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Notes for Contributors to Mathematics Teaching
The MT writing reference guide: house style
The Guardian Style Guide to which we refer/defer
Background
The bi-monthly ATM journal Mathematics Teaching publishes articles relating to the learning and teaching of mathematics at all ages and stages. The journal is distributed free to all ATM members, with a circulation of around 4 000, about 2 500 of whom are based in the UK.
ATM members work across the world in all areas of education: as teachers in primary and secondary schools, as early years practitioners, as students, in further and higher education, in initial and in-service teacher education and in the publication of educational resources.
Mathematics Teaching does not seek to conform to ‘an official’ view on the teaching of mathematics, whatever that may be. The editors encourage contributors to express their personal views on the teaching and learning of mathematics. ATM is an association of teachers in which everyone has a contribution to make, experiences and insights to share. Whether practical, political, philosophical or speculative, we are looking for the reflective, perhaps personal article. The journal strives to maintain a balance of articles that span the breadth of our membership, from the Foundation Stage to Higher and Further Education; as well as a balance between those derived from research and from practical experience.
Submitted articles are accepted for publication based on their clarity, topicality, the extent to which they reflect upon knowledge and understanding of mathematics teaching and learning, and their contribution to inspiring further development and research. The focus of articles may be:
- an account of something mathematical that happened in a classroom
- a reflection on something ‘overheard’
- ‘a day in the life of’... a head of department, a consultant...
- an account of a visit to another classroom, ...another school, ...another country, ...
- a description of using a piece of equipment: ‘I can’t live without...’, ‘I can’t use...’
- a reflection on experiences of different teaching and learning styles
- views and news on current initiatives
- ‘These have worked for us’ — classroom ideas.
Occasionally we have a special issue dedicated to an area of mathematics teaching that is of particular current interest to our readers. Whenever possible we like to make additional material relating to an article available to our members via the website - please let us know if you have ideas for this when you submit.
Submission of papers
Authors should submit articles to the journal by emailing the editor(s):
All contributions must be original and related to the learning and teaching of mathematics.
Submission of a paper implies that it has not been published previously and that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Accepting a paper for publication in Mathematics Teaching implies the paper will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or any other language, without the consent of the Editors. In addition, all papers first published in Mathematics Teaching must be acknowledged as such. A suitable strapline would be:
‘Reproduced with permission of the Association of Teachers of Mathematics; ARTICLE TITLE/AUTHOR was first published in the ATM journal Mathematics Teaching NUMBER, MONTH, YEAR.’
The Editors will make all reasonable attempts to contact the author(s) on receiving requests to reproduce elsewhere articles previously published in Mathematics Teaching.
The Editors may suggest topics and alterations, but that does not guarantee eventual publication. The author always has the opportunity to see the result of any changes made. Editors reserve the right not to publish an article, or to publish a submitted paper just on the ATM website. Please note that ATM does not pay for contributions to Mathematics Teaching.
Practicalities
As Mathematics Teaching is published six times a year we are pleased to receive copy at any time. Each issue goes to design approximately two months in advance of publication.
Manuscripts should usually be between 800 and 4000 words, inclusive of figures and tables; count each figure and table as 300 words. Considering multiples of 750 words is useful, with a double-page spread being around 1500 words. Much shorter articles are always very welcome. Diagrams, quotations, puzzles, questions or photographs that can fill the inevitable awkward spaces are welcomed.
Papers must be submitted as a Word document. Please do not submit PDF files. Authors may refer to themselves in the first person. Please refer to a recent issue of the journal for style. The Editors reserve the right to adjust style to certain standards of uniformity.
Please include a clear and succinct title of no more than eight words and brief author details, eg ‘HW teaches mathematics at Brickhouse Secondary School, London’.
Writing conventions
We try to avoid excessive use of capitals; thus: national numeracy strategy, national curriculum etc. Capitals are used only for clarity. Please spell out numbers zero to nine; figures thereafter. When abbreviating avoid full stops and spaces: MT, KS2, SATs, GCSEs, A-levels, DfCFS, eg, ie, etc.
We use ‘single quotes’ for written quotations and “double quotes” for direct speech.
References
References should be kept to a minimum and be of direct relevance to the paper. We do not publish long lists of references and further reading. Publications cited in the text should be listed alphabetically by author surname, following the main text of the manuscript. In the text, please refer to references by author surname and year in brackets eg (Williams, 2006).
You might like to refer to our MT Style Guide for further information on referencing.
Illustrations
We welcome the inclusion of photographs or examples of learners’ work and prefer to receive originals of the latter; we will of course make every attempt to return these after publication. Please ensure at submission that artwork and photographic files are in an acceptable format and supplied at high resolution. If in any doubt, please contact the Editors. Photographs should be at least 5MB as a TIFF file. Photographs, illustrations, figures and tables provided electronically should be supplied in a separate file to the main text, clearly labelled within the text as ‘figure 1’, ‘table 1’ etc.
Copyright for all illustrations, photographs and images rests with the artist or photographer. Permission must be obtained by the author to reproduce an image, photograph or illustration that is not their own. The author is responsible for obtaining permission from the relevant school/pupils to reproduce photographs of school pupils. Photographs, illustrations and artwork must be acknowledged.
Proofs
Designed proofs will not normally be sent to the author(s) unless previously arranged. Authors (first-named author if no corresponding author is identified on multi-authored papers) will usually receive a final Word manuscript to proof read, with an agreed deadline for final corrections to be returned by email. At this point the Editors will try to give you some idea of which issue of Mathematics Teaching your article is allocated to. The Editors reserve the right to replace articles at their discretion.
Complimentary copies
Authors are entitled to a PDF file of their article, as well as a complimentary hard copy of the journal issue in which their article appears. The hard copy will be sent on receipt of a postal address. PDF copies of articles are available for ATM members from the website. If you are not an ATM member and want a PDF copy of your article as printed, you should contact the ATM office: 01332 346599 or admin@atm.org.uk
Authors may reproduce their articles on chosen websites, provided ATM and Mathematics Teaching are acknowledged as the original source, and that these contain a link to the ATM website. Contact the ATM webeditor for details.
Finally...
If you have never written for a journal before, please don’t let that (or these notes) stop you! You might like to start by contacting one of us by email to arrange an initial chat. We would much rather receive the start of an interesting article, perhaps from someone who has never written for a journal before, than a fully referenced article, the content of which might be less likely to be of interest to readers of Mathematics Teaching.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Remember...
When writing, please remember to include the following information:
- Article title and/or ideas for alternative titles — these should be short.
- Author(s)’ full name(s) and place(s) of work and/or position(s).
- Author(s)’ postal address(es), email address(es) and contact telephone number(s) — please indicate corresponding author on multi-authored papers.
You would be surprised how often this information is omitted!
The MT writing reference guide: house style
The Guardian Style Guide to which we refer/defer
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