PAL Manuscript Guidelines

ASCD - SHSU PAL - PIC Research & Practices On-line Journal

[ASCD Performance Assessment of Leadership (PAL) Professional Interest Community (PIC)]

General Guidelines for PAL

Articles published in PAL typically range between 1,000 and 3,000 words, inclusive of all tables, figures, notes, and references. All submissions to The PAL must follow (Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th edition, 2009).

Authors must not submit any manuscript under consideration by another publisher or work that has been previously published in whole or part.

Submission fee

There is no submission fee for PAL.

Page charges

There are no page charges for PAL.

Manuscript Submission

Your manuscript should be uploaded in the form of two Word documents, one title page file and one manuscript file.

Title Page file (concise title, author name(s), institutional affiliation(s), email address(es), a 150- to 200-word abstract, and a list of keywords).
1. Tables are to be embedded within the document body. This is optional and is needed only if your article contains tables.
2. Figures are to be embedded within the document body. These is optional and is needed only if your article contains figures.

Manuscript file (body of the manuscript, endnotes, references, and figure titles/captions).

Title page file: The title page should contain a concise and informative title, the names and institutional affiliations of each author, email address(s), and an abstract of between 150 to 200 words.. We encourage you to develop this abstract according to the guidelines in the most recent edition of the APA Style Manual. Per APA style, abstracts for empirical studies should describe:

the problem under investigation;
the participants, specifying pertinent characteristics such as age, sex, and ethnic or racial group;
the essential features of the study method—particularly the interesting features of the study methodology and those likely to be used in electronic searches;
the basic findings, including effect sizes and confidence intervals and/or statistical significance levels;
the conclusions and the implications or applications.

Manuscript file: The manuscript should be a Microsoft Word document that contains article text, notes, and reference list (and any text-based appendices). Authors' names and/or institutional affiliations must not appear in the article text or in the MS Word document properties information attached to the file submitted. Headers and footers should have no author names, but may carry a short title at the top. Information in text or endnotes that would identify the author should be masked from the manuscript file. These may be reinserted in the final draft. Because the PAL readers represent a variety of professional interests, it is recommended that any statistical material be presented as briefly and simply as possible.

Tables file: The tables file should contain all tables (including any table-based appendices), each on a separate page in a single document. The tables file should be uploaded using the Tables selection within Editorial Manager.

Figure file(s): Any files containing figures should be embedded in the manuyscript. Please note that figures must be provided at size—no larger than 4 1/2" x 7" (full page) and preferably no larger than 4 1/2" x 3 1/2" (half page), Black/White or Grayscale only, and as high-quality PDF files (with a minimum DPI of 300). All illustrations must have captions, which should not appear on the artwork but should be typed, double-spaced, on a sheet at the end of the manuscript.

Please be sure to carefully consult the PAL Style Guide to ensure that your manuscript is in conformance with the journal’s technical requirements. This will expedite formal consideration of the substance of your submission. Submissions not in conformance with conventions detailed in the PAL Style Guide will be sent back to the author for correction. This will delay formal consideration.

Criteria for Selection

For all articles that are subjected to a full review, the opinions of the referees will be transmitted to the author(s). Papers are evaluated on the following dimensions:

writing style and readability, logical development, appropriate length (typically 1,000–3,000 words), appropriateness of author's stated objectives.
Content: significance to PAL readers and relevance to the field, originality of approach, quality of theoretical/conceptual development, quality of data, appropriateness of methodology, quality of analysis, logic of conclusions, policy relevance.

It should be emphasized that the editors respond most favorably to manuscripts that evidence both a freshness of vision and a vitality that may be informed by, but certainly go beyond, methodological qualities, and that are in congruence with our publishing goals and directions.

Review Process

The editorial team at PAL reviews all unsolicited manuscripts to determine if they meet the technical criteria outlined above and the basic criteria for selection (see "Criteria for Selection" above). This process typically takes less than two weeks once your paper has been deemed to meet the technical requirements for review. You will receive notification once this initial determination has been made.

If your article is sent out for blind review you can expect to receive a response from the editorial office within eight weeks. If your article is accepted, it will usually be publicly available online within 12 weeks of typesetting.

Performance Assessment for Leadership