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International Journal of Grey Systems (hereby, referred to as 'the journal') provides immediate open access to its contents with the goal of contributing to a greater global exchange of knowledge. Through open access publication of the journal, we aim to broaden the free and full-access reach of the users all over the world to the published articles. The full text of all content is available for free and open access without delay.
All the published material in the journal are, under a Creative Commons license, free to view and reuse with attribution by anyone in the world via the internet. CC BY-NC License is permitted by the journal. By submitting manuscript to the journal the authors transfer copyright or assign exclusive rights to the publisher (including commercial rights). The author(s) wishing to use the content in their thesis, books, patents, etc., are provided permission to use for free, provided the content is properly cited.
The journal is an open access, peer-reviewed journal that publishes articles on all aspects of grey systems research. Although the main focus of the journal is grey system theory, important topics on uncertainty analysis, hybrid approaches (e.g., grey-fuzzy, grey-rough, etc.) will also be considered for publication. Most of the publications will be full-length papers through few case studies and short communications may also be considered. Most of the publications will be full-length papers though few case studies and short communications may also be considered ocassionally. Works that are not practical or the managers in real-life may not find directly useful may be submitted elsewhere.
These are reports of original experiment/research conducted by the authors. Original research must add to the body of knowledge on the subject and should adhere to ethical principles throughout the procedure. Studies using human or animal subjects must have ethical approvals.
Original articles should not exceed 7,000 words including abstract, references, figure legends, and tables. The number of tables, figures, and references should be appropriate to the manuscript content. Authors whose first language is not English are advised to have their manuscripts checked carefully before submission.
Abbreviations of standard SI units of measurement should be used.
Sections of an original article are: (1) title page, (2) abstract, (3) keywords, (4) introduction, (5) methods, (6) results, (7) discussion, (8) acknowledgments, (9) conflicts of interest, (10) references, (11) Appendix, if applicable. Figures and tables should be embedded in the main text and not in the end of the manuscript.
A small-scale study that includes important new information may be published as a short communication. It usually carries an abstract of up to 150 words, a body of up to 800 words, up to 2 tables or figures, and essential references.
Sections of a short communication paper are: (1) title page, (2) abstract, (3) keywords, (4) introduction, (5) methods, (6) results, (7) discussion, (8) acknowledgments, (9) conflicts of interest, (10) references, (11) figure and video legends, (12) tables, (13) figures, and (14) videos whenever applicable.
Commentaries discuss the findings, implications, and/or outcomes of specific research or wider research on a general topic. They elaborate on or offer original ideas about a specific paper or a widely-researched subject. Commentaries differ from reviews in that they represent the author’s original ideas and suggestions instead of reporting and comparing the previous research. Word count should not exceed 1500 in the commentaries, excluding the references.
Sections of a commentary include (1) title page, (2) keywords, (3) text, (4) acknowledgments, (5) conflicts of interest, and (6) references.
Editorials are usually written by the editor in chief, deputy editor in chief, an associate editor, or a guest editor and are intended to represent the official opinion of the journal (or the guest editor) or introduce supplements, special issues, or new ideas relevant to the journal. In limited circumstances, individuals other than the individuals listed here may propose an editorial topic if they wish. Word count should not exceed 1500 in the commentaries, excluding the references.
Sections of an editorial may include (1) title page, (2) keywords, (3) main manuscript (4) acknowledgments, (5) conflicts of interest, (6) references.
Letters commenting on, questioning, or criticizing articles recently (within the past 4 issues) published in the journal or expressing views on relevant topics will be considered for publication. Word count should not exceed 1500 in the commentaries, excluding the references.
Sections of a letter to the editor are (1) title page, (2) keywords, (3) text, (4) acknowledgments, (5) conflicts of interest, and (6) references.
Case reports include case report/studies of patient(s) and describe a novel approach or add important insights into mechanisms, diagnosis, or treatment of a disease. Case reports are limited to 1,500 words including references. A case report manuscript should include (1) title page, (2) structured abstract (including background, case presentation, and conclusion), (3) keywords, (4) introduction, (5) case presentation, and (7) discussion. It should also contain discussion, acknowledgments, references, and illustrations (if applicable) as explained for the original articles.
All ethical considerations according to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines, especially the informed consent in case reports, should be included at the end of the text just before the references.
A review article provides a detailed, thorough examination and summary of the literature on a specific topic. Authors are encouraged to contact the editor in chief before preparing an unsolicited review article to avoid duplication of other works already in progress. Review articles are limited to 7,000 words, including references, and should include the following sections: (1) title page, (2) structured abstract, (3) keywords, (4) introduction, (5) methods (search strategy), (6) results, (7) discussion, (8) acknowledgements, (9) conflicts of interest, (10) references, (11) figure legends, (12) tables, and (13) figures, whenever applicable.
All manuscripts should be prepared using MS Word (in .doc or .docx format). Submissions in the form of PDF files are not accepted. Manuscripts should be double-spaced, including text, tables, legends, and references. Headings should be numbered, and numbering should start from 'Introduction' section, and end at 'Conclusion' section.
Number each page and avoid footnotes; instead, and as sparingly as possible, use parentheses within the text. Use the Tab key once for paragraph indents, Times New Roman typeface for the text and Symbols for Greek and special characters.
Papers can be divided into the following sections:
Introduction
- State clearly the main objectives of the study.
- Indicate the main reasons for doing the work.
- A detailed review of the literature is not recommended.
- The content should be accompanied by relevant references.
Methods
- Mention the type of study.
- Describe the methods, tools, and procedures employed with sufficient details to allow others to reproduce the results without the need to communicate with the authors.
- Describe the intervention and control groups, when relevant.
- Mention the type of statistical tests used.
- The rationale for using specific statistical tests, if applicable.
- State statistical significance when appropriate.
The journal complies with the COPE guidelines; therefore, all researchers are asked to read these guidelines to avoid cases of suspected research and publication misconduct (e.g., falsification, fabrication, plagiarism, inappropriate image manipulation, and redundant publication). For more information about COPE, please visit http://www.publicationethics.org.
Also, the authors should state that their study complies with the Declaration of Helsinki, that the locally appointed ethics committee has approved the research protocol, and that informed consent has been obtained from the subjects (or their guardians).
Results
- State findings of the study in the text, tables, or figures, and do not repeat the same findings in tables and figures and the text.
- Be precise and do not include material that is appropriate for the discussion, e.g., explanation of findings.
- Use the metric system/SI units to report scientific quantities and measurements.
Discussion
- State the original and important features of the study. Do not repeat the findings presented in the results section.
- Contain the significance of the findings and the relevance to previously published studies.
- State only the conclusions that are supported by the data.
- Mention the limitations and applications of the results.
From the moment you set about writing the first draft of your manuscript, think about how you can make it more discoverable. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines. Thus, avoid abbreviations, jargons and complicated words in titles and keywords.
Peer review is an integral part of scientific publishing that confirms the validity of the science reported. Peer-reviewers are experts who volunteer their time to help improve the journal manuscripts they review—they offer authors free advice.
Key characteristics of the peer review process are listed below:
All full-length research articles go through double-blind peer review process.
All research articles are reviewed by at least two qualified experts.
The authors are not asked to suggest a list of reviewers.
All publication decisions are made by the journal’s editor in chief on the basis of the reviews.
Members of the editorial board lend insight, advice, and guidance to the editor in chief generally and assist decision making on specific submissions.
- Initial manuscript evaluation
All manuscripts submitted to the journal are read by the editorial staff. To save time for authors and reviewers, only those papers that seem most likely to meet our editorial criteria are sent for formal review. Those papers judged by the editors to be of insufficient general interest or otherwise inappropriate are rejected promptly without external review (although these decisions may be based on informal advice from specialists/experts in the field).
- Type of peer review
The journal employs a double-blind review process, where both the reviewer(s) and author(s) remain anonymous throughout the process. Both are supposed to respect the privacy of the other party.
- Selecting peer reviewers
Reviewer selection is critical to the publication process, and we base our choice on many factors, including expertise, reputation, and our own previous experience of a reviewer’s characteristics (e.g., speed and quality of past reviews). At no stage, the authors are asked to suggest a list of reviewers.
Reviewers should strive to observe the principle of confidentiality with regard to materials submitted to them.
- How long does the review process take?
Typically the manuscript will be reviewed within 4 weeks.
- Final report
A final decision to accept or reject the manuscript will be sent to the author along with any recommendations made by the reviewers and may include verbatim comments by the reviewers.
Only when all the contributing authors give consent should a manuscript be submitted to a journal. The corresponding author should make sure that everyone whose work contributed to the manuscript is acknowledged as a contributing author. Only those who can legitimately claim authorship should be listed as authors. This consists of (a) contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of data for the work; (b) drafting the work or revising it critically; and (c) final approval of the version to be published. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.
When a study is conducted by a large, multicenter group, the group must identify the individuals who can take direct responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should meet all the criteria mentioned above.
Acquisition of funds, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not qualify one as an author; however, the contributors not meeting the authorship criteria should be acknowledged.
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship as defined previously should be listed in the Acknowledgment section. Examples include a department chairperson who provided only general support, a person who provided purely technical help, writing or proofreading assistance.
Authors should provide detailed information regarding the source of financial and material support (grant number, etc.) for the research under a separate heading. If no funding is provided for the research, include the following statement:
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
State all funding sources and the names of companies, manufacturers, or external organizations providing technical or equipment support.
Marketing and business research should be conducted in accordance with the guidelines on ethics released by Market Research Society and UK Research and Innovation. Medical research involving human subjects must be conducted in accordance with the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki. The journal checks the plagiairm of each manuscript using Turn-it-in/iThenticate software. The journal severly discourages plagiarism and dishonesty, thus the authors of the plagiarised/retracted manuscripts will be banned for lifetime.
The journal is powered by the iThenticate/Turn-it-in software, which is a plagiarism detection service that verifies the originality of the submitted content before publication. If plagiarism is identified, we will follow COPE guidelines.
The journal has 'absolute zero tolerance' for plagiarism. Utmost effort is being made that a manuscript containing plagiairsm never gets accepted. If a plagiarism is found in the last stage (production stage), the acceptance can be revoked. If plagiarism is found after publication, retraction is published in at least in print editon or/and electronic edition of the journal, with all authors (and their email IDs) being blacklisted for life. Handling editors of such manuscripts are given warning only once. In the second instance, they are shown the door and their responsibilities are assigned to someone else.
Plagiarism includes (but is not limited to):
1) Directly copying text from other sources
2) Copying ideas, images, or data from other sources
3) Reusing text from your own previous publications
4) Using an idea from another source with slightly modified language
If plagiarism is detected during the peer review process, the manuscript may be rejected. If plagiarism is detected after publication, we reserve the right to issue a correction or retract the paper, as appropriate.
The journal accepts confidential tips and criticism from the readers on our publications with open heart.
Any manuscript submitted to the journal must be original, and the manuscript, or substantial parts of it, must not be under consideration by any other journal. Papers derived from the author's own thesis and dissertations are acceptable, if the fact is clearly reported in the 'Acknowledgement' sections of the papers.
In case there is the potential for overlap or duplication, we require that authors be transparent and declare any potentially overlapping publications on submission. Any overlapping publications should be cited. Any “in press” or unpublished manuscript cited, or relevant to the editor’s and reviewers’ assessment of the manuscript, should be made available if requested by the editor. The journal reserves the right to judge potentially overlapping or redundant publications on a case-by-case basis.
The journal endorses the policies of the ICMJE in relation to overlapping publications.
Before publishing a manuscript, the journal will require the author(s) as the rights holder(s) to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. The journal publishes manuscripts under Creative Commons licenses. The standard license for the journal is Creative Commons by Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC), which allows others to reuse the work without permission as long as the work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial.
Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC): The work published in this journal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
The Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 provides the following summary
You are free to:
Under the following terms:
The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.
We prefer Microsoft Word format (.DOC or .DOCX) for the submitted manuscripts, although PDF files are not accepted. It should be blind. After uploading the "blind manuscript" file you can upload "title page" as a seperate file. However, it can be submitted later, if requested. Follow APA referencing style with italic et al. We suggest you read few of our published papers before submitting yours.
Figures should be presented in the main text. Figures should be limited to the number necessary for clarity and must not duplicate data given in tables or in the text. Typically, submissions should have no more than a total of 8 figures and tables. Any number exceeding this should be designated as supplementary material for online access only. Figures must be suitable for high-quality reproduction and should be submitted in the desired final printed size so that the quality of the figure would not be affected after being printed. Figures should be no larger than 125 (height) × 180 (width) mm (5 × 7 inches) and should be submitted as separate files. Figures should be saved in TIFF format at a resolution of at least 300 pixels per inch at the final printed size for color figures and photographs, and 1200 pixels per inch for black-and-white line drawings. Although some other formats can be converted into TIFF format by the publisher, the conversion may alter the tones, resolution, and contrast of the image. Therefore, PDF is not acceptable as a source file for figures and illustrations.
Tables should be presented in the main text. Provide a short, descriptive title for each table. Please make sure that each table is cited in the text and is numbered using arabic numerals. For tables adopted from previously published works, indicate the original source in the form of a reference at the end of the table caption. Asterisks (*) for significance values and other statistical points should be included under the table. Tables should not be added as screenshots, and should be editable.
Each figure should have a concise caption (legend) describing accurately what the figure depicts. Figure legends should be mentioned at the end of the manuscript file and not in the figure file. Figure legends should begin with the term Fig. in boldface, followed by the figure number also in boldface (e.g., Fig. 1).
The journal follows the APA reference style. Please review the guidelines on APA to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.
The accuracy of reference details is the responsibility of the authors. The references should be in alphabetical order.
Examples of acceptable reference formats are as follow:
The publisher, Science Insight (USA), offers language editing services to assist authors with the preparation of their manuscripts. These services are offered by third parties and will be available at a charge; however, authors publishing with the journal will qualify for a 50% discount. The cost of the language editing for each manuscript of the journal will differ from 50 to 150 USD depending on the word count of the article. Seeking language editing services from the publisher does not guarantees acceptance in the journal.
All the published manuscripts will be assigned a digital object identifier (DOI) (Crossref) as soon as the article is accepted and the processing of the article is finished. This unique identifier of the published articles enables identifying and citing articles published online without the volume or issue information (for more information, please refer to www.doi.org).
Manuscripts should be submitted and tracked to the final decision at www.publish.thescienceinsight.com. Manuscripts that do not comply with the instructions for authors will not be sent for external review.
The journal considers the following types of articles for publication: original research articles, reviews, letters, case studies, and short communication.
Please supply a title, short title, an abstract, and keywords to accompany your article. The title, keywords, and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article online through online search engines such as Google.
Manuscripts should be submitted with a letter covering the below-mentioned issues:
- A summary explanation of the importance of the manuscript.
- The points that will be added to the literature by publishing the manuscript.
- Certifying that all coauthors have read and approved the final draft of the manuscript submitted to the journal.
The title page should include:
- The full title
- Complete name, the highest academic degree(s), and the affiliation of each author, along with their email addresses and ORCID;
- Corresponding author’s name should be followed by an asterisk;
- Mailing address, phone/fax number, and email for correspondence;
- A running title of no more than 20 characters;
- The word count for the abstract and main body of the manuscript.
- All abstracts may not exceed 250 words;
- Do not cite references in the abstract;
- The abstract should be self-explanatory without reference to the main text;
- Limit the use of acronyms and abbreviations;
- The structure of the abstract includes Background, Methods, Results, and Conclusions.
- Provide 3 to 5 keywords for indexing purposes. Popular keywords are preferable, e.g., "Grey Relational Analysis" is a better keyword than "Grey Incidence Analysis" (though they are synonymous) as one can find wikipedia page with this name.
You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all coauthors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears in your manuscript. The affiliation listed on the manuscript should be the institution where the research was conducted. If an author has moved to a new institution since completing the research, the new affiliation can be included in a manuscript note at the end of the paper. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).
Authors who include any illustrations, figures, tables, or passages that have already been published elsewhere are required to provide evidence that permission from the copyright owner(s) for such reproduction within both the print and online formats has been granted. Any material received with submitted manuscripts without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors.
If your paper is accepted for publication after peer review, the author(s) may be asked to sign the Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Once your manuscript files have been checked for the production, the corresponding author will need to confirm the final proof of the manuscript.
The journal production editor will keep you posted about your article’s progress throughout the production process. The corresponding author will receive proofs in PDF format and should return them immediately. Authors are required to check their proofs carefully to verify the correctness and accuracy of any information, including names, affiliations, sequence, and contact details, and funding and conflict of interest statements. Please note that any changes to the author list at this stage require all authors to complete and sign a form permitting the change.
Online open access publishing offers many benefits, one of them being higher publishing speed. With no limit on the number of pages, your paper will be published online in a fully citable form with a DOI number once it completes the production process. At this time, it will be completely free to view and download for all. Currently, paper are published in print and electronic editions at the same time. An accepted manuscript is listed in "Announcement" section. The issue to which the paper has been assigned may also be published here. The date of upcoming issue is also published here.
Since there is no article processing charges to publish in the journal hence there is no policy to waive of it for selected author. APC has been waived off for all authors irrespective of their nationality and location.
APC of the journal has been sponsored by the publisher, Science Insight (USA). Hence, the authors are not required to pay any fee at any stage. However, if you want to make donation or want to sponsor our content, feel free to contact the journal manager. In short,
The authors are requested to submit a plagiarism report (generated by iThenticate or Tutn-it-in) in PDF format with the REVISED version of their manuscript. The authors can also request 2497415255@qq.com to provide them with the plagiarism report at the cost of 8 USD. This is a third party-service and the journal or publisher is not reponsible for any transcation or report.
The best way to reach us is by email. Complaints should ideally be made to the person the complainant is already in contact with over the matter being complained about. If that is not appropriate, please email our managing editor (drsaj AT foxmail DOT com).
Whenever possible, complaints will be dealt with by the relevant member of the editorial staff. If that person cannot deal with the complaint, he or she will refer it to our managing editor.
All complaints will be addressed within three working days. If possible, a full response will be made within four weeks.
If the complainant is not happy with the resolution, he or she may ask for the complaint to be escalated to the editor in chief.
Any correspondence, queries, or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be addressed to the editor-in-chief or journal manager.
ISSN (Print): 2767-6412
ISSN (Online): 2767-3308
Type: Open Access
Frequency: Bi-annual
Peer-review: Double-blind
Article Processing Charges: No Fee
Time to First Decision: up to 4 weeks
Acceptance to Online: DOI assigned immediately
License: CC BY-NC
Copyrights: ©Science Insight
