Author Guidelines

International Journal of Research in Vocational Studies (IJRVOCAS) welcomes original research articles, review articles, and applied studies that are relevant to vocational studies, technical and vocational education and training, applied education, professional learning, workforce development, engineering education in vocational contexts, applied technology education, business and management education in vocational contexts, and related applied fields.

  1. General Requirements

Manuscripts submitted to IJRVOCAS must be original, unpublished, and not under consideration by another journal. The manuscript must be relevant to the journal’s aims and scope and must comply with the journal’s publication ethics, author guidelines, and formatting standards.

Manuscripts should be written in clear academic English. Authors are responsible for ensuring that the manuscript has been carefully checked for grammar, clarity, coherence, readability, and consistency before submission.

  1. Manuscript Structure

A manuscript should generally include the following components:

Title;
Author names and affiliations;
Corresponding author email;
Abstract;
Keywords;
Introduction;
Literature review or theoretical background, where applicable;
Research method;
Results and discussion;
Conclusion;
Acknowledgements, where applicable;
Funding statement, where applicable;
Conflict of interest statement;
References.

The abstract should clearly summarize the purpose of the study, method, main findings, and contribution of the research. Keywords should represent the main topics of the manuscript and support discoverability.

The introduction should explain the research background, problem statement, research gap, research objectives, and contribution of the study. The method section should describe the research design, data sources, participants or materials, instruments, procedures, and analysis techniques clearly. The results and discussion section should present the findings, interpretation, comparison with previous studies, and contribution to vocational studies or applied education. The conclusion should summarize the main findings, implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research where appropriate.

  1. Formatting Standards

The manuscript should be prepared using the IJRVOCAS manuscript template, if available. The text should be written in a clear and consistent format. Headings and subheadings should be organized logically. Tables and figures must be numbered consecutively, titled clearly, and cited in the text.

Tables should be editable and not inserted as images. Figures, charts, diagrams, and images must be provided in clear quality. Authors must ensure that all tables, figures, images, or materials taken from other sources have appropriate permission and citation.

  1. Bibliographic Standards

IJRVOCAS uses IEEE reference style. In-text citations should be numbered consecutively in square brackets, such as [1], [2], and [3], according to the order in which the sources appear in the text. The reference list must be arranged numerically at the end of the manuscript, following the order of citation in the text.

Authors are encouraged to use recent, relevant, and credible scholarly sources, especially journal articles, conference proceedings, books, standards, and other academic references. Where available, DOI links should be included in the reference list.

All references cited in the text must appear in the reference list, and all references listed must be cited in the text. Authors must ensure that references are accurate, complete, and consistently formatted.

  1. Examples of IEEE Reference Style

Journal article:
[1] A. A. Author and B. B. Author, “Title of the article,” Title of the Journal, vol. xx, no. x, pp. xx–xx, Year, doi: xx.xxxx/xxxxx.

Conference paper:
[2] A. A. Author and B. B. Author, “Title of the paper,” in Proceedings of the Conference Name, City, Country, Year, pp. xx–xx, doi: xx.xxxx/xxxxx.

Book:
[3] A. A. Author, Title of the Book. City, Country: Publisher, Year.

Book chapter:
[4] A. A. Author, “Title of the chapter,” in Title of the Book, B. B. Editor, Ed. City, Country: Publisher, Year, pp. xx–xx.

Website:
[5] Organization or Author, “Title of the webpage,” Website Name. Accessed: Month Day, Year. [Online]. Available: URL

  1. Ethical Requirements

Authors must properly cite all sources used in the manuscript. Plagiarism, duplicate publication, data fabrication, data falsification, inappropriate authorship, citation manipulation, peer-review manipulation, and other forms of academic misconduct are not tolerated.

Authors must disclose any potential conflicts of interest. If there are no conflicts of interest, authors should state: “The authors declare that they have no competing interests.”

Funding sources, if any, must be clearly acknowledged. Research involving human participants, personal data, institutions, or organizations must be conducted ethically and with appropriate consent or approval where required.

  1. Submission Process

All manuscripts must be submitted through the online submission system of IJRVOCAS. Authors are required to complete all metadata during submission, including title, abstract, keywords, author information, affiliations, references, and supporting information.

After submission, manuscripts will undergo editorial screening. Manuscripts that are outside the journal’s scope, do not follow the author guidelines, have serious language or formatting problems, or do not meet ethical standards may be returned to the authors or rejected before peer review.

Manuscripts that pass the initial screening will be sent for double-blind peer review. Authors may be required to revise their manuscripts according to reviewers’ and editors’ comments. The final decision regarding acceptance or rejection is made by the Editor-in-Chief or assigned editor.

By submitting a manuscript to IJRVOCAS, authors confirm that the manuscript is original, ethically prepared, not under consideration elsewhere, and that all authors have approved the submission.