Reviewer Guidelines

Evaluation Criteria

Reviewers should assess the manuscript against the following criteria. The manuscript must also conform to the journal's Author Guidelines and Article Submission Template.

1. Scope and Contribution

  • Does the manuscript fall within the stated scope of the journal?
  • Does it add new knowledge, insight, or perspective to the field? Is the contribution clearly stated?
  • Is the work original, and not previously published elsewhere?

2. Title

  • Is the title concise, specific, and an accurate reflection of the content?

3. Abstract

  • The abstract must be unstructured, i.e., written as a single continuous paragraph without subheadings such as Background, Objectives, Methods, Results, or Conclusion.
  • The abstract must not exceed 300 words.
  • It should clearly convey the purpose of the study, the approach or method adopted, the principal findings or arguments, and the main conclusion.
  • It should be self-contained: no citations, no undefined abbreviations, no tables or figures, and no information that does not appear in the main text.

Reviewers should note whether the abstract meets these requirements and, if not, indicate this under minor revisions.

4. Keywords

  • Are there 5 to 10 keywords, placed after the abstract?
  • Are they relevant, specific, and useful for indexing and retrieval?

5. Introduction

  • Does it provide adequate background and context?
  • Is the research problem, question, or objective clearly stated?
  • Is the significance of the study established?

6. Literature Review

  • Is the relevant and current scholarship reviewed adequately?
  • Is previous work cited and represented accurately?
  • Does the review identify a gap that the present study addresses?

7. Methodology

  • Is the research design appropriate to the research question?
  • Is the methodology described in sufficient detail to allow replication or critical evaluation (participants, texts, corpora, instruments, procedures, analytical framework, etc.)?
  • For empirical studies, are ethical considerations (consent, anonymity) addressed where applicable?
  • For literary and theoretical studies, is the critical or theoretical framework clearly identified and applied consistently?

8. Results and Discussion

  • Are the findings presented clearly and logically?
  • Are interpretations supported by the evidence? Is the paper free of errors in logic?
  • Are the findings related back to the research question and the existing literature?
  • Are the implications, limitations, and scope for further research discussed?

9. Conclusion

  • Does the conclusion follow from the evidence presented?
  • Does it summarise the main findings without simply repeating the abstract or introducing new material?

10. References

  • Are references formatted consistently in the journal's prescribed citation style and arranged as required?
  • Are all in-text citations listed in the references, and vice versa?
  • Are the sources appropriate, credible, and reasonably current? The journal recommends limiting references to around 30, including only those necessary to the paper.

11. Length and Structure

  • Full articles: The manuscript should be a minimum of 5 pages and a maximum of 17 pages, including references and appendices..
  • Short pieces (case notes, book reviews): 1,000 to 2,500 words.
  • Does the manuscript follow the required structure: Title, Author details, Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Literature Review, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, (Appendix), (Acknowledgements), References?
  • Are footnotes avoided unless strictly necessary?

12. Tables and Figures

  • Are all tables and figures necessary, clearly labelled, numbered consecutively, and referred to in the text?
  • Are they of adequate quality and correctly captioned (Table captions above; Figure captions below)?
  • Are sources acknowledged where applicable?

13. Language and Presentation

  • Is the manuscript written in clear, grammatically correct academic English?
  • Is the argument organised logically, with appropriate headings?
  • Is the writing free of ambiguity, repetition, and unnecessary jargon?

Reviewers are not expected to copy-edit. If the language requires substantial correction, please state this generally rather than listing every error.

14. Formatting

Basic compliance with the Article Submission Template (Times New Roman, margins, single spacing, specified heading sizes) is checked by the editorial office at the screening stage. Reviewers need only flag major deviations that affect readability.