Instructions for Authors

ABOUT THE ALAN REVIEW. The ALAN Review is a peer-reviewed (refereed) journal published by the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of the National Council of Teachers of English. It is devoted solely to the field of literature for adolescents. It is published three times per academic year (fall, winter, and summer) and is sent to all members, individual and institutional, of ALAN (The Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of NCTE). Members of ALAN need not be members of NCTE.

THE ALAN REVIEW publishes reviews of and articles on literature for adolescents and the teaching of that literature: research studies, papers presented at professional meetings, surveys of the literature, critiques of the literature, articles about authors, comparative studies across genre and/or cultures, articles on ways to teach the literature to adolescents, and interviews of authors.

AUDIENCE. Many of the individual members of ALAN are classroom teachers of English in middle, junior, and senior high schools. Other readers include university faculty members in English and/or Education programs, researchers in the field of adolescent literature, librarians, authors, publishers, reading teachers and teachers of other related content areas. ALAN has members in all 50 states and a number of foreign countries.

PREFERRED STYLE. Manuscripts should usually be no longer than fifteen double-spaced, typed pages. A manuscript submitted for consideration should deal specifically with literature for adolescents and/or the teaching of that literature. It should have a clearly defined topic and be scholarly in content, as well as practical and useful to people working with and/or studying adolescents and their literature. Research studies and papers should be treated as articles rather than formal reports . Stereotyping on the basis of sex, race, age, etc., should be avoided, as should gender-specific terms such as “chairman.”

MANUSCRIPT FORMAT. Manuscripts should be double-spaced throughout, including quotations and bibliographies. A title page with author’s name, affiliation, address, and a short professional biographical sketch should be included. The author’s name should not appear on the manuscript pages; however, pages should be numbered. Short quotations, as permitted under “fair use” in the copyright law, must be carefully documented within the manuscript and in the bibliography. Longer quotations and complete poems or short stories must be accompanied by written permission of the copyright owner.

Author interviews should be accompanied by written permission of the interviewed author to publish the interview in The ALAN Review . Interviewers should indicate to authors that publication is subject to review of an editorial board. The title of The ALAN Review should not be used to gain an interview.

Original short tables and figures should be double-spaced and placed on a separate sheet at the end of the manuscript. Notations should appear in the text for proper placement of tables and figures.

The ALAN Review prefers the use of the Publications Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA).

SUBMITTING THE MANUSCRIPT. Authors are to submit manuscripts electronically to alanreview@lsu.edu . In the subject line please write: ALAN manuscript submission . All manuscripts should be in a recent version of Microsoft Word and use APA format. Complete submissions include, as separate attachments, the following documents: (1) A manuscript without references to the author(s). (2) A separate title page with author’s name, contact information, affiliation, and a 2-3 sentence biographical sketch. In the case of multiple authors, the author submitting the manuscript will serve as the primary contact unless stipulated otherwise. (3) A brief statement that the article is original, has not been published previously in other journals and/or books, and is not a simultaneous submission.

REVIEW PROCESS . Each manuscript will receive a blind review by the editor and at least two members of the editorial review board, unless the length, style, or content makes it inappropriate for publication. Usually, authors should expect to hear the results within eight weeks. Manuscripts are judged for the contribution they make to the field of adolescent literature, clarity and cohesiveness, timeliness, and freshness of approach. Selection also depends on the manuscript’s contribution to the overall balance of the journal.

PUBLICATION OF ARTICLES . The ALAN Review assumes that accepted manuscripts have not been published previously in any other journals and/or books, nor will they be published subsequently without permission of The ALAN Review . Should the author submit the manuscript to more than one publication, he/she should notify The ALAN Review . If a submitted or accepted manuscript is accepted by another publication prior to publication in The ALAN Review , the author should immediately withdraw the manuscript from publication in The ALAN Review .

Manuscripts that are accepted may be edited for clarity, accuracy, readability, and publication style.

Upon publication, the author will receive two copies of The ALAN Review in which the article appears. Publication usually occurs within 18 months of acceptance.

DEADLINES. Please observe these deadlines if you wish to have your article considered for a particular issue of The ALAN Review.

FALL ISSUE Deadline:     MARCH 1
WINTER ISSUE Deadline:     JULY 1
SUMMER ISSUE Deadline:   NOVEMBER 1

Cover credits: The ALAN Review cover “The Rise of the House of Readers” was designed by Michelle Zoss, Assistant Professor of English Education at Georgia State University. Pictured are Reality Boy by A. S. King and Ketchup Clouds by Annabel Pitcher (©2013); used with permission from Little, Brown. All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill, These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner, and The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (©2013) were used with permission from Hyperion, an imprint of Disney Book Group. Formerly Shark Girl by Kelly Bingham, The Cydonian Pyramid by Pete Hautman, Fallout by Todd Strassar, Romeo and Juliet by Gareth Hinds, Coaltown Jesus by Ron Koertge, Living with Jackie Chan by Jo Knowles, Feral Nights by Cynthia Leitich Smith, Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick your Ass by Meg Medina, Plague in the Mirror by Deborah Noyes, Black Helicopters by Blythe Woolston, Quintana of Charyn by Melina Mardetta, More Than This by Patrick Ness (©2013) were reproduced by permission of Candlewick Press. The Living by Matt de la Peña (©2013) was used with permission from Random House Children’s Books.