Submitting articles and science notes

Send four copies of your article/Science note, including illustrations (the top copy and three photocopies) to:

The Editor, SSR, The Association for Science Education, College Lane, Hatfield, Herts AL10 9AA (telephone +44(0) 1707 283000).

Include full name(s), both school or business and home address, telephone/Fax number and e-mail address. Authors are advised to keep copies of their contributions.

Under special circumstances, articles can be submitted as e-mail attachments. Consult the Publications Production Manager, ASE (address above), or e-mail: janehanrott@ase.org.uk

It is the responsibility of the author(s) to obtain permission for the use of any material for which the copyright is held by a third party. This permission should be obtained before the article is submitted.

Editorial Procedure

All articles/Science notes submitted to SSR are acknowledged and sent to three referees for comment on content, relevance, and style. In the light of these comments the Editor will then accept or reject the article, or return it with suggestions for modification. Articles submitted to SSR should not be simultaneously submitted elsewhere.

Once an article is accepted, the Editor will be pleased to receive it on disk or as an e-mail attachment, where possible. Please give details of any software used (especially for artwork).

Articles will be sub-edited for clarity and brought into line with SSR's style. The author's approval will be sought for any major alterations. In due course, authors will receive page proofs to check. No changes to content can be made at this stage.

Presentation of articles / science notes

The following notes are provided to help both authors and ourselves in the refereeing and editorial procedure.

Anyone having difficulty in interpreting all the guidelines should contact the Editor for advice. All contributions must be in English. Major articles should generally be no longer than 4000 words and Science notes no more than 2000 words.

Submit the article on A4 (or similar US/Australian) bond paper on one side only, using double line spacing throughout (including references) with adequate margins.

The first page of the article should include:

	An explanatory title, being as short as possible but clearly indicating the contents of the article.
	Author(s) name(s).
	A brief description of the article, in not more than 30 words, to attract the reader's attention (not necessary in the case of a Science note).
	An abstract of not more than 100 words including two or three key words encapsulating the article (not necessary in the case of Science Notes).

Pages should be numbered.

At the end of the article a note of the position held by the author(s), and, if desired, brief relevant biographical details, e-mail address and/or other contact details, should be given.

The word count for the article (including references) should be included at the end of the article.

More detailed points of style

Readability
SSR has an international readership and this should be borne in mind when writing. Authors should emphasise the level at which their article/Science note is aimed. Articles should be succinct. Technical terms should be used as sparingly as possible. Acronyms should be spelt out when first used. When mentioning particular curricula, examinations, school grades, etc., the country and age and ability range under discussion should be specified.

Use devices such as subheadings, 'bullets' and 'boxes' (e.g. for background information) to help break up the text and make it more accessible.

Using quotations / extracts
All quoted material should read exactly as in the original. Please check such quotes carefully and include full details of the source in the reference.

Units, symbols and nomenclature
The International System of Units (SI) should be used throughout. Symbols, abbreviations and nomenclature should follow Signs, symbols and systematics: The ASE companion to 16-19 Science (ASE, 2000).

Use devices such as subheadings, 'bullets' and 'boxes' (e.g. for background information) to help break up the text and make it more accessible.

Tables
Tables should be numbered consecutively, Table 1, Table 2, etc. Tables should be put at the end of the article and their approximate positions in the text marked. Table captions and headings should be self-explanatory and as far as possible, set out in the style of the journal.

References

Books and journals
The number of references at the end of an article should be kept to a minimum; for most articles we would not expect more than ten references. Only sources actually referred to in the text, and which are publicly available, should be cited. Please refer to a copy of SSR from issue no. 283 onwards for style, which is outlined below.

References in the text should be given as follows: Brown and Smith (1990) or (Brown and Smith, 1990). Where a source has three authors, all their names should be given when reference is first made in the text, thus: (Brown, Smith and Jones, 1990), but subsequently (Brown et al., 1990) is sufficient. Sources with more than three authors should be cited as (Brown et al., 1990) in the first reference also.

When an author has two or more publications in one year the references should be distinguished by referring to Brown (1990a) and Brown (1990b), etc. Where more than one reference is given at the same point in the text, they should be listed chronologically.

References at the end of the article should be listed alphabetically by the names of the first authors and should include the author's initials, the year of publication (in parentheses) and the full title of the article or book. Titles of journals must be given in full, followed by the volume and issue number, and the first and last page numbers in full.

References to papers in journals should be in the following style:

Ward, A. (1990) Matters of gravity Ð a topic for discussion. School Science Review, 71(257), 111-116.

References to books and monographs should include author(s) or editor(s), year of publication (in parentheses), title of book (in italic), edition, chapter and/or page reference (if desired), town of publication, and publisher, in that order. For example:

Sykes, P. (1985) A guidebook to mechanism in organic chemistry. 6th edn, pp. 179Ð182. Harlow, Essex: Longman.

Internet resources

Websites
You will need to give as many of the following items as are available: author, title, date, publisher, date you accessed the material (because the site may be updated between the time you use it and the point at which a reader refers to it) and the URL. For example:

CIA World Fact Book, 1999: Ecuador. Visited: Aug 2000. URL: http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/ec.html

Australian Psychological Society (1999) Considerations for psychologists providing services on the internet. Visited: Aug 2000. URL: http://www.psychsociety.com.au/about/internet.pdf

E-mail correspondence
To reference material you have gathered from an e-mail correspondence, you need to give author, date of message, subject of message, recipient's name, [On-line], and availability (i.e. recipient's e-mail address).

For example: Rogers, W. (19 September 1996) The nutritional value of the potato [e-mail to P. Squire], [On-line]. Available e-mail: p.squire@uwe.ac.uk

Audiovisual materials
It is crucial that, as with all referencing, when you are citing videos and other audiovisual materials, you follow a consistent format, and remember that the key to a good reference is that it allows the reader to trace the original item.

Feature films Provide film title, date, director and production company. For example: Some like it hot (1959) Directed by Billy Wilder. United Artists.

Training and commercial videos Give as much information as you can, and indicate that the item is a video. For example: Meetings bloody meetings (1992) [Video] Video Arts.

Off-air recordings You should provide all the information needed to give the original programme details. For example:

Twenty steps to better management: thriving on change (1999) BBC2. 7 June.

References to sources
All source references (for materials, visual aids, websites, posters, etc.) should be checked personally by the author to ensure that they are up to date. Full addresses including postcodes should be given where applicable.

Software
Programs and applications referred to in articles or notes should be clearly referred to so that a reader could locate it, e.g. É the data was entered into an EXCEL spreadsheet and then processed, the diagrams were drawn using Corel Draw. If innovative software is integral to an article or Note, four copies of the software must be submitted, along with the text, for distribution to the referees. 5 Illustrations

Illustrations

Figures and figure captions

Illustrations (including photographs) should be numbered consecutively, Figure 1, Figure 2, etc. Their approximate positions should be marked in the hard copy/text file. Each figure needs a caption.

There should be hard copy of every illustration (even if in the text file) on a separate sheet with the author's name and figure number lightly pencilled on the back of the sheet.

Photographs should be similarly marked on the back, with the top of the photograph indicated where necessary.

Figure captions should be listed in numerical order at the end of the article.

Photographs
Good quality colour or black-and-white photographs or transparencies are acceptable, as are electronic images as, preferably, TIFF files or JPEG files. Where possible, the insertion of a scale on the photograph is preferable to a statement of magnification in the caption.

A line illustration is preferable to a poor quality photograph.

Colour photographs or transparencies for possible cover use are very welcome. Whilst all reasonable care will be taken with photographs and transparencies sent to SSR they are sent at the owner's risk and neither the ASE not its agents accept any liability for loss or damage.

Safety

When writing for SSR, if any practical activities are described, contributors should:

1 Identify all hazards (e.g. CORROSIVE, RISK OF ELECTRIC SHOCK, BIOHAZARD...).

2 Specify appropriate safety precautions (e.g. use fume cupboard, not suitable for students below the sixth form, ...).

3 Check that the procedures are, as far as possible, in accordance with commonly adopted general risk assessments. Reference can be made to the following publications:

Hazcards (CLEAPSS, 1995 and later)

Topics in safety, 3rd edn (ASE, 2001)

Microbiology: an HMI guide for schools and FE (HMSO, 1990)

Safeguards in the school laboratory, 10th edn (ASE, 1996)

Hazardous chemicals: a manual for science education (SSERC, 1998)

Be safe! Health and safety in primary school science and technology. 3rd edn (ASE, 2000)

Safety in Science Education (DfEE, 1996)

4 Draw attention to the need for any COSHH risk assessment, indicating whether a special assessment is likely to be necessary. COSHH risk assessments are necessary for all activities involving micro-organisms, and for all chemicals (whether used or made in the activity) classed as IRRITANT, HARMFUL, TOXIC, VERY TOXIC or CORROSIVE. Although not strictly necessary, it is our policy also to include OXIDISING, FLAMMABLE, EXPLOSIVE and RADIOACTIVE substances. The classification of some chemicals may be unexpected, and should always be checked, for example by reference to a good up-to-date catalogue, such as that of BDH. Authors wanting some indication of the likely acceptability of a novel activity should refer to Preparing COSHH risk assessments for project work in schools (SSERC, 1991).

5 Remind readers that if pupils are involved in project work or open-ended investigations, the teacher must always check their plans before practical activities can begin.

6 You must carry out risk assessments on practical work that you are describing, and should indicate the level of student for which it is intended, e.g. Year 9 or Sixth form (see any copy of SSR, Safety note, p. 6).

Copyright

1 The copyright of any article published in SSR is held by the author with the exception of diagrammatic material which has been redrawn by our artist, for which the author and the Association for Science Education jointly hold the rights.

2 To encourage maximum use of material contained in SSR, the Association and the authors of published articles are pleased to allow school and other educational establishments to reproduce articles from the journal, free of charge, on request to the Association. Material reproduced should only be used for educational and other non-commercial purposes, and should carry an acknowledgement of the original source.

3 Science teachers' associations which are members of the International Council of Associations for Science Education (ICASE) may reproduce articles from SSR in their own journals without prior permission, but the Association does expect to receive a copy of the issue containing the article.

4 Individuals and organisations, other than those mentioned above, wishing to reproduce any article or part of an article must contact the Editor at ASE Headquarters in the first instance.

5 The ASE reserve the right to reproduce SSR articles on the ASE website.

Offprints

Six offprints are sent out free to authors of major articles and Science notes, although more may be purchased if ordered at the time the page proofs are corrected.