Author Guidelines
Contributions to MRA
The International Journal of Multiple Research Approaches (MRA) invites submission of original manuscripts within its Aims and Scope. Criteria for selection for publication include academic merit, individuality and integrity. Submissions should be concise, relevant and informative papers of interest to readers of the Journal.
MRA's two issues per year offer contributors the advantages of:
- Timely double blind peer review and publication;
- High calibre global editorial board;
- Professional publishing services offering high circulation due to qualified marketing;
- A forum for discussion of philosophical issues, practical problems and benefits associated with multiple, hybrid, synergistic, integrated and cultural approaches including theoretical frameworks, methodologies, data collection, management and analytic methods and the different forms of transformation and representation;
- An avenue for discussion and dissemination of: Literature reviews - including those from theses - on methodological trends; Articles on methodology education, technologies and learning techniques; Practitioner perspectives, experiences from the field and case applications of methodologies and results.
Authors are generally restricted to one article per volume, unless multiple authorship is involved. Upon publication, the Publisher provides authors with an electronic copy in PDF format of the published article and discounts for requested print copies. There are no monetary payments for contributors.
Submissions are requested directly to the Journal at MRAeditorial@e-contentmanagement.com in accordance with Author Guidelines stipulated below.
Professor Carol Grbich
MRA Editor-in-Chief
Flinders University Bedford Park 5042 Australia
Tel: +61 (0)8 8201 3271
Fax: +61 (0)8 8201 3646
Email: carol.grbich@flinders.edu.au
Author Guidelines
These notes are intended as a brief guide for contributors. The editorial team is most willing to provide additional help and encouragement. Please do not hesitate to make contact.
Article Submission
The manuscript may be a research note, theoretical/empirical research article, a literature review, with a focus on issues of research design, analysis or data presentation, case application or methodology education within the aims and scope of the journal and should be approximately -
- Up to 4,000 words in length for a research note
- Up to 6000 for an article
- Or up to 8000 for a literature review
All exclusive of References, Appendices, Tables and Figures. However, shorter or longer articles of exceptional quality may be accepted by the Editor.
Materials should be prepared as a Microsoft Word document and submitted electronically as an email attachment to MRAeditorial@e-contentmanagement.com according to the following guidelines.
It is preferred that authors are consistent in whichever style they select. They are advised to consult the Style Guide below and those needing direction should view the Journal website at www.ijmra.com and APA Journal Guidelines 5th edn, at http://www.vanguard.edu/faculty/ddegelman/index.aspx?doc_id=796.
eContent Management Pty Ltd uses a semi-automated manuscript tracking system to receive and review articles. Manuscripts submitted for publication are subject to a double blind peer review process. Please note that inappropriately prepared manuscripts may be returned to the author for revision prior to submission to the full review process.
To ensure prompt review of your manuscript, and to preserve anonymity during the review process, please observe the following steps:
- In the email message covering the manuscript attachment, please:
- List title of manuscript; author name(s), affiliation(s) (in the order they are to appear), including all co-author postal & email address details for our records;
- Indicate Corresponding Author for multiple author submissions;
- Include any Acknowledgments;
- Acknowledge acceptance of warranty and copyright conditions;
- In Word document, under 'Properties' on 'Tools' pull-down menu, please select 'Options', 'Security' and then tick 'Remove personal information from file properties on save' before sending.
- If your article is for consideration for a selected special issue, please indicate which issue. Otherwise it will be considered for a general issue.
- There should be no information in the attached manuscript that could identify authors or institutions, such as coding with initials, except where appropriate as a citation.
Author Warranties
By submission of material to the International Journal of Multiple Research Approaches (MRA), all authors warrant that the material is their own, original material or that copyright clearance has been acquired to reproduce other material from employers, third parties or attributed to third parties, and that the material has not been previously published and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.
It is the responsibility of authors to secure the release of any copyright material and to provide written evidence to this effect to eContent Management Pty Ltd. It is also the author's responsibility to obtain clearance for reproduction from the organization which commissioned the work if applicable.
Submission of material to MRA also implies all authors' consent to assignment of the material's copyright to eContent Management Pty Ltd when that material is accepted for publication in the journal, for the full legal term of copyright and any renewals thereof throughout the world in all formats and in any medium of communication (see Copyright below).
By submitting material to MRA, all authors of the material agree to indemnify eContent Management Pty Ltd, and its heirs and assigns in business, against any litigation or claims that may arise from the content of or opinions in the material provided.
On acceptance for publication, an agreement specifying these terms will be sent to the corresponding author for signature by all authors of that manuscript. No printers proof will be sent to the author. The hard copy provided by the author on acceptance is the version used for typesetting. The publisher reserves the right to make editing corrections.
Copyright
Copyright of published articles is held by eContent Management Pty Ltd. No limitation will be placed on the personal freedom of authors to copy or to use in subsequent work, material contained in their papers. Please contact the Publisher for clarification if you are unsure of the use of copyright material. Apart from fair dealing for the purposes of research and private study, or criticism and/or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968 of Australia, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the Publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction, in accordance with the terms of the licence issued by the -
Copyright Agency Limited
Level 19, 157 Liverpool Street
Sydney NSW 2000 Australia
Tel: +61 (0)2 9394 7600
Fax: +61 (0)2 9394 7601
info@copyright.com.au
www.copyright.com.au
Style Guide for Authors
Your attention to the conventions described in this guide will be greatly appreciated, will increase the likelihood of favorable review, and will ease the work of everyone involved - you, your reviewers, your editors and your readers. Submissions failing to comply with these standards may be returned to authors.
General Document Guidelines
Accepted articles will be formatted to the Journal standard by eContent Management prior to publication. Authors are asked to observe the following minimum formatting for submissions:
| Margins | Minimum of 3cm (top, bottom, left, right) |
| Font Size and Type: | 12-pt. font (Times Roman or Arial are acceptable typefaces) |
| Spacing: | Minimum 1.5 line spacing throughout |
| Alignment: | Flush left (creating uneven right margin) |
| Order of Material: | Title page (including paper title, author(s), author affiliation(s) Abstract (100-150 word summary of most important elements of paper) Key Words (minimum of 6 key indexing words) Introduction Article body Acknowledgements References; Appendices; Footnotes Tables; Figures (with location indicated within the text) Photos (location indicated in text). |
Ethical clearance must be shown. Ethical processes followed should be included in the body of the article.
Acknowledgements should be included in the covering email, to preserve anonymity during the review process. They will be removed from the manuscript body during review and reinserted prior to publication.
Citations and References should be accurate, timely and consistent throughout. MRA uses an adaptation of Harvard Referencing Style as outlined below. Please ensure that in-text citations appear in References, and vice-versa as appropriate. The accuracy and format of reference citations is the authors' responsibility (see also Copyright below).
Headings and Sections: MRA uses only three levels of headings (see examples below). Use boldface for all three, eg:
METHODS
Data and Sample Measures
Quantitative data
Qualitative data
Artwork Presentation
If supplying images as part of research, text analysis or of data analyzed, the final published dimensions will be 200mm x 145mm, placed portrait or landscape. Artwork must be suitable for immediate BLACK and WHITE reproduction (do not use similar colors), because it will not be redrawn.
Low resolution (under 150 dpi) JPEGs or GIFs are NOT suitable for printing. Repeat-saved JPEGs automatically compress with each save, thereby losing detail each time. Electronic black and white (grayscale) TIFFs of high resolution (300 dpi minimum) are preferred, around 300 KB in size.
Tables, Figure graphics, artwork and research derived photos: Each should have a sentence in text that introduces it. Tables, Figures and other forms of representation should not duplicate the text or each other. Carefully consider what each adds to your work.
Figures and Tables etc. should be placed at the END of your text file (following references) with desired locations cross-referenced within the text, as follows:
[Insert Table 1/Figure 2/Photo 3/Pastiche 2 here]
They should be centered and numbered consecutively (one sequence for Tables, one for Figures, one for photos, and one for other forms of representation) using Arabic numerals (eg Table 1, Figure 2, Photo/pastiche 3) and have self-explanatory captions, in bold, title-style, left-aligned, above the figure or table, eg Pastiche 2: Participants views of solar devices
Important: Artwork labels (such as axes labels or legends, etc) are to use minimal capitalization, and appear using only bold, roman or italic Helvetica, Arial or Times New Roman fonts; otherwise distortion occurs.
Use more than one page if needed for Tables etc to achieve a neat, readable presentation. Do not use code names or abbreviations.
Each table should report one type of analysis (identified by its title), and each column and row should contain only one type of data. Report only two decimal places for statistics. Place correlation coefficients in the lower-left corner. For general footnotes to tables, use superscript small letters. For 'p' footnotes, use asterisks. These go under the general table footnotes. Always use a single asterisk for the .05 level. Example: *p<.05; **p<.01
Language
'English' or 'American' spellings are acceptable, provided they are used consistently. Translation of articles from other languages into English is encouraged and must be provided by professional translators.
Technical terms: To ensure your work is accessible to MRA's wide-ranging readership, define key technical terms.
Abbreviations: Avoid using abbreviations for the names of concepts. Use ordinary words. Names of organizations and research instruments may be abbreviated, but give the full name (with abbreviation in brackets) the first time it is mentioned.
Reporting mathematics. Do not 'talk in maths language' in regular text. Use words. For instance: 'We surveyed 1000 students' not 'We surveyed n=100' and 'We used a chi-square test to evaluate fit' not 'We used a c2 test'. Do use mathematical symbols and numbers to provide illustrative results and formulas. In both, italicize letters that are customarily italicized, such as p, r, F, and Z. Use boldface italic for vectors. Put spaces around equals signs and other operators.
Illustrative results go in parentheses. The text introducing them should be a complete sentence. Example: One coefficient for the interaction was significant (model 3: b=0.06, p=.05; model 5: b=1.06, n.s.)
Equations: Depending on their role and content, equations are either part of your regular text (run in) or displayed in full. Example: Run-in equation - We used Condon's (1996: 20) formula (a=xyz).
Sexist or biased language: Avoid language that might be interpreted as denigrating to ethnic or other groups. Do not use 'he' as a generic pronoun to avoid implying gender-based discrimination. Using plural pronouns - changing 'the manager . . . he' to 'managers . . . they' - usually helps.
Active voice and first person: Put sentences in the active voice ('I did it'; 'We did it') instead of the passive voice ('It was done') to make it easy for readers to see who did what.
Footnotes should be used sparingly, and not used to cite references. Place at the bottom of the page to which it pertains.
Hypotheses should be fully and separately stated, with a distinct number (Hypothesis 1) or number-letter (Hypothesis 1a) label. Display hypotheses in indented blocks, in italic type, as follows:
Hypothesis 1a. Concise writing has a positive relationship to publication.
Hypothesis 1b. Following MRA's 'Style Guide for Authors' has a positive relationship to publication.
Appendixes: Present long but essential methodological details, such as explanations of the processes of thematic and other forms of analysis, calculation of measures etc., in an appendix or appendixes. Be concise. Label multiple appendixes 'APPENDIX A,' 'B,' and so forth, followed by a substantive title, such as 'Items in Scales'. Label tables within appendixes 'TABLE A1,' 'B1,' and so forth.
Journal Referencing Style
Citations
These are your in-text, in parentheses, identifications of publications. Every work that has a citation needs to have a corresponding reference at the end of your paper (see 'References' below).
Examples
Single author:
Name-year citation - Several studies (Arnold 1997; Bernard 1989, 1992; Condon 2000a, 2000b) support this conclusion. Group names in alphabetical order. Note: 2 or more works published in the same year by one author (or by an identical group of authors) are designated by 'a,' 'b,' and so forth, after the year.
Year-only citation - But James and Smith (2007) presented conflicting evidence.
Multiple authors: If a work has two authors, give both names every time you cite it. For three through six identical authors, give all names the first time, then use 'et al.', eg:
First citation - Few field studies use random assignment (Foster, Whittington, Tucker, Horner, Hubbard & Grimm 2000).
Subsequent citations - ...even when random assignment is not possible (Foster et al. 2000).
For seven or more authors, use 'et al.' even for the first citation. (NOTE: the corresponding reference at the end of the paper should list all authors.)
Second-level citation: (Anderson & Adams (1992) in Border and Chism (1992)) - see Referencing format.
Quotations: Cite page numbers for direct quotations, eg:
Short quotation - 'Smithson has said that using multiple approaches is highly beneficial' (1998: 3).
Put long quotations (five lines or more) in indented blocks, in Italics, without quotation marks.
No author? Cite the periodical or organization.
Periodical as author - Reviews have indicated...'(Journal of Education).
Corporate author - Reviews predict in the (World Statistcs WHO 2006). Such sources can also be identified informally. No corresponding reference will then be needed, eg: Informal citation - According to the 2006 WHO global statistics published by the World Health Organisation...'
Electronic sources: Use a regular citation (author, year) if you can identify a human, periodical, or corporate author. If not, give the Web address that was your source in parentheses. In the latter case only, no corresponding reference need be provided.
Reference List
A list headed 'References' and comprising full details of all sources should be provided at the end of your article. The list should contain only work you have cited in-text and should be in alphabetical order by first author's surname. For corporate authors and periodicals, alphabetize by the first substantive word (not by 'the').
List the earliest work by an author first. Differentiate works by the same author(s) from the same year by adding 'a', 'b', etc after the years. Repeat the author's name for each entry.
Journal articles and Periodicals:
Each Journal reference must include author surname(s) and initials, year of publication, full title of article, full name of journal, volume and (optional) issue numbers, and page range (in full) of the article. eg the following are hypothetical examples:
James SE and Smith RS (1995) Problem in using multiple methods, in Mainstream MR and Ponti LW (Eds) Annual Review of sociology, pp.237-64.
Smith P (1995) The role of reserachers in cultural research, Anthropology 20: 936-60.
Tre S (2010) Issues in mixing theoretical frameworks, Journal of Mixed Methods Research 20(4): 557-74.
If an article has no author, the periodical is the author:
Health Sociology (1998) Combining methods. October 19: 86-94.
Lancet (2003) What constitutes research? 81(4): 3.
Thank You
Notes for Reviewers
A guide for reviewers will be provided on request from MRAeditorial@e-contentmanagement.com.
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