Submissions

Author Guidelines

Submission checklist

You can use this list to carry out a final check of your submission before you send it to the journal for review. Please check the relevant section in this Guide for Authors for more details. Ensure that the following items are present:

1. One author has been designated as the corresponding author with contact details must include E-mail address and full postal address (office).
2. All necessary files have been uploaded:

• Manuscript – It includes keywords, all figures and tables including captions, titles, description and footnotes.
• Graphical Abstracts / Highlights files (where applicable)
• Supplemental files (where applicable)

1. Further considerations:

• Manuscript has been 'spell checked' and 'grammar checked'.
• All references mentioned in the Reference List are cited in the text and vice versa.
• Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Internet).
• A competing interest statement is provided, even if the authors have no competing interests to declare.
• Journal policies detailed in this guide have been reviewed.
• Referee suggestions and contact details provided, based on journal requirements

Before you begin

• Declaration of interest

All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. Examples of potential competing interests include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding.

• Declaration of generative AI in scientific writing

The below guidance only refers to the writing process, and not to the use of AI tools to analyse and draw insights from data as part of the research process.

Where authors use generative artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process, authors should only use these technologies to improve readability and language. Applying the technology should be done with human oversight and control, and authors should carefully review and edit the result, as AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that can be incorrect, incomplete or biased. AI and AI-assisted technologies should not be listed as an author or co-author, or be cited as an author. Authorship implies responsibilities and tasks that can only be attributed to and performed by humans.

Authors should disclose in their manuscript the use of AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process by following the instructions below. A statement will appear in the published work. Please note that authors are ultimately responsible and accountable for the contents of the work.

• Disclosure instructions

Authors must disclose the use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process by adding a statement at the end of their manuscript in the core manuscript file, before the References list. The statement should be placed in a new section entitled 'Declaration of Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process'

This declaration does not apply to the use of basic tools for checking grammar, spelling, references etc. If there is nothing to disclose, there is no need to add a statement.

• Submission declaration and verification

Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously and that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, including electronically without the written consent of the copyright-holder.

• Changes to authorship

Authors are expected to consider carefully the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of the original submission. Any addition, deletion or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list should be made only before the submission of manuscript. Only in exceptional circumstances will the Editor-in-Chief consider the addition, deletion or rearrangement of authors after the manuscript has been accepted.

• Submission

Submission to this journal proceeds totally online. Use the following guidelines to prepare your article.

1. Manuscript preparation

We recommended that manuscripts can be prepared using MS Word with 1" (2.5cm) margins on all sides. Manuscripts should be as concise as possible with line spacing 1.5. The font should be Times New Roman typeface in 12-point pitch.

1. Language

Manuscripts submitted to PJBS should be written in good English (either the American or British usage is acceptable, but not a mixture of both). Authors are required to provide English proofreading once their papers are accepted. Authors who feel their English language manuscript may require editing to eliminate possible grammatical or spelling errors and to conform to correct scientific English. To avoid unnecessary errors, you are strongly advised to use the 'spell-check' and 'grammar-check' functions of your word processor.

1. Submission checklist

You can use this list to carry out a final check of your submission before you send it to the journal for review. Please check the relevant section in this Guide for Authors for more details.

• Ensure that the following items are present:
• One author has been designated as the corresponding author with contact details must include E-mail address and full postal address (office).
• All necessary files have been uploaded: Manuscript includes;
• Abstract
• Include keywords
• All figures (include relevant captions)
• All tables (including titles, description, footnotes)
• Ensure all figure and table citations in the text match the files provided
• Manuscript has been 'spell checked' and 'grammar checked'
• All references mentioned in the Reference List are cited in the text, and vice versa.
• Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Internet).
• A competing interest statement is provided, even if the authors have no competing interests to declare.
• Journal policies detailed in this guide have been reviewed
• Referee suggestions and contact details provided, based on journal requirements.
• Follow ethics in publishing.
• Essential title page information
• Concise and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.
• Author names and affiliations. Please clearly indicate the given name(s) and family name(s) of each author and check that all names are accurately spelled. You can add your name between parentheses in your own script behind the English transliteration. 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, if available, the e-mail address of each author.
• Corresponding Clearly indicate who will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication. Ensure that the e-mail address is given and that contact details are 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.
• Abstract

A concise and factual abstract is required, not more than 250 words and a list of keywords. 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.

• Keywords

Immediately after the abstract, provide a maximum of 6 keywords, using American/British 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.

• Text

The main body of the manuscript can be divided into sections and (optionally) subsections. Section headings (including appendices) should use boldface and be numbered using Arabic numerals (1, 2, etc.). Subsection headings should use italic and be numbered as 1.1, 1.2, etc. Each heading or subheading should appear on its own separate line. Figures, tables, and equations should be numbered consecutively throughout the text (1, 2, etc.). Italics are not to be used for expressions of Latin origin, for example, in vivo, et al., per se.

• Abbreviations

Define abbreviations that are not standard in this field in a footnote to be placed on the first page of the article. Such abbreviations that are unavoidable in the abstract must be defined at their first mention there, as well as in the footnote. Ensure consistency of abbreviations throughout the article.

• Acknowledgements

Collate acknowledgements in a separate section at the end of the article before the references and do not, therefore, include them on the title page, as a footnote to the title or otherwise. List here those individuals who provided help during the research (e.g., providing language help, writing assistance or proof reading the article, etc.).

• Formatting of funding sources

List funding sources in this standard way to facilitate compliance to funder's requirements: Funding: This work was supported by the University Grants Commission [grant numbers xxxx, yyyy]; ICSSR, [grant number zzzz]; and the Name of University [grant number aaaa]. It is not necessary to include detailed descriptions on the program or type of grants and awards. When funding is from a block grant or other resources available to a university, college, or other research institution, submit the name of the institute or organization that provided the funding. If no funding has been provided for the research, it is recommended to include the following sentence: This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

• Footnotes and Endnotes

Footnotes should be used sparingly. Number them consecutively throughout the article, using superscript Arabic numbers. Many word processors build footnotes into the text, and this feature may be used. Should this not be the case, indicate the position of footnotes in the text and present the footnotes themselves separately at the end of the article. Do not include footnotes in the Reference list. Indicate each footnote in a table with a superscript lowercase letter.

• Appendices

      If there is more than one appendix, they should be identified as A, B, etc.

• Please do not:

• Supply files that are optimized for screen use (e.g., GIF, BMP, PICT, WPG); these typically have a low number of pixels and limited set of colours;
• Supply files that are too low in resolution;
• Submit graphics that are disproportionately large for the content.

• Figure captions

Ensure that each illustration has a caption. Supply captions separately, not attached to the figure. A caption should comprise a brief title (not on the figure itself) and a description of the illustration. Keep text in the illustrations themselves to a minimum but explain all symbols and abbreviations used.

• Tables

Please submit tables as editable text and not as images. Tables can be placed either next to the relevant text in the article, or on separate page(s) at the end. Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text and place any table notes below the table body. Be sparing in the use of tables and ensure that the data presented in them do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article. Please avoid using vertical rules and shading in table cells.

• References

           This section describes the references for this journal.

• Citation in text

Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Any references cited in the abstract must be given in full. Unpublished results and personal communications are not recommended in the reference list, but may be mentioned in the text. If these references are included in the reference list they should follow the standard reference style of the journal and should include a substitution of the publication date with either 'Unpublished results' or 'Personal communication'. Citation of a reference as 'in press' implies that the item has been accepted for publication.

• Web references

As a minimum, the full URL should be given and the date when the reference was last accessed. Any further information, if known (DOI, author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be given. Web references can be listed separately (e.g., after the reference list) under a different heading if desired, or can be included in the reference list.

• Reference Style

Reference citations should be placed in the text and consist of the cited author's last name and the year of publication, enclosed in parentheses, for example (John et al., 2021; Helen, 2010; Mui, 2024). If the author's name appears in the sentence, only the year of publication should appear in parentheses, for example, "… as suggested by Saravanan (2024), Arjun (1984a, 1987b), kai and lei (2000)." Personal communications are not to be included in the reference list. Reference List: The list of references should be typed double-spaced following the text. Sort references by the first author's last name; multiple papers by the same author should be listed in chronological order. It is the responsibility of the authors to check all references for completeness, including year, volume number or issue, and page numbers for journal citations. Make sure that all references mentioned in the text are listed in the References section and vice versa.

• After acceptance
• Online proof correction

To ensure a fast publication process of the article, we kindly ask authors to provide us with their proof corrections within two days. Corresponding authors will receive an e-mail with a link to our online proofing system, allowing annotation and correction of proofs online. The environment is similar to MS Word: in addition to editing text, you can also comment on figures/tables and answer questions from the Copy Editor. Web-based proofing provides a faster and less error-prone process by allowing you to directly type your corrections, eliminating the potential introduction of errors. If preferred, you can still choose to annotate and upload your edits on the PDF version. All instructions for proofing will be given in the e-mail we send to authors, including alternative methods to the online version and PDF. We will do everything possible to get your article published quickly and accurately. Please use this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the text, tables and figures. Significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission from the Editor. It is important to ensure that all corrections are sent back to us in one communication. Please check carefully before replying, as inclusion of any subsequent corrections cannot be guaranteed. Proofreading is solely your responsibility.

• Source to PDF Generation

The system automatically converts source files to a single Adobe Acrobat PDF version of the article, which is used in the peer-review process. Please note that even though manuscript source files are converted to PDF at submission for the review process, these source files are needed for further processing after acceptance. All correspondence, including notification of the Editor's decision and requests for revision, takes place by e-mail and via the author's homepage, removing the need for a hard-copy paper trail.