Author Guidelines

Authors should follow these guidelines strictly during the submission of the manuscript. Authors need to submit the following files:

  1. Compulsory Files/Data:

  • Manuscript Draft

  • Cover Letter

  • Suggested reviewers

  1. Optional Files/Data:

  • Supplementary data

Manuscript Draft

The manuscript draft should have the following mandatory components (Template is provided):

  • Manuscript Title

  • Author Name(s) and Affiliation(s)

  • Corresponding Author Contact Information & ORCID IDs

  • Structured Abstract (Upto 250 words)

  • Keywords (5 to 7)

  • Main Text (Introduction, Materials and Method, Results and Discussion, Conclusion, etc.)

  • Author Contributions (See details below)

  • Acknowledgements (See details below)

  • Conflict of Interest Statement (See details below)

  • Funding Information (See details below)

  • AI Statement

  • References

The authors must take necessary permissions to use copyright protected materials in their manuscript and preserve them for future reference. Furthermore, authors must use the System International Units (SI) for all dimensional quantities.

  1. Structured Abstract

The abstract should be in the structured form and should present the following things:

These four sub-headings and their accompanying explanations must always be included:

  • Purpose

  • Design/methodology/approach

  • Findings

  • Originality

The following three sub-headings are optional and can be included, if applicable:

  • Research limitations/implications

  • Practical implications

  • Social implications

The maximum length of your abstract should be 250 words in total.

  1. Figure(s)

All the artwork and figures should be clear and readable. The figure should not be the default graphs generated from Microsoft Excel. The text in the figure is preferably to be Arial and must be clearly readable. The figure caption should be placed at the bottom of the figure. All figures must be cited in the manuscript text.

  1. Table(s)

Tables should be editable and must not be in image format. The table caption should be placed at the top of the table. All tables must be cited in the main text.

  1. Equation(s)

Equations should be typed in MathType or other editable format and must not be in image format. All equations should be numbered sequentially and cited in the main text.

  1. Author Contributions (Mandatory)

To ensure transparency and fairness in recognizing individual contributions, authors are required to provide an Author Contribution Statement during submission. This statement will be placed above the acknowledgment section of the manuscript. Authors should select from the following roles to describe their contributions:

  • Conceptualization: Formulating research goals, developing overarching ideas.

  • Methodology: Designing or developing methodologies, creating models.

  • Software: Programming, software development, code implementation, algorithm design, or testing.

  • Validation: Verifying reproducibility of results, experimental validation.

  • Formal Analysis: Applying statistical, mathematical, or computational techniques to analyze data.

  • Investigation: Conducting experiments, data collection, or evidence gathering.

  • Resources: Providing materials, reagents, patients, lab samples, instrumentation, or other tools.

  • Data Curation: Managing, annotating, and maintaining research data (including software code if relevant).

  • Writing – Original Draft: Preparing the initial draft of the manuscript.

  • Writing – Review & Editing: Critically revising, editing, or commenting on the manuscript (pre- or post-publication).

  • Visualization: Creating figures, diagrams, or data presentations.

  • Supervision: Overseeing research planning and execution, mentorship.

  • Project Administration: Managing research activity coordination and execution.

  • Funding Acquisition: Securing financial support for the project.

  1. Acknowledgements

Please ensure the Acknowledgments section recognizes individuals, institutions, and funding bodies that contributed to the research but do not meet authorship criteria. Clearly state financial support, including grant numbers, and acknowledge technical, editorial, or advisory assistance concisely.

  1. Conflicts of Interest Statement

All authors must disclose any financial, personal, or professional relationships that could be perceived as influencing their work.

The conflicts of interest statement could be written in the following form:

  • The authors declare no competing financial or non-financial interests, nor any personal relationships, that could influence the work reported herein.

  • The authors disclose the following financial and/or non-financial interests that could be perceived as influencing this work: 

  1. Funding Information

The authors must declare any funding received for the work presented in the manuscript. The funding information could be written in the following form:

  • This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

  • This work was supported by [Funding Agency/Funder Name] under Grant/Award Number [Number].

  1. AI Statement

AI tools may be used for grammar and language editing and formatting or reference checks and authors must specify the particular tool used, detailing the extent of its application. AI tools cannot be used for generating scientific content or images, data analysis and modifications.

  1. References

All the references should be listed at the end of the manuscript. "Harvard style" will be followed:

Text: The in-text citation will be based upon following format:

      • Single author: (Adams, 2006)

      • Two authors: (Adams and Brown, 2006)

      • Three or more authors: (Adams et al., 2006) Please note, ‘et al' should always be written in italics.

List: At the end of your paper, please supply a reference list in alphabetical order using the style guidelines below. Where a DOI is available, this should be included at the end of the reference.

Examples:

Reference to a journal publication:

Surname, initials (year), "title of article", journal name, volume issue, page numbers.

e.g. Capizzi, M.T. and Ferguson, R. (2005), "Loyalty trends for the twenty-first century", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 22 No. 2, pp.72-80.

Reference to a book:

Surname, initials (year), title of book, publisher, place of publication.

e.g. Harrow, R. (2005), No Place to Hide, Simon & Schuster, New York, NY.

Reference to a chapter in an edited book:

Surname, initials (year), "chapter title", editor's surname, initials (Ed.), title of book, publisher, place of publication, page numbers.

e.g. Calabrese, F.A. (2005), "The early pathways: theory to practice – a continuum", Stankosky, M. (Ed.), Creating the Discipline of Knowledge Management, Elsevier, New York, NY, pp.15-20.

Reference to a data citation:

Surname, initials (year), title of dataset, name of data repository, available at: persistent URL, (accessed date month year).

e.g. Campbell, A. and Kahn, R.L. (2015), American National Election Study, 1948, ICPSR07218-v4, Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (distributor), Ann Arbor, MI, available at: https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR07218.v4 (accessed 20 June 2018)

Reference to published conference proceedings:

Surname, initials (year of publication), "title of paper", in editor’s surname, initials (Ed.), title of published proceeding which may include place and date(s) held, publisher, place of publication, page numbers.

e.g. Wilde, S. and Cox, C. (2008), “Principal factors contributing to the competitiveness of tourism destinations at varying stages of development”, in Richardson, S., Fredline, L., Patiar A., & Ternel, M. (Ed.s), CAUTHE 2008: Where the 'bloody hell' are we?, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Qld, pp.115-118.

Reference to unpublished conference proceedings:

Surname, initials (year), title of dataset, name of data repository, available at: persistent URL, (accessed date month year).

e.g. Campbell, A. and Kahn, R.L. (2015), American National Election Study, 1948, ICPSR07218-v4, Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (distributor), Ann Arbor, MI, available at: https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR07218.v4 (accessed 20 June 2018)

Reference to electronic sources:

Surname, initials (year), “title of electronic source”, available at: persistent URL (accessed date month year).

e.g. Weida, S. and Stolley, K. (2013), “Developing strong thesis statements”, available at: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/588/1/ (accessed 20 June 2018)

If available online, the full URL should be supplied at the end of the reference, as well as the date that the resource was accessed. Standalone URLs, i.e. those without an author or date, should be included either inside parentheses within the main text, or preferably set as a note (roman numeral within square brackets within text followed by the full URL address at the end of the paper).

  1. Authorship and Contributorship

During the submission of a manuscript, the corresponding author agrees to the term that all the authors have significantly contributed to the manuscript. Inappropriate addition or subtraction of an author is highly discouraged for publication in the FESM. It is the corresponding author’s responsibility to ensure that all the authors have contributed to the manuscript.

  1. Changes to Authorship

The corresponding author is requested to carefully consider the author's contributions and order of authors before submitting a manuscript. Authorship cannot be changed once a paper is accepted. The corresponding author may request the Editor-in-Chief to add/subtract or change the order of authors before the acceptance of a manuscript and in that case, a written statement from all the authors must be submitted.