Submission Guidelines

The Goals of the Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning are to:

  • Widen the community of service-learning educators, civic engagement educators, and engaged scholars
  • Sustain and develop the intellectual vigor of those in these communities
  • Encourage research and pedagogical scholarship in service-learning, campus-community partnerships, and engaged/public scholarship
  • Contribute to the academic legitimacy of service-learning, civic engagement, and engaged/public scholarship
  • Increase the number of students and faculty who have a chance to experience the rich benefits that accrue to service-learning and engaged scholarship participants

Therefore, the Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning seeks papers at the cutting edge of research, theory, pedagogy, and other matters related to academic service-learning, campus-community partnerships, and engaged/public scholarship in higher education that extend the knowledge base and support and strengthen practitioners' work.

Competitive Articles

Each year we receive about 70 articles and accept about 10-12. An article is more competitive if it:

  1. is well written
  2. breaks new ground
  3. is relevant to a higher education faculty and administrator audience
  4. falls within the purview of the Journal
  5. is relevant to a readership that crosses many academic disciplines/professions
  6. goes beyond mere description to analysis, application, recommendations, and/or lessons learned
  7. reflects rigorous methods and analysis in the case of research studies
  8. does not rely primarily on student course evaluation results
  9. conforms with APA guidelines

Manuscript Submission Process

The MJCSL publishes two issues per volume (Fall and Spring). There is one review process each year:

  1. A one-page abstract or précis is due by December 20 by e-mail, fax or mail to the editor. Invitations to submit a complete paper will be mailed in January.
  2. Complete papers are due the last Monday in March. To insure that we are able to return your paper when reviews are completed, please include in the cover letter your U.S. mail address and email address for the months of July and August.
  3. Papers will be returned with peer reviewer comments by early Mid-August.
  4. A complimentary copy of the Journal will be mailed to all authors whose papers appear in that issue.

Questions may be directed to the editor.

Paper Guidelines

  1. Avoid the use of "volunteer" or "voluntary." It is preferable to use "community service," "service-learning," or "community service learning."
  2. Manuscripts must be well written and between 15 and 25 pages long.
  3. Submit three hard copies and an email attachment copy by the last Monday in March.
  4. Do not submit manuscripts under consideration by another publication.
  5. Use APA style. In particular, please follow APA reference style, both in text and in the reference list, only include citations in the reference section that are cited in text, and place notes at the end of the paper under "Notes" (see #11 below) rather than at the bottom of pages.
  6. Place each figure and/or table on a separate page at the end of the text of the paper, and include in the narrative of the manuscript where you would like to place the figure or table (e.g. PLACE FIGURE 1 HERE). Final placement may be influenced by page layout requirements.
  7. Use italics rather than underlines, both in the text and in the reference section. We do not use underlines at all in the MJCSL.
  8. Where applicable, research data must be recent.
  9. Include an abstract that is a few sentences in length located between the title and the beginning of the text.
  10. For consistency throughout the Journal, use "service-learning" with a hyphen or "community service learning" without a hyphen.
  11. Follow the end of the paper with Notes (acknowledgments and/or footnotes which are identified by raised numbers), then References, and then Author (a few sentences of biographical sketch).
  12. Mail three (3) hard copies to: Jeffrey Howard, Editor, MJCSL Ginsberg Center, University of Michigan 1024 Hill Street Ann Arbor, MI 48104-3310 Phone: 734-647-7402 Fax: 734-647-7464
  13. Mail the e-mail attachment copy to: jphoward@umich.edu.
  14. Contact the editor if you have a style or format question.