The Call for Manuscripts for the NCPEA Yearbook (2012) 

The Call has several parts: (I.) General Information and Theme, (II) Submission Process, (III) Deadlines, (IV) Publisher’s guidelines for Manuscript Submission, (V) Contact Information of Editor/s.

I. General Information 

            A. The theme of the National Council of Professors of Educational Administration (NCPEA) Yearbook 2012 is "Social Justice, Competition and Quality: 21^st Century Leadership Challenges."  Research papers for submission to the Yearbook generally address critical issues, such as leadership for school improvement, social justice, educational leadership preparation, and school reform.

B. Drafts are unacceptable to submit to the Yearbook.  Please ensure that the manuscript has been edited sufficiently prior to submitting.

C. In the review of literature within the manuscript, be certain to include as appropriate: (a) theoretical review, (b) research review, and (c) positional review.  In the research review of literature, be certain that sufficient information is provided the reader in order to understand the study (ies) you are reporting.  It is expected that the author will critique the study (ies) as well-- pointing out any weaknesses in the qualitative or quantitative methodological processes and/or results.  Positional papers that are included as a part of the review of literature need to be noted as such to be carefully considered.

D. The submission must be original work that has not been previously published. A paper submitted to the Yearbook must not be submitted to another journal unless notification is received that the submission has not been accepted to the Yearbook.

II. The Submission Process- FastTrack 

A.        We will use a Fast-Track process for submissions. Submissions will be monitored by the editors for quality, relevance, focus, APA, etc. and reviewed by at least two persons from the Panel of Reviewers and sorted into one of five categories: Accept, Accept with minor adjustments (usually technical), Accept with minor revision, Accept with revision, not accepted. If you have questions, contact one of the editors.

FastTrack is a state-of-the art pre-press management software, considered among the highest quality on-line manuscript management systems. Designed for the ease of use, this system has critical time saving features which compress the time needed for pre-press document handling and review.

1.         Registration: To submit your manuscript through fast-track or to review a document the user needs to first make an account in the fast-track system. Once a user completes the registration process he/she is given a user id and a password. The registration process is very simple and can be completed on this website:

http://ncpea.expressacademic.org/login.php

 As you register, please accept that you will be a reviewer as well as an author.

2.         Submission: A user can move towards manuscript submission after creating an account on fast-track. To submit a manuscript visit

http://ncpea.expressacademic.org/login.php

3.         Reviewers: The reviewers are assigned to a manuscript by the editors. A blind copy of the manuscript is uploaded into the fast-track system by the editor. This blind copy, a due date, and the criteria for review are made available to the reviewers.

4.         Publishing: Once the reviewers provide their comments, the manuscript is either accepted, sent for further revisions or rejected. If a manuscript is sent for further revisions, it is considered rejected until the manuscript has been cleaned and accepted.  The manuscript may be sent out for another review if revisions are requested.

5.         Editorial guidelines: The majority of references should be within the last five years unless the submission is a historical account or a seminal work is cited.

All references in the body of the paper should be listed in the reference section. The submission should address the conference theme.

6.         If the number of accepted submissions exceed the number that can be included in the Yearbook, the editorial team will make the final decisions regarding selection based on the guidelines provided above.

           B.        Submissions for the manuscript will follow APA 6^th Edition with the exception of the publisher’s requirements as noted in the attached formatting guidelines.  Please save your manuscript in the format provided.  Your manuscript will be returned to you if it is not in the publisher’s format for initial submission in the FastTrack System.

 III. Deadlines 

A.        The Yearbook will be printed online for distribution. The review process will take some time, especially if the material requires revisions.

B.        Deadline for initial receipt: December 5, 2011. Sooner is better!  Deadline for reviews to be returned and responses to the authors is March 1, 2012.    Deadline for the final revisions and resubmission will be April 15, 2012. 

IV. Publisher’s Guidelines 

 Before you submit your manuscript to the NCPEA Yearbook, make sure you avoid the following common formatting/editorial problems.

1. All references must follow American Psycological Association (APA) style, with author year format. Do not use footnotes or endnotes (except footnotes for tables). If you have footnotes, delete them and incorporate them into the text.
2. Documents submitted must be written in Microsoft Word, Times New Roman and size 12 font, double spaced throughout.
3. URLs must be cited as references and should be formatted using WebCite (www.webcitation.org). URLs must also be placed in the reference section.
4. Figures and Tables should appear in the main manuscript file (rather than as separate files) and placed in their intended position. Tables need to be created with Word Insert Table, rather than created with tabs and spaces. Manuscript submissions with tables created with tabs and spaces will not be considered for review. Also, avoid placing lists (i.e., 1,2,3 or a,b,c) within individual cells of a table.
5. Occasionally, Tables and Figures are problematic in formatting and uploading into Connexions. NCPEA and its editors reserve the right to place these figures as PDF links rather than displayed in the text.
6. Do not number your headings. Delete any Running Heads and Footers.
7. Make certain that all components of the submission (i.e., Cover Page, Summary, and Manuscript) are ALL in one Word file. Do not submit as separate files or documents.
8. When uploading a manuscript submission into FastTrack, you will be required to create a user account in FastTrack.
9. You and all co-authors must also register for a Connexions User Account at: www.cnx.org Submissions will not be sent out to review unless submitting author/s have set up Connexions User Accounts. You will be required to insert your new CNX Username on the submission form. This allows us to include your name as author and copyright holder. This is a critical and necessary step, and protects individual authors with author and copyright roles.
10. Make certain that contact information is provided for the lead author.

Note: NCPEA Publications is committed to reviewing for plagiarism and cyberplagiarism, the copying of paragraphs and ideas from websites and online articles without providing appropriate references. Though it is acceptable to take direct quotes from websites, references (URLs) must be given and the citation must be placed in quotation marks. If the NCPEA Publications editors and/or reviewers discover plagiarism, NCPEA reserves the right to notify both author and institution of the situation.

V. Contact Information of Editor

Questions about the submission process can be addressed to George Perreault, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and Luana Zellner, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Yearbook Co-Editors or to Julia Ballenger, Yearbook Associate Editor, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it