Guidelines for Writing Articles

Author Writing Guidelines for Literacy Forum NZ

Literacy Forum New Zealand Te Kōrero Pānui Tuhituhi o Aotearoa, the national journal of the New Zealand Literacy Association (NZLA), is published three times a year. Directed at readers interested in literacy education for early childhood, primary, and secondary students, Literacy Forum NZ presents a range of articles that include current academic
research, effective teacher practice, book reviews – both academic and children’s literature, and literacy events.

Literacy Forum NZ is published in digital format, in colour, and can be accessed alongside archived journals when you subscribe to NZLA membership online or you may purchase individual copies through the NZLA website. The journal is available to institutions through EBSCO database.

Purpose

Literacy Forum NZ provides a forum for teachers and researchers to:
● Present research findings and their practical applications and significance,
● Describe, explain or challenge best practice in literacy education,
● Analyse policies, practices, issues and trends in literacy education,
● Share NZ literacy information/happenings with national and international audiences,
● Report on children’s literature, particularly New Zealand literature,
● Celebrate those who have contributed to the New Zealand literacy scene.

We welcome and encourage submissions from national and international researchers, teachers, and other practitioners with an interest and expertise in these areas. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to email us.

Submissions

All manuscripts/articles should be emailed to the Literacy Forum Editor at editor@nzla.org.nz Submissions must meet the purpose of Literacy Forum NZ and follow manuscript specifications. Articles are peer reviewed using a double blind reviewing process, i.e. they are read by two reviewers. Authors will be informed if their article is declined, accepted, or accepted with an offer to review within a stated period. Authors will receive a digital copy of the issue in which their work is published.

A manuscript accepted for consideration must be an original contribution which has not previously been published or under review for publication elsewhere. On occasion republished articles are accepted by the editor; the source is referenced and acknowledged. It is the author’s responsibility to obtain written permission from the copyright owner (usually the publisher) when reproducing copyrighted material, digital or hardcopy (e.g. newspaper articles, tables, photographs, illustrations from books). Written permissions must be kept on file by the author’s and made available if requested. It is the author’s responsibility to ensure that ethics approval has been obtained where necessary. Articles promoting products are not normally accepted.

Submissions must include

● corresponding author/s and any co-authors names, affiliation, and contact cellphone and email address,
● short bio (65-80 words) and a portrait photograph from each contributing author which includes name, affiliation and email address,
● word processed full copy of the article which may include an abstract.

Layout and writing guidelines

Manuscripts should be written clearly and concisely, using references where required. Note that while these settings are required for editor and peer reviewers the final design for the digital journal will change. Author/s will be consulted if changes are required to their text, however the Editor reserves the right to alter spelling, punctuation, grammar, style of headings, and references without further consultation with the author.

Writing guidelines

  • E-mail contributions to editor@nzla.nz.org. These must be submitted and attached as a word document, A4 size.
  • Manuscripts should be approximately 2000 – 4,500 words, excluding tables and references.
  • Writing guidelines are based on APA 7 (with some inhouse alternatives).
  • Use size 12, Times New Roman, Arial or Calibri font.
  • Use bold font for headings and subheadings.
  • Leave one space between each sentence.
  • Use 1.5 spacing including references at the end.
  • Leave a line between paragraphs, do not indent.
  • Use New Zealand or English spelling. (Other spellings will be changed to New Zealand spelling unless you provide a good reason why it should not be.)
  • All acronyms and abbreviations should be expanded when first used in the text, followed by the abbreviated version in brackets, e.g. Education Review Office (ERO). After that use the acronym.
  • Do not use borders, drop cap, highlighting, multiple columns (except in tables), page breaks, section breaks, shading, or textboxes.
  • Avoid headers and footers in the manuscript. Footnotes included in a manuscript will normally appear as Endnotes when printed.
  • Write titles of books, key terms and bodies of work in italics.
  • Do not write quotes in Italics.

References and citations

  • If there are three or more authors, cite only the first author followed by et al. for all in-text citations.
    These need to be set out as per APA 7. For further information visit University library sites. For example the University of Waikato.
  • APA Referencing Style Guide
  • Formatting citations

Graphics and Images

  • Images should be placed in the Word document in the appropriate place with the caption above. EG: Teacher Mary Smith shows pupils a new book. Photo / Steph Dix.
  • If supplying photographs as separate files, please make sure images are clearly named so we know where to put them and indicate in the text in bold with the photo name and caption where you would prefer the images to appear.
  • Please provide a photo credit if required. Photo credit format is: Photo / Photographer’s name.
  • Please include images at original size if taken on a phone.
  • Images need to be good quality jpegs – please make sure they are sharp and the caption names the people in the photo, left to right, front row to back row. Larger groups do not need everyone named but if anyone is a focus or relevant to the article, they should be named and their place in the photo clearly indicated. (E.g: Author Steph Dix, second from left, with a group at a conference). Titles of figures and tables are italicised and set at the top of each image as per APA guidelines. Changes in shape or size of tables may occur as they may have to be recreated.
  • EPS files: Words used in charts/images must be converted to outlines. Don’t forget to include linked images. (EPS file format is for images such as charts. They can be scaled in size and retain clarity at any size because they are comprised of vectors. Any words in the charts also need to be converted to outlines so they can be scaled too).

Copyright

Articles printed become copyright of the New Zealand Literacy Association for the purposes of payment under agreement with Copyright Licencing Ltd. Authors retain all other rights to their work. Authors will be consulted if we receive any requests to reprint articles. If authors are asked directly for permission to reprint an article that has first been published in
Literacy Forum NZ, please consult with the Editor.