Submissions

Author Guidelines

This note provides some guidelines for publication to prospective authors of manuscripts. Contributing authors must comply with the requirements outlined below, in order for their manuscripts to be considered for publication.

Manuscript structure and presentation

Manuscripts should be written in English or Russian. Please note that the Journal’s Editorial Board will undertake the responsibility of translating manuscripts accepted for publication either from English to Russian or vice versa.

In the attempt to promote a common format for manuscripts to be considered for publication in this Journal, it is recommended that prospective authors adhere to the following structure, as much as possible.

-        Title: The title should accurately describe the content of the manuscript.

-        Abstract: A brief summary of the manuscript’s content explicitly informing the reader of its purpose and scope, as well as outlining its core findings and conclusions. The abstract should not exceed 150 words in length.

-        Key words: Up to six key words should be used in accurately reflecting the theme of the manuscript, its core area of research, and methodology employed.

-        Introduction: It should introduce the reader to the issue raised in the manuscript. It should also include information on its structure and line of argument presented.

-        Main body: This section should provide contextual information on the topic under discussion accompanied by the relevant literature review and elaboration of the vital aspects of its theme.

-        Methodology: Inclusion of this section will depend on the type of manuscript. However, if included, it should describe and justify the research methods and other methodology utilised in studying the issue at hand, including information related to the data collected for this research (detailed information on data collection and analysis may appear in an appendix attached at the end of the manuscript).  

-        Discussion of findings: It should present research findings, and reflect how they contribute to the body of scientific knowledge on the topic at hand. It should also indicate its limitations in terms of the research methodology utilised, and link their implications to the pertinent body of scientific knowledge.  

-        Conclusion and recommendations: This section should reiterate the core argument presented in the manuscript, draw appropriate inferences from its findings and arrive at recommendations for further research, and/or potential policy making formulation in order to facilitate understanding by interested practitioners.

-        Acknowledgements: This part should include acknowledgments to individuals who contributed significantly to the completion of the manuscript. Any financial contributions received to complete the work should also be acknowledged. Potential conflicts of interest, which may be perceived as influencing the results and their interpretation must also be disclosed in this section.

-        References: this section should present all references to sources used for the preparation of the manuscript, following conventional presentation style, such as the Harvard Style Manual.  

-        Appendices: This should include tables, figures and data sets which may have been utilised in the work presented in the manuscript.

Presentation style

Manuscripts to be submitted should adhere to the following presentation requirements:

The length of the manuscript should not exceed 8,000 words including the abstract, footnotes and references sections. Tables, figures, charts and appendices may be excluded from the above mentioned word count.

-        File format: MS Office Word;

-        Font: 11-point Palatino;

-        Page margins: 2,5cm all sides; Page numbers: at the bottom right side of the page;

-        Line spacing: single-spaced;

-        Main text: Justified

-        Author name: should appear under the title in italics;

-        Titles: in small caps, bolded; Subtitles: appear in italics, bolded and with only the first letter capitalised;

-        Abstract and key words: appear in italics;

-        Paragraphs: should not be indented;

-        Footnotes: should be numbered in a consecutive order and provided at the bottom of the page; in font 10-point Palatino Linotype

Tables may be submitted in word, excel format; other graphic images and illustrations may be submitted in TIF, JPG, GIF formats of adequate pixel analysis for publication.

Tables should be numbered consecutively, (e.g., Table 1, Table 2, etc), and relevant citations for each table should be provided at the bottom of each table.

Figures refer to other illustrations such as charts, maps, diagrams, photographs, etc, and should be numbered consecutively as well (e.g., Figure 1, Figure 2, etc).

Citation and referencing should be made in accordance with the Harvard system using Author-Date method of citing. References must be presented in the end of the text in an alphabetical order.

Author information

Authors should submit short biographic information containing their name, position and affiliation, research interest/field of expertise as well as full contact details including e-mail and telephone numbers in a separate file.