Academic Platform Journal of Natural Hazards and Disaster Management

Academic Platform Journal of Natural Hazards and Disaster Management (APJHAD) is a multidisciplinary international journal devoted to the publication of scientific studies and original researches on disaster science and management. Topics may be approached from any perspective or discipline: planning, engineering, economics, sociology, disaster relief, etc., but should have a clear focus on natural hazards and disaster management. The journal will publish papers both on theoretical and applied aspects of disaster science and engineering including the response, recovery, reconstruction, preparedness, mitigation, and prevention. APJHAD serves a wide community of researchers, policymakers and practitioners from various disciplines.
The journal is international and accepts articles written in English. There is no fee for article submission, processing and publication. 

Academic Platform Journal of Natural Hazards and Disaster Management (APJHAD) addresses issues of disaster science and engineering including the risk, prevention, response, recovery, reconstruction, mitigation, and preparedness, and as well as the models, strategies and technology applied in different elements of the field. Contributions are solicited in, but not limited to, the following topics:

• Disaster Management and Policy
• Infrastructure Resiliency
• Structural Engineering and Earthquake Resistant Structures
• Risk Analysis
• Computer and Information Technology on Disasters
• GIS and Remote Sensing in Disaster Management
• Economical and Sociological, Environmental Aspects of Disasters
• Disaster Sensitive Urbanization
• Recent Topics in Disaster Management and Science
• Numerical Analysis for Disaster Management Supports
• Knowledge Management for Disaster Risk Reduction

This “Instruction for Authors” describes the general information about APJHAD including aims and scope, main areas, and specific topics APJHAD shall cover, and how to prepare a manuscript for submission. The article must be written according to the “Author Guide and Template” given below. Authors are encouraged to use common academic publication norms in places where not specified in the guide.
The Author Guide provides a detailed explanation regarding the paper format, submission, evaluation and decision processes; however, few important points are also summarized here:

Copyright Transfer Form

Template File

Licence Terms

Under this Open Access journal, peer-reviewed accepted papers are immediately available online, with no charges for access specified by the Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). 

Copyright

Authors must transfer the copyright to the APJHAD and authors retain significant rights to use and share their own published articles without restrictions. APJHAD supports the need for authors to share, disseminate and maximize the impact of their research and these rights. 

Article Processing Charge(APC)

There is no fee to publish an article in APJHAD.

Peer Review Process

APJHAD uses double-blind review, which means that both the reviewer and author identities are concealed from the reviewers, and vice versa, throughout the review process.  

The Editorial Office of APJHAD will conduct a technical review to confirm that all of the required documentation has been submitted and the manuscript is suitable to the Journal. Then, the editorial team will initiate a double-blind review process where the identities of authors and reviewers are kept confidential, with a minimum of three independent experts for scientific evaluations. The Editor is responsible for the final decision regarding acceptance or rejection of articles.

The peer-review process is based on studying the article in terms of originality, literature, methodology, and presenting the results and contribution to the field. Reviewers are given 14 days for the peer-review process. Based on the reviewers’ comments, the manuscript may go multiple rounds of evaluation. If revisions are required, the author(s) are required to prepare a revised manuscript and response to reviewers within 21 days based on the reviewers’ comments.

The editorial team of the APJHAD has a goal to have the first decision within 40 days of submission.

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

Repository Policy

As APJHAD is an open-access journal, authors are entitled to make their article publicly available according to the terms of the CC BY-NC licence. Many authors wish to deposit a copy of different versions of their work in an institutional or other repository of their choice. Academic Platform Journal of Natural Hazards and Disaster Management, following the journal repository policy, allow each following versions to be stored in the preferred institutional or author choice archive without embargo, with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

• Submitted version
• Accepted version (Author Accepted Paper)
• Published version (Record Version)

Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online including institutional repositories, social/professional/academic websites (Researchgate, LinkedIn, etc.) or on their personal website prior to and after the submission, and after publication to encourage productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. The author should acknowledge the journal while making the various versions available online for proper citation. 

Plagiarism

Authors by submitting their manuscript to APJHAD declare that their work is original and authored by them; has not been previously published nor submitted for evaluation; original ideas, data, findings and materials taken from other sources (including their own) are properly documented and cited; their work does not violate any rights of others, including privacy rights and intellectual property rights; provided data is their own data, true and not manipulated. Plagiarism in whole or in part without proper citation is not tolerated by APJHAD. Manuscripts submitted to the journal will be checked for originality using anti-plagiarism software.

Archiving

This journal utilizes the Dergipark system to create a distributed archiving system.

Author Responsibilities 

• Articles submitted to APJHAD should be original and has not been published or accepted in other journals. The authors are required to fill the Copyright Form while submitting to the APJHAD.
• All sources (books, articles, web pages, personal communications, etc.) used in the preparation of the study should be properly cited. If necessary, authors are required to obtain copyright clearance for the reproduction of data, figures, exclusive information, etc., used in the article.
• Authors are required to ensure that all work involving human or animal subjects comply with national and international guidelines and obtain necessary approvals (Human Subject Approval, etc). These approvals are needed to be mentioned in the “Materials and Methods” section (or where appropriate) of the article, and the approval page should be included in the Appendices. 
• In case of any conflict of interest, the authors must inform the journal editor. When necessary, the author should cooperate with the editorial board and publisher for the correction or withdrawal process.

Editors' Responsibilities 

• The editor must act in a balanced, objective and fair manner for fulfilling the responsibilities in this task. Editors must approach all submitted articles without discrimination on gender, religious or political views, ethnic or geographical origin of the author.
• The editor is required to evaluate the articles submitted to the journal in a scientific manner, not showing any privileges to any submitting author.
• The editor is responsible for all articles published in the journal. Furthermore, the editor and the editorial board are encouraged to make an effort for increasing the quality of the articles published in the journal.
• The editor makes sure that the published articles are compatible with the scope of the journal and the knowledge and skills of journal readers.
• The editor is responsible for conducting a fair and balanced evaluation in case of a complaint of ethical violation. The editor should give an opportunity to respond to the complaint and not to avoid applying necessary sanction if necessary.
• The editor ensures that the referees are able to reach the necessary data and documentation regarding the referee evaluation process. Additionally, the editor ensures that the peer-review process is carried out in time, with a double-blind review.
• The editor is responsible for evaluating the specialization of the referees. Additionally, the editor is responsible for keeping track of referees evaluation including timeliness of response, appropriateness of language, etc.
• The editor is responsible for communicating with the editorial board regarding updating the publication writing rules in the journal.
• The editor is responsible for coordinating with the publisher in regard to the publication of the journals.

Reviewers' Responsibilities 

All articles submitted to Academic Platform Journal of Natural Hazards and Disaster Management (APJHAD) are subject to double blind-review process.

--NO PUBLICATION FEE--
Academic Platform Journal of Natural Hazards and Disaster Management (APJHAD) does not require any fee for article submission, processing and publication of articles.