

  • Figure 1: 1685 map of London.
  • Figure 1: 1685 map of London. Note the addition of St Paul’s Cathedral.

Figure titles and legends should be placed within the text document, either after the paragraph of their first citation, or as a list after the references.

The source of the image should be included, along with any relevant copyright information and a statement of authorisation (if needed).

  • Figure 1: Firemen try to free workers buried under piles of concrete and metal girders. Photo: Claude-Michel Masson. Reproduced with permission of the photographer.

If your figure file includes text then please present the font as Ariel, Helvetica, or Verdana. This will mean that it matches the typeset text.

NOTE: All figures must be uploaded separately as supplementary files during the submission process, if possible in colour and at a resolution of at least 300dpi. Each file should not be more than 20MB. Standard formats accepted are: JPG, TIFF, GIF, PNG, EPS. For line drawings, please provide the original vector file (e.g. .ai, or .eps).

 

Tables

Tables must be created using a word processor's table function, not tabbed text.

Tables should be included in the manuscript. The final layout will place the tables as close to their first citation as possible.

All tables must be cited within the main text, and numbered with Arabic numerals in consecutive order (e.g. Table 1, Table 2, etc.).

Each table must have an accompanying descriptive title. This should clearly and concisely summarise the content and/or use of the table. A short additional table legend is optional to offer a further description of the table. The table title and legend should be placed above the table.

Tables should not include:

  • Rotated text
  • Colour to denote meaning (it will not display the same on all devices)
  • Images
  • Vertical or diagonal lines
  • Multiple parts (e.g. ‘Table 1a’ and ‘Table 1b’). These should either be merged into one table, or separated into ‘Table 1’ and ‘Table 2’.

NOTE: If there are more columns than can fit on a single page, then the table will be placed horizontally on the page. If it still can't fit horizontally on a page, the table will be broken into two.

References

In-text citations

Every use of information from other sources must be cited in the text so that it is clear that external material has been used.

If the author is already mentioned in the main text then the year should follow the name within parenthesis.

  • Both Jones (2013) and Brown (2010) showed that …

If the author name is not mentioned in the main text then the surname and year should be inserted, in parenthesis, after the relevant text. Multiple citations should be separated by semicolon and follow alphabetical order.

  • The statistics clearly show this to be untrue (Brown 2010; Jones 2013).

If three or fewer authors are cited from the same citation then all should be listed. If three or more authors are part of the citation then ‘et al.’ should follow the first author name.

  • (Jones, Smith & Brown 2008)
  • (Jones et al. 2008)

If citations are used from the same author and the same year, then a lowercase letter, starting from ‘a’, should be placed after the year.

  • (Jones 2013a; Jones 2013b)

If specific pages are being cited then the page number should follow the year. Use the abbreviation “p.” (for one page) or “pp.” (for multiple pages) before listing the page number(s). Use an en dash for page ranges.

  • (Jones, 2013, p143)
  • (Jones, 2013, pp. 199–201)

For publications authored and published by organisations, use the short form of the organisation’s name or its acronym in lieu of the full name.

  • (ICRC 2000) NOT (International Committee of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies 2000)

Please do not include URLs in parenthetical citations, but rather cite the author or page title and include all details, including the URL, in the reference list.

Reference list

All citations must be listed at the end of the text file, in alphabetical order of authors’ surnames.

All reading materials should be included in ‘References’ – works which have not been cited within the main text, but which the author wishes to share with the reader, must be cited as additional information in endnotes explaining the relevance of the work. This will ensure that all works within the reference list are cited within the text.

NOTE: If multiple works by the same author are being listed, please re-type the author’s name out for each entry, rather than using a long dash.

NOTE: DOIs should be included for all reference entries, where possible.

This journal uses the APA system – see below for examples of how to format:

  • Books:

Author, A. A. (year). Title of work. Publisher. https://doi.org/xx.xxxxxxxx

Leaver, B. L., Ehrman, M., & Shekhtman, B. (2005). Achieving success in second language acquisition. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511610431

  • Chapter within books:

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (year). Title of chapter or entry. In A. Editor, B. Editor, & C. Editor (Eds.), Title of book (pp. xxx-xxx). Publisher. https://doi.org/xx.xxxxxxxx

Jacobs, G. M., & Hall, S. (2002). Implementing cooperative learning. In J. C. Richards & W. A. Renandya (Eds.), Methodology in language teaching: An anthology of current practice (pp. 52-58). https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511667190.009

  • Journal articles:

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (year). Article title. Journal Title, volume number (issue number), page numbers. https://doi.org/xx.xxxxxxxx

Radford, M. (2001). Aesthetic and religious awareness among pupils: Similarities and differences. British Journal of Music Education, 18(2), 151-159. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0265051701000249

  • Newspaper articles (online):

Author, A. (year, date). Article title. Newspaper..URL

McMahon, S. (2010, July 19). Fund new Victorian era. Herald Sun. https://www.heraldsun.com.au/

  • Newspaper articles (print):

Author, A. (year, date). Article title. Newspaper. pp. page number

Parker, K. (2008, December 3). Plea for languages. Koori Mail, pp. 19-20

  • Conference papers:

Author, A. (year, month). Title. Paper presented at Conference title, Location, Country.

Liu, C., Wu, D., Fan, J., & Nauta, M. M. (2008, November). Does job complexity predict job strains? Paper presented at the 8th Biannual Conference of the European Academy of Occupational Health Psychology, Valencia, Spain.

  • Organisational publications/Grey literature:

Organisation. (year). Title. Series/publication number. URL/Source

World Bank. (2008). Textbooks and school library provision in secondary education in Sub-Saharan Africa (World Bank Working Paper No. 126. Africa Human Development Series). EBL database.

  • Theses and dissertations:

Author, A. A. (year). Thesis title (Doctoral dissertation, Institution, location). https://doi.org/xx.xxxxxxxx

Murray, B. P. (2008). Prior knowledge, two teaching approaches for metacognition: Main idea and summarization strategies in reading (Doctoral dissertation, Fordham University, New York)

  • Webpages / PDFs:

Author, A. A. (year, month date). Title of work. Source.

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2011, March 23). Australia's health 2004. https://www.aihw.gov.au/publications/index.cfm/title/10014

Submission Preparation Checklist

  1. The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
  2. Any third-party-owned materials used have been identified with appropriate credit lines, and permission obtained from the copyright holder for both the print and the online editions of the journal.
  3. The submission file is in OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, RTF, or WordPerfect document file format. Line numbering has been turned on.
  4. Tables and figures are all cited in the text. All tables and figures are included within the text document.
  5. Figures/images have a resolution of at least 150dpi (300dpi or above preferred). Each file is no more than 20MB per file. The files are in one of the following formats: JPG, TIFF, GIF, PNG, EPS (to maximise quality, the original source file is preferred).
  6. The submission does not contain identifying information about the author, to ensure the viability of the double blind peer review
  7. The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines, which is found in About the Journal. Every effort has been made to ensure that the submission is ready for peer review according to the journal's review policy. If submitting to a peer-reviewed section of the journal, the submitted files (including file properties) have been anonymised.
  8. All authors have given permission to be listed on the submitted paper and satisfy the authorship guidelines.

Copyright Notice

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

Publication Fees

The journal does not charge APCs. Publishing costs are covered by Windesheim Honours College.

Windesheim Honours College covers all publication costs (editorial processes; web hosting; indexing; marketing; archiving; DOI registration etc.) and ensures that all of the content is fully open access.)