Frontiers of Engineering Management
INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS
August 1, 2023
General information
Frontiers of Engineering Management (FEM), supervised by the Chinese Academy of Engineering, administered by Chinese Academy of Engineering, Higher Education Press, Tsinghua University and Huazhong University of Science and Technology and published jointly by Higher Education Press and Springer Nature in English in both print and online versions quarterly, provides a high quality international platform for the academicians, researchers and professionals in the broad field of engineering management to impart and share knowledge newly advanced and created, in the four main forms of research article, review, comments, and super engineering.
Types of Articles
The following types of articles can be submitted to the journal:
RESEARCH ARTICLE: Original research report.
REVIEW: An in-depth overview of certain topic or a review of the author’s own work or the work of one research group. The format and length of review articles are more flexible than a full article.
COMMENTS: A discussion/remark on an article, a view point, a book, etc. It should be within 1000–1500 words. In this case, the authors are allowed to respond to any comments.
SUPER ENGINEERING: An introduction to mega projects focusing on technological innovation and management innovation.
Duplicate/previous publication or submission
Manuscripts submitted to this journal must not be under simultaneous consideration by any other publisher and should not have been published elsewhere in substantially similar form. No part of a paper which has been published by Frontiers of Engineering Management may be reproduced or published elsewhere without the written permission of the publisher.
Ethical responsibilities of authors
This journal is committed to upholding the integrity of the scientific record. As a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the journal will follow the COPE guidelines on how to deal with potential acts of misconduct.
Authors should refrain from misrepresenting research results which could damage the trust in the journal and ultimately the entire scientific endeavor. Maintaining integrity of the research and its presentation can be achieved by following the rules of good scientific practice, which includes:
● The manuscript has not been submitted to more than one journal for simultaneous consideration.
● The manuscript has not been published previously (partly 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 hint of text-recycling (“self-plagiarism”)).
● A single study is not split up into several parts to increase the quantity of submissions and submitted to various journals or to one journal over time (e.g., “salami-publishing”).
● No data have been fabricated or manipulated (including images) to support your conclusions.
● No data, text, or theories by others are presented as if they were the authors 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 are used for verbatim copying of material, and permissions are secured for material that is copyrighted.
Important note: The journal may use software to screen for plagiarism.
● Consent to submit has been received from all co-authors and responsible authorities at the institute/organization where the work has been carried out before the work is submitted.
● Authors whose names appear on the submission have contributed sufficiently to the scientific work and therefore share collective responsibility and accountability for the results.
In addition:
● Changes of authorship or in the order of authors are not accepted after acceptance of a manuscript.
● Requests to add or delete authors at revision stage or after publication is a serious matter, and may be considered only after receipt of written approval from all authors and detailed explanation about the role/deletion of the new/deleted author. The decision on accepting the change rests with the Editor-in-Chief of the journal.
● Upon request authors should be prepared to send relevant documentation or data in order to verify the validity of the results. This could be in the form of raw data, samples, records, etc.
If there is a suspicion of misconduct, the journal will carry out an investigation following the COPE guidelines. If, after investigation, the allegation seems to raise valid concerns, the accused author will be contacted and given an opportunity to address the issue. If misconduct has been proven, this may result in the Editor-in-Chief’s implementation of the following measures, including but not limited to:
- If the article is still under consideration, it may be rejected and returned to the author.
- If the article has already been published online, depending on the nature and severity of the infraction, either an erratum will be placed with the article, or, in severe cases complete retraction of the article will occur. The reason must be given in the published erratum or retraction note.
- The author’s institution may be informed.
Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest
Authors are requested to disclose interests that are directly or indirectly related to the work submitted for publication. Interests within the last 3 years of beginning the work (conducting the research and preparing the work for submission) should be reported. Interests outside the 3-year time frame must be disclosed if they could reasonably be perceived as influencing the submitted work. Disclosure of interests provides a complete and transparent process and helps readers form their own judgments of potential bias. This is not meant to imply that a financial relationship with an organization that sponsored the research or compensation received for consultancy work is inappropriate.
Editorial Board Members and Editors are required to declare any competing interests and may be excluded from the peer review process if a competing interest exists. In addition, they should exclude themselves from handling manuscripts in cases where there is a competing interest. This may include – but is not limited to – having previously published with one or more of the authors, and sharing the same institution as one or more of the authors. Where an Editor or Editorial Board Member is on the author list they must declare this in the competing interests section on the submitted manuscript. If they are an author or have any other competing interest regarding a specific manuscript, another Editor or member of the Editorial Board will be assigned to assume responsibility for overseeing peer review. These submissions are subject to the exact same review process as any other manuscript. Editorial Board Members are welcome to submit papers to the journal. These submissions are not given any priority over other manuscripts, and Editorial Board Member status has no bearing on editorial consideration.
This journal also publishes special/guest-edited issues. The peer review process for these articles is the same as the peer review process of the journal in general. Additionally, if the guest editor(s) authors an article in their special issue, they will not handle the peer review process.
Interests that should be considered and disclosed but are not limited to the following:
● Funding: Research grants from funding agencies (please give the research funder and the grant number) and/or research support (including salaries, equipment, supplies, reimbursement for attending symposia, and other expenses) by organizations that may gain or lose financially through publication of this manuscript.
● Employment: Recent (while engaged in the research project), present or anticipated employment by any organization that may gain or lose financially through publication of this manuscript. This includes multiple affiliations (if applicable).
● Financial interests: Stocks or shares in companies (including holdings of spouse and/or children) that may gain or lose financially through publication of this manuscript; consultation fees or other forms of remuneration from organizations that may gain or lose financially; patents or patent applications whose value may be affected by publication of this manuscript.
It is difficult to specify a threshold at which a financial interest becomes significant, any such figure is necessarily arbitrary, so one possible practical guideline is the following: “Any undeclared financial interest that could embarrass the author were it to become publicly known after the work was published”.
● Non-financial interests: In addition, authors are requested to disclose interests that go beyond financial interests that could impart bias on the work submitted for publication such as professional interests, personal relationships or personal beliefs (amongst others). Examples include, but are not limited to: position on editorial board, advisory board or board of directors or other type of management relationships; writing and/or consulting for educational purposes; expert witness; mentoring relations; and so forth.
Primary research articles require a disclosure statement. Review articles present an expert synthesis of evidence and may be treated as an authoritative work on a subject. Review articles therefore require a disclosure statement. Other article types such as editorials, comments (amongst others) may, dependent on their content, require a disclosure statement. If you are unclear whether your article type requires a disclosure statement, please contact the Editor-in-Chief.
Please note that, in addition to the above requirements, funding information (given that funding is a potential competing interest (as mentioned above)) needs to be disclosed upon submission of the manuscript in the peer review system. This information will automatically be added to the Record of CrossMark, however it is not added to the manuscript itself. Under “summary of requirements” (see below) funding information should be included in the “Declarations” section.
Summary of requirements:
The above should be summarized in a statement and placed in a “Declarations” section before the reference list under a heading of “Funding” and/or “Competing interests”. Other declarations include Ethics approval, Consent, Data, Material and/or Code availability and Authors’ contribution statements. Please see the various examples of wording below and revise/customize the sample statements according to your own needs. When all authors have the same (or no) conflicts and/or funding it is sufficient to use one blanket statement.
● Examples of statements to be used when funding has been received:
- Partial financial support was received from [...].
- The research leading to these results received funding from […] under Grant Agreement No[…].
- This study was funded by […].
- This work was supported by […] (Grant numbers […] and […]).
● Examples of statements to be used when there is no funding:
- The authors did not receive support from any organization for the submitted work.
- No funding was received to assist with the preparation of this manuscript.
- No funding was received for conducting this study.
- No funds, grants, or other support was received.
● Examples of statements to be used when there are interests to declare:
- Financial interests: Author A has received research support from Company A. Author B has received a speaker honorarium from Company Wand owns stock in Company X. Author C is consultant to company Y.
Non-financial interests: Author C is an unpaid member of committee Z.
- Financial interests: The authors declare they have no financial interests.
Non-financial interests: Author A is on the board of directors of Y and receives no compensation as member of the board of directors.
- Financial interests: Author A received a speaking fee from Y for Z. Author B receives a salary from association X. X where s/he is the Executive Director.
Non-financial interests: None.
- Financial interests: Author A and B declare they have no financial interests. Author C has received speaker and consultant honoraria from Company M and Company N. Dr. C has received speaker honorarium and research funding from Company M and Company O. Author D has received travel support from Company O.
Non-financial interests: Author D has served on advisory boards for Company M, Company N and Company O.
● Examples of statements to be used when authors have nothing to declare:
- The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.
- The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.
- All authors certify that they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial interest or non-financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript.
- The authors have no financial or proprietary interests in any material discussed in this article.
Authors are responsible for correctness of the statements provided in the manuscript. The Editor-in-Chief reserves the right to reject submissions that do not meet the guidelines described in this section.
Copyright transfer
No article can be published unless accompanied by a signed Copyright Transfer Statement, which ensures a transfer of copyright from author to publisher. A copy of the Copyright Transfer Statement to be used will be provided with the letter of acceptance of the manuscript. Authors are asked to scan and return by email or fax the signed statement to the editorial office of Frontiers of Engineering Management at the STM Journal Center of the Higher Education Press.
Manuscript preparation and submission requirements
Manuscript submission
Authors are encouraged to submit their papers electronically via the online submission system (http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/fem). The web site guides authors stepwise through the creation and uploading of the various files. Note that original source files, not PDF files, are required. Once the submission files are uploaded, the system automatically generates an electronic (PDF) proof, which is then used for reviewing. All correspondence, including the editor’s decision and request for revisions, will be by e-mail. After reviewing process, the manuscript will be finally judged by one of the editors who have the right to accept or reject a paper.
Submission requirements
Manuscript for research articles
Manuscripts should be in a Word format. The following components are required for a complete manuscript: Title, Author(s), Author affiliation(s), Abstract, Keywords, Nomenclature (when needed), Main text, References, Acknowledgements, Appendices, Figure captions, Tables, etc. Please use standard 10- or 12-point Times New Roman fonts.
Title. The title of the paper should be explicit, descriptive and as brief as possible – no more than 20 words in length.
Running title. A short version of the paper title (up to 80 characters including space).
Author names, (academic degrees) and affiliations.
Where the family name may be ambiguous (e.g., a double name), please indicate this clearly. Present the authors’ affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lowercase superscript letter immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name, and, if available, the e-mail address of each author.
Clearly indicate who will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication. The telephone and mobile numbers (with country and area code) in addition to the e-mail address and the complete postal address of the corresponding author should be given.
Example:
Jinzhi FENG, Jun LI, R. M. Goodall
Department name, University name, City name postal code, Country name
E-mail: ******
Corresponding author. The e-mail address of the corresponding author should be given on the first page of the manuscript. In the case of multiple authors, one should be designated as the corresponding author.
Abstract. A concise and factual abstract of 250–300 words is required. The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results and major message. An abstract is often presented separately from the article, so it must be able to stand alone. For this reason, References should be avoided, but if essential, they must be cited in full, without reference to the reference list. Also, abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential, they must be defined at their first mention in the abstract itself.
Keywords.Up to 6 words separated by commas.
Headings and subheadings. Headings and subheadings should be used throughout the text to divide the subject matter into its important, logical parts. Typical headings include: Introduction, Materials and methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, Acknowledgments, Appendixes and References, etc.
Tables.
Authors should take notice of the limitations set by the size and layout of the journal. Large tables should be avoided. Reversing columns and rows will often reduce the dimensions of a table. If many data are to be presented, an attempt should be made to divide them over two or more tables.
Example:
Table 1 Table title
|
Sample |
2/days |
4/days |
6/days |
|
Blank control |
61.5 |
71.4 |
68.0 |
|
PLA |
73.2 |
75.6 |
65.2 |
|
HA-PLA |
54.4 |
78.6 |
62.4 |
Notes: PLA: ******; HA-PLA: ******.
1. Supply units of measure at the heads of the columns. Abbreviations that are used only in a table should be defined in the footnotes to that table.
2. Should always use rows and columns to correlate two variables. Submitted single-spaced using the word processing software. Do not embed tables as graphic files, document objects, or pictures.
3. Submitted as three-line tables, that is, there are three horizontal lines: One under the legend, one under the column heads, and one below the body. Vertical lines are generally not used.
4. Label each table at the top with a Roman numeral followed by the table title. Insert explanatory material and footnotes below the table. Designate footnotes using lowercase superscript letters (a, b, c) reading horizontally across the table.
5. Unless needed, all the words within the tables should be in lowercases.
6. Must be sequentially numbered and called out in the text as, e.g., Table 1.
Figures.
Graphs should be practically self-explanatory. Readers should be able to understand them at a glance. Dimensional drawings and diagrams should include only the essential details and as little lettering as possible. They should present more of a picture than a working drawing.
1. Should be drawn in the size of what they virtually appear.
2. Number all figures (graphs, charts, photographs, and illustrations) in the order of their citation in the text and cite as, e.g., Fig. 1. Include a title for each figure (a brief phrase, preferably no longer than 10 to 15 words). Use (a), (b), (c) to give titles for subfigures if there are any.
3. Figure quality should be sharp, noise-free, and of good contrast. All lettering should be large enough to permit legible reduction. The figure quality should meet the requirements as shown below:
4. Color of figures: Unless necessary, better drawn in black and white for line-drawing; and grayscale for images.
5. Should not be embedded in word processing documents but rather submitted in TIFF, EPS or CorelDraw file formats. Should be located within the paper, while legends should appear separate from the figures themselves.
6. Please use the authorized maps as the basis for map figure drawing (like maps published by China Map Press, and the like). Any maps drawn without an authorized basis have to be submitted with the certificate from the Surveying and Mapping management. All the maps should follow the publishing requirements released by the Government.
7. Unless needed, all the words within the figures should be in lowercases.
Formulae and equations.
1. Formulae should be typewritten in MathType style.
2. It is extremely important that all mathematical symbols and letters used are identified and listed and that the required style of appearance of such symbols is clearly indicated, e.g., bold face, italics, script, outline, etc.
3. Subscripts and superscripts should be set off clearly.
4. Identify in the margin any symbols that might be confused with similar symbols.
5. The words Equation or Equations should appear in full at the beginning of sentences but be abbreviated to Eq. or Eqs. elsewhere.
6. A nomenclature can be included (with the use of “=” signs) after the abstract if there is a significant number of symbols in the paper.
Equations should be located separately from other lines if they are long or complicated.
Units of measure. Laboratory values are expressed using conventional units of measure, with relevant Système International (SI) conversion factors expressed secondarily (in parentheses) only at first mention. In tables and figures, a conversion factor to SI should be presented in the footnote or legend. The metric system is preferred for the expression of length, area, mass, and volume. For more details, see the Units of Measure conversion table.
Abbreviations. Do not use abbreviations in the title or abstract and limit their use in the text. Expand all abbreviations at first mention in the text.
Footnotes. Footnotes should only be used if absolutely essential. In most cases it will be possible to incorporate the information in normal text. If used, they should be numbered in the text, indicated by superscript numbers, and kept as short as possible.
Acknowledgements. The Acknowledgements section is the general term for the list of sponsor and financial support, contributions, credits, and other information included at the end of the text of a manuscript but before the references. Conflicts of interest and financial disclosures must be listed in this section. Authors should obtain written permission to include the names of individuals in the Acknowledgements section.
Appendixes (if needed).
Appendix A
A1, A2, A3…
Appendix B
Appendix C…
Citations and references.
In-text citations must agree with the references in names and year. The references should be presented completely and without mistakes, and should be the original publication. References should be cited in the text by the author’s surname and year of publication. Grouped citations should be separated by semicolons and given in chronological order: e.g., (Peterson, 1984; Jackson and Whitehead, 1991; Shuman et al., 2001; 2004). Reference section should be arranged alphabetically according to the author’s surname. Journal names should be spelled out in full.
Example:
Reference for journals
Stokes J, Looney L (2004). Residual stress in HVOF thermally sprayed thick deposits. Surf Coat Technology, 177/178(1): 18–23
Reference for books
Ray D (1982). Natural Systems for Water Pollution Control. New York: van Nostrand Reinhold
Reference for a chapter in a book
Schlessinger D, Schaechter M (1993). Bacterial toxins. In: Schaechter M, Medoff G, Eisenstein B I, eds. Mechanisms of Microbial Disease, 2nd ed. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins, 162–175
Reference for proceedings
Li Q Q, Zhao R J, Zhang Y J (1999). Parameter system and engineering actualizing in the reverse engineering. In: Proceedings of International Conference on Advanced Manufacturing Technology June. Xi’an: China Machine Press, 9: 608–611
Reference for dissertations
Liu C X (2003). Study on the Measures for Improving Constructed Wetlands’ Performance in Treating Domestic Wastewater. Dissertation for the Doctoral Degree. Beijing: Tsinghua University (in Chinese)
Reference for webpage
Christoph M (2014). Phobos—a tandem repeat search tool for complete genomes. Available at: ruhr-uni-bochum.htm, 2014-3-25 (cited that very day)
Reference for online article
Fei J, Yang J, Zhou H, Tang M, Lu W, Yan A, Hou Y, Zhang S (2014). A novel method for identifying shahtoosh. Journal of Forensic Sciences, doi: 10.1111/1556-4029.12374
Manuscript for review articles
Reviews give a general overview of a particular field, providing the reader with an appreciation of the importance of the work, historical context, a summary of recent developments, and a starting point in the specialist literature. Manuscripts should be divided into appropriate sections, with an extensive list of references. In addition to undergoing the same rigorous level of technical peer-review as Research papers, Review articles will be critiqued based on the general impact of the field being reviewed, the relevance of the field to experimental mechanics, preexisting reviews of the field, and acknowledgement of the contributing author as a dominant figure in the field. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that authors interested in submitting a Review article correspond with the Editor prior to submission. General formatting text, illustrations, and references are the same as outlined for Research papers.
Notification
The corresponding author will be notified by the editors of the acceptance of article and invited to supply an electronic version of the accepted text, if this is not already available.
Proofreading and production
Proofs will be sent to the author and should be returned within 72 hours of receipt. Authors should clarify any questions of the proof in a query file. No new materials shall be inserted at the time of proofreading. Please note that authors are urged to check their proofs carefully before return one all-inclusive e-mail or fax, since subsequent additional corrections will not be possible.
Research data policy
The journal encourages authors, where possible and applicable, to deposit data that support the findings of their research in a public repository. Authors and editors who do not have a preferred repository should consult Springer Nature’s list of repositories and research data policy:
- Research Data Policy. General repositories – for all types of research data – such as Figshare and Dryad may also be used. Datasets that are assigned digital object identifiers (DOIs) by a data repository may be cited in the reference list. Data citations should include the minimum information recommended by DataCite: authors, title, publisher (repository name), identifier, etc.
- DataCite. Springer Nature provides a research data policy support service for authors and editors, which can be contacted at researchdata@springernature.com. This service provides advice on research data policy compliance and on finding research data repositories. It is independent of journal, book and conference proceedings editorial offices and does not advise on specific manuscripts.
- Helpdesk
Author enquiries
For submission inquiries, tracking articles and any information please contact the Frontiers of Engineering Management office in Huazhong University of Science and Technology (fem@hust.edu.cn) or office in Higher Education Press (zhangln@hep.com.cn). Queries about accepted manuscripts in production or post-publication corrections should be sent to patricia.hofrichter@springer.com. Any other queries about the journal or presubmission enquiries should be sent to na.xu@springer.com. Please include the manuscript dispatch number in all correspondences.
Author benefits
The articles enjoy a fast peer-review and production workflow and will be published more quickly with the online first publishing on the basis of individual articles. The submitted manuscripts will get polished in language by highly qualified editors before typeset.
Managing Editors:
Yong LI
Huiwen DONG
School of Civil Engineering and Mechanics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Tel: +86-27-87540191
E-mail: fem@hust.edu.cn
Linan ZHANG
STM Journal Center, Higher Education Press
Tel: 86-10-58581429
E-mail: zhangln@hep.com.cn