Author Guidelines
ARTICLES
Guidelines for Authors 1 (Articles)
Opinion
The views expressed in the Journal are those of the authors, and do not necessarily coincide with those of the Editor or the Editorial Advisory Board.
Referees
The Journal of the International Society for Education through Art is a refereed journal. Referees are chosen for their expertise within the subject area. They are asked to comment on comprehensibility, originality and scholarly worth of the article submitted.
Length
Articles should be between 4,500 and 6,000 words and ideally around 5,600 words in length.
Submitting
Articles/visual texts should be original and not be under consideration by any other publication. Articles should be submitted online.
Language
The journal uses standard British English. The editor reserves the right to alter usage to this end. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of the readership, jargon should be kept to a minimum. Whereas articles may submitted for review in Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Greek and Japanese, translation into English will be the responsibility of authors should they be accepted for publication.
Format
The journal is set with Apple Macintosh equipment and reset using Quark; it is therefore best if the use of automatic footnoting devices is avoided.
Visual Materials: IMPORTANT
Illustrations to articles, which assist discussion of artworks, learning activities and/or environments are very welcome. Illustrations may be submitted in colour. From volume 8 onwards, the Journal will be published online and therefore full colour will be available.
Please do not send original slides, photographs or other artworks.
NOTE If the article contains illustrations, please include (embed) them in LOW RESOLUTION format in the Word file, but separate HIGH RESOLUTION files will be required if the article is accepted for publication. Figure numbers should be used as titles using the 'supplementary files' option during the submission process [if high resolution files are contained in the Word file, the file may be rejected by the system].
VISUAL ESSAYS
Guidelines for Authors 2 (Visual Essays [Image/Text-Based Submissions])
The word limit for image/text features is 1,000 words.
What IS a Visual Essay?
We offer these comments as guidance, there are many ways to make a visual essay and we would encourage you to discuss your proposal with the Editor before your submit.
Visual essays or image/text-based submissions, should integrate image and text in a creative way to document, evaluate or reflect on art-based learning activities, events or outcomes. Think of it as an exploration of a topic that conveys ideas and meaning through visual means as well as language. It is important to note that we view visual essays as equal in academic status to traditional text based articles.
Proposals for visual essays should include a critical introduction of no more than 300 words outlining to the editorial team why the work submitted is relevant to the theme of art education. This proposal should also be accompanied with the images according to the relevant guidelines stated in this document. If the feature is selected for publication the editorial team will be seeking your input on the design of the feature. The total word limit for image/text features is 1,000 words.
Visual essays should integrate images and text in a creative way so that they document, evaluate and critically reflect on arts education based activities, events and outcomes. Images should not simply illustrate the text or exhibit the authors or students' artistic productions as in a gallery but should constitute an essential component in the articulation of meaning.
In a visual essay, the aim is to report ideas, processes and results or pose questions that cannot be easily explained by words alone.
The submission may:
- Be entirely visual or may combine image and text.
- Include image and text working together to tell the story, with predominance of images over text.
- Include images originating from a range of sources, for example, an image collection that is already available such as a curated collection or an image archive. Images that have been produced specially or the essay; images collected as research data; images collected to report and document an artistic process or event or images selected or produced to reflect on a particular aspect of art education.
Questions to consider
What, if anything is unique or at least unusual about the report, topic or event(s)?
Does it offer a new perspective on art, craft or design education?
Will it be of interest to other art educators around the world?
What IS NOT a Visual Essay?
- Lecture notes
- PowerPoint presentations
- Exhibition notes, reviews or catalogues
- Images of the author's artwork or sketchbooks
- An essay with illustrations
If the feature is selected for publication the editorial team will be seeking your input on the design of the feature. The word limit for image/text features is 1,000 words.
Copyright
Copyright clearance should be indicated and is always the responsibility of the contributor. The source has to be indicated beneath the text. When they are on a separate sheet or file, indication must be given as to where they should be placed in the text. The author has responsibility to ensure that the proper permissions/model for visual image releases are obtained.
Quotations
Paragraph quotations must be indented with an additional one-line space above and below and without quotes.
Captions
All visual materials should be accompanied by a caption, which should include the Fig. No., and the acknowledgement to the holder of the copyright.
Other Styles
Margins should be at least one inch all round and pagination should be continuous. Foreign words and sentences inserted in the text should be italicised.
Author note [to be submitted in the metadata section]
A note on each author is required and this should include an institution or address. This should not exceed 80 words and must not be contained in the article, use the metadata section. Authors should also indicate how they wish their names to appear. The custom is without titles, one forename plus surname, but authors may vary this. The author should also provide a short sentence (of no more than sixteen words) stating their name and institutional affiliation or their identification (to appear at the bottom of page one of their contribution). The institutional postal and e-mail addresses need to be included at the head of the article.
Keywords [to be submitted in the metadata indexing section]
No less than three and up to six keywords, or two-word phrases, that are core to what is being discussed need to be included at the beginning of articles.
Abstract [to be submitted in the metadata section]
Each article should be accompanied by an abstract, which should be no less than 75 words and not exceed 150 words in length. Authors may submit a second abstract in a first language other than English also where appropriate.
Note: the Journal welcomes personal essays, but these should also include an abstract in the form of a short, clear concise summary of the topic under discussion.
Suggested structure for an abstract (projects/ research reports).
Purpose/aims/research question(s): Three sentences at most should cover this.
Background: no more than 5 sentences. Why is this study/project important and what it will add to knowledge in art education? Content in this section should relate directly to the purpose/aims/question(s).
Methods: if the abstract is for a project, include the setting, the composition of your team, the participants you worked with, your project intervention, and your evaluation strategy. If the abstract is for a research study, include the design, the setting, the sample, the measurement/ data collection tools, and the analysis approach.
These should be appropriate to the purpose/aims/questions.
Results: only the facts please. If a project, what was done and what did the evaluation show. If a research study, include final sample size and composition, simplified demographics, primary results. This should flow directly from the methods and be consistent with the purpose/ aims/questions.
Discussion: were the purposes/aims achieved, what answers were found to the research questions? Were the answers expected? Why or why not? What were the major limitations of the study or project (every study/project has them, so do not leave this out)? Discussion should relate clearly to your purpose/aims /research questions.
Implications/Conclusions: This may be contained in the discussion section, but what are the practice/research/education implications of your study or project? Should others adopt this method/ intervention? If more research is needed, what are the questions that should be addressed next?
Notes
Notes will appear at the side of appropriate pages, but the numerical sequence runs throughout the article. These should be kept as short as possible and to a minimum, and be identified by a superscript numeral. Please avoid the use of automatic footnoting programmes; simply append the footnotes to the end of the article.
References
We strongly prefer the use of author - date style references embedded in the main text in the following format (Harper 1999: 27), and a single bibliography at the end of the article rather than giving bibliographical references as side notes. The default term used for this list is 'References'. Here are some examples of the most likely forms for references:
Dewulf, S. and Baillie, C. (1999), CASE: How to Foster Creativity London: Department for Education and Employment.
Downing, D. and Watson, R. (2004), School art: What's in it? Exploring visual arts in secondary schools Slough: National Foundation ofr Educational Research (NFER).
HMIE (2006). Emerging Good Practice in Promoting Creativity: A report by HMIE. http://www.hmie.gov.uk/documents/publication/hmieegpipc.html
Accessed 19 June 2011.
Jackson, N. (2006), Creativity in History Teaching and Learning. London: Higher Education Academy.
LTS. (2006), ‘Creativity in Education: Learning to think in new ways’, http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/creativity/ Accessed 4 September 2008.
Robinson, K. (2001), Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative, Oxford: Capstone.
Website references:
It is crucial to treat websites as publishers of material and not as authors of the material (except for the occasions where they are the author, of course). Website references are like other references. There is no need to decipher any place of publication or a specific publisher, but the reference must have an author, and the author must be referenced Harvard-style within the text. If it is a website news article with no by-line, the day/month/ year of its initial publication must be given, and the website becomes
the author. If the website is the 'home site' of an organization publishing its own material without a by-line, the organization should appear as the author. Unlike paper references, however, web pages can change, so there needs to be a date of access as well as the full web reference. In the list of references at the end of your article, the item should read something like this:
Cabrera, D. (2000), 'Les idées sont vivantes et la vie est politique',
http://www.peripheries.net/g-cabr.html. Accessed 14 December 2000.
A reference list is essential.
