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Author Guidelines

Contents

OVERVIEW

All articles to be considered for publication in Blue Economy should be submitted electronically to the journal’s online submission system.

You must proofread your manuscript before submission to check for spelling and grammatical errors. During submission, please choose the most suitable category (article type) for your paper. The manuscript should be in standard MS word document format only, and you will be guided stepwise through the creation and uploading of the various files.

Papers are accepted for evaluation on the understanding that:

  • they have not been published,
  • they are not being considered for publication simultaneously elsewhere,
  • they are not going to be submitted for publication elsewhere.

After a manuscript has been submitted, it is not possible for authors to be added or removed or for the order of authors to be changed. If authors do so, their submission may be canceled (see Policies and Publishing Ethics Section for details).

During the first check, journal administrators may return the articles for the following reasons:

  • The manuscript is not prepared in the format provided on the journal’s website,
  • The manuscript file is not the same as the manuscript template file given on the journal’s website,
  • The number of references or pages exceed the specified limits,
  • The authors did not perform the requested corrections or provide the necessary documents within the requested time,
  • Similarity index (iThenticate® result) is higher than the permitted threshold. There is no single number for the similarity percentage since each report is investigated in detail, but submissions exceeding 15% score are generally returned to authors. The resubmission of the same title without reducing the similarity score may cause a ban of the authors from the journal. Similarity reports with more than 50% scores, even in a single submission, may cause a ban from the journal and the authors’ future submissions may not be considered for publication.

ORCID

All authors are required to provide their ORCID iD during the submission process so that the process of evaluation and publishing of the manuscripts can continue in accordance with our publishing policy. If you do not have an ORCID iD, you can visit https://orcid.org/ to get your unique 16-digit ORCID iD number.

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MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION

Manuscripts that are not prepared using the template will not be considered for publication. Please consider the following before submitting your article:

- All authors who report experiments on animals are required to give assurance in the “Materials and Methods” section that the animals were treated in accordance with the guidelines of the local ethics committee; approval reference number should be included where relevant.

- Manuscripts should be divided into clearly defined and numbered sections as appropriate. Principal sections should be numbered consecutively (1. Introduction, 2. Materials and Methods, etc.) and subsections should be numbered 1.1., 1.2., etc. Do not number the Acknowledgements or References sections. A technical check is done to your manuscript so that the layout, sections and the cover letter are all correct. The cover letter should state that your work is authentic and is not currently submitted or reviewed or published in any other journal.

- Kindly remove all authors’ names and affiliations from the manuscript’s file as the review is double-blind. Authors’ informations should included in the “Title Page” file.

- You article should not exceed 15 pages including tables, figures, and diagrams. Font used Times new roman, size 12, line spacing 1.5 and margins normal (top and bottom: 1"; right and left: 1.25").

- Your plagiarism percentage should not exceed 15%.

- You are required to send us 3 - 5 international reviewers (not from your home country) within the same field of your manuscript. (If not added in your first submission, kindly send them by email to the journal’s contact email addresses)

  1. Submission Agreement:
    Please review this “Submission Agreement”. You will need to confirm your consent to its terms when submitting your article to the journal.

  2. Title Page:
    All submissions must include a title page, which is to be uploaded as a separate document. Do not repeat the information from the title page within the main manuscript document. The title page should contain the full title in sentence case (e.g., Urothelial cancers: clinical and imaging evaluation), the full names (First name [full], Middle name [only Initial], Last name [full]) and affiliations of all authors in English (e.g., National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries (NIOF), Cairo, Egypt), the ORCID iDs of all authors, and the contact e-mail address for the clearly identified corresponding author. Only one corresponding author is permitted per manuscript. Do not repeat this information in the main document. If your manuscript is accepted for publication, this information will be moved to the main document after the peer review process is completed.

  3. Title and Abstract:
    The first page of the main manuscript should begin with the title. Do not include author names or affiliations here. Directly below the title, an informative abstract of not more than 300 words must accompany each manuscript. The abstract should not contain citations. Abstracts of review articles should be a brief overview of the main points from the review.

  4. Keywords:
    Please provide a minimum of 3 and maximum of 6 key words or phrases to enable retrieval and indexing. Only the first letter of the first key word should begin with a capital letter; the other key words should be written in lower case. Please do not put a period at the end of the list of key words. Acronyms should be avoided. Key words should not be a virtual copy of the title.

  5. Acknowledgments/disclaimers/conflict of interest, if any:
    Please include any necessary acknowledgments or disclaimers here. Names of funding organizations should be written in full.

    All authors should also disclose any conflict of interest that may have influenced either the conduct or the presentation of the research.

  6. Informed Consent
    Manuscripts reporting the results of experimental investigations conducted with humans must clearly state that the study protocol received institutional review board approval and that all participants provided informed consent in the format required by the relevant authorities and/or boards. Please reference the relevant review board(s) and approval code(s) here.

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  7. Style and Format:
    In general, the journal follows the conventions of Scientific Style and Format, The CSE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers, Council of Science Editors, Reston, VA, USA (7th ed.).

    The manuscripts (except Letters to the Editor) should be divided into logically ordered and numbered sections. Principal sections should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals (1. Introduction, 2. Materials and methods, etc.) and subsections should be numbered 1.1., 1.2., etc. Do not number the Acknowledgments and References sections.

    Manuscripts line spacing should be 1.5 and margins normal (top and bottom: 1"; right and left: 1.25"), in Times New Roman font size 12. Every page of the manuscript, including the title page, references, tables, etc., should be numbered. All copies of the manuscript should also have line numbers starting with 1 on each consecutive page. Manuscripts must be written in English. Contributors who are not native English speakers are strongly advised to ensure that a colleague fluent in the English language or a professional language editor has reviewed their manuscript. Concise English without jargon should be used. Repetitive use of long sentences and passive voice should be avoided. It is strongly recommended that the text be run through computer spelling and grammar programs. Either British or American spelling is acceptable but must be consistent throughout.

  8. Language Editing:
    Please write your text in good English (American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of these). Authors who feel their English language manuscript may require editing to eliminate possible grammatical or spelling errors and to conform to correct scientific English may wish to use the English Language Editing service available from Elsevier’s WebShop. Alternatively, the Editorial Office of the journal can be contacted (see contact information).

  9. Symbols, Units, and Abbreviations:
    If symbols such as χ, μ, η, or ν are used, they should be added using the symbols menu of Word in Times New Roman font. Degree symbols (∘) must be used from the symbol menu, not superscripted letter o or number 0. Multiplication symbols must be used (×), not the letter x. Spaces must be inserted between numbers and units (e.g., 3 kg) and between numbers and mathematical symbols (+, −, ×, =, <, >) but not between numbers and percent symbols (e.g., 45%). Please use SI units. All abbreviations and acronyms should be defined at first mention. Any Latin terms such as et al., in vitro, or in situ should not be italicized.

  10. Tables and Figures:
    All illustrations (photographs, drawings, graphs, etc.), not including tables, must be labeled “Figure.” Figures must be submitted both in the manuscript and as separate files.

    All tables and figures must have a caption and/or legend and be numbered (e.g., Table 1, Figure 2), unless there is only one table or figure, in which case it should be labeled “Table” or “Figure” with no numbering. Captions must be written in sentence case (e.g., Macroscopic appearance of the samples). The font used in the figures should be Times New Roman. If symbols such as χ, μ, η, and ν are used, they should be added using the symbols menu of Word in Times New Roman font. All tables and figures, including subfigures, must be numbered consecutively as they are referred to in the text; e.g., Figures 2a, 2b, and 2c should be referred to in the text in that order before Figure 3. Please refer to tables and figures with capitalization and unabbreviated (e.g., “As shown in Figure 2…”, and not “Fig. 2” or “figure 2”). The tables and figures themselves should be given at the end of the text only, after the references, not in the running text.

    The resolution of images should not be less than 118 pixels/cm when the width is set to 16 cm. Images must be scanned at 1200 dpi resolution and submitted in jpeg or tiff format. Graphs and diagrams must be drawn with a line weight between 0.5 and 1 point. Graphs and diagrams with a line weight of less than 0.5 point or more than 1 point are not accepted. Scanned or photocopied graphs and diagrams are not accepted. Charts must be prepared in 2 dimensions unless required by the data used. Charts unnecessarily prepared in 3 dimensions are not accepted.

    Figures that are charts, diagrams, or drawings must be submitted in a modifiable format, i.e., our graphics personnel should be able to modify them. Therefore, if the program with which the figure is drawn has a “save as” option, it must be saved as *.ai or *.pdf. If the “save as” option does not include these extensions, the figure must be copied and pasted into a blank Microsoft Word document as an editable object. It must not be pasted as an image file (tiff, jpeg, or eps) unless it is a photograph.

    Tables and figures, including caption, title, column heads, and footnotes, must not exceed 16 × 20 cm and should be no smaller than 8 cm in width. For all tables, please use Word’s “Create Table” feature, with no tabbed text or tables created with spaces and drawn lines. Please do not duplicate information that is already presented in the figures. Tables must be clearly typed, each on a separate sheet, and double-spaced. Tables may be continued on another sheet, if necessary, but the dimensions stated above still apply

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  11. References:
    Every in-text citation has a corresponding reference in a reference list. A reference includes additional details about each source referenced. This enables the reader to refer to the original source, should they need to. The reference list is a detailed list of all the works consulted while writing. It is placed at the end of the document.

    Reference example for the above in-text citation:
    Author Surname, Initials. (Publication Year) Title of the text in italics. Place of Publication: Publisher.
    ⇒ Bloom, H. (2005) Novelists and novels. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers.

    Below are Harvard referencing examples of in-text citations and reference list entries for the different kinds of sources that you might use.

    Books
    In-text citation structure and example:
    (Author Surname, Publication Year): (Ozeki, 2013)
    Reference structure and example:
    Author Surname, Initials. (Publication Year) Title. Place of Publication: Publisher.
    ⇒ Ozeki, R. (2013) A tale for the time being. New York: Penguin Books.

    Book with two or three authors: the names of all the authors are given in both the in-text citation and the reference entry.
    In-text citation structure and example:
    (1st Author Surname and 2nd Author Surname, Publication Year): (Lodge and Wood, 2000)
    Reference structure and example:
    1st Author Surname, Initials. and 2nd Author Surname, Initials. (Publication Year) Title of the text in italics. Place of Publication: Publisher.
    ⇒ Lodge, D. and Wood, N. (2000) Modern criticism and theory: a reader. 2nd edn. Harlow: Longman.

    Book with four or more authors: If the number of authors is four or more, only the first author’s name is used followed by ‘et al.’, italicised, which is Latin for ‘and others’.
    In-text citation structure and example: (1st Author Surname et al., Publication Year): (Akmajian et al., 2014)
    Reference structure and example:
    1st Author Surname, Initials. et al. (Publication Year) Title of the text in italics. Place of Publication: Publisher.
    ⇒ Akmajian, A. et al. (2014) Linguistics: an introduction to language and communication. 6th edn. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Book with translator: For books with a translator, only the author’s name is included in the in-text reference. The translator is given in the reference list entry, along with the language from which it was translated. This comes right after the title.
    In-text citation structure and example:
    (Author Surname, Publication Year) (Dostoevsky, 1993)
    Reference structure and example:
    Author Surname, Initials. (Publication Year) Title of the text in italics. Translated from the Language by Translator Initials. Surname. Place of Publication: Publisher.
    ⇒ Dostoevsky, F. (1993) Crime and punishment. Translated from the Russian by R. Pevear and L. Volokhonsky. London: Vintage.

    Journal articles
    Journal articles are highly credible sources of information. The example below was authored by more than three individuals, so the term ‘et al.’ is used in lieu of listing all authors.
    In-text citation structure and example:
    (Author Surname, Publication Year): (Lomolino et al., 2020)

    Journal reference list entries often have extra information, such as article title, volume, issue number, page numbers, or a specific date. With journals, the volume number follows the title. If there are any specific parts of the issue, numbered or organized according to months, these details are mentioned alongside in brackets.
    Reference structure and example:
    Author Surname, Initials. (Publication Year) ‘Article title’, Journal Name, Volume(Issue), Page(s). Available at: URL or DOI (Accessed: date).
    ⇒ Lomolino, M. et al. (2013) ‘Of mice and mammoths: generality and antiquity of the island rule’, Journal of Biogeography, 40(8), pp. 1427-1439. Available at: https://www.jstor/org/stable/23463664 (Accessed: 10 September 2020).

    Newspaper or magazine
    In-text citation structure and example:
    (Author Surname, Publication Year) (Ingle, 2020)
    Reference structure and example:
    Author Surname, Initials. (Publication Year) ‘Article title’, Newspaper/Magazine Name, Day Month Published, Page(s). Available at: URL or DOI (Accessed: date).
    ⇒ Ingle, S. (2020) ‘Geraint Thomas insists he has nothing to prove at road world championships’, The Guardian, 24 September. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/sprot/2020/sep/24/geraint-thomas-insists-he-has-nothing-to-prove-at-road-world-championships-cycling (Accessed: 11 October 2020).

    For online articles, you should always include the URL and date of access.
    Social media and other online sources
    In-text citation structure and example:
    (Author/Poster Name, Publication Year) (Cramer, 2020)

    Reference structure and example:
    References for social media posts have a similar format to online articles. However, sometimes they don’t have a true ‘title’. For example, for Twitter posts, the full text of the tweet is used as the title, unless the tweet is overly long.
    Author/Poster Surname, Initial(s). [@Handle] (Publication year) Content of Post [Social Media Site] Day Month Published. Available at: URL (Accessed: Day Month Year).
    ⇒ Cramer, K. [@SenKevinCramer] (2020) Supreme Court vacancies are an important issue to the people I serve [Twitter] 24 September. Available at: https://twitter.com/SenKevinCramer/status/1308915548244398081 (Accessed: 25 September 2020).

    The format for citing social media is different than the format for citing regular websites and web pages. This guide on how to cite a website in Harvard style provides details on how to cite web content that is not posted on social media.

    Images
    In-text citation structure and example:
    (Image Creator or Photographer Surname, Publication Year) (Pinneo, 2020)

    Print reference structure
    Author, Initial(s). (Year) Title of the Image [Photograph]. Place of Publication: Publisher (if available).

    Online reference structure and example:
    If the image is on the Internet, then the place of publication and the publisher name are replaced by the image URL and access date.
    Author, Initial(s). (Year) Title of the Image. Available at: URL (Accessed: Day Month Year).
    ⇒ Pinneo, B.J. (2020) Dusty dreams. Available at: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-of-the-day/2020/09/dusty-dreams/ (Accessed: 23 September 2020).

    Films
    In-text reference structure and example:
    (Film Title, Year Released): (Pride & Prejudice, 2005)
    Reference structure and example: For films, the title of the film is used in place of the author name.
    Title of the Film (Year Released) Directed by Director Initial. Surname. Available at: Name of Streaming Service (Accessed: Day Month Year).
    ⇒ Pride & Prejudice (2005) Directed by J. Wright. UK: Universal Pictures. Available at: Netflix (Accessed: 29 September 2020).

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CONFLICT OF INTEREST

The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors’ definition of conflicts of interest is as follows: “A conflict of interest exists when professional judgment concerning a primary interest (such as patients’ welfare or the validity of research) may be influenced by a secondary interest (such as financial gain). Perceptions of conflict of interest are as important as actual conflicts of interest.”

A conflict of interest defines the situations that might raise the question of bias, direct or indirect, in the work reported. These situations occur when an individual’s objectivity is potentially compromised by a desire for financial gain, prominence, professional advancement, or a successful outcome. Conflicts can also arise for other reasons, such as personal relationships or rivalries, academic competition, and intellectual beliefs.

Authors should avoid entering into agreements with study sponsors, both for-profit and nonprofit, that interfere with authors’ access to all of the study’s data or that interfere with their ability to analyze and interpret. In order to preserve the reliability of the Blue Economy journal, authors are required to disclose all and any potential conflicts of interest when they submit their manuscripts.

Conflicts of interest are the most likely to undermine the credibility of the journal, the authors, and science itself. That is why our editors are working diligently to ensure that what is published in our journal is balanced, evidence-based, and evaluated independently. In this manner, editors and reviewers are required to notify the journal if they find they do not have the necessary expertise to assess the relevant aspects of a manuscript, if they decide that the manuscript is very similar to one in preparation or under consideration by another journal, or if they suspect the identity of the author(s), which raises potential competing or conflicting interests.

PLAGIARISM

The use of someone else’s ideas or words in their original form or slightly changed without a proper citation is considered plagiarism and will not be tolerated. Even if a citation is given, if quotation marks are not placed around words taken directly from other authors’ work, the author is still guilty of plagiarism. Reuse of the authors’ own previously published words, with or without a citation, is regarded as self-plagiarism. All manuscripts received are submitted to iThenticate®, a sophisticated plagiarism checking system, which compares the content of the manuscript with a vast database of web pages and academic publications. Manuscripts judged to be plagiarized or self-plagiarized, based on the iThenticate® report or any other source of information, will not be considered for publication. Open-access theses are considered as published works and they are included in the similarity checks. Submissions containing plagiarism in whole or part, duplicate, and redundant publication or self-plagiarism will be rejected.

CHANGES TO AUTHORSHIP

Authors are expected to consider carefully the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of the original submission. Any addition, deletion or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list should be made only before the manuscript has been accepted and only if approved by the journal Editor. To request such a change, the Editor must receive the following from the corresponding author: (a) the reason for the change in author list and (b) written confirmation (e-mail, letter) from all authors that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement. In the case of addition or removal of authors, this includes confirmation from the author being added or removed.

Only in exceptional circumstances will the Editor consider the addition, deletion or rearrangement of authors after the manuscript has been accepted. While the Editor considers the request, publication of the manuscript will be suspended. If the manuscript has already been published in an online issue, any requests approved by the Editor will result in a corrigendum.

SENDING A REVISED MANUSCRIPT

The revised version of the manuscript should be submitted online in a manner similar to that used for the submission of the manuscript for the first time. However, there is no need to submit the “Title Page” (if there are no changes in the authors list and article title) or “Cover Letter” files while submitting a revised version. When submitting a revised manuscript, authors are requested to provide point-to-point reply to reviewers’ comments. In addition, they are expected to mark the changes as underlined or colored text in the article file.

ONLINE PROOF CORRECTION

To ensure a fast publication process of the article, we kindly ask authors to provide us with their proof corrections within two days. Corresponding authors will receive an e-mail with a link to our online proofing system. In addition to editing text, you can also comment on figures/tables and answer questions from the Copy Editor. Web-based proofing provides a faster and less error-prone process. All instructions for proofing will be given in the e-mail we send to authors.

We will do everything possible to get your article published quickly and accurately. Please use this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the text, tables and figures. Significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission from the Editor. It is important to ensure that all corrections are sent back to us in one communication. Please check carefully before replying, as inclusion of any subsequent corrections cannot be guaranteed. Proofreading is solely your responsibility

REPRINTS

The journal does not provide free printed reprints. Authors can purchase reprints, payment for which should be done at the time of submitting the proofs.

PUBLICATION SCHEDULE

The journal publishes articles on its website on the acceptance and follows a continuous publication schedule. Articles are compiled for ‘print on demand’ semiannual issues.

COPYRIGHTS

The entire contents of Blue Economy international copyrights. The journal, however, grants to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute, perform and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works in any digital medium for any reasonable non-commercial purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship and ownership of the rights. The journal also grants the right to make small numbers of printed copies for their personal non-commercial use under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).