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Guidelines to authors (INITIAL SUBMISSION)

Please submit your manuscript as a single Word file to be used in the refereeing process. Only after your paper is accepted for publication will you be requested to put your paper into a 'correct format' for publication. Please make sure that your document does not include author information as we send manuscripts out for blind peer review. For the style to be followed for citations and references, please use The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017. https://doi.org/10.7208/cmos17

Ensure that the following items are present in your submission:

  1. The author designated as the corresponding author with following contact details:
    • E-mail address
    • Full postal address
  2. Manuscript includes
    • 3 to 5 Keywords
    • All figures (include relevant captions)
    • All tables (including titles, description, footnotes). Please make sure all tables are placed within the manuscript itself where you’d like them to appear. Please use Word to make your tables.
    • All figure and table citations in the text match the files provided
  3. Supplemental files (where applicable such as teaching notes for cases)
  4. Other considerations:
    • Authors names do not appear anywhere in the manuscript
    • Manuscript has been 'spell checked' and 'grammar checked'
    • All references mentioned in the Reference List are cited in the text, and vice versa
    • Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Internet)
    • Appropriate permissions have been obtained for use of the entities that are the focus of case-studies.
    • Confirm that studies on human subjects have received appropriate ethics committee approval.

Guidelines to authors (FINAL SUBMISSION AFTER ACCEPTANCE)

This document provides details on typesetting and layout requirements pertaining to FINAL MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSIONS to Mountain Plains Journal of Business and Technology.

Formatting Requirements

  • Include a title page and abstract.
  • Do not include page numbers, headers, or footers. These will be added by the editors.
  • Write your article in English.
  • Submit your manuscript, including tables, figures, appendices, etc., as a single Word file.
  • Page size should be 8.5 x 11-inches.
  • All margins (left, right, top and bottom) should be 1 inch (2.54 cm), including your tables and figures.
  • Single space your text.
  • Use a single column layout with both left and right margins justified.
  • Font:
    1. Main Body—12 pt. Times or the closest comparable font available
    2. Footnotes—10 pt. Times 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 except those following a section heading. An indent should be at least 2 em-spaces. 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.

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 (i.e., flush with the left margin—except where indented). Where possible, it should also be right-justified (i.e., flush with the right margin). "Where possible" refers to the quality of the justification. For example, LaTeX and TeX do an excellent job of justifying text. Word does a reasonable job. But some word processors do a lousy job (e.g., they achieve right justification by inserting too much white space within and between words). We prefer flush right margins. However, it is better to have jagged right margins than to have flush right margins with awkward intra- and inter-word spacing. Make your decision on whichever looks best.

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. The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White (now in its fourth edition) is the "standard" guide, but other excellent guides (e.g., The Chicago Manual of Style, University of Chicago Press) exist as well.

Article Length

Because this journal publishes electronically, page limits are not as relevant as they are in the world of print publications. We are happy, therefore, to let authors take advantage of this greater "bandwidth" to include material that they might otherwise have to cut to get into a print journal. This said, authors should exercise some discretion with respect to length.

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 problems for some of your readers 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 discouraged.

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 6pt.

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 their fonts or by using small caps. Use the same font face for all headings and indicate the hierarchy by reducing the font size. 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 the 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 1.5" 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.

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 their printer. When proofing your document, 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 give the last names of all the authors, their first names or first initials, and, optionally, their middle initials. The hierarchy for ordering the references is:

  1. Last name of first author
  2. First name of first author
  3. Last name of second author (if any). Co-authored work is listed after solo-authored work by the same first author (e.g., Edlin, Aaron S. would precede Edlin, Aaron S. and Stefan Reichelstein).
  4. First name of second author
  5. Publication date
  6. Order cited in text

Please use The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017.

https://doi.org/10.7208/cmos17 to format your references. The information to be given with each citation in the references is as follows:

Documentation style

The author-date system of citation is used, as described in CMOS (Chicago Manual of Style) chap. 15.

REFERENCE LISTS

  • Arrangement of entries (CMS 15.11)
  • Arrange entries alphabetically according to the author list(s) without regard to chronology; use chronological order when arranging multiple entries by the same author(s).
  • Arrange entries alphabetically according to the author list(s) without regard to chronology; use chronological order when arranging multiple entries by the same author(s).
  • When there are multiple reference entries attributed to a single author and to that same author with co-authors, the single-author entry comes before the multi-author entry.
  • DO NOT use 3-em dash to replace repeated author names in References (this is a departure from CMOS 15.17).

Author names

Use the form of authors’ names as they appear on the title page or at the head of an article or chapter (see CMOS 15.12). Though it is not necessary for authors’ given names to appear in initials in references, if the author chooses that style, it should be consistent within a reference list.

Titles

Titles of articles and chapters are capitalized headline-style and enclosed in quotation marks. Book and journal titles are capitalized headline-style and italicized.

Publisher

  • Publishers’ names: Use short form for better-known publishers (e.g., “Macmillan” instead of “The Macmillan Company”). Include full name of publisher if it is lesser known (but spell out “&”).
  • Don’t shorten university press names.
  • Organizations as authors: If an acronym for an organization is given as author, include the spelled-out name of the organization in parentheses. The acronym alone may be used in text citations.

Place of publication

Use the two-letter postal abbreviation (e.g., Denver, CO; Ottawa, ON). See CMOS 10.28–29 for lists of state and province abbreviations.

REFERENCE examples

Book

Bedell, R., 2001. The Anatomy of Nature: Geology and American Landscape Painting, 1825–1875. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Berg, B. L., 2004. Qualitative Research Methods for the Social Sciences. 5th ed. Boston: Pearson.

Edited book

Blouet, Brian W., and Frederick C. Luebke, eds., 1979. The Great Plains: Environment and Culture. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

Journal articles

Voogt, Eric. 1996. “Pork, Pollution, and Pig Farming: The Truth about Corporate Hog Production in Kansas.” .” Kansas Journal of Law and Public Policy 5:219–38.

Congdon, J. D., D. W. Tinkle, G. L. Breitenbach, and R. C. van Loben Sels. 1983. “Nesting Ecology and Hatchling Success in the Turtle Emydoidea blandingi.” Herpetologica 39 (4): 417–29.

Article in edited book

Vepraskas, M. J. 2001. “Morphological Features of Seasonally Reduced Soils.” In Wetland Soils: Genesis, Hydrology, Landscapes, and Classification, ed. J. L. Richardson and M. J. Vepraskas, 163–82. Boca Raton, FL: Lewis Publishers.

Article in series publication

Popowski, J. 1976. “Role of Windbreaks for Wildlife.” In Shelterbelts on the Great Plains, 110–11. Great Plains Agricultural Council Publication 78. Missoula: University of Montana Press.

Thesis or dissertation

Medlin, J. A. 1974. “Abundance of Black-Tailed Jackrabbits, Desert Cottontail Rabbits, and Coyotes in Southeastern New Mexico.” Master's thesis, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM.

May, J. F. 1974. “A Survey of Ring-Necked Pheasants in Iowa.” PhD diss., Iowa State University, Ames, IA.

Law case citation

See CMOS 15.55 for guidance on citing court cases.

Court decisions are rarely included in References when using author-date reference style. Instead, citations to federal decisions are given in running text followed by the official legal citation: “In 1941, in Bridges v. California (314 US 252), the Court held . . .”

Likewise, references to state and local court decisions are made in text only and are cited in a form similar to that used for federal courts: (Williams v. Davis, 27 Cal. 2d 746 [1946]).

Personal communications

Reference-list entries are unneeded. Use parenthetical citations in text: (N. J. Ewing, pers. comm. 1992)

Popular magazine

Long, M.E. 1998. “The Vanishing Prairie Dog.” National Geographic, April, 27–29.

Newspaper citation

Robbins, S. 1982. “Police Use Tear Gas to Rout Meat Plant Marchers.” New York Times, July 27, 14A. Omaha World-Herald. 1999. “Computer Use Splits Cultures.” July 8.

  • Italicize city names in newspaper citations: Saskatoon Star-Phoenix
  • Do not use initial article in newspaper titles: New York Times, not The New York Times.

Work accepted for publication but not yet published

Bozell, J. R., R. E. Pepperl, and G. F. Carlson. Forthcoming. “Archeological Investigations at Engineer Cantonment: Winter Quarters of the 1819–1820 Long Expedition, Washington County, Nebraska.” Nebraska State Historical Society Publications in Anthropology 12, Lincoln, NE.

Paper read at meeting

Hernandez, D.J. 1999. “Children of Immigrants: One-Fifth of America’s Children and Growing.” Paper presented at biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Albuquerque, NM.

Reprint

Webb, W.P. [1931] 1981. The Great Plains. Reprint, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

Archival documents

USDI-NPS (U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service). 1944. “Record of Live Shipments of Buffalo.” Box N-340, File 715-03. Yellowstone National Park Archives, Yellowstone National Park, WY.

Archival documents

(see CMOS 14.4–7 for guidance in citing online sources)

Include either a URL or DOI with an online citations.

Access dates for online citations are unnecessary.

Text citation examples

One author: (Jones 1980)

Two authors: (Smith and Jones 1980)

Three or more authors: (Smith et al. 1980)

Arrange multiple references chronologically, from oldest to newest: (Jones 1970; Smith and Jones 1980; Larson 1981), except as follows: (Jones 1970, 1985; Smith and Jones 1980)

Several references to one author in one year should be arranged alphabetically by title in the reference list, with letters a, b, c, etc., appended to the year: (Jones 1960a, 1960b)

Style for citing page numbers and figures, tables, or plates (use lowercase “fig., table, plate” when citing those items from other works): (Smith 1980, 635) (Smith 1980, fig. 1)