Skip to main content

For Authors

The Journal of STEM Outreach is an online, open access journal published quarterly: January 15, April 15, July 15, and October 15. The overall goal of this publication is to provide a venue for STEM professionals and educators to publish results from their work that will be of general interest to those who develop, implement, and conduct research in the field of STEM Outreach.

Fees:

  • Research articles: $1000
  • Programmatic articles: $1000
  • Case studies: $1000
  • Commentaries: $250

*Note: no submission fee is required.

Types of Papers Accepted:

  • Research studies: This section of the journal is reserved for researchers who have conducted formal, in-depth research and obtained substantial qualitative or quantitative data to evaluate the impact or effectiveness of a program, relationship, event, etc. These manuscripts will be in the range of 30,000-60,000 characters with spaces or approximately 5-10 journal pages (excluding tables, figures, supplementary material, etc.).
  • Program descriptions:  These manuscripts are reports of studies that have not yet conducted formal, in-depth analyses of a program, but the authors believe that their work exhibits innovative educational practices that are of value to others who may wish to replicate all or parts of the program. The authors will present sufficient preliminary evaluation data to demonstrate the feasibility for and value of replication of the program. These manuscripts will be in the range of 30,000-60,000 characters with spaces or approximately 5-10 journal pages (excluding tables, figures, supplementary material).
  • Case studies: Case studies provide a detailed description of a particular event, program, relationship, or partnership that may provide valuable insight and data for those in the field who are conducting similar studies or those seeking information on similar programs. These manuscripts will be in the range of 30,000-60,000 characters with spaces or approximately 5-10 journal pages (excluding tables, figures, supplementary material).
  • Commentaries/Editorials: A limited number of commentaries will be accepted on topics of particular relevance to current issues. These will generally be in the range of 1-3 journal pages.

Deadlines and Publishing Dates

  • Manuscripts must be submitted by September 30, 2017 for publication in the January 15, 2018 issue. Manuscripts for future issues will be accepted on a rolling basis.

 

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

General guidelines

  • JSO is a peer-reviewed, open access journal. This format allows for rapid publication and open access to researchers across the world.
  • The initial submission requires the manuscript, cover letter, figures and tables, and supporting information. Authors may submit the manuscript in either Word or .rtf format. More detailed instructions are provided below.
  • All manuscripts must adhere to APA style, except where indicated.
  • Manuscripts submitted to JSO must contain original material. The manuscript must not be published or submitted to another journal while under review by JSO.

 Manuscript organization

  • Manuscripts should be submitted in .doc, .docx, or .rtf format. Pages should be numbered in the upper right corner, with the title page as page 1. All text should be double-spaced, with one-inch margins.
  • Cover letter: The cover letter should include the statement that the manuscript has not been and will not be submitted to another journal while under review by JSO. The author should also indicate a statement as to why this manuscript is appropriate for the JSO, and the type of article being submitted (i.e. research, programmatic, case study). Authors are encouraged to suggest potential reviewers, and should indicate individuals in the field who should not be considered as reviewers if there is a potential conflict of interest.
  •  Title page: The title page should contain authors names and affiliations, a descriptive title, corresponding author information, and a running title (no more than 50 characters with spaces), and key words.
  • Abstract: Page 2 will be the abstract, summarizing major points in the manuscript. The abstract should be 200 words or less.
  • Manuscript text: The text of the paper will begin on page 3, and will follow APA guidelines for formatting headings and subheadings. See for example: http://www.apa.org/pubs/apastyle/?gclid=CjwKCAjwzMbLBRBzEiwAfFz4gWmGpSYclyhtS-40rS6N9Ya0FdD_lNEyskJw-pdc45fcCdojLy6dghoCZpoQAvD_BwE

The text for most submissions should include an introduction (page 3), methods, results, discussion, and references. Other formats may be more appropriate for some manuscripts, such as program descriptions and case studies.

  • Acknowledgements: Acknowledgements should be included on a separate page just before references and after the manuscript text, and should include the funding source and any other sources of support for the study.

References:

  • In-text references should be in the following format: if two authors, list last names of both authors, followed by the date (Author1 and Author 2, date). For more than two authors, the format should be (Author1, et al., date). If there is more than one reference for a specific section, put all within the same parentheses, separated by a semicolon.
  • References Cited: This section should follow immediately after the end of the text. Citations will follow modified APA guidelines, and be listed in alphabetical order. Examples for citation sources are shown below:

Journal articles:

Cormas, P.C. and Barufaldi, J.P. (2011). The effective research-based characteristics of professional development of the National Science Foundation’s GK-12 program. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 22, 255-272.

Ufnar, J.A., Kuner, S., and Shepherd, V.L. (2012). Moving beyond GK-12. CBE Life Sciences Education, 11, 239-247.

Book:

Singer, S. R., Nielsen, N. R., and Schweingruber, H. A. (2012). Discipline based education research. Washington, DC: The National Academies.

Chapter in an edited volume:

Gordon, S. and Lavallee, D. (2001). Career transitions in competitive sport. In T. Morris & J. Summers (Eds.), Sport psychology: Theory, applications and issues (2nd ed., pp. 584-610). Brisbane, Australia: Wiley.

Thesis:

Allison, N. (1981). Bacterial degradation of halogenated aliphatic acids (Doctoral dissertation). Trent Polytechnic, Nottingham, UK.

Conference paper:

United States Census Bureau. (2014). American housing survey: 2013 detailed tables. Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2014/cb14-tps78.html

Figures and Tables:

  • Figures should not be included in the manuscript text, but included either as separate files (figures) or at the end of the document (tables) after the References Cited section.
  • Figures should be uploaded as individual files in .jpg or .tif format.
  • Captions for figures should be listed at the end of the document after the References Cited section.
  • Tables should be included at the end of the document after the Figure captions.

 

MANUSCRIPT REVIEW PROCESS

  • All manuscripts submitted for publication in JSO are peer-reviewed in a single-blind manner (i.e. reviewers remain anonymous; authors are known to the reviewers). All manuscripts will be reviewed by a minimum of two external reviewers selected by the Editors in consultation with the Editorial Board.
  • The Editor-in-Chief will conduct a preliminary review, and send out to the reviewers who will have 14 days to complete their review and return comments to the Editors. The Editor will then prepare a decision letter based on the reviewers’ comments, and send to the corresponding author with the decision to:
  • Accept with minor or no revisions
  • Accept with major revisions
  • Reject
  • If accepted with revisions, authors will have 45 days to provide the additional material and editing, and resubmit for publication through the online portal.

 

POLICIES 

  • The Journal of STEM Outreach applies the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) to all published manuscripts and texts. By submitting your work to our journal, you give consent to have the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license applied to your work. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/)
  • Institutional Review Board Approval
  • Manuscripts that are reporting on studies that involve human subjects must include an explicit statement that the study has been approved by a local IRB in advance of the research, and include an IRB number unless the research has been determined to be exempt.