Author Guidelines

General Requirements

MEBIS publishes original scholarly manuscripts in management and business. Submitted work must make a clear contribution to theory, evidence, methodology, policy, or professional practice; follow ethical research and publishing standards; and be written clearly in an academic style. Authors must not submit the same manuscript simultaneously to another journal.

Manuscripts must demonstrate a coherent research problem, appropriate theoretical or conceptual foundations, suitable research methods, transparent results or review procedures, and conclusions supported by the evidence presented.

Manuscript Preparation

  • Manuscripts must be prepared using the latest MEBIS template and uploaded through OJS in an editable file format accepted by the system.
  • The general format is A4 paper, single-column layout, Arial 10 pt, 1.5 line spacing, margins of 2 cm on all sides, and continuous line numbering, unless the current official manuscript template specifies otherwise.
  • For double-blind review, identifying information must be placed in a separate title page or in OJS metadata and removed from the anonymised manuscript, including file properties and self-identifying acknowledgements.
  • Use clear section headings and number tables and figures consecutively. Ensure that each table and figure is referred to in the text and is legible. Provide editable source materials where requested by editors.
  • Use consistent terminology, SI units where relevant, and transparent data and methodological reporting. Permissions are required for copyrighted third-party figures, tables, or instruments where applicable.

Recommended Manuscript Structure

The standard structure for empirical studies is: Title; Abstract; Keywords; Introduction; Literature Review or Theoretical Framework (where appropriate); Research Methods; Results and Discussion; Conclusion; Acknowledgements/Funding (if applicable); Declarations; and References. Review articles should adapt this structure to include their search strategy, eligibility criteria, screening procedures, evidence synthesis, and limitations.

Title and Author Information

The title should be concise, informative, and sufficiently specific to reflect the topic or relationships examined. Avoid unnecessary abbreviations. Enter the full names, affiliations, country, and email addresses of all authors accurately in the OJS submission metadata. Designate one corresponding author.

Abstract

Provide a self-contained abstract of 150–200 words in one paragraph. Clearly describe the background or problem, research objective, methods, principal findings, and main contribution or implications. Do not include citations. Avoid uncommon abbreviations, or define them at first use.

Keywords

Include a maximum of five meaningful keywords or key phrases, preferably arranged alphabetically. Avoid unnecessarily broad terms, duplicate concepts, and excessive repetition of words used in the title.

Introduction

Present the research problem, its relevance, the scholarly context, the gap in existing knowledge, the study objective or research question, and the expected contribution. Avoid long descriptive summaries with no critical synthesis. As an existing MEBIS formatting convention, the introduction is approximately 750–1,000 words; authors should also follow any updated official template.

Literature Review and Hypothesis Development (if applicable)

Develop a critical discussion of relevant theories and prior research rather than merely listing definitions. Explain the conceptual model, constructs, propositions, hypotheses, or analytical questions as appropriate to the study design. Hypotheses are not mandatory for qualitative, exploratory, or certain review-based manuscripts.

Research Methods

Describe the research design, context, population and sample or participant selection, research instruments or data sources, data collection procedures, ethical considerations, and analytical techniques. Clearly state procedures for validity, reliability, trustworthiness, or robustness where applicable. For experiments, surveys, interviews, field studies, secondary data, and literature reviews, report sufficient detail for readers to assess the methods and, where feasible, reproduce the procedures. The legacy MEBIS guideline specifies approximately 400–600 words for this section; longer descriptions are appropriate where needed for methodological transparency.

Results and Discussion

Present findings in a coherent sequence using accurate tables, figures, quotations, or statistics, as appropriate. Discuss the results in relation to research objectives, relevant theories, and prior literature. Explain the scholarly and practical implications and acknowledge limitations. Do not present unsupported causal claims or overstate findings beyond the research design.

Conclusion

Summarise the answer to the research question, the principal contribution, and concise practical or theoretical implications. State major limitations and directions for further research where relevant. The legacy guideline specifies a brief conclusion of approximately 40–80 words; the journal may accept an appropriately longer conclusion where necessary for substantive completeness and consistency with the approved template.

Acknowledgements, Funding, and Declarations

Acknowledge support from individuals who do not meet authorship criteria and disclose financial support, research ethics approval or consent where applicable, conflicts of interest, data availability when required, and relevant use of generative AI in accordance with the journal’s AI Disclosure Policy.

References and Citation Style

Use author–date citations and the APA 7th edition reference style consistently, unless the approved MEBIS template prescribes a newer journal-specific variant. Every in-text citation must correspond to a reference and vice versa. Include DOI links where available, and verify all references against the original sources.

The existing MEBIS guideline requires at least 10 references, approximately 80% drawn from scholarly journal literature, and emphasis on primary and recent sources (generally the preceding ten years). Authors should select references by relevance and quality; influential older foundational works may be retained where scientifically necessary. Do not cite non-existent sources, including fabricated AI-generated citations.

Example Reference Format

Journal article: Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of the article in sentence case. Journal Title, volume(issue), page–page. https://doi.org/xxxxx

Book: Author, A. A. (Year). Title of the book in sentence case. Publisher.

Book chapter: Author, A. A. (Year). Title of chapter. In E. E. Editor (Ed.), Title of book (pp. xx–xx). Publisher.

Preprints, Originality, and Research Integrity

Authors must disclose any related preprint, thesis, conference paper, dataset, or earlier dissemination that could overlap substantially with the submission. Reuse of text, figures, datasets, or findings must be appropriately cited and must not constitute misleading duplicate publication. Any suspected overlap is evaluated by editors according to the Plagiarism and Publication Ethics policies.

Language and Proofreading

Authors are responsible for clear, accurate, and consistent academic language. Language assistance and AI-supported editing do not remove author responsibility for the content, and any substantive AI assistance must be disclosed as required by the journal policy.