Preparing a Manuscript for Submission to the JSCE

Revisions (C. Pohl, January 2017; K. Carnahan, August 2017; K. Choi, June 2023)

Papers submitted to the JSCE for review must undergo the review process necessary to present at the Annual Meeting of the SCE, SJE or SSME.

The JSCE does not publish previously published works. If you have published your paper (or a significant portion of your paper) elsewhere or if it will be published elsewhere in the immediate future the paper is not eligible for publication. If you have questions, please contact the co-editors as soon as possible to find if this policy impacts your paper.

If presenters wish to have their manuscripts reviewed for publication:

1. Authors must submit a file with their abstract to the online system for the JSCE (https://jsce.scholasticahq.com/) by October 15 prior to the January meeting. This can be the same abstract that the author used in their proposal for the meeting.
2. Authors must submit their papers to the online system for the JSCE by midnight on the Monday before the SCE meeting. Authors should NOT upload their paper as a new submission. They should submit this as a “revision” of the abstract using a link that will be sent via email from the editors.
3. Manuscripts must be submitted in Microsoft Word.
4. All papers that are submitted to the JSCE for review must include a 100-150 word abstract placed at the beginning of the paper. The abstract does not replace an introduction to the paper.
5. Any illustrations should be submitted as separate electronic files. Do not embed the illustrations in the manuscript Word files or place them in a separate Word document.
6. Authors are expected to prepare their work following the standards of academic scholarship.
   • This must include prior IRB approval when research involves human subjects. A letter from the IRB should be uploaded as an additional file when the paper is submitted.
   • Although styles appropriate for presentation may include a colloquial tone, papers to be reviewed for Journal publication must be submitted in prose form. Papers in power point or outline form are not acceptable.
7. Papers must be developed using The Chicago Manual of Style (CMS17). The body of the text must be double-spaced using 12 point “Times New Roman” font.
   • The JSCE employs the “footnotes and bibliography” rather than the “author-date” system of documentation. Papers submitted at the time of the Annual Meeting of the SCE should utilize footnotes; these references may be single-spaced.
   • As much as is possible, authors should follow the style specifications and formatting guidelines noted below.
8. Panel presentations in plenary, concurrent, or interest group sessions may be submitted to the JSCE for review. Recognizing the likely colloquial nature of some presentations, however, the JSCE requires that panel submissions adhere to the academic standards of scholarship as noted above.
9. Unacknowledged use of AI generated text or citations is not permitted in the Journal. The author guarantees that any use of writing tools to modify or translate text in the Manuscript prior to submission has been consistent with the Submission Guidelines. All citations and references are to original sources that can be verified by the Journal’s editorial team.

For a panel presentation to be considered for publication, one of the following two approaches is required:

1. One of the panelists assumes the work of collating and merging the panelists’ respective works to create a single document (this option requires the development of an introduction, presents a break between each of the panelist’s work by identifying the author and title of the presentation, and includes, if available, any prepared response by yet another member of the panel); for example, see Sohail Hashmi and respondents John Kelsay, Dov Nelkin, Jonathan E. Brockopp, and Irene Oh, “Cultivating a Liberal Islamic Ethics, Building an Islamic Civil Society,” JSCE 27.1 (2007):3-32.
2. One of the panelists assumes the work of weaving the panel presentations into a single document (this option requires the development of an introduction, transitions from one panelist’s work to the next, and a conclusion); for example, see Julie Hanlon Rubio, Barbara Hilkert Andolsen, Rebecca Todd Peters, and Cheryl Kirk-Duggan, “Women Scholars in Christian Ethics: the impact and value of family care,” JSCE 27.2 (2007):11-53.

Papers under consideration for publication in the JSCE will be reviewed by two referees at the Annual Meeting, as well as the Journal co-editors. Each referee will prepare a report and editors will receive a copy or summary of these anonymous reports. If the paper is not accepted for publication, the author will still receive the comments from the referees via Scholastica.

If the paper is accepted for publication, it will be returned to the author with the comments from referees. Only in some cases, editors will provide additional brief comments. Authors will also receive from the editors guidelines for format editing, requests for additional information, and suggestions for cutting, splicing, and other author-generated revisions.

The revised manuscript is due to the editors by April 30 unless otherwise directed. For this submission, authors must follow the format guidelines noted below. All papers must be submitted electronically in Microsoft Word.

The ideal length of a paper, including all references, is between 5,000 and 6,250 words (approximately 20-25 double-spaced typed pages). Essays with over 8,000 words will only be accepted in extraordinary situations. A word count should be included at the beginning of the revised manuscript submission.

Publishing Guidelines (includes JSCE-specific preferences)

General Formatting

1. Please provide an accurate word count for the entire essay.
2. A 100-150 word abstract of the essay appears at the top of the essay, after the title and author name (both centered and in bold formatting; not in all caps).
3. After the abstract, author bio information appears in the following format, in italics:
   Jill Welch, PhD, Associate Professor of Ethics, College of Ethics, 5 Ethics Rd., Miami, FL 09821; welchj@coe.edu.
4. The entire manuscript is double spaced, including footnotes, block quotations, and references, and uses the 12-point Times Roman font throughout the manuscript. Footnotes, not endnotes, are to be used when the paper is revised for publication by the author.
5. The entire manuscript has been prepared in Word. (Note: If you have converted the manuscript from another program, check to be certain that no data were lost. Clean up any extra spaces or incorrect characters that may have been added.)
6. The text must be clean with no autoformatting. Manuscripts with embedded queries, tracked changes, and/or particular design specifications will be returned for you to fix accordingly.
7. Run spell check, a critical function in Word.
8. Set off block quotations by a one-inch indent on the left side only. Do not enter a hard return at the end of each line.
9. Check all URLs and ensure the websites are still active and accurately display the information you intend.
10. All em-dashes—which when typeset will resemble these—in the text are indicated by two consecutive hyphens without space before, between, or after them, so that they appear like this–.
11. The first paragraph of each new section is set flush left and all subsequent paragraphs are indented using tabs. Do not insert spaces (returns) between paragraphs.
12. The first use of an abbreviation is spelled out in the text followed by the abbreviated form in parentheses, e.g., Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI). (Note: All subsequent mentions of the abbreviation may use the abbreviated form only.)
13. All quotations have been compared with original sources for accuracy of citation and completeness.
14. Every page is numbered consecutively in the top, right-hand corner of the manuscript straight through from beginning to end in Arabic numerals.
15. All headers and footers (running heads and running feet) have been removed.
16. Main headers of sections in the essay should not be in all caps. But please highlight in bold and center on the page. Subheaders of sections should be set flush left in bold (no caps).
17. The Chicago Manual of Style (CMS17) is followed. For a quick guide on footnote formatting and sample citations, consult: https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide/citation-guide-1.html.
18. For spelling not covered by CMS17, please follow the guidance of Merriam-Webster Dictionary, https://www.merriam-webster.com/.
19. If including a web address for a journal article, please insert the DOI address only (https://doi.org/…), if available.
20. Additionally, please note:
    • % should be spelled out as percent: e.g., 10 percent.
    • Washington, D.C. should be without periods, so: Washington, DC.
    • Also, no periods in suffixes such as: SJ, PhD, MD, etc.
    • Whole numbers 0-100 should be spelled out (except in the case of a percent, see #1 above).
    • Number of centuries should be spelled out: e.g., twentieth century, twenty-first century.
    • Ellipsis points (…) in quotations: no spaces should appear before and after an ellipsis. A period should be added to an ellipsis (thus: ….) when indicating the remainder of a sentence.
    • Ibid. should be avoided. Use author’s last name and short title for subsequent citations.
    • Covid-19 should be COVID-19 .
    • Lower case for the following: a.m., p.m.
    • Capitalizations (unless otherwise in quoted text): White, Black, Asian, Brown, Latinx, Indigenous
    • For books or articles with more than three authors, the first author is listed, followed by et al.
    • Avoid the use of contractions (e.g., don’t, can’t, it’s), unless referring to an idiomatic expression or quoting text.
    • Commas are not necessary before Jr., Sr. III or the like when part of a name, unless a comma appears in quoted text.
    • When citing a website/URL in a footnote, an “accessed date” is not required if there is a definite pub date on the page or link you are citing.