JOURNAL & ETHICS POLICIES

Overview

IJAE observes the highest standards in journal publication. The journal supports and adheres to the guidelines and best practices including the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing (a joint statement by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), the World Association for Medical Editors (WAME) and the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA); (https://doaj.org/apply/transparency/)). This comprehensive suite of policies covers the main responsibilities of the journal’s authors, reviewers, editors and publisher.

Author Responsibilities

Submission

Submission to the journal implies that all authors have read and approved the manuscript, have agreed to its submission, and have the right to publish their work.

Submission to the journal also implies that all authors have read and complied with the journal’s policies on publication ethics. Authors of submitted manuscripts acknowledge that the journal’s editors reserve the right to reject or retract any manuscript that they believe may breach any of these policies. The authors take full responsibility for the contents of published articles.

The date the manuscript arrives at JSAE shall be deemed to be the date of receipt.

Duplicate submission

Submission to the journal implies that the manuscript has not been previously published (in part or in whole, in any language), is not in press, and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.

Authors must inform the editors if any related manuscripts are under consideration, in press or published elsewhere. If in any doubt, authors should include the material distributed in other formats during the submission process. The availability of a manuscript on a publicly accessible preprint server does not constitute prior publication (see ‘Preprints’).

If authors choose to submit their manuscript elsewhere before a final decision has been made on its suitability for publication in IJAE they should first withdraw it from the journal.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the use of other’s ideas, processes, results, words, or theories as if they were the author’s own, without giving appropriate credit or permission. This involves any part of the manuscript, including the figures and tables. All information and content that originate from other resources must be credited and cited, and included in the “References” section. The manuscript will be automatically checked for plagiarism by the iThenticate plagiarism screening service to determine both textual overlap and manuscript originality. Any manuscript with an unacceptable level of unoriginal material may be rejected or retracted at the editors’ discretion.

Data Accuracy

All authors are fully responsible for the originality and contents of their submitted manuscripts. All records and data presented in the manuscript must be accurate, without any fabrication, or falsification.

Fabrication

Fabrication is inventing data or results of research to deceive people.       

Falsification

Falsification is manipulating the research results with the intention to give a false impression.       This includes manipulation of research instrumentation, materials, and processes, changing, adding or omitting data, manipulating images, and omitting research results. Scientific images for publication must be minimally processed. Applications of adjustments are permissible as long as these adjustments are applied to an entire image uniformly and do not selectively enhance, eliminate, or mispresent any elements in the original image, including the background.

Preprints

To support the wide dissemination of research, the journal encourages authors to post their research manuscripts on non-profit preprint server, either before or alongside submission to the journal. This policy applies only to the original version of a manuscript that describes primary research. Any version of a manuscript that has been revised in response to reviewers’ comments, accepted for publication or published in the journal should not be posted on a preprint server. Instead, forward links to the published manuscript may be posted on the preprint server.

Scooping

When assessing the novelty of a manuscript submitted to the journal, the editors will not be influenced by other manuscripts that are posted on non-profit preprint server after the date of submission to IJAE (or after the date of posting on a preprint server, if the manuscript is submitted to the journal within four months).

Authorship

Submission to the journal implies that all authors have seen and approved the author list. Changes to the author list after manuscript submission – such as the insertion or removal of author names, or a rearrangement of author order – must be approved by all authors and the editor.

Authors are encouraged to consider the Council of Science Editors (CSE) principles governing authorship. According to the CSE guidelines, authors have made substantial contributions to the work; have agreed to be held accountable for their own contributions to the work; can identify which co-authors are responsible for other parts of the work; have confidence in the integrity of the work; and have reviewed and approved the final manuscript. Contributors who do not qualify for authorship may be included in the Acknowledgements section instead.

Image integrity

Authors may digitally manipulate or process images, but only if the adjustments are kept to a minimum, are applied to the entire image, meet community standards, and are clearly described in the manuscript. All images in a manuscript must accurately reflect the original data on which they are based. Authors must not move, remove, add or enhance individual parts of an image. The editors reserve the right to request original, unprocessed images from the authors. Failure to provide requested images may result in a manuscript being rejected or retracted.

Reproducing copyrighted material

If a manuscript includes material that is not under the authors’ own copyright, the authors must obtain permission from the copyright holder(s) to reproduce it.

If a manuscript includes previously published material, the authors must obtain permission from the copyright owners and the publisher of the original work to reproduce it. The authors must cite the original work in their manuscript.

Availability of data and materials

Authors must disclose the source of publicly available data and materials, such as public repositories or commercial manufacturers, by including accession numbers or company details in their manuscript, as appropriate.

Authors may make their own data and materials available in Supplementary Material, or by linking from their manuscript to relevant community-recognized public databases or digital repositories. All data sets must be made available in full to the editors and reviewers during the peer review process, and must be made publicly available by the date of publication. Authors commit to preserving their data sets for at least three years from the date of publication in the journal.

The journal encourages authors to grant reasonable requests from colleagues to share any data, materials and experimental protocols described in their manuscript.

Animal/human experimentation

Authors of manuscripts describing experiments involving humans or materials derived from humans must demonstrate that the work was carried out in accordance with the principles embodied in the Declaration of Helsinki, its revisions, and any guidelines approved by the authors’ institutions. Where relevant, the authors must include a statement in their manuscript that describes the procedures for obtaining informed consent from participants regarding participation in the research and publication of the research.

Authors of manuscripts describing experiments involving animals or materials derived from animals must demonstrate that the work was carried out in accordance with the guidelines approved by the authors’ institution(s).

Conflicts of interest

In the interests of transparency, the journal requires all authors to declare any conflicts of interest in relation to their submitted manuscript. A conflict of interest exists when there are actual, perceived or potential circumstances that could influence an author’s ability to conduct or report research impartially. Potential conflicts include (but are not limited to) competing commercial or financial interests, commercial affiliations, consulting roles, or ownership of stock or equity.

Authors should list all funding sources for their work in the Acknowledgements section of their manuscript.

Confidentiality

The journal maintains the confidentiality of all unpublished manuscripts. By submitting their manuscript to the journal, the authors warrant that they will keep all correspondence about their manuscript (from the Editorial Office, editors and reviewers) strictly confidential.

 

Editor/Publisher Responsibilities

Editorial and peer review process

The journal uses single-blind peer review.

When a manuscript is submitted to the journal, it is assigned to the Editor-in-Chief, who performs initial screening. Manuscripts that do not fit the journal’s scope or are not deemed suitable for publication are rejected without review. The remaining manuscripts are assigned to an Associate Editor who assigns two reviewers to assess each manuscript. Reviewers are selected based on their expertise, reputation and previous experience as peer reviewers. The deadline for submission of the reviewers’ reports varies by article type.

Upon receipt of the two reviewers’ reports, the Associate Editor makes the first decision on the manuscript. If the reviewers’ reports offer contradictory advice, an Associate Editor can assign a third reviewer to aid the decision-making process. If the decision is to request revision of the manuscript, authors have 2 months to resubmit their revised manuscript. Revised manuscripts submitted after this deadline may be treated as new submissions.

The Associate Editor may send revised manuscripts to peer reviewers for their feedback or may use his or her own judgement to assess how closely the authors have followed the Associate Editor’s and the reviewers’ comments on the original manuscript. The Associate Editor then makes a recommendation to the Editor-in-Chief on the manuscript’s suitability for publication. The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for making the final decision on each manuscript.

The members of the Advisory Editorial Board act in consultative roles, providing feedback as reviewers and making suggestions to improve the journal. In cases where the Editor-in-Chief is an author on a manuscript submitted to the journal, a member of the Editorial Board is responsible for managing the entire review process and assessing the manuscript’s suitability for publication.

Acceptance criteria

If a manuscript satisfies the journal’s requirements and represents a valuable contribution to the published literature, the Editor may recommend acceptance for publication in the journal.

In brief, the acceptance criteria are that articles published in the journal:

  • are within the subject area as outlined in the Aims and Scope
  • contain novel analyses, modelling and results, on which the authors’ clear assertions are based (Reserch Papers and Technical Notes) or provide objective and balanced overviews regarding particular topics or fields based on a review of the literature (Review Articles).
  • are scientifically, ethically, and otherwise rigorous, with no clear errors
  • are of interest to our broad audience
  • are well-constructed and written in clear English.

If a manuscript does not meet the journal’s requirements for acceptance, but it has a high probability of acceptance after minor or major revision, the Editor may ask the authors to revise it accordingly. Revised manuscripts must be submitted within two months, otherwise they will be treated as new submissions.

If a manuscript does not meet the journal’s requirements for acceptance or revision, the Editor may recommend rejection.

Reviewer suggestions

When submitting a manuscript to the journal, authors may suggest reviewers that they would like included in or excluded from the peer review process. The Editor may consider these suggestions but is under no obligation to follow them. The selection, invitation and assignment of peer reviewers is at the Editor’s sole discretion.

Reviewer reports

It is the journal’s policy to transmit reviewers’ comments to the authors in their original form. However, the journal reserves the right to edit reviewers’ comments, without consulting the reviewers, if they contain offensive language, confidential information or recommendations for publication.

Editorial independence

The Society of Automotive Engineers of Japna (JSAE) has granted the journal’s Editorial Board complete and sole responsibility for all editorial decisions. The JSAE will not become involved in editorial decisions, except in cases of a fundamental breakdown of process.

Editorial decisions are based only on a manuscript’s scientific and scholarly merit and are kept completely separate from the journal’s other interests. The authors’ ability to pay any publication charges has no bearing on whether a manuscript is accepted for publication in the journal.

Appeals

Authors who believe that an editorial decision has been made in error may lodge an appeal with the Editorial Office. Appeals are only considered if the authors provide detailed evidence of a misunderstanding or mistake by a reviewer or editor. Appeals are considered carefully by the Editor-in-Chief, whose decision is final.

Confidentiality

The journal maintains the confidentiality of all unpublished manuscripts. Editors will not:

  • disclose a reviewer’s identity unless the reviewer makes a reasonable request for such disclosure
  • discuss the manuscript or its contents with anyone not directly involved with the manuscript or its peer review
  • use any data or information from the manuscript in their own work or publications
  • use information obtained from the peer review process to provide an advantage to themselves or anyone else, or to disadvantage any individual or organization.

Conflicts of interest

A conflict of interest exists when there are actual, perceived or potential circumstances that could influence an editor’s ability to act impartially when assessing a manuscript. Such circumstances might include having a personal or professional relationship with an author, working on the same topic or in direct competition with an author, or having a financial stake in the work or its publication.

Members of the journal’s Editorial Board undertake to declare any conflicts of interest when handling manuscripts. An editor who declares a conflict of interest is unassigned from the manuscript in question and is replaced by a new editor.

Errata and retractions

The journal recognizes the importance of maintaining the integrity of published literature.

A published article that contains an error may be corrected through the publication of an Erratum. Errata describe errors that significantly affect the scientific integrity of a publication, the reputation of the authors, or the journal itself. Authors who wish to correct a published article should contact the editor who handled their manuscript or the Editorial Office with full details of the error(s) and their requested changes. In cases where co-authors disagree over a correction, the Editor-in-Chief may consult the Editorial Board or external peer reviewers for advice. If a Correction is published, any dissenting authors will be noted in the text.

A published article that contains invalid or unreliable results or conclusions, has been published elsewhere, or has infringed codes of conduct (covering research or publication ethics) may be retracted. Individuals who believe that a published article should be retracted are encouraged to contact the journal’s Editorial Office with full details of their concerns. The Editor-in-Chief will investigate further and contact the authors of the published article for their response. In cases where co-authors disagree over a retraction, the Editor-in-Chief may consult the Editorial Board or external peer reviewers for advice. If a Retraction is published, any dissenting authors will be noted in the text.

The decision to publish Errata or Retractions is made at the sole discretion of the Editor-in-Chief.

Editors’ own publications in the journal

Any member of the journal’s Editorial Board who is an author on a submitted manuscript is automatically excluded from the peer review process. Within the journal’s online manuscript submission and tracking system, they will be able to see their manuscript as an author but not as an editor, thereby maintaining the confidentiality of peer review.

A manuscript authored by an editor of the journal will be subjected to the same high standards of peer review and editorial decision making as any manuscript submitted to the journal.

Responding to potential ethical breaches

The journal will respond to allegations of ethical breaches by following its own policies and, where possible, the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics .

The person reporting the ethical breach must provide sufficient evidence in order for an investigation to be undertaken.

Once an ethical breach has been confirmed, the Editor-in-Chief makes a final decision based on the opinions of the journal’s Editorial Board.

Ethics Policies

Ethics Policies stipulate how the journal will respond to incomplete publications and misconduct.
Please check before writing your paper.

MANUSCRIPT TYPES

IJAE publishes three manuscript types, all of which are subject to rigorous peer review.

Although manuscripts may be derived from papers presented at conferences, they must conform to the specifications below and must comply with the acceptance criteria detailed in the ‘Editorial and peer review process’ section of these guidelines. Manuscript submissions derived from conference papers must be substantial and significant contributions, which may require developments such as a new Title, new Abstract, additional experimental or modelling work, and a more in-depth discussion.

Research Papers

Research Papers are substantial and full articles describing original research that focuses on aspects of automotive engineering, technology, and science. Manuscripts must describe sufficient experimental, analytical, or other work of high significance to be considered as a Research Paper. The total length of a Research Paper should not exceed 6,000 words (excluding tables, references, and captions) and should include no more than 15 tables or figure plots .

Technical Notes

Technical Notes are short articles briefly describing a specific development, technique, or procedure that is of interest to IJAE’s broad audience. Technical Notes must not exceed 3,000 words (excluding tables, references, and captions) and should include no more than 5 tables or figure plots.

Review Articles

Review Articles provide comprehensive summaries of the existing literature on a certain topic to explain the current status and indicate where the research is heading. The total length of a Review Articles should not exceed 6,000 words (excluding tables, references, and captions) and should include no more than 15 tables or figure plots.

Letter to the Editor

Letters to the Editor are brief, constructive commentaries that can be submitted in response to a recently published article in the journal.

 

MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION

All manuscripts must be submitted via the journal’s online submission system, ScholarOne: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ijae.The original or revised manuscript text may be uploaded as a PDF or Microsoft Word file, but a Word file is required for the final manuscript text. Figures may be submitted separately in several other formats.

MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION

Style

Authors must adhere to the guidelines and layout as described in the template file. Manuscripts should be prepared in Microsoft Word or other appropriate software.

English standards

Manuscripts should be written in clear, grammatically correct English. Authors whose native language is not English are strongly encouraged to have their manuscript checked by a native English speaker or by an editing service prior to submission. If a manuscript is not clear due to poor English, it may be rejected without undergoing peer review.

Format

Each article type should have the following main sections: Introduction, main body (with sections as determined by the authors), Conclusion, References. Subheadings may be used for each section. For full details, please see the template.

The first page of each manuscript should contain: Title, Subtitle (if required), Authors’ full names, Affiliations, Key words, Received date (left blank) and Abstract. The affiliations should contain the name and full address (including telephone number, facsimile number, and e-mail address) of the corresponding author.

Title

The title should describe the content of the article briefly but clearly and is important for search purposes by third-party services. Do not use abbreviations in the title, except those used generally in related fields.

An effective title:

  • conveys the main topics of the study
  • highlights the importance of the research
  • is concise
  • attracts readers

Authors

Provide the full names, with initials, of the author(s). Use a superscript footnote number with a right parenthesis to indicate each author’s place of employment. See details for affiliations above.

Keywords

Keywords must be chosen carefully. They should represent the content of your manuscript and be specific to your field or sub-field. A maximum of six keywords should be provided.

Units and Abbreviations

International System of Units (SI) should be used. Each abbreviation should be defined in parentheses together with its non-abbreviated term when it first appears in the text (except in the Title and Abstract).

Abstract

The Abstract should clearly express the basic content of the paper in a single paragraph and should include the problem addressed, experimental approach, main results and findings, and conclusions. Abstracts must not exceed 250 words for all manuscript types. Avoid using specific abbreviations.For Letter to the Editor, no abstract is required.

Introduction

The Introduction should provide sufficient background information to allow the reader to understand the purpose of the investigation and its relationship with other research in related fields, although it should not include an extensive review of the literature.

Conclusion

The Conclusion should be concise and should deal with the interpretation of the results. Novel models or hypotheses may be proposed in this section only if they are suggested by the results obtained in the experiments. Do not repeat the description of the experimental results in this section.

Acknowledgments

This section should be brief. Authors should list all funding sources for their work in the Acknowledgements section.

References

References must be complete and checked at the source. In the main text, cite references in numerical order by order of citation, using superscript round brackets e.g. (1), (2, 3) , (4-7) etc. In the References section, list the surnames and initials of all authors in the author list. If available, all online publications should include the Digital Object Identifier (DOI). For articles with 1 to 6 authors, list all authors. For articles with more than 6 authors, list the first 6 authors then add ‘et al.’

Examples of reference types and how to format them are as follows:

  • Scholarly journal article

Ewphun, P-P., Otake, M., Nagasawa, T., Kosaka, H., and Sato, S., Investigation on  Effect of Offset Orifice Nozzle under Multi Pulse Ultrahigh Pressure Injection and PPC Combustion Conditions, International Journal of Automotive Engineering 11(1), p. 1-8, 2020, doi:https://doi.org/10.20485/jsaeijae.11.1_1

  • Conference paper

Imaoka, Y., Hashizume, Y., Inoue, T., Shiraishi, T., A Study of Particulate Emission Formation Mechanism from Injector Tip in Direct-injection Gasoline Engines, JSAE/SAE 2019 International Powertrains, Fuels & Lubricants Meeting, JSAE 20199053, Kyoto, Japan, Aug. 26-29, 2019.

  • Book

Frenkel, D., Smit, B., Understanding Molecular Simulation: From Algorithms to Applications. 2nd ed., Academic Press, p. 664, 2002.

  • Website reference

International Organization for Standardization, Developing standards, https://www.iso.org/developing-standards.html, accessed May 10, 2020.

Figures and Tables

Characters in figures and tables should be clear enough to be read when figures or tables are reduced in the final production version. Number each figure and table consecutively using Arabic numerals.

Captions for figures (which includes graphs, photographs and other illustrations) must be placed below the figure in the style of “Fig. 1”. Captions for tables must be placed above the table as in the style “Table 1”.

Supplementary material

Supplementary material adds, but is not essential, to a reader’s understanding of a manuscript. Authors are encouraged to submit supplementary material for online-only publication. Supplementary material may comprise data, text, audio or movie files, and is published online alongside the accepted manuscript.

As supplementary material is peer-reviewed, authors must submit it in its final form as part of their manuscript submission. After a manuscript has been accepted for publication, authors may not make any changes to the supplementary material.

 

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPTS

Manuscripts that are accepted for publication are copyedited and typeset by the journal’s production team before publication. The journal is published 4 times per year / continuously online. All communication regarding accepted manuscripts is with the corresponding author.

Proofs

Page proofs are sent to the corresponding author, who should check and return them within 48 hours. Only essential corrections to typesetting errors or omissions are accepted; excessive changes are not permitted at the proofing stage.

Reprints

Order forms for reprints are sent with the proofs to the corresponding author and should be returned with the proofs. The corresponding author will be sent a PDF of the paper on publication.

FEES

Article Processing Charges

There are many costs associated with publishing scholarly journals, such as those of managing peer review, copy editing, typesetting and online hosting. To cover these costs in the absence of journal subscriptions, authors (or their representatives) are asked to pay article processing charges (APCs).

If one or more authors are members of the JSAE or FISITA, the APC is 33,000 yen (incl. tax). If no authors are members of JSAE or FISITA, the APC is 44,000 yen (incl. tax). There is no submission fee.

Presentation at a JSAE Congress

Papers published in the IJAE within the past year counting from the scheduled release date of the Proceedings may be presented at a JSAE Congress. However, IJAE papers based on papers published in the proceedings of a past JSAE Congress or related conference cannot be presented.

Proceeding Materials

It is not necessary to submit the proceeding materials or summarized paper when the paper published in the IJAE is presented at a JSAE Congress.

Presenting a Paper under IJAE Review at a JSAE Congress

Papers under review for the IJAE can be used for applying to present a lecture at a JSAE Congress. This is contingent on the paper being accepted or rejected by the IJAE by the deadline for the proceeding materials. If the paper is rejected by the IJAE, an application to make a lecture using the content of the paper can be submitted using materials modified to conform to the format for the JSAE Congress.

Notes on Applying to Make a Lecture at a JSAE Congress for a Paper under Review

The IJAE review takes about two to six months.
The guideline to complete the IJAE review and publication by the deadline for the proceeding materials are a submission by late September of the previous year for the Spring Congress, or by mid-February of the same year for the Autumn Congress.

For Speakers at a JSAE Congress

The contents of lectures made at a JSAE Congress may be submitted to the IJAE.

Proceeding Materials

There is a two page limit on the proceeding materials for authors considering making a submission to the IJAE after a JSAE Congress.

Notes on Submissions to the IJAE

The conditions below must be respected to avoid duplicate submissions when the contents introduced at a JSAE Congress are submitted to the IJAE.

1) Reorganize the material to avoid a high degree of similarity with the Proceedings.
2) Use a different title and abstract than those of the Proceedings for the submitted paper.
3) Add new data and observations.
4) Include the Proceedings in the references of the submitted paper, and clearly describe how it differs from the Proceedings within the body of the paper.

IJAE Paper Submission Recommendation

There is a system for recommending the submission of a paper to the IJAE to authors. There is no publication fee for papers submitted via a recommendation.

 

 

CONTACT

The Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan
PR,IT system, & DP Divison
10-2 Gobancho, Chiyoda-KU, Tokyo, 102-0076 Japan
E-mail: ijae[at]jsae.or.jp   Fax: +81-3-3261-2204