The Gettysburg Journal for Public Policy

This document provides details on typesetting and layout requirements for final manuscript submission to The Gettysburg Journal for Public Policy.

Style and Submission Guidelines

The manuscript must be professionally written and logically organized. The author must precisely define the paper’s subject matter (research question/problem) and how it will be approached. The author should explain why their research is important and the policy implications of their research.

All citations must be formatted according to the American Psychological Association (APA) style guideline. APA formatting is commonly used in social science papers. Given this publication’s focus on public policy issues, using APA formatting provides consistency and clarity across journal submissions.

Research articles must include an abstract; however, no abstract is necessary for white papers, book reviews, or research notes.

Research articles should be between 3,000 and 5,500 excluding footnotes, endnotes, and references.

White papers should not exceed 5000 words.

Book reviews and research notes should be between 750 and 1,500 words.

All manuscripts should be submitted as Microsoft Word or PDF files and double spaced.

When appropriate, indicate the approximate placement for all tables within the manuscript. Append all tables.

Book reviews should be submitted with a complete APA citation of the book's city of publication, publisher, and date of publication.

The Gettysburg Journal for Public Policy maintains discretion to correct grammatical errors. Submissions in need of substantive corrections will be returned to the author for consideration of editorial feedback.

Formatting Requirements

• Do not include page numbers, headers, or footers. These will be added by the editors.
• Write your article in English (unless the journal expressly permits non-English submissions).
• Submit your manuscript, including tables, figures, appendices, etc., as a single file (Word or PDF files are accepted).
• Page size should be 8.5 x 11-inches.
• All margins (left, right, top and bottom) should be 1.5 inches (2.54 cm) and justified, including your tables and figures.
• Use a single column layout with both left and right margins justified.
• Font: 12 pt. Times New Roman or the closest comparable font available.
• If figures are included, use high-resolution figures, preferably encoded as encapsulated PostScript (eps).
• Copyedit your manuscript.
• When possible, there should be no pages where more than a quarter of the page is empty space.

Additional Recommendations

Indenting, Line Spacing, and Justification

Indent all paragraphs except those following a section heading. An indent should be at least 2 em-spaces.

Do not insert extra space between paragraphs of text with the exception of long quotations, theorems, propositions, special remarks, etc. These should be set off from the surrounding text by additional space above and below.

Don't "widow" or "orphan" text (i.e., ending a page with the first line of a paragraph or beginning a page with the last line of a paragraph).

All text should be left-justified (i.e., flush with the left margin—except where indented). Where possible, it should also be right-justified (i.e., flush with the right margin). "Where possible" refers to the quality of the justification. For example, LaTeX and TeX do an excellent job of justifying text. Word does a reasonable job. But some word processors do a poor job (e.g., they achieve right justification by inserting too much white space within and between words). We prefer flush right margins. However, it is better to have jagged right margins than to have flush right margins with awkward intra- and inter-word spacing. Make your decision on whichever more aesthetically pleasing.

Language & Grammar

All submissions must be in English. Except for common foreign words and phrases, the use of foreign words and phrases should be avoided. Authors should use proper, standard English grammar. Verbs should not be contracted. Avoid using split infinitives, hanging participles, and do not end sentences with prepositions. The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White (now in its fourth edition) is the "standard" guide, but other excellent guides (e.g., The Chicago Manual of Style, University of Chicago Press) exist as well.

Article Length

Because this journal publishes electronically, page limits are not as relevant as they are in the world of print publications. Therefore, authors can take advantage of this greater "bandwidth" to include material that they might otherwise have to cut to get into a print journal. This said, authors should exercise some discretion with respect to length. If an author feels that they need to exceed the word-count limit for a manuscript, please include an explanation for why with the submission.

Colored text

Set the font color to black for the majority of the text. We encourage authors to take advantage of the ability to use color in the production of figures, maps, etc. However, authors need to appreciate that this will cause problems for some readers when they print the document on a black & white printer. For this reason, authors are advised to avoid the use of colors in situations where their translation to black and white would render the material illegible or incomprehensible.

Please ensure that there are no colored mark-ups or comments in the final version unless they are meant to be part of the final text. (Authors may need to "accept all changes" in track changes or set your document to "normal" in final markup.)

Emphasized text

Whenever possible use italics to indicate text you wish to emphasize rather than underlining it. The use of color to emphasize text is discouraged.

Font faces

Use Times New Roman or the closest comparable font available. If you desire a second font, for instance for headings, use Courier New.

Font size

The main body of text should be set at 12 pt and footnotes should be at 10 pt.

Non-English terms

Whenever possible, foreign terms should be set in italics rather than underlined.

Headings

Headings (e.g., start of sections) should be distinguished from the main body text as described in the APA guidelines.

Main text

The font for the main body of text must be black and in Times New Roman, Courier New, or the closest comparable font available.

Titles

Titles of books, movies, etc., should be set in italics rather than underlined.

Tables and Figures

To the extent possible, tables and figures should appear in the document near where they are referenced in the text. Large tables or figures should be put on pages by themselves. Avoid the use of overly small type in tables. In no case should tables or figures be in a separate document or file. All tables and figures must fit within 1.0" margins on all sides (top, bottom, left and right) in both portrait and landscape view.

Mathematics

Roman letters used in mathematical expressions as variables should be italicized. Roman letters used as part of multi-letter function names should not be italicized. Whenever possible, subscripts and superscripts should be a smaller font size than the main text.

Short mathematical expressions should be typed inline. Longer expressions should appear as display math. Also, expressions using many different levels (e.g., such as the fractions) should be set as display math. Important definitions or concepts can also be set off as display math.

Equations should be numbered sequentially. Whether equation numbers are on the right or left is the choice of the author(s). However, you are expected to be consistent in this.

Symbols and notation in unusual fonts should be avoided. This will not only enhance the clarity of the manuscript, but it will also help ensure that it displays correctly on the reader's screen and prints correctly on their printer. When proofing your document under PDF pay particular attention to the rendering of the mathematics, especially symbols and notation drawn from other than standard fonts.

References

It is the author's obligation to provide complete references with the necessary information. After the last sentence of your submission, please insert a line break—not a page break—and begin your references on the same page, if possible. References should appear right after the end of the document, beginning on the last page. References should have margins that are both left and right- justified. You may choose not to right-justify the margin of one or more references if the spacing looks too awkward. Formatting guidelines can be found in the APA style guide produced by Purdue OWL.