Proposal & Paper Preparation Guidelines

template is available for download. Please use this template when writing and submitting your paper.

Papers that do not follow the Paper Preparation Guidelines will be returned to the author.

In general, all papers should be formatted as follows:

  • Times New Roman
  • 12-point font
  • 1-inch margins
  • Single-spaced
  • No header or footer
  • No page numbers (they look silly in the proceedings)

Some general notes about various parts of the paper are given below.

Keywords

You will be asked to provide 3-5 keywords that describe your paper. The first letter of each word should be capitalized. When appropriate, your keyword list should include descriptors of the mathematical focus, theoretical perspective, and/or methodology. For example, keywords to describe a design experiment in abstract algebra might include: Abstract Algebra, Design Experiment, Realistic Mathematics Education.

Other examples of keywords are: Calculus, Precalculus, Preservice Secondary Teachers, Differential Equations, Linear Algebra, Elementary Teacher Training, Number Theory, Transition to Proof, Teaching Assistants (TA), Discourse Analysis, Classroom Research, Cognitive Research, etc.

Blinding

Authors are responsible for removing any information from their proposals that might lead a reviewer to discern their identities or affiliations. With some exceptions (see below), references in the author line, within the text (as citations, footnotes, webpages, etc.), and within the reference list for each author must be blinded.

If one of the authors has written a paper that is in wide circulation (e.g., if it has already been published in a widely-read academic journal), please cite that paper using the standard citation. If the work being cited is not in wide circulation (e.g., technical report, dissertation, …) please cite with AUTHOR. We have adopted this blinding policy because often substituting AUTHOR in describing a paper makes it more obvious who has submitted the proposal. For example, “AUTHOR has previously found that lecturers in abstract algebra present informal ways of thinking about proof” basically tells a reviewer that Tim FC wrote the paper.

Specific Instructions:

  • Change the author information at top of the proposal to say “Author” and “Institution”.
  • Except for cases described above, within the text, mask author’s self-citations of published work for each author and for each citation with any author, regardless of authorship order. Replace the author names with “Author” in both in-text citations and reference entries. For example, instead of “Students attend to different aspects of lectures… (Weinberg & Fukawa-Connelly, 2014)” write “Students attend to different aspects of lectures … (Authors, 2014).” If in the aforementioned example only Weinberg is a proposing author, the citation should still be blinded.
  • Be sure active website links are replaced with blind placeholders (e.g., PROJECT WEBSITE), that NSF-numbers are blinded (e.g., PROJECT NUMBER), and that references in footnotes or tables are also checked and blinded.
  • Entries in the reference list for author self-citations should be re-alphabetized under “A for Authors” rather than leaving the entries in their original placement in the section. Reference entries for “Author” should show only Author and the year.
  • DO NOT include article titles, DOIs, or other identifying information.

Authors and Affiliations After Acceptance

If your proposal is accepted, you will need to upload an un-blinded version of your paper.

Compliance to Guidelines

All proposals will be checked for compliance to the RUME Paper Preparation Guidelines. Papers that do not conform to the guidelines will be returned to the author. Adherence to type size, font type and margins is necessary so that no author will have an unfair advantage by using small type or smaller margins and therefore, more text.