Author Guidelines

Authors are required to carefully follow the journal's manuscript preparation and submission requirements.

General Requirements

Manuscripts submitted to LOKANUSA must be original, unpublished, and not under consideration by another journal. Authors must ensure that the manuscript represents their own scholarly work and complies with ethical standards for academic publication.

Manuscripts should provide a clear scholarly contribution to local administration, governance, public management, public policy, or regional development.

Manuscript Format

The manuscript should be prepared using the official LOKANUSA article template.

The general manuscript format is:

  1. A4 paper size
  2. Georgia font
  3. Main text 12 pt
  4. 1.5 line spacing
  5. Justified alignment
  6. Margins of approximately 2.5 cm
  7. Manuscript length generally between 6 and 15 pages, including tables and figures

Article Title

The title should be concise, informative, and accurately reflect the main focus of the study. The recommended maximum length is 12 words.

Author Information

Authors must provide their complete names, institutional affiliations, and email addresses. One author must be clearly identified as the corresponding author.

Abstract

The manuscript must include an abstract of approximately 150 to 200 words. The abstract should briefly present the research background, objectives, methods, principal findings, and conclusions.

The abstract should not contain citations, uncommon abbreviations, tables, figures, or references.

Keywords

Authors should provide three to five keywords that accurately represent the main themes of the manuscript.

Manuscript Structure

Research articles should generally contain:

Introduction
The introduction should explain the research background, problem, research gap, novelty, research objectives, and relevant context.

Literature Review
The literature review should synthesize relevant theories and previous research rather than merely provide general definitions.

Research Methods
This section should clearly explain the research design, setting, population or participants, sampling, data sources, research instruments, data collection procedures, analytical techniques, and relevant ethical considerations.

Results and Discussion
Results must be presented systematically and should directly address the research objectives or research questions. The discussion should interpret the findings, compare them with previous studies, explain theoretical and practical implications, and identify the study's contribution.

Conclusion
The conclusion should synthesize the main findings, respond directly to the research objectives, and explain relevant theoretical, institutional, practical, or policy implications. New data or references should not be introduced in the conclusion.

References
References must contain only sources cited in the manuscript.

Tables and Figures

Tables and figures must be numbered sequentially and cited in the text.

Table titles should be placed above the table. Tables should be clear, concise, and preferably avoid unnecessary vertical lines.

Figure titles should be placed below the figure. Authors are responsible for obtaining permission when reproducing copyrighted images or figures.

Citation and Reference Style

LOKANUSA uses the APA Style for citations and references.

Authors are encouraged to use reference management software such as Zotero, Mendeley, or EndNote to ensure consistency.

Recent, relevant, and academically credible scholarly literature should be prioritized.

Submission

Manuscripts must be submitted through the official LOKANUSA online submission system.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that all submission metadata, including author names, affiliations, email addresses, article title, abstract, and keywords, are entered accurately.

Incomplete submissions may be returned to authors before editorial evaluation.