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Policies

Submittal Requirements

Please prepare your submittal according to the following guidelines designed to encourage clarity and optimize electronic publication of articles. If you have concerns about the submission terms for Focus, please contact the editors.

General

Anyone may submit an original article to be considered for publication in Focus provided the article has not been published elsewhere before and s/he owns the copyright to the work being submitted or is authorized by the copyright owner or owners to submit the article. Generally, authors maintain ownership of the copyright to their work and assign Focus the right to use the content in any format in perpetuity, unless authors have agreed to transfer copyright to their employers as a condition of employment.

Submitted articles cannot have been previously published, nor be forthcoming in an archival journal or book (print or electronic). Please note: "publication" in a working-paper series does not constitute prior publication. In addition, by submitting material to Focus, the author is stipulating that the material is not currently under review at another journal (electronic or print) and that he or she will not submit the material to another journal (electronic or print) until the completion of the editorial decision process at Focus.

Formatting Requirements

  • Length: Articles should not exceed 6000 words including the 250 word abstract.
  • Title: The title should be descriptive, unambiguous, accurate, and it should read well. Do not include this in your submitted documents; it will be provided by the system.
  • Abstract: Abstract (250 words) should be included in the submission process and not on the first page of your article. You will also be asked to enter this abstract, which you can copy-and-paste, as part of the submission process. The abstract should summarize the purpose, methods, and major findings of the paper. Try to repeat key descriptive phrases in the abstract while writing naturally, to facilitate online searches. Choose carefully five or so key words or phrases by which your article can be indexed in periodical references. These keywords should appear alphabetized. For more tips, see resources from Sage on "How to Maximize Web Discoverability of Published Articles” at: http://www.sagepub.com/authors/journal/readership.sp.
  • Document Type: Articles must be composed in English using any standard word processing software, such as MS-Word, and submitted as one single document in either a .doc, .docx or .rtf file.
  • Formatting: Authors should try not to use special formatting such as page breaks (in the main text), section breaks (except with different page orientations), headers, or footers.
    • Please use a 12-point, standard font (Times New Roman or comparable).
    • Please use a standard 8.5 x 11-inch page size with 1-inch margins.
    • Do not use page numbers; they will be added by the system.
    • Do not indent the first line of a paragraph.
    • Do not use right-justified margins.
    • Do not use running headers or footers.
    • Long quotations should be indented from the left-margin.
  • Headings: Please use initial caps only, and keep all heading left aligned (no indentation). Do not use numbered or lettered headings. For a first-level heading, use bold font. For a second-level heading, use italics. Use a third-level heading only when absolutely necessary. Example: First Level Heading; Second Level Heading
  • Tables & Figures: All figures and tables should be embedded, numbered sequentially and referenced in-text. Any images should be high-resolution suitable for printing with minimum resolution of 300 dpi. These should be uploaded as supplemental files with your submission. Authors are responsible for securing copyright for any images included.
  • Author Identity: For peer reviewed articles, please remove any references that identify the author(s) in your article to ensure blind reviewed.

Citations and References

Citations should be provided both in-text and in a reference list at the end of the article. Please use the American Psychology Association (APA) style. For a description of this citation style, please refer to the Purdue University, Online Writing Lab: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

Submitting Your Article

Click on the "Submit Article" link in the sidebar to submit your article. Follow the instructions carefully. Only articles submitted using our on-line "Submit Article" form will be considered. Please do not e-mail your article to the editor(s).