Vestnik MGSU - Editorial policy

Goals and Objectives of our Journal

Unique publication media for the research findings by MGSU researchers, their Russian and international colleagues.
Highlights of the most challenging upcoming trends in the civil engineering science and practice, theory and history of urban planning and architectural art.
Unique networking and interfacing opportunity for researches from different regions and countries.

The Editorial Board keeps searching for new contributing authors whilst involving researchers from partner universities of the International Association of Institutions of Higher Education in Civil Engineering, colleagues employed with universities of technology and civil engineering in CIS states and worldwide, leading researchers of research institutes, specialists and top executives of design and construction companies with our publication activities.

Materials to be considered for publication in our Journal topic sections include insights, research papers, scientific overviews and reviews, as well as scientific publication feedback articles on construction and architecture fundamentals and applications.

A scientific article is a finalised and copyrighted work describing results of an original scientific study (a primary scientific article) or relating to reviews of the scientific articles in the same domain published earlier (scientific overviews). In primary scientific articles, authors provide essential details of their completed studies in such a form as is most convenient for other scientific community members to assess such studies, simulate experiments, as well as assess the authors’ reasoning and conclusions. The purpose of scientific overviews is to provide a summary, an analysis, an assessment, a general overview or a synopsis of an earlier published information (primary scientific publications). Normally, a scientific article combines these two types of scientific texts, including an overview and an original scientific work.

The Information section is intended for publishing the materials on R&D and construction companies’ achievement highlights and contribution to the construction industry..

Per the RF Media Laws and the incorporation paperwork, the advertising materials relating to the construction science advanced technologies, best educational practices, newsbreaks, events, scientific conferences and trade fairs are also published in the Journal.

The Journal focus is construction and architecture science challenges (including construction activities in Russia and abroad, construction materials, equipment, technologies and methods, architectural theory, history, design, refurbishment and urban planning reviews).

Subject Entries

Architecture and Urban Planning. Reconstruction and Refurbishment
Construction System Design and Layout Planning. Construction Mechanics. Bases and Foundations, Underground Structures
Construction Material Engineering
Safety of Construction and Urban Economy
Hydraulics. Geotechnique. Hydrotechnical Construction
Engineering Systems in Construction
Technology and Organization of Construction. Economics and Management in Construction.

Moscow State University of Civil Engeneering (National Research Univesrity) is the National Research University and the RF leading Construction Institute. As a founder of the publishing institution and a publisher, the University takes the responsibility for stringent control over the published scientific materials. We are aware of the responsibility for consistent presentation of the scientific study results, as well as for observance of the publication legal and ethical aspects set forth below.

Journal Editorial Policy Ethical Guidelines and Legal Basics

The Journal Editorial Staff takes the responsibility for well-reasoned publication release based on discussions of such publications with leading NRU MGSU scientists and third-party experts involved as peer reviewers, including involvement of related scientific communities as collective experts.

The publication release decision is based on integrity, scholarly importance and relevance of a work reviewed.

The Journal Editorial Board Policy fully complies with the applicable legal laws in terms of copyright, legitimacy, plagiarism and slander as stated in the Russian Legislation, including the ethical principal supported by the leading publishers of scientific periodicals.

In building its editorial policy, the Journal follows the basic principles of international institutions for scientific publication ethics.

Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors (Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors);
Code of Conduct for Journal Publishers (Code of Conduct for Journal Publishers) and Transparency and Best Practice Basics in Scholarly Publishing;
COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers (COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers)
Guidelines for Retracting Articles (Guidelines for Retracting Articles)
International Standards for Editors, Authors (International Standards for Editors and Authors) and Others Developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics - Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE);
The European Association of Science Editors (EASE) (The European Association of Science Editors (EASE)).

The people involved in preparing materials for publication in the Journal, including authors, reviewers, Editorial Board members, and publishing house representatives should follow the standards of the publication ethics set forth below.

In case any malpractice of the basics is suspected, the Editorial Board will follow the COPE Instructions.

Authorship and Copyright. All rights to all copyrighted articles are reserved. Authors transfer the copyright to their articles to the Journal Publisher based on the nonexclusive license whilst keeping the exclusive copyright (including the right to publish their articles in other journals, but only after the first publication in the Journal).

MGSU R&D University reserves exclusive rights to publish such materials in the MGSU Scientific & Technical Journal.

All persons (including co-authors) involved in studies and creating manuscripts and therefore responsible for the contents of the related materials shall be referred to as Authors. The License Agreement is signed either by all or by one of the co-authors authorised by all interested parties by way of a Letter of Attorney, the copy whereof shall be provided to the Editorial Office. A person (Author) providing a manuscript to the Editorial Office is fully responsible for ensuring that all co-authors are properly footnoted and that all changes to such material arising from peer reviews and revisions are properly coordinated and agreed upon with all co-authors.

Authorship Ethics. The Editorial Office expects that the Authors providing their materials for publication will respect the following basics:

Study Novelty;
Consistent study results, no false statements, integrity of the provided data;
Fair discussion of the study significance;
Avoidance of personal, critical, or scorning remarks and accusations against fellow researchers
Stringent avoidance of plagiarism; Acknowledgement of other researchers’ contribution, compulsory references to all sources used, including all publications essential to such article (including without limitation all earlier publications and scientific materials by such author) whilst making all efforts to avoid self-plagiarism (e.g. repetitious or duplicative publication). Author shall communicate to the Journal Editorial Board all of his/her studies and those of his/her fellow researches relating to the subject matter of the article provided for publication and currently under consideration for release by other publishers.
No materials by other authors, including without limitation data sheets, graphics, etc. shall be used and/or reproduced except when expressly permitted by the respective copyright owners and providing that such owners are properly footnoted.
No information from confidential sources shall be disclosed except when expressly permitted by the respective owners of such sources;
All contributors shall be referenced as co-authors of the article; publication of the finalised version of such article shall be agreed upon and approved by all the co-authors;
Compulsory acknowledgements of all colleagues, who are not co-authors but who inspired their work;
Compulsory disclosure of all conflicts of interests (employment information, consultations, shareholdings, expert opinions, patent application/registration, fees, etc.;
clear references in the manuscript texts to all grants received, including other study financing sources, other forms of support, including any and all facts, which may be construed as having an influence on the results gained and/or conclusions drawn in the course of the provided work);
Immediate notifications of substantial errors and/or inaccuracies in the published materials and co-operation with the Editor on early remedy of such errors/inaccuracies or retraction of such materials from publication.

Peer Review Ethics. The Peer Review process being the most important part of the scientific information exchange, the Editorial Office requests that the peer reviewers maintain:

Confidentiality: no provided manuscript information shall be disclosed except to the Editor;
Neutrality: entire manuscript assessment with no personal approach to criticising the author; any potential conflict of interests between a peer reviewer and a study peer reviewed, including the authors and/or such study financing institution shall be immediately communicated;
Impartiality: assessing the manuscript intellectual content regardless of the author's race, sex, sexual orientation, religious commitment, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political views of the author;
Clear and well-grounded opinion; source acknowledgement basics – references to the subject matter in the publications not mentioned in the manuscript; references to essential similarity and/or coincidence with the reviewed manuscript or to any other publication, which may be known to the Editor.

Journal Editorial Ethics. Editor reserves an exceptional right to either accept or reject a manuscript for publication. Editor may reject a manuscript prior to peer review thereof on a well-reasoned grounds (e.g. the article is not consistent with the subject matter of the Journal; the article is of a low scientific quality; the article was published earlier by another publishing house; the contents of the article was found contradictory to the ethical basics followed by the Journal). Editor accepts an article for publication according to his/her confidence that such article is consistent with the Journal basics. Editors shall guarantee that all materials published are consistent with the international scientific standards and basics.

In the event of conflicting interests between an author and an Editor, such material shall be transferred to another Editor.

An Editor transfers all eligible manuscripts for review by peer reviewers having related competences on the subject matter of such manuscripts.

The Editors ensure confidentiality and non-disclosure of the names of peer reviewers.

The Editors guarantee the highest quality and integrity of publications in the Journal, as well as publish updates, explanatory notes and apologies when needed.

Conflicting Interests Policy. Any financial, personal or professional claims, which may have an impact on a peer reviewer's/editor's scientific judgement and therefore on the judgement by the Editorial Board regarding a publication are referred to as Conflicting Interests.

The Journal Editorial Board assumes that by providing an article for publication an author confirms the following:

All financing sources are properly footnoted in the text of the article;
No commercial, financial, personal or professional factors, which may result into conflicting interests with regard to the article for publication exist;

Or an author makes an express statement about a probability of such conflict in the text of the covering letter attached to the article for review by the Editorial Board.

In the event of conflicting interests, an author may request that a particular editor and/or peer reviewer be withdrawn from such article review process.

Editors/Peer Reviewers shall make a statement about any potential conflicting interests, which may have an impact the Editorial Board's judgement.

In the event of conflicting interests between an Editor or Peer Reviewer with an author, such material shall be transferred to another Editor/Peer Reviewer.

No biased article assessment allowed. Conflicting interests stated by any of the reviewers/peer reviewers shall not mean such manuscript retraction from publication as the main manuscript assessment criteria is its scientific quality.

Privacy Statement. By signing the Application, which is part of the Author's Questionnaire (see the Questionnaire form on the site) attached as covering documentation to the article for publication, an author admits that his/her details (family names, names, middle names, names and addresses of affiliated entities, e-mail addresses, contact phone numbers for readers, etc.) provided for the publication purposes become a public domain. Such details are published exclusively in the authors’ interests and for consistent track-keeping, referencing by file-keeping organisations, including the opportunities to network with related scientific communities.

In addition to the above-mentioned details, the personal information provided by authors to the Journal, such as additional e-mail addresses and phone numbers shall be used exclusively for contacting the authors in the process of preparing the articles for publication. The Editorial Board shall not disclose any personal details to any third parties for any other purposes than set forth above.

Retraction Policy. In some cases, the Editorial Board may consider retraction.

The reasons for retraction are:

Plagiarism detection, including the use of images, diagrams, datasheets, etc. after an article has been published (see Plagiarism Policy); copyright claims to a published article or any part thereof by third parties;
Publications of the article by other publishers prior to publication in the Journal;
Serious errors in the published article compromising its scientific value.

In such events, the Editorial Board initiates an investigation, which may result in a retraction. A Retraction Report is drawn up and signed by the Editor-in-Chief. The Retraction Report copy is sent to the author.

At the same time, the article is not physically withdrawn from the published print-run and from the issue file on the site. Instead, the Editorial Board publishes a Retraction Notice on a related page of the Journal.

The Editorial Board carefully and responsibly reviews all reasonable claims regarding the errors in the published materials.

The Editorial Board assumes that authors and peer reviewers take the responsibility to advise promptly any errors missed prior to and detected after the publication.

Plagiarism Policy. All articles provided for publication shall be checked for non-plagiarism on the first stage of acceptance.

In the event of a reasonably suspected plagiarism or use of plagiarism concealment methods, the articles are not accepted for further review. Authors are given Notice of Rejection for suspected plagiarism. Should a plagiarism be detected in the published article, such article is retracted without remedy (without physical withdrawal, by way of publishing Notice of Plagiarism on the related pages of the Journal site and the article file).

All plagiarism instances in the provided articles are reviewed on an individual basis.

The Editorial Board has defined the following forms of plagiarism:

Use (the word-for-word transcription) of any materials in any volume with no references to the sources;
Use of images, pictures, photographs, datasheets, diagrams, schematics and any other graphics with no references to the sources;
Use of images, pictures, photographs, datasheets, diagrams, schematics and any other graphics published in other scientific media without prior consent of the respective copyright owners;
Use of copyright protected materials, which may not be used without a prior written consent of the respective authors and/or copyright owners.

The Editorial Board has defined the following forms of incorrect use:

No highlighting word-for-word transcriptions even with references to the sources provided; defective references (defective source descriptions preventing identification of such sources);
References to other than the original sources of a transcription without stating this fact (source misidentification);
No references to the sources used;
Redundant transcription (with references provided and transcription highlighted) in the volume, which is not consistent with the genre and goals of the article.

Acceptable transcription volume (correct use) may not exceed 30% (thirty percent) the total article volume. The Editorial Board reviews the articles requiring more transcriptions on an individual basis.

The articles with the contents overlapping the same author's other articles (e.g. thesis work, thesis summary, monograph, previous publications in other journals and scientific media) by more than 30% (thirty percent) are not accepted for publication.

Checking materials for transcriptions. The provided articles are checked using the Antiplagiat System and other search systems on the web. The Editorial Board may reasonably decide to run a more detailed check for transcriptions using additional instruments.

The Editorial Board strongly recommends against using any techniques purporting to enhance the text quality in the Antiplagiat System.

The articles with signs of technical modifications purporting to enhance the text quality by artificial means are not eligible for publication even with follow-up corrections made. The Editorial Board advises all such findings to the author and to his/her administration if the author is on staff of an educational institution.

In order to ensure that the high quality of the published materials is maintained and the copyright is protected, all provided articles shall go through the Antiplagiat System prior to the peer review process. All eligible articles shall go through the editorial processing.

Instructions for Editor to follow in the event of plagiarism detection in a provided manuscript (according to COPE recommendations)

Instructions for Editor to follow in the event of plagiarism detection in a published article (according to COPE recommendations)

Follow this link for the scientific publication COPE ethics recommendations translated into Russian.

Business Model. Publication Fees. Access to Full Texts. File-Keeping Policy

The Journal Publishers – MGSU National Research University – is responsible for any costs and/or expenses arising from the Journal publication, including the costs relating to expert opinions, web-hosting and file-keeping.

No charges apply for publications in the Journal.

No charges apply for peer reviews.

The Journal print-run is distributed by subscription.

Full-text files of all current and previous Journal issues are in the public domain.

The Journal web version is open for the readers. Any materials published herein, when used, shall be supplied with references to the Journal (particular publications) and to the respective authors.

No archiving article reprints (prior to peer review) and post-prints (prepared for publication but not published) is allowed. For the archiving purposes, only the publication version PDF files are made available to the authors and other users immediately after of a new Journal issue publication. No embargo applies.

The Journal materials may be freely used for personal, informational, scientific, educational and cultural purposes par Articles 1273 and 1274 Paragraph 70 Clause IV of the RF Civil Code. No other use of these materials allowed unless under a written consent by a respective copyright owner.

NO CHARGES apply for PUBLISHING ARTICLES in the Journal

Charges may apply for publishing advertising materials in the web and print versions of the Journal providing that such materials are related to architectural and construction activities and education.