Submissions

Author Guidelines

We are a global annual peer-reviewed publication that focuses on articles that advance a first-person understanding of autism culture through voices diagnosed with autism. Our submission guidelines can be found on the "Information: For Authors" page listed on the bottom right hand of this page. Our first inaugural issue was published April 2, 2013. We are presently accepting submissions for our 2018 issue. The following is an excerpt from the submission guidelines outlining the kind of content we are seeking:

Autism’s Own focuses on persons diagnosed with autism producing works that further autism culture, autism community, autism identity, and autism solidarity. Autism's Own only accepts articles that have not been previously published elsewhere. The Journal only accepts submissions from authors officially diagnosed with any form of autism who produce works based on the following subjects:

1. Non-fiction first person or subjective accounts of the author’s experience of autism, autism identity, autism community, and autism culture, or relevant themes directly centering on autism. Also included are non-fiction works of scholarly merit applicable to expanding knowledge about autism or autism culture or non-fiction works that are deemed to advance autism culture. (5,000 words maximum, no more than 5 photographs and 20 references)

2. Creative fiction centering on a theme or themes directly applicable to autism experience or autism culture. Creative fiction must add something to the genre of autism fiction or provide additive insights into autism culture. (5,000 words maximum, no more than 5 photographs and 20 references)

3. Multimedia creative art pieces including paintings, sculptures, photographs, & illustrations (5 works placed on one page per work), graphic novel excerpts & comic strips (8 pages maximum), poems & lyrics, original music, recorded spoken word, & audio talks (25 minutes maximum), video art (15 minutes maximum), and computer program experiences (1 hour play time maximum).

Full papers are generally restricted to a maximum of 5,000 words, including all elements (title page, abstract, notes, references, tables, biographical statement, etc.). We are reluctant to burden our referees with very long manuscripts. Editors may ask authors to make certain cuts before sending the article out for review.

Manuscript Submission

Carefully read all of the submission instructions, and carefully adhere to submission rules, before submitting any produced materials or article manuscripts. Submissions not meeting these guidelines may be returned.

Autism’s Own is a University of Victoria journal publication. To register as an author for Autism’s Own please visit journals.uvic.ca.

IMPORTANT: Please check if you already have an existing account in the system before attempting to create a new one.

All manuscripts must be submitted online. If have questions, or would like to discuss your manuscript before submitting it online, please contact us at carte@uvic.ca, attention: Joseph Sheppard.

Policies Related to the Use of Language

Autism's Own acknowledges and respects that there are strong passions and convictions on both sides of the debate regarding the use of person-first language (e.g., "person with autism") or identity-first language (e.g., "autistic person") with regards to autism.  We support individual authors' decisions to use either form of language, as well as other alternatives (e.g., "person on the autism spectrum").

Acknowledgements Acknowledgements of all non-author contributors must appear at the end a submitted article before any Declaration of Conflicting Interests and references as applicable.

Funding Acknowledgement Authors are required to acknowledge their funding sources, with the name writing out in full of the funding agency, institution, individual, or commercial or not-for-profit organization, including grant number if applicable, in a separate supplementary document.

Permissions Authors are fully responsible for obtaining legal permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations that were previously published.

Manuscript style Guidelines

File types Only electronic files as outlined in the AO guidelines are accepted. Acceptable electronic file formats include Word DOC, RTF, XLS. LaTeX.

Journal Style Autism’s Own articles must conform to the APA style format.

Reference Style Autism’s Own requires the APA reference style format.

Manuscript Preparation Text should be double spaced, serif font such as New Times Roman, with a minimum of 3cm for left and right hand margins and 5cm at head and foot. Text should 12 point.

Author Contact Information Please provide complete details of the contributing contact including phone number, email, mailing address, academic or organizational affiliation, co-author contact information. These details must be submitted on a separate document due to the need for authors to be anonymous to reviewers.

Guidelines for submitting artwork, tables, and other graphics Visual artworks must be provide in .tiff, .jpg, .png, or .gif formats, audio must be in MP3 format, and video must be in MP4 or QuickTime format.

Guidelines for submitting supplemental files An audio or video version, including visual works, of an article may be submitted with the final version of the submission as a supplemental file but will go through the same peer-review process as the primary article.

Post-acceptance

Lay Abstracts A lay abstract is required upon acceptance of your article. Lay abstracts must be a maximum of 250 words, and provide descriptions of the article that are concise and easily understandable. These abstracts will be made widely available to the public.

Proofs Autism’s Own emails a PDF of a proof to the respective author.

E-Prints and Complimentary Copies Autism’s Own provides authors with a PDF of their final article. We also provide authors with a complimentary copy of the print issue in which they are published.