Formatting guidelines

Manuscripts will not be accepted for consideration for the WPS unless they follow these guidelines.

A WPS template (Word doc 63kb) can be accessed on this website, and should be used wherever possible. Once you click on the template link, please save the word document to your hardrive. Then copy the text from your original paper and paste it into the downloaded template.

PLEASE NOTE: you will need to use the ‘Paste Special/Unformatted text’ function in the edit menu in Word if you want your work to assume the template’s formatting as you paste it in.

The names of the different formatting styles used throughout the WPS template are indicated in square brackets in the document. To adjust the styles, including for indented quotes, footnotes, running header, etc., use the Styles and Formatting function in the Format menu.

General WPS style:

1. Authors’ institutional affiliations are required, as well as the primary contact’s email address, to be published with the article for readers’ use.
2. Manuscripts must include an abstract of approximately 100 to 200 words.
3. We prefer the Australian Concise Oxford Dictionary first spellings and consult the Commonwealth Style Manual 6th edn.
4. Gender-inclusive language should be used when referring to a general group of people that could contain members of the other sex. Consider using ‘they’ or ‘he or she’.
5. Where appropriate, use ‘-ise’ endings: ‘specialisation’, ‘realise’, globalising’, etc.
6. Numbers one to nine are to be spelled out, and 10 and above written in numerals.
7. Dates should reflect the Australian style, [Number] [Month] [Year] – for example, ‘2 June 2008’.
8. Acronyms should be spelt out in full in the first use with the acronym in brackets, and the acronym used for all subsequent references.
9. Italics should be used for Acts of Parliament (for example, the Workplace Relations Act 1996 (Cth) or simply the Workplace Relations Act).
10. ‘Per cent’ is written in full — the symbol % is not used.
11. Quotations of more than three lines should be indented without quotation marks (use style called ‘Indent Quote’).
12. Single quotation marks are used for all other quotes. Double quotation marks are only used when required inside single quotation marks.
13. Single spaces are required before and after ellipses — for example, ‘It was confirmed that, “The Upper House … was unlikely to pass the Bill …”’.
14. Tables should be supplied as per the example in the template and numbered sequentially (for example, Table 1, Table 2, etc.). They are to be presented as they appear in the text, though their positioning may be changed according to the needs of the document’s layout. Figures and diagrams should be treated in the same way.
15. Footnotes should be used, not endnotes, and should not be used to make substantive points in the discussion.
16. References: please use the Harvard system of referencing — for example, ‘Giddens (1992: 30) believes that …’, or ‘Several studies of job design have shown (Knight, Willmott and Collinson 1985: 148) …’.
17. For in-text references, those with four or more authors should use the abbreviation ‘et al.’ – for example, ‘Knight et al. (1957) show …’.
18. Reference list: all items cited in the text should be listed alphabetically by author and for each author by year of publication:

• Books: Sheridan, T (1986) ‘Servants and Masters? Chifley and the Unions 1945–1949’ in E Fry (ed.) CommonCause: Essays in Australian and New Zealand Labour History, Allen and Unwin, Sydney: 107–23.
• Journal articles: Price, R and Bain, G (1976) ‘Union Growth Revisited: 1948–1974 in Perspective’ British Journal of Industrial Relations, 14(3): 339–55.
• Newspapers: Brandis, G (1987) ‘The Liberals: Just Who is Forgetting Whom?’ TheWeekend Australian, 24–25 January: 19;
  [if no author] The Age (2007) ‘Business Groups Back IR Laws in TV Ads’, 8 August, available from <www.the age.com.au/news/Business/Business-groups-back-IR=laws-in-TV-ads/2007/08/08/118653042911.html>, viewed 25 August 2007.

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