Submission Rules

Author, Co-authors

Article 1. The author (or representative author, if there are co-authors) shall perform the posting. Authors and co-authors are those who fall under the conditions (1) and (2) below.

  • (1) Makes substantial contribution to the research idea and planning, data acquisition, analysis, and interpretation
  • (2) Approves all the contents of the manuscript to be submitted This is regardless of whether the authors and co-authors are members of the JSME (hereinafter referred to as “the Society”). Once an article is posted, additions, deletions, and changes of the order of the authors or co-authors are not permitted.

Article 2. In case there are co-authors, the co-authors shall be confirmed by the Society. If the confirmation cannot be made, the Society shall not accept the posting.

Original and Unsubmitted/unpublished

Article 3. Manuscripts submitted shall be the original work of the author and co-authors and should be unpublished and unsubmitted at the time of acceptance. However, if the copyright has been transferred to the JSME and the manuscript is presented at a meeting hosted or co-hosted by the JSME without prior reviews, the manuscript may be submitted as an original paper with new knowledge added to the content.

Ethical Guidelines

Article 4. While preparing the manuscript, the author shall comply with the “Ethical Policy Regarding Submission and Review of Papers of the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers.”( http://www.jsme.or.jp/publish/ethics-rule-en.pdf)
When posting results of studies conducted on human subjects, the research shall be in accordance with the ethical principles of the “Declaration of Helsinki,” ( http://www.wma.net/en/30publications/10policies/b3/) with sufficient consideration of privacy, and it must be research conducted obtaining the informed consents of the subjects.
When posting results of studies conducted on humans or animals, it must be research carried out with approval from the ethics committee of the affiliated organization or the animal care and use committee*. The manuscript shall clearly state that the research has obtained said approval.
The JSME Guidelines of Technical Papers and Presentations related to Military Technologies
* Approval from the department in charge of compliance of the affiliated institution is also acceptable. Further, approval can also be obtained by setting up an independent third-party review committee.

Conflict of Interest

Article 5. When a person has a conflict of interest with respect to the contents described in the manuscript, the author and co-authors shall report this at the time of posting in the prescribed method, with emphasis on the accountability and fairness.

Reviewer Recommendation

Article 6. The representative author can recommend proofreaders (reviewers) to the editorial committee.

Copyright

Article 7. The copyright of the submitted manuscript and the published paper belongs to the Society, in principle.
The Society publishes accepted manuscript based on Creative Commons (CC) license which the journal adopts. Therefore, the author shall recognize and agree on the CC license before he/she submits the manuscript to the journal.

  • (1) Once the manuscript is posted to the Society, the copyright shall be transferred to the Society. The author shall sign the copyright transfer documents and submit them at the time of posting. The co-authors shall delegate the transfer of copyright to the Society to the submitting author.
  • (2) In case the author or the co-authors wish to use the full text of the manuscript and the published paper for other works in the form of copies, they shall seek permission from the Society by making a request in advance in writing.
  • (3) If a third party requests permission to copy or reprint the published paper and if it is deemed necessary by the Society, the permission shall be granted.
  • (4) The application for the consent of the Society shall be exempted only in cases where the affiliated institution (university, company, or research institution) of the author or co-authors stores the manuscript (not the published paper) in an electronic file or publishes it on the Internet. However, it is subject to the condition that while making it public, the source of first appearance (the Society’s publication) shall be clearly stated and the consents shall be obtained from the author and co-authors.
  • (5) In case there are issues with the copyright, the author and co-authors shall take full responsibility.

Submitting

Article 8. Any manuscript to be submitted should be created according to the outline described in the template prescribed by the Society, with the number of pages not exceeding the prescribed number of pages for the published manuscript, using the above template. The manuscript must be submitted from the designated electronic submitting/review system (hereinafter, submitting system). We do not accept hard copies of manuscripts such as by mail. At the time of submission, a copyright transfer letter must be submitted.

Article 9. A unique manuscript acceptance number is assigned to each submitted manuscript. The manuscript acceptance number shall be used for all communications with the Society.

Article 10. The manuscript acceptance date shall be the date on which the author submits through the submitting system of the Society. However, if there are any defects in the submitted manuscript, the editorial committee shall request a re-submitting. In such cases, the manuscript acceptance date shall be the date on which the resolution for the defect is accepted. Moreover, for manuscripts that have received requests for corrections or revisions (queries) following review by the editorial committee, if the reply along with the revised manuscript is not submitted (received by the Society) within 2 months from the date of submission of the query, the first acceptance date shall become invalid and the date on which the revised manuscript is submitted shall become the new manuscript acceptance date.

Review

Article 11. Each manuscript that is assigned a manuscript acceptance number shall be reviewed. Even if is not judged as publishable by the editorial committee review, if there is a possibility that it can be judged as publishable upon revision, the queries (including requests for corrections or revisions of contents) shall be made known to the representative author. In principle, the author shall submit the response letter and revised manuscript within two weeks.

Article 12. If the revised manuscript is submitted after two months from the date of sending the query to the author, it will be treated as a new manuscript (for which the review will continue), and the date on which the revised manuscript is received will be taken as the manuscript acceptance date. It should be noted that if no response is received even after the lapse of three months from the date of sending the query, it shall be deemed that there is no intention to revise the manuscript, and the manuscript shall be deemed rejected.

Article 13. If the response for the query could not be sent within the deadline due to force majeure (such as illness, sudden overseas business trip, etc.), the author shall send the reason for the extension of the response due date along with the expected date of submission to the editorial committee. However, the expected response submission date must be within three months from the date of query.

Article 14. The extension of submission dates shall be accepted only when the reason for extension stated is recognized as force majeure by the editorial committee. In case the extension is approved, even when the manuscript is submitted after two months from the date of query, the first manuscript acceptance date shall be valid. If the manuscript or response is not submitted by the accepted extension deadline, it shall be deemed that there is no intention to revise the manuscript and it shall be deemed rejected.

Article 15. All decisions regarding publishing shall be taken by the editorial committee. If the manuscript is judged as rejected based on the result of review, the representative author shall be notified of the result and the reason for rejection. In such cases, the Society shall return the copyright to the author. If the manuscript is judged as accepted for posting, the editorial committee shall request submission of the original manuscript. The date on which the notification regarding publication decision is made by the editorial committee shall be the adoption date of the paper.

Priority

Article 16. The effective date of the priority of the paper shall be the date of receipt of the manuscript.

Responsibility of the Paper

Article 17. All responsibilities regarding the content of the paper shall be borne by the author and co-authors. All data shall be correct and based on facts.

Authors’ Proofreading

Article 18. Authors’ proofreading shall be done only once, and only the typographical errors (careless mistakes) shall be corrected.

Publication Fee

Article 19. After publication of a paper, the publication fee specified in the provisions of the Bulletin of JSME shall be paid by the author. If this fee is not paid within one year after the invoice is issued, additional postings from the representative author shall not be accepted until payment is complete. If payment is not received even after two years from the date of invoice, measures will be taken to cancel the paper.

Withdrawal

Article 20. In case the author wishes to withdraw a submitted manuscript during the review process, the representative author shall promptly submit the reasoning form (mentioning the manuscript acceptance number) signed by him and all co-authors to the editorial committee. In case the withdrawal is approved by the editorial committee, the manuscript will be withdrawn from the submitting system. In such cases, the copyright of the manuscript shall be returned from the Society to the author.
  In case the manuscript is withdrawn after the notice of posting decision from the editorial committee, the author shall bear the publication fee. If a manuscript once withdrawn is reposted, it shall be treated as a new manuscript. Further, in the case of a manuscript that is withdrawn after publication as a paper, the editorial committee shall announce it through each journal.

Rebuttal

Article 21. Within two months from the notification of posting rejection, the author can file a rebuttal. Only one rebuttal can be filed for a manuscript.
It should be noted that any manuscript revised based on the reason for rejection is not considered as a rebuttal. If the revised manuscript is submitted, it will be treated as a newly submitted manuscript. In case of a rebuttal, the following measures are taken:

  • (1) In case the author submits an opinion against the reason for return, the editorial committee shall decide its handling.
  • (2) Re-review is carried out by one of the following:
    a) The reviewer who decided on the rejection shall be requested to re-review with the rejection reason and objection from the author.
    b) If it is considered as a difference of opinion, the editorial committee shall select a new reviewer and request review.

Contact Details

The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers, Headquarters

  • Shinanomachi Rengakan Bldg. 5th Floor
  • 35 Shinanomachi, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-0016, Japan
  • Phone:+81-3-5360-3502, FAX:+81-3-5360-3508
  • E-mail: journal@jsme.or.jp

Copyright © The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers, JSME, All Rights Reserved.