Author Guidelines

1. Scope and Manuscript Eligibility

J-LKF publishes scholarly research that advances knowledge, theoretical understanding, methodological development, and educational practices in physics and physics education. Manuscripts must demonstrate a direct and substantive contribution to at least one of these fields.

Interdisciplinary studies in natural sciences, engineering, technology, environmental science, or STEM education are considered when a physical concept, phenomenon, model, measurement, method, or physics-specific learning outcome is central to the research.

Manuscripts addressing general education, science education, engineering, or other disciplines without a substantial contribution to physics or physics education fall outside the journal's scope.

All submitted manuscripts must be original, unpublished, and not under consideration for publication elsewhere. The editorial team may decline manuscripts that do not meet the journal's scope or basic scholarly requirements before external peer review.

2. Types of Manuscripts

J-LKF accepts Original Research Articles and Review Articles that make substantive scholarly contributions to physics or physics education. Each manuscript must demonstrate originality, academic relevance, methodological adequacy, and compliance with the journal's publication policies.

2.1. Original Research Articles

Original Research Articles report findings derived from empirical, experimental, theoretical, computational, or applied investigations in physics and physics education. These articles must address clearly formulated research problems, employ appropriate methodologies, present evidence-based findings, and demonstrate a meaningful contribution to existing knowledge.

Within physics education, original research may investigate conceptual understanding, scientific reasoning, instructional approaches, learning technologies, curriculum development, assessment, educational interventions, teacher professional development, and other phenomena directly associated with physics teaching and learning.

Within physics and applied physics, original research may address physical phenomena, theoretical models, experimental investigations, computational simulations, materials properties, instrumentation, measurement techniques, and technological applications grounded in physical principles.

Quantitative, qualitative, mixed-methods, experimental, computational, and theoretical approaches are eligible when their research design, analytical procedures, and conclusions are appropriate to the stated objectives.

Original Research Articles should follow the manuscript structure specified in Section 6, accompanied by the required declarations.

2.2. Review Articles

Review Articles provide critical, methodologically transparent, and analytically developed syntheses of existing scholarship in physics or physics education. These articles are expected to extend understanding by evaluating accumulated evidence, identifying conceptual or methodological developments, examining inconsistencies, and proposing substantiated directions for future investigation.

The journal considers the following review approaches:

• Systematic Literature Reviews: Reviews employing explicit research questions, documented search strategies, transparent eligibility criteria, and systematic procedures for selecting and synthesizing relevant studies.
• Scoping Reviews: Reviews systematically mapping the characteristics, extent, concepts, methodologies, or evidence gaps within an established or emerging research area.
• Meta-Analyses: Reviews applying appropriate statistical techniques to synthesize quantitative findings across comparable studies, with transparent reporting of effect estimates, heterogeneity, and relevant limitations.
• Critical or Integrative Reviews: Reviews developing substantive theoretical, conceptual, or methodological syntheses through clearly explained literature selection, analytical procedures, and critical interpretation.

Review Articles must provide clearly articulated objectives, an appropriate explanation of the review methodology, a defensible evidence base, critical synthesis, and conclusions supported by the literature examined.

Systematic reviews and meta-analyses should follow relevant reporting guidelines, such as PRISMA, where applicable. Manuscripts that merely summarize previous publications without sufficient analytical contributions are not considered suitable review articles.

2.3. Manuscript Eligibility and Editorial Considerations

All manuscript types undergo initial editorial screening to determine their relevance, originality, scholarly contribution, methodological adequacy, reporting quality, and compliance with ethical requirements.

1. Manuscripts must demonstrate a direct and substantial relationship to physics or physics education.
2. Submissions must be original and must not have been published previously or submitted simultaneously to another journal.
3. Research objectives, methodology, findings, and conclusions must be coherent and supported by appropriate scholarly evidence.
4. Authors must comply with the journal's Author Guidelines, publication ethics, authorship requirements, citation standards, and applicable reporting guidelines.
5. Interdisciplinary manuscripts are eligible only when their contributions to physics or physics education are explicitly demonstrated.
6. Manuscripts that do not satisfy these requirements may be declined during initial editorial screening before external peer review.

2.4. Other Manuscript Categories

Commentaries, perspectives, short communications, and other specialized manuscript categories are not part of the journal's regular submission categories unless formally announced by the editorial team with specific eligibility criteria, manuscript requirements, and corresponding submission sections.

The editorial team reserves the right to determine whether a submitted manuscript is appropriate for the selected article category. Such a determination does not replace independent scholarly assessment through peer review.

3. Language and Manuscript Preparation

Manuscripts may be written in English or Indonesian. English is preferred to facilitate international readership. All manuscripts must use clear academic language and follow the current J-LKF manuscript template.

Tables and figures should be placed close to their first citation in the manuscript. Authors must use consistent heading levels, define abbreviations when first introduced, and ensure that mathematical symbols, units, and labels are clearly presented.

The current journal template takes precedence for specific margin settings, heading styles, and other detailed formatting requirements.

4. Title, Authors, Affiliations, and Metadata

• Title: The title must accurately reflect the main research topic and contribution, contain no more than 15 words, and avoid unexplained abbreviations.
• Author Names: Provide the full names of all authors without academic titles or honorifics.
• Affiliations: Include the department or research unit, institution, city, and country of each author.
• Corresponding Author: Clearly identify the corresponding author and provide an active institutional or professional email address.
• Author Identifiers: Include ORCID iDs where available. Author information in OJS must match the manuscript.
• Authorship: All authors must meet the journal's authorship criteria, have made substantive scholarly contributions, and approve the submitted manuscript.
• Anonymous Review: When an anonymized manuscript is requested, identifying information must be removed from the review file while complete author information remains available in the OJS metadata.

Further requirements are specified in the journal's Authorship and Contributorship Policy.

5. Abstract and Keywords

The abstract must consist of a single, self-contained paragraph containing 150-250 words. It should summarize the research problem or objective, methodology, principal findings, and main conclusion or contribution.

Where relevant, the abstract should report informative quantitative findings. References, unexplained abbreviations, unsupported claims, and unnecessary background statements should be avoided.

Authors must provide three to five keywords or short keyword phrases in English, arranged alphabetically. Keywords should accurately represent the principal concepts, research methods, physical phenomena, or physics learning outcomes discussed in the manuscript.

6. Structure of the Manuscript

Manuscript organization depends on the article type. Authors should follow the relevant structure below and retain the principal headings required by the current journal template.

Systematic reviews and meta-analyses should follow appropriate established reporting guidelines, including PRISMA where relevant.

7. Research Reporting Standards

Authors must provide sufficient methodological information to enable critical evaluation and, where feasible, replication of the research. Reporting requirements should reflect the characteristics of the study.

Results should be presented accurately without unnecessary duplication of raw data. The discussion must explain the significance of the findings, relate them to existing scholarship, and distinguish evidence-based interpretations from speculation.

8. Tables, Figures, Equations, and Supplementary Material

• Number tables and figures consecutively according to their first appearance in the manuscript.
• Provide concise, informative titles and captions.
• Place table titles above tables and figure captions below figures unless the journal template specifies otherwise.
• Ensure that all figures are readable, appropriately sized, and presented at sufficient resolution.
• Label graph axes with the appropriate variables and measurement units.
• Avoid presenting identical data unnecessarily in multiple tables or figures.
• Number equations when they are referenced in the manuscript and define all mathematical symbols and variables.
• Use SI units where applicable and maintain consistency throughout the manuscript.
• Obtain appropriate permission for copyrighted materials and acknowledge reused or adapted content.
• Provide supplementary data, instruments, materials, or computational resources when relevant to transparency and reproducibility.

9. Citations and References

Manuscripts must use the American Psychological Association (APA) Style, 7th edition, including author-date in-text citations. Every source cited in the manuscript must appear in the reference list, and every reference-list entry must be cited in the text.

10. Research Integrity and Required Declarations

Authors are responsible for the accuracy, originality, authenticity, and integrity of all submitted material. Plagiarism, fabrication or falsification of data, duplicate submission, citation manipulation, and inappropriate authorship are not acceptable.

• Ethics Approval and Consent: Research involving human participants, including students, teachers, and other educational stakeholders, must report applicable ethics approval and informed consent or assent procedures. If formal approval was not required, the manuscript should explain the applicable basis.
• Funding Statement: Identify financial support and grant numbers, or state that no specific funding was received.
• Conflicts of Interest: Disclose financial, professional, institutional, or personal relationships that could reasonably influence the work. State when no known conflicts exist.
• Author Contributions: Describe substantive contributions and confirm that all authors approve the final manuscript.
• Data Availability: Explain the accessibility of relevant research data, code, instruments, or other supporting materials, considering privacy and legal restrictions.
• Use of Generative AI: Disclose material use of generative AI in manuscript preparation or research procedures where applicable. Authors remain responsible for accuracy, originality, confidentiality, and verification of all content. AI systems cannot be listed as authors.
• Acknowledgments: Recognize individuals or organizations that contributed to the research without meeting authorship criteria.

Authors must provide the applicable declarations in the manuscript. Where a particular declaration is not applicable, an appropriate statement may be provided.

11. Online Submission and Editorial Screening

All manuscripts must be submitted through the journal's online submission system. Authors should follow these procedures:

1. Register or log in to the J-LKF OJS platform.
2. Select the appropriate manuscript category.
3. Upload the manuscript using an editable document format and the current journal template.
4. Complete all metadata, including title, abstract, keywords, author names, affiliations, and corresponding author details.
5. Submit supporting documents or supplementary materials where applicable.
6. Confirm that the manuscript is original, within the journal's scope, and compliant with its ethical and formatting requirements.
7. Respond to editorial decisions and reviewer comments through the OJS system.
8. When revisions are requested, submit the revised manuscript accompanied by a clear response to the reviewers' comments.

Manuscripts undergo an initial editorial assessment to determine their suitability for external peer review. Editorial decisions consider relevance, originality, scholarly contribution, methodological quality, reporting standards, and research integrity.

Compliance with the formatting and submission requirements does not guarantee publication.