This document provides details on typesetting and layout requirements pertaining to final manuscript submission to Journal of Applied Communications.

In addition to uploading your final manuscript, you will be able to update, if needed, the abstract, keywords, and other information you provided at the time of your initial submission.

FAILURE TO FOLLOW ALL FORMATTING REQUIREMENTS MAY RESULT IN DELAY OF PUBLICATION.

Formatting Requirements

• Do not include a title page or abstract. (Begin the document with the introduction; a title page, including the abstract, will be added to your paper by the editors.)
• Do not include page numbers, headers, or footers. These will be added by the editors.
• Be sure to remove line numbers that were added for the submission sent to reviewers
• Write your article in English.
• Be sure to un-blind any author- or university-identifying information that was left out for the blind review process.
• Submit your manuscript, including tables, figures, appendices, etc., as a single file (Word or RTF files are accepted). Ensure formatting of tables and figures adheres to the latest APA Style Guide formatting rules.
• Page size should be 8.5 x 11-inches.
• All margins (left, right, top and bottom) should be 1.0 inches, including your tables and figures.
• Single space your text.
• All headings should be styled according to the latest edition the the APA Style Guide. Main and secondary headings should have paragraph spacing before and after.
• Use a single column layout, left align text or justified, but ensure justified alignment doesn't produce awkward spacing, if used.
• Font:
  1. Main Body—12 pt. Times New Roman or the closest comparable font available
  2. Footnotes—10 pt. Times New Roman or the closest comparable font available
• If figures are included, use high-resolution figures, preferably encoded as encapsulated PostScript (eps).
• Copyedit your manuscript.
• When possible, there should be no pages where more than a quarter of the page is empty space.

Additional Recommendations

Indenting, Line Spacing, and Justification

Indent all paragraphs .5".

Do not insert extra space between paragraphs of text with the exception of long quotations, theorems, propositions, special remarks, etc. These should be set off from the surrounding text by additional space above and below.

There should be space above and below headings.

Don't "widow" or "orphan" text (i.e., ending a page with the first line of a paragraph or beginning a page with the last line of a paragraph).

All text should be left-justified, ragged right (i.e., flush with the left margin—except where indented). We preferragged right margins rather than having flush right margins with awkward intra- and inter-word spacing.

Language & Grammar

All submissions must be in English. Except for common foreign words and phrases, the use of foreign words and phrases should be avoided.

Authors should use proper, standard English grammar.

Colored text

Set the font color to black for the majority of the text. We encourage authors to take advantage of the ability to use color in the production of figures, maps, etc., however, you need to appreciate that this will cause some of your readers problems when they print the document on a black & white printer. For this reason, you are advised to avoid the use of colors in situations where their translation to black and white would render the material illegible or incomprehensible.

Please ensure that there are no colored mark-ups or comments in the final version, unless they are meant to be part of the final text. (You may need to "accept all changes" in track changes or set your document to "normal" in final markup.)

Emphasized text

Whenever possible use italics to indicate text you wish to emphasize rather than underlining it. The use of color to emphasize text is prohibited.

Font faces

Except, possibly, where special symbols are needed, use Times or the closest comparable font available. If you desire a second font, for instance for headings, use a sans serif font (e.g., Arial or Computer Modern Sans Serif).

Font size

The main body of text should be set in 12pt. Avoid the use of fonts smaller than 8pt.

Foreign terms

Whenever possible, foreign terms should be set in italics rather than underlined.

Headings

Headings (e.g., start of sections) should be distinguished from the main body text by applying the bold formatting. Follow the latest APA style rules for indicating levels of headings. There should be space above and below headings.

Main text

The font for the main body of text must be black and, if at all possible, in Times or closest comparable font available.

Titles

Whenever possible, titles of books, movies, etc., should be set in italics rather than underlined.

Footnotes

Footnotes should appear at the bottom of the page on which they are referenced rather than at the end of the paper. Footnotes should be in 10 pt. Times or closest comparable font available, they should be single spaced, and there should be a footnote separator rule (line). Footnote numbers or symbols in the text must follow, rather than precede, punctuation. Excessively long footnotes are probably better handled in an appendix. All footnotes should be left and right-justified (i.e., flush with the right margin), unless this creates awkward spacing.

Tables and Figures

To the extent possible, tables and figures should appear in the document near where they are referenced in the text. Large tables or figures should be put on pages by themselves. Avoid the use of overly small type in tables. In no case should tables or figures be in a separate document or file. All tables and figures must fit within 1.0" margins on all sides (top, bottom, left and right) in both portrait and landscape view.

Mathematics

Roman letters used in mathematical expressions as variables should be italicized. Roman letters used as part of multi-letter function names should not be italicized. Whenever possible, subscripts and superscripts should be a smaller font size than the main text.

Short mathematical expressions should be typed inline. Longer expressions should appear as display math. Also expressions using many different levels (e.g., such as the fractions) should be set as display math. Important definitions or concepts can also be set off as display math.

Equations should be numbered sequentially. Whether equation numbers are on the right or left is the choice of the author(s). However, you are expected to be consistent in this.

Symbols and notation in unusual fonts should be avoided. This will not only enhance the clarity of the manuscript, but it will also help insure that it displays correctly on the reader's screen and prints correctly on her printer. When proofing your document under PDF pay particular attention to the rendering of the mathematics, especially symbols and notation drawn from other than standard fonts.

References

It is the author's obligation to provide complete references with the necessary information. After the last sentence of your submission, please insert a line break—not a page break—and begin your references on the same page, if possible. References should appear right after the end of the document, beginning on the last page if possible. References should have margins that are both left and right- justified. You may choose not to right-justify the margin of one or more references if the spacing looks too awkward. Each reference should be formatted following the latest Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.

NOTE: Where available, DOIs (digital object identifiers) for citations must be provided and hotlinked in the Word document. You must use the full doi URL (https://doi.org/xxxxx). As a member of CrossRef, our publisher, New Prairie Press, is required to include DOIs. Use the free DOI lookup on CrossRef's website to check your citations.