Submissions

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Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
  • All authors with their contact information and institutional biographies (about 100 words) are included.
  • The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
  • The submission file is in OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, or RTF document file format.
  • Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
  • The text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
  • The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines.

Author Guidelines

Programmatic Perspectives, the journal of CPTSC, is soliciting articles about theoretical and practical aspects of technical, professional, and scientific communication program administration. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • Program assessment
  • Curriculum development and innovation
  • Cross-cultural issues
  • Faculty development
  • Technology integration
  • Relationship building
  • Diversity issues
  • Program maintenance
  • Programs transitions (e.g., expansion from certificate to major)
  • Student and faculty recruitment
  • Recruitment and retention
  • Internationalization/globalization
  • Historical perspectives on program administration
  • New program development

General Submission Guidance

Authors should remove any identifying content to facilitate blind peer review. Please include the authors’ names and affiliations as well as the name and email address of the corresponding author  on a separate cover sheet.

All submissions should include an Abstract (150-200 words), 5-6 Keywords, Author Bios (100 words), and Acknowledgements.

If the article contains illustrations  (drawings, photographs, images), please create each illustration in a separate file and zip all files together. Illustrations should be saved at 300 dpi or better in EPS, TIFF, PSD, GIF, or JPG format.

Submissions should conform to the Programmatic Perspectives Style Guide. For items not addressed in the guide, please refer to the latest publication of the APA. Please note: Programmatic Perspectives include authors’ first names in the References and in the first in-text citation.

Submission Types

Research Articles

 Research articles are manuscripts that detail systematic, formal research studies (such as pilot studies, case studies, interview surveys, or survey studies) on topics of interest to technical and professional communication administrators, scholars and teachers.

Article should be 8,000-10,000 words. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to,

  • Program assessment
  • Curriculum development and innovation
  • Cross-cultural issues
  • Faculty development
  • Technology integration
  • Relationship building
  • Diversity issues
  • Program maintenance
  • Programs transitions (e.g., expansion from certificate to major)
  • Student and faculty recruitment
  • Recruitment and retention
  • Internationalization/globalization
  • Historical perspectives on program administration
  • New program development

Program Showcases 

Program Showcases tell the narrative of an author’s or authors’ experiences in a particular technical and professional program. Topics may focus on the same issues as research article, but these are not based on systematic research. Program Showcases should be 6,000-8,000 words. They should also include key take-aways that other programs/program administrators can use.

Commentaries

Commentaries address a specific under-examined issue of interest to Programmatic Perspective audiences. Commentaries are 5,000-7,000 words.

FOCUS Articles

FOCUS articles are short, timely pieces that spotlight current or emerging issues related to technical and scientific communication. These topics can include, but are not limited to, pedagogical approaches, industry trends, administrative resources, funding strategies, policy discussions, and such other issues.

FOCUS submissions are limited to a maximum of 2,500 words (including abstract, main text, and references). They should have a straightforward title and include a one- or two-sentence abstract. Multi-authored work is welcomed.

Manuscripts should be sent to FOCUS co-editors Stephen Royek (royek@rowan.edu) and Joseph Jeyaraj (JJeyaraj@citytech.cuny.edu), and be clearly labeled as FOCUS submissions. All articles will be reviewed by a member of the CPTSC Administrators Committee and the FOCUS editors who will coordinate the revision and editing process and make acceptance decisions.

Book Reviews

Focus your review on those concerns most relevant to our target audience: technical, professional, and scientific communication administrators and faculty who are interested in the theory and practice of program development and administration. If appropriate, focus your review on how the text(s) contribute to just one aspect of the profession—for example, programmatic assessment or curriculum development. We encourage you to omit relatively minor concerns, such as minute details about what each chapter contains.

  • Length of review for single work: 1250 words (not counting citations)
  • Length of review for multiple volumes: 2000 words (not counting citations)

If possible, address the following concerns in your review:

  • how the text(s) specifically contributes to the profession in terms of programmatic issues and perspectives or how it fails to do so
  • how the text(s) compare with similar ones in the profession
Heading Formatting for Book Reviews

Include the following information for each book reviewed:

  • title
  • author(s) or editor(s)
  • place of publication
  • publisher
  • date of publication
  • number of pages

Provide the following information after the heading and before the first paragraph: Reviewed by (Your First Name, Your Last Name), (Your Institution).

Please also include a 100-word author (reviewer) bio.

Do not feel obligated to provide extensive evidence (including direct quotations) from the text(s) to support your claims. In fact, we might need to edit supporting evidence to reduce length.

If you decide to provide supporting evidence:

  • include page citations for quoted material (for example, Smith makes a strong case that “the profession will raise its stature considerably if more quality research on this topic is completed” (p. 143)
  • include an author’s first and last name on first reference. Subsequent references should only be last names.
  • provide full citations for other publications mentioned in your review
  • include authors’ first names in the References

All queries, questions, or submissions should be sent to the co-editors, Lora Anderson (lora.anderson@uc.edu) or Lee-Ann Breuch (lkbreuch@umn.edu) as a Word attachment.

Book review queries and book reviews should be sent to Book Review Editor Russell Kirkscey at trk82@psu.edu.

Book Reviews

Format for Book Reviews

Include the following information for each book reviewed:

  • title
  • author(s) or editor(s)
  • place of publication
  • publisher
  • date of publication
  • number of pages

Provide the following information after the heading and before the first paragraph: Reviewed by (Your First Name, Your Last Name), (Your Institution).

In the Submission Process

  • Include a 100-word reviewer biography.
  • Use the first paragraph of the review as the abstract during the submission process.

Style and Content

Focus your review on those concerns most relevant to our target audience: technical, professional, and scientific communication administrators and faculty who are interested in the theory and practice of program development and administration. If appropriate, focus your review on how the text(s) contribute to just one aspect of the profession—for example, programmatic assessment or curriculum development. We encourage you to omit relatively minor concerns, such as minute details about what each chapter contains.

  • Length of review for single work: 1250 words
  • Length of review for multiple volumes: 2000 words

If possible, address the following concerns in your review:

  • how the text(s) specifically contributes to the profession in terms of programmatic issues and perspectives or how it fails to do so
  • how the text(s) compare with similar ones in the profession

Do not feel obligated to provide extensive evidence (including direct quotations) from the text(s) to support your claims. In fact, we might need to edit supporting evidence to reduce length.

If you decide to provide supporting evidence:

  • include page citations for quoted material (for example, Smith makes a strong case that “the profession will raise its stature considerably if more quality research on this topic is completed” (p. 143)
  • include an author’s first and last name on first reference. Subsequent references should only be last names.
  • provide full citations for other publications mentioned in your review
  • include authors’ first names in the References

 

Copyright Notice

The Council of Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication (CPTSC) requires the following agreements of prospective authors.

  • Authors acknowledge that their submission is original material, not previously published, and not under simultaneous consideration by any other publication
  • Authors grant the CPTSC permission to publish the submission in Programmatic Perspectives. Authors acknowledge that Programmatic Perspectives is an online publication, and that the submission will thus be available in that form indefinitely

The CPTSC grants colleges, universities, and libraries permission to use materials published in Programmatic Perspectives free of charge for educational purposes.

Privacy Statement

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