Author Guidelines

Call for Submissions

The Journal of Integrated Studies (JIS) invites Athabasca University program and non-program Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies students and recent MAIS alumni to submit unpublished works written in English: articles, reviews of books or websites, creative prose, poetry, multimedia projects, and any other submissions with an integrated focus.

Works Considered

Works of up to 5,000 words will be considered for publication. We are particularly interested in innovative projects, research, and reflective works that demonstrate integrated knowledge. The following topics, and in particular integrated approaches to them, will be considered: adult education; Canadian studies; community studies; cultural studies; educational studies; equity studies; global change; historical studies; information studies; literary studies; work, organization, and leadership; and independent approaches that are related to these topics or that explore the notion of integrated studies.

Blind Reviews

All submissions will be peer-reviewed, and selected pieces will be published. To ensure the integrity of the JIS blind review, authors, editors, and reviewers should make every effort to prevent authors and reviewers from being known to one another. This means that authors, editors, and reviewers (who download and upload documents as part of their review) must check to see if the following steps have been taken with the text and the file properties:
1. The author of a document has deleted her or his name from the text, and has used “Author” and the year in references and endnotes, instead of her or his name, the article title, etc.
2. With Microsoft Word documents, author identification has been removed from the properties for the file. This can be done by clicking on the following, beginning with File on the main menu of the Microsoft application: File > Save As > Tools [or Options with a Mac] > Security > Remove personal information from file properties on save > Save.

Publication Deadlines

Work may be submitted to JIS for review at any time during the year.

Submission Guidelines

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check their compliance with all of the following items. Submissions may be returned to authors who do not adhere to these guidelines.

1. The work has been saved as a document in Microsoft Word, Rich Text Format (RTF), or WordPerfect.
2. If the submission is an article, it includes an abstract of up to 250 words and four to six keywords (e.g., “environmental studies,” “ozone,” “southern hemisphere,” “Gaia movement,” “environmental storytelling”) listed under the abstract.
3. When available, the URLs for online references have been provided, including those for open access versions of the references. The URLs are ready to click (e.g., http://pkp.sfu.ca).
4. The text is double-spaced, and a 12-point font has been used. Where appropriate (e.g., in book or journal titles), italicization rather than underlining has been employed. (Underlining should be used for web addresses.) All illustrations, figures, and tables have been placed within the text at the appropriate points for discussion, rather than at the end.
5. If the work is being submitted to a peer-reviewed section of the journal (all sections except Letters to the Editor), the instructions in Blind Reviews have been followed.
6. The text has been proofread and is as free of errors as possible. American Psychological Association (APA) referencing style has been used correctly and consistently.
7. The article, review, or created work that is being submitted fits within the journal's focus and scope.
8. The submission is the author’s original work. It has not been published elsewhere, and it is not concurrently under consideration or accepted for publication by another journal or publisher.

If an accepted contribution includes research involving human subjects, the contributor will be required to provide proof that ethics review processes were completed before the research took place, in compliance with any nationally recognized standards in both the country where the research took place and the country of the researcher’s professional affiliation.

A contributor whose submission is accepted for publication will be asked to provide a biographical sketch of up to 75 words, in which he or she describes academic interests and current and/or past academic work. A contributor’s work, family life, town, and/or other relevant details also can be mentioned in this biographical sketch.  

Agreement

Authors who submit work to the Journal of Integrated Studies agree to release their work under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada Licence. This licence allows anyone to copy and distribute the work for non-commercial purposes provided that appropriate attribution is given. For details of the rights an author grants users of her or his work, please see the licence summary (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ca/) and the full licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ca/legalcode.en). Authors warrant that their work:
1) may be published under the above licence;
2) is original and the sole property of the author or, alternatively, that permission for publication has been obtained from any co-authors;
3) contains no libelous or unlawful statements and does not infringe on the civil rights of others;
4) received ethics approval prior to any research involving human subjects, in compliance with any nationally recognized standards in both the country where the research took place and the country of the researcher’s professional affiliation;
5) violates no copyright agreement or proprietary right;
6) is unpublished and not currently under consideration or accepted for publication elsewhere. If accepted for publication, the Journal of Integrated Studies reserves the right to make editorial changes. If accepted for publication the Journal of Integrated Studies will publish an electronic version of the work at http://jis.athabascau.ca.

The author agrees to indemnify and save harmless the Editorial Board and staff of the Journal of Integrated Studies (as a group and individual members), from all actions, causes of action, liabilities, costs and expenses of any kind whatsoever—including legal fees and court costs—related to the publication or non-publication of the manuscript. In the event of any dispute between the author and the Journal of Integrated Studies, both parties will use their best efforts to resolve the dispute in a mutually satisfactory manner, failing which, the dispute shall be resolved in accordance with the Province of Alberta's Arbitration Act, R.S.A. 2000, c. A-43. This agreement shall be subject to and interpreted in accordance with the applicable laws of the Province of Alberta and the applicable laws of Canada.