Journal of Arts and Social Science Studies (JASSS) is an open access, bilingual (English & Bengali), interdisciplinary journal that publishes original research work in different areas of humanities, social science and education. JASSS publishes research article, review papers, conceptual framework, analytical and simulation models, case studies, empirical research, technical notes and book reviews. The journal is published in both print and online versions. Manuscripts submitted to the journal must represent reports of original research and must be written in Bengali or English. 

Scope of the journal

The journal publishes research papers in the fields of humanities, social science and education such as anthropology, psychology, philosophy, literature, social work, law, politics, archeology, history, geography, public policies, business studies, international business and economics, business and marketing, economics, financial development, accounting, banking, human resources, political science, communication studies, corporate governance, criminology,  demography, development studies, ethics, linguistics, industrial relations, information science, international relations, library science, population studies, sociology, education, paralegal, performing arts (music, theatre & dance), religious studies, visual arts, women studies, archaeology, cultural studies, ancient and modern languages, social economics, human integrative history, public administration, gender studies, global studies, human ecology, political ecology, political economy and so on. 

Manuscript Preparation

1. Language
   The language of the manuscript is written in English or Bengali. Manuscripts must be written in clear and grammatically correct Bengali or English. Contributors who are not native English speakers are strongly advised to ensure that a colleague fluent in the English language editor has reviewed their manuscript. Concise English without jargon should be used. Long sentences and passive voice should be avoided. It is strongly recommended that the text be run through computer spelling and grammar programs. Either British or American spelling is acceptable but must be consistent throughout.
2. Manuscript Format and Style

Manuscripts should be prepared in MS Word format. The text should be double-spaced (a minimum of 6 mm between lines) throughout the manuscript including figure legends, table footnotes, and references. Manuscripts should be typewritten on an A4 sheet having Times New Roman font style using ‘12’ font size. Bengal author should be typewritten Bijoy font style using 14 fonts. The margins should be 2.54cm (1inch) in all sides and page number should be consecutively on the top right-hand corner of the page. Place tables and figure legends after the References section. Manuscripts should contain the title, author name(s), author affiliation(s) and the abstract in English. Keywords and acknowledgements should be written in English. 

3. Length of paper

The length of the paper should not exceed 30 pages. Paper containing more than 30 pages words will be returned to the author(s). Authors are urged to write as concisely as possible, but not at the expense of clarity.

4. Manuscript content

The full-length research article should be organized as follows: title page, abstract, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, acknowledgment, and references. The result and discussion section may be combined based on the author’s requirements. 

5. Title and contact information

The first page should contain the full title, the full names (in English) and affiliations (in English) of all authors (Department, Faculty, University, City, Country), and the contact e-mail address for the identified corresponding author. For title writing, use both upper-case and lower-case letters and the sentence case not exceeding 25 words (e.g., Historical survey of the sources of contamination of ethnographic materials in museum collections).

Author’s names and affiliations

The author should indicate the given name and family name. Present the authors’ affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author’s name and in front of the appropriate address. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name, and, if available, the e-mail address, and telephone number of each author. 

Corresponding author

Clearly indicate who is willing to handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing, publication and also post-publication. Ensure that telephone numbers (with country and area code) are provided in addition to the e-mail address and the complete postal address. 

6. Abstract

The abstract should provide clear information about the research and the results obtained. In case of Bengali author, the abstract should be in Bengali and English. The abstract should not exceed 300 words. The abstract should not contain citations.

7. Keywords

Abstract will be followed by 5-6 appropriate key words arranged alphabetically. Acronyms should be avoided.

8. Introduction

This should argue the case for your study, outlining only essential background, and should not include the findings or the conclusions. The Introduction should supply the rationale for the investigation and its relation to other works in the same field, but should not include an extensive review of the literature.

9. Materials and Methods

Please provide concise but complete information about the materials and the analytical and statistical procedures used. This part should be as clear as possible to enable other researchers.

10. Results

The Results section may be organized into subheadings and should include results, but extensive interpretation of the results should be reserved for the Discussion section. Present the results as concisely as possible in one of the following: text, table(s), or figure(s). Avoid presenting essentially similar data in both table and figure form. Also avoid extensive use of graphs to present data that might be more concisely presented in the text or tables. Limit photographs to those that are absolutely necessary to show the experimental findings. Number figures and tables in the order in which they are cited in the text, and be sure to cite all figures and tables. 

11. Discussion

The Discussion section should provide an interpretation of the results in relation to previously published works. It should not contain extensive repetition of the Results section or reiteration of the introduction. The Discussion may be organized into subheadings. Results and Discussion may be combined.

12. Conclusion

This should state clearly the main conclusions of the research and give a clear explanation of their importance and relevance.

13. Acknowledgements (if any)

Acknowledgments of people, grants, funds, etc. should be placed in a separate section before the reference list.

14. Table and Figures 

All tables and figures must have a caption and/or legend and be numbered consecutively as they are referred to in the text (e.g., Table 1, Figure 2), unless there is only one table or figure, in which case it should be labeled “Table” or “Figure” with no numbering. Captions must be written in sentence case (e.g., Map Showing Compliance with Law across the 13 District). The font used in the figures should be Times New Roman. The tables and figures themselves should be given at the end of the text only, after the references, not in the running text.

The resolution of images should not be less than 118 pixels/cm when width is set to 16 cm.  Images must be scanned at 1200 dpi resolution and submitted in jpeg format.

Graphs and diagrams must be drawn with a line weight between 0.5 and 1 point. Graphs and diagrams with a line weight of less than 0.5 point or more than 1 point are not accepted. Scanned or photocopied graphs and diagrams are not accepted.

15. References 

The reference section of your manuscript will be included a list of all of the sources that you used in your text. Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Avoid citation in the abstract. Unpublished results and personal communications should not be 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. References should be arranged first alphabetically and then further sorted chronologically if necessary. More than one reference from the same author(s) in the same year must be identified by the letters “a”, “b”, “c”, etc., placed after the year of publication. 

Authors should consult the publication manual of the American Psychological Association (APA) for rules on format and style. Any manuscripts with references that are incorrectly formatted will be returned to the author by the publisher for revision. Please visit www.apastyle.org to learn more about APA style. 

APA reference style

See http://www.apastyle.org/ to obtain information about APA style. The full guidelines are published in the Sixth Edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association and anyone working on APA-style journals is strongly encouraged to refer to this Manual in the first instance.

Examples of the detailed style to be followed are:

The first line of a reference should be flush with the left margin. Each additional line should be indented (usually accomplished by using the TAB key.)

Example:

Aloise-Young, P. A. (1993). The development of self-presentation: Self-promotion in 6-to 10- year-old children. Social Cognition, 11, 201-222.

Banerjee, R. (2002). Children’s understanding of self-presentational behavior: Links with mental-state reasoning and the attribution of embarrassment. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 48, 378-404.

Bennett, M., & Wellman, H. (1989). The role of second-order belief-understanding and social context in children’s self attribution of social emotions. Social Development, 9, 126-130.

Text citations

All references in the text and notes must be specified by the authors’ last names and date of publication together with page numbers for direct quotations from print sources.

Do not use ibid., op. cit., infra., supra.

Note the following for the style of text citations:

1. If the author’s name is in the text, follow with year in parentheses:

… Author Last Name (year) has argued …

2. If author’s name is not in the text, insert last name, comma and year:

… several works (Author Last Name, year) have described …

3. For direct quotations, the page number follows the year, preceded by ‘p.’ (not a colon):

     … it has been noted (Author Last Name, year, p. XXX) that …

4. Where there are two authors, always cite both names, joined by ‘and’ if within running text and outside of parentheses; joined by an ampersand (&) if within parenthetical material, in tables and in captions, and in the reference list:

…Author Last Name and Author Last Name stated that… … it has been stated (Author Last Name & Author Last Name, year) …

5. When a work has three, four, or five authors, cite all authors the first time the citation occurs; in subsequent citations, include only the surname of the first author followed by ‘et al.’ (not italicized and with a period after ‘al’) and the year if it is the first citation of the reference within a paragraph:

…Author Last Name, Author Last Name, Author Last Name, and Author Last Name (year) found that…[Use as first citation in text.] [Use ampersand if within parentheses.]

… Author Last Name et al. (year) found that [Use as subsequent citation thereafter.]

6. When a work has six or more authors, cite only the surname of the first author followed by ‘et al.’ (not italicized and followed by a period after ‘al’) and the year for the first and subsequent citations. In the reference list, however, provide the surnames and initials for up to and including the first seven authors. When authors number eight or more, include the first six authors’ names, then insert three ellipses and then add the last author’s name, for example:

Shackley, H., Powell, J., Leeming, K., Read, A., Goggins, A., Westwood, K., …Ray, D. R. (2010). Article title. Journal, 20, 220−260.

7. If two references with six or more authors shorten to the same form, cite the surnames of the first authors and of as many of the subsequent authors as necessary to distinguish the two references, followed by a comma and ‘et al.’. For example:

If you have entries for the following references:

…Smith, Jones, Clark, Kumar, Green, and Goggins (2000)

…Smith, Jones, Miller, Green, Powell, and Goggins (2000)

 In the text you would cite them, respectively, as:

…Smith, Jones, Clark, et al. (2000) and Smith, Jones, Miller, et al. (2000)

8. If two or more references by the same author are cited together, separate the dates with a comma (in chronological order) :

… the author has stated this in several studies (Author Last Name, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2006) …

9. If there is more than one reference to the same author (or by the same two or more authors in the same order) and year, insert the suffixes ‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’, etc. after the year of publication and repeat the year. The suffixes are assigned in the reference list, where these kinds of references are ordered alphabetically by title (of the article, chapter, or complete work):

… it was described (Author Last Name, 2000a, 2000b, 2000c) …

10. List two or more works by different authors who are cited within the same parentheses in alphabetical order by the first author’s surname, separated by semicolons:

… and it has been noted (Clark, 2001; Miller, 2001) …

Exception: You may separate a major citation from other citations within parentheses by inserting a phrase, such as ‘see also’ before the first of the remaining citations, which should be in alphabetical order:

… (Miller, 2001; see also Clark, 2000; Smith, 2000) …

11. When names of groups (e.g. government agencies, universities, etc.) serve as authors, these are usually spelled out each time they appear in a text citation. However, some group authors can be spelled out in the first citation and abbreviated thereafter:

First text citation: … (National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], 2000) …

Subsequent text citation:

 … (NIMH, 2000) …

12. When a work has no author as such, cite in the text the first few words of the reference list entry (usually the title) and the year. Use double quotation marks around the title of an article or chapter

or web page and italicize the title of a journal, book, etc.:

… it was stated (“Title of publication”, year) that …

13. Citations from personal communications are not included in the reference list; cite in text only, giving the initials as well as the surname of the communicator and provide as exact a date as possible:

… (Initial and Last Name of Person, personal communication, April 28, 2000).

Reference list

General

1. Check that the list is in alphabetical order by surname of the first author (treat Mc and Mac alphabetically and literally, not as if they were all spelled ‘Mac’).
2. Names should be in initial cap then lower case.
3. Where several references have the same author(s), do not use ditto marks or em dashes; the name must be repeated each time.
4. Last Names containing de, van, von, De, Van, Von, de la, etc. should be alphabetized according to the language of origin.
5. Names containing Jr or II should be listed as follows: Author Last Name, Initials, Jr. (year). Author Last Name, Initials, II (year).
6. When ordering several works by the same first author:

• Single-author references arranged in date order, the earliest first;
• Single-author entries precede multiple-author entries beginning with the same surname
• Two or more author references in alphabetical order according to the second author’s last name, or if the second author is the same, the last name of the third author, and so on
• References with the same authors in the same order are arranged by year of publication, the earliest first:

Brown, J. (2003)

Brown, T. R., & Yates, P. (2003)

Brown, W. (2002)

Brown, W. (2003a)

Brown, W., Hughes, J., & Kent, T. (2003)

Brown, W., & Jones, M. (2003)

Brown, W., & Peters, P. (2002)

7. Check that all periodical data are included – volume and page numbers (complete span, not shortened), publisher, place of publication, etc. Only give the issue number in parentheses immediately after the volume number if each issue of a journal begins on page 1.
8. The date of retrieval of online material is no longer required, only the URL; see example below.

Blake, N. (1999). The promise of mobile technologies for education. Edulink, 3 (2). Retrieved February   8, 2001, from http://www.joburg.ac.za/edtech/pubs/edulink/992/blake.html.

9. A word about publisher locations in book references: for all countries outside the US, the country as well as the city of publication should be supplied, e.g. ‘London, UK’, ‘Oxford, UK’, ‘Toronto, Canada’, etc. For the US, the state abbreviation should be included after the city, except when the name of the state is part of the publisher’s name, e.g. ‘New York, NY: Cambridge University Press’; ‘New York: State University of New York’; ‘Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press’.

Reference styles

Journal article                 

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (year). Article title. Journal Name, vol no., xx–xx.

Miller, A. J., Thomson, F., & Callagher, D. (1998). Affluence in suburbia. Suburbian Studies, 12, 9–12.

Book

Author, A. A. (1994). Book title. Location: Publisher

Miller, A. J., Thomson, F., & Callagher, D. (1998). Affluence in suburbia. London, UK: BL Books.

Chapter in book

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (1994). Chapter title. In A. Editor, B. Editor, & C. Editor (Eds.), Book title (pp. xxx–xxx). Location: Publisher.

Miller, A. J., Thomson, F., & Callagher, D. (1998). Epping case study. In C. Carter (Ed.), Affluence in suburbia (pp. 200–250). London, UK: BL Books.

Website

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (1994). Online article title. Online Journal, xx, xxx–xxx. Retrieved from http://xxxx.xxxx.xx.xx/xxxx/xxxxxx/

Miller, A. J., Thomson, F., & Callagher, D. (1998). Epping case study. Suburban studies, 12, 1–9. Retrieved from http://xxxx.xxxx.xx.xx/xxxx/xxxxxx/