Submission guidelines for the special issues

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Submission of an Article

IJBMS prefers to publish original articles written specifically for the journal, as opposed to papers prepared for presentation or publication elsewhere. The journal occasionally accepts previously published articles if they are judged to be of particular value and have had only limited distribution. Articles should be submitted to submission.ijbms@safaworld.org addressing to the chief editor.

The preferred form of submission is as a word document, as an email attachment. For very large files where email transmission is difficult, consult the editor to know how the submission could be made conveniently for both parties. Electronic submission allows a quick response as to the general suitability of papers for the journal, and editorial suggestions can be provided as to how papers may be revised to improve suitability. Each submission must be accompanied with two potential reviewers' names and contact details along with author(s)’s biography (75 words). Accepted manuscript implies that respective author(s) will be listed on the Guest Reviewer Section (GRS) after being evaluated by the editorial board. The proposed potential reviewers by the authors also will be listed on the GRS being evaluated similarly.

IJBMS reserves the right to edit all copy as deemed appropriate for length and the overall style of the journal. The Editors will attempt to maintain the style and point of view of the author(s). Wherever possible, the author(s) will be consulted with respect to major changes. The authors require submitting their manuscripts along with the 'copyright transfer form' (downloadable from this link http://www.safaworld.biz/ijbms).  A plagiarism-prevention declaration form also must be submitted which is available at http://www.safaworld.biz/ijbms/submission.htm. They are available in Doc format. No fax will be accepted for copy right transfer and plagiarism-prevention declaration form. Sending both forms through email does not require to be signed necessarily but a digital signature is appreciated. The forms must be sent from corresponding author’s email address which must be maintained until the paper is published, if accepted.

Every corresponding author of a manuscript must subscribe the corresponding email address to the group email list  maintained by the publisher. The email subscription process is available at this link: http://safaworld.biz/Member's%20page.htm. Please take note that the journal publisher will not use this email address for any purpose other than publication relevant activities. This website has been developed to support the authors of the journal as well as the fellow researchers,  marketing or such activities are not within the agenda of the publisher (Society for Alliance, Fidelity and Advancement-SAFA). It is convenient for the journal management committee to have all the authors on the same list for secure, reliable, effective and more efficient communication.

Edit-suggestions by the Editors Before Review

IJBMS has adopted an effective mechanism to assist the authors in preparing their manuscript, if lacks required standard, to be accepted by the journal. The submitted manuscript is commented by the editor immediately about the suitability to the scope of the journal. If the manuscript falls within the scope of the journal, the editor will provide edit-suggestion to improve the paper which certainly increases the chance of acceptance. Until the manuscript seems ready for the review process, the editor will put effort to make it up to the standard.

The communication between the editor and author will be done through email which reduces the time of revision substantially. Moreover, intensive use of ICT facilities make this communication easily recordable  for several edits and pre-printing stage. Thus, IJBMS can make a decision comparatively in a short time.

Process Time before Publication Decision

Incomplete submission is sent back to the author with the instructions to be followed to make a complete submission. After being official procedures done, the submitted manuscript is provided with edit-suggestions, if requires, by chief editor until it is ready for review. If a manuscript is ready in all aspects of IJBMS's requirement, it is sent out for two double-blind peer-reviews. Reviewed manuscript is examined by the editors and author(s) is notified the decision on publication. If further review or resubmission is required, author is communicated. A usual process of publication is followed onward this stage. If auhtor(s) agrees with the review policy of IJBMS, only then they are requested to send the copyright transfer form and plagiarism-prevention form along with the manuscript. It is to be noted that the journal makes its decision based on an index which is called Standardized Acceptance Factor Average (SAFATM). The SAFATM is an index that is calculated based on the double-blind peer-review comments and assigned weights. Authors must remember that the SAFATM concerns even the overall formatting as well as required referencing style. A manuscript needs more than 0.5 scores to be accepted for publication. If the review version of a manuscript is not properly prepared in terms of citation, reference, overall format and structure, the SAFATM will fall lower which may leads to a decision of rejection. The authors are advised to prepare their manuscript up to the requirement by the journal. If anyone is not able to understand the style guide of the journal, they are requested to consult the chief editor in this regard.

The approximate review time 40 days is counted since the day of being sent out for review. Once a manuscript is sent out for review, author will be notified so that they can watch the time being taken for review. If there is delay, author can contact chief editor to be updated about the progress of their submission.  In case of a decision of acceptance, the manuscript will be in the queue for being produced. The corresponding author will be notified about the anticipated issue number that includes the respective manuscript. Authors can request for formal acceptance letter from the chief editor which will be issued electronically and signed digitally but can be printed while necessary. 

Online Edition First

According to our new system, an accepted and complete manuscript will be published  online first. The corresponding author will be notified once their paper appears on the journal website. The published articles will be available on Ebscohost/ProQuest/RMIT website for easy download.

Format Requirement

Manuscripts should preferably be on A4 paper, in Times Roman 12 point font, single spacing. Shorter contributions are welcome. The first page of  an article should include title and a brief abstract  or summary (150 words). The 2nd page should provide author's(s) details (full name, title and contact address (including telephone, fax and e-mail). The following page should start with the title followed by author's line (name, affiliation) and a brief abstract not more than 150 words.  Corresponding author's name should be mentioned clearly. Subsequent pages should be numbered sequentially.  Click here to see a sample of page one, two and three. Authors are requested not to propose anybody's name out of the editorial board and external review board as a reviewer. Click here to learn about proposing potential reviewers during submission.

Manuscript Length

A research paper or review paper may have maximum 12000 words whereas a case study or short communication should be limited to 8000 words. The word count of a research or methodological note should not exceed 6000 words. A book review should be limited to 1500 words. The journal always appreciate short papers but without sacrificing necessary methodological description. Each letter must not exceed a world count of 500 words.

Illustrative Materials

Authors are encouraged to provide supporting illustrative material with manuscripts. Tables, graphs, maps and drawings should not be separated from the body of the text. For the presentation of quantitative data, graphs are preferred to tables because they contain more information and are easier to edit and reproduce. Authors should provide precise data for the possible re-elaboration of graphs, which should be sent in electronic form. The program in which any graphs or maps are submitted should be indicated.  Graph axes and table column headings are to be labeled with names of variables and units of measurement. It will sometimes be desirable to place more technical material in appendices. Photographs are printed in black and white; however, originals may be submitted either as black- and-white or color prints or high-resolution electronic files. Manuscripts without required format might be rejected or sent back to the author for resubmission.

Style

Articles should be written in plain, concise language and in a style that is accessible and interesting to professionals in general, and not only to specialists in the topic concerned. Jargon should be avoided and technical terms that may be unfamiliar to readers should be defined the first time they appear. Footnotes should be avoided as far as possible. Abbreviations and acronyms should be defined the first time they are used. In order to learn about writing journal article and understand the style of scientific writing you can visit http://www.safaworld.biz/sciwri/index.htm.

Measurement

All measurements should be given in the metric system. When monetary data are mentioned, a conversion to US dollars should be included, based on the current rate at the time the article is submitted.

Equation (Formulae)

1. Subscripts and superscripts should be clear.

2. Take special care to show clearly the difference between zero (0) and the letter (O), and between one (1) and the letter l.

3. Give the meaning of all symbols immediately after the equation in which they are first used.

4. For simple fractions use the solidus (/) instead of a horizontal line. If the equation is complex one, a horizontal line can be used.

5. Equations should be numbered serially at the right-hand side in parentheses by using numbers such (1)and so on. In general only equations explicitly referred to in the text need be numbered.

6. The use of fractional powers instead of root signs is recommended. Also powers of e are often more conveniently denoted by exp.

7. Italic form any part of an equation is not recommended. Authors are recommended to use the same font size (12 points) as the text for equations.

Tables

1. Authors should take notice of the limitations set by the size and layout of the journal. Large tables should be avoided. Reversing columns and rows will often reduce the dimensions of a table. Suggested font size of a table is 9 points excluding table heading. Table heading will have similar font size as general text (12 points).

2. If many data are to be presented, an attempt should be made to divide them over two or more tables.

3. Tables should be numbered according to their sequence in the text. The text should include references to all tables.

4. Each table should have a brief and self-explanatory title.

5. Column headings should be brief, but sufficiently explanatory. Standard abbreviations of units of measurement should be added between parentheses.

6. Vertical lines should not be used to separate columns. Leave some extra space between the columns instead.

7. Any explanation essential to the understanding of the table should be given as a footnote at the bottom of the table. Levels of statistical significance which can be mentioned without further explanation are *P〈 0.05, **P〈 0.01 and ***P〈0.001 at the bottom of the table.

Proofs

When a manuscript is received by the journal, it is considered to be in its final form. As the index concerns all aspects including submission criteria, it is wise to avoid the practice of submitting draft version for examining the chance of acceptance. Proofs are not being regarded as 'drafts'. One set of proofs in PDF format will be sent to the corresponding author, to be checked for typesetting/ editing. No changes in, or additions to, the accepted (and subsequently edited) manuscript will be allowed at this stage. Proofreading is solely author’s responsibility. The Publisher reserves the right to proceed with publication if corrections are not communicated. Corrections need to be returned within 3 working days of receipt of the proofs. Should there be no corrections, please confirm this. IJBMS will do everything possible to get the article corrected and published as quickly and accurately as possible. In order to do this we need author’s assistance. When authors receive the (PDF) proof of an article for correction, it is important to ensure that all corrections are sent back to the publisher in one communication. Subsequent corrections will not be possible, so author must ensure that the first sending is complete. Note that this does not mean you have any less time to make your corrections just that only one set of corrections will be accepted.

References

[Note: When we calculate the index 'SAFATM (Standardized Acceptance  Factor Average)' the reviewers' comments on the entire format as well as reference section are considered. The SAFA can be lower due to low score in these two criteria. Please be aware of your format and reference section. The SAFA is important because the journal makes its decision based on this index which appears on the top right corner of the cover page of a published article. Usually if an article shows the SAFATM more than 0.5 and closed to 1 indicates high quality according to reviewer's opinion.]

Articles should be accompanied by appropriate references. The name of the author(s) and date of publication should be indicated at appropriate points in the text (e.g. Franklin and Forman, 1987; Viana et al., 1996), with the full reference given in a separate list at the end of the article. Please do not forget to mention the name of the city of publishing and publisher. The following issues should be considered during citation and in the reference section: 

a. A tendency and a desire to cite one’s own previous or current work is understandable. However, excessive use of self-citations causes some problems such as revealing authors identity which may minimize the effectiveness of double blind peer review. Thus, try to avoid much self-citation.   

b. If a few citations are made for a section or statement, arrange them alphabetically. If the citations are from same author, arrange them in ascending order by year. Do not use ampersand in anywhere of the text. Also note that two or more works by the same author (or by an identical group of authors) published in the same year are distinguished by “a,” “b,” etc., added after the year.

c. Citations to the source of a direct quotation must give a page number or numbers; these follow the date of publication and are separated from it by a colon. Paraphrasing needs also page number as quotation. Example:

Robert said that “being entrepreneur needs………” (2005:273). (as cited in the text)

In the reference section, the source of quotation must be referenced properly by providing details. Do not forget to mention the name of publishing authority and city.

d. If a study has two authors, give both names every time the work is cited in the text (Raman and Albert, 2005).

e. A citation with more than two authors should provide all authors name during first time citation in the article. Next time for the same citation use the family name of the first author with “et al.” Example:

Most organizations implement three types of pay level…..(Bloom, Abeed and Shankar, 2004). (First citation)
... the lead policy is set up by and employer......(bloom et al., 1976). (Subsequent citation)

f. For more than six authors, use the “et al.” even from the first citation.

g. Referring a software follows exactly the style of referring a book with city and publisher.

Brown, M.W. (1982). This is the title of a book (2nd ed.). City: Publisher.

Chin, Y. (1988). This is the title of a part of a book. In A.R. Finley, S.R. Taft and M.N. Piper (Eds.), this is the book title. (pp. 25-37). City: Publisher.

Clark, B.W. (1988). This is the title of a paper appearing in a published proceeding. In A. B. Cook (Ed.), Proceedings of the 100th Annual Meeting of the Society of Experimental Results (pp. 49-78). City: Publisher.

Fourney, T.T. and Heller, R.N. (January, 1991). This is the title of an unpublished paper presented at a meeting. Paper presented at the 103rd annual meeting of the Society of Experimental Results, City of Meeting, Country.

Goff, A.M. (1987). This is the title of a journal article. Journal of Experimental Results, 1(3): 1-22.

Green, M. (1988, January). This is the title of a magazine article. Magazine of Today, pp. 6-12.

Johnson, R.S. (1989, October 1). This is the title of a newspaper article. The Daily News, pp. 1,6-8.

Jones, M.J. and Smith, A.R. (1990). This is the title of a report (Report No. 90- 1428). City: Publisher.

Miller, G.M. (1988). This is the title of a master’s thesis. Unpublished master’s thesis, Name of the university, City, Country.

Simmons, M.T. (1987). This is the title of a doctoral dissertation (Doctoral dissertation, Name of the university, 1986). Dissertation Abstracts International, 47, 1202.

Burke, T.E. and Lemon, S.D. (1995). Title of the article or information. Available from :www.fao.org/waicent/fOrestiflfo/burke/m-ain.htm [Accessed 25 August 2004].

Sample of Reference Section