Guidelines

Language

US English

Formatting

• Times New Roman
• Font size 12
• Double-spaced
• Justified margins
• Must include

• Title page (title of the paper, name of author(s), institutional affiliation, present position and complete address (including telephone/fax and e-mail)
• Abstract (250–300 words and consists of a list of keywords (up to five keywords)
• Main body and references

IMPORTANT: Do not include any identification info in the initial manuscript submitted so as to facilitate blind review process.

Number of Words

8000-10000 words

Reference Style

APA (American Psychological Association, 6th edition)

Refer to:

http://www.apastyle.org

http://blog.apastyle.org/

Reference List

Entries in the list must be listed alphabetically except in the numbered system of sequential citation. The rules for alphabetization are:

• first, all works by the author alone, ordered chronologically by year of publication,
• next, all works by the author with a co-author, ordered alphabetically by co-author,
• finally, all works by the author with several co-authors, ordered chronologically by year of publication

Structure

The suggested structure of an empirical research paper includes

• introduction
• background of the study
• statement of problem
• literature review
• theoretical construct
• methodology
• findings/analysis
• discussion
• conclusion
• acknowledgements (if any)

Authorship and affiliation

Authors attest that all persons designated as authors qualify for authorship and all those who qualify are listed. Only appropriate co-authors should be included on the paper, and all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and agreed to its submission for publication.

Title

• Not more than 50 words in length.
• Should be as concise as possible but informative enough to facilitate information retrieval. 
• Abbreviations should be avoided when constructing a manuscript title.

Abstract

• 250-300 words
• A clear, concise and informative summary with scope and purpose, significant results and major conclusions as well as an indication of any new findings.
• It should be a stand-alone document that can be understood without reading the full manuscript.
• Abstract should not contain literature citations that refer to the main list of references attached to the complete article nor allusions to the illustrations.

Keywords

Provide 3–5 specific and suitable keywords related to the manuscript.

(Keywords facilitate the retrieval of articles by search engines and will be used for indexing purposes, therefore do not use general terms.)

Sources

If you copy illustrations and figures from other works, you must obtain permission from the copyright holder (usually the original publisher) for both the print and online format.

• Please be aware that some publishers do not grant electronic rights for free and that SEARCH will not be able to refund any costs that may have been incurred in receiving these permissions. As an alternative, material from other sources should be used.
• The source must be acknowledged in the legend or table heading. If the source is in a foreign language, please provide a translation.

Images, Illustrations, Tables, Photos and Other Supplementary Materials

Authors are welcome to submit digital supplementary materials, e.g., figures, images, maps, diagrams, photos, etc., together with their manuscript so long as they have appropriate permission from the copyright holder.

• All of the materials must come with appropriate captions.
• Each author is responsible for acquiring copyright of complimentary materials and must provide a letter of permission from the appropriate party (for instance institution, publisher, person, archive, etc) prior to submitting the manuscript.
• Without this official permission, such illustrations may not be included if the manuscript is accepted for publication.

Figures

Name your figure files with your name, "Fig", and the figure number, e.g., Miller-Fig1.eps.

Figure Lettering

• To add lettering, it is best to use Helvetica or Arial (sans serif fonts) and avoid effects such as shading, outline letters, etc.
• Keep lettering consistently sized throughout your final-sized artwork, usually about 2–3 mm (8–12 pt).
• Variance of type size within an illustration should be minimal, e.g. do not use 8-pt type on an axis and 20-pt type for the axis label.
• Do not include titles or captions in your illustrations.

Figure Captions and Numbering

• Number the figures consecutively using the chapter number (e.g., Fig. 1.1). Figure parts should be denoted by lowercase letters (a, b, c, etc).
• Each figure should have a concise caption describing accurately what the figure depicts. Include the captions in the text file of the manuscript, not in the figure file.
• Figure captions begin with the term Fig. in bold type, followed by the figure number, also in bold type.
• No punctuation is to be included after the number, nor is any punctuation to be placed at the end of the caption.
• Identify all elements found in the figure in the figure caption; and use boxes, circles, etc. as coordinate points in graphs.
• Identify previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference citation at the end of the figure caption.

Illustrations

Illustrations submitted should be as separate digital files, not embedded in text.

The files should follow these guidelines:

• 300 dpi or higher in pixel size.
• Sized to fit on page with measurement of 15.2 cm (5 in) × 21.5 cm (7.5 in). 4
•  JPEG, TIFF or EPS format only.

Tables

Tables must be prepared using MS Word only and fully editable with the same software. 

They should follow the following guidelines:

• Do not submit tables as embedded images in the manuscript.
• Do not provide the tables in tab-delimited form.
• Number the tables consecutively using the chapter number (e.g., Table 1.1) and ensure that all the tables are cited in the text in the correct order.
• Give each table a heading.
• To format the table columns, use the table function.
• Do not use the space bar to separate columns
• If a table cell is to be left empty, please type a hyphen ( - ) in it.
• Please do not treat simple, one-column lists as tables, but instead set them as part of the running text. Use the displayed list function instead.
• Save the tables in the same file as the text, references, and figure legends.
• Proper rows and columns must be constructed, with data inserted using a min font size of 8 pt.
• A table width must not exceed 5 inches. Authors are responsible to make the necessary reorganization and re-structuring of tables whenever it exceeds 5 inches.

Proofs and Publication

Proofs, prior to final publication, will be sent to corresponding authors via email.  

To avoid delays in publication, proofs should be checked immediately for typographical errors and returned as instructed in the proof e-mail.

Copyright Policy

• Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to transfer copyright. A notification email will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript.
• If excerpts from other copyrighted works are included, the author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit the source(s) in the article.

Technical terms

• Ensure that the spelling of names, terms and abbreviations are consistent, including in tables and figure legends.
• Abbreviations, except for very common ones, must be defined the first time they are used, and a list supplied with the manuscript.
• Please always use internationally accepted signs and symbols for units, so-called SI units.
• Chemical compounds should be named according to the systematic rules of the IUPAC or Chemical Abstracts.
• Species and genus names, mathematical/physical variables, and prefixes in chemical compounds should be set in italic type (cis/trans, d/l, E/Z, o/m/p, R/S, t-Bu, tert-butyl).
• L and D indicating optical activity should be set in SMALL CAPITALS (D- and L-dopa).