Author Guidelines

In order to have their work considered for publication by this Journal, authors are required to ensure they have complied with the items listed on the Submission Preparation Checklist and have read the Ethics and Malpractice statement.

Manuscript requirements

Format: Articles should be submitted as .doc or .rtf formats. Body copy should be 11 or 12 point font, double spaced, and left aligned.  

Length: Articles should be between 5000 and 8000 words in length, including all headings, footnotes, tables, references and appendices.

Title: Your title should clearly indicate the content of the article, in no more than twenty words. See http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2014/02/05/academics-choose-useless-titles/ for hints to writing useful, coherent, descriptive titles for your work.

Abstract: Initial abstracts should be submitted for consideration to personastudies@deakin.edu.au as directed in the Call for Papers. Final abstracts submitted with the full paper for peer review should be no more than 250 words. Abstracts should be a brief summary of the paper’s findings and conclusions, should be interesting, and succinct. Avoid unnecessary detail and explanation. Do not include references or notes. Please ensure grammar and punctuation are correct.

Keywords: Please provide up to 6 keywords in the appropriate box in the online submission process. These keywords should connect directly with the article under consideration.

Subheadings: Short, unnumbered subheadings are encouraged where their use assists the reader to understand the flow and direction of the article. These should match the size of the body copy, but be presented in bold format.

Notes/Endnotes: Notes or Endnotes are discouraged, but can be used if absolutely necessary. They should be identified by consecutive numbers, appearing at the end of the article.

Research Funding: Authors should declare any external research funding used in the collection of data or the production of the paper in the Acknowledgements section of their article.

Images: Authors must ensure they have the right to use and distribute all images, whether art works, photographs, or digital reproductions. It is the authors responsibility to ensure copyright obligations are met, and must, on request, be able to provide proof of the right to use any and all images included in their article. Where that proof is not available, the image(s) will be removed.

Referencing: 

Article submissions are accepted for consideration for peer review in any consistently utilised, identifiable referencing style (for example, APA, Chicago, MLA, Harvard, Oxford). Be aware that the author is responsible for adjusting their referencing to meet the journal’s Harvard Style during the revision period. If writing an article specifically for the journal, we recommend doing so using our Harvard author-date style to facilitate a smoother revision process should peer review be favourable. A brief guide to the formatting of commonly cited material follows below. Contact the managing editor of the issue you are contributing to for further details about referencing.

As of 2017, Persona Studies changed from MLA style referencing to Harvard Referencing, following an Author/Date style. A brief guide to the formatting of commonly cited material follows below.

• Italics: Use for the titles of books, newspapers, magazines, films, television shows, songs, art works, blogs and so forth. Do not use for titles of platforms such as Twitter or Facebook.
• Spelling: Please use Australian/United Kingdom spelling. Examples include centre rather than center, colour rather than color, organise rather than organize. Quoted material should remain as in the original.
• Quotations: use double quotation marks for direct quotes, where the quote is under 40 words in length. In the case of quotations over 40 words, use a block quote format (justified, indented left and right).
• Punctuation comes after the citation or the final quotation mark, whichever comes last.

In the body of the paper, include the author and the date. If a direct quote or specific concept from a numbered source, include the page number:

• ….” (Author YEAR, p. #).

If a source has more than three authors, use et al.

• Author et al. (YEAR, p. #) notes “…..”.

Include all material referred to in text in a reference list at the end of the article, giving full bibliographic details of all in-text citations. Only material referred to in the text of the article should appear in the reference list.

Book

• Author, Initials, Author, Initials & Author, Initials year, Title of book, Publisher, City.

Chapter in edited book

• Author, Initials year, 'Chapter title', in Initials Editor (ed./eds), Title of book, Publisher, City, pp. #-##.

Ebook

• Author, Initials year, Title of e-book, Publisher, retrieved day Month Year, <URL>.

Journal article – Print

• Author, Initials year, 'Title of article', Title of Journal, vol. #, no. #, pp. #-##.

Journal article – DOI

• Author, Initials year, 'Title of article', Title of Journal, vol. #, no. #, pp. #-##, DOI

Journal article – Database

• Author, Initials year, 'Title of article', Title of Journal, vol. #, no. #, pp. #-##, retrieved day Month Year, name of database.

Journal article – Online/open access

• Author, Initials year, 'Title of article', Title of Journal, vol. #, no. #, pp. #-##, retrieved day Month Year, <URL>

Newspaper article

• Author, Initials year, 'Title of article', Title of Newspaper, day month, page number(s).

Social Media source

• Author Initials year, 'First few words of post/update', Account Name, Title of website, day month of post/update, retrieved day Month Year, <URL>.

Website

• Author, Initials year, Title of webpage or document, Organisation responsible for site, retrieved day Month Year, <URL>.

Blog

• Author of post, Initials (or alias) year of post, 'Title of post' (if applicable), Title of blog, weblog post, day month of post, retrieved day Month Year, <URL>.

Podcast or streaming video (including YouTube)

• Title year, medium, Producer/Publisher/Username, day month, retrieved day Month Year, <URL> or database.

Film, DVD, Video

• Title year, medium, Producer, City.

Television and Radio

• Title of program year, medium, Broadcaster, City, day month

Author Details:  Once your paper has been submitted for peer review, please update your journal profile (see Edit My Profile in User Home) with a short (50 word) biography detailing your institutional affiliation, position, and research interests