Authors' Guidelines

SDPI holds the right to accept or reject any paper/book review at any stage from being published

MANDATORY DOCUMENTS

Mandatory documents to be submitted before Desk Review can be initiated include:

  • Author Consent Form
  • Full-Length article including an abstract of 150 words.
  • Author/s’ 30-word bio-notes and complete postal and email contact details.

 NOTE: 

  • SDPI is dedicated to disseminating research for the benefit of all stakeholders, therefore, the Institute does not charge Publication Fee from the authors.
  • JoDPRP is an open access journal. All the scholarly work published is available for immediate free access to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose. 1
  • Copyright: SDPI as the publisher, holds the right of first publishing. The Journal allows authors to retain the rights to use the substance of the article in future works, including lectures and books; reproduce the article for own purposes, provided that copies are not offered for sale; and self-archive the article. 2

EDITORIAL & REVIEW PROCESS

  • Only original/unpublished papers are accepted for consideration.
  • During the initial Desk Review process, each paper is screened through the Higher Education Commission’s (HEC) licensed plagiarism detection software. Authors are encouraged to generate their own debate and analysis. Referenced/cited text should not exceed 19% of the paper. The Journal has zero tolerance for plagiarism. Authors are requested to rely on recent data and publications.
  • If approved in the Desk Review, each submission undergoes a vigorous double-blind Peer Review by one national and one international referee. Author/s need to be cognizant of the fact that during this process, their submissions will be edited for substance, language, and grammar by a team of referees and expert editors, and their editorial and review decisions will be considered final.

STRUCTURE OF PAPER/BOOK REVIEW 

Authors should make sure that their submissions follow a standard structure as follows:

1. Word Count

Title should be concise and clearly indicate the subject matter being dealt with.

Length of the Manuscript: 4,000-6,000 words

Length of Book Review: 1000 words. Only reviews of latest books on Sustainable Development issues will be considered.

2. Abstract and Key Words

The abstract should:

  • clearly state the title, theme, objectives, sources of data, and major findings.
  • be in a narrative form, not in bullet points.
  • include the author’s full name, a brief bio-note as author of no more than 30 words.
  • Length of Abstract: 150 words

Followed by abstract, insert keywords. Choose the ones that capture important aspects of the paper.

3. STRUCTURE OF PAPER/BOOK REVIEW

British spellings should be used.

All monetary values should be provided in dollars (USD) apart from the local form of currency.

The paper should follow the structure below:

  • Title
  • Author’s name with (*) and a 30-word bio-note in the footnote.
  • Abstract (in Italics)
  • Key words
  • Introduction
  • Methodology
  • Results
  • Discussion
  • Policy Recommendations
  • Conclusion
  • Tables and Figures
  • References
  • Appendices

4. ABBREVIATIONS, GLOSSARY OF TERMS, TABLES AND FIGURES

Provide a list of abbreviations/acronyms used, as well as a Glossary of Key Terms, especially those mentioned in native language with their English translation and brief explanation. Present only important tables and figures that illustrate the points made. Tables and figures should be well-designed and complete to avoid lengthy explanation in the text. Each figure should be presented on a separate page and should not exceed half-a-page in size and should leave margins on both sides. While reproducing data from a diagram or table, or copying the entire table or diagram, in the paper, a reference should be made to the source.

Figures should also be submitted as individually labelled hi-res JPG and PDF files.

A reference within the text to a table taken from a book should include the author and page (Smith 2005, p.33). Where the source of the data is not the author’s own, but obtained from another source, that is, a second-hand reference needs to be cited thus (United Nations 1975 cited in Smith 2005, p.33). Ensure that all graphs, maps and figures can be printed in black and white colour since colour printing of the paper may not be possible. Authors are requested to provide high resolution files of the images. The journal reserves the right to not publish an image/figure/table if its publishing quality is poor.

Captions/Titles should be above each figure, box or table along with correct numerical order, whereas the source (in italics) of each should be given at the end of the same:

Figure 1: Consumer Confidence, Concerns, Spending and Attitudes to Recession

{Object/Image}

Source: World Bank 2010.

5. FOOT NOTES & ENDNOTES

For longer explanations, use footnotes indicated using auto numbers. Footnotes should not provide references given within the text. The bio-note should be given on the first page using an asterisk (*). Do not use endnotes.

6. DIRECT QUOTES

Brief quotations (about 30 words or less) can be included in the text. Use single quotations marks/inverted commas, (‘Engineers are vital to the survival of the planet’ (Stewart 1982, p. 6)). Very lengthy quotations should be given in separate, smaller text, indented paragraphs in Italics (Block Quotes).

7. PARAPHARASING

Use of another scholar’s work (even paraphrased) requires proper references. Quotation marks are not essential. However, there is a need to provide the original source of information referred to within the text. Further, any paraphrased text without giving its reference source next to it is also academic dishonesty and is not acceptable.

8. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Authors have the liberty to give Acknowledgements at the end of the paper. However, the word limit is 30.

9. FORMATTING

Title: (14pt Times New Roman - Bold)
Name: 10.5pt and Italics, Times New Roman
Paper Length (4,000 – 6,000words)
Abstract: (150 words)
Line Spacing: 1.2
Indentation: Justified
Font Colour/Font Size Text: Black/10.5pt Times New Roman
1 HEADING (12pt Times New Roman – Bold / CAPS)
1.1 Sub-Heading (12pt Times New Roman– Bold)
   1.1.1 Sub-sub heading 12pt Times New Roman – Italics

10. REFERENCES

The references should be according to Harvard Citation (Author/Date) style:

        • Sources that have been quoted in the research (statistics, statements, terminology, figures, etc.) should be acknowledged by citing their source reference within the text along with a complete source reference in the References section at the end of the document.
        • Use recent data as a source of reference.
        • Sources that have been studied during research and have not been quoted should be added in the Bibliography section, which may be given after the list of References.
        • The list of references should be arranged in alphabetical order by authors’ surnames. The author’s surname is placed first, followed by initials or first name, and then the year of publication. Where an item does not have an author, arrange it by its title.
        • If the list contains more than one item published by the same author in the same year, add lower case letters immediately after the year to distinguish them, for example (2020a), (2020b) and so on. If no date of publication is provided use (n.d.) and provide date of access at the end.
        • E-documents and e-books also need to be referenced. If a Web document includes both a date of creation and a date it was last updated, use only the date it was last updated. Use the information from the main or home page for a document on the website which has a series of linked pages. Date of access should be provided.
        • Avoid crowding references in footnotes.
        • Please follow the link for Referencing Style Guidelines: https://www.usq.edu.au/library/referencing/harvard-agps-referencing-guide.

1 DOAJ n.d. ‘Directory of Open Access Journals’,
2 Ibid.