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Taylor & Francis

Prepare your manuscript for Practical Theology.

Review the checklist, choose your article type, and turn your draft into a cleaner submission package.

Checked 2026-08-02
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Article types

Review
Research Article
Lectio
Case Report
Editorial
Book Review
Letter
Clinical Trial
Protocol
Systematic Review

Readiness requirements

Review the key details below, or download the complete checklist with every stored source-backed requirement.

Abstract length

  • Provide an author-written abstract of no more than 250 words.
  • Use a structured abstract.
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  • Should contain a structured abstract of 150-250 words.
  • For most articles your abstract should normally comprise of these five issues which should not need more than one or two sentences each.
  • Your abstract should focus on what your research is about, what methods have been used, and what you found out.
  • Should be written with the following elements in the following order: title; abstract; introduction, literature review, materials and methods, results, analysis, discussion and theological reflection; acknowledgments; declaration of interest statement; bibliography; endnotes (limited to 5 or 6); appendices (as appropriate); table(s) with caption(s) (on individual pages); figures; figure captions (as a list).
  • If your article presents original research it should normally be compiled in the following order: title; abstract; introduction, literature review, materials and methods, results, analysis, discussion and theological reflection; acknowledgments; declaration of interest statement; bibliography; endnotes (limited to 5 or 6); appendices (as appropriate); table(s) with caption(s) (on individual pages); figures; figure captions (as a list).
  • There are no strict formatting requirements, but all manuscripts must contain the essential elements needed to evaluate a manuscript: abstract, author affiliation, figures, tables, funder information, and references.
  • The instructions for authors for each journal will give specific guidelines on what’s required here, including whether it should be a structured abstract or graphical abstract, and any word limits.

Keywords

  • Provide 4-6 keywords chosen by the author.
  • Should contain between 4 and 6 keywords.

Reference style

  • Articlo formats your supplied references to the journal's stored style and checks that citations match the reference list; source validity is not verified.
  • All bibliographic entries must contain a corresponding in-text citation.
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  • Where applicable, this should include the hyperlink, DOI or other persistent identifier associated with the data set(s).
  • Readers should be able to interpret the table without reference to the text.
  • A declaration must be included within the submission stating: Confirmation the authors take full responsibility for the integrity of the whole content, including accuracy of references.
  • e what conclusions you have come to, with attention to the frame of practical theology Abstracts are not normally more than a single paragraph, usually utilise the third person and do not contain bibliographical references.

Figure and table rules

  • Keep every figure and table numbered, captioned, and cited in the manuscript. Keep figures embedded; Articlo also extracts numbered source files for the package.
  • Group figures at the end of the manuscript.
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  • Group tables at the end of the manuscript.
  • Figures should be high quality (1200 dpi for line art, 600 dpi for grayscale and 300 dpi for colour, at the correct size).
  • Tables and figures Show clearly in your article text where the tables and figures should appear, for example, by writing [Table 1 near here].
  • Figures should be of sufficient resolution to enable refereeing.
  • Figures should be saved separately from the text.
  • Tables should present new information rather than duplicating what is in the text.
  • It’s very important that you have been given permission to use any tables or figures you are reproducing from another source before you submit.
  • Figures should be supplied in one of our preferred file formats: PS, JPEG, TIFF, or Microsoft Word (DOC or DOCX) files are acceptable for figures that have been drawn in Word.
  • Check the instructions for authors to see how you should supply tables and figures, whether at the end of the text or in separate files, and follow any guidance given on the submission system.

Funding statement

  • You should declare only the acquired funds and grants that are directly relevant to the work reported in your article; for example, This work was supported by the [Funding Agency #1] under Grant [number xxxx]; [Funding Agency #2] under Grant [number xxxx]; and [Funding Agency #3] under Grant [number xxxx].

Competing interests

  • Include or confirm the competing interests required by the journal. Articlo checks this item and flags anything that still needs author input.

Data availability statement

  • Include or confirm the data availability statement required by the journal. Articlo checks this item and flags anything that still needs author input.

Ethics statement

  • Include or confirm the ethics statement required by the journal. Articlo checks this item and flags anything that still needs author input.

Cover letter

  • Using Third-Party Material You must obtain the necessary permission to reuse third-party material in your article.
  • The use of short extracts of text and some other types of material is usually permitted, on a limited basis, for the purposes of criticism and review without securing formal permission.
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  • If you wish to include any material in your paper for which you do not hold copyright, and which is not covered by this informal agreement, you will need to obtain written permission from the copyright owner prior to submission.

Title page and author information

  • All authors of a manuscript should include their full name and affiliation on the cover page of the manuscript.
  • One author will need to be identified as the corresponding author, with their email address normally displayed in the article PDF (depending on the journal) and the online article.

Article structure and word limits

  • A typical article for this journal should be of around 6,000 words.
  • Book Review: A typical Book Review for this journal should be of around 6,000 words.
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  • Use Arabic numerals throughout: 2 Cor. not II Cor.
  • This could be adapted from your departmental website or academic networking profile and should be relatively brief (e.g. no more than 200 words).
  • Margins Margins should be at least 2.5cm (1 inch).
  • Should be no more than 6,000 words.
  • It should be a maximum width of 525 pixels.
  • These instructions will ensure we have everything required so your paper can move through peer review, production and publication smoothly.
  • Proposals for such essays should be discussed with the editor before submission.
  • Your research funder or your institution may require you to publish your article open access.
  • Use our APC finder to view the APC for this journal.
  • If there are more than this authors should consider whether the note could be incorporated into the text or is superfluous and can be removed.
  • Revd St Dr Mr BC, AD, CE, BCE should be unpunctuated and set in small capitals.
  • Brackets within brackets should be square, e.g., G.
  • Note that, regardless of the file format of the original submission, an editable version of the article must be supplied at the revision stage.
  • Before you submit your article, make sure you’ve checked the instructions for authors for your chosen journal, so you are aware of everything required.
  • Most journals create image descriptions during the production process, but a minority may require authors to provide image descriptions.
  • Review: Running heads and received dates These aren’t required when submitting a manuscript for review.
  • A declaration must be included within the submission stating: Originality and accuracy of content has been confirmed by the authors.
  • Authors must provide full methodological details and adhere to relevant reporting guidelines where applicable.
  • Authors must retain the original and revised versions which must be shared upon request.
  • The PLSP guidelines for authors must be followed at all times.
  • Numbers of centuries should always be written out in full: twenty-first century; nineteenth century etc. Use Roman numerals for vol. numbers of books, and series numbers; and Arabic numbers for journal issue numbers.
  • Please do not use op. cit. and avoid ibid.
  • If a paper is considered to need linguistic attention and is multi-authored, one of the authors should be nominated as the person with whom the AE will make contact and the Buddy will work.
  • Please use SI units (non-italicized).
  • Special characters If you are preparing your manuscript in Microsoft Word and your article contains special characters, accents, or diacritics, we recommend you follow these steps: European accents (Greek, Hebrew, or Cyrillic letters, or phonetic symbols): choose Times New Roman font from the dropdown menu in the “Insert symbol” window and insert the character you require.
  • Special characters If you are preparing your manuscript in Microsoft Word and your article contains special characters, accents, or diacritics, we recommend you follow these steps: Asian languages (such as Sanskrit, Korean, Chinese, or Japanese): choose Arial Unicode font from the dropdown menu in the “Insert symbol” window and insert the character you require.
  • There would typically be no more than a handful (5-6) in a 6000-word article.
  • Please do not embed it in the manuscript file but save it as a separate file, labelled GraphicalAbstract1.
  • Ellipses: all quotations are in the nature of things an extract from a longer text, so ellipses should not be used simply to indicate that in the original text there are preceding and following words.
  • If you are at the early stage of your research, you may also need to read how to start writing a journal manuscript.
  • Image descriptions are typically used by systems such as pronouncing screen readers to make images accessible to people that cannot read or see the object due to a visual disability.

Reporting guidelines

  • Include or confirm the reporting guidelines required by the journal. Articlo checks this item and flags anything that still needs author input.

Preprints and prior publication

  • If you have shared an earlier version of your Author’s Original Manuscript on a preprint server, please be aware that anonymity cannot be guaranteed.

Artificial intelligence disclosure

  • Add or confirm the author-written Artificial intelligence statement; Articlo flags it if author input is still needed.
  • Please include a statement disclosing whether and how generative AI has been used in the research and manuscript preparation process.
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  • Use of AI tools as part of ethical research studies is permitted.
  • A declaration must be included within the submission stating: The name and version number of the AI tool used.
  • Systematic Review: Use of AI tools as part of ethically conducted literature reviews, systematic reviews, meta-analysis and bibliometrics studies is permitted.
  • Use of AI tool assisted plain language summaries (PLS) of authors own work is permitted.
  • Please read our guidance on using AI tools in your research and manuscript preparation to understand scenarios where their use may be permissible, and the required information that must be disclosed.
  • A declaration must be included within the submission stating: Confirmation the authors have checked terms of use for the specific AI tool used, and therefore confirm suitability for publication.

Article type and manuscript length

  • The upper word limit should be strictly adhered to.
  • Endnotes are not excluded but should be restricted to important extra information or points of note for the reader to follow-up and which are best left out of the flow of the main text.

Manuscript structure

  • Please note Practical Theology is first and foremost a theological journal and your paper should reflect this emphasis throughout its various sections.
  • Authors should only use endnotes for the purpose of referencing.
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  • Footnotes should not be used.
  • Endnotes containing comments and explanatory notes should be avoided wherever possible, and authors should consider whether the note could be incorporated into the text or is superfluous and can be removed.
  • Headings This will show you the different levels of the heading section in your article: First-level headings (e.g. Introduction, Conclusion) should be in bold, with an initial capital letter for any proper nouns.
  • Authors must retain full records of the methods undertaken, including full descriptions and records of the prompts used, which must be shared with the journal upon request.

Language and text style

  • Please note that long quotations should be indented without quotation marks.
  • Gender and Language: When personal pronouns are used both sexes should generally be included.
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  • Gender and Language: Authors should avoid using personal pronouns for God wherever possible.
  • Headings This will show you the different levels of the heading section in your article: Fourth-level headings should be in bold italics, at the beginning of a paragraph.
  • Headings This will show you the different levels of the heading section in your article: Fifth-level headings should be in italics, at the beginning of a paragraph.
  • When an abbreviation is formed by cutting a word short, a full stop must be used at the end; when an abbreviation is formed by the omission of internal letters, a full stop is not generally used.
  • Use: focused, focusing etc. (not focussed, focussing), first, secondly, or first, second (but not firstly), acknowledgment, judgment, analyse (but analyze in American spelling).
  • Headings This will show you the different levels of the heading section in your article: Second-level headings should be in bold italics, with an initial capital letter for any proper nouns.
  • Headings This will show you the different levels of the heading section in your article: Third-level headings should be in italics, with an initial capital letter for any proper nouns.
  • Many of these may not be first-language English speakers or writers.

Study reporting guidelines

  • Authors must provide full methodological details and adhere to relevant reporting guidelines where applicable (e.g. CONSORT-AI, STARD-AI, GAMER, TRIPOD-AI, etc).
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What your package checks

Abstract: 250 words
Paper: 6,000 words
Keywords: 4-6 keywords
Declarations: Artificial intelligence
Format: Times New Roman

Source transparency

This preparation guide uses published journal-specific author requirements. Journal instructions can change, so authors should complete a final review before submission.

Open official guideline source