Submission Procedures

The submission process for the International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning is done through the Editorial Manager system, located at www.editorialmanager.com/cscl. Manuscripts should be prepared with minimal formatting and submitted in an acceptable file format, such as MS Word. PDF is NOT an acceptable format. As described in the steps below, you will need to submit a title page, a manuscript file and optional files of figures and tables. Further submission guidelines and detailed layout instructions are available at www.isls.org/journals/ijcscl/instructions-for-authors.

The submission process involves several steps. Please use these instructions as a guide while submitting your manuscript.

The journal now accepts submissions in two formats:

  • Single-spaced and formatted with embedded figures and tables.
    This is the preferred format: it makes it easier to read, to review and to judge its length. Please use the Word template. Most published papers are about 20 pages long in this format.
  • Double-spaced in APA format with figures and tables separated from the text.
    This format was designed for previous journal production processes. It is still acceptable.

You may use either of these formats. Follow these steps:

  1. Log in and/or Register with the system: Log in to the Editorial Manager System. If you have not already registered with the system, follow the links and provide the requested information. If you are available as a reviewer for the journal, please mark that option on the registration page and select your personal classifications. Once you have registered and logged into the system, you may select “Submit New Manuscript.”
  2. Enter Article Title: Enter the article title as it appears on the manuscript.
  3. Select Article Type: Select your article type from the drop-down list.
  4. Add Authors: Please enter the requested information for every person who should be listed as an author or co-author. Once all contributing authors have been entered, you can use the up and down arrows to arrange them in the desired author order.
  5. Register a Corresponding Author: Select one author to be the “corresponding author”; this author needs to be registered with the Editorial Manager system. Please Note: the corresponding author will be the only author able to view the status of a manuscript and track its progress through the system. If the selected corresponding author is not already registered, the submitting author will be prompted to register that author — follow the link and provide the requested information. After the corresponding author is successfully registered, you will be redirected back to step number 4. The corresponding author will receive registration confirmation via email; this confirmation email will contain their user ID and password. Re-enter the corresponding author’s name and email address and re-select them as the corresponding author. You will then be prompted to “verify” this author by providing the user ID that was chosen when they were registered.
  6. Enter Keywords: Enter 3 to 10 keywords that describe the main subject areas of the article. These will be used for indexing purposes.
  7. Select Document Classification: Check the boxes that most accurately classify your article. These will be used for assigning your paper to expert reviewers.
  8. Enter Comments: Enter any comments that you would like to address to the editors regarding your submission. These comments will not appear in the manuscript.
  9. Upload Files: Because ijCSCL uses a double-blind reviewing system, you must upload at least two files for your submission:
    • (1) a title page containing the title of the manuscript and the correspondence and affiliation information for all authors, and
    • (2) the manuscript, which should NOT CONTAIN the names, affiliations, or correspondence information for ANY author. Take care to remove author names from the footnotes or running heads of the manuscript before submitting. In addition, if the manuscript contains any figures or tables, these files should be uploaded at this time. Either clearly label and save each figure or table as a separate file and upload them individually, or combine all the figures (or tables) used in the manuscript in a single file of figures and upload that document.
  10. Confirmation: Once all the necessary materials have been uploaded into the system, a PDF submission package will be automatically constructed. The corresponding author will be notified via email when this process is complete. Depending on the size of the files uploaded, this may take as long as an hour. This submission package will need to be approved by the corresponding author before it is submitted to the editorial office for peer review. The corresponding author should log back into the Editorial Manager system using their user ID and password (supplied in an email when they were registered), select the “Submissions waiting for author’s approval” link, view the submission, and approve or remove the submission package. Once the submission package is approved by the corresponding author, the manuscript will be submitted to the Editorial Office.
  11. Review process: Correspondence during the review process will take place between the ijCSCL editors and the corresponding author. The corresponding author can track progress of the manuscript through the review process in the Editorial Manager system.

PDF versions of these procedures are available for printing out at: