Focus and Scope

International Journal of Value Engineering (VE) is an international open-access academic journal dedicated to publishing highly professional research in all fields related to value engineering. All manuscripts are subjected to a rigorous double-blind peer review process, to ensure quality and originality. We are interested in the original research discoveries. This journal also features a wide range of research in ancillary areas relevant to construction engineering. VE publishes original research articles, review articles, editorials, case reports, letters, brief commentaries, perspectives, methods, etc

Peer Review Process

All manuscripts are subjected to a stringent double-blind peer review process. This is to uphold the high quality of papers published in the journals and ensure that the reporting of research work is truthful and precise.

1. A submitted manuscript is firstly handled by the managing editor, who will check the manuscript for plagiarism, at which stage the manuscript may be rejected if plagiarism is detected in the manuscript.
2. After the plagiarism check is completed and the result is deemed satisfactory, the managing editor will pass the manuscript to an academic editor. An academic editor will pre-check the article for the sustainability of the follow-up process, e.g., scientific innovation, consistency with the journal’s field, and completeness of the article. Usually, an academic editor refers to the Editor-in-Chief in the case of a regular submission or a Guest Editor in the case of a special issue submission. An academic editor is not allowed to participate in any review process of submissions that may involve a conflict of interest, and the editorial office will appoint an Editorial Board member with no conflict of interest as a substitute. A submission that passes the pre-check stage will be forwarded to the peer review process by the academic editor.
3. A minimum of 2 independent-external reviewers will be selected according to their expertise and suitability on the subject matter of the manuscript. Reviewers should return their comments and recommendations (Accept,Revisions Required, Resubmit for Review, or Reject) to the acadmic editor.
4. External reviewers' reports along with a review of the academic editor are recommended to the Editor-in-Chief, and the Editor-in-Chief will make a final decision on the paper and the managing editor will inform the authors of the decision, adding comments for the authors for improvements of their research or paper.

• If the decision is to Accept Submission(no amendments required by authors), the manuscript will be sent to the production stage.
• If the Editor-in-Chief suggests Revisions Required (minor revisions), authors are given a maximum of 2 weeks to revise and resubmit the article.
• If the Editor-in-Chief suggests Resubmit for Review (major revisions), authors are given a maximum of 4 weeks to revise and resubmit the article for the second round of review.
• If the decision is to Reject Submission, the authors will be notified, and the rejected manuscript will be archived and the peer review process ends.

1. An accepted paper will be sent for copy editing, layout editing, and proofreading before publication. Correspondence between the authors and editors will be required at this stage in order to improve the language and/or look of the article. After the production stage is completed, authors are required to check the PDF file of the final version before the article is published. Art and Science Presswill register a DOI for the article after publication, and the article is immediately accessible to the public.
2. Authors may appeal for a rejected submission. Appeal requests must be made by writing an email to the editorial office of the journal with detailed reasons for the appeal and point-by-point responses to the reviewers’ remarks. Decisions on appeals are final and no further consideration will be made.

Note: Authors can recommend reviewers (relevant information should be given, e.g., name, personal link, email address, etc.). The editorial office decides whether to invite the recommended reviewers. Authors also have the right to provide an avoidance list.

Open Access Policy

Committed to open research, Art and Science Press offer scholars open access (OA) to journals. It makes research freely available to the public and supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

• Higher visibility, availability, and citations – Free and unlimited accessibility of publications over the internet without any restrictions, which increases the citation of articles
• Ease of search – Publications are easily searchable in search engines and indexing databases
• Rapid publication – Accepted papers are immediately published online

Editorial Policies

Authors should read the “Author Guidelines” before making a submission, and make sure that the manuscripts were written in accordance to the style and specifications of the journal’s policy.

All manuscripts submitted to International Journal of Value Engineering (VE) are subject to rigorous peer review. Prior to peer review process, the manuscripts will be screened for acceptable English language, novelty and relevance to the Focus and Scope of the journal.

Any manuscripts submitted to International Journal of Value Engineering (VE) will be treated as confidential materials. The manuscripts will not be disclosed to anyone except individuals such as editorial staff, reviewers and editors who participate in the initial screening, review, processing and preparation of the manuscript for publication (if accepted).

A manuscript would not be considered if it has been published or is currently under consideration for publication in any other journals. In the cover letter, authors must state that neither the manuscript nor any significant part of it is under consideration for publication elsewhere or has appeared elsewhere in a manner that could be construed as a prior or duplication of the same work. The authors are required to notify the editorial team if the findings and data in their submissions have been presented in conferences.

Publication Frequency

The publication frequency of  International Journal of Value Engineering (VE) is semi-yearly.

Conflict of Interest

Conflicts of interest may exist when professional judgments concerning a primary interest have the possibility of being influenced by a secondary interest (e.g., financial gains). It is to be noted that even perceptions of conflicts of interest are as important as actual conflicts of interest.

Any agreements with study sponsors (for-profit or non-profit), such as those that interfere with the authors’ access to the study data or with the authors’ ability to analyze or interpret the data and publish the manuscript independently according to their own decision, should be avoided by authors at all costs.

A declaration of interest for all authors should be received before an article can be reviewed and accepted for publication.

For authors:

While submitting an article, authors must list all competing interests relevant to this work, including but not limited to:

• Funding sources
• The role of sponsors in the work design, data collection, and results of the analysis.
• Whether any of the authors serves on the Editorial Board of the journal that they are submitting their article to.

For editors and reviewers:

Editors and reviewers must declare any possible conflict of interests in connection with the manuscript and, if necessary, they must withdraw from the peer review process. If authors submit an article to a journal of which they serve as Editorial Board members, the editorial office will insist that the authors are recused from the peer review process.

Common reasons for editors and reviewers to be replaced include but are not limited to:

• The editor or reviewer works at the same organization as the authors.
• The editor or reviewer is one of the authors of the work.
• The editor or reviewer is on the avoidance list from the authors.
• The editor or reviewer has a financial or personal relationship with the authors.

Misconduct Policy

Duplicate Submission

Manuscripts submitted to Art and Science Press should:

1) not have been published before

2) not concurrently be submitted elsewhere

If a part of a manuscript has been published or will be published elsewhere, authors must inform the editors in a cover letter. If a duplicate submission is detected during peer review, the manuscript may be rejected. If it is detected after publication, the manuscript may be retracted.

Plagiarism

Authors are advised to observe high standards in the aspect of publication ethics. Plagiarism is a strictly unacceptable practice in journals published by Art and Science Press, including duplicate publication of the author’s work without proper citation.

Every manuscript submitted for publication is checked for plagiarism via Crossref Similarity Check (powered by iThenticate) after submission and before being sent to the editor for editorial review. Any detection of overlapping and similar texts in the manuscripts submitted will be investigated promptly and may lead to the manuscript being rejected.

Fabrication and Falsification

Fabrication involves manipulating the data or analysis to match the desired results. Falsification involves making up data and results without any research work in fact. Fabrication and falsification are both misconducts, and they can result in an unscientific record that does not reflect scientific truth. Fabrication and falsification are serious academic fraudulent behaviors, and they may have a negative impact on the authors’ affiliate, funding sponsor, and employers. Art and Science Press will not hesitate to reject manuscripts with suspicion of academic fraud.

Authorship

The authorship of a scholarly paper should be limited to individuals who have contributed substantially to its intellectual content. Participation solely in the acquisition of funding or general supervision of the research group is not sufficient for authorship. All authors should hold the responsibility of fairly evaluating their respective roles and their co-authors’ roles in the project. This is to ensure that authorship is attributed according to a fixed standard in all publications for which they will be listed as authors. First authors are required to indicate to the Editorial Board the specific contributions of co-authors at the manuscript submission stage.

In order to be listed as an author for a paper, one should have contributed sufficiently to the project. A co-author is expected to have contributed to some component of the work that led to the paper or be involved in the interpretation of its results. All authors should have a say in the final approval of the version to be published, in addition to reviewing the final manuscript prior to submission.

Individuals who do not meet the above requirements, but have provided a valuable contribution to the work, may be acknowledged for their contribution as appropriate to the publication.

Changes to Authorship

Authors should carefully check the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript. The editorial office considers the authorship list to be definitive by the time the original submission is received.

Any addition, deletion, or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list should be made before the manuscript is accepted for publication. The corresponding author should provide the reasons for the change in the authorship list and proof of written confirmation to the editorial office from all authors (including existing authors and author(s) to be added and/or removed) agreeing with such change.

A request for authorship changes needs to be approved by the editorial office before any changes can be made.

Publishing Ethics

Art and Science Press requests all members involved in the journal publishing process to adhere to the Core Practices on publication ethics as stipulated by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Art and Science Press strictly adheres to the COPE’s Ethical Oversight Policy and monitors the entire publication process in accordance with the guidelines and best practices, which include Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals from the International Committee of Medical Journals Editors (ICMJE) and the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA), and World Association of Medical Editors (WAME). The publisher treats all personal information of authors as private and promises to not disclose the information to third parties except as required by law or for necessary purposes of the publishing process. Art and Science Press promises to oversee the procedures and behavior of authors, editors, and reviewers and to ensure that all participants are without any conflicts of interest for a publication process that is fair and objective. 

The publisher’s journal editors take all possible misconducts seriously. The editors, authors, or readers can forward their concerns to the publisher if a research work may involve academic fraud, research misconduct, or publication malpractice. Concerns or complaints submitted to the publisher on possible allegations will be dealt with promptly and appropriately according to the procedure set out in the COPE flowchart on complaints. The complainant may direct all inquiries and correspondence to the publisher at editorial_office@as-pub.com

Art and Science Press adopts a zero-tolerance policy concerning any academic misconducts and ethical violations in research and publication regardless of the severity of these issues. Violations include plagiarism, falsification of research, data fabrication, submitting manuscripts of others as one’s own, submission of the same manuscript to different publication venues at the same time, and breached intellectual property rights. In cases of suspected misconduct and ethical violation, a panel will be formed to investigate the allegation. If the allegation is supported by evidence, the submitted manuscript in question will be declined for consideration in the journal and all authors will be informed of the decision. A retraction initiated by authors or by the journal is required to take place if the paper has already been published, and the retraction will be made public. Authors of the work in question will receive the panel’s decision via email and all appeals regarding the decision will have to be made to the publisher via email to editorial_office@as-pub.com  within 30 days of the decision date.

Language

The language used in manuscripts submitted to International Journal of Value Engineering (VE) is English. Authors whose first language is not English may want to have their manuscripts professionally edited before the final submission to ensure that the academic content of the paper is fully understood by its prospective readers.

Erratum, Withdrawal, and Retraction Policy

Erratum

All publisher-introduced changes are highlighted to authors at the proof stage and any errors are ideally identified by authors and corrected by the publisher before the final publication. For any errors in published articles discovered by readers, authors, editors, et al., please contact the journal editor.

It should be noted that errors made by editors are called erratum, and errors made by authors are called corrigendum. However, erratum and corrigendum have no influence on the research logic and the correctness of the results.

Art and Science Press will only issue an erratum or corrigendum for a published article after receiving approval and instructions from the editor.

Withdrawal

If authors change their mind and decide not to pursue publication of their paper with the journal, they must write a letter addressed to the journal editors, explaining the reason(s) of the submission withdrawal. Consent of all co-authors must be obtained for author-initiated submission withdrawal. The decision to withdraw a submission will eventually rest with the journal editors, including the Editor-in-Chief.

It is relatively more difficult to withdraw a paper that has been processed for peer review or is undergoing peer review compared with withdrawing a new submission because the editors and reviewers have expended much time and energy in the editorial process and manuscript evaluation, respectively. To withdraw a paper that has been processed for peer review, authors should clearly argue their case on scientific reasons; only valid and sound reasons will be accepted. Authors will also be required to pay a penalty fee (USD200). Authors are advised to keep in mind that an article should only be withdrawn if the authors detect significant errors or flaws, as it is not an acceptable practice to withdraw an article after it has been sent for peer review. Once the approval for submission withdrawal is granted, the submission will be removed from the journal’s online submission system, and a confirmation email of submission withdrawal will be sent to the authors. The withdrawal process is considered to be complete once authors receive the confirmation of withdrawal from the journal’s editorial office.

Submission withdrawal is also possible for accepted papers that have not been formally published, including newly accepted papers and articles in press.

The withdrawal of an accepted paper and article in press is usually editor-initiated. The reasons for withdrawing an accepted paper and article in press are similar to those of retracting a published article (see “Retraction”), and at this stage the article will not be arranged for article production or finalization. A panel will be organized to investigate misconduct allegations. If the allegations are proven true with supporting evidence, the accepted paper or article in press will be marked for withdrawal, and any appeals regarding the panel’s decision will have to be made to the publisher within 14 days of the decision date. In the absence of an appeal from the authors within the 14 days, the submission will be removed from the journal’s online submission system, and a confirmation email of submission withdrawal will be sent to the authors.

Retraction

Readers can contact the editorial office to report allegations of possible academic misconduct, i.e., ethical violations in research and publication regardless of the severity of these issues. Misconducts and violations include plagiarism, falsification of research, data fabrication, submitting manuscripts of others as one’s own, submission of the same manuscript to different publication venues at the same time, and breached intellectual property rights. Once the suspected misconduct and ethical violation is brought to the attention of the publisher, the journal editors will organize an investigation and authors are required to cooperate in the investigation. A panel will be organized to investigate the allegations. If the allegations are proven true with supporting evidence, the published article will be marked for retraction both in HTML and PDF, and a notification email regarding the panel’s decision will be sent to all authors of the work. Any appeals regarding the panel’s decision will have to be made to the publisher within 14 days of the decision date. In the absence of an appeal from the authors within the 14 days, a confirmation email of article retraction will be sent to the authors.

Authors should note that the paid Article Processing Charges will not be refunded if their article is retracted or withdrawn on the grounds of academic misconduct and ethical violation in research and publication.

Disclaimer

• For authors: Once authors submit a manuscript, this means that authors are aware of all publishing policies & ethics and will strictly abide by them.
• For reviewers: Once the request to become a reviewer is accepted, this means that the reviewer must be aware of Art and Science Press’s peer review policies and that the reviewer will proactively disclose all potential conflicts of interest and guarantee that the article will be judged fairly and objectively. 
• For publisher: The journals of Art and Science Pressare not liable to statements, perspectives, and opinions contained in the published articles. The appearance of advertisements in the journals shall not be construed as a warranty, endorsement, or approval of the products or services advertised and/or the safety thereof. The journals of Art and Science Press and the publisher disclaim responsibility for any injury to persons or property resulting from any ideas or products referred to in the articles or advertisements.

Copyright and License

The authors shall retain the copyright of their work but allow the Publisher to publish, copy, distribute, and convey the work.

All articles published by the Earthquake are licensed under the Creative Commons International Licenses. Without any explicit request from the corresponding author during submission stage, a paper will be published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) by default. The authors who would like to publish their work under a non-commercial license, i.e. Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0), they should express explicit request during submission stage. Please include statement below in the Comments for the Editor column on the submission page:

The contributors or authors for this submission entitled “[MANUSCRIPT TITLE]”, i.e. [NAMES of ALL AUTHORS], have given their consents to alter the Creative Commons license to *CC BY-NC 4.0* under which this submission will be published in Earthquake.

Advertising Policy

All advertisements are subject to approval by Art and Science Press. Advertisements must comply with relevant regulations in the country where the advertisements appear. Advertisements must not influence the content of each journal and the making of editorial decisions. For more inquiries, please send an email to editorial_office@as-pub.com

Article Processing Charges (APCs)

Art and Science Press publishes all its journals in “gold” open access format. The scientific community and the general public are free of all restrictions on access (e.g., subscription) and free of many restrictions on using the content as soon as articles are published online. Art and Science Press does not require readers to purchase any form of subscription to view the online version of the journals. In order for Art and Science Press to defray editorial and production costs, authors of accepted articles are required to pay Article Processing Charges (APCs). The charges will come from authors' institutes or research funding bodies.

 Waiver Policy

Art and Science Press is committed to promoting academic development in the world without any financial barrier to knowledge sharing and learning. A waiver policy has been developed especially for authors from low-income countries. Authors who are interested in applying for a waiver may contact the editorial office of the journal. Art and Science Press reserves the right to approve or reject any waiver application. APC waivers do not influence editorial decisions.

 Preprint Policy

Authors are permitted to post their non-peer-reviewed original research manuscripts on community preprint servers, such as bioRxiv, medRxiv, and PeerJ Preprint, before or in parallel with the formal submission to Art and Science Press’s journals. During submission, authors are obliged to declare in the cover letter if the corresponding preprint version of their submission has been deposited on a preprint server and provide any associated accession numbers or DOIs.

Nonetheless, authors are not allowed to post on a preprint server any versions of articles that have been revised as a result of peer review, accepted for publication, or published in the journal. A manuscript of which its corresponding preprint version has been indexed (e.g., in MEDLINE or PubMed) will not be considered.

This policy applies to original research papers only. Art and Science Press reserves the right not to consider for publication or publish material that has been formally published in digital media that are not construed as preprint servers.

Art and Science Press encourages a formal citation of preprints in the reference list, where appropriate.

Ethical Oversight

Art and Science Press strictly abides by the Ethical Oversight Policy of COPE. All the editorial process is run with the monitor of Editor-in-Chief. Any manuscript that may involve unethical possibility including but not limited to fraud, plagiarism, and multi-contribution, will not be push forward to the next stage of editorial process. The strict editorial process ensures the fairest and most objective review decision.

Art and Science Press will strictly suspect the ethical problem followed by COPE. EiC and reviewers are experts in the disciplilne, and they will make an objective and fair decision on the moral norms and academic value of the submissions. 

Special Issue Policy

1. What is a Special Issue?

Art and Science Press has launched the Special Issue Program. A Special Issue is a collection of research hotspots or topics in specific fields in a certain period. A group of guest editors who are experts in this discipline, has the responsibility to drive the special issue program. Manuscripts accepted will both be ordered/archived in a regular volume/issue and special issue.

Benefits of Special Issue

• The research will be more quickly discovered and cited by researchers in the same field.
• It is better to promote academic exchanges in this field, avoid repetition of topics, and identify the research objectives at the next step.
• It could learn and integrate the latest achievements in a field more quickly.
• It is better to broaden the visibility and maximize the impact of a certain field so that more experts could focus on the topic.

Benefits of being Guest Editors

• It is helpful in expanding the popularity of guest editors.
• It is faster to initiate the communication with international peers in this field, and establish co-operatives ties with them.
• It helps to learn the latest research.
• Guest Editors could publish one article without any APCs in this journal as your privilege.

2. How to drive a Special Issue?

There are two ways to obtain a special issue proposal.

• Assistant Editor will invite experts in hot fields as guest editors to submit a professional proposal.
• Readers or authors could submit proposals on the Special Issue section of the journal website, and EiC or senior editors will evaluate them for the viability and suitability for this journal.

Preparation for a proposal

A great topic is the vital element for success. Any candidate topic will be selected by EiC or senior editors for considering whether it is consistent with the scope of this journal. A good proposal topic has significant interest to the most readers of this journal. Hot topics during some period are usually considered to be more attractive.

A proposal should include necessary information:

• The group of Guest Editors
• Types of manuscript
• Main topics
• Submission deadline
• Keywords

3. Special Issue Ethics

Art and Science Press abides to the Code of Conduct of COPE and Best Practice Guidelines in all the editorial process. The journal’s Editorial Policies should be followed, and any potential unethical submission will not gone to the nest stage. Art and Science Press promises to protect the confidentiality of all submissions unless the publishing needs. Any guest editor or reviewer must strictly abide by the Conflict of Interests in the journal, and they are asked to inform the Editorial Office if any potential conflict of interests exists, then the Editorial Office may consider to change the editor or reviewer. As authors, they are asked to provide a list of avoided experts. Please appeal to editorial_office@as-pub.comfor any requests related to manuscript promotion.

4. Workflow of Special Issue

The peer review process of submissions to a Special Issue strictly follows the journal's peer review process.