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Author Guidelines
General Standards
Manuscripts submitted to the Bulletin of Social Studies and Community Development must meet international academic writing standards and demonstrate originality, clarity, and significance to the fields of social sciences and community development. Only manuscripts that have not been published elsewhere and are not under consideration in other journals will be considered. All manuscripts are subject to a rigorous peer-review process to ensure academic quality and integrity.
Language Editing
The Bulletin of Social Studies and Community Development requires that manuscripts be written in clear, grammatical English. Articles are normally published only in English. Authors are encouraged to use professional language editing services to improve readability and ensure compliance with international standards of scientific communication. Please note that the use of such services does not guarantee acceptance of the manuscript. Editorial decisions are made solely on the basis of scholarly merit and alignment with the journal’s scope.
Language Style
The default language style of the journal is American English. Authors who prefer British English must state this clearly on the first page of the manuscript. Authors are required to be consistent in their language usage throughout the manuscript.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
To increase the discoverability of published articles, authors are advised to:
Include relevant keywords in the title and abstract.
Select 3–5 keywords that best represent the manuscript.
Use keywords consistently in the introduction, abstract, and headings.
Keep article titles concise and informative.
Title
The manuscript title should be written in title case, centered, in Times New Roman font, and should accurately reflect the content of the study. Abbreviations should not be used in the title. Creative titles are acceptable if they are relevant and not misleading.
Authors and Affiliations
Authors must provide accurate and complete names and institutional affiliations. Affiliations should include the institution or university name and the country, without full postal addresses. Example: University of Lampung, Indonesia. The corresponding author must be clearly identified with a valid email address.
Headings and Subheadings
Main headings should be written in sentence case, Times New Roman 14, bold. Subheadings should be Times New Roman 12, bold. Authors should avoid excessive sub-structuring that complicates readability.
Abstract
Manuscripts must include an abstract of no more than 250 words written in English. The abstract should clearly state the background, objectives, methods, key findings, and conclusions of the study. References should not be cited in the abstract.
Keywords: Authors must provide 3–5 keywords that capture the essential topics of the manuscript.
Manuscript Structure
Original research articles should follow the standard format:
Introduction The introduction should provide background, rationale, significance, and novelty of the study. Authors must present a clear research gap, objectives, and, where relevant, research hypotheses.
Method The methodology section should describe research design, population and sample, instruments, data collection procedures, validity and reliability measures, and data analysis techniques in sufficient detail to allow replication.
Results and Discussion Results must be presented clearly and objectively, supported by tables and figures where appropriate. The discussion should interpret findings, highlight their significance, relate them to existing literature, and acknowledge study limitations.
Conclusion The conclusion should synthesize key findings, emphasize their significance for theory and practice, and suggest directions for future research.
Acknowledgments (if any) Authors may acknowledge funding bodies, institutions, or individuals who contributed to the research.
Author Contributions Contributions of each author must be stated clearly. For example: Author A designed the research; Author B collected the data; Author C analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript.
References References must follow the American Psychological Association (APA) 7th Edition style. Only published or accepted works should be included. Authors are strongly encouraged to use citation management software (e.g., Mendeley, Zotero). Each reference must include DOI or URL if available.
Examples:
Journal article: Vogels, A. G. C., Crone, M. R., Hoekstra, F., & Reijneveld, S. A. (2009). Comparing three short questionnaires to detect psychosocial dysfunction among primary school children: a randomized method. BMC Public Health, 9, 489. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-9-489
Book:
Ford-Martin, P. (2003). Cognitive-behavioral therapy. In E. Thackery & M. Harris (Eds.), Gale encyclopedia of mental disorders (Vol.1, pp. 226-228). Gale.
Thesis/Dissertation:
Sonny, Z. (1999). Computer education for children (Publication No. 01230123) [Doctoral dissertation, University of Life]. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.
Figures and Tables
Figures and tables must be original, clearly labeled, and placed close to where they are first mentioned in the text. Captions should allow figures and tables to stand alone. Images should be high resolution (minimum 300 dpi) in JPG, TIFF, or PNG format.
Ethical Considerations
Authors must ensure compliance with ethical standards in research involving human subjects, including informed consent and institutional approval when applicable. Plagiarism, data fabrication, and duplicate submissions are strictly prohibited. The editorial team will use plagiarism detection software to screen all manuscripts.
Supplementary Materials
Authors may submit supplementary files such as datasets, multimedia, or additional tables and figures. Supplementary materials will be published alongside the article if deemed appropriate by the editorial board.
Conflict of Interest and Funding Disclosure
Authors must declare any potential conflicts of interest and disclose all sources of financial or institutional support.
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.
The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
The submission file is in OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, RTF, or WordPerfect document file format.
Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
The text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines, which is found in About the Journal.
If submitting to a peer-reviewed section of the journal, the instructions in Ensuring a Blind Review have been followed.
Copyright Notice
Authors who publish in the Bulletin of Social Studies and Community Development retain the copyright of their work. Authors grant the journal the right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License that allows others to share, adapt, distribute, and reproduce the work in any medium or format, provided the original work and source are properly cited.
Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (for example, in institutional repositories, personal websites, or academic networking sites) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
The Bulletin of Social Studies and Community Development and its publisher make every effort to ensure the accuracy of all information contained in its publications. However, the views and opinions expressed in published articles are solely those of the respective authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors or the publisher. The publisher shall not be held responsible for any errors, consequences arising from the use of information contained in this journal, or any claims made by third parties.
Privacy Statement
The names, affiliations, and email addresses entered in Bulletin of Social Studies and Community Development’s site are used solely for the purposes of this journal. They will not be shared, sold, or used for any other purpose beyond supporting the publication process, including communication related to submitted manuscripts, editorial decisions, and journal updates.
The journal guarantees that personal data provided by authors, reviewers, and readers will remain confidential and will not be made available to any third party without explicit consent, except as required by law.
Author Fees
This journal charges the following author fees.
Article Publication: 0.00 (IDR)
All publication processes in Bulletin of Social Science and Community Development are free of charge.
This journal does not apply any submission fees, article processing charges (APCs), or publication fees. Authors are not required to make any payment at any stage of the submission, review, editing, or publication process.
We are committed to supporting open access and ensuring that knowledge is disseminated without financial barriers for both authors and readers.
If you do not have funds to pay such fees, you will have an opportunity to waive each fee. We do not want fees to prevent the publication of worthy work.
