Instruction to Authors
Author Guidelines
Language
Manuscripts should be written in lucid and good English using correct diction, syntax and grammar, authors can use American or British language styles according to their convenience, but not a mixture of this two in one article. Any manuscript that does not meet a level of English proficiency consists with English-language journals will be rejected.
Submission Declaration and Verification
AJEC publishes original works, reviews and short communications. And submission of an article to AJEC infers that the work depicted in the article has not been published previously in any journal, the article is not under consideration for publication elsewhere and the work must be approved by all authors implicitly or evidently by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out. Acceptance of manuscripts also implies that the present work will not be published elsewhere in the same form or in any other languages, including electronically without the written agreement from the copyright-holder. The publisher will not be held legally responsible should there be any claims for compensation.
Submission Process
Articles should be submitted via the submission platform of the journal ("Submit Your Article Button") or directly via submit.aject@wu.edu.et as per the guidelines for authors.
Terms of Submission and Acceptances
Manuscripts must be submitted that they have not been published elsewhere and are only being considered by this journal. The author/s should exclusively approve to submit the article on this journal. It is also the submitting author’s responsibility to ensure that the article has all necessary institutional approvals. Only an acknowledgment from the editorial office officially establishes the date of receipt. Further correspondence and proofs will be sent to the author(s) before publication, unless otherwise indicated. It is a condition of submission that the authors permit editing of the manuscript for readability. Acceptance of manuscripts also implies that the present work will not be published elsewhere in the same form or in any other languages, including electronically without the written agreement from the copyrightholder. Authors wishing to include figures, tables, or text passages that have already been published elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) for both the print and online format and to include evidence that such permission has been granted when submitting their papers. Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors. All inquiries concerning the publication of accepted manuscripts should be addressed to editor.aject@wu.edu.et. All submissions are bound by the AJECT’s terms of service.
Peer Review Statement
All original research articles, review articles and short communications, published after a double anonymous peer review process by independent editors and reviewers related to the article. All the peer-review and submission process will be done through the online submission system using the official e mail address of the journal: editor.aject@wu.edu.et
Article types
The journal will consider manuscripts for the following article types:
Original Articles
Original Research Articles are full length papers describing a comprehensive investigation on a particular issue and should present the detail results of original research studies. These manuscripts should describe how the research projects were conducted and provide detail discussion of research method; results and discussions Word count of the whole manuscript of original research articles should be between 20006000 words. Word count of the whole manuscript should between 2000-6000. No limits are placed on the number of figures, while authors are requested to use an appropriate number of figures.
The main text should be divided into: Abstract, keywords, Introduction, Material and Methods, Results and Discussion, Acknowledgement, and References.
Review Articles
Review Articles are full length papers describing the status of high interest engineering and computing technology fields, providing both an introduction to the new reader, and insight for the experienced researcher in particular issue. The review article should cover state of the art findings on a particular topic. Reviews articles should be between 3000-7000 words. No limits are placed on the number of figures, although authors are requested to use an appropriate number of figures.
Formatting and Use of Word Processing Software
Use of Word Processing Software
Please save the article file in the default format of the word processor platform (Microsoft Word), keep the text in a single-column format and maintain the layout of the text as simple as possible. Processing the article involves the removal of the formatting codes, don’t hyphenate words or justify text through word processing platform. However, keep using bold face, italics, subscripts, superscripts etc. at necessary fields. Use tab stops or other commands for indents not the space bar. Use the table function, not spread sheets, to make tables. During the preparation of the tables, if you are using a table grid, use one grid for each individual table and not a grid for each row. Preparation of the electronic text should be just very similar to that of preparation of conventional manuscript. Use ‘spell- check’ and ‘grammar-
check’ functions provided in your word processing platforms to avoid unnecessary errors. Use the automatic page numbering function to number the pages. Apply line numbering throughout the text. Use the equation editor or Math Type for equations applies line numbering throughout the text.
Form
The manuscript should be typed (12 point font, Times New Roman), 1.5 spaced (including abstract and references) on A4 size white paper with 1 inch margins. The title page along with author names, their affiliation, abstract and keywords should appear in the first page and nowhere else in the manuscript. Use italics for emphasis.
Footnotes
Footnotes can be used to give additional information, which may include the citation of a reference included in the reference list. They should not consist solely of a reference citation, and they should never include the bibliographic details of a reference. They should also not contain any figures or tables. Footnotes to the text are numbered consecutively; those to tables should be indicated by superscript lower-case letters (or asterisks for significance values and other statistical data). Footnotes to the title or the authors of the article are not given reference symbols. Always use footnotes instead of endnotes.
Title and Authorship Information
The following information should be included in the article:
✓ A concise and informative title
✓ The full name (s) of the author(s)
✓ The affiliation(s) and address(s) of the author(s)
✓ The e-mail address, and telephone number(s) of the corresponding authors
✓ If available, the 16-digit ORCID of the author(s)
Article Structure
Manuscripts should be structured clearly with specific defined sections.
Abstract
The manuscript should contain an abstract. The abstract should be self-contained, citation- free, and should not exceed 250 words.The abstract should state briefly introducing the importance of the work, the purpose of the study, the method , the main results and major conclusions. An abstract is often presented separately from the article. Moreover, nonstandard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined at their first mention in the abstract itself.
Introduction
The introduction section should be laconic, with no subheadings. In this part, the authors need to state the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the findings.
Materials and Methods
The materials and methods section should provide enough details for others to be able to replicate the study. If you have more than one method, use subsections with relevant headings, e.g. laboratory procedures, different modelling and simulations, statistics, materials and reagents, etc. The Methods which are already published elsewhere can be used as it is or with modification in the article provided that there is proper acknowledged. AJEChas no space restriction on methods. Detailed descriptions of the methods (including protocols or project descriptions) and algorithms may also be uploaded as supplementary information or previously published articles that give more details may be cited.
Results and Discussion
AJEC uses a combined Results and Discussion section. In this section the results (experimental or others) of the study should be described concisely and precisely and interpreted appropriately followed by discussions to show the significance of the results of the study without repetitions and redundant. Here, proper citations (not very extensive) and correlation of the present result with published literature is very important. The idea flows in this combined section is dependent on the nature of the research. Moreover, the results and their implications should be discussed in the broadest context possible and limitations of the work should be highlighted. Future research directions may also be mentioned. Hence, authors have to think over their writing flow. Just present your results in different mechanisms (figures, tables, drawings and etc.) and your discussion after each result.
Conclusions
The main conclusions of the study should be presented in a short conclusions section, which could stand alone and written in a short and precise ways.
Essential Title Page Information
Title: Title of the manuscript should be concise and informative. Avoid usage of any kind of abbreviations and formulae where possible.
Author Names and Affiliations: Corresponding author is one who will handle correspondence at all stages of publication and after publication process. He/she should use valid email address and he should make ensure that he is using the same email address throughout the publication process. Otherwise, he must provide a valid reason for changing his email address, if any. He/she also should clearly specify and endorse the accurate spelling of all authors’ full names: first, middle and last name(s). Precise authors' affiliation, details of the addresses, should be provided by corresponding author just below the all names. In addition to this, provide the full postal address of each affiliation and the e-mail address of each author. Indications such as a, b, c needs to be used to denote the different organizations if authors belong to different organization. Author should provide the affiliation or address details where the actual work was done.
Keywords
Just after the abstract, please provide a maximum of five keywords. In writing keywords, avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, 'and', 'of'). Be careful with abbreviations: only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be eligible. These keywords will be used for indexing purposes and helps to display the paper to interested readers.
Abbreviations and Acronyms
Use appropriate and standard abbreviations and acronyms where and when required, regardless of how well known they are, always write a long name in full at very; First time you use them. Abbreviations and acronyms that are unavoidable must be defined at their first mention; First abbreviated term should be used in full with the abbreviation included in brackets. Ensure consistency of abbreviations and acronyms throughout the article. Abbreviations and acronyms should not be used in the title
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements of people, grant, funds etc. should be placed in a separate section on the title page at the end of the article before the references. List here those individuals who provided help during the research work (e.g., providing language help, writing assistance or proof reading the article, providing data, funding etc.). The names of funding organization and source of funder should be written in full.
Authors must acknowledge the financial funder organization by naming financially supporting organization(s) (written out in full) followed by associated grant number(s) in square brackets (if applicable), for example: “This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Innovation [grant numbers xxxx, yyyy]; the Ministry of Science and Higher Education [grant number rrr]; and etc.t”. If the research did not receive specific funding, but was performed as part of the employment of the authors, please name this employer organization. If the funder was involved in the manuscript writing, editing, approval, or decision to publish, please declare this.
Conflict of Interest
All authors should unveil sources of funding for the research project through which the investigations were carried out; all authors should also unveil financial or other conflict of interest that might be taking to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. Conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any institutions related to the papers of the authors, companies, or conflicts among authors; issues linked with employment, honorarium, patent applications or registrations, and grants or other funding that comes under conflicts of interest should be unveiled at the time of submission.
Units
In the modern metric system of measurement and scientific reporting use of international system of units (SI) is widely accepted. Hence the authors are advised to use only the SI units thought out the length on the article. Any departure from SI units should be discussed with your Acquisitions Editor. If ‘old’ units have to be used the SI equivalent should usually follow in parentheses.
Figures Preparation
In submission of articles to AJECT, authors should include all figures and tables in the in word format file of the manuscript. Figures and tables should be submitted in separate electronic files. If the article is accepted, authors will be asked to provide the source files of the figures. All figures should be cited in the manuscript in a consecutive order. Figures should be supplied in either vector art formats (Illustrator, EPS, WMF, Free-Hand, CorelDraw, PowerPoint, Excel, etc.) or bitmap formats (Photoshop, TIFF, GIF, JPEG, etc.). Bitmap images should be of 300 dpi resolution at least unless the resolution is intentionally set to a lower level for scientific reasons. If a bitmap image has labels, the image and labels should be embedded in separate layers.
Revisions
After receipt of the reviews, the authors should return their revised version of articles or papers to the editorial office within specified. Acceptance of Manuscript
Proofs
A galley proof in pdf format will be sent to corresponding author. If authors have any problem with using the PDF annotations function, they may contact editor in chief with reference ID number of the manuscript. Please use galley proof only for checking the typographical errors in editing, completeness and correctness of the text, tables and figures.
Reprints
The corresponding authors can download his electronic form of article without any charges from the official journal website.
Preparation of tables
Tables should be cited consecutively in the text. Every table must have a descriptive title and if numerical measurements are given, the units should be included in the column heading. Vertical rules should not be used. Tables should be numbered consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text. Be sparing in the use of tables and ensure that the data presented in them do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article and avoid using vertical rules and shading in table cells
References
Citation: It is mandatory that the citation of every reference in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Citation of a reference in the reference section as 'in press' implies that the item has been accepted for publication and same can be mentioned in the reference section. Unpublished results and personal communications are not recommended in the text as well as reference list. Web references and secondary references are not accepted. As it is obvious, any citation style is set up to give the reader immediate information about sources cited in the text. This journal follows the IEEE style. IEEE citation style includes in- text citations, numbered in square brackets, which refer to the full citation listed in the
reference list at the end of the paper. The reference list is organized numerically, not alphabetically.
The IEEE citation style has 3 main features:
✓ The author name is first name (or initial) and last.
✓ The title of an article (or chapter, conference paper, patent etc.) is in quotation marks.
✓ The title of the journal or book is in italics.
These conventions allow the reader to distinguish between types of reference at a glance. The correct placement of periods, commas and colons and of date and page numbers depends on the type of reference cited.
In-text citation: It is not necessary to mention an authors’ name, pages used, or date of publication in the in-text citation. Instead, refer to the source with a number in a square bracket that will then correspond to the full citation in your reference list.
In indicating the relevant reference in the text:
✓ A number enclosed in square brackets, e.g.[1] or [26], placed in the text of the essay, indicates the relevant reference
✓ Each reference number should be enclosed in square brackets on the same line as the text, before any punctuation, with a space before the bracket.
✓ Citations are numbered in the order in which they appear in the text and each citation corresponds to a numbered reference containing publication information about the source cited in the reference list at the end of the publication, essay or assignment.
✓ Once a source has been cited, the same number is used in all subsequent references.
✓ Each in-text citation stands alone. For example, when several citations are necessary, they would appear as follows: [1], [2], [5], [8] – [10].
Note that each is bracketed. Furthermore, the first three citations stand alone and are separated by a comma and space. The final citation denotes a range and end-dash (not a hyphen) is inserted between the brackets.
Citing authors more than once
When making references to the same author(s), it is not necessary to type the author’s name each time. You can just refer to the same bracketed numeral used in the first citation.
For example
First citation:
Smith and Jones found that a higher percentage of people contract viruses during winter [7].
Subsequent citation:
In [7], it was determined that using antibacterial soaps and wipes were not as effective in preventing illnesses as once suspected.
Note the format in the second example using only the citation numeral with “in” placed before it.
If your reference has three or more authors, you use “et al.” instead of listing all the names. For example, if the authors of the first citation were “Smith, Jones, and Jackson,” the citation would be as follows:
Smith et al. [7] found that a higher percentage of people contract viruses during winter [7].
References in General
The reference list corresponds to the numeric citations and is formatted sequentially, not alphabetically. There are three specific reference parts:
✓ Name of author(s): First initial or name followed by a comma and complete surname(s) or family name(s) or last name (as they appear on the actual publication).
✓ Title of article/printed/electronic work: In quotation marks.
✓ Title of publication: In italics.
The following formatting rules are important in IEEE styles:
✓ List references sequentially.
✓ Use citation numerals in brackets before each reference.
✓ Place numbered brackets flush left.
✓ Use single spaces within references and double spaces between them.
✓ Indent the reference text.
General Form
A.A Author of article. "Title of article," Title of Journal, vol. #, no. #, pp. page number/s, Month year.
Article in Journal
Examples:
G. Pevere. “Infrared Nation.” The International Journal of Infrared Design, vol. 33, pp. 5699, Jan. 1979.
A. Madan, P. Yashar, M. Shinn, and S. A. Barnett, "An X-ray diffraction study of epitaxial TiN/NbN superlattices," Thin Solid Films, vol. 302, pp. 147-154, June 1997.
E. P. Wigner,"Theory of traveling wave optical laser," Phys. Rev., vol. 134, pp. A635-A646, Dec. 1965. J. U. Duncombe, "Infrared navigation - Part I: An assessment of feasability," IEEE Trans. Electron. Devices, vol. ED-11, pp. 34-39, Jan. 1959.
Article in Electronic Journal
(Journal Article from the Internet)
P. H. C. Eilers and J. J. Goeman, "Enhancing scatterplots with smoothed densities,"
Bioinformatics, vol. 20, no. 5, pp. 623-628, March 2004. [Online]. Available:
www.oxfordjournals.org. [Accessed Sept. 18, 2004].
(Journal Article from a Full Text Database)
H. Ayasso and A. Mohammad-Djafari, "Joint NDT Image Restoration and Segmentation Using Gauss–Markov–Potts Prior Models and Variational Bayesian Computation," IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, vol. 19, no. 9, pp. 2265-77, 2010. [Online]. Available: IEEE Xplore, http://www.ieee.org [Accessed Sept. 10, 2010].
(Journal Article in Print: Abbreviated titles)
G. Liu, K. Y. Lee, and H. F. Jordan, "TDM and TWDM de Bruijn networks and shufflenets for optical communications," IEEE Trans. Comp., vol. 46, pp. 695-701, June 1997.
(Journal Article in Print: Full titles)
J. R. Beveridge and E. M. Riseman, "How easy is matching 2D line models using local search?" IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, vol. 19, pp. 564579, June 1997.
Book: Single Author
W.K.Chen, Linear Networks and Systems. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1993, pp. 123-135
Book: Two or More Authors
U. J.Gelinas, Jr., S. G. Sutton, and J. Fedorowicz, Business Processes and Information Technology. Cincinnati: South-Western/Thomson Learning, 2004.
E-book
L. Bass, P. Clements, and R. Kazman, Software Architecture in Practice, 2nd ed. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley, 2003. [Online] Available: Safari e-book.
Chapter from an E-book
D. Kawecki, "Fuel preparation," in Combustion Engineering Issues for Solid Fuel Systems, B.G. Miller and D.A. Tillman, Eds. Boston, MA: Academic Press, 2008, 199240. [Online] Available: Referex.
Editors’ roles and responsibilities
Editors at AJEC consider the scope and quality of each submitted manuscript and make a recommendation based on comment from peer reviewers. Editorial Boards are collectively responsible for ensuring that AJEC publishes high-quality researches that fall within its scope and objectives.
Handling manuscripts
One of an Editor’s most important tasks is to decide whether or not a manuscript should be published in the journal. This guide explains the steps involved in the decision-making process and provides help. Manuscripts are handled using AJECTS’s online system. Editors receive an e-mail when they are invited to handle a new manuscript.
Receiving a manuscript
Our team assign manuscripts based on an Editor’s field of study and current workload. Editors should be comfortable with the topic of the manuscript, but an in-depth understanding is not essential. It is the role of the peer reviewers to assess the technical details. However, if an Editor finds that a manuscript is too far from their area of expertise, they should decline to handle the manuscript. Even if we select our editors carefully, if an editor suspects a conflict of interest (e.g., they work in the same institution as one of the authors or are working on a competitive project), they should decline to handle the manuscript.
Conflicts of interest
As a member of a journal’s Editorial Board, you need to be very aware of the risk of conflictswhen handling a manuscript.
Firstly, you should judge your own potential conflicts. If you have recently co-authored with the author(s) of the manuscript, you could be perceived to be influenced by your relationship. Similarly, if you have recently shared an affiliation or employment history with the author(s), it could also be seen to be inappropriate for you to handle their work. AJEC aims to avoid assigning papers to Editors who might have conflicts, but we also anticipate our Editors to declare any conflicts. If you believe a conflict exists, you should refuse to handle the manuscript.
As a subject expert, the journal relies on your knowledge of the discipline to assess any conflicts declared by a submitting author. Editors are also uniquely placed to be able to identify any undeclared conflicts that an author might have. Editors should think about these factors when making a recommendation on the manuscript.
Editors should also consider potential conflicts when assigning the manuscript to reviewers. AJEC performs conflict of interest checks on all reviewers before they receive the manuscript for review, but they should also rely on your knowledge of the sector to inform assignments you make. Typically, you should not select a referee who:
✓ Works or has recently worked at the same institution as the author or authors; or
✓ Has recently co-authored a paper with the author or authors; or
✓ Has recent or current collaboration with the author or authors.
Publication ethics
Ethical standards for publication exist to ensure high-quality scientific publications, public trust in scientific findings, and that people receive credit for their work and ideas. The author, editor, peer reviewer and publisher are the four essential parties involved in the process of publishing. Peer-reviewed articles support and represent new and interesting works through scholars, referees and reviewers. It is therefore important to agree upon standards ethical behaviours from all the parties. Hence the Abyssinia Journal of Engineering and Computing (AJECT) follow Committee on Publication Ethics (CoPE) publishing ethics to maintain standard in the area of publishing ethics.
Initial evaluation
After the submission, AJEC follows double blinded peer review procedure. For more details, please refer peer review policy.
Manuscripts that successfully pass the previous phase are assigned to an Academic Editor who coordinates peer review process. This assignment is performed algorithmically according to their subject expertise, or personally by a senior Editorial Board Member. The Academic Editor performs an assessment of the manuscript before inviting a number of potential reviewers to provide a peer-review report for those they deem potentially publishable. Reviewers are asked to summarise the manuscript, give constructive analysis, and suggest whether the manuscript should be rejected, reconsidered after changes, or published.
Making a Decision
Having read and assessed the manuscript, each reviewer will provide a report along with one of the following recommendations:
❖ Reject
❖ Consider after Major Changes
❖ Consider after Minor Changes
❖ Publish Unaltered
If the Editor decides to “Reject,” the authors are sent any review reports that have been received and are notified that their manuscript will no longer be considered for publication in the journal.
If the Editor decides to “Consider after Major Changes,” the authors are notified to prepare and submit an updated version of their manuscript with the necessary changes suggested by the reviewers. This might require new data to be collected or substantial revision of the text. The manuscript is then re-evaluated by one or more of the original reviewers before the Editor make a new recommendation.
If the Editor decides to “Consider after Minor Changes,” the authors are notified to prepare and submit a final copy of their manuscript with the required minor changes suggested by the reviewers. Once the Editor is satisfied with the final manuscript, optionally having sought further advice from one or more of the reviewers, the Editor can recommend “Publish Unaltered”.
Confidentiality
All manuscripts should be kept completely confidential. Editors should not use any of its insights until after publication. AJEC operates a ‘double blind’ approach to peer review. Both the reviewers and authors not knew each other.
Article assessment
All manuscripts are subject to peer review and are expected to meet standards of academic excellence. Our Editorial Team will occasionally seek advice outside standard peer review, for example, on submissions with serious ethical, security, biosecurity, or societal implications. We may consult experts before deciding on appropriate actions, including but not limited to recruiting reviewers with specific expertise, assessment by additional editors, and declining to further consider a submission.
Plagiarism
Authors must not use the words, figures, or ideas of others without acknowledgment. All sources must be cited at the point they are used, and reuse of wording must be limited and be attributed or quoted in the text. AJEC uses our own software to detect submissions that overlap with published and submitted manuscripts. Manuscripts that are found to have been plagiarized from a manuscript by other authors, whether published or unpublished, will be rejected and the authors. Any published articles may need to be corrected or retracted.
Duplicate submission and redundant publication
AJEC considers only original content, i.e. articles that have not been previously published, including in a language other than English. Articles based on content previously made public only on a preprint server, institutional repository, or in a thesis will be considered.
Manuscripts submitted to AJEC must not be submitted elsewhere while under consideration and must be withdrawn before being submitted elsewhere. Authors whose articles are found to have been simultaneously submitted elsewhere will be rejected.
If authors have used their own previously published work, or work that is currently under review, as the basis for a submitted manuscript, they must cite the previous articles and indicate how their submitted manuscript differs from their previous work. Reuse of the authors’ own words outside the Methods should be attributed or quoted in the text. Reuse of the authors’ own figures or substantial amounts of wording may require permission from the copyright holder and the authors are responsible for obtaining this. AJEC will consider extended versions of articles published at conferences provided this is declared in the cover letter, the previous version is clearly cited and discussed, there is significant new content, and
the necessary permissions are obtained.
Redundant publication, the inappropriate division of study outcomes into more than one article, may result in rejection or a request to merge submitted manuscripts, and the correction of published articles. Duplicate publication of the same, or a very similar, article may result in the retraction of the later article and the authors may incur sanctions.
Citation manipulation
Authors whose submitted manuscripts which are found to include citations whose primary purpose is to increase the number of citations to a given author’s work, or to articles published in a particular journal, may incur sanctions. Editors and reviewers must not ask authors to include references merely to increase citations to their own or an associate’s work, to the journal, or to another journal they are associated with.
Fabrication and falsification
The authors of submitted manuscripts or published articles that are found to have fabricated or falsified the results, including the manipulation of images, may incur sanctions, and published articles may be retracted.
Changes to authorship
After acceptance and before publication: Any requests to add or remove an author, or to rearrange the sequence of author details, must be communicated to the Editor-in-Chief from the corresponding author of the accepted manuscript along with statement of a valid reason the name should be added or removed, or the author names rearranged and undersigned declaration in the form of scanned copy through e-mail or consent letter from all authors stating that they agree with the rearrangement, addition or removal. In the case of addition or removal of authors also insists on the confirmation from the author being added or removed.
Editor in chief suspends the publication of the accepted manuscript until the authorship issue (addition, rearrangement or deletion) is resolved.
After the publication: Any request from corresponding author to add, remove, or rearrange sequence of author names in an article already published in an online issue will follow erratum publication in the future issue of the publication.
Sanctions
If AJEC becomes aware of breaks of the journal publication policies, the following sanctions may be applied:
✓ Rejection of the manuscript submitted by the author(s).
✓ Not allowing submission for 1–2 years.
✓ Prohibition from acting as an editor or reviewer.
