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Digital Open Access Publishing

Open access (OA) is shaping the future of scholarly publishing, and Asian Research Index (ARI) is working hard to build an open future for the greater good of community.

It’s our mission to help the authors in publishing their scholarly work better, fast, and free of cost. We help researchers make their findings open to all, giving them the opportunity to create real impact and drive positive change across the world. Open access is crucial to achieving this. We believe that it is the key to building a fairer, more equitable society. One where everyone can access and benefit from discoveries – including researchers, funders, policymakers and the general public.

This includes developing services that will help you – whether you’re the one publishing, the one reading, or the one managing the entire process – to make important research more easily available.

Yes. Choosing to publish open access is easy and straightforward. It refers to the free, permanent, and unrestricted online access to scholarly research. Start your open access publishing by submitting a manuscript to ARI, and you will be on your way to making a real-world impact with your next publication.


Benefits of Open Access Publishing with ARI


Those of you who already publish with us will know the benefits. Publishing open access includes them all. You can expect:

Free of Cost

ARI is one of the very few publishers which publish scholarly works free of cost.

Market Standards

ARI publish according to the market standards providing free ISBN and ARI Id to each publication.

Multidisciplinary Collaboration

Scientists in all disciplines and subjects can access and inspire each other.

Available Everywhere

Funders, policymakers and the general public all have access to new research.

Boost Citations

Open access readily available publication provides a real boost to the citaion process.

High Quality Peer Review

A simple process with fair and rigorous double blind peer review.

Keep Copyrights

Retain the copyright to your work when you publish open access.

Immediacy

Publishing open access will make your work available immediately.

Search and Share Options

Searching within a work or recommending and sharing it with others, is facilitated to a great extent with open access publishing.


Publication Process


Submission
Acknowledgment
Review
Production
Publish

Preparing your manuscript


ARI follow Oxford University Press guidelines for preparing and publishing a manuscripts.

As you write, please follow the guidelines below to create a well-structured, discoverable, and engaging publication.

Structure

A clear structure enhances readability in both print and digital formats. In digital publications, the text structure affects how well it displays. The key is consistency in the organizational logic, at every level, from overarching sections through to granular headings.

Parts and/or sections

  • When grouping chapters into parts or sections, be consistent. Do not create any ‘orphans’ which sit outside of a part or section. If you envision any free-standing chapters, such as an introduction, please discuss the idea with your ARI editorial contact.
  • Use descriptive titles, rather than generic names, to identify all parts or sections (e.g. a book on Miguel de Cervantes would include ‘Part 1: Don Quixote and ‘Part 2: Novelas ejemplares’, rather than ‘Part 1’ or ‘Part 2’).
  • Do not use blank part-opener pages, which appear as blank screens on digital devices and are confusing to readers. Adding a useful element, such as a brief table of contents, can avoid the problem.

Chapters

  • Organize chapters logically and consistently throughout your work.
  • If you split any chapters into ‘sub-chapters’, please do it for all chapters. If some chapters are broken into parts, then all the chapters in a multi-chapter book must be.
  • Be consistent with features. If you open a chapter with a mini table of contents, use it in every chapter.
  • Write chapters to similar lengths.
  • Use headings consistently within and across chapters. For example, if you open and close with ‘Overview’ and ‘Conclusion’, follow this structure in all chapters.
  • Chapter titles should be unambiguous and informative. ‘Chapter One: The archives of La Mancha’ is better than ‘Chapter One: Introduction’.

Text

  • Avoid extensive passages of unbroken text, long headings, and large, complex tables. Your work will be read on hand-held devices. Lengthy formats, which can be difficult to read on smaller screens, will lose your reader’s attention.

Appendices

  • Number appendices separately. Name them with descriptive headings that inform and engage readers.

Headings

Headings are an essential element for making your work readable and accessible. Note the following when composing headings:

  • Use headings consistently across your work. If ‘Overview’ is a level 1 heading in chapter 1, it should be a level 1 heading in all chapters.
  • Headings should divide text into digestible chunks.
  • Open every chapter with a heading, so that no text is left sitting outside the heading structure.
  • ‘Nest’ one heading inside another logically. A level 1 heading is always followed by level 2 (don’t jump to a level 3 heading).
  • Keep headings concise, so they can work in print and digital format (in the latter, long headings are cumbersome).
  • Avoid the inclusion of references, footnotes, or ‘call-outs’ to figures, tables, or boxes in headings.

Cross references

The impact of cross-referencing within your work will have a greater value for your readers if you:

  • Point to a specific target in the text, such as a heading, figure, table, box, or paragraph number (for practitioner law authors). In digital formats, cross-referencing links precisely to the target point in the text.
  • Avoid using ‘see above’, ‘see below’, or using a page number to identify text that has a cross reference. Pagination may vary in responsive design formats (for hand-held devices) and some digital products.
  • Always include a call-out, such as ‘see Figure 1.1’ when cross-referencing non-textual material. In digital formats, use linking to direct readers to the referenced material.
  • Do not use specific references to any one format. Any references to material elsewhere in your work should make sense to readers, whatever device or format they are using to access the information.

References

References to the works of other authors are important to acknowledge their contributions to the development of your work and advance scholarly discourse. To give proper credit, make sure that all references are complete and follow a consistent reference style. Avoid print specific terms and conventions (e.g. ‘op. cit.’) that don’t work for reference linking in digital versions.

Style

Authors should follow Oxford University Press style for spelling, punctuation, text formatting, abbreviations, acceptable language, numbers, dates, and units of measure. Please compare your manuscript carefully against the style guide before you submit it. This will save time and effort during the production process.

Non-textual material

Non-textual material refers to artwork (e.g. line drawings, illustrations, halftones, or photographs), tables, boxes, or equations. Distinguishing between them is important in digital formatting. The following groups non-textual material feature-types with similar requirements:

  • Figures: line drawings, photographs, diagrams, graphs
  • Boxes: extracts, case studies, lists, vignettes, material without columns
  • Tables: material with columns

There are other factors to consider when including non-textual material:

  • Copyright: Any third-party material that you wish to reproduce must be cleared for copyright permissions. See more on this in ‘Copyright of third-party material’.
  • Call-outs: Each item of non-textual material must be labeled (e.g. ‘See Figure 1.1’) to serve as anchor text for hyperlinks.
  • Placement indicators: These are needed (in addition to call-outs) for figures and complex tables that are supplied in separate documents. The placement indicator is an instruction (placed in angle brackets) for the typesetter that indicates where to set the feature (e.g. ). It should always appear after the call-out. Please note that the figure may not appear exactly where you request.
  • Numbers and captions: Include a figure number and caption beneath the placement indicator (or list all captions) for each chapter in a separate document. Use a naming scheme identifying the chapter and its sequence of figures (e.g. ‘Figure 1.4 is the fourth figure in Chapter 1’), followed by the caption (e.g. ‘Figure 1.1 A Chihuahua (left) and a Great Dane (right). Dogs have the widest range of body sizes among mammals’).
  • Boxes: Don’t add design formatting to the boxes features in your manuscript. Please supply as text only, clearly labelled to indicate placement (e.g. , ).
  • Resolution: Please do not embed images within the text in your manuscript document as it causes a degradation of resolution. Artwork should be submitted separately in either JPG, TIFF, or EPS files (use the figure numbers as their file names). Be mindful of resolution of the images you submit—you can check resolution in the free-to-download tool, Irfan View. The ideal resolution for printed images is: For photographs, 300 dpi at 4 × 6 inches / 10mm × 15mm. For line art, 600–1200 dpi at 4 × 6 inches / 10mm × 15mm.

Copyright of third-party material

You will be responsible for obtaining permission to reuse copyright material in your work. It is a good idea to follow these best practices:

  • Start early: Failure to obtain permission to use copyrighted material may significantly affect your title’s content and publication schedule.
  • Licences: When you submit your manuscript, please include any licences already obtained, to assist your ARI editorial contact in determining which permissions are needed or granted.
  • Open Access: Highlight this when requesting permissions—it may impact a copyright holder’s decision.
  • What to request: Because the publication plan for your title may include multiple print and digital output formats, always obtain permission for the following re-use cases:
  • Formats: Print and electronic
  • Distribution: Worldwide
  • Languages: Check with your editorial contact. The options are: Arabic, English, and Urdu.
  • Duration: Life of the edition
  • Final note: Formal permission is needed to reproduce any material that is under copyright. Your ARI editorial contact cannot begin the production process until all copyright permissions are in place and documented.

Abstracts

Abstracts provide potential readers with a quick description of the work so they can decide whether a book or chapter is relevant to their needs – they are the online equivalent of the blurb on the back of a book.

  • The first sentence is the most important. Somebody looking for information quickly may not read beyond the first sentence, so it must clearly and concisely represent the key topics of the book or chapter it is describing.
  • The abstract should start with the title of the work in question (whether a chapter or whole book). The remaining text should give an overview of the content in more detail.
  • Use short, clear sentences and specific terminology.
  • The information and words in the abstract are used by search engines to optimize discovery.
  • If a term is known by an abbreviation or acronym, include both the long- and short-form names. For example, ‘cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)’, or ‘deep vein thrombosis (DVT)’.
  • Abstracts are needed for the whole book, as well as one for each chapter.
  • Book abstracts should be between 100 and 250 words.
  • Chapter abstracts should be fewer than 150 words.

Keywords

Keywords should reflect the content of the work in individual words or short, recognizable phrases (fewer than three words). These will be used alongside the abstract to facilitate searching and indexing.

  • Keywords are needed for the whole book, as well as for each chapter.
  • book – five to ten keywords
  • chapter – five to ten keywords
  • The basic form of the keyword should be used (e.g. singular nouns, infinitive verbs).
  • If an abbreviation is more familiar to the readership, it is acceptable to not include the long-form name in the keywords (e.g. ‘DNA’, rather than ‘deoxyribonucleic acid’). However, in most cases it is advisable to use both short- and long-form terms as separate keywords.
  • Use of keywords needs to be consistent between chapters, including the use of synonyms, commercial or generic drug names, Latin, medical, or common terms. For edited works (i.e. those with multiple contributors), enforcing consistency is the responsibility of the volume editor.
  • Keywords should also appear in the respective abstracts.

Submitting your manuscript


Delivery checklist

The checklist below will help ensure that your manuscript is ready to submit, and that the production process will go as smoothly as possible. If you are unsure of which materials you are expected to deliver as part of your submission, please refer to your publishing agreement.

  • Ensure the text is in its final form; after submission, you will only be allowed to fix typographic errors. You will not be able to rewrite or modify language, add or delete text, or complete other edits.
  • Include all elements such as text, artwork, figures, and tables.
  • Provide figures and images as separate files of a sufficiently high resolution for print and include placement indicators in the text to show where those figures should appear.
  • Address, resolve, and delete all editorial comments.
  • Ensure the automatic Table of Contents.
  • Provide up-to-date contact information for all chapter authors.
  • Make sure to include all front and end matter elements needed (or specified in your contract), such as dedication, preface, bibliography, or appendix.
  • Keep the manuscript’s final word count within the limit specified in your contract.
  • Provide abstracts and keywords for each chapter and for the entire book.
  • Make sure that all the forms requested by your ARI editorial contact (such as Author Questionnaire) have been submitted.
  • Check the manuscript organization (for example, chapter folders) for clear and consistent organization.
  • Furnish permission licenses for third-party material. If your book will be made available as Open Access, demonstrate that the copyright holders are aware of the reuse terms.
  • Supply any applicable patient consent forms that have been provided. If your book will be made available as Open Access, demonstrate that the signatories are aware of the re-use terms.
  • Settle any open invoices for book publication charges for titles published as Open Access, ensuring that the fee has been received and processed and that your funder requirements have been met.
  • List cover images that are appropriate for your book, if discussions with your ARI editorial contact about the front cover have not already taken place.

Delivery guidelines

Please follow these guidelines closely to ensure that your manuscript enters production without issues:

The text
  • Text style should be double spaced, using a 12-point Unicode font (such as Times New Roman), with clear margins.
  • Please follow the following file naming convention: “element sequence number_author_manuscript element” (e.g. 00_Smith_Introduction.docx, 00_Smith_ Acknowledgments.docx, 01_Smith.docx [for chapter 1], etc.) These should be the final version of the manuscript, and not include tracked changes or comments.
  • Each file should contain both the chapter text and any corresponding chapter references and/or endnotes.
  • As mentioned in the checklist above, the manuscript should contain all applicable front and back matter that you wish to appear in the book, as discussed with your editor, and specified in your publishing agreement.
  • If your manuscript contains unusual characters, non-Roman (e.g. Chinese, Hebrew, Greek) letters, diacritical marks and mathematic/logic/linguistics symbols, please supply a PDF of the final manuscript showing how the characters should appear in the published version. This will enable us to confirm that nothing is being lost in the translation from different software and systems. If your text requires characters that are not available in Times New Roman, please be sure to use a Unicode-compliant font (such as Arial Unicode) for those characters.
  • If any of these elements are used, please insert the title of the page at the beginning of the document as well as in the filename.
Front matter:
  • Title page (required)
  • Dedication (if any)
  • Table of contents (required)
  • Foreword (if any)
  • Preface (if any)
  • Acknowledgments (if any)
  • Contributor list (required, if edited volume)
  • Abbreviations (if any)
  • Note on sources (if any)
  • Chronology (if any)
End matter:
  • Afterword (if any)
  • Epilogue (if any)
  • Appendices (if any)
  • Glossary (if any)
  • References/bibliography (if any)

Figures/tables/boxes

  • Each piece of artwork, table, and box should be supplied in a separate file. Please do not embed figures, tables, and boxes within the chapter text—use placement indicators for these elements sequentially in the chapter text. This is a suggested placement indicator format: [INSERT FIGURE 1.1 HERE].
  • The one exception is if the element needs to be anchored by specific text or in a fixed position in the manuscript. In that case, please embed the feature within the file instead of using a placement indicator. If you do this, it is imperative that you also submit a separate high-resolution image as a jpg or tiff file. Please see ‘Artwork’ for more information on this.
  • Artwork, table, and box elements should always follow a paragraph and start on a new line. Use the numbering schemes “chapter number.element number” (e.g. Figure 13.1 for figure one in chapter thirteen) to call out or reference any figure, table, or box element that is used in that chapter (e.g. "Figure 1.1 depicts..." or "...as detailed in Table 5.1."). The first callout to an element should be in the main text, not in footnotes or endnotes, where they may not be visible in digital formats.
  • Provide captions/credits for each figure, table, and box. Ensure your captions begin with the element and sequenced number (e.g. Table 2) and include any required copyright credit lines, formatted in accordance with the ARI’s standard layout. For more information on this, including example credit lines, please see ‘Crediting copyrighted material’.
  • References/bibliography (if any)

Additional documents

The following documents should be submitted with your completed manuscript:

  • a complete set of abstracts and keywords for each chapter and the manuscript as a whole
  • copies of all permissions necessary to reprint text, figures, or tables in both print and electronic formats. Please refer to Permissions Guidelines for more information.

How to deliver

Only online submission in Microsoft Word format is accepted for publication. Click here to login and submit your manuscript.

Review

Once your manuscript has been received, we will review it and prepare to hand it over to production. This means that the following will be checked:

  • The manuscript meets the contracted word count, neither significantly exceeding nor falling short of the planned length.
  • The content of the manuscript submitted is in line with the agreed proposal.
  • The abstracts and keywords are included.
  • Each chapter opens with a heading (e.g. ‘Introduction’).
  • The headings are clear and headline hierarchy is used consistently.
  • All figures/tables/boxes have: [a caption, a callout (‘see figure 1’ or ‘this is illustrated in figure 5’), a credit line (if sourced from a third party, and the submission includes permissions documentation)].
  • All separate artwork files: [are of a high-enough resolution for printing, have figure or table placement markers in the text.]
  • All references are present and complete.
  • The numbering of any footnotes restarts with each new chapter.
  • Cross references refer to chapter titles or headings, not to page numbers.

Once we complete this check, your editorial contact will hand over your manuscript to our production team, who will take some time to check everything is in order before moving the manuscript into production. Your editorial contact will inform you when they hand over the manuscript, and you will be assigned a dedicated point of contact for the production phase. Once the manuscript is accepted into production, you will be able to discuss (with your production contact) the detailed production schedule which will take your title to publication. My manuscript is in production—what does that mean?

Production overview

At each stage of the production process, your production contact will provide you with instructions, action items, and deadlines. Your manuscript will go through three steps to prepare for publication:

Pre-editing

After an initial assessment by the production team, we will contact you to share an outline of the publication schedule for your book. At this point, your manuscript will undergo a ‘pre-edit’ using an automated tool. This process cleans up and standardizes files for copy-editing and lays the foundation for the creation of digital content.

Copy-editing

After the pre-edit is complete, your manuscript will be sent to an experienced copy editor who will apply a consistent style and check the language, spelling, punctuation, and grammar.

Shortly after copy-editing begins, you will receive a sample copy-edited chapter to review. This provides you with the chance to review the changes made by the copy editor and make sure you’re comfortable with the editor’s work before they complete their work.

Proof-review

Towards the end of the production process, you will receive a proof to check and amend as necessary. Proofs are provided as an electronic PDF with an accompanying Word document as standard. We do not supply hard copy proofs. The aim of the proof-review stage is for you to see how the content will appear on the page; you will be able to correct any typographical errors by amending the Word document. Please remember that at this stage, rewriting sections of your manuscript is not an option; it is also too late in the process to add or remove paragraphs or footnotes.

Cover

You will supply at least one cover visual during the production process for approval to ARI.