Instructions for Authors

Journal of Research in Rural Education (ISSN 1551-0670) was established in 1982 by the 
University of Maine College of Education and Human Development. From January 2008 to 
August 2025, JRRE was housed and published out of the Center on Rural Education and 
Communities, located within Penn State University’s College of Education. As of August 2025, 
JRRE is is associated with the Rural Education Center at Kansas State University.
We welcome single-study investigations, historical and philosophical analyses, research 
syntheses, theoretical pieces, and policy analyses from multiple disciplinary and methodological 
perspectives. Manuscripts may address a variety of issues including (but not limited to): the 
interrelationships between rural schools and communities; the sociological, historical, and 
economic context of rural education; rural education and community development; learning and 
instruction; preservice and inservice teacher education; educational leadership; and educational 
policy. 
Manuscripts should follow the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association 
(7th ed.), or APA 7. Although JRRE imposes no limitations on length, the typical JRRE article is 
equivalent to 20-30 manuscript pages (double-spaced), not including tables, figures, and 
references. Each manuscript is reviewed by the editor and, anonymously, by up to three 
additional readers. The latter are either JRRE editorial board members or selected at large. 
Editorial decisions are typically reached within three months. 
When a reviewed manuscript receives a “revise and resubmit,” the expectation of the editors is 
that a revised version of the article will be resubmitted within six months. At the discretion of the 
editors, manuscripts that are inactive for more than six months may be removed from active 
consideration by JRRE. 
Questions regarding a possible submission, a manuscript presently under review, or any other 
editorial matter can be directed to Karen Eppley, JRRE editor, at keppley@ksu.edu.
The following guidance is intended to assist prospective authors in determining whether JRRE is 
an appropriate outlet for a particular article, and in preparing a manuscript for submission to 
JRRE. 
Is JRRE a Good Fit for My Work? 
Before deciding to submit a manuscript to the Journal of Research in Rural Education, please 
take the time to review previously published articles appearing in the journal. This activity is 
critical for gaining a more complete understanding of the journal’s scope and for determining the 
fit of your manuscript with the journal. 
Citing work that has previously appeared in JRRE is certainly not a prerequisite for a positive 
evaluation of a submitted article. However, our experience has been that manuscripts without 
references to work previously published in JRRE often demonstrate an incomplete familiarity 
with the rural education research literature and/or the substantive scope of the journal. We 
encourage authors to consult Coladarci’s article, “Improving the Yield of Rural Education 
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Research: An Editor’s Swan Song” (JRRE, 2007, vol. 22, no. 3), which contains some excellent 
observations about rural education research and, by extension, the type of articles most of 
interest to JRRE. 
Submitting Manuscripts to JRRE 
Before submitting a manuscript to JRRE, please read the following guidelines carefully. 
Manuscripts that do not follow the established formatting instructions may be rejected out of 
hand. We also urge authors to edit their manuscripts carefully for typographical errors and 
formatting problems. 
Your manuscript should consist of a cover sheet with the title and information on authorship, 
followed by the abstract; the body of the paper; any charts, tables, and/or figures (if applicable); 
and the list of references.  
The manuscript should use 12-point font (preferably Times New Roman), have one-inch 
margins, and be double-spaced throughout except in the case of tables and figures. 
To submit work for review at JRRE, please email your manuscript, formatted as a single 
Microsoft Word document, to Karen Eppley, JRRE editor, at keppley@ksu.edu.
Cover Sheet 
The cover sheet should include the title of the manuscript as well as the names and institutional 
affiliations of all authors. The lead/contact author should be indicated, with contact information 
for that person, including email address, postal address, and phone number.  
The cover sheet must include a statement confirming that the submission has not been published 
elsewhere, is not presently under review elsewhere, and will not be submitted elsewhere while 
under review for JRRE.  
For research involving human subjects, also confirm that an Institutional Review Board either 
approved the investigation or deemed it exempt from further review. 
Abstract 
The abstract should be separated from the cover sheet by a page break. 
The title should appear at the top of the page, followed by the text of the abstract. The abstract 
should briefly summarize the manuscript’s purpose, methodology, and findings in the form of a 
single paragraph no longer than 200 words.  
Page numbering should start on the abstract page. Page numbers should appear in the upper right 
corner. 
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Body of the Paper 
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The body of the paper should follow the abstract, separated from the abstract by a page break. 
Authors should remove any references within the body of the paper that might identify 
authorship.  
Please note that APA 7 mandates one space sentences. In addition, the formats for level headings 
and figure labels have changed.  
Level Headings 
The APA 7 level heading system is illustrated in the “Submitting Manuscripts to JRRE” section 
of this document.  
First-order section (level 1; e.g., “Submitting Manuscripts to JRRE”) headings should be 
centered and bolded, and appropriate words should be capitalized.  
Second-order section (level 2; e.g., “Cover Sheet,” “Abstract,” ‘Body of the Paper”) headings 
should be left-justified and bolded, and appropriate words should be capitalized. 
Third-order section (level 3; e.g., “Level Headings,” “Tables and Figures”) headings should be 
left-justified, bolded, and italicized, and appropriate words should be capitalized. 
Fourth-order and fifth-order section (levels 4 and 5) labels are also available in APA 7, but it is 
unlikely that authors will need to use these levels of detail in JRRE manuscripts. Approximate 
examples are included in the “Examples of References” section below, but please consult the 
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.) for details. 
Tables and Figures 
Tables and figures should not appear in the body of the manuscript. Instead, indicate where the 
table and/or figure should appear by inserting a parenthetical note between paragraphs (e.g. 
“Table 1 about here”). Each table and/or figure should appear on a separate page following the 
main body of the manuscript. Use page breaks to separate tables and figures. 
Figures are now labeled in the same way as tables. Please see Figure 1 below for an example. 
In-Text Citations and References 
In-text citations and the reference list should follow the Publication Manual of the American 
Psychological Association (7th ed.), or APA 7.  
Please cross-check in-text citations with the reference list to confirm that all citations are in the 
reference list and that all references are cited. No references that are not cited should be 
included. 
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In-Text Citations 
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According to APA 7, when citing a reference with three or more authors, only the first author 
should be included in in-text citations of the work. The first author’s last name should be 
followed with “et al.” to represent the other authors of the piece. (There are rare exceptions to 
this rule. Please consult the APA 7 publication manual for details.) 
When multiple references are included in parenthetical in-text citations, the references should be 
listed in alphabetical order by first author surname, not by publication year. 
References 
References should follow the body of the article or any tables and figures. References should be 
separated from other parts of the paper by a page break. 
The list of references should be correctly formatted and contain all required elements. To format 
the reference list, the indentation of each entry should be set to “hanging” by .5 inches. Do not 
type the first line of a reference, press enter, and tab in the next line(s) of the reference.  
Figure 1 illustrates how to set the indentation to hanging by .5 inches in the reference section. In 
Word, Paragraph settings can be accessed under the Home tab.  
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Figure 1 
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Paragraph Window with Hanging Indent Setting 
Examples of References 
APA 7 has updated the required contents for most types of references. Please review the 
examples provided below. This list of examples is not definitive; please consult the Publication 
Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.) for complete guidance. 
Regarding online references specifically, before submitting your manuscript, please confirm that 
all the URLs provided in your reference list are active. Invalid URLs cannot be included in the 
reference list, so inactive URLs must be updated. If you cannot find a valid URL for a specific 
online reference, you must replace the reference. 
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Journal articles. An issue number, if available, is now required for every journal article 
(including for articles in journals that are continuously paginated). 
Articles published in print journals. An article’s Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number must 
also be included if one is assigned to the article. 
Bauch, P. A. (2001). School-community partnerships in rural schools: Leadership, renewal, and a 
sense of place. Peabody Journal of Education, 76(2), 204-221. 
https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327930pje7602_9  
Articles published electronically. “Retrieved from” and the retrieval date are no longer required 
unless the website being cited may be updated or changed (such as a wiki). 
Khattri, N., Riley, K. W., & Kane, M. B. (1997). Students at risk in poor, rural areas: A review 
of the research. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 13(2), 79-100. 
https://jrre.psu.edu/sites/default/files/2019-08/13-2_5.pdf  
Books and book chapters. The book publisher location is no longer required. 
Single-author book. 
Smith, L. T. (1999). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and indigenous peoples. Zed Books. 
Multiple-author book. 
Conger, R. D., & Elder, G. H., Jr. (1994). Families in troubled times: Adapting to change in 
rural America. A. de Gruyter. 
Edited volume. 
Stern, J. D. (Ed.). (1994). The condition of education in rural schools. U.S. Department of 
Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement. 
Chapter in a book. 
Beaulieu, L. J., Israel, G. D., & Wimberley, R. C. (2003). Promoting educational achievement: A 
partnership of families, schools, and communities. In D. L. Brown & L. E. Swanson 
(Eds.), Challenges for rural America in the twenty-first century (pp. 273-289). 
Pennsylvania State University Press. 
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Conference presentations.  
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Conference presentation with online source. 
Hirshberg, D., Hill, L., & Kasemodel, C. (2014, April 6). Will they stay or will they go? Teacher 
perceptions of working conditions in rural Alaska [Conference presentation]. American 
Educational Research Association, Philadelphia, PA, United States. 
http://hdl.handle.net/11122/11168  
Conference presentation without online source. 
Wells, R. S., Manly, C., Kommers, S., & Kimball, E. (2016, Nov. 11). Changes in rural
nonrural disparities in postsecondary enrollment and attainment: A follow up study 
[Conference presentation]. Association for the Study of Higher Education, Columbus, 
OH, United States. 
Electronic reports. 
Dee, T., & Goldhaber, D. (2017). Understanding and addressing teacher shortages in the United 
States (Policy Proposal No. 2017-05). 
https://www.brookings.edu/research/understanding-and-addressing-teacher-shortages-in
the-united-states/ 
Online newspaper or magazine article. 
Gunn, D. (2018, Aug. 29). How states across the country are dealing with teacher shortages. 
Pacific Standard. https://psmag.com/education/how-states-across-the-country-are
dealing-with-teacher-shortages  
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