NJTESOL/NJBE Annual Voices Journal Guidelines

teacher young adults NJTESOL/NJBE Annual Voices Journal is the official publication of New Jersey Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages and New Jersey Bilingual Educators. It is published annually each winter. Articles in the NJTESOL/NJBE Voices Journal include these categories: current issues, classroom explorations, program description/exemplary scheduling, and alternative perspectives as related to the teaching of English to speakers of other languages, Bilingual Education, and Dual language programs including students who are U.S.-born bilinguals, “generation 1.5” students, immigrants, and international students. Articles may focus on any educational level, from kindergarten to university, as well as on adult school and workplace literacy settings.

Submissions must be submitted through the form found below. Please read the guidelines carefully.

General Submission Guidelines

Submission guidelines must be strictly adhered to or the submission will be returned for adjustments.
APA style should be used. Please use this link for clarification.
NJTESOL/NJBE expects authors of articles in our journal to adhere to ethical and legal standards for work with human subjects.
The title should be at the top of the submission.
There is no restriction on article length, but approximately 500-1200 words is recommended. Articles may be shorter or longer.
Photos are not required, but if included must be labeled and submitted with the article as attachments. A resolution of 300 dpi is preferred for JPEG or PNG images. Printed artifacts should be scanned in PDF format.
Internet links in articles must be checked for accuracy.
NJTESOL/NJBE editors reserve the right to make editorial changes in any manuscript accepted for publication to enhance clarity, concision, or style. Authors will be consulted only if the changes are substantial.
The review process is anonymous so authors should not be identified anywhere within the body of the article. Authors should also remove their names as authors of the document and all identifying information in the submission.
The editor’s decisions are final.

Review Process and Policy

The editors first review each manuscript to see if it meets the basic requirements (e.g., that it fits the mission and scope of the journal and properly formatted) and that it is of sufficient quality to merit publication. It will be evaluated with a rubric focusing on these criteria:

Currency, importance, and appropriateness of topic to the field and audience
Need or Rationale for article information to members of NJTESOL/NJBE
Outcomes and practical applications for educational settings
Clarity of writing

Submission Categories

Current issues: a submission for the current issues category should provide a clear analysis, critique, discussion, or presentation of key topics in New Jersey ESL, Bilingual Education, and Dual Language programs.
Classroom explorations: a submission for the classroom explorations category will enable teachers to share their personal perspectives on their own instructional techniques, challenges, issues, and successes. It should include viewpoints in developing multiple avenues to address the range of issues in ESL, Bilingual Education, and Dual Language education and student learning. Each submission should include the type of program, the instructional techniques, and overview in the first paragraph, then provide supporting evidence throughout the rest of the article.
Program descriptions/exemplary scheduling: a submission for this category will detail a school or district program that has created a solution to an issue impacting effective instructional settings for English language learners, bilingual students, and dual language learners. These programs do not need to be all encompassing, but rather provide insight into creative strategies for scheduling and/or lesson planning to enhance student learning.
Alternative perspectives: a submission in this category will provide an opportunity for diverse perspectives on one issue or topic. We encourage innovative commentary on issues or teaching methodologies as a way of including all voices in a professional conversation.

Informed Consent Guidelines

Before NJTESOL/NJBE will publish their work, authors and contributors who have used human participants in their study must certify that they have met the following requirements:

Participation in Research

You have informed participants in your study, sample, class, group, or program that you will be conducting research in which they will be the participants or that you would like to write about them for publication.
You have explained the procedure you will follow in the research project or the types of information you will be collecting for your writing.
You have explained that participation is voluntary, that there is no penalty for refusing to participate, and that the participants may withdraw at any time without penalty.
You have explained to participants if and how their confidentiality will be protected.
You have obtained from each participant (or from an underage participant’s parent or guardian) a signed consent form that sets out the terms of your agreement with the participants and have kept these forms on file (NJTESOL/NJBE will not ask to see them).

Consent to Publish Student Work

If you will be collecting samples of student work with the intention of publishing they must be anonymous, you have made that clear to participants in writing. You have obtained a signed consent form from each participant (or from the participant’s parent or guardian) that sets out the terms of your agreement with the participants and have kept these forms on file (NJTESOL/NJBE will not ask to see them). See the sample form.
If your research or writing involves minors (persons under age 18), you have supplied and obtained signed separate informed consent forms from the parent or guardian and from the minor, if he or she is old enough to read, understand, and sign the form.
If you are working with participants who do not speak English well or are intellectually disabled, you have written the consent forms in a language that the participant or participant’s guardian can understand.

Submission Procedures

To submit an article for annual Voices, use the submission form below.
It is understood that manuscripts have not been previously published and are not currently under consideration for publication elsewhere.
Review of manuscripts will begin after the call for articles deadline.
When a manuscript has been formally accepted for publication, authors will be required to submit a complete electronic copy of the final version, including all figures, charts, tables, appendices, and illustrations.

Editorship and Ethics

NJTESOL/NJBE Annual Voices Journal reserves the right to make non-substantive editorial changes for style, clarity, and consistency.
For special themed issues, the NJTESOL/NJBE Annual Voices Journal reserves the right to make the final article selection for the publication.

Open Access Statement

The “NJTESOL/NJBE Annual Voices Journal” is an open access journal. We believe that open access to educational thought is critical for teacher communication and professional growth. For that reason we pledge to make all articles freely accessible and we allow authors to self-archive their publications on the web. Further, in the tradition of open-access journals, the NJTESOL/NJBE Annual Voices Journal makes all articles freely available to readers. Authors are never charged any article processing fees.

NJTESOL/NJBE Annual Voices Journal – Self Archiving Policy

The NJTESOL/NJBE Annual Voices Journal allows self-archiving. Authors retain intellectual property rights to their published work. Since the NJTESOL/NJBE Annual Voices Journal is a digital journal, authors may self-archive their accepted manuscript on their own web sites. An author may use the publisher’s version of the final article, which is posted on the NJTESOL/NJBE Annual Voices Journal web site, for the purpose of self-archiving or deposit. The author may post his/her own version, provided acknowledgement is given to the NJTESOL/NJBE Annual Voices Journal as the original source of publication.

Click here for the form.