Proceedings

Guidance for presenters submitting to conference proceedings

We strongly encourage you to develop your abstract into a full paper to be included in the conference’s peer reviewed proceedings.

Presenters at the Social Media for Learning in Higher Education Conference 2015 are invited to develop and submit full papers for publication in the conference proceedings based upon their presentations already accepted for the conference.

Submission to the proceedings will provide an opportunity for presenters to update and develop their original published abstracts and in some cases reflect conversations within sessions and across the conference as a whole. Papers developed for the proceedings will undergo peer review to ensure they sufficiently represent the quality of the conference and its aspirations for the future.

Author Guidelines

Please observe the following guidelines. You will have until Tuesday 1st March 2016 to develop, write up and submit your paper. Papers will be entered for peer review on receipt. We anticipate preparing and publishing the finished proceedings by Summer 2016 in the conference’s online journal system (web address tbc).

Types of submissions

Papers can be written as one of the following submission types:

  • Research articles (3000-5000 words) – These may include original qualitative or quantitative research (analysing primary or secondary data), analysis of policy and strategy, and reviews of theory or literature. All research articles will be expected to apply appropriate methodological rigour.
  • Case studies of practice (2000-5000 words) – These may include examples of learning materials, pedagogic approaches, processes and systems, and approaches to student support which foster engagement and learning through social media in higher education. Case studies are expected to be accompanied by reflection on and evaluation of the impact the example had on learning, teaching or the organisation of the learning space.
  • Viewpoints (500-1500 words) – Viewpoints are more journalistic in style and may include personal reflections or opinion pieces that aim to start a conversation or contribute to the debate on a particular topic within student engagement or the student experience more broadly.

The word limits above are given as a guideline. Submissions are not restricted to text based articles. We will also consider and encourage submissions that include media (e.g. images, video, audio, animations) or are in alternative formats (e.g. posters, presentations, transcripts of conversations, or developed Storify narratives).

Style Guide (including template and examples of Harvard referencing) can be found here in Word: SocmedHEProceedings style guide.

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.

  1. 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 editorial board).
  2. Submission for Research Articles section or Case Studies section has been scrutinised, reviewed and approved by an institutional ethics process and/or committee.
  3. The submission file is in OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, RTF, document file format.
  4. Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
  5. The text is single-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.
  6. Please ensure that there are two copies of submission for the blind peer review process:
    1. One anonymous copy of submission for blind review, and;
    2. A non-anonymous copy of submission.

More details will be supplied in the new year.

Copyright Notice

Authors of papers published within these proceedings agree to the following terms:

  • Authors retain copyright and grant the proceedings 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 these proceedings.
  • Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of their submitted work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in these proceedings.
  • Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their 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 (See The Effect of Open Access http://opcit.eprints.org/oacitation-biblio.html).

Peer Review Process

We invite you as a member of the conference community to join the peer review group. Please email socmedhe@shu.ac.uk to join us. Guidance on peer review will be provided for all reviewers.

Reviewers for these proceedings will be expected to provide constructive and timely reviews. They will comment on the strengths of the submission and where changes are required they will give clear reasons for amendments or unsuitability.

The review process will ensure:

  • Any potential conflicts of interest should be disclosed and discussed with the Editorial team.
  • Reviewers’ comments are presented anonymously to authors.
  • Reviews are confidential in that contents will only be shared between the peer reviewer, the editors and the author.
  • Submissions under review and reviewers’ comments are not revealed to other people by the editors of the proceedings.
  • As part of the review process peer reviewers will be asked to make separate comments for the editors and authors.
  • Authors may choose to share peer reviewer comments with colleagues who can provide them with peer-support.

Research Ethics Policy and Procedures http://www.shu.ac.uk/_assets/pdf/research-ethics-policy.pdf