General Policies

Editorial Policy

The Journal of Statistics Education disseminates knowledge for the improvement of statistics education at all levels, including elementary, secondary, post-secondary, post-graduate, continuing, and workplace education. The journal is distributed electronically and, in accord with its broad focus, publishes articles that enhance the exchange of a diversity of interesting and useful information among educators, practitioners, and researchers around the world. The intended audience includes anyone who teaches statistics, as well as those interested in research on statistical and probabilistic reasoning. Submissions are rigorously refereed using a double-blind peer review process.

Manuscripts submitted to the journal should be relevant to the mission of JSE. Possible topics for manuscripts include, but are not restricted to: curricular reform in statistics, the use of cooperative learning and projects, innovative methods of instruction, assessment, and research (including case studies) on students' understanding of probability and statistics, research on the teaching of statistics, attitudes and beliefs about statistics, creative and tested ideas (including experiments and demonstrations) for teaching probability and statistics topics, the use of computers and other media in teaching, statistical literacy, and distance education. Articles that provide a scholarly overview of the literature on a particular topic are also of interest. Reviews of software, books, and other teaching materials will also be considered, provided these reviews describe actual experiences using the materials.

Submissions

Authors submitting papers for publication in JSE warrant that their papers are not currently under consideration by any other publication and that the material contained within the work is not subject to any other copyright, unless required consents have been obtained. The American Statistical Association has adopted a disclosure policy for all of its journals.

All new submissions must be submitted through the Thomson Reuters ScholarOne online submission process as a .pdf. Once on the submission website (https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ujse) begin by creating an account and then follow the steps in the Author Center to upload your manuscript and complete the required information. Revised manuscript submissions (those that were assigned numbers through 15-093 should be submitted directly to JSE Editor Dr. Soma Roy at soroy@calpoly.edu and please copy Editorial Coordinator Jean Scott at scott.961@osu.edu. Any revisions that are older than one year from determination letter, must be submitted through ScholarOne as a new submission.

The JSE@OSU.edu email, which was previously used for submissions, is no longer being monitored.

Technical questions may be addressed to the Editor Coordinator, Jean Scott, at scott.961@osu.edu.

Refereeing Process

Articles submitted to JSE that undergo a full review are peer-reviewed by an Associate Editor chosen from the JSE Editorial Board and (usually) two referees. The refereeing process is double-blind; authors and referees are anonymous to each other.

To expedite handling your submission we ask that you submit BOTH an unblinded version of the paper that includes full author names and contact information and a blinded version of the paper where authors' names and affiliations are removed from the beginning of the paper and the author contact information from the end of the paper. The blinded version should also have any references to papers that include one or more of the authors or clues to the identity of one or more of the authors removed from the body of the paper and in supplements such as software programs, datasets, and graphics files. You may cite references that include authors simply as AUTHOR in the blinded version.

Style Guidelines

Except for the conventions noted in these instructions, manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with the American Statistical Association Style Guide, published in the February 1986 issue of The American Statistician. Contact the JSE Editor with any style or format questions that are not covered by these instructions.

Preparation of Manuscripts

Minimum Requirements for Submission

2. Your submission should not have any tracking features enabled (such as Track Changes in Microsoft Word), as the review process requires blinding of the author names and institutions, which are sometimes imbedded by these tracking features.

3. A completed Submission Form must accompany the submission.

General Guidelines

Papers accepted for publication need to be revised by the authors to meet these guidelines.

2. Format should be U.S. letter size (8.5 x 11 inches), single spaced (insert a blank line between paragraphs, between headings and text, and between references), with 1" margins.

3. Order of manuscript:

Title

Key Words

Abstract

Main Body

Appendix/Appendices (optional)

Acknowledgements (optional)

References

Author contact information

4. Your submission should not have any tracking features enabled.

5. Do not include any headers or footers in your paper.

6. Do not number the paragraphs of the paper.

7. Footnotes/endnotes. Limited footnotes are acceptable. Explanations are encouraged to be included in the text or following the applicable text in brackets [ ], rather than in footnotes. Endnotes are no longer acceptable.

8. Please use the page numbering feature of Microsoft Word putting the page numbers in the lower right corner of the page.

9. Do not hyphenate words across lines. Hyphens may be used in words that normally contain them.

10. Type all material flush left, including headings.

11. Text in the abstract, key words, or body of the paper, should use Times New Romans, 12 point font.

Submissions accepted for publication will undergo further formatting by the Editor and/or Editorial Coordinator.

Title, Author Information, and Key Words

1. The title of the manuscript should appear at the beginning of the paper. Do not include the word Title before the title. The title should be left justified. Use Times New Roman, 16 point font, boldface.

2. Leave a blank line after the title and then list each author's name and institutional affiliation. Leave one blank line between authors.

3. Leave a blank line after the last author's affiliation information. Type "Key Words:" using Times New Roman, 12 point font, boldface. After this list three to six key words or phrases (separated by semicolons) that may be used to index the manuscript. Do not put a period at the end of the key words. Do not repeat words or strings of words from the title. The Key Words should be left justified.

Abstract

1. Each manuscript should be accompanied by an abstract. The abstract should appear between the key words and the beginning of the manuscript text.

2. Leave a blank line after the Key Words.

3. Type the word Abstract. Abstract should be left justified. Use Times New Roman, 14 point font, boldface.

4. Leave a blank line after the word Abstract and then enter text for the abstract left justified.

Headings and Text

1. Major headings within the text should be flush left and numbered using Arabic numerals followed by a period (e.g., 1. Introduction, 2. Example). Leave a blank line between the heading and the first line of text. The first line of text should be flush left. Paragraphs should be separated by a blank line and be flush left. Headings should be left justified. Use Times New Roman, 14 point font, boldface for Headings.

2. Subheadings should be flush left and numbered in the following style: 1.1 Review of the Literature, 1.2 New Methods, etc. Leave a blank line between a Heading and a Subheading or between text and a Subheading. Use Times New Roman, 13 point font, boldface for Subheadings.

3. When three levels of headings are required the third level should be flush left and numbered in the following style: 1.1.1 Fiction, 1.1.2 Non-Fiction, etc. Leave a blank line between a Subheading and a Third Level Heading or between text and a Third Level Heading. Use Times New Roman, 12.5 point font, boldface for Third Level Headings.

4. Paragraphs should be left justified, not indented. Leave a line between paragraphs. Use Times New Roman, 12 point font.

Mathematical Material

2. Subscripts and superscripts should be presented as such in regular type with no additional indicators.

3. Fractions, Greek letters and mathematical symbols may be represented as your software program permits. It is no longer required that these be presented in-line. It is not necessary to number equations unless they are referred to on more than one occasion in the paper. If you do number equations use numbering such as Equation 1, Equation 2, etc. It is preferred for equations referenced by number or equations that are somewhat complicated to place the equation on a separate line, centered.

Tables

1. Tables should appear within the text itself, as close as possible to, but after, their first mention in the manuscript.

2. Skip two lines before and after the presentation of the table.

3. Tables should be numbered with Arabic numerals such as Table 1, Table 2, etc. and must have titles that precede the table. The title should come after the table number on the same line. Use Times New Roman, 12 point font, boldface for the table number. Do not boldface the title.

4. Captions for tables are optional. If you include a caption it should come immediately after the table. Use Times New Roman, 11 point font.

5. If possible, use Microsoft Word to generate tables.

Figures

1. Figures should appear within the text itself, as close as possible to, but after, their first mention in the manuscript.

2. Skip two lines before and after the presentation of the figure.

3. Figures should be numbered with Arabic numerals such as Figure 1, Figure 2, etc. and must have titles that precede the figure. The title should come after the figure number on the same line. Use Times New Roman, 12 point font, boldface for the Figure number. Do not boldface the title.

4. Captions for figures are optional. If you include a caption it should come immediately after the figure. Use Times New Roman, 11 point font.

References

1. All references should appear in a reference list at the end of the manuscript.

2. References should be listed in alphabetical order by last name (not in the order presented in the paper.)

3. Follow the American Statistical Association Style Guide for the format of reference citations and the reference list. Please do not use a hanging indent. Insert a blank line between each item in the reference list.

The following is taken from the American Statistical Association Style Guide, providing examples of correct format for different types of references commonly found in articles in ASA publications. In your JSE paper you should not categorize references by type. That is done here just for illustration of how to reference different types of publications.

Citations within an Article

1. A direct citation of a reference places only the date within parentheses. Gentleman (1978) explored this in greater detail.

2. An indirect citation of a reference as an example places both the name and the date within parentheses with no punctuation between them: Other recent suggestions include the use of Chernoff faces (Smith 1980).

3. Citation of a particular page, section or equation of a work should follow the date and be preceded by a comma. Use sec., chap., app., eq., p., and pp. in such citations. We rely on an algorithm of Das Gupta (1965, pp. 115-120). This distribution is known to be normal (Smith and Smith 1958, chap. 5).

4. References following direct quotations must include the page number(s) of the quote: "This was found to be fallacious thinking upon closer investigation" (Smith and Smith 1958, p. 209).

5. For works with multiple authors, use the full form of citation at all times for two authors. For three or more authors use the first author's surname followed by the phrase "et al." (not underlined).

6. When two or more works by the same author are cited together, do not repeat the name(s): Tukey (1965, 1980).

7. When citing several references within parenthese, place them in date order: (Smith and Smith 1958; Tukey 1965, 1980; Gilula and Smith 1971a, b; Smith 1980).

Journal Articles

Berk, K. N. (1978), "Comparing Subset Regression Procedures," Technometrics, 20, 1-6.

Bowman, M. J., and Myers, R. G. (1967), "Schooling Experience and Gains and Losses in Human Capital Through Migration" (with comments), Journal of the American Statistical Association, 62, 875-898; Corrigenda (1968), 63, 222.

Efron, B., and Morris, C. (1977), Comment on "A Simulation Study of Alternative to Least Squares," by H. Clark and T. Schwisow, The American Statistician, 72, 102-109.

Hoerl, A. E., Kennard, R. W., and Baldwin, K. R. (1975), "Ridge Regression: Some Simulations," Communications in Statistics, Part A - Theory and Methods, 4, 105-123.

Proceedings

Freund, R. J. (1977), "An example of Prediction with Regression: A Comparison of Methods," in American Statistical Association Proceedings of the Statistical Computing Section, pp. 218-221.

Books, Manuals, Technical Reports

Dixon, W. J. (ed.) (1983), BMDP Statistical Software (Vol. 1, 3rd ed.), Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Hogg, R. V., Smith, J., Jones, L., and Smith, S. (1973), "A New Sample Adaptive Distribution-Free Test," Technical Report 24, University of Iowa, Dept. of Statistics.

Moore, D. (2007), The Basic Practice of Statistics, 4th Edition, New York, NY: W. H. Freeman and Company.

Electronically Published Documents

In most cases, such citations will take the form of an author's name, title of the document/publication, the type of medium (shown in square brackets), the date of publication, and the document's availability, shown by its URL.

All elements of the reference should follow those of references to conventionally published documents, separated from each other by commas.

Bilodeau, A. (1994), "Into the Net: A Reporter's Transformation," Computer-Mediated Communication Magazine [online], 1, 8. Available at http://www.rpi.edu/decemj/cmc/mag/archive.html.

Funder, D. C. [cited July 28, 1994], "Judgmental Process and Content," Psycholoquy [online], 5, 17. Available by FTP at princeton.edu.pub/harnad/Psycholoquy/1994.volume.5psycholoquy.94.5.17.baserate.12.funder.

Yan, X., and Su, X. G. (2009), "Stratified Wilson and Newcombe Confidence Intervals for Multiple Binomial Proportions," Statistics in Biopharmaceutical Research [online], DOI: 10.1198/sbr.2009.0049. Available at http://pubs.amstat.org/loi/sbr

Personal Communications

Personal communications are not included in the reference list but are cited in text as follows: (P. Smith, personal communication, March 2, 1984)

Contact Information

Include with your submission the following information:

1. First author's name
2. First author's address
3. First author's E-mail address
4. First author's phone number and fax number (if available)
5. Other authors' names and addresses
6. Acknowledgments and relevant information about the history of the manuscript (thesis/dissertation, presented at conferences, etc.)