Submissions

Author Guidelines

1. Submission

Submission to this journal proceeds totally online, please read the Manuscript Submission Guidelines and you will be guided stepwise through the creation and uploading of your files. Authors should kindly note that submission of a manuscript will be held to imply that it is unpublished work that is not being considered for publication elsewhere. If accepted, it is expected that the manuscript will not be published in another journal in either the same or another format or language.

Once the submission has been prepared in accordance with the Author Guidelines, manuscripts should be submitted online through SUBMISSION.

The submission system will prompt the author to use an ORCID iD (a unique author identifier) to help distinguish their work from that of other researchers. Click here to find out more.

By submitting a manuscript to or reviewing for this publication, your name, email address, and institutional affiliation, and other contact details the publication might require, will be used for the regular operations of the publication.

 2. Aims and Scope

JRPM publishes original articles on the latest issues and trends occurring internationally in science education curriculum, instruction, instructional material development, learning, policy, and preparation of science teachers with the aim to enhance the knowledge of science education theory and practice.

The Editorial Team invites any manuscript addressing a relevant science education topic (e.g. in the field of mathematics education, physics education, biology education, chemistry education, environmental education and geography education) that employs an established and recognized scholarly approach and also impacts or is generalizable to national and international populations. All manuscripts must provide a thorough review of the literature that establishes the research problem or the issue at hand as well as a thorough conclusion that addresses the implications and limitations of the research or argument.

3. Manuscript Organization

In general, the manuscript should be compiled in the following order: cover letter, title page; abstract; keywords; introduction, materials and methods, results and discussion; conclusions, acknowledgments; declaration of conflict interest statement; references; appendices (as appropriate); table(s) with caption(s) (on individual pages); figures; figure captions (as a list).

 Cover Letters

Cover letters should indicate the names of all authors, the contact information for the designated correspondent, a statement about the sources of funding for the study, and the indication that this is original research not simultaneously submitted to another publication outlet.

Title Page

The title page should contain:

• A short informative title containing the major keywords. The title should not contain abbreviations.
• A short running title of less than 40 characters;
• The full names of the authors;
• The author's institutional affiliations where the work was conducted;
• Acknowledgments;

Acknowledgments

Contributions from anyone who does not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed, with permission from the contributor, in an Acknowledgments section. Financial and material support should also be mentioned. Thanks to anonymous reviewers are not appropriate.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors will be asked to provide a conflict of interest statement during the submission process. For details on what to include in this section, see the ‘Conflict of Interest’ section in the Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations section below. Submitting authors should ensure they liaise with all co-authors to confirm agreement with the final statement.

Main Text File

As papers are double-blind peer-reviewed, the main text file should not include any information that might identify the authors.

If it is necessary for authors to cite their own work, the word "author" should be inserted in the text to maintain anonymity. For example: Citations in Text: "Author (date) argues..." or end your sentence with (Author, date). Citations in Reference List: Author (date). Journal Title. (Please do not include the title of the article or its volume and page number information.)

Figures and supporting information should be supplied as separate files. Figures and tables should have callouts placed in the manuscript (e.g. Insert Table 1 here, Place Figure 1 here, etc.).

Abstract

Please provide an abstract of no more than 250 words containing the major keywords.

Keywords

Please provide up to 5-7 keywords.

Main Text

• JRPM uses British/US spelling; however, authors may submit using either option, as the spelling of accepted papers is converted during the production process.
• Footnotes to the text are not allowed and any such material should be incorporated into the text as parenthetical matter.

References

Authors should adhere to the APA 6^th Edition style conventions when submitting manuscripts. All citations and references should adhere to the guideline by the American Psychological Association (APA). The in-text citation of each reference takes the form of the author's last name and the year of publication, both enclosed in parentheses: e.g. (Walanda, 2009). The reference list is to be alphabetically ordered by the author's family/last names, and references must be complete, containing the author's initials and all relevant publication data. In the case of references to papers presented at a meeting, the full title of the paper, when and where it was presented, and the name of the sponsoring society must be given. Refer to references published in the journal for samples of the style employed.

Examples of APA references are listed below. Please note that a DOI should be provided for all references where available. For more information about APA referencing style, please refer to the APA FAQ. Please note that for journal articles, issue numbers are not included unless each issue in the volume begins with page one.

Journal article

Beers, S. R., & De Bellis, M. D. (2002). Neuropsychological function in children with maltreatment-related posttraumatic stress disorder. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 159, 483–486. http://dx.doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.159.3.483

Book

Bradley-Johnson, S. (1994). Psychoeducational assessment of students who are visually impaired or blind: Infancy through high school (2nd ed.). Austin, TX: Pro-ed.

Internet Document

Norton, R. (2006, November 4). How to train a cat to operate a light switch [Video file]. Retrieved from www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vja83KLQXZs

Endnotes

Endnotes should be placed as a list at the end of the paper only, not at the foot of each page. They should be numbered in the list and referred to in the text with consecutive, superscript Arabic numerals. Keep endnotes brief; they should contain only short comments tangential to the main argument of the paper.

Figure Legends

Legends should be concise but comprehensive—the figure and its legend must be understandable without reference to the text. Include definitions of any symbols used and define/explain all abbreviations and units of measurement.

Tables

Tables are drawn with no vertical line and should be self-contained and complement, not duplicate, the information contained in the text. They should be supplied as editable files, not pasted as images. Legends should be concise but comprehensive – the table, legend, and notes must be understandable without reference to the text. All abbreviations must be defined in footnotes. Symbols: †, ‡, §, ¶, should be used (in that order) and *, **, *** should be reserved for P-values. Statistical measures such as SD or SEM should be identified in the headings.

Figures

Although authors are encouraged to send the highest-quality figures possible, for peer-review purposes, a wide variety of formats, sizes, and resolutions are accepted. Click here for the basic figure requirements for figures submitted with manuscripts for initial peer review, as well as the more detailed post-acceptance figure requirements.

4. General Style Points

The following points provide general advice on formatting and style.

• Abbreviations: In general, terms should not be abbreviated unless they are used repeatedly and the abbreviation is helpful to the reader. Initially, use the word in full, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses. Thereafter use the abbreviation only.
• Units of measurement: Measurements should be given in SI or SI-derived units. Visit the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM) website for more information about SI units.
• Numbers: Numbers under 10 are spelt out, except for: measurements with a unit (8mmol/l); age (6 weeks old), or lists with other numbers (11 dogs, 9 cats, 4 gerbils).
• Trade Names: Chemical substances should be referred to by the generic name only. Trade names should not be used. Drugs should be referred to by their generic names. If proprietary drugs have been used in the study, refer to these by their generic name, mentioning the proprietary name and the name and location of the manufacturer in parentheses.