Author Guidelines

Author Guidelines

Authors submitting to the International Journal of Applied Business and International Management (IJABIM) should ensure that their manuscripts are consistent with the journal's aims and scope, prepared in clear academic English, and presented in accordance with the following guidelines.

Manuscripts should present an identifiable scholarly contribution to business or management and should be original work that is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.

1. Manuscript Preparation

Authors should use the official IJABIM manuscript template and maintain consistent formatting throughout the manuscript.

  • Font: Arial, 11 pt
  • Line spacing: Single
  • Margins: Top 2 cm; Bottom 2 cm; Left 4 cm; Right 2 cm
  • Page numbers: Bottom center
  • Language: English
  • File format: Editable Microsoft Word-compatible document

Manuscripts should normally be approximately 5,000–7,000 words, including the main text but excluding references and supplementary materials. Longer manuscripts may be considered where justified by the nature of the study.

2. Double-Blind Submission

IJABIM uses a double-blind peer-review process. Authors should therefore prepare a separate Title Page and an Anonymized Manuscript.

Title Page

The title page should include:

  • full manuscript title;
  • full name of each author;
  • institutional affiliation and country;
  • email address of the corresponding author;
  • ORCID iD, where available;
  • acknowledgments;
  • funding information;
  • conflict-of-interest declaration; and
  • other author-identifying declarations where applicable.

Anonymized Manuscript

The manuscript sent for peer review should not contain author names, affiliations, email addresses, acknowledgments, institutional identifiers, or other information that unnecessarily reveals authorship.

Authors should cite their own previous work in the same manner as other relevant literature and avoid expressions such as “our previous study” where these may reveal identity.

Further guidance is available in the journal's Double-Blind Peer Review Guide.

3. Title, Abstract, and Keywords

Title

The title should be concise, informative, and accurately reflect the principal focus of the manuscript. Avoid unnecessarily long titles, unexplained abbreviations, and expressions that do not add substantive information.

Abstract

Provide an abstract of approximately 150–250 words. The abstract should clearly communicate the purpose of the study, research approach or method, principal findings, and major conclusions or implications.

The abstract should be understandable independently of the main article and should normally avoid citations, unexplained abbreviations, and information not reported in the manuscript.

Keywords

Provide 3–5 keywords that accurately describe the principal concepts, context, or methods of the study. Keywords should be specific enough to support effective indexing and discovery.

4. Manuscript Structure

Original empirical research will normally include the following sections:

  • Introduction
  • Literature Review and/or Hypothesis Development, where applicable
  • Research Method
  • Results
  • Discussion
  • Conclusion
  • References

The Introduction should establish the research problem, relevant scholarly context, research gap or unresolved issue, study objective, and contribution of the manuscript.

The Literature Review should critically engage with relevant scholarship and provide an appropriate theoretical or conceptual foundation rather than merely summarize previous studies.

The Research Method should provide sufficient information on research design, data sources, participants or sample, measurement, procedures, analytical methods, and ethical considerations to permit appropriate scholarly evaluation.

The Results should present the principal findings clearly, while the Discussion should interpret those findings in relation to the research question, theory, prior literature, and relevant managerial or organizational implications.

The Conclusion should summarize the principal contribution of the study and, where appropriate, discuss theoretical contributions, practical or managerial implications, limitations, and directions for future research.

Review, conceptual, qualitative, or other manuscript types may use a structure appropriate to their objectives and methodological approach, provided that the organization of the paper is clear and academically coherent.

5. Headings

Headings and subheadings should be used consistently to organize the manuscript. Authors should follow the hierarchy and formatting provided in the official IJABIM template and avoid unnecessary levels of subdivision.

6. Tables and Figures

Tables and figures should be numbered consecutively and referred to in the text. Each table or figure should have a concise, informative title and should be understandable without unnecessary duplication of information presented in the text.

Tables and figures should normally be placed close to their first mention in the manuscript, following the format provided in the IJABIM template.

  • Tables should be editable rather than inserted as screenshots or images.
  • Figures should be clear, legible, and of sufficient resolution for publication.
  • Images should normally have a resolution of at least 300 dpi where applicable.
  • All abbreviations, symbols, and statistical notation should be explained.
  • Sources should be acknowledged where tables or figures are adapted from other works.

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyrighted third-party material where permission is required.

7. Equations and Statistical Reporting

Equations should be prepared using an appropriate equation editor and should remain editable wherever possible. Mathematical notation, coefficients, symbols, decimal places, statistical significance, and units of measurement should be reported consistently throughout the manuscript.

8. Citations and References

IJABIM uses the APA 7th edition referencing style for in-text citations and reference lists.

Authors are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of all references. References should be directly relevant to the manuscript and should accurately represent the scholarly literature on which the study is based.

  • Use author-date citations in the text.
  • Provide page numbers for direct quotations where applicable.
  • Arrange the reference list alphabetically by author surname.
  • Use a hanging indent in the reference list.
  • Provide DOI information in the form https://doi.org/... when available.
  • References using non-Roman scripts should be transliterated or translated where appropriate to support international indexing and accessibility.

Authors should verify that every source cited in the manuscript appears in the reference list and that every entry in the reference list is cited in the manuscript.

9. Research Ethics

Research involving human participants, confidential or personal information, or other activities requiring ethical oversight should comply with applicable ethical requirements.

Where applicable, authors should provide information on ethics approval and informed consent. The Editor may request supporting documentation where necessary.

Authors should consult the journal's Publication Ethics for further information.

10. Authorship and Contributions

Authorship should be limited to individuals who have made substantial scholarly contributions to the work and who accept responsibility for the manuscript.

All authors should approve the final manuscript and agree to its submission. Individuals who contributed to the research but do not meet the criteria for authorship should be acknowledged appropriately.

Authors may be requested to provide an author-contribution statement describing their respective roles in the research and preparation of the manuscript.

11. Funding and Competing Interests

Authors should disclose all relevant sources of research funding or financial support and any financial or non-financial competing interests that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the work.

Where no competing interests exist, authors may state that they have no competing interests to declare.

12. Data Availability and Supplementary Materials

Authors should retain the data and documentation necessary to support the findings reported in their manuscripts.

Where appropriate and ethically permissible, authors are encouraged to make research data, instruments, code, or other supporting materials available through an appropriate repository or as supplementary material.

A data availability statement should be provided where relevant, particularly where data are deposited publicly, available upon reasonable request, or subject to ethical, legal, confidentiality, or proprietary restrictions.

13. Plagiarism and Text Similarity

Submitted manuscripts may be screened using similarity-detection software. Similarity reports are evaluated in context and are not interpreted solely on the basis of a numerical similarity score.

Authors should ensure that all sources are appropriately acknowledged and that the manuscript complies with IJABIM's Plagiarism and Text Similarity Policy.

14. Use of AI-Assisted Technologies

Artificial intelligence or AI-assisted technologies should not be listed as authors because authorship requires human responsibility and accountability for the submitted work.

Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, integrity, citations, data, analysis, and conclusions of their manuscripts. Where AI-assisted technologies have been used substantively in preparing text, analyzing data, or generating or modifying research materials, their use should be disclosed in an appropriate section of the manuscript.

Routine tools used solely for spelling, grammar, or basic language correction generally do not require detailed disclosure unless their use materially changes scholarly content.

15. Acknowledgments

Individuals or organizations that contributed to the work but do not qualify for authorship may be acknowledged. During double-blind review, identifying acknowledgments should be included on the separate title page rather than in the anonymized manuscript.

16. Appendices and Footnotes

Appendices may be used for material that is necessary to support the manuscript but would interrupt the flow of the main text. Appendices should be labeled consecutively, for example Appendix A and Appendix B.

Footnotes should be used sparingly and only when they provide information that cannot be incorporated clearly into the main text.

17. Submission Checklist

Before submitting a manuscript, authors should confirm that:

  • the manuscript is relevant to IJABIM's Aims and Scope;
  • the manuscript is original and is not under consideration by another journal;
  • a separate title page and anonymized manuscript have been prepared;
  • the abstract and keywords meet the journal's requirements;
  • tables, figures, and supplementary materials are complete and properly cited;
  • citations and references follow APA 7th edition and have been checked for accuracy;
  • ethical approval and informed consent information are included where applicable;
  • funding and competing-interest information has been disclosed;
  • data availability information is provided where relevant;
  • all authors have approved the manuscript and agreed to its submission; and
  • the manuscript has been carefully proofread before submission.

18. Submission and Publication

Manuscripts should be submitted through the IJABIM online submission system. Authors must register or log in to the journal website and complete the required submission steps.

Manuscripts that pass initial editorial screening are considered for double-blind peer review in accordance with the journal's Peer Review Policy.

Information on publication charges is available on the Article Processing Charge (APC) page.

Published articles are made available under IJABIM's License and Copyright Notice.