Your article should have the following specifications:

• Language: British/UK English
• Title: must capture the gist and scope of the article. (Should not be more than 20 words)
• Keywords: These must be 5 or 6 words that are not in the title. These must assist in retrieving the document online.
• Journal article (including supporting documents)
• Word Count: 5000-7000.
• Abstract word count: 200
• Book review Word Count: 900-1200
• Policy briefs Word Count: 2000
• Book Chapter Word Count: 6000-10000
• Brief report novel research findings of high importance to the field: 2000
• Typically topical, comprehensive reviews, award lectures, keynote addresses, and State of the
• Art lectures: 8000
• References limit: 50
• Font: Aerial size 12
• Line spacing: Double or 1.5
• Margin: 2.5cm
• File formats: doc, docx, pdf, tiff, eps, mp4 or video, where applicable.
• References limit (Journal Articles): 50
• References limit (Brief report novel research findings of high importance to the field): 25
• References limit (Typically topical, comprehensive reviews, award lectures,
• Keynote addresses, and State of the Art lectures): 100.
• Reference style: APA 6th edition.
• In-text citation: as guided by the APA citation style.
• Emphasis to the text: use italics generally, and bold face if need be.
• When the quoted material does not include page numbers, the APA guidelines should be followed.

Title Page:

• The title page should contain the following information:
• Full title of manuscript
  Author’s/ Authors’ full names
• Authors’ institutional affiliations, including city, state, and country.
• Include ORCID and social media handles (Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn)
• The name, address, and email address of the corresponding author
  of the work has previously been presented, the name, place, and date of the meeting(s)
• Disclosure of any financial support which was received, the grant/contract number, the sponsor name, and the city, state, and country location must be supplied.
• A declaration of conflict of interest should be reported, which may include, for example, patents, ownership, employment, stock ownership, consultancies, or speakers’ fees.

Structure of the Research Article

• Research manuscripts (including brief reports and systematic reviews) should include the following sections:
• Introduction: A description of the problem that inspired the study
• What distinguishes it from previous research that investigated the same problem?
• A brief discussion of relevant published material that addressed the same problem or that documents the methodology used in the study.
• The goal of the study, the purpose statement and the null hypothesis.
• Materials and Methods
• Results
• Discussion
• Study Highlights
• Acknowledgements
• Author Contributions Statement
• Tables
• Supplementary Material titles (if included)
• Figure Legends
• Citations and References

Other types of works

• Reviews, commentaries, tutorials, and perspectives may use the following:
• Text with appropriate headings as chosen by the authors
• Acknowledgements
• Tables
• Figure Legends
• References
• Supplementary Material Titles (if included)

The Results section should be clear on:

• The findings, and
• An evaluation of the research validity based on the outcome of statistical tests.

The Discussion section

• It should present the research in its broader context by:
• Describing the implications.
  Identifying limitations or problems that emerged during the study,
• Characterising the larger significance of the findings.
• Articulating any further questions remaining to be answered on the subject.

Acknowledgements Should:

• Mention any person, organisation, institution or funder who participated in the authoring of a submitted manuscript.
• Acknowledge individuals who may have provided any form of support and contributed to the enhancement of the work.

Use of Copyrighted Material

• The onus is upon the authors to obtain rights to reproduce or use any copyrighted material.
• Authors should give credit if excerpts from copyrighted works owned by third parties were included in their works.
• The corresponding author must obtain written permission to reproduce copyrighted works from the copyright owners

Citations and References

• The reference list should contain the references arranged alphabetically.
• Citations included in tables/figures count toward the maximum references allowed for the article type and must be included in the reference list.
• Tables created solely of references are not permitted.
• References should give readers enough information for easy source location and retrieval.
• For publications in the reference list, all authors should be included unless there are more than 6 authors, in which case only the first author should be indicated, followed by ‘et al.’
• Titles of cited articles are required for all article types.
  Journal names are italicised and abbreviated (with periods after each abbreviated word) according to common usage.
• For book citations, the publisher and city of publication are required as well as the country or state (e.g., John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, New Jersey, USA, 2003; MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA).

Figures and Tables

• Tables should be numbered consecutively in the order of the first citation in the text.
• Tables should be submitted in an editable MS Word DOC or DOCX file.
• Figures and graphs should be on top of the page wherever possible and should not be embedded within the text.
• All figures and tables should be numbered in numerical order.
• If the figure or graph has been previously published elsewhere, obtain permission from the original publisher and include the appropriate permissions wording in your figure caption, even if it is your work.
• The style in the text for referring to tables and figures should follow the given example, Table 1 and Figure 1’ at the beginning of a sentence), or (‘tab 2’, ‘fig. 1’).
• Tables should present new information rather than duplicating what is in the text, readers should be able to interpret the table without reference to the text.
• Mathematical formulas should be converted to MathJax and be uploaded separately as a plain text file.
• Alternatively, include the formula as a figure and submit the relevant image files (in .jpg or .png, with a maximum width of 750px).

Artwork/Figures

• Figures and Artworks should be submitted as separate .jpg or .png files, with a maximum width of 750px.
• Accepted figure files include PDF, TIFF, or EPS. Colour charges may apply for the printed version.
• Authors may choose to forego colour charges, the figures may be converted to black and white for the print journal automatically as part of the regular production process.

Supplemental Information

• Supplementary text must be provided in .doc, .docx, or .pdf files.
• Final works for submission must be complete and self-explanatory
• Supplementary information regarding figures and tables, the following format must be followed: (Figure S1 and Table S1, etc.).
  Supplementary files are submitted in their final format at submission, as they are not copyedited and will appear online exactly as submitted.
• Questions about the submission or preparation of supplementary information should be directed to the editorial office.

Acronyms

• Define acronyms at their first occurrence in the abstract and main text.
• After this, use the acronym only.
• Do not use an acronym if the definition or phrase is used only once.
• The definition should be lower case, unless it contains proper nouns, e.g., electron energy distribution function (EEDF).
• Acronyms that are very familiar to readers of a particular journal do not need to be expanded.

Footnotes

• Number footnotes sequentially throughout the article.
• If numbers have been used for affiliations, run on subsequent footnotes in the text (rather than starting again at 1).
• Denote table footnotes with lower-case superscript roman letters, e.g. ‘a, ‘b’, ‘c’, etc., and list the footnotes underneath the table.
• Write each new footnote on a separate line.

Figure Legends

• A figure legend should be a brief but informative description accompanying all figures in the manuscript.
• Authors should explain the key elements of the figure so that readers can understand it without having to refer extensively to the main text.

Key Components to include

• Descriptive Title – A concise summary of what the figure represents.
• Key Explanation – A short but detailed description of the data, trends, or concepts shown in the figure.
• Definitions of Symbols, Colours, or Abbreviations – If the figure uses symbols, colour codes, or abbreviations, they should be explained.
• Statistical or Experimental Details (if applicable) – Include information like sample sizes, statistical significance, or experimental conditions.
• Source (if applicable) – If the figure is adapted or reproduced from another source, proper citation should be included.

Supporting Information

• Authors may submit additional materials to supplement the main text, which may include:
• Extra data, detailed methodologies, extended discussions, supplementary figures/tables or raw datasets, videos & Images, and Extra Discussion or Analysis that are relevant but not essential for understanding the core findings of their manuscripts.
• Extended Methods – Detailed experimental protocols, computational models, or statistical analyses.
• Additional Figures & Tables – Supplementary graphs, charts, or extended datasets.

After Acceptance

• The author will receive an official acceptance letter or email from the journal editor.
• The journal may provide an estimated timeline for the next steps.

Proofs and Author Corrections

• Authors will receive a page proof (PDF or online) for final review to carefully check for:
• Typos, formatting errors, or missing figures/tables.
• Incorrect author names, affiliations, or funding acknowledgements.
• Errors in equations, figure captions, or references.
• Only minor corrections are allowed at this stage; major changes require editor approval.

Final Publication

• Zegu Press assigns volume, issue, Print ISSN and E ISSN and page numbers.
• The final version is published on the journal’s (Landing Page) website (http://journals.zegu.ac.zw/).

Post-Publication Activities

• Journal article gets a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), assigned from Crossref, making it visible and citable.
• Gets indexed by Google Scholar
• Monitor citations via Google Scholar, Web of Science, or Scopus.
  Check Altimetric scores for social media impact.
• Responding to Post-Publication Queries:
• Address comments and discussions from other researchers.

Copyright and Licensing Agreements

• The author will sign a copyright transfer agreement or select an open-access license (if applicable).
• ZEGU Press owns the rights and controls reproduction, distribution, and reuse of all its publications.
• ZEGU Press may allow authors to retain copyright but require a Creative Commons license.
• These agreements are important as they dictate how the work will be used, shared, and reproduced by others.
• Authors can retain limited rights (e.g., for personal use, teaching, or archiving in institutional repositories).

Author rights under CTA may include:

• Using the article in teaching or conference presentations.
• Archiving preprints (before peer review) or accepted manuscripts (with embargo).
• Sharing a limited number of copies with colleagues.

Originality and Plagiarism

• A submitted manuscript must be an original contribution, not previously published.
• Must not be under consideration for publication elsewhere.
• If accepted, it must not be reproduced elsewhere without the consent of ZEGU Press.
• Although the editors and the editorial board make every effort to ensure the validity of published manuscripts, the final responsibility rests with the originators (authors)
• ZEGU Press retains the right to utilise plagiarism detection.
• Applications on all submitted manuscripts.
• Submissions are checked for plagiarism using Turnitin software.
• If the submitted manuscript reveals significant plagiarised content, the manuscript may be automatically rejected.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

• AI tools cannot be listed as authors, as they cannot be held accountable for any work.
• AI tools may be used in drafting assistance or to help in developing figures and tables.
• AI tools may only be used to improve readability and language.
• All AI use must be credited, either in the acknowledgements or methods section
• Authors remain responsible for all work submitted under their name.

Confidentiality

• In confidentiality matters, editors shall:
• Keep confidential all details about a submitted manuscript and shall not comment to any outside organisation about manuscripts submitted to the journal.
• Not post on the (Landing Page) website or otherwise publicise without prior permission from ZEGU Press any manuscripts.

Ethical Guidelines

• Ethical Considerations shall:
  Ensure no plagiarism by (checking with Turnitin).
• Disclose conflicts of interest (funding, affiliations).
• Seek ethical approval statements for studies involving humans/animals.

Publication

• ZEGU Press shall:
• Publicise all works in online and print format.
• Share publicised works via academic networks (ResearchGate, Google Scholar).
• Publicise additional notes.