GENERAL GUIDELINES
TITLE
ABSTRACT
FORMATTING REFERENCES
REFERENCES
Standard format articles – sample articles (English)

Please read and follow the manuscript formatting requirements carefully.The editors reserve the right to return the article to the author for revision if it does not meet these standards.We remind you that the authors are responsible for the selection and reliability of the facts, quotations, economic and statistical data, proper names, positions, titles and ranks, geographical names and other information, as well as for the use of data not intended for public dissemination.All submitted articles, except for editorial materials clearly marked as such, are subject to mandatory double-blind peer review by external experts and are checked for plagiarism and other forms of ethical violations (see: Ethical Principles for Authors).All articles are published in two languages, English and Russian. After the article is accepted for publication in English, its translation into Russian is prepared.

• • • Manuscripts are accepted in MS Word formats: doc, docx;
    • The total size of the article should be about 40 thousand characters, including spaces and footnotes or about 6.000 words;
    • The font type and size for the text of the article: Times New Roman, 12 pt;
    • First line indent: 1.25;
    • Line spacing: 1.5;
    • The font type and size for the title of the article: Times New Roman, 14 pt, bold, centered, capitalized;
    • © year, the author’s or authors’ last name(s): Times New Roman, 14 pt, bold, centered lowercase with first letters capitalized.

Subheadings within the article should be 12 pt Bookman Old Style plain (not bold), centered, capitalized. For better readability, authors are recommended to split the text into 4–7 logical parts, each with its separate subheading. It is also advisable to avoid too long paragraphs (that take half a page or more).

Page footnotes should be in 10 pt Times New Roman, single-spaced, without indentation.

Endnotes should not be used.

Automatic hyphenation should be enabled.

In addition to the full text of the article, the submitted file should contain the following information:

• • • title of the article;
    • author’s (authors’) LAST NAME First Name, academic degree, position, department name (specific research center or department within the institution), institution name (institute, university), location of the institution (city, country). ORCID. E-mail;
    • abstract (at least 200 words);
    • key words (at least seven);
    • references list (at least 20 positions).

Metadata (title, information about the author, abstract, keywords) are provided in both Russian and English for both the Russian and English versions of the article.

The optional “Acknowledgments” section displays the author’s acknowledgements to reviewers and other experts as well as the information about the grants under which the article was prepared.

If the manuscript contains diagrams (charts), they should be integrated into the text of the article in the format of an editable diagram (chart) made in Word in grayscale only. Figures, maps, schemes and photos (also in grayscale) should be attached to the article in separate files in JPG, TIFF, PNG, etc. with a resolution of at least 300 dpi.

All graphical material must be copyrighted by the author, and notes on tables and graphs must indicate the source of the data, including a full bibliographic description (see below). The presence of such material must not infringe the copyrights of third parties.

Tables should be designed in MS Word (uneditable “tables” in the form of images inserted in the text are not accepted!). Each table should be referenced in the text with a serial number (if there is more than one table), for example: (Table 1); in case of repeated reference: (see Table 1). The name of the table should always be written above the table, in one line, after the words “Table no. . …”, with consecutive numbering. The source of the table should be stated below the table, in full expanded form, and preceded by the words “Source: …” or “Compiled from: …”.

Sample title design:

COLLECTIVE SELF-RELIANCE: RESTARTING THE CONCEPT IN THE SAHEL IN THE CONTEXT OF A MULTIPOLARIZING WORLD ORDER

© 2024 D.A. DEGTEREV

DEGTEREV Denis Andreevich, Dr.Sc. (Political Science), PhD (Economics), Professor, Leading Research Fellow, Centre for Transition Economy Studies, Institute for African Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russian Federation. ORCID: 0000-0001-7426-1383. E-mail: xxxxx@inafr.ru

The abstract is an independent source of information on the article and should contain a brief characterization of the main topic of the article, the issues addressed in it, the object, the purpose of the research, and its result. It should indicate the novelty of the paper in comparison with other related papers in terms of its topic and purpose. The abstract allows one to get a quick overview of the main content of the article and to assess its relevance without referring to the full text; and it is also used in information systems, including automated academic information systems.

The abstract should not include fragments of the text of the article or its title. It should not include figures, tables, and in-text footnotes. The minimum acceptable length of the abstract is 200 words.

The subject, topic, and purpose are indicated if they are not clear from the title of the article; the method or methodology of the research could be described if they are characterized by novelty and uniqueness or are of specific interest from the point of view of this article.

The results of the work should be described in a very precise and informative way. The most important theoretical and experimental results, factual data, discovered relationships and patterns must be given. New results, important discoveries, conclusions, and data of practical importance should be given priority.

The abstract should be concise, without unnecessary introductory words and generalities.

Abstracts are not required for book reviews.

The article should include a bibliographical list (References). Each item in the list must be referenced in the text. The minimum number of items in References is 20. References to the author’s own works should not exceed 15% of the total list (but no more than 5 papers). Absence or insufficiency of the bibliographic list may be a reason for rejection of the article by the Editorial Board. The bibliographic list should only include scientific literature that has references to other researches, such as papers in reviewed journals, monographs, etc. Sources of information, such as news, official documents, brief comments, and expert opinions, etc., should not be included in the bibliographic list and should be given in the footnotes.

References to scientific literature, analytical reports, and articles in academic publications should be given as in-text bibliographic references in square brackets, indicating the last name of the authors or editors and the year of publication. If the authorship is not indicated in the bibliographic description, the title must be given instead in the in-text reference (a long title can be limited by an ellipsis; in the References list, all titles should be given in full). When citing an exact quotation, the specific page or range of pages of the source should be indicated after a colon.

Example:

[Vooren, Blockmans, Wouters 2023]

References to information resources (newspapers, news agencies, TV, etc.), official sources (sites of ministries and departments or international organizations), statistical and other resources published on the Internet, as well as materials from archives, brief expert comments (op-eds), which are not scientific and analytical materials (i.e., do not have references to other scientific literature), should be given in a footnote, with continuous numbering throughout the article. References to newspapers, magazines, news agencies should include not only the name of the information resource (newspaper, news agency, etc.) in italics and the date of publication (in the format date.month,year: 03.08.2024), but also the author (if any) and the title of the quoted publication; page and issue number, if available; page URL for free-access Internet resources.

The URL should be followed by the date of access in brackets: “(accessed: 14.01.2024).” After the word “accessed,” a colon is placed before the date itself. No period is placed after the brackets.

Example:

¹ Determined. Report of the Secretary-General on the Work of the Organization 2023. United Nations. 2023. https://un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/sg_annual_report_2023_en_0.pdf (accessed: 14.01.2024)

² Full text of Xi Jinping’s speech at ‘Shanghai Cooperation Organization Plus’ Meeting in Astana. People’s Republic of China. State Council. 04.07.2024. https://english.www.gov.cn/news/202407/04/content_WS6686c48ac6d0868f4e8e8e25.html (accessed: 14.01.2024)

³ Resolutions adopted by the Sixth Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government Held in Addis Ababa from 6 to 10 September 1969. AHG/Res.58/Rev.1 (VI). Resolution on Nigeria. Organization of African Unity. 1969. https://au.int/ sites/default/files/decisions/9518-assembly_en_6_10_ september_1969_assembly_heads_state_government_sixth_ordinary_session.pdf (accessed: 14.01.2024)

⁴ Obulutsa J., Holland H. Kenya’s president names John Mbadi as finance minister. Reuters. 24.07.2023. https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/kenyas-president-names-john-mbadi-finance-minister-2024-07-24/ (accessed: 25.07.2024)

⁵ Benkenstein A. East Africa Floods Highlight Urgency of COP28 Negotiations, Especially on Loss and Damage Fund. South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA). 11.12.2023. https://saiia.org.za/research/east-africa-floods-highlight-urgency-of-cop28-negotiations-especially-on-loss-and-damage-fund/ (accessed: 14.01.2024)

The References list should be arranged alphabetically. It should include scientific monographs, collections of scientific papers, articles in scientific periodicals, and scientific analytical reports.

A reference list is not required for book reviews, but it is recommended that specific pages of the reviewed work be cited several times in parentheses in the text.

Currently, most English-language journals and a number of monographs from the world’s leading publishers (Oxford, Cambridge, Palgrave Macmillan, Springer, Routledge) have DOIs. If a publication has a DOI, it should be cited at the end of the bibliographic description in the URL format (example: https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2016.1154433), without a period at the end.

A source in the References list should include the author’s or editor’s last name and initials, the year of publication, the title of the book (in italics), the place of publication (city or town), and the name of the publishing house.

In the References list of the English version of the article, resources in Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, and other languages that use their own writing systems are given as transliterations into Latin script, with the English translation in parentheses. Generally accepted romanization systems and methodological guidelines for a particular language pair should be used (e.g., pinyin for transliteration from Chinese to Latin).

Example:

Mao Zedong. (1991). Wei renmin fuwu (Serve the people). In: Mao Zedong xuan ji (Selected works of Mao Zedong) Vol. 3. Beijing: Waiwen yinshuachang, 1991.

Initials are placed after the author’s (editor’s) last name with a non-breaking space (Ctrl+Shift+Space). The author’s (editor’s) name should be in roman type (i.e., not italicized), followed by “(Ed.)” or “(Eds.)” in brackets for editor(s).

Metadata in the reference list is separated by a dot (not // or any other sign). A colon is placed after the name of the city of publication and before the name of the publishing house. For example: Moscow: Institute for African Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences.

A reference to an electronic source or document is acceptable if its printed version is unavailable. The page URL and date of reference to the document should be given in parentheses (the date, month, and year when the author of the paper accessed the referenced document). A period should not be placed after the hyperlink and the date of access.

For articles published in scientific journals, the last name and initials of the author; the year of publication in parentheses; the title of the article; the title of the journal (in italics); the volume if available (e.g., Vol. 15); the number of the issue (e.g., № 2; in the case of continuous numbering without division into numbered volumes, the number from the beginning of the year may be given first, followed by the continuous number in parentheses: e.g. “№ 2(67)”, with obligatory indication of the year of publication); page range (Pp. 15–25); for Internet publications without DOI, page URL and date of access should be indicated. For peer-reviewed scientific journals, it is not necessary to provide hyperlinks to JSTOR; Academia; ResearchGate, etc.; it is sufficient to indicate the standard imprint information.

The name of the basic source should be italicized: in case of an article in a journal, the title of the journal; in case of a chapter in a monograph or collection, the title of the monograph/collection.

When citing collections of articles and collective monographs, the name(s) of the editor(s) is indicated at the beginning instead of the author(s)’. The in-text citation in square brackets should also contain the last name of the editor(s) and the year of publication.

If a monograph or article has more than three authors (editors), then all authors (editors) are indicated in the References section, and only the first of them is indicated in the in-text citation: [Jones et al. 2022].

Examples:

1. A book is described as follows:

In the text: [Amin 1997].

References: Amin S. (1997). Capitalism in the Age of Globalization. The Management of Contemporary Society. London: Zed Books.

2. An article from a periodical is described as follows:

In the text: [Bondarenko 2022].

References: Bondarenko D.M. (2022). Cultural Anthropology in the USA. Representations of the Civil War and the Abolition of Slavery in the North and the South. Anthropos. Vol. 117. № 2. Pp. 411–422. http://doi.org/10.5771/0257-9774-2022-2-411

3. A chapter in the collective monograph is described as follows:

In the text: [Vasiliev, Degterev, Shaw 2023].

References: Vasiliev A.M., Degterev D.A., Shaw T.M. (2023). African Summitry: Representation of “External Other” in the “Power Transit” Era. In: Vasiliev A.M., Degterev D.A., Shaw T.M. (Eds.). Africa and the Formation of the New System of International Relations. Vol. II. Advances in African Economic, Social and Political Development. Cham: Springer. Pp. 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-34041-3_1

4. If the bibliography lists several works by the same author(s) for the same year, the year should be followed by letters: a, b, c. Multiple sources in an in-text reference are separated by semicolons.

In the text: [Fituni, Abramova 2020а; Fituni, Abramova 2020b].

References: Fituni L.L., Abramova I.O. (2020a). UK’s New Strategy for Africa in Light of Russia’s Interests. Contemporary Europe. № 6(99). Pp. 52–63. (In Russ.). http://dx.doi.org/10.15211/soveurope620205263

Fituni L.L., Abramova I.O. (2020b). Political theory of decolonization: Essentials of modern reading. Polis. Political Studies. № 6. Pp. 26–40. (In Russ.). https://doi.org/10.17976/jpps/2020.06.03

All abbreviations should be defined the first time they are mentioned.

In headings, all major words should be capitalized.

In proper names, initials (without space) are followed by an unbroken space (Ctrl+Shift+Space) before the last name (I.I. Ivanov or S.S. Sidorov).

Hyphens should not be used instead of en-dashes or em-dashes. To type in en-dash in MS Word, use combination (Ctrl+-) (“Control” with minus sign on the numeric keyboard). To type in em-dash, use (Ctrl+Alt+-).

Numerical ranges (of years, pages, etc.) should use an en-dash, not a hyphen, without spaces. For example: “Pp. 10–12” (not: “P. 10-12” and not “P. 10 – 12”), ”2005–2010” (not: 2005-2010).

For the English version of the article, the main type of quotation marks used is “…” (“double curved”; not guillemets or “straight quotes”); and ‘…’ (“single curved”) are used in the secondary level of quotation. The apostrophe must be curved (not a “straight apostrophe”).

The period should not be placed after: the title of the article, name of the author/authors of the article, headings and subheadings, titles of tables and figures, dimensions (s—second, g—gram, m—meter, km—kilometer, t—ton, kilowatt—kW, megawatt—MW).

The period should be placed after: footnotes (including in tables), notes to the table, captions to figures, abbreviations.

Kilowatt-hour: kWh, megawatt: MWh (not kW/h, MW/h).

U.S. dollar is indicated with an $ sign before the digit without an interval; all other currencies are indicated with their names after the digits (e.g., $1, $5 million, 5 euros, 250,000 Namibian dollars).

Cubic, square meters: cubic. m (not m³), sq. km (not km²).

When referring in the text to a chapter, paragraph, table, figure, diagram, type: (ch. 1), (para. 1), (tab. 1), (fig. 1), (diagram 1).