Guidelines

Author Guidelines

Before submitting, please read the Focus and Scope and Manuscript Types, and prepare your manuscript using the article template. Manuscripts that do not follow these guidelines will be returned to the authors before review.

1. General Requirements

  • Manuscripts must be written in English and must be original, unpublished, and not under consideration by another journal.
  • Manuscripts are prepared in Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx), A4 paper, Times New Roman 12 pt, 1.15 line spacing, with margins as set in the template.
  • Length: 7–15 pages, including references. Longer manuscripts may be considered at the editor's discretion.
  • Manuscripts are submitted online through this website. Authors must register and log in to submit.

2. Manuscript Structure

  • Title: concise and informative, no more than 10 words, written in title case.
  • Authors: full names without academic titles, followed by affiliation (department, institution, city, country) and the email address of the corresponding author. Author details are entered in the submission metadata and removed from the review file (see Section 4).
  • Abstract: 150–250 words in one paragraph, stating the background or problem, objectives, methods, main findings, and conclusion.
  • Keywords: 3–5 keywords or phrases, separated by semicolons.
  • Introduction (about 15–20% of the article): background, research context, review of relevant literature, research gap, and objectives, written as continuous paragraphs without subheadings.
  • Methods (about 10–15%): research design, data sources, data collection techniques, and data analysis.
  • Results and Discussion (about 60–70%): findings that answer the research questions, interpreted and compared with theory and previous studies.
  • Conclusion (about 10%): the main answer to the research problem, implications, limitations, and suggestions for further research, written in paragraph form.
  • Acknowledgements (optional) and funding information, if any.
  • References.

Conceptual articles follow the structure described on the Manuscript Types page.

3. References and Citations

  • Citations and references follow the APA Style, 7th edition. Only works cited in the text are listed, in alphabetical order.
  • At least 80% of references should be published within the last 10 years, with priority given to primary sources such as journal articles and research reports. Please include DOIs where available.
  • Direct quotations include page numbers, for example (Baran, 2009, p. 45).
  • The use of reference managers such as Mendeley or Zotero is strongly recommended.

Examples:

  • Journal article: Giroux, H. (2000). Public pedagogy as cultural politics: Stuart Hall and the "crisis" of culture. Cultural Studies, 14(2), 341–360.
  • Book: Cunningham, S., & Turner, G. (Eds.). (2002). The media in Australia. Allen & Unwin.
  • Book chapter: Darmawan, J. J. (2007). Mengkaji ulang keniscayaan terhadap berita (televisi) [Re-examining the inevitability of (television) news]. In P. H. Manurung (Ed.), Komunikasi dan kekuasaan (pp. 60–95). FSK.
  • Conference paper: Jongeling, S. B. (1988, September). Student teachers' preference for cooperative small group teaching [Paper presentation]. Annual Research Forum of the Western Australian Institute for Educational Research, Murdoch, Australia.
  • Thesis: Perbawaningsih, Y. (1998). Factors influencing attitudes and behavior toward computer technology [Unpublished master's thesis]. Universitas Indonesia.
  • Newspaper article: Ispandriarno, L. (2008, May 12). Green bus monitor. Koran Tempo, 4.
  • Website: Author or Organization. (Year, Month Day). Title of page. Site Name. URL

4. Preparing the File for Double-Blind Review

COMMUSTY uses double-blind peer review. Before uploading, remove author names, affiliations, acknowledgements, and funding details from the manuscript file, replace self-citations that reveal identity with "(Author, Year)", and remove personal information from the file properties.

5. Ethics and Originality

  • Authors must follow the Publication Ethics and Plagiarism Policy. The similarity index (Turnitin) must not exceed 20%.
  • Research involving human participants must obtain informed consent and protect participants' privacy.
  • Any conflict of interest and source of funding must be declared.

6. After Acceptance

Accepted manuscripts may be edited for language and style without changing their content. Authors will be asked to check the final proof, and a publication fee applies after acceptance. Articles are published open access under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license, and authors retain copyright (see Copyright and License).