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Author Guidelines
Types of Papers
1. Original research papers:
Papers that include original empirical data that have not been published anywhere. Null/negative findings and replication/refutation findings are also welcome. This type of paper normally should not exceed 25 double-spaced pages of text (including references) and should not contain more than 15 figures/tables. We advise a length of 3000-6000 words (including everything).
2. Short Research Articles:
Short Research Articles (or Research Notes) are single-finding papers that can be reports with one or two illustrations (figures/tables). Posters from conferences or internal meetings may be summarized as Short Research Articles (or Research Notes). In many cases, some additional detail, particularly in the methods, description of the results, and/or discussion/conclusions will be required to make sure that readers (and referees) have enough information to understand the description of the work. We advise a length of 3000-4000 words, plus 3-4 figures and/or tables, and 15-20 key references.
4. Critical Review:
These papers will not have empirical data acquired by the authors but will include discussion of papers published and data acquired in a specific area. We advise a length of 5000-9000 words, (including 50-150 references plus 3-5 figures and/or tables (if required).
7. Policy Papers:
The purpose of the policy paper is to provide a comprehensive and persuasive argument justifying the policy recommendations presented in the paper, and therefore to act as a decision-making tool and a call to action for the target audience. We advise a length of 3000-4000 words, plus 3-4 figures and/or tables, and 15-20 key references.
8 . Commentaries / Opinion Articles:
An opinion-based article on a topical issue of broad interest which is intended to engender discussion. We advise a length of 2500-3500 words, plus 2-3 figures and/or tables, and 15-20 key references.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2597880/). Abstract (not more than 250 words) of the Case reports should have the following sections: Aims, Presentation of Case, Discussion and Conclusion. Only Case Reports have word limits: Papers should not exceed 2000 words, 20 references or 5 figures.
17. Letter to the Editor:
A letter to the editor provides a means of communication between the author of an article and the reader of a journal, allowing continued dialogue about journal content to take place. Although not original research per se, a letter may provide new insight, make corrections, offer alternate theories, or request clarification about content printed in the journal. Letters to the Editor are considered for publication (subject to editing and abridgment) provided they do not contain material that has been submitted or published elsewhere. Letters in reference to a Journal article must not exceed 600 words (excluding references). Letters not related to a Journal article must not exceed 600 words (excluding references). A letter can have no more than eight references and one figure or table. A letter can be signed by no more than four authors. Financial associations or other possible conflicts of interest must be disclosed. This type of article will be fully peer reviewed.
Submission
Online submission of manuscripts is strongly recommended. Please submit your article through the submit function on the Journal platform. Manuscripts can also be submitted as email attachment to the editorial office at publication@paidwaonline.org. After submission, a manuscript number will be communicated to the corresponding author within 48 hours.
For submission related problems or all other correspondence, please contact the editorial office at publication@paidwaonline.org.
Peer-review process
To know more about PAID-WA Journals Peer-reviewed Process and PAID-WA Journals General Editorial Policies, Click here.
Manuscript structure
The manuscript should be written in English with simple lay out. The text should be prepared in single column format. Bold face, italics, subscripts, superscripts etc. can be used.
The text, excluding the abstract, if required, can be divided into numbered sections with brief headings. Starting from introduction with section 1. subsections should be numbered (for example 2.1 (then 2.1.1, 2.1.2, 2.2, etc.), up to three levels.
Brief guidelines
Title Page
The title page should contain a brief title, name(s) of author(s) and their affiliations. The title should be without any abbreviations and it should enlighten the contents of the paper. All affiliations should be provided with a lower-case superscript letter just after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address.
The name of the corresponding author should be indicated along with telephone and fax numbers (with country and area code) along with full postal address and e-mail address.
Abstract
The abstract should be concise and informative. It should not exceed 300 words in length. It should briefly describe the purpose of the work, techniques and methods used, major findings with important data and conclusions. Different sub-sections, as given below, should be used. No references should be cited in this part. Generally non-standard abbreviations should not be used, if necessary they should be clearly defined in the abstract, at first use.
Keywords
Immediately after the abstract, about 4-8 keywords should be given. Use of abbreviations should be avoided, only standard abbreviations, well known in the established area may be used, if appropriate. These keywords will be used for indexing.
Abbreviations
Non-standard abbreviations should be listed and full form of each abbreviation should be given in parentheses at first use in the text.
Introduction
Provide a factual background, clearly defined problem, proposed solution, a brief literature survey and the scope and justification of the work done.
Results & Discussion
Results should be clearly described in a concise manner. Results for different parameters should be described under subheadings or in separate paragraph. Table or figure numbers should be mentioned in parentheses for better understanding.
The discussion should not repeat the results, but provide detailed interpretation of data. This should interpret the significance of the findings of the work. Citations should be given in support of the findings. The results and discussion part can also be described as separate, if appropriate.
Tables & Figures
Tables & figures should be placed inside the text. Tables and figures should be presented as per their appearance in the text. It is suggested that the discussion about the tables and figures should appear in the text before the appearance of the respective tables and figures. No tables or figures should be given without discussion or reference inside the text.
Tables should be explanatory enough to be understandable without any text reference. Double spacing should be maintained throughout the table, including table headings and footnotes. Table headings should be placed above the table. Footnotes should be placed below the table with superscript lowercase letters.
Each figure should have a caption. The caption should be concise and typed separately, not on the figure area. Figures should be self-explanatory. Information presented in the figure should not be repeated in the table. All symbols and abbreviations used in the illustrations should be defined clearly. Figure legends should be given below the figures.
Conclusions
This should briefly state the major findings of the study.
Acknowledgements
A brief acknowledgement section may be given after the conclusion section just before the references. The acknowledgments of people who provided assistance in manuscript preparation, funding for research, etc. should be listed in this section. All sources of funding should be declared as an acknowledgement. Authors should declare the role of funding agency, if any, in the study design, collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript. If the study sponsors had no such involvement, the authors should so state.
Conflict of Interest
Declaration of competing interest is compulsory. All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include employment, consultancies, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding. If no such declaration has been made by the authors, SDI reserves to assume and write this sentence: “Authors have declared that no competing interests exist.”.
AUTHORS’ CONTRIBUTIONS
Authors may use the following wordings for this section: “ ‘Author A’ designed the study, performed the statistical analysis, wrote the protocol, and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. ‘Author B’ and ‘Author C’ managed the analyses of the study. ‘Author C’ managed the literature searches…… All authors read and approved the final manuscript.”
Referencing Style
References must be listed at the end of the manuscript and numbered in the order that they appear in the text. Every reference referred in the text must also present in the reference list and vice versa. In the text, citations should be indicated by the reference number in brackets [3].
Only published or accepted manuscripts should be included in the reference list. Articles submitted for publication, unpublished findings and personal communications should not be included in the reference list but may be mentioned in the text. Avoid citing a “personal communication” unless it provides essential information not available from a public source, in which case the name of the person and date of communication should be cited in parentheses in the text.
All references should follow the following style:
Reference to a journal:
For Published paper:
1. Shu M, Che LN, Anchang J. Sustainable Development. Buea. 2014;2(7):9-18.
Note: List the first six authors followed by et al.
Note: Use of DOI number for the full-text article is encouraged. (if available).
For Accepted, unpublished papers.
Same as above, but “In press” appears instead of the page numbers.
1. 1. Shu M, Che LN, Anchang J. Sustainable Development. Buea. 2014;2(7):9-18. (In press).
Note: List the first six authors followed by et al.
Note: Use of DOI number is encouraged (if available).
Note: Authors are also encouraged to add other database's unique identifier (like PUBMED ID).
Reference to a book:
Personal author(s)
. Sustainable Development. Buea. 2014;2(7):9-18.. 5th ed. Buea: PAID Publishing; 2013.
Authored chapter in edited publication
Shu M, Che LN, Anchang J. Community Development. In: Uwem E. Sustainable Development. Buea. 2014;2(7):9-18.
Reference to Web-resource or Electronic articles.
Sustainable Development. Buea. 2014;2(7):9-18. Accessed 9 March 2014. Available: http://www.paid-waonline.org/
Reference to Organization as author
Pan African Institute for Development-West Africa. Sustainable Development in the 21st Century. Buae. 2009;9(2):29–276.
Copyright
Submission of a manuscript clearly indicates that: the study has not been published before or is not under consideration for publication elsewhere (except as an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis); its publication is permitted by all authors and after accepted for publication it will not be submitted for publication anywhere else, in English or in any other language, without the written approval of the copyright-holder. The journal may consider manuscripts that are translations of articles originally published in another language. In this case, the consent of the journal in which the article was originally published must be obtained and the fact that the article has already been published must be made clear on submission and stated in the abstract. It is compulsory for the authors to ensure that no material submitted as part of a manuscript infringes existing copyrights, or the rights of a third party.
The copyrights of all papers published in this journal are retained by the respective authors as per the 'Creative Commons Attribution License' (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). The author(s) should be the sole author(s) of the article and should have full authority to enter into agreement and in granting rights to PAID-WA Journals, which are not in breach of any other obligation. The author(s) should ensure the integrity of the paper and related works. Authors should mandatorily ensure that submission of manuscript PAID-WA Journals would result into no breach of contract or of confidence or of commitment given to secrecy.
Proofs
A PDF file of proof will be sent to the corresponding author as an e-mail attachment. Authors will be asked to check any typographical or minor clerical errors in the manuscript at this stage. No other major alteration in the manuscript is allowed. After publication authors can freely access the full text of the article as well as can download and print the PDF file.
Fees and Charges
The publication fee is waived during this first year of publication
Submission Checklist
Kindly ensure to send the following 2 files during submission.
1. Manuscript formatted as above
2. Conflict of Interest Form
3. Copyright Transfer Form
Submission Preparation Checklist
As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
- Manuscript
- Conflict of Interest Form
- Copyright Transfer Form
Privacy Statement
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