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Author Guidelines

Electronic submission of contributions

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Guidelines Authors

‘Zeitschrift für Didaktik der Biologie - Biologie Lehren und Lernen’ is a peer-reviewed publication for scientific and science-based work with relevance to biology didactics. It publishes articles in German and English.

 1.    Contents of the contributions

Papers from the entire field of biology didactics will be published. These may include original empirical work, theoretical contributions, teaching concepts, project reports or discussions relating to the teaching and learning and understanding of biology. This includes both school-related and extracurricular, both subject-related and interdisciplinary approaches, e.g. didactic work related to biology. Short reports on currently completed doctoral theses (e.g. monographs) are expressly desired and should increase the visibility of the work.
The criterion of relevance to biology didactics refers to the significance of the publication for biology lessons, biology teacher training or the teaching of biological subjects at extracurricular learning centres. It is given, for example, when pupils' ideas on biological topics (e.g. evolution) are recorded and made usable in the classroom or when psychological theories are analysed in relation to the subject. This could be, for example, studies on motivation in biology lessons, metacognitive strategies or self-directed learning in biology lessons.
'Erkenntnisweg Biologiedidaktik’ is the publication medium for young scientists who have participated in a Spring School. If you presented a poster or a lecture at the last Spring School, you are invited to submit an article for the special issue ‘Erkenntnisweg Biologiedidaktik’.

 2.    Categories

For the regular issue of the Zeitschrift für Didaktik der Biologie (ZDB), contributions are accepted in the categories theoretical and empirical original papers, development papers, short papers, project outlines, discussion papers, reviews and reports. For the special issue ‘Erkenntnisweg Biologiedidaktik’ original papers and project outlines are accepted.

2.1 Theoretical and empirical original work

2.2 Development work such as teaching concepts

2.3 Short papers and project outlines

2.4 Discussion papers, reviews, reports, e.g. from conferences

 3.    Design of the articles

The design of the articles follows the guidelines for manuscript design of the DGPs (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Psychologie, 2016, Richtlinien zur Manuskriptgestaltung. Göttingen: Hogrefe).

3.1 Formatting

• Page format DIN A4 single-column, margins top, left and right 2.5 cm, bottom 2.0 cm, font Times New Roman 12 point, line spacing 1.2 lines; pages and lines are numbered consecutively.

3.3 Outline

• Numbered headings to organise the manuscript. The summary and bibliography are not numbered.
• Ex. 
          1
          1.1
          1.1.1
          1.2
          ...

3.4 Tables

• Tables numbered consecutively and with reference to the text
• Table headings concise and meaningful, in italics
• If possible, do not use vertical lines in the table, use horizontal lines to separate the table labelling from the body of the table

3.5 Illustrations

• Illustrations numbered consecutively and with reference to the text
• Illustration captions concise and meaningful, not in italics

3.6 Citations

• After a statement to be substantiated, the authors are given in brackets after a comma followed by the year of publication.
  For the first citation, all authors (up to five) are listed:
  (Gropengießer, Kattmann & Krüger, 2010)
• For the second citation, the first author and et al. are given:
  (Gropengießer et al., 2010)
• If a work has two authors, these are always cited:
  (Großschedl & Harms, 2010)
• If a work has more than five authors, the first author and et al. are cited the first time they are mentioned:
  (Meyer-Ahrens et. al., 2010)
• Literal quotations are placed in inverted commas. The source citation includes the page number, table number or similar.

 4.    Bibliography

The bibliography contains all sources cited in the text and is sorted alphabetically by author. If you are unclear about individual sources, please refer to the DGPs guidelines for manuscript design (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Psychologie, 2016, Richtlinien zur Manuskriptgestaltung. Göttingen: Hogrefe).

• Citation of monographs
  Gropengießer, H., Kattmann, U. & Krüger, K. (2010). Biology didactics in overviews. Hallbergmoos: Aulis Verlag in the Stark Verlagsgesellschaft.
• Contributions by individual authors in edited works
  Basten, M. (2013). Selected aspects of classical test theory. In M. Wilde, M. Basten, S. Fries, B. Gröben, I. Meyer-Ahrens & C. Kleindienst-Cachey (Eds.), Research for the classroom - Young experts show how it's done! (S. 84-104). Baltmannsweiler: Schneider Verlag Hohengehren.
• Editors
  Wilde, M., Basten, M., Fries, S., Gröben, B., Meyer Ahrens, I. & Kleindienst-Cachey, C. (Eds.). (2013). Research for the classroom - Young experts show how it's done! Baltmannsweiler: Schneider Verlag Hohengehren.
• Books with volume or edition number
  Schenk-Danzinger, L. (1977). Entwicklungspsychologie (11th revised edition). Vienna: Österreichischer Bundesverlag.
• Journal article
  Meyer-Ahrens, I. & Wilde, M. (2013). The influence of student choice and the interestingness of the subject matter on learning motivation in biology lessons. Teaching Science, 41(1), 57-71.
• Online documents
  Author, A.A. (2000). Title of the document. Accessed on day. Month. Year, from Source

 5.    Submission of contributions

Only papers that are not simultaneously offered for publication to other organisations may be submitted. Works that have already been published are also excluded. The author confirms and guarantees that he/she holds all copyrights to his/her contribution, including any images, drawings, plans, maps, sketches and tables, and that the contribution does not infringe any third-party rights.
Manuscripts must be submitted in electronic form in Microsoft Word .docx format. The following files must be submitted:

• A file with the title, authors, institutions, postal and e-mail address of the responsible author (cover page.docx)
• A file with the anonymised manuscript (Manuskript.docx)
• The first and second pages contain the German and English abstracts (max. 250 words each) and three to six keywords in German and English.
• Tables and figures are placed in the manuscript at the approximate position where they should appear.
  Short description of the authors (Kurzbeschreibung.docx)