Ethics & policy
The Journal of Applied Engineering Science applies a double-blind peer-review system to all research manuscripts. Each manuscript is evaluated by at least two independent external reviewers with relevant expertise in the subject area. Reviewers are selected based on their academic qualifications, research experience, and knowledge of the specific field addressed by the manuscript. Reviewers must have no conflicts of interest that could compromise the objectivity of their evaluation. They must not be affiliated with the same institution as any of the authors or have been recent co-authors of the submitted manuscript. Reviewers are not informed of the authors' identities, and authors are not informed of the reviewers' identities. Suggestions of individual reviewers by authors are not accepted. Reviewers are expected to evaluate manuscripts objectively, provide clear and constructive comments, and maintain strict confidentiality throughout the review process. They must not use unpublished material or information obtained during peer review for personal or professional advantage. The reviewers provide recommendations to assist the Editorial Board in assessing the scientific quality, originality, relevance, and methodological soundness of submitted manuscripts. Their reports also aim to help authors improve the quality and clarity of their work. Reviewers provide recommendations, while the final editorial decision rests with the Editor-in-Chief.
All submitted manuscripts undergo an initial editorial screening to assess their compliance with the journal's submission requirements, relevance to the journal's aims and scope, originality, and basic scientific quality. Manuscripts that do not meet these requirements are rejected without being sent for external peer review. Manuscripts that pass the initial evaluation are sent to at least two independent external reviewers under the double-blind peer-review procedure. The review process is conducted through the SCIndeks Assistant (ASEESTANT) editorial management system, based on the Open Journal Systems (OJS) platform. Reviewers evaluate the scientific contribution, originality, relevance, methodology, presentation of results, and overall quality of the manuscript. Based on their assessments, reviewers provide recommendations to the Editorial Board. Possible recommendations include acceptance, acceptance subject to minor revisions, reconsideration after major revisions, or rejection. When revisions are requested, authors are required to address the reviewers' comments and submit a revised version of the manuscript within the specified deadline. Revised manuscripts may be returned to the original reviewers for further evaluation, where necessary. Under normal circumstances, the review process takes up to six weeks and, only in exceptional cases, up to three months. The average period from manuscript submission to publication is approximately 90 days. During the evaluation process, the Editor-in-Chief may request additional information or supporting materials from authors, including raw research data, where necessary for the proper assessment of the manuscript. All such materials are treated as confidential and used exclusively for editorial evaluation. The entire review process is conducted under the supervision of the Editor-in-Chief through the SCIndeks Assistant (ASEESTANT) platform. The system enables authors to monitor the status of their submissions and follow the progress of the editorial and review process.
In cases where reviewers provide substantially conflicting recommendations, the Editor-in-Chief evaluates the reviewers' reports and may invite an additional independent reviewer to provide an additional assessment. If authors raise serious and substantiated objections concerning the objectivity, accuracy, or academic validity of a review, the Editorial Board examines the objections and determines whether further evaluation is necessary. Where justified, the Editor-in-Chief may appoint an additional reviewer. The final decision on the acceptance, revision, or rejection of a manuscript rests solely with the Editor-in-Chief, taking into consideration the reviewers' reports, the scientific merit of the manuscript, its relevance to the journal's scope, and the journal's editorial policies.
Authors warrant that their manuscripts are their original works, that they have not been published before, and are not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Parallel submission of the same paper to another journal constitutes a misconduct and eliminates the manuscript from further consideration. The work that has already been published elsewhere cannot be reprinted in the Journal of Applied Engineering Science. Authors are exclusively responsible for the contents of their submissions. Authors affirm that the article contains no unfounded or unlawful statements and does not violate the rights of third parties. Authors must make sure that their author team listed in the manuscript includes all and only those authors who have significantly contributed to the submitted manuscript. If persons other than authors were involved in important aspects of the research project and the preparation of the manuscript, their contribution should be acknowledged in a footnote or the Acknowledgments section. It is the responsibility of the authors to specify the title and code label of the research project within which the work was created, as well as the full title of the funding institution. In case a submitted manuscript has been presented at a conference in the form of an oral presentation (under the same or similar title), detailed information about the conference shall be provided in the same place. Authors are required to properly cite sources that have significantly influenced their research and their manuscript. Parts of the manuscript, including text, equations, pictures and tables that are taken verbatim from other works must be clearly marked, e.g. by quotation marks accompanied by their location in the original document (page number), or, if more extensive, given in a separate paragraph. Full references of each quotation (in-text citation) must be listed in the separate section (Literature or References) in a uniform manner, according to the citation style used by the journal. References section should list only quoted/cited, and not all sources used for the preparation of a manuscript. When authors discover a significant error or inaccuracy in their own published work, it is their obligation to promptly notify the Editor-in-Chief (or publisher) and cooperate with him/her to retract or correct the paper. Authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might have influenced the presented results or their interpretation. By submitting a manuscript, the authors agree to abide by the Editorial Policies of Journal of Applied Engineering Science. All authors must approve the final version of the manuscript before submission and agree to its submission to the Journal of Applied Engineering Science. Authors are also expected to cooperate with the Editorial Board in investigating any concerns regarding the accuracy, integrity, or ethical conduct of their research.
The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for deciding which articles submitted to the journal will be published. The decisions are made based exclusively on the manuscript's merit. They must be free from any racial, gender, sexual, religious, ethnic, or political bias. When making decisions the Editor-in-Chief is also guided by the editorial policy and legal provisions relating to defamation, copyright infringement and plagiarism. Members of the Editorial Board including the Editor-in-Chief must hold no conflict of interest with regard to the articles they consider for publication. Members who feel they might be perceived as being involved in such a conflict do not participate in the decision process for a particular manuscript. The information and ideas presented in submitted manuscripts shall be kept confidential. Information and ideas contained in unpublished materials must not be used for personal gain without the written consent of the authors. Editors and the editorial staff shall take all reasonable measures to ensure that the authors/reviewers remain anonymous during and after the evaluation process in accordance with the type of reviewing in use. The Editorial Board is obliged to assist reviewers with additional information on the manuscript, including the results of checking manuscript for plagiarism. Editors are responsible for ensuring that all allegations of research misconduct, including plagiarism, data fabrication, falsification, and inappropriate authorship practices, are handled promptly, fairly, and confidentially. They must also ensure that complaints and appeals concerning editorial decisions are considered objectively and in accordance with the journal's editorial policies and applicable publication ethics guidelines.
Reviewers are required to provide the qualified and timely assessment of the scholarly merits of the manuscript. The reviewer takes special care of the real contribution and originality of the manuscript. The review must be fully objective. The judgment of the reviewers must be clear and substantiated by arguments. The reviewers assess manuscript for the compliance with the profile of the journal, the relevance of the investigated topic and applied methods, the scientific relevance of information presented in the manuscript, the presentation style and scholarly apparatus. The review has a standard format. The reviewer's opinion is delivered through the online journal management system, where it is deposited indefinitely. The reviewer must not be in a conflict of interest with the authors or funders of research. If such a conflict exists, the reviewer is obliged to promptly notify the Editor-in-Chief. The reviewer shall not accept for reviewing papers beyond the field of his/her full competence. Reviewers must treat all manuscripts received for evaluation as confidential documents and must not disclose or use any information contained in them for personal or professional purposes. They are expected to notify the Editor-in-Chief if they identify potential plagiarism, significant overlap with previously published work, suspected data manipulation, or other possible breaches of publication ethics.
The Advisory board provides guidance and advice to the editorial board and journal publisher. The advisory board consists of recognized experts in these fields. Their task is to propose strategic directions for the development of the journal, suggest new topics for special issues or sections, or help identify potential authors and reviewers. They do not participate in editorial decisions on individual manuscripts unless formally assigned a specific editorial role.
When dealing with unethical behaviour, the Editorial Board will rely on the guidelines and recommendations provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and on the Publishing Ethics Resource Kit (PERK). Anyone may inform the Editor-in-Chief / Editorial Board at any time of suspected unethical behaviour or any type of misconduct by giving the necessary credible information/evidence to start an investigation. o Editor-in-Chief makes the decision regarding the initiation of an investigation. o During an investigation, any evidence should be treated as confidential and only made available to those strictly involved in the process. o The accused will always be given the chance to respond to any charges made against them. o If it is judged at the end of the investigation that misconduct has occurred, then it will be classified as either minor or serious. Minor misconduct (with no influence on the integrity of the paper and the journal, for example, when it comes to misunderstanding or wrong application of publishing standards) will be dealt directly with authors and reviewers without involving any other parties. Outcomes include: o Sending a warning letter to authors and/or reviewers o Publishing correction of a paper, e.g., when sources properly quoted in the text are omitted from the reference list. o Publishing an erratum, e.g., if the error was made by editorial staff. In the case of major misconduct, the Editor-in-Chief / Editorial Board may adopt different measures: o Publication of a formal announcement or editorial describing the misconduct. o Informing officially the author's/reviewer's affiliating institution. o The formal, announced retraction of publications from the journal in accordance with the Retraction Policy o A ban on submissions from an individual for a defined period. o Referring a case to a professional organization or legal authority for further investigation and action. The above actions may be taken separately or jointly. If necessary, in the process of resolving the case relevant expert organizations, bodies, or individuals may be consulted.
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JAES is committed to the long-term preservation of, and permanent access to, all published content. The policy rests on the following measures.
The journal is published on Open Journal Systems (OJS) and deposits its published issues, including article full texts and metadata, in the PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN). The network is based on LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) technology and stores content on a geographically distributed set of independent servers. If the journal’s website becomes unavailable, the content remains preserved and accessible.
In accordance with the law, paper and digital copies of all published volumes are archived in the Digital repository of the National Library of Serbia. Digital versions are concurrently deposited in the Repository of SCIndeks – The Serbian Citation Index (CEON).
Article metadata is stored by the abstracting and indexing services that cover the journal. Some of them also archive full texts, which provides an additional access route for the scientific community.
The Journal of Applied Engineering Science charges Article Processing Costs associated with the publication process, including peer review, copyediting, layout setting, hosting the article on the journal's website, and other administrative expenses. APC of 420 euros per article is introduced for all manuscripts accepted for publication in the Journal of Applied Engineering Science. The Journal of Applied Engineering Science does not charge for the for the submission of manuscripts or publication of articles.