aerj-submission

Submission Preflight (aerj-submission)

The last check before pressing submit on ScholarOne Manuscript Central. AERJ is masked, so the

single most common avoidable failure is an under-anonymized manuscript or identifying metadata. Verify

volatile specifics on the official page before relying on them.

When to trigger

• "Submitting tomorrow" — last pass before upload
• Unsure which files/metadata ScholarOne expects
• Confirming length/abstract limits, masking, and APA compliance

Process facts (verified 2026-06-20; re-check live page before upload)

• Owner / publisher: American Educational Research Association (AERA) / SAGE. AERJ is the

flagship journal of AERA.

• One integrated journal — do NOT choose a section. AERJ was formerly divided into **Social and

Institutional Analysis and Teaching, Learning, and Human Development** sections, but the

integrated AERJ began receiving new manuscripts on July 1, 2015 and publishing on

January 1, 2016. Submit to the single integrated journal; do not pick between the former sections.

• Portal: ScholarOne Manuscripts at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/aerj.
• Review model: double-anonymous / masked — names only on the separate title page file.
• Length: manuscript maximum 50 pages, double-spaced, 12-pt, 1" margins, inclusive of tables,

figures, notes, and references; 8.5" x 11" paper.

• Abstract: 100–120 words.
• Style: manuscripts follow APA 7th edition; AERJ uses the SAGE Harvard reference style on

its submission-guidelines page for the reference list (verify against the live guidelines).

• ORCID: required for the corresponding author.
• Fee: the SAGE guidelines state there is no fee to publish or submit; gold OA via SAGE Choice is available for a fee.
• Decision timeline / acceptance rate / AERA-membership-to-submit: not stated in the pack source map

— treat as 待核实/需复核 and confirm on the live SAGE author-instructions and AERA journal pages.

Preflight checklist

Fit & length

• [ ] Dominant education-research lens named for integrated AERJ fit (one journal; do not pick a former section)
• [ ] Manuscript within the 50-page maximum, including tables/figures/notes/references
• [ ] Abstract 100–120 words, stating purpose + method + finding + significance

Masking (anonymous review)

• [ ] No author names/affiliations/acknowledgments in the manuscript file
• [ ] No identifying citations, references, or footnotes ("as we showed in…" neutralized)
• [ ] Identifying file metadata stripped (document properties, comments)
• [ ] Separate title page file with all author/affiliation/contact details
• [ ] Anonymized preregistration / OSF link if referenced

Format & metadata

• [ ] APA 7th edition formatting; reference list per the SAGE Harvard reference style on the guidelines page (verify live)
• [ ] Double-spaced, 12-pt, 1" margins
• [ ] Corresponding-author ORCID ready
• [ ] Figures/tables self-contained, accessible, anonymized (see aerj-tables-figures)

Compliance & materials

• [ ] IRB / human-subjects / consent compliance per AERA ethics
• [ ] Reporting meets the AERA standard for the method (see aerj-transparency-and-data-policy)
• [ ] Data/code availability or access plan documented

Anti-patterns

• Leaving author identifiers in the text, acknowledgments, or file metadata (breaks masking)
• Abstract outside 100–120 words; manuscript over the page limit
• Letting the manuscript read as a specialty-journal paper with no field-wide AERJ fit
• Mixing citation styles instead of clean APA 7th
• Budgeting for a submission fee that is not charged (verify)

Desk-reject triggers at upload (AERJ-specific)

ScholarOne screening and the editors catch avoidable failures before review. This table maps

the most common pre-submission errors to their consequence so you can clear each one.

| Failure at upload | What it breaks | Avoidable fix |

|-------------------|----------------|---------------|

| Author name in text/metadata | Masked review | Strip identifiers; move them to the title-page file |

| No clear AERJ fit | Editor/reviewer match | Name the dominant education lens and field-wide significance |

| Abstract over the limit | Format compliance | Trim to the stated word range; verify the figure |

| Over-length manuscript | Inclusive page count | Cut to the page limit counting tables/figures/refs |

| Mixed citation styles | APA-7 compliance | Run a single clean author-date pass |

Worked preflight vignette (illustrative)

A team is uploading a mixed-methods evaluation of a community-schools initiative to AERJ. The

preflight catches three things: an acknowledgments line thanking a named foundation

(breaks masking), an abstract of 134 words (illustrative, over a 100–120 target), and a figure

note citing "our prior district study" (a self-citation tell). Fixing all three before submission —

moving funder thanks to the title page, trimming the abstract to 118 words, neutralizing the

self-reference — converts a likely desk return into a clean send-out. Confirm the exact length and

abstract limits against the journal's current submission guidelines.

Referee/editor pushback the preflight pre-empts

• "This is not anonymized." → Strip text, self-citation, and file-metadata identifiers before upload.
• "The paper reads too narrow for AERJ." → State the dominant education lens and field-wide stake in the cover letter.
• "Reporting materials missing." → Have the AERA-standard reporting and data-availability plan ready

at submission, not after acceptance.

Output format

【AERJ fit】dominant lens + field-wide stake stated? [Y/N]
【Masked】text + self-refs + file metadata clean + separate title page? [Y/N]
【Abstract】word count (100–120)
【Length】within limit incl. tables/figures/refs? [Y/N]
【APA 7th + ORCID】[Y/N]
【Reporting + data plan】ready? [Y/N]
【Next】await decision → aerj-rebuttal on R&R

Supplementary resources

• [../../resources/external_tools.md](../../resources/external_tools.md) — APA reference managers, anonymization, repro tooling
• [../../resources/official-source-map.md](../../resources/official-source-map.md) — official AERJ submission facts