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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. Failure to do so may delay the processing of your submission:
All word limits include referencing and citation.
The journal encourages authors to make their research data openly available via an appropriate repository. Data can be linked to the journal publication and be fully citable. Please contact the editorial team if you would like more information.
Title page
To ensure blind peer review, please only list the title and abstract on the submitted manuscript title page.
The names of all authors, affiliations, contact details, biography (optional) and the corresponding author details must be completed online as part of the submission process.
Author names should include a forename and a surname. Forenames cannot include only initials.
The affiliation should ideally include ‘Department, Institution, City, Country’, however only the Institution and Country are mandatory.
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 being 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.
Acknowledgements (optional)
Any acknowledgements must be headed and in a separate paragraph, placed after the main text but before the reference list.
Funding (if applicable)
If the author received financial support for the research presented in the publication, then this should be detailed here.
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.
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, the 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.
References
All references cited within the submission must be listed at the end of the main text file.
Images/Illustrations
All images/illustrations used within the submission must be listed at the end of the main text file, along with a statement that all the relevant image copyright agreements have been secured by the author.
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.
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.
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.
Headings should be under 75 characters.
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.
When referring to proper nouns and normal institutional titles, the official, original spelling must be used.
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.
Font
The font used should be commonly available and in an easily readable size. This may be changed during the typesetting process.
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
Use single quotation marks except for quotes within another speech, in which case double quotation marks are used.
Quotations that are longer than three lines in length must be in an indented paragraph separate from the main text.
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.
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.
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.
Common examples from Latin origin do not follow this rule and should be lower case and can include full stops.
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.
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 comas, parentheses, colons or semicolons.
En dashes can be used to replace ‘to’ when indicating a range. No space should surround the dash.
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.
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.
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.
Do not use a comma for a decimal place.
Numbers that are less than zero must have ‘0’ precede the decimal point.
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.
Formula
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/Photographs/Drawings
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 as Fig. 1, Fig. 2 etc. (not 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 titles and legends should be placed within the text document as a list after the references.
The owner/source of the image should be included, along with any relevant copyright information and a statement of authorisation (if needed). Photographs and other images should be titled as below:
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.
If an author wishes to submit more complex visual material such as 3D digital models, real-time models, video clips, etc then this will need to be discussed in advance with the Editor-in-Chief.
Image quality
All figures must be provided separately as supplementary files during the submission process, if possible in colour and at a resolution of at least 150dpi and preferably at 300dpi or higher. Each file should normally 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).
NOTE: image of low quality may be rejected either by the editor or the typesetter. Authors are required to provide adequate images prior to submissions being editorially accepted. Please contact the editorial team should you need advice on image quality.
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, 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 underneath the table.
Tables should not include:
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.
In-text citations
Authors must use parenthetical citations according to the Vancouver numerical system. All use of third party sources must be clearly cited.
Each citation must be assigned a unique number enclosed by square brackets. Citations must follow numeric sequence throughout the whole of the text.
Citations must not be superscript and should be presented in normal text font.
References being cited at the same point should be separated by a comma and a space with citations at the end of sentences within the punctuation.
References cited multiple times should use their original citation number, so that the same reference is not duplicated.
If citing a range of references, cite the first and last reference number, with an en dash in between (no space). Citations after the range should be separated by a comma.
Reference list
All citations must be listed, in full, at the end of the text file in the order of citation alongside their corresponding number.
All reading materials should be included in ‘References’ – works which have not been cited within the main text of the article, 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 correctly cited within the text.
NOTE: DOIs should be included for all reference entries, where possible.
Reference format
This journal uses the Vancouver (numbered citation) system – see below for examples of how to format:
Author AA, Author BB. Title. Place of publication: Publisher; Year.
Leaver BL, Ehrman M, Shekhtman, B. Achieving success in second language acquisition. Cambridge; Cambridge University Press; 2005.
Author AA. Chapter title. In: Editor A, Editor B (eds.) Title of book. Series title and number and edition (if appropriate). Place of publication: Publisher; Year. Page numbers.
Jacobs GM, Hall S. Implementing cooperative learning. In Richards JC & Renandya WA (Eds.) Methodology in language teaching: An anthology of current practice. Cambridge; Cambridge University Press. 2002. pp. 52-58.
Author AA, Author BB. Article title. Journal title. Year; Volume(issue): Pages. DOI
Radford M. Aesthetic and religious awareness among pupils: Similarities and differences. British Journal of Music Education. 2001; 18(2): 151-159. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0265051701000249
Author A. Article title. Newspaper. Day Month Year of publication. URL (assessed day month year).
McMahon S. Fund new Victorian era. Herald Sun. (19 July 2010). http://www.heraldsun.com.au/ (assessed 02 March 2012).
Parker K. Plea for languages. Koori Mail, 3 December 2008: 19-20.
Author A. Title of paper. In: Editor AA, Editor BB. (eds.) Conference proceedings title, Place of publication: Publisher; Year. Page numbers.
Wittke M. Design, construction, supervision and long-term behaviour of tunnels in swelling rock. In: Van Cotthem A, Charlier R, Thimus JF, Tshibangu JP. (eds.) Eurock2006: multiphysics coupling and long term behaviour in rock mechanics: proceedings of the International Symposium of the International Society for Rock Mechanics, EUROCK2006, 9-12 May 2006, Liège, Belgium. London: Taylor & Francis; 2006. 125-156.
Organisation. Title. Series/publication number. Place of publication: Publisher; Year. Retrieved from (if online).
Department of Health. Choosing Health: making healthier choices easier, CM6374. London: Stationery Office; 2001.
Author AA. Thesis title. Type of thesis. Academic institution; Year. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/xx.xxxxxxxx
Murray BP. Prior knowledge, two teaching approaches for metacognition: Main idea and summarization strategies in reading. PhD thesis. Fordham University, New York. 2008.
Author AA. Title of work. URL (accessed date month year).
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Australia's health 2004. http://www.aihw.gov.au/publications/index.cfm/title/10014 (accessed 20 May 2013).
As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
All Article Publication Charges (APCs) are currently being paid for by the Architectural Research European Network Association.
APCs cover all publication costs (editorial processes; web hosting; indexing; marketing; archiving; DOI registration etc) and ensure that all of the content is fully open access. This approach maximises the potential readership of publications and allows the journal to be run in a sustainable way.