Preparing articles

1. Sample articles
2. Article preparation
3. Conference papers
4. Title, abstract, keywords, addresses, biographical notes
5. Conflicts of Interest Declaration
6. References and notes
7. Figures
8. Permissions
9. Units of measurement
10. International context
11. Translated works
12. The use of AI technology
13. Additional guidance

Guidelines also available in pdf format.

1. Sample Articles

For reference, sample articles are available from the homepages of all published journals.

2. Article Preparation

An original article would normally consist of 5000-7000 words (excluding figures, tables and references), although high-quality articles which exceed 7000 words will be considered.

All articles must be written in English, using UK spelling and terminology. The text and English language in new and revised articles must be checked, edited and corrected by the authors, preferably with the help of a native English speaker.

Submissions may be formatted in single or double spacing, preferably in Times New Roman size 12 font. All accepted articles will be correctly formatted for publication.

The text of the article should include the following (see section 4 for further details):

• title
• abstract
• text
• conflicts of interest declaration
• references and notes
• tables, figure captions and figures
• keywords
• but not the names of authors, their biographical notes nor any acknowledgements.

Please make sure that authors' names are not included in the document/file properties.

Templates (Word or LaTex) for all journals are available here, should you wish to use one. Although the templates will allow you to estimate the total number of pages if typed in single line spacing, it is not essential that you use one, since all accepted articles will, as stated above, be correctly formatted for publication by Inderscience Publishers.

3. Conference Papers

If your article is based on a conference paper, it is important that you observe the following:

Conference papers are not accepted.

Authors can submit an article that is based on a conference paper, so long as it has been substantially revised, expanded and rewritten so that it is significantly different from the conference paper or presentation on which it is based. The rewritten article must be sufficiently different to make it a new, original work, and the similarity index compared with the original conference paper must be no more than 5%. In order to achieve a similarity index of less than 5%, we suggest that authors completely rewrite the conference paper, update the literature review, implement any feedback received from the conference, add new material (e.g. additional data, new findings and results, more rigorous analysis, new metrics, images), and provide evidence that the manuscript enhances the knowledge base beyond what was published in the original conference paper.

These articles will be treated like any other article submitted to Inderscience, and will go through our plagiarism checker and also undergo a double-blind peer-review process, all using Inderscience's online submissions system.

The original conference paper should be supplied by the author with the expanded article for the purpose of comparison.

Please include the statement 'This article is a revised and expanded version of a paper entitled [title] presented at [name, location and date of conference]' in the online system when you submit your paper, using the "Notes for the Editor" field.

If the original conference paper on which the extended paper is based has been published elsewhere, or the copyright has been assigned to the conference organisers or another party, authors should ensure that they have cleared any necessary permissions with the copyright owners. Articles will not be accepted, post-review, for publication unless such written permissions have been provided along with author copyright forms.

4. Title, Abstract, Keywords, Addresses, Biographical Notes

Please assist us by following these guidelines:

• Title: as short as possible, with no uncommon abbreviations or acronyms.
• Abstract: should be factual and precise and less than 150 words.
  ∘  It needs to briefly cover the aim of your research, the methodologies used and what you concluded.
  ∘  Avoid including references. If essential, then cite the author and year.
  ∘  Avoid using uncommon abbreviations. If unavoidable, then define at the first mention in the abstract.
  ∘  Use any relevant keywords to improve the findability of your paper in online search engines and indexes.
  ∘  A well-constructed abstract is important as it will attract readers to your paper.
• Keywords: approximately 10-15 words or phrases. Keywords are important for online searching; please click here for further keyword requirements (PDF).
• Address*: position, department, name of institution, full postal address and email address for each author.
• Biographical notes*: approximately 100 words per author, maximum 150.

* Author details should not be included in the article, and are only required when completing relevant sections of the online submission form.

5. Conflicts of Interest Declaration

Authors must make a declaration in their article concerning conflicts of interest.

• Authors must disclose any competing interests, situations or connections (direct or indirect) that might have influenced the research reported in the article. Conflicts of interest can include personal relationships (i.e. friend, spouse, family member, current or previous mentor, adversary) with individuals involved in the submission or evaluation of a paper, such as authors, reviewers, editors or members of the editorial board; holding any kind of position on relevant boards; employment relationships; privileged access to data; collaborations with individuals or organisations related to the content of the article; grants received (from any source, restricted or unrestricted) by the authors from bodies with an interest in the study; relationships (paid or unpaid) with organisations and funding bodies including non-governmental organisations, research institutions or charities; any type of sponsorship, gifts, benefits, fees, stakes or royalties shared or received from individuals or organisations related to the content of the article; membership of lobbying or advocacy organisations; business, personal, legal, political, ideological, religious or academic interests or beliefs related to the paper's topic that may interfere with an unbiased publication process; etc.
• If authors feel that they have nothing to disclose, they must insert a statement saying, "All authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest".

All articles must include a declaration.

6. References and Notes

Inderscience journals use the Harvard (name and date) short reference system for citations in the text with a full, detailed alphabetical list at the end of the article. For example "Hamel (2000) suggests ..." or "Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) found that ..." or "A study of economic change (Nelson and Winter, 1982) has shown that ..."

All works cited in the text must be included in the References section at the end of the article.

Footnotes should be avoided, but any short, succinct notes making a specific point may be placed in number order following the alphabetical list of references.

References should be made only to works that are published, accepted for publication (not merely "submitted"), or available through libraries or institutions. Any other source should be qualified by a note regarding availability.

All reference sources must be written in English.

The full reference should include

• all authors' names and initials,
• date of publication,
• title of article,
• title of publication (italics),
• volume and issue number (of a journal),
• publisher and form (for books and conference proceedings),
• page numbers,
• DOI (Digital Object Identifier), if available.

For websites or internet-based resources, also add

• accessed day month year (the date you last viewed the article),
• URL or internet address.

Authors must ensure that any URLs included in references are valid, and should provide a shortened version of the URL if the original is longer than 90 characters.
To shorten, include the main site (domain name) details only. Do not use a link shortener.
e.g.
https://www.dss.gov.au/
instead of
https://www.dss.gov.au/about-the-department/publications-articles/corporate-publications/annual-reports/annual-report-official-2022

Find examples of how to reference materials here (PDF).

More examples of references may be found in sample articles available from all journal homepages.

Please note: for the International Journal of Private Law and the International Journal of Public Law and Policy only, please use the Numeric Referencing System which uses numerals in the text with a detailed numerical list at the end of the paper. For example, '...Smith's [1] research supported the earlier findings of Miller [2] highlighting the probability of the results in this area to be true...'

7. Figures

All illustrations, whether diagrams or photographs, are referred to as Figures. If any figures appear in colour, please note that they will only appear in colour in the online version; in the printed version they will be in black and white. If the quality of the colour figure supplied is not suitable to be produced in colour, it will also be shown in black and white in the online version. Figures should ideally be black and white, not colour, and numbered sequentially. However, if colour is essential to the figure please send a good quality colour image. Please place them at the end of the article, rather than interspersed in text.

Please prepare all figures, especially line diagrams, to the highest possible standards. Bear in mind that lettering may be reduced in size by a factor of 2 or 3, and that fine lines may disappear.

8. Permissions

Works of other authors that are reproduced in your article (e.g. images, photos, figures, data) must be clearly disclosed and fully acknowledged. This work can only be included in your article with the explicit permission of the original authors and the copyright holders (for example, the original publisher). Authors have the obligation and responsibility of obtaining permission from the original authors and publishers.

To indicate that you have received permission, please use the word "Source:" and describe the permission obtained. Place this after the description or placement of the material being used. The source is the publication or location from which the third-party material has been obtained.
e.g.
Source: Van Deselar 2020. Reproduced with permission of Elsevier.
Source: The NSW Art Gallery Library, 2011. Reproduced with permission of The NSW Art Gallery Library and © Estate of Eric Ravilious.
Source: Courtesy of Albert Obufame.

9. Units of Measurement

Inderscience journals follow the Systèmes International (SI) for units of measurement.

Imperial units will be converted, except where conversion would affect the meaning of a statement, or imply a greater or lesser degree of accuracy.

10. International Context

It should not be assumed that the reader is familiar with specific national institutions or corporations. Authors are encouraged to approach their chosen topic with an international perspective.

Countries and groupings of countries should be referred to by their full title (for example, "Europe" and "America" are ambiguous).

Special attention should be paid to identifying units of currency by nationality.

Acronyms should be translated in full into English. (See also "Translated works" below.)

11. Translated Works

Difficulty often arises in translating acronyms, so it is best to spell out an acronym in English (for example, IIRP - French personal income tax).

Similarly, labels and suffixes need careful attention where the letters refer to words which have been translated.

The names of mathematical functions may change in translation - check against an English or American mathematical reference text.

12. The use of AI technology

In line with COPE guidelines, artificial intelligence tools (e.g. ChatGPT) cannot be listed as named authors on submitted articles. Authors are fully responsible for the content of their article, even those parts produced by any AI tool, and are thus liable for any inaccuracies or breach of publication ethics.

Authors who have used AI tools to develop their article and/or to write, generate or edit text must include a note in the article's Acknowledgements section describing the technologies used and their purpose.

Please note that this policy does not apply to software such as spelling or grammar checkers or reference managers. Authors using such tools do not need to include a note about them in the Acknowledgements section.

13. Additional guidance

This is a useful article to read on how to write and construct your article (PDF).

Four pages to read

• Author guidelines
• Preparing articles
• Submissions checklist
• Submitting your article