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Editorial Policies

Focus and Scope

Journal Overview

Civil Engineering Journal (C.E.J) is a multidisciplinary, an open-access, internationally double-blind peer-reviewed journal published twelve (12) issues per year (monthly) by Salehan Institute of Higher Education, which was founded in 2015. It reports the latest and most creative research results in all aspects of civil engineering science and applications, including but are not necessarily limited to Construction and Building Materials, Structural and Earthquake Engineering, Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Water Science and Engineering, Transportation Engineering, Ocean and Marine Engineering, Urban Engineering, and Surveying Engineering. Articles of an interdisciplinary nature are particularly welcome. The editorial policy is to maintain a reasonable balance between papers regarding different research areas so that the journal will be useful to all interested scientific groups in these fields.

All published articles will be assigned DOI provided by CrossRef.


Special Issues

Special Issues deal with more focused topics with high current interest falling within the scope of the journal in which they are published. Special Issue proposals are welcome at any time during the year.

For most of the civil engineering conferences it is possible to submit papers presented at the conference for subsequent publication in special issues of the C.E.J.

Aim & Scope

Civil Engineering Journal (C.E.J) welcomes contributions, which promote the exchange of ideas and rational discourse between practicing educators and civil engineering researchers all over the world. C.E.J provides researchers and practitioners in structural and civil engineering with a unique forum for disseminating new ideas and techniques with significant potential impact.

The C.E.J is dedicated to advancing the boundary of knowledge and technology by encouraging cross-disciplinary research studies and innovative applications in major engineering projects. The journal intends to capture and archive in a timely manner and in one venue significant advancements in a broad field that encompasses, but is not limited to:

• Construction and Building Materials

• Structural and Earthquake Engineering

• Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering

• Environmental Engineering

• Water Science and Engineering

• Transportation Engineering

• Ocean and Marine Engineering

• Urban Engineering

• Surveying Engineering

Section Policies

Research Articles

This is the most common type of journal manuscript used to publish full reports of data from research. It may be called an Original Article, Research Article, Research, or just Article, depending on the journal. The Original Research format is suitable for many different fields and different types of studies. It includes full Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion sections.

  • Checked Open Submissions
  • Checked Indexed
  • Checked Peer Reviewed

Review Articles

Review Articles provide a comprehensive summary of research on a certain topic, and a perspective on the state of the field and where it is heading. They are often written by leaders in a particular discipline after invitation from the editors of a journal. Reviews are often widely read (for example, by researchers looking for a full introduction to a field) and highly cited.

  • Checked Open Submissions
  • Checked Indexed
  • Checked Peer Reviewed

Technical Note

Technical notes are brief articles focused on a new technique, method, or procedure. These should describe important modifications or unique applications for the described method. Technical notes can also be used for describing a new software tool or computational method. The structure should include an Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusions, with a suggested minimum word count of 3000 words.

  • Checked Open Submissions
  • Checked Indexed
  • Checked Peer Reviewed

Special Issue "Innovative Strategies in Civil Engineering Grand Challenges"

In today's challenging world, Civil engineering is regarded as one of the most important engineering fields across the globe. Since the biggest challenges are facing the world today include: High building energy consumption; Crude estimation of sea level; Increased soil and coastal erosion; Inadequate water quality; Untapped and depleting groundwater; Increasing traffic congestion; Poor infrastructure resilience to disasters; Poor and degrading infrastructure; Need for better mining and coal ash waste disposal; and Low construction site safety, solutions that will often be provided by civil engineers.  The civil engineering studies often need to create complex numerical or mathematical models to deal with large amounts of data and experimental study of repeated, thus providing a broad application platform for computer-aided design and simulation technology.

  • Checked Open Submissions
  • Checked Indexed
  • Checked Peer Reviewed

Special Issue "Emerging Materials in Civil Engineering"

Closed (01 August 2020)

Materials in civil engineering mainly determine the sizes, shapes and forms of buildings in ambient conditions. Developing new materials or searching for new applications of materials are essential for improving the quality and quantity of constructions in civil engineering. Moreover, on account of various of building forms being created with several fundamental materials, the selection of materials and their quantities are the key factor in a project of civil engineering. This issue will focus on the new materials and their applications in civil engineering.

  • Unchecked Open Submissions
  • Checked Indexed
  • Checked Peer Reviewed

Others

  • Checked Open Submissions
  • Checked Indexed
  • Checked Peer Reviewed

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

Everyone has a right to "download, reuse, re-print, modify, distribute and/or copy" the published papers.



Archiving

This journal utilizes the LOCKSS system to create a distributed archiving system among participating libraries and permits those libraries to create permanent archives of the journal for purposes of preservation and restoration.

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

Civil Engineering Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and abides by its Code of Conduct and aims to adhere to its Best Practice Guidelines.

http://civilejournal.org/public/site/images/admin/COPE.jpg

 

The ethical policy of Civil Engineering Journal is based on the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines and complies with International Committee of C.E.J Editorial Board codes of conduct. Readers, authors, reviewers and editors should follow these ethical policies once working with C.E.J. The ethical policy of C.E.J is liable to determine which of the typical research papers or articles submitted to the journal should be published in the concerned issue. For information on this matter in publishing and ethical guidelines please visit http://publicationethics.org.

 

Principles of Transparency and Publication Ethics

(https://publicationethics.org/files/Principles_of_Transparency_and_Best_Practice_in_Scholarly_Publishingv3_0.pdf)

Peer review process: C.E.J is a double-blind peer-reviewed electronic monthly publication concerned with all aspects of Civil Engineering. This process, as well as any policies related to the journal’s peer review procedures, is clearly described on the journal’s Web site (https://civilejournal.org/index.php/cej/about/editorialPolicies#custom-5).

Governing Body: C.E.J has a very strong editorial board, whose members are recognized experts in the subject areas included within the journal’s scope. The full names and affiliations of the journal’s editors are provided on the journal’s Web site (https://civilejournal.org/index.php/cej/about/editorialTeam).

Identification of and dealing with allegations of research misconduct: Editor-in-Chief takes reasonable steps to identify and prevent the publication of papers where research misconduct has occurred, including plagiarism, citation manipulation, and data falsification/fabrication, among others.

Website: A journal’s Website (www.civilejournal.org) contains that care has been taken to ensure high ethical and professional standards.

Contact information: Journal is provided the contact information for the editorial office of C.E.J (https://civilejournal.org/index.php/cej/about/contact).

Name of journal: The Journal name of Civil Engineering Journal (C.E.J) has unique and not be one that is easily confused with another journal.

Conflicts of interest: Authors are requested to evident whether impending conflicts do or do not exist while submitting their articles to C.E.J through Conflict of Interest Disclosure form (https://civilejournal.org/Guideline/Conflict%20of%20Interest.docx).

Declaration of Competing Interests: The editor must not be involved in decisions about manuscripts which authors has written him/herself or have been written by family members, colleagues or which relate to products or services in which the editor has an interest. Further, any such submission must be subject to all of the journal’s usual procedures, peer review must be handled independently of the relevant author/editor and their research groups, and there must be a clear statement to this effect on any paper that is published.

Acknowledgments: All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an "Acknowledgements" section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help or writing assistance or a department chair who provided only general support.

Disclosure of Funding Sources: C.E.J authors are required to declare what support they received to carry out their research. Declaring funding sources acknowledges funders’ contributions, fulfills funding requirements and promotes greater transparency in the research process.

 

Duties and Responsibilities of Editors

(http://publicationethics.org/files/Code_of_conduct_for_journal_editors_Mar11.pdf)

  • The Editors of the journal should have the full authority to reject/accept a manuscript.
  • The Editors of the journal should maintain the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts under review or until they are published.
  • The Editor-in-Chief should take a decision on submitted manuscripts, whether to be published or not with other editors and reviewers
  • The Editors of the journal should preserve the anonymity of reviewers.
  • The Editors of the journal should disclose and try to avoid any conflict of interest.
  • The Editors of the journal should maintain academic integrity and strive to meet the needs of readers and authors.
  • The Editors of the journal should be willing to investigate plagiarism and fraudulent data issues and willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when needed.
  • The Editors of the journal should have the limit themselves only to the intellectual content.
  • The Editors of the journal must not disclose any information about submitted manuscripts to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate.
  • Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted paper will not be used by the editor or the members of the editorial board for their own research purposes without the author's explicit written consent.
  • Guest editors play a vital role in acquiring content and leading the review process for special issue publications.
  • Associate editors play a key role in peer-reviewed publishing, supporting the journal editor as subject experts on various topics. Associate editors oversee assigned manuscripts, moving these papers through review and revision. AEs are responsible for assessing manuscript quality, obtaining peer reviews, requesting revisions where appropriate, and making recommendations to the journal editor about the acceptance or rejection of a manuscript.


Duties and Responsibilities of Reviewers

(http://publicationethics.org/files/u7140/Peer%20review%20guidelines.pdf)

  • The Reviewers of the journal should assist the Editors in taking the decision for publishing the submitted manuscripts.
  • The Reviewers should maintain the confidentiality of manuscripts, which they are invited to review.
  • The Reviewers should provide comments in time that will help editors to make a decision on the submitted manuscript to be published or not.
  • The Reviewers are bound to treat the manuscript received for peer reviewing as confidential, and must not use the information obtained through peer review for personal advantage.
  • The Reviewers comments against each invited manuscript should be technical, professional and objective.
  • The Reviewers should not review the manuscripts in which they have found conflicts of interest with any of the authors, companies, or institutions.
  • The Reviewers should disclose and try to avoid any conflict of interest.


Authors of Civil Engineering Journal must confirm the following:

  • Submitted manuscripts must be the original work of the author(s);
  • The submitting corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that the manuscript article's publication has been approved by all the other coauthors;
  • Only unpublished manuscripts should be submitted;
  • All authors have agreed to allow the corresponding author to serve as the correspondent with the editorial office, to review the edited manuscript and proof;
  • Acknowledge the sources of data used in the development of the manuscript;
  • All listed authors must have made a significant scientific contribution to the research in the manuscript and approved all its claims;
  • All errors discovered in the manuscript after submission must be swiftly communicated to the Editor;
  • All authors must know that that the submitted manuscripts under review or published with C.E.J are subject to screening using Plagiarism Prevention Software. Plagiarism is a serious violation of publication ethics.

Allegations of Misconduct

Plagiarism

Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to:

  • Directly copying text from other sources without attribution
  • Copying ideas, images, or data from other sources without attribution
  • Reusing text from your own previous publications without attribution or agreement of the editor
    • Exception: Reusing text from the Methods section in the author’s previous publications, with attribution to the source, is acceptable.

  • Using an idea from another source with slightly modified language without attribution.

If plagiarism is detected during the peer review process, the manuscript may be rejected. If plagiarism is detected after publication, we may issue a correction or retract the paper, as appropriate.

Civil Engineering Journal use "iThenticate" software to detect plagiarism.

 

Data fabrication 

This concerns the making up of research findings


Data falsification 

Manipulating research data with the intention of giving a false impression. This includes manipulating images (e.g. micrographs, gels, radiological images), removing outliers or “inconvenient” results, changing, adding or omitting data points, etc.

 

Duplicate submissions

Duplicate submission is a situation whereby an author submits the same or similar manuscripts to two different journals at the same time either within Academic Journals or any other publisher. This includes the submission of manuscripts derived from the same data in such a manner that there are no substantial differences in the manuscripts. Duplicate submission also includes the submission of the same/similar manuscript in different languages to different journals.

 

Authorship Issuess

Clear policies (that allow for transparency around who contributed to the work and in what capacity) should be in place for requirements for authorship and contributorship as well as processes for managing potential disputes.

Here is some advice by COPE on how to spot potential authorship problems. Civil Engineering Journal strives to follow these guidelines.


Citation Manipulation

Citation Manipulation is including excessive citations, in the submitted manuscript, that do not contribute to the scholarly content of the article and have been included solely for the purpose of increasing citations to a given author’s work, or to articles published in a particular journal. This leads to misrepresenting the importance of the specific work and journal in which it appears and is thus a form of scientific misconduct.


Suspected Manipulation of Peer Review/Bias of Peer Reviews

Civil Engineering Journal selects the reviewers on any manuscript with due care so as to avoid any conflict of interest between the reviewers and the authors. CEJ's peer review policy is adequately explained here. Our policy is compliant with COPE Guidelines on peer review.

Errata and Corrigenda

Changes/additions to accepted articles

All content of published articles is subject to the editorial review process, organized by and under the auspices of the editor. Should the authors wish to add to their article after acceptance, they must submit a request to the editor and the new content will be reviewed.

  • If the new material is added to the accepted article, it must be submitted for peer review as a new manuscript, referring back to the original;
  • If the new material should replace the original content of the accepted article, the editor may consider the publication of an erratum or a corrigendum.
Erratum

An erratum refers to a correction of errors introduced to the article by the publisher.

All publisher-introduced changes are highlighted to the author at the proof stage and any errors are ideally identified by the author and corrected by the publisher before final publication.

Corrigendum

A corrigendum refers to a change to their article that the author wishes to publish at any time after acceptance. Authors should contact the editor of the journal, who will determine the impact of the change and decide on the appropriate course of action.

Complaints Policy

We aim to respond to and resolve all complaints quickly and constructively. The procedures to investigate and resolve complaints followed by Civil Engineering Journal aims to be fair and balanced for those making complaints and for those being complained about. The complaint can be made by writing an email.

All complaints will be acknowledged within one week.

Please email to: office@civilejournal.org.

Peer Review Policy

This journal uses double-blind peer-review, which means that the reviewers of the paper won’t get to know the identity of the author(s), and the author(s) won’t get to know the identity of the reviewer. The idea is that everyone should get a similar and unbiased review.

Reviewers’ Responsibilities

(http://publicationethics.org/files/u7140/Peer%20review%20guidelines.pdf)

If C.E.J’s Editor has invited you to review a manuscript, please consider the following items:

  • Reviewing manuscript critically but constructively and preparing detailed comments about the manuscript to help authors improve their research;
  • Reviewing multiple versions of a manuscript as necessary;
  • Providing all required information within established deadlines;
  • Making recommendations to the editor regarding the suitability of the manuscript for publication in the journal;
  • Declaring to the editor any potential conflicts of interest with respect to the authors or the content of a manuscript they are asked to review;
  • Reporting possible research misconducts;
  • Suggesting alternative reviewers in case they cannot review the manuscript for any reasons;
  • Treating the manuscript as a confidential document;
  • Not making any use of the work described in the manuscript;
  • Not communicating directly with authors, if somehow they identify the authors;
  • Not identifying themselves to authors;
  • Not passing on the assigned manuscript to another reviewer;
  • Ensuring that the manuscript is of high quality and original research;
  • Informing the editor if he/she finds the assigned manuscript is under consideration in any other publication to his/her knowledge;
  • Writing a review report in English only;
  • Authoring a commentary for publication related to the reviewed manuscript.

What should be checked while reviewing a manuscript?

  • Novelty;
  • Originality;
  • Scientific reliability;
  • A valuable contribution to science;
  • Adding new aspects to the existed field of study;
  • Ethical aspects;
  • Structure of the article submitted and its relevance to authors’ guidelines;
  • References provided to substantiate the content;
  • Grammar, punctuation, and spelling;
  • Scientific misconduct.

The detailed Journal peer review process is based on the following chart:

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