Author Guidelines
SUBMISSION:
Authors and researchers are requested to submit their articles following the manuscript format/template outlined below, exclusively through the system. This ensures that the review process can commence. Before submitting an article, authors must first register in the system. The comprehensive guide for authors, along with detailed examples, is provided in the article template file. Therefore, we will refrain from repeating it here.
Additionally, you can download the following files related to writing articles for the journal of Civil Infrastructure Researches (CIR):
Word File: Guide for Writing Articles - Civil Infrastructure Research
PDF File: Guide for Writing Articles - Civil Infrastructure Research
1) Online Submissions
Our selection of articles depends on the quality, breadth, and originality of the theme(s) covered and their bearing on the focus of the journal. We do not accept manuscripts published elsewhere. Submit the manuscript without the authors' names, affiliations, and biographies. Along with it, submit a cover page that includes the manuscript title, authors' names and affiliations, and the corresponding author's name and contact information (full postal and e-mail addresses, phone and fax numbers). The maximum number of pages, including footnotes, should not exceed 20. Please note that only one submission per author will be considered at a time. Before submitting your manuscript, please familiarize yourself with the peer review and publication process and learn how to submit your work. If you have not registered yet, please click on: Register. After successfully registering, you should have a username and password. If you already have a username and password, please Login.
Required files to upload: Authors must submit the following five essential files through the manuscript submission system: 1. Main Manuscript File (without the author details, and prepared based on the provided template. 2. Title Page, 3. Authorship Form (must include the article title, full names of all authors, and be signed by all authors), 4. Conflicts of Interest Form m (must be signed by the Corresponding Author and uploaded with the Main Manuscript File), and 5. Cover letter (Please include any necessary information in the cover letter).
2) Font
All spellings must be rendered in American English. To change British or Commonwealth spellings to their American equivalents, please see the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary. To distinguish the different parts of the manuscript, use the following fonts for each part:
SECTIONING AND STRUCTURE:
The manuscript should be organized in the following sequence: title page, abstract, keywords, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, conflict of interest, acknowledgments (optional), references, tables, and figures.
1) Title page
The title page should include the following items (please do not include any text other than the ones described below):
- The title of the manuscript. The title of the manuscript should be typed in bold-faced print using both upper and lower-case letters and set in the center of the page. Abbreviations are not permitted in the title. Capitalize all “major” words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and pronouns) in the title and subtitle. The title should reflect exactly, efficiently, and succinctly what the study is about. The title of a scientific paper is the most important part of the paper because it is the first introduction the reader has to the content of the paper. Many readers skim titles and abstracts looking for suitable articles to read. So the title should give a terse description of the main content and should help readers decide whether to read the abstract or the paper itself. Therefore, it should be attractive and meaningful.
- Author or authors list. The full names of all authors should be provided with the family name.
- Each author's institution and e-mail (optional). The address of the institution was conducted should include the name of the institution, city, zip code, and country
- The FIRST NAMEs, Initials (if any), and LAST NAMEs, as well as the e-mail addresses and the ORCID code of all authors, must be provided.
- The corresponding author should be marked with "Corresponding author" at the beginning of his/her affiliation address.
The title page should include the title and the authorship in the following structure:
Title of the manuscript
Author Name
Corresponding author, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Engineering, University of Qom, Qom, Iran. E-mail: cer@qom.ac.ir
Author Name
Associate Professor, Faculty of Engineering, University of Qom, Qom, Iran. E-mail: cer@qom.ac.ir
Notes:
- Professional titles: Professional titles (e.g., Doctor or Engineer) should not be included.
- Affiliation: The affiliation(s) and address(es) of the author(s) should follow the below structure: Academic ranking, department, faculty, university, city, and country. E-mail: cer@qom.ac.ir, for example, Associate Professor, Faculty of Engineering, University of Qom, Qom, Iran. E-mail: cer@qom.ac.ir.
2) Abstract
An abstract is required for all article types. The abstract should be structured in the following order: objective, methods, results, and conclusions. The abstract should be between 400-500 words. The abstract should be free of references and abbreviations. The abstract should summarize pertinent results in a brief but understandable form.
3) Keywords
At the end of the abstract, up to six keywords that best describe the content of the research should be listed. The term "Keywords" should appear in bold, followed by a colon. The first letter of each keyword is capitalized, and keywords are separated by a comma. It is suggested to use the IEEE Thesaurus and other thesauri.
4) Document types:
The document type should follow the below structure:
Paper type: Research Article
Paper type: Research Review
5) Introduction
The Introduction, the beginning of the paper, provides a context or sufficient background information for the study (i.e., the significance and nature of the problem) and previous experimental results to enable a reader who is not an expert in the topic to understand the question that is being addressed in the paper, and why it is significant. The Introduction should attract the reader to the rest of the paper. When presented properly, this section ensures that the reader will be able to understand the details of the experiment as well as its relevance to the scientific community. The Introduction should (a) present the nature and the scope of the problem investigated; (b) provide enough background to orient the reader and justify the study, reviewing the pertinent literature to the problem; (c) state the reason for the study, and how it differs or is related to previous studies; and (d) state the goal/objectives and method of the investigation.
The Introduction should put forth the related background to the study, explain why the study was done, and specifies the hypotheses to be tested. An extensive discussion of relevant literature should be included in the discussion of results, not in the Introduction.
6) Materials and Methods
In the Materials and Methods section, all materials used and methods followed throughout the experiment should be reported. This section should be sufficiently clear and include a detailed procedure of how the experiment was performed, both methodologically and statistically, in such a way that another competent researcher can follow and duplicate the experiment. It is vital in the Materials and Methods section that the reader understands the author's experimental design and how data will be analyzed. The Materials and Methods section allows the reader to put the work into its environmental context. Scientific reports must be reproducible; consequently, the Materials and Methods section is extremely important to the credibility of the work.
The materials and methods should present essential details, experimental design, and statistical analysis. A clear description or original reference is required for all biological, analytical, and statistical procedures used in the study. All modifications of procedures must be explained. Treatments and measurements should be described clearly. Statistical models and methods of analysis should be described clearly and fully.
7) Results
The results should present the findings of the study. The Results of the study should be presented in tables, and data means (numbers) should not be repeated broadly in the text. The results should be separate from the discussion and written in the past tense.
The Results section is often referred to as the "core" of the scientific paper. The purpose of this section is to present the data and observations clearly. It describes the results obtained but generally should not interpret the results, discuss their significance, or present conclusions. The Results section should be in paragraph form and concisely report the exact results of the experiment. The data must be described in words and may be accompanied by representative data in tables and figures. "A picture is worth a thousand words." However, the Results section is not merely a collection of tables and figures without explanatory text. If tables and figures are used, the author should provide the reader with an interpretation of what a table or figure illustrates.
All tables and figures must be referred to in the text of the results in this way (Table 1) or (Figure 1). All tables and figures must: (a) have a brief description, preferably one or two sentences; (b) be numbered consecutively and in the same sequence as they will be used in the text; (c) be appropriately labeled; (d) be formatted properly to stand alone, and (e) be headed by a caption or a title describing its contents. Tables and figures should include titles, legends (if necessary), axis and column labels, units, and numbered figure headings. Figures and tables are numbered separately.
The clarity in the Results section is paramount. Statistical methods used to analyze and treat data should be pertinent and meaningful, and problems with data collection can be presented. The Results section should only deal with results, but briefly describe experimental approaches when necessary to understand the experiment.
8) Discussion
The Discussion section is the most important component of a scientific paper. The Discussion section serves to interpret the results and place them in a broader context by citing and discussing related studies. The purpose of the Discussion section is to make conclusions and evaluate the results within the general context of the research rather than to summarize the results, although it can start with this.
The Discussion section is a return to the original objectives and hypotheses. It is the section of the paper in which the author should interpret his/her data and draw conclusions regarding his/her hypotheses. The author should describe in detail what s/he observed and explain why demonstrating how the results support or refute his/her original hypotheses and how the results lead to the conclusions.
The author can refer to the data, citing tables and figures if necessary as evidence for his/her argument. The author should not repeat the Results section but rather place his/her data in a broader context (i.e., why should anyone care about what s/he found?). While the other sections of the paper are mostly technical, in the Discussion, the author gets a chance to express his/her scientific point of view and the significance of his/her work. In some respects, the Discussion section is the most difficult section of the paper to write and define.
9) Conclusion
The Conclusion is the final section of a scientific paper, and it should wrap everything up. The Conclusion section should summarize the findings of the research and explain the implications of the experiment (What does this new information mean? How can this information be used in the future?)
The Conclusion section restates the primary goal of the study, the hypothesis, and whether the data and results collected confirm or refute that hypothesis (Why? How? If refuted, was there some sort of error or bias that affected the outcome?). This is the primary principle for a scientific paper to convince readers of the experiment’s validity. The author should never claim that a hypothesis is correct, true, or proven; it is only confirmed or refuted.
The author should restate the objective(s) of the study and point out how s/he has achieved these goals. The author should make a general statement about the success of the experiment as a whole, generalizing the conclusions. The final paragraph should return to the initial subject matter of the paper. The author should make suggestions for improvement in the future or propose further studies in the Conclusion section. Science progresses through attempts to extend explanations to new areas.
10) Conflicts of interest
The corresponding author must inform the editor of any potential conflicts of interest that could influence the authors' interpretation of the data. Download the form of conflicts of interest here. A copy of the letter of commitment is available here.
11) Acknowledgements
The acknowledgments should be as brief as possible. The Acknowledgements section should be a few sentences at the end, but it is important to recognize those people (organizations and individuals) who made a considerable impact on the research, provided significant help to the author to formulate and complete the experiment, and improved the research at any stage (from providing access to equipment or field sites to editing the manuscript). However, this is an optional section.
12) References
The Journal uses the Vancouver citation style to conform to international styles. The references section should be located following the acknowledgments at the end of the text. Complete information should be given for each reference. The accuracy and completeness of the references are the responsibility of the author(s). References to personal letters (e-mail communications), papers presented at meetings, and other unpublished works (papers in preparation) may be cited. If such work may be of help in the evaluation of the manuscript, copies should be made available to the editor(s). The author(s) must submit a letter of permission from the cited persons to cite e-mail communications. The corresponding authors and references should be set out in the Vancouver citation style, and only the first word of a cited title should be written in an initial capital letter. Journal names should not be abbreviated and should be given in italics.
When referring to your own work within the manuscript, consider the likelihood of someone being able to identify you from the citation. Reduce that possibility by:
13) Illustrations: Tables and Figures
Illustrations (tables and figures) should be embedded within the text. All illustrations should be cited in the text as Table 1, Table 2, etc., or Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.
Tables
They must be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals in the order in which they are cited in the text. They should have a brief descriptive title placed at the top and with essential footnotes below. Prepare tables in a consistent form, and each appropriately titled. Provide them at approximately the correct size they are to be published.
Figures
The figures must be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals and have a brief descriptive title. They should have a short descriptive title placed at the top and with essential footnotes below. Lettering on drawings should be of professional quality or generated by high-resolution computer graphics and must be large enough. Diagrams should be converted to .jpg or .gif files.
14) Footnotes
Footnotes can be used and are usually listed at the bottom of each page in your manuscript. Times New Roman 9 is the default font for the footnotes. WORD, however, puts the footnotes in 10pt. WORD also sometimes changes the font. Any endnotes should be converted to footnotes.
15) Symbols and Variables
All variables or applied symbols should be defined and explained at the point of first use in the text.
16) Copyright and permissions
The copyright of manuscripts accepted for publication in the journal rests with the author(s) under the Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). All opinions stated are exclusively those of the author(s).
Figures that reproduce copyrighted or trademarked visual images or that show objects whose design is copyrighted or trademarked can be published only with the permission of the owner of the copyright or trademark. It is the responsibility of the author of the article in which the figure appears to obtain this permission or to determine that the image or design is in the public domain.