Submissions

Login or Register to make a submission.

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
  • The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
  • The submission file is in OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, or RTF document file format.
  • Where available, DOIs for the references have been provided.
  • The text is double-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
  • The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines.

Author Guidelines

Audience

Authors need to be mindful of the international audience of the journal. In most cases, authors can use the library terminology that is used in their locale. However, when writing about schools and students, it is important to state the age of the students being educated in those schools. Schools systems vary greatly around the world, and readers find it hard to understand what age of school children authors are writing about in their articles. For example, high school students in Eastern and Central Europe means students in university or institutes (usually over 18 years old), and primary school in many countries means the first six grades (perhaps ages 6-11 years) while in other countries primary school means the first three grades (perhaps ages 6-8 years). It is also important to explain terminology used to identify schools. The names applied to types of schools, such as junior high schools, middle schools, gymnasiums or lycee, or compulsory schools, can create difficulty in understanding for our readers.

Format

  • The manuscript should be word processed or typed, double-spaced throughout, and should not exceed 7000 words, excluding graphics and references.
  • The first page of the manuscript should include the manuscript title and an abstract of approximately 100 words. Do not include a cover page. To ensure anonymity in the review process, submit a blinded manuscript without any author names and affiliations in the text, references, or on the title page. Self-identifying citations and references in the article text should either be avoided or replaced with "AUTHOR" (example: AUTHOR, 2019). Remove all digital file identifiers as well.
  • Where appropriate, the author may provide the title and abstract in a language other than English, in addition to the English title and abstract, for inclusion in the published article.
  • School Libraries Worldwide utilizes the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, usually referred to as APA. For more detail, please consult the 7th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, published in 2020 as well as the links and templates provided under author resources.

References

  • Note sources in parentheses after each reference, giving author's name (unless mentioned in the text) and year of publication, and (for direct quotes only) page number(s), for example, (Walker & Janes, 1993) for a reference in the text; (Walker & Janes, 1993, p.72) for a direct quote in the text.
  • Place direct quotes of 40 words or fewer in double quotation marks and incorporate them into text; place direct quotes longer than 40 words in indented block format without quotation marks.
  • List all sources in alphabetical order at the end of the manuscript under the heading References using the APA style.
  • Explanatory notes, numbered consecutively and marked in the text with superscript numerals, may appear before the References under the heading Notes. Any citations in the notes follow the same APA format as other references.

Graphics

  • Place tables, graphics, and figures in the appropriate location in the text of the article. Be sure each has an explanatory title or caption.
  • Number tables using Arabic numerals and place the table number, e.g., Table 1, at the top of the table above the title or caption of the table.
  • Number figures using Arabic numerals and place the figure number, e.g., Figure 1, at the foot of the figure and above the title or caption of the figure.

Submission Copies

  • Submit your paper to the School Libraries Worldwide online journal system at the Submission page. This system will allow you to track your paper through the review process.
  • Please keep a copy of all submitted materials.
  • Submission to School Libraries Worldwide implies the manuscript is not being considered for publication elsewhere.

Review Process

School Libraries Worldwide receives an average of 100 submissions each year and the editors aim to communicate editorial decisions in a timely manner. All manuscripts received by the Editor will be judged for suitability, contribution, accuracy, and interest by a panel of anonymous reviewers designated at the time of submission. The average turnaround time to first decision is 60 days, with an approximate acceptance rate of 30%. To avoid unnecessary delays, a paper may be returned to the author before full review if the editors determine that it is not suitable for the journal. This decision is made in the interest of the author to avoid loss of valuable time.

A large number of submissions are rejected either because of poor quality, or subject areas out of the scope and coverage of the journal. Every submission is scanned for plagiarism. Articles containing more than 50% plagiarized material will be rejected automatically; papers that contain between 30% - 50% plagiarized material may be rejected after the editors consult with the authors and original sources.

Privacy Statement

The data collected from registered and non-registered users of this journal falls within the scope of the standard functioning of peer-reviewed journals. It includes information that makes communication possible for the editorial process; it is used to inform readers about the authorship and editing of content; it enables collecting aggregated data on readership behaviors, as well as tracking geopolitical and social elements of scholarly communication.

This journal’s editorial team and its hosting service, the University of Alberta Libraries, use this data to guide their work in publishing and improving this journal. Data that will assist in developing this publishing platform may be shared with its developer Public Knowledge Project in an anonymized and aggregated form, with appropriate exceptions such as article metrics. The data will not be sold by this journal, the University of Alberta Libraries, or PKP nor will it be used for purposes other than those stated here. The authors published in this journal are responsible for the human subject data that figures in the research reported here.

This website uses Google Analytics, a service which transmits website traffic data to Google servers in the United States. Google Analytics does not identify individual users or associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. This journal uses reports provided by Google Analytics to help us understand website traffic and webpage usage, and report on such usage to funding agencies, association members, and other agencies. You can opt out of Google Analytics by installing this browser add-on.

Those involved in editing this journal seek to be compliant with industry standards for data privacy, including the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) provision for “data subject rights” that include (a) breach notification; (b) right of access; (c) the right to be forgotten; (d) data portability; and (e) privacy by design. The GDPR also allows for the recognition of “the public interest in the availability of the data,” which has a particular saliency for those involved in maintaining, with the greatest integrity possible, the public record of scholarly publishing.