Instructions for authors

Structure – APA Style (7th ed.)

Your paper should be compiled in the following order: title page; abstract; keywords; main text introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion; acknowledgments; declaration of interest statement; references; appendix (as appropriate); table(s) with caption(s) (on individual pages); figures; figure captions (as a list).

Papers will be accepted in English only. If this is not your native tongue please ensure that you consult an appropriate editor before submitting.

 

Style Guidelines

Please refer to the APA guidelines (7th ed.) when preparing your paper.

Please use double quotation marks, except where “a quotation is ‘within’ a quotation”. Please note that long quotations should be indented without quotation marks. Please reference all direct citations, with relevant page number/s and the Digital Object Identifier (DOI), if available, as the last element of the reference.

 

Word Limits

Please include a word count for your paper. A typical full article should be no more than 7000 words; this limit does not include tables, figure captions, author notes/endnotes. This limit does include the main text, abstract, footnotes and references. Longer papers can be considered following consultation with the editor.

A typical brief article for this journal should be no more than 4000 words; this limit does not include tables, author notes/endnotes and figure captions; this limit includes the main text, abstract, footnotes and references.

 

Formatting and Templates

Papers must be submitted in Word format using Times New Roman 12 pt font and double-spaced.

1. Figures should be high quality and supplied in one of our preferred file formats: PNG or Microsoft Word (DOC or DOCX).

2. Tables should present new information rather than duplicating what is in the text. Readers should be able to interpret the table without reference to the text. Please supply editable files.

 

References

Please use APA Style (7th ed) when preparing your paper. When citing online articles, please include the URL (web address of the article).

 

Checklist: What to Include

1. Author details. All authors of a manuscript should include their full name and affiliation on the title page of the manuscript. Where available, please also include ORCiD number/s. One author will need to be identified as the corresponding author, specifying their email address for all contact. Authors’ affiliations are the affiliations where the research was conducted. If any of the named co-authors moves affiliation during the peer-review process, the new affiliation can be given as a footnote. Please note that no changes to affiliation can be made after your paper is accepted.

2. Abstract. Should contain an unstructured abstract of 250 words. Do NOT include references in abstracts.

3. Keywords. Provide between 1 and 5 keywords at the bottom of the abstract page.

4. Funding details. Please supply all details required by your funding and grant-awarding bodies or indicate No funding Applicable.

5. Disclosure statement. This is to acknowledge any financial interest or benefit that has arisen from the direct applications of your research.

6. Justification of sample size. For all empirical studies we require that authors provide information regarding how the sample size of the study was determined, and that a justification is provided for the adequacy of the sample size, typically based on à priori power calculations.

 

Ethical standards

Please indicate in your Method section that you have obtained all necessary Ethical clearances and the Code of Conduct used during the progress of this study.

 

Data sharing policy

Authors are encouraged to share or make open the data supporting the results or analyses presented in their paper where this does not violate the protection of human subjects or other valid privacy or security concerns.

1. Data availability statement. If there is a publicly available data set associated with the paper, we recommend that an hyperlink, DOI or other persistent identifier associated with the data set(s) be included in the paper.

2. Data deposition. If you choose to share or make the data underlying the study open, please deposit your data in a recognised data repository at the time of submission. You will be asked to provide the DOI, pre-reserved DOI, or other persistent identifier for the data set.

 

Using Third-Party Material in your Paper

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. 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 and provide a copy of this permission.

 

Cover Letter

In your cover letter, please acknowledge

  • that the manuscript has not previously been published elsewhere
  • neither is it currently under review by any other journal or publisher
  • that you have read and adhered to Instruction to Authors.