Guides for authors
Manuscript submission
Title page
Text
Scientific style
References
Tables
Artwork and illustrations guidelines
Supplementary material submission
Ethical responsibilities of authors
Authorship principles
Manuscript submission
Manuscript Submission
Submission of a manuscript implies: that the work described has not been published before; that it is not under consideration for publication anywhere else; that its publication has been approved by all co-authors, if any, as well as by the responsible authorities – tacitly or explicitly – at the institute where the work has been carried out. The publisher will not be held legally responsible should there be any claims for compensation.
Permissions
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.
Online Submission
All the manuscripts must be submitted online using the hyperlink “Submit the article”. If you submit for the first time, the registration at the web site is required. Upon registration you can upload your manuscript file and any other additional files following the instructions given on the screen.
Don’t send your files via e-mail until the Editorial Board requires it.
- All submitted papers undergo reviewing and approval by the Editorial Board. Papers which passed this procedure and received a positive review, are published free of charge.
- The term of the article reviewing takes from one to two months since the date of its submission to the Editorial Office. Articles are published in the order of their submission. Submitting your manuscripts in an electronic format helps us produce your work to the best possible standards, ensuring accuracy, clarity and a high level of detail.
- In the case when the manuscript will be returned to the authors for alteration, the revised version should be returned to the editorial office within two weeks. If the manuscript is delayed by the authors for over two weeks, it will thereafter be considered by the editorial office to be newly received.
- When submitting a paper, please, send the scanned electronic version of the cover letter addressed to the Editor-in-Chief with a request to accept the paper for review according to the rules of the Journal and after required procedures, if applicable, to publish it.
In case of any problems please contact the Editorial Board via e-mails indicated at journal web-site.
Source files
Please ensure you provide all relevant editable source files at every submission and revision. For your manuscript text please always submit in common word processing formats such as .doc or .docx.
Large Language Models (LLMs) use
Use of an LLM should be properly documented in the Methods section (and if a Methods section is not available, in a suitable alternative part) of the manuscript. The use of an LLM (or other AI-tool) for "AI assisted copy editing" purposes does not need to be declared. In this context, we define the term "AI assisted copy editing" as AI-assisted improvements to human-generated texts for readability and style, and to ensure that the texts are free of errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation and tone. These AI-assisted improvements may include wording and formatting changes to the texts, but do not include generative editorial work and autonomous content creation. In all cases, there must be human accountability for the final version of the text and agreement from the authors that the edits reflect their original work.
Title page
Please make sure your title page contains the following information:
Title
The title should be concise and informative.
Author information
- Full name(s) of the author(s)
- The affiliation(s) of the author(s), i.e. institution, (department), city, (state), country
- An active e-mail address of the corresponding author
- If available, the 16-digit ORCID of the author(s)
If address information is provided with the affiliation(s) it will also be published.
Summary
Please provide a Summary of 200 to 250 words describing the objectives of the research, and the rationale and methods (if relevant), should be included. .
The Summary should not contain any formula as well as non-standard or uncommon abbreviations. If essential the abbreviations must be defined at their first mention in the summary itself. References should be avoided too. Do not break the summary text into paragraphs.
Summary should be given in the original language of the manuscript. For manuscripts written in Russian or Azeri the translation of Summary into English is required.
Keywords
Please provide 4 to 7 keywords which can be used for indexing purposes.
Text
Text formatting
Manuscripts should be submitted in Word.
- Use British English while writing the text.
- Use a normal, plain font (e.g., 10-point Times Roman) for text.
- Use italics for emphasis.
- Use the automatic page numbering function to number the pages.
- Do not use field functions.
- Use tab stops or other commands for indents, not the space bar.
- Use the table function, not Excel spreadsheets, to make tables.
- Use the equation editor or MathType for equations.
- Save your file in .docx format (Word 2007 or higher) or .doc format (older Word versions).
Headings
Please use no more than three levels of displayed headings. If you number the headings, please use the decimal system.
Abbreviations
Abbreviations should be defined at first mention and used consistently thereafter.
Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments of people, grants, funds, etc. should be placed at the end of the text but before the References section. The names of funding organizations should be written in full.
Scientific style
- Please always use internationally accepted signs and symbols for units (SI units).
- Please use the standard mathematical notation for formulae, symbols etc.: Italic for single letters that denote mathematical constants, variables, and unknown quantities; Roman/upright for numerals, operators, and punctuation, and commonly defined functions or abbreviations, e.g., cos, det, e or exp, lim, log, max, min, sin, tan, d (for derivative); Bold for vectors, tensors, and matrices.
References
Citation
Cite references in the text by name and year in parentheses. For examples:
- This fossil had been found for the first time in the North England (Thompson, 1920).
- The preliminary investigations had been carried out by Smith and Lee (2000).
- This unique physical process had been studying by (Johns, 1930; Gallaher et al., 1945a, b; Ivanko & Polichko 1978; Xianq et al., 2000, 2010).
Reference list
The list of references should only include works that are cited in the text and that have been published or accepted for publication. Personal communications and unpublished works should only be mentioned in the text.
No numeration. Reference list entries should be alphabetized by the last names of the first author of each work. Please alphabetize according to the following rules: 1) For one author, by name of author, then chronologically; 2) For two authors, by name of author, then name of coauthor, then chronologically; 3) For more than two authors, by name of first author, then chronologically.
Please, use the Basic Reference Guideline for Reference list. Non-dependent on the original language of the manuscript, References must be provided in English. If the reference in origin is either in Azerbaijani language or in Russian, please, translate the name of the book/article/material in English, but put the origin of the language in parenthesis, such as (in Russian). Please, remain the name of the Publishing House non-translated, such as Nauka, Nedra, Nafta-press, Elm, etc.
If available, please always include DOIs as full DOI links in your reference list (e.g. “https://doi.org/abc”)
The total number of references should not exceed 35-40
Always use the standard abbreviation of a journal’s name according to the ISSN List of Title Word Abbreviations, see (see ISSN LTWA)
If you are unsure, please use the full journal title.
Tables
- All tables are to be numbered using Arabic numerals.
- Tables should always be cited in text in consecutive numerical order.
- The tables should not be huge and should not be left the boundaries of text margin.
- Please avoid the table continuation on the next page.
- For each table, please supply a table caption (title) explaining the components of the table.
- Identify, if any, previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference at the end of the table caption.
- Footnotes to tables should be indicated by superscript lower-case letters (or asterisks for significance values and other statistical data) and included beneath the table body.
Artwork and illustrations guidelines
General requirements
- For vector graphics, the preferred format is EPS; for halftones, please use TIFF format.
- For raster graphics, the preferred format is JPG/JPEG, BMP, PNG or GIF.
- Vector graphics containing fonts must have the fonts embedded in the files.
- Name your figure files with "Fig" and the figure number, e.g., Fig1.eps.
- Please be sure that the quality of graphics is good, i.e. all writings are readable even reduce twice; all objects are clear in halftone mode; converting images from color to black and white or halftone doesn’t reflect on the quality or lead to image misinterpretation.
- The Editorial Board reserves the right to replace / reject / require new graphic materials in case of unsatisfactory quality.
Line art
- Definition: Black and white graphic with no shading..
- Do not use faint lines and/or lettering and check that all lines and lettering within the figures are legible at final size.
- All lines should be at least 0.1 mm (0.3 pt) wide.
- Scanned line drawings and line drawings in bitmap format should have a minimum resolution of 1200 dpi.
- Vector graphics containing fonts must have the fonts embedded in the files.
Halftone art
- Definition: Photographs, drawings, or paintings with fine shading, etc.
- If any magnification is used in the photographs, indicate this by using scale bars within the figures themselves.
- Halftones should have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi.
Combination art
- Definition: a combination of halftone and line art, e.g., halftones containing line drawing, extensive lettering, color diagrams, etc.
- Combination artwork should have a minimum resolution of 600 dpi.
Figure lettering
- To add lettering, it is best to use Helvetica or Arial (sans serif fonts).
- Keep lettering consistently sized throughout your final-sized artwork, usually about 2–3 mm (8–12 pt).
- Variance of type size within an illustration should be minimal, e.g., do not use 8-pt type on an axis and 20-pt type for the axis label.
- Avoid effects such as shading, outline letters, etc.
- Do not include titles or captions within your illustrations.
Figure numbering
- All figures are to be numbered using Arabic numerals.
- Figures should always be cited in text in consecutive numerical order.
- If the figure consists of several parts, they should be denoted by lowercase letters (a, b, c, etc.).
Figure captions
- Each figure should have a concise caption describing accurately what the figure depicts. Include the captions in the text file of the manuscript, not in the figure file.
- Figure captions begin with the term Fig. in bold type, followed by the figure number, also in bold type.
- No punctuation is to be included after the number, nor is any punctuation to be placed at the end of the caption.
- Identify all elements found in the figure in the figure caption; and use boxes, circles, etc., as coordinate points in graphs.
- Identify previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference citation at the end of the figure caption (e.g. Source: …, Image source: …, Modified after: …., etc.) or the author of the image (e.g. Image credit: …, Photo by: …, etc.).
Figure placement and size
- Figures should be submitted within the body of the text. Only if the file size of the manuscript causes problems in uploading it, or exceeds the limits, the large figures should be submitted separately from the text (as separate files).
- When preparing your figures, size figures to fit in the column width.
- For single-column text areas the figure width should be not more than 80 mm and not higher than 160 mm for double-column text areas.
Supplementary material submission
- Supply all supplementary material in standard file formats.
- Please include in each file the following information: article title, journal name, author names; affiliation and e-mail address of the corresponding author.
- To accommodate user downloads, please keep in mind that larger-sized files may require very long download times and that some users may experience other problems during downloading.
In case of any problems please contact the Editorial Board via e-mails indicated at journal web-site.
Ethical responsibilities of authors
Authors should refrain from misrepresenting research results which could damage the trust in the journal, the professionalism of scientific authorship, and ultimately the entire scientific endeavour. Maintaining integrity of the research and its presentation is helped by following the rules of good scientific practice, which include:
- The manuscript should not be submitted to more than one journal for simultaneous consideration.
- The submitted work should be original and should not have been published elsewhere in any form or language (partially or in full), unless the new work concerns an expansion of previous work. (Please provide transparency on the re-use of material to avoid the concerns about text-recycling (‘self-plagiarism’).
- A single study should not be split up into several parts to increase the quantity of submissions and submitted to various journals or to one journal over time (i.e. “salami-slicing”, “salami publication").
- Concurrent or secondary publication is sometimes justifiable, provided certain conditions are met. Examples include: translations or a manuscript that is intended for a different group of readers.
- Results should be presented clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification or inappropriate data manipulation (including image based manipulation). Authors should adhere to discipline-specific rules for acquiring, selecting and processing data.
- No data, text, or theories by others are presented as if they were the author’s own (‘plagiarism’). Proper acknowledgements to other works must be given (this includes material that is closely copied (near verbatim), summarized and/or paraphrased), quotation marks (to indicate words taken from another source) are used for verbatim copying of material, and permissions secured for material that is copyrighted.
Important note: the journal may use software to screen for plagiarism.
Authorship principles
Role of the corresponding author
One author is assigned as Corresponding Author and acts on behalf of all co-authors and ensures that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately addressed.
The Corresponding Author is responsible for the following requirements:
- ensuring that all listed authors have approved the manuscript before submission, including the names and order of authors;
- managing all communication between the Journal and all co-authors, before and after publication;
- providing transparency on re-use of material and mention any unpublished material (for example manuscripts in press) included in the manuscript in a cover letter to the Editor;
- making sure disclosures, declarations and transparency on data statements from all authors are included in the manuscript as appropriate (see above).
Affiliation
The primary affiliation for each author should be the institution where the majority of their work was done. If an author has subsequently moved, the current address may additionally be stated. Addresses will not be updated or changed after publication of the article.
Changes to authorship
Authors are strongly advised to ensure the correct author group, the Corresponding Author, and the order of authors at submission. Changes of authorship by adding or deleting authors, and/or changes in Corresponding Author, and/or changes in the sequence of authors are not accepted after acceptance of a manuscript.
Please note that author names will be published exactly as they appear on the accepted submission!
Please make sure that the names of all authors are present and correctly spelled, and that addresses and affiliations are current.
Adding and/or deleting authors at revision stage are generally not permitted, but in some cases it may be warranted. Reasons for these changes in authorship should be explained. Approval of the change during revision is at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief. Please note that journals may have individual policies on adding and/or deleting authors during revision stage.