Author Guidelines

Author Guidelines

FOCUS AND SCOPE

Al-Qalam journal (AQJ) is an international, multi-disciplinary, peer-reviewed, double-blind and open-access journal that enhances research in all fields of applied sciences and technology through the publication of high-quality articles that describe significant and novel works; and advance knowledge in a diversity of scientific fields.

AQJ is published one volume, 4 issues per year. All accepted articles are granted free online immediately after publication, which permits its users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of its articles, thus facilitating access to a broad readership.

MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION

Language: Manuscripts should be written in clear and concise English, Arabic or Kurdish language. Contributors who are not native English speakers are strongly advised to ensure that a colleague fluent in the English language or a professional language editor has reviewed their manuscript. At proof stage, only minor changes other than corrections of printers’ errors are allowed.

Cover letter: Each manuscript should be accompanied by a cover letter containing a brief statement by the authors describing the novelty and importance of their research.

General format and length: Type the manuscript (including table legends, figure legends and references) double-spaced using 12 font size. Do not use footnotes in the text, use parentheses instead.

MANUSCRIPT STYLE

Two types of manuscripts will be considered for publication, including review and original articles.

1. Review articles

• The topic must be current.
• The scope of the manuscript should not exceed 7500 words, excluding references, captions and Tables.
• The composition is not defined, however, the following parts are required: Title page, Abstract (unstructured; 250 words maximum), Keywords, Introduction, Acknowledgments and References (150 references maximum), Tables and Figures, if applicable, including titles and legends, and a Conflict of interest statement.

1. Original articles

The scope of the manuscript should not exceed 4500 words, excluding references, captions and Tables.

Manuscripts should be double-spaced with 2-cm margins on all sides of the page, in Times New Roman font (size 12). Every page of the manuscript, including the title page, references, tables, etc., should be numbered. All copies of the manuscript should also have line numbers starting with 1 on each consecutive page. Repetitive use of long sentences and passive voice should be avoided. It is strongly recommended that the text be run through computer spelling and grammar programs.

Manuscript content

The manuscript should be divided into the following sections. Principal sections should be numbered consecutively (1. Introduction, 2. Materials and methods, etc.) and subsections should be numbered 1.1., 1.2., etc. Do not number the Acknowledgements or References sections.

The manuscript should be compiled in the following order:

1. Title page:should include the following

• Title: The title should be brief, concise, and descriptive. It should not contain any literature references or compound numbers or non-standardized abbreviations. Use Times New Roman Size 14 bold (All caps)
• Authors and affiliations: Supply given names, middle initials, and family names for complete identification. Use superscript lowercase letters to indicate different affiliations, which should be as detailed as possible and must include department, faculty/college, University, city and country. Use Times New Roman Size 11 bold.
• Corresponding author: Should be indicated with an asterisk, and contact details (Tel., and e-mail address) should be placed in a footnote.

1. Abstract

Each manuscript should contain an informative abstract of the main points (not more than 250 words). It should describe the research purposes or motivation for the manuscript; the main finding and central conclusions. On the abstract page, authors should include a list of four to six keywords.

Use Times New Roman Size 11.

(Note: The main text in the rest components of the manuscript should be written in Times New Roman Size 12 and for first headings Use Times New Roman Size 12 bold (All caps)).

1. Introduction

This should argue the case for your study, outlining only essential background, and should not include the findings or the conclusions. It should not be a review of the subject area, but should finish with a clear statement of the question being addressed.

1. Materials and methods

Explain clearly but concisely your technical and experimental procedures. Previously published papers related to the methods should be cited with appropriate references. Brand names and company locations should be supplied for all mentioned equipment, instruments, chemicals, etc.

Protection of Human Subjects and Animals in Research. When reporting experiments on human subjects, authors should indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975 (revised in 2008). When reporting experiments on animals, authors should be asked to indicate whether the institutional and national guide for the care and use of laboratory animals was followed.

(For sub-headings, use Times New Roman Size 12 bold.)

1. Results

Findings must be described without comments. It must be presented in the form of text, tables and figures. The same data or information given in a Table must not be repeated in a Figure and vice versa. It is not acceptable to repeat extensively the numbers from Tables in the text or to give lengthy explanations of Tables or Figures. (For sub-headings, use Times New Roman Size 12 bold.)

1. Discussion

This should emphasize the present findings and the variations or similarities with other work done in the field by other scientists. The detailed data should not be repeated in the discussion again. Emphasize the new and important aspects of the study and the conclusions that follow from them. It must be mentioned whether the hypothesis mentioned in the manuscript is true, false or no conclusions can be derived.

1. Conclusion

The main conclusion(s) of the study should be presented in a short conclusion statement that can stand alone and be linked with the goals of the study. State new hypotheses when warranted. Include recommendations when appropriate.

Acknowledgement

 All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be covered in the acknowledgement section. It should include persons who provided technical help, writing assistance and departmental head who only provided general support. Financial and material support should also be acknowledged.

Conflict of interest (Optional)

Authors must acknowledge and declare any sources of funding and potential conflicting interest, such as receiving funds or fees. When there is no conflict of interest, the author should mention it at the end of manuscript, prior to References.

1. References

References should be prepared strictly according to the Harvard style. All references in the text  must be specified by the authors’ last names and date of publication.

You should cite publications in the text as (Adams, 2006) using the first named author's name or (Adams and Brown, 2006) citing both names of two, or (Adams et al., 2006), when there are three or more authors except when the author is mentioned, e.g ”the study of Shena et al. (2015) was modified….”.

At the end of the paper a reference list in alphabetical order should be supplied: 

For books:

Author. Year. Title, Place Published, Publisher.

e.g. Harrow, R. 2005, No Place to Hide, Simon & Schuster, New York, NY. 

For book chapters 

Author. Year. Title. In: Editor (ed.)^(eds.) Book Title. Edition ed. Place Published: Publisher.

e.g. Calabrese, F.A. 2005, "The early pathways: theory to practice – a continuum", in Stankosky, M. (Ed.), Creating the Discipline of Knowledge Management, Elsevier, New York, NY, pp. 15-20.

For journal articles 

Author. Year. Title, Journal, Volume, Pages.

e.g. Capizzi, M.T. and Ferguson, R. 2005. Loyalty trends for the twenty-first century, Journal of Consumer Marketing, 22 (2), 72-80.

For thesis

Author. Year. Title. Degree Thesis Type, University.

e.g.Zubakova, R. 2007. Analysis of the mechanisms influencing the expression of blood pressure regulating systems. Ph.D Dissertation, Heidelberg University

It is preferable to use endnote (Harvard) style for writing your references.

Tables

Submit Tables on separate pages and number them consecutively using Arabic numerals. Provide a short descriptive title, column headings, and (if necessary) footnotes to make each Table self-explanatory. In the footnote, refer to information within the Table with superscript lowercase letters, and do not use special characters or numbers. Separate units with a comma and use parentheses or square brackets for additional measures (e.g., %, range, etc.). Refer to Tables in the text as Table 1, etc. Use Table 1 (boldface), etc. in the title of the Table.

Figures

The number of figures should be not more than 6 and appropriate for the presented data. Please make sure that artwork files are in an acceptable format (TIFF, JPEG or EPS) and of high resolution (300 dpi or more). Figures should be referred to as Figure 1, Figures. 2, 3-5 (boldface), using Arabic numerals. Each figure must be accompanied by a legend clearly describing it. All aspects of the figures and legend must be fully understandable in a stand-alone format.

Note

All figure legends must be presented at the end of the manuscript, after References.

Abbreviations and symbols

Use only standard abbre­viations and avoid using them in the title. The full term for which an abbre­viation stands should precede its first use in the text unless it is a stan­dard unit of measurement. 

MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION

All manuscripts must be submitted electronically via the Internet to the AQJ through the online system at http://alqalam.edu.iq/ojs/index.php/Journal. You will be guided stepwise through the creation and uploading of the various files. There are no page charges.

Manuscripts are accepted for publication on the understanding that they have not been published and are not going to be considered for publication elsewhere. Authors should certify that neither the manuscript nor its main contents have already been published or submitted for publication in another journal. After a manuscript has been submitted, it is not possible for authors to be added or removed or for the order of authors to be changed. If authors do so, their submission will be cancelled. Manuscripts may be rejected without peer review by the editor-in-chief if they do not comply with the author guidelines or if they are beyond the scope of the journal.

Plagiarism

All manuscripts received are submitted to a plagiarism checking system, which compares the content of the manuscript with a vast database of web pages and academic publications. Therefore, the use of others ideas or words in their original form or slightly changed without a proper citation is considered plagiarism and will not be tolerated. Even if a citation is given, if quotation marks are not placed around words taken directly from another author’s work, the author is still guilty of plagiarism. Reuse of the author’s own previously published words, with or without a citation, is regarded as self-plagiarism.

AFTER ACCEPTANCE

Availability of accepted article 

This journal makes manuscripts available online as soon as possible after acceptance (in PDF format). A Digital Object Identifier (DOI) is allocated, thereby making it fully citable and searchable by title, author name(s) and the full text.

Proofs

One set of page proofreads (as PDF files) will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author. Please use this proofreads only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the text, tables, and figures. We will do our best to get your article published as soon as possible.

Offprints 

The corresponding author, at no cost, will be provided with a PDF file of the article via e-mail. The PDF file includes a cover sheet with the journal cover.

THE FINAL CHECKLIST

The authors must ensure that before submitting the manuscript for publication, they have taken care of the following:

1. Title page should contain title, name of the author/co-authors, designation and institutions they are affiliated with and e-mail address for future correspondence. E-mail address, Phone number should be provided for corresponding author.
2. Provide the names of two of peer-reviewers, who could be called upon to review your manuscript.
3. Abstract in unstructured format and maximum 250 words.
4. References are mentioned as stated before and prepared via Endnote software.
5. Tables should be typed on separate pages.
6. Make sure for Headings of Tables and their numbers.
7. Figures (Photographs / illustrations) along with their captions are provided.
8. Declaring any conflict of interest.
9. Cover letter.

 Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

1. The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
2. The submission file is in Microsoft Word file format.
3. The text is double-spaced; uses a 12-point (Times New Roman) font; and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed at the end of the manuscript
4. The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Instruction for Authors
5. I (We) have prepared the Cover letter which includes:

(1) explanation why the manuscript should be published
(2) declaration of any potential competing interests and
(3)  suggestion of three potential reviewers (name, institution and e-mail address) for the manuscript.

Publication Charges

Publication fee is free for academic staff  of Al-qalam college university and ------- ID for the other agencies. It will be paid at the Accounting Office of the Al-qalam college university.

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

Al-Qalam journal  (ISSN ) is published by Al-Qalam College University/Department of Scientific Publications. Responsibility for the contents rests upon the authors and not upon Al-Qalam College University or the Journal Editorial and Advisory Boards.

Department of Scientific Publication Office: Presidency of Al-Qalam College University, Kirkuk Road, Iraq. email: alqalam.it@gmail.com

Copyright and Reprint Permission: It is the policy of AQJ to own the copyright to the technical contributions it publishes and to facilitate the appropriate reuse of this material by others. Photocopying is permitted with credit to the source for individuals for individual use.

Copyright © 2018 . All Rights Reserved. Al-Qalam College University