Banks and Bank Systems
Banks and Bank Systems

The international research journal “Banks and Bank Systems” is double blind peer-reviewed. It is published quarterly in Sumy, Ukraine and since January, 2017 supports full Open Access. The target audience of the journal includes researchers, scholars, lecturers, students, and practitioners.

Aims and Scope
The journal focuses on the results of scientific researches on monetary policy issues in different countries and regions all over the world. It also analyzes the activities of international financial organizations, central banks, and bank institutions.

Key topics:
Monetary Policy in Different Countries and Regions;
Monetary and Payment Systems;
International Financial Organizations and Institutions;
Monetary Policy of Central Banks;
Organizational Structure, Functions and Activities of Central Banks;
State Policy and Regulation of Banking;
Bank Competitiveness;
Banks at the Financial Markets;
Bank Associations and Conglomerates;
International Payment Systems;
Investment Banking;
Financial Risks and Risk Management in Banks;
Capital and Ownership Structure, Bankruptcy and Liquidation, Mergers and Acquisitions of Banks;
Corporate Governance and Goodwill;
Personnel Management in Banks;
Econometric, Statistical Methods; Econometric Modeling of Bank Activities;
Bank Ratings.
Subject Area – Economics, Econometrics and Finance. Subject Category – Economics and Econometrics; Finance.

Subject Area – Business, Management and Accounting. Subject Category – Management of Technology and Innovation; Marketing; Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management.

Subject Area – Social Sciences. Subject Category – Law; Public Administration.

Structure of the Paper and Manuscript Submission Guidelines
Before submission to the editorial staff of the journal, please check Research Misconduct Policies, infringement of which will result in immediate rejection of the manuscript and possible sanctions against the author.
The authors are strongly recommended to read the “Guidelines for Authors and Translators of Scientific Articles to be Published in English” at the website of The European Association of Science Editors (EASE) http://www.ease.org.uk/publications/author-guidelines-authors-and-translators/, which guides our work.
Make sure that the manuscript presents an academic value, significance of research, as well as that its originality and practical significance are well described; the manuscript makes a contribution to earlier researches concerning the topic.

The author should attentively read the manuscript submission guidelines. These guidelines are not so rigid that even the slightest deviation from them will result in the refusal of the manuscript. However, we ask the authors to do their best to meet them, as it will provide the quality of their materials and will make it easier for the editorial staff to set the manuscript for publication.

Please define the type of the manuscript of four possible variants and adhere to both the general guidelines and the recommendations, which are specific for the type of the chosen manuscript.

The following types of manuscripts can be submitted to the journal:

original scientific paper, which is a final report on the finished original experimental study;
theoretical paper, which is devoted to theoretical study of the problem, which complies with the journal’s scope;
review paper, which is a study of concrete scientific problem, which complies with the journal’s scope and is conducted based on the materials of the scientific publications;
short communication paper on the event (conference, seminar, exhibition, issue of the important monograph), which complies with the journal’s scope.
The manuscript should be submitted to the editorial staff of the journal via e-mail by corresponding author together with the filled and signed Cover letter. Herewith the same e-mail should be sent to all co-authors in order to inform them about the submission. Please, try hard to send a paper with good level of English. Well-written manuscripts will let editors and reviewers concentrate on their academic value.

Structure of the Paper
The presentation of the material in the manuscript should be built on the principle “from the general to the particular”.

The structure of research paper should consist of the following sections (it does not exclude the presence of additional subsections) and comply with the international standard АIMRaD (Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion).

Theoretical paper – АIТвRaD (Abstract, Introduction, Theoretical Basis, Results, and Discussion).

Review paper – Abstract, Introduction, Literature review, generalization of the main statements and Discussion.

Short communication paper is structured by the author in his own, but with compulsory reference to the date and place of the event. However, it does not include a big list of references and supplementary materials.

Title
The title of the paper should fully reflect the topic of the research and its content. It must be short and concrete (not more than 15 words). Besides it should catch the reader’s interest and it should be written using the scientific style. It is appropriate to point the object of research or concretize it using the colon or the brackets. It is not recommended to use contractions, but if used, then only for the commonly known ones.

Author (authors)
Here the name (first name and last name) of the author (authors) (Byline?) must be written. Those authors who use the patronymic or middle name should write only the first. The authors whose names are written in the Cyrillic alphabet must transliterate them correctly. Those who need the transliteration can use the websites http://translit.net/ua/ or http://translit.net/ru/.
After the names of the authors, there should be written their academic degree and academic rank, places of work (university, academic institution, etc. or the organization to which they belong) (Affiliation), city and country. If the name of city or country is already used as author's affiliation still both the city and the country should be indicated. The name of the organization or the institution must be indicated, separated by the comma in the nominative case and this name must be full, without contractions and abbreviations. Also the authors should indicate their e-mails.
If there are several authors, they make a decision themselves concerning the order of their mentioning in the title of the paper (recommended variant – depending on the contribution to the research). The list of authors includes only those persons who have really taken part in the research and agreed to bear full responsibility for its content. Research funding or taking part in paying the article processing charge is not a prerequisite for being included in the list of co-authors. While forming the list of the authors, a special attention should be paid to the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) principles.

In order to bring the academic degrees, academic ranks and occupations, which are used in some emerging economies or the developing countries, in line with the international standards, the corresponding table should be used ENGLISH EQUIVALENTSFOR ACADEMIC RANKS, DEGREES AND JOB TITLES.

Abstract
It should be written using the following algorithm: first two or three sentences indicate the relevance of the topic; the aim and object of the study; the methodology (methods) of the study (for theoretical studies – its theoretical basis) are described; the obtained results and their practical value are characterized. At the same time, every statement must follow logically from the previous one. In the abstract for a research paper, it is recommended to use the numerical results. In the abstract of a review paper, the author can only point the issues discussed, without presenting the results. While writing the abstract, it is necessary to use the active voice instead of the passive voice, and such words as “thus”, “for instance”, “as a result”, etc. In the abstract, the author should not refer to any researches or other sources of information. The abstract should be written without subsections and without subtitles, i.e., is not structured. The text should be concise and original. It is not appropriate to use the sentences in the Abstract from the text of the paper. At the same time, the material which is absent in the paper cannot be presented in the Abstract. In the Abstract, the author should not refer to any sources, use tables and figures. The number of words must be in average 150-250.

Кeywords
The purpose of keywords is to provide the insight to the reader into the contents of the paper. They should reflect the area of the research. The number of keywords should be 5-10 in average. There should not be the sentences, but the words or word groups. If the object of the study is not mentioned in the title of the paper (including the country, the region), it should be added to the list of keywords. There is no need to replicate words from the title of the paper.

JEL Classification
If earlier the author was not aware of this classification system, he/she should attentively look through it in order to have a common understanding of all the areas defined in it http://www.aeaweb.org/jel/jel_class_system.php. The codes, indicated by the author should clearly reflect the research area. The author is welcome to use the codes from two or three areas, if they are covered in the research.

Introduction
Both scientific issues and the relevance of the research should be substantiated and explained in the introduction. Also a problem statement should be pointed out. The introduction should not be long, the author should avoid using tables and figures.

Literature Review
Literature review provides an analysis and generalization of relevant works (papers, monographs, reports, theses, etc.), which describe the essence of the problem and/or give an understanding on the previous efforts to solve it. The Literature Review should comply with the aim of the research (“fitness for purpose”) and represent the results of critical analysis of the analytical base for testing the research hypothesis.
Literature review must not be limited only by works, which were published in the country where the author lives and works (the problem should be studied globally). Particularly it concerns the authors from non-English speaking countries (they are recommended to thoroughly analyze the works published in English).
If appropriate, normative legal acts are also analyzed.
Only those sources are given and analyzed in the paper, which really are valuable for the author’s research. The author cannot just make long lists of authors and their works, which are related to the investigated issues. The author cannot take the pieces of review text from other works with reference to other authors and include their works in the list of references. When citing, the author is obliged to observe ethical and moral principles.
While making literature review, the author can use own publications and refer to them, but only in order to describe the problem, but not to increase the citation level.
It is recommended to finish the literature review with the presentation of unsolved issues, identification of contradictions in the results and findings of the previous researches, justification of the need to continue the studies in this area and choice of the specific topic (direction) of this study.
In the literature review and throughout the text of the paper as a whole, references to the sources are made in compliance with Reference list and citation style guide or refer to APA formatting and style guide (American Psychological Association).

Aims
The aim describes main results in a short and concrete manner (in one sentence), the achievement of which is the purpose of the research. Here can also be mentioned several intermediate problems, the solution of which will ensure that the aim is achieved. The aim should not replicate the title of the manuscript.

Methods
The methods (methodology) of the study are indicated in this section (commonly known), which author uses in the research, and/or the methodology offered by the author himself is described in a short and concrete manner. If methods and procedures offered are used in other works, the author should refer to the original sources.
In this subsection of the theoretical paper the theoretical basis of the research should be described, theories, perspectives, formulae, equations should be presented.
If commonly known statistic procedures are used in the paper, the author should not describe their essence, it is sufficient just to point them.

Results
Here empirical or theoretical data obtained in the process of the research are given. It is recommended to use figures, tables, graphs, schemes. The interpretation of the obtained results is not made in this section. Also there should not be presented the results, which were earlier obtained by the authors or other scientists.

Discussion
Here the interpretation of the results obtained during the research is made. A comparison is made with the results obtained by other researchers.

Conclusion
In this section the main ideas of the manuscript are presented, the obtained results and their novelty are demonstrated. The possibility of practical use of the obtained results should be outlined and the directions for further scientific research should be offered.

Acknowledgements
In this subsection, the relevant scientific programs, grants, scholarships, contracts are indicated.
The author can also mention the persons or organizations, which helped him in conducting the research (access to information, organization of the survey, interview, etc.) and preparation of the paper (advice at the stage of writing, critical remarks, help in calculations, etc.).

References
The list of references must be made in the alphabetical order. While indicating the source, which was analyzed in the source language (not in English), it should be indicated first in the source language, then the transliteration should be made in brackets. It is recommended that it should be done with the transliteration for English-speaking systems (it is better to use transliteration of the system British Standards Institution.
Download “Business Perspectives” Reference list and citation style guide or refer to APA formatting and style guide.
Transliteration from Ukrainian can be made with the help of Ukrainian transliteration and the website http://translit.net/ua/, from Russian – with the help of Russian transliteration, from several other languages, which use the Cyrillic alphabet, with the help of the website http://translit.net/ru/.

Supplementary Materials
The supplementary materials are the big size figures, tables, graphs, schemes, photographs, etc., which are referred to throughout the text of the paper.

Paper Submission Guidelines
The number of words in the paper may vary from 4000 to 6000 (for short communication paper – from 1000 to 2000).Considering the issue concerning the calculation of the number of words in the paper, the information about the authors, title, abstract and keywords, list of references and appendices should not be included. The number of sources, in the list of references, should not exceed 50. Supplementary materials should not exceed 5 pages. Note, that the paper should be submitted in the format Microsoft Word or compatible (.DOC, .DOCX).
Tables, schemes, figures, photographs of other authors should not be used in the text of the paper without their written permission.

The presentation of the text in the paper must comply with the Manuscript Submission Guidelines.