Author Guidelines

See Focus and Scope Section for the type of submissions accepted.

Ways of submitting

If you would like to check if your submission idea is likely to fit with the journal in terms of focus and quality, please submit a proposal of your intended submission (in the order of 300 words) before writing and submitting the full piece..

If you are new or fairly new to writing for publication you may opt for the Developmental Route. The editors may also recommend this route after receiving a proposal from you. This entails submitting a draft submission clearly stating that you wish to exercise this option. There is an option to choose this on submission The editors will decide if they consider the submission suitable for SEHEJ. If they do, you will be allocated a mentor. The role of the mentor is to support you redraft the submission up to the standard required for publication. When the mentor agrees that the submission is ready, this is submitted to the appropriate section editor (e.g. research paper section) for final approval and corrections- it is very unlikely that these changes will be more than minor. Once made, the submission will be accepted.

 For more experienced authors, a Direct Route is offered. Please submit a paper or case study/practice piece to the appropriate section of the journal via the SEHEJ website. Ensure that the submission:

• Fully complies with submission and editorial guidelines and policies.
• If not using the house templates*, you must adhere fully to all format and layout rules.
• Is submitted in two forms; with full author details clearly marked ‘not for review’; and in anonymised form with all author and institutional identifiers removed, marked ‘for review’.

The editorial team will acknowledge receipt and will check compliance as above. Non-compliant submissions will be returned and not accepted for review. The editorial team will decide if the submission is suitable for SEHEJ. If deemed so, the submission will be reviewed by at least two referees and a decision returned to the lead author normally within three months. Reviewers consider:

The criteria are:

1. Relevance to the journal theme: any aspect of student engagement
2. Quality of submission  (argument, scholarship, research rigour, contribution to knowledge as appropriate)
3. Interest to members of RAISE and the wider HE community

 The editor will decide between four possibilities on the basis of reviews received:

1. Accept as is
2. Minor revisions – on the basis that corrections can be undertaken requiring only a couple of work
3. Major revisions – requiring substantial reconsideration by the authors
4. Reject

For revision, and resubmission, authors must resubmit normally within 6 months. They complete a pro-forma to demonstrate how they have addressed the requirements and suggestions made. 

The editor may send resubmissions back to the reviewers (particularly in the case of major revision). The editor will then decide if the resubmission requires further revision, is acceptable or will be rejected

Editorial Guidelines – which apply to all submissions:

Manuscripts should be compiled in the following order:

• Title
• Do not include an abstract or keywords (except if the submission is a research article- *see subsequent advice on this if a research article)
• All authors of a manuscript should include their full names, affiliations/institutions and email addresses on the cover page of the manuscript. One author should be identified as the corresponding author. Please give the affiliation where the research was conducted. If any of the named co-authors moves affiliation during the peer review process, the new affiliation should be given in the biographical note. Please note that no changes to affiliation can be made after the manuscript is accepted.
• All persons who have a reasonable claim to authorship must be named in the manuscript as co-authors; the corresponding author must be authorized by all co-authors to act as an agent on their behalf in all matters pertaining to publication of the manuscript, and the order of names should be agreed by all authors
• Please supply a short biographical note for each author (max of 20 words per author or 30 words for a single author).
• Please use section headings which should be concise (e.g. Introduction or Background; Methods: Findings; Discussion; Conclusions or Recommendations etc.)
• For all manuscripts non-discriminatory language is mandatory. Sexist, racist, or homophobic terms must not be used.
• When using a word which is or is asserted to be a proprietary term or trade mark, authors must use the symbol ® or TM.
• Authors must not embed equations or image files within their manuscript.
• Authors must not use any sort of endnote referencing tool to manage citations and references in the final version submitted.

 Layout

Please format your submissions:

• Do not use Styles in Word or equivalent in other word-processing software
• In Arial 12 point
• Single line spacing
• Justified to the left margin
• Section headings should be emboldened (Arial 12)
• Sub-section headings should be italicised (Arial 12)
• Single line break between paragraphs, do not indent text
• Do not use bold, italics or underlining in the main text
• Quotes- if less than one line use double quotation marks. If longer than one line the quote should be separated by a line break, in italics, and use an indentation of 0.6cm from the left margin. Please put page number from source.
• No footnotes.
• Endnotes are permitted but do keep brief and avoid too many.
• Tables and figures should be inserted into the position preferred by the author.
• Insert page numbers. Bottom of the page, right (Plain no 3 in Microsoft Word)

 We reserve the right to reformat and edit text appropriately to fit the format for the final published version.

 References

Full list of references being provided for all citations at the end of the work, in alphabetical order.

Use APA style, for guidance see: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/authors/style/reference/tf_APA.pdf.

Please ensure any hyperlinks included in the text and referencing list have been recently tested and are up to date. Any source you use must be accessible to all.

Images

If you are submitting images please ensure that you obtain required permissions for reproduction and submit them as .jpg files.

*Research Articles (further guidance)

• Research articles of approximately 8000 words (inclusive of all texts, bios, abstracts, references, tables/figures - note authors should make allowance for the additional space that these will use) will be considered for review. However, if your paper is considered suitable for review but is over the word limit it must be shortened to within the stipulated 8000 words upon return of reviewer comments and revision. If your paper is considerably over the word limit, i.e. over 8500 words, it will be returned to you without being checked and we will ask you to resubmit a shortened version.
• Abstracts of between 150-250 words are required for all manuscripts submitted.

Each manuscript should have keywords. (we reserve the right to change these keywords to enable consistency)