Submissions

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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 Microsoft Word document file format.
  • Where available, URLs 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 requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines.
  • I am comfortable with and agree to publishing my work with a Creative Commons license.
  • The author(s) have minimized any information or embedded metadata that might reveal their identity.

Author Guidelines

The Journal of Library Outreach and Engagement (JLOE) welcomes scholarly and feature articles that present original research, case studies, or comparable material that advance library outreach and engagement discussions. At JLOE, we define outreach as work done on behalf of libraries, information organizations, cultural memory institutions, and archives, using a wide variety of planned methods to facilitate library use, encourage lifelong learning, or develop relationships with community partners. Methods to achieve these results may include, but are not limited to, marketing strategies. Engagement consists of programs and activities that draw on our professional expertise to enhance societal good, through local and global collaborations with individuals, communities, and organizations.

Authors and their submissions represent libraries of all types, including academic, public, school, and special libraries and archives. We also welcome book review submissions. 

JLOE intends to publish between 4-8 scholarly articles, 3-5 feature articles, and no more than 2 book reviews per issue. There are no processing fees to publish with JLOE. 

Scholarly Articles

We welcome quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research with a clearly articulated research methodology underpinning the submission. All submissions will undergo a double blind peer review process. Ideal submissions to JLOE are between 4,000 and 7,500 words. 

Feature Articles

Feature articles are edited but not peer-reviewed. They may be shorter than other articles and can lack a research focus. The following features appear regularly in JLOE:

  • “Notes from the Field” showcases individual and local experiences, lessons learned, institution-specific initiatives, etc..
  • “Idea Lab” covers noteworthy trends, innovative ideas, or explores thought-provoking questions related to outreach and engagement in libraries. 

Feature articles should be between 1,500-4,000 words.

Book Reviews

JLOE publishes reviews of new publications pertinent to library outreach and engagement. Reviews should not exceed 1,000 words. 

How will the journal accept submissions?

JLOE uses the OJS web-based submission system to track and review manuscripts. To submit, visit https://iopn.library.illinois.edu/journals/jloe/index. If you experience any difficulties or have any questions about submitting your manuscript, please contact the editors (jloe-editors@illinois.edu).

  1. Only completed work should be submitted. Feedback will not be provided on work in progress.
  2. The maximum length of any contribution should be 7,500 words, inclusive of notes and bibliography.
  3. Abstracts and five keywords must be included in the same file as the article.
  4. Abstracts must not be more than 250 words.
  5. Submissions must be double-spaced
  6. Pages should be numbered, paragraphs must be indented, and all illustrations and tables must be labeled and captioned accurately.
  7. 12 point font, left-justified text, and bold-faced headings must be used.
  8. Follows the author-date style in the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Pr., 2010) for capitalization, punctuation, quotations, tables, captions, and elements of bibliographic style. 
  9. Local peer-review improves manuscript quality. Consider sharing the paper with colleagues and making revisions based on their comments prior to submission to JLOE. 

If selected for publication or further review, authors will be contacted by JLOE.

By submitting any material to the Journal of Library Outreach & Engagement, you agree that your work is original, unless otherwise specifically acknowledged.

JLOE requires that the author determine, prior to publication, whether it is necessary to obtain permission from any third party who holds rights with respect to any photographs, illustrations, drawings, text, or any other material (“third-party work”) to be published with or in connection with the Work. Copyright permission will not be necessary if the use is within fair use, if the work is in the public domain, or if the rightsholder has granted a Creative Commons or other license. If either the author or JLOE determines for any reason that permission is required to include any third-party work, the author will obtain written permission from the rights holder prior to publication.

If you are working with a fellow student or professor on your submission, it is imperative that you speak with them prior to submitting work to this journal. You must clear any conflict of interest prior to submission since some graduate students/professors may intend to submit that same research for publication.

If the Editor returns a work that requires revisions, the author(s) is(are) responsible for making the necessary changes and resubmitting the manuscript to the Journal of Library Outreach and Engagement.

Manuscript Review Process

Submissions to JLOE go through a double-blind peer review process: the reviewers do not know who the authors are, and the authors do not know who the reviewers are. Authors are expected to minimize any information or embedded metadata that might reveal their identity and managing editors will do a final check to redact any such information or metadata from the manuscript prior to sending it to two referees. 

Peer reviewers will rate the submission using a standardized assessment rubric. The manuscript will be evaluated in several areas including appropriateness to the scope of the journal, originality, timeliness, literature review, research methodology, and clarity of writing. Referees will then make a recommendation to either: 1). Accept, 2). Accept with minor revisions, 3). Revise and resubmit, or 4). Reject. The referees will be encouraged to be empathetic and constructive with their feedback to authors. For authors for whom English is not their first language, reviewers may indicate that the content is good but ask that the author work with a native English speaker to edit for grammar and clarity. 

If the manuscript is accepted, the editors will notify the author as soon as possible. If revisions are needed the author will be given a deadline for resubmission of the manuscript with revisions. Upon final acceptance, the editors will provide an estimated publication date and, if possible, indicate the journal volume and issue as well. If at the end of the peer-review process, the editors decide not to publish, they will inform the author with an explanation for that decision. 

We are committed to reviewing submissions in a timely manner. We expect the process from the point of submission to communicating a final decision to take 3-6 months. 

Manuscript Preparation

Write in a clear, readable style. Use short declarative sentences and aim for variety in sentence structure. Please minimize using passive voice. 

Copyright and Licensing Statement

The Editors and Editorial Board of JLOE strongly encourages authors to publish the Work under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0) that allows others to distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon the Work, even commercially, as long as they credit the Author for the original creation. The Author may however choose to have the Work distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC 4.0). More information can be found in our author agreement. 

References

Please use this reference guide when preparing your manuscript. 

Pre-Peer Review Program

The Pre-Peer Review Program provides authors who may be new to the profession or academic writing with the opportunity to receive feedback on their writing before formally submitting their article to an academic journal. We pair a potential author or authors with a member of our editorial advisory team whose research and interests most closely align with their work. Over the course of three months, the editorial advisory board member consults with the author or authors, offering them a mock-review of their article and guiding them through the revision process. Once complete, the author or authors may submit their article to JLOE or another journal of their choice. Please note that  participation in the program does not guarantee publication, either in JLOE or any other academic journal.

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.