The Journal of Graduate Librarianship welcomes manuscripts on all aspects and types of graduate librarianship, and especially seeks manuscripts that exemplify the qualities contained in the acronym SHOP: Shared Honest Open Practice. Manuscripts may be submitted to either the Articles section and Sharing Our Stories section (see "Submission Types" below). For both sections, authors are encouraged to share their discoveries and/or experiences in a relatable way and are not required to refer to themselves in the third person.

Style and Formatting

All manuscripts submitted to JGL must adhere to the guidelines laid out in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Seventh Edition (APA 7). Authors may use the JGL manuscript template (available as a Word document via Dropbox) to create their manuscripts, or they may manually adjust document formatting to conform to the APA 7 requirements. Manuscripts that do not conform to APA 7 will not be considered for review and potential publication. See also "Formatting Requirements at a Glance" below.

Submission Types

Articles (peer reviewed): Scholarly articles about graduate librarianship that report on empirical research, present case studies, report on professional practice, or engage deeply with theory and/or existing scholarly literature. All manuscripts must provide an introduction and conclusion, and must address the relevant literature. Manuscripts reporting on empirical research (quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods) should generally be divided into the following sections: Literature Review, Methods, Results, and Discussion. Practice and theory manuscripts may be divided into whatever sections suit the manuscript’s topic and arguments. As a rule, manuscripts submitted to the Articles section should be 3,000–6,000 words, though exceptions will be considered. An abstract of up to 250 words must also be provided. Submissions go through double-anonymous peer review; see anonymization instructions below.

Sharing Our Stories (editor reviewed): Brief reports on personal experiences in graduate librarianship, including (but not limited to) initiatives, successes, lessons learned, reflections, epiphanies, and professional development. In this section, authors have more freedom with regard to tone and may or may not include citations, but all manuscripts should present a central point or argument and include meaningful subheadings that guide the reader through the piece in a logical fashion. Sharing Our Stories manuscripts should be 1,500–3,000 words, though exceptions will be considered. A brief abstract of up to 100 words must also be provided. Submissions are reviewed by JGL editors and do not undergo a full peer-review process or need to be anonymized.

Note About Manuscript Length: Because JGL publishes electronically, we have some flexibility with regard to article length. We are happy for authors to include material that they might otherwise have to cut for a print publication. However, authors should contact the editors prior to submission if they anticipate their word count will be far beyond the length guidelines provided above.

Formatting Requirements at a Glance

• File type: Microsoft Word or Rich Text Format (RTF)
• File name: Use the first five words of your article title (i.e., First_five_words_of_title.docx or First_five_words_of_title.rtf)
• Manuscript language: English
• Page size: Letter (8.5” x 11”)
• Page orientation: Portrait
• Margins: 1” all sides
• Spacing: Double-spaced
• Font: Arial, 11 point, black
• Title page: All submissions must include a title page providing the title, author name(s), author job title(s), author affiliation(s), and author note, as shown in the JGL manuscript template.
• Anonymization (Peer-Reviewed Articles): Include all expected information on the title page, which will be retained by JGL but withheld from peer reviewers. Anonymize the remainder of the manuscript by masking identifying information along these lines: "Author 1" (instead of referring to an author by name), "ABC Library" (instead of naming a specific library), "University of XYZ" (instead of naming a specific institution), etc. Microsoft provides information about how to remove hidden data and personal information from Word files.
• Anonymization (Sharing Our Stories): Do not anonymize Sharing Our Stories manuscripts, as they do not go through the anonymous peer review process.
• Emphasis or non-English terms: Use italics, not underline.
• References and in-text citations: Follow the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Seventh Edition (APA 7). In the references list, provide DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers) for all works that have them. You can use Crossref to check which of your references have DOIs. Always format DOIs as full URL links (e.g., https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx). If a work does not have a DOI but does have a URL, provide its URL.
• Table and figure placement: Tables and figures should reside in their own respective sections of the manuscript (see template). Both tables and figures should be resizable and, in general, not require more than one half page of space.
• Table and figure descriptors: Arial, 11 point, black
• Table and figure colors: Any colors used for table or figure data should be distinguishable even when printed in black and white, and should be validated for accessibility. (Color accessibility can be tested with the free tool Adobe Color.) A best practice is to fill figure elements with both color and pattern rather than rely solely on color.