Writers Guide

The following are a list of current policies. Now these policies are for articles to reach approved status. You can start an article of any length. People will collaborate and recommend it for review. There are two types of articles: One, articles that will be eventually published in the journal. Those are "Journal Articles". The other type is "Research Articles". These are the articles that will make up the Encyclopedia Paranormal. Too see if we have an article already on the topic, search for the Title, and if no page exists, feel free to create it! Don't worry about covering a topic already, new journal articles are always welcomed, and if needed, articles for the Encyclopedia Paranormal will be merged.

Article guidelines

This online journal contains best practices, essays concerning etheric studies and research reports:

• Best Practices are practices and procedures that have found to be effective. These articles should be considered living documents, in that they should be periodically reviewed and kept current.
• Essays are written by individuals, are not to be edited by others and are not normally updated. They represent a growing knowledge-base of lessons learned by veterans in the field. They should be considered opinions held by the author and are not necessarily endorsed by other editors.
• Research Reports are written by individuals involved in specific research projects. They represent the disclosure of research results in a way that will allow others to learn what was done, what was learned, and armed with that information, develop new research questions/projects. The articles are not to be edited by others and are not normally updated. However, the discussion page should be used to conduct a peer review, and until such a review has occurred, the report should be considered a draft.
• Research Abstracts are articles containing abstracts of research reports--probably taken from the published report (It is generally permissible under copyright law to publish abstract of documents). The report may be published in a paper journal, online, peer reviewed or not. It may also be unpublished or draft waiting for publication. This is a tool for collaboration. The objective of this category is to provide a mechanism for describing research and explaining where it will be found.
• Encyclopedia Articles are articles to be added to the Encyclopedia Paranormal. These are updated as found, and reviewed semi-annually at least after the initial approval to ensure up to date information. These articles are completely collaborated on by all.

Guidelines

These guidelines should be only edited by administrators. Suggested changes should be posted on the Discussion page.

Use of these guidelines is optional, but authors should seriously consider their intent. Writing for an online journal is very different than for a paper journal, and such capabilities as easy access to referenced material should be considered part of the disclosure.

References

The objective of references is to assure that the article is based on demonstrable fact. The ideal reference will enable the reader to simply click on a link to read the source material.

It is reasonable to make a statement based on experience. You are ask to provide your background on your user page so that readers have a basis for assessing what you write. As a rule, statements of fact in any article should be supported with a reference. Listed from the most desirable references to the least:

1. An online article from a peer-reviewed journal that is supported by references and/or research
2. An online article written by a person known to be knowledgeable in the field and showing facts supported by research. Original source for that author's reference should be used if online.
3. A website that has established a reputation for well-considered content and that supports comments with evidence
4. An online book
5. A hard copy peer-reviewed journal
6. A hard copy magazine
7. A hard copy book

Publicly edited articles. such as found in Wikipedia are acceptable under certain circumstances. However, if using an openly editable source, a permanent link must be used.

Format for references: <nowiki><ref name="name (may be article title)"></nowiki>Author's last name, author's first name, Title, publisher, [link] (Verified dd/Spell out month year).<nowiki></ref></nowiki> At the bottom, put:

!!References

<nowiki><References /></nowiki>

Second use of reference: <nowiki><ref name="name (may be article title)"></nowiki>

Starting an article

An easy way to begin is to decide on a title following the standard of all lower case except first letter of first word. Remember that a short title is best, so that it will produce a relatively short URL. It should be as intuitive as possible so that people guessing its title might be able to find it via a search.

Begin a section on your personal page titled something like !!Articles I have started, and under that, *[[Article name]] Save that and find the entry on your personal page. It should be written in red to indicate that the article does not yet exist. Click on the new title and you should see a page offering to let you start the article.

Journal Article Format

Every article that is to be published in any edition of the Journal, will consist of the following sections:

Mandatory Sections

• Abstract
• Body
• Citations

Optional

• External Links
• Bibliography

Encyclopedia Article Format

Every article in the encyclopedia section will consist of the following sections:

Mandatory

• Intro
• Body
• References
• See also

Optional

• Bibliography
• External Links

Citations

Citations should be done in APA (American Psychologist Association) format. A style guide can be found here: APA Style website.

See also Section

The See Also section of each article should contain a brief list of other articles on this site (Journal or Encyclopedic) that would pertinent to the topic. List should not exceed 10 items, but in the case of extremely lengthy articles, this list could exceed that number.

External Links Section

This section contains a list of links from external sources to this site that would be pertinent reading to the topic. This list should not exceed 10 links, however; in the case of extremely lengthy article, this number can be exceeded.

Citations

Citations should be done in APA (American Psychologist Association) format. A style guide can be found here: APA Style website.