Business Review manuscript checklist: abstract, files, and references

Business Review gives authors a detailed final-manuscript style guide, while its policy page describes a double-blind review process. That combination creates a practical preparation task: build a clean, complete manuscript package without accidentally putting author-identifying information into the reviewer-facing file.

This guide answers one narrow question: what should authors check before uploading a Business Review manuscript? The requirements below come from the journal's current author guidelines and policy page. The sequencing advice is a conservative way to reconcile those sources; it is not an extra journal rule.

Separate the author record from the blinded manuscript

Business Review asks for the paper's full title, all author names and affiliations, and full contact details for the author who will check proofs. It also asks authors to identify research sponsors and grant numbers.

Its peer-review policy says the journal uses double-blind review. The main body—including references, figures, tables, and acknowledgments—should not contain identifying information such as author names or affiliations.

Those instructions point to two different jobs:

• the submission record or title-page material identifies the authors and provides the editorial office with contact and funding details; and
• the reviewer-facing manuscript body protects anonymity during peer review.

If the submission portal offers separate title-page and blinded-manuscript uploads, use that separation. If it does not, check the current portal instructions or ask the editorial office how it wants the author information supplied. Do not guess by leaving names in the main body simply because the style guide requests them somewhere in the package.

Before upload, search the blinded file for author names, affiliations, email addresses, institution names, acknowledgments, and self-identifying document comments. References to the authors' prior work may remain academically necessary, but they should not be phrased in a way that reveals identity unless the journal instructs otherwise.

Check the abstract, keywords, and JEL codes together

The journal asks for an abstract of up to 250 words. It describes the abstract as a concise summary of the whole paper, not only its conclusions, and says it should be understandable without referring to the rest of the manuscript. The abstract should not cite other published work.

Immediately after the abstract, provide no more than six keywords. The style guide also asks for JEL codes for indexing.

A useful final pass treats these three elements as one discovery package:

1. Confirm the abstract is 250 words or fewer.
2. Remove citations and unexplained references to tables, figures, or sections that force the reader back into the paper.
3. Check that the abstract covers the question, approach, principal result, and conclusion at an appropriate level.
4. Keep the keyword list to six or fewer distinct terms.
5. Confirm the JEL codes describe the paper's actual economic or business subject rather than a broader aspirational category.

The authors remain responsible for the accuracy of the abstract, the selection of keywords, and the JEL classification. A formatting check can confirm placement, count, and consistency; it cannot decide which claims or codes are academically correct.

Reconcile the file package before upload

Business Review asks authors to submit the manuscript, including tables, figures, and appendices, as a single file. Its accepted manuscript formats include Word, RTF, and PDF. The guide prefers editable Word files in .doc or .docx format. LaTeX may be submitted when a PDF is provided with the source files.

There is one specific exception to notice: if a table was created in Excel, the Excel file should also be uploaded separately. The guide also says figures may be supplied as TIFF or EPS files.

Create a simple upload inventory before opening the portal:

• the blinded main manuscript in the required editable or review format;
• a separate title page or author-information record when the portal supports it;
• any Excel source file required for an Excel-created table;
• any separate figure source files requested by the portal; and
• a PDF rendered from the same source when submitting LaTeX.

Open every file from that inventory. Check that the manuscript and PDF show the same title, abstract, section order, tables, figures, and references. A successful export is not proof that equations, symbols, line breaks, or figure placement survived intact.

Apply the core page and text settings

The style guide prefers English-language manuscripts in 12-point Times New Roman or a close comparable font. It asks for single-spaced text and a single-column layout. It also tells authors not to include page numbers, headers, or footers because the editors add them.

The guide favors justified text and gives detailed paragraph instructions: indent paragraphs except those immediately following a section heading, and do not insert extra space between ordinary paragraphs. Long quotations, theorems, propositions, and special remarks may be separated with added space above and below.

Before upload, use the document's style system rather than fixing each paragraph by hand. A style-level check can catch:

• mixed body fonts or font sizes;
• accidental double spacing;
• extra paragraph spacing introduced during copy and paste;
• headings that no longer show a consistent hierarchy;
• leftover page numbers, running headers, or footers; and
• colored text, tracked changes, or comments that are not intended for the final file.

The journal specifically asks authors to keep most text black and to remove colored markup or comments unless they belong in the final content. Accept or reject tracked changes deliberately, then inspect the document in a clean markup view.

Keep tables and figures readable in the manuscript

Business Review asks authors to place tables and figures near where they are mentioned when possible. Large items may use a page of their own. The guide warns against type that becomes too small to read and says tables and figures must fit within 1.5-inch margins on all sides in either portrait or landscape orientation.

For compound figures, the journal asks for the panels to be uploaded as one figure. It says keys to symbols should appear in the artwork rather than only in the legend. It also gives resolution targets: 300 dpi for black-and-white or color photographs, and preferably 800 dpi—at least 600 dpi—for graphs and drawings.

Run this visible check on the final rendered file:

• every table and figure is cited in the text in a sensible order;
• numbers and panel letters match the callouts and legends;
• no table crosses the page margins;
• labels remain readable at the size used in the manuscript;
• compound panels appear together as intended;
• figures are not stretched, clipped, or replaced by low-resolution previews; and
• the separate source files match what readers see in the manuscript.

This check is about file integrity and presentation. Authors are still responsible for the figures, data, analysis, permissions, and interpretation.

Standardize footnotes and references

The journal places footnotes at the bottom of the page where they are cited, not at the end of the paper. Its guide calls for 10-point Times New Roman or a close equivalent, single spacing, and a separator line. Footnote markers should follow punctuation.

References should appear directly after the manuscript text and be ordered alphabetically by author name. In-text citations use the author-date method, and the journal identifies APA's seventh edition as the reference style.

Do not stop after making the reference list look consistent. Perform a two-way reconciliation:

1. Every in-text citation should have one matching reference-list entry.
2. Every reference-list entry should be cited in the manuscript unless the journal allows an uncited bibliography.
3. Author names and years should agree between the text and the list.
4. Same-author, same-year works should use consistent letter suffixes such as 2024a and 2024b.
5. The final list should remain alphabetical after late additions.

Articlo does not verify that a source is accurate, appropriate, or correctly interpreted. Authors must make those scholarly judgments and confirm any edge case against the current journal instructions and APA manual.

Run the final Business Review upload check

Before submission, verify:

• author and proof-contact details are present in the correct non-blinded part of the package;
• the reviewer-facing main body contains no identifying names or affiliations;
• the abstract is no longer than 250 words and contains no citations;
• no more than six keywords appear immediately after the abstract;
• the JEL codes have been selected and checked by the authors;
• the manuscript is no more than 8,000 words including references;
• the file uses consistent 12-point body text, single spacing, and one column;
• page numbers, headers, footers, comments, and unintended colored markup are removed;
• tables, figures, appendices, and source files match the upload inventory;
• figures meet the journal's stated readability and resolution requirements;
• footnotes and references use the required placement and style; and
• the rendered manuscript has been opened and visually inspected after the last export.

Journal instructions and submission portals can change. The official Business Review pages control if they differ from this checklist.

Prepare the package without changing the research

Articlo formats and checks author-provided manuscripts against stored journal requirements. It does not write research, verify references or findings, make submission decisions, or guarantee acceptance. Authors remain responsible for the research content, declarations, permissions, classifications, and final upload.

Review the Business Review preparation path or run a free readiness check to find structural and formatting issues before submission.