GUIDE FOR AUTHORS

Relevant information for prospective authors

To ensure that all submissions are represented fairly, the JMSH Offices will not evaluate any questions about the acceptability of a paper sent by email outside of the normal submission procedure. We make every effort to examine all articles submitted in a timely manner, and authors will get a response after the necessary assessment of the manuscript has been completed.

Criteria for initial submissions

  1. You have the option of submitting your paper as a single Word or PDF file for refereeing. The paper should use the font Times New Roman, at 11-pt, and 1.15 line-spaces.
  2. If selected, you will be asked to put your paper into a 'proper format' for approval and provide the items necessary for the publishing of your article only when it is in the revision stage.

Please see the Submission Checklist below for further information.

General Guidelines for Authors

The Journal of Management, Social Sciences and Humanities encourages authors to submit high quality, scholarly papers that are directly related to one or more of the said disciplines including but not limited to economics, political science, geography, psychology, sociology, conflict resolution, international relations, gender studies, languages and linguistic studies, journalism, media and communication, literature and cultural studies, and management. Papers are accepted across a range of paradigms and perspectives.

What do we mean by high-quality, scholarly papers?

The following criteria will be used to assess the manuscript quality:

  • Is the abstract formatted according to the journal's guidelines?
  • Is the work a contribution to the knowledge base in the selected field of research that is original and/or novel?
  • Is the relevant literature sufficiently covered and critically evaluated?
  • Is the topic contextualized for national and international audiences in the paper?
  • Is the usage of sentence and paragraph structure, grammar, and spelling consistent in its expression?
  • Is there a logical overarching framework in place?
  • Is the discussion and analysis clear and concise?
  • Is there a conclusion that is in line with the paper's objectives and content?
  • Are relevant anti-oppressive practices (such as race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability and health status, religion, age, gender, and social class) made explicit?
  • Are the references formatted according to the journal's guidelines?

If the work is based on an empirical study, a decision should be made about the following categories:

  • Does the methodology chosen have a clear rationale?
  • Is the data collection and analysis technique clear?
  • Do the tables and figures used make sense?
  • Are ethical issues made transparent?
  • Is a statement about methodological limitations included?
  • Is there a link between the findings and the existing knowledge base?

The review process of the JMSH will take place in three phases.

  1. The Preliminary Review Process
  2. Double-Blind Peer Review Process
  3. Editing the accepted final manuscript that was revised based on reviewer comments and feedback

Each paper submitted to the JMSH will be given an initial check by the Managing Editor to ensure that it conforms to the submission criteria based on a preliminary review process as listed below.

1. The Preliminary Review Process

Preliminary Screening Checklist
a. Author Declaration Form - Must be completed and submitted along with the manuscript
b. Abstract word count - The accepted Abstract Word Limit is 200 words
c. Manuscript word count - Manuscript should word count should be between 6000 - 8000 words excluding the abstract and bibliography.
d. Similarity index - The level of text matching must be below 25 percent
The authors will be notified if any revisions are to be made based on the results of the preliminary screening, along with a deadline for the resubmission of their manuscript and necessary documents. Most manuscripts submitted to the journal will be peer-reviewed afterwards. Some, however, may be rejected without going through the peer review process if the Editor deems them unsuitable for the journal.

Queries

If you require any support with the application process or have any questions regarding the editorial process, feel free to email jmsh@kdu.ac.lk.

PREPARATION
New Submissions

You have the option of submitting your work as a single file for refereeing purposes. This can be a PDF or Word document in any format or layout that referees can use to assess your article. It should have enough high-quality figures to allow for refereeing. You can still supply all or any of the source files at the time of submission if you prefer. Individual figure files greater than ten megabytes must be uploaded separately.

References

References can be in any format or type during the initial submission as long as it is consistent. Author(s) name(s), journal title/book title, chapter title/article title, year of publication, volume number/book chapter, and article number or pagination must all be included if applicable. JMSH will apply the journal's reference style (Harvard) to the accepted article during the proofing step. At the proofing step, data that is missing will be indicated to be updated by the author.

Requirements when Formatting your Paper

The paper should use the font Times New Roman, at 11-pt, and 1.15 line-spaces, according to the journal's requirements. There is no extra rigorous formatting criteria; however, all manuscripts must include the necessary parts to communicate your manuscript, such as an abstract, keywords, introduction, materials and methods, results, conclusions, artwork, and tables with captions. Separate the article into distinct sections.

Peer Review

The review process for this journal is double-anonymized. The editor will evaluate all submissions to see if they are appropriate for the journal. Papers that are considered eligible are normally sent to at least two independent professional reviewers who assess the paper's scientific quality. The Editor is in charge of making the final decision on whether or not to approve or reject an article. The decision of the Editor is final. Editors are not involved in choices about papers that they have authored or that have been written for them by family members or colleagues, or that are related to items or services wherein the editor has a financial interest. Any such submission is subject to all of the journal's standard procedures, with peer review conducted separately from the relevant editor and their research groups.

Double Anonymized Review Process

The writers' identities are kept hidden from the reviewers, and the reviewers' identities are kept hidden from the authors. Please separate the following information to help allow the functioning of this process:
Title Page (with author information): The title, authors' names, affiliations, acknowledgements, and any Declaration of Interest declaration should all be included, as should the corresponding author's complete address, including an email address.
The main body of the work (including the references, figures, tables, and any acknowledgements) should not contain any identifiable information, such as that of the authors' names or affiliations.

Revised Submissions

If your work is accepted, an editable copy of the whole article, using the layout provided by JMSH must be provided, irrespective of the file type of the initial manuscript. The revised submission must be certified as free of language and grammatical errors by a copy editor.