Manuscript formatting requirements
FILE FORMAT
A working paper file should be provided in Microsoft Word format. PDF as a sole file type is not accepted.
Research rigor requirement:
The invited working papers are viewed as work-in-progress nearing completion, hence all research works should possess scientific research rigour. Namely, every submission should contain a clear and concise account for the level of theorizing, the method used and what kind of data/materials has informed the analysis. Work-based on positivist and social constructionist ontologies are welcome. Description of crude data and/or audit records of each research stage is encouraged whenever it contributes to a better auditability and evaluation of authors’ claim, and does not exceed 10000-word count. The expected minimum of submission is 5000 words. Acknowledging that practical application of science takes on inter-and multidisciplinary character, it is required for authors to be consistent with theoretical and conceptual inventory of terms taken place in a similar kind of research. Authors should briefly outline a chosen research paradigm in the introductory section of a working paper.
Working Paper Title
A title of not more than ten (10) words should be provided.
Author details
All contributing authors’ names should be added, and their names arranged in the correct order for publication.
- Correct email addresses should be supplied for each author in their separate author box.
- The full name of each author must be presented in the exact format they should appear for publication, including or excluding any middle names or initials as required.
- An ORCID ID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) for authors, freely available at https://orcid.org. (Why is this important? Your article, if accepted and published, will be attached to your ORCID profile. Institutions and funders are increasingly requiring authors to have ORCID IDs.)
- The affiliation of each contributing author should be correct. The affiliation listed should be where they were based at the time that the research for the paper was conducted.
Biographies and acknowledgments
Authors, who wish to include these items, should save them together in an MS Word file to be uploaded with the submission. If they are to be included, a brief professional biography of not more than 100 words should be supplied for each named author.
Research funding
Authors must declare (if applicable) all sources of external research funding in their paper and a statement to this effect should appear in the Acknowledgements section. Authors should describe the role of the funder or financial sponsor in the entire research process, from study design to submission.
Structured Abstract
Authors must supply a structured abstract in their submission, which indicatively includes the following points:
- Purpose (mandatory)
- Design/methodology/approach (mandatory)
- Findings (mandatory)
- Research limitations/implications (if applicable)
- Practical implications (if applicable)
- Social implications (if applicable)
- Originality/value (mandatory)
The length of the structured abstract should not exceed 250 words in total (including keywords, see below).
Keywords
Authors should provide appropriate and short keywords in the web-site submission that encapsulate the principal topics of the paper. The maximum number of keywords is 5.
FORMATTING
Text
All words in the title, except the first word and proper nouns, are lowercase. The text size is 12 pt, bold, aligned in center.
Headings
Headings must be concise, with a clear indication of the distinction between the hierarchy of headings. All words in Headings/Sub-headings, except the first word and proper nouns, are lowercase.
Notes/Endnotes
Notes or Endnotes should be used only if absolutely necessary and must be identified in the text by consecutive numbers, enclosed in square brackets and listed at the end of the paper.
Figures
All Figures (charts, diagrams, line drawings, web pages/screenshots, and photographic images) should be of high quality, and legible.
All Figures may be submitted as separate files to the main body of the paper, (as Supporting Files on the web-site); one figure corresponds to one (supporting) file or is added to the manuscript file (inside of the body text).
Authors should decide whether to submit all Figures as separate files or inside of the manuscript file. No third option is possible.
If Figures are submitted as separate files:
- The position of each Figure should be clearly labelled in the body text of the manuscript with corresponding labels being clearly shown in the separate file. For example:
Figure 1. Caption + Name of the separate file of a corresponding figure
- Figures should be provided in one of the following formats: *.tif, *.jpeg, or *.bmp, at least 10cm wide.
If Figures are included in the body text, captions should be placed below each Figure, aligned in center and formatted in the following way:
Figure 1. Caption title.
Figure 2. Caption title.
…
A caption should comprise a brief title (not on the figure itself) and a description of the Figure. Keep text in the figures themselves to a minimum but explain all symbols and abbreviations used.
Each figure should be aligned in center.
Quality of the images should be sufficient to display at the recommended resolution (150-200 dpi)
Tables
Tables are submitted as editable text and not as images. Tables can be placed either next to the relevant text in the body text, or on separate page(s) at the end as an Annex.
Any superscripts or asterisks are shown next to the relevant items in a table have corresponding explanations displayed below the table. The text font size is 10 pt, aligned left.
Tables are numbered consecutively, in accordance with their appearance in the body text. A caption of a table is formatted in the following way:
Table I. Caption title.
Table II. Caption title.
…
A Captions is placed above a table, aligned left, 12 pt.
A table as an object is aligned in center.
Overall formatting of the body text, apart from headings, sub-headings, title.
The body text is aligned ‘justify’, Times New Roman, 12 pt, line spacing 1.5. The ‘Continuous Line Numbers’ tool is applied to the whole document, in other words, the Title should be placed on the Line #1.
Each section (new section starts with new Heading) is separated from the previous one by an empty line.
References
References to other publications must be carefully checked for accuracy, completeness, and consistency.
References should be formatted in the APA citation style. A free reference manager Mendeley https://www.mendeley.com/ is recommended.
Formatting of “In-text citations”:
Quoting directly:
The CEO stated clearly that co-op students “needed manager’s permission to access the company’s data warehouse” (Smith 2010, p.15).
Quoting indirectly:
Single author
Smith (2010) reported that 20% of Canadians have a language other than English or French as their mother tongue.
It has been found that Canadians drink 7 cups of coffee a week on average (Susan, 2010).
Two authors
The study went on to show a difference between these MBA programs (Smith & Susan, 2009).
Three and more authors
Recent research shows that university students report that Facebook is the number one distraction from study time (Graham et al., 2010).
Map
Example: Map of Lake District National Park, Cumbria, United Kingdom (2014)
Antiplagiarism: All new submissions to Working papers series are screened through StrikePlagiarism platform. Plagiarism is not allowed in any form: mosaic plagiarism, rephrasing a piece of text in your own words with no citation, self-plagiarism, global plagiarism. It is considered suspicious if SC1 (Similarity coefficient 1) of Strikeplagiarism report is over 50% and SC 2 is over 5%. More details are available at https://www.plagiarism.org/article/what-is-plagiarism