Format and Content

How to Submit to SRJ: Format & Content

Before submitting by clicking “Submit Now” and creating your BePress account, please ensure compliance with our scope, content guidelines for submission type, and style guide found on this page, as well as our policies. Submissions that do not meet the style guide or content guidelines will be returned immediately to authors for corrections.

Scope, or “What do we publish?”

SRJ welcomes submissions of original research (primary and secondary), critical essays, academic book reviews, and evidence summaries covering theory, policy, application, or practice which advance intellectual inquiry in the field.

Any current graduate student can submit work. And, if you submit a piece while still in school, you can keep working with us on your submission even after you graduate!

Research manuscripts

Research manuscripts should investigate an original idea, set of ideas, or circumstance, and may be empirical, critical, or theoretical in nature.

Here is an example research manuscript that was published in the SRJ

Book reviews

Book reviews should address scholarly works published within the last three years that represent current research in LIS, archival studies, or records management.

Reviews should identify the core question of the work, summarize the answer posited by the author, and contextualize the work within current academic research or practice. View a list of suggested titles for review here. This is not an exhaustive list; authors are free to review any title that falls within the journal’s scope.

Here is an example book review that was published in the SRJ

Evidence summaries

Evidence summaries should follow the specific format as identified by the editorial team via Evidence Based Library and Information Practice (EBLIP), and concisely discuss a current piece of research.

Here is an example of an evidence summary that was published with the SRJ

Style guide & formatting

Please format your submission according to these guidelines. All other style and formatting should comply with the latest edition of the APA style guide.

Document format

  • MS Word (preferred) or RTF. Submit your manuscript, including tables, figures, appendices, etc. as a single file.
  • Do not include a title page or abstract in the file. Begin the document with the introduction. The abstract will be entered separately during the submission process, and a title page will be generated by the editors.
  • Do not include page numbers, headers, or footers.
  • Margins: 1” top and bottom, 1.5” right and left
  • Render manuscript lines with numbers. The option is available under the “Layout” tab in MS Word.

Paragraphs

  • Text is to be single spaced, including the reference page, with no extra spacing between paragraphs except surrounding either a block quote or section heading (6-pt spacing before and after both block quotes and headings)
  • Indent the first line of each paragraph, except for any paragraph following a section heading
  • Paragraph text is justified, with the exception of headings and references, both of which should follow the latest APA formatting guidelines as to alignment and indentation

Font

  • Use Times for the entire manuscript (including headings) except where a special symbol is needed that is not offered in Times
  • Text should be 12-pt, with possible exceptions for tables and image captioning (10-pt)
  • All text should be black in color, which the possible exception of hyperlinks
  • Use italics for foreign terms, emphasis, and titles of works as per APA guidelines. Usage of underlining is discouraged. Bold text should be confined to section headings.

References

  • All source citations should appear in-text and be in APA format. Works cited (References) should be in APA format.
  • For book reviews, include a full APA citation for the work being reviewed.

Supporting data

  • All tables, charts, graphs, and diagrams should be positioned in the body of the manuscript. For figures or data that cannot be supplied in MS Word, contact the Editor-in-Chief for guidance.

Blind review

  • Authors must ensure their name does not appear anywhere in the document, including the document file name, the abstract, or the main body of the paper. All identifying features that may be lined to author identity (e.g. reference to author’s workplace, publications, events, and accomplishments easily associated with the author) should be blacked over or eliminated from the text.
  • Author name and contact information may be included only on the cover page (this is distinct from a title page) if one is submitted.

Language

  • English (American). Except for common foreign words and phrases, the use of foreign words and phrases should be avoided. Authors should use Standard English grammar.

Style

  • Where not otherwise specified, manuscripts should conform to APA style and formatting. Current APA is 7th edition.