Submission

Manuscripts must be written in good English and should be submitted through e-mail: editor.IJMSIR@cug.edu.gh or online submission system. Manuscripts should be submitted as a single MS-Word file including all materials.

Abstract

A short abstract of not more than 400 words should immediately precede the introduction. It should give the synopsis of the title, problem/theme, methods, findings/arguments and conclusion(s).

Key Words/Descriptors

Authors should suggest at least 5 keywords that clearly indicate the subject matter of the article.

Illustrations

All necessary illustrations such as photographs, diagrams and charts should be referred to as figures and given Arabic numerals numbered consecutively in the order in which they appear in the text. All figures should appear in the text each with a numbered title beneath it. e.g. Fig 1. Student statistics by sex and school. Source of figure should also be provided.

Tables

Tables should be kept to the minimum and include only essential detail. All tables should be numbered followed by the title e.g. Table 1. Student statistics by sex and school. They should appear at the top of the table but outside the table. No gridlines within the table. The table should be referenced in the text and appear in appropriate section within the text. Sources of tables should be provided and they should appear at the bottom of the table

Referencing

References in the text should be quoted as follows: Addaney and Cobbinah (2017) or (Sackey, (2017) or Twumwaa et al., (2017). Page numbers should be provided for direct quotes, for example (Mensah, 2017, 15). Names of multiple authors should all be listed first use only (Addaney, Cobbinah & Dumenu, 2017), subsequent use should appear as Addaney et. al. (2017). A full reference list capturing author’s name, year of publication, title of work, edition or volume and issue if any, and city and state of publication as well as publisher name, in that order. This should be typed in 1.5 space at the end of the paper in alphabetical order as follows:

Journal Article

Addaney, M. (2017). Managing total quality in teaching and research at the tertiary level: Trends, challenges and prospects. Higher Education Review 4 (12), 11-14.

Book

Anane, G.K. (2017). Tourism management: Perspectives from Ghana. (2nd ed.), Ghana Universities Press, Accra, Ghana, pp.5-9.

An Edited Book

Boateng, A & Antwi, A. (eds.) (2012). Research methods (2nd ed.), Aseda Books, Accra, Ghana, pp. 86-93.

An Article In A Collection

Akudugu, J.A. (2012). Overview: Meeting the capacity development challenge: Lessons for improving technical cooperation. In D. Miller (ed.), Developing capacity through technical cooperation, (15-36), Kumasi: Savannah Publications.

A Book By A Corporate Author

Catholic University of Ghana (2016). Strategic Plan (2016-2020), Fiapre-Sunyani, Catholic University College of Ghana, 300 pp. Ghana Government (2003). Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy: An Agenda for Growth and Development.

National Development Planning Commission, Accra, Ghana. Internet Source The World Bank Group (2016). The Aid Architecture (online). Available: www.worldbank.org/aid. Date Accessed: 23rd March 2017.

Order Of Presenting Various Components Of A Paper

Follow this order: Title, abstract, key words/descriptors, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, conclusion, acknowledgement and references.

Sectioning

Headings and subheadings should be in bold print and numbered as follows: Level 1-BOLD UPPER CASE; Level 2- Bold Lower Case; Level 3- Bold Lower Case Italics etc. Do NOT format.

Footnotes

Footnotes must be as brief as possible and appear on the same page as the reference. These should be minimally used and numbered consecutively in the text.

Endnotes

Endnotes are NOT accepted.

Submission Format

There should be a separate cover page for: title of manuscript, author’s name, postal address, e-mail address, telephone numbers, institutional/departmental affiliation and disciplinary area (Economics, Religious Education). No such information should appear on any other page of the manuscript.

Withdrawal Policy

Few of the authors request withdrawal of manuscript from the publication process after submission or after publication. In some instances, the request for withdrawal is made when the manuscript is only a few days to publication in the journal. This may be a waste by the editors, reviewers and the editorial staff.

All authors including corresponding and co-authors should confirm the number of authors, authorship, approval and integrity of the manuscript before submission. In case of any differences of opinion, address the concerns of all the authors before submitting the manuscript for publication. Authors should follow the details of publication ethics of IJMSIR.

A manuscript can be appropriately withdrawn from any previous publisher (if submitted). It is unacceptable to withdraw a manuscript from a journal because it is being accepted by another journal. Before submitting, the manuscript authors should carefully check the facts and data presented in the manuscripts are accurate and error-free. All authors need to agree for publishing the articles on the specific journal before submission.

Manuscript Withdrawal Charges

The author (s) are allowed to withdraw the manuscript without paying any withdrawal penalty, if the author (s) request a withdrawal of manuscript, within 48 hours of submission. If the author (s) request a withdrawal of manuscript, after the peer review process or in the production stage (Early Release or Ahead of publishing) or published online; then authors need to pay a withdrawal penalty. IJMSIR Journal Editorial Office will provide the corresponding author a formal letter of Manuscript Withdrawal. Withdrawal of manuscripts is only allowed after withdrawal penalty has been fully paid to the IJMSIR Editorial Office. As per the policy, we declare that the withdrawal charges are applicable in case of withdrawal.

Copyright

As publisher of the IJMSIR, the Catholic University College of Ghana shall be the copyright owner of the journal.

Disclaimer

The IJMSIR will not bear responsibility for any anomalies on the part of authors and/or inaccuracies in published works.

Appendix

Normally NOT required.

Plagiarism Policy

To maintain originality and avoid plagiarism by the research scholar. To avoid condition of double plagiarism, self-plagiarism or least publication units. To acknowledge the sources with full authenticity. Copyright form submitted should contain the signed consent of each author in the manuscript.

All papers submitted are initially screened and checked through the Advanced Plagiarism Detection Software (CrossCheck by Turnitin)

Ethical Responsibilities

To maintain originality and avoid plagiarism by the research scholar. To avoid submission of self-plagiarism, double plagiarism or least publication units. To acknowledge the sources with full authenticity. Copyright form submitted should contain the signed consent of each author in the manuscript. It is essential that author(s) obtain permission to reproduce any published material, figures, schemes, tables or any extract of a text which does not fall into the public domain, or for which they do not hold the copyright.

Permission is Required for:

Your own works published by other publishers and for which you did not retain copyright. Substantial extracts from any others work or series of work. Use of tables, Graphs, Charts, Schemes and artworks if they are unaltered or slightly modified. Photographs for which you do not hold copyright.

Permission is not Required for:

Reconstruction of your own table with data already published elsewhere. Please notice that in this case you must cite the source of the data in the form of either “Data from… “Or “Adapted from….”. Reasonably short quotes are considered fair us and therefore do not require permission. Graphs, Charts, Schemes and Artworks that are completely redrawn and significantly changed beyond recognition do not require permission.

Plagiarism and Libel

Plagiarism

Four key elements interact to effect plagiarism:

Publication - the oral or written presentation of another’s work in public;

Content - the presentation of the contents (methods, results, thoughts, expressions, ideas) of another’s work;

Appropriation - the passing off of another’s work as one’s own; and

Lack of credit given - passing of another’s work without the appropriate attribution to the original source.

Hence, plagiarism may be defined as

“wrongful appropriation’ or ‘close imitation’ or ‘purloining and publication’ of another author’s methods, results, thoughts, language, expressions or ideas and presenting them as one’s own original work.”^[1]

Plagiarism is, thus an unreferenced use of another's published or unpublished ideas. This may be the submission of a part or whole of a paper under new authorship. Plagiarism includes an author reusing his/her own material (sometimes known as "redundant publication" or “self-plagiarism”). To avoid plagiarism, sources must be disclosed. Quotations should be placed in quote marks or reworded. If illustrations or large sections of another's written material are to be used then authors must seek permission. The journal's guidelines to authors contain a clear statement that submissions must be original work and detail the possible outcomes for authors found guilty of plagiarism.

Detecting Plagiarism

This is important to maintain originality and avoid plagiarism by the research scholar; to avoid condition of double plagiarism or self-plagiarism and to acknowledge the sources with full authenticity. Copyright form submitted should contain the signed consent of each author in the manuscript. All papers submitted are initially screened and checked through the

Advanced Plagiarism Detection

Software (CrossCheck by Turnitin). With plagiarism detection, software (e.g. CrossCheck's Turnitin) manuscripts will be checked quickly and any overlap can be quantified.

What is not Plagiarism?

There can be no rule as to what degree of overlap constitutes plagiarism: some overlap is legitimate. Here are few examples where overlap does not equate to plagiarism:

 

The bibliography of two papers may be very similar and yet not constitute plagiarism.

Two papers may have very similar methods and yet not constitute plagiarism. (There is so many ways to describe the same procedure.)

In some fields, depositing an earlier working version of the manuscript in a depositary is common and not considered prior publication.

Where significant overlap is found, the editorial office administrator will analyze the results to establish whether the overlap is legitimate or not. If plagiarism is indicated then the matter shall be investigated following the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) flowchart. For more advice on managing plagiarism issues, refer to section 3 of Wiley's Best Practice guidelines on Publishing Ethics.

Libel

Libel and defamation are both unscholarly and illegal. Be very careful when dealing with articles that criticize other individuals or groups. Libel cannot be automatically detected. Reviewers, who read the manuscript in full, are best placed to discover possible libel. Ensure they know to raise any potential libel. The author should be encouraged to remove the statement or rephrase his/her remarks as opinions. Legal definitions and penalties for libel vary between territories. If you are in any doubt about whether an article is libellous, contact your publisher or legal representation.