Instructions for Authors

Instructions for Authors: Journal of Current Social Issues Studies (JCSIS)

The Journal of Current Social Issues Studies (JCSIS) is an international, open-access, double-blind peer-reviewed journal dedicated to publishing original research, reviews, and commentary on contemporary global social issues. We welcome interdisciplinary submissions and encourage innovative methodologies to advance the forefront of social science research.

1. Submission Checklist

Before submitting your manuscript to JCSIS, please ensure you have completed all of the following steps:

Review the Aims & Scope: Ensure your manuscript's content aligns with the journal's focus on contemporary social issues.
Use the Official Template: Prepare your manuscript using the provided Microsoft Word template.
Adhere to Publication Ethics: The manuscript must be original and not previously published or under consideration for publication elsewhere. All authors must be aware of and agree with the journal’s publication ethics policies.
Confirm Authorship: All listed authors must have made a substantial contribution to the work and have read and approved the final submitted version.
Format Correctly: Ensure that the formatting of figures, data, and references in the manuscript complies with the journal's requirements.

2. Manuscript Submission Overview

Types of Publications

JCSIS has no strict limitations on manuscript length, but requires the content to be concise and comprehensive. If your research necessitates it, full methodological details must be provided to ensure the reproducibility of results. The journal primarily accepts the following article types:

Research Article: Reports of original research. The journal will consider all original research manuscripts provided the work is scientifically sound and offers a substantial amount of new information.
Review Article: A systematic and critical review of the latest progress in a given research area. Systematic reviews should follow the PRISMA guidelines.

Submission Process

Manuscripts must be submitted through our online submission system. The corresponding author is generally responsible for the manuscript throughout the submission and peer-review process. The submitting author must ensure all co-authors have been included and have approved the submitted version.

Accepted File Formats

To ensure a smooth publication process, we encourage authors to use the Microsoft Word template.

Microsoft Word: Manuscripts must be converted into a single file before submission.
Supplementary files: These can be in any format, but we recommend using common, non-proprietary formats.

Free Format Submission

JCSIS now also accepts free format submission. This means there are no strict formatting requirements upon initial submission, but the manuscript must contain the following required sections: Author Information, Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Materials & Methods, Results, Conclusions, Figures and Tables with Captions, Funding Information, Author Contributions, Conflict of Interest, and other ethical statements. While any reference style is accepted for the initial submission, you must maintain consistency. When your manuscript reaches the revision stage, you will be asked to reformat it according to the journal’s specific guidelines.

Cover Letter

A cover letter must accompany each submission. It should be concise, explain the paper's significance in the context of existing work, and state why the manuscript fits within the journal's scope. The cover letter must include the following statements:

"We confirm that neither the manuscript nor any parts of its content are currently under consideration for publication with or published in another journal."
"All authors have approved the manuscript and agree with its submission to the Journal of Current Social Issues Studies."

3. Manuscript Preparation

General Considerations

Acronyms/Abbreviations: Should be defined the first time they appear in the abstract, main text, and the first figure or table.
Units: SI Units (International System of Units) should be used.
Equations: Please use Microsoft Equation Editor or the MathType add-on in Word to ensure equations are editable.
Research Data and Supplementary Materials: Publication implies that you must make all associated materials, data, and protocols available to readers.
Preregistration: If studies or analysis plans have been preregistered, links to the preregistration must be provided in the manuscript.
Graphical Abstract: This must be an original, high-resolution illustration or diagram with a minimum size of 560 × 1100 pixels. It should not be an exact duplicate of any figure within the paper.

Manuscript Structure

Research Articles should include: Front Matter (Title, Author list, Abstract, Keywords), Research Sections (Introduction, Materials & Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions—optional), and Back Matter (Supplementary Materials, Acknowledgments, Author Contributions, Conflicts of Interest, References).
Review Articles should include: Front Matter, Review Sections (logically organized), and Back Matter.

References

This journal requires all submissions to use the APA 7th Edition citation style. Please ensure that in-text citations correspond exactly with the reference list. We strongly recommend using a bibliography software package such as EndNote, Zotero, or Mendeley to manage your references.

Below are examples of common reference types in APA 7th format:

Journal Article: Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of the article. Journal Title, Volume(Issue), page range. DOI: xx.xxxx/xxxxx
Book: Author, A. A. (Year). Title of book (Edition). Publisher.
Book Chapter: Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of the chapter. In C. C. Editor & D. D. Editor (Eds.), Title of the book (pp. page range). Publisher.
Conference Proceedings: Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of the paper. In Title of the Conference (pp. page range). Publisher.
Webpage or Online Content: Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of page. Site Name. Retrieved from URL

4. Back Matter

Author Contributions

A short paragraph detailing the individual contributions of each author must be provided. We recommend using the CRediT taxonomy.

Funding

All sources of funding for the study must be disclosed. Clearly indicate any grants received in support of your research work.

Data Availability Statement

A data availability statement is required for all articles. Please provide details on where data can be found, including links to publicly archived datasets.

Acknowledgments

This section can be used to acknowledge support not covered in the author contributions or funding sections. The use of generative AI tools must also be declared here.

Conflicts of Interest

Authors must declare any personal or financial circumstances that may be perceived as influencing the research. If there is no conflict of interest, please state, "The authors declare no conflict of interest."