Authors Guidelines
Submission Overview
Types of Publication Type
Manuscripts submitted to JICC must not have been published previously and must not be under consideration for publication in another journal. Authors should ensure that the manuscript is original, complete, and prepared according to the journal’s submission guidelines. Where relevant, sufficient methodological details, data sources, research instruments, or supplementary materials should be provided to support transparency and research integrity. We accept the following main types of manuscripts for submission:
Article: Original research manuscripts that present new findings, arguments, analyses, or interpretations. Articles should be clearly written, well-structured, and supported by an appropriate research design, methodology, analysis, and discussion. The manuscript should make a meaningful contribution to existing knowledge and should not unnecessarily split a single study into several related submissions.
Review: Review manuscripts provide a concise, critical, and well-organized overview of recent developments, debates, theories, methods, or evidence in a specific area. Review articles should identify key gaps, limitations, and future research directions. Systematic reviews should follow recognized reporting guidelines, such as PRISMA, where applicable.
Submission Process
Manuscripts should be submitted online by registering through the Submission Portal . The corresponding author must ensure that all co-authors are eligible and update their profiles, preferably with an ORCID . The corresponding author is responsible for the submission, ensures that the coauthors are eligible, and adds all of them during the submission process. We encourage you to integrate your ORCID with your profile during registration. Only the assigned or corresponding author can log in to the OJS portal and see and check updates. All the papers received will be submitted for peer review by members of the board of editors. This process is normally expected to take between two and four months.
Accepted File Formats
We strongly advise authors to use the submission template (available below). Please follow the template closely, including all directions therein; the most important are summarized below. Please avoid modifying the template. Papers that do not conform to the template and guidelines will be considered incomplete submissions. The template is intended to make this process as smooth and painless as possible for everyone. We encourage the author to follow the following structure for the manuscript: Title, Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Literature Review, Methodology, Data Analysis, Findings or Results, Discussion, Implications, Future Research and Recommendations, Conclusion, References (APA 6th edition), Appendix.
Required Submission Files
- Manuscript Original file Download the Manuscript Submission File
- Title Page including the author's name, affiliation, Email address, ORCID, Author's Biodata, Funding Information (if any), Author Contributions, Conflict of Interest, and other Ethics Statements (if any). Download Title Page Format.
- Ethical clearance letter/certificate or ethics waiver.
- Any Supplementary files (If Any)
- Color-coded Similarity Report (not older than two days)
- Compliance checklists (e.g., EQUATOR)
- Copyright release from third-party owner and indemnification agreement form
- Correction Request Form (e.g., author change request form)
- Language editing confirmation letter
- Online-only appendices for consideration
Supplementary files: This may be any format, but it is recommended that you use common, non-proprietary formats where possible.
Authorship Agreement and Disclosure Statements Form
An Authorship Agreement and Disclosure Statement Form is required after the desk review. A document or form that typically includes a cover letter introducing the manuscript, information about the authors' contributions and affiliations, any disclosure statements, and agreements related to copyright and licensing. All compulsory sections need to be completed properly. If you feel any difficulty filling out this form, don't hesitate to get in touch with our editorial office (jicc@immi.se) for your help.
Ethical clearance letter/certificate or ethics waiver certificate
If you have any funding or Human research participants or experimental procedures with humans or animals in your research, then please attach an Ethical clearance letter/certificate or ethics waiver from the ethics committee of your institution on the official letterhead, including contact details of the ethics committee.
Cover Letter
We encourage the author to include it with the manuscript submission. The cover letter should be concise and briefly explain the significance of the manuscript, the originality of the work, and the submission's relevance to the journal. The cover letter should not repeat the abstract. Instead, it should provide a brief statement explaining why the manuscript is suitable for the journal's consideration. All cover letters must include the following statements:
- We confirm that neither the manuscript nor any part of its content is currently under consideration for publication in another journal or has been published elsewhere.
- We confirm that all authors have approved the manuscript and agree with its submission to the JICC.
Author Identification
Authors should provide complete and accurate identification details during submission. This includes each author’s full name, institutional affiliation, email address, and ORCID iD, where available. Authors may also provide a short biography if requested by the journal. The biography should be written in one paragraph and may include the following information: Full name and current position; Educational background; Institutional or professional experience; Current research interests.
Author Affiliation
All authors must provide their current institutional affiliation. When the research was conducted primarily at a different institution, authors should also indicate the affiliation where the work was carried out or supported. It is the responsibility of the authors to ensure that all names, affiliations, and contact details are accurate at the time of submission. Incorrect author or affiliation details may affect proper attribution, indexing, citation, institutional reporting, promotion, or funding records. After publication, changes to author names, affiliations, or addresses may not be permitted unless a formal correction is justified and approved by the editorial office. Authors who are not currently affiliated with a university, research institution, organization, or company should identify themselves as Independent Researchers. Where applicable, independent researchers should provide a valid email address and any relevant information required by the journal to verify authorship, contribution, and correspondence details.
What are Incomplete Submissions?
An incomplete submission is a manuscript that is missing the required file or is not completed correctly. Authors must upload the original manuscript file, title page, and complete all required submission information according to the journal guidelines. The Cover Letter and Authorship, Disclosure Statements, Copyright, and License Agreement Form may be submitted after the desk review stage, if the manuscript proceeds further in the editorial process.
To ensure a complete submission, provide all required files and complete any necessary forms as specified in the journal's submission guidelines. Failing to include any of these required elements may result in the submission being considered incomplete and potentially removed from the system.
Manuscript Preparation
| File Setup |
Ensure all files are anonymized: Remove author names, inspect and remove document properties, and save accordingly. To ensure the integrity of anonymous peer review, every effort should be made to prevent the identities of the authors and reviewers from being known to each other. This involves the authors, editors, and reviewers (who upload documents as part of their review) checking to see if the following steps have been taken with regard to the text and the file properties:
➤ MS Word (File → Info → Check for Issues → Inspect Document → Remove Personal Information) |
| Accepted File Formats | Use MS Word (Office 2010-present). Submissions are expected to be in English and should have a maximum length of 9500 words (including abstract, citations, bibliography, and appendices). |
| Title | The article’s full title should contain a maximum of 95 characters (including spaces). If there is a subtitle, a colon (:) should follow the main title, and the subtitle should be on the following line. This should be followed on another line by the authors' or authors' names. |
| Author Details |
Add the author details in a separate file. Name and Affiliation, including email address and ORCID. The mailing address and email address of all authors, with separate footnotes for each author. |
| Abstract |
The abstract, written in English, should be no more than 250 words long and in the past tense. The abstract should concisely summarise the topic's objectives, methods, results, and significance. The unstructured abstract for an Original Research article should be six paragraphs long, with no headings: Background, Aim, Setting, Methods, Results, Conclusion, and Contributions. The latter is the abstract's only labelled heading. -Do not add any citations in the abstract - Do not add any statistical value to the abstract -Do not cite references or use abbreviations excessively in the abstract. |
| Keywords | Provide 5 to 7 keywords that best capture the article's content. |
| Declarations |
All manuscripts must contain the following sections under the heading 'Declarations'. If any of the sections are not relevant to your manuscript, please include the heading and write 'Not applicable' for that section. Funding (information that explains whether and by whom the research was supported) Conflicts of interest/Competing interests (include appropriate disclosures) Data availability (data transparency) Code availability (software application or custom code) Authors' contributions Authors' contributions (Add the authors' contribution statement for all authors) Author 1: Conceptualization, Methodology, Data collection, Formal analysis, Writing - Original Draft, Visualization. Author 2: Data collection, Validation, Writing - Review & Editing. Author 3: Supervision, Project Administration, Writing - Review & Editing. |
| Acknowledgements | Contributors must acknowledge all the research funding sources pertinent to their article. It is important to spell out all acronyms of funding agencies in full. The acknowledgement of funding sources recognizes the contribution of funding entities, meets their stipulations, and enhances the transparency of the research. |
| Funding Statement Examples |
"The work leading to these findings was financed by the project 'AAA,' which is part of the 'BBB' program, under Grant agreement number NNN." "This study was funded by the INSTITUTION (Grant agreement number NNN)." "No specific funding was obtained for this research from any agencies in the public, commercial, or non-profit sectors." |
| Figures and Tables | All the Figures and Tables must be added with Captions, Funding Information (if any), Author Contributions, Conflict of Interest, and other Ethics Statements (if any). |
| Text Formatting |
Manuscripts should be submitted in Word.
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| Headings |
All sections, subsections, and subsubsections should be numbered as follows: 1. Introduction, 1.1. First subsection, 1.1.1. First subsubsection, and so on. If a given section has a subsection, it must have a minimum of two; likewise, if a given subsection has a subsubsection, it must have a minimum of two. The first line of any new section, subsection, or subsubsection should not be indented. Any subsequent paragraphs should be indented a uniform 1cm. There should be no additional space between paragraphs. Please do not do a double return between paragraphs. The typeface in the template is set to Times New Roman throughout. Please do not change this. Italics should be reserved for foreign words and phrases, as well as specialized terms and phrases, on the first reference. Boldface may be used in moderation for emphasis. |
| Abbreviations | Abbreviations should be defined at first mention and used consistently thereafter. |
| Long Quotations | Long quotations (four lines or more) should be indented 1cm and separated from the main text (see template). Shorter quotations should be incorporated into the main text. |
| 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. |
| Artwork and Illustrations |
Electronic Figure Submission
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| Permissions | If you include figures that have already been published elsewhere, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner(s). Please be aware that some publishers do not grant electronic rights for free, and we will not be able to refund any costs incurred to obtain these permissions. In such cases, material from other sources should be used. |
| Accessibility |
In order to give people of all abilities and disabilities access to the content of your figures, please make sure that
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| Generative AI Images |
Please review our policy on generative AI images and ensure your work adheres to the principles outlined therein. |
| Supplementary Information |
We accept electronic multimedia files (animations, movies, audio, etc.) and other supplementary files to be published online along with an article or a book chapter. This feature can add dimension to the author's article, as certain information cannot be printed or is more convenient in electronic form. Before submitting research datasets as Supplementary Information, authors should read the journal’s Research Data Policy. We encourage research data to be archived in data repositories wherever possible. Audio, Video, and Animations
Text and Presentations
Spreadsheets
Specialized Formats
Collecting Multiple Files
Numbering
Captions
Processing of supplementary files
Accessibility In order to give people of all abilities and disabilities access to the content of your supplementary files, please make sure that
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| Citations |
In-text citations should look like this: (Kennedy 2003), (Kennedy 2003, 2005), (Kennedy 2003, James 2017), (Kennedy 2003, 2005; James 2017). The template includes examples of all common types of entries for the bibliography at the end. ➤ Self-Citation Policy |
| References |
All references will appear at the end of the article. Please follow the examples below. Form Online Journal with DOI: Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume number, page range. https://doi.org/10.0000/0000 Volume no, Issue no, page no, and DOI are important to add. Example: Alpers, L. M., & Hanssen, I. (2022). Culturally Congruent And Linguistically Correct Translations Of Proms As A Basis For Communication In Healthcare. Journal of Intercultural Communication, 22(4), 14–21. https://doi.org/10.36923/jicc.v22i3.83. From Newspaper Articles: Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of the article. Title of Newspaper. Retrieved from http://www.someaddress.com/full/url/ Example: Gendron & B. Burlingham (1989, April). The Entrepreneur of the Decade: An interview with Steve Jobs, Inc., 114-128. Form Books: Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Location: Publisher. (Visit here for more information on how to cite a book.) Example: Carland, J.W. & J.A. Carland (1999). Small business management: Tools for success (Second Edition). Houston, TX: Dame Publishing. We accept the APA 6th edition reference format. So, it's essential to include the author(s) ' names, publication year, paper title, journal name, volume number, issue number, page numbers, and DOI. We recommend that the authors add the bibliography using the software packages EndNote, Zotero, Mendeley, or Reference Manager. |
| Biographical Note and Appendices |
-A short biographical note at the end, just before the bibliography, in the section titled About the author(s). This should be accompanied, where possible, by a small photo of the author (150x200 pixels is fine). -Appendices should be kept to a minimum and preferably be short. |