Author Guidelines

Interested in submitting to the Bulletin of Applied Transgender Studies? We recommend that you review the About the Journal page for the journal’s section policies, as well as the author guidelines below. Authors need to register with the journal prior to submitting or, if already registered, can simply log in and begin their submission.

Aims and Scope

Please ensure that submitted manuscripts fall within the journal’s stated aims and scope, available here.

Submission Types

The Bulletin of Applied Transgender Studies (BATS) publishes three article types:

  • Original Articles. Original Articles are unsolicited full-length submissions that present well-developed conceptual/theoretical arguments and/or present analyses from one or more research studies.

  • Brief Reports. Brief Reports are unsolicited short-form submissions that present single findings from individual research studies or present replications of previous research.

  • Book Reviews. Book Reviews are solicited short essays that provide a summary and critical assessment of one or more recently published book(s) relevant to the work published in BATS. If you are interested in submitting a review to BATS, please email a brief introductory message and copy of your CV to editor Thomas J Billard at bulletin@appliedtransstudies.org.

Please note, submitted manuscripts must not have been published elsewhere or be currently under consideration with any other publication outlet. If any manuscripts written by the submitting author(s) use the same primary data set and have been published or already accepted for publication with another outlet, then please use the cover letter to detail how the current work differs from the other manuscript(s) in terms of range, scope, and theoretical and/or practical significance. At present, BATS can only consider manuscripts written in English.

Word Limits

Please include a word count for any submitted manuscript. Submission word limits, inclusive of references, tables, figure captions, and footnotes, are as follows:

  • Original Articles. Original Articles may have one of three word limits, depending on their content:

    • Original Articles may not exceed 8,000 words if they present quantitative analyses from single studies or purely conceptual/theoretical arguments.

    • Original Articles may not exceed 10,000 words if they present quantitative analyses from multiple studies.

    • Original Articles may not exceed 12,000 words if they present qualitative analyses or findings from multi-method studies.

  • Brief Reports. Brief Reports may not exceed 3,500 words.

  • Book Reviews. Book Reviews may not exceed 1,500 words.

Style and References

To make initial submission as easy as possible, authors may follow any conventional style guide and associated citation format, such as MLA, APA, or Chicago. If a manuscript is accepted or invited for revision and resubmission, authors will be asked to style their manuscript according to the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition, Author-Date system. Footnotes should be used only where necessary to provide supplemental information that does not fit into the flow of the main text. Manuscripts should follow either the New Oxford American Dictionary, 3rd edition or Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd edition for spelling. Authors may employ either US or British English spellings, as long as they are consistent within a given manuscript. See the journal’s full style guide here.

Formatting

Manuscripts should be submitted on a standard letter-size paper (i.e., A4 or 8.5x11”) and should be double-spaced throughout (including abstract, main text, references, etc.). Manuscripts should also be blinded, which is to say they should not contain any information that would identify their author(s). Accordingly, references to authors’ previous work should be made in the third person. Excessive self-citation is also discouraged.

Manuscripts should be submitted as two documents, each containing several components:

  • Cover Page. The Cover Page is not blinded. It should include:

    • Full title of the manuscript;

    • Each author’s complete name and institutional affiliation(s), as well as a 50-word biography for each author;

    • An email address for the corresponding author;

    • Any acknowledgements (including complete funding information and grant numbers, if applicable);

    • An abstract of 150 to 200 words; and

    • Five keywords.

    • Download A4 or 8.5x11 template

  • Main Document. The Main Document is completely blinded and its pages should be numbered throughout. It should include:

    • Full title of the manuscript;

    • An abstract of 150 to 200 words;

    • Five keywords;

    • Main text of the manuscript, organized with headings and subheadings, as necessary; References;

    • Any tables and figures, either in-line in the main text or placed after references with in-text indications of approximate placement; and

    • Any appendices.

    • Download A4 or 8.5x11 template

For all relevant quantitative analyses, effect sizes (e.g., Cohen’s d, Pearson’s r, eta-squared) should be supplied. Authors are also encouraged to include full descriptive statistics and correlation matrices in appendices.

Authors may, at their own discretion, include with their submission relevant research materials, data sets, and/or any other materials that enhance the transparency of the research process.

In addition to these submission documents, authors should include a cover letter in the “Comments to the Editor” box. This cover letter should affirm that the submitted research complies with the journal’s stated Publication Ethics policy and should provide three recommended peer reviewers who are well qualified to assess the submission’s quality, but who have no direct familiarity with the work. Additionally, you must disclose any and all conflicts of interest in the cover letter.

Publication Ethics

Authors should observe high standards with respect to publication ethics as set out by the Committee on Publication Ethics. Falsification or fabrication of data, plagiarism, including duplicate publication of the authors’ own work without proper citation, and misappropriation of the work are all unacceptable practices. Any cases of ethical misconduct are treated very seriously and will be dealt with in accordance with the COPE guidelines. All research employing human subjects must have been conducted with the authorization and approval of an Institutional Review Board, an Ethical Review Board, or some other credentialed research ethics committee.

Members of the journal’s editorial team (including assistant editors and editorial board members) are welcome to submit papers to BATS. These submissions are not given any priority over other manuscripts, and editorial team members’ affiliation with the journal has no bearing on editorial decisions. If an editorial team member is an author on a submission, they will have no involvement in or access to confidential information on the editorial process.

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.