Submissions

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Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
  • The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
  • The submission file is in Microsoft Word, RTF, or WordPerfect document file format.
  • If submitting to a peer-reviewed section of the journal, the instructions in Ensuring a Blind Review have been followed.
  • The text is double-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables submitted as separate documents.

  • The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines, which is found in About the Journal.

    For book reviews, please review the Book Review Guidelines as well as the Author Guidelines.

  • Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.

Author Guidelines

Editors welcome manuscripts on all aspects of Catholic elementary, secondary, and higher education for peer review and possible publication. Catholic Education: A Journal of Inquiry and Practice features original empirical qualitative and quantitative research, literature reviews, theoretical works, and book reviews. Topics of particular interest include strengthening Catholic identity, finance and governance, the law and Catholic schools, leadership preparation, school choice, teacher/learning, spiritual development of educational leaders.


As we transition to our new website, please either use the online submission or you may e-mail an electronic copy of your manuscript to journal@bc.edu

Please be sure to follow the submission preparation checklist when preparing submissions.

 

The online submission process is broken into the following steps:

Step 1: Submitting a cover letter/title page

Step 2: Specifying the authors and contact information

Step 3: Specifying the title, abstract, and keywords

Step 4: Uploading the body text

Step 5: Specifying the list of attachments and then uploading those attachments (e.g., tables, figures)

Step 6: Final verification of the manuscript

 

Organizing Submissions

Manuscripts submitted to Catholic Education: A Journal of Inquiry and Practice must be divided into separate files to allow processing. Before proceeding with the online submission process, please separate your submission into the following:

  • Cover letter/title page (word document or rich-text format)
  • Abstract and keywords(word document or rich-text format)
  • Body text (word document or rich-text format)
  • Tables (each table is an individual file in word document or rich-text format)
  • Figures (each figure is an individual file in word document or rich-text format)

 

For those submitting book reviews, please separate the cover letter/title page from the body text (no abstract, keywords, or tables and figures are required).

 

Cover Letter/Title Page
Though not required, you may submit a cover letter with details about the submission.

 

Abstract
Please input your abstract and keywords directly into the submission interface, either by typing them in or cut-and-paste. Do not include them in the body text of your manuscript.

 

Body Text
Manuscripts should be 6,000-7,000 words in length (though with our online format manuscripts can be longer in length). Authors must follow APA guidelines (6th ed., 2009). Any submissions that do not follow APA citation guidelines will be returned. Please see below for sample citations and important guidelines. All submissions should be in English with precision and clarity.

 

Tables and Figures
Please follow APA guidelines (6th ed., 2009) when formatting tables and figures.

 

Citation Guidelines
All works should follow APA guidelines (6th ed., 2009). The following provides a brief overview of the most common citations used. Please be sure that all in-text citations appear in the reference section (following APA guidelines, footnotes are discouraged).

Please also note that given the electronic format of the journal and the ability to link directly to references, whenever possible use links to internet resources in the reference section. For example, many Vatican documents are available online. Using this online version is preferred.

 

Journal/periodical citation
Surname, A. A. (year). Article title: Notice capitalization appears on the first word and first word after a colon. Title of Periodical, Volume(issue), page numbers.

Examples:

Denig, S. J., & Dosen, A. J. (2009). The mission of the Catholic school in the pre-Vatican II era (1810-1962) and the post-Vatican II era (1965-1995): Insights and observations for the new millennium. Catholic Education: A Journal of Inquiry and Practice, 13(2), 135-156.

Husock, H. (2008). Uplifting the "dangerous classes": What Charles Loring Brace's philanthropy can teach us today. City Journal, 18(1). Retrieved from http://www.city-journal.org/2008/18_1_urb-brace.html

 

Book citation
Surname, A. A. (year). Title of the book: Notice capitalization appears on the first word and first word after a colon. Publisher location: Publisher Name.

Examples:

McDonald, D., & Schultz, M. (2009). United States Catholic elementary and secondary schools 2008-2009: The annual statistical report on schools, enrollment, and staffing. Washington, DC: National Catholic Educational Association.

McDonald, D., & Schultz, M. (2009). United States Catholic elementary and secondary schools 2008-2009: The annual statistical report on schools, enrollment, and staffing. Retrieved from the National Catholic Educational Association website: http://www.ncea.org/news/AnnualDataReport.asp#full09

 

Chapter/section in a book citation
Surname, A. A. (year). Title of chapter. In A. A., Editor Surname (Ed.), Title of edited book (pp. 00-00). Publisher location: Publisher name.

Examples:

Riordan, C. (2000). Trends in student demography in Catholic secondary schools, 1972-1992. In J. Youniss & J. J. Convey (Eds.), Catholic schools at the crossroads: Survival and transformation (pp. 33-54). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

 

Reports and Church Documents
Surname, A. A. (year). Title of report (Report No. xxx). Publisher location: Publisher.

Examples:

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. (2005). Renewing our commitment to Catholic elementary and secondary schools in the third millennium. Washington, DC: Author.

U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2006). Student achievement inprivate schools: Results from NAEP 2000-2005 (NCES 2006-459). Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pdf/studies/2006459.pdf

Vatican Council II. (1965). Gravissimum educationis [Declaration on Christian education]. Retrieved from the Vatican website: http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decl_19651028_gravissimum-educationis_en.html

 

Headings and subheadings
The body text should be subdivided into different sections with appropriate headings. Please follow APA guidelines (6th ed., 2009) regarding headings and subheadings:

 

Level of heading

Format

1

Centered, Boldfaced, Uppercase and Lowercase Heading

2

Flush Left, Boldfaced, Uppercase and Lowercase Heading

3

Indented, boldfaced, lowercase paragraph heading ending with a period.

4

Indented, boldfaced, italicized, lowercase paragraph heading ending with a period.

5

Indented, italicized, lowercase paragraph heading ending with a period.

 

Book Review Guidelines
Book reviews should be 900-1,200 words in length. Please include the author, title, editor (if applicable), place of publication, publisher, year of publication, price, and number of pages of the book. Describe the content of the book concisely, avoiding a chapter-by-chapter précis or excessive detail. Be sure to evaluate the work critically, judging the strengths and shortcomings of the work as it pertains particularly to Catholic education. The focus of the review should be evaluation of the book, ideally integrating a description of the book within the evaluation. Be sure to maintain a courteous tone, respecting the work of the author and providing a balanced critique. If citing directly from the book, indicate the page number in parentheses.

 

Copyright Notice

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

  2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

  3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.