Article types | Structure | Language & text | Data & Symbols | Figures & Tables | References
It is important that the correct list of authors is attributed to an article from the start of the submission process. Author lists with the incorrect information can result in academic or financial implications, whilst also providing the reader with the wrong information on where the responsibility and accountability for the published work should lie.
All authors listed on a submission must have given prior approval to have their name attributed to the file(s) that are being submitted and agree to the publication. The corresponding author has responsibility to ensure that all authors qualify for, and have agreed to, authorship of the submission. They are also responsible for informing all co-authors of relevant editorial information during the review process.
Our recommendations are based on the ICMJE criteria for authorship. Authors must have:
Those that meet some but do not meet all of the above criteria should be acknowledged in the publication but not listed as an author. Examples that do not qualify for authorship but should be acknowledged are sources of funding, supervision of research groups, administrative support, language editing and proof reading. Written permission should be obtained from those being acknowledged, as in some cases being named in such a way may be seen as an endorsement of the publication.
Please ensure that you consider the following guidelines when preparing your manuscript. Failure to do so may delay processing your submission.
The Journal of Veterans Studies welcomes multiple submission types: articles; interviews; program profiles; new media and book reviews; veterans voices, and announcements. We also welcome proposals for special issues.
1. Original research articles relevant to veterans studies, including those that address teaching veterans studies (broadly conceived) and theorizing veterans studies (broadly conceived). All perspectives and topics of general interest to the profession are welcome.
Articles should be between 8,000 – 10,00 words and/or 20 double-spaced pages. Submissions must use APA 7th edition citation style. Submissions must be free of authors' names and other identifying markers, including metadata and institutional affiliation. Works previously published or multiple works by a single author / author team are not acceptable.
2. Program / Project Profiles of nonprofit organizations, veterans-only college courses, veterans studies major / minors, peer-to-peer mentoring initiatives, community engagement projects or veteran-centered community engagement projects, are just a few suggestions of possible programs authors can profile. Though shorter or longer profiles will be considered, a suggested length of 5,000-7,000 words is preferable. Profiles must include:
We accept the following file formats: .doc, .docx, and .rtf.
3. Interviews: We welcome interviews with key figures affiliated to the interdisciplinary field of veterans studies. Interviews can include media and should not exceed 5,000 words. Please send interview queries and manuscripts to the interview editor.
4. New Media and Book Reviews: The Journal of Veterans Studies publishes reviews of art installations, films, books, websites, and other multimedia that may be of interest to teachers, scholars, and advocates of veterans studies. Reviews of single sources should be about 1,500 words and review essays should be 2,500-3,000 words. Book Reviews are solicited by Book Review Editor Sarah Austin. New Media Reviews are solicited by New Media Review Editor Katt Blackwell-Starnes. Requests and suggestions for media/texts reviews are welcomed. Please send review queries (only) to the appropriate review editors.
5. Veterans Voices:
Submissions to the Veterans Voices section will be vetted by members of the JVS editorial board; they will be edited for formatting and stylistic consistency. Suggested length is between 1,000 and 2,000 words. Submissions should contain the following:
6. Announcements, Calls, and News: In the spirit of contributing and sustaining a vibrant interdisciplinary community, we seek to publish announcements, news, or calls for programs, papers, etc. Information of these types will be published on the journal's main page, veteranstudies.org/journal. To have your announcement shared with our readership, please provide the following information in an email to the editor:
Structure
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 keywords must be placed below the abstract.
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 presented.
Up to three level headings may be present and must be clearly identifiable using different font sizes, bold or italics.
Supplementary Files (optional)
Any supplementary/additional files that should link to the main publication must be listed, with a corresponding number, title and option description. Ideally, the supplementary files are also cited in the main text.
e.g. Supplementary file 1: Appendix. Scientific data related to the experiments.
Note: Additional files will not be typeset so they must be provided in their final form. They will be assigned a DOI and linked to from the publication.
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, 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. The identity of the research subject(s) should be anonymized whenever possible. For research involving human subjects, informed consent to participate in the study must be obtained from participants (or their legal guardian).
Experiments using animals must follow national standards of care. For further information, click here.
Acknowledgments (optional)
Any acknowledgments must be headed and in a separate paragraph, placed after the main text but before the reference list.
Funding Information (optional)
Should the research have received a funding grant then the grant provider and grant number should be detailed.
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. If there are no competing interests to declare then the following statement should be present: The author(s) has/have no competing interests to declare.
Authors' contributions
A sentence or a short paragraph detailing the roles that each author held to contribute to the authorship of the submission.
References
All references cited in the submission must be listed at the end of the main text file.
Language & Text
Capitalization
For the submission title:
Capitalize all nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and subordinate conjunctions (i.e. as, because, although). Use lowercase for all articles, coordinate conjunctions, and prepositions.
Headings
Headings should be 75 words or less and formatted according to the following conventions:
Level 1:
Title Case, Boldface, and Centered
Example: The Title of the Paper
Level 2:
Title Case, Boldface, and Left Aligned
Example: First Sub-Heading
Level 3:
Title Case, Boldface Italicized, and Left Aligned
Example: Second Sub-Heading
Level 4:
Indented, Title Case, Boldface, and Followed with a Period.
Example: Third Sub-Heading.
Level 5:
Indented, Title Case, Boldface Italicized, and Followed with a Period.
Example: Fourth Sub-Heading.
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.
General Grammar Conventions
American or English grammar rules may be used as long as they are used consistently and match the spelling format (see above).
Punctuation
You must use a serial comma.
Tenses
According to APA 7, authors must use specific tenses throughout their papers. In the “literature review” section, authors should use past or present perfect tense.
In the “method” section, authors should use past or present perfect tense.
In the “results” section, authors should use past tense.
If an author is describing his or her own reaction to any part of the study, then he or she can use past, present perfect, or present.
If an author is discussing the implications of his or her results, the he or she should use present tense.
If an author is discussing conclusions, future directions, or limitations, then he or she should use present tense.
Font
The font used should be commonly available and in 12 point.
Underlined text should be avoided whenever possible.
Bold or italicized text to emphasize a point is permitted, although should be restricted to minimal occurrences to maximize 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 maximize their impact.
Quotation Marks
Quotations that are longer than three lines in length must be in an indented paragraph separate from the main text.
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 footnotes rather than endnotes.
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 footnote marker after the end punctuation.
Data & Symbols
Symbols
Symbols are permitted within the main text and datasets as long as they are commonly in use or have an 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 commas, parentheses, colons or semicolons. Learn how to make an em dash.
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 either be spelled 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.
Figures & Tables
For additional assistance with the guidelines below, please use the Purdue OWL reference guide.
Figures
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 numbered and cited within the main text, in consecutive order using Arabic numerals (e.g. Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.). The numbered headings should be in boldface and left aligned.
Each figure must have an accompanying descriptive main title that is double-spaced beneath the numbered heading. The title should be in title case and italicized. Additionally, it 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. If included, the figure legend should be placed either within the figure or directly beneath the figure (not to the side).
Figure titles and legends should be placed within the text document, after the paragraph of their first citation.
The source of the figure should be included, along with any relevant copyright information and a statement of authorization (if needed). Any additional information pertinent to the figure should be added directly beneath the figure using a “note” heading that is title case, italicized, and followed by a period. The “note’s” information then follows as a complete sentence.
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.
NOTE: All figures must be uploaded separately as supplementary files during the submission process, if possible in color and at a resolution of at least 300dpi. Each file should 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).
Tables
Per APA 7, tables should only be included if the data presented in them requires three or more columns and rows. Data that does not meet this criterion should be embedded within the manuscript. Any tables included in the manuscript will be placed as close to their first citation as possible.
Tables must be created using a word processor's table function, not tabbed text.
All tables must be numbered and cited within the main text, in consecutive order using Arabic numerals (e.g. Table 1, Table 2, etc.). The numbered headings should be in boldface and left aligned.
Each table must have an accompanying descriptive main title that is double-spaced beneath the numbered heading. The title should be in title case and italicized. Additionally, it should clearly and concisely summarise the content presented in the table.
A short additional table legend is optional to offer a further description of the table. The legend should be placed underneath the table.
All columns must have headings. Headings within the table should not be wider than the widest entry in the column below it.
Only horizontal borders should be used. Spacing and consistent alignment across the table circumvents the need for vertical borders.
Aside from the subsequent guidelines, tables should also 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.
References
In-Text Citations
Every use of information from other sources must be cited in the text so that it is clear that external material has been used.
If the author is already mentioned in the main text, then the year should follow the name within parenthesis.
If the author name is not mentioned in the main text, then the surname and year should be inserted, in parenthesis, after the relevant text. Multiple citations should be separated by a semi-colon and follow alphabetical order.
If two authors are cited from the same citation, then they should both be listed. If three or more authors are part of the citation then ‘et al.’ should follow the first author name.
If citations are used from the same author and the same year, then a lowercase letter, starting from ‘a’, should be placed after the year.
Specific pages must be cited when the author is directly quoting another source or paraphrasing another source. If specific pages are being cited, then the page number should follow the year after a comma.
For publications authored and published by organizations, spell out the full name of the organization in the signal phrase when it is first used. Following this initial mention, use the acronym for consequent references and in-text citations. use the short form of the organization’s name or its acronym in lieu of the full name.
Please do not include URLs in parenthetical citations, but rather cite the author or page title and include all details, including the URL, in the reference list.
Reference List
Please do not use auto-citing programs to compose the reference list as they do not always cite article title and book chapter titles correctly.
All citations must be listed at the end of the text file in alphabetical order of authors’ surnames.
All reading materials should be included in "References." Works which have not been cited within the main text, 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 cited within the text.
According to APA 7, DOIs should be included for all reference entries, where possible.
For additional assistance with APA 7 format, please use the Purdue OWL reference guide.