Queensland Science Teacher guidelines for contributors

The Queensland Science Teacher publishes material of interest to all sectors of the science education community of Queensland: primary, secondary, tertiary and trainee teachers of science. We invite anyone with an interest in improving the quality and status of science teaching in Queensland to submit articles. Primary and secondary teachers, teacher educators, science education officers, pre-service teachers and researchers in education have contributions to make.

Please note this journal is not peer-reviewed. Occasionally, articles are received that are beyond the expertise of the editor. Such articles are de-identified and forwarded to a peer with expertise in the field. Reviewers’ comments are forwarded anonymously to the author when it is judged that the material requires changes.

The notes below provide a brief guide to contributors.

1. How to submit an article

  • Please send your material via email to the editor (editor@staq.qld.edu.au).
  • Text should be sent as a Word, Pages or plain text document. Formatting this text is unnecessary, as the editor will do this according to the journal layout specifications.
  • Diagrams should not be embedded in the text document. Diagrams generated by any common program, such as Word, Pages, Excel or Numbers should be attached in their original format and in the highest possible quality. Do not send these as a part of the text document.
  • Photographs and images increase interest in your text. These should not be embedded in the text document but must be emailed separately as .jpg files, saved at the highest resolution. If the photos contain the identifiable faces of children, parent/guardian and/or school permission to publish these photos must be obtained by the author before submitting them to the journal, and this remains the full responsibility of the author.
  • Copyright clearance for any part of your contribution that is the copyright of a third party is the responsibility of the author. Please attach such clearance to the email.
  • If an article is accepted for publication, editorial changes may occasionally be made for reasons of clarity, grammar, spelling, journal house style or length.

2. Length

  • Feature articles should be approximately 4000 – 6000 words. Be concise and clear. Use headings and subheadings to give your article structure.
  • Regular articles should not exceed 2000 words and should include colour images. You may use an active voice and first person. If appropriate, refer to research and cite the ideas of others. Shorter articles are also welcome.
  • Letters to the editor should not exceed 250 words. They may be edited in consultation with the author. Please include your name, address and contact details.

3. Copyright

  • No other publisher should have already published your manuscript, nor should you submit it for publication elsewhere. If the Queensland Science Teacher publishes your manuscript then your text and graphics will become the copyright of STAQ. STAQ will, however, allow you to use the contents of your paper for most reasonable non-commercial purposes.
  • STAQ grants the author(s) of papers submitted to or published in an issue of the Queensland Science Teacher the right to post the article on the author(s)’ or the author(s) employer’s webpages with the following caveats:
  • The format must be in PDF so that it remains unchanged from that published in the Queensland Science Teacher.
  • An appropriate copyright notice must be included with the full citation for the published article. Example:
    “Copyright [YEAR] Science Teachers’ Association of Queensland (STAQ). This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of STAQ and the author.”
  • If the article is also published on the STAQ website, then there must also be a hyperlink to STAQ’s official online version. Example:
    “The following article appeared in the Queensland Science Teacher [Volume, Issue] and may be found at https://www.staq.qld.edu.au/[suffix].”

4. Deadlines

Issue 1 (May) deadline: 15 April
Issue 2 (November) deadline: 15 October

These dates are guidelines only as our Editor & Assistant Editors are all volunteer members; we will endeavour to meet the deadlines but our priority is STAQ announcements &/or commitments plus publication dates may be affected by school term dates & other unforeseen circumstances.

The Editor has the overall right to choose where to place ads and if necessary decline to place unsuitable or conflict of interest advertising material.

Please send all material to the Queensland Science Teacher Editor. Prospective authors who wish to discuss a possible topic should email the editor with their request.