Guide for Authors - IPAA WA

How to present your manuscript
Public Administration Today
Guide for Authors
Update version: 23 Feb 2010
Preliminaries
PAT is published quarterly. Deadlines are generally early in March, June,
September and November. Contact the Editor for submission deadlines.
Submission via email is preferred to facilitate publication. PAT prefers Microsoft
Word format. Please scan your file with an up-to-date virus checker before
submitting. Authors are responsible for keeping backup copies, and the editors
cannot accept any liability for emails which fail to arrive.
Ensure you provide full contact details.
Articles should normally be between 2000 and 4000 words in length, although
there is no set standard. An article over 8000 words may not be accepted.
Commentaries, research notes, opinion pieces and book reviews should not
normally exceed 1200 words in length.
Make your title short and descriptive.
Photograph
Where possible, PAT publishes photos of authors. If you are able to provide an
appropriate photo, electronic format (such as JPG, TIFF or EPS) at 300 DPI at
9cm by 6cm is preferable; hardcopy accepted. Greyscale is preferable but not
essential.
Order of contents
A completed manuscript should be structured as follows:
1. title, author’s name, affiliation and mailing address
2. text—with section titles and subtitles as necessary
3. appendix, if necessary
4. list of references
5. tables, titled and numbered, each on a separate page
6. figures, titled and numbered, each on a separate page
Editorial style
For matters of style, follow the recommendations of the latest edition of the Style
Manual (currently 6 th edition) published by John Wiley & Sons.
Spelling should be in accord with a recognised dictionary, such as the Oxford or
Macquarie dictionaries. In general, there is a preference for English over
American spelling.
Documentation
Citations and endnotes
PAT follows a version of the Harvard system. The basic citation in the authordate
system consists of the last name of an author and the year of publication of
the work, followed (where appropriate) by the page numbers—for example:
Higgott (1991: 23–24).
Endnotes should be used sparingly to expand on points in the text. The
corresponding note number in the text should be written or typed as a
Phone: 9221 1177 Fax: 9221 3733 Email: info@ipaawa.org.au Post: PO Box 5789 St Georges Tce,
Perth WA 6000 Our office: Level 15, 256 Adelaide Tce, Perth (cnr Victoria Avenue)

superscript.
Do not use footnotes as these are not used in PAT. Provide them as endnotes
where appropriate.
References
All references are listed alphabetically by author’s surname, and contain the
surname, initial (or initials), followed by the year of publication, and then other
details. The list of references contains details only of those works cited in the
text and notes of your article.
Examples:
Aberbach J, Putnam R and Rockman B 1981, Bureaucrats and Politicians in
Western Democracies, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Carter C 1994, ‘The Industry Policy Debate: A Business Strategy Perspective’,
in Australian Business in the Asia-Pacific Region, I Marsh. (ed), Longman,
Melbourne.
Claude IL Jr. 1989, ‘The Balance of Power Revisited’, Review of International
Studies, 15(2), pp. 77-86.
Commonwealth Parliament 1996, Parliamentary Handbook of the
Commonwealth of Australia, 27th edition, AGPS, Canberra.
DFAT (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade) 1999, Annual Report 1998–
99, AGPS, Canberra.
Charts, graphs and diagrams
If you have original charts, graphs or diagrams, they must be provided as a 300
dpi greyscale TIFF, EPS or JPEG file. Charts, graphs and diagrams embedded in a
text file (e.g. Microsoft Word) will be redrawn for inclusion in the PAT.
If you require logos, digital art or photographic elements to be included in charts
or diagrams that are redrawn by the typesetter you should provide the logos,
digital artwork and photographs as 300 dpi greyscale TIFF, JPEG or EPS files.
Copyright
Copyright for articles published in the PAT resides with the Journal, but authors
may reproduce their articles in other forms as they wish.
Contact Details
WA Editor - Lesley Van Shoubroeck
Public Administration Today
Mob: 0419 936 713
Lesley.VanSchoubroeck@mentalhealth.wa.gov.au
Phone: 9221 1177 Fax: 9221 3733 Email: info@ipaawa.org.au Post: PO Box 5789 St Georges Tce,
Perth WA 6000 Our office: Level 15, 256 Adelaide Tce, Perth (cnr Victoria Avenue)