Style Guide

Style Guide

All images, tables and graphs must be clear and of a large size and have a minimum resolution of 300 pixels per inch. If you are able, please attach images, tables, and graphs in a Microsoft Word document, not in a PDF (even if the text of your paper was submitted in .pdf format). Please follow consistent numbering and labeling schemes for figures, as shown in the Style Guide (below).

Please make every effort to edit all parts of your submission to adhere to the Style Guide (below). However, you will not be penalized if you do not have time to edit your entire paper. The editors will work with you to help you change your papers to adhere to the Style Guide if your article is chosen for Frontier.

Follow the APA style for references and in-text citations. If you are not able to do so completely, you will not be penalized in any way. The editors will work with you to format references in APA style if your article is chosen for Frontier. For more information about APA style and how to use it, please see https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines.

1. Use the Oxford comma before the last item in a list. Ex. When starting a company, many factors must be considered to assure success, including performance indicators, consumer need, competitive market, and core team cohesion.

2. Avoid numbered lists, but when they are necessary, standardize their presentation. Use numerals followed by periods, and do not leave spaces in between items. Ex. 1. 2. not 1) 2)

3. Use numerals instead of spelled-out numbers when representing quantities. Use “one,” however, when it functions as a pronoun. Ex. One must procure funding, often from external sources, to scale newly established young businesses.

4. Use concrete, specific language wherever possible. Avoid abstractions, generalities, and wordiness. Ex. “After reviewing the company’s financial situation, the chief financial officer recommended several measures to address cash-flow problems, including reducing discretionary expenditures and delaying certain capital projects, in order to resolve an identified liquidity shortfall of several million dollars” revised to: “The CFO reviewing the company’s cash flow recommended cutting discretionary spending by 15% and postponing two noncritical capital projects to eliminate a $2.4 million liquidity shortfall.”

5. Use colons only after independent clauses to introduce a list. Ex. “The three key areas on which the startup focused its strategy were: customer acquisition, product development, and investor relations” revised to: “The startup focused its strategy on three key areas: customer acquisition, product development, and investor relations.” 

6. When referencing a figure in the text, use parentheses and appropriate abbreviations. Ex. Revenue increased steadily over the last three quarters, reflecting the company's shift to a subscription-based model as shown in Figure 2. Revise to: Revenue increased steadily over the last three quarters, reflecting the company's shift to a subscription-based model (Fig. 2).

7. All figures should have captions underneath. Each caption should include enough information so that a reader can interpret the figure without having to read other parts of the paper.

8. All tables should have captions above them. Each caption should include enough information so that a reader can interpret the table without having to read other parts of the paper.

9. All figures and tables should be embedded at the appropriate places in the main body of the text, next to the text that refers to them.

10.  Avoid using contractions like don’t, can’t, it’s, they’re, etc. Instead, write the full forms: do not, cannot, it is, they are, etc. Ex. The company’s sales aren’t meeting expectations because it’s facing stiff competition. Revise to: The company’s sales are not meeting expectations because it is facing stiff competition. 

11.  For collaborative inputs in the journal, ensure that the order of authors is traditionally set up so that the first author listed has made the most contribution, the last author is the senior-most author, and the authors between the first and last authors listed are ordered by descending contribution

12.  Footnotes are used to provide additional information that does not fit within the main text, such as clarifications, copyright details, or source information. Headnotes are not commonly used in APA style.