IDD Information for Authors
Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) uses a Web-based manuscript submission and peer-review system called PeerTrack. Manuscripts must be submitted electronically to https://www.editorialmanager.com/idd . All manuscripts are peer-reviewed by anonymous reviewers selected by the Editor or an Associate Editor. IDD strives to ensure fairness, courteousness, and constructive feedback during the peer review process.
Corresponding authors who require assistance in submitting their manuscripts through PeerTrack should contact the editorial office via e-mail ([email protected]). PeerTrack is able to convert most word-processing files, but it is recommended that authors upload manuscripts that were created using Microsoft Word, if possible.
The submission process has several steps:
- Technical Check: This process takes 1-2 weeks after manuscript is submitted. If there are issues with APA7 formatting, the abstract length, identifying information, manuscript length, or other issues the manuscript will be returned to the author to have these basic issues addressed and the manuscript will need to be changed based on the initial feedback and resubmitted.
-
Initial Peer Review: Once the technical check is
complete, manuscripts are assigned to at least two external peer
reviewers, typically within 2-3 weeks. It is sometimes difficult to find
reviewers with the appropriate content expertise and availability to
review a given article, and this added time to find additional peer
reviewers can extend the time it takes for an article to move through
the review stage. Once the reviewers have agreed to review the
manuscript, they have 30 days to submit their objective review.
Following the initial peer review, revisions are almost always
requested.
Outcomes from the peer review process include Accept, Accept with minor revisions, Accept with major revisions, or Reject. -
Revision Following Initial Peer Review: Following the
initial peer review, authors are given the opportunity to revise their
manuscripts. Once received, revised manuscripts are assigned to the
editor or an associate editor and go back out for peer reviewers within
2-3 weeks. They are instructed to review the revisor letter and the
revised manuscript to determine if the concerns identified in the
initial review have been attend to in a satisfactorily manner.
Outcomes from the peer review process for revised manuscripts include Accept, Accept with minor revisions, Accept with major revisions, or Reject. - Final Determination: Once the peer review process has concluded with a determination that the manuscript should be accepted, the author is notified by the Editor within 2 weeks.
- Following Notification of Acceptance: Once manuscripts have been accepted, they go into a queue for publication in the journal. The publisher (AAIDD) will reach out to the authors for completion of agreements and a pre-publication final review of the copyedited manuscript. All accepted articles are posted on the AAIDD pre-publication website as their anticipated issue approaches. They remain there until they are in the print journal.
Potential authors should carefully read the editorial policy. All manuscripts are peer reviewed. Manuscripts are judged on research quality, relevance to policy or practice, potential reader interest, originality, and clarity of writing. Research papers based on quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods analyses are reviewed based on standards appropriate to the methodology used in the study. Other submissions are reviewed according to scholarly and best practice standards. Authors should address the implications of their findings for policy and practice. Theoretical and conceptual manuscripts, perspectives on topical issues and debates, and literature reviews that include syntheses of recent research are published in the "Perspectives" section of the journal. IDD welcomes thoughtful, well-reasoned, interesting, clearly written contributions for this section that demonstrate a clear understanding of the related literature, policy and practice guidelines. Due to the volume of manuscripts submitted, systematic/scoping literature reviews will be accepted only in cases where there is a clear new contribution to the literature.
Materials Needed for Initial Manuscript Submission:
Before submitting a manuscript, please gather the following information:
- All Authors
- First Names, Middle Names/Initials, Last Names
- Institutional Affiliation
- Departmental Affiliation
- E-mail addresses
- Title and Running Title (copy and paste these from your manuscript)
- Abstract ( No more than 120 words - copy and paste this from your manuscript)
- Key words (up to 5 of them)
- An unblinded title page
- A blinded title page (this means a title page without attribution to authors or their affiliations so that peer reviewers cannot see this information)
- Manuscript files in Microsoft Word (doc or docx) are preferred, but other word processing software may be workable.
- All tables and/or figures will be submitted individually as either MS Word or Excel files. These should NOT be included in the manuscript document.
- Supplemental materials and appendices should be removed, as they will not be included in the peer review process and will not be published. Authors can host supplemental materials on their own websites and provide a link to the readers on how to access supplemental materials.
The separate Cover Page should include the following elements:
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),
Institutional Affiliation,
City, State, Zip, Country
Acknowledgments
Authors should indicate if their manuscript’s findings were presented previously at a professional conference (oral or poster). Authors should also indicate if the production of their manuscript was funded through a specific source (e.g., what entity; grant number(s) if applicable). Finally, authors have the option of briefly expressing thanks to others who have provided special support to them during the development of an article (e.g., appreciation for feedback on earlier drafts of an article).
Manuscript files should not contain any identifying information (authors or institutional affiliation) , but the following components (as appropriate) should be included in the submission:
- Title & Running Title
- Abstract
- Key words
- Manuscript Text
- Introduction
- Literature review
- Study purpose with research questions and hypotheses
- Methods
- Results
- Discussion
- Limitations
- Conclusions
- References
- Tables and/or Figures
Style
IDD strictly adheres to the 7 th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA, 7 th edition). This website may be helpful (APA 7th Edition Guidance). All sections of the manuscript (including headers, sub-headers, citations, quotations, references, and tables) should be double-spaced with a 1-inch margin on all sides. Footnotes should not be included in manuscripts.
- An abstract of no more than 120 words is required.
- Up to 5 keywords are accepted.
- Manuscripts must be in English.
- Manuscripts should not exceed 30 pages in length, including all references and tables/figures (they will be returned at the time of technical check if they are too long).
- Please include no more than 5 tables and/or figures.
- References must be in APA, 7 th edition style.
- Accompanying figures must be submitted as separate files (not embedded in the text) and must be over 300 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. Figures should be black and white, not in color.
- Tables must be submitted as separate files (not embedded in the text) and must be in Word or Excel format. Individual tables should not exceed 4 pages in length.
- All components need to be double-spaced.
- Content footnotes are not used.
- Supplemental materials are not reviewed or published.
Because manuscripts are reviewed anonymously, the authors’ names and other identifying information should not appear anywhere in the manuscript (the authors’ information is captured in PeerTrack). Likewise, other identifying information, such as acknowledgments, should not be included in submitted manuscripts.
The Editor reserves the right to reject manuscripts that do not meet the standards contained in the IDD Editorial Policy (IDD Editorial Policy).
Manuscript Resubmissions
For manuscript resubmissions after revisions are addressed, the same requirements must be met as with a new submission. IDD adheres to the 7 th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA, 7 th edition). All sections of the manuscript (including quotations, references, and tables) should be double-spaced with a 1-inch margin on all sides.
- A rebuttal letter (aka revisor letter) indicating how the authors have addressed the reviewer’s comments.
- Do not submit the manuscript, tables or figures with any track changes – accept all of them before resubmitting (they will fail technical check if submitted with track changes).
- An abstract of no more than 120 words is required.
- Up to 5 keywords are accepted.
- Manuscripts should not exceed 30 pages in length, including all references, tables and figures.
- Please include no more than 5 tables.
- References must be in APA, 7th edition style.
- Accompanying figures must be submitted as separate files (not embedded in the text) and must be over 300 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. Figures should be black and white, not in color.
- Tables must be submitted as separate files (not embedded in the text) and must be in Microsoft Word or Excel format.
- All components need to be double-spaced.
- Cannot include any footnotes as they will not be used.
- Cannot include any supplemental materials as they will not be included in the peer review process and will not be published. Authors can host supplemental materials on their own websites and provide a link to the readers on how to access supplemental materials.
As with a new submission, manuscripts are reviewed anonymously; therefore, the authors’ names and other identifying information should not appear on the cover page nor anywhere in the manuscript.
Abbreviations and Terminology
Abbreviations should be held to a minimum and spelled out in their first use in the manuscript.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.
IDD adheres to AAIDD’s policy regarding the use of people-first language. Authors should use language that emphasizes the humanity of people with disabilities. If the author is intentionally using identity first language out of respect to a specific group, this should be explicitly stated with an explanation and may be permitted at the discretion of the Editor. Generic descriptive terms, such as people, participants, students, children, and adults are preferred over subjects or informants. Language should be free of gender bias.
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 copyediting process.
Tables must be created using the table function of Microsoft Word. All columns should be provided with headings. All figures must be high-resolution images, scanned at an absolute minimum of 300 dpi (dots per inch); please ensure this benchmark when resubmitting your article.
Any accompanying tables and/or figures must be submitted as separate files (not embedded in the text). Please note that any tables or figures accompanying your article will be reproduced in black and white. It is the authors' responsibility to submit tables and figures of appropriate quality. Failure to do so may delay publication of your article.
Release forms (signed, dated, and witnessed) must accompany photographs of human subjects. Care should be taken to conceal the identity of people in such photographs. Authors must also secure permission to use any copyrighted tables or figures.
Footnotes
Footnotes are not 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.
Ethical Standards
All investigations using human participants must have been approved by the Human Subjects Review Committee of the author’s institution. Submission of a manuscript to IDDwhile that manuscript is under review by another journal is unacceptable. Presentation of a manuscript in electronic form on the Internet is considered to constitute publication and may be grounds for rejection of the paper by this journal.
Accepted Manuscripts
After a manuscript is accepted for publication by the Editor, 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 Editor reserves the right to make editorial changes in accepted articles that do not alter the meaning of the text. Tables that exceed 4 double-spaced pages are subject to being published online only, at the discretion of AAIDD. If authors wish to receive a complimentary copy of the issue in which their article is published, they must include a complete mailing address in the PeerTrack system.
Any author whose contact information changes between acceptance and publication is required to change their contact information in the manuscript tracking system. Go to https://www.editorialmanager.com/idd 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.
Data-Sharing
After research results are published, authors will not withhold the data on which their conclusions are based from other 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 Copyright Revision Act of 1976, if a manuscript is accepted for publication, the author(s) must sign a Copyright Assignment and Agreement conveying all copyright ownership, including electronic rights, to AAIDD. For papers funded through the National Institutes of Health, Institute of Education Sciences, or the UK’s Wellcome Trust, authors are solely responsible for and explicitly permitted to submit their final, accepted paper to the respective public database, following the terms set forth in the copyright agreement form signed by all authors whose work is accepted for publication.
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
Amy S. Hewitt, PhD, FAAIDD, University of Minnesota, Institute on Community Integration
Assistant Editor
Sandra L. Pettingell
Associate Editors
Kruti Acharya, Matthew Bogenschutz, Alexandra Bonardi, Amy Esler, Susan Havercamp, Kelly Nye-Lengerman, Michelle Reynolds, Robert L. Schalock, Jan Siska
Statistical Consultant
Leslie Shaw