About Campus

WRITING FOR ABOUT CAMPUS

What We’re About

We, the editors of About Campus, feel strongly that in order to challenge and inspire our colleagues in higher education—and to address hard issues honestly and directly—we need to present the experience and knowledge of a unique mix of researchers, public figures, professionals, faculty members, students, and those working in both student affairs and academic affairs. Although you may recognize many of our contributors, we reach beyond widely published researchers and professionals to include the insights and perspectives of the many other practitioners who are thinking creatively about higher education, testing new ideas and practices, and assessing the effects of the policies put in place on our campuses.

What An About Campus Article Should Do

• In each article, authors take a stand on how to advance our shared agenda of “enriching the student learning experience.”

• Authors have something original, timely, and interesting to discuss.

• Each article discusses a topic of general interest to a broad audience of educators including administrators, faculty, and staff. For example, even if an article is specifically about classroom teaching, the authors don’t assume that the reader is a classroom teacher.

• Each article speaks to a broad audience by using clearly defined and inclusive language (i.e., an article either explains clearly or does not contain phrases that only a select group of the educational community might understand, such as holistic learning or metacognition).

• Each article relies on a thorough understanding of current literature but does not include or sound like a traditional literature review. Technical or discipline-specific terms are used only when necessary; when such terms are used, they are clearly defined.

• Authors write in an engaging and sophisticated style that includes examples, specific stories, and even metaphors to help ground the topic and show the readers, as opposed to just telling them about it. Readers “meet” the authors and the subjects of the stories, but the stories are not too chit-chatty or unnecessarily autobiographical.

• The article is not overstated or overreaching. The author doesn’t need to have a “Final Answer” that solves or fixes everything, but the article does address possible solutions or new approaches.

The About Campus Article Types

Longer-form campus feature articles

(length: 4000 to 5000 words)

Leading scholars from across the profession, including front-lines practitioners, faculty members, senior leaders, and those working in intermediary organizations explore compelling and critical topics, share compelling findings, synthesize research, analyze policy, and detail implications for practice. Longer-form feature articles provide an in-depth look at issues in a range of areas affecting higher education. They draw upon current literature to offer appropriate background for the issue, present current analyses, and explore new perspectives. Each longer-form feature article approaches a timely topic from an original angle and demonstrates implications for student learning in a variety of contexts.

Shorter-form campus insight articles

(length: 1800 to 2400 words)

Shorter-form campus insight articles profile innovative and groundbreaking campus practices that foster student learning.  We highly encourage authors to submit manuscripts that are creative in nature.  There are many types of shorter-form insight articles, such as those that:

• Describe the purpose, context, and constituents involved in implementing a best practice; use assessment data to report the learning outcomes of the practice; and include implementation challenges and strategies to address them
• Profile assessment practices or policy developments in ways made accessible to a wide audience and useful in a variety of contexts
• Provide readers with practical ideas and principles about using assessment as a tool to inform their everyday work
• Provide readers with practical ideas and principles about implementing, developing, and making-sense of policy that has consequence for student learning
• Offer a first-person portrait or story that models how educators work with students in various contexts to promote learning
• Shed light on special issues and challenges faced by those who live and work on our campuses
• Examine personal experiences, campus events, everyday life events, or special moments that inform student learning
• Offer provocative and persuasive opinions that bring readers’ attention to a particular issue or challenge facing higher education

For any article submission, authors can submit narrative inquiry, portraiture, autoethnography, poetics, photographic, diagrammatic, educational criticism and connoisseurship, and other forms of arts-based scholarship. 

Note: For general inquiries, please contact the About Campus Editorial Team at aboutcampus@du.edu. 

ABOUT CAMPUS WRITING GUIDELINES

Structural Elements and Expectations for About Campus Manuscripts

Writing Style and Approach

Unlike most academic journal articles—which follow a standard structure of Introduction, Literature Review, Methods, Results, Discussion, Limitations, and Future Directions—About Campus articles use more literary-like structures and organization techniques to guide readers from start to finish. You can find the sample feature and articles at https://journals.sagepub.com/author-instructions/ACA

Appropriate Use of Language

• Use first person, singular and plural (e.g., I and we) where appropriate.

• Do NOT use he/she or s/he and avoid he or she, which is awkward. Instead, use the plural as much as possible (Example: students ... they rather than the student ... he or she ...).

• Use a person’s full name the first time she or he is mentioned.

• When using proper names, whether of individuals or institutions, please double-check them for accuracy.

• Use jargon-free and inclusive language (i.e., an article does not contain phrases such as holistic learning or metacognition that only a select group of the educational community will understand).

• Avoid sexist language such as spokesmen, chairmen, and man in the generic sense. Substitute spokesperson, chair, individuals or people, and so on.

• Use the active voice as much as possible and avoid passive constructions. Give credit where credit is due; let those doing the actions DO the actions. See the difference below.

o Active: For a long time, educators have accepted that ....

o Passive: For a long time, it has been accepted that…

References

• Appropriately Integrated References in the Text (NOT APA Format): It is important that you pay special attention to our in-text reference style because it is different than APA style.

Like other magazines that publish serious nonfiction for a general audience, we ask authors to be selective in their use of references and to identify fully all references within the text of the article. Using an academic reference style can interfere with authors’ success in reaching out to a broad audience. It can encourage attention to details that may not be important to people outside of the authors’ particular field.

Also, because an academic reference style does not require authors to offer a context for a reference, it puts at a disadvantage those readers who are unfamiliar with particular sources or who may not have the time or interest to seek out the listed sources to understand how they fit into a certain argument. Please integrate reference information for specific facts and sources of direct quotes into the text, as shown in the examples below.

• As Ernest Boyer explains in Campus Life, “American higher education is, by almost any measure, a remarkable success. In recent decades, new campuses have been built, enrollments have exploded, and today, many of our research centers are ranked world class. Still, with all of our achievements, there are tensions just below the surface and nowhere are the strains of change more apparent than in campus life” (p. 1).

• In a recent article of the Journal of College Student Development, Patricia King and I describe how this integrated perspective can be applied to Learning.

• As Jean Henscheid states on her web site, “Half of all students are above average.” [Note: If a web-based document does not have page numbers, simply include the author’s name and the title of the site in the sentence.]

• A Reference List: Even though About Campus is not an academic journal and we do not take a scholarly approach to references in the text, we do want to make certain that readers can locate those sources that authors identify. For this reason, we provide reference lists at the end of articles and we ask authors to be thorough and provide all the essential details outlined below. Please use APA style for the reference list.

ABOUT CAMPUS SUBMISSION PROCESS

To ensure prompt review of your manuscript, please check to make sure that your manuscript meets all of the following criteria before you submit it to About Campus.

Formatting Your Submission

• Save your manuscript as using your name, a title abbreviation, and the date of submission.  Eg. “Mary Simmons_The Mobile Advisor_6.11.2014”

• Include page numbers.

• Type the manuscript in 12-point Times New Roman font.

• Double space and indent your paragraphs.

• Do NOT vary font size or style for titles, subheadings, or any special text.

• Do not include running headers (this is important, as special formatting can cause problems in e-mail transmission).

Title Page Specifics

a. Word count (which includes the title, author biographic information, manuscript text, and references). Please put the word count in the top, left-hand corner of the title page.

b. Title of the manuscript.

c. Full names, titles, mailing addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses of all authors.

d. Short bios (40 words or fewer) of all the authors, including current affiliation.

e. Name of the article type (e.g. In Practice, Feature, etc.).

Note: The Editorial Team reserves the right to send back all submissions that do not follow these formatting guidelines.

Submitting a Manuscript

About Campus submissions are managed through an online portal hosted by Sage. To create an account and submit a manuscript, please visit the following link: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/aboutcampus.

The Editorial Process: Working with the Team

Our editorial process is collaborative. We often work with authors at the conceptual stage to identify direction and focus (as well as throughout the writing process through multiple revisions). Our goal is to help cultivate and then publish substantive, engaging articles. You and your co-authors can view the status of your manuscript at any time by checking your Author Center after logging in to http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/aboutcampus.

About Our Process

• The Editorial Team will review and provide feedback on your manuscript. We review manuscripts as quickly as possible. Because the team is small, it may take six to eight weeks for an editor to respond to your manuscript. Editorial Team members and authors will correspond until they agree the manuscript is at a final draft stage; most manuscripts will go through several rounds of revision.

• The Editorial Team will notify you when your article has been accepted for publication. Once an article is ready for publication, it becomes a part of our warehouse of articles from which we choose when we put together issues of the magazine.

• When an article is slated for a particular issue, we ask authors to sign a copyright transfer agreement (see below) and provide pull quotes. Pull quotes will be highlighted through the publication of the article. Please submit at least 2-3 quotes for every page.

• The About Campus editorial assistant will notify you when your article has been slated and will e-mail the copyright transfer agreement to you. It must be signed and returned in order for the article to be published.

• The Editorial Team will make necessary changes in the article (including its title) for clarity, length, and conformity to style. You will be sent an edited version of your article for a brief review prior to its publication.

Copyright Transfer Agreement Information

Below are key rights we ask authors to assign to us. Please read this information carefully and make sure you feel comfortable with the rights as outlined. If you have any questions or concerns about this, please contact the Editorial Team at aboutcampus@du.edu

1. You have supplied an original manuscript for inclusion in an issue of About Campus.

2. You agree that the manuscript you have furnished is original and prepared especially for About Campus; that it has not been and is not being registered for copyright and/or published elsewhere; and that you will not release it for any purpose prior to publication of About Campus issue in which it is scheduled to appear.

3. You guarantee that your work does not infringe any copyright, violate any property rights, or contain any scandalous, libelous, or unlawful matter, and you agree to hold the Sage as Publisher harmless against any claim that may be incurred involving such matters.

4. You grant the editor and the office of the publisher the right to make changes in the article (including its title) for clarity, brevity, and conformity to style. You will be contacted about your contribution before it is set in type only if substantive changes, which the editor will determine, are made in the editing process. You will not receive proofs; the publisher and editor will be responsible for all proofreading of the article.

5. You agree that your contribution will be published, copyrighted, and sold by Sage, Publishers, in its own name or any other name throughout the world, in all forms and editions, including electronic editions. Nonetheless, you may copy or reprint your material provided you obtain prior written approval from and make proper attribution to Sage.

6. If, for any reason, the article is not published, you are free to use your manuscript for any purpose you desire.

7. In appreciation for your contribution to About Campus, Sage will send you ten (10) complimentary copies of the magazine issue in which your article appears and a complimentary one-year subscription to the magazine. If you prefer, you may use this subscription benefit to introduce a friend or colleague to About Campus by providing an alternate name and mailing address on the form that accompanies this Letter of Agreement.

8. You will keep the editor informed of any change in your address that may take place between now and your receipt of the materials from Sage.