Authors should read the guidelines below as they prepare their papers for Social Education, Middle Level Learning, or Social Studies and the Young Learner. They should then submit their work online at www.editorialmanager.com/ncssjournals. After registering, they will receive an email with a temporary user ID and password and follow the steps for uploading a manuscript, title page, figures, tables, or graphics.

Rights of authors: NCSS allows authors of articles in its journals to use copies of their published articles freely in their teaching and professional development work. Authors should contact the NCSS Director of Publications to seek permission to use any portion of published NCSS journal articles over 250 words as part of a new publication.

Social Education, a peer-reviewed journal, contains a balance of theoretical content and practical teaching ideas. The resources include techniques for using materials in the PK–12 classroom, information on the latest uses of technologies in the classroom, reviews of educational media, research on significant social studies-related topics, and lesson plans that can be applied to various disciplines. The editor especially encourages submission of manuscripts authored by classroom teachers or co-authored by professors and classroom teachers. Submissions on any topic related to social education are welcome.

Middle Level Learning, which is published online three times a year, focuses on social studies in the middle grades (6–8). All NCSS members can access the current issue of MLL as well as the complete collection of back issues at the online, members-only archive of publications.

The goal of Social Studies and the Young Learner is to (a) capture and enthuse elementary teachers across the country and (b) provide relevant and useful information about the teaching of social studies to elementary students. The editor especially encourages submission of manuscripts authored by PK–5 classroom teachers or co-authored by professors and classroom teachers. Currently there are no established issue themes; instead, every issue is open for possible social studies topics.

Evaluation and Editing

NCSS journals are peer reviewed. Most articles will be sent out for review to external qualified reviewers in addition to a review by the NCSS editorial team. The review process can take three to six months, depending on reviewer availability and response time.

Editors have the final responsibility for deciding suitability for publication. If a manuscript is considered for publication, the author must be willing to work with the editor on revisions. The editors reserve the right to edit for style (including grammar, punctuation, syntax, and vocabulary), but changes in content are made with the corresponding author's consent.

Manuscripts are judged on the following criteria:

• Scholarship (pedagogy, content, and citations are relevant and current);
• Originality (contributes new knowledge, examples, or approaches);
• Lucidity (is well written and logically organized);
• Interest (is lively to read and useful for this audience and profession);
• Balance (fair in controversy, presents various perspectives, avoid polemics);
• Classroom readiness (conveys background, procedures, and resources useful to teachers);
• Classroom evidence (presents examples of discussion, assessment, and/or student writing);
• Grade level (activities are geared for the targeted grade level and ability of students);
• References (cites useful resources and prior publications when appropriate);
• Content Standards (cited, linked, or discussed at some point in the paper).

Preparation of Manuscripts

Length: In general, manuscripts should be between 1,000 and 2,500 words in length, although the editors may consider longer manuscripts in some cases.

Formatting: Use the title of the paper as the name of the file. Avoid automatic endnotes, superscripts, active URLs, and other special functions. Type these items directly into your manuscript. For example, a reference to note 5 may appear at the end of a sentence, like so.(5)

Title Page: Include the title of the paper and the name, professional title and affiliation, complete mailing address, email, and telephone number(s) of each author. If there are several authors, please indicate who is the corresponding author on the title page. Except for the title, this information should not appear on any other page, so that reviewers may be kept “blind” as to the identity of the author(s). (It is okay if a citation to your own previous book or paper appears in the notes.)

Photographs, Illustrations, and Figures

It is great if you can provide illustrations, graphics, photographs, lesson plan materials, figures, and samples of students' work with articles. Do not embed photographs or any graphics within the Word document. Photographs must be sent as separate jpeg or tiff files. If photographs of young students (or their names or work samples) are included, please provide statements of parental permission.

Image Quality: For print publications, images must be of high resolution, providing at least 300 pixels per inch (dpi) at an image size of at least 3 × 5 inches. Low-resolution formats (images saved within a Word document, copied from a website, or placed in a PowerPoint presentation) will not work.

Endnotes

Please use endnotes, which follow the main text of an article, rather than footnotes (do not automate them). Follow the Chicago Manual of Style as closely as possible (not APA style). Use authors' full names. See examples below.

Citations from books:

1. Jeanne Theoharis, A More Beautiful and Terrible History: The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights History (Boston: Beacon Press, 2018), 56.

2. Alexander Keyssar, The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States (New York: Basic Books, 2009), 111–113.

3. Thomas O. Erb, "What Team Organization Can Do for Teachers," in Connecting the Curriculum through Interdisciplinary Instruction, ed. John H. Lounsbury (Columbus, OH: National Middle School Association, 1992), 7–14.

Citations from journals and magazines:

4. Diana Hess, "Violence Prevention and Service Learning," Social Education 61, no. 5 (September 1997): 279–281.

5. Keisha N. Blain, "Eight Recommended Books by Women to Understand the Uprisings," Ms. (June 2, 2020): 3.

Uploading Your Manuscript

Please register at www.editorialmanager.com/ncssjournals, and you will receive an email with a temporary user ID and password to upload a manuscript. Then follow the steps for uploading the manuscript, title page, figures, tables, or graphics.

Manuscripts will no longer be accepted by email or on paper.

Reprints

Authors of published manuscripts receive up to five complimentary copies of the printed journal in which the article appears, courtesy of NCSS. Authors are not paid for contributions.

If you have questions as you are planning your paper, please feel free to contact an NCSS staff editor at publications@ncss.org.