Submissions

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

• The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
• The submission file is in Microsoft Word document file format. For non-text submissions please contact: sparkjournal@arts.ac.uk
• Where available, URLs for the references have been provided. DOIs should be provided where possible.
• The text is double-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
• If submitting to a peer-reviewed section of the journal (Research Papers or Case Studies), the instructions in Ensuring a Blind Review have been followed.
• Does the submission include all required information on the first page including category of submission and title?
• Do the title and abstract accurately summarise the contents of the article? Does the title appeal to readers?
• Are the title, abstract and keywords suitable for internet search engines to guide and attract interested readers?
• Is it relevant to the field of creative teaching and learning, or arts, crafts, media or design education? Does the article have relevance to education or pedagogy as well as to arts, crafts, media and design?
• Is the article up to date? Is there new knowledge or a new contribution to the field of arts, crafts, media or design education?
• Is published research in the field acknowledged? Does the article demonstrate familiarity with any similar/relevant research in previous issues of Spark?
• Is evidence provided to support and substantiate any assertions or claims made?
• If the paper is a research project report are the research questions clear, are methods appropriate, the data credible, the findings clear, and the recommendations/conclusions justified?
• If drawing on data from participants, are ethical issues such as informed consent, confidentiality and anonymity fully addressed?
• Have you obtained the necessary permissions/copyright clearance for including images, quotations from research participants etc.?
• Is the paper structured well? Is the case well-made and does the argument flow?
• Is your use of English of a publishable standard? Has it been thoroughly proofread? Please ensure your text is clearly written in standard English language appropriate to your discipline.

• Is the article in the correct format for the journal, especially for citation and references? The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines, which is found in About the Journal. 

• If submitting text, is the total word length (including all quotes, references and bibliographies) within the word limit for the chosen category of submission?

Author Guidelines

Quick overview of preparing your work for submission 

All submissions should include: 

• Category of contribution
• Full title
• Abstract (100 words) for text-based submissions or Statement (200-400 words) for media submissions
• Key words (up to 6)
• References (in Harvard referencing style)

To ensure blind peer review, authors should not include their names in the text, with ‘Author’ and year used in the references and footnotes, instead of the authors' name, article title, etc.

Information in text or references that would identify the author should be deleted from the manuscript including both text citations and the reference list. These details will be re-inserted into the final draft, along with an author biography (100 words per author).

Please now refer to the full 'Style guidelines' below for more detailed information.

Style guidelines

Text submissions:

• Written submissions should adhere to the word lengths above.
• Make sure your title both summarises the content and intrigues the reader.
• Please submit your work in MS Word rather than PDF for text files to enable peer review and feedback. 
• Use 12 point font, double spaced. 
• Insert page numbers.
• Caption all illustrations, tables or figures.

Media submissions:

• All images should be high quality. We prefer to use .png or .jpeg images that are 1200 pixels wide, where possible. 
• Media file sizes and formats will be discussed and agreed at time of submission.

Citation and references

All submissions should include full references, in the Harvard style. Please refer to CiteThemRight for detailed assistance with citation and referencing.

In-text citations should be indicated by giving the author's name with the year of publication in parentheses (e.g. Taylor, 2013). Quotations in the text and endnotes should be followed by page number from the source material e.g. (Taylor, 2013, p.97). When several publications by the same author from the same year are cited then a, b, c, etc. should be placed after the year of publication.

References should be listed in full at the end of the article in the standard Harvard format in alphabetical order as follows:

Books

Berry, R. (2005) The Research Project: How to write it. London: Routledge.

Journal articles (with online ‘doi’ link)
Please note that Spark requires all references for online journal articles to include a ‘doi’ (digital object identifier) link, which enables readers to access the content in perpertuity.

Sword, H. (2009) 'Writing higher education differently: a manifesto on style', Studies in Higher Education, 34(3), pp. 319–336, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03075070802597101

Journal articles (from printed journals that do not have an online ‘doi’ link)

Hanson, J. (2013) ‘Educational Developers as Researchers: The Contribution of Insider Research to Enhancing Understanding of Role, Identity and Practice’, Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 50 (4), pp. 388-398.

Chapters in books

Tan, S. (2008) ‘Emotions and interactions around sketchbooks’ in Austerlitz, N. (ed) Unspoken Interactions: exploring the unspoken dimension of learning and teaching in creative subjects. London: University of the Arts London, pp. 121-137.

Photographs from the Internet

Sulter, M. (1989) Calliope. Available at:
http://www.streetlevelphotoworks.org/event/maud_sulter_passion (Accessed: 30 June 2015).

Web pages with organisations as authors

Tate Gallery (2015) Learning at Tate. Available at: http://www.tate.org.uk/about/ourwork/learningattate (Accessed 20 June 2015).

Interviews

Smith, T. (2015), Senior Lecturer (London College of Fashion). Interviewed by Asad Sharma, 15 February.

Unpublished interviews

Smith, T. (2015), Senior Lecturer (London College of Fashion). Interviewed by Asad Sharma, 15 February. Unpublished interview.

Newspaper articles

Turner, D. (2015) ‘Young designers celebrate creating historic gowns’, Hackney Today (368), 30 November, p. 21. Available at: http://www.hackney.gov.uk/Assets/Documents/368.pdf  (Accessed: 17 December 2015).

Blogs

Doctorow, C. (2015) ‘Doctoral dissertation in graphic novel form’, Things Cory Doctorow Saw, 4 October. Available at: http://mostlysignssomeportents.tumblr.com/post/130485371991/doctoral-dissertation-in-graphic-novel-form (Accessed: 15 December 2015).

Exhibition catalogue or Programme guide

Kennedy, R. (ed.) (2002) The silk road: connecting cultures, creating trust, Smithsonian Folklife Festival held at the Smithsonian Institute, Washington (USA) 2002 [programme guide]. 

How to submit

Spark has an integrated online workflow to enable peer review and copy editing. Contributors should first register as an ‘Author’ on the site by filling out the online form on the ‘Register’ page. Please use your UAL user name and password when registering.

Once registered, authors can log in and upload their work for editorial review by clicking on the ‘Start a New Submission’ link, and following the five-step submission process.

If your file will not upload (if the file size is larger than 23MB), please email us at sparkjournal@arts.ac.uk with a link to a file transfer site where it can be downloaded from.

You should receive an acknowledgement of your submission. Please contact Victoria Haverson (v.haverson@arts.ac.uk) if you fail to receive one.

Submissions should not be currently under consideration by another journal.

Spark is not responsible for damage or loss of submitted materials.

Peer review process

All submissions will be initially reviewed by the editorial team. Research papers and case studies deemed suitable for publication in the journal will be forwarded for anonymous peer review. Submissions in other categories will be reviewed by the editorial team.

Reviewing journal contributions is not a technical measurement against clear criteria. It involves holistic, professional judgement based on the reviewer’s experience and knowledge of the field. However, it is useful to have some guiding criteria to help authors prepare their work and to assist reviewers in making fair judgements. The guiding criteria for Spark are:

• The subject matter of the work should be worthy of dissemination through its originality or its interpretation of existing ideas in a new context;
• The work should communicate its message clearly;
• The work should demonstrate an understanding of existing research and practice in the relevant field;
• The work should technically competent (where appropriate).

The timeline of the review process varies but it is our goal to get feedback to authors as quickly as possible.

Terms and conditions

By publishing in Spark you are agreeing to the following terms:

• Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
• Authors may enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in Spark.
• Authors are responsible for obtaining permission and clearance to reproduce copyrighted material from other sources. Most images of artworks published elsewhere require the artist’s or artist agents’ or publisher’s permission for reproduction. All costs must be borne by the authors.

Once your submission has been accepted for publication (following the review process), we will issue a ‘license to publish’ form for you to sign and return to us prior to the issue’s publication date.

Please note that if you are intending to submit work that arises from a project governed by a contract, funding terms or other arrangements which impose restrictions on UAL’s ability to disseminate project results, you should consult your contract and partners before submission.

Please find further information about copyright issues and licensing on the Own-It website. 

Guidelines on image use and copyright permissions

If you are intending to include any of the following material in your submission to Spark you will need to ensure you have obtained the appropriate permission to use the material before you submit to the journal:

• Pictures including photographs, drawings, maps, diagrams, paintings or cartoons
• Figures and tables
• Extracts from newspapers, magazines or screenshots of websites
• Brand images, logos or trademarks
• Films, broadcasts, music or audio recordings
• Text that is used as an epigraph

These materials are likely to be under copyright to the original creator or publisher and before you reproduce them you will need to seek formal permission to use them in the context of your own work. 

Copyright is an automatic right for creators of original works to control who can reproduce or distribute the material they have created. As a contributor to Spark it is your responsibility to respect these rights. It is a breach of copyright to copy, adapt, translate or take a substantial part of material for use in your own work. Creators of such work also have the right to be identified as the authors of the material.

There is also copyright in your own work if it is original (not copied) including photographs, tables, diagrams, drawings. If you have your work previously published somewhere else please check your agreement with the publisher for restrictions on re-publishing it.

Copyright and ‘fair dealing’

There are some exceptions to copyright law that allow you to use some material without infringing the rights of the copyright holder under the principle of ‘fair dealing’. This means that it is possible to reproduce material for the purposes of review or criticism or quotation as long as:

• The source of the material used is fully acknowledged
• The material is specifically used for the purposes of review or criticism or quotation within the submission and not simply reproduced for example to illustrate a submission
• The amount of the material used is appropriate and necessary for the purposes of review or criticism or quotation (Ask yourself: ‘Was it necessary to use that amount of the work?’)
• The use of the work is fair and reasonable, e.g. it doesn’t act as a substitute for it causing the owner of the copyright to loose revenue

For further information on copyright exceptions, please read the IPO’s guidance here.

Note: You cannot rely on the ‘fair dealing’ exception for copyright if the work is unpublished. This includes unpublished students’ work. 

Copyright and Creative Commons Licences

Some material may have been made available under a Creative Commons Licence that allows the use of a creative work or other material without first asking the copyright owner for permission. Copyright owners retain copyright under a CC licence but allow others to copy, edit or build upon work under certain conditions, e.g. no derivatives, non-commercial use, share alike (a derivative work must be published under the same licence as the original). It is a condition of a CC licence that the original author is credited and the copy or derivative work is published with a link to or a clear notice of the CC licence. 

Gaining permission to use copyright material

If you are going to use material that is in copyright and its use does not fall within one of the  ‘fail dealing’ exceptions it is your responsibility to seek and obtain permission to use the material before you submit your work to Spark. The rights holder is normally the creator or publisher of the work.

To seek permission to use copyrighted material you should contact the copyright holder using the Spark Permissions Request Form which is available from the Spark editorial assistant (Vicky Haverson v.haverson@arts.ac.uk).

The form requires that you specify:

• the precise material you wish to use
• full details of the work within which the material will be reproduced

If you believe you will need to seek permission for the use of copyright material you should contact the journal editorial team to discuss the use of the material.

Consent for material that identifies students or other individuals

Even if you hold the copyright for photographs, film or audio material (i.e. you are the creator of the work and it has not previously been published), any material that includes identifiable images of students or other individuals should be used with caution. You should always ensure that if someone is identifiable in this material that they have given full and informed consent for the use of the material using a model release form [include link to such a form to download]. Alternatively it may be possible to pixelate identifiable features or cut images in ways that do not reveal the identity of individuals.

If you wish to include material that is likely to raise issues of confidentiality, data protection or privacy in particular relating to students or underage children, including individuals participating on short courses or community engagement activities, then you should contact the Spark editorial team to discuss ethical use of this material.

Research ethics

Please ensure that your work conforms to UAL’s research policies:

• Code of Practice on Research Ethics
• Code of Good Conduct in Research

Support for making a submission

The Editorial Board are keen to encourage new contributors. If desired we can provide an experienced mentor to discuss your work with you and give feedback on a draft version. Please let us know if you are interested in being paired with a mentor: sparkjournal@arts.ac.uk

Further enquiries

Please contact the editorial assistant, Victoria Haverson (v.haverson@arts.ac.uk) if you have any queries or require further information. 

Copyright Notice

Authors who publish in this journal agree to the following terms:

1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g. publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g. on their own website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.

Spark: UAL Creative Teaching and Learning Journal has made best effort to ensure accuracy of the contents of this journal, however makes no claims to the authenticity and completeness of the articles published. Authors are responsible for ensuring copyright clearance for any images, tables etc which are supplied from an outside source.

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