Manuscript Preparation and Formatting Guidelines

Authors are requested to prepare their manuscripts carefully in accordance with the following guidelines. Compliance with these requirements will facilitate the editorial screening, peer-review, production, indexing, and long-term discoverability of articles published in International Education Trend Issues (IETI).

An optional manuscript template may be downloaded here . Authors are strongly encouraged to use the journal template and include continuous line numbering during submission to facilitate the peer-review process.

1. General Formatting Requirements

Manuscripts should be written in clear, concise, and academically appropriate English. Authors are responsible for ensuring that the manuscript has been carefully proofread before submission. The manuscript should be submitted in an editable Microsoft Word format unless otherwise specified by the journal.

The manuscript should be logically organized, consistently formatted, and prepared without unnecessary decorative elements. Tables and figures should be numbered consecutively and cited in the main text.

2. Title Page and Authorship Information

The title page should contain the following information:

• A concise and informative manuscript title;
• Full names of all authors;
• Institutional affiliation of each author, including department or faculty, institution, city, and country;
• Email address of each author;
• ORCID iD of each author, where available;
• Clear identification of the corresponding author; and
• Corresponding author's institutional email address.

Author names and affiliations. Authors are responsible for ensuring the accuracy and consistency of their names and institutional affiliations. International Education Trend Issues (IETI) remains neutral with respect to jurisdictional claims in published institutional affiliations. The editorial office may request minor standardization of affiliation information to improve metadata consistency, indexing, and discoverability.

3. Abstract

Each research article should include a concise and self-contained abstract of no more than 250–300 words. The abstract should not contain citations, undefined abbreviations, tables, figures, or references.

For empirical research, the abstract should clearly present the research background or purpose, methodology, principal findings, and major conclusion or implication of the study.

4. Keywords

Authors should provide approximately 3–6 keywords immediately following the abstract. Keywords should accurately represent the principal concepts of the manuscript and, where possible, should avoid simply repeating words already contained in the article title.

5. Introduction

The Introduction should establish the scholarly context and significance of the study. It should clearly explain the research problem, relevant theoretical or empirical background, existing knowledge gap, originality or contribution of the study, and the research objective or research questions.

The Introduction should be focused and analytically developed rather than consisting primarily of a descriptive summary of previous studies. Excessive subdivision into subheadings should generally be avoided unless justified by the nature of the manuscript.

6. Literature Review and Theoretical Framework

Where appropriate, manuscripts should provide a critical synthesis of relevant and sufficiently recent literature. The literature review should demonstrate how the study relates to existing scholarship and should establish the theoretical, conceptual, or empirical basis of the research.

Authors should avoid presenting the literature review merely as a sequence of summaries. Instead, previous studies should be compared, evaluated, synthesized, and used to establish the research gap and contribution of the manuscript.

7. Materials and Methods / Research Methodology

The methodology section should provide sufficient information to enable readers to understand, evaluate, and, where appropriate, replicate the research. Authors should clearly describe the research design, research setting, population and sample or participants, sampling procedures, instruments, data sources, data collection procedures, variable or construct measurement, and analytical techniques.

Qualitative studies should clearly explain participant selection, data collection procedures, analytical framework, coding or interpretation procedures, and measures used to establish the credibility or trustworthiness of the findings.

Quantitative studies should clearly describe the study design, sample, variables, measurement procedures, statistical techniques, software used where relevant, assumptions or diagnostic procedures, and criteria for interpreting results.

Mixed-methods studies should explain the rationale for integrating quantitative and qualitative approaches and clearly describe how the different forms of evidence were integrated.

Where established research instruments, questionnaires, scales, datasets, software, or other copyrighted materials are used, authors are responsible for obtaining any necessary permissions or licenses. Appropriate citations should be provided for previously developed research instruments and methodological procedures.

8. Research Ethics

Research involving human participants must comply with applicable ethical standards and institutional or national requirements. Where ethical approval was required, the manuscript should identify the approving institution or research ethics committee and, where applicable, provide the approval or reference number.

Where ethical approval was not required, authors should provide an appropriate explanation when relevant to the nature of the research.

9. Informed Consent

For research involving identifiable human participants, authors should confirm that appropriate informed consent was obtained where required. Authors must ensure that information capable of identifying individual participants is not published without explicit authorization.

10. Results

The Results section should present the principal findings of the study clearly, accurately, and logically. Results should directly address the research questions, objectives, or hypotheses.

Tables and figures should be used only when they improve the clarity or interpretation of the findings. Information presented in tables or figures should not be unnecessarily repeated in full in the narrative text.

11. Discussion

The Discussion should interpret the findings in relation to the research questions, theoretical framework, and previous studies. Authors should explain the meaning and scholarly significance of the results rather than simply repeating numerical or descriptive findings.

The discussion should identify areas of agreement or disagreement with previous research, provide plausible explanations for important findings, and clearly articulate the theoretical, methodological, educational, managerial, policy, or practical implications of the study where applicable.

12. Results and Discussion Combined

Authors may combine the Results and Discussion sections when this structure is more appropriate for the research design or disciplinary tradition. When combined, the presentation should remain logically organized and should clearly distinguish between empirical findings and their interpretation.

13. Review Articles

Review manuscripts should provide a rigorous, critical, and well-structured synthesis of the relevant literature. The main body may be divided into appropriate thematic or analytical subsections.

Systematic reviews, scoping reviews, bibliometric studies, and other evidence-synthesis manuscripts should clearly describe their search strategy, information sources, eligibility criteria, screening procedures, analytical methods, and other relevant methodological procedures.

14. Conclusion

The Conclusion should provide a concise synthesis of the principal findings and explain the contribution and relevance of the study. It should not simply reproduce statements already presented in the abstract or discussion.

Where appropriate, authors should identify the major limitations of the study and provide realistic recommendations for future research, professional practice, educational policy, or other relevant applications.

15. Data Availability Statement

Authors should include a Data Availability Statement explaining whether and how the data supporting the findings of the study can be accessed.

Where data are publicly available, authors should provide the repository name, persistent identifier, DOI, or other appropriate access information. Where data cannot be made publicly available because of ethical, legal, privacy, commercial, or confidentiality restrictions, the reason should be clearly stated.

Example: “The data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.”

16. Author Contributions

All manuscripts with more than one author should include an Author Contributions Statement that transparently describes each author's contribution to the work.

Authors are encouraged to describe contributions using recognized contributor roles such as conceptualization, methodology, investigation, data curation, formal analysis, writing – original draft, writing – review and editing, visualization, supervision, project administration, and funding acquisition, as applicable.

All listed authors must have made a meaningful scholarly contribution to the manuscript and must approve the final version submitted for publication.

17. Conflicts of Interest

Authors must disclose any financial, professional, institutional, personal, or other relationships that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the research, interpretation of the results, editorial process, or presentation of the manuscript.

If no competing interests exist, authors should include the following statement:

“The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this article.”

The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all co-authors have disclosed any relevant competing interests. Declared conflicts will be evaluated by the editorial team and, where appropriate, published with the article.

For further information, authors should consult the journal's Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement .

18. Funding Statement

Authors must disclose all financial support received for the research and/or publication of the article. The full name of each funding organization and the relevant grant number should be provided where applicable.

Example:

“This research was supported by [Full Name of Funding Organization] under Grant No. [XXXX].”

If the research received no specific funding, authors may state:

“This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.”

Where a funder had a role in study design, data collection, analysis, manuscript preparation, or the decision to submit the manuscript for publication, this involvement must be disclosed.

19. Acknowledgments

Individuals or organizations that contributed to the research but do not meet the criteria for authorship may be recognized in the Acknowledgments section. Authors should obtain permission before naming individuals in this section.

Acknowledgments should appear after the main text and before the reference list.

20. Use of Artificial Intelligence and AI-Assisted Technologies

Authors must disclose the use of generative artificial intelligence or AI-assisted technologies when such tools have been used substantially in manuscript preparation, language generation, data analysis, coding, image generation, or other parts of the research or publication process.

AI tools cannot be listed as authors because authorship requires accountability for the integrity, originality, accuracy, and scholarly content of the work. Human authors remain fully responsible for all material included in the submitted manuscript.

Routine tools used solely for basic spelling, grammar, reference management, or formatting generally do not need to be listed as authorship contributions; however, authors remain responsible for complying with the journal's editorial and research-integrity policies.

21. Tables

Tables should be numbered consecutively using Arabic numerals in the order in which they are first cited in the text. Each table should have a concise and informative title.

Tables must be editable and should not be submitted solely as screenshots or images. Explanatory notes, abbreviations, and statistical significance indicators should be defined below the table where necessary.

22. Figures and Illustrations

Figures, charts, diagrams, photographs, maps, and other illustrations should be numbered consecutively and cited in the main text. Each figure should include a concise caption that allows the content to be understood without excessive reference to the main text.

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce any copyrighted material that is not their original work.

23. Mathematical Expressions and Statistical Reporting

Mathematical equations should be presented clearly and numbered consecutively where they are referred to elsewhere in the manuscript. Variables and symbols should be defined when first introduced.

Statistical analyses should be reported accurately and transparently. Authors should report appropriate measures of effect, uncertainty, model fit, significance, or other relevant statistical information according to the methodological approach used.

24. References and Citation Style

International Education Trend Issues (IETI) uses the American Psychological Association (APA), 7th edition citation and reference style.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that all references are complete, accurate, and consistent. Every source cited in the text must appear in the reference list, and every entry in the reference list must be cited in the manuscript.

Authors are encouraged to prioritize relevant peer-reviewed literature and, where appropriate, recent international scholarship. Excessive reliance on non-scholarly websites, unpublished materials, or sources of uncertain academic quality should be avoided.

Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) should be included whenever available and should be presented in standard URL format.

Examples:

Journal article:
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (2025). Title of the article. Journal Title, 10(2), 100–115. https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx

Book:
Author, A. A. (2024). Title of the book. Publisher.

Book chapter:
Author, A. A. (2024). Title of chapter. In B. B. Editor (Ed.), Title of the book (pp. 20–40). Publisher.

25. Citation of Data, Software, and Research Materials

Datasets, software, computer code, research instruments, protocols, and other research materials that constitute scholarly contributions should be appropriately cited whenever possible. Authors should provide persistent identifiers such as DOIs or repository links where available.

26. Supplementary Materials

Authors may submit supplementary materials that provide additional information relevant to the article but are not essential to understanding the principal findings. These materials may include datasets, questionnaires, interview protocols, extended tables, multimedia files, additional analyses, code, or methodological documentation.

Supplementary materials should be clearly labeled and referred to appropriately in the manuscript.

27. Originality and Plagiarism

Manuscripts submitted to IETI must represent original scholarly work and must not be under simultaneous consideration by another journal.

Authors must appropriately acknowledge and cite all ideas, data, text, figures, and other materials derived from previously published or unpublished sources. Manuscripts may be screened using plagiarism-detection or similarity- checking software as part of the editorial assessment.

28. Language and Academic Writing

Manuscripts should be written in professional academic English appropriate for an international scholarly readership. Authors whose first language is not English are encouraged to have their manuscripts carefully reviewed for grammar, clarity, terminology, and academic style before submission.

Language quality alone does not determine scientific merit; however, manuscripts must be sufficiently clear for editors and reviewers to evaluate the research reliably.

29. Final Submission Checklist

Before submitting a manuscript, authors should ensure that:

• The manuscript fits the journal's Focus and Scope;
• The submission is original and is not under consideration elsewhere;
• All authors have approved the manuscript and agreed to its submission;
• Author names, affiliations, emails, and ORCID iDs have been checked;
• The abstract and keywords meet journal requirements;
• Research methods are described transparently;
• Required ethical approval and informed-consent statements are included;
• All tables and figures are numbered and cited in the text;
• Conflict of Interest, Funding, Data Availability, and Author Contribution statements are included;
• Any substantial use of generative AI or AI-assisted technology has been disclosed where applicable;
• References follow APA 7th edition consistently;
• DOIs have been included wherever available; and
• The manuscript has been carefully proofread before submission.

30. Editorial Compliance

Manuscripts that do not substantially comply with these Author Guidelines may be returned to the corresponding author for technical revision before peer review. Compliance with formatting requirements does not guarantee acceptance. All manuscripts remain subject to editorial assessment, peer review, research-integrity checks, and the journal's publication policies.