Policies
Information for Authors
Submissions to the Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education must meet the following requirements:
- Written in APA style, following the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition
- Include a separate title page file, which includes complete contact information for all authors, including names, affiliations, complete street addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers. The title page should clearly indicate who the corresponding author will be, which is the individual responsible for communications with the editors, page proofs, and working with the publication and editorial staff.
- Written submissions to the journal should be submitted in Times New Roman font, 12-point type, double-spaced, formatted as 8.5” x 11” pages with 1” margins on all sides. Authors should include appropriately formatted subheadings at reasonable intervals. Pages should be numbered consecutively. All abbreviations should be spelled out on their first use except for commonly-known abbreviations. Articles will typically range from 4,000 to 7,000 words in length.
- The journal welcomes submissions that include artwork, photography, video, and other forms of media. Authors including such media should include appropriate captions, image descriptions, or other means of making the media more universally accessible. For non-static media, such as videos, that are not easily captured in print format, authors should include a stable, permanent link to the media within their manuscript. Authors must supply documentation of permission to publish any media, including, as appropriate, photo releases for individuals appearing in photos, copyright clearance documentation, and/or media release documentation.
- Manuscripts submitted for review must be anonymized, which means authors will need to remove all potentially identifying information. Outside of the separate title page file mentioned above, submitted finals should not identify the authors, their affiliations, their funding sources, or other information that might identify authors. Authors should also consider anonymizing self-citations when doing so better anonymizes the manuscript.. When authors describe themselves within the manuscript (for example, in a positionality section), they should consider describing themselves in ways that are not individually identifiable. For example, authors who describe their institution might do so by describing the institution type and region, rather than naming the institution.
- All submissions must include an abstract of 100-120 words and 3-5 keywords. These should be included in the manuscript file in APA style.
- In general, authors should avoid notes, but may include footnotes as necessary in compliance with APA style.
- The reference list should only include sources cited in the manuscript, and all sources cited in the manuscript must be included in the reference list. All references should include digital object identifiers (DOI) when possible, and all references must comply with APA style, 7th edition.
- Tables and figures, if applicable, should be included in APA style, 7th edition formatting.
- All manuscripts must be submitted in English with U.S. English spellings.
- Authors who wish to include copyrighted material must submit documentation of permission to use copyrighted materials.
- It is the policy of the journal to not reject a paper based on stylistic elements alone.
- Authors seeking developmental review (described under the peer review policy section) should directly email the Editors (copying all editors) to initiate development review. They should NOT submit their manuscript to the submission system.
In addition, the journal strongly encourages authors to identify marginalized or minoritized populations in affirmative ways that allow adequate specificity. For example, if authors are writing about sexual identities only, the acronym LGBTQ+ is not well-matched to their actual analysis. In another example, the journal encourages authors to avoid deficit language, such as the phrase “sexual and gender minorities” in favor of more affirming identifiers. Authors should similarly use affirmative and asset-oriented language around race, disability, language, immigration, age, education, and other factors.
Peer Review Policy
The Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education utilizes doubly-anonymous peer review. This means that reviewers read anonymized manuscripts that shield the identity of authors, and authors do not know the identity of reviewers. Once a manuscript is received, it is evaluated by an editor or associate editor to determine whether it fits with the aims and scope of the journal and should be sent out for peer review. Following this initial consideration, if the manuscript merits review, an editor or associate editor will request peer reviews. Peer review for the journal is conducted by a minimum of two expert reviewers, preferably three. Reviewers may be editorial board members or ad-hoc reviewers. However, all reviewers are selected for their substantive expertise and publication record in the areas of submitted manuscripts. Manuscripts submitted to the journal are evaluated based on their: 1) Relevance to queer and trans studies in education and the aim and scope of the journal; 2) Conceptual/theoretical framework and connections to relevant empirical, theoretical, and other literature; 3) Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry, including appropriateness of the approach to the questions, adequacy of the description of the methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry, and rigorousness; 4) The findings, results, warrants, and/or substantiated arguments are appropriate and supported by the literature, theory, and/or data; 5) The overall contribution to the field, and scholarly significance of the work; and 6) The writing style, composition, and clarity of the manuscript.The journal also offers a Developmental Review process, which is distinct from the anonymous peer-review process for final publication. In a Development Review process, authors are assigned to a Developmental Reviewer who works with the author in non-anonymous review to provide feedback and guidance to improve the manuscript. Developmental Review is available to authors who are early career scholars, graduate students, international scholars, or new to queer and trans studies research. Developmental Review does not directly result in a publication decision. However, manuscripts which have been through Developmental Review are guaranteed a full review through the typical double-anonymous peer review process with the journal (i.e., manuscripts that have been through Developmental Review will not receive a ‘desk reject’ decision). In this way, Developmental Review offers authors additional support and guidance in refining their manuscript prior to formal publication review for the journal. Authors seeking developmental review (described under the peer review policy section) should directly email the Editors (copying all editors) to initiate development review. They should NOT submit their manuscript to the submission system.
The journal recognizes the COPE practices for ethics in peer review.
Publication Ethics
The Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education has a commitment to publication ethics and practices consistent with the COPE Core Practices. Related to this commitment, all editors, editorial staff, and editorial board members complete publication ethics training. The journal also endorses and complies with the APA Code of Ethics and the AERA Code of Ethics. In particular, the journal fully endorses and utilizes the APA and AERA Codes of Ethics with regard to allegations of misconduct, authorship credit, complaints and appeals, conflicts of interest, data sharing and reproducibility, and research ethics.
All allegations of misconduct should be directed to the Editors, who will initiate an appropriate investigation of the allegations. Similarly, all complaints and appeals related to the peer review and publication process should be directed to the Editors, who will initiate an appropriate investigation of the allegations.
Conflicts of interest and competing interests: The journal requires that all authors, contributors, reviewers, and editorial board members disclose potential conflicts of interest as defined in the American Psychological Association position. Publications that involve an actual or potential conflict of interest must include a conflict of interest statement.
Data and reproducibility: Authors are encouraged to engage in transparent research processes. The journal also acknowledges that reproducibility, as a concept, is embedded in particular onto-epistemological considerations that may not apply to all ways of doing research or conceptualizations of knowledge. The journal encourages authors to share their data, when doing so is appropriate and ethically responsible, in compliance with both the AERA Code of Ethics and the APA Code of Ethics.
When appropriate, the journal will publish corrections or retractions to published articles.
Statement Regarding Support and Funding
The Journal of Queer and Trans Studies is published by Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), and financially supported by the VCU Libraries and the VCU School of Education. The journal also accepts donations from individuals and organizations to support the work of the journal and to support our efforts to fund graduate students in the field.
Copyright Policy
Authors submitting work for publication in the Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education agree to assign the exclusive right to publish, reproduce, and license the work to the journal. The journal publishes all works under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. All articles in the journal are open access, and may be freely downloaded and shared in their original version for any non-commercial purpose, provided that the journal is properly credited. Whenever possible, shared versions should directly link to the journal (ideally by link to the digital object identifier [doi]). Authors are free to post published versions of their articles to archives, pre-print servers, and institutional repositories, provided that they link directly to the journal’s version of record whenever possible by linking to the doi.
Privacy Statement
Information supplied to the journal for the purposes of manuscript submission and peer review will not be sold or provided to any third parties for marketing or other purposes. However, it may be used for the purposes of communicating about the journal.
Financially Supporting the Journal
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The journal recommends that submitting authors consider a donation to the journal to support its operation and open-access model. No donation is ever required for submission or publication, and the presence or amount of a donation has absolutely no bearing on publication decisions for the journal. We recommend authors consider a donation of $50 per submission to support the work of the journal.
The journal also happily accepts individual donations from anyone interested in supporting the work of the journal. We are able to accept one-time donations or recurring monthly contributions. Those interested in considering a sponsorship of the journal should contact the Editors. All donations to the journal are processed by the VCU Foundation, a nonprofit organization affiliated with Virginia Commonwealth University, and are tax deductible for U.S. federal income tax purposes.
Donations are accepted through our online donation portal via the VCU Foundation.
