A Lively Electronic Compendium of Research, News, Resources, and Opinion
Astronomy Education Review
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How to Submit Contributions

HOW TO SUBMIT CONTRIBUTIONS

Authors are encouraged to submit work in any area of astronomy or space science education, including formal education (K-12, undergraduate, and graduate), informal education (in planetaria, museums, and other non-school settings), and public outreach. Please designate which section of the journal you are submitting to.

CRITERIA FOR JUDGING SUBMISSIONS

The criteria for judging submissions are:

  1. Usefulness of ideas presented. Is the paper likely to improve the teaching and outreach work of others by: a) presenting new and effective techniques; b) providing insight into how people learn, either in the classroom or in informal settings; c) identifying resources that enhance the teaching and learning process; d) providing information/summaries/reviews of current scholarship in education; e) informing readers about trends or controversies in education?
  2. Clarity and effectiveness of presentation. Is the paper written clearly and with an appropriate balance between brevity and completeness? Can the reader understand the purpose of the author in presenting the material, learn from what the author did, and apply it to his or her own work?
  3. Scholarship. For those papers that represent research in astronomy education, were the appropriate procedures used, was the study carried out in a competent manner, and were the results of the study validated with appropriate and rigorous techniques?

Each submission for Sections 1 and 2 will be sent to an external referee, chosen for expertise in the subject being presented. The referees will normally be selected by the editors, who may consult members of the editorial board for suggestions.

Authors with questions about the suitability of a potential submission are encouraged to submit an outline of the proposed paper for preliminary assessment to aer@noao.edu.

GENERAL SUBMISSION INFORMATION

Authors should email contributions to aer@noao.edu. There is no page limit, but brevity is a virtue, especially for an electronic publication. Authors should provide references to their sources, including URLs.

We strongly encourage authors to credit and reference earlier work in the field (in the same way scientific research papers do). Two useful lists of previous papers in astronomy education can be found at:

Every submission must include a brief abstract (50-100 words) and a list of keywords (no fewer than two and no more than ten). At least one keyword must address the main arena for which the paper is intended (e.g., K-6, undergraduate non-science majors, planetaria or museums), and one must address the educational topic (e.g., Web-based learning, classroom demonstrations, children's books).

We urge you to read over our list of keywords (see list below) carefully before submitting. Authors should feel free to provide links to their own or other Web sites for additional material such as diagnostic tests, teaching portfolios, Java applets, statistical validation studies, and so on. The goal is to be sufficiently selective that the journal remains lively and interesting, with a high density of useful information--a quality publication that astronomy educators look forward to reading.

Articles will be posted as soon as the review process is complete. Approximately four times per year, we will declare an issue to be completed, and the papers will be assigned page numbers so that they can be referenced in other publications, curriculum vitae, or in bibliographies.

ARTICLE PREPARATION INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS

The following are guidelines for authors to use in preparing articles for submission to the Astronomy Education Review. Our goal is to make the process as simple as possible for everyone concerned. Please feel free to let us know (aer@.noao.edu) if you have any suggestions or comments.

The AER is published online only using hyper text markup language (HTML), the standard for Web publishing. All articles accepted for publication are reworked first as text (TXT) files and then as HTML files. The articles are then converted from HTML to PDF (portable document format) to create a downloadable version. The simpler the format you send us, the easier it is for us to prepare your article for publication.

Please bear in mind that HTML is not a word processing program and that the user's browser determines how a page will be displayed; different browsers will display the same page differently. Thus, we have little control over how a page appears on your screen. However, we do try to create documents that will display all characters correctly across different platforms and in different browsers.

Quick links for help with:

Text

Submit articles, including tables, in Microsoft Word format, using only the defaults of the system. Please do not use fancy formatting (special characters and page borders, for example), text boxes, embedded images, and so on. Basic text formatting, such as bolding, italics, underlining, and bulleted lists (such as the one below), is acceptable. A Word file allows us to see this basic formatting and ensure that it doesn't get "lost" during the conversion to HTML and PDF.

If you don't have access to MS Word, please email us a text file. If the article contains italics, bolding, underlining, or any other formatting or characters that drop out of text files, please send us a hard copy by mail so that we can incorporate the formatting into your article. Our mailing address is:

Sidney C. Wolff
Astronomy Education Review
National Optical Astronomy Observatory
950 North Cherry Avenue
Tucson, AZ 85719

Please keep in mind that the time and effort needed to format articles sent to us in a text format will result in a slower turnaround. For this reason, submissions in MS Word are strongly preferred.

Submission checklist

Additional Tips

Please bear in mind that some characters and/or formatting may not survive the conversion from your font to our font, from Word to HTML, or from HTML to PDF. We offer these additional tips:

Because the AER format cannot accommodate footnotes, please keep additional information to a minimum. We realize that some articles submitted to AER may have been written according to another style, such as Chicago Manual of Style (CMS) or Modern Language Association (MLA), and may have extensive footnotes containing both reference and non-reference material. Because we cannot incorporate this style into our Web and PDF documents, we require in-text citations (described below) and ask that authors integrate non-reference information formerly part of footnotes into the text if possible.

Please note that extensive use of parentheses may be distracting to the reader; URL addresses, affiliations, or other brief, peripheral information are appropriate for parentheses. In cases where material cannot be integrated appropriately into the text, we ask that the author create a Notes section before the reference list. This section can accommodate non-reference, formerly "footnoted" material, and its entries should be called out in the text in this format: (see Note 1). If the information was originally part of a reference footnote, place a semicolon between the citation information and the note call-out, e.g., (McLaughlin & Adams 1998; see Note 3). Please be aware that too many notes may interrupt the flow of the article. Again, it is preferable to have as much information as possible presented in the text itself.

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Tables

Number all tables and include a table title for each. Tables may be included in the text file if they are not too unwieldy; otherwise, submit them as separate files and indicate in text where the tables should be inserted. Notes to tables may be used and will be shown immediately below the table. We will create tables in HTML if possible. If a table is especially complicated or contains special formatting that should be preserved, please save the table as an image file (JPG or GIF, for example) and send it to us as a separate file. We will insert it as is, similar to a figure or photo.

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Figures

Number all figures and include a caption for each. Submit figures as separate GIF or TIF files (or JPG for photos), and name the files to match the call-out in text. Indicate in the text, using brackets, where the image should go. Notes to figures may be used and will be included in the figure caption.

Example: [insert figure 1 here] ; figure caption: Figure 1 shows É

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Headings

First-order headings should use all capitals.
Second-order headings should use initial capitals only.
Third-order headings should use initial capitals and be italicized.

Headings should be numbered unless the article is very short and/or has very few headings. The AER uses the following heading level number scheme:

Examples:

First-order:
1. INTRODUCTION TO ASSESSMENT MODELS


Second-order:
1.1. Using and Maintaining an Assessment Formula


Third-order:
1.1.1. Assessment Tips for Instructors


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Citations in Text


We are following the Astrophysical Journal (ApJ) style for citations in text--last name of author and year of publication with no comma before the year; there is a comma before the ampersand, however, for three authors. For citations with more than three authors, list the first author followed by et al. Page numbers may be included for books. (For articles, the number of the first page will be given in the reference list.) Samples are given below.

Examples of citations in text:

Redish & Steinberg (1999) point out the large normalized gain indices (and narrow spread, compared to traditional methods) for these two research-based curricula.

Cummings et al. (1999) evaluated Studio Physics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and compare it to Interactive Lecture Demonstrations and Cooperative Group Problem Solving at other institutions.

Examples of citations in parentheses:

Instructional concept maps depicting about 100 essential concepts play a key role in designing the conceptual astronomy format at UNM (Zeilik et al. 1997).

The overarching goal of the collaborative learning approach is to encourage active student participation in the learning process by creating an environment "that involves students in doing things and thinking about the things they are doing" (Bonwell & Eison 1991).

Number of Authors

Citation in Parentheses

Citation in Text

One author

(Cohen 1988)

Cohen (1988)
Two authors (Bonwell & Eison 1991) Bonwell & Eison (1991)
Three authors (Johnson, Johnson, & Smith 1991) Johnson, Johnson, & Smith (1991)
More than three authors (Zeilik et al. 1996) Zeilik et al. (1996)

See http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/ApJ/instruct.html for additional information.

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Resources

This is an optional section for authors to list Web sites, institutions, contacts, or other information that may be of use to readers.

Reference List

We are using a reference style based on the Astrophysical Journal (ApJ) format, but with a few minor deviations. AER reference style, unlike ApJ, includes article titles, italicizes book and journal titles, and uses initial caps for article titles. We also omit parentheses around publisher information. For references with more than eight authors, list the first author, followed by a comma and et al.

Following is an outline of our reference format, followed by sample references for each:

Article in journal

Format:

Author(s). Year, "Article Title," Journal Name, volume number, number of first page, and any additional information.

Beaudrie, B., Slater, T. F., Stevenson, S., & Caditz, D. 1998, "Teaching Astronomy by Internet Jigsawing," Leading and Learning with Technology, 26(4), 28.

Bisard, W., & Zeilik, M. 1998, "Conceptually Centered Astronomy with Actively Engaged Students," Mercury, 27, 16.

Redish, E. F., & Steinberg, R. N. 1999, "Teaching Physics: Figuring Out What Works," Physics Today, 52, 24.

Seymour, E. 1992, "Undergraduate Problems with Teaching and Advising in SME Majors--Explaining Gender Differences in Attrition Rates," Journal of College Science Teaching, 21(5), 284.

Slater, T., Adams, J. P., Brissenden, G., & Duncan, D. 2001, "What Topics are Taught in Introductory Astronomy Courses?" The Physics Teacher, 39(1), 52.

Slavin, R. E. 1991, "Synthesis of Research on Cooperative Learning," Educational Leadership, 48(5), 71.

Book

Format: Author(s). Year, Book Title, volume if applicable, city of publication: publisher.
Note: References for books do not include page numbers. If a specific page is cited, it should be given at the in-text citation. Volume number should be preceded by "vol."

Meyers, C., & Jones, T. B. 1993, Promoting Active Learning: Strategies for the College Classroom, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Traub, Ross E. 1994, Reliability for the Social Sciences: Theory and Applications, Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications.

Slavin, R. E. 1995, Cooperative Learning: Theory, Research, and Practice, 2nd Ed., Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

McLaughlin, J. B. 2001, Overcoming Tedium, vol. 3, Boston: Nontedious Publishers.

Article in edited book or collection

Format: Author's last name and first-name initials. Year, "Name of Article or Chapter Using Initial Caps," in Name of Book or Collection, editor's initials and last name followed by (Editor), place of publication: name of publisher, first page of article or chapter.

Note "in" before the book or collection title.

Kahle, J. B., & Meece, J. 1994, "Research on Gender Issues in the Classroom," in Handbook of Research on Science Teaching and Learning, D. L. Gabel (Editor), New York: MacMillan Publishing, 542.

Fraknoi, A. 1996, "The State of Astronomy Education in the United States," in Astronomy Education: Current Developments, Future Coordination, J. Percy (Editor), San Francisco: Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 89, 9.

Sadler, P. M. 1987, "Misconceptions in Astronomy," in Misconceptions and Educational Strategies in Science and Mathematics, J. Novak (Editor), Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 422.

Zeilik, M. 1996, "Conceptual Astronomy: A Cognitive Approach for Teaching Science to Non-Majors," in Astronomy Education: Current Developments, Future Coordination, J. Percy (Editor), San Francisco: Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 295.

McLaughlin, et al. 2002, "Taming the References Beast," in References in the New Millennium, S. Adams & M. Conklin (Editors), Tucson: Professional Librarians Press, 54.

References checklist


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Keywords and Searchable Phrases

The AER will be searchable by the last name of the authors, the year of publication, and the section of the journal in which it appears. In addition, authors should select keywords from the following lists. If you believe that additional keywords are more appropriate for your article, you may use those, and we will consider adding them to the list.

1. Arena

Each article should have a keyword or keywords that indicates the arenas in which the article applies:

2. Broad Topic in Astronomy

Each article should indicate what (if any) branches or topics in astronomy it concerns:

3. Educational Topic

Each article should have keywords that indicate what aspects of education are covered. Below are some frequently used keywords from past conferences. If other keywords provide a better description of your article, please suggest them, and we will consider adding them to the list.

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