An International Journal on the Teaching and Learning of Statistics
Guidelines for JSE Authors
The Journal of Statistics Education disseminates knowledge for the improvement of
statistics education at all levels, including elementary, secondary, post-secondary,
post-graduate, continuing, and workplace education. The journal is distributed
electronically and, in accord with its broad focus, publishes articles that enhance the
exchange of a diversity of interesting and useful information among educators, practitioners,
and researchers around the world. The intended audience includes anyone who teaches statistics,
as well as those interested in research on statistical and probabilistic reasoning. Submissions
are rigorously refereed using a double-blind peer review process.
Manuscripts submitted to the journal should be relevant to the mission of JSE. Possible topics
for manuscripts include, but are not restricted to: curricular reform in statistics, the use of
cooperative learning and projects, innovative methods of instruction, assessment, and research
(including case studies) on students' understanding of probability and statistics, research on the
teaching of statistics, attitudes and beliefs about statistics, creative and tested ideas (including
experiments and demonstrations) for teaching probability and statistics topics, the use of computers
and other media in teaching, statistical literacy, and distance education. Articles that provide a
scholarly overview of the literature on a particular topic are also of interest. Reviews of software,
books, and other teaching materials will also be considered, provided these reviews describe actual
experiences using the materials.
Authors submitting papers for publication in JSE warrant that their papers are not currently under
consideration by any other publication and that the material contained within the work is not subject
to any other copyright, unless required consents have been obtained. The American Statistical Association
has adopted a disclosure policy for all of its journals. This policy involves a disclosure form. This
was developed to ensure that authors are being honest and ethical with the papers that they submit.
All submissions to the Journal of Statistics Education must be accompanied
by a Submission
Form. The submitting author can fill out the form, type her/his name
on the signature line, date the form, and submit it electronically along
with the manuscript to the editor.
The refereeing process is most efficient when papers are submitted electronically in Microsoft Word.
Papers written in LaTeX (using the "article" document style) or ASCII text format are also acceptable.
New manuscript submissions should be sent via electronic mail to the
JSE Editor, Michelle Everson, at email@example.com.
Technical questions may be addressed to the Editor, Michelle Everson,
Articles submitted to JSE that undergo a full review are peer-reviewed by an Associate Editor
chosen from the JSE Editorial Board and (usually) two referees. The refereeing process is double-blind;
authors and referees are anonymous to each other.
To expedite handling your submission we ask that you submit BOTH an unblinded version of the paper
that includes full author names and contact information and a blinded version of the paper where authors'
names and affiliations are removed from the beginning of the paper and the author contact information from
the end of the paper. The blinded version should also have any references to papers that include one or more
of the authors or clues to the identity of one or more of the authors removed from the body of the paper and
in supplements such as software programs, datasets, and graphics files. You may cite references that include
authors simply as AUTHOR in the blinded version.
Except for the conventions noted in these instructions, manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with
Statistical Association Style Guide, published in the February 1986 issue of The American
Statistician. Contact the JSE Editor with any style or format questions that are not covered by these instructions.
Preparation of Manuscripts
Minimum Requirements for Submission
1. All manuscripts must be submitted in English.
2. Your submission should not have any tracking features enabled (such as Track Changes in Microsoft Word),
as the review process requires blinding of the author names and institutions, which are sometimes imbedded by these
3. A completed Submission Form must accompany the submission.
Papers accepted for publication need to be revised by the authors to meet these guidelines.
1. Preferred submission format is Microsoft Word, either .doc or .docx.
2. Format should be U.S. letter size (8.5 x 11 inches), single spaced (insert a blank line
between paragraphs, between headings and text, and between references), with 1" margins.
3. Order of manuscript:
- Key Words
- Main Body
- Appendix/Appendices (optional)
- Acknowledgements (optional)
- Author contact information
4. Your submission should not have any tracking features enabled.
5. Do not include any headers or footers in your paper.
6. Do not number the paragraphs of the paper.
7. Footnotes/endnotes. Limited footnotes are acceptable. Explanations are encouraged
to be included in the text or following the applicable text in brackets [ ], rather than
in footnotes. Endnotes are no longer acceptable.
8. Please use the page numbering feature of Microsoft Word putting the page numbers in
the lower right corner of the page.
9. Do not hyphenate words across lines. Hyphens may be used in words that normally contain
10. Type all material flush left, including headings.
11. Text in the abstract, key words, or body of the paper, should use Times New Romans,
12 point font.
Submissions accepted for publication will undergo further formatting
by the Editor and/or Editorial Coordinator.
Title, Author Information, and Key Words
1. The title of the manuscript should appear at the beginning of the paper.
Do not include the word Title before the title. The title should be left justified.
Use Times New Roman, 16 point font, boldface.
2. Leave a blank line after the title and then list each author's name and institutional
affiliation. Leave one blank line between authors.
3. Leave a blank line after the last author's affiliation information. Type "Key Words:"
using Times New Roman, 12 point font, boldface. After this list three to six key words or phrases
(separated by semicolons) that may be used to index the manuscript. Do not put a period at the end
of the key words. Do not repeat words or strings of words from the title. The Key Words should be
1. Each manuscript should be accompanied by an abstract. The abstract should appear between the
key words and the beginning of the manuscript text.
2. Leave a blank line after the Key Words.
3. Type the word Abstract. Abstract should be left justified. Use Times New Roman, 14 point font,
4. Leave a blank line after the word Abstract and then enter text for the abstract left justified.
Headings and Text
1. Major headings within the text should be flush left and numbered using Arabic numerals followed by
a period (e.g., 1. Introduction, 2. Example). Leave a blank line between the heading and the first line of
text. The first line of text should be flush left. Paragraphs should be separated by a blank line and be
flush left. Headings should be left justified. Use Times New Roman, 14 point font, boldface for Headings.
2. Subheadings should be flush left and numbered in the following style: 1.1 Review of the Literature,
1.2 New Methods, etc. Leave a blank line between a Heading and a Subheading or between text and a Subheading.
Use Times New Roman, 13 point font, boldface for Subheadings.
3. When three levels of headings are required the third level should be flush left and numbered in the
following style: 1.1.1 Fiction, 1.1.2 Non-Fiction, etc. Leave a blank line between a Subheading and a Third
Level Heading or between text and a Third Level Heading. Use Times New Roman, 12.5 point font, boldface for
Third Level Headings.
4. Paragraphs should be left justified, not indented. Leave a line between paragraphs. Use Times New Roman,
12 point font.
1. The preferred submission format is Microsoft Word. Thus, the preferred format for mathematical
materials is to use Equation Editor or MathType in Word. LaTex is acceptable.
2. Subscripts and superscripts should be presented as such in regular type with no additional indicators.
3. Fractions, Greek letters and mathematical symbols may be represented as your software program permits.
It is no longer required that these be presented in-line. It is not necessary to number equations unless they
are referred to on more than one occasion in the paper. If you do number equations use numbering such as
Equation 1, Equation 2, etc. It is preferred for equations referenced by number or equations that are somewhat
complicated to place the equation on a separate line, centered.
1. Tables should appear within the text itself, as close as possible to, but after, their first mention in the
2. Skip two lines before and after the presentation of the table.
3. Tables should be numbered with Arabic numerals such as Table 1, Table 2, etc. and must have titles that
precede the table. The title should come after the table number on the same line. Use Times New Roman, 12 point
font, boldface for the table number. Do not boldface the title.
4. Captions for tables are optional. If you include a caption it should come immediately after the table.
Use Times New Roman, 11 point font.
5. If possible, use Microsoft Word to generate tables.
1. Figures should appear within the text itself, as close as possible to, but after,
their first mention in the manuscript.
2. Skip two lines before and after the presentation of the figure.
3. Figures should be numbered with Arabic numerals such as Figure 1,
Figure 2, etc. and must have titles that precede the figure. The title
should come after the figure number on the same line. Use Times New Roman,
12 point font, boldface for the Figure number. Do not boldface the title.
4. Captions for figures are optional. If you include a caption it should come immediately after the
figure. Use Times New Roman, 11 point font.
1. All references should appear in a reference list at the end of the manuscript.
2. References should be listed in alphabetical order by last name (not in the order presented in the paper.)
3. Follow the American Statistical Association Style Guide for the format of reference citations and the
reference list. Please do not use a hanging indent. Insert a blank line between each item in the reference list.
The following is taken from the American Statistical Association Style Guide, providing examples of correct
format for different types of references commonly found in articles in ASA publications. In your JSE paper you
should not categorize references by type. That is done here just for illustration of how to reference different
types of publications.
Citations within an Article
1. A direct citation of a reference places only the date within parentheses. Gentleman (1978) explored this in greater detail.
2. An indirect citation of a reference as an example places both the name and the date within parentheses with no punctuation between them: Other recent suggestions include the use of Chernoff faces (Smith 1980).
3. Citation of a particular page, section or equation of a work should follow the date and be preceded by a comma. Use sec., chap., app., eq., p., and pp. in such citations. We rely on an algorithm of Das Gupta (1965, pp. 115-120). This distribution is known to be normal (Smith and Smith 1958, chap. 5).
4. References following direct quotations must include the page number(s) of the quote: "This was found to be fallacious thinking upon closer investigation" (Smith and Smith 1958, p. 209).
5. For woks with multiple authors, use the full form of citation at all times for two authors. For three or more authors use the first author's surname followed by the phrase "et al." (not underlined).
6. When two or more works by the same author are cited together, do not repeat the name(s): Tukey (1965, 1980).
7. When citing several references within parenthese, place them in date order: (Smith and Smith 1958; Tukey 1965, 1980; Gilula and Smith 1971a, b; Smith 1980).
Berk, K. N. (1978), "Comparing Subset Regression Procedures," Technometrics, 20, 1-6.
Bowman, M. J., and Myers, R. G. (1967), "Schooling Experience and Gains and Losses in Human Capital Through
Migration" (with comments), Journal of the American Statistical Association, 62, 875-898; Corrigenda (1968), 63, 222.
Efron, B., and Morris, C. (1977), Comment on "A Simulation Study of Alternative to Least Squares," by H. Clark and
T. Schwisow, The American Statistician, 72, 102-109.
Hoerl, A. E., Kennard, R. W., and Baldwin, K. R. (1975), "Ridge Regression: Some Simulations," Communications in
Statistics, Part A - Theory and Methods, 4, 105-123.
Freund, R. J. (1977), "An example of Prediction with Regression: A Comparison of Methods," in American
Statistical Association Proceedings of the Statistical Computing Section, pp. 218-221.
Books, Manuals, Technical Reports
Dixon, W. J. (ed.) (1983), BMDP Statistical Software (Vol. 1, 3rd ed.), Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Hogg, R. V., Smith, J., Jones, L., and Smith, S. (1973), "A New Sample Adaptive Distribution-Free Test,"
Technical Report 24, University of Iowa, Dept. of Statistics.
Moore, D. (2007), The Basic Practice of Statistics, 4th Edition, New York, NY: W. H. Freeman and Company.
Electronically Published Documents
In most cases, such citations will take the form of an author's name,
title of the document/publication, the type of medium (shown in square
brackets), the date of publication, and the document's availability, shown
by its URL.
All elements of the reference should follow those of references to conventionally published documents, separated from
each other by commas.
Bilodeau, A. (1994), "Into the Net: A Reporter's Transformation," Computer-Mediated Communication Magazine [online],
1, 8. Available at http://www.rpi.edu/decemj/cmc/mag/archive.html.
Funder, D. C. [cited July 28, 1994], "Judgmental Process and Content," Psycholoquy [online], 5, 17. Available by
FTP at princeton.edu.pub/harnad/Psycholoquy/1994.volume.5psycholoquy.94.5.17.baserate.12.funder.
Yan, X., and Su, X. G. (2009), "Stratified Wilson and Newcombe Confidence Intervals for Multiple Binomial Proportions,"
Statistics in Biopharmaceutical Research [online], DOI: 10.1198/sbr.2009.0049. Available at http://pubs.amstat.org/loi/sbr
Personal communications are not included in the reference list but are cited in text as
follows: (P. Smith, personal communication, March 2, 1984)
Include with your submission the following information:
- First author's name
- First author's address
- First author's E-mail address
- First author's phone number and fax number (if available)
- Other authors' names and addresses
- Acknowledgments and relevant information about the history of the
manuscript (thesis/dissertation, presented at conferences, etc.)
JSE Copyright and Usage Policy
Unlike other American Statistical
Association journals, the Journal of Statistics Education (JSE) does not
require authors to transfer copyright for the published material to JSE.
Please click on the Guidelines
for Readers/Data Users link in the menu bar at the left to access