Instructions
Scope
International Journal of the JSRM (IJJSRM) is an open access international electronic journal that is published by Japanese Society for Rock Mechanics (JSRM). This electronic journal publishes English-language reviews, research articles, express letters, technical notes, summaries, discussions, and proceedings papers in fields related to rock mechanics or rock engineering.
Eligibility of contributing authors
At least one of the authors of a submitted manuscript must be a member of International Society for Rock Mechanics (ISRM) or a member of the JSRM (regular member, student member, or an affiliate of a corporate member). However, this does not apply to manuscripts that are specifically invited by the Japanese Society for Rock Mechanics.
Category of manuscripts
The submission categories include reviews, research articles, express letters, technical notes, summaries, and discussions, with general submissions received from the society members in each category. Reviews, research articles, express letters, technical notes, and summaries may also be submitted upon invited by the JSRM. Additionally, proceedings papers from related international academic conferences may be published as special issues.
[Review]
A manuscript that broadly and comprehensively summarizes or explains the progress and current status of research or technology in rock mechanics, rock engineering, or related fields from a global perspective, or presents the authors’ insights and viewpoints.
[Research Article]
A manuscript that presents and discusses the results of theoretical, experimental, or numerical analysis research or technology in rock mechanics, rock engineering, or related academic fields, featuring original and novel findings.
[Express Letter]
A manuscript that presents and discusses results from theoretical, experimental, or numerical analysis research or technology in rock mechanics, rock engineering, or related academic fields, containing original and novel findings that require timely reporting.
[Technical Note]
A manuscript that presents the results of in-situ tests, laboratory experiments, numerical analyses, surveys, designs, construction, and on-site measurements, providing valuable insights that contribute to advancements in rock mechanics, rock engineering, or related academic fields.
[Summary]
Summary of the author’s recent research on rock mechanics, rock engineering, or related academic fields, with appropriate citations.
[Discussion]
Academic and technical questions or comments regarding reviews, research articles, express letters, or technical notes published in this electronic journal within the past six months, along with the authors’ responses to these inquiries.
[Proceedings Paper]
This electronic journal may publish conference proceedings as special issues in collaboration with the executive committees of international conferences related to rock mechanics, rock engineering, or related academic fields. Papers selected for publication are those submitted to the conferences and subsequently reviewed and accepted by the executive committee.
manuscript LENGTH
The following table shows the approximate number of printed pages for each type of submitted manuscript.
|
Category |
Number of printed pages |
|
Review |
8–12 |
|
Research Article |
8–12 |
|
Express Letter |
4–8 |
|
Technical Note |
6–12 |
|
Summary |
2–4 |
|
Discussion |
2 or less |
|
Proceedings Paper |
4–8 |
manuscript REQUIREMENTS
The requirements of manuscripts submitted as reviews, research articles, express letters, or technical notes for review are as follows.
1. The manuscript must be the author’s original work and must not be submitted previously or simultaneously to other academic journals, nor should there be any intention to do so. Manuscripts considered as duplicate submissions or self-plagiarism are those that have been formally approved by relevant academic societies or associations and have undergone substantial peer review or screening. This applies equally to manuscripts in English, Japanese, and other languages. However, the following cases are exempt from the criteria for duplicate submission or self-plagiarism.
- Abstracts of annual research presentations by academic societies or other associations (maximum of two pages in length).
- Articles submitted to conference or academic proceedings and symposium proceedings, university or research institute journals, in-house newsletters, and similar publications are considered to be articles that emphasize timeliness and resourcefulness (i.e., articles without substantial peer review). However, to avoid a manuscript falling under duplicate submission or self-plagiarism criteria, its content should be sufficiently developed and expanded, ensuring compliance with the resubmission policies of each relevant proceeding or publication.
- A dissertation or thesis published in a university or institutional data repository that has not been submitted, nor is intended to be submitted, to another academic journal. However, this must comply with the resubmission policies of the university or institution where it was published.
- Any other manuscript approved by the Journal Editorial Board (hereinafter referred to as a “Board”), which is the editorial board of this electronic journal.
2. The manuscript does not contain any infringement of intellectual property rights of existing published works.
3. The manuscript does not contain any fabricated or falsified data. Furthermore, the manuscript does not plagiarize any ideas, methods, data, or results from other papers.
4. Permission to reproduce all figures and tables in the manuscript from other papers must be obtained, as necessary.
5. All references to other papers must be appropriately cited within the manuscript.
6. For joint works, the corresponding author must obtain consent from all co-authors before submitting to this electronic journal.
7. All data, figures, and tables in the manuscript must be accurate.
8. The manuscript (excluding the discussion section) should be written objectively. Content should be concise, comprehensive, and thoroughly revised, containing all necessary information.
9. The manuscript must be written in clear English. Authors are encouraged to have the manuscript proofread by a native English speaker or a professional proofreading service prior to submission, unless at least one author uses English as their primary language.
manuscript PEER REVIEW and acceptance / rejection
- Purpose of Peer Review: Manuscripts submitted as reviews, research articles, express letters, or technical notes will undergo peer review to determine their suitability for publication in this electronic journal. Manuscripts submitted as summaries or discussions will be checked to ensure they are error-free and properly formatted.
- Procedure of Peer Review: The Board will conduct a peer review of submitted manuscripts to decide on their acceptance or rejection. During the review process, the Board may contact the author for clarifications or request revisions to the content.
- If the author does not respond within three months of making an inquiry about the manuscript or requesting revisions, then the Board may terminate the peer review and screening.
- As a general rule, peer reviews and revision requests are limited to two rounds.
- Peer reviewers: Peer reviews will be conducted by reviewers appointed by the Board. As a general rule, reviews, research articles, express letters, and technical notes will be reviewed by two reviewers who are experts in the field. A Board member will review summaries and discussions to check the manuscript content.
- Method of Peer Review: Peer reviews for reviews, research articles, express letters, and technical notes are conducted with consideration of the manuscript type, evaluating the accuracy, novelty, usefulness, comprehensiveness, and reliability of the content.
- Publication conditions: The publication acceptance or rejection judgment will be made by the Board on the basis of the peer review results. If the peer reviewers suggest revisions, then the Board will consider them and request the authors to make the revisions. The Board will decide whether the author has responded adequately to the revision suggestions. A second peer review may be conducted if necessary.
- The Board and reviewers are obligated to maintain confidentiality of the manuscript contents until publication.
Copyright
Japanese Society for Rock Mechanics (JSRM) holds the copyright for all manuscripts published in International Journal of the JSRM (IJJSRM). All articles in this electronic journal are open access, and authors must select the Creative Commons CC BY-NC 4.0 license (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International). This license permits authors and third-party users to use and reuse articles for non-commercial purposes, free of charge and without prior consent from the publisher or author, provided that the original work is properly cited as published in this electronic journal.
The CC BY-NC 4.0 license permits free redistribution of works, with the primary conditions being that proper credit is given to the original author (including author name, paper title, published journal name, etc.), the use is non-commercial, and the original article remains unmodified. The following additional conditions also apply.
BY: Attribution — You must give appropriate credit.
NC: NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
ND: NoDerivatives — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.
For the details, refer follows.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode.ja
SUBMISSION FEE
Submission to this electronic journal and publication after acceptance are free of charge to the author(s).
Manuscript preperation method
- General
Please prepare your manuscript on A4-sized paper using the manuscript template, which can be downloaded from the bottom of this page. Each paragraph should follow the designated style tags specified in the template. Detailed instructions for manuscript preparation are included in the template. - Title, author names, abstract
Please provide a title (and subtitle if necessary), author names, and affiliation. Subsequently, please provide a 200–300 words abstract and 5–10 keywords. - Units
As a general rule, please use SI units for unit abbreviations. - Formulas
Please write physical quantity symbols in italics and mathematical symbols such as “sin”, “cos”, “grad”, “tr” in upright letters. - Figures and tables
Figures and tables (“images and photographs” are treated as “figures”) should be inserted as close as possible to the location indicated in the text. Please use an inline layout for all figures and tables. In “Format Figure” or “Format Object”, set the “Layout” tab and set “Wrap Type and Alignment” to “Inline”. Please provide explanations (captions) for the figures and tables. - References
Please cite references within the text by writing the author’s last name followed by the year of publication in parentheses. All references should be listed in alphabetical order at the end of the manuscript, with works by the same author arranged in chronological order. Reference information should be provided in English, following the specified format. If a reference lacks an English title (e.g., from a Japanese-language journal or conference proceeding), please include an appropriate translation.
Last name, First name’s Initial, (year). Title of article. Title of Journal, (series number if necessary), volume number, page numbers or paper number, DOI (if available).
Manuscript SUBMISSION method
When submitting your manuscript, please prepare your manuscript in a MS Word template file, and then export it as an Adobe PDF file to create a manuscript file. After creating the manuscript file, please send the file to the Board as an email attachment along with the completed submission form and copyright transfer form (can be downloaded from this page (see bottom of page)). The file names for both files should include the surname of the corresponding author.
Checklist of files to submit:
□ Surname-m.pdf (Manuscript: PDF file)
□ Surname-s.docx (Submission & Copyright Transfer Form: Word file)
The maximum file size that can be submitted should be less than 10 MB in total for both files. Please note that emails exceeding this size may not be delivered. All manuscript submission, peer review, revision, acceptance, and final manuscript submission will be performed via email. Contributors should use a reliable email account for correspondence. If the manuscript is accepted, then you will be asked to submit the accepted manuscript as a Word file along with the PDF file. Hence, please ensure you keep the Word file. Likewise, you will need to scan the submission form and copyright transfer form with your signature and submit them to the Board of the IJJSRM.
Checklist of files to submit after manuscript acceptance:
□ Surname-m.docx (Manuscript: Word file)
□ Surname-m.pdf (Manuscript: PDF file)
□ Surname-s.pdf (Submission & Copyright Transfer Form with signature: PDF file)
Where to submit manuscript:
The Board of the International Journal of the JSRM (IJJSRM), Japanese Society for Rock Mechanics (JSRM)
E-mail address: ijjsrm☆rocknet-japan.org (please change mark “☆” with “@”)
Reprints
The author can purchase reprints at their discretion. The price will be determined separately.
Contact
For any questions regarding manuscript submission, or if you need to contact us about your submission, please email the Board.
E-mail address: ijjsrm☆rocknet-japan.org (please change mark “☆” with “@”)
download
The Word templates for manuscript preparation can be downloaded from the link below.
| Kind | File Type | File Name | File size | |
| Template for Manuscript | MS Word | Surname-m_r1.docx | 208KB | download |
| Submission & Copyright Transfer Form |
MS Word | Surname-s_r1.docx | 65KB | download |
Revision History
Revised 28th December 2023