Article Types

Our scope is inclusive; Journal of Interdisciplinary Research and Sustainability (J. Interdiscip. Res. Sustain.) publishes articles covering any research discipline. We welcome the submission of manuscripts that report original results of primary research (positive or negative), describe new methods or other research tools, describe new datasets, report new cases, or analyze existing data and report novel insights in form of a systematic or scoping review. In addition, we publish a selected number of literature reviews. We do not accept pre-submission enquiries, or any type of opinion style piece.

Language

Please write your text in good English (American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of the two). Articles will not receive full copy-editing before publication; if you feel that your manuscript could benefit from editing, please consider the use of an editing service, before submission to ensure your manuscript is understandable and free of grammatical or spelling errors.

Use of inclusive language

Inclusive language acknowledges diversity, conveys respect to all people, is sensitive to differences, and promotes equal opportunities. Content should make no assumptions about the beliefs or commitments of any reader; contain nothing which might imply that one individual is superior to another on the grounds of age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability or health condition; and use inclusive language throughout. Authors should ensure that writing is free from bias, stereotypes, slang, reference to dominant culture and/or cultural assumptions. We advise to seek gender neutrality by using plural nouns ("clinicians, patients/clients") as default/wherever possible to avoid using "he, she," or "he/she." We recommend avoiding the use of descriptors that refer to personal attributes such as age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability or health condition unless they are relevant and valid.

When describing relevant and valid racial and ethnic identities, please capitalize those identities (e.g. African-American, Asian, Black, Caucasian, Latin, etc.) and use these as adjectives (i.e. Black scientists, Latin clinicians) and not as nouns (i.e. Asians). The word "white" should not be capitalized when used as a marker of race or ethnicity because it is not generally seen to represent a shared history or cultural identity and it also carries connotations and associations that conflict with Heliyon’s inclusive approach.

These guidelines are meant as a point of reference to help identify appropriate language but are by no means exhaustive or definitive.

Open Access

J. Interdiscip. Res. Sustain. is a fully open access journal. Once published, your article will be immediately and permanently available for readers to read, download, and share. Readers will be able to access your article freely on both Heliyon.com and ScienceDirect.

For more information on the available publishing licenses, copyright and article publishing charges, please consult our dedicated Open Access page.

Cover Letter

A covering letter is not mandatory, as we request all essential information at submission. However, you are welcome to provide a cover letter containing any additional information that you would like us to be aware of, such as information on suggested or excluded editors and referees.

Manuscript Preparation

Manuscript should be prepare using common word processor software (e.g. Microsoft-Word ®), prepared in English language, type single column in Times New Roman font with size of 11, single space (12 pt), page size of A4, margins of 3 cm.

Manuscript Organization

We do not have strict formatting requirements, but all manuscripts must contain the essential elements needed to convey the content in clearly defined sections: Title, Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion and/or Conclusions, Figures and Tables with Captions, and any Supplementary Material required. If your article includes any video, audio or other metadata files, you should include these in your initial submission for peer review purposes. The text should be in single-column format and the layout of the text should be as simple as possible. Please note that the size of each individual submission file must not exceed 150 MB; and the collective size of all submitted files must not exceed 700 MB.

Text

Please provide your manuscript in an editable format; any common word processing software is acceptable. If you use LaTeX, please supply a PDF version of your manuscript in addition.

Title

Please provide a title that is concise and informative; ideally it should contain no more than 20 words. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems so please keep in mind that your choice of title may impact how easily readers can discover your article.

Abstract

The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results and major conclusions. Abstracts are often presented and read as stand-alone text, so please keep this in mind when writing, and avoid the use of references and abbreviations.

Introduction

Please provide adequate background information, while avoiding a detailed literature review, and state the objectives of your work in light of previous findings.

Theory/ Calculation (if applicable)

A Theory section should extend, not repeat, the background information provided in the Introduction, and lay the foundation for further work. In contrast, a Calculation section represents a practical development from a theoretical basis.

Materials and Methods

Please provide sufficient detail to allow the work to be reproduced. Previously published methods should be shown in a reference; you only need to describe relevant modifications.

Results and Discussion

Results should be clear and concise. A Discussion should explore the significance of the results of the work, not just repeat them. A combined Results and Discussion section is often appropriate.

Conclusions (optional)

The main conclusion(s) of the study may be presented in a short Conclusions section, as a stand-alone section or in form of a subsection of the Discussion or Results and Discussion section.

Acknowledgements

Please collate all acknowledgements in a separate section at the end of the article, before the references.

References

Formatting

There are no strict requirements on reference formatting at submission, however we highly encourage the inclusion of DOIs to ensure references are citable and discoverable. References can be in any style or format as long as the style is consistent. Where applicable, author name(s), journal title/book title, chapter title/article title, year of publication, volume number/book chapter, pagination and the DOI should be included. 

Citation in Text

Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Unpublished results, personal communications and arXiv documents should not be included in the reference list, but may be mentioned in the text. Citation of a reference as 'in press' implies that the item has been accepted for publication; in this case, a copy of the title page of the relevant article must be submitted.

Citing Websites

As a minimum, the full URL should be provided, along with the date on which the reference was last accessed. Any further information, if known (DOI, author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.) should also be given.

Citing Datasets

Heliyon encourages you to cite underlying or relevant datasets in your manuscript by citing them in your text and including a data reference in your Reference List. Data references should include the following elements: author name(s), dataset title, data repository, version (where available), year, and global persistent identifier. Add [dataset] immediately before the reference so we can properly identify it as a data reference. This identifier will not appear in your published article.

Figure Captions

Please provide figure captions at the end of your manuscript. A caption should be self-contained and consist of a brief title and a concise description of the illustration. All symbols and abbreviations used should be explained.

Tables

We recommend providing tables within your manuscript file where possible, ideally using a single table grid for each individual table, otherwise using tabs to separate columns. Please submit tables as editable text and not as images. You should number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text and place any table notes below the table body.

Mathematical Equations

Please ensure that mathematical equations are submitted in an editable format and not as images. You should present simple formulae in the line of normal text where possible, and use the solidus (/) instead of a horizontal line for small fractional terms, e.g., X/Y. In principle, variables should be presented in italics. It is often more convenient to denote powers of e by using exp. You should number consecutively any equations that have to be displayed separately from the text (if referred to explicitly in the text). If you are submitting an article prepared with Microsoft Word containing embedded mathematical equations.

Artwork

Figures

Please note that we require the source files of figures and text graphics at submission. Please review the File Type section below for the correct resolution (dpi) of each type of graphic submitted, as resolution requirements vary depending on the graphic type and content within the graphic. Number the illustrations according to their sequence in the text and provide captions to illustrations separately.

Figure Size

Please size your illustrations as close as possible to the desired dimensions of the final pdf version at the resolution described in the ‘File Type’ section below. Graphics in Heliyon will be viewed online and in PDF in a single column format, and should not exceed a maximum width of 8 inches (20cm) or 2400 pixels @300 DPI (4000 pixels @ 500 DPI for line art and bitmap art).

Figure Labels

Please use uniform lettering and sizing in your original artwork and embed the used fonts if the application you are using provides that option. To ensure labels are legible, we suggest using the following fonts in your illustrations: Arial, Helvetica, Courier, Times, Times New Roman, and/or Symbol, sizing them according to the final figure size.

File Type

Please make sure that artwork files are in an acceptable format and with the correct resolution, size and the illustrations as close as possible to the desired dimensions of the printed pdf version. We are not able to accept file formats that are optimized for screen use (e.g., GIF, BMP, PICT, WPG) as these typically have a low number of pixels and limited set of colors.

TIFF (or JPEG): Color or grayscale photographs (halftones), keep to a minimum of 300 dpi.

TIFF (or JPEG): Bitmapped (pure 100% black & 0% white pixels) line drawings, keep to a minimum of 500 dpi.

TIFF (or JPEG): Combinations bitmapped line/half-tone (color or grayscale), keep to a minimum of 500 dpi.

EPS (or PDF): For vector-based images. Please embed the font or save the text as 'graphics'.

Supplementary Material

Heliyon does not impose a limit on either the length of your article or on the number of figures and tables included. We strongly encourage you to present all information within the main article and eliminate supplementary content whenever possible. Heliyon accepts electronic supplementary content when appropriate, such as large dataset files, video and audio files, archives, and any other file containing information that cannot easily be incorporated into the main manuscript. Supplementary files supplied will be published online alongside the electronic version of your article. In order to ensure that we can use the material you submit directly, please provide the data in one of our recommended file formats (see File Types). You should submit the material in electronic format together with the article, and supply a concise and descriptive caption for each file.

Any Microsoft Office file type is acceptable.