Please read these guidelines carefully before you proceed with the submission of your article to ABMJ. Any submission which does not conform to journal scope, authorship policies, ethical guidelines and other policies shall not be accepted by the ABMJ. Do not refer to any published article to format your work; use these guidelines to prepare your paper for submission.
Formatting Your Manuscript
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File format
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Microsoft word format
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Font type & size
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Palatino Linotype with 12 Font size
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Article length
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- The length of a journal article should be between 6,000 – 10,000 words, including abstract, main text, tables, figures, references and appendices.
- Shorter contributions and book reviews should not be more than 3,000 words.
- All text should be in Palatino Linotype with page numbers centred at the bottom of the page.
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Text alignment
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- Article abstract and main text should be justified except for headings and subheadings (in bold).
- First-level headings should be bolded and numbered in Arabic numerals (e.g. 1, 2, 3, etc.).
- Second-level headings and subsequent sub-headings to be italicized and numbered after first-level.
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Language
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Manuscripts must be in English as a language for publication. ABMJ requires all authors to edit their work before submission, especially where English is not their first language, to ensure that the academic content of the paper is understood by the journal editors and reviewers. Use British spellings in all cases rather than American spellings.
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Title & title page
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A title of not more than fifteen (15) words should be provided. The title page should include the names and affiliations of all authors (affiliations should include name of the department, name of the institution, city/region and country), email addresses of all authors, ORCID of all authors. It should indicate the corresponding author.
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Manuscript structure
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The manuscript should be organized in the following sequence:-
· Title
· Abstract
· Introduction
· Literature Review
· Methods
· Findings
· Discussion
· Conclusion and Implications
· Limitations and Suggestions for Future Studies
· Acknowledgement (if any)
· References
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Abstract
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Provide the abstract of between 150 and 250 words. Among others, it should outline the main argument(s), the research approach/methods and highlight key contributions. The abstract should be indented. It should not contain undefined abbreviations or unspecified references.
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Keywords
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Provide 3 to 5 keywords that capture key issues discussed and that can easily help to make your article to be easily recoverable.
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Notes/footnote
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Footnotes and end notes should be kept to a minimum. They should be in 10 font sizes numbered in Arabic numerals.
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Tables & figures
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Tables and Figures should be numbered in Arabic numerals with the caption placed on the top (for the tables) and at the bottom (for figures). Where appropriate, the sources should be specified. All illustrations, figures, and tables should be placed within the text at the appropriate points
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Citation & referencing style
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References should follow APA 7th edition reference guide. We encourage authors to use available reference manager software, such as Mendeley, for referencing when preparing their manuscripts. It is the responsibility of the author(s) to ensure that the references used in the manuscript are genuine and accurate, with complete information such as volume, issue, article number, or page number, etc.
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References
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References should be indented and should strictly observe the APA 7th edition reference guide.
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Submitting Your Article
All articles shall be submitted online. Before submitting your manuscript, make sure:
- It complies with the ABMJ’s publication ethical guidelines and formatting guidelines;
- You have omitted any information that may identify you as the author. All files containing your name (e.g. title pages, biographic notes) should be uploaded separately;
- The manuscript is in line with the scope of the journal.
First, register and create author account (if you are submitting for the first time to this journal) or login to an existing account if you are already a user. Your username shall be your email address. If you have forgotten your password, click forgot password and an email will be sent to you with a link to set-up a new password.
Starting Submission
- On starting your submission, read and acknowledge that you've completed the requirements (as outlined in Journal Policies).
Uploading Submission
- Add a file you want to upload, beginning with the title page. A title page is a separate document containing the title of the article and author(s) details). Then, click “Edit” to select the type of document added i.e. Title Page
- Add the main document (the whole article without author details) and select article text as your document type. The article text can be the research paper, conceptual paper, literature review, case study and general review, book review or viewpoint.
- Add any other document(s) if any, e.g. acknowledgement by following the same procedure.
- Make sure you select the appropriate file type for all the files you added before proceeding to another step.
Entering Bibliographic Metadata
- Fill in the metadata information. These will include author details, institutional affiliation and email address. Make sure all contributors with their email addresses are added. Then save and continue.
Confirming Your Submission
- After your submission has been uploaded and is ready to be sent, you can click “Finish Submission” to complete your submission. Please note that, you can only go back to review your submission before clicking “Finish Submission.” If you want to change anything, make sure you do it before attempting this stage.
After Submission
- You will receive an email confirming that your manuscript has been submitted to the editorial office.
- The editorial office will check your article for compliance with author guidelines and whether it suffices for admission for peer review.
- During this stage, the manuscript will be screened for plagiarism and other related malpractices.
- If it passes editorial scrutiny, it will be forwarded to the Editor-in-Chief (EIC) for initial screening to determine originality, scope, and merits of whether it is suitable for peer review. During this stage, the manuscript may be rejected outright. EIC will assign the responsible Associate Editor (AE) to handle the submitted manuscript if passes the screening process. From this stage, two anonymous peer reviewers will be contacted for reviewing the submitted manuscript.
- Based on reviewers’ feedback and recommendations from AE, EIC may either decide to accept, request minor or major revisions, or reject your manuscript. You should expect the first decision within 60 days. Either way, the status of your submitted manuscript could be tracked online through the submission system.
Revising Your Manuscript
- If the revise decision is made, you will be given time to work on reviewers’ comments and submit your revised manuscript. It is your duty to make sure that all comments are addressed diligently and responded to accordingly. Submission of revisions should observe given timelines. If you need more time to work on your revision, you should consult the editorial office immediately after receiving the EIC decision.
- In submitting a revised manuscript, the revisions/changes made should be indicated clearly through coloured texts or texts highlighted by colour. Also, you should prepare a response matrix showing responses to each of raised comments. This should be uploaded as a supplementary file for review during submission of a revised manuscript. The file should be anonymous. The submitted revised manuscript may be reviewed again after passing the initial editorial procedures.
Copyright & Licencing Issues
- If your article is accepted, you will be notified and sent a contributor agreement form that will address licence and copyright. You will be asked to sign and return a copyright agreement form, in this case:
- You will be required to check your author details and confirm whether they are accurate.
- You will retain Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 user license.
- You will be allowed to keep the copyright of the paper but grant publication rights to ABMJ.
Production Process
- After submitting the licence form, the production process of your article will begin. This will involve editorial checks, copyediting and typesetting.
- The proof will then be sent to you for corrections. You will be required to review the proof and return the corrected article within five (5) working days to avoid publication delays. This will be your final opportunity to correct typographical errors, grammatical mistakes, or inaccurate author details. No further corrections can be made after publication. Extensive changes at this stage are strictly not permitted.
- Finalised articles may be published online as “advance/online first articles” before being assigned to the upcoming volume and issue. A full issue will be published as per the publication schedule. All articles will be assigned the Digital Object identifier (DOI).
- You will be notified once your article has been published online.
Post Publication
- Authors are highly encouraged to share their published articles within their academic networks, on social media, or through any other means to increase the impact of their work.
- It should be noted that ABMJ allows authors to deposit any version of their work (submitted, author-accepted manuscript, or published version) in a designated repository of their choice.
