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Policies

Contents

 

Open Access Policy

Proceedings of the Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching and Learning Conference is an open access publication which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of all articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.

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Editorial Process

Proceedings of the Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching and Learning Conference is double-blind, peer-reviewed, and published once per year in conjunction with the annual Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching & Learning Conference. Each year, submission is open to all presenters at the current year’s conference.

Upon submission, the editor of the current year’s Proceedings will assign your manuscript to a panel of blind reviewers who will evaluate the manuscript on the following criteria:

  • Appropriateness to interdisciplinary STEM teaching and learning
  • Quality of the research
  • Quality of the writing
  • Overall Quality

Reviewers will further provide relevant editorial feedback and recommendations. Based on reviewers’ feedback, the editor will either accept, provisionally accept, or reject the manuscript for publication. If your manuscript is accepted or provisionally accepted, the editor will work with you to prepare the final version of your work for publication. If you have questions or concerns about the editorial process for Proceedings of the Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching and Learning Conference, please contact the Digital Commons Team.

This is a great opportunity for presenters to have a manuscript version of their research published online and in a print edition. While the online edition will be freely available without charge, the print edition will be made available for purchase to attendees and the public after the close of the STEM Teaching and Learning Conference. This is a unique takeaway for this conference for the presenters, attendees and users of the digital open access publication.

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Submission Guidelines

All presenters at the current year’s Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching & Learning Conference may submit a manuscript version of their presented research for consideration to be included in the Proceedings of the Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching and Learning Conference. Following acceptance of your conference proposal, you will be provided instructions and a deadline to submit your manuscript to the editor of the current year’s Proceedings.

Papers submitted for publication in the Proceedings of the Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching and Learning Conference should be empirical in nature, emphasizing the application of research results. Methodological articles that demonstrate new applications for existing methods or the development of new techniques/methodologies for interdisciplinary STEM teaching and learning are appropriate. Theoretical papers addressing interdisciplinary STEM teaching and learning are also acceptable for submission. Review articles that survey existing practice and/or highly theoretical articles not emphasizing interdisciplinary STEM applications should be submitted to other more appropriate outlets.

Submitted manuscripts must be original, self-contained, and written in English. The writing must be unambiguous and grammatically correct to be considered for publication. Submitted articles cannot have been previously published, nor be forthcoming in an archival journal or book (print or electronic). Please note: "publication" in a working-paper series does not constitute prior publication. In addition, by submitting material to Proceedings of the Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching and Learning Conference, the author is stipulating that the material is not currently under review at another journal (electronic or print) and that he or she will not submit the material to another journal (electronic or print) until the completion of the editorial decision process at Proceedings of the Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching and Learning Conference. If you have questions or concerns about the submission terms for Proceedings of the Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching and Learning Conference, please contact the Digital Commons Team.

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Formatting Guidelines

Submissions should be made in Microsoft Word® format (*.docx) and prepared in accordance with the following formatting guidelines:

  • Document structure:
    • Cover page with:
      • Article Title
      • Author names and affiliations (will be removed for review)
      • Abstract (separate from the article body – 100-150 words)
      • Keywords for your article (4-6)
    • Introduction
    • Subsequent sections of the body of the article
    • References
    • Appendices (if any)
  • Do not include page numbers, headers, or footers. These will be added by the editor.
  • Apart from the cover page, the name(s) of the author(s) should not be identifiable as such in the original submission of the manuscript.
  • All submissions are to be in English. Please avoid using colloquialisms and regional terminology that may be unknown to an international audience.
  • Submit your manuscript, including tables, figures, appendices, etc., as a single file.
  • Page size should be 8.5 x 11-inches.
  • All margins (left, right, top and bottom) should be 1.5 inches (3.8 cm), including your tables and figures.
  • Single space your text.
  • Use a single column layout with left justified.
  • Use 12 point Verdana font for the body of the text.
  • When possible, there should be no pages where more than a quarter of the page is empty space.
  • The text of the manuscript should be divided in headings (not more than three levels deep).
  • Notes, citations, and suggested sources should be placed at the end of the submission in APA format.
  • If figures are included, use high-resolution figures, preferably encoded as encapsulated PostScript (eps).
  • Copyedit your manuscript.

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Additional Formatting Recommendations

Indenting, Line Spacing, and Justification

Indent all paragraphs except those following a section heading. An indent should be at least 2 em-spaces. Do not insert extra space between paragraphs of text with the exception of long quotations, theorems, propositions, special remarks, etc. These should be set off from the surrounding text by additional space above and below.

Don't "widow" or "orphan" text (i.e., ending a page with the first line of a paragraph or beginning a page with the last line of a paragraph).

All text should be left-justified (i.e., flush with the left margin—except where indented).

Language & Grammar

All submissions must be in English. Except for common foreign words and phrases, the use of foreign words and phrases should be avoided.

Authors should use formal English grammar. The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White (now in its fourth edition) is the "standard" guide, but other excellent guides exist as well.

Colored Text

Set the font color to black for the majority of the text. We encourage authors to take advantage of the ability to use color in the production of figures, maps, etc.; however, you need to appreciate that this will cause some of your readers problems when they print the document on a black & white printer. For this reason, you are advised to avoid the use of colors in situations where their translation to black and white would render the material illegible or incomprehensible.

Please ensure that there are no colored mark-ups or comments in the final version, unless they are meant to be part of the final text. (You may need to "accept all changes" in track changes or set your document to "normal" in final markup).

Emphasized Text

Whenever possible use italics to indicate text you wish to emphasize rather than underlining it. The use of color to emphasize text is discouraged.

Titles

Whenever possible, titles of books, movies, etc., should be set in italics rather than underlined.

Tables and Figures

To the extent possible, tables and figures should appear in the document near where they are referenced in the text. Large tables or figures should be put on pages by themselves. Avoid the use of overly small type in tables. In no case should tables or figures be in a separate document or file. All tables and figures must fit within 1.5" margins on all sides (top, bottom, left and right) in both portrait and landscape view.

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Copyright & Licensing Terms

All articles published in Proceedings of the Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching and Learning Conference are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 (CC-BY 4.0) licence. Authors retain all copyrights without restrictions, and agree to the CC-BY 4.0 license for their work as a condition of publication.

Under the CC-BY 4.0 license, anyone is free to:

  • Share - copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
  • Adapt - remix, transform, and build upon the material

for any purpose, even commercially. This license cannot be revoked so long as the end user complies with the following terms:

  • Attribution - You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
  • No Additional Restrictions -You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Copyright and licensing terms for Proceedings of the Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching and Learning Conference (2017-2019) are registered with Sherpa Romeo.

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Plagiarism Policy

Proceedings of the Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching and Learning Conference uses Similarity Check, a multi-publisher initiative, to selectively screen article submissions for originality. Similarity Check uses the iThenticate software, which checks submissions against millions of published research papers (the Similarity Check database), documents on the web, and other relevant sources. These submitted papers are not retained in the Similarity Check system after they have been checked.

Read more at Crossref's Similarity Check & Researchers page.

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Charges & Fees

Proceedings of the Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching and Learning Conference levies no charges or fees for publication of accepted articles.

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Digital Archiving

Proceedings of the Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching and Learning Conference is preserved using CLOCKSS, a leading preservation archive that guarantees persistent access to journal content for the very long term. Articles also receive Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) through Crossref to ensure they can always be found.

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