The SLJGEM emphasizes on the linguistic accuracy of every manuscript published. Articles must be in English and they must be competently written and argued in clear and concise grammatical English. Contributors are strongly advised to have the manuscript checked by a colleague with ample experience in writing English manuscripts or a competent English language editor. Author(s) should provide a certificate confirming that their manuscripts have been adequately edited. Proof from a recognized editing service should be submitted together with the cover letter at the time of submitting a manuscript to the SLJGEM.
All editing costs must be borne by the author(s). This step, taken by authors before submission, will greatly facilitate reviewing, and thus publication if the content is acceptable. Linguistically incorrect manuscripts will be rejected straightaway (e.g., when the language is so poor that one cannot be sure of what the author(s) mean).

Organization of Manuscript

The manuscript should contain the items mentioned here.

• Title, details of authors together with affiliations
• Abstract and Keywords
• Introduction
• Literature Review
• Materials and Methods
• Results and Discussion
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgments (optional)
• References
• Annexures (optional)

Language
The language of the manuscript must be in English (British standard).

Length of Paper – 8000 words
The length of the paper depends on the type of manuscript; however, it should not exceed 20 pages of A4 sheets. A paper containing more than 20 pages of words will be returned to the author(s) to abridge. Articles should be typed using 12 font size (Times New Roman) in 1.15 line spacing on one side of A4 paper with normal margins (Top 1”, Bottom 1”, Left 1” and Right 1”). Authors are requested to write as concisely as possible, but not at the expense of clarity.

Title Page
The title page is a separate page before the text. It should include the following information:

Title
The title should be concise and informative. Abbreviations and formulae should be avoided
where possible.

Names of Authors and Affiliations
Indicate the initials and then the last name. Present the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name and the e-mail address of each author.

Corresponding Author
Clearly indicate who is willing to handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing, publication, and also post-publication. Ensure that telephone numbers (with country and area code) are provided in addition to the e-mail address and the complete postal address.

The text of the article begins here.

Abstract
A concise and factual abstract is required (maximum length of 250 words). The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results, and major conclusions. An abstract is often presented separately from the article, so it must be able to stand alone. References should be avoided in the abstract.

Keywords
Immediately after the abstract, a maximum of 5 keywords should be provided, avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, 'and', 'of').

Introduction
This section should be concise, with no subheadings and provide background to the research
problem, present the research problem with sufficient justification and objective/s.

Literature Review
This section should provide a sufficient evaluation of theoretical/empirical literature to identify the knowledge gap.

Materials and Methods
This section should contain adequate detailed information what all the procedures and steps followed.

Results and Discussion
This section should be described on the results and outputs of the research work.

Conclusions
This should clearly explain the important conclusions of the work highlighting its significance, relevance, and values.

Subdivision of the Article
Divide your article into clearly defined and numbered sections. Subsections should be numbered 1, 2. (then 1.1, 1.1.1, 1.1.2), 1.2, etc. The abstract is not included in section numbering. All headings of subsections should be bold.

Table and Figures
Please note that the article will be published in black and white. Present tables and figures within the article, not at the end of the article.

Acknowledgments
If the research is sponsored or supported by an organization, please indicate it.

Reference List
APA referencing style should be followed to arrange the list of references. References should be arranged alphabetically. More than one reference from the same author(s) in the same year must be identified by the letters "a", "b", "c", etc., placed after the year of publication.

Submission of the Paper
The author should submit the paper via e-mail to the Editor in Chief at  sljgem@ssl.sab.ac.lk. The submitted manuscript is acknowledged within one week upon receipt.

Before submitting the manuscript, author(s) should check the following list.

1. The submission has not been previously published or considered for publication its part or a full paper.
2. The submission file is in Microsoft Word file/ PDF format.
3. Manuscript has been made in light of the Journal’s author guidelines.
4. Author(s) has not mentioned his or her name and affiliation in the main text
5. Author(s) has read all the terms and conditions of the journal.
6. Plagiarism is allowed only 15%.

Article Withdrawal Policy

The articles submitted to the Journal can be withdrawn by the submitted author(s) or the Editor-in-Chief can reject. The article can be withdrawn any time by the author before it is published officially. If the author(s) want to withdraw the article, we insist on a signed statement from all the co-author(s) to the journal’s editorial office via mail. If the editorial office/publisher finds any violation in publishing ethics, guidelines, duplicate submission, plagiarism, etc., the Editor-in-Chief hold the right to reject the manuscript at any stage of the publishing process.

Plagiarism Policy

The SLJGEM has a Zero tolerance policy towards plagiarism. All articles are scanned through Turnitin. Turnitin receipt will be provided to authors with review reports. Authors are requested to check plagiarism at their end also to avoid any unpleasant situation. Please respect the work of other researchers by proper quotation and citation in your article. If any article is found plagiarized, it will not be published in this journal at any cost. The Editorial Board has passed the following actions:

• Similarity Index above 30% - Article Rejected (NO RESUBMISSION accepted)
• Similarity Index (15% - 30%) - Editor may send to the author for improvement
• Similarity index Less than 15% - May be accepted

In cases b) and c): The authors should revise the article carefully, add required citations, and do good paraphrasing to outsourced text and resubmit the article with new Turnitin report showing NO PLAGIARISM and similarity below 15%.

Publication

Publication Ethics
The SLJGEM is a double-blind, peer-reviewed journal dedicated to ensuring the highest values of publication ethics. All stakeholders of the journal such as Editors, Authors, Reviewers and publishers have to agree upon the total ethical behavior.

Publication Ethics for Journal Editors

• Editors should be accountable for everything published in the journal: this includes having measures in place to assess the quality of the material they accept for the journal
• and a willingness to publish corrections and clarifications when required.
• Editors should act in a fair and balanced way when carrying out their duties, without discrimination on grounds of gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religious or political beliefs.
• Editors should guide authors and reviewers on everything that is expected of them.
• Editors should make decisions on which articles to publish based on quality and suitability.
• Editors should handle submissions in a fair, unbiased, and timely manner and treat all manuscripts as confidential, for distribution to others for purposes of peer-review only.
• Editors should have systems to ensure that peer reviewers’ identities are protected without declaring to authors and other reviewers.
• Journal should have policies and systems in place to ensure that commercial considerations do not affect editorial decisions, and editors should handle submissions for funded issues in the same way as for standard issues so that articles are accepted entirely on their academic merit and without commercial influence.
• Journal should have a declared mechanism for authors to appeal against editorial decisions.

Editors should have systems for managing their conflicts of interest as well as those of their staff, authors, reviewers, and editorial board members.

Publication Ethics for Journal Authors

• Authors should declare that all work in their submitted piece is original, and cite content from other sources appropriately to avoid plagiarism.
• Authors must ensure their contribution does not contain any libelous matter or infringe any copyright or other intellectual property rights or any other rights of any third party.
• The listing of authors should accurately reflect who carried out the research and wrote the article, and the order of authorship should be jointly determined by all of the co-authors.
• All authors should be aware of the submission of their paper to the journal and agree to the main author signing the copyright form on their behalf.
• Authors should ensure that their manuscript as submitted is not under consideration (or accepted for publication) elsewhere. Where sections of the manuscript overlap with published or submitted content, this should be acknowledged and cited.
• The source of funding for a research project should be listed on all funded research papers and should also be clearly identified in the manuscript, typically in an acknowledgment.
  Authors should declare any potential conflicts of interest relating to a specific article.

Publication Ethics for Journal Article Reviewers

• Reviewers should assist in improving the quality of a submitted article by reviewing the manuscript with care, consideration and objectivity in a timely manner.
• Reviewers should inform the journal editor of any published or submitted content that is similar to the material under review or any suspected aspects of plagiarism.
• Reviewers should declare any potential conflicts of interest relating to a specific article or author.
• Reviewers should respect the confidentiality of any information or material supplied during the review process.

Copyright Policy

• The copyright of all work published in the SLJGEM remains with the author(s).
• Authors are required to grant a license to the publisher, the Faculty of Social Sciences and Languages, Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka to publish the work in the Sri Lanka Journal of Geography and Environmental Management in all forms of media, whether already known or hereafter modified.
• As copyright owners, author(s) have the right to publish the work in all forms of media, whether already known or hereafter modified, with the acknowledgment that the work was first published in the Sri Lanka Journal of Geography and Environmental Management.
  
  
  

Local authors  LKR 5,000 per manuscript 

Foreign authors USD 50 per manuscript