JAFSCD Program, Policy, and Practice Brief Guidelines

JAFSCD Program, Policy, and Practice Briefs are by invitation only. To be invited, prospective authors must complete the query form HERE, and attach a draft of the brief. The appropriate Associate Editor will conduct a desk review, and if the draft brief is approved for peer review, the author will receive instructions for formally submitting the brief into the JAFSCD submission system FastTrack. From there, the brief will undergo double-blind peer review with two-week turnarounds. Authors will be kept apprised of the status of their brief by the Associate Editor. Carefully note, the brief may be declined for publication at any point along the review process, and the Associate Editor makes the final determination to publish.

You can improve the chances of a successful review but following the brief guidelines below very carefully. We strongly encourage lead authors to engage coauthors with expert knowledge, especially practitioners with significant practical experience. Such coauthorship increases robustness and longevity of the work.

Drafting Requirements

JAFSCD Briefs are intended to be succinct and high impact. They should represent the current state of the art knowledge on a program, policy, or practice. Stylistically, the narrative should be matter of fact, in plain language, with limited jargon, and without any hyperbole and opinion.

We recommend writing the work with all your key ideas; then tightening it to conform to the following character (with spaces) and word counts for each REQUIRED section of the brief:

Font: please use Calibri font

Title: 10 word maximum

Key Point: 300 characters with spaces (2-3 sentences)

Key words: 100 characters with spaces (about 10 words)

Terminology: 600 characters with spaces

Main Narrative: 5,000 characters with spaces

References: limit to two or three; and include DOIs

Want to Learn More?: 750 characters and spaces

If you have any questions or concerns, email Editor-in-Chief Duncan Hilchey: duncan@lysoncenter.org