Submissions

Author Guidelines

INFORMATION FOR AUTHORS

The following is a guide for authors who intend to submit their paper to IJISTRA. Submitting manuscripts in the correct format and in compliance to the requirements will expedite the review process and prevent undue delay in publication. The publisher reserves the right to reject or return manuscripts which are not prepared according to the stipulated guidelines.

Language: English, Malay or Arabic. Articles in Malay or Arabic must have titles, abstracts and keywords in both Malay and English.

Authorship: Name(s), affiliation of the author(s) & corresponding email address. A short biographical note should be included for book reviews and commentaries.

Manuscript length: articles (5000-10000 words), book reviews (1000-2500 words), commentaries (1500-2500)

Abstract: 150 to 250 words & 5 keywords for research articles only

Ethics: Sources of data, ideas & quotes etc. must be made transparent and properly cited using the APA style. Source of funding (if any) must be acknowledged. Unethical behaviour such as plagiarism, data falsification and redundant publication is not accepted.

Format: All illustrations such as tables, figures, charts and graphs should be included within the text, must be serially numbered and appropriately labelled. Manuscripts files must be in Microsoft Word documents, not locked or protected.

Manuscript Acceptance Acknowledgement Letter will be provided upon request for accepted manuscripts.

Download guidelines and templates here:

1) Research Articles
The guide is available here: Author Guidelines. 
Download template here: Template Layout

2) Book Review
The guide is available here: Author Guidelines. 
Download template here: Template Layout

3) Commentary
The guide is available here: Author Guidelines. 
Download template here: Template Layout

Note: If you are having problem downloading either file, send an email to editor.ijistra@gmail.com and we shall send the guide to your email.

SUBMIT MANUSCRIPT

It is important that manuscript preparation is done according to the Guidelines for Authors. We deserve the right to immediately reject or withdraw submission that does not adhere the author guidelines. Manuscripts should be submitted through OJS at http://ijistra.com/index.php/journal/about/submissions. 

SELECTION CRITERIA

IJISTRA is a masked or double blind peer-review journal and the general guidelines for the acceptance for publication of a submitted manuscript are outlined as follows:

RELEVANCE
IJISTRA has a special focus on Strategic Studies, and on Interdisciplinary issues. Contributions that display theoretical rigour especially work that link the particularities of strategic discourse in the enterprise of knowledge and critique in the humanities and social sciences, is also acceptable.

STANDARD AND CRITERIA

Manuscripts that exhibit most of the following characteristics meet the selection criteria for publication:

• Content: Original research with significant findings that contribute to the discipline that also command a general interest.
• Presentation: Systematic and well-organized prose whereby an argument flows and is easily comprehensible.
• Language: Simple, lucid and highly intelligible to a general intellectual audience. There should be minimal usage of specialized terms, jargons or technical language; if unavoidable, an explanatory note to follow in parentheses.

PEER REVIEW PROCESS 

Submitted manuscript goes through the review process that takes between three and four months. Masked review is practiced whereby both contributor and reviewers are unknown to one another.

CONVENTION: FIDELITY TO HOUSE-STYLE

Manuscripts that are not accepted for publication include those that are too elementary, poorly written and/or poorly organized, incoherent, too specialized in scope, unduly technical, or excessively long. Such papers that are rejected are promptly returned to the author.

The Editor-in-Chief will have the first initial review of the paper on its suitability and relevance often consulting with members of the Editorial Panel. If appropriate, reviewers are identified again through consultations with the Editorial Panel and/or the International Advisory Board. Once review reports are received, the contents are noted by the Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Panel.

If the review reports are unfavourable, the Editor-in-Chief in discussion with the Editorial Panel decides whether an outright rejection is advisable or to seek another reviewer before final decision is made. In the event of rejection, the author of the paper is promptly notified. If the reviews are encouraging, the author is also promptly notified; the review reports are enclosed for the author to undertake revisions in line with the reviewers’ comments and suggestions.

The revised paper when received by the Editor-in-Chief will again be evaluated to ensure that all issues raised by the reviewers have been addressed. If deemed necessary, the revised paper is forwarded to the reviewers for another reading. When all quarters are satisfied, the author is notified that his/her paper has gone through the review process and is now accepted for publication in a forthcoming issue of the journal.

REVIEW OF MANUSCRIPT

IJISTRA practices double-blind academic review; both author and reviewer are unknown to one another. Every submitted manuscript, if deemed appropriate, will go through a review process that involved a minimum of one reviewer to a maximum of three reviewers. The number of reviewers is at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief in consultation with the Editorial Panel. The review may be lengthy but all efforts are made to ensure that an outcome be made known to the author at the soonest possible time. Delays are often commonplace as reviewers are working academics with heavy work commitments. Patience on the part of authors is greatly appreciated.

DEADLINE OF SUBMISSION

IJISTRA is published twice a year, in May and October. For May publication, the deadline for submission of articles is 31^st October. For October publication, the deadline for submission of articles is the 31^st March. 

Articles submitted after the deadline will be considered for subsequent publication.

COPYRIGHT POLICY

Upon acceptance of an article, Authors will be asked to transfer copyright. This transfer will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. A notification will be sent to the corresponding Author confirming receipt of the manuscript.

If excerpts from other copyrighted works are included, the Author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit the source(s) in the article.

If submitting to a peer-reviewed section of the journal, the instructions in Ensuring a Blind Review have been followed.

Also, this work is licenced under a http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

The published manuscript would not represent the stand and opinion of the Board and the Management Team of the IJISTRA and the Interdisciplinary Research and International Strategy (IRIS Institute).

WARNING

The journal does not tolerate the following unethical behaviour:

• Plagiarism;
• Data falsification;
• Redundant publication;

 Authors are responsible to their articles and must withdraw their articles in the above situations. IJISTRA is not responsible if there is any lawsuit from any party.

Once the paper is published online in this journal, the author who wishes to withdraw the paper must pay RM 4500 or 1000 USD for damages. The paper will then be withdrawn within four (4) weeks.