Guide for Authors

Instructions for Submitting Articles

Published by The Association of Private Enterprise Education (APEE), The Journal of Private Enterprise brings together the work of scholars from disciplines including economics, entrepreneurship, ethics, finance, history, law, management, philosophy, and religion who have done research on topics pertaining to systems of private enterprise worldwide.

Articles of 15-25 pages of double-spaced text are preferred, but different length manuscripts will be considered if the content appears worthwhile. In addition, a regular section of The Journal is devoted to educational notes that average six pages. These short accounts describe innovations in teaching topics in private enterprise of interest to journal readers.

1. There is no submission fee.

2. Submissions should be uploaded to our Editorial Manager portal (https://www.editorialmanager.com/jpenterprise/ ).

3. If you are so inclined, please fill out the recommended reviewers field, as that helps us compile our list of primary and backup referees.

Formatting Instructions for Accepted Articles

1. Reference list: Before publication, references must be formatted exactly according to The Journal of Private Enterprise guidelines. These are similar to American Economic Association guidelines, with some modifications based on the Chicago Manual of Style. See our formatting references guide for examples of how to cite the most common types of publications.

2. In-text citations: Sources should be cited in the text by the author's name and year of publication, for example (Smith 1996, p. 3). A full reference list should appear at the end of the article. Only references that are cited in the text should appear in the reference list.

3. Footnotes: Only notes that add comments beyond the citation require a separate footnote. Please use footnotes rather than endnotes.

4. Acknowledgements: Acknowledgements and related information should appear in a footnote indicated by an asterisk after the last author's name; further footnotes should be numbered consecutively and indicated by superscripts.

5. Contact information: We do not publish author contact information, but do provide the name of the institution each author is affiliated with. Please also provide the best email address for us to reach you during the editing process.

6. Abstract: All papers should include an abstract of not more than 100 words.

7. JEL codes: All papers should include one to three Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) codes below the abstract.

8. Keywords: All papers should include three to six keywords below the abstract. Keywords should be lowercase (unless they are proper nouns) and separated by commas.

9. Spelling, Grammar, and Style: Articles should conform to current stylistic guidelines based on the Chicago Manual of Style and Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.

10. Format: Please keep the formatting and layout of the text as simple as possible, as we will format your article to fit The journal’s layout.

11. Sections: Please break up the paper into several sections to make it easy to read. Use bold text and Roman numerals for section headings; use italics and capital letters for section subheadings (section subheadings are optional). Please do not use your word processor’s automatic formatting to number the sections.

Example:

I. Introduction

This paper will explain why Austrian economics provides a better analytical framework than Keynesian economics.

A. History of Austrian Thought

The Austrian school of economics originated in...

B. History of Keynesian Thought

Keynesianism is associated with John Maynard Keynes...

12. Emphasizing text: Use italics as needed; please avoid all caps and underlining.

Formatting Instructions for Tables and Figures in Accepted Articles

Authors are required to format tables, so they appear professional and are easy to interpret. Please check recent issues of The Journal for samples. For example, do have a table with uniform borders around each cell, or for regressions, do not just report t-statistics. Include notes like: *, **,*** denotes significance at the .10, .05, .01 levels, two-tailed test. Clearly highlight the dependent variable and, when reporting independent variables, minimize the use of abbreviations. Your statistics software may like abbreviations, but do not require readers to interpret abbreviations when you can simply type out names. Minimize the use of abbreviations in the rest of your text.

Figures and tables should be numbered separately (e.g., Figure 1, Table 1, Figure 2, Table 2). Explanatory titles should be part of the text, above the image, rather than part of the image. Likewise, the source and notes for the image should be included as text directly below the image.

The journal has a 4.5” column width, and prints in black and white, so these guidelines should be followed for the best print result and for readability:

Text Font

Use Garamond for the text and numbers within tables and figures. If you are having difficulty fitting the text, use the more condensed Arial Narrow.

Text Size

Your graphic will be reduced in size for the journal.
For example, if your manuscript is a U.S. letter-sized document with 1” margins, your graphic will be reduced 60%. Use 14 point type.

If 14 point is too large to work in your graphic, just make the font as large as possible.

Do Not Embed the Title in Your Graphic
This will be typeset separately.

Line Weights

Remember that your graphic will be reduced in the journal, and so will the line weights. Try to use at least 1.5 point weight and higher.

Grayscale
The journal prints in black and white, so color cannot be used reliably to indicate differences or comparisons. Use tints of black, for instance, for pie charts, or different line weights of black lines, tints of black, or dotted lines for charts.

If Possible, Include a Text-Editable Version of the Graphic