Guidelines for Authors
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Style Guidelines
Articles must be submitted in English. Authors whose native language is not English are ad-vised to have their manuscripts professionally proofread or proofread by a native English speaker before submission.
Authors should write in a clear and simple way and in active voice (especially when personal research is mentioned). The use of jargon is discouraged so that the article is understandable by readers of other disciplines and by those whose native language is not English.
Terms that may not be universally recognized, obscure terms, acronyms, abbreviations, and initialisms should be explained and defined in parenthesis when first mentioned. After introducing an acronym, abbreviation, or initialism only the acronym, abbreviation, or initialism should be used. Abbreviations should be avoided in the article title.
The International System of Units (SI) should be used for units of measure and they should be abbreviated when a specific amount is given.
Arabic numbers are to be used. Numbers one to ten must be written in words in the text unless they are used in units of measurement, figures or tables.
Types of Articles
1. Research Articles (3500-6000 words): These articles report original scientific work that may derive from any field of scientific research relevant to the Journal’s areas of interest. Re-search articles must include an abstract (presenting the background, the methods, the results, and the conclusions), an introduction, a section on materials and methods, a section on results and discussion and as many as six tables or figures, and as many as 40 references. Research articles must be written according to current scientific and ethical guidelines. See below, “Further Refinement for Reporting Original Research Articles and Reviews”.
2. Short Reports (up to 3500 words): These articles present original data and must include an abstract, a concise introduction and may include as many as two tables or figures.
3. Reviews (up to 8000 words): These are articles that provide an overview and critical analysis of literature relevant to the journal’s areas of interest. A review article should analyze a well-defined research question, must describe the inclusion and exclusion criteria of the chosen literature, and must involve a systematic search of the literature and a description of the methods of evaluating data and a summary of the results. Authors should identify information gaps in the reviewed literature and make recommendations for future research. See below, “Further refinement for Reporting original research articles and reviews”.
4. Education Forum (3500-6000 words): Authors may present description and evaluation on science education and its practice. The pieces must reflect a specific approach. They must include an introduction, main text, conclusions and references.
5. Theses and Dissertations (3500-6000 words): Authors may submit summaries of theses and dissertations under the types 1, 2, 3 or 4 presented above.
6. Correspondence (up to 300 words): Correspondence should discuss issues or questions on material published in the HEE Journal within the previous year. It is subject to editing and the author’s opinions and conclusions are personal and do not necessarily reflect HEE Journal’s opinions.
7. Media Reviews (up to 1000 words): These are reviews of books, multimedia, exhibitions and subjects related to the journal’s areas of interest.
Further Refinement of Reporting of Original Research Articles and Reviews: Due to the multi-disciplinary character of the HEE Journal guidelines may vary according to areas of study. Researchers must use the guidelines appropriate to the area of study. The following sites provide an extensive list of key reporting guidelines:
» www.nlm.nih.gov/services/research_report_guide
» www.aera.net/ResearchPolicyAdvocacy/AERAShapingResearchPolicy
For example:
» Authors working on systematic reviews should complete a PRISMA checklist and flow chart.
» Authors reporting observational studies (such as cohort, case-control, cross-sectional designs) should report their data according to the STROBE statement.
» Authors with research papers that present nonrandomized controlled trials should complete the TREND 22-item checklist.
» The American Educational Research Association site should be consulted by researchers in social sciences for both qualitative and quantitative studies.
Structure of Articles
Articles should consist of title, authors and correspondence details, abstract, introduction, main text, acknowledgements, references, list of abbreviations, units of measurement, tables, and figures. The main text should consist of methods, results, and discussion.
Title: The Title of the article should be maximum 12 words.
Authors: The Authors and Corresponding details should include all authors participating in the study, their identification information and institutional affiliation. Sources of support must be also listed.
Abstract: The Abstract should not exceed 250 words and must summarize the main points of an article including the objective or background, the design and methods, the results, the conclusions and the keywords (up to five key words). It is important that the information provided in the abstract is not different from that presented in the text.
Introduction: The Introduction must provide the study’s context or theoretical background. Purpose, re-search objective, or hypothesis should be identified but should not include data or conclusions from the reported work.
Methods: The Methods should clarify the reason and the means that the study was conducted in the chosen way. The information that was obtained during the study must be reported in the Results section and not in the Methods section. The criteria used for including or excluding samples or other material should be clearly presented. A detailed description of the methods, including statistical methods and procedures must be given, and argumentation for their selection must be provided.
Results: The Results should present first the main outcomes of the study. Data that is included in tables or figures should not be described in detail in the text. It is for the benefit of the author and the reader that the results are presented in a logical sequence that enhances the under-standing of the work done and also directly links the methods to the results section.
Discussion: The Discussion section should present the conclusions of the study after the extensive presentation of methods and results. For that reason, repetition of detailed data already presented in other sections is unnecessary. It is important that the conclusions directly correlate to the re-search question or goals of the study. Presentation of new data in this section should be avoided. Recommendations and suggestions for new research are encouraged.
References: The References should be numbered consecutively in the order that they appear in the written text. Arabic numbers should be used in the text, in parenthesis in order to indicate the corresponding reference. The reference style has to follow the APA Style (6th Edition).
Authors are fully responsible for the accuracy of their references. Authors should control and check all their references for accuracy and completeness of information before submitting their work.
Examples of reference style
Journal Articles
For up to four authors include all names. For more than four list the first three and then use et al. Since et al. is in plural it must replace at least two names.
Author, A.A., Author, A., Author, A.A., Author, A. (Year). Title of Article. Name of Journal, Issue, Pages, doi number: xxxx.
Author, A.A., Author, A., Author, A.A., et al. (Year). Title of Article. Name of Journal, Issue, Pages, doi number: xxxx.
Books
Author, A. A. (Year). Title of work. Location: Publisher.
Chapter in a book
Author, A. A. (Year). Title of chapter. In D. D. Editor’s Name (Ed.), Title of book (pp. xxx–xxx). Location: Publisher.
Dissertations
Published dissertations may be used as references, indicated as such.
Author, A. (Year) (dissertation) Title of work. Location: Publisher.
Titles in a language other than English
Titles in a language other than English should be referred in the original language, an English translation in parentheses, followed by language identification.
Autor, A.A, Autorin, B. (Year). Title of Article in original language. (English Translation). Name of Journal, Issue, Pages, doi number: xxxx. German.
E-book
Author, A. A. (Year). Title of book (E-reader version, if applicable). Retrieved from http://xxxx.
Author, A. A. (Year). Title of book (E-reader version, if applicable). doi:xxxx.
Chapter in an E-book
Author, A. (date). Title of chapter. In E. Editor (Ed.), Title of book (pp. xxx–xxx). Retrieved from http://xxxx.
Web page
Author, A. (date). Title of document (Format description). Retrieved from http://URL. Retrieval date.
Tables & Figures
Figures: Figures must be numbered in Arabic numbers in the order that they appear in the text.
Letters, numbers, and symbols on figures should be clear and consistent throughout. Figures should be as self-explanatory as possible. Titles and explanations belong in the legend (that is a brief, clear explanation), not in the figures themselves.
When symbols, arrows, numbers, or letters are used to identify parts of the figures, identify and explain each one clearly in the legend.
If a figure has been published previously, the original source must be acknowledged and a written permission from the copyright holder must be submitted in order to be reproduced. This requirement is valid for all already published figures except those who be-long to the public domain.
Tables: Tables must be numbered in Arabic numbers in the order that they appear in the text. There should be a title and a legend (that is, a brief, clear explanation) explaining any abbreviation used in the table. Footnotes to tables should be indicated by superscript lower-case letters (a, b, c, d et cetera).
Double-spacing should be used and every row and column should have a label. Ensure that the table can be understood apart from the text. Consider the order in which the data is presented so the meaning is clearly conveyed. Tables should be as simple as possible.
If data from another published or unpublished source is used, permission should be obtained and the source should be acknowledged.
In case of questions not covered by the above guidelines, please use the contact page.
Formatting: Tables and figures (e.g. graphics, illustrations, and pictures) must be saved separate to the text. Within the manuscript, indicate the position of tables and figures with a placeholder (e.g. »Tab. 1«, »Tab. 2«, … and »Fig. 1«, »Fig. 2«, …). Tables and figures will be embedded afterwards.
File names must clearly indicate different tables and figures (e.g. »Tab. 1 first three words of the following description«, »Tab. 2 first three words of the following description«, … and »Fig. 1 first three words of the following description«, »Fig. 2 first three words of the following description«, …). All tables and figures have to be packed within one ZIP-file or one RAW-file in order to upload all files at once.
Please provide the highest quality possible. Tables and figures have to be saved as TIFF or JPEG (note that repeated saving with JPEG lowers the quality considerably) and to match at least a width of 16 cm and/or 756 pixel as well as 120 dpi.
Submission Form
Online Submission Form: To submit a manuscript, please use the online submission form. The submission form includes detailed information about the input boxes.
Manuscript Preparation: Authors may write their manuscript according to the Structure of Articles and Tables & Figures with any given software. The text of the manuscript may be transferred through copy and paste to the submission form. The tables and figures of the manuscript must be uploaded within the submission form. If the zip- or raw-file exceeds the upload limit, the file should be send via email to the journal manager.