Policies

OPEN ACCESS POLICY
UNEC Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. Full-text access to scientific articles of the journal is presented on the official website in the Archives section.

The author(s) of a manuscript agree that if the manuscript is accepted for publication in UNEC Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the published article will be copyrighted using a Creative Commons CC BY. This license allows full use, and reuse rights to everyone, as long as the work is attributed to the original authors. Please also see our copyright statement.

PEER REVIEW POLICY
UNEC Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences operates a single-blind peer-review system until the publication of papers. Aiming to publish only high-quality papers, we evaluate them through strong peer review process that mainly considers:

The manuscript should not be simultaneously submitted to multiple journals.
Manuscripts should align with the scope of the journal.
UNEC JEAS strongly condemns all forms of plagiarism. Submitted manuscripts undergo thorough software checks to detect any instances of copied text, results from other sources, or self-plagiarism.
The manuscripts undergo review by two experts as recommended by the editorial board. Editors may also request additional reviews in certain cases.
If reviewers request revisions, authors must revise their manuscript accordingly and resubmit it to the journal for further evaluation by the reviewers.
The Editors-in-Chief make the final decision on the manuscript based on the referees' reports. Authors are promptly notified of the decision.
Rejected submissions will not be returned to the authors, but they will be informed of the editorial decision.
The submitted manuscripts are treated as confidential documents. We advise all our editors and reviewers to uphold the confidentiality of manuscripts.
We remind our Editors and Reviewers to disclose any conflicts of interest arising from direct competitive, collaborative, or other relationships with any of the authors. In such cases, they are excluded from the evaluation process.
The review process is confidential, and we maintain anonymity regarding the individuals involved in this process.

EDITORS

Editors assess manuscripts submitted to the journal solely on their merit, considering factors such as importance, originality, study validity, and clarity, as well as their relevance to the journal’s scope. This evaluation is conducted without regard to the authors’ race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnic origin, citizenship, religious belief, political philosophy, or institutional affiliation. Editorial decisions are independent of external influences, including government policies or other agencies. The Editor-in-Chief holds full authority over the journal’s content and publication schedule.
Editors and editorial staff maintain the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts, sharing information only with the authors, peer reviewers, potential reviewers, editorial advisers, and the publisher as necessary. They do not use unpublished information or ideas obtained from handling manuscripts for personal gain unless explicitly permitted by the authors.
Editors abstain from evaluating manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest arising from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships with the authors, associated companies, or institutions.
The editors ensure that all manuscripts submitted for publication undergo thorough peer review by experts in the field.
The Editor-in-Chief holds the responsibility of determining the manuscripts to be published in the journal, assessing their validity, significance to researchers and readers, reviewers' feedback, and compliance with legal standards.
The Editor-in-Chief reserves the option to seek input from other editors or reviewers when making decisions.
Editors are committed to promptly addressing any ethical concerns raised regarding a submitted manuscript or published paper, even if the issue comes to light years after publication.

PEER REVIEWERS
Reviewers who feel unqualified, unavailable, or have conflicts of interest regarding the manuscript should promptly inform the editors and decline the invitation. Reviewers should formulate their statements clearly in a sound and reasoned way so that authors can use the reviewer’s arguments to improve the manuscript. Personal criticism of the authors should be avoided.

Confidentiality. Reviewers should treat the contents of the manuscript under review as strictly confidential and refrain from using, disclosing, or sharing them with others.

Conflicts of Interests. Reviewers are asked to inform the editor of any conflicts of interest when evaluating a manuscript. Such conflicts may arise if the reviewer is asked to assess a paper by someone from the same organization, a former or current student, advisor, or closely related individual. Another conflict may occur if the reviewer competes directly with the author for a grant. If the conflict is significant, the reviewer should excuse themselves from the review process.

AUTHORS

Authors must ensure that they submit only entirely original works.
Authors must appropriately cite any work, information, or words used from others and avoid submitting work or manuscripts copied entirely or in part from others as their own, refraining from copying or paraphrasing substantial parts of another's paper without proper attribution.
All forms of plagiarism, including duplicate publications, redundant publications, text recycling, and self-plagiarism, are unethical and unacceptable in publishing and should be avoided.
Only individuals who meet the authorship criteria outlined below should be listed as authors of the manuscript, as they must be able to take public responsibility for its content.
- made significant contributions to the conception, design, execution, data acquisition, or analysis/interpretation of the study;
- drafted the manuscript or revised it critically for important intellectual content;
- reviewed and approved the final version of the paper and agreed to its submission for publication.
Individuals who provided substantial contributions to the work reported in the manuscript, such as technical assistance, writing and editing support, or general guidance, but do not meet the criteria for authorship, should be acknowledged in the "Acknowledgments" section rather than listed as authors.
The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all relevant co-authors are listed, and must confirm that all co-authors have reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript, and have agreed to its submission for publication.
Authors should disclose any conflicts of interest that could potentially influence the results or their interpretation in the manuscript.
All sources of financial support for the work should be disclosed, including any grant numbers or other reference numbers, if applicable.
Privately obtained information, whether from conversation, correspondence, or discussion with third parties, must not be used or reported without explicit written permission from the source.
Authors must refrain from using information acquired while providing confidential services, such as refereeing manuscripts or grant applications, unless they have obtained explicit written permission from the author(s) involved in those services.
Authors are expected to systematically address reviewers’ comments point by point and promptly revise and resubmit their manuscript to the journal.
Authors have a responsibility to promptly notify the journal’s editors and collaborate with them to correct significant errors or inaccuracies discovered in their published work, either through an erratum or by retracting the manuscript or article.
If the editors become aware from a third party that a published work contains a significant error or inaccuracy, authors are obligated to promptly correct or retract the paper or provide evidence of its correctness to the journal editors.

POLICY OF SCREENING FOR PLAGIARISM
Papers submitted to UNEC Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences will be screened for plagiarism using CrossCheck/iThenticate plagiarism detection tools. Apart from that we check with Copyscape for plagiarism. UNEC Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences will immediately reject papers leading to plagiarism or self-plagiarism.
Plagiarism
Adapted from Bella H. Plagiarism. Saudi J Med MedSci 2014;2:127
Available from: http://www.sjmms.net/text.asp?2014/2/2/127/137015
"Plagiarism is the use of others' published and unpublished ideas or words (or other intellectual property) without attribution or permission, and presenting them as new and original rather than derived from an existing source. The intent and effect of plagiarism is to mislead the reader as to the contributions of the plagiarizer. This applies whether the ideas or words are taken from abstracts, research grant applications, Institutional Review Board applications, or unpublished or published manuscripts in any publication format. Plagiarism is scientific misconduct and should be addressed as such.
Self-plagiarism refers to the practice of an author using portions of their previous writings on the same topic in another of their publications, without specifically citing it formally in quotes. This practice is widespread and sometimes unintentional, as there are only so many ways to say the same thing on many occasions, particularly when writing the methods section of an article. Although this usually violates the copyright that has been assigned to the publisher, there is no consensus as to whether this is a form of scientific misconduct, or how many of one's own words one can sue before it is truly "plagiarism." Probably for this reason self-plagiarism is not regarded in the same light as plagiarism of ideas and words of other individuals. If journals have developed a policy on this matter, it should be clearly stated for authors."
Direct plagiarism is the plagiarism of the text. Mosaic plagiarism is the borrowing of ideas and opinions from an original source and a few verbatim words or phrases without crediting the author.
Authors can adhere to the following steps to report plagiarism:

Inform the editor of the journal where a plagiarized article is published.
Send original and plagiarized articles with plagiarized part highlighted.
If evidence of plagiarism is convincing, editor should arrange for a disciplinary meeting.
Editor of the journal where the plagiarized article should communicate with the editor of the journal containing the original article to rectify the matter.
The plagiarist should be asked to provide an explanation.
In case of nonresponse in the stipulated time or an unsatisfactory explanation, the article should be permanently retracted.
Author should be blacklisted and debarred for submitted an article to a particular journal for at least 5 years.
The concerned head of the institution has to be notified.

Plagiarism could be detected using Google search engine or one of two programs; iThenticate or Turnitin.

ARCHIVING
Our journal offers readers full access to published articles, seamlessly accessible online through our website or downloadable as PDFs for offline reading.

Our entire digital content, encompassing the website, manuscripts, and more, is distributed across two distinct sources. While one server hosts the online content for reader accessibility, an identical backup copy is securely maintained on another source. In the event of server failure, the content can swiftly be restored from the alternate source, ensuring website accessibility within a timeframe of less than 24-36 hours.

Authors are encouraged to self-archive the final version of their published articles into institutional and public repositories. For this purpose, authors are strongly encouraged to use the final PDF version published on the website of the journal.