Advice for Authors

Guidelines for paper submission to Transformations

Journal Aims and Scope

The e-journal’s editorial board welcomes for consideration all manuscripts written by undergraduate researchers which concern themselves with the study of education in its broadest sense, both in the UK and internationally.

Institutions are encouraged to support undergraduate students who have produced interesting, original and/or exceptional undergraduate research to rework their dissertations into academic papers for publication.  We also will accept a desktop analysis of ideas and a conceptual paper. It may be based on work that has been produced for course assessment, but only when the assessment has been completed.

Transformations has a recognised ISSN number which is ISSN 2753-3778.

Process for submission

We ask undergraduate students to have their article peer reviewed and edited by academics within your own institution prior to submission. We ask you to share the name of the academic on the submissions form on our website.

Manuscripts for future editions of the journal should be submitted via the submissions form. For queries relating to submissions, please contact Dr. Julia Everitt, at Julia.everitt@bcu.ac.uk who is the Journal Editor for Transformation.

All articles that are submitted for publication are refereed anonymously by two peer reviewers who are experts in the field of Education Studies.

Authors should expect a decision about their article from the Editor within four months of submission as:

  • accept
  • accept with minor change
  • accept with major changes or
  • reject

Articles that do not meet the stylistic and formatting guidelines will be returned without review for resubmission. In the event of further enquiries, the Editor’s decision, having consulted with the Managing Editor and the Editorial Board, is final.

Papers will be published on the understanding that the material is original and has not been published or submitted for review elsewhere.

In the spirit of the Association, the editor and reviewers will do everything to support authors’ efforts to gain publication. However, work that is judged to be unsuitable in content or does not attempt to meet the following formatting guidelines will be returned without review for resubmission.

Format

Main Manuscript: You will submit two documents: 1) Main Manuscripts file containing your article. This should be anonymous and have all identifying information removed. We also would like you to prepare 2) a Title page.

Title page: A separate title page with author’s title and institution, with email address for contact, should be included.

Type of documents: The Main Manuscript file and the Title page should be created in Microsoft Word.

Font size and style: Text should be word-processed in 12-point Arial font with 1.5 line-spacing. Titles should be in bold16 point and sub-titles in bold 14 point.

Headers and footers: Headers should not be included, only a footer with the page number. Each page should be numbered.

Word count: Abstracts should not normally exceed 250 words. For conceptual papers and desk-top reviews the main body of text should be a maximum of 3,000 words and academic papers will be a maximum of 7,000. These word counts are inclusive of references.

Figures and tables: Any figures and tables with their captions should be included at suitable points in the text.

Bias: Manuscripts should be free from gender and ethnic bias.

Ethics

In reporting on any empirical research there should be indication that appropriate ethical guidelines have been met.

Structure of the article

Academic articles:

For academic articles it should normally be structured under the following headings:

  • Abstract – (maximum 250 words) gives a brief but clear outline of the aims of the paper, the research methods employed and a summary of your findings or results.
  • Introduction – sets out the aims for the paper and a summary of results.
  • Review of literature – provides a summary of existing literature on the topic that is relevant to the content of the research
  • Methods – gives a summary of the enquiry methods used.
  • Findings – details the results of the research or enquiry.
  • Discussion – offers reflections on the findings in relation to the aims of the study.
  • Conclusions – discusses the contributions to knowledge and current practice, considerations for future research and any limitations in the present study.
  • References – a list of all the items cited in the paper, but no others.

Desk-top reviews and conceptual papers should include an Abstract, Introduction, Discussion, Conclusion and References. The middle part of the paper will feature headings relevant to the focus of the paper.

Referencing

The Harvard (author-date) System of referencing has been adopted and should be followed using following format.

Referencing in the text

(Smith, 2013).  When there is a quote: (Smith, 2013: 22-3). (No page numbers if no quote.)

If two authors: (Smith and Jones, 2013).

More than two authors: (Smith et al., 2013) (et al. in italics with full-stop.)  All the authors’ names should be in the references list.

Quotes of less than 45 words keep within the paragraph with single inverted commas for the literature and double inverted commas from the findings.

Quotes of more than 45 words should be indented from the left with no inverted commas. 

Avoid citing too many references that can disrupt the flow of the text and add to the word count. Cite only those that are essential in showing the existing knowledge in the area, or that are needed to support the argument. It is suggested that there be no more than two citations for any single point.

Example references:

Use the following format, taking care to use the correct punctuation.

For books. Upper-case initials for main title and lower-case for subtitle. Give place of publication (a city or town). No full-stop after the date.

Brown, Z. (Ed.) (2016) Inclusive Education: Perspectives on pedagogy, policy and practice. Abingdon: Routledge.

For journal articles the name of the journal is italic, article title non-italic. The journal volume in bold with the edition non-bold in brackets. Give the page range.

McRobbie, A. (2008) Young Women and Consumer Culture. Cultural Studies 22(5), pp. 531-550.

If the journal is published do not give the URL. If the journal is only online and there is no page range, then the URL should be cited.

For a chapter in a book:

Bourdieu, P. (1997) The Forms of Capital. In A.H. Halsey, H. Lauder, P. Brown and A.S. Wells, (Eds) Education: Culture, Economy, Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Do not give page numbers for the chapter. Note that the editors’ initials occur before the surname.

If citing with a URL, give the date last accessed.

Fawcett Society (2014) The Changing labour Market 2: Women, low pay and gender equality in the emerging recovery. London: the Fawcett Society. Online. Available at:  http://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/The-Changing-Labour-Market-2.pdf (Accessed 30 May 2020).