Management Theory and Studies for Rural Business and Infrastructure Development

Please submit your manuscripts to the journal via following link:
ejournals.vdu.lt/index.php/mtsrbid/submission/wizard

Instructions how to submit manuscripts can be found here:　
ejournals.vdu.lt/index.php/mtsrbid/about/submissions

Originality. Presented articles must be original, not published elsewhere, and should correspond with the aims and scope of the journal. The editorial board uses the iThenticate Plagiarism Detection Software for checking the originality of all manuscripts.

Peer Review. All manuscripts are peer-reviewed by two experts, a double-blind review system is applied.

Publication fee. The fee for 8 pages publication (16 000 characters without spaces) - 150 EUR (excluding VAT). Each additional paper of submitted publication - 20 EUR (2000 characters without spaces) (excluding VAT).

The articles are published according to the author's originals. However, in order to ensure the scientific English standards of the journal publications, manuscripts are submitted for revision to the management/economics language specialists.

REQUIREMENTS FOR MANUSCRIPTS AND THEIR FORMALIZATION
General requirements

• Length of the manuscript – 8 or more A4 format pages. The manuscripts have to be prepared by Microsoft Word, font – Times New Roman.
• Page setup: top and bottom, left and right margins – 2.0 cm.
• The text is written in single line spacing, aligned Justify, using an automatic transfer word (hyphenate), 1st line of the paragraph indented – 1,27 cm.
• Manuscript’s parts titles (introduction, titles of chapters and conclusion) – 14pt Bold must be numbered and aligned to the left edge of the page and separated from the text by single line interval.　
• The articles are published according to the author's originals. However, in order to ensure the scientific English standards of the journal publications, manuscripts are submitted for revision to the management/economics language specialists.　

Sections of the manuscript:

• information under the title;
• abstract;
• introduction;
• results;
• conclusion;
• literature cited;
• information about the author(s).

*Summary of the publication in English language is needed only if the original language of publication is Lithuanian.

The title (CAPITAL letters, centered – 14 pt Bold)

• The title should be short (a maximum of 10 words);
• it should reflect the results of the research, i.e. the research objective rather than the research process;
• in the title avoid using words such as “analysis”, “research”, “survey”, “problems”, etc.

Information under the title includes:

• the name(s) of the author(s) in English – 12 pt Bold;
• the job and scientific titles, institutional affiliations, address, telephone No, and email address of the first (coordinating) author – 12 pt Italic;
• the job and scientific titles, institutional affiliations, and email address of the other author(s).

Abstract (approximately 100 words) (10 pt Normal)

The abstract shall summarize:

• the relevance and the problem of the research;
• the purpose;
• the research methods;
• the main results (in brief);
• the keywords (5–7, arranged in alphabetical order);
• JEL codes (one letter followed by two numbers) (see http://www.aeaweb.org/jel/jel_class_system.php).

Introduction (12 pt Normal)
The introduction shall state:

• the problem that was investigated. It is essential to mention all the scientists who work in this field and their specific contribution to the analysed problem;
• why the problem is of interest;
• a hypothesis or a scientific problem;
• the purpose or, if necessary, objectives of the paper;
• the object and subject of the research;
• the research methods;
• the benefits of the research to studies, science and / or business.

Purpose:

• The purpose should be clearly defined and be in line with the title and the conclusions of the paper.
• The purpose must reflect the result of the research, rather than the research process.
• Quite often authors arrive at a faulty formulation of the purpose when they use such words as "investigate", "analyze", "assess" or even "examine", "describe", etc. Such words would be more appropriate to describe the objectives.
• The purpose should be worded as follows: "To conduct investigation/analysis of ... and to suggest (to make, produce, frame, prove, etc.) ...".

Research object / subject
• The object indicates the field of the research, namely, a business, enterprise, infrastructure subject, etc.
• The subject indicates the qualities or features of the object that will be researched, e. g. management, motivation, finance, price of goods, etc.　
• E. g., the research object is the competitiveness of a company. The research subject includes competitiveness indicators (the sizes and specialization of companies, payment, assessment, financial indicators, etc.).

Research methods
The Methods section should specify:

• the period of the research;
• information about experts;
• calculation of the sample;
• number of respondents;
• data assessment methods;
• other information related to the methods used in the research;
• research techniques can be described at the end of the Methods section;
• in the Methods section, it is inappropriate to list methods suitable for any research, e. g., “...used scientific literature analysis, graphical, monographic, logical extraction, comparison, induction, deduction, etc. methods...”;
• the research methods should not be called methodology as the latter means the theories and principles of the scientific cognition process, the scientific cognition philosophy, and the system. The Methods section can describe the methodological principles the research relied on.

Research results and discussion (14 pt Normal)
The main objective of this section is to present the findings of scientific research and to justify their novelty.

This section shall include:　
1. The results and their explanation/interpretation.
2. Or severally: results (as briefly as possible) and explanation/interpretation of the results.

The standard scheme of result presentation:

• analysis of a theoretical problem and its generalization;
• the obtained research data and comment thereon;
• prospects of the phenomenon or recommendations on how to change the situation.

Illustrations:

• Titles of tables and figures - 12 pt Normal.
• Text within the tables and figures and formulas - 10 pt Normal.
• The text in the tables aligned to left, the figures should be centered.
• The tables and figures must be informative and self-explanatory, i.e. understandable without referring to the text, accompanied by explanatory captions.
• The data in a table or figure cannot be duplicated in the text or explanatory caption, i.e. data shall be provided either in a table/figure or the verbal description, where they are cited but not repeated. The caption shall only focus on regularities proceeding from the tables and figures.

It is not recommended to include:

• figures and tables by other authors;
• figures with only 2–3 indicators;
• too many tables and figures;
• the number of tables and figures should be limited (an article is a scientific paper and not a collection of statistical data);
• the figures may not be multicolored or scanned;
• one graph should not contain more than 2–3 curves.

All figures and tables should be presented as follows:
1) the text preceding a figure/table explains why the figure/table is necessary (i. e., what research fact it will illustrate); a reference to the figure/table must be provided in brackets;
2) if there is more than one figure/table, they shall be numbered;
3) explanatory captions to figures/tables: "Subsequent to the analysis of the data in the figure/table... ", or "data in the figure/table reveal ...".

• Where a figure/table is by somebody else than the author of the article, the reference to the source, just like all the references in the text, shall be given next to its title (not UNDER the figure/table).
• Where the author used a source to produce a figure/table before it is described in the text, the specific source shall be indicated, and specific changes made by the author shall be detailed.
• Where a figure/table is made by the author(s) based on their research data, it is not relevant to specify "made by the author(s)".

Conclusions (12 pt Normal)
Conclusions shall:

• be consistent with the purpose of the article;
• reflect the result of each research objective;
• be specific (preferably include numbers);
• include recommendations for science, business, and / or studies...

The conclusions shall not:

• state the facts ("increased", "decreased", etc.);
• contain a set of general conclusions.: they should describe revealed regularities, facts, numbers, and new ideas;
• avoid unnecessary sentences of the general character (e. g., "The conducted research and the processed results lead to a conclusion that...");
• retell the gist of the article (like in the summary).

Acknowledgments:

• After conclusions (before the list of references), it is desirable to provide information about the organization (exact name, number of the project contract, etc.), which supports the published article.

Format for citing references

The journal uses the APA (American Psychological Association, www.apastyle.org) international citation standard

• In the text, the name of the author shall be accompanied by the initial, e.g., according to Krikšèiūnas (1933), ...
• It is not advisable to include the titles of the authors (prof., scientist, etc).
• (Knox, 2011; Milkis, 2012) (submitted the last name ONLY);
• if there is no author, the first word of the title is indicated (Management..., 2013);
• if the first word of the title repeats in several sources on the list of literature citations, the text shall contain two or three the first words of the title (Lithuanian agricultural..., 2011);
• where a quotation is cited, the page of the source shall be specified (Viduklis, 1996, p. 48).
• Literature cited (12 pt Normal).　
• The references in Literature cited shall be arranged in alphabetic order, not numbered.
• In the list should be at least 10 sources.
• Sources in Cyrillic shall be transliterated. You can use the translit converter http://translit.cc
• All internet sources must be interactive.
• All literature sources cited in the article must be included in the literature cited section.
• Sources that were not used in the text may not be included in the Literature Cited.

Recommendations:

• cite more publications included in the international databases;
• avoid citing textbooks and learning or teaching materials;
• use the English title of our journal.　
• Examples of Literature cited format

Monograph, book
• Jakubavièius, A., Strazdas, R., Geèas, K. (2003). Inovacijos. Procesai, valdymo modeliai, galimybės. – Vilnius: Lietuvos inovacijų centras. 97 p.

Article in a journal, collective monograph
• Baležentis, T., Krišèiukaitienė, I.(2012). Application of the Bootstrapped DEA for the Analysis of Lithuanian Family Farm Efficiency // Management Theory and Studies for Rural Business and Infrastructure Development. Vol. 34. No. 5: 35–46.
(Titles of the journals must be written in italics).

Internet source
• Hume, D. A. Treatise of human nature: Being An Attempt to Introduce the method of reasoning into moral subjects. – http://socserv2.socsci./~econ/ugcm/3113/hume/t.html [2012 05 01]. (The date it was viewed appears in square brackets).

Information about the author (in English only) (12 pt Normal)
Example
SOKIENE Vanda. Dr, Klaipėda University, Minijos g. 155, 93185, Klaipėda, Lithuania. E-mail: Vanda.Sokiene@gmail.com

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

Copyright Notice
Authors contributing to Management Theory and Studies for Rural Business and Infrastructure Development (MTSRBID) agree to publish their articles under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported license, allowing third parties to share their work (copy, distribute, transmit).

Authors retain copyright of their work, with first publication rights granted to Vytautas Magnus University. However, authors are required to transfer copyrights associated with commercial use to the Publisher.

Authors retain ownership of the copyright for their article, but authors allow anyone to download, reuse, reprint, modify, distribute, and/or copy articles in the MTSRBID, so long as the original authors and source are cited. No permission is required from the authors or the publishers.

GUIDELINES FOR REVIEWRES

REVIEWERS

• The reviewers of MTSRBID assist the editors in taking the decision of publishing a submitted manuscript. By formulating suggestions to the authors, the reviewers can contribute to the improvement of submitted works.
• Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor.
• Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.
• The reviewers should comment on the originality of submissions and should be alert to redundant publication and plagiarism.

AUTHORS

• The authors ensure that they have submitted original works and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others that this has been appropriately cited or quoted.
• Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal is considered an unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.
• Proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work.
• When an author founds error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to notify the journal editor and cooperate with him to retract or correct the paper.

PEER REVIEW PROCESS

• Manuscripts submitted to Management Theory and Studies for Rural Business and Infrastructure Development are subject to peer review to maintain the standards of the journal, promote rigorous research within the fields, and to offer authors constructive feedback on their submissions.
• Management Theory and Studies for Rural Business and Infrastructure Development have a 'double-blind' review process: Authors are not told who reviewed their paper, and referees do not know the name of the authors whose papers they review. The peer referees’ identity remains unknown to the authors.
• Manuscripts are sent out for review electronically, and all correspondence takes place in the journal system or via e-mail. Although the peer-review process is accelerated by the use of electronic communication, traditional, high-quality peer-review standards are applied to all manuscripts submitted to the journal.
• Peer reviewers are asked to give their opinion on a number of issues pertinent to the quality and suitability of a paper and to judge papers on grounds of originality and importance. We pride ourselves on providing constructive and formative feedback to authors.

Reviewer Guidelines Reviewers of the journal are asked to consider the following points during their evaluation:

• Does the paper have clear aims and objectives/research questions that can be achieved within the scope of the journal paper?
• Does the paper make a contribution to knowledge?
• Is the work suitably grounded in the literature to justify its contribution and frame the analysis/evaluation?
• Is the research/evaluation methodology justified, clear, and appropriate? (Including ethical considerations/approval where appropriate)
• Does the analysis/ evaluation have a clear flow and logical argument?
• Does the analysis/evaluation link to an appropriate discussion and conclusions?
• Is it presented in a way that is suitable for the journal’s international audience?

Peer reviewers will have five possible options, for any paper:

• Accept manuscript (i.e. no need for any revision).
• Accept after revision (i.e. accepted if the author makes the requested revisions).
• Revise and resubmit (i.e. accepted or rejected after revisions have been made - the paper will be sent out for another peer review round).
• Reject manuscript (i.e. if the manuscript is not sufficiently developed for publication)
• See comments (i.e. if the reviewer cannot choose from any of the above).
• In addition, papers may be returned to authors by the Editors prior to review, if judged to be out of scope, out of the limits of the word length guidance or not sufficiently prepared for publication.
• To facilitate rapid publication, authors are given a maximum of 6 weeks for revision. After 6 weeks, revised manuscripts will normally be considered new submissions.

EDITORIAL POLICY

EDITORS

• The editor is responsible for maintaining the integrity of the academic record, for having processes in place to assure the quality of the material they publish and for precluding business needs from compromising intellectual and ethical standards.
• Editors’ decisions to accept or reject a paper for publication should be based on the paper’s importance, originality and clarity, and the study’s validity and its relevance to the remit of the journal.
• The editor ensures that appropriate reviewers are selected for submissions (i.e. individuals who are able to judge the work and are free from disqualifying competing interests).
• The editor has systems in place to give authors the opportunity to make original research articles freely available.
• The editor has systems to ensure that material submitted to their journal remains confidential while under review.
• MTSRBID employs the double-blind peer review: reviewers are unaware of the identity of the authors, and authors are also unaware of the identity of reviewers. There are at least three or more reviewers for the total number of articles in each issue.

Open Access License

This journal provides immediate open access to its content under the Creative Commons BY 4.0 license. Authors who publish with this journal retain all copyrights and agree to the terms of the above-mentioned CC BY 4.0 license.