✓ Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors must confirm that their submission satisfies the journal's scientific, artistic, ethical, technical, and formatting requirements. Manuscripts that do not comply may be returned before external peer review.

1. General Author Guidelines

1. All contributors submitting to Harmonia : Journal of Music and Arts must comply with these Author Guidelines and the official manuscript template.
2. The journal welcomes original research articles, critical analyses, creative works, artistic research, and case studies addressing music, visual arts, performing arts, arts education, technology, culture, heritage, management, policy, and related interdisciplinary fields.
3. Relevant areas include music theory and composition; music performance and interpretation; music education and pedagogy; ethnomusicology and cultural studies; visual arts and design; performing arts; arts criticism and analysis; music technology and production; cultural heritage and preservation; creative practice and artistic research; history and aesthetics; arts management and policy; digital media; community engagement; and contemporary interdisciplinary arts practices.
4. All manuscripts undergo initial editorial screening. Eligible submissions proceed to a double-blind peer-review process involving a minimum of two independent expert reviewers.
5. Reviewers assess originality and significance, methodological or artistic rigor, relevance to the journal's scope, clarity of presentation, ethical compliance, and contribution to the field of music and arts. The final publication decision rests with the Editor-in-Chief.
6. The manuscript must be written in English. The default language style is American English. Authors are responsible for grammar, terminology, consistency, academic readability, and accurate use of discipline-specific language.
7. Plagiarism, data fabrication or falsification, manipulated images or results, inappropriate authorship, invented citations, unauthorized reuse of artistic materials, and other breaches of publication ethics may result in rejection, correction, retraction, or further editorial action.
8. Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, scholarly integrity, interpretation, artistic documentation, citations, copyright permissions, and conclusions of the manuscript, including any content assisted by AI tools.
9. Authors should ensure that artworks, performances, communities, cultural expressions, and participants are represented accurately, respectfully, and ethically, particularly where indigenous, traditional, sacred, vulnerable, or community-owned cultural materials are involved.
10. Submissions outside the journal's Focus and Scope or those that materially depart from the official template may be returned or declined without external review.

2. Manuscript Format

Authors must prepare manuscripts directly using the official Harmonia submission template. Preset template formatting takes precedence over manually applied formatting.

3.1 Title

The title must be concise, informative, and accurately reflect the principal focus, artistic phenomenon, context, or contribution of the manuscript.

• Maximum length: 16 words.
• Do not include the year of the research.
• Avoid unnecessary terms, uncommon abbreviations, unexplained symbols, and overly broad wording.
• Where possible, make the central musical, artistic, cultural, educational, technological, or creative focus immediately identifiable.
• The title should support discoverability by readers and indexing systems.

3.2 Author Names and Affiliations

• Write each author's full name without academic or professional titles.
• List authors in the order agreed upon by all contributors.
• Provide complete institutional affiliation, including faculty/department where applicable, institution, city/region, and country.
• Use superscript numbers to connect authors with affiliations when required by the template.
• Designate one corresponding author using an asterisk (*).
• Provide a valid and actively monitored email address and correspondence details required by the template.
• Authors are strongly encouraged to provide ORCID iDs and maintain consistent author-name metadata.

3.3 Abstract

The abstract must provide a concise and self-contained summary of the manuscript and follow the structure established in the journal template.

The abstract should communicate the following elements in a coherent sequence:

3.4 Keywords

Provide exactly four (4) keywords immediately after the abstract. Separate keywords using semicolons as required by the journal template.

• Select specific terms representing the main artistic form, concept, community, tradition, method, technology, or theoretical issue examined.
• Prefer established disciplinary terminology that supports indexing and discoverability.
• Avoid unnecessarily broad words that add little retrieval value.

3.5 Introduction

The Introduction should establish the scholarly or artistic context of the study and clearly explain why the research or creative inquiry is necessary.

The Introduction should normally address:

1. the musical, artistic, cultural, educational, technological, historical, aesthetic, or practical problem and its significance;
2. relevant theoretical, historical, empirical, or artistic context;
3. the current state of scholarship or practice and key previous studies;
4. the unresolved research, interpretive, methodological, or artistic gap;
5. the novelty or distinctive contribution of the study;
6. the research question(s), proposition(s), or artistic inquiry where relevant; and
7. clear research objectives.

3.6 Method

The Method section must provide sufficient transparency for readers and reviewers to understand, assess, and where appropriate reproduce or critically evaluate the research or artistic process.

Because Harmonia publishes diverse music and arts scholarship, the Method section should be adapted to the design. It may include:

3.7 Result and Discussion

Harmonia uses a combined Result and Discussion section. Authors should present evidence clearly and then interpret its meaning in relation to the research questions, previous scholarship, artistic practice, and broader disciplinary context.

3.8 Conclusion

The Conclusion must answer the research objective or artistic inquiry directly and synthesize the principal contribution without merely repeating the Results and Discussion.

• state the main conclusion in relation to the research objective or question;
• summarize the most important findings or artistic insights;
• explain the academic and/or artistic contribution;
• state relevant implications for scholarship, artistic practice, education, cultural preservation, technology, policy, or community engagement;
• acknowledge relevant limitations; and
• identify appropriate directions for future research or creative inquiry.

3.9 Acknowledgments

Authors may acknowledge individuals, communities, artists, performers, cultural custodians, institutions, archives, technical staff, studios, organizations, funders, or other parties that supported the research or creative process but do not meet the criteria for authorship. Permission should be obtained where acknowledgment could identify private individuals or sensitive communities.

3.10 Declarations and Research Transparency

Authors must provide applicable declarations to support transparency, accountability, and research integrity.

3.11 References

References must demonstrate a strong command of relevant, credible, and up-to-date scholarship. Every in-text citation must correspond to an entry in the reference list, and every listed reference must be cited in the manuscript.

4. Tables, Figures, Musical Examples, Images, and Audiovisual Materials

5. Generative Artificial Intelligence and AI-Assisted Technologies

Harmonia permits limited, transparent, and responsible use of AI-based tools only where they support communication quality without replacing the authors' intellectual, scholarly, or artistic contribution.

6. Data, Creative Materials, and Research Accessibility

All submitted manuscripts must include a Data Availability Statement. Authors should state whether supporting data or research materials are included in the article, deposited in a repository, available from the corresponding author, or subject to legitimate restrictions.

• Research materials may include datasets, coding frameworks, field notes, interview materials, analytical files, scores, recordings, photographs, digital outputs, or other documentation where sharing is ethically and legally appropriate.
• Recognized repositories such as Zenodo, Figshare, Harvard Dataverse, Dryad, Open Science Framework, or suitable institutional/disciplinary repositories are encouraged where appropriate.
• Shared files should include sufficient metadata and documentation to support scholarly verification, reuse, or secondary analysis where possible.
• Restrictions arising from participant privacy, performer consent, community protocols, archival conditions, copyright, cultural ownership, intellectual property, or contractual obligations must be explained clearly.
• De-identified or aggregated data should be used where appropriate to protect participants.
• Publicly deposited datasets or materials should be cited using a persistent identifier where available.

7. Appendices and Supplementary Materials

Appendices or supplementary materials may include interview protocols, questionnaires, extended coding frameworks, additional analytical tables, musical examples, complete repertoire lists, transcription conventions, photographs, image sets, performance documentation, audio/video files, creative-process documentation, or other materials that support the manuscript without interrupting the main narrative. All supplementary materials must be clearly labeled and referenced in the manuscript.

8. Peer Review and Revision

9. Similarity and Plagiarism Screening

Harmonia uses Turnitin to evaluate manuscript similarity. A numerical similarity percentage does not replace editorial judgment; editors may examine the nature and source of overlap, citation practice, quotation, and paraphrasing.

10. Open Access, Copyright, and Publication Charges

Harmonia is an open-access journal. Published articles are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. Authors retain copyright while granting the journal a non-exclusive right to publish and disseminate the work.

Final Manuscript Quality Check