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Author Guidelines

This advice is for authors intending to submit a manuscript to AJET. Before submitting an article to AJET, please ensure you have read and understood the focus and scope of the journal and that you have attended to the formatting of your manuscript as detailed below. Submissions that do not comply will not be considered.

Registration

In order to submit an article to AJET you need to first register as an Author. When registering you need to explicitly tick the "Author" box or you will only be registered as a Reader and you will not see the "New Submission" option when you login.

Originality and length

The usual length of an AJET article is between 5000 and 8000 words, including abstract, figures, tables and references, but occasionally lengths outside this range are accepted. Submissions to AJET should be unpublished and not under consideration by another journal or for a conference proceedings. ascilite and other conferences may arrange republication in AJET as a special recognition for an outstanding work. Please note that it is your responsibility to conform with any relevant conditions in your institution's research management procedures, for example, ethics committee approvals.

Formatting your manuscript prior to submission

Manuscripts are accepted in English, using consistent and acceptable spelling and punctuation as per the Oxford English dictionary. In-text citations and references need to conform to the latest edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA style manual). Examples can be found on the APA site (http://www. apastyle.org/).

File format

The preferred formats are Microsoft Word for Windows or Macintosh, or rich text format. Word-compatible files written by other software (e.g., OpenOffice) may also be submitted. Other formats such as PDF files may be acceptable subject to prior consultation with the editors. Printed versions (hard copy) are not acceptable. Compressed file formats such as zip are not acceptable unless by prior arrangement.

Page setup

Page size A4 with margins set to:

Top:

3.0 cm

Bottom:

3.0 cm

Orientation: Portrait (never use landscape)

Left:

3.0 cm

Right:

3.0 cm

Title

Arial 14 point bold followed by one 10 point blank line.

Author names and institutional affiliation

Do not include author names and affiliations in your submission.
If your paper is accepted for publication, you will be asked to provide author names and affiliations for the manuscript.

Please note: please ensure that you register all authors when submitting the paper for review. This allows us to contact you during the review process. The system also automatically uses this data to produce table of contents, etc. As a result, please ensure names are capitalised and spelled correctly, as well as correct and durable email addresses are used.

Abstract

Abstracts should not exceed 200 words. Use Times New Roman 10 point, justified, indented 1.0 cm left and right, not italicised. Do not use a heading for the abstract or headings within the abstract. Place one blank line before and after. Please do not provide any keywords.

Headings

Please use no more than 3 levels of heading and apply consistently.

  • First level. Arial 12 point bold, left aligned, sentence case, followed by one blank line. Numbering of first level headings is not acceptable.
  • Second level. Arial 10 point bold, left aligned, sentence case, followed by one blank line. Numbering of second level headings is not acceptable.
  • Third level. Use of a third level heading is discouraged. A bulleted or numbered list (like this list) is our preferred alternative. If your work really requires a third level heading, use Times New Roman 10 point italic, left justified, sentence case, and not followed by a blank line.

Body text

Times New Roman 10 point, single spaced, justified. Blank lines before and after headings and paragraphs are to be sized the same as text lines (i.e., Times New Roman 10 point).

Paragraphs

Use a blank line to conclude each paragraph, and no indents.

Do not use "spacing before" and "spacing after."

Text emphases

Avoid using bold or underline.

Use italics for:

  • titles of books, journals, films, video, TV, and websites
  • volume number in a journal you cite
  • scales on tests
  • genera, species and varieties of animals
  • the introduction of a new, technical, or key term or label (but only the first time it is used)
  • letters, words, or phrases cited as linguistic examples
  • statistical tests and to indicate probability, but do not italicise subscripts
  • anchors in a rating scale, that is, a scale ranging from 1 (very likely) to 5 (unlikely).

Do not use italics:

  • to create emphasis
  • for foreign phrases
  • for chemical or trigonometric terms.

Capitalise:

  • the first word of a sentence
  • the first word after a colon (if there is a complete sentence after the colon)
  • the name of sections of the manuscript
  • departments in a university if used as a proper name
  • trade and brand names of drugs, equipment, food

Do not capitalise nouns that:

  • describe common elements of books and tables (e.g., chapter, section, column, row)
  • precede a variable
  • are names of effects, conditions or variables in a study
  • name laws, theories, models, statistical procedures, or hypotheses
  • make up an abbreviation.

Quotation marks and quotations

APA style favours double quotation marks over single quotation marks, which tend to be used only for quotes within quotes. This is contrary to some Australian and British styles.

Use double quotation marks to:

  • introduce a word or phrase used as an ironic comment, as slang, or as an invented or coined expression (but only the first time the word or phrase is used)
  • set off the title of an article or chapter in a periodical or book when the title is mentioned in the text
  • reproduce material from test items or verbatim instructions.

Do not use double quotation marks to:

  • identify anchors of a scale (use italics)
  • cite a letter, word, phrase, or sentence as a linguistic example (use italics)
  • introduce a technical or key term (use italics)
  • hedge (no punctuation).

Short quotations should be given with quotation marks in your running text, while longer quotations of more than 40 words should be formatted as quotations.

For longer quotations (more than 40 words) use Times New Roman 10 point, justified, single spaced, indented 1.0 cm left and right, not italicised, without quotation marks, and one blank line before and after. Referencing for the quotation may be given in the running text immediately before the quotation, or may be appended to the end of the quotation. (Author, YYYY; p. xx)

All punctuation marks should be included exactly as they are part of the quoted material.

Series and lists

In a paragraph enclose lowercase letters in parentheses to indicate a series if order is important, that is, (a) … (b) … (c) ….

Elements with a series of sentences or paragraphs can be offset. Use bullets or numbers as appropriate.

  • Use the standard Microsoft Word indent from the margin, that is, 63 mm.
  • Type the sentence or paragraph after the Arabic number, if order is important, or alternatively use bullet points, such as this example.
  • If the element continues over more than one line, the standard Microsoft Word hanging indent should produce the correct result.

Abbreviations

Abbreviations that appear as word entries in the Oxford English Dictionary do not need explanation. (e.g., IQ, ADHD, ISBN).

Use abbreviations sparingly and consider whether the space saved justifies the time necessary for the reader to master the meaning of the abbreviation.

Write out the term to be abbreviated completely on its first appearance. Follow this with its abbreviation in parentheses. Thereafter use the abbreviation. For example … reaction time (RT) is a factor in this test.

Do not capitalise words in anticipation of the abbreviation unless the words would normally be capitalised.

The APA style manual lists many other forms of abbreviation, including Latin, scientific terminology, and those used for statistical analysis. Please consult the manual for more details.

Footnotes

Avoid using footnotes.

References: In text citations

Use the author-date system in your running text (i.e., current APA style).

Insert the sequence (Name, year) into the main text for a citation to a reference. Name refers to the family name of the author and year refers to the year of publication. To cite several authors delimit the individual authors by commas and and or the symbol &. The phrase et al. is valid for 3 or more authors following the first full citation. The year is written in long form (e.g., 1999) and may have running lower case letters appended if you refer to more than one same year article by an author (e.g., Jones, 1999a, 1999b). Where more than one reference is used, list references in alphabetical order and separate each reference with a semicolon (e.g., Jones, 1999a; White & Beckett, 1997). Where a quote from the source document is included in the text, please refer to the page number, as in Jones (1999a, p. 125).

Examples:

... this special form (Black & Lines, 1998b) is very ...
... as described by Black and Lines (1998a) ...
... and this argument (Keystone et al., 2000c) is used ...
... across time and space (Jones, 1999a; White & Beckett, 1997).
... Davis, Bagozzi, and Warshaw (1989) describe ...
... determined by beliefs (Davis, Bagozzi, & Warshaw, 1989).

Please make minimal use of URL citations in your running text. Cite an author or organisational name and year (or if there is no year then use n.d.), and then include the appropriate details in the references.

References: Reference list

In your reference list (first level heading, References) please use the style recommended in the current edition of the APA style manual. This prescribes alphabetical order by first author. Titles of items should be in sentence case. Use Times New Roman 10 point, left aligned, hanging-indent 0.5 cm, no blank line between each reference.

DOIs.

According to the most recent APA style manual, you are required to include the digital object identifier (DOI) in the references. You are expected to include these whenever they are available.

  • The DOI is normally listed on the first page of an article.
  • Some publications do not have the DOI listed on the PDF or print version. In this case you should search for the DOI using CrossRef (you may need to register for free). The free DOI lookup searches for DOIs using information such as article title, authors, and publisher information. You can also copy and paste your entire reference list into the Simple Text Query form and CrossRef will return all available DOIs at once.
  • If no DOI is returned from your CrossRef search, you need to check the journal site to confirm there is no DOI available.
  • If there is no DOI available for the publication, please check the journal site for confirmation. Please do not make up or try to generate your own DOIs. This will result in your article not being published or being removed from publication.

.

The following provides examples of referencing for the main kinds of publications.

More examples can be found on the APA site (http://www.apastyle.org/). An example research paper may also be viewed at http://www.apastyle.org/manual/related/sample-experiment-paper-1.pdf

Periodicals

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (yyyy). Title of article in sentence-style capitalisation. Title of Journal in Italics and Heading-style Capitalisation, vol(issue), pp–pp. doi URL

Bannan-Ritland, B. (2003). The role of design in research: The integrative learning design framework. Educational Researcher, 32, 21–24. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X032001021

Koehler, M. J., & Mishra, P. (2009). What is technological pedagogical content knowledge? Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 9(1), 60–70.

Wilson, G., & Stacey, E. (2004). Online interaction impacts on learning: Teaching the teachers to teach online. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 20(1), 33–48. http://dx.doi.org/10.14742/ajet.1366

Notes:

  • Unlike APA style, AJET requires the issue numbers to be included for all journals, regardless of page numbering.
  • Where there is no DOI, refer to the URL of the journal article (not just the URL of the journal home page, as in APA style), but do not include both.

Books

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (yyyy). Title of book in italics and sentence-style capitalization. Location: Publisher.

Schunk, D. H. (2004). Learning theories: An educational perspective (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Note: The 2-letter state abbreviation is required if the item was published in the US. If the item was published outside the US, the country is not included.

Chapters in books

Author, A. A. (yyyy). Title of chapter in sentence-style capitalisation. In A. Editor, B. Editor, & C. Editor (Eds.), Title of book in italics and sentence-style capitalisation (xx ed., Vol. xx, pp. xxx-xxx). Location: Publisher.

Mayer, R. E. (2005). Cognitive theory of multimedia learning. In R. E. Mayer (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of multimedia learning (pp. 31–48). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Note: The 2-letter state abbreviation is required if the item was published in the US. If the item was published outside the US, the country is not included.

Conference paper

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (yyyy, Month). Title of paper in italics and sentence-style capitalisation. Paper presented at the Name of the Conference, Location. Retrieved from http://www.xxx

Proceedings

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (yyyy). Title of article in sentence-style capitalisation. Proceedings of the Name of Meeting, Location, pp–pp. doi:xxxx

Note: Proceedings published in book form should be referenced as for chapters in books.

Doctoral dissertation

Author, A. A. (yyyy). Title of dissertation in italics and sentence-style capitalisation (Doctoral dissertation). Name of Institution, Location. Retrieved from http://www.xxx

Websites and online resources

If you refer to an entire website you do not need to include an entry in the reference list. Identify the title of the source and provide the URL in parentheses e.g., … the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education (http://www.ascilite.org.au/) provides …

Webpages

Australasian Journal of Educational Technology. (2008). References for editorial, production and business management purposes. Retrieved from http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/about/ref/references.html

First in-text citation (Australasian Journal of Educational Technology [AJET], 2008)

Subsequent citations (AJET, 2008)

Blogs

Downes, S. (2007, February 3). What connectivism is [Blog post]. Half an Hour. Retrieved from http://halfanhour.blogspot.co.uk/2007/02/what-connectivism-is.html

Wiki

Psychology. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved October 29, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology

More examples can be found at the APA (http://www.apastyle.org/). 

Tables

Tables should be included in the text body near the first reference to it (not at the end of the paper).

Number all tables with Arabic numerals in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. Use Times New Roman 10 point. Do not add suffix letters to the numbers of the table. After a carriage return, place the title in sentence-style capitalisation on the next line, using Times New Roman 10 point, italic.

The title should be brief but explanatory. Each column should have a title, which should be brief, clear and explanatory (plain text). Limit the use of lines in tables to those that are necessary for clarity: one at the top, one after the headings and one after the last row. All abbreviations in the table should be explained.

Figures and diagrams

Figures should be included in the text body near the first reference to it (not at the end of the paper).

Number all figures with Arabic numerals in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. Use Times New Roman 10 point, italic and place this under the figure. Do not add suffix letters to the numbers of the figure.

The figure itself should have a legend, which explains the symbols used in the figure and is placed within the figure. Add a caption under the figure, following the figure number in plain text and sentence-style capitalisation. This serves as an explanation and a figure title. After the descriptive phrase add information that may be needed to clarify the figure.

Acknowledgments

This is an optional section in which you may record appreciation to individuals or organisations for assisting or supporting the research work. Format as for body text.

Appendices

Avoid using appendices unless absolutely essential to the communication of the paper.

Author contact details

Do not include author contact details on submitted manuscripts. This information is captured by the journal management system when you submit your paper. If your paper is accepted for publication, you will be asked to provide author names and affiliations for the manuscript.

Corresponding author and "Please cite as" notice

Do not include these details at the submission stage. If the paper is accepted the Editors will ask you to add/confirm these.

 

 

Submission Preparation Checklist

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.

  1. The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration.
  2. The submission file is in Microsoft Word file format.
  3. The instructions in Ensuring a Blind Review have been followed. The submission is de-identified, that is author information, affiliation details and references to the author’s works have been removed.
  4. DOI (if available) or URLs (where relevant) for references have been provided.
  5. The text and formatting adhere to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines.
  6. The submission has a high standard of written English. Please note that the submission will be returned to you after an initial review by an editor if the standard of written English is not of a suitable quality.
  7. This is a new submission, not a revised version of a manuscript already under review within AJET.
  8. Authors are expected to include a statement somewhere in their methods section about the ethics issues relevant to the research and approvals under which the data was collected and reported.  This requirement may not be relevant for some articles such as literature reviews.
  9. Ensure when submitting your paper that you include all authors in the system. When you add your authorship details there is a option to "add author". In addition, for each author please include their ORCID which will ensure a that if your paper is published it will be associated with your online profiles.
 

Copyright Notice

Copyright in individual articles contained in Australasian Journal of Educational Technology is vested in each of the authors in respect of his or her contributions. Copyright in AJET is vested in ASET (1985-86), AJET Publications (1987-1996), and ASCILITE and ASET (from 1997). No part of AJET may be reprinted or reproduced without permission from the publishers, except that authors (or an author's employer at the time of publication) may make multiple copies of their own articles (subject to identifying each copy as an article which was published originally in AJET).

This key part of this statement, applying since AJET's inception in 1985, indicates that we do not compel authors to transfer copyright to AJET, although copyright in the compilation of articles in each issue and volume belongs to AJET. The phrase "Copyright... is vested in each of the authors..." should be interpreted to include cases in which an author's employer is the copyright owner.

However, AJET's Management Committee reserve the right to approve requests for the making of copies for non-profit educational purposes. Authors should note that requests for a copyright permission are infrequent, owing to AJET's policy of open access. Any copies that are made, either in print or on a website, whether by the authors or by other persons, must be identified as having been published in AJET. Copies of the PDF file that constitutes the definitive print version for pre-2008 articles, with embedded bibliographic information and page numbers, may be obtained from the Editors, or from the website in the case of post-2007 articles. In the case of the HTML version, ensure that the 'Please cite as' section in the file footer is included in any copies or remounts.

AJET's Management Committee reserves the right to make agreements with the publishers of database products and indexing and abstracting journals to include AJET content and to receive electronic copies of AJET content for these purposes. These agreements do not affect authors' retention of copyright or the open access status of AJET content.

In accordance with open access principles, it is the intention of AJET and AJET's authors that no charges be levied upon readers or educational institutions by royalty or copyright fee collection agencies, or by database vendors, for reader access to AJET's online, free to the Internet articles.

 

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