Author Guidelines

Manuscript Structure

A standard manuscript contains the following, in order:

1.   Title, authors, and affiliations - with the corresponding author's email.

2.   Abstract and keywords - a 150–250-word abstract (objective, method, findings, conclusion) with no citations, acronyms, software names, or statistics; 3–5 keywords separated by semicolons; and the JEL classification code(s).

3.   Introduction - background, research gap, guiding theory, novelty, and objectives.

4.   Hypotheses Development / Literature Review - for quantitative studies, the development of each hypothesis and the conceptual framework; qualitative and conceptual papers use a literature review or theoretical background instead.

5.   Method - design, data and its source, sampling and data collection, analysis technique, and variable measurement, in paragraph form.

6.   Results and Discussion - findings followed by interpretation, comparison with prior studies, and the meaning of the results.

7.   Conclusion - answers to the research questions in paragraph form (no statistics or citations), plus limitations and managerial and theoretical implications.

8.   Declarations - author contribution, funding statement, acknowledgments, and conflicts of interest.

9.   References - formatted as described in Section 6.

Tables and Figures

•    Number tables and figures consecutively in the order they are first mentioned in the text, and refer to each one explicitly (for example, “as shown in Table 1”).

•    Place the number and title above a table and below a figure. Add a source note beneath each.

•    Use open tables (horizontal rules only, no vertical gridlines) and make sure every table and figure is legible in black and white.

•    Supply figures at high resolution (at least 300 dpi). Embed them in the manuscript and, where possible, keep the editable source.

 

References and Citations

FIRM Journal uses the American Psychological Association (APA) 7th edition style for both in-text citations and the reference list. Specifically:

•    Cite and list every source in APA 7th edition. Within a parenthetical citation group, order references alphabetically by the first author's surname.

•    Include at least 50 references, the majority published within the last ten years.

•    At least 80% of references should be primary sources - national and international research articles.

•    Limit self-citation to a maximum of three works.

•    Order the reference list alphabetically and apply a hanging indent to every entry.

•    Use a reference manager such as Mendeley, Zotero, RefWorks, or EndNote to ensure consistency.

The manuscript template gives a worked example for each main source type (journal article, book, book chapter, report, and web page).