Submissions

Author Guidelines

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES FOR ESSAYS (PEER REVIEW) SECTION

The essays section profiles critical discussions and in-depth analyses of community-engaged scholarship. The works published in this section may focus on specific projects or examine broad theoretical considerations defining community-engaged scholarship.

Articles focusing on a specific project shall offer an in-depth analysis of a given project and profile its outcomes in the broader context of scholarly community engagement.

The essays section also profiles in-depth analysis and examination of theoretical and practical foundations of community-engaged scholarship. Such essays shall explore the theory and practice of engagement in a given context and particular discipline, or across disciplines, cultures and practical settings. Such essays should be informed by the authors’ substantive experience in community-engaged scholarly practices.

All articles profiled in this section should not just exemplify but advance the scholarship of community engagement. That is, the articles shall contribute ‘new knowledge’ to the field of engaged scholarship through the discussion of innovative research practices, convincing evidence, and novel explorations of meanings and applications of community-engaged scholarship in the author’s discipline and in the field of community-engaged scholarship in general. 

The articles should present original, unpublished work that is not under consideration by other journals or collections of essays. The articles should have a compelling and well-crafted argument, convey a point of view that shall be seen as novel and impactful, be grounded in relevant and current literature, and be written in accessible language and an engaging manner, and addressed to broad audience of readers.

Submissions to this section are subject to double anonymous peer-reviewing wherein the identities of authors and reviewers are concealed from each other throughout the review. The anonymized copy of the submission will be sent to two independent reviewers, who will assess its quality and will make recommendations for subsequent publication.

The reviewers will be asked to provide their evaluation of the manuscript within a six week period.

The Journal reserves the right to approach reviewers of its own choice. To ensure the readability of the future publication, at least one reviewer will be solicited from outside of the authors’ own discipline or field of study.

Once the submission is recommended for publication by independent reviewers, depending on the nature of required revisions, the authors will be asked to provide revisions to their submissions within a two or three week period. Consult the guidelines for peer-reviewers for further information.

• Be maximum 8,000 words
• Represent original, unpublished work that is not under consideration by other journals or collections of essays
• Be written in accessible language, to respect the multidisciplinary nature of the Journal and the diversity of our readers
• Keep acronyms and abbreviations that are common in your field to the minimum as our policy insists on plain and accessible language in all contributions
• Be accompanied by an abstract (200 words) and a list of up to five keywords
• Be typed, double-spaced throughout, in 12-pt Times New Roman font
• Be formatted, using the American Psychological Association (APA) style
• Have a separate cover page that includes the names, institutional affiliations, addresses, and contact information of all authors
• Include author biography/ies (no more than 50 words per author) on a separate sheet/page
• Indicate that appropriate Institutional Research Ethics Board approval was secured, if applicable
• Be formatted and saved as Microsoft Word (no PDF please)
• Be submitted in two versions: one copy should include all information to be published, and the other copy should substitute blank underlined spaces for all information to be anonymized. Information to be anonymized includes all text or data that will have to be removed from the essay for anonymized peer review purposes.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES FOR REPORTS FROM THE FIELD SECTION

The "Reports from the Field" section includes journal contributions that may focus on specific ongoing and completed projects. Submissions into this section do not normally offer critical analysis of a broad theoretical issue nor they provide in-depth theoretical arguments. 

Contributions to this section will be subject to editorial review only.

All submissions into this section should:

• Be maximum 3,000 words
• Represent original, unpublished work that is not under consideration by other journals or collections of essays
• Written in accessible language, to respect multidisciplinary nature of the Journal and the diversity of our readers
• Be accompanied by an abstract (200 words) and a list of up to five keywords
• Be typed, double-spaced throughout, in 12-pt Times New Roman font
• Be formatted in the American Psycholog5cal Association (APA) style, 6^th edition
• Include a page with the names, institutional affiliations, addresses, and contact information of all authors
• Include author biography/ies (no more than 50 words per author) on a separate sheet
• Indicate that appropriate Institutional Research Ethics Board approval was secured, if applicable
• Be formatted and saved in Microsoft Word (no PDF please)
• Keep acronyms and abbreviations that are common in your field to the minimum as our policy insists on plain and accessible language in all contributions
• Include tables and illustrations in the text, rather than at the end of the submission

The book review section features reviews of recently published monographs, collections of essays, conference proceedings, manuals, tools (including digital tools), and other self-standing published works related to the field of community-engaged scholarship. We welcome review submissions from community practitioners as well as scholars working in community-engaged research and teaching.

The book review should offer a critical evaluation of the work under review, indicate the book’s strengths and weaknesses, and discuss the book’s contribution and applicability to the field of engaged scholarship. In more detail, the book review should include:

• 1-2 sentences of context: establish why, when, where, and how the reviewer came to read the book. As part of this context, reviewers should speak to any pertinent positionality information about themselves, including their roles as researchers/practitioners, in relation to the subject matter of the work.

• The main focus and objectives of the book and whether these are effectively achieved;
• The background of the book’s author(s) or editor(s), including any pertinent positionality information and their lived and/or professional expertise in the subject matter;
• For edited books, the important themes and questions raised in the book, and the chapters that directly speak to these themes and questions;
• The methods and sources used, and the appropriateness of the methodology;
• The intended audience for this publication, and those who might benefit from the work;  
• The implications of the book for practice, theory, research, and/or policy;
• How the book compares to similar research in the field;
• Constructive comments about the strengths and weaknesses of the book.

Please keep in mind the multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary nature of the Journal and its readership. We ask that you write in accessible language and avoid academic jargon.

The Book Review Editor invites expressions of interest from those who would like to write a review of a work published within the last two years and related to community-engaged scholarship. Please email the Book Review Editor at esj.bookeditor@usask.ca with the title of the book you want to review and a brief description of your qualifications to review the book. You might also consult the list of recently published titles for which the journal is seeking reviewers.

Once your request to review a book has been approved by the Book Review Editor, the Book Review Editor will arrange for a free copy of the book to be sent to you. From that time, your submission will be due 8-12 weeks after you receive the book, but you may negotiate this timeline with the Book Review Editor in accordance with your needs. Once submitted, your review will normally proceed through one to two rounds of editorial feedback, and supposing that you are willing to make the requested revisions, the review will move on to the copyediting, typesetting, and proofs stages before being published.

In Guest Edited issues, book reviews will normally be arranged by the Guest Editors, who will carry out the editorial feedback and publishing process described above, but the final reviews will be vetted and approved by the Book Review Editor. For both Guest Edited and Regular Issues, the Editor of the journal may also review, provide feedback on, and make editorial decisions about submitted book reviews.

The word limit for book reviews should be between 800 and 1000 words. For edited collections, the word limit may be increased to 1500 words.

STYLE GUIDELINES

Please format your review, including any references, using the American Psychological Association (APA) style.

In the header of your review, please include the following information:

• Author(s) or editor(s) first and last name(s)
• Title of book
• Year of publication
• Place of publication
• Publisher
• Number of pages
• Price (please indicate paperback or hard cover) if available
• ISBN

Examples:

Single-Authored Book: 

A Nation Beyond Borders: Lionel Groulx on French-Canadian Minorities by Michel Bock. Trans. Ferdinanda Van Gennip. Ottawa, ON: University of Ottawa Press, 2014. 277pp. ISBN 978-0-7766-0821-1 

Edited Collection:

Learning and Teaching Community-Based Research: Linking Pedagogy to Practice by Catherine Etmanski, Budd, L. Hall, and Teresa Dawson (Eds.).Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press, 2014. 388pp. ISBN 978-1-4426-1257-0.

Reviewed by

Jane Wright, << fill in correspondence address>>, Email: XXX@XXX

ARTICLE PROCESSING AND SUBMISSION FEES

The Engaged Scholar Journal does not have article processing charges (apc) or article submission charges.