About the Journal of Engineering and Sustainable Development

The Journal of Engineering and Sustainable Development is a scientific peer reviewed open access journal published by the College of Engineering/ Mustansiriyah University, under the auspices of the Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research.

The first edition of the Journal was published in 1997 under the title (Journal of Engineering and Development) and aims at publishing engineering research for the purposes of scientific innovation and enrich the scientific area at presenting ideas and results of investigations of researchers in different engineering disciplines. The journal publishes one volume each year. Each volume contains 6 issues, one issue every two months. Each issue includes nearly 15 articles in either language Arabic or English.

The Journal of Engineering and Sustainable Development is an open access journal that all contents are free of charge. Articles of this journal are licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution International Public License CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode) that licensees are unrestrictlyallowed to search, download, share, distribute, print, or link to the full texts of the articles, crawl them for indexing and reproduce any medium of the articles provided that they give the author(s) proper credits (citation). The journal allows the author(s) to retain the copyright of their published article.

A DOI is guaranteed by no means to change, so it can be used as a permanent link to any electronic article. Our journal DOI prefix account is 10.31272.

The title of the journal was changed from the Journal of Engineering and Development to the Journal of Engineering and Sustainable Development in March 2016.

Structural Engineering

Geotechnical Engineering

Engineering Management

Materials Engineering

Transportation Engineering

Dam and Water Resources Engineering

Architectural Engineering and Urban Design

Energy and Power System

Electronics, Control, Signals and Systems

Computer and Software Engineering

Communication Engineering

Renewable Energy Systems

Environmental Engineering

General Engineering

The Journal of Engineering and Sustainable Development is published bimonthly (6 issues per year), and the issues appearing on the beginning of each other month. 

Administrative Structure
   1. Editor-in-Chief is an academic staff member of the College of Engineering/ Mustansiriyah University.
   2. Editorial Board: Faculty academic members of high academic titles in different specific scientific areas that covered by the journal. 
   3. Editorial Manager: is an experienced academic staff member.

Article Processing Charge (APC) 

As an Open Access journal, submitting an article in this journal requires an Article Processing Charge (APC) The submission fees for national researchers of professor academic title are 100000 Iraqi dinars, 75000 Iraqi dinars for assistant professor or below titles, and 30000 Iraqi dinars for the graduate (or undergraduate) student where the student is the first author of the manuscript.  The international researchers are exempted from the submission fees (125 USD) for one year beginning from 22 September 2019 according to the decision made by the college board (the publisher) in its first meeting of the academic year 2019-2020. 

 

Reviewing Process

The journal initially runs  double-blind review process (that both the reviewer and author identities are concealed from the reviewers, and vice versa, throughout the review process). All contributions will be evaluated by the editor for suitability for the journal from the originality, written language and the essential scientific content. After passing this stage, three expert reviewers chosen by the editorial board will receive the manuscript. The selection of reviewer is depending mainly on the specific area of the research. A period of one week is given to the reviewers to decide whether they accept or decline the invitation, and a period up to one month is given to the reviewer to complete the review. In case the editor receives no response, the reviewer will be replaced. The acceptance of any research for publication requires at least two final acceptance out of three decisions. The Editor is responsible for the final decision regarding acceptance or rejection of articles. The Editor's decision is final.

The detailed peer review process of JEASD can be viewd in the link peer review process. 

Publishing Process

When the research is accepted by the editor, the corresponding author will be provided with the amendments, corrections and annotations asked by the reviewers. The corresponding author should utilize this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the text, tables and figures. Significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission from the Editor. A final revised version, according to the template form must be uploaded to the journal website within one month of receiving the remarks of the reviewers in order to pass the revised version to the copyeditor. It is important to ensure that all corrections are sent back to the editor in one communication. Subsequently, the official letter of acceptance will be issued. A delivered printed page is given to the researcher included instructions of research publication carried out in the journal and the contexts that must be observed when printing.

 The Journal is funded by

    A- Review and publication fees are paid by researchers.
    B- A subsidy is received from the College of Engineering/ Mustansiriyah University.

Publication Ethics

PUBLICATION ETHICS AND PUBLICATION MALPRACTICE STATEMENT

The ethical policy of JEASD is based on the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines and complies with JEASD Editorial Board codes of conduct. Readers, authors, reviewers and editors should follow these ethical policies once working with JEASD. The ethical policy of JEASD is liable to determine which of the typical research papers or articles submitted to the journal should be published in the concerned issue. 

Duties and Responsibilities of Publishers

1. JEASD is committing to ensure that editorial decisions on manuscript submissions are the final.
2. JEASD is promising to ensure that the decision on manuscript submissions is only made based on professional judgment and will not be affected by any commercial interests.
3. JEASD is committing to maintain the integrity of academic and research records.
4. JEASD is monitoring the ethics by Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editor, Editorial Board Members, Reviewers, Authors, and Readers.
5. JEASD is always checking the plagiarism and fraudulent data issues involving in the submitted manuscript.
6. JEASD is always willing to publish corrections, clarifications and retractions involving its publications as and when needed.

Duties and Responsibilities of Editors

1. The Editors of the journal should have the full authority to reject/accept a manuscript.
2. The Editors of the journal should maintain the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts under review or until they are published.
3. The Editor-in-Chief should take a decision on submitted manuscripts, whether to be published or not with other editors and reviewers
4. The Editors of the journal should preserve the anonymity of reviewers.
5. The Editors of the journal should disclose and try to avoid any conflict of interest.
6. The Editors of the journal should maintain academic integrity and strive to meet the needs of readers and authors.
7. 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.
8. The Editors of the journal should have the limit themselves only to the scientific content.
9. 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.
10. 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.

Duties and Responsibilities of Reviewers

1. The Reviewers of the journal should assist the Editors in taking the decision for publishing the submitted manuscripts.
2. The Reviewers should maintain the confidentiality of manuscripts, which they are invited to review.
3. The Reviewers should provide comments in time that will help editors to make decision on the submitted manuscript to be published or not.
4. 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. 
5. The Reviewers comments against each invited manuscript should be technical, professional and objective.
6. The Reviewers should not review the manuscripts in which they have found conflicts of interest with any of the authors, companies, or institutions.
7. The Reviewers should disclose and try to avoid any conflict of interest.

Duties and Responsibilities of Authors

1. Manuscripts must be submitted only in English (accept manuscripts in the area of architectural engineering) and should be written in rigorous grammar and proper terminology.
2. Manuscripts must be submitted with the understanding that they have not been published elsewhere, and are not currently under consideration by another journal published by or any other publisher.
3. The submitting corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that the manuscript article's publication has been approved by all the other coauthors.
4. In order to sustain the peer review system, authors have an obligation to participate in peer review process to evaluate manuscripts from others. 
5. It is also the authors' responsibility to ensure that the manuscripts emanating from a particular institution are submitted with the approval of the necessary institution.
6. It is a condition for submission of a manuscript that the authors permit editing of the paper for readability.
7. Authors are requested to clearly identify who provided financial support for the conduct of research and/or preparation of the manuscript and briefly describe the role of the founder/ sponsor in any part of the work.
8. A copy right release form must be signed by the corresponding author in case of multiple authorship, prior to the acceptation of the manuscript, by all authors, for publication to be legally responsible towards the Journal ethics and privacy policy.
9. Under open access license, authors retain ownership of the copyright for their content, but allow anyone to download, reuse, reprint, modify, distribute, and/or copy the content as long as the original authors and source are cited properly.
10. 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.
11. When author(s) discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher to retract or correct the manuscript. 
12. All authors must know that the submitted manuscripts under review or published with JEASD are subject to screening using Plagiarism Prevention Software. Plagiarism is a serious violation of publication ethics. 
13. All authors must ensure that all authors have read the submission final checklist before being submitted to the JEASD.

 

Principles of Transparency

1. Peer review process: JEASD is a double-blind peer reviewed electronic and print bimonthly (6 issues per year) publication concerned with all aspects of engineering topics. This process, as well as any policies related to the journal’s peer review procedures, is clearly described on the journal’s Web site:

http://jeasd.uomustansiriyah.edu.iq/index.php/jeasd/about

1. Governing Body: JEASD has a 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 is provided on the journal’s Web site http://jeasd.uomustansiriyah.edu.iq/index.php/jeasd/about/editorialTeam

 

1.  Contact information: Journal is provided the contact information for the editorial office of JEASD http://jeasd.uomustansiriyah.edu.iq/index.php/jeasd/about/contact

 

1. Author fees / Access: The Journal database is fully open access and full text of published articles are available for everyone who can get access to the Journal website free of cost. Besides, the authors should pay article processing fee which is given in the following link

http://jeasd.uomustansiriyah.edu.iq/index.php/jeasd/announcement

1. Copyright: Journals made clear the type of copyright under which authors work will be published.  Upon acceptance of manuscript, authors will be asked to complete a "Journal Publishing Agreement".
2. 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.
3. Web site: A journal’s Web site http://jeasd.uomustansiriyah.edu.iq contains that care has been taken to ensure high ethical and professional standards.
4. Name of journal: The Journal name of Iraqi Journal of Engineering and Sustainable Development (JEASD) has unique and not be one that is easily confused with another journal
5. Conflicts of interest: Authors are requested to evident whether impending conflicts do or do not exist while submitting their articles to JEASD through Conflict of Interest Disclosure form.
6. Publishing schedule: The periodicity at which a journal publishes is clearly indicated (http://jeasd.uomustansiriyah.edu.iq/index.php/jeasd/about).
7. Archiving: A journal’s plan for electronic backup and preservation of access to the journal content is clearly indicated (http://jeasd.uomustansiriyah.edu.iq/index.php/jeasd/about).

 

Violation of Publication Ethics

1. Plagiarism: Plagiarism is intentionally using someone else’s ideas or other original material as if they are one's own. Copying even one sentence from someone else’s manuscript, or even one of your own that has previously been published, without proper citation is considered by JEASD Journals as plagiarism. All manuscripts under review or published with JEASD are subject to screening using plagiarism prevention software. Thus, plagiarism is a serious violation of publication ethics. The development of CrossCheck is a service that helps editors to verify the originality of papers. CrossCheck is powered by the Turnitin software.
2. Data Fabrication and Falsification: Data fabrication and falsification means the researcher did not really carry out the study, but made up data or results and had recorded or reported the fabricated information. Data falsification means the researcher did the experiment, but manipulated, changed, or omitted data or results from the research findings.
3. Simultaneous Submission: Simultaneous submission occurs when a manuscript (or substantial sections from a manuscript) is submitted to a journal when it is already under consideration by another journal.
4. Duplicate Publication: Duplicate publication occurs when two or more papers, without full cross referencing, share essentially the same hypotheses, data, discussion points, and conclusions.
5. Redundant Publications: Redundant publications involve the inappropriate division of study outcomes into several articles, most often consequent to the desire to plump academic vitae.
6. Improper Author Contribution or Attribution: All listed authors must have made a significant scientific contribution to the research in the manuscript and approved all its claims. Don’t forget to list everyone who made a significant scientific contribution, including students and laboratory technicians.
7. 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.
8. Sanctions: In the event that there are documented violations of any of the above mentioned policies in any journal, regardless of whether or not the violations occurred in a journal, the following sanctions will be applied: (i) Immediate rejection of the infringing manuscript, (ii)Immediate rejection of every other manuscript submitted to any journal published by any of the authors of the infringing manuscript, (iii) Prohibition will be imposed for a minimum of 36 months against all of the authors for any new submissions to any journal, either individually or in combination with other authors of the infringing manuscript, and (iv) Prohibition against all of the authors from serving on the Editorial Board of any journal.

Handling Cases of Misconduct

Once JEASD confirms a violation against JEASD’s publication ethics, JEASD addresses ethical concerns carefully following an issue-specific standard practice as summarized below.

1. The first action of the journal Editor is to inform the Editorial Office of JEASD by supplying copies of the relevant material and a draft letter to the corresponding author asking for an explanation in a nonjudgmental manner.
2. If the author’s explanation is unacceptable and it seems that serious unethical conduct has taken place, the matter is referred to the Publication Committee via Editorial Office.  After deliberation, the Committee will decide whether the case is sufficiently serious to warrant a ban on future submissions. 
3. If the infraction is less severe, the Editor, upon the advice of the Publication Committee, sends the author a letter of reprimand and reminds the author of JEASD publication policies; if the manuscript has been published, the Editor may request the author to publish an apology in the journal to correct the record.
4. Notification will be sent to corresponding author and any work by the author responsible for the violation or any work these persons coauthored that is under review by JEASD journal will be rejected immediately.
5. The authors are prohibited from serving on JEASD editorial board and serving as a reviewer for JEASD Journal. JEASD reserves the right to take more actions.
6. In extreme cases, notifications will be sent to the affiliations of the authors and the authors are prohibited from submitting their work to JEASD for 5 years.
7. In serious cases of fraud that result in retraction of the article, a retraction notice will be published in the journal and will be linked to the article in the online version. The online version will also be marked “retracted” with the retraction date.