Author Guidelines

1. General Requirements

Manuscripts must be original and must not have been published previously or be under consideration elsewhere. Similarity (plagiarism), checked with Turnitin, iThenticate, or an equivalent tool, must not exceed 20%, excluding references.

2. Page Layout

Length: 10–15 pages, including the abstract, tables, figures, and references.
Paper size: A4 (21.0 cm × 29.7 cm), with 3 cm margins on all sides.
Font: Times New Roman, 12 pt for the body text, single (1.0) line spacing, fully justified.
Paragraph formatting: The first line of every paragraph is indented 1 cm. There is no extra spacing between paragraphs.
Leave one blank line before and after each main heading.

3. Title and Authorship

Title: Bold, capital letters, 14 pt, maximum 14 words, followed by one blank line.
Author names: Bold, 12 pt, given without academic titles. Use superscript numbers for affiliations and an asterisk (*) for the corresponding author. The corresponding author is defined in Section 10.
Affiliations: Department, faculty/college, university, city, country, and email. The corresponding author's email and ORCID (optional) are placed below the affiliations.

4. Abstract and Keywords

The abstract is titled "ABSTRACT" (bold, capital letters), written as a single cohesive paragraph of maximum 250 words, 12 pt, single spacing.
It must integrate: (1) background and significance; (2) the research gap; (3) the primary objective; (4) the methodological approach; (5) the key findings; and (6) the broader implications or conclusion.
It must not contain citations, footnotes, non-standard abbreviations, or equations.
Keywords: 4–6 keywords in lowercase (proper nouns keep their capitalization), in alphabetical order, separated by commas.

5. Structure of the Manuscript

The manuscript follows the IMRAD framework, extended with a Conclusion, in this sequence: Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion, Conclusion. Authors may not add other independent main sections (for example, a separate Literature Review chapter). Sub-headings are allowed within the main sections, particularly in Methods and Results and Discussion, provided they do not disrupt the flow of the paper.

Main headings are bold, capital letters, 12 pt, and unnumbered. First-level sub-headings are bold, title case; second-level sub-headings are bold italic, title case. Use a maximum of two sub-heading levels. Supporting sections (Declarations) may follow the Conclusion and are not counted as main sections.

6. Content Requirements per Section

Introduction: Articulate the background and context of the problem, review relevant previous studies (state of the art), highlight the research gap, and explicitly state the novelty, purpose, and scientific contribution of the study. An outline of the article structure is optional.
Methods: Describe the research design systematically and rigorously: who or what was studied (population and sample, or data sources), how the data were collected (instruments and procedures), and the analytical techniques used. Quantitative studies should allow replication. Qualitative and textual studies should explain how credibility and trustworthiness were maintained (for example, triangulation, member checking, or the interpretive framework). Conceptual studies should explain the analytical approach and the selection of sources.
Results and Discussion: Quantitative studies must present clear descriptive and inferential statistical analyses. Qualitative studies must include rich verbal data, such as detailed descriptions, observations, or textual evidence. Mixed-methods and conceptual studies must present their findings in a form appropriate to their design. The discussion must explain the findings in depth, support them with relevant theories and prior empirical studies, and show how they align with or diverge from the existing literature. Study limitations should also be acknowledged here.
Conclusion: Summarize the main findings without replicating the abstract. Highlight the contributions, limitations, and theoretical or practical implications, and suggest directions for future research.

7. Tables and Figures

All tables and figures must be embedded in the text, not placed at the end of the manuscript, and each must be cited in the text (for example, "as shown in Table 1").
Font size is 10 pt (9 pt if the content requires it).
Tables use horizontal lines only (top, below the header row, and bottom) and no vertical lines. The caption is placed above the table (Table 1. Title).
Figure captions are placed below the figure (Figure 1. Title). Figures must have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi and be legible when printed.
Every table and figure must have a source line directly underneath it (for example, Source: Risadi, 2022, or Source: Authors' data, [year of data collection]).
Captions use sentence case. Numbers follow English conventions (for example, 3,000 and 50%).

8. Citations and References

Citations and the reference list must be managed with a reference manager (Mendeley, Zotero, or EndNote). Manual, unformatted entries are not accepted.
In-text citations use the author-date format (for example, Risadi, 2022; Risadi & Premananda, 2022; Risadi et al., 2022).
The reference list follows APA 7th edition.
A minimum of 10 references is required. At least 80% of the references must be reputable international journal articles, and at least 80% must have been published within the last 10 years.
Every entry must include a valid, active DOI link in the format https://doi.org/... whenever a DOI exists.

9. Ethics and Declarations

Studies involving human participants must state ethical approval and informed consent. Authors must also declare funding, conflicts of interest, author contributions, and any use of AI tools in preparing the manuscript. These statements are placed under "Declarations" after the Conclusion.

10. Submission, Corresponding Author, Fees, and Copyright

Corresponding author: The author who submits the manuscript through the journal system is the corresponding author and must be identified as such on the title page (with an asterisk and a valid email address). The corresponding author is the main point of contact for the editorial office throughout submission, peer review, and publication, and is responsible for:

ensuring that all co-authors have approved the final version of the manuscript and agreed to its submission;
informing all co-authors of the progress and outcome of the review process;
submitting revisions and responding to reviewers' and editors' comments;
providing the required declarations (ethical approval and informed consent, funding, conflicts of interest, author contributions, and use of AI tools);
checking the proofs before publication and responding to any post-publication queries.

Fees: IJOSS charges no fees for submission or publication (see Publication Fees).

Copyright: Copyright and licensing follow the Copyright and Licensing policy of the journal.