Editorial Policies

The Journal is a follow of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) as well as the GPP3 guidelines regarding authorship.

Submission of a manuscript to the journal implies that all authors have read and agreed to its content and that the manuscript conforms to the journal’s policies.

The journal does not accept adverts from third parties.

Affiliations

Authors are required to provide all relevant affiliations to accurately acknowledge where the research was approved, supported, or conducted. For non-research articles, authors should list their current institutional affiliation. If an author has changed institutions before the article's publication, they must cite the affiliation where the work was carried out, while their current affiliation and contact details should be included in the acknowledgment section. A change in affiliation alone does not justify the removal of an author from a publication, provided they still meet the authorship criteria.

Appeals and complaints

We welcome genuine appeals to editorial decisions; however, they must be supported by compelling evidence or new data/information that directly addresses the editor’s and reviewers’ comments. Given that most of the journal’s scholarly articles are reviews and original research, appeals should be based on accurate scientific data.

For opinion-based scholarly articles, such as viewpoints and opinion pieces, an appeal is less likely to overturn an editorial decision, as these articles rely more on editorial judgment regarding readability and relevance. Nevertheless, all opinion-led articles should be evidence-based and properly referenced, clearly presenting the supporting evidence and explaining how it informed the author’s perspective.

Editors do not anticipate frequent appeals and rarely reverse their original decisions. If your manuscript is rejected, it is strongly recommended that you submit it to another journal. Editorial decisions are often based on considerations of priority and significance, which cannot typically be addressed through an appeal. However, if you believe your case warrants reconsideration, please follow the instructions below.

Acknowledgment

Individuals who have contributed to the article in ways that do not meet the criteria for authorship—such as general supervision, funding acquisition, study design, data collection, data analysis, technical support, formatting assistance, or scholarly discussions that significantly influenced the article’s development—should be acknowledged by name and affiliation in the ‘Acknowledgments’ section. It is the authors' responsibility to inform these individuals and obtain their consent before including them. This process should involve sharing the article to allow them to review and confirm the context of their contribution.

Additionally, any use of AI tools (e.g., large language models) or other technical tools that generate content must be explicitly acknowledged within the article. Authors bear full responsibility for ensuring the validity, originality, and integrity of their work. The use of such tools should be ethical, transparent, and aligned with the journal’s policies on authorship and publishing ethics.

Authorship

The inclusion of authors’ names in an article serves as a key mechanism for recognizing contributions and ensuring accountability for the integrity of the published work. To be listed as an author, individuals must meet all of the following criteria:

Have made a significant contribution to the study, whether in concept development, study design, execution, data collection, analysis, or interpretation.
Have been actively involved in drafting, substantially revising, or critically reviewing the manuscript.
Have agreed on the journal to which the manuscript is submitted.
Have reviewed and approved all versions of the manuscript—before submission, during revision, upon final acceptance, and after any significant modifications at the proofing stage.
Accept responsibility and accountability for the content and be willing to address any concerns regarding the accuracy or integrity of the published work.

Any changes to authorship, whether before or after publication, must be mutually agreed upon by all authors, including those being added or removed. The corresponding author is responsible for securing confirmation from all co-authors and providing a justification for the change. If an authorship modification is required after publication, it will be reflected through a post-publication notice. All requests for authorship changes must align with the journal’s authorship criteria, and significant alterations to the author list after acceptance may be declined if clear evidence of contributions is not provided.

Citations

Both research and non-research articles must cite relevant, up-to-date, and credible sources (preferably peer-reviewed, where applicable) to substantiate any claims made in the manuscript.

Authors should avoid excessive self-citation or coordinated citation practices among groups of authors, as these may constitute citation manipulation, a form of research misconduct. For further guidance, refer to the COPE guidelines on citation manipulation.

For non-research articles, such as Reviews or Opinion pieces, authors must ensure that the references cited are appropriate and offer a fair, balanced perspective on the current state of research. Citations should not exhibit bias toward a specific research group, institution, or journal.

If you are uncertain about whether a source should be cited, you are encouraged to consult the journal’s editorial office for guidance.

Conflicts of Interest/ Competing interests

All authors listed on a manuscript must disclose any competing interests that are relevant to the article or could be perceived as relevant. A competing interest arises when an author (or their employer, sponsor, family, or close associates) has a financial, commercial, legal, or professional connection with an organization or individuals that could influence the research or its interpretation.

Competing interests may be financial or non-financial. To ensure full transparency, any affiliations or relationships that could be perceived as a conflict of interest must be disclosed.

Examples of financial competing interests include (but are not limited to):

Employment (including voluntary roles)
Collaborations with advocacy groups related to the article’s content
Grants awarded to the author or their institution
Personal fees received as honoraria, royalties, consulting fees, lecture fees, or expert testimonies
Patents held or pending by the author, their institution, or a funding organization, regardless of whether royalties are received
Royalties paid to the author or their institution
Ownership of stocks or shares
Any benefits gained from product development as a result of the research

Examples of non-financial competing interests include (but are not limited to):

Receiving drugs, equipment, or access to data from an entity that could benefit financially or reputationally from the study’s findings
Holding a position on industry boards or private companies that may benefit from the published research
Writing assistance or administrative support from an individual or organization with a vested interest in the article’s conclusions
Personal, political, religious, ideological, academic, or intellectual conflicts of interest perceived to be relevant to the article
Involvement in legal proceedings related to the work

All authors must complete a competing interest declaration, which will be published in the Disclosure section at the end of the article. If an author is uncertain about whether a conflict should be disclosed, they should consult their institution or the journal’s Editor for guidance.

If there are no competing interests, the following statement will be included in the article:

"The authors declare that they have no competing interests."

Corrections, expressions of concern, and retractions

In some cases, modifications to a published article may be required after its release. Any such changes will be carefully evaluated by the Editor to ensure they align with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines.

All revisions will be accompanied by a post-publication notice, which will remain permanently linked to the original article. These notices may take the form of a Correction, an Expression of Concern, a Retraction, or, in rare cases, a Removal. This process ensures that all changes are permanent, transparent, and uphold the integrity of the scholarly record.

Consent for Publication

By submitting an article to the journal, authors automatically consent to its publication, unless explicitly stated otherwise and agreed upon with the journal.

The manuscript must include a statement confirming that written informed consent for publication has been obtained. Authors may use the journal’s consent form or an equivalent form from their institution or region, provided it meets the same requirements. The form must clearly state that any details or images included in the article will be publicly accessible online.

The Editor reserves the right to request and review the consent form, which will be handled confidentially.

Confidentiality

A submitted manuscript is considered confidential and will not be disclosed to anyone except those directly involved in its review and publication process. This includes editorial staff, corresponding authors, potential reviewers, assigned reviewers, and editors.

However, in cases where misconduct is suspected, the manuscript may be shared with ethics committees, institutions, or organizations responsible for investigating and resolving the issue. The journal adheres to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines and will follow the appropriate COPE flowcharts when necessary.

Copyright Policy

Who Can Submit?

Anyone may submit an original manuscript to be considered for publication in TJER provided he or she owns the copyright to the work being submitted or is authorized by the copyright owner or owners to submit the manuscript. Authors are the initial owners of the copyrights to their works before publication (an exception in the non-academic world to this might exist if the authors have, as a condition of employment, agreed to transfer copyright to their employer).

User Rights

TJER is an Open Access journal. Users have the right to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of articles under the following conditions: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Open Access Policy

Every peer-reviewed research article appearing in this journal will be published open access. This means that the article is universally and freely accessible via the internet in perpetuity, in an easily readable format immediately after publication. A CC user license manages the reuse of the article. All articles will be published under the following license: CC BY

This license allows readers to copy, distribute and transmit, to alter, transform or build upon the Contribution, and to use the article for commercial purposes as long as it is attributed back to the author and the source, i.e., the original author(s) and the source is given appropriate credit to.

Please read the full license for further details at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0.

Author Rights

The authors hereby transfer all copyright of the article to The Journal of Engineering Research. The publisher is granted exclusive rights for publishing and distribution.

Research Data Policy and Data Availability Guidelines for Authors

Research Data Policy

The Journal of Engineering Research encourages the sharing of research data to promote transparency, reproducibility, and the advancement of knowledge within the academic community. We recognize the importance of making data accessible to other researchers while respecting ethical and legal considerations. To this end, we have established the following guidelines for the inclusion of research data statements in submitted manuscripts:

Data Sharing Expectations:

Authors are encouraged to make their data available to the public whenever possible, except where privacy, confidentiality, or legal constraints apply. Data should be shared in a manner that allows verification of results and the reuse of data for further research.

Data Availability Statements

Authors are required to include a Data Availability Statement in their manuscripts. This statement should clearly outline where the data supporting the findings of the study can be accessed, or explain why the data cannot be shared. Below are examples of acceptable Data Availability Statements:

Data Available in a Public Repository:
The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available in the [NAME] repository, [PERSISTENT LINK TO DATASETS].
Data Available on Request:
The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
No Data Available:
No datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.

Desk rejection policy

The topic or scope of the study is not relevant to the journal’s field.
The manuscript violates publication ethics, fails to adhere to international standard guidelines, or contains plagiarism (defined as a similarity index exceeding 30%).
The topic lacks sufficient impact and does not contribute significantly to new knowledge in the field.
The study design contains fundamental flaws.
The objective of the study is unclear or inadequately stated.
The organization of the study is problematic, and/or essential components are missing.
The manuscript contains writing issues or significant grammatical inconsistencies.
The manuscript does not comply with submission guidelines of The Journal of Engineering Research.

Duplicate submission/publication

Authors must confirm upon submission that the manuscript is not under consideration elsewhere. Detecting a duplicate submission or publication is typically regarded as a deliberate violation of publication ethics, including cases where the article was previously published in another language.

For acceptable forms of secondary submission or publication—such as an article translated into English—authors must adhere to ICMJE guidelines. This requires obtaining permission from the publisher and copyright holder of the original article and informing the Editor of the receiving journal about the manuscript’s publication history. Additionally, it must be explicitly stated to readers that the article is a translated version, with a proper citation referencing the original publication.

Funding

Authors are required to disclose all sources of funding, including any financial support, within their manuscript. They must clearly describe the role of the sponsor(s), if applicable, at any stage of the research process—from study design to manuscript submission. If the sponsor(s) had no involvement, this should also be explicitly stated. Authors must ensure that all funding disclosures are accurate and comply with their funder’s requirements.

Images and figures

Authors should include images and figures in their articles only if they are relevant and add value to the research being presented. Purely illustrative content that does not contribute meaningfully to the scholarly work should be avoided.

As part of the Journal Author Publishing Agreement, authors must obtain written permission to use any third-party copyrighted material in their article. This includes—but is not limited to—proprietary text, illustrations, tables, data, audio, video, film stills, screenshots, musical notation, and any supplemental material. Authors are responsible for ensuring that all permissions are properly secured before submission.

Misconduct

The journal upholds the highest standards of academic integrity and takes all forms of misconduct seriously. In accordance with COPE guidelines, appropriate action will be taken to protect the integrity of the scholarly record.

Examples of Misconduct (including but not limited to):

Affiliation misrepresentation
Unauthorized use of third-party copyrighted material
Citation manipulation
Duplicate submission or publication
Ethics dumping (unethical research practices in lower-regulation regions)
Data or image manipulation/fabrication
Peer review manipulation
Plagiarism and self-plagiarism (text recycling)
Undisclosed competing interests
Unethical research practices

Specific Types of Misconduct

Duplicate Submission and Redundant Publication
Manuscripts that have been previously published or are under review elsewhere will face duplicate submission sanctions. If an author bases a new manuscript on their previously published work or a work under review, they must cite the original and clearly indicate the novel contributions of the new submission. Similarly, redundant publication (splitting study outcomes into multiple articles inappropriately) is not permitted.
Citation Manipulation
Citations should be included only if relevant to the research. Manuscripts that artificially increase citations to a particular author or journal will face citation manipulation sanctions.
Data Fabrication and Falsification
Manuscripts found to contain fabricated or falsified experimental data—including manipulated images—will be subject to data fabrication and falsification sanctions.
Improper Author Contribution or Attribution
All listed authors must have made a significant scientific contribution to the research and approved all its claims. Students, research assistants, and laboratory technicians who made substantial contributions must be properly acknowledged.
Image Manipulation
Deliberate image manipulation or fabrication designed to mislead is a serious form of misconduct with far-reaching consequences. The journal requires that all images be accurate and unaltered.
- Features in an image must not be enhanced, obscured, moved, removed, or introduced without proper disclosure.
- Brightness, contrast, and color balance adjustments are permitted only if they do not obscure or distort information.
- If images from different sections of gels, western blots, or microscope images are grouped, this must be explicitly stated in the figure or legend.
- If the original, unedited images cannot be provided upon request, the manuscript may be rejected or retracted.
The journal expects all authors to adhere to these ethical guidelines to maintain the credibility and integrity of the scientific record.