Manuscript Preparation Guidelines
Manuscripts submitted for consideration to SEA-Practical Application of Science must conform to the following requirements that will facilitate preparation of the article for publication.
1. General Guidelines
- Authors are making a commitment to publish in the journal when they submit a manuscript. This means that the manuscript is not currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. Also, we accept manuscripts that have not been published previously in substantially similar form or with substantially similar content.
- Manuscripts should not be written in first person (“I”).
- Manuscripts are subjected to a double-blind review in which the identity of the reviewers and the authors are hidden from each other. Because SEA-Practical Application of Science uses a double-blind review process, please avoid indications of authorship in the body of the manuscript whenever possible.
- If English is not your first language, we recommend contacting professional editing services.
- Spell out numbers under ten.
- Footnotes should NOT BE USED. Endnotes should be provided on a separate page, after the main text under the heading Notes.
- We encourage authors to submit one of the following types of journal articles: Review Article (literature reviews) / Case Study (empirical studies) / Original Research (theoretical articles, methodological articles) / Perspective, opinion and commentary (comments, viewpoint, replies on previously published articles, book reviews etc.).
- File format. Prepare your manuscript using Microsoft Word. All files should be submitted as a Word document .docx. The manuscript should contain the title page, abstract, text, references, tables, and figures. Do not submit tables and figures in separate files. Appendices are the only exception to this requirement.
- Journal style. SEA - Practical Application of Science style conforms to the APA Style (American Psychological Association Style) according to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th Edition), with the exception of the SEA - Practical Application of Science specific style notes.
2. Preparing your manuscript
- Authors should follow the APA Style (American Psychological Association Style) when formatting manuscripts for submission. For details please consult the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th Edition) and the APA style website http://www.apastyle.org/.
- The manuscript should be edited in Times New Roman, with 10-point font size, single spacing and margins of 1 in. (2.54 cm) on an A4 paper size (8.27x11.69 inches – 210x297mm). Paragraphs should be justified, with the following indentation: Left: 0; Right: 0; Special First Line: 0.5 cm (0.196 inch). (You can use the Normal style provided in the paper template, style section).
- There should be no more than three levels of headings.
Headings should not be numbered (with numbers or letters) and formatted as below:
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LEVEL 1 HEADING
TEXT, TEXT, TEXT
First-level headings should be centered, boldface, and uppercase (caps lock), edited in Times New Roman, with 10-point font size, single spacing.
(You can use the Heading 1 style provided in the paper template, style section).
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Level 2 Heading
Text, text, text
Second-level headings (subsections of first-level headings) should be flush left, boldface, uppercase and lowercase, edited Times New Roman, with 10-point font size, single spacing. Paragraph starts on the next line and should not be indented (Left: 0; Right: 0; Special First Line: 0).
(You can use the Heading 2 style provided in the paper template, style section).
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Level 3 heading
Text, text, text
Third-level headings (subsections of second-level headings) should be flush left, boldface, italic, uppercase and lowercase, edited Times New Roman, with 10-point font size, single spacing. Paragraph starts on the next line and should not be indented (Left: 0; Right: 0; Special First Line: 0).
(You can use the Heading 3 style provided in the paper template, style section).
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Where headings are referred to in the text, use section names, as headings are not numbered.
Pay attention at the use of headings.
We recommend using headings as follows:
- HEADING 1 should be used to delimitate the main subsection of the paper (Introduction, Literature Review, Methodology of research, Conclusions, Future research and / or limitations of the study, Acknowledgements and References).
- Heading 2 should be used to delimitate the main sub-sections of a section (for example: if the author wants to structure the studies analysed in the Literature Review section; if the author wants to structure the Methodology of research in objectives, hypothesis, data collection, data interpretation etc.
- Heading 3 should be used to delimitate the main sub-subsections of a subsection (usually this type of heading should be used in long paper which require a more detailed structure).
3. Author details
Author details should contain the following elements:
- Full name of each author – First name, middle initial(s) and last name. The names of the authors should appear in the order of their contributions.
- Institutional affiliation of each author, when the research was completed. Affiliation (University, Faculty, Doctoral School, Research Institute etc.), City, State. If an author is not affiliated with an institution, provide the city and state.
- Corresponding author Where more than one author has contributed to the article, details of who should be contacted for correspondence (telephone or e-mail address).
4. Title page
The title page should contain the following: title, author details, type of article, keywords and abstract.
- Title The title should be short and objectively describe the abstract. Don’t use abbreviations in the title.
- Type of article The author should provide the type of article. We encourage authors to submit one of the following types of journal articles: empirical studies, literature reviews, theoretical articles, methodological articles, case studies, book reviews, comments, viewpoint and replies on previously published articles.
- Keywords A list of keywords should be provided below the title. Authors should provide no more than 6 keywords or short phrases reflecting the main ideas of the manuscript.
- Abstract Abstracts must contain at least 100 words but should not exceed 180 words. Abstracts must include details about originality, relevance, innovation, results and practical applications of the study undertaken. Abstracts will be accepted only correctly written English without grammatical or spelling errors. No matter the language in which the manuscript is transmitted, the title, the abstract and the keywords must be in English only. Abstract should contain no bullets or references. Abstracts must be written as simple text format (no tables, graphs or pictures). Abstract should be edited in Times New Roman, italic, with 12-point font size, single spacing, with no indentation. (You can use the Abstract style provided in the paper template, style section).
5. Text
- Write in the third person ("the author concludes...").
- Organize the main text of the article: clearly, concisely, logically, originally.
- Avoid jargon or overly technical language.
- Use the normal style described above for the main text of the paper, available in the paper template.
- Use the heading styles described above, available in the paper template.
6. Acknowledgments
Funding, other contributors to the study or in manuscript preparation.
7. Biographical sketch
Brief biographical sketch of each author describing their professional background, research interests and e-mail addresses.
8. References
The seaopenresearch.eu preferred style of reference is APA (American Psychological Association Style). For more information see the Authors Guidelines document, References section.
9. List of tables
Tables submitted as pictures are not editable and should not be included. Tables need to be formatted in Word and should be placed centered. Refer to each table in the text. Use table number (Arabic number) when citing tables (…the four-dimension framework as sketched in Table 1 is suggested as …). Please indicate the source whether a table is not original and presents information from another source or the table is original and presents information processed by the author. The title of tables should be placed before the tables. The title of tables should be formatted using Times New Romans, with 10-point font size, single spacing, centered, boldface, uppercase and lowercase. The source of tables should be formatted using Times New Romans, with 10-point font size, single spacing, centered, italics, uppercase and lowercase, ending with a period. (You can use the Table style provided in the paper template, style section).
LIST OF TABLES:
Table No.
Title of table
Source: source of the table.
10. List of figures
Provide high-quality figures like graphs, charts, maps, drawings, photographs. Refer to each figure in the text. Use figure number (Arabic number) when citing figures (As seen in Figure 1, each of the survey items…). Figures should be placed centered. Please indicate the source whether a figure is not original and presents information from another source or the figure is original and presents information processed by the author. The title of figures should be placed below the figures. The title of figures should be formatted using Times New Romans, with 10-point font size, single spacing, centered, boldface, uppercase and lowercase. The source of figures s should be formatted using Times New Romans, with 10-point font size, single spacing, centered, italics, uppercase and lowercase, ending with a period. (You can use the Figure style provided in the paper template, style section).
LIST OF FIGURES:
Figure No. Title of figure Source: source of the figure.
For the source of both tables and figures you can use the Source style provided in the paper template, style section. Put all tables and figures at the end of the manuscript, following the references.
11. Appendices
Examples: study measures or itemsAppendix A, Appendix B
Documents and submission
Authors should submit manuscripts to the following form. The article also must be accompanied by a completed and signed Original Statement (scanned or photographed copy).