Instructions to Authors
  1. Categories of articles accepted.
    • Research Articles (Original Articles): Research articles are theoretical or empirical in nature. Research articles are to be well grounded in the relevant literature and present knowledge, methods, and insights relevant to higher education pedagogy [4000 words].
    • Instructional Articles: Instructional articles are designed to explain and clarify innovative higher education teaching methods. Instructional articles, while grounded in the literature on higher education pedagogy, focus on the explanation of tentative, emerging, or alternative teaching methodologies, rather than the strict reporting of empirical data [3000 words].
    • Commentaries: Commentaries are opinion pieces or reflections related to teaching and learning issues. Authors are encouraged to present a lively, perhaps polemical argument that supports a clear point of view. [<3000 words and about 20 references].
    • From the Desk of…:
      These invited articles are opinion-based essays usually revolving around an important or timely subject by a person who has gained prominence in the field of tertiary education [1000-1500 words].
    • Research Letters: Research letters are intended for preliminary/ pilot studies of pedagogical interests that do not qualify as full journal articles. [2000 words, 10 references, and 1 to 3 tables or figures]
    • Critical Responses to articles in previous issues [1000 words and 5 references]
    • Book Reviews [1000 words]
    • Brief Anecdotes/sharing a teaching moment [1000 words]
    • Short notes on classroom innovations [1000 words]: short structured reports of new ideas covering all aspects of pedagogy. 1000 words plus structured sub-headings: the context and setting; why the idea or change was necessary; what was done; and evaluation of the results or impact. Maximum of 3 references only may be included but do not include abstract, figures or tables.
  1. All manuscripts submitted to the Journal of the NUS Teaching Academy (JNUSTA) must be original works which have not been previously published, must be submitted exclusively to JNUSTA and all authors have read the manuscripts and approved their submission for review.
  2. Following acceptance, the Publisher reserves copyright of all published materials and such materials may not be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the Publisher.
  3. Statements in articles are the responsibility of the authors.
  4. Referees. At the time of manuscript submission, the author(s) will be asked to provide the names, affiliations and e-mail addresses of 3 potential reviewers. The suggested reviewers should not be from the same institution as the authors, and at least two referees should be from countries other than those of the authors. The Editor-in-Chief retains the sole right to decide whether or not the reviewers suggested by the authors will be invited to participate in the review process. The authors may also indicate names of referees who, in their opinion, should not participate in the review process. Again, the Editor-in-Chief will have the sole right to make decisions on this matter.
  5. The Editorial Board reserves the right to edit all articles for purposes of style, format and clarity. All papers submitted to JNUSTA will be subjected to external and/or editorial review.
  6. Authors may be required to revise their manuscripts for reasons of style and content.
  7. Compliance by authors to requested revisions does not automatically bind JNUSTA to publish any article.

The Manuscript

  • The final manuscript should be prepared in 12-point, Times New Roman, and double-spaced. Leave wide margins (3 cm) on all sides of the page.
  • Three separate types of documents should be prepared. Arrange them in the following order: (1) title page, (2) abstract, text, references, tables, legends, and (3) figures.
  • Number all pages in chronological order.
  • Remove all author-identifying details from the main text in order to ensure anonymity for a blinded review process.
  • Address manuscripts to "The Editor-in-Chief, JNUSTA, NUS Teaching Academy, National University of Singapore, Central Library Annexe, Level 7, 10 Kent Ridge Crescent, Singapore 119260".
  • Authors should submit their article to . Submissions must be prepared using Microsoft Word on PC platform. Submissions should be an uncompressed file attached to the email to JNUSTA. Do not include it in the body of the email text. Include the following information in the email body text:
  • Title of article
  • Submission Category (from above list) that most applies to your article.
  • All submissions must be prepared following JNUSTA's Instructions to Authors.

The Title Page should contain:

  1. The title of the article (do not use abbreviations);
  2. The full name of each author with maximum of three degrees (underline family name);
  3. Positions of authors and names of departments and institutions to which they are attached;
  4. A short running head of no more than 40 characters (count letters and spaces); and
  5. Name, address, telephone, email and fax numbers of author for correspondence.

Authorship

Authorship of articles should be limited to those who have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for the content. These include:

  1. Conception and design, or analysis and interpretation of data, or both,
  2. Drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content, and
  3. Final approval of the version to be published.
  4. All other forms of participation such as general support by departmental chairman, financial and material support, grants, secretarial support, scientific advice, etc, should be mentioned as acknowledgments at the end of the paper.
  5. Any change in authors (e.g. additions, deletions or change of order) after the initial manuscript submission must be approved by all authors. An explanation of the change must be submitted to JNUSTA, signed by all authors, including the added/moved/removed authors.

Abstract

  1. A succinct and factual abstract is required (maximum length 250 words). The abstract should state the purpose of the research, the method(s) used, the major results obtained, and key conclusions.
  2. Please note that From the Desk of..., Critical Responses, Book Reviews, Brief Anecdotes and Short Notes do not require an Abstract.

The Text

  1. System Internationale (SI) units should be used for measurements.
  2. Do not begin sentences with a numerical figure. Numbers should be spelt out in words if they lead a sentence.

Institutional Review Board (IRB)

For all manuscripts reporting data from studies involving human participants (or animals), standard institutional review board (IRB) procedures must be followed and approval sought by the author(s). Author(s) should signal that approval has been sought and given before submitting an article for JNUSTA review consideration.

Statistical Methods

Any statistical method used should be detailed in the methods section of the paper and any not in common use should be described in detail and supported by references.

Acknowledgements

At the end of the text; one or more statements could specify:

  1. contributions that need acknowledging but do not justify authorship;
  2. acknowledgements of technical help and/or financial and material support.

References

  1. The author(s) will take full responsibility for the accuracy of citations included in the article.
  2. Citations in the text: The authors must ensure that every reference cited in the text is included in the reference list (and vice versa). Only published and readily accessible works must be included in the reference list; unpublished results and personal communications may only be mentioned in the text. Works that have been accepted for publication must be cited as “in press”. The full URL and the last date of access should be given for web references. Web references should also be included in the reference list.
  3. JNUSTA has opted for a dual referencing system:
  1. Whichever referencing style is used, authors must be consistent with one style across the document.

Artwork, Multimedia and Supporting Information

Tables

  1. Place each table on a new page.
  2. Give each table a number (in Roman numeral, e.g. Table 1, 2, etc) and a title. Number tables in the order of which they are mentioned in the text.
  3. Provide a footnote to each table, identifying in alphabetical order all abbreviations used.

Figures

  1. Acceptable formats are Adobe Photoshop, .jpg and .tif, and Microsoft Power Point, .ppt. To ensure high-quality printing, resolution of 300 dpi or higher is preferred. A separate file should be submitted for each figure.
  2. Size of photos and drawings should not exceed 150 x 200 mm.
  3. Figures should be professionally drawn; freehand lettering is unacceptable.
  4. Use black ink for all charts and line drawings. Make decimals, broken lines, etc. strong enough for reproduction. Bar charts should be one-dimensional and only in tones of grey.
  5. Use arrows to designate special features.
  6. Number figures in the order of which they are mentioned in the text.

Figure Legends

  1. List all figure legends on a separate page.
  2. All abbreviations used in the figures are to be identified and explained in the corresponding legends.

Audio and Video Files

Audio files, if any, should be submitted in MP3, Windows Media audio (.wma) and Advanced Audio Coding (.aac) formats. Video clips may be used to present information on dynamic teaching and learning processes. For videos, MPEG, Quicktime and Audio Video Interleave (.avi) formats are acceptable. Each audio/video file may not exceed 5MB. Overall, they should not exceed 10MB for the manuscript. File names such as aud1.wma, aud2.wma, vid1.avi etc. may be used to facilitate easy editorial processing.
The video files are to be prepared in a manner that keeps the files size as small as possible. Some parameters are suggested

  • Frame size: 480 X 360 pixels
  • Frame speed: 15 per second or more
  • Maximum data rate 150 kB/s
  • Time: 5 minutes or less per video file
  • Authors should provide a thumbnail (i.e. a relevant frame still from the actual video clip that they feel is representative of the content of the video) which will be used as an image that JNUSTA readers can click on to start playback of the video. The still image should have the same pixel dimensions as the source video file.

If any copyrighted figure, table, audio or video material is used in the submitted manuscript, the authors must get all the necessary clearances. The authors will be asked to sign a declaration to this effect before the final publication of the manuscript.

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