Occasional Paper Series

Submission Guidelines

  • Overview

    We publish papers between 4,000 and 6,000 words. We are interested in manuscripts both by widely known members of the field and by first-time authors. Issues are themed. For our current call, please choose the link to Call for Papers in the left sidebar.

    Writing for Online Reading

    People read differently online than when they read print materials. For online reading, we encourage authors to adopt a reader-friendly, accessible style:

    • Avoid lengthy paragraphs
    • Use subheadings to break-up otherwise dense blocks of text
    • Include bullet points for lists and key points
    • Avoid jargon. Use simple, concise language to reach your readers more effectively. If jargon is essential, provide a clear definition within the text or hyperlink to a reputable source
  • Content Guidelines

    Submissions that do not follow the following guidelines will not be reviewed.

    Research submissions undergo a blind, peer review process. Invited discussion essays and non-academic contributions undergo editorial review. Manuscripts must be prepared in a way that does not give away the identity of the author(s) in the body of the text or references. Please use “Author” to refer in citations and references to pieces you have previously published. Pieces that reveal the identity of the author will not be sent out for review.

    Page Format

    • Portrait orientation (not Landscape)

    Text

    • Submit as a Microsoft Word document
    • Calibri font, size 12
    • Single-spaced copy
    • Use block paragraphs separated by one line of space
    • Use APA formatting and Bank Street’s Editorial Style Guide (pdf)
      • Consistent with APA guidelines on racial and ethnic identity, as well as Bank Street’s Editorial Style Guide, capitalize proper nouns that refer to racial and ethnic groups (e.g., Black, White, Brown, Native American, Latina/o/x/e, Indigenous people, Aboriginal people)

    Graphs & Tables

    • Graphs should be embedded in the doc as images
    • Tables should be added to the doc using “Tables” feature in Microsoft Word

    Images

    • Should be embedded in the text, with the caption added using the “Caption Insert” feature in Word
      • Do not include a period after the caption
      • If a caption includes “Figure X,” italicize that portion (e.g., Figure 1.)

    Videos

    • Upload videos to YouTube. Make public. Insert video title and hyperlink the URL into text
    • Do not embed videos directly into text
    • To ensure accessibility, any videos must include closed captioning at the time of publication. Closed captioning is the responsibility of the author. Instructions for how to close caption Youtube videos can be found here. While you can use the auto-caption function, it is your responsibility to do a final edit of the caption file, as described in the provided link, to ensure accuracy.

    Audio

    • Please upload audio files to SoundCloud and then share URL

    References/Footnotes

    • Use APA formatting
    • Do not include https://www in reference links
    • All URLs should be hyperlinked
  • Permissions

    Text

    All research must adhere to local Institutional Review Board (IRB) guidelines. For submissions that do not fall under the oversight of IRB, if informants are directly quoted or their words paraphrased, then authors must notify them of the potential publication in the Occasional Paper Series.

    Images

    Authors must have signed permissions to use images of people and/or their work. If the submission is accepted, we will ask you to confirm that you have this informed consent documentation by submitting an Informed Consent Documentation form. The public aspect of an online journal makes this especially important.

  • Submit a Paper

    To submit a paper, follow the button below. If you have questions or would like information about current or future issues, contact Gail Boldt, Senior Editor, at ops@bankstreet.edu.

    Submit a Paper