DESA: Journal of Rural Development and Governance welcomes original manuscripts that have not been previously published and are not under consideration by other journals. Submissions must align with the journal’s focus on rural development and local governance, including village governance, rural public policy, community empowerment, governance innovation, sustainable development, and related themes. Manuscripts should demonstrate clear scholarly contribution, analytical depth, methodological rigor, and adherence to established research ethics standards.

Manuscripts may be submitted as original research articles, conceptual or theoretical papers, or policy analyses relevant to rural development and governance. All submissions must be written in clear academic English and comply with the journal’s formatting and citation guidelines as outlined in the author template. Authors are responsible for ensuring the accuracy of references, proper citation practices, and consistency in structure and academic style.

Submissions must be made through the journal’s online submission system. To ensure a double-blind peer-review process, authors must remove all identifying information from the main manuscript and submit a separate title page containing author details and affiliations as supplementary material. Authors conducting research in rural communities, including Indigenous or customary communities, are expected to uphold ethical research principles, including respect for local knowledge systems, cultural values, and community consent where applicable. The journal discourages extractive research practices and promotes reflexive, community-sensitive scholarship. All manuscripts undergo an initial editorial screening followed by a rigorous double-blind peer-review process. Authors may be required to revise their manuscripts in response to reviewer feedback. Final publication decisions are made by the Editor-in-Chief based on originality, scholarly merit, methodological soundness, and relevance to the journal’s scope.