Manuscript Guidelines

One of the criteria for paper selection is the formatting of the paper. Make sure all the guidelines are followed. The paper template can be downloaded, and the content can be added/edited in accordance to the format already described. All the formatting styles have been listed under the Styles window in the paper template document.

Download Paper Template

General Guidelines

  1. The paper must be written in English only.
  2. The images embedded in the paper must be clear and non-pixelated. Also, the images must not be hand-written.
  3. Before submission, kindly take care of any spelling mistakes, grammatical errors and also make sure your paper is plagiarism-free. Self-plagiarism is not allowed.
  4. Author biographies must not be added in the paper.
  5. You can download the paper template and follow the same.
  6. Font colour must be Black (Automatic).
  7. Underlining of text is not allowed.
  8. The paper must be in two column format.
  9. The submission file is in OpenOffice, Microsoft Word (doc/docx), RTF document or PDF file format.
  10. Manuscript should be in sequence of title, authors and their affiliations, abstract, keywords, main text part, acknowledgments (optional), references.
  11. No foot notes must be added.

Length of the paper

The paper should be above 2,500 words, and there is no cap on maximum number of pages. The paper must adhere to the format specified. Page limits include all charts/graphs, tables and references. The tables must be in text format only.

Page and Page Layout

  • Paper size must be A4 (21cm x 29.7cm).
  • Header from top must be 1.25cm.
  • Footer from bottom must be 1.31cm.
  • Margins of the paper in all directions (top, bottom, left and right) must be 2.54cm.
  • The title must be in one column format, where all the margins must be 2.54 cm.
  • The authors details can be either in one, two or three column formats.
    1. For one column format, the top, right, bottom and left margins must be 2.54cm.
    2. For two column format, right and left margins must be 5.5cm. The column width must be 4.47cm and spacing between the columns must be 1.25cm.
    3. For three column format, right and left margins must be 2.54cm. The column width must be 4.47cm and spacing between the columns must be 1.25cm.
  • The rest of the content, including tables/charts, diagrams/images and references must be in two column format. The right and left margins must be 2.54cm. The column width must be 8.13cm and spacing between the columns must be 1cm.
  • Do not add any content in Header or Footer. Page numbers must not be added.

Title

  • The font must be Times New Roman with size as 24 point.
  • The text must be neither be bold nor in italics, it must be center aligned. The first letter of each word (except prepositions and conjunctions) must be capitalised.
  • Line spacing must be 1.5 Lines.
  • No indents and tabs are allowed.

Author and Affiliation

  • Author’s name, designation, institutional affiliation, city, state, country and e-mail address must be added. Do not add contact numbers. Do not add titles such as Mr, Ms, Mrs, Dr and Prof.
  • Author’s name must be in Times New Roman with size as 16 point.
  • Author’s affiliation must be in Times New Roman with size as 10 point.
  • The text must be neither be bold nor in italics, it must be center aligned. The first letter of each word must be capitalised.
  • Line spacing must be 1 Line (Single) with After spacing as 4 point.
  • No indents and tabs are allowed.

Abstract and Keywords

  • An abstract should be related to the paper and should briefly and clearly mention the main objectives, results and conclusion of the work conducted in the paper. The length of the abstract should be within 100-200 words.
  • 5-8 keywords or phrases that relate to your work should be mentioned, all separated by a semicolon ( ; ).
  • The text must be in Times New Roman with size as 10 point.
  • The text must be bold and in italics, the alignment must be justified and in Sentence Case.
  • Line spacing must be 1 Line (Single) with Before spacing as 6 point and After spacing as 10 point.
  • No indents and tabs are allowed.

Section Headings / Heading 1

  • The section headings must be precise.
  • It must be in Times New Roman with size as 10 point and must be Roman Numbered.
  • The text must be neither be bold nor in italics, it must be center aligned and Upper Case.
  • Line spacing must be 1 Line (Single) with Before spacing as 8 point and After spacing as 4 point.
  • No indents and tabs are allowed.
  • Do not add colons ( : ) after headings.

Sub-section Headings / Heading 2

  • The sub-section headings must be precise.
  • It must be in Times New Roman with size as 10 point and must be numbered using Upper Case alphabets.
  • The text must be not be bold, it must be in italics, left-aligned and in Sentence Case.
  • Line spacing must be 1 Line (Single) with Before spacing as 6 point and After spacing as 3 point.
  • There must be no indents and the tab space must be 0.51cm.
  • Do not add colons ( : ) after headings.

Paragraphs / Body Text

  • If any abbreviations and acronyms are being used, their full forms have to be mentioned only for the first time they are used.
  • The text must be in Times New Roman with size as 10 point.
  • The text must be neither be bold nor in italics, the alignment must be justified, and it must be in Sentence Case.
  • Line spacing must be 1 Line (Single) with After spacing as 3 point.
  • There must be no indents and the tab space must be 0.51cm only for the first line of the paragraph.

Equations

  • The text must be in Times New Roman, Cambria Math or Symbol with size as 11 point and must be center aligned.
  • The equations must be typed; images/screenshots of the same is not allowed.
  • These have to be numbered using English Numeral, enclosed in parentheses. The number must be placed towards the extreme right of the equation. No dots should appear either before or after the parentheses.
  • The characters used in the equations must be italicised when explaining in the text format.
  • Once the numbering is done, its significance should be mentioned in the text. For example, “as mentioned in (1)…”. If the numbering appears at the beginning of a sentence, then it should be mentioned as “Equation (1) explains…”.
  • Equations can either be placed in text box or can be part of the content within two column format. In case of text box, the box border must have no colour and must follow “In Line With Text” wrapping format.

Tables

  • The tables should be placed in one column only; it should not extend to the other column.
  • Tables must not be in text box.
  • The table caption should appear below the table as “Table 1. “. It must be center aligned in Times New Roman with size as 9 point. Line spacing must be 1.15 Lines with Before spacing as 6 point and After spacing as 10 point.
  • Font colour must be black only. The table grid must not have any colours filled.
  • The table column head should be center aligned, must be in Times New Roman with size as 9 point and in bold. Line spacing must be 1.5 Lines.
  • The table column sub-head should be center aligned, must be in Times New Roman with size as 8 point and in italicised. Line spacing must be 1.5 Lines.
  • The table content should be center aligned, must be in Times New Roman with size as 8 point. It must neither be in bold nor in italics. Line spacing must be 1 Line (Single).
  • The description of the table must be given in the main script and must be referred as “Table 1 shows….”

Figures

  • It is advisable to add figures in text box without any background and borders and must follow “In Line With Text” wrapping format. Centered alignment must be followed.
  • Resolution is 300 dpi at least and must be in .jpg, .png, .bmp or .tiff formats only.
  • The figures should be placed in one column only; it should not extend to the other column. In case of large figures, the images can extend into both columns, provided they are integrated in a text box.
  • The figure caption should appear below the figure as “Fig 1. “. It must be center aligned in Times New Roman with size as 10 point. Line spacing must be 1 Line (Single) with Before spacing as 6 point and After spacing as 10 point.
  • The description of the figure must be given in the main script and must be referred as “Fig. 1 shows….”

References

  • Datasets, publications, and other documentation must be properly cited.
  • The citations must be either in APA, Chicago, Harvard, MLA, or Vancouver formats only. Please use the standard citations.
  • The text must be in Times New Roman with font size as 8 point. The line spacing must be 1 Line (Single) with After spacing as 4 point.
  • These have to be numbered using English Numeral, enclosed in square brackets, as “[1]”.
  • The references have to be mentioned in square brackets when referring in the paper content. For example, “as discussed in [1]…”. If the numbering appears at the beginning of a sentence, then it should be mentioned as “Reference [1] suggests…”.