Prepare your submission
We do not impose strict word length limits, but the length of the manuscript should ideally not exceed approximately ten printed pages, which corresponds to 30-40 manuscript pages (Times New Roman, size 12 font, double-spaced, justified text), including everything from the title page to the last figure, if applicable. Text should, normally, be no longer than 8,000 words, including references. Any materials that are relevant, but not essential, should be included as an online only appendix, also known as "Electronic Supplementary Material".
Where a manuscript includes unusually long methodological descriptions and data or figures that are not core to the message of the publication, the use of Supplementary Material is encouraged. The manusrcipt should be written in accordance to IMRaD methodology.
All headings and subheadings, starting with Introduction (besides Abstract and Conclusion) should be numbered and bulleted, including subheadings.
Tables, graphs and figures should be arranged according to APA 7th Edition standards (serial number bolded and numbered above the display, the name of the table, graph or figure should be written in Italic, while below the table, graph or figure, you should write "the author/ s" or to indicate the source from which the image was taken and/or adapted, with the permission of the author or copyright holder.
Example of the paper structure
Title
Abstract
Key words:
- Introduction
- Literature review and hypotheses development
- Subheading
- Subheading
- Subheading
- Empirical analysis
- Sample
- Variables
- Dependent varibles
- Indipendent variables
- Moderating varibale
- Control varibales
- Methodology
- Empirical results and discussion
- Conclusions and implications
- Theoretical contributions
- Policy and managerial implicatons
- Limitations and suggestions for future research
Author Contributions: Conceptualization, J.R. and S.P.; methodology, J.R. and D.R.; software, J.R.
and D.R.; validation, J.R., S.P. and D.R.; formal analysis, J.R., S.P. and D.R.; investigation, J.R., S.P.
and D.R.; resources, J.R.; data curation, J.R.; writing—original draft preparation, J.R., S.P. and D.R;
writing—review and editing, J.R., S.P. and D.R.; visualization, J.R., S.P. and D.R.; supervision, S.P.
and D.R. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding: This research received no external funding.
Institutional Review Board Statement: Not applicable.
Informed Consent Statement: Not applicable.
Data Availability Statement: The data used in the study are from the WHO Global Health
Observatory and the World Bank.
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
References
Title Page
Please make sure your title page contains the following information.
Title
The title should be concise and informative. The title should express the essence of the paper. By reading the title, the reader gets an idea of the research topic and research problem. The title is a summary of the subject of professional and scientific research that the author approaches. A colon (:) is often used in the title to emphasize the research area. The title should be clear, indicative, current, neither too long nor too short. If it is necessary for the title to be somewhat longer, then it is better to divide it into a title and a subtitle. The subtitle then has the function of referring more precisely to the subject of research.
Author information
- The name(s) of the author(s)
- The affiliation(s) of the author(s), i.e. institution, (department), city, (state), country
- A clear indication and an active e-mail address of the corresponding author
- If available, the 16-digit ORCID of the author(s)
If address information is provided with the affiliation(s) it will also be published.
For authors that are (temporarily) unaffiliated we will only capture their city and country of residence, not their e-mail address unless specifically requested.
Abstract
Please provide an abstract of 150 to 250 words. The abstract should not contain any undefined abbreviations or unspecified references. Although the summary is divided into parts, it should be presented as one block of text in the submitted paper. This should include, first, a Tweetable headline, comprising no more than 250 characters, including spaces. Ideally the main result, something surprising. Something that will get people to click. Then, you should provide a simplified summary of your study and its conclusions.
The abstract comes at the beginning of the paper, but you should write it after you have drafted the full manuscript. The abstract provides a very short overview of the entire paper, including a sentence or two about the report’s purpose and importance, a sentence about your methods, a few sentences that present the main findings, and a sentence or two about the implications of your findings. You should provide implications for at least one of the following five areas: (1) research, (2) education, (3) practice, (4) policy, or (5) society/environment. In any case, the Abstract should be written in a way that will interest the readers to read your paper.
Keywords
Please provide 4 to 6 keywords which can be used for indexing purposes.
Classification code
JEL
An appropriate number of JEL codes should be provided. This classification system is prepared and published by the Journal of Economic Literature, see
https://www.aeaweb.org/econlit/jelCodes.php?view=jel
Text
Text Formatting
Manuscripts should be submitted in Word.
- Use a normal, plain font (e.g., 12-point Times Roman) for text.
- Use italics for emphasis.
- Use the automatic page numbering function to number the pages.
- Do not use field functions.
- Use tab stops or other commands for indents, not the space bar.
- Use the table function, not spreadsheets, to make tables.
- Use the equation editor or MathType for equations.
- Save your file in docx format (Word 2007 or higher) or doc format (older Word versions).
Headings
Headings and subheadings provide structure to a document. They signal what each section
is about and allow for easy navigation of the document. APA headings have five possible levels. Each heading level is formatted differently.
Table 1
APA 7th heading and subheading format
Note. Retrieved and adapted from https://www.scribbr.com/apa-style/tables-and-figures.
Abbreviations
Abbreviations should be defined at first mention and used consistently thereafter.
Footnotes
- Footnotes can be used to give additional information, which may include the citation of a reference included in the reference list. They should not consist solely of a reference citation, and they should never include the bibliographic details of a reference. They should also not contain any figures or tables.
- Footnotes to the text are numbered consecutively; those to tables should be indicated by superscript lower-case letters (or asterisks for significance values and other statistical data). Footnotes to the title or the authors of the article are not given reference symbols.
- Always use footnotes instead of endnotes.
APA format for Tables and Figures
- A table concisely presents information (often numbers) in rows and columns. A figure is any other image or illustration you include in your text—anything from a bar chart to a photograph.
- Tables and figures differ in terms of how they convey information, but APA Style presents them in a similar format—preceded by a number and title, and followed by explanatory notes (if necessary).
APA table format
Tables will vary in size and structure depending on the data you’re presenting, but APA gives some general guidelines for their design. To correctly format an APA table, follow these rules:
- Table number in bold above the table.
- Brief title, in italics and title case, below the table number.
- No vertical lines.
- Horizontal lines only where necessary for clarity.
- Clear, concise labels for column and row headings.
- Numbers consistently formatted (e.g. with the same number of decimal places).
- Any relevant notes below the table.
An example of a table formatted according to APA guidelines is shown below.
Table 2
Table formatted according to APA 7th edition guidelines
Note. Retrieved and adapted from https://www.scribbr.com/apa-style/tables-and-figures.
APA figure format
Any images used within your text are called figures. Figures include data visualization graphics—e.g. graphs, diagrams, flowcharts—as well as things like photographs and artworks.
To correctly format an APA figure, follow these rules:
- Figure number in bold above the figure.
- Brief title, in italics and title case, under the figure number.
- If necessary, clear labels and legends integrated into the image.
- Any relevant notes below the figure.
An example of a figure formatted according to APA guidelines is shown below.
Figure 1
Figure formatted according to APA 7th edition guidelines
Note. Retrieved and adapted from https://www.scribbr.com/apa-style/tables-and-figures.