Authors submitting manuscripts to Global Governance Systems Review (GGSR) should prepare their files in accordance with the following requirements. These instructions are intended to support efficient editorial assessment, double-anonymous peer review, accurate production, and consistent presentation of published scholarship.

At initial submission, GGSR prioritizes scholarly clarity, completeness, and internal consistency over strict imitation of the journal's final typeset format. Manuscripts that substantially depart from the requirements below may be returned for technical revision before editorial assessment or external peer review.

1. General Preparation Principles

Manuscripts should be:

• original and complete;
• written in clear academic English;
• prepared in an editable electronic format;
• appropriately anonymized for double-anonymous peer review;
• internally consistent in terminology, headings, citations, tables, and figures;
• supported by complete and accurate references;
• accompanied by all declarations relevant to the research; and
• consistent with the journal's Aims & Scope and applicable editorial policies.

2. File Format

The main manuscript should normally be submitted as an editable Microsoft Word file in .doc or .docx format.

Authors should avoid submitting the principal manuscript solely as a PDF unless specifically requested by the Editorial Office, because editable files are required for editorial and production workflows.

Supplementary files may be submitted in other appropriate formats depending on their content, including spreadsheets, datasets, code files, images, appendices, multimedia files, or other research materials.

3. Initial Submission Formatting

GGSR does not require authors to reproduce the final journal layout at initial submission.

The manuscript should use a clear, conventional academic format. Authors are encouraged to use:

• a readable standard font;
• approximately 11- or 12-point text;
• 1.5 or double line spacing where practical;
• standard page margins;
• continuous page numbering;
• consistent paragraph formatting; and
• clearly differentiated heading levels.

Decorative formatting, coloured backgrounds, complex page designs, journal-style headers and footers, manual column layouts, or attempts to reproduce final typesetting should generally be avoided.

4. Recommended Order of the Manuscript

For a standard research manuscript, authors should normally arrange material in the following order:

1. Title;
2. Abstract;
3. Keywords;
4. Main text;
5. References;
6. Tables;
7. Figure captions;
8. Figures, where embedded;
9. Data Availability Statement, where applicable;
10. Ethics statement, where applicable;
11. Funding statement;
12. Competing Interests statement;
13. Author Contributions statement, where applicable;
14. AI-use disclosure, where applicable; and
15. Supplementary-material information, where applicable.

For double-anonymous review, information that directly identifies the authors should not appear in the anonymized manuscript file.

5. Separate Author Information

Author-identifying information should normally be entered through the online submission system and, where requested, provided in a separate title-page file.

Author information may include:

• full author names;
• institutional affiliations;
• department, school, faculty, or research unit;
• city and country or region;
• email addresses;
• ORCID iDs;
• corresponding-author designation;
• author biographies, where requested;
• acknowledgements that could reveal authorship; and
• other identifying information requested by the Editorial Office.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that information entered into the submission system is accurate and consistent with the information intended for publication.

6. Preparation for Double-Anonymous Peer Review

GGSR uses a double-anonymous peer-review process for manuscripts subject to external scholarly review.

The main review manuscript should therefore not normally contain:

• author names;
• institutional affiliations;
• email addresses;
• ORCID iDs;
• author biographies;
• personally identifying acknowledgements;
• statements that unnecessarily reveal the identity of the authors; or
• document metadata that clearly identifies the authors where this can reasonably be removed.

Authors should inspect the document properties of uploaded files and remove identifying information where practical.

7. Self-Citation During Anonymous Review

Authors should not remove legitimate self-citations solely for the purpose of anonymization.

Previous work by an author should normally be cited in the same manner as work by other scholars and described in the third person.

For example, authors should prefer:

Previous research has identified...

rather than:

In our previous study, we demonstrated...

Placeholders such as “Author, 2024” should be used only where ordinary citation would make authorship immediately obvious and where temporary anonymization is genuinely necessary. Complete information must be restored if the manuscript is accepted.

8. Title

The manuscript title should accurately represent the subject, research problem, and principal contribution of the article.

Titles should normally be concise and informative. Authors should avoid:

• unnecessary abbreviations;
• excessively long subtitles;
• promotional or sensational language;
• unsupported causal claims;
• claims of novelty that cannot be demonstrated; and
• language implying universality where the evidence is context-specific.

9. Abstract

Research manuscripts should normally include an abstract of approximately 150–250 words.

The abstract should identify:

• the research problem or objective;
• the relevant context or theoretical problem;
• the research design or analytical approach;
• the principal findings or argument; and
• the main scholarly contribution or implications.

The abstract should be self-contained and should normally avoid citations, footnotes, undefined abbreviations, extensive numerical detail, or claims not supported by the article.

10. Keywords

Authors should normally provide 4–8 keywords.

Keywords should identify the principal concepts, research areas, methods, institutional settings, or geographical contexts addressed in the manuscript.

Authors are encouraged to select terms that support scholarly discovery rather than merely repeating the complete wording of the article title.

11. Main Text Structure

GGSR does not impose a single structure on every methodology or disciplinary tradition.

Empirical research articles will commonly include sections such as:

• Introduction;
• Literature Review and/or Theoretical Framework;
• Research Questions or Hypotheses;
• Methods or Research Design;
• Results or Findings;
• Discussion;
• Implications;
• Limitations; and
• Conclusion.

Qualitative, historical, comparative, theoretical, legal-institutional, policy, and interdisciplinary manuscripts may use alternative structures where appropriate.

Regardless of structure, the manuscript should make the research problem, evidential basis, analytical approach, argument, and scholarly contribution readily identifiable.

12. Headings

Headings should be concise, informative, and used consistently throughout the manuscript.

Authors should avoid excessive fragmentation of the text into very short subsections.

Where numbered headings are used, numbering should follow a clear hierarchy, for example:

1. Introduction
2. Theoretical Framework
2.1 Institutional Capacity
2.2 Governance Coordination

Authors should not use heading levels solely for visual decoration.

13. Paragraphs and Writing Style

Academic prose should be clear, precise, and proportionate to the evidence.

Authors should avoid unnecessary jargon, rhetorical exaggeration, excessive repetition, unsupported normative claims, and unnecessarily complex sentence structures.

Technical terminology should be defined where its meaning may not be familiar across the interdisciplinary readership of GGSR.

14. Abbreviations and Acronyms

Abbreviations should be used only where they improve readability.

An abbreviation or acronym should normally be written in full at first occurrence, followed by the abbreviated form in parentheses.

For example:

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

Widely recognized abbreviations may be used without repeated definition where there is little risk of ambiguity.

15. Numbers, Dates, and Units

Numbers, dates, percentages, currencies, and measurement units should be presented consistently throughout the manuscript.

Where measurement units are used, internationally recognized units and conventions should be preferred where appropriate.

Authors conducting cross-national research should identify currencies, fiscal years, institutional periods, and other context-dependent numerical information clearly enough to avoid ambiguity.

16. Statistical Reporting

Quantitative manuscripts should report statistical results with sufficient information to permit scholarly interpretation.

Where appropriate, authors should provide:

• sample sizes;
• descriptive statistics;
• effect estimates;
• standard errors;
• confidence intervals;
• exact or appropriately reported p-values;
• model specifications;
• diagnostic information;
• robustness or sensitivity analyses; and
• other indicators appropriate to the method used.

Statistical significance should not be treated as equivalent to substantive importance.

Authors should ensure that causal language is justified by the research design.

17. Equations

Equations should be presented clearly and consistently.

Important displayed equations should be numbered consecutively where they are referenced elsewhere in the manuscript.

Variables, symbols, parameters, and notation should be defined when first introduced.

Authors should use editable mathematical expressions where practical rather than embedding low-resolution images of equations.

18. Tables

Tables should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first cited in the text.

Each table should include:

• a table number;
• a concise and informative title;
• clearly labelled rows and columns;
• definitions of abbreviations where necessary;
• notes explaining statistical or methodological information where required; and
• source or attribution information where applicable.

Tables should supplement rather than unnecessarily duplicate information presented in the text.

Authors should create tables using editable table functions rather than submitting tables solely as images.

19. Figures

Figures should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first cited.

Each figure should have an informative caption that allows readers to understand the principal content without relying entirely on the surrounding text.

Figures should be legible, accurately labelled, and of sufficient technical quality for scholarly publication.

Authors should ensure that text, symbols, legends, and axis labels remain readable when figures are displayed at publication size.

The Editorial Office may request separate high-resolution figure files after acceptance.

20. Accessibility of Figures and Tables

Authors are encouraged to prepare tables and figures so that their meaning does not depend exclusively on colour.

Labels, symbols, patterns, annotations, or other visual distinctions should be used where necessary to support accessibility and interpretation.

Colour combinations that significantly reduce readability for readers with colour-vision deficiencies should be avoided where practical.

21. Maps and Geographical Material

Maps should be directly relevant to the scholarly analysis and should identify the geographical information necessary to interpret the study.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that geographical representations are appropriate to the research context and comply with applicable copyright, data, and attribution requirements.

Editorial publication of geographical names or boundaries does not imply an institutional position by the journal or publisher concerning legal status, sovereignty, jurisdiction, or territorial claims.

22. Footnotes and Endnotes

Footnotes or endnotes should be used sparingly and only where information is relevant but would substantially interrupt the main argument.

Notes should not normally be used as a substitute for standard in-text citation.

Extensive substantive arguments should normally appear in the main text rather than being transferred to notes.

23. Citations and Reference Style

GGSR uses the APA Style, 7th edition for in-text citations and references.

Authors should ensure that citation style is applied consistently throughout the manuscript.

Every work cited in the manuscript should appear in the reference list, and every reference-list entry should normally be cited in the text.

24. Reference Accuracy

Authors are responsible for verifying the accuracy of all references before submission.

References should be checked against the original source rather than copied without verification from another publication, citation database, reference manager, artificial intelligence system, or secondary bibliography.

Authors should verify, where applicable:

• author names;
• publication year;
• article or chapter title;
• journal or book title;
• volume and issue;
• page range or article number;
• publisher information;
• DOI;
• URL; and
• other bibliographic identifiers.

25. Digital Object Identifiers

Where a DOI exists for a cited work, authors should include it in the reference list using the standard URL form:

https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx

Authors should not include both a DOI URL and an obsolete DOI notation for the same reference.

26. Citation Integrity

References should be included because they are genuinely relevant to the manuscript.

Authors should not add citations primarily to increase citation counts for themselves, particular colleagues, editors, journals, institutions, publishers, or other entities.

Excessive self-citation, irrelevant references, fabricated references, citation manipulation, or coordinated citation practices may raise research-integrity concerns.

27. Data Availability Statement

Empirical manuscripts should normally include a Data Availability Statement.

The statement should explain whether and how the data supporting the conclusions of the research can be accessed.

Depending on the circumstances, an appropriate statement may indicate that:

• data are openly available in a repository;
• data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request;
• data are available subject to institutional or legal restrictions;
• data cannot be shared because of participant confidentiality or ethical requirements;
• data are proprietary or licensed from a third party; or
• no new data were generated or analysed for the article.

Authors should not make data publicly available where disclosure would violate legal requirements, privacy, confidentiality, informed consent, contractual restrictions, or legitimate third-party rights.

28. Data and Code Citation

Where datasets, software, code, or other research objects have persistent identifiers, authors are encouraged to cite them appropriately.

Data and software citations should provide sufficient information to identify the relevant version or resource used in the research.

Where analytical code is essential to understanding or reproducing the reported findings and can lawfully be shared, authors are encouraged to deposit it in an appropriate repository.

29. Research Ethics Statement

Research involving human participants, personal data, sensitive information, surveys, interviews, experiments, or other activities requiring ethical oversight should include an appropriate ethics statement.

Where ethical approval was required, the statement should normally identify:

• the approving ethics committee, institutional review board, or equivalent body;
• the relevant institution;
• the approval or protocol number where applicable; and
• other information necessary to demonstrate compliance with applicable requirements.

Where research was exempt from formal review, authors may be asked to explain the basis for the exemption.

30. Informed Consent

Where informed consent was required, authors should state that appropriate consent was obtained.

Additional consent may be required for publication of identifiable information, quotations, images, recordings, or case material.

Authors should ensure that claims concerning anonymity or confidentiality are consistent with the information actually presented in the manuscript and supplementary files.

31. Funding Statement

Authors should disclose funding relevant to the research.

Where applicable, the funding statement should identify:

• the funding organization;
• grant or project number;
• relevant funded author or project; and
• the role of the funder where this is relevant to interpretation of the research.

If no external funding was received, authors may state:

This research received no external funding.

32. Competing Interests Statement

Authors must disclose interests that could reasonably be perceived as influencing the research, analysis, interpretation, or publication of the manuscript.

If no relevant competing interests exist, authors may state:

The authors declare no competing interests.

Authors should consult the journal's Competing Interests policy for detailed requirements.

33. Author Contributions

Multi-author manuscripts are encouraged to include an Author Contributions statement describing the principal scholarly roles performed by individual contributors.

GGSR encourages the use of the CRediT Contributor Roles Taxonomy where appropriate.

Contributor statements should reflect actual contributions and should not be used to justify honorary, guest, or inappropriate authorship.

34. Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements may recognize individuals or organizations that contributed to the research but do not meet the journal's authorship criteria.

Acknowledgements that identify the authors or their institutions should normally be omitted from the anonymized review manuscript and restored following acceptance.

35. Artificial Intelligence and AI-Assisted Technologies

Authors remain fully responsible for all content submitted to GGSR, including material produced or modified with the assistance of artificial intelligence or automated technologies.

Artificial intelligence systems cannot be listed as authors.

Where generative AI or another AI-assisted technology has materially contributed to drafting, translation, coding, analysis, literature synthesis, image generation, data processing, or another substantive component of manuscript preparation, authors should provide an appropriate disclosure in accordance with the journal's AI & AI-Assisted Technologies Policy.

Routine spelling, grammar, formatting, and conventional language correction generally do not require equivalent disclosure unless the technology materially contributes to scholarly content.

Authors must independently verify factual statements, references, quotations, calculations, data interpretations, and other content produced with automated assistance.

36. Supplementary Materials

Supplementary materials should be directly relevant to the manuscript and may include:

• additional tables or figures;
• datasets;
• questionnaires;
• interview protocols;
• coding frameworks;
• statistical appendices;
• analytical code;
• technical documentation;
• multimedia materials; or
• other resources supporting transparency or interpretation.

Supplementary files should be clearly named and referenced in the manuscript where appropriate.

Authors should review supplementary materials carefully for identifying information before double-anonymous review.

37. Copyrighted and Third-Party Material

Authors are responsible for determining whether permission is required to reproduce or adapt material created by another rights holder.

This may include:

• figures;
• tables;
• maps;
• photographs;
• questionnaires;
• psychometric scales;
• assessment instruments;
• substantial textual extracts;
• datasets; and
• other copyrighted materials.

Where permission is required, authors must obtain it before publication and retain documentary evidence.

38. Reporting Guidelines

Authors should use recognized reporting guidelines where an appropriate guideline exists for the study design.

Depending on the research, relevant frameworks may include guidelines for systematic reviews, observational studies, randomized studies, qualitative research, economic evaluations, implementation research, or other methodological designs.

Use of a reporting guideline does not replace the need to explain methodological choices specific to the manuscript.

39. Language and Terminology

Authors should use terminology that is accurate, professional, and appropriate to the disciplinary and institutional context.

Country names, institutional titles, public offices, administrative units, legislation, and specialized governance terminology should be translated or explained where necessary for an international readership.

Authors should avoid terminology that unnecessarily stereotypes individuals, communities, countries, institutions, or social groups.

40. British and American English

GGSR accepts both British and American English.

Authors should use one system consistently within the same manuscript.

The production process may introduce limited stylistic standardization where necessary without changing substantive meaning.

41. Preprints and Previous Versions

Where a manuscript has previously appeared as a preprint, working paper, thesis, conference paper, institutional report, or another permissible prior version, authors should disclose this information during submission where required by journal policy.

Authors should ensure that the submitted manuscript complies with the journal's originality and prior-publication requirements.

42. File Naming

Authors are encouraged to use clear file names that distinguish the main manuscript from supplementary and identifying files.

For example:

GGSR_Manuscript.docx
GGSR_Title_Page.docx
GGSR_Supplementary_Material_1.xlsx
GGSR_Figure_1.png

For anonymous review, author names should not be included in the file name of the anonymized manuscript.

43. Metadata Consistency

Information entered into the online submission system should correspond accurately to the manuscript.

Authors should verify consistency in:

• article title;
• abstract;
• keywords;
• author names;
• author order;
• institutional affiliations;
• corresponding-author details;
• ORCID identifiers; and
• other bibliographic metadata.

Metadata errors may affect indexing, citation, author identification, and the integrity of the scholarly record after publication.

44. Changes After Acceptance

Following acceptance, manuscripts may undergo copyediting, formatting, reference checking, metadata verification, typesetting, and proof preparation.

Authors may be asked to provide revised figures, editable tables, source files, permissions, missing references, complete declarations, or other materials required for production.

Major changes to data, analysis, conclusions, or authorship after acceptance require editorial approval and may require further scholarly assessment.

45. Final Pre-Submission Check

Before submitting a manuscript, authors should confirm that:

• the manuscript corresponds to an appropriate GGSR article type;
• the manuscript is written in clear academic English;
• the anonymized file does not unnecessarily identify the authors;
• the title, abstract, and keywords are complete;
• headings and terminology are internally consistent;
• all tables and figures are cited and numbered correctly;
• references conform substantially to APA 7th edition;
• all in-text citations have corresponding reference-list entries;
• reference details and DOIs have been checked for accuracy;
• necessary third-party permissions have been obtained;
• funding and competing interests have been disclosed;
• research-ethics and consent statements have been included where applicable;
• a Data Availability Statement has been provided where applicable;
• relevant AI use has been disclosed;
• supplementary materials have been checked for identifying or confidential information;
• submission-system metadata are complete and accurate; and
• all authors have approved the submitted version and authorship order.

46. Technical Screening

The Editorial Office may conduct a technical screening before substantive editorial assessment.

Technical screening may identify incomplete metadata, missing declarations, insufficient anonymization, unreadable figures, reference problems, incomplete files, ethical documentation issues, or other matters requiring correction.

A request for technical correction does not indicate that the manuscript has passed editorial assessment and does not imply that the manuscript will be sent for external peer review.

47. Journal Standards

Preparation of a manuscript in accordance with these instructions facilitates editorial processing but does not guarantee peer review or publication.

All manuscripts remain subject to assessment for relevance, originality, methodological quality, scholarly contribution, research integrity, ethical compliance, and consistency with the journal's editorial policies.

Authors should consult the journal's Author Guidelines, Article Types, Peer Review Policy, Research Data Policy, Publication Ethics, AI & AI-Assisted Technologies Policy, Open Access Policy, Copyright & Licensing Policy, and Article Processing Charges Policy where additional information is required.