Author Guidelines
AUTHOR INSTRUCTION: Replace all bracketed placeholders. Keep the title concise, specific and no longer than 20 words. Remove every grey instruction box before final submission.
[Insert concise and informative article title]
[First Author]¹, [Second Author]² and [Third Author]¹*
¹[Department], [Institution], [City], [Country]
²[Department], [Institution], [City], [Country]
*Corresponding author: [[email protected]] | ORCID: [0000-0000-0000-0000]
AUTHOR INSTRUCTION: For double-blind review, prepare a separate anonymised manuscript without author names, affiliations, acknowledgements or self-identifying statements.
Structured Abstract
Background: [Background text]
Purpose: [Purpose text]
Methodology: [Methodology text]
Findings: [Findings text]
Practical implications: [Practical implications text]
Originality/value: [Originality/value text]
Keywords: [keyword 1; keyword 2; keyword 3; keyword 4; keyword 5]
AUTHOR INSTRUCTION: Keep the abstract within 250 words. Do not include citations, undefined abbreviations, tables or equations. Provide five to seven searchable keywords.
1 Introduction
AUTHOR INSTRUCTION: Establish the problem, context, research gap, objectives or questions, and contribution.
[Insert manuscript text here. Use APA 7th author-date citations, for example, Mensah and Boateng (2025) or (Mensah & Boateng, 2025).]
2 Literature Review
AUTHOR INSTRUCTION: Critically synthesise relevant and current literature rather than listing studies.
[Insert manuscript text here. Use APA 7th author-date citations, for example, Mensah and Boateng (2025) or (Mensah & Boateng, 2025).]
3 Theoretical Framework
AUTHOR INSTRUCTION: Explain the theory or conceptual model and justify hypotheses or propositions where applicable.
[Insert manuscript text here. Use APA 7th author-date citations, for example, Mensah and Boateng (2025) or (Mensah & Boateng, 2025).]
4 Methodology
AUTHOR INSTRUCTION: Describe design, setting, population/sample, measures, procedures, analysis and ethics in enough detail for assessment or replication.
[Insert manuscript text here. Use APA 7th author-date citations, for example, Mensah and Boateng (2025) or (Mensah & Boateng, 2025).]
4.1 Research Design
[Text]
4.2 Population and Sampling
[Text]
4.3 Data Collection and Analysis
[Text]
5 Results
AUTHOR INSTRUCTION: Present findings objectively using text, tables and figures without unnecessary repetition.
[Insert manuscript text here. Use APA 7th author-date citations, for example, Mensah and Boateng (2025) or (Mensah & Boateng, 2025).]
Table 1. Example of a professionally formatted table
|
Construct
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Statistic
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Result
|
|
Construct A
|
Mean
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[0.00]
|
|
Construct B
|
SD
|
[0.00]
|
|
Model
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R²
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[0.00]
|
Source: [Author computation / adapted from source].
AUTHOR INSTRUCTION: Place table captions above tables. Cite every table in the text. Avoid vertical overcrowding and do not insert tables as images.
[INSERT HIGH-RESOLUTION FIGURE HERE]
Figure 1. Example figure caption
Source: [Original / adapted from source].
AUTHOR INSTRUCTION: Use original vector artwork where possible or images of at least 300 dpi. Ensure labels remain legible in colour and grayscale.
Y = β₀ + β₁X₁ + ε (1)
AUTHOR INSTRUCTION: Insert equations with Microsoft Equation Editor. Define every symbol at first use and number only equations cited later.
5.1 Algorithm Example
Algorithm 1: [Algorithm name]
Input: [Describe input]
Output: [Describe output]
1. Initialise variables
2. Repeat until stopping condition
3. Return result
6 Discussion
AUTHOR INSTRUCTION: Interpret findings in relation to prior work, theory and context. Explain significance and unexpected results.
[Insert manuscript text here. Use APA 7th author-date citations, for example, Mensah and Boateng (2025) or (Mensah & Boateng, 2025).]
7 Practical Implications
AUTHOR INSTRUCTION: State actionable implications for policy, practice, management, education or technology design.
[Insert manuscript text here. Use APA 7th author-date citations, for example, Mensah and Boateng (2025) or (Mensah & Boateng, 2025).]
8 Limitations
AUTHOR INSTRUCTION: Identify important limitations honestly and explain their effect on interpretation.
[Insert manuscript text here. Use APA 7th author-date citations, for example, Mensah and Boateng (2025) or (Mensah & Boateng, 2025).]
9 Future Research
AUTHOR INSTRUCTION: Propose focused, feasible directions arising from the findings and limitations.
[Insert manuscript text here. Use APA 7th author-date citations, for example, Mensah and Boateng (2025) or (Mensah & Boateng, 2025).]
10 Conclusion
AUTHOR INSTRUCTION: Answer the research objective, summarise the contribution and avoid introducing new evidence.
[Insert manuscript text here. Use APA 7th author-date citations, for example, Mensah and Boateng (2025) or (Mensah & Boateng, 2025).]
Acknowledgements
[Identify non-author contributions, institutional support or assistance. Omit this section if not applicable.]
Funding Statement
[State funder name and grant number, or: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.]
Conflict of Interest
[The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest / provide full disclosure.]
Author Contributions
[Use CRediT roles where appropriate: Conceptualisation, Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Writing-original draft, Writing-review and editing, Visualisation, Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition.]
Data Availability Statement
[State where data and code can be accessed, include repository and persistent identifier, or explain legitimate restrictions.]
Ethical Approval
[Name approving body, approval number and date, or explain why approval was not required.]
Informed Consent
[State that informed consent was obtained where applicable, or write Not applicable.]
AI Use Disclosure
[Disclose any generative AI assistance in drafting, translation, coding, analysis or image creation. AI tools cannot be authors. Authors retain full responsibility.]
Supplementary Materials
[List supplementary files and explain how they can be accessed.]
References
AUTHOR INSTRUCTION: Use APA 7th edition consistently. Apply a hanging indent. Include DOI links in https://doi.org/ format where available. Verify that every in-text citation appears in the list and vice versa.
Journal article: Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of article. Journal Title, 12(3), 100–120. https://doi.org/xx.xxxx/xxxxx
Book: Author, A. A. (Year). Title of book (2nd ed.). Publisher.
Conference paper: Author, A. A. (Year). Title of paper. In Proceedings of the Conference Name (pp. xx–xx). Publisher. https://doi.org/xx.xxxx/xxxxx
Website: Organisation Name. (Year, Month Day). Title of webpage. Site Name. URL
Report: Organisation Name. (Year). Title of report (Report No. xxx). Publisher. URL
Standard: Standards Organisation. (Year). Title of standard (Standard No. xxx). URL
Dataset: Author, A. A. (Year). Title of dataset (Version) [Data set]. Repository. https://doi.org/xx.xxxx/xxxxx
Software: Developer. (Year). Software title (Version) [Computer software]. Publisher/Repository. URL
Thesis: Author, A. A. (Year). Title of thesis [Doctoral dissertation/Master’s thesis, Institution]. Repository. URL
Appendix A
[Insert appendix material and refer to it in the main text.]
Submission Preparation Checklist
Author Submission Checklist
☐ The manuscript is original and is not under consideration elsewhere.
☐ The correct JISCS template and article type have been used.
☐ The title, abstract and keywords comply with the guidelines.
☐ All author names, affiliations, emails and ORCID identifiers are accurate.
☐ An anonymised manuscript has been prepared for double-blind review.
☐ APA 7th edition citations and references have been checked.
☐ All figures are numbered, cited, legible and supplied at suitable resolution.
☐ All tables are numbered, cited and editable.
☐ Necessary ethical approval and informed consent have been obtained and reported.
☐ Funding and conflicts of interest have been fully disclosed.
☐ Author contributions and data availability statements are included.
☐ Any use of AI tools has been disclosed accurately.
☐ The manuscript has been language edited and proofread.
☐ The work has been checked for plagiarism and duplicate publication.
☐ The copyright and licence agreement has been completed where requested.
☐ All supplementary files have been labelled and uploaded.
Corresponding author name: [Name] Date: [Date]
