Author Guidelines

Authors are required to prepare manuscripts using the official Indonesian Journal of Socio-Cultural Learning (IJSL) Article Template. Manuscripts should be written in clear and academically appropriate English and submitted in Microsoft Word (.docx) format. IJSL accepts the following types of scholarly manuscripts:

• Original Research Article: approximately 6,000–8,000 words
• Review Article: approximately 7,000–10,000 words
• Conceptual or Theoretical Article: approximately 6,000–8,000 words
• Arts-Based or Practice-Based Research Article: approximately 5,000–8,000 words
• Short Research Report: approximately 3,500–5,000 words
• Word counts exclude references.

Title

The title should be concise, informative, and accurately represent the central focus of the manuscript. It should normally contain approximately 12–18 substantive words, use Title Case, and avoid unnecessary abbreviations, generic introductory expressions, or exaggerated claims.

Abstract

The manuscript must contain an English abstract of approximately 180–250 words, written as one continuous paragraph.

For empirical research, the abstract should briefly communicate the:

research problem → objective → method → principal findings → contribution or implications.

Citations, references, tables, figures, and undefined abbreviations should not appear in the abstract.

Keywords

Authors should provide 4–6 keywords or key phrases that represent the principal concepts, context, population, or analytical focus of the article. Keywords should facilitate scholarly discovery and should not merely duplicate the wording of the title.

Manuscript Structure

Original Research Articles should normally use the following structure:

1. Introduction

The Introduction should establish the research problem, critically position the study within relevant scholarship, identify the research gap, and clearly state the research objective, question, or hypothesis. The expected scholarly contribution should be identifiable.

2. Research Method

The Research Method should explain the research design, setting, participants or data sources, sampling or selection procedures, data-collection methods, analytical procedures, and methodological quality procedures appropriate to the study.

3. Results

The Results section should present the principal findings clearly and systematically in relation to the research questions or objectives.

4. Discussion

The Discussion should interpret the findings, connect them with relevant theories and previous scholarship, explain similarities or differences with earlier studies, and demonstrate the scholarly significance of the results.

5. Conclusion

The Conclusion should synthesize the principal contribution of the study, answer the research objective or question, and identify relevant implications and limitations where appropriate.

Review, conceptual, theoretical, and practice-based manuscripts may adopt a different structure when appropriate to their scholarly approach, provided that the organization remains clear, systematic, and analytically coherent.

Headings

Authors should use a consistent hierarchical numbering system. Headings should normally not exceed three levels.

Example:

1. Introduction
   2. Research Method
   3. Results
   3.1 Subsection
   3.1.1 Third-Level Heading

Tables

Tables should:

• be numbered consecutively;
• have concise and informative titles;
• be referred to in the manuscript text;
• contain sufficient explanatory information; and
• remain editable where possible.

Information presented in tables should not be unnecessarily repeated in the main text.

Figures

Figures, graphs, photographs, diagrams, conceptual models, and other visual materials should:

• be numbered consecutively;
• include clear captions;
• be cited in the text;
• use legible labels;
• have adequate publication quality; and
• identify their source when applicable.

Citations and References

IJSL uses the American Psychological Association (APA) Style, 7th Edition.

Examples of in-text citation:

Smith (2024)

(Smith, 2024)

(Smith et al., 2024)

Direct quotations should include an appropriate page number or locator.

The reference list must contain only works cited in the manuscript and must include every source cited in the text. DOI information should be presented in URL format where available.

Authors are responsible for verifying the accuracy and traceability of all bibliographic information.

Declarations

Where applicable, the manuscript should include the following sections before the References or in the position specified by the IJSL template:

• Acknowledgments
• Author Contributions
• Funding
• Conflict of Interest
• Data Availability
• Ethics Statement
• Generative AI Disclosure

Authors should follow the relevant IJSL policy for any declaration requiring additional information.

Manuscript Quality

Manuscripts should demonstrate a coherent relationship among the research problem, theoretical or conceptual framework, methodology, evidence, interpretation, and scholarly contribution.

IJSL particularly encourages manuscripts that move beyond descriptive reporting and explain why the findings matter for broader academic discussions concerning education, learning, culture, society, and identity.