Instructions to Authors | College of Applied Sciences and Arts | SIU

Instructions to Authors

Abstracts or Proposals for Oral Presentations, Posters, Workshops, or Panel Discussions

All abstracts submitted for consideration will be 300 to 400 words in length. As the review of submissions is blind, you CANNOT INCLUDE ANY IDENTIFYING INFORMATION WITHIN THE ABSTRACT itself. The abstract will be uploaded to the submission site as a .doc, .docx, or .pdf file. Your name, institution, etc. will be inserted into separate fields during the submission process. Any abstracts containing identifying information may be removed from consideration. You will also be required to submit three to five keywords that best outline the major ideas or concepts of your proposal along with a short – fifty word maximum – description of your project. Proposal and abstract submissions may include images, charts, videos, etc. which can be submitted in addition to a written abstract as separate file uploads. Do not include any of these media items in the abstract file and do not include more than two supporting files. Datasets, appendices, and other substantial supporting documentation should not be included in this submission and will not be considered in the review process.

Final Poster

All final posters will be a single sheet measuring 36” wide by 48” tall (portrait orientation). THERE ARE NO EXCEPTIONS TO THIS SIZE REQUIREMENT AS IT IS CONFIGURED TO THE SPACE IN WHICH WE WILL BE DISPLAYING THE WORK AT THE SYMPOSIUM. You are required to submit this final poster by the deadline as a .pdf to your OpenSIUC active submission. You will also be required to print this poster and bring it with you on the day of the event. YOUR POSTER WILL NOT BE PRINTED FOR YOU despite the fact that you are submitting it ahead of the symposium. The digital submission is for publication in the symposium proceedings only.

If you are on SIU’s campus and you would like Printing/Duplicating, Student Center Marketing and Graphics, Quigley Hall (Architecture Computer Lab Room 107), or Pulliam Hall (Operations Support Center) to print your poster, we recommend contacting them at least 10 business days before the forum. All posters are asked to be saved and submitted in pdf form.

We highly recommend you consult with your faculty sponsor(s) when designing your posters as they should conform to your discipline’s standards. Software packages you can use to create a poster of this size are Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, and Microsoft Powerpoint. Please reference the following table for what to include on your poster. Please note that all of these sections are not required, nor is this an all-inclusive list; we are merely giving suggestions as to what others have included. Different disciplines have different standard methods of presenting information. 

You will receive an email shortly after acceptance (and probably a couple reminders thereafter) regarding the timeframe for displaying your work on Saturday, November 4th.

Full Papers – First Submission

The initial submission of your full paper should be formatted as follows:

• The file should be a .doc, .docx, or .pdf document
• It should be double-spaced, in a single column, and on an 8 1/2 x 11 page size with one-inch margins on all sides
• The text should be 12 point Times New Roman font unless otherwise noted.
• The manuscript should be between 4,000 and 6,000 words including figure/table captions, references, and appendices
• Include a 300 to 400 word abstract at the beginning of your submission file.
• Do not include page numbers, headers, or footers.
• The title should be bold and aligned to left.
• First level headings are to be numbered (ex: 1.) with bold font and aligned to left. Second level headings are to be numbered (ex: 1.1.) with bold font and aligned to the left.
• Tables and figures must be numbered (ex: Figure 1) and should appear in the text right after the paragraph in which they were referenced. You may include a maximum of eight figures/tables in your paper. Center justify all figures and tables. Each figure or table should have a brief descriptive caption and should be numbered to match the in-paragraph reference.
• References and citations should be in-paragraph and must follow APA Style.  Footnotes (not endnotes) should only be used sparingly for critical additional information and not for citation. Footnotes included should be single-spaced in 10 point Times New Roman font.
• All manuscripts must be submitted in English and should be comprehensively edited for spelling and grammar.

ALL PAPERS ARE SUBJECT TO BLIND REVIEW AND, AS SUCH, MUST HAVE ANY AND ALL IDENTIFYING INFORMATION REMOVED FROM THE PAPER PRIOR TO SUBMISSION. Submissions received with identifying information included may be removed from consideration.

All submissions must be original work that has not been published and is not currently under consideration for publication by another journal.

Along with the paper submission, you will be required to submit a set three to five keywords that best outline the major ideas or concepts of your paper along with a short – fifty word maximum – description of your submission.

Full Papers – Final Manuscript

As mentioned in the previous section, submitted articles cannot have been previously published, nor be forthcoming in an archival journal or book (print or electronic). In addition, by submitting material to ASA Multidisciplinary Research Symposium, the author is stipulating that the material is not currently under review at a journal (electronic or print) or part of existing or forthcoming conference proceedings and that he or she will not submit the material to other such outlets until the completion of the editorial decision process of the ASA Multidisciplinary Research Symposium. If you have concerns about the submission terms, please contact the symposium chair at your convenience.

To submit your final manuscript, log into the Submission forum and return to your paper submission. Your final revised paper should be uploaded using the upload functions at the bottom of the submittal page. Your final paper should be formatted as follows:

General Requirements

• The file should be a .doc or .docx document
• It should be single-spaced, in a single column, and on an 8 1/2 x 11 page size with 1.5-inch margins on all sides (including tables and figures).
• The text should be 12 point Times New Roman font unless otherwise noted.
• The body of the text should be left and right justified (fully justified).
• The manuscript should be between 4,000 and 6,000 words including figure/table captions, references, and appendices
• Include a 300 to 400 word abstract at the beginning of your submission file.
• Do not include page numbers, headers, or footers.
• The title should be bold and aligned to left.

Tables and Figures

• Tables and figures must be numbered (ex: Figure 1) and should appear in the text right after the paragraph in which they were referenced. You may include a maximum of eight figures/tables in your paper. Center justify all figures and tables. Each figure or table should have a brief descriptive caption and should be numbered to match the in-paragraph reference.
• All figures must be high-resolution – minimum 300 dpi for photos or other images, 1200 dpi for linework at the size desired for the publication (i.e. do not enlarge the images once you have placed them on the page as that may pixelate them). Each figure and table must fit within the margins as outlined in these instructions on all sides.
• Figures should be .eps or .tif files.
• It is the author’s responsibility to make sure all copyright permissions have been obtained for all graphic material prior to the submission of the final paper. The ASA Multidisciplinary Research Symposium and its committee will assume the author has obtained such permissions and will not be held responsible for any breach of copyright regarding any submission to the Symposium.

References and Footnotes

• It is the author's obligation to provide complete references for all sources utilized. After the last sentence of your submission, please hard return twice and begin your references with the heading References. References should be fully justified.
• Citations should be in-paragraph and must follow APA Style.  For more information on APA formatting please consult the following website: APA Style
• Optionally, given the online publication format, you may elect to hyperlink the title of any source in the Reference list to its online source. This practice is encouraged, but not required.
• Footnotes (not endnotes) should only be used sparingly for critical additional information and not for citation. Footnotes included should be single-spaced in 10 point Times New Roman font and fully justified. Footnotes should appear at the bottom of the page on which they are referenced and should be separated from the text by a separator rule line. In paragraph, footnote numbers or symbols must follow, rather than precede, punctuation.
• Excessively long footnotes are probably better handled in an appendix. 

Technical Configuration

• All paragraphs should be indented 1/2” except those following a section heading.
• Do not insert extra space between paragraphs of text with the exception of long quotations, theorems, propositions, special remarks, etc. These should be set off from the surrounding text by additional space above and below.
• All other technical configuration should follow APA formatting.  For more information on APA formatting please consult the following website: APA Style 
• Avoid creating "widow" or "orphan" text (i.e., ending a page with the first line of a paragraph or beginning a page with the last line of a paragraph).

Language, Grammar, and Text

• All manuscripts must be submitted in English and should be comprehensively edited for spelling and grammar. Failure to properly edit your documents may result in the manuscript being removed from consideration. Please consult The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White (now in its fourth edition) as a "standard" guide.
• Any foreign words should be set in italics. Italics may also be used to emphasize words or phrases and for the names of books, films, and the like. Do not use bold or underlined text except as noted in these instructions.
• All text should be set to black. The use of color should be limited to figures.
• All changes, comments, and other word processing markups should be eliminated, accepted, or deleted prior to submission. Any track changes settings like those found in Microsoft Word should be turned off prior to submission as well.

Headings

• First level headings are to be numbered (ex: 1.) with bold font, aligned to left, and should utilize all capital letters.
• Second level headings are to be numbered (ex: 1.1.) with bold font and aligned to the left (no full capitalization with these).

Mathematics

• Roman letters used in mathematical expressions as variables should be italicized. Roman letters used as part of multi-letter function names should not be italicized. Whenever possible, subscripts and superscripts should be a smaller font size than the main text.
• Short mathematical expressions should be typed inline. Longer expressions should appear as display math. Also expressions using many different levels (e.g., such as the fractions) should be set as display math. Important definitions or concepts can also be set off as display math.
• Equations should be numbered sequentially. You can choose to locate equation numbers on the right or left, just be consistent.
• Symbols and notation in unusual fonts should be avoided. This will not only enhance the clarity of the manuscript, but it will also help insure that it displays correctly on the reader's screen and prints correctly on her printer. When proofing your document under PDF pay particular attention to the rendering of the mathematics, especially symbols and notation drawn from other than standard fonts.