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Instructions for Authors

 

Articles should be between 2,000 and 5,000 words in length, formatted according to The Chicago Manual of Style, and include citations or references for further reading.

Any articles submitted to the journal must not have been published or be under consideration by any other journal or magazine. Articles must not contain material that infringes copyright, or that includes libelous or defamatory content.

 

STEPS follows an internal reviewing procedure. Page charges and publication fees are not levied upon authors. We do not guarantee publication of all submitted work- The ultimate responsibility for any decision lies with the Editor-in-Chief, to whom any appeals against rejection should be addressed.

 

Submission of an article implies that all authors have read and agreed to its content, and that any experimental research that is reported in the article has been performed with the approval of an institutional review, as required. Research on humans must be in compliance with the Helsinki Declaration, and any animal research must follow internationally recognized guidelines. A statement to this effect must appear in the article, including the name of the body which gave approval, with a reference number where appropriate. Informed consent must also be documented. Articles may be rejected if the editorial office considers that the research has not been carried out within an ethical framework.

Submissions must include

 

1) a brief cover letter stating the names, titles, and contact information of all authors, indicating the corresponding author, that the work is original and has not been submitted elsewhere, and acknowledgment of copyright transfer.

 

2) the manuscript text, including

Abstract (not to exceed 250 words),

3-4 keywords

References should conform to The Chicago Manual of Style referencing style.

Acknowledgments (statement(s) of appreciation for [a.] contributory work not warranting authorship; [b.]grant support for the project, etc as required)

Disclaimer ([a.] affirmation that claims are those of the author if employed by a governmental and/or private corporate agency; [b.] statement of whether the work was directly subsidized and/or contracted by a private or commercial enterprise)

Competing interests ([a.] statement of any shares, stocks, or holdings held by the author - or the author's immediate relations - that would be affected by representation of claims made in the manuscript; [b.] If none, state "'The author(s) declare that they have no competing interests"); [c.] If yes, describe.

Author contributions: please clarify the contributions of each author.

Author bios not to exceed 250 words each.

 

3) If applicable, figures and tables must be submitted as separate file attachments (Figures must be submitted as image files. Appropriate image formats: jpeg, gif, ppt, png). Please note the position of the figures/tables in text - for example: "Table 1 goes here" or "Figure 1 goes here" - Please do not embed the figures in the text file.

 

4) If applicable, figure and table captions, which should include proper image credit/attribution statements. (The copyright holder may require specific wording).

 

5) Permissions: It is the author's responsibility to ensure all permissions paperwork for the use of copyrighted material is included with the submission.

 

5) Author photo (300 dpi image file).

 

6) Signed and completed authorship responsibility, financial disclosure, and copyright transfer form and any requisite permissions as attachments. Upon acceptance of a manuscript for publication, the author is be asked to sign an author responsibility, financial disclosure and copyright transfer agreement. Except in cases of US governmental employees, the copyright transfer agreement transfers copyright to the Potomac Institute Press. No published material may be reproduced, distributed, or published elsewhere, in print or electronic form, without the written permission of the publisher.

 

Submit Manuscript

 

The submitting author takes responsibility for the article during submission and peer review. Manuscripts must be submitted by one of the authors of the manuscript via email to one of the editors below:

 

Robert Hummel, PhD
Editor in Chief
rhummel@potomacinstitute.org

 

Kathy Goodson, PhD
Associate Editor
kgoodson@potomacinstitute.org