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Author Guidelines
The OUSL Journal provides a forum for previously unpublished articles on theory, research and pedagogy relating to teaching at university level, and in particular to Distance Education. The aims are to give access to research to a broad, readership including researchers, practitioners and students.
1. Length
Articles should be between 3000 and 6000 words or 15-20 typewritten pages. An abstract of not more than 250 words should be supplied.
2. Organisation
The general organization of research papers should be as follows; the nature and scope of the study should be stated first, then the theoretical framework, followed by methodology including methods, materials, tools/equipment used, and procedures; findings, discussion and conclusion. Appendices, may be used amplify details where necessary.
3. Submission requirements
a. All articles should be typed in double spacing with wide margins. All sheets must be numbered.
b. Authors should include a cover page with full title of the paper, the author(s) name(s), affiliation and address of institution, contact phone numbers, and if available, fax number and e-mail address. Author's name should not appear elsewhere in the article.
c. References in the text should be cited using the last name of the author(s) with the year of publication in parentheses: Marton (1976).
If several papers by the same author and from the same year are cited, a, b, c, etc. should be put after the year of publication: Marton (1976a, 1976b, 1976c).
Multiple citations should be given alphabetically rather than chronologically: (Campbell, 1990; Marton, 1976; Naidu (2003).
If a work has two authors, cite both names in the text throughout:: Marton & Saljo (1976).
In the case of reference to three or more authors, use all names on the first mention and et al. thereafter except in the reference list.
If quotations are used, they should be included in the text within commas ("...") and should be appropriately cited with page numbers.
d. Full bibliographic information about references should be organized alphabetically according to the last name/s of the author/s of the work. List of references should be annexed at the end of the paper.
Give the last name of each author, use a comma after each last name and after each set of initials except the final one(s). Use an ampersand (&) rather than the word ‘and'.
For books
Calder, J. (1994). Programme Evaluation and Quality, Open and Distance Learning Series. London: Kogan Page.
For articles
Weerasinghe, B (1999). Project for enhancement of Distance Education of the Open University of Sri Lanka with British Overseas Development Assistance - An overview. OUSL Journal, 2, 3-25.
For chapters within books:
Campbell, C. (1990). Writing with other's words: Using background reading text in academic compositions. In B. Kroll (Ed.), Second Language Writing (pp. 211-230). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
For Conference Papers:
Gunawardena, C., Menon, M., & Naidu, S. (2004). The making of a teacher educator. Paper presented at the 3rd Pan-Commonwealth Forum, Dunedin, New Zealand, June 4-9.
For online documents:
Collis, B. (1998). Implementing innovative teaching across the faculty via the WWW. Paper for the conference "SITE 98", March 1998, Washington, DC. Available online at: http://education2.edte.utwente.nl/teletophomepage.nsf/PapersUKViewform?readform (accessed 19 January 2006).
4. Tables and Figures
Tables and Figures should be numbered with Arabic numerals in the order in which they are cited in the text. Each table/figure should be titled. Titles should be brief and precise.
Submission Preparation Checklist
As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
- The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
- The submission file is in Microsoft Word, RTF, or WordPerfect document file format.
- Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
- The text is double-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
- The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines, which is found in About the Journal.
- If submitting to a peer-reviewed section of the journal, the instructions in Ensuring a Blind Review have been followed.
Copyright Notice
It is a condition of publication that manuscripts submitted to this journal should not have been published elsewhere. By submitting a manuscript, the author agrees that the copyright for the article is transferred to the publishers, if and when the article is accepted for publication. The copyright covers the
exclusive right to reproduce and distribute the article, including reprints, photographic reproductions, microforms or any other reproductions of similar nature and translations.
The views expressed by the authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of the Open University of
Sri Lanka.
Privacy Statement
The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.
