Formatting Your Paper

Conference papers can be an effective way to try out new ideas, introduce your work to colleagues and hone your research questions. Presenting at a conference is a great opportunity for gaining valuable feedback from a community of scholars and for increasing your professional stature in your field. Please follow these conventions . Please follow these format instructions carefully for submitting your final paper to be presented at the IT Forum at Western Michigan University. Papers that deviate from these instructions may not be published at the discretion of the proceedings editor.

Sample of paper format

Tile of your paper

• Skip 2 lines before the title.
• All words except for short connectives should be capitalized.
• Use bold type, 14-point size and center across the top of the first page.

Author

• Author(s), affiliations(s), complete address(es), telephone number(s), and email address(es) should be centered below the title.
• Use 10-point type.

Abstract

• Introduce the paper with an abstract of approximately 100 words.
• Indent .5" from the left and right margins.
• Skip 2 lines before and after abstract.
• Start this section with “Abstract:” in bold (no quotes).
• Use 9-point type.

Content

• The introduction should be heading 1, bold, all caps, 12-point font, with two lines skipped before and one line skipped after.
• Heading 2 (bold, capitalized, 11-point font, skip two lines before and one line after).
• Regular papers are limited to 12 pages.
• On 8.5"x11" paper, use Times or New Times Roman, 10-point font.
• Justify text so that it fills the full line width.
• Top and side (left and right) margins are .5"; bottom margin is 1".
• All text should be single spaced.
• Begin new paragraphs with a tab indent, no extra space between lines.
• The first paragraph following a heading should not be indented.
• See Table 1 for more information on tables.
• Page numbering should be placed on page header and footers.

References and citations

• References should follow the APA style and be listed alphabetically by author at the end of the paper and referred to in the body of the text by name (date).
• Skipping a line between each reference is preferred.
• It is highly desirable that all regular session papers contain a list of references. Whenever possible, authors are advised to edit their submissions to insure there is sufficient space for a reference list. However, should the paper become too long, the authors could use author-year citations in the text (e.g., Baker, 1974) and, at the end of the paper, could include the following note: “References available upon request from [name of author].” This line should explicitly identify the author responsible for sending out reference lists.

Figures and tables

• Figures and tables should be placed as close as possible to where they are cited.
• Center figures and tables between the margins with one blank line above and below.
• Place captions (e.g., “Figure 1: Caption text”) after the figure/table.
• All figures and tables should be prepared in a professional manner.

Footnotes and endnotes

• The use of footnotes is discouraged, but endnotes are acceptable.

Equations

• All equations should be placed on separate lines and numbered consecutively, with the equation numbers placed within parentheses and aligned against the right margin. Sample of equations

Appendices

• The appendix should immediately follow the body of the paper (using the first-level heading “APPENDIX”) and precede the references.
• If there is more than one appendix, number each consecutively.

Accepted file format for submission

• Format your paper in Microsoft Word®.
• Sample of paper format

Submitting your file

• Manuscripts should be single-spaced and paginated throughout.
• All paper submissions must be submitted online in one single Word file with MS Word format (any other format will not be processed).
• If you have problems submitting your paper online, please email your paper to Caitlin Smith at caitlin.smith@wmich.edu, with the subject line "IT Forum Paper".