GUIDE FOR AUTHORS

PURPOSE

This Author's Guide covers the process of submitting a manuscript to the International Journal of Software Engineering and Computer Systems published by UMPSA Press, Universiti Malaysia Pahang Al-Sultan Abdullah. It outlines formatting, reference-declaration standards, production processes, and responsibilities following acceptance. This guide is carefully reviewed by the authors before they prepare and submit their manuscripts through the online editorial system. The guide closely follows the publication ethics and best-practice standards established by the Committee on Publication Ethics, encompassing transparency in content, journal evaluation, open-access policies, and authorship and reporting standards. Both submission and publication are required to adhere to this guide.

AUTHOR GUIDELINES
The authors are invited to submit their manuscripts using the journal’s online manuscript submission system (https://journal.ump.edu.my/ijsecs/submission). The IJSECS paper template can be reached HERE. Authors are encouraged to use and edit the template, rather than developing their own file.

1. Journal Manuscript Types
IJSECS publishes peer-reviewed original research across diverse topics in software engineering and computer systems, highlighting recent advancements and insights in these dynamic fields. This encompasses software engineering methodologies and tools, software architecture and design, requirements analysis and testing, programming languages, algorithms and data structures, operating systems and computer networks, distributed and cloud computing, computer architecture and embedded systems, databases and data engineering, artificial intelligence and machine learning, cybersecurity, human-computer interaction, and interdisciplinary computing systems. Submissions that are out of scope are rejected early in the review process, without external evaluation of their academic merit.

1.1 Research Articles
Research articles present new and significant findings derived from original investigations within the journal's scope. They are required to explicitly articulate the significance, originality, and methodological rigour of the research. All experimental or computational details necessary to replicate the results are presented in the main body of the manuscript. In addition to procedures and data of secondary importance, some supplementary materials include critical descriptions relevant to the methodology. There is no maximum length for the manuscript; however, typical research articles usually range from 5000 to 12000 words, excluding the abstract, tables, figures, and references. They should also cite at least 20 references.

1.2 Review Articles
Review articles integrate balance, clarity, and comprehensiveness to synthesise a specific research domain within the journal's scope, typically featuring an overview that highlights recent advancements, principal challenges, and future directions. Authors interested in proposing an unsolicited review, or unsure about their topic, can submit an abstract for consideration and feedback before writing a full manuscript. Typically, a review article comprises 5000 to 15000 words, excluding the abstract, tables, figures, and references (which often number at least 70).

1.3 Case Reports
Case reports describe unique cases or circumstances that pose significant diagnostic, analytical, or engineering challenges, thereby offering educational value and valuable insights for the reader. Priority is given to cases with explicit academic or practical relevance. Such reports generally range from 3,500 to 9,500 words (excluding the abstract, tables, and figures) and must incorporate a minimum of 40 references.

2. Submission Process and Requirements
2.1 Online Submission
All manuscripts are required to be submitted exclusively by the designated corresponding author through the IJSECS online editorial management system available at https://journal.ump.edu.my/ijsecs. The corresponding author serves as the principal point of contact between the author team and the editorial office throughout the submission, review, revision, and publication phases. The corresponding author must ensure that all co-authors have read, approved, and agreed to the submission. By submitting, the corresponding author confirms on behalf of all contributors that the work is original, not published elsewhere except as a preprint or conference proceeding disclosed at submission, and not under review by any other journal. Submitting the same manuscript to multiple journals is considered duplicate submission and is regarded as misconduct according to the journal’s Misconduct Handling Policy.

2.2 Mandatory Submission Components
The submission must include all necessary components. Manuscripts missing any compulsory components are returned to the corresponding author before the editorial review begins.
Main manuscript file: A complete document is formatted in accordance with the journal's Author Template, including all sections, figures, tables, equations, and references within a single editable Word file.
Author Contribution Statement: A full CRediT Author Contribution Statement details the specific contributions of each author in accordance with the 14 standardised CRediT roles outlined in Section 4.3. All listed authors must approve the statement before submission.
Declaration of Competing Interests: A detailed statement of all financial, non-financial, and personal competing interests for each listed author (or a declaration stating that no such interests are present), drafted in accordance with Section 7.3.
Funding Disclosure: List all funding sources and grant numbers that supported the work, or a sentence stating that no funding was received as per the requirement in Section 7.2.
Data Availability Statement: This section specifies when the data resulting from the study will be available to others or provides a clear explanation for why the data cannot be made available in the format described in Section 7.5.
Ethics Statement: The name of the ethics review board, the approval reference number, and the date of approval, as well as a statement affirming that the research conformed to the approved protocol when involving research with humans, animals, or sensitive personal data. Section 7.6 delineates the complete set of requirements and includes some example statements.
Generative Artificial Intelligence Disclosure: If any generative AI tool was used during the preparation of the manuscript, state the name and version of the tool and how it was used and to what extent, as instructed in Section 7.7. If no AI has been employed, include a clear statement to that effect.
Preprint disclosure (if applicable): If the manuscript results were posted on a recognised preprint server, the name of the server and the permanent URL or DOI should be cited. Having publicly disclosed a preprint does not mean that the manuscript cannot be reviewed.

2.3 Cover Letter
Authors are required to submit a cover letter addressed to the Editor-in-Chief. The cover letter should explicitly state that the manuscript is original, unpublished, and not under review at any other publication. Additionally, it should include a summary emphasising the work's significance, originality, and alignment with the journal’s scope. Authors are required to specify the type of manuscript (such as a research article, review, or case report), disclose any preprint posting associated with the presentation, and confirm that all listed authors have approved the submission. Additionally, they may provide up to three suggested peer reviewers, including full contact details and a brief statement of their expertise, as well as up to two individuals they prefer not to have review the manuscript, if applicable. All proposed editorials remain subject to the independence requirements mandated for the Section Editor, and no member of the editorial team is obligated to accept them.

3. Manuscript Preparation and Formatting
3.1 General Formatting Requirements
All manuscripts are required to be composed using the journal's prescribed Author Template. This template may be downloaded from HERE. 
Authors are encouraged to use this template directly rather than generating a separate formatted document, as it includes the appropriate margins, heading styles, fonts, and sections. Manuscripts are required to be formatted on A4 paper (210 × 297 mm) with margins of 20 mm on all sides. The primary text should be in Times New Roman, 10-point, single-spaced, arranged in a single-column format with justified margins on both sides. Greek characters must be formatted using the 'Symbol' font. All pages must be numbered sequentially in the footer to facilitate editorial review and production processes.

3.2 Manuscript Structure
All manuscripts are required to include the following sections in the specified sequence. Mandatory sections are explicitly indicated; optional sections are noted where applicable.

3.3 Title
The manuscript title should be clear, concise, and specific enough to accurately reflect the research's core focus for an international readership. Titles should be formatted in 14-point Times New Roman, using sentence case, where only the first word, the first word of any subtitle, and nouns are capitalised. The title should be between 9 and 20 words long: descriptive yet succinct. Do not include mathematical and chemical formulas, jargon, or non-standard abbreviations unless they are widely recognised acronyms for two or more words within the same domain. Authors are advised to incorporate pertinent keywords related to methodology and subject matter; the most advantageous are those that improve discoverability.

3.4 Author Information and Affiliations
Authors are required to supply their full given and family names, uniformly formatted throughout the manuscript and within the online submission system. The sequence of authors specified in the manuscript must exactly correspond to the sequence entered in the editorial management system. ORCID identifiers are highly recommended for all contributors and are mandatory for the corresponding author; registration is complimentary at https://orcid.org. Author affiliations should appear directly below the author's name, with a superscript lowercase letter (e.g., ᵃ, ᵇ) or number (e.g., ¹, ²) indicating their institution. Each affiliation must include the full name of the institution, department, city, postcode, and country. If an author has multiple affiliations, each should be marked with a distinct superscript.

An asterisk (*) is placed immediately before the name of the corresponding author. In the last part, their contact information, including the institutional postal address, email, and telephone number, must be provided after the affiliation field. The author is responsible for managing all communications with the editorial office, from submission to post-publication follow-up, and must ensure that their contact details are always kept current. If the corresponding author has changed institutions since the time of submission, they should promptly inform the editorial office and, if necessary, nominate a new corresponding author.

3.5 Abstract
All manuscripts are required to include a self-contained abstract not exceeding 250 words. The abstract must clearly articulate the research question, the methodologies employed, the findings obtained, and the conclusions reached without referring to other figures, tables, or abbreviations, as abstracts are often presented independently of the main article in indexes. The abstract should underscore the significance of the research issue and delineate the study’s primary objectives. It must also provide adequate detail concerning the methodology and materials to facilitate evaluation of the study's design, and include a summary of the results, including relevant numerical data. The abstract should additionally articulate the principal conclusion and delineate the broader impacts or implications. It should explicitly mention any novel data or significant limitations affecting interpretation. Refrain from using obscure acronyms; instead, spell them out upon initial mention. The abstract must be formatted in 9-point Times New Roman font and should not be indented.

3.6 Keywords
Authors are required to include three to six keywords that accurately represent the primary topics, methods, and discipline of their manuscript. These keywords facilitate discovery; when selected appropriately, they increase the likelihood of readership and citations. Keywords must be written in English, utilising recognised terms from the relevant scientific subfield. Compound keywords connected by conjunctions or prepositions should be avoided, such as 'heat transfer and fluid mechanics'; a search tool will operate more effectively when the relevance of individual nouns is established. Utilise abbreviations for keywords exclusively when they are widely recognised within the discipline to avoid hindering search engine performance.

3.7 Section Headings and Sub-headings
The section headings must be numbered using Arabic numerals, starting with Section 1 (the Introduction). All primary headings should be left-aligned, formatted in Heading 1 style, and capitalised in title case. Secondary headings (second level) should be numbered with two digits (e.g., 2.1, 2.2), formatted in the IJSECS Heading 2 style, with the first letter capitalised (title case). Tertiary headings (third level) are numbered with three digits (e.g., 2.1.1), formatted in sentence case, and italicised. It is recommended to avoid headings beyond the third level whenever feasible.

4. Authorship Standards and CRediT Contribution Statement
4.1 ICMJE Authorship Eligibility Criteria
IJSECS follows the four-criteria authorship standard established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), which are applied cumulatively. Each listed author must meet all four criteria independently. The criteria are outlined as follows.
Criterion 1 (Intellectual Contribution): The author made a significant contribution to the conception, design, or acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of research data. Merely technical, administrative, or logistical tasks, such as operating instruments under supervision, maintaining equipment, or providing research access, do not qualify under this criterion unless the individual also exercised independent intellectual judgment in designing or analysing the work.
Criterion 2 (Drafting or Critical Revision): The author either drafted the original manuscript or contributed significantly to its scholarly review process to enhance its intellectual content. Critical revision entails deep structural modifications that considerably enhance the arguments, analysis, or conclusions in the manuscript and is distinguished from simple corrections of grammatical or typographical errors.
Criterion 3 (Final Approval): The author provided explicit, documented consent for submitting the version to the journal; a general prior agreement does not fulfil this requirement.
Criterion 4 (Accountability): The author agrees to responsibility for the work in its entirety, including all components, and endeavours to ensure that any questions concerning the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. By properly resolving issues and thoroughly investigating inquiries related to accuracy or integrity, they commit to responding to such inquiries responsibly.
Individuals who contributed to the research but do not meet all four ICMJE criteria, such as those who provided funding, research infrastructure, access to data, administrative support without specific intellectual input, technical assistance, or language editing, should be recognised in the acknowledgements section rather than listed as authors. They should be named and described accordingly. Honest reporting of authorship is an ethical obligation; intentionally omitting contributions constitutes misconduct and will be addressed in accordance with the journal’s Misconduct Handling Policy.

4.2 Authorship List Finalisation and Changes
All authors should be listed in their final order, including initials or full names, and this order must be consistent across the manuscript and the online submission system during initial submission. For manuscripts with multiple authors, the sequence must match the order in the editorial management system; discrepancies can lead to difficult-to-correct indexing errors after publication. No changes to the author list, such as adding, removing, or rearranging authors, are allowed after submission unless the corresponding author provides an official written notification. This notice requires a clear, evidence-based explanation for the proposed change. Any authorship modifications must be supported by written consent from all authors at the time of change, including new or removed individuals. The Editor-in-Chief must review and approve all requests. Post-acceptance authorship changes are rare and may cause delays in publication. If such changes are approved after publication, they will be publicly corrected through a corrigendum. Unauthorised alterations at any stage, whether before or after publication, are serious ethical violations and can result in manuscript rejection or retraction.

4.3 CRediT Author Contribution Statement
IJSECS requires that all manuscripts include a Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT) Author Contribution Statement, completed using the 14 standardised NISO CRediT roles. The CRediT statement serves as a supplement rather than a replacement for the ICMJE eligibility criteria; each listed author is required to meet all four ICMJE criteria, and the CRediT statement describes the contributions of each qualifying author. The statement is published within the article, specifically in the declaration section following the conclusion, and is submitted as structured metadata to facilitate precise bibliometric attribution. The CRediT statement must be completed by the corresponding author in collaboration with all co-authors, with all authors providing their approval of the assigned roles before submission. Role assignments should accurately reflect genuine contributions; any assignment of inflated roles, such as a ghost-author position, constitutes authorship misrepresentation and will be regarded as misconduct.

4.3.1 The CRediT contributor roles
Each of the fourteen CRediT roles is defined below. Every named author's contribution statement must reference only those roles they genuinely performed. A single author may be assigned multiple roles; a single role may be assigned to multiple authors; not all roles will be applicable in every manuscript. Roles not applicable to a specific manuscript are omitted from the statement; their absence does not require explanation.

4.3.2 CRediT statement formatting
The CRediT statement should be formatted with each author's initials and surname presented initially, followed by the relevant CRediT role, separated by semicolons. All roles must adhere strictly to the standardised terminology specified in Section 4.3.1; paraphrasing or substituting alternative descriptions is not permitted. The complete statement must encompass all cited authors; any author whose role is omitted will be subject to inquiry by the editorial office before the manuscript's progression.

7.3 Declaration of Competing Interests

A Conflict of Interest is any financial, non-financial, professional, or personal relationship that could potentially influence the design, conduct, or reporting of research inappropriately. Moreover, the declaration of conflicts of interest does not imply bias or ill intent; rather, it is an essential component of transparent research publication and assists readers in considering factors that may exert influence. All authors are required to disclose any relevant interests from the three years preceding the start of research and writing. Additionally, any interests arising after that period must also be disclosed if they could still represent potential biases.

Financial competing interests that require disclosure include employment with organisations that have a financial stake in the research outcome; stock ownership or options in such organisations; consultation fees; speaking honoraria; paid expert testimony; royalties; and patents whose value could be influenced by the publication of the findings. Non-financial competing interests include unpaid leadership positions within relevant organisations, personal or professional relationships that could influence the work, and strongly held personal convictions related to the manuscript's subject matter. These obligations also apply to the authors' immediate family members.

Authors holding editorial or advisory positions at IJSECS are required to notify the editorial office before submission and to include a recusal statement in the Declaration of Competing Interests, affirming their complete disassociation from the peer review process of the manuscript.

7.4 CRediT Author Contribution Statement

Each manuscript must include an Author Contribution Statement in the Declarations section, prepared using the fourteen standardised NISO CRediT roles outlined in Section 4.3. The statement records the specific contribution of each named author, supplements (but does not replace) the ICMJE authorship criteria. It is published in the article and submitted as structured metadata to support accurate bibliometric attribution. Each author is listed by initials and surname, followed by their CRediT roles using the exact standardised terminology, with roles separated by semicolons and authors by full stops. Roles that do not apply to the manuscript are omitted without explanation.

7.5 Data Availability Statement

Authors must provide a clear and specific statement describing the accessibility of the data, materials, and code used in or generated by the study. Open data sharing is strongly encouraged and consistent with IJSECS's commitment to transparency and reproducibility, as well as open science principles, in which data are deposited in an open repository. The statement must provide the repository name and the persistent identifier (DOI or permanent URL) of the deposited dataset. Where data are available on reasonable request, the statement must identify the contact person responsible for responding to requests. Where data cannot be shared, the statement must provide a specific, substantiated explanation. Generic statements that data are 'available on request' without a named contact are not acceptable.

7.5 Ethics Declaration

Ethics statement for research related to human participants, animals or sensitive personal data; required. For research with human participants, the full name of the ethics committee or internal review board (IRB) which approved the study must be included by the corresponding author alongside the approval reference number, approval date, and confirmation that it is followed under this protocol and to what degree it conformed to the Declaration of Helsinki (2013 revision-recognising harmonisation). For studies involving animals, the statement should confirm compliance with relevant animal welfare regulations and institutional guidelines (including the name and approval number of the committee, the date of approval or the institutional body approving the work, and a reference to when such approval was obtained).

For research involving personal data, the statement must confirm compliance with the Malaysian Personal Data Protection Act 2010 and other relevant international privacy laws. If ethics review was waived, for example, because the data were publicly available secondary data or anonymised records, this should be made explicit. The Editor-in-Chief can request copies of ethics approval documents at any time before or after a review.

7.6 Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) Disclosure

Authors are required to disclose any utilisation of generative AI tools, like large language models, AI writing assistants, AI image generators, and AI-assisted data analysis tools, when preparing their manuscript. The disclosure must specify the tool name, version, and how it was used. Authors are fully responsible for ensuring the accuracy, originality, and integrity of all content generated with AI; these tools are not considered authors and do not fulfil the four ICMJE authorship criteria. Disclose if AI tools were used for language editing, grammar, or translation. The journal considers the undisclosed use of AI-generated text, figures, code, or references a breach of its publication ethics and will treat it as misconduct per the Misconduct Handling Policy. Authors must clearly state that no AI tools were employed.

8. References and Citation Style
8.1 General Principles

All manuscripts submitted to the International Journal of Software Engineering and Computer Systems are required to adhere to the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) style for in-text citations and references, as outlined in the IEEE Reference Guide. IEEE style employs a numbered citation system: each source is assigned a numeral in square brackets upon its first mention, and this number is reused for subsequent citations of the same source. Reference numbers are positioned within square brackets before any concluding punctuation (for example, as … demonstrated in [1]). They are organised in the reference list in the order of citation rather than alphabetically. 

Accurate references are essential because errors—such as incorrect author initials, titles, journal names, volume or issue numbers, page ranges, publication years, or missing DOIs (Digital Object Identifier) can propagate into database records. Once published, these inaccuracies cannot be rectified except through a formal corrigendum. Authors are responsible for verifying every reference against the source before submission. A DOI must be provided for every source that has one, formatted as a full https URL (https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx). References to retracted articles must not be included unless the citation specifically concerns the retraction.

IJSECS specifically requires: (1) a DOI for every journal article and conference paper that has one, formatted as a persistent https link; (2) an ISSN or ISBN for journal and book references where known; (3) the publisher name and city for all book references; (4) an access date for all online-only sources; and (5) arXiv identifiers or preprint DOIs where the cited source is a preprint. References without a DOI should include a URL only where the source is not otherwise available.

8.2 In-Text Citations

In IEEE style, cite sources by their bracketed number in the order of first appearance, for example [1], [2]. Multiple sources cited at one point are given within a single pair of brackets separated by commas, for example [1], [3], [7]; a continuous range uses an en dash, for example [2]–[5]. The number may be treated as a noun (“as shown in [4]”) or used with the author name for emphasis (“Rahman et al. [4] showed…”). Reference numbers must not appear in the title, section headings, abstract or conclusion section.

8.3 Reference List: General Format

The reference list appears at the end of the manuscript, under the heading ‘References’, and is numbered in the order in which the sources are first cited within the text. Author names are presented as initials followed by the surname (for example, M. M. Rahman). For up to six authors, all names are listed; for seven or more, the first three are listed followed by ‘et al.’ (italicised in IEEE style). Article and chapter titles are placed in double quotation marks in sentence case; titles of journals, books, and proceedings are presented in full (not abbreviated) in italics. The abbreviations ‘vol.’, ‘no.’, and ‘p.’ are used for volume, number, and single page, respectively, while ‘pp.’ denotes multiple pages.

8.4 IEEE Reference Examples by Type

The following examples cover every reference type accepted in IJSECS manuscripts. Authors must follow these IEEE formats exactly; other styles (APA, MLA, Vancouver, Harvard, or personal adaptations) are not accepted. Example content illustrates the journal's scope in software engineering and computer systems.

8.4.1 Journal article (up to six authors)

Format: [n] A. A. Author, B. B. Author, and C. C. Author, “Article title in sentence case,” Full Journal Title, vol. X, no. X, pp. XXX–XXX, Year, https://doi.org/10.XXXX/XXXXX

Full example

[1] N. A. Ahmad, M. M. Rahman, and K. Kadirgama, “A deep learning approach for software defect prediction using code metrics,” IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, vol. 49, no. 4, pp. 2101–2115, 2023, https://doi.org/10.1109/TSE.2023.324118

8.4.2 Journal article (seven or more authors)

Where an article has seven or more authors, list the first three followed by ‘et al.’. All other fields are identical to Section 8.4.1.

Full example

[2] R. Hassan, S. Y. Lim, N. Ismail, et al., “A systematic mapping study of microservice architecture testing,” Journal of Systems and Software, vol. 198, p. 111612, 2023, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2023.111612

8.4.3 Journal article (online first/early access)

[3] A. Kumar and R. Singh, “Energy-aware scheduling for edge computing workloads,” IEEE Transactions on Cloud Computing, early access, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1109/TCC.2024.336742

8.4.4 Authored book

Format: [n] A. A. Author, Book Title in Italics, Xth ed. City, Country: Publisher, Year.

Full example

[4] I. Sommerville, Software Engineering, 10th ed. Harlow, U.K.: Pearson, 2016.

8.4.5 Chapter in an edited book

[5] M. Fowler, “Refactoring and design,” in Handbook of Software Architecture, J. Gattorna, Ed. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2019, pp. 189–206, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12345-6_9

8.4.6 Conference paper (proceedings)

Format: [n] A. A. Author and B. B. Author, “Paper title,” in Proceedings of the Full Conference Name (Abbreviation), City, Country, Year, pp. XXX–XXX, https://doi.org/10.XXXX/XXXXX

Full example

[6] M. M. Hasan, M. S. Islam, and M. N. Kabir, “Applications of artificial neural networks in software effort estimation,” in Proceedings of the International Conference on Software Engineering and Computer Systems (ICSECS), Pahang, Malaysia, 2021, pp. 471–476, https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSECS52883.2021.00091

8.4.7 Technical report

[7] P. Chen and M. Kintner-Meyer, “Reference architecture for distributed systems,” National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, USA, Tech. Rep. NIST-SP-800-XX, Dec. 2022. [Online]. Available: https://www.nist.gov/publications

8.4.8 Standard (ISO, IEEE, IEC)

[8] Systems and Software Engineering — Software Life Cycle Processes, ISO/IEC/IEEE 12207:2017, 2017.

8.4.9 Doctoral dissertation or master’s thesis

Format: [n] A. A. Author, “Thesis title,” Degree type, Dept., University, City, Country, Year.

Full example

[9] W. T. Urmi, “An adaptive model for real-time anomaly detection in distributed systems,” PhD dissertation, Faculty of Computing, Universiti Malaysia Pahang Al-Sultan Abdullah, Pekan, Malaysia, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/38210

8.4.10 Dataset

[10] N. A. Ahmad and M. M. Rahman, “Labelled dataset for software defect prediction,” Zenodo, 2022, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.XXXXXXX

8.4.11 Software or source code

[11] The pandas development team, “pandas: Powerful Python data analysis toolkit (Version 2.0),” Zenodo, 2023, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3509134

8.4.12 Preprint

[12] J. A. Smith and R. B. Jones, “Transformer models for automated code review,” arXiv:2312.XXXXX, Dec. 2023. [Online]. Available: https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.XXXXX

8.4.13 Website or online document

Online-only sources without a DOI are cited using the [Online] notation with the URL and an access date, as web content may change.

[13] IEEE, “IEEE Reference Guide,” IEEE, Piscataway, NJ, USA. [Online]. Available: https://ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org. Accessed: Apr. 1, 2024.

8.4.14 Patent

[14] M. M. Rahman and K. Kadirgama, “Method for adaptive load balancing in distributed systems,” Malaysian Patent Application MY-2022-003XXX, filed Jul. 12, 2022.

8.4.15 Personal communication

Personal communications (emails, interviews, private letters) are not independently verifiable and should be avoided. Where essential, they are cited parenthetically in the text. They must not appear in the numbered reference list, for example: (A. B. Ahmad, Universiti Malaysia Pahang Al-Sultan Abdullah, personal communication, Mar. 10, 2024).

8.5 Reference Quality, Currency, and Self-Citation

Include only relevant, current, and scientifically valid references. IJSECS reviewers and editors treat the reference list as a reflection of the authors’ command of the field; outdated or selective referencing can lead to revision or rejection. Wherever possible, at least half of the references should be from work published in the last five years; review articles may span a longer period but should still reflect the most recent developments.

Self-citation is acceptable only where the cited work is directly relevant to the present study. In line with Section 9.2, articles should contain no more than five self-citations (including co-authored works) or 20% of the total references, whichever is lower. Adding self-citations that are not directly relevant, or citations intended only to inflate citation counts, constitutes citation manipulation and may be actioned under the journal’s Misconduct Handling Policy. All references must be accurate, verifiable, and included in the article-level metadata
9. Publication Ethics and Integrity
9.1 Plagiarism and Similarity Screening

At both the initial submission and before publication, all manuscripts submitted to the journal are screened using Turnitin. This detects plagiarism and compares text similarity with published literature, online sources, and journal archives. Plagiarism, which is the use of others’ words, ideas, data, methods, figures or code without appropriate citation and claiming it as original to the work, is an ethics violation that can incur a penalty whether this was done intentionally or negligently. These include mosaic plagiarism, idea plagiarism, and the use of unpublished material accessed during the peer-review evaluation. Different disciplines have different similarity thresholds; even very high scores do not necessarily indicate plagiarism since technical writing, when properly cited, often uses similar terminology and methods. All flagged manuscripts are assessed individually by the editorial team.

9.2 Self-Citation and Citation Manipulation

Non-scholarly citation manipulation (e.g., citation practices outside academic attribution) is a serious violation of this prohibition in journal publications. This includes coercive citation (editors or reviewers requesting specific citations to accept a manuscript or write a favourable review), citation stacking (a coordination of reciprocal citing between researchers), reference fabrication (falsely quoting non-existent literature, such as sites which do not contain the information cited and even AI-generated references) and excessive self-citation with no justification. Authors should limit self-citations to no more than five (including co-authored works) or 20% of all references, whichever is lower. All citations must be scientifically valid, properly credited, and directly relevant to the manuscript. Any suspicion of citation manipulation will trigger an editorial investigation; confirmed cases may result in rejection, or, if already published, corrections, expressions of concern, or retractions.

9.3 Duplicate Submission and Dual Publication

Submitting a manuscript to IJSECS requires the corresponding author to confirm that the work has not been previously published in nearly identical form, is not under review by another journal, and will not be submitted elsewhere during the review process. Both duplicate submissions, submitting the same or similar manuscript to multiple journals at once, and duplicate publication, publishing the same content in more than one outlet without full disclosure and editorial approval, are deemed misconduct. Nonetheless, legitimate secondary publication, such as translating the work into another language for a different audience with full disclosure, consensus from all editors, and proper cross-referencing in both versions, is permitted with prior written approval from the IJSECS Editor-in-Chief. Posting a preprint on recognised servers is not considered prior publication and does not hinder submission, provided it is disclosed at the time of submission.

9.4 Research Data Integrity

Fabricating data, such as creating results, observations, measurements, or responses that were not actually obtained, and falsifying data by hiding, altering, or removing authentic information to distort actual findings, is regarded as the most serious form of research misconduct. It is classified as a Level critical violation under the IJSECS Misconduct Handling Policy. Restrictions on image manipulation that change the original results (including selective enhancement, splicing, feature duplication, or other digital processing that alters visible content) are also in place. Only adjustments to brightness/contrast that are uniform across the entire image are permitted and must be mentioned directly in the figure legend. Statistical misconduct, such as cherry-picking positive results, performing inappropriate analyses, or misrepresenting the uncertainty or importance of the data.

10. Production, Proofs and Post-Acceptance
10.1 Copyediting and Pre-Publication Checks

Manuscripts accepted for publication are copy-edited by the journal copyediting editor team, who correct grammar and typographic issues while enhancing sentence clarity and consistency, as well as verifying in-text citations against the reference list, while also ensuring compliance with both the Conflict of Interests policy and all necessary styles related to journal style. Copyeditors also prepare more detailed article metadata for indexing, the abstract, author ORCID IDs, CRediT contributor roles, discipline keywords, funding acknowledgements and other declarations. Upon acceptance, a final similarity check is performed; if the result exceeds a certain threshold, it is sent to the Editor-in-Chief for review before being passed to production.

10.2 Galley Proofs

The corresponding author is also provided with a final, camera-ready galley proof for review after copyediting and typesetting. Authors have 5 working days to verify all technical details, including equations, figures, tables, data, and references, to ensure that no errors occur during typesetting. These proofs are solely for correcting factual errors and production issues; they should not be used for language editing, content modifications, or the addition of new data or arguments, which are not permitted at this stage. A detailed, itemised list of corrections must be returned to the production editor within 5 days. If no feedback is provided in time, the author is deemed to have approved the proof. Corrected proofs should be returned within 72 hours (three business days) after the editorial team's follow-up contact.

10.3 Online Publication, DOI, and Indexing

Once the galley proof is approved, the article is published online as the Version of Record on the IJSECS journal portal. Each article is assigned a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) registered with Crossref, providing a permanent and reliable citation link. All IJSECS articles feature CrossMark; readers accessing articles via the journal website or other platforms receive real-time, publisher-verified updates on the article's status, including corrections, expressions of concern, or retraction notices issued after publication. Complete article-level metadata—such as CRediT contributor roles, ORCID IDs, funding details, and declarations—is submitted within five working days of online publication. All articles are freely and permanently accessible worldwide under the relevant Creative Commons license, in line with IJSECS's open-access policy.

10.4 Reproduction Permissions

Authors must obtain written permission from the copyright holders before including any previously published figures, tables, images, or other content in their manuscript. Usually, the copyright owner is the original publisher. A permission letter confirming approval for reproduction in IJSECS must be submitted to the editorial office before the manuscript proceeds to production. Any properly credited material without permission will be removed before publication.

11. Submission Checklist

Authors must ensure that each item on the checklist is completed before submitting via the online editorial system. Manuscripts that do not include any of the required materials listed here will be returned before editorial review begins.

11.1  Manuscript File

11.2 Declarations Section

11.3 Online Submission System

Updated: 1 January 2026