Submission Guidelines | Journal of Educational Leadership in Action | Journals | Lindenwood University
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Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

Submission Guidelines

Eligibility for Submission

The Journal of Educational Leadership in Action welcomes original manuscript submissions from all authors who hold copyright ownership of their work or have received explicit authorization from the copyright holder(s).

In academic contexts, authors typically retain initial ownership of their intellectual property, though exceptions may exist in certain employment arrangements where copyright transfer to an employer is a condition of employment.

Submission Policies

Manuscripts submitted to the Journal of Educational Leadership in Action must represent original work that has not been previously published and is not currently under consideration in any other archival journal or book publication, whether in print or electronic format.

Please note, working papers or pre-prints circulated in professional or institutional series do not constitute prior publication.

By submitting to the Journal of Educational Leadership in Action, authors affirm that the manuscript is not currently under review by another publication and will not be submitted elsewhere until the completion of the editorial decision process with our Journal.

Authors with questions regarding submission terms are encouraged to contact the editorial office directly.

Formatting Guidelines

Manuscripts submitted and accepted for publication must adhere to specific formatting guidelines detailed in the Formatting Requirements.

When submitting, authors are responsible for providing their manuscript in high-quality electronic format, specifically a Microsoft Word file that can be converted to PDF upon publication.

While limited technical support is available, ultimate responsibility for file preparation rests with the author.

All citations, references, tables and/or figures, page numbers are to be formatted per APA 7th edition guidelines when submitting for review.

Each submission needs to include, in the following order, the title, author(s), abstract and manuscript (with cited sources), followed by the list of references and appendix items if applicable.

Formatting Requirements

  • Do not include a title page. Begin the manuscript with the title, authors, abstract, the introduction
  • No page number 1, begin with page number 2 on the second page of the manuscript
  • Write your article in English (unless the journal expressly permits non-English submissions)
  • Submit your manuscript, abstract, including embedded tables, figures, appendices, references as one Word document
  • Page size should be 8.5 x 11-inches.
  • All margins (left, right, top and bottom) should be 1.5 inches (3.8 cm), including your tables and figures
  • Indent five spaces for each new paragraph
  • Single space your text
  • Use a single column layout with both left and right margins justified.
  • Font:
    • Main Body—12 pt. Times or the closest comparable font available
    • Footnotes—10 pt. Times or the closest comparable font available
  • If figures are included, use high-resolution figures, preferably encoded as encapsulated PostScript (eps)
  • Copyedit your manuscript prior to submitting
  • When possible, there should be no pages where more than a quarter of the page is empty space.
  • Do not insert extra space between paragraphs of text except for long quotations, theorems, propositions, special remarks, etc. These should be set off from the surrounding text by additional space above and below.
  • Don't "widow" or "orphan" text (i.e., ending a page with the first line of a paragraph or beginning a page with the last line of a paragraph).
  • All text should be left-justified (i.e., flush with the left margin—except where indented).
  • Where possible, it should also be right-justified (i.e., flush with the right margin).
  • "Where possible" refers to the quality of the justification. Word does a reasonable job. We prefer flush right margins.
  • However, it is better to have jagged right margins than to have flush right margins with awkward intra- and inter-word spacing.
  • Make your decision on whichever looks best.

Article Length

Because this journal publishes electronically, page limits are not as relevant as they are in the world of print publications.

We are happy, therefore, to let authors take advantage of this greater "bandwidth" to include material that they might otherwise have to cut to get into a print journal.

This said, authors should exercise some discretion with respect to length.

Colored Text

Set the font color to black for most of the text.

We encourage authors to take advantage of the ability to use color in the production of figures, maps, etc., however, you need to appreciate that this will cause some of your readers problems when they print the document on a black & white printer.

For this reason, you are advised to avoid the use of colors in situations where their translation to black and white would render the material illegible or incomprehensible.

Please ensure that there are no colored mark-ups or comments when submitting.

Emphasized Text

Whenever possible use italics to indicate text you wish to emphasize rather than underlining it.

The use of color to emphasize text is discouraged.

Font Faces

Except, possibly, where special symbols are needed, use Times New Roman font.

Font Size

The manuscript and all components should be submitted in 12pt. Avoid the use of fonts smaller than 6pt.

Foreign Terms

Whenever possible, foreign terms should be set in italics rather than underlined.

Headings

Headings (e.g., start of sections) should be distinguished from the main body text by their fonts or by using small caps.

Use the same font face for all headings and indicate the hierarchy by reducing the font size.

There should be space above and below headings. Format headings per APA 7th edition formatting guidelines.

Main Text

The font for the main body of text must be black and, in Times New Roman font.

Titles

Whenever possible, titles of books, movies, etc., should be set in italics rather than underlined.

Footnotes

Footnotes, if necessary, should appear at the bottom of the page on which they are referenced rather than at the end of the paper.

Footnotes should be in 10 pt. Times New Roman, and single spaced, and there should be a footnote separator rule (line).

Footnote numbers or symbols in the text must follow, rather than precede, punctuation.

Excessively long footnotes are probably better handled in an appendix.

All footnotes should be left and right-justified (i.e., flush with the right margin), unless this creates awkward spacing.

Tables and Figures

To the extent possible, tables and figures should appear in the document near where they are referenced in the text.

Large tables or figures should be put on pages by themselves. Avoid the use of overly small type in tables.

In no case should tables or figures be in a separate document or file.

All tables and figures must fit within 1.5" margins on all sides (top, bottom, left and right) in both portrait and landscape view.

Mathematics

Roman letters used in mathematical expressions as variables should be italicized. Roman letters used as part of multi-letter function names should not be italicized. Whenever possible, subscripts and superscripts should be a smaller font size than the main text.

Short mathematical expressions should be typed inline. Longer expressions should appear as display math. Also, expressions using many different levels (e.g., such as the fractions) should be set as display math. Important definitions or concepts can also be set off as display math.

The Journal of Educational Leadership in Action acknowledges the technological limitations and recognizes that optimal document performance cannot be guaranteed across all possible hardware and software configurations.