Information for Authors

The Journal of Inquiry-Based Learning in Mathematics (JIBLM) publishes classroom-tested course notes designed for inquiry-based courses in university-level mathematics. By "inquiry-based" we mean any form of constructivist, discovery-based, Moore-method, problem-based, or Socratic pedagogy that replaces traditional lectures and textbooks with some form of student-centered activities. Because the success of this enterprise ultimately rests on the contributions of authors, both as writers and as mentors, we make five requests.

Content
We ask that you submit only notes that consist primarily of a sequence of problems to solve and/or theorems to prove. Course notes should provide material for a full course within a span of at most eighty, and typically ten to forty, pages.

Testing
We ask that you submit only notes that have been thoroughly class-tested and which, in your judgment, provide a successful course in their present formulation.

Guidance
We ask that you allow JIBLM to include your contact information with your notes, and that you agree to provide guidance to any instructor who uses a set of your notes.

Introduction
Because notes are intentionally brief, it is essential that they be written in a manner that will be usable by other instructors. For this reason, we ask that you include an introduction that will provide instructors with a clear understanding of how you have used these notes. This should be a description of the course you taught, which includes:

• its level and role within the broader curriculum,
• your expectations and grading of the students,
• any unusual characteristics of the class or classroom,
• the approximate class size(s), and

other information that will be useful to a less-experienced instructor. A well-written introduction will minimize the instructor's need for further guidance from you.

Student and Instructor Versions (Optional)
As an author, you may wish to create both a student and an instructor version of your course notes. The instructor version will consist of the student version along with additional advice, comments and guidance to the instructor that might unnecessarily clutter the student version. Upon publication, both versions will be available on-line from the journal. The downloadable template described below allows you to create one LaTeX document that will produce both versions by toggling one commented line in the beginning of the document.

Submissions
Submissions should be sent via email to the Submissions Editor using the Word submission form and the LaTeX template provided below. If you have a set of notes meeting the submissions guidelines, but in some other format (hard copy, Word, etc.), please contact the Managing Editor, as we may be able to provide typesetting support.

The downloadable template is designed to be self-explanatory, using standard LaTeX commands and allowing the author to see the formatting exactly as an accepted manuscript will appear in the journal. The form template.tex serves as:

• a guide to typesetting your course notes in JIBLM format using LaTeX, and
• a template to be modified to produce your print ready submission to JIBLM.

To get started:

• download the Submission Form,
• download the LaTeX Template,
• download the JIBLM Formatting Package,
• place JIBLM.tex and template.tex in the same directory,
• compile template.tex and read the output, and
• place your notes into a copy of the file template.tex.

Please do not modify JIBLM.tex. If you encounter any difficulties, please contact the Technical Editor for assistance.

Updating Notes
In order to keep the highest quality notes available online JIBLM encourages the revision of published notes. Should an author desire corrections or modifications, the author may submit a complete list of revisions along with a new submission to replace the original submission. The revised version will be refereed, and will replace the old version if it is accepted. Such submissions will be replaced in December and June to assure that faculty using course notes on-line will not be effected.

Joint Authorship
Some notes come with a pedigree, having been modified from another instructor's notes. JIBLM encourages such adaptations. To handle these instances, JIBLM adheres to the following two conventions regarding authorship.

• For cases where an author modifies another's notes:
  
  If each of X and Y is an author, then the relation X < Y indicates that the notes were originally authored by Y and subsequently modified by X, who takes full responsibility for the current version. While Y is credited with the genesis of the notes, s/he makes no claim to the accuracy of the current version which may or may not reflect her/his original vision.


• For cases where an author reproduces another's notes, for example, posthumously:
  
  If each of X and Y is an author, then the relation X << Y indicates that these notes were originally authored by Y and subsequently prepared for submission to JIBLM by X without significant modification and with appropriate permissions. While Y is credited with the genesis of the notes, X takes full responsibility for the current version.

Copyrights
Copyrights for published notes are retained by the authors. Upon acceptance, only .ps, .dvi, and .pdf formats are available for download. Any requests for the .tex file will be referred directly to the author.