SUBMISSION:

Author Commitment Form

Conflict of Interest Form

1) Online Submissions

Our selection of articles depends on the quality, breadth, and originality of the theme(s) covered and their bearing on the focus of the journal. We do not accept manuscripts published elsewhere.

Only two files should be submitted. Submit the manuscript without the authors' names, affiliation, and biographies. Along with it, submit a cover page that includes the manuscript title, authors' names and affiliation, and the corresponding author's name and contact information (full postal and e-mail institutional addresses, phone and fax numbers). The maximum number of pages should not exceed 20 including footnotes. Only one submission by an author will be considered at a time.

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2) Font

All spellings must be rendered in American English. To change British or Commonwealth spellings to their American equivalents, please see the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary. To distinguish the different part of the manuscript, use the following fonts for each part:

• Title: The title of the manuscript should be typed in 16-point Times New Roman, Bold-face, heading 1, centered.  

• Author Name: Author names should be typed in 12-point Times New Roman.

• Corresponding author: It should be typed in 12-point Times New Roman.

• Abstract: Times New Roman is the "default" font. The abstract should be justified. The font is Times New Roman 12. The indention of BEFORE TEXT and AFTER TEXT are 0. The special indention should be in NONE. The spacing of BEFORE paragraph is 0 and the space AFTER a paragraph is 10 pt. LINE spacing is multiple 1.2.

• Introduction: The entire manuscript should be typed in 12-point Times New Roman and single-spaced. The paragraph should be justified. The indention of BEFORE TEXT and AFTER TEXT are 0. The special indention should be in NONE. The spacing of BEFORE paragraph is 0 and the space AFTER a paragraph is 10 pt. LINE spacing is multiple 1.2. The body of the paper should be written in a single-column format.

• Table: Times New Roman 10 is the default font of tables, numbered from 1.

SECTIONING AND STRUCTURE:

The manuscript should be organized in the following sequence: title page, abstract, keywords, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, conflict of interest, acknowledgments (optional), references, tables and figures.

1) Title page

The title page should include the following items (please do not include any text other the ones described below):

- The title of the manuscript. The title of the manuscript should be typed in bold-faced print using both upper and lower-case letters and set in the center of the page. Abbreviations are not permitted in the title. Capitalize all “major” words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and pronouns) in the title and subtitle. The title should reflect exactly, efficiently and succinctly what the study is about. The title of a scientific paper is the most important part of the paper, because it is the first introduction the reader has to the content of the paper. Many readers skim titles and abstracts looking for suitable articles to read. So the title should give a terse description of the main content and should help readers decide whether to read the abstract or the paper itself. Therefore, it should be attractive and meaningful.

- Author or authors list. Full names of all authors should be provided with the family name.

- Each author's institution, and institutional e-mail address. The address of the institution was conducted should include the name of the institution, city, zip code, and country

- The FIRST NAMEs, Initials (if any) and LAST NAMEs, as well as the e-mail addresses and the ORCID code of all authors must be provided.

- The corresponding author should be marked with "Corresponding author" at the beginning of his/her affiliation address.

 The title page should include the title and the authorship in the following structure:

Title of the manuscript

Author Name

Corresponding author, Associate Professor, Department of Accounting, Faculty of Management, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran. E-mail: abcdef@ut.ac.ir

Author Name

Associate Professor, Department of Accounting, Faculty of Management, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran. E-mail: abcdef@pnu.ac.ir

Notes:

- Professional titles: Professional titles (e.g., Doctor or Engineer) should not be included.

- Affiliation: The affiliation(s) and address(es) of the author(s) should follow the below structure: Academic ranking, department, faculty, university, city, country. E-mail: abcd@abcdf.edu For example: Associate Professor, Faculty of Religion, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran.

2) Abstract

An abstract is required for all articles types. The abstract should be one paragraph without sections and should not exceed 250 words, following the title page. The abstract should be free of references and abbreviations. The abstract should summarize pertinent results in a brief but understandable form. 

3) Keywords

At the end of the abstract, up to six keywords that best describe the content of the research should be listed. The term "Keywords" should appear in bold followed by a colon. The first letter of each keyword is capitalized and keywords are separated by a comma. It is suggested to use the UNESCO Thesaurus and other religious thesauri.

4) Document types:

• Article: Original research or opinion.
• Editorial: Summary of several articles or provides editorial opinions or news.
• Erratum: Report of an error, correction or retraction of a previously published paper.
• Letter: Letter to or correspondence with the editor.
• Note: Note, discussion or commentary.
• Review: Significant review of original research, also includes conference papers.
• Short survey: Short or mini-review of original research.

The document type should follow the below structure:

            Document type: Article

            Document type: Review

5) Introduction

The Introduction, the beginning of the paper, provides a context or sufficient background information for the study (i.e., the significance and nature of the problem) and previous experimental results, to enable a reader who is not an expert in the topic to understand the question that is being addressed in the paper, and why it is significant. The Introduction should attract the reader to the rest of the paper. When presented properly, this section ensures that the reader will be able to understand the details of the experiment as well as its relevance to the scientific community. The Introduction should (a) present the nature and the scope of the problem investigated; (b) provide enough background to orient the reader and justify the study, reviewing the pertinent literature to the problem; (c) state the reason for the study, and how it differs or is related to previous studies; and (d) state the goal/objectives and method of the investigation.

The introduction should put forth the related background to the study, explain why the study was done and specifies the hypotheses to be tested. Extensive discussion of relevant literature should be included in the discussion of results, not in the introduction.

6) Materials and Methods

In the Materials and Methods section, all materials used and methods followed throughout the experiment should be reported. This section should be sufficiently clear and include a detailed procedure of how the experiment was performed, both methodologically and statistically, in such a way that another competent researcher can follow and duplicate the experiment. It is vital in the Materials and Methods section that the reader understands the author's experimental design and how data will be analyzed. The Materials and Methods section allows the reader to put the work into its environmental context. Scientific reports must be reproducible; consequently, the Materials and Methods section is extremely important to the credibility of the work.

The materials and methods should present essential details, experimental design and statistical analysis. A clear description or original reference is required for all biological, analytical, and statistical procedures used in the study. All modifications of procedures must be explained. Treatments and measurements should be described clearly. Statistical models and methods to analyze should be described clearly and fully.

7) Results

The results should present the findings of the study. Results of the study should be presented in table and data means (numbers) should not be repeated broadly in the text. The results should be separate from the discussion and written in the past tense.  

The Results section is often referred to as the "core" of the scientific paper.  The purpose of this section is to present the data and observations clearly. It describes the results obtained, but generally should not interpret the results, discuss their significance, or present conclusions. The Results section should be in paragraph format concisely report the exact results of the experiment. The data must be described in words and may be accompanied by representative data in tables and figures. "A picture is worth a thousand words." However, the Results section is not merely a collection of tables and figures without explanatory text.  If tables and figures are used, the author should provide the reader with an interpretation of what a table or figure illustrates. 

All tables and figures must be referred to in the text of the results in this way (Table 1) or (Figure 1). All tables and figures must: (a) have a brief description, preferably one or two sentences; (b) be numbered consecutively and in the same sequence as they will be used in the text; (c) be appropriately labeled; (d) be formatted properly to stand alone; and (e) be headed by a caption or a title describing its contents.  Tables and figures should include titles, legends (if necessary), axis and column labels, units and numbered figure headings. Figures and tables are numbered separately. 

Clarity in the Results section is paramount. Statistical methods used to analyze and treat data should be pertinent and meaningful, and problems with data collection can be presented. The Results section should only deal with results, but briefly describe experimental approaches when necessary to understand the experiment. 

8) Discussion

The Discussion section is the most important component of a scientific paper. The Discussion section serves to interpret the results and place them in a broader context by citing and discussing related studies. The purpose of the Discussion section is to make conclusions and evaluate the results within the general context of the research, rather than to summarize the results, although it can start with this.

The Discussion section is a return to the original objectives and hypotheses. It is the section of the paper in which the author should interpret his/her data and draw conclusions regarding his/her hypotheses. The author should describe in detail what s/he observed and explain why, demonstrating how the results support, or refute, his/her original hypotheses and how the results lead to the conclusions.

The author can refer to the data, citing tables and figures if necessary as evidence for his/her argument. The author should not repeat the Results section, but rather place his/her data in a broader context (i.e. why should anyone care about what s/he found?). While the other sections of the paper are mostly technical, in the Discussion the author gets a chance to express his/her scientific point of view and the significance of his/her work. In some respects, the Discussion section is the most difficult section of the paper to write and define.

9) Conclusion

The Conclusion is the final section of a scientific paper and it should wrap everything up. The Conclusion section should summarize the findings of the research and explain the implications of the experiment (What does this new information mean?  How can this information be used in the future?) 

The Conclusion section restates the primary goal of the study, the hypothesis and whether the data and results collected confirm or refute that hypothesis (Why? How? If refuted, was there some sort of error or bias that affected the outcome?).  This is the primary principle for a scientific paper to convince readers of the experiment’s validity. The author should never claim that a hypothesis is correct, true or proven; it is only confirmed or refuted.

The author should restate the objective(s) of the study and point out how s/he has achieved these goals. The author should make a general statement about the success of the experiment as a whole, generalizing the conclusions. The final paragraph should return to the initial subject matter of the paper.  The author should make suggestions for improvement in the future or propose further studies in the Conclusion section. Science progresses through attempts to extend explanations to new areas.    

10) Conflict of interest

The corresponding author must inform the editor of any potential conflicts of interest that could influence the authors interpretation of the data.

11) Acknowledgements (optional)

The acknowledgments should be as brief as possible. The Acknowledgements section should be a few sentences at the end, but it is important to recognize those people (organizations and individuals) who made a considerable impact on the research, provided significant help to the author to formulate and complete the experiment, and improved the research at any stage (from providing access to equipment or field sites to editing the manuscript). However, this is an optional section. 

12) References

The Journal uses the style of the APA to conform to international styles. The references section should be located following acknowledgements at the end of the text. Complete information should be given for each reference. The accuracy and completeness of the references is the responsibility of the author(s). References to personal letters (e-mail communications), papers presented at meetings, and other unpublished works (papers in preparation) may be cited. If such work may be of help in the evaluation of the manuscript, copies should be made available to the editor(s). Author(s) must submit a letter of permission from the cited persons to cite e-mail communications. The corresponding authors and references should be set out as the style of the APA, and only the first word of a cited title should be written in initial capital letter. Journal names should not be abbreviated and should be given in italics.

When referring to your own work within the manuscript, consider the likelihood of someone being able to identify you from the citation. Reduce that possibility by:

1. a) Avoiding the first-person in association with any citation (e.g., replace “As we have shown (Jackson, 2019) …” with “As Jackson (2019) has shown…”).
2. b) Remove references to your own unpublished / in press work except where essential; where such work is cited, delete the author’s name (i.e., cite as “Author, in press”) and remove from the reference list.
3. c) Avoid references that by implication identify the author (e.g., delete “This work is part of a larger grant project (Garfield, 2018, 2019) ”).
4. d) Avoid excessive self-citation—typically, articles citing “Wilson (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019) …” are by Wilson!
5. e) More generally, use common sense. Consider whether your writing has the potential to identify you to a reader who is an expert in the field; if it does, think about sensible ways to reduce that possibility.

13) Illustrations: Tables and Figures

Illustrations (tables and figures) should be embedded within the text. All illustrations should be cited in the text as Table 1, Table 2, etc. or Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.

Tables

They must be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals in the order in which they are cited in the text. They should have a brief descriptive title placed at the top and with essential footnotes below. Prepare tables in a consistent form, and each appropriately titled. Provide them at approximately the correct size they are to be published.

Figures

The figures must be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals and have a brief descriptive title. They should have a brief descriptive title placed at the top and with essential footnotes below. Lettering on drawings should be professional quality or generated by high-resolution computer graphics and must be large enough. Diagrams should be converted to .jpg or .gif files. 

14) Footnotes

Footnotes can be used and are usually listed at the bottom of each page in your manuscript. Times New Roman 9 is the default font for the footnotes. WORD, however, puts the footnotes in 10pt. WORD also sometimes changes the font. Any endnotes should be converted to footnotes.

15) Symbols and Variables

All variables or applied symbols should be defined and explained at the point of first use in the text.

16) Copyright and permissions

The copyright of manuscripts accepted for publication in the journal rests with the author(s) under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International (CC-BY 4.0). All opinions stated are exclusively that of the author(s).  

Figures that reproduce copyrighted or trademarked visual images or that show objects whose design is copyrighted or trademarked can be published only with the permission of the owner of the copyright or trademark. It is the responsibility of the author of the article in which the figure appears to obtain this permission, or to determine that the image or design is in the public domain.

17) Plagiarism

We accept all terms and conditions of COPE about plagiarism and in case, any attempt of plagiarism is brought to our attention accompanied with convincing evidence, we act based on flowcharts and workflows determined in COPE.