Author's Guideline

Submitting your manuscript

Manuscripts may be submitted directly to submission@refpress.org or alternatively via the journal's dedicated Online Submission System. Manuscripts can be submitted in any standard format, including Word or LaTeX.

Manuscripts must be submitted by one of the authors of the manuscript, and should not be submitted by anyone on their behalf. The principal or corresponding author will be required to submit a Copyright Letter on behalf of all co-authors (if any). The author(s) will confirm that the manuscript — or any part of it — has not been published previously and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.

Editorial policy, originality & length

Editorial policy

The Editorial Policies can be viewed on the Policy page. The journal will only consider manuscripts that have not previously been published and are not under consideration for publication or in press elsewhere. Articles are licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY-NC) license.

Originality

Submissions must be original work, the copyright to which is not already owned elsewhere. Originality, creativity, and a cross-disciplinary approach or perspective are strongly encouraged. Significant duplication of papers and parallel submissions are not allowed; in such cases the publisher reserves the right to withdraw publishing rights from authors and co-authors for a substantial period. It is the authors' responsibility to check for possible copyright conflict and to agree to the Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement.

Manuscript preparation

The manuscript should be written in English in a clear, direct, and active style. All pages must be numbered sequentially to facilitate reviewing and editing. The journal accepts letters and short communications, original research articles, and mini- and full-length review articles written in English.

Manuscript length

There is no maximum limit on manuscript length. Manuscripts must be typewritten, double spaced, with wide margins on one side of white paper. The first page should include: title of the manuscript; names, addresses, and email addresses of all co-authors; name, complete address, telephone number, fax number, and email address of the corresponding author; and the abstract. An electronic copy of the paper should accompany the final version. The editors reserve the right to adjust style to certain standards for uniformity.

Sections of the manuscript

Manuscripts should feature the following sections, in order:

Title

The title should be precise and brief, and must not exceed 120 characters. Authors should also provide a short "running title."

Abstract

An abstract of not more than 250 words, at the beginning of each paper, is required for research articles, reviews, and letters/short notes.

Keywords

Submit a maximum of eight relevant keywords, listed alphabetically, that do not appear in the article title.

Text

The main text should begin on a separate page and be divided into separate sections. For research articles, the main text must be structured into Introduction, Materials and Methodology, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion. For review and letter articles, the manuscript should be divided into title page, abstract, and main text, subdivided further as needed, followed by Acknowledgements and References.

Review articles should mention any previous important reviews in the field and contain a comprehensive discussion starting with the general background, then discussing the salient features of recent developments — avoiding material already published in a previous review. The manuscript style must be uniform throughout. The full term for an abbreviation should precede its first appearance, unless it is a standard unit of measurement. Reference numbers should be given in square brackets in the text. Italics should be used for binomial names of organisms (genus and species), for emphasis, and for unfamiliar words or phrases; non-assimilated words from Latin or other languages should also be italicized, e.g. per se, et al.

List of abbreviations

Abbreviation use should be restricted to a minimum. All non-standard abbreviations should be listed alphabetically with their expanded form, defined at first use. Non-standard abbreviations should not be used unless they appear at least three times in the text.

Conflict of interest

Authors are required to disclose any sponsorship or funding arrangements relating to their research, and all authors should disclose any possible conflicts of interest.

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments should be limited to technical, scientific, and brief mentions of individuals making significant non-authorship contributions. Funding support for the work presented should be detailed.

Reference page formatting

• References follow the text in a section headed REFERENCES. All references should be double-spaced and use a hanging indent.
• Use title case for all titles — capitalize all words except prepositions (of, between, through), articles (a, the, an), and conjunctions (but, and, or) — unless they begin the title or subtitle.
• Capitalize only the first word in hyphenated compound words, unless the second word is a proper noun or adjective.
• All references should be in alphabetical order by first authors' last names. Include full first names for all authors rather than initials, unless the author used initials in the original publication.
• List all authors — it is not acceptable to use "et al." in the References section unless the work was authored by a committee.
• For repeated authors or editors, include the full name in every reference. Arrange references for the same author chronologically, beginning with the oldest.
• When an author appears both single-authored and as first author of a multi-authored work, list all single-authored references first.
• When the same first author appears in multiple references, arrange them alphabetically by the second author's last name.
• For multiple works by the same author(s) in the same year, add letters to the year (2010a, 2010b) and list alphabetically by title.

Reference examples by source type

Book, one author

Author's full name, inverted (last name first). Year. Book Title in Title Caps and Italicized. Publishing City: Publisher. State abbreviations are given only if needed to identify the city; "volume" is capitalized and abbreviated but not italicized.

Book, two or more authors

Same as one author, but do not invert authors' names after the first. Separate names with a comma and include "and" before the final author.

Edited volume

Chapter in an edited volume

Chapter title in quotes; use "Pp." and page numbers; italicize the book title; do not invert editor names; use initials for editors.

Scholarly journal article

No space after the colon preceding page numbers. For multiple authors, invert the first author's name only.

Manuscript writing style

Beyond formatting and referencing, the style guide specifies a particular voice for presenting scholarly work.

Basics

Generally avoid writing in the first person, unless instructed to do so. Avoid giving an opinion unless the purpose of the writing is to make an argument. Use the active voice, and spell out words such as "percent," "chi-square," and "versus" rather than abbreviating them, except in tables or graphs.

Avoiding plagiarism

Whenever using data someone else collected, referring to that data, or using another person's ideas — published, unpublished, or electronic — reference the author(s). This applies whether quoting verbatim or paraphrasing.

Clarity

Use straightforward language, avoiding jargon, superlatives, wordy phrases, and common expressions. Pay close attention to consistent verb tense, spelling, punctuation, sentence construction, and a well-thought-out outline.

Bias — gender

Unless gendered terms are important to the analysis or demographics, use nongendered terms wherever possible — "person," "people," "individual," or "humankind" instead of "man," "men," or "mankind." Use plural nouns or pronouns where appropriate, and replace gendered pronouns with an article when possible.

Bias — race and ethnicity

Avoid racial and ethnic stereotyping. Be as specific as possible — "Chinese" is more specific than "Asian"; "Puerto Rican" is more specific than "Latino."

Acronym usage

The first time you use an acronym, give the full name with the acronym in parentheses; afterwards, use only the acronym.

Verb tense

Different sections may call for different tenses, but stay consistent within each section. Use past tense in the literature review to show completed research, and past tense in the methods section. Results may use past or present tense, but not both.

Punctuation

Use only one space after punctuation marks. Punctuation marks should match the font (including italics) of the preceding text. When numbering items in a list, use "(1), (2), (3)" rather than "1." or "1)."

Proofs

Proofs will be sent to the author — the first named author, if no corresponding author is identified for multi-authored papers — and should be returned within 48 hours of receipt. Corrections should be restricted to typesetting errors; any others may be charged to the author. Any queries should be answered in full. Authors are urged to check their proofs carefully before return, since the inclusion of late corrections cannot be guaranteed.