^{international · peer reviewed · open access}

Authors should follow the instructions below when submitting articles and accompanying materials. Improperly submitted manuscripts may be refused without consideration.

Scope
Library Student Journal (LSJ) seeks to publish the best student papers from Library and Information Science (LIS) students worldwide and to serve as a forum for discussion of LIS education and training, career paths and future trends. Submissions may cover a wide range of topics, but should always relate to and advance the discussion of LIS topics. This is a rapidly evolving field. As such, LSJ especially encourages submissions relating to new technologies and future trends. Papers submitted to the peer-reviewed section of the journal should advance the existing literature with original ideas or original research.

Who Can Submit
LSJ recognizes that a complete discussion of LIS education requires a number of perspectives and a variety of formats. Along with articles of a scholarly nature, LSJ will also consider letters to the editors, editorials, comments on previously published articles and informational essays. While LSJ features student work, practitioners and faculty are encouraged to submit editorials and responses to previously published articles. Non-student pieces will be reviewed by the editors alone. The primary and corresponding author of papers submitted to the peer reviewed section of the journal should be an LIS student. LSJ will not publish papers already published elsewhere (including online) and will not consider papers currently under consideration by another publication.

Sections
Please specify to which section of the journal you are submitting. The sections of LSJ are as follows:

Articles
Peer-reviewed scholarly papers based on original research or literature surveys that advance the subject with original ideas. Articles explore the topic in greater depth than Essays and add original ideas to the existing literature.
Essays
Papers of an informational or personal nature. Essays are reviewed by the editors alone. An Essay is less formal in tone than an Article and may, among other things: share personal experience in the LIS field, give an overview of an LIS issue of interest, be a work of fiction, and/or be lighthearted or humorous.
Reviews
Unsolicited reviews of books currently being used in an LIS course, recently published LIS books, or websites of interest to LIS students; also, solicited reviews of newly published and forthcoming LIS books. See the Reviewer Guidelines below for more details and see the Volunteer page for information on applying to be a book reviewer.
Editorials
Opinion pieces on a topic of current concern to the LIS field. Editorials may be solicited or unsolicited.


Style and Language
LSJ follows APA Style for matters of style, grammar, and references. See the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th ed. for details, or visit http://www.apastyle.org/ for reference formats and style tips.

LSJ currently accepts papers in English only, but allows regional variations in the use of the English language. As such, authors may feel free to use spellings and phrases appropriate to the location in which they are writing.

References
All references should be cited parenthetically and in a reference list. Parenthetical citations should include the author and the year published. Page numbers should be given for direct quotes or very specific ideas.

Reference lists should include full entries for each citation in the body of the paper, but no entries for items not in the paper. Further Reading lists may be allowed at the discretion of the editors.

Below are some examples of common references and citations. See the APA manual for more details and visit http://www.apastyle.org/electext.html for electronic reference help:

Books with one author
Eliot (1999) further emphasizes that language development takes place when a parent talks to a child often.
Books with multiple authors
Marino and Houlihan (1992) included bibliographic lists of picture books, resource books, songs, rhyming games, and ideas for interactive parent-child sessions.
More than five authors
Babies whose parents acknowledge their babbling and facial expressions as communication, mimic their sounds, and verbally label items they touch, will talk earlier with more advanced language skills (Bornstein et al., 1996).
Journal articles
Huebner and Meltzoff found that "reading to a child in dialogue fashion, paraphrasing a story, asking questions after sentences, and personalizing a story plot enhanced both early language and early reading development." (p. 297).
Personal communication
According to the Director, "training materials developed by librarians help parents and caregivers help get their children ready to read" (personal communication, July 19, 2006).
Electronic source
The ALA Bill of Rights states that "library resources should be provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people of the community the library serves" (American Library Association, 2006, ¶1).

Examples of proper reference list entries:

Books with one author
Eliot, L. (1999). What's going on in there?: How the brain and mind develop in the first five years of life. New York: Bantam Books.
Books with two authors
Marino, J. & Houlihan, D. (1992) Mother Goose time: Library programs for babies and their caregivers. New York: H.W. Wilson.
More than five authors
Bornstein, M.H., Tamis-Lemonda, C.S., Haynes, O.M., Pascual, L., Painter, K. M., Galperin, C.Z., Pecheaux, M.G. (1996). Ideas about parenting in Argentina, France, and the United States. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 19(2), 347-368.
Journal articles
Huebner, C.E. & Meltzoff, A.N. (2005). Intervention to change parent-child reading style: A comparison of instructional methods. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 26(3), 296-313.
Electronic source
American Library Association. (2006). Library Bill of Rights. Retrieved September 30, 2006, from http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/statementspols/statementsif/librarybillrights.htm.

Please double check all references before submitting! Papers may be returned without consideration for references missing or improper format.

Headings
When suitable, LSJ uses headings for better organization and navigation. Generally one level of heading is sufficient, but two levels is allowed for especially complex papers. Please do not use more than two levels of heading in your manuscript. No heading is needed above introductory paragraphs.

Please include on the first page of your manuscript a list of headings, with second level headings indented where applicable, to show the overall organization of your paper.

Audience
The primary audience of LSJ is LIS students worldwide. Authors should write for a diverse readership with a wide range of LIS experience.

Illustrations, tables, figures
All illustrations should be attached as separate .JPG or .GIF files. Tables and figures should remain in the text, numbered consecutively.

Timeliness
To maintain currency, LSJ handles all manuscripts and correspondence in electronic format, and asks that authors be prepared to revise their work in a timely fashion. Paper manuscripts will not be considered and the editors reserve the right to treat revisions as new submissions if not completed within the specified time period.

Submission Format
Manuscripts should be submitted as a Word or RTF document. Authors must register with the journal, making sure to check the "Author" box at the bottom of the registration form. You will be guided through the submission process and once submitted you can track the progress of your paper by logging in at any time.

The first page of every manuscript should indicate the title of the paper along with the names, affiliations and email addresses of each author.

Papers should include a suggested abstract of 100-200 words, two to five suggested keywords, and a short author's bio of two or three sentences. Papers may be of any reasonable length appropriate to the topic covered.

Common Mistakes
Please avoid the following common mistakes:

* References and citations (see References section, above) not in APA format; before you submit, please take the time to find a copy of the APA publication manual—your local library will have it—and check all citations for proper formatting. Our time is short and our acceptance rate is low—manuscripts with improperly formatted references are likely to be returned without consideration.
* Entries in the reference list that do not correspond with citations in the body of the paper; conversely, citations not fully referenced in the reference list.
* Superfluous citation: too many citations of concepts not unique to the referenced sources can make papers difficult to read and are not useful to the reader; please cite only where credit for an idea or for a direct quote is due and/or where citation might assist an interested reader in finding more information.
* Indirect citation: citing one source for information referenced in another source; please cite directly the original source of the quote or concept.
* Overuse of "I" and "we"—if a sentence can be rewritten without personal pronouns, rewrite it.
* Introductions that do not represent the content of the paper; if the introduction was the first thing you wrote, delete and rewrite before you submit.
* Inappropriate tone: using language that is too formal, too informal, or inconsistent. Articles, for instance, require a more formal tone than Essays; Editorials and Reviews often read better when written with a more familiar voice.

Improving your Submissions

* Interview someone close to the subject--get your own quotes! If there is someone whose thoughts on a subject might add value to your paper, send that person an email explaining what you are working on and they'll probably reply with something enlightening and quotable.
* Your professors and advisers are great resources--use them! Did your paper originate from a class assignment? Ask your professor what improvements would bring it up to a publishable scholarly standard.
* Increase the originality-factor. Review the published literature on the subject--what aspects of the topic have been ignored or need exploration in greater depth? What can you add to the topic that has not already been discussed?
* Organize your paper in a logical manner. Set the stage by explaining what aspect of the topic you are exploring and why it is worth exploring. Give a brief overview of the topic and any background information the average reader might find useful. Use headings to keep together the main concepts you wish to get across and to avoid redundancy. Make a list of headings--do your ideas progress in a way that makes sense, would your arguments make more sense if you reorganized? Conclude by bringing the parts back together into a cohesive whole. Then, rewrite your introduction to reflect what you have written.
* Proofread! Well-presented papers suggest thorough research. Ask a colleague or two or three to look for mistakes and suggest alternatives to awkward sentences.

LSJ Peer Review Process
Library Student Journal accepts a variety of submissions. Letters, Editorials, Essays, and Reviews are reviewed by the editors alone; Articles are peer reviewed by a minimum of three reviewers.

Manuscripts submitted to the Articles section of the journal go through an anonymous peer review process. Articles are reviewed by at least two members of the editorial board and by at least one person outside the board. Reviewers are selected for experience and expertise relevant to the topic of the submission. Names of authors are removed from the manuscript before being sent to reviewers, and authors are not told who is reviewing their paper. Reviewers are given a review form detailing the guidelines for review followed by an area for comments and recommendations. Editors of the Articles section compile reviewer comments and work with authors to address areas of specific concern. If revisions are major, the revised manuscript goes back through the complete peer review process.

Fees and Copyright
There is no charge for submission. LSJ is an Open Access publication. Authors will retain copyright, but must agree to the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/). All published material will be made immediately available to the public free of charge.