Guide for Authors

How to submit an article

The corresponding author of the article, after Register on the journal’s website (https://jstinp.um.ac.ir/), should enter the Submit a New Manuscript section and fill in all the requested information carefully.

Manuscriprt submission and useful files

Manuscripts should be submitted by the corresponding authors through only our online manuscript tracking systems (MTS) via https://jstinp.um.ac.ir/contacts. Submissions by anyone other than one of the authors will not be accepted. The corresponding author takes responsibility for the paper during submission and peer review process. If you have any problem in submission through the MTS for technical reason or etc. please feel free to contact us via https://jstinp.um.ac.ir/journal/contact.us

Please prepare your paper based on these templates.

  1. Assignment of Copyright Form (Click here)
  2. Conflict of interest declaration and author agreement Form (Click here)
  3. MS Word template of Title page based on Guide for Authors (Click here)
  4. MS Word template of Main manuscript based on Guide for Authors (Click here)
  5. MS Word template of Response letter based on Guide for Authors (Click here)

Please read the remainder of these Guide for authors and then click https://jstinp.um.ac.ir/contacts to navigate to JSTINP online login page.


All papers must be submitted online 

For reviewing purposes you should upload a .doc file with the figures and tables integrated within the text of the main document.
Submission of a manuscript will be held to imply that it contains original unpublished work and is not being submitted for publication elsewhere at the same time.


Peer Review
All manuscripts are assessed in accordance with the peer review principle. An editor will assess a submitted manuscript initially for its suitability in general terms. If a manuscript is evaluated suitable, it is forwarded to two or more peer reviewers. The editor cannot designate himself as a peer reviewer. You can see peer review process section for more information via https://jstinp.um.ac.ir/journal/process

 

Proof of acceptance

After acceptance, we will email a PDF  file of the proofs to the corresponding author.

 

Manuscriprt style

The language of the journal is English. The journal operates a double-blind peer review process whereby Reviewers' names and Authors' names are concealed from each other. Word template is available for this journal. Please save the template to your hard drive, ready for use. Please pay close attention to the instructions below.

 

Title Page

Title page includes title of article, author's name and affiliation, abstract and keywords.

  • Names and affiliations of all authors must be provided in a separate document and uploaded using the file designation – "Author Title Page Only".
  • If any of the named co-authors moves affiliation during the peer review process, the new affiliation can be given as a footnote. Please note that no changes to affiliation can be made after the manuscript is accepted.
  • Do NOT incorporate into your main document.
  • Give the full address, including email, telephone and fax, of the author who is responsible to check the proofs.

Please supply all details required by any funding and grant-awarding bodies as an Acknowledgement on the title page of the manuscript, in a separate paragraph, as follows:

  • For single agency grants:"This work was supported by the [Funding Agency] under Grant [number xxxx]."
  • For multiple agency grants:"This work was supported by the [Funding Agency 1] under Grant [number xxxx]; [Funding Agency 2] under Grant [number xxxx]; and [Funding Agency 3] under Grant [number xxxx]."

MS Word template of Title page based on Guide for Authors (Click here)

 


Main document

A typical manuscript will be between 4000 and 10000 words including tables, references, captions, footnotes, and endnotes. The text should be 1.5 line spacing throughout and with 2.5 cm page margins. Manuscripts that greatly exceed this will be critically reviewed with respect to length. The manuscript contains nothing that is abusive, defamatory, libelous, obscene, fraudulent, or illegal.

Any consistent spelling and punctuation styles may be used. Please use double quotation marks, except where “a quotation is ‘within’ a quotation”. Long quotations of 40 words or more should be indented without quotation marks.

  • Font size: 
    • In text: Times New Roman 12
    • Level I headings: bold font, Times New Roman 12
    • Level II headings: bold and Italic font, Times New Roman 12
    • Level III headings: Italic font, Times New Roman 12

The first page

  • Title: as short as possible, with no abbreviations or acronyms.
  • Abstract: A brief abstract (150 and 300 words) should be included with all Manuscript types. An abstract is a concise summary of the whole paper, not just the conclusions, and is understandable without reference to the rest of the paper. It should contain no citation to other published work.
  • Keywords: Right after the abstract, provide 4 to 6 keywords.

Structure of second page until the end of manuscript

The structure of the manuscript can be as follows:

  • Introduction
  • Literature review
  • method
  • Results
  • Discussion and Conclusion
  • Limitations and suggestions 
  • Acknowledgements
    Disclosure statement:     No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
  • References
  • Appendices (as appropriate).

MS Word template of Main manuscript based on Guide for Authors (Click here)

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments of people, grants, funds with official number, etc. should be compulsory placed in this section. The names of financing organizations should be written in full, and the statement should follow the funding institution's criteria. Financial support affiliation of the study, if exists, along with the Grant number must be mentioned in this section.

Abbreviations

The list of all abbreviations as well as the symbols which are used in the manuscript text they should be defined in the text at first use (Avoid abbreviations in the abstract). The list of abbreviations (nomenclatures) must be provided alphabetically.

Reference style
All references should be formatted according with the Harvard referencing style. References should be quoted in the text as name and year within brackets and listed at the end of the paper alphabetically. Where reference is made to more than one work by the same author published in the same year, identify each citation in the text as follows: (Collins, 1998a), (Collins, 1998b). Where three or more authors are listed in the reference list, please cite in the text as (Collins et al., 1998). Provide page number(s) for direct quotations: (Collins, 1998, p.36).
All references must be complete and accurate. Online citations should include date of access. If necessary, cite unpublished or personal work in the text but do not include it in the reference list. 

  • Eberlein RL. 1984. Simplifying dynamic models by retaining selected behavior modes. PhD Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.
  • Forrester, JW. 1991. Longer-term economic changes. D-4207-1, MIT System Dynamics Group Literature Collection. Available from the System Dynamics Society: https://www.systemdynamics.org/mit-sdgroup-literature-collection.
  • Graham AK. 1980. Parameter estimation in system dynamics modeling. In Randers J. (ed.) Elements of the System Dynamics Method. Productivity Press, Cambridge MA, 143-161.
  • Homer JB. 1983. Partial-model testing as a validation tool for system dynamics. In Proceedings of the 1983 International System Dynamics Conference. Chestnut Hill, MA, System Dynamics Society.
  • Naumov S, Oliva R. 2018. Structural Dominance Analysis Toolset. Retrieved September 17, 2019, from http://people.tamu.edu/~roliva/research/sd/sda/.
  • Sterman JD. 2000. Business Dynamics: Systems Thinking and Modeling for a Complex World. Irwin/McGraw-Hill, Boston.
  • Tan B, Anderson EG, Dyer JS, Parker GG. 2010. Evaluating system dynamics models of risky projects using decision trees: Alternative energy projects as an illustrative example. System Dynamics Review26(1): 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1002/sdr.43.

    Attention:     Persian references must be marked with [in Persian] words in the list of references.

       Attention: Insert the DOI link at the end of the reference.

Figures, Tables and Formulas

Figures’ title should be written below the figure, and tables’ title at the top of the table in Times New Roman 10. Figures and tables render within the text and immediately place after the explaining paragraph. The content of tables in Times New Roman 10.

  • Tables and Figures number from No. (1) To refer to the content of the Figures and diagrams in the text, use the number and appropriate referral.
  • Inserting decimal numbers, instead of using slash (/), and show negative numbers by using the minus sign.
  • Formulas represent centered in Times New Roman11 and render in a two column table with no border and number with figure in parentheses.

 

Conflict of interest declaration and author agreement form

Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously, nor is it under consideration for publication elsewhere. Authors  also certify that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere, including electronically in the same form, in English or in any other language, without the written consent of the copyright-holder.

Conflict of interest declaration and author agreement Form (Click here) 

 

 

Free article access 

Journal of Systems Thinking in Practice quickly and easily gives anyone free access to the electronic version of the articles for free.

 

Further information

Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the Manuscript Submission process should be sent to the Editorial Office as follows:

E-mail: jstinp@um.ac.ir

 

Response to Reviewer (Submit revision and response letter)

You will be unable to make your revisions on the originally submitted version of the manuscript.  Instead, revise your manuscript using a word processing program and save it on your computer.  Please also highlight the changes to your manuscript within the document by using the track changes mode in MS Word or by using bold or coloured text. Once the revised manuscript is prepared, you can upload it and submit it through https://jstinp.um.ac.ir/contacts.

When submitting your revised manuscript, please respond to the comments made by the reviewer(s) in the response letter. You can use this letter to document any changes you make to the original manuscript.  In order to expedite the processing of the revised manuscript, please be as specific as possible in your response to the reviewer(s). You can use the following letter template. 

Because we are trying to facilitate timely publication of manuscripts submitted to the Journal of Systems Thinking in Practice, your revised manuscript should be uploaded as soon as possible.  If it is not possible for you to submit your revision in a reasonable amount of time, we may have to consider your paper as a new submission.

MS Word template of Response letter based on Guide for Authors (Click here)

 

Instructions before submission

 Short checklist
Please make sure all the following files have been prepared before submission:

  1. Assignment of Copyright Form (Click here)
  2. Conflict of interest declaration and author agreement Form (Click here)
  3. Title page: MS Word template of Title page based on Guide for Authors (Click here)
  4. Main manuscript: MS Word template of Main manuscript based on Guide for Authors  (Click here)
  5. Supplementary files (if applicable)
  6. Contact information for all authors (including First and last names, name of institutions with complete addresses, university or organizational e-mail addresses, ORCID IDs for authors, the corresponding author’s full affiliation and phone number
  7. Key words
  8. References in Harvard  style