Style Guide

  • Submit articles in MS Word, OpenOffice, or RTF (no PDFs).
  • Times New Roman, 12-point type, single space.
  • 1-inch (2.5 cm) margins.
  • Format text for a standard page (“letter” size in U.S.; A4 in Europe).
  • Disable automatic citation or reference functions.
  • Ensure that all tables, figures, text boxes, or appendices are labeled accurately with titles and numbers, and are referenced in the text.
  • All tables, figures, and other illustrations should be inserted into the single file of the submitted text, rather than uploaded as separate files. See examples below.
  • For supplementary files, data, or media-based submissions (e.g., simulations, audio, video, games), please contact the Editorial Office (tli@issotl.com) for preferred formats and file sizes.
  • Confirm that your manuscript is within the recommended word limit. For word limits, see Submission Types under About the Journal.

FORMATTING: FIRST PAGE

Article Title

  • Boldface, left-aligned, headline style (title case, or capitalizing all principles words).

    Example: Phenomenology as a Methodology for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Abstract

  • One paragraph of no more than 250 words.

Keywords

  • Three to five keywords or phrases, lower case, separated by commas. List in order of importance, such as the following: phenomenology, higher education, methodology, lived experience. Please do not include SoTL or scholarship of teaching and learning as keywords as these are already part of the journal metadata.

Headings

  • Heading level 1: ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, FLUSH LEFT
  • Heading level 2: Sentence style (only first letter capitalized), bold, indented 0.5 inches/1.25cm
  • Heading level 3: Sentence style, italics, indented 0.5 inches/1.25cm

FORMATTING: ARTICLE BODY

Citations and References

  • Ensure that all in-text citations and entries on the reference list are accurate and complete.
  • Ensure that only works cited in the text are included in the reference list and vice versa.
  • Ensure that citations follow the Chicago Manual of Style 17, author-date reference style (See Quick Reference).

Tables and Figures

  • Tables and figures should be inserted in the text at first mention.
  • References to tables and figures should be capitalized when mentioned in the text (Table 1).
  • For any figures or photos, include an image credit with name and year.
  • Titles for table and figure: Headline style, bold, flush left

    Table 1. The Session Topics

    Figure 1. Overall Agreement That the Learning Outcomes Were Met

Indentation

  • Indent first line of all paragraphs 0.5 inch/1.25cm.
  • Indent extracts (block quotations) of more than 40 words, with an extra line space before and after the paragraph.
  • Do not use tabs to indent paragraphs, block quotations, or the reference list. Use the MS Word ruler or Paragraph feature instead.

Block Quotations

  • Block quotes of more than 40 words should be indented one-half-inch and double-spaced. Do not surround them with quotation marks.

Oxford Comma

  • Please use the Oxford comma by placing a comma after the last item in a series of three or more elements. For example: “the interaction between physical, cognitive, and social development”.

Numbers

  • Spell out numbers from one to nine.
  • Spell out and hyphenate fractions: one-fifth.

Page Numbers in In-Text Citations and Reference List

  • In specifying ranges of pages, use an en-dash, not a hyphen. Use only the last two digits after the en-dash: 317–19.
  • Exceptions: starting on the hundred (200–204), and the first nine digits after one hundred (303–9).

FORMATTING: ARTICLE END

Acknowledgments

  • The acknowledgment section is optional. Use it to thank someone who inspired or assisted your project, colleagues who offered feedback on your manuscript, or others you feel should be shown appreciation. If your work received financial support, identify the source here.

Author Biography

  • To maintain anonymity for double-anonymous peer review, this identifying information should be added only when accepted for publication.
  • Provide author name, title, affiliation, and country (three-letter country code). Focus on current biographical information and avoid extending beyond three lines of text.
  • Include a biography for each author between 20–40 words.
  • Italicize and indent the entire entry 0.5 inch/1.25cm. Include a line for each author. Example: Andrea S. Webb is an instructor in the faculty of education at the University of British Columbia (CAN). Her work focuses on developing educational leadership in the scholarship of teaching and learning.

Notes

  • Use endnotes (not footnotes), and please enter them manually (not using the Microsoft Word automatic function). Any sources cited in the notes should also appear in the reference list. Note reference numbers in text are set as superior (superscript) numbers. In the notes themselves, they are normally full size, not raised, and followed by a period.

    Example: “Crushed thirty feet upwards, the waters flashed for an instant like heaps of fountains, then brokenly sank in a shower of flakes, leaving the circling surface creamed like new milk round the marble trunk of the whale.”1

    1. Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1851), 627.

Disclosure

  • Disclose any use of Generative AI and/or AI-assisted technologies, at any stage of the writing and preparation of the manuscript (e.g., generating ideas, editing text, producing images and/or graphical elements, collecting and/or analyzing data).

Ethics

  • Include an ethics statement when research involves human subjects. For example: “Research was deemed exempt by the [UNIVERSITY] ethics review board” or “Research was approved through the [UNIVERSITY] ethical review processes

References

  • All entries in the reference list should be cited in text or notes. (For basic formats, see guide below.)

FORMATTING: CITATIONS AND REFERENCE LIST

  • As of June 1, 2020, Teaching & Learning Inquiry uses Chicago Manual of Style 17, author-date style to accommodate the interdisciplinary nature of the journal (See Quick Reference).

Parenthetical Citations

All citations in the text and notes should have a corresponding entry in the reference list.

  • Citation of the work in general: (Smith 1994)
  • Quotation or other pinpoint citation: (Smith 1994, 144) (Smith 1994, 194–95)
  • Two to three authors: (Smith and Jones 1994) (Smith and Jones 1994, 144) (Smith, Jones, and Johnson 1994) (Smith, Jones, and Johnson 1994, 144)
  • Four or more authors: (Smith et al. 1994, 144)
  • Multiple citations in a single sentence appear alphabetically and are separated by semicolons: (Chen 1983; Johnson 2002; Mårtensson 2010).

Reference List

  • All items on the reference list should be cited in the text or notes.
  • Organize the reference list alphabetically by last name of author.
  • For multiple sources by the same author, list the entries in chronological order from earliest to most recent.
  • Use the full name of each author or editor.
  • Use headline style (title case, or capitalizing all principle words) for titles of books, reports, articles, and journals.
  • Include DOIs (or stable URLs, if DOIs are unavailable), hyperlinked, for journal articles, reports, and newspaper articles, even if consulted in print (Note: this is an exception to CMS 17), as well as blog posts and other online sources. A DOI is a permanent URL that begins https://doi.org/.
  • Use hanging indent (0.5 inch/1.25cm) for all lines after first of each entry (use paragraph setting in MS Word; do not use tab settings).

FORMATTING: ISSOTL BLOG POST

  • Write a blog post (300 words) related to your article for the ISSOTL blog. This is not a summary of the article, or a copy of the abstract, but instead an opportunity to reflect on the questions or SoTL processes that led you to this work or on your experience with SoTL more broadly.
  • Possible topics include: What are the implications for practice from this work within or across disciplines? What are three “lessons learned”? What teaching/educational challenge does your research address? Why do you care about this project? What inspires you? What is your approach to this research? What brought you to this approach? What was new or experimental for you in this project? How does your geographic context (e.g., culture, language, history, values) inform this SoTL project? Who helped, supported, or inspired you along the way with this project and/or publication?
  • Include one image to help viewers gain insight into the work or your SoTL context. Suggestions include a photograph of your campus, images of student work (anonymized), or an image that symbolizes the project. Be creative and be mindful of copyright. Include an image credit with name and year.
  • Upload your blog as a separate document along with the finalised article.

FORMATTING AND SUBMITTING A POSTER

Posters submitted and accepted to the most recent ISSOTL conference can be submitted for publication in TLI. Posters will go through a peer review process focused on design, scholarly content, and connection to SoTL. Please submit the poster as a PDF and follow all TLI style guidelines. For more information, see Poster Evaluation Criteria.

Formatting

  • The title on the poster should be in title case (All Words Capitalized)
  • All poster author names should be listed on poster as:
    • Last 1, First 1, First 2 Last 2, First 3 M. Last 3.
  • Ensure style of headings is consistent throughout poster
  • Ensure that formatting throughout the poster follows the Chicago Manual of Style 17, author-date reference style (See Quick Reference).
  • Include Oxford comma
  • Ensure all hyperlinks and QR codes are active and accurate
  • To maximize space, citations can be indicated with a superscript if citations are also included on the poster. A full list of complete references must be provided as a separate word document.

Submission

  • Submit posters as a PDF file. Check that your PDF is accessible for online viewing.
  • Submit a word document with the following sections following the guidelines shared above:
    • Title
    • Abstract
    • Author Biography(ies)
    • References