Submissions

Author Guidelines

1. Submission Process

Please create an account by registering in this journal as an author ( please do not forget to click on the Author box during registration!). Then, submit your paper.

Following the submission, Journal Management System will send a "Submission Acknowledgement" email. If you do not receive this email, please check your spam box and contact the editor at editor@ssbfnet.com.

All manuscripts must be suitable for the Journal Methodology and New Journal Template (2022).

IJRBS prefers APA referencing Style (updated)

We only accept manuscripts in the English language. 

1.1. 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 OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, RTF, or WordPerfect 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 outlined in the Author Guidelines, which is found in About the Journal.
• If submitting to a peer-reviewed section of the journal, the instructions in Ensuring a Blind Review have been followed.
• Please ensure that all references should indicate their DOI numbers if available.

2. Review Process and Editorial Workflow

The Journal has a double-blind system for the peer-review process; both reviewers and authors’ identities remain anonymous. The manuscript will be peer-reviewed by two specialized scholars; two external reviewers and one editor from the journal involved in the reviewing process. The initial review is conducted by an associate editor. If the paper passes the initial review process, the paper will be assigned to 2 external reviewers.  

After evaluation, Editor-in-Chief proposes Editorial decisions for further actions including:

(a) which manuscript, if necessary, should be returned to the author with suggestions, comments and recommendations for improvement, primarily methodological presentation of research materials,

(b) which manuscripts could be sent to the peer-review process,

(c) which manuscripts should be rejected because of the reasons as follows:

• The subject matter does not meet the required scientific level,
• The article with a similar topic has already been published by the same author;
• The subject matter does not meet the criteria of the Journal, especially if:
• the content is beyond the concept of scientific publishing orientation of the Journal (distinguished by the relevant databases) and does not meet international scientific and methodological standards that the Journal must comply with

If an article is not accepted, the Editorial Board sends a notification to the author, but the manuscript is not returned.

If the manuscript is improved adequately, it is sent to two reviewers for extramural review.

If the manuscript is considered for publishing, the authors will receive an “Editorial Decision” Email and an author verification email via ORCID to confirm the originality of the article and the validity of authorship.

In order to avoid withdrawing the paper until it is published or rejected, by signing the Authorship Statement, the authors assert compliance with the review process.

Reviewers stay anonymous for the authors and so do the authors for the reviewers. The reviewers are asked to apply the highest international standards in their assessment of the submitted work. Reviewers receive an article and a Reviewer Evaluation Form with instructions on how to fill it in. If the article does not fulfill the primary criteria of originality and relevance to the subject, it should not be accepted.

The categories in which articles, if judged positively, might be classified are:

An original scientific paper is a scientific paper that includes new results based on the research. The information given in the article can be verified by:

1. Reproducing methodological procedure and obtaining the same/similar results or with a tolerable degree of mistakes as estimated by the author himself;
2. Repeating the author’s observations and judging his analyses;
3. Checking the author’s analyses and deduction on which the author’s analyses are based.

Preliminary communication is an article that includes at least one or more pieces of scientific information but does not include the necessary details to check the scientific cognition.

A conference paper is an article that deals with the author’s presentation at a conference and has not been previously published as a full text.

A review article is an article that analyzes a special scientific problem already dealt with in published scientific works, but his approach is original and new.

A professional paper is an article that deals with specific problems in some professional areas.

After receiving the reviews, the Editorial Board will give clear general instructions to the author for further work on the manuscript. The comments and suggestions made by the reviewers should be addressed and closely followed by the author prior to the final recommendation on acceptance or rejection made by the Editorial Board.

Only manuscripts with two positive reviews are published. After completion of peer review and amendment of the text of the accepted articles by the authors and editors, the Editor-in-chief, proposes the sequence of accepted papers in the table of contents.

Criteria for the order are:

(1) Categorization according to the degree of scientific excellence,

(2) In case of two different levels of categorization of a particular article by reviewers, Editor-in-Chief proposes a decision to the Editorial Board, and as a rule, in favor of the author, i.e. a higher category,

(3) Appreciation of topical issues, authors and common interest of the Journal taking into account the competitiveness at the same level of scientific excellence (category).

3. Author Instructions

3.1. Article Type

IJRBS requires authors to carefully select the appropriate article type for their manuscript and to comply with the article type descriptions defined in the journal’s "Article Types" page, which can be seen from the "For Authors" menu on any IJRBS journal page. Please pay close attention to the word count limits.

3.2. Templates

If working with Word please use our IJRBS Word templates.

During the review round authors are encouraged to upload versions using “Track Changes.” Editors and reviewers can only download the PDF file of the submitted manuscript.

3.3. Manuscript Length

IJRBS encourages the authors to closely follow the article word count lengths given in the “Article Types” page of the journals. The manuscript length includes only the main body of the text, footnotes, and all citations within it, and excludes the abstract, section titles, figure and table captions, funding statement, acknowledgments, and references in the bibliography. Please indicate the number of words and the number of figures and tables included in your manuscript on the first page.

3.4. Language Editing

IJRBS requires manuscripts submitted to meet international English language standards to be considered for publication.

For authors who would like their manuscript to receive language editing or proofreading to improve the clarity of the manuscript and help highlight their research, IJRBS recommends external language-editing services.

3.5. Language Style

The default language style at IJRBS is American English. If you prefer your article to be formatted in British English, please specify this on the first page of your manuscript. For any questions regarding style, IJRBS recommends authors to consult the Chicago Manual of Style.

3.6. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

There are a few simple ways to maximize your article’s discoverability. Follow the steps below to improve search results of your article:

• include a few of your article's keywords in the title of the article;
• do not use long article titles;
• pick 5 to 8 keywords using a mix of generic and more specific terms on the article subject(s);
• use the maximum number of keywords in the first 2 sentences of the abstract;
• use some of the keywords in level 1 headings.

3.7. Title

The title should be concise, omitting terms that are implicit and, where possible, be a statement of the main result or conclusion presented in the manuscript. Abbreviations should be avoided within the title.

Witty or creative titles are welcome, but only if relevant and within measure. Consider if a title meant to be thought-provoking might be misinterpreted as offensive or alarming. In extreme cases, the editorial office may veto a title and propose an alternative.

Authors should try to avoid, if possible:

• titles that are a mere question without giving the answer;
• unambitious titles, for example, starting with "Towards," "A description of," "A characterization of," "Preliminary study on;"
• vague titles, for example, starting with "Role of…," "Link between…," "Effect of..." that do not specify the role, link, or effect;
• include terms that are out of place, for example, the taxonomic affiliation apart from species name.

For Corrigenda, General Commentaries, and Editorials, the title of your manuscript should have the following format:

• "Corrigendum: Title of Original Article"
• General Commentaries
• "Commentary: Title of Original Article"
• "Response: Commentary: Title of Original Article"
• "Editorial: Title of Research Topic"

The running title should be a maximum of 5 words in length.

3.8. Authors and Affiliations

All names are listed together and separated by commas. Provide exact and correct author names as these will be indexed in official archives. Affiliations should be keyed to the author's name with superscript numbers and be listed as follows: Laboratory, Institute, Department, Organization, City, State abbreviation (only for United States, Canada, and Australia), and Country (without detailed address information such as city zip codes or street names).

Example: Denn Clifton¹

¹ Department of Excellence, International University of Science, New York, NY, United States.

Correspondence:

The Corresponding Author(s) should be marked with an asterisk in the author list. Provide the exact contact email address of the corresponding author(s) in a separate section.

Example: Denn Clifton

dencliff@ihu.edu

If any authors wish to include a change of address, list the present address(es) below the correspondence details using a unique superscript symbol keyed to the author(s) in the author list.

Equal contributions:

The authors who have contributed equally should be marked with a symbol (†) in the author list of the doc/latex and pdf files of the manuscript uploaded at submission.

Standard statements to include in the author list:

Example: Den Clifton 1^†, John Smith2^† and Barbara Smith1

^†These authors have contributed equally to this work and share first authorship

3.9. Consortium/Group and Collaborative Authors

Consortium/group authorship should be listed in the manuscript with the other author(s).

In cases where authorship is retained by the consortium/group, the consortium/group should be listed as an author separated by “,” or “and,”. The consortium/group name will appear in the author list, in the citation, and in the copyright. If provided, the consortium/group members will be listed in a separate section at the end of the article.

For the collaborators of the consortium/group to be indexed in PubMed, they do not have to be inserted in the IJRBS submission system individually. However, in the manuscript itself, provide a section with the name of the consortium/group as the heading followed by the list of collaborators, so they can be tagged accordingly and indexed properly.

Example: John Smith, Barbara Smith and The Collaborative Working Group.

In cases where work is presented by the author(s) on behalf of a consortium/group, it should be included in the author list separated with the wording “for” or “on behalf of.” The consortium/group will not retain authorship and will only appear in the author list.

Example: John Smith and Barbara Smith on behalf of The Collaborative Working Group.

3.10. Abstract

As a primary goal, the abstract should render the general significance and conceptual advance of the work clearly accessible to a broad readership. In the abstract, minimize the use of abbreviations and do not cite references, figures or tables. Up to 100-250 words must contain:

• Research objective
• Method/Model/ Conception of analysis
• Main findings and results of research (analysis)
• The underlined conclusion of research
• The abstract should not be written in paragraphs

3.11. Keywords

All article types require a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 8 keywords.

3.12. Text

The entire document should be single-spaced and must contain page and line numbers in order to facilitate the review process. The manuscript should be written using  Word.

1.13. Sections

The manuscript is organized by headings and subheadings. The section headings should be those appropriate for your field and the research itself. You may insert up to 5 heading levels into your manuscript (i.e.,: 3.2.2.1.2 Heading Title).

For Original Research Articles, it is recommended to organize your manuscript in the following sections or their equivalents for your field:

3.13.1 Introduction

Succinct, with no subheadings. Introduction – defines the problem and the subject matter of the research referring to recent bibliography and findings. However, these can more specifically be dealt with in the second section Literature review. The last part of the introduction is reserved for setting the hypothesis of the research that will be later on analyzed at the beginning of the conclusions. Finally, Introduction ends up by giving clues about the organization of the text.

3.13.2 Literature Review

Theoretical and Conceptual Background should be efficiently discussed linking hypothesis with empirical reviews. Up-To-date top-class citations will improve the impact of research on readers.

3.13.3 Research and Methodology

This section may be divided by subheadings and should contain sufficient detail so that when read in conjunction with cited references, all procedures can be repeated. For experiments reporting results on animal or human subject research, an ethics approval statement should be included in this section. usually in the second section of the paper, the method/model/conception of the analysis should be transparently presented and pointed out in case of the research results are subjected to re-testing by interested researchers which is one of the fundamental principles of the scientific methodology).

3.13.4 Findings and Discussion

Findings section may be divided by subheadings. Footnotes should not be used and must be transferred to the main text.

Discussion section may be divided by subheadings. Discussions should cover the key findings of the study: discuss any prior research related to the subject to place the novelty of the discovery in the appropriate context, discuss the potential shortcomings and limitations on their interpretations, discuss their integration into the current understanding of the problem and how this advances the current views, speculate on the future direction of the research, and freely postulate theories that could be tested in the future.

For further information, please check the descriptions defined in the journal’s "Article Types" page, which can be seen from the "For Authors" menu on any IJRBS journal page.

3.13.5 Conclusions

Conclusion section is not supposed to be a summary! Conclusions are the author’s original thoughts and evaluation of the obtained results including the items as follows:

• Explanation of the working hypothesis – proved or not proved;
• Assessment of the results of research/analysis with the focus on what can be classified
• as a new contribution to science;
• Attention drawn to research limitations and problems;
• Guidelines to future research;
• Assessment of institutional-systemic implications of the results obtained by the
• research (suggestions and recommendations for changes of economic system, economic and financial policy, development policy, instruments, measurements or similar).

3.13.6 Acknowledgments

This is a short text to acknowledge the contributions of specific colleagues, institutions, or agencies that aided the efforts of the authors. Should the content of the manuscript have previously appeared online, such as in a thesis or preprint, this should be mentioned here, in addition to listing the source within the reference list.

3.13.7 Contribution to the Field Statement

When you submit your manuscript, you will be required to briefly summarize in 200 words your manuscript’s contribution to, and position in, the existing literature in your field. This should be written avoiding any technical language or non-standard acronyms. The aim should be to convey the meaning and importance of this research to a non-expert. While IJRBS evaluates articles using objective criteria, rather than impact or novelty, your statement should frame the question(s) you have addressed in your work in the context of the current body of knowledge, providing evidence that the findings—whether positive or negative—contribute to progress in your research discipline. This will assist the Chief Editors to determine whether your manuscript fits within the scope of a specialty as defined in its mission statement; a detailed statement will also facilitate the identification of the editors and reviewers most appropriate to evaluate your work, ultimately expediting your manuscript's initial consideration.

4. CC-BY Licence

International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478) by SSBFNET is licensed under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 International License.

For all articles published in IJRBS, copyright is retained by the authors. Articles are licensed under an open access Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license, meaning that anyone may download and read the paper for free. In addition, the article may be reused and quoted provided that the original published version is cited. These conditions allow for maximum use and exposure of the work while ensuring that the authors receive proper credit.

4.1 Reproducing Published Material from other Publishers

It is absolutely essential that authors obtain permission to reproduce any published material (figures, schemes, tables or any extract of a text) which does not fall into the public domain, or for which they do not hold the copyright. Permission should be requested by the authors from the copyright holder (usually the Publisher, please refer to the imprint of the individual publications to identify the copyright holder).

Permission is required for:

1. Your own works published by other Publishers and for which you did not retain copyright.
2. Substantial extracts from anyone's works or a series of works.
3. Use of Tables, Graphs, Charts, Schemes and Artworks if they are unaltered or slightly modified.
4. Photographs for which you do not hold the copyright.

Permission is not required for:

1. Reconstruction of your own table with data already published elsewhere. Please notice that in this case you must cite the source of the data in the form of either "Data from..." or "Adapted from...".
2. Reasonably short quotes are considered fair use and therefore do not require permission.
3. Graphs, Charts, Schemes and Artworks that are completely redrawn by the authors and significantly changed beyond recognition do not require permission.

4.2. Obtaining Permission

In order to avoid unnecessary delays in the publication process, you should start obtaining permissions as early as possible. If in any doubt about the copyright, apply for permission. IJRBS cannot publish material from other publications without permission.

The copyright holder may give you instructions on the form of acknowledgment to be followed; otherwise, follow the style: "Reproduced with permission from [author], [book/journal title]; published by [publisher], [year].' at the end of the caption of the Table, Figure or Scheme.

5. Figure Requirements and Style Guidelines

• All figures with appropriate label should be placed within the text.
• Text on figure must be written Times-new Roman in English only.
• Kindly ensure that each figure is mentioned in the text and in numerical order.

Please note that figures not in accordance with the guidelines will cause substantial delay during the production process.

5.1.1. Captions

Captions should be preceded by the appropriate label, for example "Figure 1: " Figures should be placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.

5.1. 2. Image Size and Resolution Requirements

Figures should be prepared with the PDF layout in mind. Individual figures should not be longer than one page and with a width that corresponds to 1 column (85 mm) or 2 columns (180 mm).

All images must have a resolution of 300 dpi at final size. Check the resolution of your figure by enlarging it to 150%. If the image appears blurry, jagged or has a stair-stepped effect, the resolution is too low.

• The text should be legible and of high quality. The smallest visible text should be no less than 8 points in height when viewed at actual size.
• Solid lines should not be broken up. Any lines in the graphic should be no smaller than 2 points wide.

Please note that saving a figure directly as an image file (JPEG, TIF) can greatly affect the resolution of your image. To avoid this, one option is to export the file as PDF, then convert into TIFF or EPS using a graphics software.

5.1.3 Format and Color Image Mode

• The following formats are accepted: TIF/TIFF (.tif/.tiff), JPEG (.jpg), and EPS (.eps) (upon acceptance).
• Images must be submitted in the color mode RGB.

5.2 Table Requirements and Style Guidelines

• Tables must be placed within the text in numerical order.
• Tables should be inserted at the end of the manuscript in an editable format. If you use a word processor, build your table in Word. An empty line should be left before and after the table.
• Table captions must be placed immediately before the table. Captions should be preceded by the appropriate label, for example "Table 1:" Please use only a single paragraph for the caption.
• Kindly ensure that each table is mentioned in the text and in numerical order.
• Please note that large tables covering several pages cannot be included in the final PDF for formatting reasons. 

Please note that tables that are not according to the guidelines will cause substantial delays during the production process.

5.3 Accessibility

IJRBS encourages authors to make the figures and visual elements of their articles accessible to the visually impaired. Effective use of color can help people with low visual acuity, or color blindness, understand all the content of an article.

These guidelines are easy to implement and are in accordance with the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1), the standard for web accessibility best practices.

5.4 Supplementary Material

Data that are not of primary importance to the text, or which cannot be included in the article because they are too large or the current format does not permit it (such as videos, raw data traces, powerpoint presentations, etc.), can be uploaded as Supplementary Material during the submission procedure and will be displayed along with the published article. All supplementary files are deposited to Figshare for permanent storage and receive a DOI.

Technical requirements for Supplementary Images:

• 300 DPIs
• RGB color mod

6. References

IJRBS uses only APA style (Author-Date) referencing.

• All citations in the text, figures or tables must be in the reference list and vice-versa.
• The names of the first six authors followed by et al. and the DOI (when available) should be provided.
• Given names of authors should be abbreviated to initials (e.g., Smith, J., Lewis, C.S., etc.)
• The reference list should only include articles that are published or accepted.
• Unpublished data, submitted manuscripts or personal communications should be cited within the text only, for the article types that allow such inclusions.
• For accepted but unpublished works use "in press" instead of page numbers.
• Data sets that have been deposited to an online repository should be included in the reference list. Include the version and unique identifier when available.
• Personal communications should be documented by a letter of permission.
• Website URLs should be included as footnotes.
• Any inclusion of verbatim text must be contained in quotation marks and clearly reference the original source.
• Preprints can be cited as long as a DOI or archive URL is available, and the citation clearly mentions that the contribution is a preprint. If a peer-reviewed journal publication for the same preprint exists, the official journal publication is the preferred source.

6.1 APA style referencing system 

SSBFNET Journals use the APA style referencing system. Reference examples are found below, for more examples of citing other documents and general questions regarding the APA reference style, please refer to Mendeley's APA Format style guide.

6.2 In-text Citations

• For works by a single author, include the surname, followed by the year.
• For works by two authors, include both surnames, followed by the year.
• For works by more than two authors, include only the surname of the first author followed by et al., followed by the year.
• For Humanities and Social Sciences articles, include the page numbers.

6.3  Reference List

Hatammimi, J. & Dita Purnama, S. (2022). Factors affecting prospective entrepreneurs to utilize e-marketplace: A study of business school students in Indonesia. International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147- 4478), 11(1), 01–11. https://doi.org/10.20525/ijrbs.v11i1.1573

6.7 In-text Citations

• Please apply the (Author, Date) and refer to et al. for articles with more than 2 authors. ( Dincer et al., 2022)

7. Proofreading

Authors are responsible for ensuring that their manuscripts are accurately typed before final submission. One set of proof will be sent to authors, if requested, before the final publication, which must be returned promptly.

8. Free Registration

Tips for Register and Profile

The journal uses a registration system for all users involved in the editorial and publishing process. The journal's Privacy Policy applies to all registered users. Each registered user has a Profile, which can be edited or added after the user is logged in to the journal. The link for the Profile is found in the right-hand margin under User and on the User Home page.

For all users, there is an email update option, which results in the user being notified by email of each new issue's Table of Contents. For journals operating in more than one language, Reviewers can indicate in their Profile the languages in which they are comfortable reviewing submissions.

Why Register?

When you register the system creates a "User Home" page for you which make it easier to access your journals. You must register if you wish to submit a paper to any journal or if you will be a member of the editorial team (eg, editor, reviewer, proofreader) of any journal.

Some journals restrict access to some portions of their site unless you are registered.

Privacy Policy

The journal's privacy policy applies to all registered users. You can find more information on the journal's privacy policy in About the Journal.

How do I register?

You can register by clicking on "Log In" or "Register" on the site home page or on any journal's home page. Alternatively, you can ask a Journal Manager to register you. Contact information can be found in About the Journal.

Profile

You create a profile (including a username and password) when you register. You can edit your profile any time you are logged in. In the right navigation bar under the title "User", the link "My Profile" appears; click on that link and you are taken to your profile. Here you can change your contact information; reviewing interests, roles, and can manage email notifications for journals you have registered with.