General Music Today welcomes manuscripts of interest to general music professionals at all levels. We are specifically interested in manuscripts that describe successful practices, share teaching strategies and/or materials, and suggest new ideas or issues of concern in general music.

Manuscripts should be written in a style that is clear and concise, avoiding technical jargon. A consistent style should be used for both format and references. Preferred manuscript style should conform to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th edition; 2001); however, a manuscript that has been consistently formatted with any of the generally accepted styles will be considered. All manuscripts should include an abstract of approximately 150 words, be about 6 to 12 double-spaced pages in length, and be submitted electronically as MS Word files. Authors should also submit 4 to 6 key words relating to their article's content. To avoid delays in typesetting, please convert any music-specific symbols and notation (using MusiSync or MS Reference font, for instance) to images. Place any lesson plans, sample lessons, or resource lists in an appendix section at the end of the article.

Images, graphics, and tables: Images should be easily readable, clear, and neat; color images are preferred. Except for notation files created with Finale software, all images should be submitted in the original program in which they were created (JPG, TIFF, or EPS; Microsoft Application Files are acceptable for line art). Any scanned images should be set at 1200 dpi for line art and 300 dpi for color or grayscale. Finale files should be saved and submitted as images (JPG, TIFF files).

All diagrams, images, photographs, and tables should be placed at the end of the manuscript file and numbered in the order they appear in text. Insert callouts for figures and tables on a separate line just after the paragraph where each image or table should appear (example: “[Figure 1 here]”).

Permission to reprint: Material taken directly from a copyrighted source must be clearly identified in a source line, and the copyright holder’s written permission to reproduce it must be submitted in a separate file along with the manuscript. Obtaining permission to reproduce copyrighted material is the author’s responsibility, as is payment of any fees the copyright holder may request. Because obtaining reprint permission can be time consuming, it is recommended that authors begin this process as soon as possible. *Note that material created by children (for example, artwork and song lyrics) is considered copyrightable and will require permission from the parent or guardian to reproduce.

Authors may download and submit a Copyright Permission Request Form for this purpose.

Photographs of people should be accompanied by a signed release granting permission for their likeness to be reproduced in the article. (For images of children, the release form must be signed by a parent or guardian.) Download the Audio/Visual Likeness Release Form.

Audio and video files: Authors are encouraged to submit audio/video clips to further illustrate their work. Acceptable video file types are QuickTime (.mov), MPEG Movie (.mpg), and Microsoft AVI Video (.avi); acceptable audio files include Windows Media Player (.wma) and MP3 (.mp3). Signed release from all participants in audio and video clips is needed; please download the audio/visual likeness release form above.

General Music Today is a refereed journal; manuscripts are reviewed by a panel of nationally recognized leaders in general music. The review process typically takes one to two months. If accepted, a manuscript will be edited to conform to style policies and the edited copy e-mailed to the author for approval prior to publication.

General Music Today is copyrighted as an entity by MENC: The National Association for Music Education. Authors must transfer copyrights to GMT, and MENC controls the rights to each article. Written permission must be received from the MENC office if an author wants to reprint the article, but this generally poses no problem.

For consideration, submit an electronic copy of each manuscript to Dr. Diane Persellin, Editor.