Submission Guidelines

Submission Guidelines for ALRAj articles

Journal submissions must be original and unpublished work suitable for an international audience and not under review by any other publisher or journal. No payment is associated with submissions. Copyright of published works remains with the author(s).

New and first-time authors are particularly encouraged to submit articles. An abstract or article outline (approx 500 words) can be emailed to the Editor with a view to developing a full article through a mentoring process. One of our reviewers will be invited to work with you to shape your article.

Journal articles may use either Australian/UK or USA spelling and should use Harvard style referencing. See http://www.library.uq.edu.au/training/citation/harvard.html for more. It is preferred that footnotes not be used unless especially necessary.

Submissions should contain:

1 ½ or double-spacing in all manuscripts, including references, notes, abstracts, quotations, figures and tables
double quotation marks within single quotation marks to set off material that in the original source was enclosed in single quotation marks. Do not use quotation marks to enclose block quotations (any quotations of 40 or more words)
Harvard style referencing is preferred
maximum of 6000 words for peer reviewed articles and 3000 words for other journal items (including tables and figures)
an abstract of 100-150 words
minimal use of headings (up to 3 levels is OK)
any images or diagrams should only be used to add value to the article and be independent from the document as either jpgs or gifs and inserted as image files into the page where possible. If using MS Word drawing tools, please 'group' your diagrams and images and anchor them to the page, or attach at the end of the document with a note in-text as to its position in the article. If you are using photos of others you must have them give permission for the photos to be published. You should have written permission in these instances and forward such permission to the Editor.
On a cover sheet, please include contact information including full name, affiliation, email address, small photo (.jpeg) and brief, biographical note

Peer reviewed submissions

Those preferring blind peer review, must indicate so when emailing submission. All contributions for review should fit the following structure (only include those sections that are appropriate to your article):

Title (concise and extended as required)
Abstract (100-150 words)
Body of Article - eg. introduction, background, literature review, main argument or research
question, research methodology, research results, discussion, conclusions and future work (see formatting template)
Useful links (if referring to weblinks, include these in full)
Acknowledgements (up 100 words)
Reference list (Harvard style)
Appendices (use sparingly)
Biographical notes of authors (up to 100 words)
Optional small photo image of author(s) (.jpeg/.jpg - no larger than 150 pixels)

All correspondence will be directed to the lead author unless otherwise requested. Please ensure your email address is correct.

Submissions can be sent by email to alar@alara.net.au

Submission Guidelines for Monographs

Monographs must be original and unpublished work suitable for an international audience and not under review by any other publisher or journal. No payment is associated with monographs. Copyright of published works remains with the author(s).

Typical monographs would include rationale, background, a topic literature review, research methodology and methods, ethical considerations, action research phases and findings, interventions, discussion of findings and their implications, references and appendices. They should contribute new knowledge. We encourage dual and multiple authorship.

Submissions should contain:

a title page
table of contents (including figures and tables)
an abstract of approximately 500 words
up to 10 key search words
an executive summary preceding the monograph
range from 8,000 to 16,000 words
a brief author biography of up to 500 words
be gender and culture sensitive.

Submitting Monographs

Monographs should be submitted by email to the Editor for review. Copy (e-copy only) must be in Word format, 12 point Times New Roman font, 2.5cm margins, and APA style. Subsections must be indicated by the following heading levels:

Level 1 - lower case and bold (14pt)
Level 2 - lower case (12 pt)
Level 3 - italic.

No numbering of headings or subsections is to be used. Please keep footnotes to a bare minimum.

Careful proofreading must have occurred prior to submission. All identifying names must be removed. A separate file should be submitted outlining monograph title, author name(s), address, email address, phone and fax numbers.

Review Process

The review process normally takes up to three months and authors can anticipate extension beyond this if revision is required. Evaluation of suitability of monographs will be based on a monograph:

offering new ideas
making a significant contribution to the field
arousing interest and stimulating debate
showing sound scholarship and rigorous research design.

Reviewers may recommend:

Acceptance of monograph following minor revisions
Revision of monograph and resubmission for further review
Rejection of monograph.

Authors will receive two complimentary copies of the monograph publication.

Correspondence