Guidelines for Author

These guidelines define the submission, peer review, ethical, and formatting standards required for manuscripts submitted to the journal. The journal follows Core Practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and internationally recognized standards. The journal is committed to editorial independence, transparency, research integrity, and the preservation of the scholarly record.

1. Submission

  • Manuscripts must be submitted electronically through the Open Journal System (OJS) available on the journal’s official website. Submissions sent by email or through any other means will not be considered. Authors are required to register in OJS prior to submission and follow the step-by-step submission process provided by the system.
  • By submitting a manuscript, the author(s) confirm that the submission complies with all formatting, ethical, and authorship requirements outlined in the journal’s Instructions for Authors. Manuscripts that do not conform to these requirements may be returned to the authors for correction before further processing.
  • All submitted manuscripts undergo an initial editorial screening conducted by the editorial office or handling editor. This assessment evaluates the manuscript’s relevance to the journal’s scope, originality, technical quality, and adherence to ethical and formatting standards. Manuscripts that do not meet the submission criteria may be returned to the authors for technical revision prior to peer review or declined at this stage.
  • Authors must ensure that the submitted manuscript is original and has not been previously published or submitted for consideration elsewhere, either in whole or in part. Redundant or duplicate publication and simultaneous submissions are strictly prohibited. Any form of plagiarism, self-plagiarism, data fabrication, data falsification, image manipulation, or citation manipulation constitutes a serious violation of publication ethics. Such misconduct may lead to manuscript rejection, correction, or retraction, in accordance with the journal’s editorial policies and international publishing standards.
  • Authors are required to retain the underlying research data associated with their manuscript and make it available upon reasonable request. Where applicable, manuscripts should include a Data Availability Statement indicating how the supporting data can be accessed. This practice promotes transparency, verification, and reproducibility of the reported research findings.
  • Studies involving human participants or animals must include a statement confirming approval from an appropriate ethics review committee and confirmation of informed consent, where applicable.

2. Manuscript Preparation

  • Language and Style: Manuscripts must be written in clear, grammatically correct English and conform to APA editorial style.
  • Length: Manuscripts must not exceed 7,000 words, including references, tables, and figures, unless otherwise specified.
  • Formatting Requirements: Authors should submit their article as an MS Word document organized into three sections: (1) Front Matter, (2) Main Body, and (3) Back Matter. The document must be prepared in Times New Roman font, with the title in 14-point bold and center-aligned, and all headings and body text in 12-point regular. Authors’ details should be in italics, except for the authors’ names, and the abstract should also be italicized. Keywords should be arranged in alphabetical order, written in title case, separated by commas, and end with a full stop. The document should have single (1.0) line spacing and 1-inch margins on all sides. The first line of the initial paragraph under each new heading or subheading should be indented using a tab to ensure consistency. References must be listed at the end of the manuscript, arranged alphabetically by authors’ surnames, and formatted with a 0.25-inch hanging indent for the second and subsequent lines of each entry. Authors are encouraged to download the manuscript template and place their content in the appropriate sections.

3. Manuscript Structure

3.1. Front Matter

The following key information should be provided on the first page.

  • Title: The title of the article should be a precise and self-explanatory sentence that clearly conveys the theme of the research. It should be written as a declarative phrase without ending punctuation. Abbreviations should be avoided unless essential. Words should follow Title Case, except for function words unless they begin the title.
  • Author's Information: After the research title, a new line should be added, followed by the list of author(s) in sequence. Each author must provide their full name and affiliation, including designation, university or institution, contact number, postal address, email address, and country. Besides, providing author(s)’ ORCID identifiers are encouraged. The author who submits the article will be considered the corresponding author, indicated by an asterisk (*), with a footnote providing the corresponding author’s email address and the statement: “This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC license.” The journal discourages including titles such as , Lecturer, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Researcher, or Student with the author's name in the final paper.
  • Abstract: A concise and factual abstract of a maximum of 300 words is required. The abstract should be self-contained, free of citations, and briefly state the purpose of the research, methodology, key results or findings, and major conclusions. It should be written as a single paragraph with running sentences, without subheadings or bullet points. Non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided; if essential, they must be defined at first mention within the abstract.
  • Keywords: Immediately after the abstract, authors must provide a minimum of three and a maximum of nine keywords. Keywords should avoid general or plural terms and multiple concepts (e.g., avoid words like “and” or “of”).
  • JEL Codes: The JEL classification system, developed by the Journal of Economic Literature, is a standard method for classifying scholarly literature in economics and related research fields. Authors are required to provide key JEL codes that appropriately reflect and cover the specific focus of their study.

3.2. Main Body

In this section, introduction, literature review, methodology, results, discussion, and conclusion should be included. Each section must appear sequentially with its heading.

  • Introduction: Provides sufficient background information to establish the context of the study, clearly stating the research problem, objectives, and significance of the research.
  • Literature Review: Provides background information about the research variables and their inter-relationships based upon the existing research/literature.
  • Materials and Methods: Clearly describe the research design, methodological approach (quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods), and procedures used in the study. Provide sufficient detail to allow replication of the methodology and the process used to reach the study’s conclusions. Ethical considerations must also be addressed to ensure confidentiality and protect participants’ rights.
  • Results: Present them in logical sequence through paragraphs, tables & figures but avoiding repetition. All tables and figures should be placed within the main text at the point where they are first referenced and should not be included as appendices unless necessary.
  • Discussions: Interpret results and relate them with existing knowledge relating to the methods and results of the respective area of research.
  • Conclusions: A short but pointed evaluation of the research activity and findings that what the researcher has achieved at the end.

 3.3. Back Matter

In this section, acknowledgments, author contributions, conflicts of interest, funding, and references should be included. Each section must appear sequentially with its heading.

  • Acknowledgments: Authors should acknowledge individuals who made significant contributions to the research but do not meet the criteria for authorship. Written permission must be obtained from all individuals who are acknowledged.
  • Author Contributions: A detailed Author Contributions statement must specify the role of each author in the research process. Contributions may include conceptualization, methodology, data collection, data analysis, manuscript drafting, and critical revision of the manuscript. All authors must approve the final version of the manuscript.
  • Conflicts of Interest: Authors must disclose any financial, institutional, or personal relationships that could influence or appear to influence the research. If no conflicts exist, authors should state: “The authors declare that they have no competing interests.”
  • Funding: Authors must disclose all sources of financial support for the research, including the name(s) of the funding organization(s) and grant number(s), where applicable. If no external funding was received, authors should state: “This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.”

3.3.1. References and Citation: The journal follows the American Psychological Association (APA) style for citation and referencing. Authors are encouraged to cite recent sources, preferably published within the last five years.

  • In-Text Citations: For a single author, the parenthetical citation is written as (Smith, 2020), while the narrative form is Smith (2020). For two authors, the parenthetical citation appears as (Smith & Jones, 2020), whereas the narrative citation is written as Smith and Jones (2020). When there are three or more authors, the parenthetical citation is shortened to (Smith et al., 2020), and the narrative form is Smith et al. (2020). For organizational authors, the parenthetical citation is written as (Soneri, 2020), while the narrative citation appears as Soneri (2020).
  • References: Reference style requires that authors’ names be written in the format of last name followed by initials, with an ampersand (&) used before the final author in works with multiple authors, and the publication year presented in parentheses immediately after the authors’ names. Titles of works, including articles, chapters, webpages, and theses, should be written in title case, while source titles such as journals and books, along with volume numbers, should also appear in title case. The issue number, if available, should be included in parentheses immediately after the volume number, and page ranges should be provided where applicable to indicate the specific location of the work. Additionally, a digital object identifier (DOI) or URL should be included whenever available to facilitate accurate access and retrieval of the source.

Examples:   

  1. Article: Rauf, A., Ghani, A., & Shah, S. A. H. (2021). Strategic Importance of Gwadar Port in Central Asia. Research Mosaic, 1(1), 01–11. https://doi.org/10.64428/rm/v1.i1.1
  2. Book: Yin, R. (1994). Case Study Research: Design and Methods (2nd). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publishing.
    Kothari, C. R. (1986). Quantitative Techniques. VIKAS Publishing House, New Delhi.
  3. Thesis/Dissertation: Khan, A. S. (2011). The Job Satisfaction of District Officers(Doctoral Dissertation, Gomal University, Dera Ismail Khan, KPK, Pakistan).
  4. Chapter: Lyon, R. A., & Titeler, M. (1989). Pharmacology and Biochemistry of the 5-HT2 In: Sanders-Bush, E. (ed). The Serotonin Receptors. Clifton, NJ: Humana Press: pp. 59-88.
  5. WebSite Material: Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. (2014, December 5). Healthy People 2011. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. http://health.gov/healthypeople

4. Tables and Figures/Images: Tables should be presented in a clear, concise, and readable format. Each table must be numbered consecutively (e.g., Table 1, Table 2) and include a descriptive caption placed above the table (e.g., Table 1: Caption of the Table), with both the table number and caption in bold. Tables should be single-spaced, use a 10–12-point font, and be fully editable rather than inserted as images. They should be designed with minimal horizontal lines and no vertical lines, and column headings must be clear and concise, with appropriate units of measurement where necessary. Any abbreviations, symbols, or statistical notations used within the table must be clearly explained in a note below the table (e.g., Note: SD = Standard Deviation), and levels of statistical significance should be indicated using standard notation where applicable (e.g., p < .05, p < .01).

All figures and images must be openly accessible and labeled as “Figure/Image 1: Caption of the figure/image.” The label should be placed below the figure or image. Where applicable, the source should also be provided at the bottom. All captions must be editable.

Note: The Editor reserves the right to make technical and linguistic edits to improve clarity, formatting, and consistency with journal standards. Such edits will not alter the intellectual content of the work.