MANUSCRIPT REQUIREMENTS AND STYLE GUIDE
General Language Editing Standards
Altruistic Journal requires manuscripts to be submitted in both Bahasa Indonesia and English. For authors who would like their manuscript to receive language editing or proofing to improve the clarity of the manuscript and help highlight their research, Altruistic Journal recommends language editing services provided by internal or external partners (contact the Principal of Altruistic Journal for more information).
Note that submitting your manuscript for language editing does not imply or guarantee that it will be accepted for publication by the Altruistic Journal. Editorial decisions about the scientific content of a manuscript are independent of whether it has received language editing or proofreading by a partner service, or any other service.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
There are some simple ways to maximize the discoverability of your articles. Follow the steps below to improve your article's search results:
- Include some of your article's keywords in the article title;
- Don't use long article titles;
- Choose 3 to 5 keywords using a mix of general terms and more specific to the subject of the article;
- Use the maximum number of keywords in the first 2 sentences of the abstract;
- Use multiple keywords in the level 1 heading.
Title
The title is written with the first letter of each word capitalized, aligned to the left, and uses Arial font size 16pt at the top of the page. The title is written in 2 languages, the first line in English and the second line in Indonesian.
The title should be brief, omit implied terms and, where possible, be a statement of the main results or conclusions presented in the manuscript. Abbreviations should be avoided in titles.
Witty or creative titles are welcome, but only if relevant and in size. Consider whether a title intended to stimulate thought might be misinterpreted as offensive or alarming. In extreme cases, the editorial office may veto the title and propose an alternative.
Authors should try to avoid, if possible:
- Titles that are mere questions without providing answers.
- Unambitious titles, for example, starting with "Towards", "Description", "Characterization", "Preliminary study".
- Vague titles, for example, starting with "Role of...", "Link between...", "Effect of..." that do not specify role, link or effect.
- Include terms that are out of place, for example, taxonomic affiliations in addition to species names.
Authors and Affiliations
All names are listed together and separated by commas. Provide proper and correct author names as these will be indexed in the official archive. Affiliations should be inserted into the author's name with a superscript number and listed as follows: Institute/University/Organization, Country (without detailed address information such as city zip code or street name).
Example: Universitas Negeri Medan, Indonesia.
Correspondence Author should be indicated with a superscript. Provide the exact contact email address of the corresponding author in a separate section under affiliation.
Title and Subheading
Use capital letters in the title and capitalize each word of the subtitle. The title should be defined in Book Antiqua size 12pt, bolded and the subtitle defined in Book Antiqua size 12pt bolded.
Abstract
As a primary objective, the abstract should make the general significance and conceptual progress of the work clearly accessible to a wide readership. In the abstract, minimize the use of abbreviations and do not cite references. It should be no more than 200 words long, written in English and Bahasa Indonesia.
Tips for writing an abstract:
- Background of the study
- Purpose and scope of the paper
- Summary of methods
- Summary of results or findings
- Conclusion
- Keywords
All article types: You can provide a maximum of 5 keywords; a minimum of 3 is required. each keyword is separated by a semicolon ( ; )
Text
The body text is written in Book Antiqua font size 12pt. New paragraphs are not separated by a blank line. The entire document should be single-spaced and should contain page and line numbers to facilitate the review process. Altruistic Journal recommends manuscripts written using MS-Word 97-2003.
Nomenclature
The use of abbreviations should be minimized. Non-standard abbreviations should be avoided unless they appear at least four times, and are defined on first use in the main text. Also consider providing a list of non-standard abbreviations at the end, just before the Acknowledgements.
Section
Your manuscript is organized by headings and subheadings. For Original Research Articles, it is recommended to organize your manuscript in the following sections:
Introduction
The introduction is slightly different from the abstract in that it is short and concise. Readers need to know the background of your research and, most importantly, why your research is important in this context. What critical questions does your research answer? Why should the reader be interested?
The purpose of the Introduction is to stimulate the reader's interest and to provide pertinent background information necessary to understand the rest of the paper. You should summarize the problem to be addressed, provide background on the subject, discuss previous research on the topic, and explain exactly what the paper will cover, why, and how. A good thing to avoid is making your introduction a mini-review. There is a huge amount of literature out there, but as a scientist, you should be able to pick out the things that are most relevant to your work and explain why. This shows the editor/reviewer/reader that you really understand your field of research and that you can get straight to the most important issues.
Keep your Introduction very concise, well-structured and include all the information needed to follow the development of your findings. Don't overwhelm the reader by making the introduction too long. Get to the other important parts of the paper sooner rather than later.
Tip:
- Start the Introduction by giving a brief background of the problem being studied.
- State the purpose of the investigation. The purpose of your research is the most important part of the introduction.
- Establish the importance of your work: Why is there a need to conduct research?
- Introduce the reader to related literature. Do not give a complete history of the topic. Only cite previous works that have a direct link to the current problem. (Sophistication, relevant research to justify the novelty of the manuscript.)
- State the gap analysis or novelty statement.
- Clearly state your hypothesis, the variables investigated, and briefly summarize the methods used.
- Specify any abbreviations or specialized/regional terms.
- Example of a novelty statement or gap analysis statement at the end of the Introduction section (after the state of the art survey of previous research): "........ (background summary)....... A few researchers have focused on ....... There is limited pertinent research on ........ Therefore, this study intends to ............. The objective of this study is ....".
- Be concise and aware of who will read your manuscript and make sure the Introduction is addressed to that audience. Move from general to specific; from real-world problems to literature to your research. Finally, please avoid creating subsections in the Introduction.
Methods
In the Methods section, you clearly explain how you conducted your research to: (1) allow the reader to evaluate the work done and (2) permit others to replicate your research. You should describe exactly what you did: what and how the experiments were run, what, how much, how often, where, when, and why equipment and materials were used. A key consideration is to ensure that sufficient detail is provided to verify your findings and to enable replication of the study. You must maintain a balance between brevity (you can't explain every technical issue) and comprehensiveness (you need to provide sufficient detail to let the reader know what happened).
Tips for writing research methods:
- Define the population and sampling method;
- Describe the instrumentation;
- Describe the procedures and if relevant, the time frame;
- Describe the analysis plan;
- Describe any approaches to ensure validity and reliability;
- Describe the statistical tests and comparisons performed; usual statistical methods should be used without comment; advanced or unusual methods may require literature citations, and;
- Describe the scope and/or limitations of your methodology.
- In the social and behavioral sciences, it is important to always provide enough information to allow other researchers to adopt or replicate your methodology. This information is particularly important when new methods have been developed or innovative uses of existing methods are employed. Finally, please avoid creating subsections in Methods.
Results and Discussion
The purpose of the Results and Discussion is to state your findings and make interpretations and/or opinions, explain the implications of your findings, and make suggestions for future research. Its main function is to answer the questions posed in the Introduction, explain how the results support the answers and, how the answers fit with existing knowledge on the topic. The discussion is considered the core of the paper and usually requires some writing effort.
The discussion will always relate to the introduction through the research questions or hypotheses you posed and the literature you reviewed, but it should not simply repeat or reorganize the introduction; it should always explain how your study has moved the reader's understanding of the research problem forward from where you left it at the end of the introduction.
To clarify your message, the discussion should be kept as brief as possible while clearly and completely stating, supporting, explaining, and defending your answer and discussing other important and relevant issues directly. Care should be taken to provide commentary and not repetition of results. Side issues should not be included, as these tend to obscure the message.
Tips for writing research results:
- State the Main Findings of the Study;
- Explain the Meaning of the Findings and Why the Findings are Important;
- Support answers with results. Explain how your results relate to expectations and the literature, clearly stating why they are acceptable and how they are consistent or fit with previously published knowledge on the topic;
- Relate Findings to Similar Studies;
- Consider Alternative Explanations of the Findings;
- Research Implications;
- Recognize Limitations of the Study, and;
- Provide Suggestions for Future Research.
- It is easy to inflate the interpretation of the results. Be careful that your interpretation of the results does not go beyond what is supported by the data. Data is data: nothing more, nothing less. Please avoid and correct interpretations of results, unwarranted speculation, exaggerating the importance of findings, tangential issues, or overemphasizing the impact of your research.
Working with Graphics
Figures and tables are the most effective way to present results. The captions should be able to stand alone, so that the figures and tables can be understood without the need to read the entire manuscript. In addition, the data represented should be easy to interpret.
Tips for creating graphs or figures:
- Graphs should be simple, but informative;
- The use of color is encouraged;
- Graphics should uphold the standards of scientific and professional publications;
- Graphics should be completely original, unpublished artwork created by one of the co-authors;
- Graphics should not include photographs, drawings, or caricatures of any person, living or deceased;
- Do not include stamps or currency from any country, or trademarked items (company logos, images, and products), and;
- Avoid selecting graphics that already appear in the text of the manuscript.
To see examples of tables and figures, please download the Altruistic Journal template.
Finally, please avoid creating subsections in Results and Discussion.
Conclusion
The conclusion is meant to help readers understand why your research is important to them after they finish reading the paper. The conclusion is not just a summary of the main topics covered or a restatement of your research problem, but a synthesis of the key points. It is important that the conclusion does not leave any questions unanswered.
Tips for writing the conclusion section:
- State your conclusion clearly and concisely. Be brief and stay to the point;
- Explain why your study is important to the reader. You must instill in the reader a sense of relevance;
- Prove to the reader, and the scientific community, that your findings are worthy of note. This means setting your paper in the context of previous work. The implications of your findings should be discussed within a realistic framework, and;
- For most essays, one well-developed paragraph is sufficient to conclude, although in some cases, a two- or three-paragraph conclusion may be necessary. Other important things about this section are (1) not rewriting the abstract; (2) statements with "investigated" or "studied" are not conclusions; (3) not introducing new arguments, evidence, new ideas, or new information unrelated to the topic; (4) not listing evidence (citations, statistics, etc) that should be in the body of the paper.
References
All in-text citations must be in the reference list and vice versa. References should only include published or accepted articles. Datasets that have been saved to an online repository should be included in the reference list, including version and unique identifier if available. For accepted but unpublished work use "in press" instead of page numbers. Unpublished data, submitted manuscripts, or personal communications should be cited in the text only, for article types that allow such inclusion. Personal communications should be documented with a letter of permission.
In-text citations should be referred to according to the first author's surname, followed by the year. For works by 2 authors, include both surnames, followed by the year. For works by more than 2 authors, only include the surname of the first author, followed by et al., followed by the year. For help, please use reference management (Mendeley or Zotero) and use the American Psychological Association 7th Edition format. Where possible, provide a retrieved link for each reference.
Articles in print journals:
Scruton, R. (1996). The eclipse of listening. The New Criterion, 15(3), 5-13.
Articles in online journals:
Baniya, S., & Weech, S. (2019). Data and experience design: Negotiating community-oriented digital research with service-learning. Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement, 6(1), 11-16. https://doi.org/10.5703/1288284316979
Article or chapter in a book:
Armstrong, D. (2019). Malory and character. In M. G. Leitch & C. J. Rushton (Eds.), A new companion to Malory (pp. 144-163). D. S. Brewer.
Book:
Ahmed, S. (2012). On being included: Racism and diversity in institutional life. Duke University Press.
Published Thesis and Dissertation:
Angeli, E. L. (2012). Networks of communication in emergency medical services (Publication No. 3544643) [Doctoral dissertation, Purdue University]. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.
Unpublished theses and dissertations
Samson, J. M. (2016). Human trafficking and globalization [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
Conference Proceedings
Huang, S., Pierce, R., & Stamey, J. (Eds.). (2006). Proceedings of the 24th annual ACM international conference on the design of communication. ACM Digital Library. https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1166324&picked=prox
Additional material
Altruistic Counts does not support pushing results and important information into a supplemental section. However, data that is not essential to the text, or that cannot be included in the article because it is too large or the current format does not allow it (such as movies, raw data traces, powerpoint presentations, etc.) can be uploaded during the submission procedure and will be displayed together with the published article. Supplementary Material can be uploaded as Data Sheets (word, excel, csv, cdx, fasta, pdf or zip files), Presentations (powerpoint, pdf or zip files), Supplementary Figures (cdx, eps, jpeg, pdf, png or tif), Supplementary Tables (word, excel, csv or pdf), Audio (mp3, wav or wma) or Video (avi, divx, flv, mov, mp4, mpeg, mpg or wmv).
Supplementary material is not typed so please ensure that all information is clearly presented, appropriate text is included in the file and not in the manuscript, and the style is appropriate to the rest of the article.
Figure and Table Guidelines
General Style Guidelines for Figures
Figures help readers visualize the information you are trying to convey. Often, it is difficult to be descriptive enough using words. Figures can help in achieving the accuracy required for a scientific manuscript. For example, it may not be enough to say, "The surface has nanometer-scale features." In this case, it would be ideal to provide a microscope image.
For images, be sure to:
Include a scale bar
Consider labeling important items
Indicate the meaning of the different colors and symbols used
General Style Guide for Tables
Tables are a concise and effective way to present large amounts of data. You should design them carefully so that you communicate your results clearly to busy researchers.
The following are examples of well-designed tables:
Clear and concise table title
Data divided into categories for clarity
Adequate spacing between columns and rows
Units are the font type provided and the size is readable
Figure and Table Requirements
Legend
Figure and table legends should have the same font as the main text (12-point normal Times New Roman, single-spaced). Legends should be preceded by an appropriate label, for example, "Figure 1" or "Table 4". Figure legends should be placed at the end of the manuscript (for additional figures you should include a caption with the figure, uploaded as a separate file). Table legends should be placed just before the table. Please use only one paragraph for the legend. Figure panels are referred to with bold capital letters in parentheses: (A), (B), (C), (D), etc.
Image Size
Figure images should be prepared with PDF layout, individual images should be no longer than one page and with a width corresponding to 1 column or 2 columns.
Format
The following formats are accepted:
Images included in the article must be included in a supplementary file. The requested image format is JPEG or JPG.
Color Image Mode
Images must be submitted in RGB color mode.
Resolution Requirements
All images must be uploaded separately in the submission procedure and have a resolution of 300 dpi at final size. Check the resolution of your images by enlarging them to 150%. If the resolution is too low, the image will appear blurry, jagged, or have a ladder-like effect.
Please note that saving an image directly as an image file (JPEG, TIF) can greatly affect the resolution of your image. To avoid this, one option is to export the file as a PDF, then convert it to TIFF or EPS using graphics software. EPS files can be uploaded upon acceptance.
Details of all funding sources should be provided in the funding section of the manuscript including grant numbers, if applicable.
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