Submissions

Author Guidelines

VJHSS Author Guidelines

Please use the following checklist when submitting your manuscript to VJHSS. Manuscripts that do not adhere to these guidelines will not be considered for further processing and will be returned to the author.

The corresponding author should submit a Cover letter with the following checklist.

1. On behalf of my co-authors (if any), I submit the following manuscript for consideration for publication in VJHSS. All the author details including the ORCID ID of the corresponding author have been included in the title page.               
2. All the co-authors have been consulted (if any), and consent has been obtained before submitting the manuscript. I understand the submission will be declined if I do not adhere to the author guidelines.          
3. I affirm that the manuscript has been prepared for and sent only to VJHSS and has not been submitted to any other journal.
4. The manuscript is in Microsoft Word document file format WITHOUT author details. A separate TITLE page has been provided with all the author details.                    
5. I have included a general Ethics statement as the corresponding author in the cover letter. 
6. I abide by the procedure followed in the review process.       
7. The text adheres to the journal format and reference requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines, found in “About the Journal”.    
8. If the manuscript is accepted for publication after the peer review process, I/We understand VJHSS is registered under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY), which allows authors to retain copyright ownership. Under the CC-BY license, I/We allow anyone to download, cite, use the data, copy and distribute, provided the authors and source of publication are credited through appropriate citations. I/We understand that users of the data do not require specific permission from the authors or the publisher.               

About

The Vidyodaya Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences (VJHSS) is an interdisciplinary, open access, biannual journal which is exclusively devoted to the publication of high-quality research in the fields of humanities and social sciences.  VJHSS publishes original research articles selected through a rigorous and comprehensive peer-review process and aims to facilitate local and international dissemination, collaboration and exchange of knowledge.

Types of Articles

VJHSS publishes original, peer-reviewed research and scholarly articles, short communications and book reviews on all aspects related to humanities and social sciences. The Editors of VJHSS will also consider as and when necessary, publishing special issues devoted to particular topics or themes deemed suitable to the journal.

Word Limit

Word limit to research articles should be between 5000 to 8000 words (including tables and references). Short communications should be less than 3000 words (references excluded) and book reviews should be less than 4000 words (references excluded).

Contact Details for Submission

Authors can submit their manuscript via email to the Editor-in-Chief as follows:

Editor-in- Chief, e mail vjhss@sjp.ac.lk

Submission Requirements

Please note that this journal publishes manuscripts in Sinhala, Tamil and English.

The submission should not have been previously published, nor should it be submitted for another journal for consideration.

Please ensure that one author has been designated as the corresponding author with the following contact details:

*Name
*Email address
*Full postal address
* ORCHID ID

All manuscripts must be “spell checked”.

Please include the filled checklist in the cover letter when submitting your manuscript to the journal.

Please include the title of the manuscript in the English language when submitting Sinhalese and Tamil Manuscripts.

Before Submission:

Ethics in Publishing

Authors should follow best practices and ethical guidelines in publishing research.

Peer Review

VJHSS is committed to upholding the highest standard of review. First, the manuscript will be assessed for its adherence to the journal format, scope and aim by the Chief-Editor, and will be subjected to a double-blind peer-review process by independent, anonymous referees who are experts in the relevant discipline.

Submission Verification

VJHSS is committed to publishing original research and uses Turnitin (similarity checking software) to screen articles for originality and acknowledgement of previous work conducted. It reserves the right to reject the manuscript based on the percentile of similarity (20%) that has occurred. VJHSS adheres to university plagiarism policy.

Use of Inclusive Language

Submissions should be free from bias, acknowledge and respect diversity, be sensitive to differences, and promote equal opportunities. Articles should refrain from making assumptions about the beliefs or commitments of any reader, should refrain from making any negative comments on the grounds of race, sex, religion and culture, and should use inclusive language throughout.

Using Third-Party Material in your Paper

Please ensure that you have obtained the necessary written permission to reuse third-party material in your article from the copyright owner prior to submission if applicable.

Please note that in the case of any violation in publishing ethics, guidelines, duplicate submission, plagiarism, etc., VJHSS holds the right to reject the manuscript at any stage of the publishing process.

Copyright

Upon acceptance of an article, the authors will be asked to complete a “Journal Publishing Agreement”.  

Role of the Funding Source

Authors are kindly requested to identify and acknowledge financial support in the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article and briefly describe the role of the Sponsors in the acknowledgments section.

Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY)

VJHSS subscribes to the above license which lets others distribute and copy the article, create extracts, abstracts, and other revised versions, adaptations or derivative works of or from an article (such as a translation), include in a collective work(such as an anthology)text or data mine the article even for commercial purposes on the basis that they credit the author(s), do not represent the author as endorsing their adaptation of the article and do not modify the article in a way that is likely to damage the author’s reputation.

Publication Charges

There are no submission fees or publication fees.

Preparing the Article for Submission

As the journal uses double-blind review, both the reviewer and the author identities are concealed from reviewer and author. As such, manuscripts need to be prepared according to the following guidelines:

Submit the Title page containing the author’s details, and Blinded manuscript with no author details as two separate files.

The title page should include the title, authors’ names and affiliations, and email address of the corresponding author with ORCID ID (see “Essential Title Page Information” for more information).

The blinded manuscript should not include names and affiliations under the title within the manuscript. Please ensure to use the third person to refer to the work the authors have previously undertaken, and ensure that any identifying information, including author names have been removed from file names.

Further, it should be noted that the journal will consider only one paper from one corresponding author for an issue.

Article Format

The article submission should be compiled in the following order:

• title page,
• abstract with keywords

- main text including

         (i) introduction (including relevant literature and research objectives),  
         (ii) materials and methods, (iii) results and discussion,
         (iv) conclusion and recommendations, (v) acknowledgments, (vi) references. 

Essential Title Page Information

The title page should include the following:

Title: The title of the article should be concise and informative, and should contain less than twenty (20) words.

Name(s) of the author(s) with initials, preferably first name spelled out.

Affiliation(s) of author(s)

Name, address, email address and ORCID ID of the corresponding author

Running title, which should be no more than 12 words

Abstract:

An abstract will be printed at the head of the article, and should contain no more than 250 words.  The abstract should include the title. It should consist in brief, an introduction, objectives, methods, results and conclusion. It should not be separated into paragraphs. Abbreviations and literature citations should not be included. Font to be used is Cambria, font size -10 and italicized, line spacing single.

Note – If your paper is being submitted in Sinhala or Tamil, please ensure that you provide the title and abstract in English as well.

Key words

The abstract should be followed by maximum of five (05) keywords.

Abbreviations

Abbreviations must be expanded the first time it appears in the main text. After the first expansion of the abbreviation with the abbreviation in brackets, the abbreviation should always be used in the rest of the article.

The Text

• Line spacing should be 1.5; with 12-point font Cambriafor English, F.M. Abhaya for Sinhalese, and Bamini for Tamil articles respectively.

Note: In Sinhalese and Tamil papers, the English words and numbers should be in Cambria. 

• Should employ italics for scientific names,
• use SI system/ metric system for units of measurements.
• All illustrations, figures, and tables should be placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
• All acronyms must be defined clearly on first usage in the table [e.g. Body Mass Index (BMI)].
• Numbers from one to nine must be spelt in running text, and from 10 onwards must be numerical.
• Vernacular names must not be italicized. The first use of a vernacular name must be in single quotes and should be accompanied by the language and meaning in parathesis [e.g., ‘potha’(Sinhala: book)].
• Commas, periods, colons and semicolons in running text should be followed by a single space.
• Standard Latin and Greek notations such as in situ, in vivo should not be italicized.

Acknowledgments

Include the acknowledgments as a separate section after the conclusion and recommendations of the article, before the list of references or the appendices. Should mention about the funding source.

Style Guidelines

Language:

Please use British Spelling style consistently throughout your manuscript.

If your paper is being submitted in Sinhala or Tamil, please ensure that you provide the title and abstract in English as well.

Formatting and Templates

The submission file should be in Microsoft Word document file format.

Line numbering should be included from the title of the title page till the end of the List of References.

References

Please use the APA (American Psychological Association) reference style as given in examples below.

For detailed information, please see the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Sixth Edition (2010); http://www.apastyle.org/ and http://blog.apastyle.org/ and https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples - APA Style Reference Examples

References should be 1.5 spaced, 1.5 cm 2^nd line right indent, and listed alphabetically at the end of the paper and formatted as follows:

References in the body of the article

APA intext reference is in the format of author and date (author, date). When directly quoting from a text, please include a page number in the citation as given in the example below:

e.g. Research has found that an anti-colonial nationalist consciousness “may help prevent and overcome the cultural and psychological damage of colonialism” (Nayar, 2008, p. 23).

Reference List

Articles

Article found in print with one author

Reference list:
Last name, X. Y. (Year). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume (issue), pages.

Berndt, T. J. (2002). Friendship quality and social development. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11(2), 7-12.

Intext citation – (Berndt, 2002) or Berndt (2002), stated …

Article found in a database with one author

Reference list:
(Year). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume(issue), pages. doi: OR Retrieved from URL

Pettigrew, T. F. (2009). Secondary transfer effect of contact: Do intergroup contact effects spread to noncontacted outgroups? Social Psychology, 40(2), 55-65. doi:10.1027/1864-9335.40.2.55

Article found on the open web, with one author:

Reference list:
Last name, X. Y. (Year). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume if available (issue if available), pages if available. doi: OR Retrieved from URL, date of access

Myers, C. (2019, June 27). The Apartheid of Children’s Literature. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/16/opinion/sunday/the-apartheid-of-childrens-literature.html, 27/5/2022

Article (from the open web) with two authors:

Reference list:
Last name, A. B., & Last name, X. Y. (Year). Title of article. Title of Journal,  volume (issue), pages. doi: OR Retrieved from URL 

Norem, J. K., & Chang, E. C. (2002). The positive psychology of negative thinking. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 58(9), 993-1001. doi:10.1002/jclp.10094

In text Citation: (Norem & Chang, 2002) or Norem and Chang (2002)

Internet documents

No author, no date

Reference list:
Pet therapy. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.holisticonline.com/stress/stress_pet-therapy.htm

In text citation: (Pet therapy, n.d.).

Internet – Organization / Corporate author

Reference list:
Ministry of Health. (2014). Ebola: Information for the public. Retrieved from http://www.health.govt.nz/your-health/conditions-and-treatments/diseases-and-illnesses/ebolainformation-public

 In text citation: First time cited: (Ministry of Health [MOH], 2014).

                               Second and subsequent citations: (MOH, 2014).

Act (statute / legislation)

Reference list:
Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992. (2013, December 16). Retrieved from http://www.legislation.govt.nz

Note: The date in brackets is the date on the Act indicating the latest update or reprint.

In text citation: (Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992, 2013).

Blog post

Reference list:
Stefanie. (2014, October 8). What a tangled web: Website versus webpage [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2014/10/what-a-tangled-web-website-versus-webpage.html

Note: The title of the blog post is not italicised –

In text citation: (Stefanie, 2014).

Brochure / pamphlet

Reference list:
Tamihana, B. (2007). Gambling health promotion: Mate petipeti whakapiki hauora [Brochure].

Palmerston North, New Zealand: Best Care (Whakapai Hauora) Charitable trust.

Brochure / pamphlet (no author)

Reference list:
Ageing well: How to be the best you can be [Brochure]. (2009a). Wellington, New Zealand: Ministry of Health.

In text citation (for print brochure): (“Ageing well,” 2009a).

Same brochure accessed online

Ageing well: How to be the best you can be [Brochure]. (2009b). Retrieved from https://www.healthed.govt.nz/resource/ageing-well-how-be-best-you-can-be

Conference Paper

Reference list:
Williams, J., & Seary, K. (2010). Bridging the divide: Scaffolding the learning experiences of the mature age student. In J. Terrell (Ed.), Making the links: Learning, teaching and high quality student outcomes. Proceedings of the 9th Conference of the New Zealand Association of Bridging Educators (pp. 104-116). Wellington, New Zealand.

In text citation: (Williams & Seary, 2010).

Conference paper (online)

Reference list:
MacColl, F., Ker, I., Huband, A., Veith, G., & Taylor, J. (2009, November 12-13). Minimising pedestriancyclist conflict on paths. Paper presented at the Seventh New Zealand Cycling Conference, New Plymouth, New Zealand. Retrieved from

http://cyclingconf.org.nz/system/files/NZCyclingConf09_2A_MacColl_PedCycleConflicts.pdf

In text citation: First time cited: (MacColl, Ker, Huband, Veith & Taylor, 2009).

                               Second and subsequent citations: (MacColl et al., 2009).

Dictionary (print)

Reference list:
Weller, B. F. (Ed.). (2009). Bailliere’s nurses dictionary: For nurses and health care workers (25th ed.). Edinburgh, Scotland: Elsevier. 

Dictionary (online)

Reference list:
Cambridge dictionaries online. (2011). Retrieved from http://dictionary.cambridge.org/

In text citation: (Cambridge dictionaries online, 2011).

DVD / Video / Motion Picture (including ClickView & YouTube)

Reference list:
Gardiner, A., Curtis, C., & Michael, E. (Producers), & Waititi, T. (Director). (2010). Boy: Welcome to my interesting world [DVD]. New Zealand: Transmission.

In text citation: (Gardiner, Curtis, Michael & Waititi, 2010).

e-book (including Safari and Google books)

Reference list:
Rich, J. R. (2011). Your iPad 2 at work [e-book]. Retrieved from http://safaribooksonline.com

Sadun, E., Grothaus, M., & Sande, S. (2011). Taking your iPad 2 to the max (2nd ed.) [e-book]. Retrieved from http://books.google.co.nz

Music recording (Song from album)

Reference list:
Midler, B. (2010a). The folks who live on the hill. On Memories of you [CD]. London, England: Warner Music UK.

In text citation:
The heartfelt “The folks who live on the hill” provides an ideal vehicle for Midler to showcase her talents (Midler, 2010a, track 5).

Reference list:
Nga Pihi. (2011a). Korikori. On Taku meiao: Maori songs for children [CD]. Porirua, New Zealand: Universal Children’s Audio.

In text citation:
The children responded positively to “Korikori” (Nga Pihi, 2011, track 14).

Newspaper article

Reference List:
Matthews, L. (2011, November 23). Foodbanks urge public to give generously. Manawatu Standard, p. 4.

In text citation: (Matthews, 2011).

Newspaper article (no author)

Reference list:
Little blue penguins homeward bound. (2011, November 23). Manawatu Standard, p. 5.

In text citation:
Shorten the title and enclose in quotation marks. (“Little blue penguins”, 2011).

Newspaper (online)

Rogers, C. (2011, November 26). Smartphone could replace wallets. The Dominion Post. Retrieved from http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/gadgets/6038621/Smartphone-could-replace-wallets

Thesis (print)

Johnson, S. (2013). Style strategies (Master’s thesis). UCOL, Whanganui School of Design, Whanganui, New Zealand.

Thesis (online)

Mann, D. L. (2010). Vision and expertise for interceptive actions in sport (Doctoral dissertation, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia). Retrieved from http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/44704

Books

Book with one author:

Reference list:
Last name, X. Y. (Year). Title of book: Subtitle of book. Publication City, ST: Publisher. 

Obama, B. (2004). Dreams from my father: a story of race and inheritance. New York: Three Rivers Press.

In text citation – (Obama, 2004) or Obama (2004) state …

Books with multiple authors:

Reference list:
The format follows the author format as listed under articles.

McQueen, R.A., & Knussen, C. (2006). An introduction to research methods and statistics in psychology. Harlow: Pearson Prentice Hall. 

In text citation – (McQueen & Knussen, 2006) or McQueen and Knussen (2006) state …

Book with an edition

Reference list:
Whitney, E., & Rolfes, S. (2011). Understanding nutrition (12th ed.). Australia: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

The edition number is included straight after the title.

In text citation – (Whitney & Rolfes, 2011) or Whitney and Rolfes (2011)

An edited book:

Reference list:
Editor, F. M. (Ed.). (Year). Title of book: Subtitle of book. Publication City, ST: Publisher.

VandenBos, G. R. (Ed.). (2007). APA dictionary of psychology. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

An edited book with multiple editors:

Reference list:
Leonard W. R. & Crawford M. H. (Eds.). (2002). Human biology of pastoral populations. Cambridge, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Groups as authors

Reference list:
Ministry of Health. (2007). Looking at long-term residential care in a rest home or hospital: What you need to know. Wellington, New Zealand: Author.

 In text citation – First text citation (Ministry of Health [MOH], 2007)

                                  Second and subsequent citations (MOH, 2007)

Book Chapter

Reference list:
Author, A A, & Author, B. B. (1995). Title of chapter or entry. In A Editor, B. Editor, & C. Editor (Eds.), Title of book (pp. xxx-xxx). Location: Publisher. 

Web Sites

Web site with one author:

Reference list:
Lastname, F. M. (Date published). Title of page. Retrieved from URL

Dickson, A. (2019, February 8). The best Shakespeare films ranked. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/feb/08/the-best-shakespeare-films-ranked

 Guidelines for Tables and Figures

• Tables and figures must all be labelled with numbered captions that clearly identify and describe them.
• Figure captions are generally placed below the figures, while table captions must be placed above the tables.
• All figures and tables should be numbered consecutively (Figure 1, Figure 2, Figure 3, Table 1, Table 2, Table 3 etc.) throughout the document regardless of which section they are in.
• If the table or figure that you present in your paper was not created by you, but comes from other sources, you must include a reference for the original source in your caption.
• You must ensure that all figures and tables represent data accurately and ethically and they do not distort data to create bias.
• In tables if decimals are present, then should keep up to two decimal places, all the numbers must be centrally placed in the table.