The Journal of Special Education Apprenticeship
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Contents
Peer-Review Process
JOSEA has established the guidelines for its peer-review process.
Once an author submits a manuscript to the editor, it is logged in and checked to make sure that the manuscript is complete and has been prepared according to author submission guidelines and APA guidelines. A receipt of manuscript acknowledgement is sent to the author to let them know that their manuscript has been received by the editor. Each manuscript is then read by an editor to assess its suitability for the journal according to the mission, scope, and author guidelines. This step ensures that the content falls within the scope of the journal, the manuscript follows author and APA guidelines, and that it does not contain an unacceptable level of overlap with manuscripts that are already published. A manuscript could be rejected without additional review for one or more of the previous reasons, and the author will be notified.
If a manuscript is not rejected from the initial screening phase, it is then sent out for review to a minimum of one or two additional reviewer(s) who is experts within the subject matter of the article under review.
The journal employs a double-blind peer-review process where the author of the article is unknown to the reviewers and the reviewers of the article are unknown to the author.
The peer review is completed once the reviewers send their detailed report with comments on the manuscript and their recommendation to the editor. The editor then assesses them collectively, and then makes a decision of the following.
- Accept it as is: the journal will publish the paper in its original form.
- Accept with minor revisions: the journal will publish the paper and asks the author to make small corrections.
- Accept with major revisions (conditional acceptance): the journal will publish the paper provided the authors make the changes suggested by the reviewers and/or editors.
- Revise and resubmit: the journal is willing to reconsider the paper in another round of decision making after the authors make major changes.
- Reject the paper: the journal will not publish the paper or reconsider it even if the authors make major revisions.
An outline of this process is seen in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Review Process
Author Guidelines
JOSEA Mission
The mission of the Journal of Special Education Apprenticeship (JOSEA) is to publish quality graduate student and early career faculty research and foster research-based practices for children and youth with exceptionalities. The practitioner column aims to present a diverse and practical range of interventions, strategies, and practices in a format that is accessible for practitioners working with children with exceptionalities.
Types of Articles:
Research Articles
JOSEA publishes original research articles and scholarly reviews on broad special education topics. Research articles summarize outcomes of studies using traditional experimental, quasi-experimental, single case, and qualitative research designs. Manuscripts should include an introduction, methods, results, and discussion sections. Generally research manuscripts range from 20-30 doubled spaced pages including tables, figures, and references.
Practitioner Articles
JOSEA readers include prospective and practicing practitioners. Language in the practitioner articles should be “user-friendly” to facilitate educator use of the strategies discussed in the article. Articles should feature evidence- based interventions, strategies, and practices. Typically, practitioner articles range from 10 to 15 double spaced pages including tables, figures, and references.
Manuscript Preparation
Guidelines specified in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th edition, 2020) should be followed. Make sure to follow the APA policy on non-sexist language, avoiding ethnic bias, and disabilities. NOTE. Authors for Whom English Is a Second Language: It is highly recommended to have a colleague or copyeditor who is fluent in English review the manuscript before submission.
Specific requirements:
- Authors must submit a SEPARATE TITLE PAGE FILE with (1) article title; (2) first name, middle initial, and last name of each author, with highest academic degrees; (3) names of institutions to which each author is affiliated, along with complete addresses AND e-mail addresses; and (4) any acknowledgments, financial disclosure information, author notes, and/or other text that could identify the authors to reviewers.
- Abstract: For all manuscripts, please provide an abstract and keywords on p. 1 of the main text file.
- The main text file format: 81⁄2 × 11 in. document; 1-in. margins; double spacing, left alignment, Times New Roman, 12-pt. type. Include title and abstract.
- Running head: Write running head in the page header, flush-left, in all-capital letters, across from the right-aligned page number.
- Tables: Tables should be included in the text. Please use Word’s table functions. All tables must be cited in text. Follow the guidelines in the APA Publication Manual. Make sure you construct your table properly in regards to (a) length/descriptiveness of title, (b) structure of headings, and (c) style for different types of table notes. Pay particular attention to the content and set up of column heads and subheads.
- Use tab key and centering functions for head alignment, paragraph indents, and so forth. DO NOT USE THE SPACE BAR.
- Use endnotes sparingly. Number with Arabic numerals starting with 1 and continuing through the article. Example: (see Note 1). NO footnotes.
- Appendices are allowable, but they must help inform the reader (i.e. questionnaires used in a survey study) and be used sparingly.
Artwork: Figures should be inserted in the text. Figures must be black and white only and production-ready. Because most art will be reduced to fit, use bold type that is large enough to be reduced and still be readable, and make sure rules/tick marks are at least 1 pt. Acceptable electronic formats for art: TIFF, EPS, Word, or Excel.
Permissions: Obtaining written permission for material such as figures, tables, art, and extensive quotes taken directly—or adapted in minor ways— from another source is the author’s responsibility, as is payment of any fees the copyright holder may require. Permissions often take a considerable amount of time to be granted; start the request process early. Material taken from software or from the Internet also requires obtaining permission. Failure to obtain permission will result in either removal of the particular item or pulling the article from the journal issue.
Article Submission
Manuscripts submitted to JOSEA must be original, scientifically accurate, and adhere to APA stylistic guidelines. Manuscripts are accepted electronically to Dr. Brittany Hott and Dr. Beth Jones at JOSEA@tamuc.edu.
Ethical Standards
JOSEA adopts APA Ethics Code Standards summarized in the following.
Responsibilities of Authors
Authors must present data that is accurate and complete. Presenting data that has been fabricated or falsified in any way is strictly prohibited (APA Ethics Code Standard: Reporting Research Results).
Modifying and omitting results, and altering visual images to support a hypothesis is prohibited (APA Ethics Code Standard: Avoidance of False or Deceptive Statements).
Authors are responsible for making public and correcting any errors discovered after publication.
Data Retention and Sharing
To ensure an accurate review process, authors do their best in making data available to the editor of JOSEA. After publication, data must be made available to other professionals for scholarly review (APA Ethics Code Standard: Sharing Research Data for Verification).
Piecemeal Publication of Data
Misrepresenting previously published material as original is strictly prohibited (APA Ethics Code Standard: Duplicate Publication of Data). Submitting for publication manuscripts that have been previously published in whole or substantial part elsewhere is strictly prohibited. Therefore, authors must acknowledge and cite previously published work.
Piecemeal, or fragmented, publication is strongly discouraged, so as not to mislead readers to believing that findings were gathered during independent instances of data collection or analyses. Therefore, manuscripts should be presented as completely as possible, unless the author has justifiable reason to report findings in separate manuscripts. Authors who wish to divide the report of a study should inform the editor and provide any information requested by the editor. It is also the responsibility of the author to alert the editor of the existence of any prior or similar publication in another journal.
Plagiarism and Self-Plagiarism
Plagiarism or claiming the written words and ideas of others as one’s own is strictly prohibited. The originating author must be given credit. (APA Ethics Code Standard: Plagiarism). Authors must not present their own previously published work as new scholarship. Doing so is an act of self-plagiarism and is prohibited by JOSEA. When a manuscript is found to have plagiarism, it will be rejected at any point of the peer-review process.
Conflict of Interest
Authors are responsible for reporting any conflicts of interest, existing and potential. In an author’s note or letter, authors must disclose activities and relationships that may be construed as conflicts of interests, including positive and negative biases.
Responsibilities of Editor and Reviewers
The reviewer must recuse himself from the review process of any manuscript should any one of the following be true.
- The reviewer feels unqualified to review an assigned manuscript;
- The reviewer is unable to meet the deadline for completion of the review;
- The reviewer has a conflict of interest such as an obvious personal or professional relationship with the authors or coauthors that can be construed as bias.
The reviewer should immediately notify the editor of any similarities between the manuscript under review and another paper either published or under consideration by JOSEA or another journal. The reviewer should immediately call to the editor’s attention a manuscript containing plagiarized material or falsified data.
The editor and reviewers are prohibited from circulating or quoting manuscripts under editorial review. Unpublished manuscripts are to remain confidential. The only permissible circulation of an unpublished work shall be among editors and reviewers (APA Ethics Code Standard: Reviewers).
Rights and Welfare of Research Participants
Researchers must follow appropriate APA Ethics Code Standards when conducting research with human and animal participants. Authors are required to certify that they have followed these standards.
Publication Credit
Authorship shall be limited to those individuals who have made a significant contribution to and willingly accept responsibility for the published work (APA Ethical Code Standard: Publication Credit). Authorship shall not be limited to those who perform the writing, but also to those who have made substantial scientific contributions to a study.