Author Guidelines

Papers will only be published on the understanding that the work is original and has not been published or submitted for review elsewhere.

Please adhere to the following guidance when submitting work to this journal.

If the article is a collaborative effort, the order of the authors' names should be arranged in an order which reflects the amount each has contributed.

Format and Style

• Your work should be in Arial size 12 font.

• Your work should be double line spaced.

• Your work should be justified.

• Side headings and sub-headings in bold, left aligned and not underlined. 

• Word count for an article should be about 3,000 words, reflections are likely to be about 1,500 words.

• Please include a 100-word abstract, which summarises the purpose of the article and any conclusions reached.  Creating an abstract of your work is easy.  It makes it easy and quick for anyone who is interested in your topic to decide whether to read the whole article.  It should contain the aim of your article, a justification for your choice of topic (which could be data as to the extent of the issue).  You then need to include the main themes found which you should find in the conclusion (this should only be about one sentence or two at most).

• Choose a concise title for your article which reflects its content.  Make sure your title is different than an essay title. A "jazzy" title can confuse potential readers.

• Include four to five keywords to define the main themes in your work.  These help people to find the most relevant work to meet their needs and improve the discoverability of your work. It may be useful to check the keywords assigned to other journal articles on a similar topic.

• Indent quotations that are longer than four lines in length from the left-hand margin and leave a clear line space from the text above and below the quotation.  Insert the year and page number at the end of the quotation.

• If you include diagrams or images created by other authors, ensure that you have permission to include them from the original source.  We strongly advise you to avoid including these.

• Avoid using abbreviations unless they are likely to be widely recognised.  If you choose to use an abbreviation, write it out in full, followed by the abbreviation in brackets the first time you use it, e.g. Royal College of Nursing (RCN). Thereafter just use the abbreviation.

   

Referencing

• Check that all the references in your article comply with the Harvard style of referencing required for academic work at LJMU.  The guide is available from: https://www.ljmu.ac.uk/~/media/library/library-skills/harvardreferencingfullguide-sept2018.pdf?la=en

• Include a reference list at the end of your article. Check that entries in your reference list are arranged alphabetically by the authors' names and that your list includes full details of all the items you have cited in your article.

• Before submitting your work make sure it has been spell checked and grammar checked.