Manuscript Guideline

Final Manuscript Preparation Guidelines for Practitioner Research

A. FORMATTING REQUIREMENTS

All submissions must be prepared and submitted as a word document. Manuscripts must adhere strictly to guidelines set in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th Edition. Double-space all text, including quotations and references, and provide 1.5-inch margins all around. References must be complete and placed at the end of the manuscript. Please place tables, charts, figures, or illustrations after the references on separate pages.

Do not include your name or any other identifying information in the abstract or the manuscript. Authors should not cite or reference their own name but instead use the word author, followed by the publication date. Alphabetize references to author under A and not under the letter of the author’s last name. Do not include titles or the names of coauthors in the “author” citations or references.

1. Submissions must include a title page that includes the information listed below on a separate sheet.
• Manuscript title
• Submission date
• Name of author/authors, institutional affiliation, complete mailing address, business and home phone numbers, fax number, and e-mail address
• Biographical information about each author, which may not exceed 30 words per author

2. At the beginning of the manuscript, please include an abstract that describes the manuscript in 100-150 words. The abstract should provide the purpose, design/methodology/approach, findings, originality/value.

3. Keywords: List up to not more than 7 keywords.

4. Write your article in English or Bahasa Melayu only. Authors should use proper, standard English or Bahasa Malaysia grammar.

5. Manuscript in Bahasa Malaysia must include translated title and abstract in English.

6. Submit your manuscript, including tables, figures, appendices, etc., as a single file (Word, RTF, or PDF files are accepted) and should not exceed 25 pages.

7. Page size should be 8.5 x 11-inches. All margins (left, right, top and bottom) should be 1.5 inches (3.8 cm), including your tables and figures.

8. Double space your text.

9. Use a single column layout with both left and right margins justified.

Font:
1. Main Body—12 pt. Times or the closest comparable font available
2. Footnotes—10 pt. Times or the closest comparable font available

If figures are included, use high-resolution figures, preferably encoded as encapsulated PostScript (eps).

10. Copyedit your manuscript.

When possible, there should be no pages where more than a quarter of the page is empty space.

11. Language & Grammar

All submissions must be in English or Bahasa Malaysia. The use of foreign words and phrases should be avoided. Authors should use proper, standard English grammar.

ALL COVER LETTERS MUST PROVIDE A STATEMENT THAT DESCRIBES WHY THE MANUSCRIPT SHOULD
BE CONSIDERED PRACTITIONER RESEARCH (ALSO KNOWN AS ACTION RESEARCH, TEACHER RESEARCH,
SELF-STUDY, ETC.)

The cover letter should also include the names(s), address(es), contact number(s) and e-mail address(es) of author(s).

12. Colored text

Set the font color to black for the majority of the text. We encourage authors to take advantage of the ability to use color in the production of figures, maps, etc., however, you need to appreciate that this will cause some of your readers problems when they print the document on a black & white printer. For this reason, you are advised to avoid the use of colors in situations where their translation to black and white would render the material illegible or incomprehensible.

Please ensure that there are no colored mark-ups or comments in the final version, unless they are meant to be part of the final text. (You may need to “accept all changes” in track changes or set your document to “normal” in final markup.)

13. Emphasized text

Whenever possible use italics to indicate text you wish to emphasize rather than underlining it. The use of color to emphasize text is discouraged.

14. Font faces

Except, possibly, where special symbols are needed, use Times or the closest comparable font available.

Foreign terms
Whenever possible, foreign terms should be set in italics rather than underlined.

Titles
Whenever possible, titles of books, movies, etc., should be set in italics rather than underlined.

15. Font size

The main body of text should be set in 12pt. Avoid the use of fonts smaller than 6pt.

16. Manuscripts submitted to the journal will initially be screened by the Chief Editor and Managing Editor, to determine their appropriateness for publication. Only those considered appropriate will follow a double blind review process by editorial board members. Manuscripts will also be screened via Turnitin for plagiarism.

 

B. HEADINGS OF MANUSCRIPT

PRIMARY HEADING - Font size 11, centered, bold, and with all uppercase letters. For example:
INTRODUCTION
LITERATURE REVIEW
METHODOLOGY
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
CONCLUSION/REFLECTION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
REFERENCES

SECONDARY HEADING - font size 11, flush left, bold, with uppercases, and lowercase letters of each word. For example:

Attracting a Demand for Municipals Bonds
Attracting a Supply of Municipal Bonds

TERTIARY HEADINGS – font size 11, indented, bold and with lowercase paragraph. For example:

Investor familiarity and confidence
Borrowing costs

FORTH HEADINGS – font size 11, indented, bold, italic and with lowercase paragraph. For example:
Investor familiarity and confidence
Borrowing costs

 

C. REFERENCES

The following guidelines need to be observed when preparing the list of references for the manuscript:
1. Only works cited in the text should be provided at the end of the text arranged in
2. alphabetical order
3. Double-space all references entries.
4. Follow the APA style 6th ed. Please refer to the APA manual for details (guides are also
5. available online).
6. APA publishes references in a hanging indent format, meaning that the first line of each
7. reference is set flush left and subsequent lines are indented.

 

D. SUBMISSION

Email your manuscript to the Managing Editor at faizahani@uum.edu.my

You will be notified of the receipt of the manuscript.