IJAE_GuideForAuthors-Manuscript Template
The journal upholds the highest standards in scholarly publishing. Before submitting a manuscript, authors must ensure that they have read and complied with the journal’s policies. The journal reserves the right to reject without review, or retract, any manuscript that the editor believes may not comply with these policies. The responsibilities of the journal’s authors, editors, reviewers, and publisher regarding research and publication ethics are described in full below.
Submission to the journal implies that the manuscript has not been previously published (in part or whole, in any language), is not in press, and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. The availability of a manuscript on a publicly accessible preprint server does not constitute prior publication (see ‘Preprints’). The abbreviated publication within conference proceedings, organizational bulletins, and transaction magazine are exempted. Authors should inform editors upon submission of any prior presentation or publication of the work and revise the manuscript considering the following guidelines:
1) The journal should use a different title than the previously published paper.
2) The revised version should explicitly cite the original paper, and a copy of the paper should be included in the submission.
3) The revised paper should contain at least 40% new material. New material can include more detailed discussions of the technique presented (including new images) and additional results. It must be described by a run of the item in the cover letter.
Authors must inform the editors if any related manuscripts are under consideration, in press, or published elsewhere. If authors choose to submit their manuscript elsewhere before a final decision has been made on its suitability for publication in the journal, they should first withdraw it from the journal.
The journal welcomes manuscript submissions from authors based anywhere in the world. The submission of a manuscript to the journal implies that all authors have approved it, warrant it is factual, have agreed to its submission, and have the right to publish it.
Submission to the journal implies that the manuscript is original work. Any manuscript with an unacceptable level of unoriginal material may be rejected or retracted at the editors’ discretion.
To support the wide dissemination of research, IJAE encourages authors to post their manuscripts on community-recognized preprint servers, either before or alongside submission to the journal. This applies only to the original version of a manuscript that describes primary research. Suggested preprint servers are listed here: https://www.jske.org/english/publication/preprint.
Any version of a manuscript that has been revised in response to reviewers’ comments, accepted for publication or published in the journal should not be posted on a preprint server. Instead, forward links to the published manuscript may be posted on the preprint server. Authors should retain copyright in their work while posting to a preprint server.
While assessing the novelty of a manuscript submitted to the journal, the editors will not be influenced by other manuscripts that are posted on community-recognized preprint servers after the date of submission to the journal (or after the date of posting on a preprint server, if the manuscript is submitted to the journal within four months).
Submission to the journal implies that all authors have seen and approved the author list. Changes to the author list after manuscript submission, such as the insertion or removal of author names, or a rearrangement of author order, must be approved by all authors and the editor.
Authors are encouraged to review the Council of Science Editors (CSE) principles governing authorship. According to the CSE guidelines (and references therein), each author is expected to have made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; or have drafted the work or substantively revised it. Authors must also agree to be held accountable for their contributions to the work; can identify which co-authors are responsible for other parts of the work; have confidence in the integrity of the work; and have reviewed and approved the final manuscript and any resubmissions. Contributors who do not qualify for authorship may be included in the Acknowledgments section.
Authors may digitally manipulate or process images, but only if the adjustments are kept to a minimum, applied to the entire image, and clearly described in the manuscript and meet community standards. All images in a manuscript must accurately reflect the original data on which they are based. Authors must not move, remove, add, or enhance individual parts of an image. The editors reserve the right to request original, unprocessed images from the authors. Failure to provide requested images may result in a manuscript being rejected or retracted.
If a manuscript includes material that is not under the authors’ own copyright, the authors must obtain permission from the copyright holder(s) to reproduce it. If a manuscript includes previously published material, the authors must obtain permission from the copyright owners and the publisher of the original work to reproduce it. The authors must cite the original work in their manuscript. Copies of all reproduction permissions must be included with the manuscript when it is first submitted.
Authors must disclose the source of publicly available data and materials, such as public repositories or commercial manufacturers, by including accession numbers or company details in their manuscript, as appropriate. Authors may make their own data and materials available as Supplementary Material, or by linking from their manuscript to J-STAGE Data (see below) or other relevant community-recognized public databases or digital repositories. All datasets must be made available in full to the editors and reviewers during the peer review process and must be made publicly available by the date of publication. Authors should commit to preserving their datasets for at least five years from the date of publication in the journal. Authors are encouraged to grant reasonable requests from colleagues to share any data, materials, and experimental protocols described in their manuscript.
IJAE recommends that the data underlying the manuscript be made available on J-STAGE Data, a data repository operated by the Japan Science and Technology Agency. Authors who opt to make data available on J-STAGE Data should contact the Editorial Head Office for further instructions. If authors wish to publish data from J-STAGE Data, they must submit the data and its metadata to the editorial board for peer review. The copyright of the data published by J-STAGE Data is retained by authors. Data is made available under the Creative Commons xxx xxx (4.0) International license.
Authors of manuscripts describing experiments involving humans or materials derived from humans must demonstrate that the work was carried out in keeping with the principles embodied in the Declaration of Helsinki, its revisions, and any guidelines approved by the authors’ institutions. Wherever relevant, the authors must include a statement in their manuscript that describes the procedures for obtaining informed consent from participants vis-à-vis participation in the research and subsequent publication. Authors of manuscripts describing experiments involving animals or materials derived from animals must demonstrate that the work was carried out in accordance with the guidelines approved by the authors’ institution (s).
Manuscripts describing the collection of archaeological, geological, paleontological, or other specimens or samples should include detailed information on their provenance and collection methods. Authors must include a statement in their manuscript describing the relevant ethics guidelines, local laws, and collection permits under which the research was conducted.
In the interests of transparency, the journal requires all authors to declare any competing or conflicts of interest in relation to their submitted manuscripts. A conflict of interest exists when there are actual, perceived, or potential circumstances that can influence an author’s ability to conduct or report research impartially. Potential conflicts include (but are not limited to) competing commercial or financial interests, commercial affiliations, consulting roles, or ownership of stock or equity. Authors must list all funding sources for their work in the funding section of their manuscript.
The journal maintains the confidentiality of all unpublished manuscripts. By submitting their manuscript to the journal, the authors warrant that they will keep all correspondence about their manuscript (from the Editorial Office, editors, and reviewers) strictly confidential.
The journal follows a single-blind peer review process. When a manuscript is submitted to the journal, it is assigned to the Editor-in-Chief, who performs initial screening. Manuscripts that do not fit the journal’s scope or are not deemed suitable for publication are rejected without review. The Editor-in-Chief allocates the remaining manuscripts to an Associate Editor, who handles the peer review process. The Associate Editor selects two appropriate reviewers to provide their assessment of the manuscript. Reviewers are selected based on their expertise, reputation, and previous experience as peer reviewers.
Once the reviewers’ reports have been received, the Associate Editor determines whether the manuscript requires revision. Authors who are asked to revise their manuscript must do so within one month, otherwise it may be treated as a new submission. The Associate Editor may send revised manuscripts to peer reviewers for their feedback or may use his or her own judgment to assess how closely the authors have followed the comments on the original manuscript. The Associate Editor then makes a final decision on the manuscript’s suitability for publication in the journal.
After a manuscript is accepted for publication, authors will be requested to submit the final digital versions of each element in the manuscript, including the text, and any supplementary materials (e.g., data, photos, video, and audio). Once accepted for publication, the manuscript must not be modified without valid permission from the committee. The Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Committee act as arbitrators when necessary.s
Reviewers are selected based on their expertise in the field, reputation, recommendation by others, and/or previous experience as peer reviewers for the journal. They must submit their first review within 30 days of accepting the invitation to review. Reviewers who anticipate any delays should inform the Editorial Office as soon as possible. While submitting a manuscript to the journal, authors may suggest reviewers that they would like to be included in or excluded from the peer review process. Though the editor may consider these suggestions, they are under no obligation to follow them. The selection, invitation, and assignment of peer reviewers is at the editor’s sole discretion.
It is the journal’s policy to transmit reviewers’ comments to the authors in their original form. However, the journal reserves the right to edit reviewers’ comments, without consulting the reviewers, if they contain offensive language, confidential information, or recommendations for publication.
If a manuscript satisfies the journal’s requirements and represents a significant contribution to the discipline, the editor may recommend acceptance for publication in the journal.
Articles in the journal must:
If a manuscript does not meet the journal’s requirements for acceptance or revision, the editor may recommend rejection.
The Japan Society of Kansei Engineering (JSKE) has granted the journal’s Editorial Committee complete and sole responsibility for all editorial decisions. The JSKE is not involved in editorial decisions, except in cases of a fundamental breakdown of process.
Editorial decisions are based only on a manuscript’s scientific merit and are kept distinct from the journal’s other interests. Manuscripts are judged without regard for ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, citizenship, political philosophy, and/or financial status of the authors.
Authors who believe that an editorial decision has been made in error may lodge an appeal with the Editorial Office. Appeals are only considered if the authors provide detailed evidence of a misunderstanding or mistake by a reviewer or editor. They are considered carefully by the Editor-in-Chief, whose decision is final. The guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) are followed wherever relevant.
The journal recognizes the importance of maintaining the integrity of published literature. A published article that contains an error may be corrected through the publication of an Erratum. Errata describe errors that significantly affect the scientific integrity of a publication, the reputation of the authors, or the journal itself. Authors who wish to correct a published article should contact the editor who handled their manuscript or the Editorial Office with full details of the error(s) and their requested changes. Where co-authors disagree over a correction, the Editor-in-Chief may consult the Editorial Committee or external peer reviewers for advice. If a correction is published, any dissenting authors will be noted in the text.
A published article that contains invalid or unreliable results or conclusions, has been published elsewhere, or has infringed codes of conduct (covering research or publication ethics) may be retracted. Individuals who believe that a published article should be retracted are encouraged to contact the journal’s Editorial Office with full details of their concerns. The Editor-in-Chief will investigate the matter and contact the authors of the published article for their response. Where co-authors disagree over a retraction, the Editor-in-Chief may consult the Editorial Committee or external peer reviewers for advice. If a retraction is published, any dissenting authors will be noted in the text. The decision to publish errata or retractions is made at the sole discretion of the Editor-in-Chief.
Any member of the journal’s Editorial Committee, including the Editor-in-Chief who is an author on a submitted manuscript is excluded from the peer review process. Within the journal’s online manuscript submission and tracking system, they will be able to see their manuscript as an author but not as an editor, thus maintaining the confidentiality of the peer review process. A manuscript authored by an editor of the journal is subject to the same high standards of peer review and editorial decision-making as any manuscript considered by the journal.
The journal will address allegations of ethical breach in line with its policies and, wherever possible, the guidelines of COPE.
All manuscripts must be submitted via the journal’s online submission system, Editorial Manager: https://www.editorialmanager.com/keij/. The original or revised manuscript text may be uploaded as a PDF or Microsoft Word file, but a Word file is necessary for the final manuscript text. Figures, photos, videos, and audio files may be submitted separately in several different formats. Specific instructions for submission can be found in the webpage provided above. The manuscript type (Original Articles, Letters, Review Articles) must be indicated and the applicable categories must be listed on the submission system. If there are any problems with online submission, the Editorial Office may be contacted using the details provided in the Contact section.
The article must be prepared using the template. The main elements of each section are included below, but the authors should refer to the template file for the full details and layout instructions.
Manuscripts should be written in clear, grammatically correct English. Authors whose native language is not English are strongly encouraged to have their manuscript checked by a native English speaker or by an editing service prior to submission. If a manuscript is not clear owing to poor English, it may be rejected without a peer review.
A cover letter must be submitted, bearing the name of the manuscript and the contact details of the corresponding author(s). Authors should summarize the aims and outcomes of their work and how and why it is appropriate for publication. Details of any consent and/or ethics approvals, and other such items must be included in the cover letter. Any other relevant information such as applications for APC waivers, other ethics declarations, and so on should be included at the time of submission in the cover letter. Authors should indicate if the submitted manuscript has already been submitted to a preprint server. All incremental content should be indicated, if the same content as the manuscript has already been presented at a conference. The incremental content must be 40% or more.
The title should describe the content of the article briefly but clearly and is important for search purposes by third-party services. The same main title with numbered minor titles should not be used, even for a series of papers by the same authors. Abbreviations should not be used in the title, except those used in the relevant field.
The full names of the author(s), with initials, must be provided. Corresponding author(s) must be indicated by superscript symbols, *.
The full names and addresses of institutions (including institute and/or university, city, state, and country) must be provided. When authors belong to different institutions, each of their addresses should be indicated by superscript numbers. When authors have new affiliations, they should be given in a footnote indicated by superscript numbers.
Five keywords should be provided.
Each abbreviation should be defined in parentheses together with its non-abbreviated form when it first appears in the text (except in the Title and Abstract).
SI or SI-derived units should be used. More information on SI units is available at the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM) website.
Original Articles, Letters, and Review Articles require English Abstracts of less than or equal to 150 words. The Abstract should clearly express the basic content of the paper in a single paragraph and in the case of an original article or letter, it should include the problem addressed, experimental approach, main results and findings, and conclusions. For reviews, the unstructured Abstract should introduce the paper's main themes in a concise, routine, and digestible manner to attract wide readership. If it is essential to refer to a previous publication, omit the article title (e.g., Yanagisawa, H., Wu, X., Ueda, K., and Kato, T. (2023). Neural Netw., 157: 422–436.).
The main text should be organized into sequentially numbered sections and comprise text consistent with the descriptions in the Manuscript Types section.
This section should be brief. Authors should list all funding sources for their work in the Acknowledgments section.
IJAE uses the American Psychological Association (APA) referencing style 7th edition. Items cited in the text should be listed in full in the References section.
All figures including photographs should bear captions below, whereas all tables should bear captions above. Captions should be justified left, aligned with the left edge of the figure or table. Tables and Figures must each be numbered consecutively in keeping with their first reference in the text (e.g., Table 1, Table 2; Figure 1, Figure 2 etc.). Figures and tables must be placed in the text as closely as possible to the point of first mention. Figures and tables should preferably be made to fit the full page width. Text should not be wrapped around the figure or table. The placement of two smaller figures side-by-side is acceptable. Photographs should be pasted into the manuscript.
(1) Please submit data (Word/pdf) with Figures/Tables inserted in the manuscript.
(2) Figure: Please submit a separate image file.
*As there are restrictions on file formats while pasting into a Word document, please submit the same JPG/PNG or other image files that you pasted in the file.
*Please prepare image files with a resolution of 300 dpi or higher for image-only data such as photographs, and 600 dpi or higher for images including texts and lines.
*In case of line drawings, submit the original ppt/ai/pdf file with outlines of the text.
(3) If you have created a table in Excel or other software and pasted it into the manuscript as an image in Word, please submit the original file.
Supplementary material adds, but is not essential, to a reader’s understanding of a manuscript. Authors are encouraged to submit supplementary material for publication online alone. It may comprise data, text, audio, or movie files, and is published online alongside the accepted manuscript. Supplementary material is peer-reviewed. Thus, authors must submit it in its final form as part of their submission. After a manuscript has been accepted for publication, authors may not make any changes to the supplementary material.
Manuscripts that are accepted for publication are copyedited and typeset by the journal’s production team before publication. The journal is published four times per year / continuously online. All communication regarding accepted manuscripts shall take place with the corresponding author (s).
Page proofs are sent to the corresponding author, who should check and return them within one week of receipt. Only essential corrections to typesetting errors or omissions are accepted. Excessive changes are not permitted at the proofing stage.