Writer's Guidelines

The aim of Liberal Education, the journal of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, is to promote liberal learning by:

• defining and promoting liberal education for members, the higher education community, and the public;
• promoting the value of liberal education for citizenship, education, and individual lives;
• helping higher education bring liberal education to all students;
• creating a language about liberal education that is widely accessible and capable of being translated to different higher education audiences; and
• fostering a national community of interest around liberal education.

With these objectives, Liberal Education serves as the voice of the association; offers a service to association members; and provides a resource for campus educators, administrators, and opinion makers.

The Writer's Guidelines, aimed at informing prospective authors about submitting articles to Liberal Education, address issues such as style, format for submission by e-mail, disk, and hard copy, credit citations, length of article for each section, photographs, and copyright. Query letters, abstracts, and early drafts may be submitted to the editor of Liberal Education for consideration. Contact David Tritelli by e-mail, tritelli@aacu.org; phone, 202-884-7406; or letter, 1818 R Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20009.

Content | Style | Credit | Length | Copyright | Photographs | Communicating with the editor | Readers' responses | Other ways of contributing

Content
Liberal Education brings the best thinking about liberal learning as it is translated into practice: research in action. It makes connections between principles that underlie a theory and the actions that result from those principles.

The Liberal Education audience consists of academic colleagues, public policy leaders, and professionals in public and private organizations who are working to improve the quality of undergraduate education.

Potential authors may submit query letters in lieu of the full article. To assist you in writing for Liberal Education, the following questions might be useful:

• What is the focus of the story? Is the focus stated up front? Is it built upon later?
• What new insight is brought to the topic?
• How does it relate to the aims of Liberal Education?
• What research resources were used?
• Who or what shaped the idea?
• How have AAC&U publications or resources (i.e., seminars, workshops, consultations) shaped the idea, project, or issue?
• Can you show the story by anecdotes, examples, quotations (as you tell the story)?
• Who is your audience? What impact do you intend this story to have on your audience?

Submit manuscripts by e-mail to Editor at tritelli@aacu.org. Include name, academic title, and contact information.

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Style
Style reflects the author. The different voices represented in an issue are an advantage for the reader. The author is speaking to knowledgeable professionals from the spectrum of the higher education community. The language should be direct, even graceful, using clear, informative, declarative prose and examples and quotations to illuminate the points made.

Avoid academic or discipline-specific jargon, in-jokes, and academic irony that are unintelligible beyond the campus.

AAC&U follows The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition. AAC&U's online style guide covers many common stylistic issues.

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Credit
A brief statement of the author's title and affiliation or relevant information about the author is needed to accompany the article. (For example: John Smith is professor of geography at Columbia State University and director of undergraduate curriculum.)

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Length
Each section of Liberal Education is planned by word count. There are three sections in the journal:

Featured topic: the thematic center of an issue. Ordinarily, each article is two thousand to thirty-five hundred words in length. Stronger emphasis is placed on theory than on practice. But anecdotes and experiential examples of the theory in practice are encouraged.

Perspectives: trend pieces, feature articles, how-to articles on varied topics. Ordinarily, articles are eighteen hundred to twenty-five hundred words in length. The emphasis is on the activities flowing from theory.

My View: an individual view of a topic pertaining to liberal learning. Ordinarily, articles are fifteen hundred to eighteen hundred words in length.

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Assignment of copyright
Authors are sent a form for signature giving the association the copyright to their work. Other than reprints by AAC&U, anyone seeking to reproduce an article is required to seek permission from the association's communications department.

The author receives five copies of the issue in which the article appears.

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Photographs
Photographs from authors' campuses are used in the issue in which the article is published. Photographs should illustrate some aspect of the article; shots depicting significant campus settings and interactions are desirable. For My View articles, a portrait of the author is also needed.

The campus public information office or its equivalent often supplies AAC&U with the photographs requested by the author for use in the journal. Photographs should be accompanied by:

• a statement of who and what is pictured;
• the name of the photographer to be credited;
• a note as to whether the photographs need to be returned; and
• an address to which the photographs and a copy of the journal should be returned.

Photographs not returned are kept on file at AAC&U for future use. A copy of the issue in which the photograph appears is sent to the photographer.

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Communication with the editor
To expedite the exchange of manuscripts, editorial queries, and other communication, please include the mailing address, telephone number, e-mail address, and fax number where the author may be reached promptly. As deadlines approach, questions about details often arise, requiring quick communication.

The process depends on the exchange of copy. If, in the editing process, substantial changes are made, the manuscript is returned to the author for comment, correction, and confirmation of changes. A return date for the copy from the author to the editor is given to keep publication on schedule.

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Reader responses to article
Readers may contact an author for further information or to discuss process. We at AAC&U would like to know what responses are received following the publication of the article. We request that the author inform the editor of Liberal Education about the responses.

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Other ways to contribute to Liberal Education
Educators and other professionals interested in higher education are invited to

1. Recommend the journal to other educators or individuals interested in highereducation. Circulate your own copy, purchase single copies of a particular issue to use in class or give to a colleague, or give a subscription to potential readers.
2. Recommend to the editor of Liberal Education authors who might contribute articles, a speech you've heard meriting a wider audience, or any other source that deserves dissemination to a national audience. Such submissions will be reviewed for possible publication.
3. Submit or recommend that the editor request photographs that illustrate significant campus settings and interactions on campus. See the Guidelines for more information about submitting photographs.

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