PUBLICATION ETHICS AND MALPRACTICE STATEMENT

1. Costruzioni Metalliche is a bimestrial scientific/technical journal with the scope to promote the use of the steel in the civil engineering and architecture.
2. Costruzioni Metalliche follows the single blind peer-review procedure for submissions of all manuscripts. Single blind is the most common type of peer-reviewing in which the identity of the reviewers is not disclosed to the authors of the submitted manuscript. The anonymity of reviewers allows for objective assessment of the manuscript by reviewers and is also free from any influence by the authors on the reviewers comments.
3. All submitted articles are subject to peer review in consultation with members of the journal’s Editorial Board and independent external referees; (usually three reviewers). All manuscripts are assessed rapidly, and the decision taken by the journal’s Editors based on all the peer reviewers comments, is then conveyed to the author(s).
4. All efforts are made to expedite the peer review process leading timely publication.
5. Authors publishing with Costruzioni Metalliche surrender the copyright of their work. However, if they decide to retain the copyright of their work they must expressly specify it in Journal publishing agreement.

AUTHORS GUIDELINES

Submission to this journal proceeds by mail or by the website https://www.collegiotecniciacciaio.it/costruzionimetalliche/

Each paper should be sent to cta [AT] ctanet.it.

Articles has to be divided into clearly defined and numbered sections. Subsections should be numbered 1.1 (then 1.1.1, 1.1.2, …), 1.2, etc. (the abstract is not included in section numbering). Use this numbering also for internal cross-referencing: do not just refer to ‘the text’. Any subsection may be given a brief heading.
Each heading should appear on its own separate line.

State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results.

Results should be clear and concise.

This should explore the significance of the results of the work, not repeat them. Avoid extensive citations and discussion of published literature.

The main conclusions of the study may be presented in a short Conclusions section, which may stand alone or form a subsection of a Discussion or Results and Discussion section.

If there is more than one appendix, they should be identified as A, B, etc. Formulae and equations in
appendices should be given separate numbering: Eq. (A.1), Eq. (A.2), etc.; in a subsequent appendix, Eq. (B.1) and so on. Similarly for tables and figures: Table A.1; Fig. A.1, etc.

• TITLE
Concise and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible. Title has to be mandatory written in Italian and in English.
• AUTHOR NAMES AND AFFILIATIONS
Please clearly indicate the given name(s) and family name(s) of each author and check that all names are accurately spelled. Present the authors’ affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lowercase superscript letter immediately after the author’s name and in front of the appropriate address. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name and, if available, the e-mail address of each author.
• CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Clearly indicate who will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication. Ensure that the e-mail address is given and that contact details are kept up to date by the corresponding author.
• ABSTRACT
A concise and factual abstract is required (maximum 150 words). The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results and major conclusions. An abstract is often presented separately from the article, so it must be able to stand alone. For this reason, References should be avoided, but if essential, then cite the author(s) and year(s). Also, non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined at their first mention in the abstract itself. Abstract has to be mandatory written in Italian and in English.
• IMAGES
Please provide an image with a minimum of 300 dpi. Preferred file types: TIFF, EPS, PDF.
• REFERENCES
Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa).
Unpublished results and personal communications are not recommended in the reference list, but may be mentioned in the text. If these references are included in the reference list they should follow the standard reference style of the journal.
References has to be in Roman Script and in Harvard references style, progressively numbered (http://www.citethisforme.com/harvard-referencing).
• AKNOWLEDGEMENTS
All the found sources have to be fully acknowledged.

AUTHORS’ RESPONSIBILITIES

Authors should:

1. Ensure that all researched work submitted is original, fully referenced and that all authors are represented accurately. The submission must be exclusive and not under consideration elsewhere.
2. Provide accurate contact details for a designated corresponding author, who shall be deemed by the publisher and editor as fully responsible for the authorship of the paper and all communications concerning the ethical status and originality of the paper. This includes any queries or investigations that may arise, pre-or post publication.
3. Openly disclose the source of all data and third party material, including previously unpublished work by the authors themselves. Anything that could compromise the originality of the submission should be expressly avoided and/or discussed with the editorial office in the first instance.
4. Identify any third party material that they intend to include in their article, and obtain written permission for re-use in each instance from the relevant copyright holders. Such permissions should be submitted once the manuscript is accepted, or requires small changes to be accepted.
5. Openly disclose any conflict of interest – for example, if publication were to benefit a company or services in which the author(s) has a vested interest.
6. Expect to sign a copyright assignment form on acceptance of their work, which will assume that the author is empowered to assign copyright to the publisher.
7. Fully correspond and comply with the editor and publisher in any requests for source data, proof of authorship or originality in a timely manner, providing reasonable explanation for discrepancies or failures to disclose vital information.

REVIEWERS’ RESPONSIBILITIES

Reviewers should:

1. Adhere to policy of Costruzioni Metalliche confidential peer review of their journals. This includes, but is not restricted to, keeping their identity hidden from authors and not externally distributing any work that is passed to them for their eyes only.
2. Only accept invitations to review work that is relevant to their own expertise and speciality.
3. Review submitted work in a responsible, impartial and timely manner.
4. Report any suspected ethical misconduct as part of a thorough and honest review of the work.
5. Avoid the use of unnecessarily inflammatory or offensive language in their appraisal of the work.
6. Accept the commitment to review future versions of the work and provide ‘follow up’ advice to the editor(s), if requested.
7. Seek advice from the editor if anything is unclear at the time of invitation.
8. Remain in good communication with both the publisher and the editor.

JOURNAL RESPONSIBILITIES

Costruzioni Metalliche will:

1. Protect the reputation of our journals and published work by only publishing content of the highest quality and relevance in a timely and responsible manner.
2. Provide detailed information concerning both our understanding of publication ethics and our implementation of the same. Emphasise a desire for prevention, not eventual detection, of ethical misconduct.
3. When necessary, request proof of originality/accuracy from the corresponding author of any work submitted to any of our journals.
4. Provide a transparent submissions and publication process, with full respect and care paid to the author. This includes detailed and dedicated instructions to authors for each journal, outlining referencing style, accepted article types and submission processes.
5. Investigate thoroughly any suggestion of ethical misconduct detected during any stage of the submissions process. This can include, but is not restricted to, the following: plagiarism, redundant publication, fabrication or misuse of data and authorial disputes.
6. When necessary, retract articles that we deem to be unethical, misleading or damaging.
7. When necessary, publish errata, corrigenda and retractions in a timely and responsible fashion, detailing the decision online in an open access format and publishing in print as soon as possible.
8. Remain in good communication with editors, authors, reviewers and society partners (where applicable).

PEER REVIEWING PROCESS

The corresponding or submitting author submits the paper to the journal.

The journal checks the paper’s composition and arrangement against the journal’s Author Guidelines to make sure it includes the required sections and stylizations. The quality of the paper is not assessed at this point.

The Editor-in-Chief checks that the paper is appropriate for the journal and is sufficiently original and interesting. If not, the paper may be rejected without being reviewed any further.

The paper is assigned to an editor.

The handling editor sends invitations to individuals he or she believes would be appropriate reviewers. As responses are received, further invitations are issued, if necessary, until the required number of acceptances is obtained (three reviewers)

Potential reviewers consider the invitation against their own expertise, conflicts of interest and availability. They then accept or decline. If possible, when declining, they might also suggest alternative reviewers.

The reviewer sets time aside to read the paper several times. The first read is used to form an initial impression of the work. If major problems are found at this stage, the reviewer may feel comfortable rejecting the paper without further work. Otherwise they will read the paper several more times, taking notes so as to build a detailed point-by-point review. The review is then submitted to the journal, with a recommendation to accept or reject it – or else with a request for revision (usually flagged as either major or minor) before it is reconsidered.

The handling editor considers all the returned reviews before making an overall decision. If the reviews differ widely, the editor may invite an additional reviewer so as to get an extra opinion before making a decision.

The editor sends a decision email to the author including any relevant reviewer comments. Whether the comments are anonymous or not will depend on the type of peer review that the journal operates.
If accepted, the paper is sent to production. If the article is rejected or sent back for either major or minor revision, the handling editor should include constructive comments from the reviewers to help the author improve the article At this point, reviewers should also be sent an email or letter letting them know the outcome of their review. If the paper was sent back for revision, the reviewers should expect to receive a new version, unless they have opted out of further participation. However, where only minor changes were requested this follow-up review might be done by the handling editor.

PLAGIARISM – SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSION – DUPLICATE/MULTIPLE SUBMISSION

One of the most common types of publication misconduct isplagiarism–when one author deliberately uses another’s work without permission, credit, or acknowledgment. Plagiarism takes different forms, from literal copying to paraphrasing some else’s work and can include:

• Data
• Words and Phrases
• Ideas and Concepts

Simultaneous submission occurs when a person submits a paper to different publications at the same time, which can result in more than one journal publishing that particular paper.

Duplicate/multiple publication occurs when two or more papers, without full cross-reference, share essentially the same hypotheses.

PUBLISHING ETHICS VIOLATION

1. Plagiarism is considered a violation of the publishing ethics.
2. Intentionally submitting orre-submitting work for duplicate publication is considered a violation of publishing ethics.
3. Simultaneous submission is considered a breach of publishing ethics.
4. Duplicate/multiple publication is considered a breach of publishing ethics.

COPYRIGHTS

Authors surrender the copyright of their work to Costruzioni Metalliche. Submission of a manuscript to the respective journals implies that all authors have read and agreed to the content of the Covering Letter or the Terms and Conditions. It is a condition of publication that manuscripts submitted to this journal have not been published and will not be simultaneously submitted or published elsewhere.

Copyright Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete a ‘Journal Publishing Agreement’. An e-mail will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript together with a ‘Journal Publishing Agreement’ form. Permitted third party reuse of open access articles is determined by the author’s choice of user license.

Any dispute arising, including any claim, shall be governed exclusively by Italian Law 22 april 1941 n. 633 governing the copyrights.

DISCLAIMER

Responsibility for the content published, including any opinions expressed therein, rests exclusively with the author(s) of such content. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law,CostruzioniMetalliche (on its own behalf, and on behalf of its staff and members of its editorial board) disclaims responsibility for any and all injury and/or damage (whether financial or otherwise) to persons or property, resulting directly or indirectly from any ideas, methods, instructions or products (including errors in the same) referred to in the content of the journal. Any dispute arising, including any claim, shall be governed exclusively by Italian Law.