GUIDELINES FOR AUTHORS
Instructions for Peer-Review Manuscript Submission
Submission
All manuscripts submitted for peer-review consideration must be sent to submission@risu.biz along with a separate file containing a Title Page. RISU welcomes article submissions and does not charge a publication fee.
Title Page
The title page of the document must list the article title and the corresponding author’s full name, degree, title, department, affiliation, mailing address, e-mail address, and telephone. It should also list the full name, degree, title, department, and affiliation and biosketches of every co-author. Word count (exclusive of abstract, acknowledgement, references, tables, and figures) should also be included in the title page.
Manuscript Types
The following types of manuscripts can be considered for blind peer-reviewed publication in RISU:
Research Articles (5000 words maximum)
Report substantial and original scientific results within the journal’s scope. This category includes qualitative and quantitative reports of original data.
Review Articles (3000 words maximum)
Summarize the status of knowledge and outline future directions of research within the scope of the journal. Authors present their research on a particular topic by searching other articles which could say secondary literature search.
General Articles (5000 words maximum)
These articles may (a) give perspectives on the role of humor in areas of broad social significance; (b) review new developments in one field of research that would be of interest to readers in other fields; or (c) present a tutorial or critical review of literature on a research problem or research method.
Letters to the Editor (1000 words maximum)
This category includes discussion of the content of a recent RISU article and must be received within 6 weeks of the article’s publication. Letters written in collegial and scholarly tone that either augment an interesting or important point made in an article or problematize an interesting or important point neglected in an article will be considered.
Book Reviews (1500 words maximum)
Provide a critique of a book, and are not primarily a summary. Rather, it analyses, comments on, and evaluates the work. Some book reviews summarize the book’s content briefly and then evaluate it; others integrate these functions, commenting on the book and using the summary only to give examples. Choose the method that seems most suitable. Book reviews should be 1000-1500 words in length. Please include the following information about the book at the beginning of your review:
- Author(s)
- Title
- Editor(s) (if applicable)
- Place of publication
- Publisher
- Year of publication
- Price
- Number of pages of the book
No abstract or keywords are required for book reviews. Book reviews are not peer reviewed; they will be vetted by the Editors.
Word Count
Manuscripts submitted for peer-review consideration should be written at the word counts specified above, excluding abstract, references, tables, and figures.
Abstract
Manuscripts should include an abstract of no more than 150 words and must be written to be intelligible to readers with diverse interests in humor. No abstract or keywords are required for book reviews.
Biosketch
Authors’ manuscripts must include a brief biosketch, in maximum 60 words, that includes authors’ degrees (e.g., MSc, MD, JD, PhD, EdD), credentials, preferred professional self-descriptions, institutional affiliations, and summaries of relevant professional interests.
Manuscript Style And Content
All works should follow APA Style guidelines (6th ed., 2009).
File format
Please submit the manuscript as a Word document. Do not submit your manuscript in PDF format. The preferred font type is Times New Roman; use 12-point font size, double-space text, and leave right margins unjustified. Abbreviations in the text should be introduced with full descriptors followed by the abbreviation in parentheses with subsequent in-text uses of the abbreviation only. Terms requiring in-text emphasis must be italicized, not underscored or capitalized. Manuscripts must be paginated in the bottom right corner.
Headings and Subheadings
The body text should be subdivided into different sections with appropriate headings. APA style includes five levels of heading. Each section of a manuscript starts with the highest level of heading and proceeds in order through the levels of subheading.
Tables and Figures
Embed all tables and figures within the submitted manuscript and formatted according to APA (6th). Write the title of a table (e.g. TABLE 1. Title) above the table, and the title of a diagram or figure (e.g. FIGURE 1. Title) under the diagram.
Acknowledgment
The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that the acknowledgment section of the manuscript is complete and must confirm in the Authorship Form that acknowledged individuals’ permission to be named has been obtained. If applicable, please identify institutional review boards that granted approval of or exemption for a study or any other important contributions from non-authors.
Use of Citations
Authors are encouraged to consult the APA Publication Manual (6th ed.) and apastyle.org for complete style guidelines. When citing multiple authors in the text, use “and”; in citations, use “&”e.g.: Smith and Jones (2013) found that apples are tastier than oranges. Some researchers have found that apples are tastier than oranges (Smith & Jones, 2013).Footnotes should be avoided.
References
A list of references should be given on a separate page(s) at the end of the manuscript. Every reference cited in the text should be listed on the reference page(s), and every reference listed on the reference page(s) should be cited in the text.
References should be listed in alphabetical order according to last name. Articles and works by the same author during the same year should also be listed in alphabetical order and separated from each other by adding a lowercase letter to the year of publishing (e.g. 1995a, 1995b).
The title of the book should be written in italics. If the reference is an article, the name of the periodical should be written in italics.
If there are three or more authors or editors, the first are divided by comma and the last two with an & sign.
When citing a work with three or more authors, list all authors’ names in the first citation and the first author’s name followed by “et al.” in all subsequent citations. (See APA Publication Manual, 6th ed., section 6.15 for more detail.)
Examples Of References
Periodical article
Omoniyi, T. (2003). Local policies and global forces: Multiliteracy through Africa’s indigeneous languages. Language Policy, 2(2), 133–152.
Book article
van Leeuwen, T. (2005). Three models of interdisciplinarity. In R. Wodak & P. Chilton (Eds.), A new agenda in (critical) discourse analysis (pp. 3–18). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Monograph
Maybin, J. (2006). Children’s voices. Talk, knowledge and identity. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
Edited collection
Nóvoa, A., & Lawn, M. (Eds.). (2002). Fabricating Europe: The Formation of an education space. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Unpublished dissertation or thesis
Devins, G. M. (1981). Helplessness, depression, and mood in end-stage renal disease. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). McGill University, Montreal.
Organisation as author
British Council. (1978). Pre-sessional courses for overseas students. British Council Teaching Information Centre. London: British Council.
Appendices
Appendices are pages at the end of the paper (after the references) with additional information. Appendices allow the author to include information that would be distracting to the reader if included in the body of the paper. Tables or charts more than a half page in length are often placed in the appendices rather than the text of the paper. The page header continues onto pages containing an appendix.
Conflict of interests
This journal requires “full disclosure of all financial, consulting, and personal relationships that could be viewed as presenting a potential conflict of interest.
Translation
In order to promot the dissemination of manuscripts in Italian, RISU offers a free translation service for articles submitted in English.