Author Guidelines

Guideline for Authors and Contributors

Manuscripts are to be problem-solving research outputs. They can be original articles, systematic reviews or short communications. Thematically, the Journal has broader aim and scope on issues of development broadly defined and the name “Urban” in its nomenclature displaying its commitment to engaging scholars from international, national as well as addressing regional matters of development. The Journal will accept manuscripts from disciplinary, multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary policy and development sciences, social and behavioral sciences, humanities, spatial and temporal changes in the milieu of urban development, education and language, health, agriculture, socio-economic development, and political economy. However, manuscripts of pure disciplinary focus that do not have explicit urban development relevance are outside of the scope. Manuscripts should be submitted in written in English. The title should be precise and clearly describing the content of the manuscript. A short running title of less than 200 characters is advisable. Never use abbreviations or formula in the running title. All submitted manuscripts must follow the following structure:

Manuscript Structure

• Title: Maximum 12 main words, excluding prepositions, conjunctions, etc
• Author/s’ Name, Affiliation and Email Address,
• Abstract: Maximum 200 words;
• keywords: maximum 5,
• Background,
• Materials and Methods
• Results and Discussion
• Conclusions
• Acknowledgements
• Declaration of Authors’ Contributions
• Reference

Title: title must be informative and specific. It should be easily understandable by readers and reflects the content and motive of the research paper.

Author name affiliation and email address: author/s’ first name and last name only. Please don't include salutations like Dr/Mr./Prof et cetera. If possible, provide only your professional/ institutional email address.

Abstract: one paragraph containing at most 200 words. The abstract should be informative and explainable without reference to the text. It should state succinctly the problem, the objective, the method, the result, conclusion, and recommendation of the paper. Use of abbreviations and citations is not advisable here.

Keywords: 5 most important terms that describe your research domain and the specific problem area investigated.

Background: a brief section usually not more than one and half pages. It should be informing the reader of the relevance of the research. It should further outline the core sections of your manuscript. It should further serve as a gateway and a pre-taste of your research endeavor. This section should provide a concise yet comprehensive review of relevant classic and contemporary theoretical and empirical literature pertinent to your problem area, followed by a concrete definition of your problem, depiction of gaps in prior researches, why your current study is worth studying, and how it intends to fill the gaps. Your closing paragraph here should pose the core research questions and/or objectives (with an optional list of specific objectives).

Materials and Methods: This section should describe how your study area (geographic, socio-demographic, etc.); salient methodological and design approaches adopted with justifications (quantitative, qualitative, or mixed); the procedures used; methods of data collection; analytical procedures (including what software package employed) and how you dealt with ethical issues.

Results and Discussion: this section describes outputs generated in the methodology section. The results section should present your key findings, without discussing or sources citations. You should provide discussions and further analysis of your results, with the comparative treatment of your findings with other similar studies. Conceptual or theoretical models and perspectives introduced in your literature review section of the background should be linked with your key findings, thereby putting your findings in broader academic and policy contexts.

Conclusion: this section provides the key messages and implications of your study findings.  Concisely elaborate your final output here. Based on the importance, you can forward not more than 3-4 salient recommendations, which should be firmly grounded in your conclusion.

Author Contributions: here, briefly declare the type and level of contribution of each author, if the manuscript is authored by more than one author. For example, you can declare thus: XX has conceived the study idea and developed the proposal; YY has supported in the design and statistical analysis process; XX and YY conducted the fieldwork; ZZ has designed survey tools and reviewed the manicurist, etc

References: Every idea that is not yours and of quotable importance should be cited in the text. All sources cited in the text should appear in the reference list. Please use APA reference styling for both in-text citation and bibliography.

Formatting styles specifications:

• Length of articles: from 5,000 to 8,000 words  including footnotes (if any)
• Language: English
• Originality: Should be original and not considered or under consideration for publication anywhere else
• Abstract: Articles should have an abstract of not more than 200 words
• The font style for all: Times New Roman
• Font Size: 14 for Titles; 10 for footnotes and 12 for others
• Capitalization: Maximal capitalization for all topics and sub-topics in the article
• Spacing: Single spacing  for quotations and  body text with 6pt before and 6 pt after for others
• Margins: 1 inch from all the four sides
• Indentation:  Quotations should be indented 0.35 inches in from both (left & right) sides
• Referencing Style: Harvard
• Document Format: Microsoft Word
• Alignment: Justified
• Author name font-size: 12 points
• Author affiliation font-size: 10 points:
• Keywords font-size: 10 points
• Page orientation: portrait

Writing Styles

Authors should seek clarity and simplicity of expression; avoid use of long, complex sentences and lengthy and too short paragraphs. Authors may seek to have their manuscripts checked by language experts before submission. Alternatively, authors may wish to use free online language and grammar aiders such as grammatical software. Manuscripts failing to meet minimum writing language and scientific research standard shall be rejected at the gateway stage of preliminary screening. The spelling may be either British or American way but must be consistent throughout the paper. The file format must be supported by Microsoft W.doc/ .docx format. The size may not exceed 20-pages in A4 size paper.

Tables and Figures

Tables and figures shall be numbered with Arabic numbers in the order of appearance in the text. Graphs, flowcharts, drawings and photographs are considered as figures; legends or captions for the tables and figures should be placed just above and below the image respectively. All tables and figures are to be duly acknowledged and placed in the appropriate place in the manuscript making the discussion easier for readers.

Submission

Submit your manuscript via emails: address of the journal cude.juds@ecsu.edu.et or email of the Managing Editor: maschalm12@gmail.com or email of the Editor-in-Chief – degbeni@yahoo.com. If the manuscript does not meet the requirements and/ or thematic scope, the journal editors reserve the right to reject it. Submission should include two versions of the manuscript; one provided with full name/s of the author or authors as well as contact address; the second should be anonymous copy, all traces showing the identity of the author/s should be removed from the manuscript. Filled and signed submission form to be provided by Managing Editor shall be submitted along with the manuscript submission. Manuscripts submitted should be unpublished and is not being considered for publication elsewhere.

Novelty and Plagiarism

Authors are expected to present the entirely original piece and all ideas taken from external sources and should be duly acknowledged. JUDS Editorial Board maintains zero-tolerance for plagiarism. All manuscripts shall be tested by software of plagiarism before being sent for reviewers. The maximum tolerable similarity percentage shall be 15%. Every author will be held responsible for the performance and fulfillment with the policy to avoid malpractices and breach of ethical standards of publication.

Authors should assure that the piece of knowledge ready for publication is original copy and have not been published anywhere earlier and is not in consideration for publication anywhere else. Authors should accept and correct the mistakes and consider the suggestions given by a panel of reviewers.

Peer Review Process:

The Journal follows double blind review process the following indicative rules should guide the peer review process as follows:

• Upon the submission of manuscripts for review, the Managing Editor’s Office shall run plagiarism test using licensed plagiarism detection software.
• The managing Editor then forwards the manuscripts to relevant Editor/ Associate Editor to offer their comments regarding preliminary issues (whether the manuscript falls within the Journal Scope, meets the author guideline, language standard, etc)
• Each manuscript shall be reviewed by at least two competent reviewers.
• Reviewers shall maintain the scientific standards and rules of reviewing ethics
• Manuscripts shall be blind reviewed; the identity of the authors shall be removed from the body of the text.
• When both reviewers pass positive review decision, it shall automatically be taken by the editorial board.
• When one author rejects and the other renders positive evaluation, a third reviewer shall be solicited, and the average decision shall be maintained.
• The final publication decision, however, shall rest on the prerogatives of the editorial board in general and the Editor-in-Chief in particular.
• The Managing Editor makes sure that the comments of the reviewers are addressed duly, and whenever feasible sees that the reviewers approve that comments had been addressed by the authors.
• Manuscripts for review shall be accepted in soft copies; reviewers shall also be provided with soft copies. The review process should preferably utilize objectively verifiable review and comment schemes, including the MS Office Comment and Track change tools. Authors shall also ensure that objectively verifiable means are used when addressing reviewers’ comments.