Journal of Big Data Research
Instructions for authors
How to prepare and submit a manuscript: what the file must contain, how to report data and methods, what to declare, and which route to use. Check the scope first — these instructions assume the work already fits.
- Manuscript files
- Microsoft Word (.docx), LaTeX (.tex) or PDF
- Citation style
- APA 7th edition or IEEE, applied consistently
- Review
- Single-blind by default; double-blind review is available on request.
- Charges
- No submission fee and no review fee
Before you prepare the file
Read the Aims and Scope and check two things: what your work operates on, and what it contributes. That page also states the evidence the journal looks for in each contribution family, which is what a reviewer will read your manuscript against.
The evidence expectations are about supporting a claim, not about eligibility. A theoretical result, a replication, a validation study, a data resource and an applied finding are each in scope; what differs is the evidence each carries.
Where you are unsure whether the work fits, send a short summary to the editorial office before preparing a full manuscript, and it will respond.
Manuscript formats
- Formats in use
- Original Research Articles, Review Articles, Methodological Papers, Case Studies and Short Communications. These illustrate ways to present work within the scope and are not an exhaustive list.
- Length and structure
- Confirm the current word, abstract, keyword, reference, figure and table specifications for your format with the editorial office before submitting.
- Unsure which format?
- Describe the work in two or three sentences and the editorial office will advise.
What the manuscript contains
Title page
Title, all authors with affiliations and ORCID iDs, the corresponding author's contact details, and any funding. Keep the title concise and descriptive, reflecting the contribution and the material the work operates on; write it out in full rather than using abbreviations.
Abstract
A standalone summary covering the problem and motivation, the objectives, the methods and the data or algorithms used, the main findings with specific outcomes, and what follows from them. Write it without citations, undefined abbreviations, or references to figures and tables.
Keywords
Four to six specific terms that do not repeat the title, using established terminology from the field. Combine a broad concept with the specific technique, so that a reader searching either finds the work.
Body
Introduction with the research gap and objectives; related work; methods in enough detail to be reproduced; results; discussion including limitations; conclusions. Use a hierarchical heading structure with descriptive section titles.
Declarations
Data availability, funding, competing interests, author contributions, ethical approval where applicable, and any use of generative AI tools in preparing the manuscript, with the tool and its role stated.
Supplementary material
Datasets, code, protocols and additional figures, each with a short description. Supplementary files are published alongside the article and should be readable without it.
Reporting data, methods and results
Data. Every empirical research manuscript must include a data-availability statement. Where access is restricted, the statement explains the restriction and any permitted access procedure. Describe how the data was collected or assembled, what it covers, the population or sources it represents, and the preparation applied before analysis.
Methods and code. Manuscripts presenting an algorithm, model, or system describe it in reproducible form — pseudocode, parameters, or shared code — and report the environment the results were produced in, including software versions and, where performance is claimed, the hardware.
Evaluation. Report the evaluation design and how it keeps training and test material apart, the baselines compared against and why they were chosen, the measures used, and a statement of uncertainty. Where one design choice carries the result, include an ablation or sensitivity analysis. Where the claim is causal, justify the identification assumptions.
Claim boundary. State what the evidence supports. Computational validation establishes that a method works as described; a claim about an effect on patients or on an operation carries the evidence that such a claim requires.
Reporting guidelines, where applicable
- Systematic reviews
- PRISMA
- Observational studies
- STROBE, and RECORD for research using routinely collected health data
- Prediction models
- TRIPOD
- Clinical trials
- CONSORT
- Diagnostic accuracy
- STARD
Submit the completed checklist for the guideline that applies to your study design as a supplementary file.
Required statements
Ethics, registration and anonymized review
Human participants
Ethical basis
Research on human participants or on data about identifiable people reports its ethical basis: the approving committee and reference where approval was granted, the documented basis where a study was exempt, and the terms of use where the work is a secondary analysis of data already collected. Consent and privacy arrangements are described.
Clinical trials
Prospective registration
Interventional clinical trials must be registered in an accepted public trial registry at or before the first participant provides consent for enrollment. The registry name, registration number, and registration date must be reported in the manuscript.
Double-blind review
Preparing an anonymized file
For double-blind review, remove author names, affiliations, acknowledgments, funding details, institution names, and other identifying information from the reviewer manuscript. Provide identifying information separately in the title-page file or submission form.
File preparation
| Element | Requirement |
|---|---|
| File format | Microsoft Word (.docx), LaTeX (.tex) or PDF. Word is preferred for production. |
| Type and spacing | Times New Roman, Arial or Calibri at 12 pt, double-spaced, 1-inch (2.5 cm) margins. |
| Line numbers | Continuous line numbering throughout, so reviewers can cite a line. |
| Page numbers | Consecutive from the title page. |
| Language | English, either US or UK usage, applied consistently. |
| LaTeX | Include all source files (.tex, .bib, figures) and a compiled PDF. Use a standard document class rather than a publisher template. |
Figures and tables
- Figure resolution
- At least 300 DPI for photographs and 600 DPI for line art; at least 1000 pixels wide for a single-column figure.
- Figure formats
- TIFF, PNG, JPEG or EPS. Vector formats are preferred for graphs and diagrams.
- Labeling
- Clear axis labels, legends and annotations in a sans-serif face. Captions should let a reader interpret the figure without the main text.
- Tables
- Editable table format rather than images, numbered consecutively, with a descriptive title above and units in the column headers.
- Reused material
- Obtain permission for any figure, table or extract reproduced from another source, and state the permission in the caption.
References
Use APA 7th edition or IEEE style, and apply one of them consistently throughout. Include a DOI for every reference that has one. Cite the original source rather than a secondary citation, and check each entry against the record it describes.
Favor recent literature where the field has moved, keep self-citation to what the argument needs, and prefer peer-reviewed articles, conference proceedings and published books. Preprints, technical reports, theses and datasets with DOIs are acceptable sources. Cite websites and white papers only where they are essential and the URL is stable.
Worked examples
- APA 7th edition
- Fakir, Y., Elayachi, R., & Mahi, B. (2023). Clustering objects for spatial data mining: a comparative study. Journal of Big Data Research, 1(3), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.14302/issn.2768-0207.jbr-23-4478
- IEEE
- [1] Y. Fakir, R. Elayachi, and B. Mahi, "Clustering objects for spatial data mining: a comparative study," J. Big Data Res., vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 1–11, 2023, doi: 10.14302/issn.2768-0207.jbr-23-4478.
Both examples cite an article published in this journal, so the structure can be checked against the article itself.
Submitting the manuscript
Three routes are available. Authors must use only one submission route for the same manuscript.
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Primary route
ManuscriptZone
The journal's manuscript system. It tracks the submission through review and carries correspondence with the editors.
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Alternative route
JBR submission form
A shorter form that opens with this journal already selected. Use it where the full system is not convenient.
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Assisted route
Editorial office
Write to info@openaccesspub.org and the editorial office will help you submit. This is also the address for questions about scope or format.
Before you submit
- The work fits the scope, and you can state what it operates on and what it contributes
- Title page, abstract, keywords, body, declarations and references are complete
- A data-availability statement is included for empirical work
- Code, parameters and environment are described where a method or system is presented
- Ethical approval, consent and trial registration are reported where they apply
- Figures meet the resolution requirements and tables are editable
- References are in one style, with DOIs
- An anonymized file is prepared if you are requesting double-blind review
Revision, acceptance and afterwards
Authors invited to revise respond to each reviewer point in a covering letter, marking the changes in the manuscript. A revised manuscript returns to the handling editor and, where the changes are substantial, to the reviewers.
After acceptance the article is copyedited and typeset, and a proof is sent for approval. The article processing charge falls due at this stage; it is stated on the charges page. On publication the article receives a Crossref DOI and is freely available under CC BY 4.0.
Related pages
- Scope
- Aims and Scope
- Policies
- Editorial Policies
- Charges
- Article Processing Charges
- Submission
- Submit Paper