MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Cover letter
In a cover letter, please indicate:
The material in the manuscript will not infringe upon any statutory copyright.
The paper will not be submitted elsewhere while under JCA review.
The consumer interest topic areas addressed in the manuscript.
Required copies
Submit five (5) hard copies of the manuscript.
Include an electronic copy of the manuscript on a 3x5 floppy disk in MS Word; remove the author(s)' name(s) from the title page and all other parts of the text.
Title page
A separate title page should be attached to ONE copy of the manuscript.
Information that must be included on the title page: title of the paper, author's title and affiliation, address, phone and fax numbers, e-mail address, summer contact information (e.g., phone, fax, and e-mail), and any acknowledgements.
Authors should not be identified anywhere else in the manuscript.
Abstract
All manuscripts must be accompanied by an abstract, not to exceed 100 words, including "Bits, Briefs, and Applications" articles.
PREPARING AN ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT FOR PUBLICATION
Preparation
If your article is accepted for publication, please make all final revisions.
The final version of your article should adhere to the guidelines listed below under TEXT FORMAT; REFERENCES; TABLE, FIGURE, GRAPH, AND CHART FORMAT; and GENERAL STYLE AND FORMAT.
File Submission
Send the JCA editor a diskette with a single electronic file of your revised article in MS Word format containing the full manuscript (including tables and figures).
Send one hardcopy printout of the file with the diskette.
Send a printed copy of the JCA copyright form, signed & dated by the contact author
Arrangement of manuscript components
Manuscript components should be arranged as follows:
Author or authors' name(s)
Title of article
Abstract
Author information, including the author's position, institutional affiliation, and e-mail contact address
Any additional information, such as acknowledgments
Text of article
Endnotes
Appendices
References
Tables and figures
NOTE: Tables/figures/etc. should be on separate pages and follow the References, as they will be inserted where indicated by the compositors. See the General Guidelines section in TABLE, FIGURE, GRAPH, AND CHART FORMAT for further information.
TEXT FORMAT
Line spacing Double-space all text, including endnotes and quoted material, except text that occurs with visuals (tables and figures) or in an accompanying note to a visual.
1st-level headings Centered, all caps
2nd-level headings Centered, headline-style capitalization
Capitalize all words except prepositions & conjunctions that are 3 letters or less.
3rd-level headings Left justified, headline-style capitalization, italicized
Block quotations Double-space and indent entire quote 5 spaces from the left
Notes
Number notes separately throughout the text, using superscript Arabic numerals.
Include all notes on a separate page entitled ENDNOTES, listed using the Arabic numeral (NOT superscripted) followed by a period.
Endnotes should be placed at the end of the main text, preceding the References page and any appendices.
Tables, figures, graphs, and charts
Each table, graph, figure, or chart should be placed on a separate page and included at the end of the manuscript.
Omit all vertical lines.
Use superscripted, lowercase letters for notes to tables, and asterisks for statistical significance levels.
REFERENCES
General guidelines
JCA uses the author-date system of documentation, with a few exceptions; for details, consult the Chicago Manual: "The Author-Date System: Reference Lists and Text Citations," sections 16.90-16.120 (pp. 616-624). See Capitalization and Author names sections below for further information.
Subtitles of books and articles must be included in the citation.
Authors should check a current issue of the Journal for specific examples on reference lists and citations, or consult the examples below.
Capitalization
Use the headline style of capitalization for titles of books and articles.
Capitalize all words except prepositions and conjunctions that are 3 letters or less.
Author names
Authors' full first names (NOT just initials) must be given unless the author is known by an initial or initials.
Omit comma between surnames and "Jr." or "Sr."
For a multi-author entry, only the 1st author's name is inverted (last name first).
Examples of Reference Entries
Journal entries
Crowne, Douglas P., and David Marlowe. 1960. A New Scale of Social Desirability Independent of Psychopathology. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 24 (August): 349-354.
Verton, Dan. 2001. Identity Theft Skyrockets, but Less Than 1% Occur Online. Computer World, 35 (7): 7.
Moore, David J., Jerome D. Williams, and Williams J. Qualls Sr. 1996. Targeted Marketing of Tobacco and Alcohol Related Products to Ethnic Minority Groups in the U.S. Journal of Ethnicity and Disease, 6 (Winter/Spring): 83-98.
Sexton, Donald E., Jr. 1972. Grocery Prices Paid by Blacks and by Whites: Further Findings. Journal of Economics and Business, 25 (1): 39-44.
Articles or essays within a compilation or anthology
Milne, George R. 2001. The Effectiveness of Self-Regulated Privacy Protection: A Review and Framework for Future Research. In Handbook of Marketing and Society, edited by Paul N. Bloom and Gregory Gundlach (462-485). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Books
Bruner, Gordon C., II, and Paul Hensel. 1992. Marketing Scales Handbook: A Compilation of Multi-Item Measures. Chicago: American Marketing Association.
Cox, Ted F., ed. 1967. Risk Taking and Information Handling in Consumer Behavior. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.
Newspaper articles
Martin, William. 1989. Sun States Officials Believe Dreams Don't Have to Fizzle. The Times [Gainesville, FL], August 20.
NOTE: Omit page numbers for newspaper articles.
Personal interviews
Bodinet, Elizabeth. 2001. Personal interview, March 5, Milwaukee, WI.
Personal correspondence
Shanks, L. Edward. 1992. Telephone interview, July 23.
Websites
Carter, Colin A. and Guillame P. Gruere. 2003. International Approaches to the Labeling of Genetically Modified Goods. Choices, second quarter. http://www.choicesmagazine.org/current/2003-2-01.htm.
General Election Online Voters' Guide. 2002. http://www.sos.state.us/elections/nov52002/guide/measures/m27.htm.
Whole Foods Market. 2002. Whole Foods Market Nationwide Survey Reveals More Than Half of American Have Sampled Organic Foods and That Food Labels Matter. http://www.wholefoods.com/company/pr_organicsurvey.pdf.
NOTES:
Do not put "Online at" if the URL given is clearly a website correlated to the reference source.
Do not put an access date for the website, unless there is no publication date given for the reference.
Following the URL, put a period after htm, html, pdf, etc.
In-Text Citations
In-text citations (parenthetical citations)
Spell out the word and in a multi-author citation; do not use an ampersand (&).
For 3 or fewer authors, list all surnames.
Example: (Smith, Jones, and White 2003)
For more than 3 authors, use et al.
Example: (Wagner et al. 1991)
NOTE: Do not place a comma after et al. in the citation
If a direct quote is given, give the page number only - do not include "p." or "pp."
Example: (Rogers 1999, 213)
For a fuller discussion of in-text citations, see Chicago Manual, 15th ed., sections 16.107-120, pp. 620-624.
TABLE, FIGURE, GRAPH, AND CHART FORMAT
General guidelines
When submitting a manuscript, figures, tables, etc., are placed on separate pages following the list of references at the end of each article.
To help the compositor, insert a centered statement in brackets IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING the paragraph which contains the first mention of the table or figure.
Example:
[Insert Table 3 about here]
Images
Electronic illustrations or photos should be submitted in separate files with file names that reflect their status in the article (e.g. "Figure 2.tiff).
Images must have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi.
Capitalization
The designation FIGURE or TABLE is in all caps, followed by an identification number (Arabic numeral); all figures and tables should be numbered, even if there's only one.
Capitalize titles, main columns heads, and 1st level spanner heads using headline-style capitalization.
Lowercase stub headings and 2nd level spanner heads (except the first word and any proper nouns).
Footnotes
Use superscripted lowercase letters for footnotes to tables.
For information not specific to any particular part of the table, an author may provide a note (or notes), proceeded by Note(s): .
Notes should be placed below the table and left justified.
Titles
Titles should follow headline-style capitalization, and be italicized.
They should be follow one line below the table or figure designation.
Both the designation and the table should be left justified.
Example:
TABLE 1
How Front-Sided Health Claims Impact One's Thoughts About a Product
Probability/significance levels
Put all p-levels on one line.
Separate each p-level with a semicolon; do NOT place a period after the last p-level.
Lowercase and italicize p.
List p-levels according to the number of asterisks used, with the single asterisked level first, double second, etc.
Place probability notes following all other notes.
Example: * p<.05; **p<.01; ***p<.001
"If a table contains notes on significance levels (also called probability notes), asterisks may be used as reference marks. If two or three standard significance levels are noted, a single asterisk is used for the lowest level of significance, two for the next higher, and so on." (Chicago Manual, 15th ed., 13.49, p. 512)
Total population or group amounts (N)
N (as in, a total or population group amount) is italicized in the text and tables of the manuscript.
When using lowercase "n" to refer to a portion or sample of the total group, it is italicized.
"An italic capital N is used in many statistical tables to stand for the total group, or "population," from which data are drawn…An italic lowercase n stands for a portion of the total group, or a "sample." For example if N refers to the total number of subjects (of both sexes) in a study, lowercase n might refer to the number of females in the study." (Chicago Manual, 15th ed., 13.5, p. 497)
Callouts
In the manuscript text, figures or tables must be referred to by their label and number.
The word "Table" or "Figure" is capitalized when it precedes the identifying number, but not capitalized elsewhere.
Example:
See Table 2.
As shown in Table 3, These two tables illustrate
EQUATIONS, PERCENTAGES, AND NUMBERS IN TEXT
Equations
When an in-text equation is followed by a statement beginning with where, the word where is lowercased and is NOT followed by a comma.
The equation that precedes it may, however, be followed by a comma, when necessary to indicate that the following information is a subordinate clause.
Percentages
In a span of percentages, use an en dash.
Do not repeat the % sign.
Example: 151-200% NOT 151%-200%
Numbers
Spell out numbers 1-9, unless the number refers to a percentage, measurement, or age.
For 10 and above, use Arabic numerals, unless the number begins a sentence.
Flexibility: "Many publications, including those in scientific and financial contexts, follow the simple rule of spelling out only single-digit numbers and using numerals for all others. This system should be used with flexibility so as to avoid such awkward locutions as '12 eggs, of which nine were laid yesterday.' [ ... ] Where many numbers occur within a paragraph or series of paragraphs, maintain a consistency in the immediate context. If according to the rule you must use numerals for one of the numbers in a given category, use them for all in that category. In the same sentence or paragraph, however, items in one category may be given numerals and items in another spelled out." (Chicago Manual, 15th Ed., 9.6-9.7, p. 381)
