Submissions

Author Guidelines

Word length

Submitted manuscripts are recommended to be approximately 6000 – 10000 words, inclusive of abstract and references.

Manuscript Format and Preparation

• AJMBFS publishes manuscripts both in Arabic and English; the title, abstract and keywords of articles written in Arabic should be translated into English and vice versa.
• Manuscript should be typed in a 12-point font-Times New Roman on A4 page, single-spaced, and the margins – top and bottom, left and right – should be 2.5 cm.
• Tables and figures should be numbered, and their positions should be indicated in the text. Table title and heading should be placed above the table, and figure title and caption should be placed above the figure.

Components of the Manuscript

Title page includes:

• The title, which should be clear, informative, and representative of the content. It should not exceed 12 words.
• Authors’ names, authors’ affiliated institution names, and authors’ email addresses (please indicate corresponding author with an asterisk)

Abstract:

• The abstract should be clear, concise, and descriptive.
• It should contain essential details (i.e., the issue/ problem of study, the purpose of the study, the method adopted in the study including the sample and the tool(s) used, important findings and conclusions).
• The length of the abstract should not exceed 200 words.

Keywords:

• Keywords should be 3-5, arranged in an alphabetical order, separated using a semi-colon.

Introduction

• Introduction should include the theoretical background of the study, problem statement, purpose, research questions and theoretical framework.
• The introduction should build a logical context for the study problem and provide a comprehensive literature review, relevant, up-to-date, and critically analyzed and appraised.
• The problem statement, research gap, research purpose and/or questions (as well as the research hypothesis, where applicable) and theoretical framework should be clearly stated.
• The constructs being investigated should also be clearly identified and presented.

Methods

• The research methods should be appropriate, clearly described, and sufficiently detailed.

Instrumentation (if applicable)

• The development and content of the instrument(s) should be appropriate, and the study’s variables should be sufficiently described.
• The design of the instrument should have validity (internal and external) for quantitative studies and incorporate techniques to ensure trustworthiness for qualitative studies.

Population and sample (if applicable)

• The population and sampling procedures should be clearly and sufficiently described (participants, their characteristics and their selection methods should be described and justified).

Data analysis and statistics (if applicable)

• Data-analysis procedures should be sufficiently described, and statistical tests should be appropriate (for qualitative design, methods of analysis should also be described).

Findings and discussion

Findings

• The findings should align with the research hypotheses or questions and the amount of data presented should be sufficient, accurate and supportive of inferences or themes. Tables, graphs, or figures should be used carefully and agree with the text.

Discussion 

• Findings are placed in the context of relevant literature, and alternative interpretations are considered as needed.

Conclusion

• The conclusion should be clearly stated based on the study findings in form of paragraphs; it should not be a repetition of the findings.
• The main contributions of the study, limitations, and suggestions for further research should be clearly stated.

Research ethics

• For research using humans, authors MUST declare that research protocol was approved by an ethics committee and informed consent was obtained from each participant before collecting data. The confidentiality and anonymity of the participants were ensured while collecting, analyzing, and reporting data.

Authors contribution

For manuscript with two authors or more, a statement of authors contribution MUST be added. An example:  A.B., C.B. and M.A. contributed to design, data collection, analysis and interpretation; A.B and C.B. drafted the manuscript; M.A. revised the manuscript; and all authors approved the final submission.         

Declarations

Conflict of interest

Authors MUST declare the exist of any conflict of interest or write the following statement: authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Funding

If the research work received financial support, Authors MUST write the source of the fund, and the name and number of the grant. Authors should describe the finder’s roles in the work or the manuscript.  Otherwise, authors should write the following statement “ the funder has played no role in the research and the manuscript development”.  If the work has received no fund, authors should write “the work received no fund”.

References

• Reference citations should follow APA style (7^th edition).
• The manuscript should include recent references from international publications.