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Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
  • The author has read the 'Content of a good article' in the 'Submit a manuscript' page.
  • The submission has not been published or submitted to another journal for consideration.
  • The submission file is in Microsoft Word format and images are of good quality.
  • All citations and quotations have been properly referenced in the manuscript and it is free from plagiarism.
  • The author has referred to the APA 7th Edition style guide for mechanics of writing, citation and reference format.
  • Two documents are to be submitted - 1) Submission manuscript (with author details) 2) Submission manuscript (anonymous)

Author Guidelines

 

Manuscripts must be prepared according to the MJM guidelines in order to be considered for publication. Authors need to submit their article through http://ejournal.upsi.edu.my/index.php/MJM/home. Submissions should be emailed as a word document with the subject as follows: MJM[authorsname].doc.

The following checklist has been prepared to assist authors meet the submission requirements:

File Type Only WORD file will be accepted
  • Use the file name MJM and Author's name, e.g. MJMSmith.doc
  • Only final edited material will be accepted for publication
Layout and Style Note: all information is also contained within the template
Margins
  • B5 size
  1. 2.54cm (1 inch) (left and top) 1.9cm (0.75in) (right, bottom)
Citation Style APA6th
Quotes
  • Quotes above 40 words should be blocked, without quotation marks
  • Quotes below 40 words should appear in the text, using double quotation marks
  • Do not use colons in the in-text citations. Use the following format - (Jones, 2012, p.8)
Font
  • Times New Roman
  1. General text, 11 pt, regular
Language
  • English (British) or Bahasa Malaysia
  • British spellings required throughout (e.g. analyse, not analyze) unless in a quoted source
  • Authors writing in Malay also require an English language abstract and title
  • We do not use the Oxford/serial comma.
  • All foreign words not in a standard English dictionary should be italicised.
  • If usage of the word is repeated frequently, the word should be italicised the first time only (provided the word is defined in the context of the article).
  • Instruments and genres should be all lower case unless it contains a proper noun (Brazilian jazz).
  • Foreign instruments and genres not common to English should be italicised (shakuhachi) using the same guidelines as other foreign words.
Quotation Marks
  • "Exact words from a verbal or written source should be in double quotation marks" (Johnson, 2016).
  • All other should be 'single quotation marks'.
  • Punctuation should be placed outside the 'quote'.
Titles used within article
  • Larger works should be italicised (books, journals, large scale musical works, album titles)
  • Smaller works contained within should be in quotes (chapter title, article in a journal, movement in a musical work, song).
    - Dvorak's 'Allegro molto' from Symphony no.9.
    - The Beatles' 'Here Comes the Sun' from the album Abbey Road.
  • Special circumstances may apply when items may not clearly fall into the above guidelines. In this case, consistency within the article is needed.
Length

Article should be between 5000-8000 words in length, including references and endnotes/footnotes.
Paragraphs

All paragraphs indented 1.27cm / 0.5 inches.
Spacing

Articles should be single-spaced.
Endnotes

Use endnotes rather than footnotes, 10 pt, keeping them to a minimum.
Abstract
  • 150-250 words, single spaced, regular, 10 pt
  • No citation
  • Summary of the article, including information such as background, statement of problem, objectives, methodology, findings, data analysis, argument, and conclusions.
Keywords
  • The word "Keywords" should appear below the abstract in 10 pt, italicised
  • Include 5 keywords, separated by commas, in alphabetical order
Title and Headings Title: Title Case, bold, centred, 14 pt, single spaced

Author 1 First name, middle initial, last name (10 pt, align centre)
Affiliation, Country (10 pt, align centre)
Email: (10 pt, align centre)
Author 2 First name, middle initial, last name (10 pt, align centre)
Affiliation, country (10 pt, align centre)
Email: (10 pt, align centre)

Author 1¹, Author 2², Author 3³ (10 pt, align centre)

Affiliation, Country¹, Affiliation, Country², Affiliation, Country³ [if different] (10 pt, align centre)
Email¹, Email², Email³ (10 pt, align centre)
Headings and Subheadings

Headings are all in 12 point font.
Heading 1: Centered, Boldface, Title Case Heading

 Text starts a new paragraph.

Heading 2: Flush Left, Boldface, Title Case Heading

Text starts a new paragraph.

Heading 3:  Flush Left, Boldface Italic, Title Case Heading

Text starts a new paragraph.

Heading 4: Indented, Boldface Title Case Heading Ending With a Period. Paragraph text continues on the same line as the same paragraph.

Heading 5: Indented, Boldface Italic, Title Case Heading Ending With a Period. Paragraph text continues on the same line as the same paragraph.APA 6th does not require the first paragraph to be titled,  "Introduction", however, there must be a heading to begin the article.
Tables and Figures
  • Number tables and figures with Arabic numerals, e.g. Table 1
  • Table number and captions should be placed above the table (10 pt, left aligned. Table number followed by return, then table caption italicised)
  • Figure captions below the figure (10 pt, left aligned, Figure number italicised)
  • No line space between the caption and the figure.
Biography
  • Include author biographies - Maximum 150 words
Images
  • Submit each figure, table in line with text in the Word file
  • Number each figure and table according to their position in the text
  • Include captions in the article for each figure/table (eg. [Figure1. Caption]
  • Images should be in JPEG or PNG format, with a minimum of 300 DPI.
Copyright

Copyright for musical examples, images, etc is the responsibility of the author. Proof of permission to reproduce materials must accompany the article.

Examples of bibliographic References

Books

Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle.
          Location: Publisher.

Article or Chapter in an Edited Book

Author, A. A., Author, B. B. (Year of publication). Title of chapter. In A. A. Editor & B. B.
          Editor (Eds.), Title of book (pages of chapter). Location: Publisher.

Journals

Author, A. A., Author, B.B., & Author, C.C. (Year). Title of article. Title of Periodical,
          volume number (issue number), pages. http://dx.doi.org/xx.xxx/yyyyy

Dissertation

Lastname, F.N. (Year)Title of dissertation(Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from Name
          of database. (Accession or Order Number)

Conference Proceedings

Jones, J.L., & Peters, E. L. (Eds.). (1988). Proceedings from ICMH '99: The First
          International Conference on Musicians' Health and Fitness New York, NY: Smith
          Publications.

Recording

Last name, W. W. (Date of copyright). Title of song [Recorded by artist if different from
          song writer]. On Title of album [Medium of recording]. Location: Label. (Recording
          date if different from copyright date).

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