Author Guidelines

Thank you for considering to submit your manuscript to us.  This document outlines what the author needs to do in order to increase the author’s chances of a prompt response from us and ease our editorial distribution, which will enhance a smooth peer-review process and a prompt decision regarding acceptance or rejection for publication. Kindly take note of all the instructions and follow them closely to ensure your manuscript falls within our scope.

Originality, Trustworthiness and Misconduct

Submissions must fall within the focus of the Moses Kotane Research Institute Journal. It must include an assurance that the manuscript has not been published, submitted or sent for consideration elsewhere. Proof of language editing,  done by native/L1 language speakers or experts in English Language, if required, should be submitted alongside the article as a supplementary file. Please note that all papers will be submitted to Turnitin and be aware that only 15% or below similarity index will be accepted. However, the Editor is rightfully obliged to make suggestions and/or suggest modifications, refuse any manuscripts with stated reasons without recourse to whether the author of the manuscript is by invitation or a voluntary submission before publication.

MKRIJ does not tolerate research misconduct such as plagiarism, citation manipulation, and data falsification/fabrication, among others. Unethical practices such as fabrication of data, manipulation of data, images, visual objects, and other resources used in the research process are strictly prohibited and are considered forbidden in MKRIJ. Authors are expected to present an accurate and account of the data collection and their respective analyses. The true reflection of the work done should be presented, anything other than that is considered unethical and would be rejected.  You will receive acknowledgement of receipt of your submission within five days, and manuscripts outside of our scope may or may not be returned with the acknowledgement.

In the case of allegations regarding research misconduct, the publisher (MKRIJ), alongside the journal editor shall follow the MKI Ethics Committee and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)'s Core Practice in dealing with such situations.

Ethical Considerations

MKRIJ regards research ethics as a very important aspect of all published manuscripts and must be keenly followed to protect both the researcher, the co-researchers, participants, respondents and every object and subject elements involved in the study. Academic and professional research, just like any other areas, must adhere to ethical rules that involves human beings, vulnerable populations, confidentiality, and anonymity among others. MKRIJ adheres to Ethical Guidelines similar to MKI Ethics Committee and for Educational Research published by the British Educational Research Association (BERA) which may be perused and applied accordingly.

Formatting of Manuscripts

The integrity of our review process is sacrosanct, therefore, concerted efforts should be made by all authors to  ensure that their manuscript do not include sensitive and offensive language. This is to ensure a blinded and respectful relationship between the author(s) and the reviewer(s) is met for the goal of the Journal. These steps among others will be 100% considered before initiating the review process. Therefore, author(s) should:

• Prepare one document named "main manuscript" and this document must contain the front page of the Journal logo, title of the manuscript, the abstract and the entire article. Please also include the author(s) information and the email address of all the authors. 
• In the case of the author(s) citing their previous works, the name(s) must be replaced with “author and year” in the text and also replicated in the references session instead of the authors' name, article title, etc.

Manuscripts must be prepared with Microsoft Word in 1.15 spacing using a 11-point font in Times New Roman. You are advised to employ italics rather than underlining. Please note that figures, tables and other graphics must be placed at the appropriate place within the text according to the authors’ interest. The total length of your paper must not exceed 20 pages. This means the recommended length for manuscripts is between 4000 and 7000 words, including references, an abstract of 250 words or less, and any appendixes. Each heading and sub-headings must be numbered accordingly (e.g, 1., 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, etc). In the case of multiple authors, the manuscript must indicate one author as the corresponding author in the supplementary file.  Before submission, the author(s) must check our presently published articles to ensure that your article is correctly formatted and the MKRIJ Editor will send an example of the paper template upon request by the author(s). Any article not formatted according to our format will be rejected unprocessed. 

Citation and Referencing Style

All sources used must be acknowledged. Author(s) must ensure that all in-text citations are done appropriately, and with no omission in the reference section. That is, all citations in the manuscripts must be referenced and all references must have been cited. MKI adopted the Harvard Referencing System publication guidelines and should be strictly adhered to.

Disclosure and Conflict of interest

It is the author’s responsibility to disclose any conflicting, competing and financial interest that may influence the result, the production, and construe or result in liability. All official sources of financial support should be disclosed. The author must, therefore, notify the Managing Editor should there be any conflicts of interest.

Permissions and Acknowledgement 

It is the author’s responsibility to obtain written permission for any already published tables, figures, text passages, and illustrations. The author should create a separate section before references for acknowledgements of people, funding organisations, grants, etc.  This section should be titled “Acknowledgments” just like other sub-headings. However, permission must be obtained from the acknowledged person(s), organizations, among others by the author.