Author Guidelines

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

  • The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
  • The submission file is in Open Office, Microsoft Word, or RTF document file format.
  • Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
  • The text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
  • The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements 

 

Author Guidelines

Manuscripts must comply with the following guidelines before entering the review process.

  1. Language

Papers must be written in Standard American English. The language of the paper should be very comprehensible and moulded in proper syntax. Do not use any slang or jargon. Abbreviations and acronyms should be clearly defined when they are first introduced in the text.

  1. English Language Editing

Authors are responsible for the linguistic accuracy of their manuscripts. Authors who are not fully conversant with the English language are highly encouraged to seek advice/assistance from subject specialists with a sound knowledge of English.

  1. Length of Paper

The preferred length of a paper is between 5,000 and 8,000 words inclusive of everything (Tables, Figures, References and Appendices).

  1. Format

Manuscripts must be prepared using Microsoft Word, using Times New Roman as the font type. All paragraphs including footnotes and notes under each Table should be justified. The manuscript should be formatted in one column with Tables and Figures at the end. Leave a blank line between each paragraph, each entry in the reference section, and between each section or part. The line spacing is 1 for the whole manuscript. 

  1. Title Page

The first page of the manuscript includes the title of the manuscript, the authors’ specifications, the Abstract, the Keywords, and the JEL Classification.

  • Title: Brief, effective, and reflective of the manuscript; font size 20, bold and centralized.
  • Author(s): Full name(s) in font size 14, and affiliation(s) in font size 12. Centralized. For multiple authors, please indicate the corresponding author using an asterisk. Author acknowledgements and information on research grants may be written in a footnote on the title page.  
  • Abstract: Must be concise, informative, not more than 150 words, font size 11, the word ‘abstract’ is bold, typed in font size 11.
  • Keywords: Not more than eight; the word ‘keyword’ should not be bold. Separate each key words by using semicolon. 
  • JEL Classification: Provide the JEL Classification for your paper. JEL Classification is the code number for the area of research or manuscript (based on the Abstract). An information guide for the Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) can be found at https://www.aeaweb.org/jel/guide/jel.php. 
  1. Tables and Figures

Tables and Figures should be numbered separately and sequentially using Arabic numerals. Each Table and Figure should be given an informative title. Tables and Figures should be presented in text.

  1. Table Format

Tables should be arranged in the following format:

  • Tables should be submitted as data - .doc, .rtf, Excel or PowerPoint file- Tables submitted as image data are not accepted, for they cannot be edited for publication.
  • The first letter of sentence in the headings of the Tables should be capitalized typed in Times New Roman, font size 12 with single line spacing. A brief Table Heading is preferred.  
  • Tables should be centralized, and the heading should be aligned to the left.
  • The contents of the Table should be in Times New Roman, font size 10, single spacing, and aligned to the left.
  • Table Notes which are presented right below the Tables should be typed in Times New Roman, font size 8, single spacing and aligned to the left.
  1. Section Headings

Section headings should be in bold, font size 12, aligned to the left, and numbered sequentially in Arabic numerals. First level subheadings should be in italics, and the second level subheading should be in italics too.  

Example:

3. Research methods
3.1. Variables
3.1.1. Independent variables

  1. References

References should be listed at the end of the manuscript, arranged alphabetically by the family name or the main name of the first author. For the same author, or for the same set of authors, references should be arranged chronologically. If there is more than one publication in the same year for the same author(s), the letters ‘a’, ‘b’, etc., should be added to the year and used for the in-text citation as well. References to the publications should strictly follow APA referencing style.  

References to other publications in your text should be written as follows:

  • Single author: (Subrahmanyam, 2016)
  • Two authors: (Subrahmanyam and Chordia, 2016)
  • Three or more authors: (Subrahmanyam et al., 2016)

At the end of your paper, please supply a reference list in alphabetical order using the style guidelines below. Where a DOI is available, this should be included at the end of the reference.

 

For journals

Surname, initials (year). title of article. journal name, volume (issue), page numbers.

e.g. Zeng, S. and Wang, L. (2015). CEO gender and corporate cash holdings. Are female CEOs more conservative? Asia-Pacific Journal of Accounting and Economics, 22(4), 449–474.  

 

For books

Surname, initials (year). title of book, publisher, place of publication.

e.g. Harrow, R. (2005). No Place to Hide, Simon & Schuster, New York, NY.

 

For book chapters

Surname, initials (year). chapter title. editor's surname, initials (Ed.), title of book, publisher, place of publication, page numbers.

e.g. Roberts, M.R. and Whited, T.M. (2013). Endogeneity in empirical corporate finance. Constantinides, G.M., Harris, M., Stulz, R.M. (Eds), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, 2(A), Elsevier, Amsterdam, 493-572.  

 

For published conference proceedings

Surname, initials (year of publication). title of paper. in editor’s surname, initials (Ed.), title of published proceeding which may include place and date(s) held, publisher, place of publication, page numbers.

e.g. Wilde, S. and Cox, C. (2008). Principal factors contributing to the competitiveness of tourism destinations at varying stages of development. in Richardson, S., Fredline, L., Patiar A., & Ternel, M. (Ed.s), CAUTHE 2008: Where the 'bloody hell' are we?, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Qld, 115-118.

 

For unpublished conference proceedings

Surname, initials (year). title of paper. paper presented at [name of conference], [date of conference], [place of conference], available at: URL if freely available on the internet (accessed date).

e.g. Aumueller, D. (2005). Semantic authoring and retrieval within a wiki. paper presented at the European Semantic Web Conference (ESWC), 29 May-1 June, Heraklion, Crete, available at: http://dbs.uni-leipzig.de/file/aumueller05wiksar.pdf (accessed 20 February 2007).

 

For working papers

Surname, initials (year). title of article. working paper [number if available], institution or organization, place of organization.

e.g. Moizer, P. (2003). How published academic research can inform policy decisions: the case of mandatory rotation of audit appointments. working paper, Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds, Leeds.

 

For encyclopaedia entries (with no author or editor)

Title of encyclopaedia (year). title of entry. volume, edition, title of encyclopaedia, publisher, place of publication, page numbers.

e.g. Encyclopaedia Britannica (1926). Psychology of culture contact. 1, 13th ed., Encyclopaedia Britannica, London and New York, NY, 765-771.

 

For newspaper articles (authored)

Surname, initials (year). article title. newspaper, date, page numbers.

e.g. Smith, A. (2008). Money for old rope. Daily News, 21 January, 3.

 

For newspaper articles (non-authored)

Newspaper (year). article title. date, page numbers.

e.g. Daily News (2008). Small change. 2 February, 7.

 

For electronic sources

Surname, initials (year). title of electronic source. available at: persistent URL (accessed date month year).

e.g. Weida, S. and Stolley, K. (2013). Developing strong thesis statements. available at: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/588/1/ (accessed 20 June 2018)