Author Guidelines

Author Guidelines

Authors are invited to submit manuscripts to Nexa: Journal of Visionary Social Empowerment (NEXA). The journal accepts manuscripts in Indonesian or English that are relevant to community service, community empowerment, health promotion, education, social development, community-based innovation, and other community-oriented initiatives.

All submitted manuscripts must be original, unpublished, and not currently under consideration by another journal. Manuscripts will first be screened by the editorial team to assess their suitability with the journal’s focus and scope, manuscript format, originality, ethical compliance, and overall quality. Manuscripts that meet the initial requirements will be processed through a double-blind peer review.

The manuscript must be prepared using the official NEXA article template and submitted in Microsoft Word format (.doc or .docx) or Rich Text Format (.rtf). The manuscript should be written on A4 paper, in single-column format, using Times New Roman 12 pt for the main text, with consistent spacing and margins according to the journal template. The manuscript should contain a minimum of 5,000 words, excluding references, tables, figures, and appendices.

The manuscript should be written clearly, systematically, and academically. Authors must ensure that the manuscript contributes to the development of knowledge, practice, policy, or community-based empowerment. For community service articles, the manuscript should clearly describe the community problem, partner needs, intervention or activity design, implementation process, evaluation method, outcomes, impact, and sustainability of the program.

Manuscript Structure

The manuscript should be arranged in the following order:

1. Title

The title should be concise, specific, informative, and reflect the main content of the manuscript. The recommended title length is approximately 12–15 words. The title should avoid unnecessary abbreviations, formulas, and overly general expressions.

Authors should provide the article title in Indonesian and English. The English title should accurately represent the meaning of the main title.

2. Author Names

Author names must be written clearly without academic degrees or professional titles. The order of authors must reflect the contribution and agreement of all authors involved in the manuscript.

The corresponding author must be marked with an asterisk (*) and must provide an active email address for communication during the editorial, review, revision, and publication process.

3. Author Affiliations

Each author must provide a complete affiliation, including department or study program, faculty or unit, institution, city, and country. The affiliation must be written consistently and accurately.

4. Abstract

The manuscript must include abstracts in Indonesian and English. Each abstract should be written in one paragraph, approximately 150–250 words, and should briefly contain the background, objective, method, results, and conclusion of the study or community service activity.

The abstract must be self-contained, clear, and understandable without referring to the full manuscript. It should not contain citations, tables, figures, or undefined abbreviations.

5. Keywords

Authors must provide 3–5 keywords that represent the main topic of the manuscript. Keywords should be specific, relevant, and useful for indexing purposes. Keywords should be written alphabetically and separated by semicolons (;).

6. Introduction

The introduction should explain the background of the community problem, the urgency of the activity, relevant supporting data, previous studies or community service activities, and the gap that the manuscript aims to address.

The introduction should end with a clear statement of the objective of the activity or study. Authors should avoid overly general explanations and should support key arguments with relevant and recent references.

7. Methods

The methods section should describe the community service design or approach in sufficient detail so that the activity can be understood and replicated. This section should include the location and time of the activity, partner or participant characteristics, target group, activity stages, intervention or program design, instruments used, evaluation methods, indicators of success, and data analysis techniques.

For community service manuscripts, authors may describe approaches such as education, training, mentoring, workshop, participatory action, community development, technology transfer, health promotion, social intervention, or other relevant methods.

If the activity involves human participants, personal data, vulnerable groups, institutional permission, or ethical considerations, authors must explain the ethical approval, informed consent, or permission obtained.

8. Results and Discussion

The results and discussion section should present the main findings, outputs, outcomes, and impact of the activity. Results may include changes in knowledge, attitudes, skills, behavior, participation, community capacity, partner products, policy outputs, educational media, or other measurable outcomes.

Tables and figures may be used to present important results. However, information presented in tables or figures should not be repeated excessively in the text. The narrative should focus on explaining the meaning, relevance, and implications of the findings.

The discussion should compare the results with relevant theories, previous studies, or similar community service activities. Authors should explain why the results occurred, what factors supported or hindered the activity, how the activity contributed to community empowerment, and how the program may be sustained or replicated.

Authors should also explain the limitations of the activity and provide recommendations for future programs or studies.

9. Tables and Figures

Tables and figures must be numbered consecutively according to their appearance in the text. Each table and figure must be cited in the manuscript.

Table titles should be placed above the table, while figure titles should be placed below the figure. Tables should use an open table format, without vertical lines, and should contain only necessary horizontal lines. Figures, diagrams, and photographs must be clear, readable, and relevant to the manuscript.

If tables, figures, photographs, instruments, or other materials are taken from other sources, authors must provide proper attribution and obtain permission where required.

10. Conclusion

The conclusion should be written in one or two concise paragraphs. It should answer the objective of the activity or study, summarize the main outcomes, state the contribution or impact of the activity, and provide practical recommendations where appropriate.

The conclusion should not repeat the entire results section and should not introduce new data, new discussion, or new citations.

11. Acknowledgment

Authors may acknowledge individuals, institutions, community partners, organizations, facilitators, enumerators, students, or funding bodies that contributed to the activity but do not meet the criteria for authorship.

Funding sources, grant numbers, institutional support, or cooperation agreements should be clearly stated where applicable.

12. Ethical Statement, Funding, Conflict of Interest, and Data Availability

Authors are required to include relevant statements regarding ethical approval or institutional permission, author contributions, funding, conflict of interest, and data availability.

If the manuscript does not involve ethical approval or external funding, authors should still provide a clear statement, for example: “This activity did not require ethical approval” or “This activity did not receive specific funding.”

Authors must also disclose any potential conflict of interest. If there is no conflict of interest, authors should state: “The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.”

13. References

NEXA uses a numeric citation style. Citations in the text must be written using numbers in square brackets according to the order of appearance, for example: [1], [2,3], or [4-6].

The reference list must be arranged numerically according to the first citation in the manuscript, not alphabetically. Authors are strongly encouraged to use reference management software such as Mendeley, Zotero, or EndNote to ensure consistency and accuracy.

At least 80% of the references should come from relevant and recent scholarly sources, preferably journal articles published within the last 10 years. References should include DOI or URL where available.

Examples of reference format:

[1] Author AA, Author BB, Author CC. Title of article in sentence case. Journal Name. 2024;12(1):1-10. doi:xx.xxxx/xxxxx.

[2] Author AA, Author BB. Title of community service article. Journal Name. 2023;5(2):100-112. doi:xx.xxxx/xxxxx.

[3] Author AA. Title of book in sentence case. City: Publisher; 2022.

[4] Institution Name. Title of guideline, report, or policy document. City: Institution Name; 2021. Available from: URL.

14. Similarity and Plagiarism Check

All submitted manuscripts will be checked for similarity using plagiarism detection tools such as Turnitin, iThenticate, or other reliable software. The maximum acceptable similarity index is 20%, excluding references, properly quoted text, and standard academic elements where applicable.

Manuscripts containing plagiarism, duplicate publication, improper paraphrasing, data fabrication, data falsification, or other forms of publication misconduct may be rejected by the editorial team.

15. Copyright and License

Authors who publish with Nexa: Journal of Visionary Social Empowerment (NEXA) retain the copyright of their work and grant the journal the right of first publication.

All articles published in NEXA are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). This license allows others to share and adapt the work for any purpose, including commercial purposes, provided that proper credit is given to the original author(s), article title, journal, and source of publication.

16. Manuscript Submission

Manuscripts must be submitted through the official NEXA online journal system. Authors must ensure that all metadata, including title, abstract, keywords, author names, affiliations, and corresponding author email, are entered completely and accurately.

Submissions that do not follow the author guidelines, manuscript template, ethical policy, or reference style may be returned to the authors for correction or rejected during the initial editorial screening.