AJIDD Information for Authors
American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disability (AJIDD) uses a Web-based manuscript submission and peer-review system called PeerTrack. Manuscripts should be submitted electronically to www.editorialmanager.com/ajidd . Given that all manuscripts will be reviewed anonymously, the author’s name and other identifying information should appear only on the cover page. Potentially identifying information in the text should be removed prior to submission. The journal Editor and Associate Editors oversee manuscript reviews. Once a manuscript is submitted, an Editor-in-Charge is assigned who is responsible for assigning the peer reviewers and deciding on the disposition of all manuscripts (acceptance, rejection, or requests for revision). The initial review process ordinarily takes from 8 to 10 weeks, and revisions are often requested. Once a manuscript is accepted for publication, the remainder of the production process is coordinated by AAIDD’s Publications Department ([email protected]).
Corresponding authors who require assistance in submitting their manuscripts through PeerTrack should contact the editorial office viae-mail at [email protected]. PeerTrack can convert most word-processing files (e.g., Word, WordPerfect, Text, Postscript, and Rich Text Format).
Potential authors should carefully read the Editorial Policy. AJIDD is a scientific, scholarly, and archival multidisciplinary journal for reporting original contributions of the highest quality to knowledge of intellectual disabilities; its causes, correlates, treatment, and prevention. Papers are reviewed based on standards appropriate to the approach and purpose of the work (empirical, conceptual, review). Please see the Editorial Policy for guidance on how papers are reviewed, recognizing a premium is placed on scientific contribution, while implications for policy and practice should be addressed as appropriate and warranted. Submission of a manuscript to AJIDD while that paper is under review by another journal is unacceptable. Manuscripts must not exceed a maximum of 30 pages, inclusive of references, tables, and figures.
Manuscripts are required to follow the APA 7th Edition Style Guide closely, and any papers that do not adhere to this will not be accepted and will be returned to the author.
We recommend submitting authors consider Helms, Henze, Sass, and Mifsud (2006) definition of good practices for internal consistency reporting, interpretation, and analysis consistent with an ‘alpha-as-data’ perspective. AJIDD strongly encourages researchers to investigate characteristics of reliability data for their own samples and subgroups within their samples.
Any author whose contact information changes between acceptance and publication is required to change his or her contact information in the manuscript tracking system. Go to https://www.editorialmanager.com/ajidd and update this information whenever it changes. The editorial staff needs to be able to reach each lead author quickly to review copyediting and respond to the copyeditor’s questions, and there is very little turnaround time for this stage. If the lead author is unreachable because of a change of email address, the article may have to be pulled from the issue it was scheduled for, and remain on hold until the updated information is received.
Before submitting a manuscript, please gather the following information:
- All Authors
- First Names, Middle Names/Initials, Last Names of all authors and co-authors
- Institution
- Department
- E-mail addresses
- Title and Running Title (you may copy and paste these from your manuscript)
- Abstract (you may copy and paste this from your manuscript)
- Key words
- Manuscript files in Word (doc or docx), WordPerfect (wpd), or Rich Text Format (rtf)
- All tables will have to be provided as either Word or Excel files.
- All figures must be high resolution (over 200 dpi) and provided in Excel, Jpeg or PDF formats.
The separate Cover Page, Word (doc or docx), WordPerfect (wpd), or Rich Text Format (rtf) should include the following elements:
Cover Page
TITLE OF MANUSCRIPT
(All Authors’ First Names, Middle Initials [if applicable], Surnames [in order of authorship])
Corresponding Author:
Author Name, Highest degree earned, title (if applicable)
Email address: [email protected]
Institutional Affiliation
Departmental Affiliation
Street Address
City, State, Zip, Country
For all Co-Authors:
Author Name, Highest degree earned, title (if applicable), affiliation, city, state, zip, country
Acknowledgments
Where was manuscript presented, oral or poster?
Was this manuscript funded? By what entity? Grant number(s), if applicable.
Thanks for support, if desired.
Manuscript files (Word, WordPerfect, or Rich Text Format) should not contain any identifying information, but should include the following:
Ethical Standards
All investigations using human participants must have documented approval by the human subjects review committee of the author’s institution with a clear statement identifying the ethics committee that approved the study, and that the study conforms to recognized standards, for example: Declaration of Helsinki or US Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects or European Medicines Agency Guidelines for Good Clinical Practice.
Style
AJIDD adheres to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA, 7th edition). All sections of the manuscript (including quotations, references, and tables) should be double-spaced, with a 1-inch margin on all sides. References must be in APA style. An abstract of no more than 120 words is required. Manuscripts should not exceed 30 pages in length, including references. Because papers are reviewed anonymously, the authors’ names and other identifying information should not appear on the cover page nor anywhere in the manuscript (author information is captured in PeerTrack). Likewise, other identifying information, such as acknowledgments, should not be included in submitted manuscripts. Content footnotes are not used
Any accompanying figures must be submitted as separate files (not embedded in the text) and must be over 200 dpi resolution. It is the authors' responsibility to submit publishable graphic elements. An article cannot be published if figures cannot be provided in high-resolution formats.
AAIDD does not allow for appendices or supplemental material to be directly included in articles published in the American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, and such material will not be reviewed. If submitting a manuscript with supplemental material, we recommend using an archival platform and then embedding relevant links in the manuscript. This can be arranged after peer review to preserve blinded review.
The Editor reserves the right to reject manuscripts that do not meet the standards contained in this Editorial Policy.
References
As a guideline, full research articles typically should have no more than 40 references. Brief reports should have no more than 20 references.
In general, authors should avoid citing content not directly relevant to the scope of the article and journal; reference lists should reflect the current status of knowledge in the field, avoid bias, and not include a high proportion of citations to the same authors/sources, school of thought, etc.
Abbreviations and Terminology
Abbreviations should be held to a minimum and spelled out in their first use. The names of groups or experimental conditions are usually not abbreviated. The full names of tests should be given when they are first mentioned, with the common shortened form in parentheses with a citation of the source.
AJIDD adheres to AAIDD’s policy regarding the use of people-first language. Authors should use language that emphasizes the humanity of people with intellectual disability. Generic descriptive terms, such as people, participants, students, children, and adults are preferred over subjects or informants. Language should be free of gender bias: He should not be used generically to refer to persons of both genders.
Numerical and Illustrative Presentations
The metric system should be used for all expressions of linear measures, weight, and volume. Tables and figures should be kept to a minimum. Information should be presented only once-whether in the text or in a table or figure. For this reason, short tables may be deleted or combined into larger ones during the copy editing process. Tables must be created using the table function of a word-processing program or Excel. All columns should be provided with headings.
Any accompanying figures must be submitted as separate files (not embedded in the text). Please note that any tables or figures accompanying your article will reproduce in black and white. Figures must be high-resolution (over 200 dpi); figures should be provided in Excel, Jpeg, or PDF formats. It is the authors' responsibility to submit figures that meet our technical requirements. If a figure cannot be provided in high resolution (200 dpi or higher), it cannot be published in the journal.
Release forms (signed, dated, and witnessed) must accompany photographs of human subjects. Care should be taken to conceal the identity of persons in such photographs. Authors must also secure permission to use any copyrighted tables or figures, and must note the source, copyright, and permission below the table or figure.
Article Types
Research Reports - full-length research manuscript – 3-5,000 words with references excluded; new or replicated research results of importance to the field representing advances in knowledge discovery, translation, and/or transfer.
Short Reports - brief report of preliminary work - < 1,500 words title page, abstract, references excluded; (a) secondary analyses of a specific topic/dataset using archived data from a national repository or registry; (b) initial analyses testing a novel outcome measure, biomarker, endpoint, or design approach; (c) pilot studies (we follow the NIH definition of pilot studies: please consult NIH and related guidelines on the definition and use of pilot studies in relation to preliminary intervention and treatment research use and misuse of pilot studies [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4917389/]). Short Reports should include a brief introduction to the issue or question, up to 2 figures or tables, and a maximum of 10 references, with text totaling no more than 1,500 words. ‘Shorts’ are peer-reviewed in the usual manner.
Comprehensive Reviews - systematic and quantitative – research-based addressing new developments of broad significance to the field, unresolved questions and issues, with an orientation toward future directions and a framework advanced; 3-5,000 words; up to 40 references (although may be longer at editorial discretion given area under review). Reviews may be solicited or unsolicited. Systematic reviews are a formalized structured approach to review all the relevant literature on a topic. Meta analyses are based on statistical methods used to combine the results from identified studies specific to a defined domain or disciplinary area. It is expected the comprehensive reviews follow a similar structure including a clearly formulated research question; a detailed search strategy is explicated based on an exhaustive and robust search of relevant large electronic bibliographic databases; PRISMA reporting guidelines (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses http://www.prisma-statement.org/ ) for identifying, screening/winnowing, inclusion/exclusion of studies reviewed are followed and reported on; specification of the approach used to review target papers (e.g., 2 authors reviewed each article, and where disagreement occurred, discussion and consensus was achieved); the data are tabulated and/or graphed.
Topical/Critical Reviews (invitation only) – narrative review of a topic timely to the field and AJIDD readership; oriented around a specific substantive or methodological issue; anchored to knowledge discovery, synthesis, and/or transfer; Topical/Critical Reviews may include a ‘Forum’ format with additional invited open commentary.
'Perspectives' (invitation only) – short summary of specific area of disciplined inquiry noting past, present, and future directions.
Technical Notes (invitation only) (a) description of new technology supporting data collection for discovery and/or knowledge transfer; or (b) a critical commentary about the intersection of technology and discovery (e.g., ‘lessons learned’).
Ethical Standards
All investigations using human participants must have documented approval by the human subjects review committee of the author’s institution with a clear statement indicating so identifying the ethics committee that approved the study, and that the study conforms to recognized standards, for example: Declaration of Helsinki ; US Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects; European Medicines Agency Guidelines for Good Clinical Practice .
Publication Practices & Standards
Submission of a manuscript to AJIDD while that paper is under review by another journal is unacceptable. The posting of a manuscript on a non-commercial server does not disqualify the manuscript for submission to AJIDD. Authors may post their manuscripts that have been submitted to AJIDD to a non-commercial server at any time; however, upon publication, authors are expected to include a link to the published article with the posted pre-prints.
Accepted Manuscripts
After a manuscript is accepted for publication by the co-editors, the remainder of the production process, including copyediting, is coordinated by AAIDD’s Publications Department ([email protected]). Authors will be sent a copyedited manuscript; any changes or corrections must be made at this stage. Authors will not receive galleys. The co-editors reserve the right to make editorial changes in accepted articles that do not alter the meaning of the text
Footnotes
Footnotes are rarely used in the journal. The Author Note at the end of the manuscript can be used to (a) acknowledge grant support or help in carrying out the research or in preparation of the manuscript, (b) noting change in affiliation of an author, or (c) stating the availability of supplementary information
Data-Sharing
After research results are published, authors do not withhold the data on which their conclusions are based from other competent professionals who seek to verify the substantive claims through reanalysis and who intend to use such data only for that purpose, provided that the confidentiality of the participants can be protected and unless legal rights concerning proprietary data preclude their release
Copyright Assignment
In compliance with the U.S. Copyright Revision Act of 1976, if a manuscript is accepted for publication, authors are asked to sign a Copyright Assignment and Agreement form conveying all copyright ownership to AAIDD. For papers funded through grants from the National Institutes of Health and/or The Wellcome Trust, authors are permitted to submit their final, accepted paper to the respective public database, following the terms set forth in the copyright assignment form signed by all authors whose work is accepted for publication.
Permission to reproduce copyrighted materials for classroom uses is granted. AAIDD also explicitly permits authors to deposit their final accepted manuscript into their institution’s digital repository, provided a citation to the final published article is included
Copyright Clearance Center
The American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities has registered its journals and books with the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC). For permission to use part or all of an article or other material, please contact:
Customer Relations, CCC
222 Rosewood Dr.
Danvers, NJ 01923
Phone: 978-750-8400
Fax: 978-646-8600
Email: [email protected]
Or visit: www.copyright.com
Reprints
Authors may purchase a PDF of their article on the AAIDD journals site if they don’t already have access through a membership or subscription
Editor
Frank Symons, PhD, FAAIDD, University of Minnesota
© 2020 by the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.
The points of view expressed in AJIDD articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the
official policy or opinion of AAIDD.