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Final Manuscript Preparation Guidelines for Occasional Paper Series

This document provides details on typesetting and layout requirements pertaining to final manuscript submission to the Occasional Paper Series.

Formatting Requirements

  • Do not include a title page or abstract. (Begin the document with the introduction; a title page, including the abstract, will be added to your paper by the editors.)
  • Do not include page numbers, headers, or footers. These will be added by the editors.
  • Submit your manuscript, including tables, figures, appendices, etc., as a single file (Word, RTF, or PDF files are accepted).
  • Page size should be 8.5 x 11-inches.
  • All margins (left, right, top and bottom) should be 1.5 inches (3.8 cm), including your tables and figures.
  • Double space your text.
  • Use a single column layout with both left and right margins justified.
  • Font:
    1. Main Body—12 pt. Times or the closest comparable font available
    2. Footnotes—10 pt. Times or the closest comparable font available
  • If figures are included, use high-resolution figures, preferably encoded as encapsulated PostScript (eps).
  • Copyedit your manuscript.
  • When possible, there should be no pages where more than a quarter of the page is empty space.

Additional Recommendations

The Occasional Paper Series follows the publication style of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association Manual (6th edition). Authors should reference this manual for instruction on meeting ethical standards for data collection and reporting, basic grammar and style, and citation and reference list preparation. For help with APA, use Bank Street Library's APA Citation Resources webpage.

Indenting, Line Spacing, and Justification

  • Indent all paragraphs except those following a section heading. An indent should be a standard single-tab (.5 inches).
  • Do not insert extra space between paragraphs of text with the exception of long quotations, theorems, propositions, special remarks, etc. These should be set off from the surrounding text by additional space above and below.
  • All text should be left-justified (i.e., flush with the left margin—except where indented).

Colored text

  • Set the font color to black for the majority of the text. We encourage authors to take advantage of the ability to use color in the production of figures, maps, etc., however, you need to appreciate that this will cause some of your readers problems when theyprint the document on a black & white printer. For this reason, you areadvised to avoid the use of colors in situations where their translation to black and white would render the material illegible or incomprehensible.
  • Please ensure that there are no colored mark-ups or comments in the final version, unless they are meant to be part of the final text. (You may need to "accept all changes" in track changes or set your document to "normal" in final markup.)

Headings

We encourage the use of Headings (e.g., start of sections). They should be distinguished from the main body text by their fonts or by using small caps. Use the same font face for all headings and indicate the hierarchy by reducing the font size. There should be space above and below headings.

Main text

The font for the main body of text must be black and, if at all possible, in Times or closest comparable font available.

Titles

Whenever possible, titles of books, movies, etc., should be set in italics rather than underlined.

Footnotes

  • Footnotes should appear at the bottom of the page on which they are referenced rather than at the end of the paper.
  • Footnotes should be in 10 pt. Times or closest comparable font available
  • They should be single spaced, and there should be a footnote separator rule (line).
  • Footnote numbers or symbols in the text must follow, rather than precede, punctuation.
  • Excessively long footnotes are probably better handled in an appendix.

Audio and Video

  • Video and audio files should be submitted electronically to the Occasional Paper Series online submission system.
  • Do not embed videos directly into text
  • Audio should be edited in 5-7 minute segments.
  • Tables and Figures

    • To the extent possible, tables and figures should appear in the document near where they are referenced in the text.
    • Large tables or figures should be put on pages by themselves.
    • All tables and figures must be referenced somewhere in the main body of your paper (i.e., "See Table 1.")
    • Avoid the use of overly small type in tables.
    • Graphs or figures should be submitted as images in high resolution format (300 dpi or greater).
    • All tables and figures must fit within 1.5" margins on all sides (top, bottom, left and right) in both portrait and landscape view.
    • You must submit permission to reprint any images or figures previously published elsewhere and provide full citation of the source in your manuscript.

    References

    It is the author's obligation to provide complete references with the necessary information. After the last sentence of your submission, please insert a line break—not a page break—and begin your references on the same page, if possible. References should appear right after the end of the document, beginning on the last page if possible.