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 submission, authors should confirm that the manuscript is within the ARSS Aims and Scope and complies with the requirements below.

1. Originality and Prior Publication

Manuscripts submitted to ARSS must be original and must not be simultaneously under consideration by another journal. Authors must disclose relevant prior publications, preprints, conference abstracts, datasets or closely related manuscripts where these may affect the assessment of originality or overlap. ARSS may use plagiarism- or similarity-detection tools as part of editorial screening.

2. Article Types

  • Original Research Article - reports original empirical, methodological or theoretical research.
  • Review Article - provides a balanced and up-to-date synthesis of an identified topic or research question and should explain the approach used to identify and synthesise the literature where applicable.
  • Case Study - presents a clearly defined case with scholarly or practice-based relevance to the ARSS aims and scope.

3. Peer Review

All submissions undergo initial editorial assessment. Manuscripts considered suitable for external review are evaluated under the ARSS double-blind peer-review process, normally by at least two independent external reviewers with relevant expertise. Final editorial decisions are made by the Editor-in-Chief or an authorised editor.

4. Authorship and Contributorship

All listed authors must have made substantial intellectual contributions, participated in drafting or critically revising the manuscript, 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.

Changes to Authorship

Requests to add, remove or rearrange authors should normally be made before acceptance. The request must include a clear reason and written agreement from all affected authors. Changes after acceptance are considered only in exceptional circumstances and may require a formal correction after publication.

5. Ethical and Transparency Declarations

  • 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 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. Where ethics approval or informed consent is required, the manuscript must provide the relevant information. Authors should also follow the ARSS Publication Ethics statement.

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

7. Manuscript Preparation

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 - resolve this inconsistency before publishing
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. For double-blind review, 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 presenting the purpose, methods or approach, principal findings and conclusion. Use 3-8 informative keywords. Structured headings may be used where appropriate to the research design.

Main Manuscript

Original research manuscripts should normally include 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 literature.

Tables, Figures and Supplementary Material

Tables and figures should be numbered consecutively, cited in the text and provided with clear titles or captions. Images must accurately represent the underlying content and must not be manipulated in a misleading manner. Supplementary files should be clearly labelled.

References

Use APA style consistently throughout the manuscript. Authors are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of references 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, authors should consult the Submit Manuscript page, Article Processing Charges & Waivers, Copyright & Licensing Policy, Article Transfer Policy and Generative AI Policy.

The dedicated ARSS policy pages provide detailed requirements for Publication Ethics, Peer Review, Open Access, Post-Publication Accountability and Copyright. Authors must follow the relevant current policy where it applies to their submission.