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.

• • Structure – Ensure the submission is structured as requested by the journal, and contains all relevant sections. Check ' Manuscripts Preparation ' for details.
  • Title page – All submissions must have a title page stating all of the relevant information.
  • Format – All submissions should follow the journal guidelines for word count, page margins and line numbering.
  • Reported data – Data accuracy is crucial. Authors are strongly encouraged to double check all reported data for accuracy.
  • References – Please see ‘References’ for full details of the journal’s required style.
  • Graphics – All figures and tables should be presented in a clear and informative manner with accompanying legends.
  
• General
  Manuscripts should:
  • Be concise and clear.
  • Be limited to 6000 words for research submissions.
  • Display the word count on the title page.
  • Contain not more than 8 figures and 60 references
  • Use single line spacing throughout (including reference list and figure legends) with minimum of standard 1.5 inch margin and referencing done in APA style.
  • Define all abbreviations when first mentioned.
  • Be submitted in the correct file type, i.e. main document in an editable Word format.
  • Articles should be written in English language (UK English), which normally may not exceed 20 pages together with references. Authors should be consistent with the writing style (British) adopted.
  • The title page of the manuscript should indicate the full names of the author(s) and their institutional addresses (i.e. institutional affiliation, if any).
  • It should be accompanied with an abstract not exceeding 250 words and maximum of five (5) keywords for indexing purposes.
  • The acceptable word processing package is Microsoft office and the manuscript should be in Times New Roman font with size 12.
  • Similarity index of the article should not exceed 18%.
  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tolerance should not exceed 20%
  
  
  
• Accepted file types:
  • Please be aware that the combined size of your files should not exceed 40 MB.
  • For article text: txt, doc, docx, tex. We are unable to accept pdf files for article text for revised manuscripts.
  • For figures: eps, tiff, jpg, pdf
  • Changes within revised manuscripts should be highlighted using the highlighter function or coloured text, and should be accompanied with a full response letter to the managing editor, addressing the reviewers’ comments.
• Additional Guidelines
  • Papers accepted for publication are subjected to the thorough test of peer-review mechanism. The editorial board determines which articles may be accepted for publication and only the authors whose papers are declared publishable may be communicated as necessary.
• Manuscript Groupings/Sections
  
  Research
  Your article submissions should be guided by the following:
  
  1. Title Information
  • Title (maximum of 80 characters)
  • All authors’ names and institution of affiliations
  • Corresponding author’s postal, email address and institution of affiliation
  • A running title (maximum of 46 characters, including spaces)
  • Five keywords describing the manuscript
  
  2. Abstract
  The abstract should be a single paragraph of not more than 250 words, clearly stating the objective of the study or review, the methods used (where applicable), a summary of findings/ results and conclusions. No abbreviations and references are expected.
  
  3. Introduction
  The introduction should set the study in context by briefly reviewing relevant knowledge of the subject. This is followed with a concise statement of objectives of the study.
  
  4. Literature Review: Critical review of relevant work on the subject matter.
  
  5. Methods: Describing the research design and the appropriate methods used.
  
  6. Results
  The main results are presented. Referencing and mentioning of other studies’ results for comparisons are permitted in this section where necessary or helpful.
  
  7. Discussion
  The author(s) should not simply re-state the results, but should put them in the broader context and highlight the importance and novelty of the work.
  Depending on the author, results and discussions in items (6) and (7) can be combined.
  
  8. Conclusion: This may include recommendations and permissions and suggestions for future research
  
  9. Ethical Consideration
  Ethical approval /clearance/permission should be obtained where applicable from relevant authority and evidence should be submitted along with the article.
  
  10. Declaration of interest, Funding and Acknowledgements
  
  
• Figures:
  
  Colour figures will be published online at no charge to the author. Number figures in the order they are cited in the text.
  All submitted digital images must adhere to the guidelines provided on expected digital images. Include legends to all figures, giving the figure number, keys to any symbols used, the name of the organism studied, the names of any statistical tests used and the probability levels used for comparisons.
  • Figures should be numbered and labelled at the bottom of the figure in Arabic numeral in the order they are cited in the text
  • Use Arial for text labels
  • Do not enclose figures in boxes
  • Preferred symbols of closed and open circles, squares and triangles should be used. Ensure that symbols are large enough to be read clearly when the figure is reduced for publication
  
• Editorials
  All editorials must be a maximum 1500 words (including references, legends and tables) and 10 references. If you would like to submit an editorial article for consideration, please submit a proposal to the editorial office.
  
  Supplementary Data
  
  Supplementary data files for online publication should be submitted as ‘Supplemental File for Review’. All submissions with supplementary data listed as ‘Supplementary File for Review’ will be reviewed under the assumption that the data will be published as part of the final article.
  
  There is a charge (5 USD per page) for publication of supplementary data. Should authors not wish to publish their supplementary data, they must notify the editorial office prior to acceptance.
  
  
  Digital image guidelines
  
  Incorrect use of computer software for digital image analysis and processing can be an issue, the journal has therefore produced the following requirements for the representation of research data:
  
  • All adjustments should be applied to the whole image. Adjustments of brightness, contrast, or colour balance are acceptable as much as they do not obscure or eliminate any information presented in the original document.
  • No specific feature within an image may be enhanced, obscured, moved, removed, or introduced
  • Legend on a digital image should indicate if and what digital modifications were made.
  • Avoid threshold manipulation, expansion or contraction of signal ranges and the altering of high signals.
  Licence and Copyright
  Articles are considered based on the understanding that, if they are accepted for publication, the entire copyright shall pass to the Distance Learning Institute, University of Lagos. The corresponding author is then requested to sign a copyright transfer agreement to this effect.
  Do note that when the Open Access option has been taken, copyright remains with the author(s)
  
• Declaration of interest
  Conflicts of interest for all authors must be declared in full. You can either (a) fully declare any financial or other potential conflict of interest OR (b) declare that there is no conflict of interest perceived as influencing the impartiality of the research reported.
  
  Conflicts of interest include, but are not limited to:
  • Patents (actual and pending)
  • Grants, fees and honoraria
  • Employment and consultancies
  • Board membership
  • Royalties
  • Ownership of stock or shares
  Funding
  All the sources of funding relevant to the research must be detailed.
  
  Author contribution statement
  Do include a statement stating the contribution of each co-author.
  
  Acknowledgements
  This should be done as brief as possible.
  
  8. References
  
  Use 7th APA referencing style. All references cited in the text must be included in the reference list and vice versa. However, if a reference consists of only a web address do not include it in the reference list but cite it in the text, stating the date the page was accessed. References should be arranged in alphabetical order and typed in single line spacing at the end of the paper. Works done by the same author should be listed in the chronological order of publication. References should be cited in the text using the authors’ names and publication year. In text citations including works of multiple authors, the full name of most senior author and addition of et al will be acceptable. If however, authors are not more than two, the full names of the authors should be provided – (surname and initials will suffice in all cases for list of references). Three or more authors chronologically, with a, b and c, etc. for articles published in the same year, in the order in which they are cited in the text. Maximum of ten authors can be listed. Where there are more than ten authors, list the first ten and then use et al.