Authors Guide

Guide for Authors:

Iranian Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Research (IJTHR) is an open-access journal that provides rapid publication of articles in all areas of the subject. The Journal welcomes the submission of manuscripts that meet the general criteria of significance and scientific excellence. Papers will be published approximately one to three months after acceptance.

Electronic submission of manuscripts is strongly encouraged, provided that the text, tables, and figures are included in a single Microsoft Word file (preferably in Times New Roman font). Submit manuscripts as attachments to the Editorial Office at Submit manuscript. To submit your paper please click here:    http://tourism.journals.iau-garmsar.ac.ir/contacts?_action=loginForm 

IJTHR follows the uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted, issued by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) code of conduct for editors. The originality of the submissions is checked with plagiarism detection software. All submitted manuscripts are checked for similarity through a trustworthy software named iThenticate to be assured about their originality and then rigorously peer-reviewed by international reviewers. Our policy for similarity levels is the similarity with each source should not exceed 1% and total similarity should not exceed 20%. To avoid desk rejection, authors might consider checking the similarity level before submission. 

Review Process

All manuscripts are reviewed by an editor and members of the Editorial Board or qualified outside reviewers. Decisions will be made as rapidly as possible, and the journal strives to return reviewers’ comments to authors within 8 weeks. The editorial board will re-review manuscripts that are accepted pending revision. It is the goal of the IJTHR to publish manuscripts within 8-12 weeks after submission.

English Language Writing

All articles in the IJTHR are in English language. Authors whose first language is not English should make sure their manuscript is written in idiomatic English before submission. Please write your text in good English (American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of these). Authors who feel their manuscript may require editing to eliminate possible grammatical or spelling errors are encouraged to obtain such services before submission.

      General Considerations

• The Manuscript must comply with the journal scopes and have not been published or submitted in elsewhere.
• Read the Journal’s Instruction for Authors and make sure that the manuscript (text, tables, figures, and photographs) meets Journal requirements.
• The manuscript contains the main sections outlined in the Journal’s Guide for Authors.
• The Manuscript has been 'spell-checked' and 'grammar checked'.
• The entire document should be single-spaced and must contain page and line numbers to facilitate the review process. 
• All references mentioned in the Reference List are cited in the text, and vice versa.
• Use MS Word format, in one style column with a 2 cm margin at each side of A4 paper.
• All authors must read the Ethics in publishing, Plagiarism prevention, Violation of publication ethics, and Handling cases of misconduct before being submitted to the IJTHR.
• The Manuscript has been read and approved by all listed authors.
• Not only the Corresponding Author but also the contributors of the manuscript are advised to be registered at the journal website to keep their names in the manuscript bio-sketches.
• A copyright release and conflict of interest disclosure form must be signed by the corresponding author in case of multiple authorships, before the acceptation of the manuscript, by all authors, for publication to be legally responsible towards the Journal's ethics and privacy policy.
• Submit your manuscript at: http://tourism.journals.iau-garmsar.ac.ir/contacts?_action=loginForm

Article Types

Three types of manuscripts may be submitted:

 Regular/original articles: These should describe new and carefully confirmed findings, and experimental procedures should be given in sufficient detail for others to verify the work. The length of a full paper (5000-8000 words) should be the minimum required to describe and interpret the work.

Short Communications:  Short Communication is suitable for recording the results of complete small investigations or giving details of new models or hypotheses, innovative methods, techniques, or apparatus. The style of main sections need not conform to that of full-length papers. Short communications are 2 to 4 printed pages in length. Short Communications are limited to a maximum of two figures and one table. They should present a complete study that is more limited in scope than is found in full-length papers. The items of manuscript preparation listed above apply to Short Communications with the following differences: (1) Abstracts are limited to 100 words; (2) instead of a separate Materials and Methods section, experimental procedures may be incorporated into Figure Legends and Table footnotes; (3) Results and Discussion should be combined into a single section.

Reviews: Submissions of reviews and perspectives covering topics of current interest are welcome and encouraged. Reviews should be concise and no longer than 4-6 printed pages. 

Article Structure:

Submission should be uploaded with separate Microsoft Word type of files, respectively: (1) Title Page, (2) Main Document and References. Tables and figures should be embedded in the main document. Manuscripts which are submitted to IJTHR should not be submitted for the consideration of publication at the same time for another journal. 

Title page consists of the title of a manuscript which is not more than ten words (in bold uppercase letters in Times News Roman 12 font size and bold), author(s) name, affiliation, e-mail address of each author,  Orcid ID  of authors, complete postal address and telephone/fax numbers and Corresponding author and ordering of the author(s) should be indicated.

In the abstract authors should in a brief, but clear manner, state the main purpose of the research, methods, the significant results obtained as well as conclusions they have derived from the study. The abstract needs to be conceptualized in a manner that provides an audience with a clear insight into the topic and main points of the manuscript. An abstract should be free of references and English spelling errors. The length of the abstract should not exceed 200 words. 

After the abstract part, a maximum of 6 keywords should be provided. When deciding on the keywords authors should bear in mind that these would be used for indexing purposes.

Main Document should start with the title of the manuscript (Times News Roman 11 font size), abstract, and keywords. A manuscript should be conceptualized into the following parts: Main section headings 1. Introduction, 2. Literature review, 3. Research Method, 4. Results, 5. Discussions and Conclusion, Acknowledgments, Conflict of interest, and References) should be capitalized (first letter in each word). Main section headings should be written 0.5 paragraphs from the left. Main section headings and subheadings should be numbered. Main section headings must be in 12-point font size and bold.

Note: The author's details should not be mentioned in the text of the manuscript.

Subheading

Subheadings are capitalized (only the first word is capitalized) and left justified 0.5 cm indented, separated from the previous paragraph with a blank line. Subheadings must be in 12-point font size and italic.

2.1. Subsection Title 1

2.1.1. Subsection Title 2

Table and Figure Headings:

• Tables and Figures should be numbered and titled in a consistent manner in the main text. Tables and figures should be embedded in the main document.                                        
• Table and Figure expressions are directly used as Table 1., Figure 1
• Table and Figure headings’ should be only first word is capitalized.
• Table headings should be above the table.
• Number tables by their appearance in the text.
• Place explanatory matters below the table.
• Avoid vertical lines and highlights in the tables. Horizontal lines only at the top and bottom of the table. Font: Times New Roman, Style: Normal, Size: 10 (both caption and data in table).
• Figure headings should be under the figure. Number figures by their appearance in the text. Place the caption of figures and diagrams below them. Font: Times New Roman, Style: Normal, Size: 10 (for captions and data in diagram and figures).
• Note: All tables and figures must be referred to in the text (Table. 1). Table 1. Title of the table

Figure 1. Title of the figure

Introduction part of the study should provide a general overview of the importance of the topic that is going to be covered in the manuscript. Readers should have an insight into the topic and reasons for conducting the current study. After introducing the topic, the research aim should be clearly stated. At the end of the introduction part, the presentation of the paper structure should be provided with a short description of what is going to be addressed in each part of the manuscript. Authors are advised to avoid reviewing the literature and detailed description of the methodology in this part of the paper.

Literature review: In this part of the manuscript, previous similar studies conducted in the related field should be reviewed. Authors should briefly elaborate on the topic and concepts, theoretical models and framework as well as methodology being used, with the appropriate overview of the results obtained from these studies. It is important to point out the gap in the literature and contribution that the current study will have on the overall body of knowledge. Based on what is presented in the current part of the manuscript, related hypotheses or research questions should be derived and presented.

Research Method part should be reserved for the description of the research design and method used to answer to study’s research questions. It is expected that the appropriate literature for using the related method is presented. In addition, it is essential to pay attention to the issues such as explaining the characteristics of settings in which the study is conducted, sampling techniques as well as data collection methods. The information on how were the variables and research tools derived should be provided in detail. In addition, the research analysis used in the current study, as well as the reasons for using this particular analysis should be presented.

Results: After the description of the methodology, results derived from the conducted data analysis should be presented in this part. What type of analysis was used as well as statistical tests, reliability, and validity tests, should be properly explained in this part of the study. After that presentation of the results should come. Findings and hypotheses evaluations should be presented according to the research approach and analysis, with the appropriate elaboration on the same. Tables, graphics, and figures should be presented in this part as well. Authors should make sure not to overuse the tables, but to combine several statistical data into one table where possible.

Equations

Equations should be numbered consecutively throughout the paper and located at the right margin as in Equation (1) below.

Each equation should be referred to in the text.

Equations (Please use Equation Editor of Word):

                      (Eq.1).

Units

Units of measurement should all be in SI units.

Use a period in decimal fractions (2.14 rather than 2, 14).

Use (,) for thousands -1,230.6

Use” kg ha^-1" not” kg/ha".

With space 4 h, 4 kg, 4 m, without space 4^o, 4%

Discussions and Conclusion: In this part, a brief overview of the results obtained in the study is presented. This part should start with a short turn on the research problem and how the findings of the current study address this problem. At the end of the conclusion part, theoretical and practical implications for future research and practitioners in the field should be provided. 

Acknowledgment: All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be covered in the acknowledgment section. It should include persons who provided technical help, writing assistance and a departmental head who only provided general support. Financial and material support should also be acknowledged. Author(s) must acknowledge and declare any sources of funding and potential conflicting interest, such as receiving funds or fees by, holding stocks and shares in and organizations that may profit or lose through the publication of your paper. Declaring a competing interest will not lead to automatic rejection of the paper, but we would like to be made aware of it.

Footnotes should be kept to a minimum for the flow of the text. Thus, footnotes should not be used more than five. Footnotes should be numbered consecutively throughout the article. Many word processors build footnotes into the text, and this feature may be used. Footnotes should not be included in the Reference list.

References should be presented in APA style. Follow the APA Publication Manual (6th ed.) for all citations in the text and reference list. References should be listed at the end of the paper in alphabetical order. Every reference which is cited in the text should be also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Authors are fully responsible for the accuracy of the references. It is the author’s responsibility to ensure strict adherence to APA.

Articles in preparation or articles submitted for publication, unpublished observations, personal communications, etc. should not be included in the reference list but should only be mentioned in the article text (e.g., A. Kingori, University of Nairobi, Kenya, personal communication). In the text, a reference identified using an author‘s name should be followed by the date of the reference in parentheses. When there are more than two authors, only the first author‘s name should be mentioned, followed by ’et al‘. If an author cited has had two or more works published during the same year, the reference, both in the text and in the reference list, should be identified by a lowercase letter like ’a‘ and ’b‘ after the date to distinguish the works. Examples: Abayomi (2000), Agindotan et al. (2003), (Kelebeni, 1983), (Usman and Smith, 1992), (Chege, 1998; Chukwura, 1987a, b; Tijani, 1993, 1995), (Kumasi et al., 2001). For web references, as a minimum, the full URL should be given, and the date when the reference was last accessed. Any further information, if known (DOI, author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be given. Web references can be listed separately (e.g., after the reference list) under a different heading if desired, or can be included in the reference list. For more see: APA Guideline.

Response to Reviewers

Many authors receive an invitation to revise and resubmit their manuscript when the first version of their manuscript has the potential for publication but is not quite ready for final acceptance. Authors should address the feedback from reviewers in a response to reviewers. A response to reviewers specifies how the authors addressed each comment the reviewers made. The response to reviewers is usually organized by presenting reviewers’ comments individually, followed by the authors’ responses. Authors should distinguish their responses from the reviewers’ comments by using phrases such as “author response” and/or a different font color. Then, each response should clearly explain the change made and where that change can be found in the revised manuscript (i.e., page number, paragraph, and/or line). Authors should also include a cover letter with the complete manuscript title, the author’s names, and the manuscript number to accompany the response to reviewers and the revised manuscript. To synthesize: Submit a separate Word document explaining the changes you made in response to the comments of the Editor and Reviewer(s). Enumerate each relevant comment from each Reviewer (and Editor, if relevant) in bold and include your response/description of changes beneath each comment. Rather than reprinting any new material in its entirety, refer instead to the page number on which the changes may be found.

 After Acceptance

 PROOFS

 One set of page proof (as PDF files) will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author or, a link will be provided in the e-mail so that authors can download the files themselves and make corrections. If you do not wish to use the PDF annotations function, you may list the corrections and return them to the Publisher Editorial Office in an e-mail. Please, list your corrections quoting line number and page. Please use this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness, and correctness of the text, tables and figures. Significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission from the Editor. All corrections should be sent back in one communication as soon as possible, within 72 hours.