• Before submission
• Manuscript formatting guide - Article template
• Policies - Submission
• Website Usage

 

 

BEFORE SUBMISSION

 

HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE (hereinafter referred to as the Journal) would like to sincerely thank all authors for choosing and submitting their manuscripts to the Journal. To ensure the interests of the authors, please kindly check all the following points before your submission: 

1. Authors ensure that the manuscripts submitted to the Journal must be original and not published or submitted for publication elsewhere (in the form of abstract only or full text; in printed or online version). The manuscript will also not be allowed to submit anywhere else until receiving a final decision from the Journal (rejected for publication).

2. Authors ensure that all manuscripts must comply with the Journal’s Aims and Scope.

3. All the manuscripts must comply with the Publishing Regulations of the Journal. The Journal encourages the authors to closely refer to the Article Template provided by the Journal. Authors should number the lines to facilitate the process of reviewing and editing. In the case that the manuscripts contain large volumes of additional (supplementary) data and other material (lengthy appendixes), the articles will not be selected for printed publication (articles might be published online only).

4. The author commits to asserting that the submitted article is entirely their original work and has not been previously published or is currently under consideration for publication elsewhere.

5. The author bears the responsibility of presenting research results in a clear and honest manner, without resorting to fabrication, falsification, or inappropriate use of data.

6. The specific contributions of each member within the author collective are outlined in the author status policy.

7. The author takes responsibility for ensuring that the manuscript does not include defamatory statements, does not infringe upon the privacy rights of others, and does not contain materials or content that may cause harm to individuals.

8. Cover letter is an obligatory requirement, attached with the manuscript, including all the following information: 

• The discernible reason why the work deserves the visibility of publication (an advance in understanding to influence thinking in the field);

• Author information (group of authors);

• The potential conflicts of interest;

• Proposal of an appropriate reviewer.

9. All manuscripts must adhere to the Journal’s Policies; 

   • Submission Policy: 

     • All manuscripts are submitted via the online system of the Journal.

     • Authorship criteria: To establish an individual's authorship status, each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for the content. Authorship credit should be based on substantial contribution to conception and design, execution, or analysis and interpretation of data. All authors should be involved in drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content and must have read and approved the final version of the manuscript. It is important to note that an individual must satisfy all three authorship criteria as the guideline of the Journal to qualify as an author of a scientific article.

     • Roles of Authors: Authors submitting manuscripts to the Journal are required to clearly define the roles of the primary author, co-authors, and the corresponding author.

     • Authorship: Authors have the copyright under Vietnam Intellectual Property Law and international law (VBHN - Intellectual Property Law (2019)

     • Contributorship: The Journal mandates that authors explicitly outline who has contributed what to the planning, conduct and reporting of the work described in the article in the acknowledgments statement.

     • AI use: The Journal is committed to evaluating and articulating the principles and guidelines necessary to ensure transparency in AI deployment. Our aim is to offer comprehensive insights into the AI technology employed, the rationale behind its utilization, and how authors assess the outcomes of AI in their work.

     • Commercial rights: Upon publication in the Journal, the author and co-authors are required to acknowledge that the copyright of the article is vested in the Journal itself. It is imperative to note that authors and co-authors are prohibited from selling their published articles from the Journal to any other publisher or third party for commercial gain. This stipulation ensures the integrity of the Journal's intellectual property and maintains the exclusive rights to the content.

     • Conflicts of Authorship: Authors maintain copyright rights in accordance with Vietnam's Intellectual Property Law and the copyright regulations of international organizations to which the Journal subscribes. If an author wishes to republish an article that has undergone review, editing, or publication by the Journal in another publication, they must seek permission from the Journal. The arrangement of authors listed on the manuscript is to be determined through consensus among the authors. Any addition, deletion, or change in the order of author names must receive approval from all members of the author group. This change should be communicated to the Journal before approval. The Journal regards the alteration of an individual's name or information without their explicit consent as a violation of publishing ethics. 

   • Ethical Policy: all manuscripts will be checked for plagiarism and research duplication. The author is responsible for the content of the article and the use of documents, data, figures, etc. Potential conflicts of interest need to be disclosed, including ethical standards and intellectual property conflicts, the author’s roles & interests, and journal policies.

   • Review Policy: The Journal implements a double-blind peer-review process. Authors are strictly required to keep confidential all details of the editorial and peer review process on submitted manuscripts. If required, the authors must publicly support the provision of research data to review and/or improve the manuscript’s quality.

   • Editorial and Publication Policy: the authors need to willingly coordinate with the editors to improve the quality of the manuscript based on the requirements of the reviewers/editors. In replying to the reviewers’ comments, the authors are advised to use language that would not cause offense when their manuscripts is shown as having some weaknesses. After acceptance, the corresponding author is responsible for the accuracy of all content in the manuscript, including authors’ information. Once published, the corresponding author is a direct contact for all matters related to the published article.

10. No submission and publication fees are required.

11. Open access to all published articles (English - Vietnamese).

12. Readers and authors can order reprints by contacting the Journal Office.

---

MANUSCRIPT FORMATTING GUIDELINES
HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE

• Article template

No.	Subject	Guidance
1	Title	The title will be composed with Unicode code - Times New Roman font, size 16. It will be in bold, lowercase (except the specific name), only capitalized the first letter, centered. The title is no more than 12 words (excluding prepositions and conjunctions).
2	Author Name    Affiliations    Corresponding author	All names involved in the manuscript must be presented with an order distinguished by the commas, right below the article title, with descriptions of the affiliation. The author order list is constructed based on their contribution to the work. The main author is the one whose name appears first in the list. . The corresponding author will have an asterisk (*) on their name and directly contact the Journal regarding the manuscript’s topics. The list is written with Unicode code, Times New Roman font, font size 12, in lower case and not in bold. Foreign authors’ names: first name + last name Vietnamese authors’ names: last name +middle name + first name The Journal encourages all authors to provide an ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor Identifier ID), an index of authors receiving a clear recognition of all their contributions from the scientific community. Affiliations: The list of places of work is also numbered corresponding to the list of authors:   Nguyen Ngoc Bao Chau1*, Lê Thuy To Nhu2, Akira Suzuki1 1Ho Chi Minh City Open University, Vietnam 2Agricultural Hi-Tech Park of Ho Chi Minh City *Tác giả liên hệ, Email: nguyenvana@gmail.com Authors’ information, including full names, academic degrees, affiliations, positions, emails, phone, addresses, must be fully provided in the Cover Letter as well as when submitting on the online system of the Journal.
3	ABSTRACT	The phrase ABSTRACT is bold and capitalized, but not numbered. The abstract is in Unicode, Times New Roman font, the font size 12. It must be no more than 250 words expressing in a single paragraph which includes: an overview of the objectives, the research methods, the results, and principal conclusions. However, the summary will not have the equations, table, figures, or references.
4	Keywords	"Keywords" is italicized, and only capitalizes the first letter. All the keywords are not capitalized, except for personal names / scientific names. The manuscript should include 4-5 keywords, separated by commas and have no punctuation at the end. Keywords: agricultural soil, bacteria, Barrientosimonas humi C4., chlorpyrifos
5	Manuscript’s Structure	The manuscript should have to be formatted in Microsoft Word, not exceeding 7,000 words (about 15 pages typed in A4 size including references). Margin left 3 cm, right 2.5 cm, top 2.5 cm, bottom 2.5 cm. The authors should have to use Unicode code, Times New Roman font, font size 12; spacing: single line, before: 6pt, after: 0pt; justified text. The first line of each paragraph should be indented by one-tab space (0.5 in or 1.27 cm). A manuscript could have various structure but must ensure all the necessary contents of a complete research. A scientific manuscript usually includes the following sections: 1.    Introduction The introduction should be precise with no subtitles, mentions the research’s the necessity, the research’s objectives, the expected theoretical and practical contributions, and the research innovations. 2.    Theoretical basis This part presents the basic theories/thesis and clarifies the views related to the manuscript. The part presents the summary of other pieces of research (Authors, years, name of the study, methods, and the results). Based on that, the authors would propose a research model, an analytical framework, or research assumptions for their work. 3.    Research method Based on the identified research models, the analytical framework, or the research hypotheses, the research specifies the appropriate analytical methods/ research models to produce scientifically sound results. The scope of the research is presented clearly through methods of data collection; these methods also describe in detail how to measure variables in the study. Sources of data must be fully and reliably cited. 4.    Research results The research findings could be from qualitative and quantitative analysis. This part also indicates the difference of the research results of the study compared with other previous relevant studies, identifies the scientific & practical contributions, limitations of research, and proposals for further studies. The study should only discuss what has been stated and defined in the manuscript; the results will directly support the conclusion. 5.    Conclusion Conclusions are driven directly from the results of the study after contrasting with previous studies’ research objectives. The policies, solutions, proposals are practically recommended based on the results of the research.
6	Heading	The manuscript is decentralized with headings in Arabic numerals. 1. Level 1 (ex: 1., 2., 3., …): bold, lowercase, only first letters capitalized. 1.1. Level 2 (ex: 1.1, 1.2., 2.3., ...): bold, italic, lowercase, only first letters capitalized. 1.1.1. Level 3 (ex: 1.1.1, 1.1.2., 2.1.1., …): italic, not bold, lowercase, only first letters capitalized.
7	Table	"Table" is shown in bold. The title places on the top of the table, left-aligned, not bold, lowercase, and only the first letter is capitalized. All tables should be numbered (Arabic) and referenced in the text appropriately. They must be centered and placed immediately after the content referring to them. Table 1 The title places on the top of the table, left-aligned, not bold, lowercase, only the first letter is capitalized. The heading of each column must be in bold Header Header Header Row 1 1 2 Row 2 3 4 Row 3 5 6
8	Figure	The authors employ "Figure" to describe all images, charts, maps, flowcharts, etc. used in the manuscript. They must be centered and placed immediately after the content referring to them. The images used in the manuscript must be clear and of good quality. The figures’ title must be set below the image and numbered with the Arabic system. "Figure" which is in bold, lowercase, and only the first letter is capitalized. The title of the figure (not bold, lowercase, except the first letter) will immediately follow the word "Figure" after a period. Units should be included in the figure.                                                                                                        Figure 1. The title places on the bottom of the figure
9	Note & Source	Note: The notes (if any) place at the bottom of the table/figure, font size is 10, justified text, integrated into the table/figure. Source: font size is 10 and located at the bottom, left corner of the table/figure
10	Formula	Any equations should be editable texts, not images. Equations should be numbered consecutively (numbers are in parentheses) on the right side of the page and mentioned as equations 1,2, etc.. The fractions are displayed in one line; a [/] sign separates the numerators and denominators. Additionally, any more complex equations should be shown using the equivalent software.
11	Unit	Measurement units must be presented accurately by using the International System of Units (SI).
12	Date	Date is displayed in a format: 15/06/2020
13	In-text Citation	The Journal has complied with APA format (American Psychological Association - 6th edition). Detailed instructions on the 6th APA citation standards are available at the website of Purdue University, USA: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples
14	Acknowledgments	A explicit acknowledgment announces the contributions of all organizations and individuals who have provided funding and/or facilitated/conducted the research (with their permission). Any potential conflicts of interest should be disclosed.
15	Footnote	The footnotes are placed at the end of the reffered pages and numbered with Arabic numerals, font Times New Roman, size 10: (1) Thuế lũy tiến được thảo luận bởi Ahan (1974, 1976). (2) One of the founding editors of ephemera recalls that part of ephemera’s ‘motivation [to include the ‘Note’ section] was to open up to authors not fully entrenched in university discourse’ (R14, email correspondence).
16	References	References contains at least 20 documents. The list of references places at the end of the manuscript. The authors should ensure that all sources are appropriately cited and correspond to each citation in the manuscript."References" is in bold, lowercase, and only the first letter is capitalized.The Journal has complied with APA format (American Psychological Association - 6th edition). Detailed instructions on the 6th APA citation standards are available at the website of Purdue University, USA: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples
17	SUPPLEMENTARY	Additional documents attached to the manuscript should be submitted for review, if any. AAdditional documents (referred to as the Supplementary/Appendix) will place after the "References" section, numbered with the letters A, B, C, and appropriately referenced in the text. These supplementary/Appendixes are neither modified by the Editorial Board nor published after the approval.

---

 

WEBSITE USAGE

 

• Account registration
• Account modification
• Submission
• Follow up
• Revision

I. ACCOUNT REGISTRATION

Readers could have free access (read and download without any limits) to all the published articles regardless of whether they register with the Journal or not. Only the ones who proceed to submit their manuscript must create an account. The authors are entirely responsible for their account creation and the confidentiality of account information.

To register for an account, please fill out the following form with your personal information on the button Register on the upper right-hand side of the website.

(Note: any information marked with * is fully required to fill in)

Please click the Register button at the bottom of the page to complete your registration with the Journal.

The corresponding author will use the registered username and password for all interactions with the Journal. The author is entirely responsible for the security of the account.

After finishing all the registration process, you will be redirected to the user's home page.

II. ACCOUNT MODIFICATION

1. Updating personal information
Any changes in the personal information must be updated on the Journal’s system through the form at the section "Edit My Profile".

2. Updating the password
You are allowed to change the password at the Change My Password section of the author’s homepage.

III. SUBMISSION

The author will submit their manuscript by clicking on the tab SUBMISSIONS of the toolbar and follow the instructions. After logging into the system, you will be redirected to the author's homepage and select the New Submission on the Frequent Tasks section. If your manuscript and figures are ready to submit according to the manuscript formatting guidelines and requirements below, please proceed directly to the online submission system.

Step 1:
At submission, by checking off all the conditions in the Submission Checklist, the author indicates that this submission is ready to be considered by the Journal. (The author may leave a Comments for the Editor about issues related to the article).

Step 2:
To Upload Submission, the author uploads the file from the computer to the Journal's web site through the Choose File window below:

Step 3:
To Enter Metadata, please use the designated form and follow the instructions.

Please Note:

• The author order list in the metadata will be shown on the published article.
• The authors are responsible for identifying the corresponding author who directly contacts the Journal to discuss any submission, modification, editing, and publication concerns.

Step 4:
The author can Upload Supplementary Files (if any) into the window below.

Step 5:
Finally, the author needs to click on Confirmation button to complete the submission process.

IV. Follow up

All active submissions are shown in the "Status" section.

V. REVISION

If the submitted manuscript does not meet the Journal’s scope and rules, the author will be requested by email to revise the manuscript and resubmit it as a new one).

Once the reviewers finish their job, the author will receive an email from the editor regarding the content editing based on the reviewers and editors’ opinions. The corresponding authors could find more detailed information under Editor version section on their homepage.

Please kindly upload the revised manuscript and the response form on the system (UPLOAD AUTHOR VERSION).

After completing the review process, the manuscript will move into the editing stage. When the author receives a notification email from the Journal, please go to the Initial Copyedit of the Editing section to check, revise, and feedback to the editor; the author will also receive an email for final checking/ proofreading before publishing.

---