Guidelines for Authors

Authors are asked to follow the guidelines below to ensure their submissions will be accepted for review:

Manuscript Types

  • Manuscripts for Feature Articles and Applied Research Articles should be approximately 3,000 words, although longer articles are accepted when appropriate.
  • Manuscripts for Comprehensive Reviews may be as long as needed, within reason.
  • Manuscripts for Program Articles should be approximately 1,500 words, although longer articles are accepted when appropriate. A program article is an article describing a unique, successful, or promising Extension program. Program articles chosen for publication will generally answer the following questions:
    • What is the program?
    • What is its purpose?
    • How does it achieve that purpose?
    • How many people has it served?
    • What made the program a success (or why does it promise to be a successful program)?
    • What are the impacts?
    • After reading the article,
      • Will other Extension educators want to emulate it?
      • Will the intended audience want to attend?
      • Will legislators want to fund it?
    • Does the program show the value of Extension to the public?
  • Articles for Perspectives should be approximately 1,000 words, although longer articles are accepted when appropriate. An article for Perspectives is a non-refereed, opinion article that should be thought-provoking, controversial, or of general interest.
  • Contributions to the Reviews column provide a critical analysis of books, videos, curricula, and other teaching tools that may be helpful to Extension educators. Contributors to Reviews are asked to follow these guidelines:
    • Each contribution should be approximately 750 words in length.
    • Materials reviewed may be on any topic related to the main branches of family and consumer sciences: housing and home furnishings, clothing and textiles, health, food and nutrition, human development, family resource management, or on topics that have clear practical implications for families and consumers.
    • The materials under review must be thoroughly identified, including author, publisher, date of publication, and information on how to obtain a copy of the materials.

Manuscript Formatting

  • Manuscripts should be in block style (no indents or tabs). Information in columns must be put in a table format.
  • The APA Style is preferred. Refer to the Style Guide when preparing the manuscript for submission.
  • Manuscripts are blind reviewed. Therefore, there should be no mention of institution, state, authors’ names or other identifiers anywhere in the manuscript. If your article is accepted for publication, these can be inserted, along with any acknowledgments, when you are doing your ‘page proofs’.
  • In addition to the manuscript elements outlined in the Style Guide, prepare a cover page for the manuscript that includes: the title of the article, author’s name(s), official title and affiliation, office contact information (addresses, phone and fax numbers, electronic-mail addresses), the date of submission, and the manuscript type. ***The manuscript submission form allows the upload of a single file. The cover page will be separated from the manuscript before review.

Manuscript Guidelines

  • Manuscripts submitted to FFCI should contain only non-previously published material and should not be under consideration by other publications, unless special permission is granted by the editor.
  • It is the author’s responsibility to obtain any necessary written permission for use of copyrighted material contained within the article.
  • Authors are responsible for the accuracy of all citations, references, and bibliographies.
  • Authors are responsible for specifying approval by an institutional ethics committee for research involving human subjects, if applicable.

Submitting Manuscripts

  • Authors should submit their manuscripts electronically as an MS-Word compatible attachment via the online manuscript submission form.
  • Original submissions: Submit the cover page and manuscript as a single document.
  • A signed and dated license agreement should be completed and e-mailed, mailed, or faxed to the editor at the time of the manuscript submission. See Copyright and Licensing for more information and to download a copy of the license agreement.
  • Three or more professionals in the appropriate subject matter area will be asked to review manuscripts. The review process is masked.
  • Revised submissions: After a manuscript is accepted for publication, the author will be contacted by the editor and asked to make any appropriate revisions suggested by the reviewers. After revision, the manuscript should be resubmitted as an MS-Word compatible attachment. The date originally submitted and the revision date should be included on the cover sheet.