Submissions

Author Guidelines

Formatting Instructions

Regular articles

All portions of the manuscript must be double-spaced and all pages numbered starting from the title page.

The Title should be a short phrase describing the contents of the paper. Where possible the title should not be longer than 18 words. Please do not type titles in upper case. The Title Page should include the authors' full names and affiliations, the name of the corresponding author along with phone, and e-mail information. Present addresses of authors should appear as a footnote. For joint publications, the name of the corresponding author should be indicated with an asterix to it.

The Abstract should be concise informative and completely self-explanatory. The Abstract should be between 200 and 250 words. Complete sentences, active verbs, and the third person should be used, and the abstract should be written in the past tense. Standard nomenclature should be used and abbreviations should be avoided. No literature should be cited.

Following the abstract, about 3 to 5 keywords that will provide indexing references should be provided. A list of non-standard Abbreviations should be added. In general, non-standard abbreviations should be used only when the full term is very long and used often. Each abbreviation should be spelt out and introduced in parentheses the first time it is used in the text.

The Introduction should provide a clear statement of the problem, the relevant literature on the subject, and the proposed approach or solution. It should be understandable to colleagues from a broad range of disciplines teachable and learnable by open and distance learning approach.

Materials and methods should be complete enough to allow experiments to be reproduced. However, only truly new procedures should be described in detail; previously published procedures should be cited, and important modifications of published procedures should be mentioned briefly. Subheadings should be used. Methods in general use need not be described in detail.

Results should be presented with clarity and precision. The results should be written in the past tense when describing findings in the authors' experiments. Results should be explained, but largely without referring to the literature. Discussion, speculation and detailed interpretation of data should not be included in the Results but should be put into the Discussion section.

The Discussion should interpret the findings in view of the results obtained in this and in past studies on this topic. State the conclusions in a few sentences at the end of the paper. The Results and Discussion sections can include subheadings, and when appropriate, both sections can be combined.

Implications for ODL: Authors should point out the implications of their findings for ODL in various aspects of policy, practice, administration and other areas. Implications for ODL especially in developing nations and technology starved environments may also be mentioned.

The acknowledgments of people, grants, funds, etc. should be brief.

Tables should be kept to a minimum and be designed to be as simple as possible. Tables are to be typed double-spaced throughout, including headings and footnotes. Each table should be on a separate page, numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals and supplied with a heading and a legend. Tables should be self-explanatory without reference to the text. The details of the methods used in the experiments should preferably be described in the legend instead of in the text. The same data should not be presented in both table and graph form or repeated in the text.

Figure legends should be typed in numerical order on a separate sheet. Graphics should be prepared using applications capable of generating high resolution GIF, TIFF, JPEG pasting in the Microsoft Word manuscript file. Tables should be prepared in Microsoft Word. Use Arabic numerals to designate figures and upper case letters for their parts (Figure 1). Begin each legend with a title and include sufficient description so that the figure is understandable without reading the text of the manuscript. Information given in legends should not be repeated in the text.

References: In the text, a reference identified by means of an author's name should be followed by the date of the reference in parentheses. When there are more than two authors, only the first author's name should be mentioned, followed by et al. In the event that an author cited has had two or more works published during the same year, the reference, both in the text and in the reference list, should be identified by a lower case letter like 'a' and 'b' after the date to distinguish the works.

References should be listed at the end of the paper in alphabetical order. Articles in preparation or articles submitted for publication, unpublished observations, personal communications, etc. should not be included in the reference list but should only be mentioned in the article text (e.g., A. Chukura, University of Nigeria, Nigeria, personal communication). Authors are fully responsible for the accuracy of the references. Names of Journals could be written in full or abbreviated appropriately.

Short Communications

Short Communications are limited to a maximum of two figures and one table. They should present a complete study that is more limited in scope than is found in full- length papers. The items of manuscript preparation listed above apply to Short Communications with the following differences:

1. Abstracts are limited to 100 words.
2. Instead of a separate Materials and Methods section, experimental procedures may be incorporated into Figure Legends and Table footnotes.
3. Results and Discussion should be combined into a single section.

Proofs and Reprints

Electronic proofs will be sent (via email) to the corresponding author as a PDF file. Page proofs are considered to be the final version of the manuscript. With the exception of typographical or minor clerical errors, no changes will be made in the manuscript after the proof stage. Authors will be informed immediately their papers are published. The principal or corresponding author of each paper will be entitled to a free copy of the journal. Additional copies will be available at a cost from the Managing Editor @ wajofel@noun.edu.ng

Manuscript Preparation and Submission Guidelines

Authors should submit their manuscripts in compliance with the following format:

• Manuscripts should be prepared in British English.
• Submissions should be in Microsoft Office Word (.doc/.docx) file format. Times New Roman with a font size of 12 and double line spacing.
• The first page of the manuscript should contain the title, author's name(s), institutional affiliation(s), email address and ORCiD identifier. Names should be written in the following order: FirstName, Initial, Surname.
• Titles and headings should start with the first letters in capitals and should not be numbered.
• Abstracts should be between 200 and 250 words, with three (3) to five (5) keywords below.
• Length of the manuscript:
  • Research articles - 4,000 to 6,500 words.
  • Review articles - 8,000 to 10,000 words.
  • Technical Reports, Case Studies, and Invited Commentaries - not more than 2,500 words.
  • Book Reviews - 1,000 to 2,000 words.
• Footnotes are not accepted. Endnotes may be included in the article just before the reference list.
• The first occurrence of abbreviated words should be provided in full with the abbreviation following in a bracket.
• References should follow the American Psychological Association (APA) style, 7th edition.
• All manuscripts are subject to an initial appraisal and plagiarism check by the editor. If found suitable, a double-blind peer-review process is carried out by independent expert reviewers.

Manuscripts should be submitted via the website https://wajofel.org