The Malaysian Journal of Chinese Studies welcomes the submission of manuscripts on topics within the aims and scope of the journal and based on original research.

1. The author(s) should own the copyright to the work being submitted and that it has not been published or being considered for publication elsewhere in printed or electronic form.
2. The manuscript should be submitted mjcs@newera.edu.myin Microsoft Word files in Times New Roman font size 12 for the text and prepared in British English. It should contain a concise title, an abstract of 100 to 250 words, and a list of up to five keywords. It should not exceed 10,000 words, inclusive of tables, charts and diagrams, notes, list of references, and appendices.
3. Book reviews should not exceed 2,000 words and should include a short title on the subject matter, the name of the author, book title, city/publisher, year of publication, total number of pages, and ISBN.
4. The submitted manuscript should include a note on the author indicating the full name, highest qualification, position, affiliation, and email address. Where there are multiple authors, the corresponding author should be identified.
5. It is the responsibility of the author to obtain permission to reproduce copyrighted materials such as diagrams, charts, maps, and tables.
6. The manuscript should adhere to the APA Style.

For further formatting and referencing aid, please consult the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Seventh Edition, 2020. (https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines)

Stylesheet

        The journal format is primarily based on the APA Style. Authors should adhere to this style as closely as possible.
 
 
1. Title page

        Title of paper, author’s name in the order of last/family name, first name, middle name/initial(s). Identify the first author with an* and the second with two**, etc. and their affiliations (position, department, university). Chinese authors should also state their names in the Chinese characters.
 

2. Abstract

        The abstract should be between 100 and 250 words to state the purpose, method, results and conclusion of the article in a concise and informative manner.
 

3. Keywords

        Placed below the Abstract and labelled
                Keywords: (indented and in italics) with three to five keywords in lowercase
 

4. Headings

        All headings should be clear and concise and follow a logical sequence. Avoid having more than four levels of headings.

    First-level heading: centred, bold, and initial capital letter for important words

    Second-level heading: flush left, bold, initial capital letter for important words

    Third-level heading: flush left, bold italic, initial capital letter for important words

    Fourth-level heading: indented, bold, initial capital letter for important, and period.
 

5. Illustrations

        Original illustrations such as maps, graphs and other diagrams should be numbered consecutively as figures and black and white photographs as plates. All illustrations should be accompanied by brief captions and, wherever appropriate, acknowledgements of sources or copyright, and placed below the figure or plate. All illustrations should be reproducible to conform to a page size of 180 cm x 240 cm.
 

6. Statistical Tables

        Tables are numbered consecutively and complete with captions. Source references, if any, must be stated. Measurements and statistics should be given in metric units.

        All illustrations/figures/tables must be separated from the text. Indicate clearly in the typescript where each illustration/figure/table will appear.
 

7. In-text Citations

        Use the Author-date citation system for each work used in the text, tables, figures, notes, or appendices. Examples:

1. Parenthetical citation: (Author, year)
   • Single author: (Palanca, 2018)
   • Two authors: (Lee & Jackson, 2019)
   • Three or more authors: (Lee et at., 2017)  
   • Group author: (Department of Statistics Malaysia [DSM], 2010). Subsequent citations: (DSM, 2010)
2. Narrative citation: Enclose the year in parenthesis: Palanca (2018)
3. To cite two works by the same author(s) in the same year, add “a” and “b” to the year, 
   e.g. (Wong, 2019a), (Wong, 2019b), or (Carstens & Zhang, 2015a, 2015b).
4. To cite authors with the same surname, state the initials: (M. Freedman, 2018);
   (A. L. Freedman & Jackson, 2018)
    

8. Footnotes

        Footnotes are shown as “Notes” and placed before the list of References. Notes identified in the text with superscript Arabic numerals arranged consecutively in the order of the callout number. Footnotes are used only for explanatory purposes and should be precise and concise. To refer to a source in an earlier Note x, state (see Note x).

        Notes may be used to provide information on selected Chinese names or phrases that appear in Pinyin in the text. Identify with a footnote transcript for the first appearance of such names or phrases, e.g. junzi. In the note, the term is shown in Chinese characters (君子). This is to overcome possible confusions arising from alternative interpretations of the term in the Pinyin version.
 

9. References

        Arrange the list of works alphabetically by author and placed under “References” according to the format below:

9.1 Names of Authors and Date of Publication

1. Author(s): State the author’s last or family name, followed by the initials, e.g. Palanca, Ellen (2018).
   • Chinese names, state the surname, followed by the initials of the two- or three-character personal name, e.g. Zhang, J.; Xu, L.-P.
   • Indian and Malay names, depending on personal preferences, personal name is followed by the father’s name or vice versa.
   • For two or more authors, separate the last name by an ampersand (&): Lee, B.-H.& Jackson, Donald (2019).
   • For three or more authors: (Lee et at., 2017)
2. Date of publication:
   • year only
   • year, month
   • year, month and day
   • No date: (Author, n.d.)
3. Date of publication in a Webpage on a website with an individual author:
   • Author (year, month and day)
   • Retrieved dates: (month day, year) Retrieved October 1, 2020, from https://xxxx

9.2 Books, Periodicals and Online Sources

1. Books
   • Song, Ong Siang (1967). One hundred years’ history of the Chinese in Singapore. University of Malaya Press. (First published in 1923).
   • Edited books
   …In E. E. Editor (Ed.), Title of book (pp. xx–xx). Publisher.
   …In E. E. Editor (Ed.), Title of book (2nd ed., Vol. 1, pp. xx–xx).
   …In A. A. Editor & B. B. Editor (Eds.), Title of book: Vol 1. Volume title (2nd ed., pp. xx–xx). Publisher.
   Wang, G.-W. (1990). Merchants without empire: The Hokkien sojourning communities. 
   In James D. Tracy (Ed.), The rise of merchant empires: Long-distance trade in the Early
   Modern World, 1350-1750, (pp. 400–421). Cambridge University Press.
2. Periodicals  
           Provide the periodical title, volume number, issue number, and page range or article number. Capitalise and italicise the title of periodical using title case, followed by a comma (not italicized), and the volume number in italics.
           The issue number (if any) is enclosed in parentheses but not italicized, followed by a comma and page range. The page range consists of en dash “–” and not a hyphen, followed by a period, e.g. Author, A. A. & Author, B.B. (year). Title of article, Title of Journal, 10(2), 1–11.
    

10. Other Bibliographic Details

        On the use of italics, numerals, ordinal numbers, punctuation marks, percentage symbol and currency, etc., please consult the Seventh Edition of the APA Publication Manual (https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines).