Papers: Explorations Into Children's Literature

Submission Guidelines for Papers

Original articles (5000-7000 words) which have not been previously published are welcomed on a range of subjects. 

The Harvard, or Author-Date system is the preferred style.  This system provides the sources within the written text.

Endnotes are provided as explanatory notes at the end of the text, and before the References.  As a general rule, we prefer few or no notes, with the expectation that all the key ideas appear in the body of the text.  Notes might be used, for example, for clarification of terminology not bearing directly on the argument of the piece.  An example might be:

Australian children's texts, like other Australian texts, are products of a colonial history.  They are 'postcolonial'1 in the sense that they are products not of a brave new world 'post' colonisation, but of social, cultural and political realities grounded in colonisation.

The corresponding endnote reads:

1. 'Postcolonial' in this article is used in the sense that Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin use in The Empire Strikes Back (1989), as referring to 'all the culture affected by the imperial process from the moment of colonization to the present day' (p.2).

Textual references

References in the text give the author's name and year of publication, (with page number if appropriate) within brackets, as follows:

A study of nineteenth century Australian children's fiction provides some interesting information about racial attitudes (Bradford, Kyle & Pope 1995).

Perry Nodelman suggests that children's literature can be considered an 

imperialist activity (Nodelman 1992, p.33).

If the article discusses one text throughout, then after the first reference to the source in the primary text, following page references to that text need not give author and date, but only the page number:

An examination of Came Back To Show You I Could Fly (Klein 1989) can reveal how a text endeavours to 'normalise' its readers into culturally appropriate behaviour.  The character through whom the narrative is mainly focalized is Seymour, who has had 'eleven years of experience in the futility of arguing with adults or expecting his opinions to be listened to' (p.5).

Use the surname only in citations unless the article cites two authors of the same surname, when initials are added to distinguish between them.  

No space between 'p.' and the page number.

Quotations of substantial length are indented and placed in italics.  The source is in brackets in plain text on the left of the line after the quotation:

To construct in realistic fiction a character able to make sense of what is happening in her life a writer needs to endow that character with inner mental processes and with access to  an other, and these needs have a major impact on the discourse of realism.

(Stephens 1992, p.260)

References

References are placed after any Notes.

Only works actually quoted from, and works whose ideas are used in the article, are listed in the References.  

References are listed in alphabetical order of author surname, followed by author initial.  Next comes the year of publication in brackets, followed by the title in italics, and lastly the place and publisher.  If the author has more than one work referred to, these are listed in chronological order of publication.  If the author has more than one work published in the same year, these are distinguished by adding italic letters after the year, as shown below.

The following examples include the preferred punctuation:

Bawden, N.  (1973)  Squib.  Harmondsworth, Puffin.

Bawden, N.  (1974a)  Anna Apparent.  Harmondsworth, Penguin.

Bawden, N.  (1974b)  Carrie's War.  Harmondsworth, Puffin.

Clarke, J.  (1994)  Friend of My Heart.  St. Lucia, Queensland, University of Queensland Press.

Gleitzman, M.  (1994)  Sticky Beak.  Sydney, Pan Macmillan.

Titles of journal articles or chapters are placed within single inverted commas.  An initial capital letter is used in the article title which otherwise uses lower case except for proper nouns.  The journal title is placed in italics, followed by the volume number and page numbers of the article without the use of 'pp.'.  If the issue number of the volume is supplied, this is separated from volume number and page numbers by commas.

Nodelman, P.  (1992)  'The other:  orientalism, colonialism and children's literature', Children's   Literature Association Quarterly 17, 1, 29-35.

Tucker, N.  (1974)  'Getting used to things as they are:  Nina Bawden as a children's novelist', Children's Literature in Education 13, 35-54

.

Edited books list the authors in the order given on the title page:

Rothenberg, A. & Hausman C.  (eds)  (1976) The Creativity Question.  Durham, N.C., Duke University Press.

Chapters in edited books follow the style of journal articles:

Storr, Catherine (1977) 'How to earn a dollar every four words', in M. Meek, A. Warlow & G. Barton (eds)  The Cool Web: The Pattern of Children's Reading.  London, The Bodley Head, pp.257-261.

Internet:  Web page, website, e-book 

Flynn, R. ‘Childhood, power, and “symbolic plenitude”’ Children’s Literature Association Quarterly. Available from: 

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/childrens_literature_association_quarterly/v033/33.1flynn.html

[Accessed 18 Februrary 2009].

If no author, reference by title. 

Biographical Note: Include a short statement on a separate sheet detailing your affiliation, research interests, and recent publications.