Submissions

Author Guidelines

Please see IJSaP Submission Steps for Authors for step-by-step submission instructions. 

This free, open access book, Writing about learning and teaching in higher education: Creating and contributing to public scholarly conversations across a range of genres (Healey, Matthews, & Cook-Sather, 2020), offers guidance and frameworks related to some of the IJSaP submission types. Reference to specific chapters is given below.

Proposals

Potential authors (faculty, staff, and students) with an idea for a contribution are strongly encouraged to send the editors  a short proposal using the set of questions in the relevant proforma for a research article (including empirical research articles, theoretical or conceptual articles, and literature reviews), case study, opinion piece, reflective essay, or review before writing and submitting the article. To submit a proposal send an email to ijsap@mcmaster.ca with the subject reading “Proposal: Type of submission”, for example "Proposal: Research Article".  For authors who find the question format for proposals unconducive to capturing your proposal, you are welcome to submit a proposal in the form of an abstract or summary using the same proforma.

Before submitting your proposal, please read the general and genre-specific criteria for review below to check that your proposal is appropriate for your chosen genre.  This will help ensure that the proposed piece fits with the focus of the journal; save you, editors, and reviewer’s time; and encourage a conversation between potential authors and the editorial board.  Please see chapters 9 (Selecting a Title), 10 (Preparing the Abstract) and 11 (Extending the Conventional Writing Genres of Healey, Matthews, and Cook-Sather (2020) for further guidance.

We are open to discussing proposals for other genres (e.g., research posters, interviews, conversations between participants involved in partnership dialogues) or types of submission (e.g., podcasts, videos, and animations).  In which case, please send us an outline of the nature of the genre, the focus of your potential submission, and how the submission meets the general review criteria.   

Authorship

IJSaP uses the following minimum requirements for authorship: 1) substantial contribution to the work, and 2) accountability for the work that was done and its presentation in a publication. In the event of any doubt concerning these minimum requirements, please refer to the authorship discussion document from COPE (Commission on Publication Ethics)  for more information.

Criteria for Review – All Contributions

All submitted contributions (regardless of type) must meet the following broad criteria for inclusion:

• Must be relevant to students as partners and explicitly discuss the implications of the work in terms of partnership
• Must be quality submissions which address the interest to the journal’s intended audience
• Must meet the formatting guidelines as outlined below in the Format and Style Guidelines
• Must be clear, concise, complete, well written and accessible to an international readership
• Must not have been previously published, nor is it currently in submission with another journal

Once submissions are determined to have met these criteria, they will be reviewed based on the criteria specific to the type of contribution as outlined below. The following sections give the details, guidelines, and criteria for the types of articles published in IJSaP.

Research Articles

Submissions in this category can be empirical research articles, conceptual and theoretical articles, or reviews of literature. They all contribute new knowledge and understandings with a clear and appropriate methodology. Submissions are between 4,000 and 6,000 word and include a 150-word abstract. See chapters 12 (Empirical Research Articles), 13 (Theoretical and Conceptual Articles) and 14 (Literature Reviews) of Healey, Matthews and Cook-Sather (2020) for further guidance.

Criteria for Review

• Presents original ideas or results supported by evidence, argument, and theorization
• Ethically conducted research using appropriate methodologies
• In conversation with existing literature through relevant citations

Case Studies

These submissions are brief, scholarly explorations of specific practices, examples, or initiatives, including continuing and one-off projects. These maybe at any scale from discussing a small-scale local practice to a national or global initiative.  They discuss the context and rationale for the work, place the case study in the context of the relevant literature, analyze the implementation of the practice, example or initiative, identify strengths and weaknesses, and offer critical analysis of impacts on students, staff, practice, and policy as appropriate. Purely descriptive case studies will not be accepted. Case studies are no more than 3,000 words with a 150-word abstract.  See chapter 15 (Case Studies) of Healey, Matthews and Cook-Sather (2020) for further guidance.

Criteria for Review

• Presents an analysis of the implementation of an initiative
• Contextualizes the initiative through the citation of relevant literature
• Identifies the strengths and weaknesses of the initiative
• Critically analyses impacts on students, staff, practice, and policy as appropriate

Opinion Pieces

These are short and thought-provoking pieces, stating a position and supported by a persuasive argument. Opinion Pieces are no more than 900 words and in exceptional circumstances could be longer.  See chapter 19 (Opinion Pieces) of Healey, Matthews and Cook-Sather (2020) for further guidance.

Criteria for Review

• Addresses a current issue or debate related to partnership in teaching and learning
• Advances interesting, innovative, provocative, and/or critical ideas about partnership
• The argument should be supported by literature, lived experience and/or evidence

Reflective Essays

Reflective essays share the less formal, less finished presentations featuring the lived experiences, surprises, insights, questions, uncertainties, and other in-process aspects of partnership. This section of IJSaP welcomes individual submissions of up to 3,000 words or sets of (normally no more than three) themed or institution-specific essays. See chapter 18 (Reflective Essays) of Healey, Matthews and Cook-Sather (2020) for further guidance.

Criteria for Review

• Is written as an informal, first-person account of the lived experience of partnership
• Offers analysis of that lived experience that illuminates the day-to-day practicalities of pedagogical partnership and/or insights gained into the potential of such collaboration in higher education
• May include a small number of citations of existing literature
• Further guidance on writing reflective pieces can be found here

To enrich and transform the peer review process for reflective essay submissions, the journal will now employ a non-anonymized dialogic review process. This approach involves non-anonymized collaborative work among editors, authors, and reviewers using a shared Google Doc. Editors will create a Google Doc, granting editing and access rights to both reviewers and authors. The review process unfolds through dialogue and typically takes around 8-10 weeks.

We believe this approach prioritizes the emotions and experiences of individuals, making the peer review process more supportive and developmental.

The review process will operate in the following way-

1. The authors submit their non-anonymised essays for open review.
2. The editors invite a faculty reviewer and a student reviewer.
3. The editors introduce authors to the reviewers and provide a tentative timeline along with the Google Doc link.
4. While the authors and reviewers work, the editors will oversee the process, and initiate round 2 and so on.
5. When the authors inform the editorial team that the essay is ready to be reviewed by the editors, the editors offer their responses.
6. The editorial team makes the final editorial decision.

Note- If authors would prefer the reviews to be anonymised, they must tell us at submission.

Reviews                                                                                

These include reviews of a book, conference/symposium, or resources that both summarize and provide insight specific to students as partners. Reviews are no more than 800 words.

Criteria for Review

• Moves beyond summary of the work reviewed
• Situates the work reviewed within relevant literature, discourse, or personal reflection about partnership
• Considers the implications of the work for partnership more broadly, and raises questions or ideas for future research or development where appropriate

Other Submissions

The journal encourages innovation and creativity in forms of publication and will entertain proposals for other type of papers (e.g., research posters, interviews, conversations between participants involved in partnership dialogues) or types of submission (e.g., podcasts, videos, and animations). Please contact the editors (ijsap@mcmaster.ca) before submitting, if you wish to explore this opportunity.

Format and Style Guidelines

To achieve a reasonable turn-around time, it is necessary for authors to present manuscripts that meet the journal’s formatting expectations, that have complete and accurate references, and that include any tables or figures in a format acceptable to the journal. Submissions must be accompanied by a cover letter that indicates that the manuscript is being submitted solely to IJSaP, and that the manuscript represents new, unpublished findings or arguments (including translated works). For further information, please see the Style Guide and detailed Submission Steps, as well as the additional Submission Instructions below.

• Submissions are to be in English (Australian, UK, Canadian or USA English used consistently throughout). 
• References should be in format of the American Psychological Association (APA), as found in the Publication Manual of the APA, 7th Edition. 
• The font is to be 12-point Calibri, single-spaced with left justification.
• The margins – top and bottom, left and right – are to be 1 inch.
• Capitalize the first word of the article title and subtitle and proper nouns only.
• First level headings should be capitalized. First-level subheadings should be bold, indented, with only the first letter capitalized. Second-level subheading should be italicized, indented and only the first letter capitalized.
• The version submitted for review must be anonymized; please see Ensuring an Anonymous Review for guidance.
• If a submission contains tables, graphs or figures they should be included in the manuscript where they should appear in a published version.
• The final version of all accepted submissions should include a short biography (no more than 50 words) for each author, indicating who was a student at the time the work or initiative was undertaken.
• The abstract (for research articles and case studies), biography(ies), and reference lists are excluded from the word counts.

See chapter 27 (Preparing for Submission) of Healey, Matthews and Cook-Sather (2020) for further guidance.

Submission Instructions

Contributions may be submitted at any time, and following vetting and international peer review, accepted pieces will be published in the next available issue.

For step-by-step submission instructions, please see IJSaP Submission Steps for Authors.

To be able to submit an article, you must first create an account on this site (https://mulpress.mcmaster.ca/ijsap/user/register). **Be sure to tick the box next to 'Author' when creating your account. This will enable you to upload your submission and track its progress and allow your paper to pass through the various stages of review to publication.

If you already have an account, as an author, reviewer, or editor, please login (https://mulpress.mcmaster.ca/ijsap/login) using your existing account details. If you don't see an author section on your user home page after logging in, click on 'Edit My Profile' and check the box next to Author under roles.

Ethics

All submissions that involve research with human participants must have been successfully reviewed according to their institution’s research ethics committee guidelines. A statement to that effect should be included in a note at the end of the text before the references.

Make a new submission

Research Articles section.

Case Studies section.

Opinion Piece section.

Reflective Essays section.

Reviews section.