Guideline for Authors
Submission Checklist
- Authors are encouraged to refer to the Aims and Scopes section of this journal before submitting their manuscript.
- Prepare your manuscripts using Microsoft Word
- Ensure that the manuscript is free from infringements on publication ethics, research ethics, copyright, authorship, figures, data, and reference format.
- All authors must approve the submission of the manuscript.
Manuscript Submission Overview
Types of Publications
IJEPS publishes manuscripts that are concise, comprehensive, and has no restrictions on the number of pages. To ensure reproducible results, all experiments or simulations must be fully described in detail. Where possible, full datasets and experimental or simulation parameters should be made available (see the guidelines on Supplementary Materials below and references to unpublished data).
Manuscripts submitted to and under consideration for publication in IJEPS should not have been published before or under consideration for publication in any journal.
IJEPES accepts research manuscripts featuring original research that is scientifically sound with a substantial amount of new information. IJEPS reviews articles that effectively consolidate the latest progress made in an area of interest. Short communication of significant results are considered as well. All submitted manuscripts are screened for quality and impact during peer review.
Submission Process
Prospective authors of IJEPS should submit their manuscript online at IES Website. All eligible co-authors included in the manuscript should have read and approved the submitted version of the manuscript (read the criteria to qualify for authorship). Generally, the corresponding author is also the submitting author and is responsible for the manuscript during submission and peer-review process.
Register and log in to the submission website for manuscript submission. All co-authors can track the progress of their manuscripts in the submission portal by using their e-mail addresses provided during submission.
Accepted File Formats
Prospective authors must prepare their manuscripts on Microsoft Word templates as these formats expedite copyediting and publication of accepted manuscripts. The size limit of the total uploaded file is 120 MB. Kindly contact the editorial office at support@iespublication.com in case of any issue.
Accepted file formats are:
Microsoft Word: When preparing manuscripts in Microsoft Word, the provided IJEPS Microsoft Word template must be used. All graphics, tables, and equations must be inserted into the manuscript and be converted into a single camera-ready file before submission.
Supplementary files: Authors are highly recommended to use common, non-proprietary formats where possible.
Disclaimer: These templates are exclusive for the peer review of IJEPS submission and are strictly limited to this purpose only. These templates cannot be used for online posting or preprints.
Free Format Submission
All manuscripts must contain author information (name and affiliation), abstract, keywords, introduction, methodology, results, and discussion. When appropriate, conclusions, figures and tables with captions, funding acknowledgement, contributions of authors, conflict of interest, and other ethics statements should be included as well.
References may be in any style, provided that the formatting style is consistent. However, all references should include author(s) name(s), journal/book title, article or chapter title (when applicable), publication year, volume and issue (when applicable), and pagination. Digital Object Identifier (DOI) numbers are not mandatory but highly encouraged. Authors are recommended to use EndNote, Zotero, Mendeley, Reference Manager, or any other suitable bibliography software package to manage their references.
Nevertheless, authors will be requested to format the manuscript according to the journal guidelines when their manuscripts reach the revision stage.
Cover Letter
Each new manuscript submission should be accompanied by a cover letter. The letter explains the contributions of the manuscript and the reasons why they fit the scope of the journal, confirms and states that the manuscript is neither presently being considered for publication nor has been published in another journal, proposes potential reviewers (subject to the selection of IES), and discloses prior submissions of the same manuscript to IES.
Manuscript Preparation
General Considerations
- Research and review manuscripts should include the following sections:
- Front matter: title, author list, affiliations, abstract, keywords
- Manuscript body: introduction, results, discussion, materials and methods, conclusions (optional)
- Back matter: supplementary materials, acknowledgments, author contributions, conflict of interest, references
- Structured reviews and meta-analyses should additionally conform to the PRISMA
- Graphical Abstract:
A graphical abstract (GA) is meant for visual appeal and summarizes contents that appear alongside the abstract in the table of contents.
The illustration a GA should be high quality and can be in PNG, JPEG, EPS, SVG, PSD, or AI format. Text that appears within a GA must be clear and easy to read, and in any of the following fonts: Times, Arial, Courier, Helvetica, Ubuntu, or Calibri.
GA of IES journals should have a minimum size of 560 × 1,100 pixels (height × width). A similar ratio should be maintained for large images.
- Abbreviations must be defined in parentheses the first time they appear in the abstract, main text, and figure and table captions before using them consistently thereafter.
- SI Units (International System of Units) should be used. Other forms of units should be converted to SI units whenever possible.
- Equations: If you are preparing IES manuscripts using Microsoft Word, please use either the Microsoft Equation Editor or the MathType add-on. Equations should not appear in picture format and must be editable by the editorial office.
- Research data and supplementary materials: The publication of your manuscript implies that you agree to make all materials, data, and relevant protocol associated with your manuscript available to readers. Any restrictions in the availability of this information must be disclosed during manuscript submission. Read the information about Supplementary Materials and Data Deposit for more details.
- Preregistration: All preregistered studies, analysis plans, and links to the preregistration must be provided in the manuscript.
Front Matter
The following sections should appear in all manuscripts.
Title: The manuscript title should be concise, specific, and relevant. It should report any usage of human or animal trial data, and whether the manuscript is a systematic review, meta-analysis, or replication study. Abbreviated names of genes or proteins, rather than full name, should be used.
Author List and Affiliations: Authors’ full first and last names must be provided. Middle name is optional and initials may be used. Authors’ affiliation should show complete address information (city, zip code, state/province, and country). At least one author should be designated as corresponding author, and his or her email address and other details should be included at the end of the affiliation section. Read Authorship for more details.
Abstract: The abstract is preferably limited to 300 words and in a single paragraph. Generally, an abstract highlights the purpose of the study, describes the main methodology and background, discusses the key results of the study, and indicates the main conclusion. The abstract must not exaggerate actual conclusions not found in the manuscript and should present all findings objectively.
Keywords: At least three keywords but no more than 10 should be provided after the abstract. Keywords should be specific and relevant but reasonably common within the subject discipline. Appropriate selection of keywords helps highlight searches of manuscripts after publication.
Manuscript Body
Introduction: The introduction places the study in a broad yet strategic context to highlight the importance of the manuscript. It critically reviews the relevant research field to expose the current state of research by citing key publications. It also describes the purpose, significance, specific hypotheses, main aims, and conclusions of the work. Whenever possible, the introduction should be made comprehensible to non-expert researchers.
Methodology: The methodology employed to conduct the study of the manuscript should be described in sufficient detail to enable replication or further improvement by other researchers. When new methods are referred, they should be described in great detail. Commonly known methods can be briefly described and appropriately cited.
Results: Experimental or simulation results are presented in a concise, precise, and effective form, along with all appropriate analyses, interpretations, and conclusions.
Discussion: Discussion of the results must present underlying meanings, trends, and comparisons with previous studies and rejection/acceptance of hypotheses. The discussion should be as broad as possible while staying within the scope of the manuscript. Future studies may be recommended. Authors may combine this section with the Results.
Conclusions: Conclusions provide the final main message of the manuscript and may include a condensed version of the Abstract.
Patents: Although not mandatory, any patents resulting from the work of the manuscript may be added to increase the value of the work.
Back Matter
Supplementary Materials: Any supplementary material (i.e., figures, tables, videos, spreadsheets) published online that are relevant to the manuscript can be described here. Naming and title of each entry should be as follows: Figure S1: title, Table S1: title, etc.
Acknowledgments: All funding sources that supported the studies and the publication of the manuscript are highly encouraged to be given due acknowledgement, which typically includes funding agencies and grant number.
Author Contributions: Authors’ contributions can be in any of the following forms: (1) substantial conception of the design of the work, (2) acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data, (3) coding and creation of new software used in the work, or (4) drafting of the work or substantial revision of the manuscript. All authors must have also approved the submitted version of the manuscript, and agree to be held accountable for the accuracy and integrity of all parts of the work presented in the manuscript. Authorship must include and be limited to those who have contributed substantially to the work.
Sample statement of author contributions:
“Conceptualization, X.X. and Y.Y.; Methodology, X.X.; Software, X.X.; Validation, X.X., Y.Y., and Z.Z.; Formal Analysis, X.X.; Investigation, X.X.; Resources, X.X.; Data Collection, X.X.; Writing – Original Draft Preparation, X.X.; Writing – Review and Editing, X.X.; Visualization, X.X.; Supervision, X.X.; Project Administration, X.X.; Funding Acquisition, Y.Y.”
Conflict of Interest: Any interest related to any of the authors that may directly or be perceived as inappropriately affecting the demonstration and/or interpretation of the reported results in the manuscript should be clearly declared here.
Should there be no conflict of interest, please state “The authors declare no conflict of interest.”
Any role of the funding sponsors in influencing the choices; design; collection, analyses, and interpretation of data; manuscript composition; and decision to publish the results of the research project referred to by the manuscript must also be declared.
Projects funded by pharmaceutical or food industries must pay special attention to the full declaration of funder involvement.
Should there be no role, please state “The sponsors had no role in the design, execution, interpretation, or writing of the study.”
For more details, please see Conflict of Interest.
References: References must be numbered in the order of appearance in the manuscript. The use of bibliography software packages, such as EndNote, ReferenceManager, or Zotero, is encouraged to avoid typographical mistakes and duplications.
IES journal uses square brackets [ ] for each numbering, and is placed before punctuations, i.e., [1] or [1-3]. IES uses ACS style guide, such as the following:
Journal Articles:
Author 1, A.B.; Author 2, C.D. “Title of the article”. Abbreviated Journal Name, Year, Volume, page range.
Books and Book Chapters:
Author 1, A.; Author 2, B. “Book Title”, 3rd ed. Publisher: Publisher Location, Country, Year; pp. 154–196.
Author 1, A.; Author 2, B. Title of the chapter. In Book Title, 2nd ed.; Editor 1, A., Editor 2, B., Eds.; Publisher: Publisher Location, Country, Year; Volume 3, pp. 154–196.
Conference Proceedings:
Author 1, A.B.; Author 2, C.D.; Author 3, E.F. Title of Presentation. In Title of the Collected Work (if available), Proceedings of the Name of the Conference, Location of Conference, Country, Date of Conference; Publisher: City, Country, Year (if available);
Thesis:
Author 1, A.B. Title of Thesis. Level of Thesis, Degree-granting University, Location of University, Date of Completion.
Websites:
Title of Site. Available online: URL (accessed on Day Month Year).
Figures and Tables
Figures and Tables should be inserted in the manuscript, placed at the desired location and numbered in order of appearance (i.e., Figure 1, Figure 2, Table 1, Table 2, etc.). The resolution of the figure should be a minimum of 1,000 pixels (in width and height) or at least 300 dpi.
Colored figures are encouraged. No additional cost will be incurred for publishing full color graphics.
All figures and tables should have short and self-explanatory titles, captions, or headings. When dealing with large tables and to facilitate copyediting, fonts no smaller than 8 pt in size are allowed.
Supplementary Materials, Data Deposit, and Software Source Code
Data availability: Authors are highly encouraged to publish their research data either by depositing into data repositories or publishing them as supplementary information in this journal. This practice ensures transparency, integrity, and reproducibility of research.
Computer code and software: When a novel computer code is developed, authors are highly encouraged to release the code in a recognized public repository, or upload them as supplementary information in the manuscript.
Supplementary materials: Additional documents may be uploaded as “Supplementary Files” during manuscript submission. These files will be available to referees as part of the peer review process. Please upload only non-proprietary formats whenever possible.
References in supplementary files: Citations of supplementary files must appear in the reference list.
Research and Publication Ethics
Research Involving Human Subjects
Authors who involve human subjects, human tissues, human data, and human material in their research must declare that they have adhered to the rules of the Declaration of Helsinki of 1975 (https://www.wma.net/what-we-do/medical-ethics/declaration-of-helsinki/), revised in 2013. An approval from an ethics committee must have been obtained before performing such research, as according to point 23 of the Helsinki declaration. A statement detailing the project identification code, approval date, name of the ethics committee or institutional review board should be provided and cited in the Methodology section.
Detailed data of individual participants must be provided, but private personal information may be withheld unless the identifiable materials are relevant to the research (i.e., photographs of faces that demonstrate a certain trait).
Sample of an ethical statement:
“All subjects have given their written consent to participate in this study, which was conducted according to the Declaration of Helsinki. The research protocol was also approved by the Ethics Committee of XXX (Project identification code).”
Participating patients who can be identified in the manuscript must provide their written consent to be included in the publication. However, personal identifiers that may expose the identity of patients must not appear in any images. In cases where images of patients, investigating details, and/or personal information are published, a signed consent form from patients (or guardians for underage patients) must be obtained before submitting the manuscript to IES journals.
Even when consent has been obtained, the details of patients must be kept anonymous as much as possible. Mentioning of specific age, religious belief, ethnicity, background, sexual orientation, occupation, or gender must be avoided, unless the disclosure of any of this information is paramount for the conclusion of research outcomes. The consent form should provide unlimited permission of publication in all formats, in sublicensed and reprinted versions, which include translation and derived work, and in other open access licensed works and products. Authors are allowed to create their own version of consent forms for the purpose of obtaining permission (without patient names or signature), and the forms must be uploaded during manuscript submission. Alternatively, a template permission form is available for download. If informed consent is not necessary, then authors must justify the decision in a separate document.
Please be reminded not to send any signed consent forms to IES to protect the privacy of participating patients of studies, unless requested by IES.
Publication Ethics Statement
IES adopts the recommendations of the Publication Ethics of COPE, and we fully subscribe and adhere to its Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines.
To uphold high-quality contributions of scientific work in scholarly publication, all editors of IES enforce a stringent and rigorous peer-review process, ethical policies, and standards. IES has a zero-tolerance policy for plagiarism, data falsification, image manipulation, inappropriate authorship credit, and the like. All editors of IES are trained to identify such issues and view them seriously.
Therefore, authors wishing to contribute to IES journals must ensure the following:
- All possible conflict of interest of authors, and any facts that may be perceived as one, must be disclosed in the manuscript.
- Research findings must be accurately presented and their significance objectively discussed in the manuscript.
- Data and methodology must be presented in sufficient detail so that the experiment or simulation presented in the manuscript can be accurately replicated elsewhere. Raw data are preferably deposited in a publicly accessible repository and retained in full for a reasonable timeframe, which should be readily submitted to referees if requested.
- Manuscripts submitted to an IES journal must not be simultaneously presently under consideration for publication elsewhere, including other IES journals.
- Republication of content, such as English translation of a published manuscript in other languages, is not acceptable.
- Discoveries of errors and inaccuracies by authors after manuscripts have been published need to be urgently communicated to the editors of the journal so that a short letter can be published along the main manuscript to indicate the errors and inaccuracies. This protocol is only applicable to crucial results that were omitted in the main manuscript, missing or unclear figures, or text deleted by accident.
Short letters to the editors from readers commenting (positive or negative) on either the reported results or the experimental methods used in a specific article are welcome. Such comments will be evaluated by editors on a case-by-case basis and may be published if the editors find the comments intriguing.
All comments will first be filtered by academic editors, which will then be passed to the authors of the original manuscripts to provide responses within a reasonable deadline. If replies are not received, then the editors can choose to proceed to appoint reviewers to review the comments received. Whenever possible, previous reviewers of the manuscripts will be invited to review the comments and replies. Review reports will be sent to the commentators, and they have one chance to revise their comments. Then, the review report and revised comments are sent to the authors of the manuscripts, and they have one chance to revise their replies. Finally, the final version of comments and replies are read by the academic editors, who will then make a final decision to either publish or reject the letters.
- All graphics deemed not original and have been published elsewhere must obtain from the copyright holder all necessary permission to publish under the CC BY license in the manuscript.
- Permission is required even for your own works published by other publisher, in which case the copyright is not retained by you; substantial extracts from the work of others; materials (i.e., tables, graphs, charts, schemes, artworks) that have only been altered and modified slightly; and photographs whose copyright you do not own.
- Permission is not required for your table of contents, which were published elsewhere (but citation and credit must be given), fair usage of reasonably short quotes, and materials (i.e., tables, graphs, charts, schemes, artworks, photographs) that have been completely redrawn or altered beyond the recognition of original contents by the authors.
Plagiarism, which covers copying of text, data, images, and ideas from another source, even from your own previous publications, without giving any credit to the original sources, is not acceptable in all IES journals.
The complete copying of text from another source must be between quotes, and the original sources must be cited. Inspiration of work obtained from other works should also be cited and given due credit. Plagiarism detected during peer review process may render a manuscript rejected outright. If plagiarism is only detected after publication, then IES will publish a note regarding the issue and retract the paper.
Graphics must not be manipulated or purposely adjusted from the original sources to appear original. Such manipulation and adjustment may include: (1) enhancement and shifting of features in original images, (2) grouping of separate images into a single image or vice versa, and/or (3) adjusting the contrast, brightness, color balance, or other imaging settings of original images. If any of these violations is detected during peer review, then the manuscript will be rejected outright. If any of these violations is only detected after publication, then IES will publish a note regarding the matter and retract the paper.
All publication misconducts will be investigated seriously by our in-house editors and may approach authors’ institutions or funding agencies for assistance in the investigation if it is necessary. If evidence of misconduct is found, then the published manuscript will be retracted, and repeating offending authors will be barred from future submissions.
The intent of IES is to disseminate high-quality scientific content, and we hope all authors comply with the best ethical publication practices when publishing with IES.
Citation Policy
All materials taken from other sources, including those from authors’ previous publications, and are included in the manuscript should be clearly cited and appropriate permission should be obtained.
Excessive self-citation and preferential citation of their colleagues’ publications are highly discouraged.
Advertisements or advertorial materials should be refrained from being included in the citation list.
According to COPE guidelines, “original wording taken directly from publications by other researchers should appear in quotation marks with the appropriate citations,” which is also applicable to the authors’ own work. When in doubt, a document on citation manipulation published by COPE should be referred to for best practice recommendations.
Reviewer Suggestions
Authors are encouraged to suggest three potential reviewers with relevant expertise to review their manuscript, of which such a process will be prompted in the IES submission system. The proposed referees should not be any of the co-authors, current collaborators, have published with any author of the manuscript within the last five years, or a member of the same institution with any author of the manuscript. You may identify appropriate editorial board members or authors from among the papers you frequently cited as potential reviewers. However, the IES editors reserve the right to not select any of the suggested referees if any conflict of interest is deemed possible.
English Corrections
All manuscripts submitted and eventually published by IES must have a high standard of written English to facilitate proper peer reviewing and comprehension. If the main author is not a native English speaker, then IES highly recommends that the manuscript be professionally edited or read by a native English-speaking colleague.
IES does not provide English editing service at the moment, and authors are encouraged to engage with a third-party English editing service provider.
Preprints and Conference Papers
IES defines preprints as a draft version of manuscripts that have been made available online but never been submitted previously to a journal. IES accepts preprint manuscripts that have not previously been submitted to other journals for peer review. If a manuscript has been submitted to other journals, then the authors need to state improvements that have been implemented and the reason the manuscript is worthy of publication in an IES journal.
Conference papers that have fulfilled the following can be considered for publication in an IES journal: (1) research contents of the manuscript have been substantially expanded, (2) the conference paper is cited and declared in the updated manuscript, (3) copyright clearance from the published conference paper has been obtained, if any, (4) and disclosure that the updated manuscript is based on the published conference paper in the cover letter and statements detailing the improvements to the original conference paper should be present.
Authorship
The following criteria should be observed to qualify for authorship of a manuscript:
- Substantial contribution to the conception and design of the work
- Substantial acquisition and analysis of data relevant to the work
- Substantial drafting and revision of the composition of the manuscript
- Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content
- Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work by ensuring that all parts of the work are accurate, appropriately investigated, and presented with integrity
Researchers who do not qualify to be listed as one of the authors but contributed to the manuscript can be mentioned in the acknowledgements.
The corresponding author acts as the point of contact between all authors and editors. Any changes to the list of authors, which includes adding, removing, and rearranging of the order of authors should be agreed by and informed to all authors. IES reserves the right to confirm that authorship conditions are adhered to by all authors.
Editors and Journal Staff as Authors
In IES, we enforce strict editorial independence and do not interfere with editorial decisions.
All manuscripts submitted by editorial staffs and editors will be handled independently by at least two outside reviewers. The editorial staffs and editors who submit manuscripts do not have the right to select reviewers and are completely removed from the processing of their own manuscript.
Other editorial board members who have no conflict of interest with the authors will serve as editors of the manuscript, who will also make a decision on the manuscript.
Conflict of Interest
Authors should avoid entering into agreements with study sponsors, both for-profit and non-profit, that interfere with authors’ access to all of the study’s data or that interfere with their ability to analyze and interpret the data and to prepare and publish manuscripts independently when and where they choose.
All relationships or interests that could inappropriately influence the outcomes of the work presented in the manuscript should be disclosed by authors. In cases of conflict of interest, a statement declaring these conflicts should be included at the end of the manuscript in a separate section “Conflict of Interest” before the list of references. In the absence of conflict of interest, a statement declaring no conflict should likewise be given.
Sample disclosure:
“Author A is sponsored by Company A, Author B is affiliated to Company A, Author C is related to Author B, and Author D has worked closely with Author A in the past five years.”
“The authors declare no conflict of interest.”
Editorial Procedures and Peer Review
Initial Checks:
All manuscripts will first be checked by a professional in-house Managing Editor to confirm that the manuscript has been prepared according to the ethical policies of the journal, especially if human and animal experimentations are involved. Failure to meet this initial requirement will render the manuscript rejected. The manuscript will not proceed to peer review, and will be returned to authors for revision and resubmission. If a manuscript passes the ethical policies, then the Managing Editor will consult the journals’ Editor-in-Chief or Associate Editors to determine whether contents of the manuscript fit the journal’s scope and are scientifically sound. This stage is not meant to judge the quality of the work. Rejection decisions at this stage will be verified by the Editor-in-Chief.
Peer Review:
Manuscripts that pass the initial check will be assigned to at least two independent expert reviewers for peer review. IES adopts the single-blind reviewing standard where the identities of authors are known, but the identities of reviewers are anonymous. Peer review comments are confidential and will only be disclosed if agreed by the reviewers.
Reviewers are invited by in-house assistant editors according to the advice and recommendation of an academic editor. Reviewers may consist of editorial board members and guest editors of the journal, but they cannot be close associates to any of the authors, which is defined as having worked with any of the authors in the past five years and/or currently work or collaborate with any of the authors.
Suggested reviewers by authors may be considered.
Editorial Decision and Revision:
After peer-review reports are received and analyzed by an academic editor, one of the following decisions will be made on the manuscript
Accept after Minor Revisions:
Manuscript is accepted in principle but only after revisions based on reviewers’ comments have been made.
Reconsider after Major Revisions:
Manuscript is not accepted, but the authors are invited to provide rebuttals. The authors need to provide a point-by-point response to convince reviewers and demonstrate that substantial improvements have been made before resubmission. Reviewers may provide further comments upon receiving the rebuttals. The authors are responsible for maintaining the interest of the reviewers toward their manuscript, and this revision cycle may go on for several rounds.
Reject:
Manuscripts with inadequate experimental or simulation procedures, has serious flaws, or lack novelty and originality are rejected. Authors can resubmit after demonstrating substantial and appropriate improvements to the manuscript. Manuscripts that have previously been rejected and are resubmitted should also provide a point-by-point rebuttal in a separate document.
Author Appeals:
Authors’ appeals to the decisions regarding manuscripts are handled on a case-by-case basis. Authors may appeal by sending an e-mail to the Editorial Office of the journal. Appeal emails should be accompanied by strong justifications of why a different decision should be made.
The Managing Editor of the journal will consult the Editor-in-Chief, Associate Editor, or Editorial Board member. Academic editors will convene and decide further on the manuscript and may recommend acceptance, further peer review, or uphold the original rejection decision. A rejection decision at this stage is final and cannot be reconsidered.
Production and Publication:
Accepted manuscripts will undergo professional copyediting, English editing, proofreading by the authors, final corrections, pagination, and, publication on the IES Website.