Author Guidelines

Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the authorities responsible where the work was carried out. However, we accept submissions that have previously appeared on preprint servers (for example: arXiv, bioRxiv, Nature Precedings, Philica, Social Science Research Network, and Vixra); have previously been presented at conferences; or have previously appeared in other “non-journal” venues (for example: blogs or posters). Authors are responsible for updating the archived preprint with the journal reference (including DOI) and a link to the published articles on the appropriate journal website upon publication.

Article type:

IJSD will publish original works including research articles, general articles or commentary on important issues and book reviews. It may be ensured that:

• The paper should be in line with the broad themes discussed in the scope of Journal.
• The paper should either be conceptual or empirical.
• The contributions should be original, scientifically written and unpublished work of the author(s) with citation of proper sources/literature.
• The paper should not be under consideration elsewhere for publication.
• All the figures, tables, graphs, pictures, illustrations used in the paper should be clearly numbered and placed appropriately.
• Copyright infringement and plagiarism is discouraged with preliminary verification and authors will be held responsible for any violations.

Circulation:

The journal is web hosted in open domain for free access to the general public and available to research institutes, institutions, universities, colleges, academic institutions, state Government Departments/Libraries, all ATIs, SIRDs, SIUDs etc all over the globe.

ISSN Number:

The Journal ISSN Number is in the process of being obtained.

Submission Policy:

The Journal receives manuscripts only in electronic form. The electronic manuscript should be submitted by the corresponding author(s) in compliance with the author's guidelines. Original research articles, conference/ seminar papers, and review articles must be previously unpublished. Articles are required to be submitted through portal only at: as MS Word doc file. PDF will not be accepted. Figures are to be put at the relevant place within the article.

Periodicity:

The journal is proposed to be published half-yearly, January-June and July-December. It will be available at the end of period i.e., June and December. The manuscripts received during October-March are considered for publication in January-June Issue whereas the manuscripts received during April-September period are considered for publication in July-December Issue. A period of further three months is taken for the review and other related processes.

Peer Review and Ethics

IJSD is committed to peer-review integrity and upholding the highest standards of review. This journal operates a double anonymized review process. All contributions will be initially assessed by the editor for suitability for the journal. Papers deemed suitable are then typically sent to a minimum of two independent expert reviewers to assess the scientific quality of the paper. The Editor is responsible for the final decision regarding acceptance or rejection of articles. The Editor's decision is final. Editors are not involved in decisions about papers which they have written themselves or have been written by family members or colleagues or which relate to products or services in which the editor has an interest. Any such submission is subject to all of the journal's usual procedures, with peer review handled independently of the relevant editor.

Article structure

 Article Title: The title should not be more than 12 words

 Title page information

• Title: Concise and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.
• Author names and affiliation:Please clearly indicate the given name(s) and family name(s) of each author and check that all names are accurately spelled.
• Corresponding author:Clearly indicate who will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication. This responsibility includes answering any future queries about Methodology and Materials. Ensure that the e-mail address is given and that contact details are kept up to date by the corresponding author.

 Keywords
Immediately after the abstract, provide a maximum of 5 keywords, using British or American spelling, but not a mixture of these, and avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, "and", "of"). Be sparing with abbreviations: only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be eligible. These keywords will be used for indexing purposes.

 Text

• An original article would normally consist of 3000-5000 words (excluding figures, tables and references), although high-quality articles which exceed 5000 words will be considered.
• All articles must be written in English, using UK spelling and terminology. The text and English language in new and revised articles must be checked, edited and corrected by the authors, preferably with the help of a native English speaker.
• Submissions may be formatted in single spacing, in Times New Roman size 12 font.

• Paragraphs in manuscripts should be generally no longer than 15 lines (125-200 words.
• Manuscript has been 'spell checked' and 'grammar checked'
• All references mentioned in the Reference List are cited in the text, and vice versa
•  Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Internet)

Manuscripts should be prepared according to APA, 6th ed., except for the additional requirement of numbering the sections, as described below.

 Headings:

Headings must be concise, with a clear indication of the distinction between the hierarchy of headings. The preferred format is for the first level headings to be presented in bold format and subsequent sub-headings in medium italics

Notes and End Notes: Notes or Endnotes should be used only if absolutely necessary and must be identified in the text by consecutive numbers, enclosed in square brackets and listed at the end of the article.

Subdivision - numbered sections

Divide your article into clearly defined and numbered sections. Subsections should be numbered 1.1 (then 1.1.1, 1.1.2, ...), 1.2, etc. (the abstract is not included in section numbering). Use this numbering also for internal cross-referencing: do not just refer to 'the text'. Any subsection may be given a brief heading. Each heading should appear on its own separate line. Please include page numbers.

Appendices
If there is more than one appendix, they should be identified as A, B, etc. Formulae and equations in appendices should be given separate numbering: Eq. (A.1), Eq. (A.2), etc.; in a subsequent appendix, Eq. (B.1) and so on. Similarly for tables and figures: Table A.1; Fig. A.1, etc.

 Abbreviations
Define abbreviations that are not standard. Such abbreviations that are unavoidable must be defined at their first mention there. Ensure consistency of abbreviations throughout the article.

Tables

Please submit tables as editable text and not as images. Tables can be placed next to the relevant text in the article.

Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text and place any table notes below the table body. The title of the table should be placed above the table. The source should be indicated at the bottom. Please avoid shading in table cells.

Units of Measurement

IJSD follow the Systèmes International (SI) for units of measurement.

Citation in text

Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa).

Data references

This journal encourages you to cite underlying or relevant datasets in your manuscript by citing them in your text and including a data reference in your Reference List. 

Reference style

Text: Citations in the text should follow the referencing style used by the American Psychological Association. You are referred to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Seventh Edition, ISBN 978-1-4338-3215-4.
List: references should be arranged first alphabetically and then further sorted chronologically if necessary. More than one reference from the same author(s) in the same year must be identified by the letters 'a', 'b', 'c', etc., placed after the year of publication.

Plagiarism

 IJSD considers issues related to copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of IJSD against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with plagiarism checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarized other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.

 Declaration of generative AI in scientific writing

The below guidance only refers to the writing process, and not to the use of AI tools to analyse and draw insights from data as part of the research process. Where authors use generative artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process, authors should only use these technologies to improve readability and language. Applying the technology should be done with human oversight and control, and authors should carefully review and edit the result, as AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that can be incorrect, incomplete or biased. AI and AI-assisted technologies should not be listed as an author or co-author, or be cited as an author. 

 Disclosure instructions

 Authors must disclose the use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process by adding a statement at the end of their manuscript in the core manuscript file, before the References list. The statement should be placed in a new section entitled ‘Declaration of Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process’. This declaration does not apply to the use of basic tools for checking grammar, spelling, references etc. If there is nothing to disclose, there is no need to add a statement.

Prior publication

If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in the IJSD journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance or contact the Editor of IJSD when in doubt.

 Contributor’s publishing agreement

Before publication, IJSD requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. IJSD Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive license agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants IJSD the sole and exclusive right and license to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than IJSD. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society.

Open access and author archiving

 IJSD follows Open Access way in journal publishing. This means that our journals provide immediate open access for readers to all articles on the publisher’s website. The readers, therefore, are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, link to the full texts or use them for any other lawful purpose. The operations of the journals are alternatively financed by fees/charges paid by authors or by their institutions or funding agencies. All articles published are open-access articles distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license.

Copyright Policy

Copyrights for articles are retained by the authors, with first publication rights granted to the journal/publisher. Authors have rights to reuse, republish, archive, and distribute their own articles after publication. The journal/publisher is not responsible for subsequent uses of the work. Authors shall permit the publisher to apply a DOI to their articles and to archive them in databases and indexes such as EBSCO, DOAJ, and ProQuest.

 Copyright Notice

 Copyrights for articles are retained by the authors, with first publication rights granted to the journal/publisher. Authors have rights to reuse, republish, archive, and distribute their own articles after publication. The journal/publisher is not responsible for subsequent uses of the work. Authors shall permit the publisher to apply a DOI to their articles and to archive them in databases and indexes such as EBSCO, DOAJ, and ProQuest.

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.