Authors’ Guidelines

1.1 Essential Conditions to be Followed

1. The submitted manuscript must not have been previously published or submitted for publication elsewhere.
2. The template used in the College of Basic Education Research Journal is "Template".
3. Authors are not entitled to withdraw their manuscript while under review or publication, unless a formal written request is submitted.
4. The editor of the journal reserves the right to amend any phrase or sentence deemed necessary to ensure compliance with the journal’s standards.
5. Authors must adhere to the journal’s scientific publishing requirements to avoid resubmission or rejection.
6. Manuscripts must be checked for plagiarism before submission to the journal to avoid rejection during similarity screening. Manuscripts written in English will also be examined using artificial intelligence tools.
7. The journal accepts manuscripts in both Arabic and English.
8. Authors must submit their manuscripts electronically only through the journal’s submission system via the following link:
   https://berj.uomosul.edu.iq/index.php/berj/about/submissions
9. Authors must read the Authors’ Guidelines and ensure that their manuscript (abstract, keywords, text, references, tables, and figures) meets the journal’s requirements.
10. The manuscript must include the main sections outlined in the journal’s guidelines:
    • Title
    • Abstract
    • Keywords
    • Introduction
    • Materials and Methods
    • Results and Discussion
    • Conclusions
    • References
11. Manuscripts must be thoroughly proofread for spelling and grammar.
12. All authors must read the publication ethics guidelines, including plagiarism prevention, ethical compliance, and handling misconduct, prior to submission to the Basic Education Research Journal.
13. The manuscript must be read and approved by all listed authors.

1.2 Structure of Manuscripts Submitted to the Basic Education Research Journal

1. Margins must be set at 3 cm on the right and 2.5 cm on the left. Manuscripts must not exceed 20 pages for scientific research and 25 pages for humanities research.
2. Font size must be 14, using Simplified Arabic for Arabic manuscripts and Times New Roman for English manuscripts. Line spacing must be single, with no extra spacing except for one line above subheadings (Abstract, Introduction, etc.), one line above and below each table, and a 1 cm indentation at the beginning of each paragraph.
3. At the bottom of the first page only, the following note must be included, underlined across the margin: (This manuscript is extracted from a Master’s thesis or PhD dissertation) — applicable only if the manuscript is derived from a thesis. Font size must be 11.
4. The manuscript must include the following sections: title, abstract, introduction, materials and methods, results and discussion (in Arabic or English), Arabic title, Arabic abstract, and references in both Arabic and English.
5. The title and subheadings must be printed in bold, size 16, centered on the page. Authors’ names must be listed with their affiliations, followed by their addresses and email addresses.
6. Within the manuscript, the following must be observed:
   1. Figures must be prepared using computer software (Microsoft Word or Excel). Numerical data used in graphs must be placed on the axes or above bars in bar charts. Figures must be accompanied by clear titles, numbered sequentially, and all text within figures must be in English numerals (1,2,3,…). Font size must be 14.
   2. Tables must fit within page dimensions, numbered sequentially as [Table (1): Title], designed without double lines or shading, and accompanied by clear explanatory titles. Table text must be in font size 14, with footnotes in size 12.
   3. All numerical data must be written in English numerals (1,2,3,…).
   4. Years in references must be written in English numerals both in-text and in the reference list.
   5. Scientific names must be italicized wherever they appear (title, text, references).
7. Abstracts must follow these rules:
   1. Abstracts must be 150–250 words, in Arabic or English.
   2. The research title must be in bold, size 16, with each word capitalized (except scientific names in English abstracts).
   3. Authors’ names and affiliations must be in size 14, Simplified Arabic.
   4. The word “الخلاصة” must appear on the right in bold, and “Abstract” on the left in bold.
   5. Arabic and English abstracts must not exceed one page.
   6. Keywords (3–5) must be listed below both abstracts.
   7. Below the title and authors’ names, the following must be included: (Submitted on ??/??/2025, Revised on ??/??/2025, Accepted on ??/??/2025).
8. References must follow these rules:
   1. The journal adopts APA citation style. Authors must comply with APA rules and ethical standards in documentation.
   2. All non-English references (including Arabic sources) must be translated into English, with the original language retained in the reference list.
   3. Arabic references must be documented using an approved English translation. If no translation exists, transliteration must be used (e.g., Lisan Alearab).
   4. References must be listed alphabetically without numbering.
   5. In-text citations must follow APA format: e.g., Smith (2019) at the beginning of a sentence, or (Smith, 2019) at the end. For multiple authors, use “Smith and others (2019)” or (Smith et al., 2019).
   6. For journal articles, only the first word of the title is capitalized. For books, theses, dissertations, conference papers, or reports, each word in the title is capitalized. Publisher and place of publication must follow the title.
   7. Journal names must be written in full, italicized, with volume, issue, and page numbers (e.g., 5(2): 14–20).
   8. The first author’s surname must be followed by initials. Co-authors’ names must begin with initials followed by full surnames.
   9. For book chapters, the chapter author is listed first, followed by year, chapter title, book title, editor(s), publisher, and country.
   10. For abstracts published in proceedings or journals, the full citation must be provided, followed by (Abstract).
   11. Examples:
       • Journal Article:
         Daoud, Mohsen Saadoun; Suleiman, Iman Ghanem; Mohammed, Bashar Abdulrahman. Diagnostic study of Eimeria oocysts in bile fluid of slaughtered goats in Mosul abattoir. Iraqi Journal of Veterinary Sciences. 2007, 21: 63–68.
       • Book:
         Hamdan, Mohammed Zabad. Scientific Research as a System. Amman, Jordan: Modern Education House, 1989. 304 p.
       • Master’s Thesis or PhD Dissertation:
         Al-Yousif, Mohammed Jasim Mohammed. Application of electrometric method to measure cholinesterase activity in bovine blood and tissues and inhibition by organophosphorus and carbamate compounds (Master’s Thesis). Mosul: University of Mosul, 2005. 89 p.

1.3 Publication Ethics in the Basic Education Research Journal

The ethical policy of the Basic Education Research Journal is based on the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and conforms to the standards adopted by the editorial board. Readers, authors, reviewers, and editorial members must adhere to these ethical policies when engaging with the journal. The ethical policy determines which manuscripts are eligible for publication, based on reviewers’ recommendations and editorial board decisions. The editor-in-chief may consult with board members or reviewers when making publication decisions. Reviewers must evaluate manuscripts confidentially and objectively, providing constructive feedback to improve quality. Authors must ensure that their submissions are original and unpublished elsewhere. Any form of plagiarism constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.

1.4 Open Access Journals

The Basic Education Research Journal publishes scholarly work covering a wide range of pure and human sciences. All articles published in the Basic Education Research Journal are open access and distributed under an open access license agreement. Under this license, authors retain copyright ownership of their content, while allowing anyone to download, reuse, reprint, modify, distribute, and/or copy the content, provided that authors and the source are properly cited.

1.5 Author Agreement

In order to publish scholarly work, the Basic Education Research Journal requires copyright. For open access publications, the publisher uses an exclusive licensing agreement in which authors retain copyright ownership of their own work.

1.6 User License Agreement

The Basic Education Research Journal provides access to archived materials through the journal’s repository. Research articles are part of the open archive and freely available on the journal’s website, starting from the date of final publication. Users or readers of the authors’ work must clarify how these articles are used. All published articles will be freely accessible and immediately available for reading and downloading. Permitted reuse is defined by the Creative Commons Attribution License. The Basic Education Research Journal retains copyright of published articles, which are issued under the “Creative Commons License,” allowing unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction of the work by any means, provided that the original file is properly cited.

1.7 Errors in Published Papers

When authors discover a significant error or inaccuracy in their published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher to withdraw or correct the paper. Finally, the corresponding author must ensure that all co-authors have reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript and agreed to its submission for publication.

1.8 Plagiarism Prevention and Violation of Publication Ethics

All manuscripts under review or previously published are subject to plagiarism screening using the iThenticate software. Plagiarism is considered a serious violation of publication ethics. Other violations include duplicate publication, data fabrication, falsification, and inappropriate credit for authorship. Therefore, plagiarism, fraud, or intentional inaccurate data constitute unacceptable unethical behavior. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal simultaneously also constitutes unethical publishing conduct. It is important to note that the Basic Education Research Journal disregards manuscripts with a similarity index exceeding 20%. As for AI-based similarity detection, it applies only to manuscripts written in English, with an acceptable threshold of 20%.

All newly submitted manuscripts to the Basic Education Research Journal are automatically screened using CrossCheck within the editorial system. Editorial board members may also choose to run similarity reports at any stage during the review process or post-publication. The default similarity report displays the percentage of text overlapping with one or more published works. Legitimate reuse of properly cited text may contribute to lowering the similarity percentage.