Author Guidelines

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Asian Review of Social Sciences (ARSS) publishes rigorous theoretical, empirical, methodological and practice-oriented research across the social sciences and relevant interdisciplinary areas. Before preparing or submitting a manuscript, authors should confirm that the work is appropriate for the ARSS Aims and Scope and should follow the current requirements below together with the journal’s Submit Manuscript page and relevant publication policies.

1. Originality and Prior Publication

Manuscripts submitted to ARSS must present original work and must not be under simultaneous consideration by another journal. Authors should disclose relevant prior publications, preprints, conference abstracts, datasets or closely related manuscripts whenever those materials may affect the assessment of originality, redundancy or overlap. ARSS may use plagiarism- or similarity-detection tools during editorial screening. Authors should also review the Publication Ethics & Publication Malpractice Statement for the journal’s broader standards on integrity, duplicate publication, plagiarism and responsible scholarly conduct.

2. Article Types

  • Original Research Article - reports original empirical, methodological or theoretical research.
  • Review Article - provides a balanced and current synthesis of a defined topic or research question and, where applicable, explains the approach used to identify, select and synthesise the literature.
  • Case Study - presents a clearly defined case with scholarly or practice-based relevance to the ARSS Aims and Scope.

3. Peer Review

Every submission is subject to an initial editorial assessment. Manuscripts considered suitable for external evaluation proceed under the ARSS double-blind peer-review process, normally with assessment by at least two independent external reviewers who have relevant expertise. The Editor-in-Chief or an authorised editor makes the final editorial decision. Submission does not guarantee external review, acceptance or publication.

4. Authorship and Contributorship

All listed authors must have made substantial intellectual contributions to the work, participated in drafting the manuscript or critically revising it, approved the final version and accepted accountability for the integrity of the work. Contributors who do not meet authorship criteria should be acknowledged separately. ARSS supports the CRediT Contributor Roles Taxonomy to improve transparency about individual contributions, and more than one contributor role may be stated where appropriate.

Changes to Authorship

Requests to add, remove or rearrange authors should normally be made before acceptance. A request should explain the reason for the proposed change and include written agreement from all affected authors. Changes requested after acceptance are considered only in exceptional circumstances and, where the publication record has already been affected, may require action under the Post-Publication and Accountability Policy.

5. Ethical and Transparency Declarations

Authors should provide all declarations relevant to the submitted work. Depending on the manuscript, these include:

  • Acknowledgements, where applicable.
  • Author Contributions / CRediT statement.
  • Conflict of Interest / Competing Interests statement.
  • Funding statement.
  • Ethics approval and informed-consent statement, where applicable.
  • Data Availability Statement.
  • Generative AI disclosure, where applicable, in accordance with the ARSS Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy.

6. Ethical Oversight

Research involving human participants, personal or sensitive data, vulnerable groups, animals or other activities requiring formal ethical oversight must comply with applicable institutional, national, legal and disciplinary requirements. When ethics approval or informed consent is required, the manuscript should provide the relevant information. Authors should also comply with the ARSS Publication Ethics statement.

Where prospective registration is required by the study design, discipline, funder, institution or an applicable reporting standard, authors should provide the registry name and registration identifier.

7. Manuscript Preparation

Authors should prepare the manuscript according to the current ARSS formatting requirements below. The editorial office may adjust final production formatting after acceptance.

Element Current ARSS Requirement
Paper size Letter
Margin 1 inch (2.54 cm) on all sides
Column Double column
Line spacing 1.0 lines
Alignment Justified
Title Times New Roman, 16 pt, bold, Title Case, centred
Author name 11 pt, Title Case
Affiliation 10 pt, Title Case
Email 9 pt
Level 1 heading 10 pt, uppercase
Level 2 heading 10 pt, Title Case, italic
Level 3 heading 10 pt, Title Case, italic
Content 10 pt; the live page separately states “center-align” while also stating overall alignment is justified - this live-page inconsistency should be resolved before publication
Text font Times New Roman, 10 pt
References 8 pt

The final paper format may be adjusted by the ARSS editorial office during production after acceptance.

Title Page

Provide the manuscript title, complete author names, institutional affiliations, corresponding-author email address, abstract and keywords. Because ARSS uses double-blind peer review, authors should follow the submission-system instructions for separating identifying information from the anonymised manuscript file.

Abstract and Keywords

Original research articles should normally include an abstract of approximately 150-250 words that presents the purpose, methods or approach, principal findings and conclusion. Use 3-8 informative keywords. Structured headings may be used where they suit the research design.

Main Manuscript

Original research manuscripts should normally contain Introduction, Methods or Methodology, Results or Findings, Discussion, Conclusions and References. Review articles should explain the purpose and scope of the review and, where applicable, the method used to identify, select and synthesise the literature.

Tables, Figures and Supplementary Material

Number tables and figures consecutively, cite them in the manuscript text and provide clear titles or captions. Images must accurately represent the underlying content and must not be manipulated in a misleading way. Supplementary files should be clearly labelled. Integrity concerns involving figures, data or other content are also governed by the Publication Ethics & Publication Malpractice Statement.

References

Use APA style consistently throughout the manuscript. Authors are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of reference details and DOI information where available.

8. Submission Preparation Checklist

  • The manuscript is within the ARSS Aims and Scope.
  • The submission is original and is not under consideration elsewhere.
  • All authors have approved the manuscript and agreed to its submission.
  • The submission file is in Microsoft Word format.
  • The corresponding author and complete affiliations are identified.
  • The anonymised manuscript complies with double-blind peer-review requirements.
  • The abstract and 3-8 keywords are included.
  • Tables, figures, captions and supplementary files are complete and cited in the manuscript.
  • References follow APA style and have been checked for accuracy.
  • Required authorship, ethics, funding, conflict-of-interest, data-availability and AI declarations are included.
  • The manuscript has been checked for clarity, spelling, grammar and formatting.

9. Separate Author Policies

For detailed requirements that complement these guidelines, authors should consult the Submit Manuscript page, Article Processing Charges & Waivers, Copyright & Licensing Policy, Article Transfer Policy and Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy. The Copyright Form applies after acceptance and before publication.

ARSS maintains dedicated pages for Publication Ethics, Peer Review, Open Access, Post-Publication Accountability and Copyright. Authors should follow the current dedicated policy whenever it applies to their submission or published article. Questions can be directed through the ARSS Contact page.