Submissions

Author Guidelines

The guideline details the sections that can be used in a manuscript. The section titles given are for Original Research Article.

File Format: Manuscript files can be in the following formats: DOC, DOCX, or RTF. Microsoft Word documents should not be locked or protected. The manuscript’s font size for the text is 12-point, Times New Roman, 1.0 point line spacing with 1 inch margins on all sides. All pages in the manuscript should be numbered by using the automatic page numbering function with two columns per page.

Abbreviations (if any): All abbreviations used in the manuscript should be defined on first use

Title: Title page should include a concise and informative title of the research (maximum 20 words), author(s)’ name and affiliation, email address of the corresponding author and a suggested running head (Maximum 50 characters).

Author Names:  

Authors' names should be separated by commas. If there is more than one affiliation, mark with script number or letters (1, 2, 3... or a, b, c, etc...) after the respective author's name.

Note:

1. The manuscript must contain all the author’s affiliations right beneath the author’s name.
2. Make sure to provide the corresponding author details such as mail address and the contact details that are current and active for the foreseeable future.
3. Please clearly indicate the first name(s) and the last name(s) of the author’s and check that all the names are spelled correctly.
4. If you are planning to use ‘double anonymized peer review’ you have to move the author information to the cover letter.

Abstract

The abstract is a short summary of the complete content of the research article. It must start with the description of the main objective of the study, and summarize the methodology used, the main findings and recommendations. It should be in one paragraph and should be objective, precise and easy to read. It should not exceed 200 words and one page. Do not cite figures, tables, or references in the abstract and do not use abbreviations. It should be a complete synopsis so as to enable the reader to judge the value of the study and whether or not to continue to read it completely.

Keywords: keyword 1; keyword 2; keyword 3 (3 - 5 Keywords). Only pertinent keywords specific to the article yet common within the subject discipline should be used.

1. Introduction: The introduction should give the pertinent background to the study and should explain why the work was done. The author(s) should clearly show the research gap, state the objectives of the work and avoid a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results.

2. Literature Review: The literature review part of the manuscript should clearly show the theoretical frameworks of the subject under consideration and the most critical and recent empirical evidences.

3. Research Methodology: Identify research design and variables or factors as being between- or within-subjects. Provide population size and/or sample size and or number of sampled papers, along with a description of how they were determined. If a size calculation was performed, specify the inputs for power, effect size and alpha. The procedures adopted should be explicitly stated to enable others to reproduce the results, if necessary. For review papers/articles, the reviewed source should be 20 – 70, and the sources must be reputable. The reputability of the reviewed papers/articles is determined based on the promotion guideline declared by EFDR Ministry of Education (MoE). New methods may be described in sufficient detail and indicating their limitations. Established methods can be just mentioned with authentic references and significant deviations, if any given, with reasons for adopting them. While reporting experiments on human subjects and animals, it should be clearly mentioned that procedures followed are in accordance with the ethical standards laid down by the national bodies or organizations of the particular country.  The statistical analysis done and statistical significance of the findings when appropriate should be mentioned. Unless absolutely necessary for a clear understanding of the article, detailed description of statistical treatment/analysis may be avoided. Articles based heavily on statistical considerations, however, need to give details particularly when new or uncommon methods are employed. Standard and routine statistical methods employed need to give only authentic references.

4.Result and Discussion: Facts discovered during the research are presented in this part. It is vital to frame the findings in a clear, logical, and easily understandable manner in order to promote targeted communications of the answers to the study questions. Data presented in tables and figures should not be repeated in the text. Tables should be numbered as Table-1: Table-2: etc. That is, the first table in the article should be numbered as “Table-1: [Title of the table]”. Similarly, figures should be numbered as Figure-1: Figure-2: etc. The first figure in the article should be numbered as “Figure-1: [Title of the figure]”. Table’s and figure’s titles should be at the top of the table and figure. All tables and figures should have source written below them. The source should be survey data and the month (if relevant) and year when the data was collected. The description of results of data analysis from table or figure should be presented below the table or figure. The description should focus on the major findings of the study and should be organized or structured according to the research questions, specific objectives or hypothesis. Only important observations need to be emphasized or summarized. The same data should not be presented both in tabular and graphic forms. Interpretation of the data should be made under the discussion section. The outcomes of data analysis or review paper should be interpreted in light of the empirical literature that has been evaluated. The results should be interpreted in the discussion by comparing them to previous study findings or theoretical foundation offered in the literature review. The findings are interpreted in terms of how they accord or differ with previously published work.

5. Conclusions and Implications: Conclusions are drawn from the summary of major findings or review paper. It is important to describe point by point the major conclusions reached clearly for each specific objective or research question/hypothesis. Conclusions provide answers to hypotheses or research questions. While conclusions can be stated in narrative form or listed one by one, stating them one by one is often easier to understand and helps maintain clarity of focus for each conclusion. Conclusions are not the same as findings and should not simply be restatements of findings. Recommendations should be forwarded by reiterating the significance and potential implications of the research.

Acknowledgment: The acknowledgement entails recognition of mentors, colleagues, individuals, sponsors and institutions, which supported the research. This is to appreciate the people who have assisted you directly or indirectly through the course of your study. Acknowledgment should be brief and made for specific scientific/technical assistance and financial support only and not for providing routine departmental facilities and encouragement or for help in the preparation of the manuscripts (including typing or secretarial assistance).

References: References refer to only those sources cited in the study. Reference list gives credit to any authors the researcher referred to. In using materials from books, articles, website, or other sources, it is important to establish the reputability and reliability of these sources. The researchers must give references to all the information that they obtain from books, papers in journals, and other sources. The American Psychological Association (APA) latest version should be used for this journal. The style of depicting or listing references in this section should be in line with the citation formatting within the body of the text. The list should use the hanging indent method where all lines after the first one are indented 1.3 centimeter or one tab. The researchers need to place a list of references in alphabetically ordered manner. However, when the same author has more than one publication, the references should be listed chronologically. The researcher should take care regarding the use of spacing; proper punctuations such as periods, semi-colons, colons; parenthesis; initials of author names; volume and issue numbers of journals; page ranges and required italic forms of words or titles. Journal titles should be written in full. In addition, the Ethiopian authors’ name should be fully written; not abbreviated. For instance, if the full name of an Ethiopian author is Desta Hagos Gamechu, the name should not be written under reference list as ‘Desta H.G.’ full name, Desta Hagos Gamechu, should be written.

Appendices: This contains the information that the researcher does not deem necessary to include in the main body of the report. These may include instruments used (in different languages, if relevant), statistical tables, correspondence related to the study, charts, graphs, illustration, maps, budgets, activity schedules, data coding sheets, Research permits/authorization letter (from university and higher officials of the studied organization), special documents, the consent form, etc.  If the study uses organizational or institutional documents as a basic type of data (like short-term and long-term plans, physical reports, financial reports, and other performance reports), scripts, list of sampled institutions or places at each stage, and any other secondary data for further analysis, the researchers should attach these documents under appendices section. Appendices should be numbered based on their main and sub-headings. The main heading for an appendix should be numbered as “APPENDIX-I”, “APPENDIX-II”, etc.

Funding: This work was supported by Funding body name (grant number).  Author First Name, Initial. Last Name was supported by Funding body name (grant number). (Or) This research did not receive any specific funding.

Publication ethics: The corresponding author for a co-authored manuscript is solely responsible for ensuring the agreement and managing all communications between the Journal and the co-author(s), before and after publication. Before submission, the corresponding author should ensure that the names of all authors of the manuscript are included on the author list, the order of the names of the authors should appeared as agreed by all author, and that all authors are aware that the paper was submitted. Any changes to the authors list after submission, such as change in the order of the author, or the deletion or addition of authors, needs to be approved by a signed letter from every author.

After acceptance, the proof is sent to the corresponding author to circulate it to all co-authors, and deal with the journal on their behalf. The Journal shall not necessarily correct errors after publication. The corresponding author is responsible for the accuracy of all contents in the proof, particularly including the correct spelling of the names of co-authors, and their current addresses and affiliations.

After publication, the Journal regards the corresponding author as the point of contact for queries about the published manuscript, and that it is his/her full responsibility to inform all co-authors about matters arising from the publication processes and that such matter is dealt with promptly. The corresponding author’s role is to ensure that enquiries are answered promptly on behalf of all the co-authors. The names and e-mail addresses of the author is published in the paper. With prior permission of the Editorial Board, authors have the right to retract submitted manuscripts in case they decide to do so. Authors of a published material have the responsibility to inform the Journal promptly if they become aware of any part of their manuscript that requires correcting. The corrected part of the article is mentioned in the next issue. In fact, any published correction requires the consent of all co-authors, so time is saved if requests for corrections are accompanied by signed agreement by all authors (in the form of a scanned attachment to an email).