Call for papers to be published in the NACAA Journal

CALL FOR PAPERS TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE JOURNAL OF NACAA

and Submission Guidelines

Purpose:

To provide NACAA members an opportunity to publish in a nationally recognized refereed journal.
To provide NACAA members an opportunity to share successful Cooperative Extension Service scholarly work such as original research, applied research, demonstrations, case studies, innovative ideas and related Extension activities.
To provide the NACAA membership with additional professional improvement opportunities that will enable them to become a more knowledgeable Cooperative Extension professional.

Eligibility:

NACAA members in good standing are encouraged to submit articles. At least one author (preferably all authors) must be a member of NACAA for a paper to be considered.

Recognition:

Successful peer reviewed articles will be published on the NACAA website at: www.nacaa.com/journal. Publication dates are June 1st and December 1st of each year.

Journal of the NACAA National Peer Reviewers:

All articles receive an initial review by the Journal of the NACAA editor. Articles that pass this review are then forwarded to three different Journal of the NACAA National Peer Reviewers based upon relevant subject matter expertise. Peer reviewers are selected from the NACAA membership and are successful authors of peer reviewed journal articles, Extension bulletins, books or book chapters. Guidelines for peer reviewers can be found here..

Author Agreement:

The submitted article is the sole, original work of the author(s) listed, has not been previously published, does not violate any copyrights and has been submitted only to the Journal of the National Association of County Agricultural Agents. The article's copyright is fully transferred to the Journal of the National Association of County Agricultural Agents, which will hold full and exclusive rights to the article. The article does not represent a violation of the Civil Rights of others and this article does not violate the Code of Federal Regulation for the Protection of Human Subjects (45 CFR 46). In making a submission, author(s) are affirming the above conditions. Furthermore, author(s) affirm that the Journal of the National Association of County Agricultural Agents, its Editor, Executive Director and Board of Directors will be held without blame if any of the above conditions are not satisfied.

Submission Deadlines:

Articles must be submitted by March 15th for publication in the June 1st issue and September 15th for publication in the December 1st issue.

Submission Website:

All papers must be submitted electronically at: https://www.nacaa.com/journal/post_editor.php. No paper submissions will be accepted. Articles can be composed and saved online. Completed papers that have been saved and submitted can still be edited and resubmitted any time before midnight Alaska Time on the submission deadline date. Submissions after the deadline will be considered for the next issue unless an author withdraws the paper. The lead submitting author will receive an email confirming that their paper has been received. If you do not receive a confirmation email, contact the editor.

Article Length:

The article should not exceed 4,000 words not including tables, figures and the literature citations. Significantly shorter articles are strongly encouraged.

Abstract:

The paper’s abstract is entered in a separate dialogue box than the main body of the paper. The abstract should be a concise summation of the paper’s purpose, general methods, results and conclusion. While the Journal of NACAA does not set specific limits on the length of the abstract, it generally should not be more than 100 words. The abstract is written as a single paragraph.

Article Format:

Authors have flexibility to format section headings as they desire, however most papers would follow this or a similar heading format: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion and Literature Cited. Section headings should be centered on the page. The editor will make final formatting adjustments (font, style) before publication.

Literature citations must be included in articles, and should conform to the style of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. Click here for some examples of APA style.

Because the Journal of the NACAA is an online publication, authors should prepare their articles with on-screen viewing in mind. This generally means shorter paragraphs, more lists, and inclusion of graphic elements.

Page Tools:

For security reasons normal cutting, copying and pasting operations will not work on the submissions page. Authors will need to use the submission page’s tools for conducting these operations. Hovering the cursor over a tool will reveal its function. The graphic below shows some of the more commonly used tools.

Authors who compose their papers outside the website in Word should use the normal copy function within the word processer. However, they should use the “paste from Word” tool to paste the article into the submission webpage.

Tables, Graphics and Pictures:

Tables and figures should be placed in the appropriate place within the body of the article, not at the end. All tables in the article should be numerically labeled with a brief explanation of the table. All graphics and pictures will be referred to as figures. They too should be numerically labeled with a brief explanation centered beneath the figure. Do not incorporate table and figure captions in the graphics themselves. Instead, type the captions into the body of the article. Table captions should appear immediately above the table; figure captions should appear immediately below the figure.

Uploading Tables, Graphics and Pictures:

It is recommended that tables be created on the website, but they may also be imported in as a graphic if this results in sharp, readable images. To create a table on the submission website, use the table tool button.

Graphics and pictures cannot be cut and pasted into the submission website. Closely follow the five step uploading and pasting process below:

1. Locate the image and upload it to the submission website then click save.

2. Highlight and copy the image URL as it appear on the screen. Don’t just click on the image URL—highlight it by setting the cursor at one end, press and hold the left mouse key, then drag the cursor to highlight the URL. Once it is highlighted, copy the URL.

3. Click the image tool.

4. Paste the copied URL link into the URL box.

5. Center and adjust size of image.

More Tips for Authors:

Read Submission Guidelines carefully before beginning your submission. Read Guidelines for Peer Reviewers to understand what they will be looking for in articles.
Browse through recent issues of the Journal to get familiar with article types, styles, formats, and topics.
Ask a colleague to review your article for grammar, spelling, and comprehension before submission.
Make sure to match up literature references in the article with the list of literature cited.
If you are having problems with the submission site, particularly for tables and graphics, reread the instructions carefully and try again. If you are still having problems, contact the editor for assistance.
Pay attention to article and section formatting, but don’t worry if your article doesn’t look perfect at this stage. Please, one space between sentences, not two!
Make sure you save and submit your article when you are finished. Once you have submitted your article, you can still get into it to make changes and revisions. Click save and submit each time you make revisions.
Once your article has been received by the editor, please do not delete the article or resubmit it without discussing this with the editor.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact the editor.