AUTHOR’S GUIDELINES

 Submission

Articles submitted to NICE Research Journal can be theoretical, empirical or policy oriented. Manuscripts must be written in English and should be electronically submitted by email at najia@newports.edu.pk and najiayounus@ymail.com. Manuscripts should be submitted as a single PDF or Word file (preferably) including all materials. Any opinions expressed in articles are only those of authors and not necessarily those of the editor, the associate editors or the publisher. Authors are personally responsible to obtain permission for reprint of previously published material in other sources.

Article structure

1. Subdivision - numbered sections

Divide your article into clearly defined and numbered sections. Subsections should be numbered 1.1 (then 1.1.1, 1.1.2, ...), 1.2, etc. (the abstract is not included in section numbering). Use this numbering also for internal cross-referencing: do not just refer to 'the text'. Any subsection may be given a brief heading. Each heading should appear on its own separate line. Please note that the 'acknowledgements' section at the end should not be included in the section number either. A typical article might include the following main sections.

2. Introduction

State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results. The introduction should also justify why the topic of the paper is important and that the content is original. The summary of results should have been dealt with in the abstract.

3. Literature review, conceptual framework, hypotheses etc.

This section should extend (but not repeat) the background to the article already dealt with in the Introduction and lay the foundation for the work being reported. It should identify the most relevant previous literature on the topic (but not in excessive detail) in order to position the paper and demonstrate how it will make a significant contribution. It (or a separate section) should set out (and justify) the theoretical or conceptual framework adopted in the paper. It may identify a number of hypotheses to be tested or research questions to be explored. In short, this section (or sections) should explain what the motivation for the paper is and why its contribution is original and significant.

4. Material and methods

Provide sufficient detail to allow the work to be reproduced. Methods already published should be indicated by a reference: only relevant modifications should be described. The reader needs to know that the empirical data and/or other material are relevant, reliable and capable of supporting robust conclusions, and that the methodology is appropriate, systematic and rigorous.

5. Results

Results should be clear and concise.

6. Discussion

This should explore the significance of the results of the work, not repeat them. A combined Results and Discussion section is often appropriate. Avoid extensive citations and discussion of published literature.

7. Conclusions

The main conclusions of the study may be presented in a short Conclusions section, which may stand alone or form a subsection of a Discussion or Results and Discussion section. This section should also may make clear what is the original contribution of the paper, discuss the policy or management implications of the findings, provide a critical assessment of the limitations of study, and outline possible fruitful lines for further research.

• Title. Concise and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.

• Author names and affiliations. Where the family name may be ambiguous (e.g., a double name), please indicate this clearly. Present the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name and, the e-mail address of each author.

• Corresponding author. Clearly indicate who will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication. Ensure that telephone and fax numbers (with country and area code) are provided in addition to the e-mail address and the complete postal address. Contact details must be kept up to date by the corresponding author.

• Present/permanent address. If an author has moved since the work described in the article was done, or was visiting at the time, a 'Present address' (or 'Permanent address') may be indicated as a footnote to that author's name. The address at which the author actually did the work must be retained as the main, affiliation address. Superscript Arabic numerals are used for such footnotes.

10. Abstract

A concise and factual abstract is required. The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results and major conclusions. An abstract is often presented separately from the article, so it must be able to stand alone. For this reason, References should be avoided, but if essential, then cite the author(s) and year(s). Also, non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined at their first mention in the abstract itself.

11. Keywords

Immediately after the abstract, provide a maximum of 6 keywords, using American spelling and avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, 'and', 'of'). Be sparing with abbreviations: only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be eligible. These keywords will be used for indexing purposes.

12. Abbreviations

Any word or words to be abbreviated should be written in full when first mentioned followed by the abbreviation in parenthesis.

13. Illustrations

All illustrations of any kind should be submitted as sequentially numbered figures; illustrations should not be inserted in the manuscript but supplied either after the main body of the text or uploaded as separate files.

14. Tables and Supplementary Material

Data must be kept to a minimum. Tables should be numbered and headed with short titles. As with illustrations, they should not be inserted in the manuscript but supplied either after the main body of the text or uploaded as separate files.

15. References

The Harvard system should be used in referencing. When quoted in the text the style is: …Granger (1969)… . or (Johansen and Juselius, (1990) or …Arestis et al. (2001). References are listed alphabetically after the text. Journal and book titles should be written out in full.

Examples are:

Cochrane, D. and Orcutt. G.H. (1949). Application of Least Square Regression to Relationship Containing Autocorrelated Error Term, Journal of the American Statistical Association, pp. 44:32-61.

Gujrati, D.N. (2004). Basic Econometrics, 4th ed. McGraw-Hill.

Johansen, S. and Juselius. K. (1990). Maximum Likelihood Estimation and Inference on Cointegration with Applications to the Demand for Money, Oxford Bulletin of Econometrics and Statistics, pp. 52:169-210.

16. Offprints

The author and the corresponding author, at no cost, will be provided with a PDF file of the article via e-mail and five copies of paper offprints can send once the article is accepted for publication.

17. Copyright

Submission of a paper to the NICE Research Journal will be taken to imply that it presents original unpublished work, not under consideration elsewhere. A copyright assignment form will be sent to the authors of accepted papers. This publishing agreement should be completed and returned to the editorial office. It is a condition of publication that authors assign copyright or license of the publication rights in their articles, including abstracts, to the Newports Institute of Communication and Economics. This enables us to ensure full copyright protection and to disseminate the article, and of course the Journal, to the widest possible readership in print and electronic formats as appropriate. Authors are themselves responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyright material from other sources.