Author Guidelines

Instructions and Guidelines for Researchers Publishing in Al-Quds Journal for Academic Research- Natural Sciences

Al-Quds Journal for Academic Research – Natural Sciences is a peer-reviewed, open-access, scientific journal issued by the Deanship of Scientific Research at Al-Quds University. It mainly focuses on publishing original studies that meet the criteria of scientific research in terms of originality, methodological rigor, and contribution to the fields of natural, and health and biomedical sciences.

General Publication Requirements:

Authors must adhere to the following requirements as they prepare their submission to the Journal. Non-compliant submissions will not be considered until corrected:

  1. The research must not have been previously published and should not be submitted to another journal until a decision is made.
  2. The research must not be part of a published book or study.
  3. Authors may not republish the work or parts of it after its publication in this journal without written permission from the Editor-in-Chief.
  4. The journal maintains its neutrality regarding any jurisdictional claims related to published images, maps, copyright-protected materials, or institutional affiliations. The responsibility for getting permissions lies with the researchers.
  5. The order and priority of research publication depend on editorial considerations.
  6. Researchers must adhere to academic integrity, ensure precise citation from other sources, and accurately document these sources in the text and reference list.
  7. Attach research tools or any other supplementary materials in a separate file, if applicable.
  8. The manuscript must be linguistically sound. It must be reviewed by a linguistic specialist.
  9. The research should not exceed 7000 words, including references and abstracts.
  10. Indicate if the research is derived from a master’s or doctoral thesis.
  11. The journal reserves the right to request the deletion or modification of any part of the research to align with its publication policy.
  12. Copyright is retained by the journal.

Guidelines for preparing the manuscript

Research Article Structure:

Authors need to consider the following guidelines in preparing their research articles. The manuscript must be written in English. Authors may use either American or British English but must avoid mixing the two styles. The font type must be Times New Roman, with double-line spacing, font size 12, A4 page size, and one-inch margins on all sides. The manuscript should include the following parts:

  1. Title Page:
    • Includes a clear, concise title of the manuscript, should be centered alignment, font size 16, bold and Times New Romans style.
    • Provide full names of all authors, institutional affiliations, and emails.
    • The title page must be in a separate page, not in the manuscript.
    • Designate a corresponding author responsible for communication.
  2. Abstract:

    Write a precise abstract of up to 250 words without abbreviations or references. The abstract must include the following separated sections:

    • Background: the background and aim of the study.
    • Methods: that explains how the study was conducted include the study design, participants, data collection and analysis.
    • Results: the main findings of the study.
    • Conclusions: brief of the key messages and potential implications as applicable.
    • Keywords: Provide 3–6 keywords under a specific heading that represent and frequently appear in the research. Use commas to separate the key words.
  3. Introduction/ Background:

    Present the context/ background, the research problem, the aim, review of the relevant literature, and the significance of the study to the field.

  4. Methodology:

    Should include the study design, setting, population and participants, sampling, data collection and handling procedure including the statistical (a power calculation) or qualitative data analysis methods as applicable.

  5. Findings:

    This section should present the findings of the study and the results of the data analysis using text, tables, and figures with detailed descriptions.

  6. Discussion:

    The results should be interpreted and explained in this section, and how they fit into the existing body of literature. It should also draw attention to the study's limitations.

  7. Conclusion:

    This section should provide a summary of the study's main findings and take-home messages along with their implications.

  8. List of abbreviations:

    The list of abbreviations should be provided here if applicable, and they should be described in the text when they are first used.

  9. Ethics approval:

    Authors have to include a statement on ethics approval and consent along with the name of the ethics committee that approved the study, if it involves human subjects, animals, or plants (see ethical guidelines). If not, it should be marked as not applicable.

  10. Consent for publication:

    In case the manuscript includes any kind of personal information, e.g., pictures or personal details, you must have that person's permission to publish it, or in the case of children, their parent or legal guardian. Also, consent for publication is required for all case reports.

  11. Competing interests:

    Authors have to clearly indicate any financial and non-financial competing interests.

  12. Funding:

    Indicate any financial contributions.

  13. Contributions of the authors:

    Indicate the contributions of each of the authors to the manuscript using their initials in capital letter.

  14. Authors' information:

    This can introduce authors, jobs and their affiliations (Optional).

  15. Acknowledgment

    Authors can acknowledge persons or institutions that helped with the research but do not qualify for full authorship. Getting the consent of these is solely the responsibility of the authors.

  16. References:
    • Ensure that each work listed in the references must have a corresponding citation in the text.
    • Ensure that all references and citations are accurately done and according to 7th APA reference style.
    • Use author-date citation style, arranging references alphabetically.
    • For more information see:
  17. Preparing the illustrations

    Please follow the following guidelines in preparing and formatting the illustrations (e.g. tables, figures, images, photographs):

    Figures/ images:
    • Figures and images must meet publication standards of high-quality, and high-resolution.
    • Figures/ images must be placed below the paragraph in which they are first discussed.
    • Figures/ images must be numbered sequentially according to its order of appearance in the text: Figure 1, Figure 2, so on. Multi-part figures (Figure 1a, Figure 1b, etc.) should be consolidated into one. Example: Figure: 1 Characteristics of the study participants.
    • Figures must have a self-explanatory title (max 10 words) and descriptive caption below the figure (max 200 words), using Times New Roman font size 10.
    • Figures and images must be original and provided as separate page if their size exceed one page.
    • All copyright clearances (for images, photographs, maps, others) from the respective owners or publishers must be secured prior to publication, and appropriate credits have been cited in the captions.
    Tables:
    • Tables must be placed in the center.
    • The table should be placed below the paragraph that addresses it and numbered according to its order of appearance in the text (Table 1, Table 2, …).
    • Self-explanatory titles (max 10 words) should be used and placed above the table. Use Times New Roman, size 10. Table 1: Characteristics of the participants.
    • Number tables sequentially. Create using Word’s Table Object, not as images.
    • Tables shouldn’t exceed one A4 page.
    • Use Times New Roman font, black text only, without shading or decorative elements. Limit to seven tables.
    • Don't use commas to indicate numerical values.