Submissions

Author Guidelines

1.0 General

Manuscripts submitted to Journal of STI Policy must be original work that has not been published or under consideration for publication elsewhere. The journal welcomes submissions written in English. Manuscripts should be no more than 20 pages in length inclusive of tables, figures and illustrations. All submissions will be peer reviewed. Please refer and use the template provided in our Submission Package. Each submission must include the article and the Copyright Transfer Agreement document which can be found in the same package. Please upload the CTA document as a  supplementary file.

2.0 Types of Paper 

2.1 News and Updates

News and Updates articles are written to update the research community on an upcoming event or reports on a recent event of utmost importance. Items should be short and no longer than 200 words absent of any figures and tables with no more than 5 references. Full name for correspondence are included.

2.2 Letters

These items are short comments on current issues of interest that warrants immediate response from the scientific and engineering community. Items should be short and no longer than 500 words absent of any figures and tables with no more than 5 references. Authors are limited to two per letters as it is a concise and precise communication.

2.3 Research Articles

Research Articles presents original research that is expected to present a major advancement and contribution to the body of knowledge or the particular area. Research Articles follows the format provided in the guide to authors. The content includes an abstract, an introduction, materials and methods, results and discussion and conclusion. The supplementary materials that support the paper's conclusions are welcomed.

2.4 Reviews

Review articles summarise and describe new developments of interdisciplinary significance as well as proposing new future research directions based on their reviews. Reviews contain an abstract, an introduction that outlines the main theme, subheadings, and the future direction for resolving research questions.

2.5 Methods and Protocols

Methods and Protocols are proposal of new or an overviews of recent technical and methodological developments. Articles should present a new experimental, engineering, scientific or computational method, test or procedure. The method described may either be completely new, or may offer a better version of an existing method. Methods must be proven by its validation, its application to an important research question and results illustrating its performance in comparison to existing approaches. Articles should possess thorough assessments of methodological performance and comprehensive technical descriptions that facilitate immediate application by researchers in the field.

2.6 Software, Database and Datasets

Software articles should describe a computational tool, novel software or new algorithm implementations, web servers, and web services that would be a useful addition that represents a significant advance over previously published software (usually demonstrated by direct comparison with available related software). Database articles should describe a novel database that is readily accessible and data within the database should be attributed to a valid source. The database articles must be available for testing by anonymous reviewers. Datasets are articles that assist researchers to archive, document, and distribute the datasets produced in their research to the entire academic community. Software or data must be freely available to non-commercial users and its availability and implementation must be clearly stated in the article.

3.0 Manuscript Style

Manuscripts should be headed by a concise title. Please include the full name(s) of the author(s), complete mailing address, telephone and fax numbers as well as e-mail address. In case of multiple authorship, please indicate the main author to whom all correspondence concerning the paper should be directed.

3.1 Abstract

All manuscripts should be accompanied by an abstract, of not more than 200 words each, written in English. The abstract should not only indicate the subject and scope of the paper but also summarize the author’s conclusion along with at least five (5) keywords that could be useful for information-retrieval purposes.

3.2 Style

As far as possible, manuscripts should consist of the following sections: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results and Discussion, and Conclusion. Each section and sub-section should be numbered using the Arabic numerals. Please use S1 Units for all scientific and laboratory data.

3.3 Tables

All tables should be kept simple and clear, and should be referred to in the text. They should be numbered, titled, and typed using double spacing on separate pages in the order of which they are referred to in the text.

3.4 Illustrations

Illustrations including diagrams and graphs should be sharp, noise free and of good contrast. They should accompany the manuscript on separate sheets and numbered consecutively in the same order as they are referred to in the text. Line drawings should be in black ink on a white background and lettering size must be large enough to permit legible reduction whenever necessary. All photographs submitted must be of good quality and printed on glossy paper. The author’s name, short title of the paper and figure number must be written on the reverse side of each illustration submitted.

3.5 Mathematical Notation and Equations

All equations must be clearly typed, tripled-space and should be identified or numbered accordingly.

3.6 Acknowledgements

A brief acknowledgment of not more than 50 words should be included at the end of the manuscripts, before the list of references.

3.7 References

Style for Journal of STI Policy

References should appear in a separate Reference section at the end of the manuscripts, typed double-spaced in alphabetical order. Style for papers: Authors (last name, followed by first initial for main author, and first initial followed by surname for other authors), year, title, periodical (in italics), volume (number): inclusive page numbes. Style for books: Authors, year, title (in italics), location: publisher, chapter or page number. For example:

Bell, C., and D. Harris. 1990. Evaluating and Assessing for Learning. London: Kogan Page.

Kotha, S., and A. Nair, 1995. Strategy and Environment as Determinants of Performance: Evidence for the Japanese Machine Tool Industry. Strategic Management Journal. 16(4): 497-518

4.0 Submission

Kindly submit your article through: www.jostip.utm.my

5.0 Referees

We welcome suggestions for referees (3 names) from the author though these recommendations may or may not be used.

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

1. The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
2. The submission file is in Microsoft Word 97-2003 (*.doc) or higher document file format. This will be used as the main submission file.
3. Where available, URLs for the references have been provided. DOI for the references must be given if applicable.
4. The text is single-spaced; uses a 9-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end. All manuscripts must be in a A4 paper size.
5. The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines, which is found in About the Journal.
6. If submitting to a peer-reviewed section of the journal, the instructions in Ensuring a Blind Review have been followed.
7. A short cover letter regarding the submission is attached, together with a suggestion of three (3) potential reviewers. This will be uploaded as supplementary file.