Author Instructions-Guidelines

The journal welcomes original, high-quality scholarly manuscripts that fall within its aims and scope. Authors should review these guidelines carefully before submission and ensure their manuscripts comply with the journal's editorial, formatting, publication ethics, and research ethics requirements.

1. Submission

Manuscripts must be submitted electronically through the journal's online submission system in Microsoft Word format.

The corresponding author is responsible for completing the submission process and ensuring that all listed authors have approved the manuscript and agreed to its submission.

A manuscript submitted to the journal must not be under consideration by another journal. Simultaneous submission is not permitted.

2. Originality and Publication Ethics

Manuscripts must present original work and must not contain plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, duplicate publication, redundant publication, or other forms of research or publication misconduct.

Authors must appropriately acknowledge and cite all sources, ideas, data, quotations, images, and other material derived from previous work.

The journal may use appropriate similarity-detection and other editorial tools to assess originality. Similarity results are evaluated in context and do not, by themselves, determine whether plagiarism has occurred.

Authors must comply with the journal's Publication Ethics and Research Ethics Policy, including requirements concerning authorship, human participants, informed consent, vulnerable populations, conflicts of interest, research misconduct, corrections, and retractions.

3. Authorship

All individuals listed as authors must have made a substantial intellectual contribution to the work, participated in preparing or critically revising the manuscript, approved the final version, and accepted responsibility for their contribution.

Guest, honorary, gift, and ghost authorship are not permitted.

The corresponding author must ensure that all authors have approved the submitted manuscript and author list.

Any request to add, remove, or reorder authors after submission must be justified and approved by all affected authors.

4. Ethical Approval and Human Participants

Research involving human participants, personal data, or other ethically sensitive subjects must comply with applicable institutional, national, and international ethical requirements.

Where ethical approval is required, authors must obtain approval from an Institutional Review Board (IRB), Research Ethics Committee (REC), Institutional Ethics Committee, or equivalent body before conducting the research.

Where applicable, manuscripts must include an Ethics Statement identifying the approving body and approval/reference number.

Where formal ethical approval is not required, authors should state this where appropriate and explain the basis for the determination.

Where applicable, authors must obtain informed consent from participants. Research involving children or other vulnerable populations must comply with appropriate additional ethical safeguards.

5. Data, Materials and Transparency

Authors should provide sufficient information about research methods, data, materials, and analytical procedures to enable appropriate scholarly assessment and, where reasonably possible, facilitate verification or replication.

Where data or materials cannot be made publicly available because of ethical, legal, privacy, confidentiality, or other legitimate restrictions, authors should indicate the applicable restrictions.

Authors must not disclose confidential or personally identifiable participant information without appropriate ethical justification and consent.

6. Conflicts of Interest

Authors must disclose any actual, potential, or perceived conflict of interest that could influence the research, interpretation of findings, or publication process.

Relevant financial and non-financial interests should be disclosed in the manuscript.

7. Funding

Authors should disclose all significant sources of financial or institutional support for the research and publication.

Where applicable, the role of the funding organization in the research design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, or publication decision should be stated.

8. Artificial Intelligence

Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, and ethical acceptability of their manuscripts.

AI tools, including generative AI systems, cannot be listed as authors.

Where AI tools have been used substantially in preparing a manuscript, authors should disclose the nature and purpose of that use in accordance with the journal's AI Use Policy.

AI must not be used to fabricate data, references, research findings, participant information, or other scholarly content.

9. Manuscript Preparation

Manuscripts should be written in clear and appropriate academic English and should be carefully proofread before submission.

Manuscripts should normally be prepared using:

• Microsoft Word format;
• 12-point font;
• single-line spacing;
• appropriate headings and subheadings;
• tables and figures placed at appropriate locations within the manuscript; and
• italics rather than underlining, except where required for URLs or other specific purposes.

The manuscript should contain sufficient information for reviewers to understand and evaluate the research.

10. References and Citations

The journal follows the 7th edition of APA style for citations and references unless otherwise specified for a particular article type.

All sources cited in the text must appear in the reference list, and all references should be cited accurately in the manuscript.

Authors should use relevant, current, and authoritative scholarly sources appropriate to the subject of the manuscript. Citation practices must not be manipulated to increase citations artificially.

11. ORCID and Author Information

Authors are encouraged to provide their ORCID iDs during submission.

The corresponding author must provide complete and accurate institutional affiliation information for all authors, including multiple affiliations where applicable.

The journal may display author names, affiliations, ORCID iDs, and corresponding-author contact information as part of the published article and its metadata.

12. Manuscript Length and Article Structure

The length of a manuscript should be appropriate to its research design, subject matter, and article type.

Authors should follow the journal's applicable Article Structure and Format requirements.

The journal does not impose an arbitrary minimum length where doing so would compromise concise and effective scholarly communication. However, manuscripts must contain sufficient substantive content to permit rigorous scholarly evaluation.

13. Exclusive Submission

By submitting a manuscript, authors confirm that:

• the manuscript is not currently under consideration by another journal;
• the manuscript has not been published previously, except where legitimate secondary publication is permitted;
• all authors have approved the submission; and
• the submission complies with the journal's publication-ethics requirements.

14. Editorial and Peer Review Process

All submissions are subject to editorial screening. Manuscripts that meet the journal's requirements may be sent for external peer review in accordance with the journal's Peer Review Policy and Guidelines.

Submission does not guarantee acceptance or publication.

The journal may request revisions before or after peer review. Authors are expected to respond appropriately to editorial and reviewer comments.

The Editor-in-Chief makes the final decision regarding publication.

15. Withdrawal of Manuscripts

Authors should not withdraw a manuscript after it has entered peer review except for legitimate and compelling reasons.

Withdrawal requests must be submitted by the corresponding author and should provide an appropriate justification.

Where a manuscript has already incurred substantial editorial or peer-review work, the journal may require clarification concerning the reason for withdrawal.

16. Publication and Article Metadata

For accepted articles, the journal may publish the relevant submission, revision, acceptance, and publication dates.

The published article and its metadata may include the authors' names, affiliations, ORCID iDs, corresponding-author information, abstract, keywords, references, and other information required for scholarly indexing and discovery.

17. Copyright and Licensing

Authors must ensure that they have the necessary rights and permissions for third-party material included in their manuscripts.

Copyright, licensing, and reuse conditions are governed by the journal's Copyright and Licensing Policy.

18. Author Agreement

By submitting a manuscript, authors confirm that they have read and agree to comply with the journal's applicable policies and guidelines.

The journal may request a completed author declaration, agreement, or undertaking where necessary.

 

Policy status: These guidelines apply to manuscripts submitted to the journal and may be updated periodically to reflect developments in scholarly publishing, research ethics, and international publishing standards.