Instructions for Authors

Manuscript Submission

The International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning has a fully web-enabled manuscript submission and review system. This system allows authors to track their manuscripts, in real time, through the review process. The online manuscript and review system offers easy and straightforward log-in and submission procedures. It supports a wide range of file formats including Word, WordPerfect, RTF, TXT, and LaTeX for article text, and TIFF, EPS, PS, GIF, JPEG, and PPT for figures. Manuscripts submitted in PDF format will NOT be accepted. We prefer that text be in a Word or RTF file.

Please note that you must use the electronic submission system. Do NOT submit a hardcopy of the manuscript, a disk or an email attachment.

Submission

To submit a manuscript, go to www.editorialmanager.com/cscl and follow the instructions. A submission process overview has been provided for your convenience at www.isls.org/journals/ijcscl/submission-procedures. Because ijCSCL uses a double-blind review procedure, it is important that you prepare at least two separate files for submission: (1) a title page file containing the title of the manuscript and the correspondence and affiliation information for all contributing authors, and (2) a manuscript file, which should not contain the names, affiliations, or correspondence information for any contributing author. Take care to remove author names from the footnotes or running heads of the manuscript before submitting. In addition, you should also prepare separate files for any figures or tables. If you encounter any difficulties while submitting your manuscript, please contact the appropriate person using the “CONTACT US” link in the right sidebar.

Electronic Figures

Electronic versions of all figures must be supplied. For vector graphics, EPS is the preferred format. For bitmapped graphics, TIFF is the preferred format. The following resolutions are optimal: line figures, 600-1200 dpi; photographs, 300 dpi; screen dumps, leave as is. Font-related problems can be avoided by using standard fonts such as Times Roman, Courier, or Helvetica. Color figures can be submitted in the RGB color system. Unless you pay for color printing, all figures will be printed in black and white; please be sure that your figures look good in black and white.


Manuscript Presentation

Language and Formatting

The journal’s language is English. British English or American English spelling and terminology may be used, but either one should be followed consistently throughout the article.

We appreciate any efforts that you make to ensure that the language is corrected before submission. In order to support international submissions, the editorial office of the International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning will provide language assistance as needed. This service will be coordinated through the editorial office prior to acceptance of your article for publication, and will be handled as a final stage of review. In addition, authors whose first language is not English may want to have their manuscripts checked prior to submission to ensure that their ideas are clearly expressed for reviewers.

Quotations of more than 40 words should be set off clearly, either by indenting the left-hand margin or by using a smaller typeface. Use double quotation marks for direct quotations and single quotation marks for quotations within quotations and for words or phrases used in a special sense. Pages should be numbered consecutively. Please do not use any special formatting, as this can interfere with the production of page proofs.

For issues of style and reference format not addressed in these instructions, please follow the guidelines of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.).

Title Page

The first page of the manuscript (Title Page) should contain:

  • Full title of the article
  • Running head (shortened title; no more than 50 characters)
  • Author(s)
  • Author Affiliation(s)
  • Full correspondence address, including telephone number, fax number, and e-mail address
  • 3 to 10 key words or short phrases in alphabetical order.

Abstract

A short abstract of 100 to 250 words should be provided. The abstract should not contain any undefined abbreviations or unspecified references. The abstract and key words will be used to select appropriate reviewers; it is essential to make them as informative as possible.

Text

The main manuscript file should contain the following sections in this order:

  • Abstract
  • Text
  • Appendices (optional)
  • Notes (optional)
  • Acknowledgments (optional)
  • References
  • Legends (for figures)
  • Captions (for tables)

Section Headings: Please use no more than two heading levels in your text. Headings should be clearly distinguished but not numbered. Use bold, lower-case roman font for first-level headings and italic, lower-case roman font for second-level headings. Both should be left aligned and not centered. Use a capital letter on the first word only.

Appendices: Supplementary material should be collected in an Appendix and placed before the Notes and Reference sections.

Notes: Please use endnotes rather than footnotes. Notes should be indicated by consecutive superscript numbers in the text and listed at the end of the article before the references. A source reference note should be indicated by means of an asterisk after the title. This note should be placed at the bottom of the first page.

Acknowledgements: Acknowledgements of people, grants, funds, etc. should be placed in a separate section before the References.

Citations: All references should be cited parenthetically in the text at least once, and include the first author’s last name, publication year, and page number(s) (where appropriate). If there are more than two authors it is only necessary to list the first author’s name, followed by “et al.” In the event that a cited author has had two or more works published during the same year, the reference, both in the text and in the reference list, should be differentiated by consecutive lower case letters, beginning with the letter ‘a.’ Citations for works by different authors within the same parentheses should be separated by a semicolon. Examples:

  • Winograd (1986, p. 204)
  • (Winograd, 1986a, b)
  • (Winograd, 1986, 1987)
  • (Winograd, 1986; Flores et al. 1988)
  • (Bullen & Bennett, 1990)

Figures

All photographs, graphs and diagrams should be referred to as a ‘Figure’ (not Fig.) and they should be numbered consecutively (1, 2, etc.) as they are referred to in the text. All figures should be explicitly referred to in the text, e.g., “(see Figure 3b)”. Multi-part figures should be labeled with lower case letters (a, b, c, etc.). Please insert keys and scale bars directly in the figures if needed. Relatively small text and great variation in text sizes within figures should be avoided, as figures are often reduced in size during production. Figures may be sized to fit approximately within the column(s) of the journal. Figures should be uploaded into the Editorial Manager system when the manuscript is originally submitted. Figures may be uploaded individually (the file name should indicate the figure number), or combined into one file and uploaded at once. Please provide a detailed legend (without abbreviations) for each figure, clearly label to which figure it belongs, and place all legends after the references.

Tables

Each table should be numbered consecutively (1, 2, etc.) as it is referred to in the text. All tables should be explicitly referred to in the text. In tables, footnotes are preferable to long explanatory material in either the heading or body of the table. Such explanatory footnotes, identified by superscript letters, should be placed immediately below the table. Tables should be uploaded into the editorial manager system when the manuscript is originally submitted. Tables may be uploaded individually (the file name should indicate the table number), or combined into one file and uploaded at once. Please provide a caption (without abbreviations) to each table, clearly label to which table it belongs, and place all captions after the figure legends in the manuscript.

References

Published material, such as references to books, journal articles, articles in collections and conferences or workshop proceedings, and technical reports should be listed at the end of the article in alphabetical order according to the first author’s last name or the name of the reporting agency (in the case of technical reports). Articles in preparation or articles submitted for publication but not yet accepted, unpublished observations, and personal communications, etc. should not be included in the reference list and should only be mentioned in the article text, e.g., “(Moore, 1985, personal communication)”. Material that has been accepted for publication, but whose specific publication information is not yet known (e.g., volume, issue, or page numbers), can be included in the reference list and should be followed by the phrase “in press”. Updates of this information should be provided at the time of proof review. For material that appears in both electronic and print format, the citation information from the print format should be used; it may be supplemented with electronic citation information. When citing other electronic sources please follow APA guidelines, which can be found at www.apastyle.org/elecref.html.

Books: References to entire books should include the author’s name; year of publication; title; place of publication; publisher; and page numbers where appropriate (if citing a direct quotation). Please use the format given below.

Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Books, Edited Collections: References to articles in an edited collection should include the author’s name; year of publication; article title; editor’s name; title of collection; first and last page numbers; place of publication; and publisher. Please use the format given below.

Hutchins, E. (1990). The technology of team navigation. In J. Galegher, R.E. Kraut & C. Edigo (Eds), Intellectual teamwork: Social and technological foundations of cooperative work (pp. 191-220). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Conference Proceedings: References to articles in conference proceedings should include the author’s name; year of publication; article title; editor’s name (if any); title of proceedings; place of publication; publisher and/or organization from which the proceedings can be obtained; and first and last page numbers. (Note: If no official proceedings have been published, include conference name, place, and date.) Please use the format given below.

Paavola, S., Lipponen, L., & Hakkarainen, K. (2002). Epistemological foundations for CSCL: A comparison of three models of innovative knowledge communities. Proceedings of CSCL 2002 (2002, Boulder, CO). In G. Stahl (Ed), Computer support for collaborative learning: Foundations for a CSCL community (pp. 24-32). Hillsdale, NY: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Journals and other Periodicals: References to articles in periodicals should include the author’s name (use ‘et al.’ following the sixth author’s name); year of publication; article title; full title of periodical; volume number (issue number where appropriate); and first and last page. Please use the format given below.

Davis, E., & Miyake, N. (1988). Explorations of scaffolding in complex classroom systems. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 13, 265-272.

Schmidt, K, & Bannon, L. (1992). Taking CSCW seriously: Supporting articulation work. Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), 1(1-2), 7-40.

Technical Reports and Dissertations: References to technical reports or doctoral dissertations should include the author’s or organization’s name; year of publication; title of report or dissertation; description of document; institution; location of institution; and country. Please use the format given below.

Hughes, J.A., Shapiro, D.Z., Sharrock, W.W., & Anderson, R. (1988). The automation of air traffic control. Technical Report, Lancaster Sociotechnics Group, Department of Sociology, Lancaster University, UK.

Zisman, M.D. (1977). Representation, Specification and Automation of Office Procedures. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Department of Decision Sciences, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, PA, USA.


Review Process

The International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning is dedicated to publishing high-quality peer-reviewed articles. A rigorous, double-blind peer-review process ensures the high standards of the journal. After an article is submitted, it is assigned to several qualified reviewers for peer review according to such criteria as scholarship, relevance, impact, and presentation. The process is double-blind; the authors of the manuscript do not know who is reviewing their article, and the reviewers do not know the names or affiliations of the authors of the manuscripts they review. Based on the recommendations of the reviewers, the executive editors will choose to accept the manuscript as is, accept the manuscript pending major or minor revisions, reject the manuscript but encourage resubmission, or simply reject the manuscript. The reviewer’s manuscript evaluations will be made available to authors when a decision is reached. Revisions will be coordinated through the Editorial Manager review system. In addition, language editing will be coordinated through the review system for those manuscripts deemed in need of it.

Acceptance

Upon acceptance of an article for publication, the corresponding author will be notified via email. At that point, it is the authors’ responsibility to complete and return to the publisher a copyright transfer agreement, and secure and provide permission statements for the use of any copyrighted material.

Copyright

Upon acceptance of an article, authors are required to transfer copyright of the article to the publisher. This will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information under copyright laws. The “Consent to Publish and Transfer of Copyright” form is available for download from the Editorial Manager system. Please send a completed and signed form either by mail or fax to the office or number listed on the form. Failure to do so will result in a publication delay for your article.

Permissions

It is the author’s responsibility to obtain all necessary permissions in writing. Permission is required to quote any unpublished material, for all quotations in excess of 250 words in one extract or 500 words in total from any work still in copyright, and for the reprinting of figures, tables or other visual aids or data from unpublished or copyrighted material.

Publication

Once a manuscript has been accepted for publication, page proofs of the article will automatically be generated and sent to the corresponding author via email. Instructions for correcting and returning the proofs are provided below and will also accompany the proofs themselves.

Accepted articles will be published in archival format in the hardcopy quarterly issues of ijCSCL and on the Springer journal website. Subscribers to ijCSCL will receive the printed issues in the mail and will have free access to the Springer journal site. Access to the Springer journal site will be available to others at a fee per article. Prepublication versions of all articles will be freely available on the ijCSCL website to encourage broad dissemination. Abstracting and indexing of ijCSCL will be sought as soon as possible.

Pre-Publication

By agreement between Springer and the International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS), ISLS maintains the right to post to the journal’s website a pre-publication version (in the form of a PDF of the author’s accepted manuscript or the uncorrected printer’s proofs) of any or all articles accepted for publication in ijCSCL. This right is automatically conferred to ISLS upon acceptance of an article for publication in ijCSCL. A statement that this prepublication version lacks the final editing, layout and pagination of the official version, which will appear at link.springer.com, will accompany the posted article. When all final changes are made to the manuscript, the Society will update the link from the prepublication version to the appropriate URL for the work on link.springer.com, and state that citations or references should be made to the official published version.

Although both ISLS and ijCSCL discourage authors from posting accepted material to other open websites, in instances where authors disregard these recommendations, a statement that the posting is a prepublication version must accompany the manuscript. Furthermore, the author must use either a PDF of the author’s accepted submission or the PDF of the uncorrected printer’s proofs for the prepublication version. When the final manuscript is published, authors are required to update the link from the prepublication version to the appropriate URL for the work on, and state that citations or references should be made to the official published version.

Electronic Publication

Once an accepted article has been edited, the authors have submitted any final corrections, and all changes have been incorporated, the article will be published on link.springer.com. The date on which this occurs will be the article’s official publication date. At that time, the article will receive a Digital Object Identifier (DOI number), and the article’s references will be linked using CrossRef, which allows easy linking in and out of all cited material.

Print Publication

Every accepted article will be assigned to a journal issue and published in archival format in one of the hardcopy quarterly issues of ijCSCL. The journal will be published in March, June, September, and December of each year. Subscribers to ijCSCL will receive the printed issues in the mail and will have free access to the Springer journal site. Members of the International Society of the Learning Sciences are entitled to a free subscription to ijCSCL.

Proofs

Please be sure to include your email address with your registration and online paper submission. If your paper is accepted, we will provide proofs electronically. The proofread copy should be returned to the Publisher within 72 hours.

Offprints

Twenty-five offprints of each article will be provided free of charge. Additional offprints (both hard copies and PDF files) can be ordered by means of an offprint order form that is supplied with the proofs.

Springer Open Choice

In addition to the normal publication process (whereby an article is submitted to the journal and access to that article is granted to customers who have purchased a subscription), Springer now provides authors with an alternative publishing option: Springer Open Choice. A Springer Open Choice article receives all the benefits of a regular subscription-based article, but in addition is made available publicly through Springer’s online platform SpringerLink. To publish via Springer Open Choice, upon acceptance please visit www.springer.com/us/open-access/springer-open-choice to complete the relevant order form and provide the required payment information. Payment must be received in full before publication, or your manuscript will publish as regular subscription-model article. We regret that Springer Open Choice cannot be ordered for published articles.


Additional Information

Additional information can be obtained from:

Publishing Editor

Melissa James, Springer
[email protected]
www.springer.com/journal/11412

Editors-in-Chief

Sanna Järvelä
University of Oulu, Department of Educational Sciences and Teacher Education
Oulu, Finland
www.oulu.fi/university/researcher/sanna-jarvela
[email protected]

Carolyn Penstein Rosé
Carnegie Mellon University, Language Technologies Institute
Pittsburgh, PA
www.cs.cmu.edu/~cprose
[email protected]