Skip to main content
1. Introduction
This page is a brief overview that aims to provide guidance for authors submitting manuscripts to Studies in Technology Enhanced Learning. One important aim is to reduce the amount of time and labour involved in producing the final journal issues, which will benefit authors, editors and reviewers alike.
Please note that the advice on this page might be supplemented (or partially replaced) for specific Special Issues. If that is the case, then the editors of the Special Issue should make that clear to the others involved in the process. It will usually be made clear in the relevant Call for Papers.
The guidance is intended to apply to ALL manuscripts submitted to the journal: full papers, commentaries, and anything else. Where there are differences between what is required for different paper types then these will be pointed out in the text (but, in short, there are not many differences).
2. Front matter
The title page should contain the full title of the paper, the names and affiliations of all authors (in the correct order), author biographies, and acknowledgements. More specific guidance is provided below.
Quick checklist: We particularly encourage you to provide your name, affiliation(s), email address, ORCID number, and Twitter name.
2.1 Author names and affiliations
Please provide the names of the authors of the paper in exactly the form you wish them to appear in the paper and in the correct order.
Please indicate clearly the affiliation(s) of each author, where possible in the form:
Unit, Institution, Location, Country
For example:
Department of Educational Research, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK.
Where an author has more than one affiliation, then please indicate them separately and fully on separate lines of the manuscript, and in the order you wish them to appear. Do not put them on the same line separated by slashes.
You may also provide email addresses for particular authors. Not all authors need provide an email address, but at least one email address should be provided per paper.
We also invite you to include, where you wish these to be displayed next to your names on the papers, your:
ORCID;
Academic Twitter handle.
2.2 Author biographies
We invite you to write a few words about the authors and their research interests. Where biographies are provided, then we also invite small thumbnail photographs to accompany the text (photographs may be cropped or resized to fit the typographical requirements of the journal).
We wish to be flexible, but please keep biographies to between 50 and 300 words per author.
If you do wish to provide author biographies, then please do so for all authors. If you cannot do so for all authors, then please do not provide any.
If authors have a role with a programme or research centre at Lancaster (for example, the Centre for Technology Enhanced Learning or the Doctoral Programme in e-Research and Technology Enhanced Learning) then we encourage you to mention it within the text. For example:
[name] is an Alumni Member of the Centre for Technology Enhanced Learning at Lancaster University.
2.3 Acknowledgements
We encourage acknowledgements sections in papers. Knowledge is not produced in a vacuum, and we are keen to highlight that fact.
Where the paper is based on work undertaken at Lancaster, we encourage you to acknowledge that. For example:
This paper draws on research undertaken as part of the Doctoral Programme in E-Research and Technology Enhanced Learning in the Department of Educational Research at Lancaster University.
3. Paper structure
The main body of the paper should be separated into sections.
3.1 Section numbering
With specific exceptions, sections in Studies in Technology Enhanced Learning are numbered … the way that sections are numbered in this document illustrates the broad principle.
Subsections are also numbered: so section 3 might have subsections 3.1, 3.2, etc. In turn, subsections can be further subdivided (3.1.1, 3.1.2, etc.).
We encourage authors to direct readers’ attention to other places in their paper by using the section numbers. For example:
as explained in section 3.2.1….
The specific examples for sections that do not fall within this number scheme are as follows: Front matter (including biographies and acknowledgements), Abstract, References, Appendices. Appendices have their own numbering scheme (see below), while the other examples in this list should not be numbered at all.
3.2 Abstracts
All full papers should commence with an Abstract; doing so is compulsory. We strongly encourage authors of all other submission types to provide an abstract, though they are not compulsory for those other paper types.
Typically, abstracts for the journal will be between 100 and 300 words, though Abstracts for ‘response’ articles might be shorter.
Abstracts for this journal should not have citations, references or unexplained acronyms, and should be written so that they can be read in isolation from the remainder of the article.
3.3 Keywords
Please provide between 3 and 8 keywords for your article, separated by commas. Please do not capitalise keywords unless there is a specific reason for doing so (e.g., where you use somebody’s name, such as “Foucault”).
If your contribution is a commentary responding to earlier works published in the journal, then the editors will add the keyword “commentary” to your keywords.
3.4 Section names and ordering
With specific exceptions, the journal does not prescribe the naming or ordering of sections. We do encourage the use of standard section names (Introduction, Literature Review, Theoretical Framework, Research design, Findings, Discussion, Conclusion) since many readers will be familiar with them, but we acknowledge that there are circumstances where other alternatives are preferable. Likewise, we encourage authors to keep section names as short as possible, since doing so can aid in readability; but, again, we acknowledge that exceptional circumstances can arise.
Specific exceptions include the Abstract, References and any Appendices, which should be named consistently.
3.5 Word counts
The journal does not have standard wordcount limits. Authors should, however, bear in mind that they are attempting to communicate with an audience; therefore, it is important to actively consider how to prioritise information and maintain a consistent narrative. Peer-reviewers and editors might also express an opinion about whether a piece could or should be shortened or expanded.
Editors of Special Issues or Special Sections might impose specific word count limits for those issues or sections.
3.6 Citations and References
The journal uses APA citation and referencing styles. You can use either of the styles APA 6 (which is very widely used) or APA 7 (which is more recent, and makes a few notable changes). But please be consistent throughout your paper.
There are many online guides. This one seems particularly convenient:
Please double-check prior to submission that the citations and references in your paper match. In other words, check that all citations in your paper are included in the reference list, and that all papers in the reference list are actually cited in your paper!
3.7 Footnotes
The journal allows the use of footnotes but does not allow the use of endnotes. In other words, notes are numbered and placed at the bottom of the same page where they are invoked in the text, not clustered at the end of the article. We do encourage you to use footnotes sparingly, since they can be an obstacle to readability, but we acknowledge that they are useful in some circumstances.
Footnotes are numbered throughout the paper from 1 onwards. Use Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, etc.). Do not restart the numbering on each page or for each section.
Footnotes will be displayed as such in the PDF version of your article. They will be collated as endnotes in the web version. (That collation is one of the reasons that we do not allow for both).
3.8 Appendices
The journal allows the use of Appendices, though they are not compulsory. Appendices can be used to provide extra information that might be of benefit to the reader, especially where the volume of that information might overwhelm the reader if it were included in the body of the text. But Appendices should not be used for holding information that is crucial for the reader to understand the narrative. Sometimes it is appropriate to strike a balance: for example, by providing one or two examples of something in the body of the text (such as the questions in a semi-structured interview or questionnaire), and then providing a more extensive range of cases in the Appendix.
Appendices should not be used simply as a way of “reducing wordcount” in the paper (especially since, by default, the journal does not impose wordcount limits!). The decision as to whether to include information in an Appendix should be taken based on readability, and on whether the information is important to the paper or not.
Appendices should be labelled in sequence using capital roman letters: Appendix A, Appendix B, etc. Readers should be referred to the relevant appendix in the text. For example:
as described further in Appendix B, …
It is important that all Appendices are cited in the body of the text. Appendices that are not cited in the body of the text may be deleted prior to publication.
4. Tables and Figures
The journal allows the use of Tables and Figures, though they are not compulsory. You can place Tables and Figures into your manuscript or else provide them at the end. We will try to position them in the final text as close as possible to wherever you indicate, though typographical considerations might necessitate some variation.
4.1 Tables
All tables provided must be numbered consecutively throughout the paper (Table 1, Table 2, etc.). Do not restart table numbering in different sections.
All tables must have a title that describe the content of the table.
Acronyms, symbols or other compound terms that appear in the table should be explained to the reader in parentheses () after the title.
Readers should be referred to the relevant table in the text. For example:
as shown in Table 2, …
It is important that all tables are cited in the body of the text. Tables that are not cited in the body of the text may be deleted prior to publication.
Please use the table function in your word processor to produce the tables. Please do not use spreadsheets.
4.2 Figures
All figures provided must be numbered consecutively throughout the paper (Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.). Do not restart figure numbering in different sections.
All figures must have a title that describe their content.
Acronyms, symbols or other compound terms that appear in the figure should either be explained to the reader in parentheses () after the title or in a ‘key’ in the Figure itself.
Readers should be referred to the relevant figure in the text. For example:
as shown in Figure 2, …
It is important that all figures are cited in the body of the text. Figures that are not cited in the body of the text may be deleted prior to publication.
Please provide Figures in as high resolution as you are able. Where Figures are provided as low-resolution files they may appear as pixelated and/or may be reproduced smaller than intended in the published paper.
5. Copyright issues
5.1 Journal licence
Articles in the journal will be published using the Creative Commons licence Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC BY 4.0).
As summarised on the Creative Commons website, this licence presents the following conditions to readers of your articles:
You are free to
Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.
Under the following terms:
Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
The full licence conditions are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
5.2 Reproducing copyright materials
Please do not reproduce copyright materials in your submissions unless you have the written permission of the copyright holder. That permission should be documented and submitted along with your manuscript.
Where you reproduce materials distributed under Creative Commons or other similar licences, please ensure that you follow the rules stipulated by the license. In many cases, ensuring that you cite the original source is one important stipulation.
