AUTHORS' RESPONSIBILITIES

Authors warrant that their manuscript is their original work, that it has not been published before and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Parallel submission of the same manuscript to another journal constitutes misconduct and eliminates the manuscript from consideration by Journal of the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture. Authors should disclose details of preprint posting upon submission of the manuscript, if it exists. This must include a link to the location of the preprint. Preprints are not encouraged, as they endanger the double-blind review process. Should the submission be published, the authors are expected to update the information associated with the preprint version on the preprint repository to show that a final version has been published in the journal, including the DOI linking directly to the publication.

If a manuscript has previously been submitted elsewhere, authors should provide information about the previous reviewing process and its outcome. This provides an opportunity for authors to detail how subsequent revisions have taken into account previous reviews, and why certain reviewer comments were not taken into account. Information about the author's previous reviewing experience is to the author's advantage: it often helps the editors select more appropriate reviewers.

In case a submitted manuscript is a result of a research project, or its previous version has been presented at a conference in the form of an oral presentation (under the same or similar title), detailed information about the project, the conference, etc. shall be provided in Acknowledgements.

It is the responsibility of each author to ensure that manuscripts submitted to Journal of the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture are written with ethical standards in mind. Authors affirm that the manuscript contains no unfounded or unlawful statements and does not violate the rights of third parties. The Publisher will not be held legally responsible should there be any claims for compensation.

Use of Large Language Models and generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools

AI bots such as ChatGPT cannot be listed as authors on your submission.

Authors must clearly indicate the use of tools based on large language models and generative AI for data or code generation, data collection, cleaning, analysis, or interpretation, (which tool was used and for what purpose), preferably in the methods or acknowledgements sections. The use of non-generative machine learning tools to create, manipulate, combine or enhance existing images or figures should be disclosed in the relevant caption upon submission to allow a case-by-case review. Concealing the use of AI tools is unethical. The use of AI-based tools for copyediting and spell checking does not need to be declared.

AI outputs should not be cited as primary sources for backing up specific claims.

Reporting standards

Journal of the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture is committed to serving the research community by ensuring that all articles include enough information to allow others to reproduce the work. A submitted manuscript should contain sufficient detail and references to permit reviewers and, subsequently, readers to verify the claims presented in it - e.g. provide complete details of the methods used, including time frames, etc. The deliberate presentation of false claims is a violation of ethical standards.

Authors are exclusively responsible for the contents of their submissions and must make sure that they have permission from all involved parties to make the content public. Authors may be required to provide the proof that they have obtained such permission. Authors are also exclusively responsible for the contents of their data and supplementary files. Authors affirm that data protection regulations, ethical standards, third party copyright and other rights have been respected in the process of collecting, processing and sharing data.

Authors wishing to include figures, tables or other materials that have already been published elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright holders. Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors. Authors may be required to include evidence that such permission has been granted when submitting their manuscripts. 

Accessible Language

Journal of the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture promotes accessible language to ensure that scientific research is widely understood and respectful of all individuals. To promote accessibility, authors should:

●                    Use clear, simple language that is understandable across disciplines and for non-native English speakers;

●                    Avoid overly technical or unnecessary terminology, unnecessary complexity, long sentences, repetition, uncommon acronyms and abbreviations, stereotypes, idiomatic speech, slang, and cultural assumptions;

●                    Explain technical terms when needed;

●                    Respect diversity and avoid implying superiority of any group.

Authorship

Authors must make sure that only contributors who have significantly contributed to the submission are listed as authors and, conversely, that all contributors who have significantly contributed to the submission are listed as authors. 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 the Acknowledgements section.

In order to be named on the author list one must have:

●                    made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND

●                    contributed to the drafting of the work, or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND

●                    provided final approval of the version to be published; AND

●                    agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved; AND

●                    agreed to be named on the author list, and approved of the full author list.

Starting from 2027, each author’s contribution must be detailed using the CRediT taxonomy.

The addition or removal of authors during the editorial process will only be permitted if a justifiable explanation is provided to the editorial team and publisher. Attempts to introduce 'ghost', 'gift' or ‘honorary’ authorship will be treated as cases of misconduct.

Acknowledgment of sources

Authors are required to properly cite sources that have significantly influenced their research and their manuscript. Information received in a private conversation or correspondence with third parties, in reviewing project applications, manuscripts and similar materials, must not be used without the express written consent of the information source.

When citing or making claims based on data, authors should provide the reference to data in the same way as they cite publications

Plagiarism

Plagiarism, where someone assumes another's ideas, words, or other creative expression as one's own, is a clear violation of scientific ethics. Plagiarism may also involve a violation of copyright law, punishable by legal action.

Plagiarism includes the following:

●                Word for word, or almost word for word copying, or purposely paraphrasing portions of another author's work without clearly indicating the source or marking the copied fragment (for example, using quotation marks);

●                Copying equations, figures or tables from someone else's paper without properly citing the source and/or without permission from the original author or the copyright holder.

Please note that all submissions are thoroughly checked for plagiarism, using iThenticate.

Any manuscript that shows obvious signs of plagiarism will be automatically rejected and sanctioned according to the decision of the Editor-in-Chief.

In case plagiarism is discovered in a paper that has already been published by the journal, it will be retracted in accordance with the procedure described below under Retraction policy, and authors will be sanctioned according to the decision of the Editor-in-Chief.

Conflict of interest

Authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might have influenced the presented results or their interpretation. If there is no conflict of interest to declare, the following standard statement should be added: ‘No conflict of interest was disclosed’ in the Acknowledgements.

Conflict of interest may be of non-financial or financial nature. Examples of the conflict of interest include (but are not limited to):

●                individuals receiving funding, salary or other forms of payment from an organization, or holding stocks or shares from a company, that might benefit (or lose) financially from the publication of the findings;

●                individuals or their funding organization or employer holding (or applying for) related patents;

●                official affiliations and memberships with interest groups relating to the content of the publication;

●                political, religious, or ideological competing interests.

Authors from pharmaceutical companies, or other commercial organizations that sponsor clinical or field trials or other research studies, should declare these as competing interests on submission. The relationship of each author to such an organization should be explained in the ‘Conflict of interest’ section. Publications in the journal must not contain content advertising any commercial products.

Fundamental errors in published works

When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in their own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal Editor or publisher and cooperate with the Editor to retract or correct the paper.

By submitting a manuscript, the authors agree to abide by the Journal of the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture Editorial Policies.

ORCID

If a paper is a result of the funded project, authors are required to specify funding sources according to their contracts with the funder.