Author guidelines

What do I need to know to prepare and submit my article?

What are the expected academic and professional protocols?

In accordance with academic and professional protocols, our journals cannot accept an article if:

• it is not the author's original work
• has been published before (but see below regarding conference papers)
• is currently under consideration for publication elsewhere.
• the article contain any libelous or unlawful statements or in any way infringe the rights of others.
• all authors refuse to declare they have read and agreed to the content of the submitted article.

A full statement of our Ethical Guidelines for Authors (PDF) is available.

N/B: An author may submit an article if that article (either the same or substantially similar) has previously been under consideration with another publisher or journal (including our journals). However, the author must have formal written evidence of the rejection or withdrawal of the article from the original place of submission. Once the article has been submitted, the author must email this written evidence to us.

The author must be the owner of the copyright and be entitled to sign the Author Copyright Agreement. In submitting an article, the author complies with these conditions. In addition, the publisher reserves the right to re-referee and/or reject an accepted paper if the paper does not meet the criteria outlined in the review form or if the paper is in some other way deemed possibly unsuitable. If the author wishes to abandon the review process or remove his/her article from elsewhere in the system before publication, the article must be formally withdrawn in writing before it can be submitted to another journals. Non-compliance with any of the above conditions may result in sanctions.

Conference papers

If the submission is based on a conference paper, the conference paper requirements on our Preparing articles page must be met.

Previous publication in another language should also be disclosed. Such statements, along with explanations for exceptions to the above rules, should be included in the "Notes for the Editor" section during online submission.

 

 

 

Are there charges for publishing with us?

1. There are charges for publishing in our Journals. We take #25,000 (Twenty-five thousand naira) inclusive of processing fee. OA articles accepted for publication are available online and freely accessible to all without any restriction except used for commercial purposes. All Payments should be made to Benedict I. Uzoechina. Bank: United Bank for Africa (UBA) PLC; Nigeria Account Number: 2078775152

 

If you receive an email requesting any other payment in relation to your article, please, you should ignore and delete the email - it is not a legitimate. Payments must be made in designated account and any change must be thoroughly confirmed in order to avoid being scammed.

1. Article Preparation

An original article would normally consist of 5000-6000 words (excluding figures, tables and references), although high-quality articles which exceed 7000 words will be considered.

All articles must be written in British English. If English is not your first language, please ask an English-speaking colleague to proofread your article.

The format should include: 1. Abstract with keywords (3 -5) describing the manuscript and JEL classification code(s) included. The abstract should not be more than 250 words with single line spacing; 1. Introduction (with clearly stated problems/research objectives without necessarily itemizing them as sub-headings); 2. Review of Related Literature; 3. Methods and Procedure; 4. Results and Discussion of Findings; 5. Conclusion, Recommendation and Policy Implication. There should also be references and appendices (where applicable). The manuscript should not be more than 6,000 words.

 

Articles should adopt APA (6th ed.) citation style and should not be more than 16 pages, written in MS word with 1.5 line spacing, 12 font size and Times New Roman typed on A4 paper. Manuscripts with more than 16 pages will require the contributor to pay for the additional pages. Note please that any manuscript that does not conform to requirements may be returned for reworking or retyping. The publisher reserves the right to copyedit manuscripts to conform to journal style.

 

 

 

Figures should be numbered sequentially at the foot of the figures with Arabic numerals while tables should be numbered at the top; each should have a brief descriptive title and as much as possible be self-explanatory. The font size for tables/figures may be reduced to 10pt to fit into the pages of the journal.

 

If any other style of referencing is adopted, it must be consistently followed throughout the paper. References cited should be current (preferably not older than a decade). All references presented in-text must appear in the reference list, and entries in the reference list must be cited in the text.

 

The title page (page 1) should include: (a) full article title, (b) names and affiliations of all authors, (c) mailing and email addresses and telephone numbers of the individual serving as the point of contact.

 

1. General Instructions

 

1. The lead author will receive galley proofs for correction of typographical errors only. No rewriting of the accepted manuscript will be allowed in the proof stage.

 

1. The lead author of each article will receive one free print copy of the journal after publication. Additional copies may be purchased at the prevailing price from the Publisher. It is the responsibility of author(s) to obtain permission to use previously published material in their manuscript.

 

1. Conference Papers

 

If your article is based on a conference paper, it is important that you observe the following:

The submitted article must have been substantially revised, expanded and rewritten so that it is significantly different from the conference paper or presentation on which it is based. The article must be sufficiently different to make it a new, original work. As a guide, you should aim to have more than 50% new material. This is a matter of judgment and will be based on a comparison of the submitted article with the original conference paper.

The original conference paper should be supplied by the author with the expanded article for the purpose of comparison.

All such articles will be subject to the same review process as any other submitted article.

Please include the statement 'This article is a revised and expanded version of a paper entitled [title] presented at [name, location and date of conference]' in the online system when you submit your paper, using the "Notes for the Editor" field.

If the original conference paper on which the extended paper is based has been published elsewhere, or the copyright has been assigned to the conference organisers or another party, authors should ensure that they have cleared any necessary permissions with the copyright owners. Articles will not be accepted, post-reviewed, for publication unless such written permissions have been provided along with author’s copyright forms.

1. Submission:

When all of the above requirements have been met, submit your article through our submission page. Any further information in support of online submissions can be entered as a note for the editor or uploaded as a supplementary file.