Author Guidelines
RIGHT OF FIRST PUBLICATION
IJPDS has the right to first publication of all submitted manuscripts. Submission of a paper to IJPDS is taken to indicate the author's commitment to publish in this Journal. No paper known to be under jurisdiction by any other journal will be reviewed by IJPDS. Papers proposed to IJPDS cannot be submitted simultaneously to another publication.
In order to submit a document to be considered for publication, please register with the journal (if you are not yet registered). You may register for multiple roles, such as reviewer, author and reader. After you log-in, click on your role as author, and a screen directing you to start a new submission will appear. Follow the directions in the five-step submission process. If you would rather email your manuscript, please send it to the Journal Site Manager at dmscott@anderson.edu
For a video providing instructions on how to submit a document electronically, consult the following site:
http://pkp.sfu.ca/files/video/ojs_author_submission/ojs_author_submission.htm
ENSURING A DOUBLE-BLIND REVIEW
To ensure the integrity of the blind peer-review for submission to this journal, every effort should be made to prevent the identities of the authors and reviewers from being known to each other. This involves the authors, editors, and reviewers (who upload documents as part of their review) checking to see if the following steps have been taken with regard to the text and the file properties:
- The authors of the document have deleted their names from the text, with "Author" and year used in the references and footnotes, instead of the authors' name, article title, etc.
- With Microsoft Office documents, author identification should also be removed from the properties for the file (see under File in Word), by clicking on the following, beginning with File on the main menu of the Microsoft application: File > Save As > Tools (or Options with a Mac) > Security > Remove personal information from file properties on save > Save.
- With PDFs, the authors' names should also be removed from Document Properties found under File on Adobe Acrobat's main menu.
Include (in the space provided) a short biography (five or six lines) for each author, which should include the author’s name, title, rank, department, institution, and a brief description of current research interests, publications, or awards.
GENERAL MANUSCRIPT GUIDELINES FOR ALL SUBMISSIONS
The manuscript should not exceed 30 pages, 1.5 spaced.
All pages must be typed on (12-point Times New Roman type size), 1.5 spaced (including footnotes and references); block quotes are single spaced.
Margins must be at least 1.25 inches (3.2cm) on all four sides.
Use normal settings on word processing software. Do not create special characters on the keyboard.
TITLE
Include the full title of the article, the author(s) name(s) and institution(s) (listed vertically if there is more than one author), a running head (60 characters or less), the word count for the manuscript, and a title footnote.
An asterisk (*) by the title refers to the title footnote at the bottom of the title page. The title footnote includes the name and address of the corresponding author, acknowledgments, credits, and/or grant information.
Title: Times New Roman; uppercase and lowercase characters; size 12; 1.5 spaces; centered; bold.
Author(s): 3 spaces (2 x 1.5) below the title; centered.
Affiliation: after the author’s name.
ABSTRACT
All manuscripts should be accompanied by an abstract in English as well as in the language of the paper submitted for publication, and should include 5 keywords.
The abstract should be brief (one paragraph of 150 to 200 words), descriptive (a summary of the most important contributions in a paper), and accessible (jargon-free and clear to the general reader).
TEXT
Content: As you revise your text, read it objectively from a reader’s point of view. Use terminology consistently throughout the text (e.g., use variable names consistently). Also active writing (“I discovered that …”) is more concise and accurate than passive writing (“It was discovered that …”).
Subheadings: Generally, three levels of subheadings are sufficient to indicate the organization of the content. See recent journal issues for subheading formats. Avoid using automatic numbering.Avoid using only uppercase characters
Quotations in the text: use quotation marks and, if you use punctuation marks after the quotation, place them before closing the quotation marks.
Quotations(with 4 or more lines): do not use quotation marks; indent on both sides .5 inches (1.3cm) set off from the text; size 12; single space.
Footnotes: write the note number after the text. Do not separate it from the text with one space. Begin each note with the superscript numeral to which it is keyed in the text. Footnotes are used to supply brief commentary or additional information. Use footnotes only when necessary. As an alternative, consider stating in the text that information is available from the author or adding an appendix.
Works cited page format:List all items alphabetically by author and, within author(s), by year of publication beginning with the most recent year.For multiple authors, invert only the name of the first author (e.g. “Jones, Arthur B., Colin D. Smith, and Barrie Thorne”). Use italics for titles of books and journals. All references cited in the text must be listed in the reference list, and vice versa.
Appendices: Appendices appear at the end of the article and should be labeled “Appendix A,” “Appendix B,” etc.
Tables, Figures and Other Artwork: Number tables, figures or illustrations consecutively throughout the text. Each should include a title. All illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.All labels on figures and illustrations must be typeset.
IMPORTANT: All artwork and type must be legible when sized to fit one column widths, 5-5/16 inches wide.
Author(s) must secure permission to publish any copyrighted figure, illustration, or photograph.
NOTE: FOR IN-TEXT CITATIONS, AUTHORS MAY CHOOSE EITHER MLA OR AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION (ASA) GUIDELINES (CHICAGO STYLE).
IN-TEXT CITATIONS
Parenthetical reference in the text: in brackets/parentheses, author’s last name and page number. Separate author’s last name and page number with one space: ex.: (Postman 3-4).
One work by the author of two or more works: place a comma after the author’s last name, add a shortened version of the title of the work, and supply the page number(s): ex.: (Toffler, Future 211).
When using the author’s name in your sentence: place only the page number(s) of the source in parentheses: ex.: (25).
Refer also to the MLA manual http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/
IN-TEXT CITATIONS
Include the last name of the author and year of publication. Include page numbers when you quote directly from a work or refer to specific passages. Cite only those that provide evidence for your assertions or that guide readers to important sources.
If author’s name is in the text, follow the name with the year of publication in parenthesis: “…Duncan (1959)”; if author’s name is not in the text, enclose both the last name and the year in parentheses: “… (Gouldner 1936).”
Pagination follows the year of publication after a colon: “… (Ramirez and Weiss 1979:239–40).”
Give both last names for joint authors: “… (Martin and Bailey 1988).”
For works with three authors, list all last names in the first citation in the text; thereafter use “et al.”: “… (Carr, Smith, and Jones 1962)”; and later, “… (Carr et al. 1962).” For more than three authors, use “et al.” throughout. ~
Separate a series of references with semicolon: “… (Burgess 1968; Marwell et al. 1971)
For unpublished materials, use “forthcoming” to indicate material scheduled for publication. For dissertations and unpublished papers, cite the date. If no date, use “N.d.” in place of the date: “… Smith (forthcoming) and Jones (N.d.).”
For machine-readable data files, cite authorship and date: “… (Institute for Survey Research 1976).”
Mathematical symbols and equations. Use consecutive Arabic numerals in parentheses at the right margin to identify important equations. Align all expressions and clearly mark compound subscripts and superscripts. Clarify all unusual characters or symbols. Use italic type for variables in equations and in the text; use bold type for vectors.
TABLES AND FIGURES
Include tables and figures only when they are critical to the reader’s understanding.
Tables
Number tables consecutively throughout the text. All illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
Include a descriptive title and headings for all columns and rows (see recent journal issues for examples).
Always use the same variable names in tables as in the text.
Include standard errors, standard deviations, t statistics, and so forth in parentheses under the means or coefficients in the tables.
Gather general notes to tables as “Note:” or “Notes:” at the bottom of the table; use a, b, c, etc., for table footnotes.
Use asterisks *, **, and/or *** (asterisks) to indicate significance at the p < .05, p < .01, and p < .001 levels, respectively; note if tests are one-tailed or two-tailed. Generally, only those results significant at the p < .0 level or better should be indicated as significant in the tables or text.
Refer also to the American Sociological Association Style Guide (4th ed.)
