Information For Authors

    1. Manuscript Preparation summary
    2. Article types
    3. Title Page
    4. Structure of the Manuscript
    5. Preparing Figures, Schemes, and Tables
    6. General consideration
    7. References
    8. Publication Ethics
      1. Research Involving Human Subjects
      2. Publication Ethics Statement
      3. Reproducing Published Material from other Publishers
      4. Obtaining Permission
    9. Authorship
    10. Copyright and Licensing
    11. Submission Fee and Article Processing Fee
    12. Review Process
    13. Doi services
    14. Language Editing Services

    Society & Sustainability has no restrictions on the length of manuscripts, provided that the text is concise and comprehensive. Full experimental/methodological details must be provided so that the results can be reproduced.  It is understood that the Manuscripts submitted to  Society & Sustainability should neither be published before nor be under consideration for publication in another journal. Manuscripts should be submitted through the submission system of the Journal. Please use the Cover letter, Title page and Annonymous Article templates available in the "Resource" menu of the homepage for preparing and submitting your manuscripts for the Journal. In case of any technical difficulty, you may submit through email to riieditor1971@gmail.com.  

    1.0. Manuscript Preparation Summary 

    • Article type: Research article, Review, Case Studies, Research Note, Book Review. Please click here for details.
    • Article Length: no restrictions provided that the text is concise and comprehensive.
    • Acceptable file format: All manuscripts must be prepared in MS word. The authors are requested to use the Microsoft Word template.
    • Font: Calibri for Title and Palatino Linotype for text.
    • Font Size: 22pt, Times New Roman, bold, for the title, 12pt Bold, Times New Roman for all the headings, 12 pt Times New Roman for the text.
    • Line Space:1.5
    • Title page: Title, Author list, Affiliations, Funding, Acknowledgement
    • Manuscript: Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Literature review/hypotheses development, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions (optional), Limitations and Direction for further study, References, Appendix. 
    • Abstract: The abstract should be a total of about 250 words maximum. 
    • Keywords: Three to six pertinent keywords need to be added after the abstract.
    • Tables and Figures: All tables and figures must be in the main text after the paragraph of its first citation.
    • Reference: For references please follow the 7th edition of APA format. Please click here for details about the reference format.
    • Cover Letter: each submission must be accompanied by a cover letter to the editor. It must contain the statement: “the manuscript is not currently under consideration or has not been published in another journal.” You are encouraged to propose two reviewers based on their expertise in the field along with their affiliation and valid email address. 

    2.0. Article Types

    • Research Articles: research manuscripts that report new evidence or new conclusions. Society & Sustainability considers all original research manuscripts provided that the work reports scientifically sound experiments and provides a substantial amount of new information.
    • Reviews: review manuscripts provide concise and precise updates on the latest progress made in a given area of research. Systematic reviews should follow the PRISMA Guidelines (Please refer to http://www.prisma-statement.org/)
    • Case Studies: Society & Sustainability publishes both decision-based and descriptive cases. Decision-based cases place students in the role of a decision-maker and ask them to make recommendations to handle or deal with the situation described effectively. Descriptive cases provide a description of a real situation and then challenge students to analyze, assess, evaluate the situation and determine if there was a more effective way to handle the situation. Society & Sustainability publishes both field-researched cases and cases for publication based on substantial research from secondary sources. For field research cases, permissions are required from the organization and all persons interviewed.
    • Research Notes: Research notes are not full academic papers but are discussion notes, seeking to advance a new idea, theoretical perspective, research program, or methodological approach in areas of Business studies. As opposed to full research papers, research notes may follow a less strict paper outline (may not have methods and results) but still needs to make a valuable contribution to the study of the organization. When writing a research note, it is important that the author(s) are clear on what kind of contribution they want to make to the field of studies, and that they are capable of advancing an intelligible and solid argument in favor of a particular theory, study, or methodology, and that they bring in a novel view to the attention of the journal’s readers. The role of the research note is thus not so much to further justify or support predominant theoretical perspectives but to serve as a form of incubator or laboratory for new thinking in the relevant field of studies.
    • Book Reviews: Critical reviews of any aspects of Business related books are welcome. The submissions for this section may not be subject to the double-blind review process.

    3.0. Title Page 

    These sections should appear in all manuscript types

    • Title: The title of your manuscript should be concise, specific, and relevant. It should identify if the study reports (human or animal) trial data, or is a systematic review, meta-analysis, or replication study.
    • Author List and Affiliations: Authors' full first and last names must be provided. A complete mailing address and email address should be provided. At least one author should be designated as the corresponding author.
    • Funding: All sources of funding for the study should be disclosed. Clearly indicate the name of the funding authority and the grant number of the fund that you have received in support of your research work.
    • Acknowledgments: You can acknowledge any individual or institutional support that you have received during the course of your research.

    4.0. Structure of the Manuscript

    • Research manuscripts should comprise:
      • Title page: Title, Author list, Affiliations, Funding, Acknowledgement
      • Manuscript: Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Literature review/hypotheses development, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions (optional), Limitations, and Direction for further study.
      • References
      • Appendix
    • Review manuscripts should comprise the title page, literature review sections, and references. Structured reviews and meta-analyses should use the same structure as research articles and ensure they conform to the PRISMA guidelines (http://www.prisma-statement.org/.)
    • Case Studies should comprise:
      • Title page: Title, Author list, Affiliations, Declaration, Target Audience, Funding, Acknowledgement
      • Main Body: Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, description, Questions.
      • References
      • Appendix
    • Abstract (For research articles): The abstract should be a total of about 250 words maximum. No structuring is required for the abstract.
    • Keywords: Three to ten pertinent keywords need to be added after the abstract. We recommend that the keywords are specific to the article, yet reasonably common within the subject discipline.
    • Introduction: The introduction should briefly place the study in a broad context and highlight why it is important. It should define the purpose of the work and its significance. As far as possible, please keep the introduction comprehensible to readers working outside the topic of the paper.
    • Literature review / Hypotheses development: The current state of the research field should be reviewed carefully and key publications cited. Please highlight controversial and diverging hypotheses when necessary. This section should include specific hypotheses being tested (if required).
    • Materials and Methods: They should be described with sufficient detail to allow others to replicate and build on published results. New methods and protocols should be described in detail while well-established methods can be briefly described and appropriately cited. It must include the data collection procedure, sampling plan, and participants. The development of the data collection instrument should be explained clearly. Mention the name and version of any software used.
    • Results: Provide a concise and precise description of the experimental results, their interpretation as well as the experimental conclusions that can be drawn.
    • Discussion: Authors should discuss the results and how they can be interpreted from the perspective of previous studies and of the working hypotheses. The findings and their implications should be discussed in the broadest context possible.
    • Conclusions: This section is not mandatory, but can be added to the manuscript if the discussion is unusually long or complex.
    • Limitations and Direction for Further Research: Highlight the limitations of the research and provide future research directions.

    5.0.Preparing Figures, Schemes, and Tables

    • Figures and schemes in common formats are accepted, however, MS Word, TIFF, JPEG, EPS, and PDF are preferred.
    • All Figures, Schemes, and Tables should be inserted into the main text close to their first citation and must be numbered following their number of appearances (Figure 1, Scheme I, Figure 2, Scheme II, Table 1, etc.).
    • All Figures, Schemes, and Tables should have a short explanatory title and caption.
    • The authors should use the Table option of Microsoft Word to create tables. In tables, avoid vertical lines. Please see the sample below:

    Table 6: Result of the mediated model

    COM=Compliance, JS=Job satisfaction, EE=Employee Engagement, VAF= Variance accounted for, Indirect effect (0.184) = a (0.513) times b (0.358), Total effect (0.341) = direct effect (c/=0.157) + indirect effect (0.184).

    • Authors are encouraged to prepare figures and schemes in color (RGB at 8-bit per channel). There is no additional cost for publishing full-color graphics.

    6.0. General Consideration

    • Abbreviations should be defined in parentheses the first time they appear in the abstract, main text, and in figure or table captions.
    • SI Units (International System of Units) should be used. Imperial, US customary, and other units should be converted to SI units whenever possible.
    • Equations: For equations, please use either the Microsoft Equation Editor or the MathType add-on. Equations should be editable by the editorial office.
    • Research Data and supplementary materials: Note that publication of your manuscript implies that you must make all materials, data, and protocols associated with the publication available to readers upon request. Please disclose at the submission stage any restrictions on the availability of materials or information on the cover page.

    7.0. References

    Authors must cite the relevant literature both in the text and references using APA style according to the 7th edition of the APA manual. Please refer to the following samples of citations in the journal.

    Journal Articles (print):

    Nevin, A. (1990). The changing of teacher education special education. Teacher Education and Special Education: The Journal of the Teacher Education, 13(3-4), 147-148.

    Journal Articles (Online):

    Jameson, J. (2013). E-Leadership in higher education: The fifth “age” of educational technology research. British Journal of Educational Technology, 44(6), 889-915. DOI: 10.1111/bjet.12103

    Books:
    Finney, J. (1970). Time and again. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.

    Chapter in an Edited Book: 

    Gill, M. J., & Sypher, B. D. (2009). Workplace incivility and organizational trust. In P. Lutgen-Sandvik & B. D. Sypher (Eds.), Destructive organizational communication: Processes, consequences, and constructive ways of organizing (pp. 53–73). New York, NY: Taylor & Francis.

    Newspaper (print)

    Rosenberg, G. (1997, March 31). Electronic discovery proves an effective legal weapon. The New York Times, p.D5.

    Newspaper (Online))

    Rosenberg, G. (1997, March 31). Electronic discovery proves an effective legal weapon. The New York Times, Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com

    Personal communication:

    Cloyd, A. (2014, July 29). Personal interview.

    Conference Proceedings (Print):

    Game, A. (2001). Creative ways of being. In J. R. Morss, N. Stephenson & J. F. H. V. Rappard (Eds.), Theoretical issues in psychology: Proceedings of the International Society for Theoretical Psychology 1999 Conference (pp. 3-12). Sydney: Springer.

    Conference Proceedings (Online):

    Balakrishnan, R. (2006, March). Why aren't we using 3D user interfaces, and will we ever? Paper presented at the IEEE Symposium on 3D User Interfaces. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/vr.2006.148

    Thesis:

    Wilson, P.L. (2011). Pedagogical practices in the teaching of English language in secondary public schools in Parker County (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from http://drum.lib.umd.edu/bitstr/1903/11801/1/Wilson_umd_0117E_12354.pdf

    Websites (with author):

    Simmons, B. (2015, January 9). The tale of two Flacons. Retrieved from http://grantland.com/the-triangle/the- tale-of-two-flaccos/

    Websites (without author):

    Teen posed as doctor at West Palm Beach hospital: police. (2015, January 16). Retrieved from http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/Teen-Posed-as-Doctor-at-West-Palm-Beach-Hospital-Police-288810831.html

    8.0. Publication Ethics

    Society & Sustainability spontaneously maintains ethical guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Society & Sustainability takes the responsibility to enforce a rigorous peer review together with strict ethical policies and standards to ensure to add high-quality scientific works to the field of scholarly publication. Unfortunately, cases of plagiarism, data falsification, inappropriate authorship credit, and the like, do arise. Society & Sustainability takes such publishing ethics issues very seriously and our editors are advised to proceed in such cases with a zero-tolerance policy.

    8.1. Research Involving Human Subjects

    When reporting on research that involves human subjects, human material, human tissues, or human data, authors must declare that the investigations were carried out following the rules of the Declaration of Helsinki of 1975 (https://www.wma.net/what-we-do/medical-ethics/declaration-of-helsinki/), revised in 2013. According to point 23 of this declaration, approval from an ethics committee should have been obtained before undertaking the research. At a minimum, a statement including the project identification code, date of approval, and name of the ethics committee or institutional review board should be cited in the Methods Section of the article. Data relating to individual participants must be described in detail, but private information identifying participants need not be included unless the identifiable materials are of relevance to the research (for example, photographs of participants' faces that show a particular symptom). Editors reserve the right to reject any submission that does not meet these requirements.

    Example of an ethical statement: "All subjects gave their informed consent for inclusion before they participated in the study. The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and the protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of XXX (Project identification code)."

    Written informed consent for publication must be obtained from participating patients who can be identified (including by the patients themselves). Patient’s initials or other personal identifiers must not appear in any images. For manuscripts that include any case details, personal information, and/or images of patients, authors must obtain signed informed consent from patients (or their relatives/guardians) before submitting to a Society & Sustainability. Patient details must be kept anonymous as far as possible, e.g., do not mention specific age, ethnicity, or occupation where they are not relevant to the conclusions. A template permission form is available to download. A blank version of the form used to obtain permission (without the patient name or signature) must be uploaded with your submission.

    Alternatively, you may provide a detailed justification of why informed consent is not necessary. For the purposes of publishing in Society & Sustainability, a consent, permission, or release form should include unlimited permission for publication in all formats (including print, electronic, and online), in sublicensed and reprinted versions (including translations and derived works), and in other works and products under open access license.

    8.2. Publication Ethics Statement

    Society & Sustainability fully adheres to the Code of Conduct and the Best Practice Guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). The editors of this journal enforce a rigorous peer-review process together with strict ethical policies and standards to ensure to add high-quality scientific works to the field of scholarly publication. Unfortunately, cases of plagiarism, data falsification, image manipulation, inappropriate authorship credit, and the like, do arise. The editors of Society & Sustainability take such publishing ethics issues very seriously and maintain a zero-tolerance policy.

    Authors wishing to publish their papers in Society & Sustainability must abide by the following:

    • Any facts that might be perceived as a possible conflict of interest of the author(s) must be disclosed in the paper prior to submission.
    • Authors should accurately present their research findings and include an objective discussion of the significance of their findings.
    • Data and methods used in the research need to be presented in sufficient detail in the paper so that other researchers can replicate the work.
    • Raw data should preferably be publicly deposited by the authors before the submission of their manuscripts. Authors need to at least have the raw data readily available for presentation to the referees and the editors of the journal if requested. Authors need to ensure appropriate measures are taken so that raw data is retained in full for a reasonable time after publication.
    • Simultaneous submission of manuscripts to more than one journal is not accepted at all.
    • Republishing content that is not novel is not tolerated (for example, an English translation of a paper that is already published in another language will not be accepted).
    • If errors and inaccuracies are found by the authors after the publication of their paper, they need to be promptly communicated to the editors of this journal so that appropriate actions can be taken.
    • Your manuscript should not contain any information that has already been published. If you include already published figures or images, please obtain the necessary permission from the copyright holder to publish under the CC-BY license. For further information, see the subsequent pages.
    • Plagiarism, data fabrication, and image manipulation are not tolerated.
      • Plagiarism is not acceptable in Society & Sustainability submissions.

    Plagiarism includes copying text, ideas, images, or data from another source, even from your own publications, without giving any credit to the original source.

    Reuse of text that is copied from another source must be between quotes and the original source must be cited. If a study's design or the manuscript's structure or language has been inspired by previous works, these works must be explicitly cited.

    If plagiarism is detected during the peer review process, the manuscript may be rejected. If plagiarism is detected after publication, we may publish a correction or retract the paper.

      • Image files must not be manipulated or adjusted in any way that could lead to misinterpretation of the information provided by the original image.

    Irregular manipulation includes: 1) introduction, enhancement, moving, or removing features from the original image; 2) grouping of images that should obviously be presented separately (e.g., from different parts of the same gel, or from different gels); or 3) modifying the contrast, brightness or color balance to obscure, eliminate or enhance some information.

    If irregular image manipulation is identified and confirmed during the peer review process, we may reject the manuscript. If irregular image manipulation is identified and confirmed after publication, we may correct or retract the paper.

    Our in-house editors will investigate any allegations of publication misconduct and may contact the authors' institutions or funders if necessary. If evidence of misconduct is found, appropriate action will be taken to correct or retract the publication. Authors are expected to comply with the best ethical publication practices when publishing with Society & Sustainability.

    8.3. Reproducing Published Material from other Publishers

    It is absolutely essential that authors obtain permission to reproduce any published material (figures, schemes, tables, or any extract of a text) which does not fall into the public domain, or for which they do not hold the copyright. Permission should be requested by the authors from the copyright holder (usually the Publisher, please refer to the imprint of the individual publications to identify the copyright holder).

    Permission is required for:

    1. Your own works published by other Publishers and for which you did not retain copyright.
    2. Substantial extracts from anyone's works or a series of works.
    3. Use of Tables, Graphs, Charts, Schemes, and Artworks if they are unaltered or slightly modified.
    4. Photographs for which you do not hold the copyright.

    Permission is not required for:

    1. Reconstruction of your own table with data already published elsewhere. Please notice that in this case, you must cite the source of the data in the form of either "Data from..." or "Adapted from...".
    2. Reasonably short quotes are considered fair use and therefore do not require permission.
    3. Graphs, Charts, Schemes, and Artworks that are completely redrawn by the authors and significantly changed beyond recognition do not require permission.

    8.4. Obtaining Permission

    In order to avoid unnecessary delays in the publication process, you should start obtaining permission as early as possible. If in any doubt about the copyright, apply for permission. Society & Sustainability cannot publish material from other publications without permission.

    The copyright holder may give you instructions on the form of acknowledgment to be followed; otherwise, follow the style: "Reproduced with permission from [author], [book/journal title]; published by [publisher], [year].' at the end of the caption of the Table, Figure or Scheme.

    9.0. Authorship

    Society & Sustainability follows the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) guidelines which state that, in order to qualify for authorship of a manuscript, the following criteria should be observed:

    • Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
    • Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
    • Final approval of the version to be published; AND
    • Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

    Those who contributed to the work but do not qualify for authorship should be listed in the acknowledgments. More detailed guidance on authorship is given by the International Council of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

    Any change to the author list should be approved by all authors including any who have been removed from the list. The corresponding author should act as a point of contact between the editor and the other authors and should keep co-authors informed and involve them in major decisions about the publication. We reserve the right to request confirmation that all authors meet the authorship conditions.

    10.0. Copyright and Licensing

    For all articles published in Society & Sustainability, the copyright is retained by the authors. Articles are licensed under an open-access Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 license, meaning that anyone may download and read the paper for free. In addition, the article may be reused and quoted provided that the original published version is cited. These conditions allow for maximum use and exposure of the work while ensuring that the authors receive proper credit. Each article published in Society & Sustainability will include the following statement:

    © 20XX by the authors. Licensee Research & Innovation Initiative, Michigan, USA. This article is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

    In exceptional circumstances, articles may be licensed differently. If you have a specific condition (such as one linked to funding) that does not allow this license, please mention this to the editorial office of the journal at submission. Exceptions will be granted at the discretion of the publisher.

    11.0. Submission Fee and Article Processing Fee

    There is no submission fee. However, the journal charges $100 as an article processing fee for each accepted article to bear the administrative and editorial costs. However, the author(s) from Low-income, and Lower Middle-income economies [according to the World Bank Group] are eligible for a 50% waiver on the APC. Please find the list of countries here. The fee includes all editorial processing as well as the cost of DOI and abstracting. There will be additional charges for Language editing, depending upon the level of editing required It is assumed that the authors submit the article with full knowledge of the charges involved. The fee is payable only after the article is accepted. The authors who are unable to pay the due amount due to any genuine reason can apply to the editor-in-chief for a partial exemption

    12.0. Review Process

    Manuscripts submitted to Society & Sustainability are subject to undergo a double-blind review process. Once the submission is done, the editor will perform the initial screening. Upon the suitability of the manuscript, it will be sent to the reviewers. It will take 15 to 30 days to receive the first decision about the manuscript. Based on the reviewers’ comments, the author will have to respond within a month. Reviewers are asked to evaluate the quality of the manuscript and to provide a recommendation to the chief editor on whether a manuscript can be accepted, requires revisions, or should be rejected. Please click here for the review form.

    13.0. Language Editing Services

    Society & Sustainability strictly maintains a professional standard in writing and ensures that all the manuscripts have the correct language and style. The manuscripts that receive “Extensive editing of English language and style required” or “Moderate English changes required” must undergo language and style editing before they are accepted for publication.  

    14.0. Digital Preservation Policy

    Society & Sustainability maintains the following digital preservation policy

    Website archiving

    All of our electronic content (website, manuscripts, etc.) is stored on a reliable Webhosting server with backup facilities. 

    Abstracting/Indexing services

    Our journal’s Abstracting/Indexing services store much essential information about the articles. Additionally, our journal’s Abstracting/Indexing services archive not only the metadata about the articles but the electronic versions of the full articles, as well. Therefore, copies of the articles are available to the scientific community through their systems as an alternative to the journal's own.

    Self-archiving

    Authors may archive the final published version of their articles in personal or institutional repositories immediately after publication.

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