Policies

Peer Review Process

All articles are initially screened by the editor of the Ohio Journal of School Mathematics before sending for peer review to check for policy compliance (not previously published, proper references, valid citations, readability, etc.) as well as acceptability for the journal.  If the submission is deemed worthy for review, a blind copy is sent to a panel of 2-3 peers.  Attempts are made to match reviewers area of specialty with the content of the article.

The timeframe for review is typically 6-8 weeks.  

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

1. The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
2. The submission file is in Microsoft Word, RTF, PDF, or LaTeX document file format.
3. All URL addresses in the text (e.g., http://pkp.sfu.ca) are activated and ready to click.
4. Text should be double-spaced with one-inch margins, 11 point Times New Roman font, and a maximum of 8 pages. Please use APA style in your submission, citing sources with appropriate information such as author, journal or book title, publisher, date, and pages. Original figures, tables, and graphs should appear embedded in the document – both in the electronic and hard copy forms. Please do not use text boxes, footnotes, or head-notes.
5. The text has had the authors' names removed. If an author is cited in the bibliography and/or footnotes, "Author" and year are used instead of author's name, paper title, etc. The author's name has also been removed from the document's Properties, which in Microsoft Word is found in the File menu.

Publication Frequency

Articles are published in the Ohio Journal of School Mathematics on a rolling schedule.  In other words, individual articles are published as soon as they are ready by adding them to the current volumes table of contents.  We collect published works into three volumes per year in Spring, Summer, and Winter issues. Articles accepted for publication from January through April are published in our Spring issue. Articles accepted for publication from May through August are published in our Summer issue. Our Fall issue includes works published from September through December.

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

Plagiarism Policy

The Ohio Journal of School Mathematics does not accept manuscripts with plagiarized material. For the purposes of this policy, plagiarism is defined as the use of previously authored works - including text, data, and images – of others or self without proper attribution.

Journal editors will respond to plagiarism at their discretion. Actions taken will be based on the severity of the plagiarism attempt, but can include corrections to or retractions of the published article, the author being banned from publishing in the journal, and/or the editor notification of the author’s institution or funding agencies. 

Retraction Policy

When errors are discovered in published content, our policy is to follow the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). The following language is a brief summary of relevant portions of the guidelines for the benefit of our editors, authors, and readers. The full guidelines should be consulted if questions arise or action is being considered. 

If the editor becomes aware of major errors in, or misconduct related to published work, the editor may issue a retraction, statement of concern, or correction. These actions are meant to maintain the scholarly record and are not meant to be a form of punishment. An author who determines that his or her published article may contain errors should contact the editor promptly so that the journal can determine a path forward. Readers are also invited to contact the editor with concerns about published content.

Retraction

A retraction is defined as a public disavowal, not an erasure or removal. Retractions will occur if the editors and editorial board find that the main conclusion of the work is undermined or if subsequent information about the work comes to light of which the authors or the editors were not aware at the time of publication.

Statement of Concern

A statement of concern will be issued if there is inconclusive evidence of research misconduct / ethical wrongdoing or there is an ongoing investigation and results are pending.

Correction

A correction will be published if the scholarly record is seriously affected (e.g., if accuracy/intended meaning, scientific reproducibility, author reputation, or journal reputation is judged to be compromised). Corrections such as misspellings or grammatical errors will not be published. Published corrections will be added to the original article whenever possible. When that is not possible, the correction will link to and from the original work.

Removal

Removal of published content may occur if an article is determined to be defamatory by a court of law, if it infringes on legal rights, or if there is a reasonable expectation that it will be subject to a court order for any reason. The bibliographic information about the work will be retained online, but the work will no longer be available through the journal. A note will be added to indicate that the item was removed for legal reasons.  

Copyright Policy

Authors retain all rights to work published in the Ohio Journal of School Mathematics. Authors are free to reuse their work and to enter into other agreements as long as they credit the journal as the site of first publication and provide a link to the journal website.