Journal History

Origins and scope

Universitas Islam Negeri Walisongo Semarang launched the Journal of Natural Sciences and Mathematics Research in 2015, and its Faculty of Science and Technology publishes it. The journal accepts research articles, reviews, short communications, and scientific commentaries in fundamental and applied physics, chemistry, biology, and mathematics, and in materials characterization.

Two issues appear each year, in June and December. The archive holds 23 issues, from Vol. 1 No. 1 (June 2015) to Vol. 12 No. 1 (June 2026), with no missing issue in between. Articles carry DOIs with the prefix 10.21580, and English is the official language of published manuscripts.

Authors submit through Open Journal Systems 3.3. Each manuscript receives a similarity check and closed double-blind review by at least two reviewers, and the Editor-in-Chief makes the final decision. As of October 2026, SINTA lists the journal at accreditation level 3, and the journal website lists Dimensions and Google Scholar among its indexing services.

Key dates

Date	Event
2015	Vol. 1 No. 1 (June 2015 issue) opens the archive with eight articles.
14 September 2015	The ISSN portal registers the online edition, ISSN 2460-4453.
By February 2018	The ISSN portal holds a record for the print edition, ISSN 2614-6487.
December 2022	The two-column template stays in use through Vol. 8 No. 2.
June 2023	Vol. 9 No. 1 (published 15 June 2023) introduces the single-column template.
2026	Vol. 12 No. 1 (June 2026 issue) is the 23rd issue in the archive.
December 2026	The revised template and the policy on the use of AI apply from Vol. 12 No. 2.

Manuscript template: from two columns to one

Two columns, 2015 to 2022

From the first issue through Vol. 8 No. 2 (December 2022), JNSMR articles used a two-column template. The 2017 template file keeps the running head and the received, revised, and accepted dates of an article in Vol. 1 No. 1 (2015), which indicates that its layout descends from the inaugural issue. The title block and abstract run across the page, and the body text runs in two columns about 80 mm wide. Headings carry numbers, and citations appear as numbers in square brackets.

One column from Vol. 9 No. 1 (2023)

Vol. 9 No. 1 (June 2023) introduced a single-column template. Title, abstract, and body run the full 159 mm width of an A4 page with 25.4 mm margins. In the template files, a median body line holds about 97 characters at 11-point Cambria, against about 44 in the two-column layout.

The articles of Vol. 9 No. 1 show the new front matter: both ISSNs on the first page, a running head with the author short name, unnumbered main headings, and no received, revised, and accepted dates. Most follow the new style rules (author-date citations, semicolon-separated keywords, a conflicts-of-interest section). See Table 1 for the full comparison.

Table 1. Main differences between the two-column and single-column manuscript templates

Feature	Through Vol. 8 No. 2 (2015–2022)	From Vol. 9 No. 1 (2023)
Body layout	Two columns of about 80 mm; the title block and abstract run across the page	One column of 159 mm for title, abstract, and body
Characters per line	About 44 (median, 11-point Cambria)	About 97 (median, 11-point Cambria)
Title block	Corresponding author and received, revised, and accepted dates in a side panel beside the abstract	Corresponding author’s e-mail under the affiliations; no date panel; abstract of at most 300 words
Abbreviations	Allowed in the title when unavoidable; defined at first use in the text	Not permitted in the title or abstract; acronyms defined at first use
Keywords	Free list; the sample uses commas	At most five, separated by semicolons; optional subject classification code
Headings	Numbered: Introduction, Experiments Procedure, Result and Discussion, Conclusion	Unnumbered: Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussions, Conclusion
Length guidance	None	Introduction and Methods: 500–1000 words each
Guidance in the template	General style notes on units, equations, and common usage errors, in American English	Content guidance for each section and a structure for the abstract
Citations	Numbers in square brackets; numbered list in an IEEE-like format	APA author-date; reference manager (Mendeley, EndNote) recommended; at least 80 percent of references from the last ten years
Declarations	Acknowledgment; sponsors named in a first-page footnote	Acknowledgments (funders named) and a conflicts-of-interest statement
Figures and tables	Placed at the top or bottom of a column; large items may span both columns	Placed in the single text column; an appendix shows the format for tables, figures, and equations with SI units
Masthead and running head	Banner image; running head with abbreviated title, volume, year, and pages; footer with copyright and ISSN 2460-4453	Logo with full title, both ISSNs, and URL on page 1; running head with abbreviated title, volume, pages, and author short name; page number in footer
Submission documents	None in the template	Cover letter naming three suggested reviewers from two or three countries; author agreement statement signed by all authors

Note. Sources: the 2017 template file (created 4 August 2017), the new template file (last saved 1 December 2023), and sampled articles of Vol. 8 No. 2 and Vol. 9 No. 1. The submission documents come from the template file.

Rationale for the change

Four observations make the change reasonable.

1. Wide content. The journal publishes mathematics and theoretical physics next to laboratory science: four of the eight articles in Vol. 8 No. 2 (December 2022) address those fields. An 80 mm column leaves little room for wide equations and tables. In the 2017 template, authors read that multilevel equations might need to enter the text as graphics and that large tables and figures could span both columns. In a single column, these objects stay in the text flow without those workarounds.
2. Reading evidence. The median line grows from about 44 to about 97 characters in the single column. In an experiment comparing one-, two-, and three-column layouts, Zaphiris and Kurniawan (2001) found no significant difference in reading speed or preference. The study detected no speed penalty for a single column.
3. Methods and submission package. The editors renamed “Experiments Procedure” as “Methods,” a heading that covers proofs, simulations, and field surveys as well as laboratory experiments. The new template file carries a cover letter that lists three suggested reviewers and an author agreement statement signed by all authors. This arrangement lets authors prepare the manuscript and its submission documents from one starting point.
4. Citation and disclosure. Under author-date citations, readers see the cited authors and years in the sentence. Authors anchor their work in recent literature under the recency rule, and they declare competing interests in a standard conflicts-of-interest section. The section formalizes a practice that at least one article in Vol. 8 No. 2 already followed.

Revised template for Vol. 12 No. 2 (December 2026)

For Vol. 12 No. 2 (December 2026), the editors revised the single-column template of 2023. The page layout does not change: one column of 159 mm on A4 paper with 25.4 mm margins, unnumbered main headings, and APA author-date citations. The journal’s policy on the use of artificial intelligence starts with the same issue, and the template carries the disclosure rules of that policy.

The revision changes five features of the template: the author block, the place of the format guide for tables, figures, and equations, the statement of author contributions, the declaration of AI use, and the guidance in the sections. Appendix 1 (cover letter) and Appendix 2 (author agreement statement) stay as they were. See Table 2 for the details.

Table 2. Main differences between the 2023 template and the revised template for Vol. 12 No. 2

Feature	Through Vol. 12 No. 1 (2023–2026)	From Vol. 12 No. 2 (December 2026)
Affiliations	One line for each affiliation: “Affiliation of the author, Country”	Department, faculty, university, city, and country, in full from the smallest unit to the largest; department and faculty names in English; official name of the university
Tables, figures, and equations	Format guide in Appendix 3, after the cover letter and the author agreement statement	Subsection of Results and Discussions; each item in the text after the paragraph that first cites it; rules for numbering, captions, table lines, figure resolution, equations written in the equation editor, and SI units
Author contributions	No section	New section after Acknowledgments; CRediT roles (14) for every author, at least one role each; example included
Use of AI	No statement	New section, Declaration of AI use, before the References: tool, version, developer, dates, task, and parts affected; confirmation that the authors checked the output; examples for use and for no use; no AI tool listed as an author; one line in the cover letter
Main sections	Short advice for each section; Introduction in four elements	Introduction in five parts, including the novelty of the study; Methods adapted to laboratory, field, mathematical and computational, and human or animal studies; limitations named in the discussion; conclusions written in paragraphs
Acknowledgments and References	Helpers and financial supporters thanked; APA citations; reference manager recommended	Funder, funding program, and grant number named; APA 7 in-text forms for one, two, and three or more authors; DOI links; five reference examples
Appendices	Three: cover letter, author agreement statement, and format guide for tables, figures, and equations	Two: cover letter (Appendix 1) and author agreement statement (Appendix 2), unchanged

Note. Sources: the 2023 template file (last saved 1 December 2023), the revised template file for Vol. 12 No. 2, and version 1.0 of the journal’s policy on the use of AI.

Rationale for the revision

Five observations make the revision reasonable.

1. In the 2023 template, each affiliation took one line: “Affiliation of the author, Country.” The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE, 2026, Section IV.A.3.a) asks authors to name the department and the institution that should receive credit for the work. The editors adopted that rule in the revised line and added the faculty and the city. With the department and the faculty, readers see which unit did the work; with the city, they tell apart universities that share a name.
2. Placement of the format guide. The 2023 template ended with three appendices. Appendices 1 and 2, the cover letter and the author agreement statement, are documents that authors submit beside the manuscript. Appendix 3, the format guide for tables, figures, and equations, applies to the manuscript itself. According to the checklist on the Submissions page, authors place illustrations, figures, and tables within the text at the appropriate points. In the revised template, the editors moved the guide into Results and Discussions, where authors place these items, and the two remaining appendices hold submission documents.
3. Author contributions. In the author agreement statement, all authors confirm that no person who met the criteria for authorship is missing from the list and that all authors approved the order of names. With a statement of contributions, editors and readers can check that confirmation against what each author did. Authors can describe the range and nature of their contributions with the 14 roles of CRediT, the Contributor Roles Taxonomy, which became a standard in 2022 (National Information Standards Organization, 2022). The editors ask for at least one role for each author and supply an example.
4. Disclosure of AI use. The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), ICMJE, and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) agree that an AI tool cannot be an author and that authors should say how they used such a tool (COPE Council, 2023; ICMJE, 2026, Section V.A; Zielinski et al., 2023). The three bodies name different places for that statement: COPE names the Materials and Methods, ICMJE names the cover letter and the submitted work, and WAME names the acknowledgment for drafted text and the Abstract and Methods for analysis. In the revised template, the editors fixed one place, a Declaration of AI use before the References, so that authors know where to write it and readers know where to look. The editors added two more places: a description in Methods when AI shaped the analysis or the code, and one line in the cover letter.
5. Guidance by field. The journal covers physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and materials characterization, and the Methods of these fields differ. To repeat laboratory work, readers need the materials, the instruments, and the measurement conditions; to repeat field work, the site, the sampling design, and the dates; to repeat mathematical or computational work, the model, the assumptions, the algorithm, and the software version. For work with human participants or animals, readers need the ethical approval and its reference number. In the 2023 template, Methods had one paragraph of advice. In the revised template, the editors listed these details by type of study, so that another researcher can repeat the work. The editors expanded the other sections in the same way: the Introduction has five parts, authors name the funder, the program, and the grant number in Acknowledgments, and the References section has five examples of APA 7 entries.