Guidelines for Authors

All interested authors are welcome to publish with the JMST after observing the following guidelines:

Authorship, Rights and Permissions
Each author must have contributed significantly to the submitted work. All authors must have made substantial contributions in any part of the following categories:
1. Contributing to conception and design, or acquiring data, or analyzing and interpreting data;
2. Drafting the manuscript, or critically contributing to or revising the manuscript, or enhancing its intellectual content; and
3. Approving the final content of the manuscript.
NB: Simple participation or collection of data alone does not justify authorship but can be mentioned in the acknowledgment section.

The prospective authors will be advised by the Editor-in-Chief to ensure that they have:
i. declared their participation during the production of their co-authored article,
ii. indicated in their covering letter to the Editorial Board that the material has not been previously published or submitted for publication elsewhere,
iii. given their permissions to transfer their copyright ownership to JMST,
iv. and have been notified in writing about their non-exclusive rights to be retained when publishing in JMST.

Changes in authorship after the first review require a written request by the corresponding author and written authorization from the authors who are to be added or deleted. If any figures or tables in the manuscript were previously published, this should be acknowledged and written permission from the publisher should be included.

Instructions on Manuscript Preparation
Authors shall be requested to submit their manuscripts in English. The manuscripts should be typed on one side of white A4 paper, double-spaced, uses a 12-point font and Times New Roman Style. The preferred word-processing software is Microsoft Word.

Manuscripts shall be accepted subject to editorial revision. Since all manuscripts will be reviewed by professionals in the field, the name(s) of the author(s), institutional affiliation(s), and other identifying information should be placed on the title page only, to preserve anonymity (a necessary condition for blind review process).

The title page should contain the following:
a) Title. Concise and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.
b) Name(s) of the author(s). Please clearly indicate the given name(s) and family name(s) each author and check that all names are accurately spelled.
c) Institutional affiliation(s). Indicate all affiliations with a lowercase superscript letter immediately after the author's name. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name and, if available, the e-mail address of each author.
d) Corresponding author. Clearly indicate who will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication. This responsibility includes answering any future queries about Methodology and Materials. Ensure that the e-mail address is given and that contact details are kept up to date by the corresponding author.
e) Present/permanent address. If an author has moved since the work described in the article was done, or was visiting at the time, a 'Present address' (or 'Permanent address') may be indicated as a footnote to that author's name. The address at which the author actually did the work must be retained as the main, affiliation address. Superscript Arabic numerals are used for such footnotes.
f) Keywords. Immediately after the abstract, provide a maximum of 10 keywords, and avoid general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, "and", "of"). Be sparing with abbreviations: only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be eligible. These keywords will be used for indexing purposes.
g) Abstract. A concise and factual abstract not exceeding 250 words is required. The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results and the major conclusions. An abstract is often presented separately from the article, so it must be able to stand alone. For this reason, References should be avoided. Also, non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined at their first mention in the abstract itself.

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors shall be required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and thus submissions should be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
i. One author has been designated as the corresponding author with contact details: E-mail address and Full postal address.
ii. That the submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in comments to the Editor-in-Chief).
iii. All necessary files in Microsoft Word have been uploaded.
iv. All references mentioned in the reference list are cited in the text, and vice versa. Where available, DOI for the references have to be provided.
v. The text is double-spaced; uses a 12-point font; Times New Roman style; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
vi. The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines (APA style is recommended).
vii. The manuscript has been 'spell checked' and 'grammar checked'
viii. The manuscript includes keywords, figures and a table containing relevant captions. Supplemental files (where applicable).

Manuscript Submission

The entire submission and review process for JMST is handled electronically, which shortens publication times. All manuscripts should be submitted online through submission link. Prior to submitting your paper, please follow the instructions. For instructions, authors should visit Author guidelines

Please note that you must have an e-mail address to use the online submission system. Authors submit their articles online simply by registering, logging in and submitting. Editors will then invite potential reviewers by e-mail.

Correspondence or inquiries about manuscripts status should be sent to the JMST Editorial Office:
Editor-in-Chief,
The Journal of Maritime Science and Technology
Dar es Salaam Maritime Institute (DMI)
Sokoine Drive
P. O. Box 6727
Dar es Salaam
Phone: +255 22 2133645/2112478/2112600
Fax: +255 22 2112600
E-mail: jmst.editor@dmi.ac.tz
Website: https://journal.dmi.ac.tz