To have an article considered for publication in Pracademic Affairs:
- Make sure your submission complies with all guidelines outlined below.
- Email your article as an attachment to pracademic@chds.us.
- Include a brief (150 word) abstract and author bio(s) of 150 words or less, as a separate attachment.
Types of Articles
Pracademic Affairs accepts submissions of:
- Essays and short-form articles discussing practitioner’s new ideas, changes, or updates in current or future operations in the fields of emergency management, homeland security, or security management
- Lessons learned from real-world and exercise events
- Discussion of leadership and/or management best practices
Pracademic Affairs is interested in publishing work that addresses the current state of emergency management, homeland security, and security management issues at the practitioner-scholar, or “Pracademic,” level. Our focus is leveraging this eJournal to ensure that ideas, information, and lessons learned are evaluated, discussed, and operationalized by in-the-field practitioners.
Who Can Submit?
Pracademic Affairs accepts submissions from practitioners in the field of homeland security and defense, emergency management, or in fields relating to security. There are no article processing charges or submission charges.
General Submission Rules
Co-authored submissions are acceptable, but previously or simultaneously published material will not be accepted. Essays or articles may be excerpted from a larger unpublished paper (e.g. a thesis or book manuscript). Please note: “Publication” in a working paper series does not constitute prior publication. In addition, by submitting material to Pracademic Affairs, the author stipulates that the material is not currently under review at another journal (electronic or print) and that the author will not submit the material to another journal (electronic or print) until the completion of the editorial decision process at Pracademic Affairs. The author also acknowledges that Pracademic Affairs is an open-access journal and stipulates that the article contains no classified information or controlled unclassified information (CUI). If you have concerns about the submission terms for Pracademic Affairs, please contact us at pracademic@chds.us.
Plagiarism Policy Statement
The editors of Pracademic Affairs make use of anti-plagiarism software to detect plagiarism in all submissions. Plagiarism occurs when an author uses the words, ideas, data, or arguments from the work of another author without appropriate attribution. Plagiarism can range from minor instances where only a few words or a small part of another’s argument are improperly used, to major instances where large quantities of text are cut and pasted, or where a large portion of another author’s argument is used without appropriate citation.* If questions regarding the originality of a manuscript arise during the submission process, the editors will communicate those concerns to the author(s). If evidence of plagiarism emerges after publication, the journal will contact the author, convey the journal’s findings, and explore appropriate courses of action. Such courses of action may range from issuing a correction, in the case of minor instances of plagiarism, to retraction and informing the author’s institution in the case of major instances. **
*Elizabeth Wagner, “How Should Editors Respond to Plagiarism?” COPE Discussion Paper, Committee on Publication Ethics, April 26th, 2011, Last accessed on April 18, 2017, https://publicationethics.org/files/u7141/Discussion%20document_0.pdf
**Plagiarism and Fabrication Policy Statement, Nature, Last accessed on April 24, 2017, http://www.nature.com/authors/policies/plagiarism.html
Rights for Authors and Pracademic Affairs
Pracademic Affairs allows authors to hold the copyright and publishing rights of published articles without restriction.
Convention: Author refers to both single-author articles and multiple-author articles. In the latter case, it refers to the authors singly and collectively. Copyright holder refers to both single-copyright holder articles and multiple-copyright-author articles. In the latter case, it refers to the copyright holders singly and collectively.
Pracademic Affairs does not seek the copyright on published articles. In consideration for publication, however, the author (or the copyright holder if different) grants, in perpetuity and valid world-wide, Pracademic Affairs and its subsidiaries, a perpetual right to archive, publish, and republish at its discretion and as often as they wish the article in any medium or media of their choosing and without further consideration for the author (or the copyright holder if different). The author (or the copyright holder if different) further grants Pracademic Affairs and its subsidiaries the right to transfer, sell, or license these rights, in whole or in part, to any entity of their choosing, at prices of their choosing, and without further consideration to the author (or the copyright holder if different).
Reviewing and Editing of Articles
All articles submitted to Pracademic Affairs undergo a peer-review process by the eJournal’s reviewers and outside SME reviewers as needed. Chosen articles will have a final review with the Homeland Security Affairs Editorial Review Board.
The publishing process for reviewed articles will generally proceed as follows:
- The manuscript, with abstract and author bio, is emailed to pracademic@chds.us.
- A co-director forwards the article to a member of the Pracademic Affairs Review Board and/or outside reviewers within one to two weeks of receiving the submission.
- Reviewers are asked to respond within two to four weeks with comments on the article and a recommendation to publish, publish with minor revisions, publish with major revisions, request a rewrite and resubmission, or decline for publication. Please note: the review process may take longer if reviewers are unavailable or unable to meet the requested deadline.
- The decision and the reviews are forwarded to the author(s), with a request for revisions (if applicable) and a time frame for completing those revisions. Please note that all articles recommended for publication, with or without revisions, are subject to final review by the Editorial Review Board of Homeland Security Affairs prior to final acceptance for publication.
- When the manuscript has been reviewed and accepted, it is copyedited and formatted and returned to the author for sign-off. We will then schedule the article for publication.
Submission Deadlines
There are no set submission deadlines. We welcome submissions at any time and will begin the review process as manuscripts are received. Once an article has been accepted for publication, and all revisions and formatting are completed, it will be published in the next available issue.
Author Guidelines
This document provides details on article submission, copyediting, typesetting, and layout requirements and recommendations pertaining to final manuscript submission to Pracademic Affairs.
Article Length
Because Pracademic Affairs is published electronically, page limits are not absolutely critical. The following length recommendations are based on our experience with readers and reviewers.
- Essays and short-form articles: Up to ten pages (approximately 5,000 words) in length.
Formatting Requirements
Do not include a title page or abstract in the text you prepare for submission. (Begin the article with title and introduction). You will be asked to provide an abstract of approximately 150 words with your submission, as well as a brief (150 words or less) author’s bio.
General Rules:
Pracademic Affairs adheres to the rules of the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition.
- Use end-note citations, rather than footnotes. Please be sure these are complete.
- Do not include headers, or footers. (Pracademic Journal will add the appropriate header with page numbers).
- Submit your manuscript, including tables, figures, appendices, etc., as a single file (Word or RTF).
- Page size should be 8.5 x 11-inches.
- All margins (left, right, top and bottom) should be 1 inch.
- Double space your text.
- Use a single column layout, justified right and left.
- Do not use special formatting or spacing between paragraphs.
- Use only one space at the end of each sentence.
Font:
Main Body — 12 pt. Georgia or Times New Roman, or the closest comparable font available
Endnotes — 10 pt. Georgia or Times New Roman, or the closest comparable font available
If figures are included, use high-resolution figures, preferably encoded as encapsulated PostScript (eps).
Layout:
Please use the following document structure (remember there is no title page):
- Title
- Introduction (titling this section is optional)
- Subsequent sections including all tables, figures, and footnotes referenced in the text.
- Appendices (if any)
- Endnotes
Please note that acknowledgements should be submitted as a separate attachment so that they may be incorporated into the article for publication.
Headings and Sub-heads:
Please use the following guidelines in setting headings and subheads.
MAIN HEADINGS: 14pt, bold, all caps
SECONDARY HEADINGS: 12 pt, bold, all caps
1st Subhead: 12 pt, bold, upper and lower case
2nd Subhead: 12 pt, upper and lower case
For additional information regarding formatting your article, please contact pracademic@chds.us.
