Author Guidelines

Guidelines for Authors

Thank you for choosing to submit your article to Mulungushi University Multidisciplinary Journal.

Please adhere strictly to these guidelines to ensure that your article moves through peer review, production and publication in conformity with our requirements.

By choosing our journal, we anticipate that you will take your time to read these guidelines and follow them as closely as possible in the process of submitting your article.

Registration on the Mulungushi University Multidisciplinary Website.

Registration and login are required to submit articles online and to check the status of current submissions.If you are not already registered please register on the Mulungushi University Multidisciplinary Journal website: https://research.mu.ac.zm/research/index.php/mu/user/register.If you are already registered in another role, for instance as a reviewer, you can edit your profile when logged in to also register as an author.

Peer Review Policy

All articles submitted to the Mulungushi University Multidisciplinary Journal will undergo editorial screening and double blind peer review. This is to ensure that the authors and reviewers remain anonymous to each other as the review is undertaken.

The journal uses anti-plagiarism software to screen articles for unoriginal material, hence, after submitting your article you are agreeing to any originality checks your article may have to undergo before publication.

Authorship

It is the responsibility of authors to obtain permission to reproduce copyrighted material from other sources.

When an author submits an article to this journal, the author’s submission is considered as certification that it is an original work which has not been published before or is under consideration for publication elsewhere.

All persons who have considerably contributed to the article should be listed as authors, indicating the order of principal authorship, authorship and other publication credits based on their individual scientific or professional contributions irrespective of their status. For instance, a student is usually listed as the principal author on any publication which is substantially derived from the student’s dissertation or thesis.

 Structure of the Article

Generally all articles will adhere to the following structure:

• Title
• Abstract (Maximum 250 words)
• Keywords (Maximum 10 words)
• Introduction
• Body of the article
• Tables or figures (to be inserted intext )
• Conclusion
• References
• Appendices (if applicable)

Layout

All articles will be submitted electronically as MSWord files.

The abstract page should be single-spaced and include an abstract of between maximum of  250 words. A list of a maximum of 10 keywords should be given right below the abstract.

The body of the article may include literature review or theoretical underpinning, methodology/materials and methods, research results and/or findings, discussions, conclusions and recommendations in the order that meets the standards of this journal.

Articles must be presented as: A4 page size with normal margins; 12pt Bookman Old Style font type; and 1.5 line spacing. Every article to be submitted to the Mulungushi Journal of Development must be typewritten and set as UK English.

The pages should be numbered consecutively throughout at the bottom right side of the page. Authors should also provide a shortened version of the title, not exceeding 50 character spaces which will be used as the running head.

Articles should be between 5000-8000 words excluding list of references and appendices.

Authors should include their affiliation or ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) below their name, after the title of the article on the abstract page Include a link…Access your ORCID Record https://orcid.org/my-orcid

To facilitate an anonymous peer review, the main article should not include the names of the authors, contributors or funders.

References

Authors will ensure that the information in each reference is complete and accurate. Every reference cited in the text should be present in the reference list at the end of the article and vice versa. Only published and “in press” references should appear in the reference list.

Unpublished material and personal communications mentioned in the text are not recommended in the reference list. These may be listed as footnotes where applicable. References listed as footnotes are regarded as text references only and not bibliographic information. Footnotes are necessary when they provide essential information that enhance the content of some portion of the article.

Web references should be given with the full URL and the date when the reference was last accessed.

The Mulungushi University Multidisciplinary Journal adheres to the Harvard reference style

i.e Author date style …refer include a lnk

Examples:

Book:

Mukwita, A. (2017) Against all odds: Zambia’s president Edgar Chagwa Lungu’s rough journey to State House. Johannesburg: Partridge.

Journal:

Ngoepe, M. and Makhura, M. (2008) Assessing the level of compliance with regard to the Legal Deposit Act: South Africa’s published heritage. Mousaion, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 98–114.

Contribution to a book/book chapter:

Zulu, P. (2016) ‘Harnessing library and information services for economic and national development in Zambia: a fifty-year retrospective overview’ in Mukwena, R. and Sumaili, F. (eds.) Zambia at Fifty Years. Johannesburg: Partridge, pp. 240-270.

Web reference:

Msadabwe, E. (2008) Libraries in Zambia. AFRAN Study and Research Institute. Available at: http://www.afran.info/ modules/publisher/item.php?itemid=442 (accessed 2 May 2014).

Acronyms and abbreviations

All acronyms and abbreviations should be written in full when first used in the text. The use of acronyms or abbreviations should be avoided in the title and keywords unless they are widely recognized and understood.

Privacy Statement

The names, email addresses and any other personal information entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of the journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

Acknowledgements

Contributors who are not listed as authors such as those who provided technical help may be listed separately in an acknowledgement section. Permissions to reproduce materials from other sources may be included under this section.

Funding

All authors are required to acknowledge and recognise sources of financial and logistical support to their work and provide all necessary funding information.

Processing Charges

The Journal charges the article processing fees for accepted papers as follows:

1. K500 for Zambians authors,
2. US$ 100 for Developing Nations
3. US$ 150 for Developed Nations

Submission Preparation Checklist
Before submitting the manuscript, author(s) should check the following list.
1. The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for               consideration.
2. The submission file is in Microsoft Word file
3. Manuscript has been made in the light of Journal’s author guidelines.
4. Author(s) did not mention his or her name and affiliation in the main text
5. Author(s) has read all the terms and conditions of the journal.