Submissions

Author Guidelines

AUTHOR GUIDELINES — EUROPEAN DATA SCIENCE JOURNAL (EDSJ)
ISSN: 3050-9580 | https://esa-research.org/index.php/EDSJ

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1. INTRODUCTION AND AIMS

The European Data Science Journal (EDSJ) welcomes submission of original, high-quality research articles in data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence, big data analytics, and related interdisciplinary fields. All manuscripts must be submitted through the OJS online submission system at https://esa-research.org/index.php/EDSJ. EDSJ does not accept submissions by email.

These Author Guidelines must be followed carefully. Manuscripts that do not meet the requirements set out below may be returned without review.

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2. ARTICLE TYPES AND WORD COUNTS

| Article Type | Description | Word Count (excl. references) |
|---|---|---|
| Original Research Article | Novel empirical or theoretical contributions | 5,000–10,000 words |
| Systematic Review / Meta-Analysis | Comprehensive synthesis of existing literature following PRISMA guidelines | 6,000–12,000 words |
| Case Study | In-depth real-world application of data science methods | 3,000–6,000 words |
| Technical Report | Description of a tool, dataset, benchmark, or system | 3,000–6,000 words |
| Short Communication | Preliminary findings or brief technical notes | 1,500–3,000 words |

Authors uncertain about the appropriate article type should contact the editorial office before submitting.

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3. LANGUAGE AND WRITING STANDARDS

All manuscripts must be written in English. Authors whose first language is not English are strongly encouraged to have their manuscript professionally proofread before submission. EDSJ uses British English spelling conventions. Authors should ensure clear, precise, and concise academic writing. Colloquial language and excessive jargon should be avoided.

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4. MANUSCRIPT FORMATTING REQUIREMENTS

— File format: Microsoft Word (.docx) or LaTeX (.pdf with source files)
— Font: Times New Roman, 12pt
— Line spacing: Double-spaced throughout
— Margins: 2.5 cm on all sides
— Page numbers: Bottom right of every page
— Line numbers: Continuous throughout the manuscript
— All sections must have clear headings
— Do not use automatic footnotes; incorporate all notes into the main text

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5. TITLE

The title should be concise, informative, and descriptive of the specific content. Maximum length: 20 words. Avoid abbreviations in the title unless they are universally understood. Do not include the study design in the title unless it is critical information (e.g., for systematic reviews).

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6. AUTHOR NAMES AND AFFILIATIONS

List all authors in the order in which they should appear in the published article. For each author provide:
— Full first name and family name (no initials only)
— Department, Faculty/School, Institution, City, Country
— Email address (for corresponding author only, marked with *)

Example:
Jane A. Smith¹*, John B. Doe²
¹ Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
² Faculty of Engineering, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
*Corresponding author: jane.smith@cs.ox.ac.uk

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7. ORCID REQUIREMENT

EDSJ strongly encourages all authors to provide their ORCID iD. The corresponding author's ORCID iD is required. ORCID iDs should be provided in full URL format: https://orcid.org/0000-0000-0000-0000. Authors without an ORCID iD should register at https://orcid.org (free of charge).

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8. ABSTRACT STRUCTURE AND WORD COUNT

All research articles must include a structured abstract of 200–300 words. The abstract must contain the following clearly labelled sections:

BACKGROUND: The context and motivation for the study.
OBJECTIVES: The specific aims and research questions addressed.
METHODS: The data, methodology, or computational approach used.
RESULTS: The main findings or outcomes.
CONCLUSIONS: The significance and implications of the findings.
KEYWORDS: 5–8 keywords (listed separately below the abstract).

Abstracts must be self-contained and must not cite references. Do not use abbreviations in the abstract unless they are universally understood and defined at first use.

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9. KEYWORDS

Provide between 5 and 8 keywords. Keywords should be:
— Representative of the specific content and methods of the manuscript
— Selected from controlled vocabulary where possible (e.g., ACM Computing Classification System, IEEE Thesaurus)
— Separated by semicolons
— Written in title case (e.g., Machine Learning; Neural Networks; Healthcare Analytics)
— Not duplicating words already in the title

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10. MAIN BODY STRUCTURE

10.1 INTRODUCTION
Provide the background and context of the study. Define the problem being addressed, review the most relevant prior work, identify the research gap, and state clearly the objectives and contributions of the present study. End the Introduction with a brief outline of the paper's structure.

10.2 LITERATURE REVIEW
For longer articles, a separate Literature Review section should systematically survey relevant prior work and position the current study in relation to the state of the art. For shorter articles, the literature review may be incorporated into the Introduction.

10.3 METHODOLOGY
Describe the methods, dataset, experimental setup, or theoretical framework used in sufficient detail to allow independent replication. Include all relevant technical parameters, model architectures, data preprocessing steps, evaluation metrics, and statistical analyses. Reference any software, tools, or libraries used, including version numbers. For studies involving human subjects or sensitive data, describe the ethical approval obtained.

10.4 RESULTS
Present results clearly and objectively, supported by tables, figures, and statistical analyses as appropriate. Avoid interpreting results in this section; reserve interpretation for the Discussion. All tables and figures must be referred to in the text.

10.5 DISCUSSION
Interpret the findings in the context of existing literature. Discuss the implications of the results, the limitations of the study, and directions for future research. Do not repeat the results in detail; focus on their significance and broader meaning.

10.6 CONCLUSION
Provide a concise summary of the main findings and their significance. The Conclusion should not introduce new information. Highlight the contribution of the work and, if appropriate, suggest practical applications or future research directions.

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11. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Acknowledge persons who contributed to the work but do not meet authorship criteria (e.g., statistical advice, technical assistance, language editing). Do not include names of peer reviewers.

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12. FUNDING STATEMENT

All sources of funding for the research must be declared. If no funding was received, authors must include the following statement:
"This research received no external funding."

Example with funding:
"This work was supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. [YOUR GRANT NUMBER])."

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13. CONFLICT OF INTEREST STATEMENT

All authors must disclose any financial or non-financial conflict of interest that could influence the reported findings or their interpretation. If no conflict exists, include:
"The authors declare no conflict of interest."

Example with conflict:
"Author A.B. serves on the advisory board of [Company X]. The remaining authors declare no conflict of interest."

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14. DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

Authors are strongly encouraged to make underlying data openly available. All manuscripts must include a Data Availability Statement. Examples:

"The data presented in this study are openly available in [Repository Name] at [URL/DOI]."

"The datasets used in this study are not publicly available due to [confidentiality/privacy restrictions] but are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request."

"No new datasets were generated or analysed during this study."

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15. AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS (CRediT TAXONOMY)

EDSJ requires all multi-author manuscripts to include an Author Contributions statement using the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) framework. The 14 CRediT roles are: Conceptualisation; Data Curation; Formal Analysis; Funding Acquisition; Investigation; Methodology; Project Administration; Resources; Software; Supervision; Validation; Visualisation; Writing – Original Draft; Writing – Review & Editing.

Example:
"A.B.S.: Conceptualisation, Methodology, Writing – Original Draft. C.D.E.: Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Visualisation. F.G.H.: Supervision, Writing – Review & Editing, Funding Acquisition."

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16. REFERENCES

EDSJ uses the APA 7th Edition reference style. Authors must ensure all references cited in the text appear in the reference list and vice versa. References must be complete and accurate. Where available, DOIs must be included for all references.

FORMAT EXAMPLES:

JOURNAL ARTICLE:
Smith, J. A., & Doe, J. B. (2023). Deep learning approaches for healthcare analytics: A systematic review. Journal of Data Science, 12(3), 145–162. https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxxx

BOOK:
Mitchell, T. M. (1997). Machine learning. McGraw-Hill.

CONFERENCE PAPER:
Nguyen, P. T., & Le, Q. V. (2022). Attention mechanisms in large language models. In Proceedings of the 36th International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML 2022) (pp. 1204–1215). PMLR. https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxxx

WEBSITE / ONLINE RESOURCE:
World Bank. (2023). World development indicators. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator (Accessed: 1 March 2024)

CITATION IN TEXT:
Narrative: Smith and Doe (2023) demonstrated that...
Parenthetical: Recent reviews have confirmed this finding (Smith & Doe, 2023).
Multiple authors (3+): Use et al. from first citation: (Nguyen et al., 2022).

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17. FIGURES

— All figures must be submitted as separate high-resolution files (minimum 300 dpi for photographs; 600 dpi for line art)
— Accepted file formats: TIFF, EPS, PNG, JPG
— Figures must be numbered consecutively (Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.)
— Each figure must have a complete, self-explanatory caption
— Figures must be cited in the text in numerical order
— Colour figures are accepted; ensure contrast is sufficient for greyscale printing
— Do not embed figures in the Word manuscript; upload them as separate files
— If a figure contains previously published material, written permission from the copyright holder must be obtained and acknowledged in the caption

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18. TABLES

— Tables must be submitted in editable format within the manuscript (not as images)
— Tables must be numbered consecutively (Table 1, Table 2, etc.)
— Each table must have a concise descriptive title placed above the table
— Footnotes to tables should be indicated by superscript lowercase letters (a, b, c) and placed below the table
— Tables must be cited in the text in numerical order
— Do not duplicate information presented in figures

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19. EQUATIONS AND MATHEMATICAL NOTATION

— Number all equations consecutively in parentheses at the right margin: (1), (2), etc.
— Refer to equations as Equation (1), Equation (2), etc.
— Define all mathematical symbols and variables at first use
— Use standard notation consistent with the relevant sub-field
— For manuscripts containing substantial mathematical content, LaTeX submission is encouraged

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20. ABBREVIATIONS

Define all abbreviations at first use in the abstract and again at first use in the main text. Do not introduce abbreviations that are only used once. Avoid excessive use of abbreviations. A list of abbreviations may be provided at the end of the manuscript if five or more non-standard abbreviations are used.

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21. ETHICAL REQUIREMENTS

HUMAN SUBJECTS RESEARCH: Research involving human participants, human data, or human tissue must have been conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and must have received approval from a recognised institutional review board (IRB) or ethics committee. The name of the ethics committee and approval number must be stated in the Methods section.

ANIMAL RESEARCH: Research involving animals must comply with the ARRIVE guidelines and must have been conducted in accordance with applicable national legislation governing the use of animals in research.

INFORMED CONSENT: For studies involving identifiable human participants, authors must confirm that written informed consent was obtained from all participants. Where images of participants are used, consent for publication of these images must be stated.

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22. AI-GENERATED CONTENT POLICY

EDSJ requires full transparency regarding the use of AI-assisted writing tools (including but not limited to ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Copilot, or similar large language models).

AI tools may be used to assist with language editing, grammar checking, or proofreading. AI tools may NOT be listed as authors, as authorship requires accountability that AI cannot assume.

Authors must disclose any use of AI writing tools in the manuscript. This disclosure should appear in the Methods section (for AI used in research processes) and/or in an AI Tools Disclosure statement at the end of the manuscript (before the References), formatted as follows:

Example: "During the preparation of this manuscript, the authors used [Tool Name] for [specific purpose, e.g., language editing]. The authors reviewed and edited the AI-generated content and take full responsibility for the content of the published article."

If no AI tools were used, no statement is required.

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23. PLAGIARISM POLICY AND THRESHOLD

EDSJ has a zero-tolerance policy for plagiarism, including self-plagiarism. All manuscripts are screened using iThenticate (Turnitin) before peer review. The maximum acceptable overall similarity score is 15%, excluding the reference list, direct quotations marked as such, and common technical phrases. Manuscripts exceeding this threshold will be returned to the authors before peer review, with the similarity report, and will require revision to reduce overlap before resubmission.

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24. SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS

Authors may submit supplementary materials (datasets, code, extended tables, additional figures) for publication alongside the main article. Supplementary files should be uploaded separately at submission, clearly labelled (e.g., Supplementary File 1 — Extended Results Table), and referenced in the main text. EDSJ strongly encourages authors to deposit code in a public repository (e.g., GitHub, Zenodo) and to provide the DOI or URL in the manuscript.

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25. SUBMISSION CHECKLIST

Before submitting, authors must confirm all items in the Submission Preparation Checklist on the submission system. See Section 26 for the full checklist.

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26. ARTICLE PROCESSING CHARGES (APCs)

EDSJ is a Gold Open Access journal. APCs are levied upon formal acceptance of a manuscript. No charge is applied at submission. APC waivers and discounts are available for authors from low- and lower-middle-income countries; see the About the Journal page for details.

Current APC: [YOUR APC AMOUNT]
Contact: [YOUR-EDITORIAL-EMAIL]

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27. PEER REVIEW PROCESS

All manuscripts are subject to double-blind peer review. The review process involves:
1. Initial editorial screening (scope, quality, ethics, formatting compliance)
2. Plagiarism check using iThenticate
3. Assignment to two or more independent expert reviewers
4. Editorial decision communicated with reviewer feedback
5. Author revision and response (if required)
6. Final acceptance decision by the Editor-in-Chief

Target first-decision time: approximately 21 days from submission.

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28. COPYRIGHT AND LICENSING

By submitting a manuscript, authors confirm they are the copyright holders and consent to publication under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0). Under this licence, readers are free to copy, distribute, transmit, and adapt the work, provided the original work is appropriately cited. Authors retain copyright.

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29. HOW TO CONTACT THE EDITORIAL OFFICE

For enquiries regarding submission, review status, or editorial policies, please contact:

European Data Science Journal 
Email:
Website: https://esa-research.org/index.php/EDSJ
Response time: 3–5 working days