Submissions

Author Guidelines

Writing for Teaching & Learning Inquiry

As the official journal of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL), TLI has an international and multidisciplinary audience with SoTL as the common ground among its readers. As a result, authors should prepare their materials with this readership in mind.  Please read the "Writing for TLI’s Diverse Readers: Principles and Practices" guide from the editorial team before you submit to Teaching & Learning Inquiry.

Ready for Submission & Review Processes

All submissions should be anonymized. Authors should take steps to remove all authors' names and affiliations from all submitted documents.  Submissions that haven't been anonymized cannot be sent out for review and thus will delay consideration.  Different versions of Word and similar software require different steps, which will be described in the software's help files. In the copyediting phase, authors will then add identifying information that was redacted for original submission. Any identifying information added through this submission system will be shared only with the journal’s editorial staff. 

Identify a corresponding author. This platform (Open Journal Systems/OJS) streamlines communication to a single author in many places, so if there are multiple authors, please appoint one as the corresponding author who will be responsible for all exchanges with the TLI editorial staff. In Step 3 of the submission process, authors will be asked to add names, email, affiliations, and a brief biographical note (approximately 1 sentence) for ALL authors. For each author, please indicate family name (surname) in the Comments to the Editor section of submission to ensure our precision in other areas of the journal, indexing, etc.

Review the Submission Preparation Checklist before submitting to TLI. Fully prepared submissions are less likely to encounter delays.

Technical Specifications

Apply TLI's Style Guide.  Submissions should apply the layout, formatting, citation, punctuation, and illustrations/figures/tables in the TLI Style Guide for Authors.  Before a manuscript can go to copyediting, authors should apply this style guide to avoid delays.  The length of the manuscript should match TLI's types of submission.  

All file types and sizes should be appropriate for TLI. Complete manuscripts, in English, should be submitted as a single document in Microsoft Word, OpenOffice, or RTF. (We cannot accept PDFs.)  Individual files should not exceed 90 MB in size.  To allow reviewers to see all relevant submission materials, all tables, figures, and other illustrations should be inserted into the single file of the submitted text, rather than uploaded as separate files. 

Supplementary files, data, or multimedia (e.g., audio or video files) are encouraged, as they can take advantage of the online environment to incorporate elements beyond text. Individual files should not exceed 90 MB in size.  For other supplementary files or other types of multimedia-based submissions (e.g., simulations, audio materials, games), please contact the Editorial Office (tli@issotl.com) for information on preferred formats and file sizes.

Ethical Considerations

SoTL projects are classified as 'human subjects research' and thus should have been successfully reviewed according to the institution’s research ethics committee guidelines.  Policies and procedures for review of human research ethics vary by institution, so check with your institution for details. 

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission for any copyrighted material used (including illustrations) and will be asked to provide formal written permission upon acceptance for publication. Authors are expected to adhere to the standards for intellectual property rights and plagiarism, and authors assume full responsibility for the content of their submissions.

Authors who publish with Teaching & Learning Inquiry agree to the following Terms of Copyright:

• Authors retain copyright and grant Teaching & Learning Inquiry right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC-BY-NC 4.0) International, allowing others to share the work with proper acknowledgement and citation of the work's authorship and initial publication in Teaching & Learning Inquiry.
• To be eligible for publication in TLI, manuscripts should not be shared publicly (i.e., posted online) a) while under review (after being initially submitted, or after being revised and resubmitted for reconsideration), or b) upon notice of acceptance and before publication. However, in pursuit of manuscripts of the highest quality, TLI encourages authors--before submitting to TLI--to seek mentorship and feedback from relevant communities.  (This copyright specification does not apply to presenting at conferences, which a traditional academic practice in readying ideas for publication.)  
• Authors retain copyright and grant Teaching & Learning Inquiry right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC-BY-NC 4.0), allowing others to share the work with proper acknowledgement and citation of the work's authorship and initial publication in Teaching & Learning Inquiry.
• Authors may enter separate, additional contractual agreements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in Teaching & Learning Inquiry.
• Once published, authors are strongly encouraged to share the published version widely, with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in Teaching & Learning Inquiry. (See The Effect of Open Access.)

Authors disclose any conflicts of interest. In accordance with APA guidelines, TLI requires that all authors provide “notice of any interests that might be seen as influencing the research.”