How to Write an Article

Considering the nature of specialized university journals and their scientific degree, the emphasis of the content of this section is on the way of organizing and writing research articles. However, other types of articles can be accepted and published by the decision of the editorial board of each journal; because in addition to research articles, it is possible to publish other types of articles such as review articles, theoretical articles, letters to the editor, etc.

       Obviously, all types of articles have some common and different features. These features are generally related to their content and structure. In this section, although due to the importance of research articles compared to other articles, the content and structure of research articles are described, the common features of other articles are also discussed. In most of the sources that describe and explain the types of articles, as in the approach of the present text, the emphasis is always on research articles. Before submitting the article to the journals of Allameh Tabatabai University, it is recommended to consider the following points in writing and editing the article:

General Principles of Article Submission

1) The content of the article must be related to the scope of the journal;

2) The majority of the articles in each issue of a journal is dedicated to research articles reporting of a specific research results;

3) The article has not been submitted or published before to any local or foreign publication. It should be noted that the authors must refrain from submitting the article to another Journal for four months after submitting it to the journal in question, and during this time, they can check the status of the submitted article through the electronic system or the internal manager of the journal.

4) Authors are required to submit all the required documents such as: a) Main Manuscript with the structure of the article (without authors' names); b) Main Manuscript with the structure of the article (with authors’ names); c) Commitment Form of the author/s (signed by all authors); and d) Conflicts of Interest Form (signed by the corresponding author).

*If the original article with authors’ name is submitted for the review process, it will be removed from the process..

5) The main text of the article includes: introduction, review of the literature, method, findings, discussion, and conclusion, conflicts of interest, acknowledgements and references. Avoid using subtitles and if necessary, express them in a sentence (for example: The research instruments are as follows :…).

6) The main text of the article should exceed to more than 6000 words (the number of words in the abstract is considered separately).

7) Articles with more than 15% similarity will not be accepted.

8) The English translation of the Persian references should be arranged considering the standard referencing format and placed at the end of the reference list with the expression [In Persian] added.

9) All authors must have an ORCID code. To get the ORCID code, register in the ORCID website at https://orcid.org/ and receive your ORCID code for free.

10. Use styles for formatting.
11. The first paragraph after each title should not be indented.
12. Next paragraphs should have a first-line indent of 5-7 points.
13. Numbers in the text should be converted to Persian.
14. Use (/) for decimals.
15. Arrange the spacing before the titles to 12 pt and the spacing after the title to 0 pt.

The Structure of an Article

Each submitted (research) article must have this general structure: English abstract (title, names and affiliations of authors, abstract, keywords, corresponding author's email(preferably the organizational email),  and how to cite the article), Persian abstract (title, names and affiliations of authors, abstract, keywords, corresponding author's email(preferably the organizational email), article extracting source), main text (at the end of the main text, how to cite the Persian article and the copyright model followed by the journal should be stated).

Title

The first page of any article is the title page. On the first page, the title of the article, the names and organizational affiliations of the author(s), abstract and keywords should be provided. The title of the article should be accurate and as short and interesting as possible to make the reader interested in reading the article. It also shows the main idea of the article and briefly states the variables, the problem and the relationship between them. The number of words used in the title should range from 10 to 15 (Hassanzadeh, 2012). The title should not be too short or too long. If the title is too short, it will confuse the reader and create ambiguity in them, and if the title is too long, it will cause the reader to ignore it.

      It is desirable to avoid using extra words in the title of the article. For example, using words such as "Meta-analysis” instead of “studies about” are more preferable. In the title, the words “investigation and study”, the study population and sampling are not mentioned.  It is recommended to include the dependent variable(s) as a function of the independent variable or variables. If the title of the article is extracted from the thesis or research project, it is not necessary for the title of the article to be completely similar to the title of the thesis or research project (Hassanzadeh, 2013), but it should be mentioned in the footer of the Persian abstract as below.

* The present article is taken from the Doctoral Dissertation/ Master Thesis of the University of ............... / The present article is taken from a research project entitled "................................" supported by the University/Institute..... ...........

Author(S) and Affiliated Organization(S)

After the title, the name of the author(s) and their organizational affiliation(s) is stated. The e-mail address of the corresponding author (preferably an organizational email) should be mentioned in the footnote so that the audience can contact them. If the author is not affiliated with a particular organization, their educational qualification should be included.

      The ordering of the author(s)’ names depends on their cooperation and is an agreement between the author(s) of the article. If all authors have cooperated similarly, their names can be written in alphabetical order. One should avoid writing titles such as doctor, professor, engineer, etc.

Profile template in Farsi

* The name of the corresponding author should be marked with an asterisk* and mentioned in the footer of the corresponding author's email.

Faculty Members

Academic rank (instructor, assistant professor, associate professor, full professor), department, university, city, country.

Students

Educational level (bachelor's, master's, doctorate), field of study, university, city, country.

Individuals and independent researchers

Education level (bachelor's, master's, doctorate), field of study, organization or workplace, city, country.

Students of Theology

Level (2, 3,4), field of study, seminary/theological school, city, country.

Individuals and researchers who are members of the organization/research institute

Academic rank (instructor, assistant professor, associate professor, full professor), department (if any), institution, city, country..

A Sample Profile of Faculty Members:

Academic Rank (Instructor, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Full Professor), Department, University, City, Country.

Example: Assistant Professor, Educational Psychology Dept., Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran.

A Sample of Student Profile:

The Student of (Bachelor, Master, Ph.D.), Field of Study, University, City, Country.

Example: M.Sc. Student in Educational Psychology, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran.

A Sample of Profile for Individuals and Freelance Researchers:

Degree (Bachelor, Master, Ph.D.), Field of Study, University, City, Country / Organization or Workplace, City, Country.

Example: Master of Educational Psychology, Allameh Tabataba'i University / Education Department, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

There are different types of abstracts. Each type of abstract is suitable for certain types of articles. For research articles and other articles that report a research findings, a full-length abstract is used. However, the appropriate abstract for other types of articles that do not consider specific research reports is the Abstract Guide. For theoretical (conceptual) articles, a full-length abstract is also recommended. In the following, the three mentioned abstracts are described:

• Full Abstract

This type of abstract is prepared for research articles. Its content includes purpose, method, findings, innovation (value), and conclusion, respectively. In its structured form, the mentioned parts are presented separately. It includes 150-250 words. When this abstract is prepared for theses and dissertations, it can be up to 500 words. It is recommended to write each type of abstract in one paragraph. The content of the full-length abstract should make it unnecessary for the reader to read the text of the article. (The text of the abstract is a descriptive and it is not common to mention the title and subdivisions in it). (The verbs are used in the past tense in an Abstract). Its structured form is presented below:

Purpose

Method (in two to three sentences and including the research design, statistical population, number of samples, sampling method, intervention, instrument(s) (full name of the instrument, name of the designer/creator(s) and the year of production), data analysis method (do not specify the name of the software).

Findings (two to three sentences and including the main findings without mentioning numbers and figures)

Innovation (value)

Conclusion

• Abstract Guide

It is prepared for review articles or other articles other than research articles. This abstract is a representation of the most important topics that are raised in the article and not a summary of the topics themselves, but simply shows the necessity of reading the text of the article and make it necessary for the reader to read the text. It is between 75-150 words. Its structured type includes:

Scope

The logic (argument) used

Conclusion

• Full Abstract-Guide

A combination of the previous two abstracts, especially for theoretical (conceptual) articles. The number of words is the same as that of abstract guide.

• Extended Abstract

There is another type of abstract that is used for indexing in indexed citation databases such as Scopus or Thomson Reuters. The preparation of this type of abstract is recommended for all specialized journals of the university.

Keywords

The terms of this section should be exactly extracted from the text of the abstract and refer to the main concepts of the study. In some sources, it is recommended to set the keywords alphabetically. The number of keywords or key phrases should be 4-7.

Introduction

Considering the latest guidelines and international standards, the content of the introduction includes introductory explanations, statement of the problem, main goal(s), questions or hypotheses and literature review.

     The introduction should be concise, clear, purposeful and well written. Authors should pay attention to the type, sequence, and logical order of the information provided in the introduction. These principles do not differ in quantitative, qualitative and hybrid studies, and their order includes: explaining the field of research in general, more specific explanations about the aspects of the problem that is of particular interest to this study (theoretical foundations),  and the general purpose or question of the research is stated at the end of the introduction. All of the information should be put together like pieces of a puzzle so that after reading the section, the reader will have a general picture of all the information used in this article.

Literature Review

If it is necessary to review and present the backgrounds in a separate section, and it is not considered appropriate to review the backgrounds in the introduction due to its brevity, it is possible to review the backgrounds in an independent section after the introduction.

    In this first part, the introductory material about the research topic is stated and then the research backgrounds are reviewed. Then a logical conclusion is made from the background review and the existing research gap(s) are shown. It is obvious that the best review method is the analytical or analytical-critical method, in which the backgrounds are grouped regardless of the time and place of their implementation and on the basis of similarities in the approach, and then, the opinion and viewpoint of the researcher(s) regarding them are expressed.

Method

This section includes the research design, method or approach (with a detailed description of the general method and the specific method of conducting the research), the research population, the data collection tool(s), and the data analysis method. In the first stage, the researcher must explain the research method and the research design so that the reader can get a clear picture of what was done during the research; therefore, it is necessary to provide detailed and clear explanations of the process followed, such as the method of using the independent variable, defining the variables, sampling method, assigning people to the experimental and control groups, how to record the reaction of the samples to the independent variable, how to record and measure the dependent variable and etc.

     The researcher should specify the intended population so that the reader understands who the participants of the research were. Then, it should specify the subjects or participants in the research, which actually determine the sample of the research. Of course, in case studies, the method of selecting the sample and the type of subject is different from the samples of other researches.

     In the next step, the researcher determines the instruments and tools of the research (data collection). In this section, it is necessary to pay attention to this point, if the instruments and tools used in the study are known in the scientific community of the audience, there is no need to give a detailed and complete explanation and mentioning the name of the research tool along with a brief explanation about its reliability and validity is enough. But if the research tool is designed by the researchers themselves, a complete explanation of how to evaluate the reliability and validity of the tool is required. Then, the method of data analysis should be described and the statistical steps taken should be mentioned.

Findings

The analysis and explanation of the collected data in statistical (descriptive and inferential), qualitative and mixed formats along with the limited interpretation of the data is done in this section. It should be mentioned that to explain and represent the collected data, it is enough to use one of the graph, figure and table tools. In cases where the research has a question, the answer to the question should be explained clearly and unambiguously. If there is a hypothesis in the research, the detailed description of the tests should be done and the rejected or confirmed hypotheses should be specified.

*The title is placed above the tables, figures and charts with 12pt spacing before and after them.

** The numbers of tables, figures and diagrams should be in bold font and their titles should be written simply.

***Tables should be adjusted according to APA format and font size 10.

Discussion and Conclusion

The main value of research lies in this section because the research findings are determined and the researcher's final understanding of the research is expressed. In general, in this section, the detailed interpretation of the data and the expression of the researcher's point of view regarding the findings, the comparison of the research findings with those of previous studies and showing the position of the research among similar studies are presented. Also, a brief statement of the limitations in the process of conducting the research, and the research suggestion(s) deduced from the research findings are stated in this part.

Research Design

In some studies (mostly in experimental studies), it is necessary to express the conceptual design of the research in details before writing the findings. The purpose of expressing the conceptual design of the research is to investigate how the independent variable affects the dependent variable. Therefore, at this stage, it should be explained how to control extraneous variables and how to remove their effect on the dependent variable and the independent variable.

Several Experiments in One Article

If it is intended to present and reproduce the findings of several studies in one article, an effort should be made to clearly mention the foundation, logic and methodology of the studies for the reader. If necessary, each research can be described separately and briefly, such as "Experiment 1", "Experiment 2", etc. It should also provide a description of the integration of the findings. "Methodology" and "Findings" sections should be included under the title of each research.

Meta-Analysis

A lot has been said about meta-analysis in various sources, and it is sufficient to mention only a few points here. If the number of articles in the meta-analysis was limited (for example, less than 50 titles), the bibliographic information of the articles should be listed in the ‘reference list’ and distinguished from other sources with an asterisk*. Otherwise, the bibliographic information of the articles should be arranged in a separate list and be made available as a separate file but linked with the archived article.

Conflicts of Interest

If there is any conflicts of interest, it should be mentioned in this section. Otherwise, mentioning that “There is no conflicts of interest” is sufficient.

Acknowledgements

In a short paragraph, the financial and spiritual supporters of the research should be appreciated.

References

The sources used in the article should be set based on APA 7 reference formatting method.

Jackson, L. M. (2019). The psychology of prejudice: From attitudes to social action (2nd ed.). American Psychological Association

Parenthetical citations: (Jackson, 2019)

Narrative citations:

Jackson (2019)….

Harris, L. (2014). Instructional leadership perceptions and practices of elementary school leaders [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. University of Virginia.

Parenthetical citation: (Harris, 2014)

Narrative citation:

Harris (2014)

Sanchiz, M., Chevalier, A., & Amadieu, F. (2017). How do older and young adults start searching for information? Impact of age, domain knowledge and problem complexity on the different steps of information searching. Computers in Human Behavior, 6(72), 67–78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2017.02.038

Parenthetical citations: (Sanchiz et al., 2017)

Narrative citations:

Sanchiz et al. (2017)

Cacioppo, S. (2019, April 25–28). Evolutionary theory of social connections: Past, present, and future [Conference presentation abstract]. Ninety-ninth annual convention of the Western Psychological Association, Pasadena, CA, United States.  https://westernpsych.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/WPA-Program-2019-Final-2.pdf

Parenthetical citation: (Cacioppo, 2019)

Narrative citation:

Cacioppo (2019)

Vanaei, A., & Hakemi, F. (2015). Designing adaptive neural fuzzy inference system to assess the establishment business intelligence systems in software industry. Journal of Information Technology Management, 1(7), 85-104.

Parenthetical citations: (Vanaei & Hakemi, 2015)

Narrative citations:

Vanaei and Hakemi (2015)…

See https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/ for other examples.

Physical Appearance

The following pattern should be observed for the page layout of magazines in the ministerial section:

Guide to formatting the size and font of articles

          English Abstract