These guidelines are to be referred by the author while considering the submitting paper in ICT4SD.

Manuscript Size

Each manuscript submitted should constitute outstanding and solid advancement in the conference scope and allied disciplines. The main content of the submission should be at least 3500 words or 10 pages as per the publisher’s format. The references should be limited to 50 and abstract should be limited to 250 words maximum.




Manuscript Components

Each manuscript should include following components, presented in the order shown.

1. Title, name, affiliation of each author and corresponding author's email should be included in the title page.
2. Abstract. A brief, concise abstract is required at the beginning of each manuscript. The abstract contains a brief account of the background and rationale of the work, followed by a statement of the main conclusions. The abstract is typically 250 words or less in length and is unreferenced. The abstract should not contain any mathematical expressions, if possible, should include no footnotes or citations, and should not contain first-person sentence structure.
3. Keywords. 4 – 6 keywords should be provided.
4. Text. The text (12-point) should be typeset in one column, divided into sections, each with a separate heading and numbered consecutively using following format:
   1. Primary heading
   2. Secondary heading
   3. Tertiary heading
   4. Quaternary heading
5. Acknowledgements. Keep this section as brief as possible by acknowledging only direct assistance in your research and writing. Financial support for the work done should be acknowledged here rather than as footnotes to the title.
6. References

   1) For citations of references, prefer the use of square brackets and consecutive numbers. Citations using labels or the author/year convention are also acceptable. The following bibliography provides sample reference entries for journal articles [1], LNCS chapters [2], books [3], proceedings papers [4], and URLs [5].

   Sample References

   1. Author, F.: Article title. Journal 2(5), 99–110 (2016).
   2. Author, F., Author, S.: Title of a proceedings paper. In: Editor, F., Editor, S. (eds.) CONFERENCE 2016, LNCS, vol. 9999, pp. 1–13. Springer, Heidelberg (2016).
   3. Author, F., Author, S., Author, T.: Book Title. 2nd edn. Publisher, Location (1999).
   4. Author, F.: Contribution title. In: 9th International Proceedings on Proceedings, pp. 1–2. Publisher, Location (2010).
   5. LNCS Homepage: http://www.springer.com/lncs , last accessed 2023/10/25.

   2) Citations to standard references in the text should consist of the author's surname and the year of publication—for example, Harsh (1990) or (Harsh, 1990).

   If there are three or more authors, state the first author's surname followed by "et al." and the year of publication—for example, Harsh et al. (1990) or (Harsh et al., 1990). When there are two or more papers by the same author(s) in the same year, distinguishing letters (a, b, c, etc.) should be added to the year in both the in-text citation and the reference list.For multiple citations by the same author, separate years by commas. Separate citations by different authors within the same parentheses using semicolons.for example, (Harsh, 1990; Parth, 1991) or (Harsh, 1989, 1990; Parth, 1991).

7. Formulas. Brief equations or terms set inline in text must be set as a single line expression, if possible. Also please enter them directly from the keyboard if possible. For more complex variables that have both subscripts and superscripts or have a more complicated operator such as a radical sign, use of the MathType equation editor is recommended.
8. Figures. Vector-based figures (eps., ai., or psd.) should be provided upon acceptance of a paper.




Evaluation Criteria

1. Blind review process for technical grounds
2. Originality of ideas/approach and level of innovations involved
3. Relevance for public problems/scientific view
4. Quality of theoretical argument with proposed model
5. Quality of empirical or conceptual design
6. Quality of development and support for the propositions/hypotheses
7. Presentation: coherence and clarity of structure and thought
8. Contribution to public relations theory building



Multiple Submissions

Multiple submission means when same author is submitting multiple manuscripts for a single conference or journal. We do not encourage authors to go for multiple submissions. Still if authors submit multiple manuscripts, Technical Program Committee (TPC) reserves the right to decide on the consideration of such manuscripts. Further in case there are a greater number of manuscripts submitted from a single university/research institution/research lab/research company, TPC reserves the right to decide on the consideration of such manuscripts. TPC decides on such manuscripts depending on the track, scope, significance of research work. Decision may or may not favor authors and it is done on case-to-case basis to accommodate maximum research to meet the criteria through publishers and scope of the conference.




Scope and Relevance

The manuscript should fall under the scope and allied areas/tracks of the conference. TPC has the full right to consider a paper in scope or out of scope before recommending the paper for reviews.




Simultaneous Submissions

Simultaneous submission means where the same manuscript is submitted to multiple conferences at the same time. We do not encourage authors to go for simultaneous submissions. The TPC takes utmost care while deciding on manuscripts and the decision of TPC will be final if simultaneous submission comes to their knowledge for any manuscript.




Preprints

A preprint is an early version of a research paper that has not yet been peer-reviewed. We support the preprints and authors willingness to make his/her paper available as a preprint while the manuscript is in consideration. The TPC takes utmost care while deciding the decision on manuscripts having one or multiple preprints.




Plagiarism

Plagiarism in our terms refers to the usage of someone else’s research work, ideas, figures, and text components without explicitly acknowledging the relevant manuscript owner/ author and source. Plagiarism in any form is not encourage and unacceptable. If found, it is considered as unethical and is liable to different consequences and legal actions. The plagiarism policy will be same as by the publisher to handle the manuscripts with plagiarism. Although, TPC encourages authors to resubmit the manuscript when they feel the plagiarism occurred is not intentional and simultaneously research work is innovative and novel. This statement should not be elaborated in a wrong way, and it does not represent that we as organizers encourage plagiarism.