Agora 2012

Contributor Guidelines

Themes and deadlines

Agora 1: Expanding Contacts
AVAILABLE NOW

Agora 2: Pre-history and Archaeology
AVAILABLE NOW

Agora 3: Historical Thinking
Submissions by Mon 14 May
Distribution mid-July

Agora 4: The Asia-Pacific
Submissions by Mon 6 August
Distribution Mid-October

Agora is the quarterly journal of the History Teachers’ Association of Victoria. Over the past forty-odd years Agora has become a leading journal for debate and discourse in the history teaching community in Australia. Our contributors include teachers, academics, curators, freelance writers, public servants and museum and gallery educators. Each edition has a theme relevant to History teaching. As its name suggests, Agora aims to be a marketplace, or meeting point, for teachers and educators around the country. The journal is now produced in print and electronic format, the latter available via the members-only section of the HTAV website (see below for more information on this).

Agora contains a refereed section, Sungraphô, for original research articles. Sungraphô items are peer-reviewed by members of an editorial board and meet the C1 classification set by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.

Sections

Agora has four sections. These are:

Sungraphô: Peer-reviewed research articles

Thema: Perspectives on the theme

Praktikos: Teaching ideas

Kritikos: Reviews of teaching resources

Contributors may write for different sections at different times.

Your article

With the exception of book reviews, please follow the guidelines below when writing for Agora:

Title

No more than ten words (including sub-title).

Author details

List your name and place of employment. We do not generally state an author’s position within an organisation.

Precede line

In one sentence or question, summarise the focus of your article. i.e. ‘How might historiography shape the practice of teachers?’ or ‘Pollution and degradation have long been a part of the Yarra’s history.’

Format

A Word document sent by email is preferred, with no formatting.

Pictures (opt.)

In most cases image research is done by the HTAV, but if you have particular images in mind please advise the editor as early as possible to maximise the chances of securing them in time.

If sending your own photos, email them in separate jpeg or tiff files (not imbedded in a Word document) and provide detailed captions.

If you would like to use photographs of students you must get SPECIFIC permission from parents to publish the photograph in Agora. A general permission form for school-related publications is NOT sufficient.

Length

Sungraphô: 3000–4500 words

Thema, Praktikos: 1500–4000 words

Kritikos: 500–1500 words

Referencing

Agora conforms to the Chicago Manual of Style (16^th Edition). If you are referring to published sources, the following model should be followed.

Sample footnotes

1. Stuart Macintyre, A History for a Nation: Ernest Scott and the Making of Australian History (Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 2005), 77-8.

2. Ernst Badian, ‘Thucydides and the Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War: A Historian’s Brief,’ in Conflict, Antithesis and the Ancient Historian, ed. June W. Allison (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1990), 46.

3. Edward Peters and Walter P. Simons, ‘The New Huizinga and the Old Middle Ages,’ Speculum 74 (1999): 588.

4. Macintyre, History for a Nation, 14.

5. Encyclopaedia Britannica: www.britannica.com. Accessed 12 June 2007.

Please note that Sungraphô articles require endnotes rather than footnotes.

Sample bibliography (NOT required for Sungraphô articles)

Badian, Ernst. ‘Thucydides and the Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War: A Historian’s Brief.’ In Conflict, Antithesis and the Ancient Historian, edited by June W. Allison, 46-91. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1990.

Encyclopaedia Britannica: www.britannica.com.

Macintyre, Stuart. A History for a Nation: Ernest Scott and the Making of Australian History. Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 1994.

Peters, Edward and Walter P. Simons, ‘The New Huizinga and the Old Middle Ages.’ Speculum 74 (1999): 587-620.

The Chicago Manual of Style can be viewed in full at: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html).

Tone and content

Contributors should seek to ensure that material is appropriate in a general sense to practising history teachers and educators. Tone may vary from a formal, academic style to a more informal style, depending on the nature of the material. Articles submitted must be the original work of the author – where reference is made to the work of others this must be acknowledged. Standard copyright rules apply.

Contributors are asked to adopt a respectful and fair-minded approach when discussing the work of others, and this should be evident in the tone of the writing. Writers of reviews are expected to cite specific examples to support judgements made and to discuss the merits of the work as a whole. Contributors with close links to institutions or companies should avoid reviewing work published by these bodies. Reviewers may keep materials once review has been received.

Sungraphô

Items appearing in the Sungraphô section of Agora are refereed articles that satisfy the C1 classification of the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. Submissions to Sungraphô must constitute original pieces of research. They are NOT required to fit the overall theme of the edition. Submissions are accepted from interstate and overseas. All manuscripts submitted to Sungraphô will be reviewed (double-blind) by two independent experts. Manuscripts must be accompanied by a covering letter. The name of the author must NOT appear on the manuscript. Articles must NOT have been published elsewhere.

Sungraphô editorial board

Anna Clark, University of Technology, Sydney

Carmel Fahey, The University of Sydney

Robert Guyver, UCP Marjon (UK)

Catherine Harris, Deakin University

Adrian Jones, La Trobe University

May Leckey, The University of Melbourne

Ronald Ridley, The University of Melbourne

Ruth Sandwell, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education,

University of Toronto

Michael Spurr, Cengage Learning

Tony Taylor, Monash University

Rosalie Triolo, Monash University

John Whitehouse, The University of Melbourne (Sungraphô editor-in-chief)

Joseph Zajda, Australian Catholic University

For more advice on contributing to Sungraphô, please contact John Whitehouse at j.whitehouse@unimelb.edu.au or on (03) 8344 8398.

Distribution

Agora is available to HTAV members in hard-copy format and via the members-only section of our website. In addition, at the request of the Copyright Agency Limited (CAL), the HTAV has granted permission for RMIT University to publish editions of Agora via its Informit site. Under this arrangement the following databases/journals can access Agora articles:

• RMIT’s E-Library Service
• Australian Public Affairs Information Service (APA-FT)
• Attorney-General’s Information Service (AGIS)
• Meditext (medical index)
• A+ Education (Aust. Educ. Index)
• ACER’s Complete Article Service.

CAL also makes Agora available to a range of overseas libraries via EBSCO.

For more information on the above databases go to www.copyright.com.au/assets/documents/New Media Licence Schemes.pdf.

Copyright and CAL payments

Contributors hold copyright over their Agora articles, and are permitted to write on similar topics elsewhere. (Please seek permission if you wish to reproduce an Agora article in its entirety.) In the event that an item is photocopied/reproduced by a third party, the contributor (unless otherwise agreed) permits the HTAV to retain any payments to which he or she would otherwise be entitled from the Copyright Agency Limited. (Legally speaking this means that, in relation to Agora, the contributor assigns his or her member rights for journal and digital publication to HTAV under his or her membership agreement with CAL.)

Citations and permissions

Contributors are expected to produce original work and, where necessary, give full citations for sources used. They should inform the editor of any copyright material they wish to use (such as images and quotes) so that the appropriate permissions may be secured well before publication. Unless otherwise agreed the HTAV will seek permissions and pay for images.

Editorial discretion

The HTAV will edit materials and make layout decisions in the best interests of the edition. The editor will seek approval from contributors before making substantial changes to text. The editor may hold an item over until an appropriate edition becomes available.

For all Agora queries contact Ingrid Purnell, editor, at i.purnell@htav.asn.au or on (03) 9417 3422.