Notice to Authors

JSC has been in the process of re-imagining our journal for the last two years to make it sustainable. Given this, we will only be publishing special editions for the immediate future. Stay tuned in Spring of 2025 for a call for a special edition. Please note, we will not be accepting unsolicited, general manuscripts any longer. We have made the decision to focus only on special editions once a year. Thank you! 

Special Edition Call for 2025!!

 

Submissions

More information coming in 2025 on the special edition topic! Check back in early 2025! 

 

Special Edition Submissions: 

All manuscripts submitted for the special edition, must be submitted electronically as an email attachment using Microsoft Word for Windows. Submissions to the Journal of School Counseling should be sent to rebecca.koltz@montana.edu.  In the subject line please write - Special Edition Submission and your last name. 

Authors, please submit two copies of your manuscript: one complete copy of your manuscript with the title page, abstract, biographical statement, and body of the actual manuscript, and a second copy masked (with identifying information removed), without any authors/affiliations or author notes on the title page and no biographical statements. If accepted you will be asked to attend to all feedback and return the manuscript in an accessible PDF format. 

Please use the following guidelines when submitting manuscripts.

Originality

All manuscripts must be the original work of the authors, have not been published elsewhere, and are not being considered for publication elsewhere. In the event of publication, the Journal of School Counseling retains copyright ownership.

Client Anonymity

Client anonymity must be protected in all manuscripts. Authors must avoid all identifying information in describing clients and their personal histories.

Review Process

All manuscripts will be initially reviewed by the special edition editors for acceptance into the special edition. There will be a limited acceptance of 10-15 manuscripts per year.  Acceptable manuscripts will be returned with reviewers’ comments, suggestions, and disposition recommendations will be sent to authors.

Style Specifications

General

Manuscripts should be no longer than 20 pages, excluding title page, references, figures, and tables. All manuscripts should use 12-point Arial font, be double spaced including references and extensive quotes, allow 1" margins on all sides, and include an abstract of 50-100 words.

  • Authors must use the guidelines established by the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th edition) as the manual for style and manuscript format, including style for all figures, tables, and references. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of references, tables, and figures.
  • Authors are encouraged to use active rather than passive voice whenever possible. Moreover, authors are encouraged to use guidelines to reduce bias in language against persons on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, racial or ethnic group, disability, or age by referring to the 7th edition of the Publication Manual for the American Psychological Association.
  • Lengthy quotations (300-500 words) require written permission from the copyright holder for reproduction. This permission must accompany the manuscript. Lengthy quotations are discouraged, rather use paraphrasing. 

Title

A separate first page of the document should include the title, author(s) name, and institutional affiliations of all authors (if not affiliated with an institution, city and state should be listed).

Abstract

A separate second page of the document should include an abstract describing the article in 50-100 words.

Body

All manuscripts begin with an untitled introduction, which should include a rationale that supports the significance and/or clarifies how the manuscript contributes to the field of school counseling. It may consist of a statement of the major questions or issues addressed and their importance. This is followed by a brief review of the pertinent literature and a statement regarding how the current article addresses questions and ambiguities that the literature has not answered.

  • Empirical studies will continue with detailed method sections, followed by results/discussion (including limitations and suggestions for future research).
  • Innovative methods manuscripts will continue with descriptive method sections, followed by a discussion section (including limitations), and an implications or practical application section.
  • Position papers will continue with various section headings to be determined by the focus of the paper, followed by a discussion section, and an implications or practical application section. Some position papers may focus on a review of the literature regarding a given topic or theme.

All citations found in the body of the manuscript should follow APA guidelines. Some examples follow; underlines represent examples and would not be used in an actual manuscript. References cited at the end of a sentence use the author-date method of citation, inserting the author’s surname and year of publication (Jackson, 2001). Authors should use “and” when there are two or more authors cited within a sentence, according to Anderson and Wilson (2009); however, authors should use an ampersand (&) for parenthetical citations in text (Anderson & Wilson, 2009). If a work has more than two but fewer than six authors, cite all authors the first time the reference occurs; in subsequent citations list only the surname of the first author followed by et al. and the date. If a work has more than six authors, cite only the first author’s surname followed by et al. for all citations. For more reference information, refer to the APA Publication Manual.

References

References should be listed in alphabetical order on a separate page titled “References” immediately following the body of the manuscript. All references cited in the manuscript must appear in the reference list and vice versa.

  • Names of author(s). List names of all authors with surnames first followed by the initials for the first and middle names. Use an ampersand (&) when there are two or more authors and use a comma to separate the names.
  • Date of Publication (in parentheses).
  • Article title. Capitalize only the first word of the title and of the subtitle. Do not underline or use quotation marks.
  • Journal title and publication information. Italicize the full title and volume number of the journal. Always include page numbers in references to quotations or specific sections of a book. For more reference information, refer to the APA Publication Manual.

Figures & Tables

Include each figure and/or table embedded within the manuscript, not as separate pages.  Adaptation of tables and figures also requires reproduction approval. It is the author’s responsibility to secure such permission. A copy of the publisher’s permission must be provided to the journal Editor immediately on acceptance of the article for publication. For accessibility please be sure to properly label your figure or table with a descriptive identifier. 

Biographical Statement

On a separate page, following the references, include a separate biographical statement for each author that describes professionally related information, for example: job title, work setting and location, school counseling related interests, and any specializations or expertise.

 

Accessibility

If accepted for publication, authors are responsible for making sure their final product is returned to the journal in PDF form and is in an accessible format.