AST Article Guidelines

Articles submitted to AST should be written on subjects of interest to our membership and should relate to the teaching of stringed instruments and/or the performance of music for strings. Our membership includes K-12 school string and orchestra educators, pre-collegiate and collegiate studio teachers, music education professors, students, conductors, and performers. Member musical interests encompass all types of music composed for stringed instruments.

Content

We welcome feature articles and shorter teaching tips articles.

Articles should be well-written and contain information that is precise, accurate, and thoroughly documented. The topic should be well-defined, supported, and developed with a clear purpose. Authors should provide evidence to support their views. The following should also be taken into consideration:

1. Topic should have national relevance and interest many readers.
2. Article should offer new knowledge or insight.
3. Articles should challenge reader’s thinking and where appropriate present both sides of an issue.
4. Topic should not be too narrow or too broad. For example, “Guidelines for Teaching the Beginning Double Bassist” is overly broad. It would be more desirable to examine one particular aspect of teaching beginning bass students, such as whether students should sit on a stool or stand.
5. Articles should be well organized and clearly written. Please use headings to make the article easy to read.
6. Images, tables, diagrams, and helpful visuals are encouraged. Please ensure images are high quality and high resolution.
7. Articles may not promote one particular person.
8. Material may not have been previously published in a national journal.
9. Articles may not promote products or commercial programs. An author may mention his/her studio, school, or ensemble only in the context of one example among many. Mentioning programs or products should be solely for the sake of example to highlight a point in the article. Articles that single out one person, method, program, event, or ensemble are unlikely to be accepted for publication.

Length

Feature articles should be 2,500 - 3,000 words maximum. This is about 8 - 10 typed, double-spaced pages. Musical examples, tables, and references may be the equivalent of 1 - 2 additional pages.

Teaching tips articles should be 1,500 words maximum. This is about 4 - 5 typed, double-spaced pages. Musical examples, tables, and references may be the equivalent of 1 - 2 additional pages. Teaching tips share your personal experience.

Fact Checking and Copyrights

• Authors are responsible for the accuracy of the material submitted and may be held personally liable for any action resulting from inaccurate information published.
• Authors are responsible for obtaining any copyright or licensing permissions for reprinting musical examples and lengthy quotes, as well as for using illustrations, images, and photographs.
• ASTA retains all copyrights to articles published in AST. For permission to reprint content, please contact SAGE Publishing.

Writing Style

We use The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th Edition. Sources should be referenced using the Chicago author-date system (brief in-text citations with a full reference section at the end of the article).

Article Submission

• All feature articles and teaching tips articles are subject to anonymous peer review by members of the editorial committee. This process can take several months.
• Articles should be submitted online at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ast-asta. Authors will be required to set up an online account in the SAGE Track system powered by ScholarOne. Authors will be asked to provide article information (author name, contact information, keywords, etc.) and to upload the title page and main document separately to ensure that the article is ready for blind review. The site contains links to user tutorials and other resources for help submitting articles.

Design and Layout

Design and layout is at the discretion of ASTA.

Payment

Like other educational journals, AST does not pay its authors. However, authors receive many professional benefits from publication in AST. These include tenure credit, certification points in a school system, increased credibility as an expert on a particular topic, and professional exposure that often leads to invitations to serve as a workshop clinician or consultant.