Submissions

Author Guidelines

 

Submission of a manuscript to the Malaysian Journal of International Relations (MJIR) implies that it has not been published and that it is not currently on offer to any other publisher and it has not been submitted elsewhere until a decision is received from this journal. Articles, which do not conform to the format described below, will not be considered for publication. All manuscripts under consideration for publication will be refereed via a blind reviewing process and it will be open-access. Both the reviewer and author identities are concealed from the reviewers, and vice versa, throughout the review process. 

 

Title Page

Submit a title page containing the author’s details. The title page should contain the author’s full name(s) with the family name capitalised, affiliation(s), academic qualification(s), postal address, email address(es), telephone and fax number(s). A brief biodata of the author of around 70 words should be included, along with acknowledgements (if any).

In a multi-author case, the corresponding author should be identified. All co-authors should have seen and approved the final version of the manuscript and agreed to its submission for publication. All authors should include the financier or grant giver if the research is financed by the research grant or any financial support body. The author is responsible for communicating and co-operating with the editor to retract or correct the paper when a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her published work.

 

Blinded Manuscript

Submit a blinded manuscript without author names, affiliations and acknowledgements (if any) in the text.

 

Abstract and Keywords

Each manuscript should begin with a brief and explicit, single-spaced, indented and italicised abstract in English of not more than 200 words, describing the main arguments and conclusions of the manuscript. Please also indicate 4-6 keywords below the abstract.

 

Length

The MJIR welcomes manuscript, commentary and book review. The full manuscript should be from 6,000 - 8,000 words in length, including illustrations and references. For commentary, it should be of 2,000 words in length. The book review should be between 1,000 - 1,500 words in length. The book to be reviewed must be recent, published in the last three years. Please provide full bibliographical information (title and edition, if any), author, place of publication, publisher, year of publication, number of pages, ISBN numbers) at the top of the page (see some of the published book reviews in the archive section of the journal). Please provide a word count for both text and notes on the first page of the article.

 

Text Formatting

The manuscript should be typed, single-spaced in 12 point Times New Roman standard margins (1" on the top and bottom, 1.25" on the left and right), with pages numbered consecutively. Manuscripts should be in Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) format only.

 

Language and Style

Manuscripts submitted to the MJIR must be written in British English. Check the grammar and spellings carefully before submitting. Alternate –ize spelling is permissible. For short quotations, full points and commas fall inside a closing quotation mark. Quotations longer than 30 words should be indented and single spaced, using no quotation marks. The author should take note of the copyright implications of long quotations. Use British style for abbreviations, with full points (e.g. Dr., Ph.D., Ltd.). Use ‘State’ (except in quotations if the original is not so capitalized) to refer to the central body politic of a civil government and ‘state’ to refer to other senses of the term, including a country or political territory forming part of a country (except when the term begins in a sentence).

Particularly if English is not your first language, before submitting your manuscript you may wish to have it edited for language. This is not a mandatory step but may help to ensure that the academic content of your paper is fully understood by journal editors and reviewers. In the event of acceptance, we will ask authors to render articles according to the full style guide.

 

Use of Non-English Text

A non-English term should be italicised but the s-ending (if added) in its anglicised plural form should not be italicised. Note that the names of institutions and movements, local or foreign, and names of currencies, local or foreign should not be italicised. Quotations from books or direct speech in a non-English language should be set in quotation marks and should not be italicised, followed by an English translation in square brackets. Quotations translated by the author of the manuscript into English should be so indicated.

 

Numbers

Spell out numbers one to nine, and use numbers consecutively (e.g. 10). Use full point for decimal and commas for number 1,000 and above. Note that a billion = 1,000,000,000 and a trillion = 1,000,000,000,000. Use ‘percent’, not ‘%’ except in tables and charts. For dates, use day-month-year format (e.g. 1st January 2013), and spell out the months to avoid ambiguity. Do not use apostrophes for decades (e.g. 1990s, not 1990’s or ‘90s). Write all page numbers and years in full (e.g. 245-246, 1999-2012).

 

Paragraphing and Headings

The first line of all paragraphs should be indented, except for the line following a heading, which should be aligned left. An excessive number of paragraphs should be avoided. First level headings should be in capitals and bold print, aligned left on a separate line. Second level headings should be in bold and aligned left on a separate line. Only the first letter and proper nouns should be in capital letters.

 

Tables and Illustrations

Tables, figures, diagrams and maps should be kept to a minimum and contain only essential data. Tables, figures, diagrams and maps should be kept to a minimum and contain only essential data. They should appear separately at the end of the text and should conform to page size. Tables should be numbered in sequence with Arabic numerals and contain brief explanatory captions, each on a separate sheet. Figures, diagrams, and maps should be designated ‘Figures’ and should be included in a single numbered series separate from the tables. The approximate positions of tables and figures should be indicated in the text, by typing in a separate line ‘Insert Table Here’ or ‘Insert Figure Here’. Sources of tables and figures should be cited. The author is responsible for getting permission from copyright holders for reproduction of visual materials to be published in MJIR.

 

Footnotes and Referencing

Footnotes should be used for explanation and placed below the main text on a printed page and are identified in the text by a numeral. References should follow the journal's house style, which is the APA in-text citation style (7th edition). References should be carefully checked before submission.

 

Authored Book

In-text: Buzan & Hansen (2011) or (Buzan & Hansen, 2011, p. 12).

Reference: Buzan, B. & Hansen, L. (2011). The evolution of international security studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

 

Chapter in an Edited Book

In-text: Acharya (2006) or (Acharya, 2006, p. 79).

Reference: Acharya, A. (2006). Do norms and identity matter? Community and power on Southeast Asia's regional order. In J. C. Liow & R. Elmers (Eds.), Order and security in Southeast Asia: Essays in memory of Micahel Leifer (pp. 78-92). London: Routledge.

 

Journal

In-text: Beckley (2017) or (Beckley, 2017, p. 80).

Reference: Beckley, M. (2017), The emerging military balance in East Asia: How China's neighbors can check Chinese naval expansion. International Security, 42(2), 78-119.

 

Newspaper or Magazine Article

In-text: Cochrane (2017) or (Cochrane, 2017).

Reference: Cochrane, J. (2017, September 10), Indonesia, long sidelines, starts to confront China's territorial claims. The New York Times. 

In-text: “Australia and East Timor sign historic maritime border deal” (2018) or (“Australia and East Timor sign historic maritime border deal,” 2018).

Reference: “Australia and East Timor sign historic maritime border deal” (2018, March 7), The BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-43296488

 

Thesis / Dissertation

In-text: Emmers (2001) or (Emmers 2001, p. 73).

Reference: Emmers, R. J. D. (2001), The role of the balance-of-power factor within regimes for co-operative security: A study of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) (PhD Thesis), London: London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. (UMI No. 153250) 

 

Online Article

In-text: Mearsheimer (2014) or (Mearsheimer, 2014).

Reference: Mearsheimer, J. J. “Can China rise peacefully? ” (2014, October 25), The National Interest. Retrieved from http://nationalinterest.org/commentary/can-china-rise-peacefully-10204

 

Email / Interview

In-text: L. M. Ocampo, (personal communication, April 22, 2012) or (L. M. Ocampo, April 22, 2012).

Reference: Emails and interviews do not provide recoverable data. They are not included in the list of references.

 

Peer-Review Policy

All submitted manuscript to MJIR are subject to initial appraisal by the Editors, and, if found suitable for further consideration, to blind peer review by at least a single independent, anonymous experts in the field. The reviews' recommendations are taken into consideration by the Editors in arriving at publication and revision decisions. Comments and feedback from the external reviewers are sent to the authors and they are notified of the journal's decision (accept, accept with revisions, reject). The entire review process will anywhere between 3 and 6 months after the submission of the manuscript. Throughout the process, all communications, review reports and decisions are treated confidentially at all times. The Editors' decision is final.

All new submissions to the MJIR are automatically screened using Turnitin within the editorial system. Editors may also choose to run a similarity report at any other point during the review process or post-publication. The default similarity report view (inside Turnitin) gives the percentage of the text of the manuscript which has overlap with one or more published articles.

 

Publication Ethics And Malpractice Statement

We encourage the best standards of publication ethics and take all possible of principles of transparency and measures to avoid publication malpractice. We subscribe to the guidelines set up by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) with regard to the expectations of editors, peer-reviewers, and authors (as outlined below). Fairness, objectivity, and confidentiality from our reviewers and editors and honesty, originality, and fair dealing from our authors are the critical values that enable us to achieve our goal to publish original work of value in literary and cultural studies, in the best possible form and to the highest possible standards.

 

Editors' responsibilities:

-  To act in a balanced, objective and fair way while carrying out their expected duties, without discrimination on grounds of gender, sexual orientation, religious or political beliefs, ethnic or geographical origin of the authors.

-  To handle submissions for special issues in the same way as other submissions, so that articles are considered and accepted solely on their academic merit.

-  To adopt and follow reasonable procedures in the event of complaints of an ethical or conflict nature.

-  To gather evidence and to avoid spreading any allegations beyond those who need to know in the event of an investigation.

-  To give authors a reasonable opportunity to respond to any complaints. All complaints should be investigated no matter when the original publication was approved. Documentation associated with any such complaints should be retained.

 

Reviewers' responsibilities:

-  To contribute to the decision-making process, and to assist in improving the quality of the published paper by reviewing the manuscript objectively and in a timely manner.

-  To maintain the confidentiality of any information supplied by the editor or author. To not retain or copy the manuscript.

-  To alert the editor to any published or submitted content that is substantially similar to that under review.

-  To be aware of any potential conflicts of interest (financial, institutional, collaborative or other relationships between the reviewer and author) and to alert the editor to these, if necessary withdrawing their services for that manuscript.

 

Authors' responsibilities:

-  To carefully read MJIR's Instruction for Authors before submitting their manuscript.

-  To ensure that all names that appear as the manuscript's author or authors have significantly contributed to the research.

-  To confirm that the manuscript as submitted is not under consideration or accepted for publication elsewhere.

-  To confirm that all the work in the submitted manuscript is original and to acknowledge and cite content reproduced from other sources.

-  To obtain permission to reproduce any content from other sources. Any breach of copyright laws will result in rejection of the submitted material or its retraction after publication. 

-  To agree to any necessary originality checks that the manuscript may have to undergo during the evaluation or production process.

-  To declare any potential conflicts of interest (e.g. where the author has a competing interest (real or apparent) that could be considered or viewed as exerting an undue influence on his or her duties at any stage during the publication process).

-  To disclose any funding support.

-  To promptly notify the journal editor or publisher if a significant error in their publication is identified. To cooperate with the editor and publisher to publish an erratum, addendum, corrigendum notice, or to retract the paper, where this is deemed necessary.

 

Journal Distribution and Open Acess Policy

The electronic version of the journal is available online. MJIR endorses the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. The Public Knowledge Project (PKP), which has designed our journal system to improve the quality of research, is committed to supporting the open access publishing of scholarly resources. Authors are required to agree with this open access policy which enables unrestricted access and reuse of all published articles. The articles are published under the Creative Commons copyright license policy CC-BY (Open Acess Policy). For printed (hardcopy) subscription, please contact the Editor-in-Chief. 

MJIR charge no fee for submission, processing, or publication of our articles. There are also no charges to the reader.

 

Copyright Notice

The Malaysian Journal of International Relations (MJIR) adopts CC BY license. As such, we would be grateful if the republication is accompanied by an acknowledgement that the work was originally published in MJIR.  (ISSN 2600-8181). The editors will ensure digital preservation of access to the journal content by the Journal depository section. 

 

Indexing and Abstracting 

Directory of Open Acess Journals (DOAJ); Crossref; MyCite (Malaysian Citation Index); Directory of Open Access Scholarly Resources (ROAD)

 

Publication Frequency

MJIR publishes a single issue in December, every year.

 

Submissions and Enquiries

Please make submissions to be via our online submission website. All submissions will be acknowledged by email as soon as possible after receipt. All editorial correspondence should be addressed to:

 

Editor-in-Chief
Malaysian Journal of International Relations
University of Malaya
50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Email: editor_mjir@um.edu.my
Website: mjir.um.edu.my