Australian Association for Mission Studies

Here is a writers' guide to the Australian Journal of Mission Studies.  Every convention you adopt increases the chance of your article being accepted and saves the voluntary time of the editor and production editor.  For further guidance consult previous issues of AJMS or the South Pacific Journal of Mission Studies (SPJMS).

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Preferred content

* The AJMS aims to publish articles of high quality arising from or relevant to Christian mission studies in Australasia and the South Pacific.

* This includes articles on mission in the region and articles by missiologists working in the region on topics of broader interest.

* Whatever the academic discipline reflected in articles, the question of the significance for mission needs to be addressed in some way.

* The journal will not exclude any theological viewpoint, but aims for scholarly writing, that is, writing that is original, clear, well-argued and engaged with the wider scholarly community.

* All major articles are reviewed by scholars in the field.

* Book reviews, shorter articles (such as reports or personal reflections) and letters to the editor will also be accepted.

* In book reviews preference is given to reviews of books which are a major contribution to mission studies and/or arise from Australasia and the South Pacific.

* Only previously unpublished writing will normally be accepted.

* The Editorial Board decides whether articles and book reviews submitted are to be published, further edited or not published.

Length

* Major articles may be between 2000 and 5000 words.  Longer articles will normally be returned for shortening.

* Shorter articles of around 2000 words, such as reports or personal reflections, will also be accepted.

* Book reviews are to be between 400 and 800 words.

* Articles in two or more parts will not normally be published.  If they are, each part needs to be readable independent of other parts.

* Include brief biographical information up to 100 words, and an abstract of up to 150 words.  (Also, list your postal address, as contributors are sent a complimentary copy.)

Deadlines

Contributions need to be submitted by the end of March and September for the June and December issues respectively.

 Submission of copy

* Electronically in Microsoft Word.

* Graphics and tables in separate files as well.

* The whole article in PDF or hard copy as well where there are graphics or where guidance is needed for setting out.

Font

Arial 10 point

Page size and margins

A4 with 2.54 cm margins all round

Paragraphs and sentences

* Single spaced

* No indentation to begin each paragraph

* A line space between each paragraph

* Shorter paragraphs preferred

* Two spaces after each full-stop, colon or semi-colon

Headings

* Include headings regularly

* In bold, lower case and with minimal capitalisation

* With a line space before and after

Punctuation

* Minimal, e.g., no periods after initials ("A B Paterson") and abbreviations ("Vol 34"), or in page numbers ("p4", "pp4-7")

* Double-quotation marks for all uses (except quotes within quotes)

Foreign or emphasised words

Italicised, not underlined, bold or in quotation marks

Book and article titles (in the text)

* Book and article titles in the text in bold

* Journal titles in the text in bold italics

Endnotes

* Use endnotes rather than footnotes (To do this go to Insert> Footnotes> Options> Place At> Beneath Text)

* To cite a book follow this format:

BARTH, Karl, The Epistle to the Romans, (London: Oxford University Press, 1968), pp66-69

* To cite an edited book:

HYND, Doug, BARR, James and PREECE, Gordon [eds], Theology in a Third Voice, (Adelaide: ATF Press, 2006)

* To cite a book section:

PARSONS, Michael, Luther on Isaiah 40: The Gospel and Mission, in PARSONS, Michael [ed.], Text and Task: Scripture and Mission, (Milton Keynes, UK: Paternoster, 2005), pp64-78

* To cite a journal article:

LITTLE, Christopher R, What Makes Mission Christian?, in Mission Studies Vol 22, 2005, pp207-226

* For second and subsequent citations from a work, either use abbreviated citations ("BARTH, Romans, p72") or "ibid" and "op cit" (without periods)

* The endnotes will be de-linked from the text by the production editor in the formatting stage so that they display in columns.

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(Adopted 25-10-07)