Guidelines for Contributors to Access

Access, the Australian School Library Associations' national journal for teacher librarianship, is published four times each year.

Access is a professional journal that provides an open forum for educators and researchers who are concerned with issues arising from digital literacy and school librarianship. Major foci include collaborative curriculum development, inquiry-based learning, information technology and its integration into learning or teaching programs and information management.

Articles in Access may be peer-reviewed. Research, substantial and scholarly articles, for which authors request review, are peer-reviewed by our panel of referees. Accordingly, Access is on the list of ranked journals maintained by the Australian Research Council (ARC) for the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) Initiative.

More information about refereed articles is outlined below.

Articles are accepted on the understanding they have not been and will not be published elsewhere.  (Exceptions may apply, such as a substantial revision of previously published material.)

Copy deadlines

Issue 1 -- copy deadline 29 January
Issue 2 -- copy deadline 15 April
Issue 3 -- copy deadline 15 July
Issue 4 -- copy deadline 28 September

Word length

5000 words -- Refereed articles
2500 words -- Feature articles
2500 words -- Research articles
2500 words -- Commentary articles
600 words -- Reports
600 words -- Conference reports

An article submitted for consideration as a refereed article, must:

• contain original thought and content
• be relevant to the profession of teacher librarianship
• be of academic worthiness
• be well written and of a scholarly standard
• be supported by adequate references
• meet the submission requirements of ASLA
• be research-based or an example of best practice

See Reviewer Instructions for detailed criteria.

Refereed articles are sent out for double-blind review, that is, reviewers do not know the identity of the author(s), and the author(s) do not know the identity of the reviewers.  The article will be reviewed by at least two referees.  The review outcomes will be sent to the author(s) if revisions are recommended.  The average time from review to notification by the author to accept or reject the outcomes will be 10 - 12 weeks from the receipt of the article.

Submission

Articles should be submitted electronically to the editor as an email attachment in Microsoft Word.  Acknowledgement of receipt of the article will be sent to the author(s) and the editor will liaise with the author(s) over the suitability of the article.

Format

The article should be double-spaced throughout using 12-point font size and standard margins.  See also Styleguide for ACCESS.

Cover page

The cover page should include the title of the article, the author(s)' full name(s), institution affilitation, mailing address, e-mail address and a brief biography (50 to 100 words).

Title page

The title page should include the title of the article, the author(s)' full name(s), disclaimers (if any), an abstract of approximately 100 words.

Figures and tables

Each table or figure should be numbered consecutively and sent as a separate document to the article.

Illustrations

Original drawings, cartoons and photos are to be sent as attachments.  Electronic graphics must be high resolution.

If including any copyrighted material, copyright clearance must be sought and it must be identified that such clearance has been given.

Referencing

References should follow the author-date format.  Details required, in order, are:

• Name/s of author/s, editor/s, compiler/s (Surname, Initials) or institution responsible
• Year of publication,
• Title of publication and subtitle, if any (all titles must be italicised),
• Series title and individual volume, if any,
• Edition, if other than first,
• Publisher,
• Place of publication,
• Page number/s, if applicable.

See Referencing Guide for examples.

Copyright

Copyright of articles published in Access is jointly held by the Australian School Library Association Inc. (ASLA) and the author(s). The author(s) retain copyright of their articles but give permission to the ASLA to reprint their works in collections or other such documents published by and on behalf of the ASLA. Author(s) who give permission for their articles to be reprinted elsewhere should inform the editor of Access and should ensure that the following statement appears with the article: Reprinted, with permission, from Access [volume, issue, date, pages].

Last updated 27 March 2010