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Final Manuscript Preparation Guidelines for Journal of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies

This document provides details on typesetting and layout requirements pertaining to final manuscript submission to Journal of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies. These formatting requirements are based on the need for JCRES to be ADA compliant

Formatting Requirements

  • Ensure ADA compliance. (Microsoft Word has built-in ADA features and formatting features, and an accessibility checker to support this work.)
  • Manuscript must be anonymized for peer review.
  • Manuscript must be double-spaced
  • Abstract must be single-spaced
  • The main body of text should be set in Times New Roman 12pt or Arial 10pt. Avoid the use smaller-sized fonts.
  • Do not include page numbers, headers, or footers. These will be added by the editors.
  • Page size should be 8.5 x 11-inches.
  • All margins (left, right, top and bottom) should be 1.5 inches (3.8 cm), including your tables and figures.
  • Double-space your text.
  • Use a single column layout with both left and right margins justified.
  • Font:
    • Main Body — 12 pt. Times or the closest comparable font available
    • Footnotes — 10 pt. Times or the closest comparable font available
  • If figures are included, use high-resolution figures, preferably encoded as encapsulated PostScript (eps).
  • Indent all paragraphs except those following a section heading.
    • An indent should be at least 2 em-spaces.
  • Do not insert extra space between paragraphs of text with the exception of long quotations, theorems, propositions, special remarks, etc. These should be set off from the surrounding text by additional space above and below.
  • Don't "widow" or "orphan" text (i.e., ending a page with the first line of a paragraph or beginning a page with the last line of a paragraph)
  • When possible, there should be no pages where more than a quarter of the page is empty space.
  • Submit your manuscript, including tables, figures, appendices, etc., as a single MS-Word file (or file format similar to word).
  • Figures and Tables should have alt-text for ADA compliance
  • Authors can use color in the production of figures, maps, etc.
    • You are advised to avoid the use of colored fonts in situations where their translation to black and white would render the material illegible or incomprehensible.
  • For ADA compliance, color should not be the only distinguishing feature for data visualization, other distinguishing features might include dots, stripes, crosshatch marks, etc.)

Word Count

  • Peer-reviewed essays: ~6,000–10,000 words.
    • Use endnotes, NOT footnotes.
    • Submit files in Microsoft Word, RTF, or PDF

Language use

  • Copyedit your manuscript.
  • Write your article in English (unless the journal expressly permits non-English submissions)
  • Terms in Languages Other than English
    • If wanting to set apart terms in languages other than English, this should be done in italics rather than underlined.

Emphasized text

  • Whenever possible use italics to indicate text you wish to emphasize rather than underlining it.
  • Use one of the "emphasis" heading in the styles tools to indicate emphasis – it will appear as italics but will be coded for screen reader as emphasis

Font faces

  • Except, possibly, where special symbols are needed, use Times New Roman or the closest comparable font available. If you desire a second font, for instance for headings, Arial.

Font size

  • The main body of text should be set in 12pt. Fonts should not be smaller than Times New Roman 12pt or Arial 10pt.

Headings

  • Headings (e.g., start of sections) should be distinguished from the main body text by using the MS-Word headings styles and their accompanying levels. There should be space above and below headings.

Titles

  • Whenever possible, titles of books, movies, etc., should use "book title" Heading in styles menu.

Tables and Figures

  • To the extent possible, tables and figures should appear in the document near where they are referenced in the text.
  • Figures and Tables should have alt-text for ADA compliance. Large tables or figures should be put on pages by themselves.
  • Use Times New Roman 12pt and Arial 10pt with tables. In no case should tables or figures be in a separate document or file.
  • All tables and figures must fit within 1.5" margins on all sides (top, bottom, left and right) in both portrait and landscape view.

Mathematics

  • Roman letters used in mathematical expressions as variables should be italicized. Roman letters used as part of multi-letter function names should not be italicized. Whenever possible, subscripts and superscripts should be a smaller font size than the main text.
  • Short mathematical expressions should be typed inline. Longer expressions should appear as display math. Also, expressions using many different levels (e.g., such as the fractions) should be set as display math. Important definitions or concepts can also be set off as display math.
  • Equations should be numbered sequentially. Whether equation numbers are on the right or left is the choice of the author(s). However, you are expected to be consistent in this.
  • Symbols and notation in unusual fonts should be avoided. This will not only enhance the clarity of the manuscript, but it will also help ensure that it displays correctly on the reader's screen and prints correctly on her printer. Remember not to use pdfs.

      • References

      • Use of DOIs are part of best practices for Open Access Scholarship. Please ensure all references in your bibliography include a DOI where one exists; to find DOIs, search each article title in quotation marks at https://www.crossref.org/, verify the result matches your citation, and append the DOI to the end of the reference. If the article does not appear in results, try searching the first few words of the title plus the author's last name.
      • As an interdisciplinary journal, the Journal of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies does not have one citation guide or system that governs citation practices for the articles it publishes. We encourage you to use the style and citation systems of your respective discipline/field. However, it is the author's obligation to provide complete references with the necessary information and to do so following the guidelines of their discipline/field. When faced with a conflict between ADA requirements and disciplinary style guidelines, ADA standards should take precedence.
      • After the last sentence of your submission, please insert a line break — not a page break — and begin your references on the same page, if possible. References should appear right after the end of the document, beginning on the last page if possible.

      Conflict-of-interest policy:

      • Manuscripts are not sent to reviewers with prior professional association (colleagues, coauthors, cohort peers).
      • If others have already seen/commented on the paper, acknowledgments must name them.

      Submission exclusivity:

      • Manuscript must not be under review elsewhere.

      AI Disclosure

      • Authors must provide an AI disclosure statements indicating how/if they used AI in the production of their work.
      • In the interest of protecting the intellectual property of authors, this journal will not use AI detection tools to analyze text or images in authors’ submission to ascertain AI usage.

      Copyright permissions

      • Authors are solely responsible for acquiring appropriate permissions for use of copyrighted materials used in their manuscripts.