Title page
To ensure blind peer review, please only list the title and abstract on the submitted manuscript file.

The names of all authors, affiliations, contact details, biography (optional) and the corresponding author details, along with the course the original work was produced for and its faculty’s name, must be included as an attachment in the email with the submission.

Author names should include a forename and a surname. Forenames cannot include only initials.

• J. Bloggs is not preferred. The full name, Joe Bloggs is required (this will enhance the ‘findability’ of your publication)

The affiliation should ideally include ‘Department, Institution, City, Country’; however, only the Institution and Country are mandatory.

Abstract
Research articles must have the main text prefaced by an abstract of no more than 250 words summarizing the main arguments and conclusions of the article. This must have the heading ‘Abstract’ and be easily identified from the start of the main text.

A list of up to six key words may be placed below the abstract (optional).

The Abstract and Keywords should also be added to the metadata when making the initial online submission.

Main text
The body of the submission should be structured in a logical and easy to follow manner. A clear introduction section should be given that allows non-specialists in the subject an understanding of the publication and a background of the issue(s) involved. Methods, results, discussion and conclusion sections may then follow to clearly detail the information and research being presented.

Up to three level headings may be present and must be clearly identifiable using different font sizes, bold or italics. We suggest using Headings 1, 2 and 3 in MS-Word’s ‘Style’ section.

Supplementary Files
Any other supplementary/additional files (e.g., indices, figures, etc.) that link to the main publication should be listed, with a corresponding number, title and option description. Ideally the supplementary files are also cited in the main text.

Note: additional files will not be typeset so must be provided in their final form. They will be assigned a DOI and linked to from the publication.

Ethics and consent (if applicable)
Research involving human test subjects must have been performed in accordance with Virginia Tech’s Institutional Review Board and previously approved by an ethics committee. The authors should include a statement within the article text detailing this approval, including the name of the ethics committee and reference number of the approval. Also, the identity of the research subject(s) should be anonymized whenever possible. For research involving human test subjects, informed consent to participate in the study must be obtained from participants (or their legal guardian).

Experiments using animals must follow national standards of care. For further information, check the ICMJE Recommendation Guidelines.

Acknowledgements (optional)
Any acknowledgements must be headed and in a separate paragraph, placed after the main text but before the reference list.

Funding Information (optional)
Should your research have received a funding grant then the grant provider and grant number should be detailed. 

Competing interests
If any of the authors have any competing interests then these must be declared. A short paragraph should be placed before the references. If there are no competing interests to declare then the following statement should be present: The author(s) has/have no competing interests to declare.

Authors’ contributions (optional)
A sentence or a short paragraph detailing the roles that each author held to contribute to the authorship of the submission.

References
All references cited within the submission must be listed at the end of the main text file.

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Capitalization
For the submission title:

Capitalize all nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs and subordinate conjunctions (i.e. as, because, although). Use lowercase for all articles, coordinate conjunctions and prepositions.

• Slip-Sliding on a Yellow Brick Road: Stabilization Efforts in Afghanistan

Headings within the main text
First level headings in the text should follow the same rule as the main title. For lower-level subheadings, only capitalize first letter and proper nouns. Headings should be under 75 characters.

Spelling
English language submissions must be made in American English, using American spelling, grammatical, and punctuation practices.

When referring to proper nouns and normal institutional titles, the official, original spelling must be used.

• World Health Organization, not World Health Organisation.

Font
The font used should be commonly available and in an easily readable size. This may be changed during the typesetting process. Underlined text should be avoided whenever possible. Bold or italicized text to emphasize a point are permitted, although should be restricted to minimal occurrences to maximize their efficiency.

Lists
Use bullet points to denote a list without hierarchy or order of value. If the list indicates a specific sequence then a numbered list must be used. Lists should be used sparingly to maximize their impact.

Quotation marks
Use double quotation marks except for quotes within another speech, in which case single quotation marks are used. Quotations that are longer than three lines in length must be in an indented paragraph separate from the main text. The standard, non-italicized font must be used for all quotes. It must be clear from the text and/or citation where the quote is sourced. If quoting from material that is under copyright then permission will need to be obtained from the copyright holder.

Acronyms & Abbreviations
With abbreviations, the crucial goal is to ensure that the reader – particularly one who may not be fully familiar with the topic or context being addressed – is able to follow along. Spell out almost all acronyms on first use, indicating the acronym in parentheses immediately thereafter. Use the acronym for all subsequent references.

• Research completed by the World Health Organization (WHO) shows …

A number of abbreviations are so common that they do not require the full text on the first instance. Examples of these can be found in the Wikipedia Manual of Style.

Abbreviations should usually be in capital letters without full stops.

• USA, not U.S.A.

Common examples from Latin origin do not follow this rule and should be lower case and can include full stops.

• e.g., i.e., etc.

Use of footnotes/endnotes
Use endnotes rather than footnotes (we refer to these as ‘Notes’ in the online publication). These will appear at the end of the main text, before ‘References’. All notes should be used only where crucial clarifying information needs to be conveyed. Avoid using notes for purposes of referencing and instead use in-text citations. If in-text citations cannot be used, a source can be cited as part of a note. Please insert the endnote marker after the end punctuation.

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Symbols
Symbols are permitted within the main text and datasets as long as they are commonly in use or have explanatory definition on their first usage.

Hyphenation, em and en dashes
There is no set rule on the use of hyphenation between words, as long as they are consistently used. Em dashes should be used sparingly. If they are present, they should denote emphasis, change of thought or interruption to the main sentence and can replace commas, parentheses, colons or semicolons.

• The president’s niece—daughter of his younger brother—caused a media scandal when…

En dashes can be used to replace ‘to’ when indicating a range. No space should surround the dash.

• 10-25 years
• pp. 10-65

Numbers
For numbers zero to nine, please spell the whole words. Please use figures for numbers 10 or higher. Authors may use either words or figures to represent large whole figures (i.e. one million or 1,000,000) as long as the usage is consistent throughout the text. If the sentence includes a series of numbers then figures must be used in each instance.

• Artifacts were found at depths of 5, 9, and 29 cm.

If the number appears as part of a dataset, in conjunction with a symbol or as part of a table then the figure must be used.

• This study confirmed that 5% of…

If a sentence starts with a number it must be spelled, or the sentence should be re-written so that it no longer starts with the number.

• Fifteen examples were found to exist…
• The result showed that 15 examples existed…

Do not use a comma for a decimal place.

• 2.43 not 2,43

Numbers that are less than zero must have ‘0’ precede the decimal point.

• 0.24 not .24

Units of measurement
Symbols following a figure to denote a unit of measurement must be taken from the latest SI brochure. See https://www.bipm.org for the full brochure.

Formula
Formulae must be proofed carefully by the author. Editors will not edit formulae. If special software has been used to create formulae, the way it is laid out is the way they will appear in the publication.

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Figures
Figures, including graphs and diagrams, must be professionally and clearly presented. If a figure is not easy to understand or does not appear to be of a suitable quality, the editor may ask to re-render or omit it. All figures must be cited within the main text, in consecutive order using Arabic numerals (e.g. Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.). Each figure must have an accompanying descriptive main title. This should clearly and concisely summarize the content and/or use of the figure image. A short additional figure legend is optional to offer a further description. Figure titles and legends should be placed within the text document, either after the paragraph of their first citation, or as a list after the references. The source of the image should be included, along with any relevant copyright information and a statement of authorisation (if needed). If your figure file includes text then please present the font as Ariel, Helvetica, or Verdana. This will mean that it matches the typeset text.

NOTE: All figures must be uploaded separately as supplementary files during the submission process, if possible in color and at a resolution of at least 300dpi. Each file should not be more than 20MB. Standard formats accepted are: JPG, TIFF, GIF, PNG, EPS. For line drawings, please provide the original vector file (e.g. .ai, or .eps).

Tables
Tables must be created using a word processor’s table function, not tabbed text. The final layout will place the tables as close to their first citation as possible. All tables must be cited within the main text, numbered with Arabic numerals in consecutive order (e.g. Table 1, Table 2, etc.). Each table must have an accompanying descriptive title. This should clearly and concisely summarize the content and/or use of the table. A short additional table legend is optional to offer a further description of the table. The table title and legend should be placed underneath the table.

Tables should not include:

• Rotated text
• Color to denote meaning (it will not display the same on all devices)
• Images
• Vertical or diagonal lines
• Multiple parts (e.g. ‘Table 1a’ and ‘Table 1b’). These should either be merged into one table, or separated into ‘Table 1’ and ‘Table 2’.

NOTE: If there are more columns than can fit on a single page, then the table will be placed horizontally on the page. If it still can’t fit horizontally on a page, the table will be broken into two.

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Every use of information from other sources must be cited in the text so that it is clear that external material has been used.

Because this is a multidisciplinary journal intended to reflect the diversity of scholarly and creative work done in the College, we do not impose an overarching citation format. Rather, the citation format of individual papers should follow accepted norms of the discipline within which they were written. Authors will work with editors on ensuring that their citations are in conformity with the most recent edition of the relevant style guide (APA, MLA, Chicago).

Reference list
All citations must be listed at the end of the text file, in alphabetical order of authors’ surnames.

All reading materials should be included in ‘References’ – works which have not been cited within the main text, but which the author wishes to share with the reader, must be cited as additional information in endnotes explaining the relevance of the work. This will ensure that all works within the reference list are cited within the text.

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