Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education
Editor
Wayne Bowman
Associate Editor
Frank Abrahams
Book Reviews
David Lines
Production Team
Chris Trinidad
Kristen Myers
PJ Heckman
Vince Bates
Original Design
Darryl Coan
ISSN 1545-4517
ACT Editorial Policies and Practices
[Version: October 2006]
Audience and scope:
Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education is the refereed scholarly journal of the MayDay Group (http://www.maydaygroup.org), an international organization devoted to critical study and critical analysis of issues related to the field of music education. Submissions for publication should, as much as possible, be framed in terms relevant and understandable to music educators everywhere. ACT welcomes submissions dealing with critical, analytical, practical, theoretical and policy development topics that apply, challenge, or extend issues related to the MayDay Group's "Action Ideals" (http://www.maydaygroup.org/php/actionideals.php). These ideals propose broad areas and strategies for needed change in music education, and embrace a wide range of related topics, content, questions and issues. Scholarship from diverse disciplinary perspectives is invited and welcomed: education, music, philosophy, sociology, history, psychology, curriculum studies, and others. Submissions that take highly specialized approaches to topics unconnected to the broad interests of the action ideals are not encouraged.
Language:
English is the preferred language, although manuscripts in other languages will be reviewed when reviewers are available who are competent in the language and content of the paper. This allows theoretical and critical papers to benefit music educators in places where such kinds of publication are, for one reason or another, not available. Non-English submissions must be accompanied by an extended English language abstract that will be published along with an accepted paper. On occasion, ACT may publish foreign language papers both in English and in the original language.
Timing of publication:
Articles will be published as they are accepted through the refereeing process and are technically ready for publication. ACT is not limited to a set number of issues per year. As an eJournal ACT is well suited to facilitating continuing debate and deliberation. Submissions that offer critiques and/or analyses of published articles are welcome.
Style guides:
Manuscripts must be sent electronically to the editor. Although the use of a specific scholarly style manual (APA, Chicago, etc.) is not required, style must be consistent and well suited to the nature of the research. The editor may stipulate style changes to enhance effective presentation.
Authors should consult ACT's house formatting guidelines (see the link after "Formatting," below), and assure that submissions conform, at a minimum, to required: font types and sizes, section headings, spacing, margins, and endnotes.
After acceptance and editing, authors may be asked to make additional technical/stylistic changes to prepare the article for publication [see Formatting, below].
Graphs, illustrations, and other media:
Authors are encouraged to take advantage of electronic presentation formats [sound clips, visual images, video clips, etc]. Consultation prior to submission is strongly advised, however, in order to assure technical practicality of intended formats. Procuring permission and usage rights for media files not owned by the author is the responsibility of the author, as are associated costs, if any.
Image files: Tables and drawings created in Microsoft Word often become corrupted when changing computers or formats. Therefore, charts, tables, graphs, etc, must, unless created in an image application such as Photoshop, be scanned at the best quality of resolution possible [minimum 16 shades of gray for grayscale or thousands of colors for color images] and submitted as separate image files with insertion points clearly marked in the article. Acceptable image formats are .tif, .gif, .png, and .jpg. Bit map [.bmp] images are not acceptable.
Sound and video files: Generally, sound files should be in a server directory maintained by the author in order to save space on the ACT server. Sound files accompanying articles should be either .aif or .mp3 formats. Video files should be in .mpg or .mp4 formats unless they are streaming files. Video files can not be stored or streamed using the ACT server. Ensuring a safe, reliable storing or streaming server location for video files is the author's responsibility.
Formatting:
Authors are encouraged to submit papers using ACT's "house" formatting, detailed in the link found here. Papers submitted in other formats may be acceptable for review, but will require re-formatting by the author after acceptance and editing.
Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education is the refereed scholarly journal of the MayDay Group (http://www.maydaygroup.org), an international organization devoted to critical study and critical analysis of issues related to the field of music education. Submissions for publication should, as much as possible, be framed in terms relevant and understandable to music educators everywhere. ACT welcomes submissions dealing with critical, analytical, practical, theoretical and policy development topics that apply, challenge, or extend issues related to the MayDay Group's "Action Ideals" (http://www.maydaygroup.org/php/actionideals.php). These ideals propose broad areas and strategies for needed change in music education, and embrace a wide range of related topics, content, questions and issues. Scholarship from diverse disciplinary perspectives is invited and welcomed: education, music, philosophy, sociology, history, psychology, curriculum studies, and others. Submissions that take highly specialized approaches to topics unconnected to the broad interests of the action ideals are not encouraged.
Language:
English is the preferred language, although manuscripts in other languages will be reviewed when reviewers are available who are competent in the language and content of the paper. This allows theoretical and critical papers to benefit music educators in places where such kinds of publication are, for one reason or another, not available. Non-English submissions must be accompanied by an extended English language abstract that will be published along with an accepted paper. On occasion, ACT may publish foreign language papers both in English and in the original language.
Timing of publication:
Articles will be published as they are accepted through the refereeing process and are technically ready for publication. ACT is not limited to a set number of issues per year. As an eJournal ACT is well suited to facilitating continuing debate and deliberation. Submissions that offer critiques and/or analyses of published articles are welcome.
Style guides:
Manuscripts must be sent electronically to the editor. Although the use of a specific scholarly style manual (APA, Chicago, etc.) is not required, style must be consistent and well suited to the nature of the research. The editor may stipulate style changes to enhance effective presentation.
Authors should consult ACT's house formatting guidelines (see the link after "Formatting," below), and assure that submissions conform, at a minimum, to required: font types and sizes, section headings, spacing, margins, and endnotes.
After acceptance and editing, authors may be asked to make additional technical/stylistic changes to prepare the article for publication [see Formatting, below].
Graphs, illustrations, and other media:
Authors are encouraged to take advantage of electronic presentation formats [sound clips, visual images, video clips, etc]. Consultation prior to submission is strongly advised, however, in order to assure technical practicality of intended formats. Procuring permission and usage rights for media files not owned by the author is the responsibility of the author, as are associated costs, if any.
Image files: Tables and drawings created in Microsoft Word often become corrupted when changing computers or formats. Therefore, charts, tables, graphs, etc, must, unless created in an image application such as Photoshop, be scanned at the best quality of resolution possible [minimum 16 shades of gray for grayscale or thousands of colors for color images] and submitted as separate image files with insertion points clearly marked in the article. Acceptable image formats are .tif, .gif, .png, and .jpg. Bit map [.bmp] images are not acceptable.
Sound and video files: Generally, sound files should be in a server directory maintained by the author in order to save space on the ACT server. Sound files accompanying articles should be either .aif or .mp3 formats. Video files should be in .mpg or .mp4 formats unless they are streaming files. Video files can not be stored or streamed using the ACT server. Ensuring a safe, reliable storing or streaming server location for video files is the author's responsibility.
Formatting:
Authors are encouraged to submit papers using ACT's "house" formatting, detailed in the link found here. Papers submitted in other formats may be acceptable for review, but will require re-formatting by the author after acceptance and editing.