Where is a home for my manuscript?

As mathematics teacher educators, you have many publications from which to choose to submit your manuscripts or brief papers. Where to submit? AMTE has three venues for you to consider as you make this decision.  To assist you in selecting the most appropriate venue, we briefly outline the foci and special features of AMTE’s three publications, as well as a few other considerations when submitting your manuscript.

The primary audience for AMTE’s publications

The primary audience of all three of AMTE publications is mathematics teacher educators–those involved in the preparation and professional development of preK-12 preservice and inservice teachers of mathematics and statistics. This audience includes mathematics and statistics educators, mathematicians, statisticians, teacher leaders, school district mathematics specialists, and others. Each of AMTE’s publications offers a different focus, yet sometimes overlapping, to address the many interests of mathematics teacher educators.

Given our audience, manuscripts or brief reports submitted to AMTE publications should focus on the preparation and/or professional development of preservice and/or inservice preK-12 teachers of mathematics and statistics. Manuscripts that focus on preK-12 students without consideration of the preparation or professional development of teachers are not appropriate for an AMTE publication.

Various contexts in which you could write your work

A first consideration may be what to develop into a paper for submission. Such possibilities include (but are not limited to):

• a full development of your presentation at an AMTE Annual Conference,

• a rich description of findings that emerged from a teaching intervention used with preservice and/or inservice mathematics teachers,

• a description of collaborative scholarly work,

• a research paper based on your own or collaborative study,

• announcements of recently funded grants/projects to share with the field.

Where is the best fit for your submission?

Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education–Mathematics (CITE–Math)

CITE–Math is a joint online publication with the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education (SITE). The journal welcomes submissions addressing the use of technology in mathematics teacher education at both preservice and inservice levels. When a submission is received, the Editors verify that the manuscript focuses on the use of technology in the development and/or furtherance of mathematics teacher education. Foci of recently published manuscripts include:  

• Teacher professional development and course work using asynchronous online environments,

• Using a web-based software to help pre-service mathematics teachers learn to do the work of teachers,

• How mathematics teachers notice through the way they question, listen to, and respond to student mathematical thinking when using smartphone technology for a one-on-one teacher/student mathematics interviews, and

• Mathematics education majors’ guided reinvention of definition of limit of a sequence with interactive technology.

A wide range of formats and approaches to scholarship are accepted in CITE–Math, including qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methodological research studies, theoretical pieces, and innovative practice papers. Papers are reviewed using the following criteria: relevance to technology and mathematics teacher education research, originality, clarity of expression, and literature support.

Mathematics Teacher Educator (MTE)

MTE is a joint online publication with the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). Your subscription is included as a benefit of an AMTE membership. The mission of MTE is to contribute to building a professional knowledge base for mathematics teacher educators that stems from, develops, and strengthens practitioner knowledge. The journal provides a means for sharing  practitioner knowledge related to the preparation and support of teachers of mathematics that is verified and proved over time. The journal is thus a tool that uses the knowledge that mathematics educators gain from their practice to build a trustworthy knowledge base that can be shared with the profession. The journal is thus a tool that uses the personal knowledge that mathematics educators gain from their practice to build a trustworthy base of information that can be shared with the profession. Thus, evidence to support the claims made in the manuscript is needed to foster the trustworthiness of the described practice. Topics in recent issues of the journal include:

• The development and implementation of an interview module aimed at supporting secondary preservice teachers’ ability to elicit and use evidence of student thinking,

• A student-centered cultural awareness unit as a resource for mathematics teacher educators who want to explore the issues of culture, equity, and diversity with their preservice teachers but are not sure how and where to start, and

• A four-part instructional sequence designed to broaden and deepen teachers’ perception of the nature of proof.

Connections

Connections is a quarterly (fall, winter, spring, summer) online publication of AMTE that serves as a newsletter for the organization and offers a peer-reviewed opportunity to disseminate information to the mathematics teacher education community. The Editorial Panel will consider a wide variety of types of submissions including essays addressing questions related to theory and practice, reviews of resources for mathematics teacher educators, research summaries, and news articles related to mathematics teacher education. Each submission undergoes a blind review by at least two members of the Editorial Panel for relevance to the AMTE membership and for quality of work. Authors have an opportunity to work with the Editor to make any needed revisions, as well as to proof the article prior to publication. Recent titles of accepted papers included in Connections include:

• Building Classroom Community Using Smartpens,

• Common Core in the K-8 Classroom: Results from a National Teacher Survey,

• Early-career Mathematics Educators: Our Opportunities and Responsibilities,

• The Field of Statistics is Growing and Needs Math Teacher Educators to Help It Thrive.

Clarifying differences among the venues

So what are some differences among the publications that you should consider when submitting a manuscript? Clearly, if the focus of your work is on the thoughtful use of technology in the preparation and/or professional development of mathematics teachers, then you should submit to CITE–Math. Or should you? CITE-Math welcomes manuscripts sharing findings from research with implications for the field’s understanding of teachers’ use of technology. If your findings shed light on aspects of the practice of mathematics teacher education, such as strategies for effective engagement of technology in a methods course, MTE could also be a good fit for your work. MTE focuses on disseminating knowledge to inform the practice of mathematics teacher educators, so that would also include research on incorporating technology in this practice. In all submissions, evidence to support the intervention studied must be included. An example of a research study submitted to CITE-Math by Fukawa-Connelly and Silverman (2015) can be found here, https://goo.gl/a7GUSV , while an example focused on enhancing teaching with technology in MTE (Millsaps, 2013) can be found here, https://goo.gl/oHFAUZ .

You will also notice when you focus on the CITE home page that CITE-Math is just one component of the overall CITE journal. There are other content areas represented in the journal: English/Language Arts Education, Science Education and Social Studies Education. Further, there are two other components of the journal, one addressing general theoretical and research areas related to the uses of innovative technology in teacher education and the other attending to current practice (http://www.citejournal.org/category/current-practice/ ), where the goal is to further discussion and make ideas and findings available for practitioners engaged in technology use and teacher education. It is this component of current practice that is more similar to the focus and intent of the MTE journal.

Connections provides an opportunity to share developing work, an essential resource that you believe would be useful for mathematics teacher educators with description of why you find it useful, or perhaps a much abbreviated version of a lengthy research publication that highlights the main take-aways for mathematics teacher educators with suggestions for practice. Keeping with the theme of technology use to further contrast the style and focus of papers within the three AMTE publications, you can find a piece by Lee and Özgün-Koca (2015) written for the AMTE Technology Committee and submitted to Connections here https://amte.net/connections/03-15/using-animations-create-teaching-and-learning-scenarios-mathematics-teacher-educat .

As you examine the three AMTE publications, notice differences in the published papers and make your decision as to which publication is more appropriate given your current work. To further strengthen your understanding of the foci of the publications, sign up to be a reviewer. To review for MTE, sign up here: http://www.nctm.org/publications/write-review-referee/journals/Review-for-Mathematics-Teacher-Educator/

To review for CITE-Math, sign up here: http://publish.aace.org/index.cfm. Once you sign up, your request will be considered by the editors.

Conclusion

We encourage you to write up your scholarly work and submit your manuscript to an AMTE publication. A brief checklist of items to consider prior to submission might include:

• Verifying the work and/or research submitted involves preservice or inservice preK-12 mathematics teachers;

• Carefully reading and re-reading the online submission expectations for the publication to which you are going to submit your manuscript;

• Reading two or more articles currently published in the publication to which you are going to submit your manuscript for clarification of publication style and focus;

• Examining the MTE editorials for useful tips on developing and writing your manuscript;

• Contacting the publication editors or the AMTE Vice President for Publications for clarification of any further questions you have regarding your manuscript not addressed in the online information;

• Having at least one other person read your manuscript and confirming that you are submitting your manuscript to the relevant publication; and finally,

• Submitting your paper for review.

Also, each year at the AMTE annual conference, there is a session focused on AMTE publications. Please consider attending our session this year in Orlando (Thursday, February 9, 2:00 to 3:00, Rosen Plaza Hotel, Salon 8),  where the focus will be on supporting those interested in submitting to the Mathematics Teacher Educator. The session is entitled, "Writing a successful MTE manuscript: Connecting practice, innovation and systematic inquiry." Participants will engage in tasks that highlight features and expectations of accepted manuscripts for the Mathematics Teacher Educator. Recurrent issues of rejected submissions, strategies to avoid these pitfalls, and a tool to facilitate the manuscript development will be shared.

We look forward to reading, reviewing, and publishing your manuscripts!!

S. Asli Özgün-Koca, Co-editor, CITE-Math, aokoca@wayne.edu

Todd Edwards, Co-editor, CITE-Math, edwardm2@miamioh.edu

Babette Benken, Editor, Connections, Babette.Benken@csulb.edu

Sandra Crespo, Editor, MTE, crespo@msu.edu

Kristen Bieda, Associate Editor, MTE, kbieda@msu.edu

Christine Browning, AMTE Vice President of Publications, christine.browning@wmich.edu

Brief description of our 3 publication venues

The table below provides a brief summary for each of the AMTE publications: CITE–Math, Connections, and MTE.

 

	Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education - Mathematics (CITE-Math)	Mathematics Teacher Educator (MTE)	Connections
Desired focus and/or intent of manuscripts; brief features	Research that focuses on best practices for the effective use of technology in the preparation and professional development of mathematics teachers. Open-access online publication with the capability of including applets, color graphics/ photographs, and video. http://publish.aace.org/begin/cite/	MTE welcomes scholarly manuscripts that address a shared problem or issue in the practice of mathematics teacher education. Empirical studies of such problems focus on methods, interventions, or tools and their effectiveness.   Policy, programmatic or conceptual analyses of such problems are also welcomed submissions. Successful manuscripts are situated within the relevant literature, go beyond describing the nature of the problem, and provide evidence of the effectiveness of a model, tool or solution implemented to address the identified problem. Authors can include items such as student work, videos, applets, hyperlinks, and other items that enhance the manuscript. In addition, color can be used to the extent that it enhances the submission. http://www.nctm.org/publications/write-review-referee/journals/Write-for-Mathematics-Teacher-Educator/	A wide variety of types of submissions are appropriate, including essays addressing questions related to theory and practice, reviews of resources for mathematics teacher educators, research summaries, and news articles related to mathematics teacher education. Quarterly on-line publication that allows for the addition of electronic attachments such as applets, web links, etc. https://amte.net/publications/amte-connections-submit
Length of manuscripts	Length of papers varies from two or three pages to 40 or 50 depending on topic and focus.	Manuscripts should be no longer than 25 pages of text or 6,250 words (exclusive of references). For ease of reading by reviewers, all figures and tables should be embedded in the correct locations in the text. All manuscripts should be formatted according to the guidelines of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th edition).	The length is to be no longer than 6 pages (double-spaced, 12-point font Times) of text or 1,400 words (including references and figures/tables).
Publications per year	Published quarterly	Published semi-annually in March and September	Published quarterly in March, June, September, and December