Submissions

Author Guidelines

The authors are invited to submit their manuscripts using the journal online manuscript submission system (https://journal.ump.edu.my/construction) and the review website. The articles should be written in MSWord and in proper English. Click here to download the article template.

MANUSCRIPTS PUBLISHED

The journal publishes the following types of manuscripts:

Full Research Articles 

Full research articles provide significant new findings and conclusions obtained from scientific investigations and processes that fall within the scope of the journal. These articles should be between 3000-8000 words in length (excluding the abstract, tables, figures, and references), and they should include more than 20 references.

Review Articles 

The review articles are described the current state of the knowledge and provide suggestions for potential future research direction in the field. The length of a published review article is from 3000-10000 words (not including abstract, tables, figures, and references) with 100 or more references.

Case Reports

They summarize a unique case describing a great diagnostic or therapeutic challenge and providing a learning point for the readers. Cases with clinical significance or implications are given priority. The total number of words for a published case report is 1500 to 2000 words (not including abstract, tables and figures) with 40 or more references.

MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION

These instructions are written in a form that satisfies all the formatting requirements for the author's manuscript. Please use them as a template in preparing your manuscript. Authors must take special care to follow these instructions concerning margins. The basic instructions are simple:

•  Manuscript shall be formatted for an A4 size page.
• The top, left, and right margins shall be 30 mm.
• The bottom margin shall be 25 mm.
• The text shall have both the left and right margins justified.

The manuscript file should be formatted as double-spaced, single-column text without justification. All pages must be numbered sequentially, facilitating the reviewing and editing of the manuscript. Standard fonts are recommended, and the 'symbols’ font should be used for representing Greek characters. The manuscript should be written in English in a clear, direct and active style.

Manuscripts should include:

• Title Page
• Abstract
• Keywords
• Highlights (Optional)
• Graphical Abstract (Optional)
• Introduction
• Method and Materials
• Results and Discussion
• Conclusions
• Conflict of Interest
• Acknowledgements
• References
• Appendices
• Figures/illustrations and tables included in the text
• Supportive/Supplementary Material

TITLE

The title is concise and informative. In information retrieval systems, titles are often used as search terms. If possible, avoid using abbreviations and formulas in the title.

Author Names and Affiliations

Before submitting the manuscript, please clearly indicate each author's given name(s) and family name(s) and double-check that all names are correctly spelt. Include the affiliation addresses of the authors underneath the list of names. All affiliations should be indicated with a lower-case or roman number as a superscript letter directly after the author's name and in front of the corresponding address. Please provide the complete postal address of each affiliation (with the country name) and the email address of each author.

Corresponding Author

The corresponding author (s) should be designated, and their complete address, business telephone and fax numbers, and email address must be clearly stated to receive correspondence at all stages of the reviewing and publishing processes and after the paper has been published. As part of this duty, he/she will be responsible for responding to any future inquiries about Methodology and Materials. The corresponding author must provide an email address and maintain the contact details up to date. Email address must be provided with an asterisk “*” in front of the corresponding author's name.

ABSTRACT

It is important to write a concise and informative abstract (maximum 250 words). The aim of the study, the brief methodology, the main findings, and the major conclusions should all be included in the abstract. For an abstract to be effective, it must be stand-alone and self-explanatory. References, tables, and figures should not be cited in the abstract. Additionally, non-standard or unusual abbreviations should be avoided; nevertheless, if they are necessary, they must be explained at the time of their first mention in the abstract text.

KEYWORDS

The keywords should be included right after the abstract, three to six keywords must be provided. Use abbreviations carefully; only abbreviations that are well-established in the field could be acceptable. These keywords will be used for the purposes of indexing.

HIGHLIGHTS

Highlights are optional for this journal, although they are encouraged since they assist in the visibility of your work through online search. They are comprised of a brief collection of bullet points that reflect the unique findings of your research as well as the innovative techniques that were used throughout the investigation. Highlights should be provided as an editable file in a separate file through the online submission system. Please use the word 'Highlights' in the file name and add no more than 5 bullet points (maximum 100 characters, per bullet point).

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

A graphical abstract is optional; however, the inclusion of graphical abstract is recommended since it attracts the reader's attention to the online content. An effective graphical abstract should describe the contents of the article in a concise, visual format that is aimed to attract the attention of a large number of potential readers. Graphical abstracts are encouraged to be submitted separately in the online submission system rather than in the main submission file.

Image size: The image should be clearly readable and visible with a 50 x 130 mm size when shown at a typical screen resolution of 96 dpi.

Preferred file types: TIFF, EPS, PDF or MS Office files.

1.1       INTRODUCTION

This should provide an adequate background and general context for the work, explaining its significance, and indicating why it should be of interest to researchers. Avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results. State the objectives of the study at the end of this section.

2.1     MATERIAL AND METHODS

It is recommended that the authors provide adequate information to enable the work to be replicated. Methods that have previously been published should be referenced, and only relevant modifications should be mentioned.

3.1     RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

It is appropriate to combine the Results and Discussion sections into a single section. Clear and concise results are required. The significance of the work's findings should be discussed in detail throughout the discussion section. Extensive citations and discussion of already published material should be avoided.

4.1     CONCLUSIONS

A brief paragraph summarizing all the significant accomplishments achieved is included.

SECTION HEADINGS

Section headings should be numbered sequentially left aligned and has the first letter capitalized, starting with the introduction. Sub-section headings, however, should be in lower-case and italicized with their initials capitalized. They should be numbered as 1.1, 1.2, etc.

ABBREVIATIONS

The author (s) should define all abbreviations used when the first time appeared in the text. A list of abbreviations may also be included at the end.

UNITS 

It is strongly recommended that the author (s) should use the International System of Units (SI) units. If other quantities are referenced, please provide their SI equivalents.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

It should disclose any financial or non-financial interests such as political, personal, or professional relationships that may be interpreted as having influenced the manuscript. The phrase "The authors declare no conflicts of interest" should be included if there is no conflict of interest.

AUTHOR CONTRIBUTION STATEMENT

All listed authors must have made a significant scientific contribution to the research in the manuscript, approved its claims, and agreed to be an author. It is important to list everyone who made a significant scientific contribution. Provide at minimum one contribution for each author in the manuscript and use the CRediT taxonomy to describe each contribution.

Sample CRediT author statement: Ramadhansyah Putra Jaya.: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software. Youventharan Duraisamy.: Data curation, Writing- Original draft preparation. Ngien Su Kong.: Visualization, Investigation. Shuyang Cao.: Supervision. Zaid Hazim Al-Saffar: Software, Validation. Yukio Tamura.: Writing- Reviewing and Editing.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

The data availability statement is a valuable link between a paper’s results and the supporting evidence. CONSTRUCTION Journal data policy is based on transparency, descriptions of what data are available and/or information on how to access data that is not publicly available.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This section should describe sources of funding that have supported the work. Please also describe the role of the study sponsor(s) (if any) in study design; collection, analysis, and interpretation of data writing of the paper and decision to submit it for publication. Recognition of personal assistance should be given as a separate paragraph: people who contributed to the work, but do not fit the criteria for authors should be listed along with their contributions. You must ensure that anyone named in the acknowledgments agrees to being so named.  

Formatting of funding sources

List funding sources in this standard way to facilitate compliance to funder's requirements:

Funding

This work was supported by the name of funding sources including the type of grant and reference number [grant numbers xxx]. Detailed descriptions of the programme or grants and awards are not required.

The following statement should be included if there is no funding available for the research:

This study was not supported by any grants from funding bodies in the public, private, or not-for-profit sectors.

REFERENCES STYLE

References can be in any style or format as long as the style is consistent. Where applicable, author(s) name(s), journal title/book title, chapter title/article title, year of publication, volume number/book chapter and the article number or pagination must be present. Use of DOI is highly encouraged. Relevant and up-to-date references must be included in the text. All references in the text should be numbered sequentially [in square brackets], and all references in the reference section should be presented in the same numerical sequence. Within the square brackets, several citations should be separated by commas to avoid confusion. It is necessary to provide ranges in the situation of more than two sequential references. Reference citations should not be included in the title, headers, or abstract of the paper. It is suggested that the reference list be formatted solely in accordance with the Vancouver Style. The names of all authors should be included if there are six or fewer authors in the reference. It is typical to list the first three authors, followed by the phrase "et al." when there are seven or more authors.

The following are a few examples of references that are listed in the Vancouver Style:

Journal References

Six or fewer authors in the reference

[1] Hussein AA, Putra Jaya R, Yaacob H, Abdul Hassan N, Oleiwi Aletba SR, Huseien GF, et al. Physical, chemical and morphology characterisation of nano ceramic powder as bitumen modification. International Journal of Pavement Engineering. 2021;22(7):858–71.

OR

[2] S.N.A. Jeffry, R.P. Jaya, N.A. Hassan, H. Yaacob, and M. K. I. Mohd Satar, “Mechanical performance of asphalt mixture containing nano-charcoal coconut shell ash”, Constr. Build. Mater., vol. 173, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2018.04.0240950-0618.

Seven or more authors in the reference

[3] Arifin HH, Zardasti L, Lim KS et al.. Stress distribution analysis of composite repair with Carbon Nanotubes reinforced putty for damaged steel pipeline. International Journal of Pressure Vessels and Piping. 2021 Dec 1;194:104537.

Book Reference

[4] Juvinall RC, Marshek KM. Fundamentals of machine component design. 5th ed. New York: John Wiley and Sons; 2011

Book Chapter Reference

[5] Yasin MH, Ali MA, Mamat R, Yusop AF, Ali MH. Physical properties and chemical composition of biofuels. In: Basile A, Dalena F Eds. Second and Third Generation of Feedstocks. Chapter 11. 2019 Jan 1; 291-320. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

[6] Barky ME, Zhang S. Fatigue spot welds. In: Lee YL, Pan J, Hathaway RB, Barkey ME, editors. Fatigue testing and analysis: Theory and practice.2005;285-311. New York: Butterworth Heinrahmanemann

Conference Proceedings

[7] Jeffry SN, Putra Jaya R, Abdul Hassan N, Mirza J, Mohd Yusak MI. Microstructure and physical properties of nano charcoal ash as binder. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers-Construction Materials. 2019 Apr;172(2):103-15.

[8] Safiei W, Rahman MM, Musfirah AH, Maleque MA, Singh R. Experimental study on dynamic viscosity of aqueous-based nanofluids with an addition of ethylene glycol. In: IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering 2020 Apr 1; 788(1):012094.

[9] Urmi WT, Rahman MM, Kadirgama K, Ramasamy D, Maleque MA. An overview on synthesis, stability, opportunities, and challenges of nanofluids. Materials Today: Proceedings. 2021;41:30- 7.

[10] Hasan MM, Islam MS, Bakar SA, Rahman MM, Kabir MN. Applications of Artificial Neural Networks in Engine Cooling System. In: 2021 International Conference on Software Engineering & Computer Systems and 4th International Conference on Computational Science and Information Management (ICSECS-ICOCSIM). 2021 Aug 24; pp. 471-6.

Patents

[11] Choi SUS, Eastman JA. Enhanced heat transfer using nanofluids. US Patent US 6,221,275 B1, 2001.

Thesis

[12] Ibrahim TK. Modelling and performance enhancements of a gas turbine combined cycle power plant. PhD Thesis. Malaysia: Universiti Malaysia Pahang, 2012.

Online Materials

[13] Citations for articles/material published exclusively online or in open access (free-to-view) must contain the exact Web addresses (URLs) at the end of the reference(s).

[14] Mandal A. Properties of nanoparticles. Retrieved from https://www.news-medical.net/life-sciences/Properties-of-Nanoparticles.aspx; 21 October 2021.

APPENDICES

If there is more than one appendix, they should be labelled with the letters A, B, etc. There should be a different numbering system for formulae and equations in the appendices. For example, the equations for Appendix A are expressed as Eq. (A.1), Eq. (A.2), and so on; in a subsequent appendix, Eq. (B.1) and so on. Similarly for tables and figures: Table A.1; Fig. A.1, etc.

FIGURES

Figures should be self-explanatory and contain a short but adequately detailed caption. Figures should be provided in one of the following formats: PNG, EPS, TIFF, JPEG, BMP. The figure(s) should have a resolution of 600 dpi for grayscale and 300 dpi for colour. All figures must be numbered sequentially in the text in the same order in which they appear (e.g. Figure 1, Figure 2).  Figure 1(a) and Figure 1(b) are examples of multi-part figures in which each component should be labelled. The figure(s) caption should be written in sentence cases and placed underneath the image, centre aligned, with no period at the end of the caption.

TABLES

Tables should be self-explanatory and include a concise yet sufficiently descriptive caption. Tables should be numbered consecutively using Arabic numerals and referred to in the text by number. Table legends should follow the main text, each on a separate page. Tables must be submitted as editable text and not as images. Footnotes can be used to explain abbreviations but should not include detailed descriptions of the experiment.

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL 

It should contain relevant and complementary data to those presented in the manuscript. Supplemental material always remains associated with its article and is not subjected to any modifications after publication. These files may be submitted in various formats but should be publication-ready, as these files are published exactly as supplied. Material that has been published previously is not acceptable for posting as supplemental material. Their format can be tables, graphs, spectra, films and so on. All are supporting information should be referred to in the manuscript, with titles (and, if desired, legends) for all files listed under the heading ‘Supporting Information’.

REPRODUCTION PERMISSION

For any illustrations, tables, or figures already published elsewhere, authors are responsible for getting permission from the copyright holders. The publisher of the journal or book in which the Figure or Table first appeared is most often the copyright owner. In this case, a letter from the author(s)/publisher should be included to confirm that permission to reproduce the image has been given.

PEER-REVIEW

All papers are subjected to a preliminary evaluation by an Editor, who may reject an article before it has been submitted for peer review if it falls outside the journal's scope or is of inadequate quality. Following this first screening, manuscripts that seem to be appropriate are submitted to single-blind peer-review by a minimum of two independent reviewers/experts. The authors are requested to nominate at least three individuals who are qualified to evaluate their paper. All recommended reviewers must have their present email addresses provided.

LANGUAGE

The manuscript should be written in the English language clearly and understandably. The manuscript should be proofread for proper spelling and grammar use. We shall promptly return any manuscripts that are not complete or are not in good condition.

PLAGIARISM

A well-established component of the editorial process is plagiarism screening. Turnitin software will be used to verify all submitted manuscripts for plagiarism check.

“ONLINE FIRST” PUBLICATION

Manuscripts ready for publication are uploaded as "Online First" versions as soon as they are completed. When the authors have completed the final proofreading and addressed issues, the manuscripts are deemed ready for publishing. Authors need to understand that once their articles are published online, they cannot be changed.

SELF-CITATIONS

Citation manipulation refers to the excessive citation of an author's study (i.e., self-citation by authors) for the sole purpose of boosting the number of citations of the author's work (COPE, 2019). Construction journal encourage authors to restrict self-citation to a minimum to control citation manipulation. Construction journal highly advises using no more than 5 (including jointly authored publications) or 20 per cent self-citations, whichever is lower, in any given publication.

GALLEY PROOFS

The galley proofs are solely supplied to correct printing mistakes. It is not recommended to utilize the galley proof correction for language or content enhancement purposes. Make sure to proofread and correct any errors as soon as possible. Corrected galley proofs need to be returned within 72 hours or three business days after they are received.

COPYRIGHT

Authors will be requested to sign a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' once their article has been accepted for publication. An email will be forwarded to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript and a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' form or a link to the online version of this agreement.

COST OF PUBLICATION

The publication of an article in this journal is completely free of charge.

Articles are published in this journal with no charge to the author.

LENGTH OF MANUSCRIPT

There are no restrictions on the length of manuscripts, but only concisely written articles are published. Brief articles are evaluated based on their technical merit.

MANUSCRIPT CHECKLIST

It is hoped that this list will be helpful during the final checking of an article before sending it to the Editor. Ensure that the following items are present:

• One author designated as the corresponding author:
• Email address
• Full postal address
• Telephone and fax numbers
• All necessary files have been uploaded
• Keywords
• All figure captions
• All tables

FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS

• Manuscript has been "spellchecked" and "grammar-checked."
• References are in the correct format for this journal
• All references mentioned in the Reference list are cited in the text, and vice versa
• Permission has been obtained for the use of copyrighted material from other sources