Member Journals

On this page:

• Overview
• For Authors
• Calls for Papers
• Advertising

Overview

NSTA publishes four peer-reviewed member journals:

• Science and Children, for elementary school teachers
• Science Scope, for middle school teachers
• The Science Teacher, for high school teachers
• Journal of College Science Teaching

These journals are not available by subscription—you must be a member of NSTA to receive any or all of them.

NSTA's journal archive extends back to 1996—see the individual journal pages (links above) for details. Individual articles can be purchased in the NSTA Science Store.

For Authors

Download Safety in the Science Classroom (PDF): NSTA authors may find this four-page document a valuable resource to help ensure best safety practices are exhibited in their articles.

The main purpose of NSTA’s well-rounded publishing program is to allow individuals to share ideas with thousands of other people who teach science. The content reflects the needs of its audience of classroom teachers, science supervisors and administrators, teacher educators, and parents. Publishing in NSTA’s peer-reviewed journals is your opportunity to make a significant contribution to science programs at your level of practice—elementary school, middle school, high school, or college. For helpful writing tips from NSTA's journal editors, please read Right from the Start (PDF).

What to Submit and Writing Tips

• Effective inquiry activities that are original and creative
• Interdisciplinary science experiences
• Successful partnerships or programs
• Themes of current issues in science education

In your article, share the complete experience, including what you did, what worked, and what didn’t. When describing an activity, identify its place in the curriculum, the appropriate grade level, assessment techniques, and any safety considerations. Include how the activity addresses current science standards. Tell us what students were wondering about that led you to conduct the activity. What did students say as they conducted the activity? What changes will you make to the activity in the future?

When describing a successful partnership or program, give complete details. How was the program set up? Why was it begun? What are its goals? What were students’ reactions as they participated? With these suggestions in mind, you may soon be among NSTA's published authors.

What about Copyright?

NSTA will hold the copyright to your article in order to facilitate reprinting and republishing in the future. However, if you wish to have your article reprinted elsewhere, you need to secure permission from NSTA and include a credit line on the first page of the reprint.

Manuscript Presentation

Your manuscript should not exceed 2,000 words (3,000 for the college journal). Longer manuscripts may be returned for revision without being reviewed.

• Include an abstract for your article of up to 200 words.
• SI (metric) units should be used throughout the article.
• Tables, graphs, and charts should be appropriately labeled.
• Bibliographies and resource lists should be alphabetized and limited to current, readily available items.

Photographs

When taking photographs for the journals, students in laboratory settings must be shown following appropriate safety guidelines and wearing proper safety attire, including full-wrap, splash-proof goggles. Students’ faces should be visible, but they should not look directly at the camera. If a photograph is used, a signed model release will be required of each student pictured.

How to Submit

Manuscripts should be submitted electronically through our website. Once at the site, follow the steps for New Author Registration. To submit your manuscript, you will first need to save it as a Word document in PC format. Please choose a file name based on the title or content of your manuscript, not on the author’s name or school, and do not include a cover sheet as part of the file.

The various elements of your manuscript (figures, text, images, tables, etc.) can be prepared separately (the preferred method) or embedded into a single document. If you choose to prepare each element as separate files, the manuscript submission system will ask you to identify each one during the file upload process. These elements will then be compiled into a single PDF that will be sent to reviewers. You will be able to preview the PDF prior to submission to ensure that its appearance meets with your approval.

Graphics

Whether you decide to submit a single document with embedded graphics or to submit each graphic as a separate file, we ask that you provide us with high-resolution files. What looks good on screen won’t necessarily look good in print, so we need the highest resolution files you can provide. We prefer files that are at least 300 dpi. If this doesn’t mean anything to you, just set photo-quality setting on your camera as high as possible. Typically, a suitable graphic file will be anywhere from 400 KB to a few MB in size. If your file size is smaller than this, chances are we won’t be able to use it.

If you have any questions about the submission process, please contact the journal by phone or e-mail.

Calls for Papers

• Science and Children (elementary school)
• Science Scope (middle school)
• The Science Teacher (high school)
• Journal of College Science Teaching

Advertising

Information on advertising in NSTA's award-winning journals can be found in the Exhibits and Advertising area of the website:

• Science and Children (elementary)
• Science Scope (middle)
• The Science Teacher (high school)
• Journal of College Science Teaching (college)