We accept original empirical and theoretical studies on conceptual topics. The text of the research article must be formatted in standard scientific IMRAD format (Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, (Conclusion). Review articles may have a different structure. Authors who do not follow the guidelines are more likely to have their work rejected.
Submit the article as two documents.
The first document – article title (14pt; centred; Times New Roman), name/s and surname/s of the author/s (12pt; centred; Times New Roman); the name of the institution; address and e-mail of the author/s, data about the author/s: scientific field, degree, pedagogical name, scientific interests, ORCID (12pt; centred; Times New Roman).
The second document - the article itself without the name/s and surname/s of the author/s; without the name of the institution and other data. This document will be used for double-blind peer review.
Abstract (within the word limit of 150 words) in English and Lithuanian. You need to make a clear statement of the topic of your paper and your research question and methods. The Abstract should then briefly describe the work to be discussed in your paper and also give a concise summary of the findings. The Abstract should not include diagrams. General references are not required in the Abstract. Do not use special characters, symbols, or mathematical signs in the title or the abstract.
For articles submitted in a foreign language, the abstract is translated into Lithuanian by the editorial team of the journal. An abstract prepared in Lithuanian by the authors themselves is considered an advantage.
The font of the abstract is Times New Roman, Italic, font size 10 pt.
Keywords: list in English in the alphabetical order, up to 7 words or short phrases which most closely reflect the content of the paper.
Introduction [Times New Roman, 14 pt, bold, centred]
It must contain a description of the problem that this paper deals with, by showing the problem from the broader context and current situation, moving to a specific problem which this paper tries to resolve. It must contain a literature review. At the end of the introduction, it is necessary to clearly point out the objective, problem, research question or hypothesis of current study, and contribution to field.
The font of the body of the article is Times New Roman, font size 12 pt.
The page size is A4, the text is in one column, 1.5 line spacing, left page border – 25 mm, right border – 25 mm, top border – 25 mm, bottom border – 25 mm. First line indent10 mm.
Methods [Times New Roman, 14 pt, bold, centred]
This section should be brief, however, it is very important for the credibility of your article and for a professional academic writing style. Readers, academics and other researchers need to know how the information used in your academic article was collected. The research methods used for collecting or generating data will influence the discoveries and, by extension, how you will interpret them and explain their contribution to general knowledge. The methods section should fully explain the reasons for choosing a specific methodology or technique. Authors should provide information about study participants or group participants, inclusion or exclusion criteria. This section should also focus on information on how you intend to analyze your results to achieve an accurate assessment of the hypotheses, relationships, patterns, trends, distributions associated with your data and research purpose.
Results. Give priority to a graphical representation of the results of studies, whenever applicable. Use subheadings in order to achieve greater clarity of work.
Discussion. This section should give meaning to the results obtained, indicate the discoveries which have been identified, indicate the results of other studies that have dealt with a similar problem. Compare your results with other studies and highlight the differences and novelties in own results. The results should be comprehensively interpreted, analyzed and new knowledge synthesized from the analysis. A short conclusion should close the discussion section or conclusion may be given in a separate section.
Conclusion should be brief and contain the most important facts which have been identified in the paper. Conclusions must arise from the results obtained during the investigation and should include the possible application of the results.
Conflict of interest
A competing interest exists when professional judgment concerning a primary interest (such as the validity of research findings) may be influenced by a secondary interest (such as financial gain or personal rivalry). By requiring the disclosure of all funding sources and competing interests, we are seeking to improve the transparency of scientific communications by providing information that could be useful in the review process and in the interpretation of the author's conclusions. It is a statement included at the end of the manuscript, after any acknowledgements and prior to the references. If no conflict exists, it is still important to indicate in the publication that there were no funding sources and/or no competing interests by stating that ‘The Author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest’. The Editor will review and approve the statement prior to its publication with the paper. The editor should reserve the right to amend the authors' competing interest declaration based on the information provided as well as space limitations.
(Acknowledgements) if any, should be stated in this section.
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support. Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance –including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance. It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services. This section also includes references to projects.
Summary. For Lithuanian articles the summary in foreign language should be about one third the length of the original article. State the main ideas of the article. Identify the most important details that support the main ideas. Write your summary in your own words; avoid copying phrases and sentences from the article unless they’re direct quotations. Express the underlying meaning of the article, not just the superficial details.
Depending on the type and aim of the article, there may be small changes in the structure of the article (a section may be missing or added). Section titles are not numbered.
If abbreviations are used in the text, the complete phrase is given when mentioned for the first time.
No appendices are added to the scientific article.
Visual information (tables and figures) is centred.
Visual information in the figure must be as simple as possible, without unnecessary details. Curves and toning must be easily distinguishable. On the inside, the size of letters and digits must be at least 10 pt.
The figure title is always written below the figure. The figure number is typed in Times New Roman, Italic, 12 pt, the figure title – in Times New Roman, Italic, 12 pt, bold, centred. There is no period at the end of the title. If a figure comes from another source, a reference is given after the title. Figures get the numbers by the order of appearance in the text. Figure number and legends are written below the figure, for example, "Figure 3. Title text...". When referring to a figure in the manuscript text, the number of the figure has to be written in parentheses, e.g., (Figure 3). It is essential that the figure has a clear and informative title and legend which explains the presented results with sufficient details. Figure resolution must be at least 300 dpi, JPG or TIFF.
The table title is located above the table (Table 1). Tables are numbered using Arabic numerals. The table number is typed in Times New Roman, Italic, 10 pt, the table title – in Times New Roman, Italic, 10 pt, bold, centred. There is no period at the end of the title. A table gets number in the order of appearance in the text, with a clear and sufficiently informative title, i.e., "Table 3. Text table name...." A reference to the table in the text is written in parentheses, i.e. (Table 3). All the abbreviations in the table must be explained in full below the table. It is desirable to give explanations and comments below the table, which are essential for the presented results to be understood. It is preferable to include notes, which may be an explanation of separate abbreviations or symbols, below the table. If a table comes from another source, the source is specified below the table as follows: Source: …. Tables are created compact, preferably using portrait orientation, not exceeding one page.
Other documents – more complex high-quality pictures, tables, other graphical material (they must also be provided in the article) can be submitted separately.
Citation and composition of reference list
Reference list and references to the source of information in the text should be presented according to APA 7 version requirements. References are not numbered.
More information on http://www.apastyle.org/
The list of references is written in Times New Roman, 10 pt. Sources are arranged in the alphabetical order. Where available, URLs for the references have to be provided.