Instructions to Authors

The Black Sea Journal of Engineering and Science (BSJ Eng Sci) has been published six times (January, March, May, July, September, and November) as of January 2024, and is an international, double-blind, peer-reviewed journal. BSJ Eng Sci is an open-access international e-journal. BSJ Eng Sci publishes, in Turkish or English, original research articles, innovative papers, conference papers, reviews, mini-reviews, short communications, or technical notes on various aspects related to or associated with engineering and science.

Articles submitted to the journal must be original and not previously published (excluding articles presented at scientific meetings or those with only an abstract) or currently under review.

Articles submitted to the journal are first pre-reviewed by the Editors-in-Chief in accordance with the publication guidelines. The Editors-in-Chief reserve the right to return articles deemed unsuitable for publication to the author(s) without sending them to reviewers. Additionally, articles that do not adhere to writing rules or have inadequate language may be returned to the author(s) for correction by the Editors-in-Chief. Authors are advised to have their English-language articles reviewed by a linguist before submitting them. Articles that meet the specified requirements and are deemed suitable for peer review are either reviewed by a field editor appointed by the Editors-in-Chief or sent directly to at least two or more expert reviewers in the relevant field. Authors may suggest up to three potential reviewers who are experts in the subject matter and not from the same institution in the "Notes to Editor" section.

All instances of publishing misconduct, including, but not limited to, plagiarism, data fabrication, image/data manipulation to falsify/enhance results, manipulation of the reviewing process, etc., will result in rejection/retraction of the manuscript.

All responsibility for the scientific content of the articles to be published in the journal belongs to the author(s). "Copyright Form" and "Conflict of Interest Statement" forms must be signed by all authors and uploaded to the journal's online application system as a separate supplementary file by the responsible author.

All authors must be registered in the DergiPark system. During the article upload process, the names, institution addresses, email addresses, and ORCID numbers of all authors must be entered in the metadata section. If any of the authors are not registered in the DergiPark system, the article is on hold, and the editor has not been appointed. Additionally, the abstract and references of the article should be included in the metadata section. If any of the mentioned information is missing, the article will be returned to the corresponding author to complete the information.

Ethical committee approval should be obtained for the studies on survey, clinical, or experimental in humans or animals, and ethics committee reports should be attached when submitting the manuscript. Additionally, this approval should be stated in the article. After the manuscript is accepted, the authors' names and the order of the authors cannot be changed.

After the referee evaluation, articles that require revision are sent electronically to the author(s) through the DergiPark system. The author/s should take into account the comments of the referee/s and explain the comments and criticisms one by one. They must also prepare a detailed explanation in case they disagree with the reviewers' criticism. The revised articles that have passed the referee evaluations should be uploaded to the system, along with the "Response to Peer Review" file, within 30 days at the latest, and the article revision process must be completed. The specified period may be extended by the author's request for additional time or by the decision of the Editor-in-Chief. Otherwise, the existing article is considered a newly submitted article. Before making the final decision, the Editor-in-Chief reviews the revisions and corrections made by the author/s and makes the final decision on whether to publish the article.

Statement of Ethics in Research and Publication

The publication of peer-reviewed articles in agreement with the rules of Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement (https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/bsengineering/policy) is an essential model for the BSJ Eng Sci. It is necessary to agree upon standards of expected ethical behavior for all parties involved in the publishing process: the author, the journal editor, the peer reviewer, and the publisher.
The journal's ethical statements are based on the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the Council of Science Editors (CSE) Editorial policy statements.
BSJ Eng Sci endorses the Higher Education Scientific Research and Publication Ethics Guidelines rules and will pursue cases of suspected research and publication misconduct. Additionally, this journal follows COPE and complies with the highest ethical standards in accordance with ethical laws.

Preparation of Manuscript (APA 7.0)

The journal adheres to APA (7.0) as its primary writing style, and authors are expected to prepare their articles in accordance with the following formatting guidelines. Author/s must thoroughly review the formatting guidelines and publication policies before submitting their articles and prepare their submissions accordingly.

General Format

The authors should consider the following sections to provide guidelines on how to prepare and compose their manuscript. Please read these standards to ensure a smooth peer-review and production process.

You can access the template from the "Manuscript Template" subtitle under the "EXPLORE" section on the Journal's home page.

Special words do not underline; use italics instead. Weights and measures must be expressed in the SI unit (metric) system, and temperatures in the Celsius (centigrade) scale.

Tables should be as simple as possible. Each table should be placed in an appropriate location within the text or on a separate page, as needed.

Figures (including graphs, photographs, etc.) should be clearly visible and understandable in the article, with sufficient resolution (details are provided in point 13 below). Each figure should be placed in an appropriate location within the text or on a separate page, as needed.

Authors must declare any financial support or relationships that may pose a conflict of interest.

Manuscript preparation is similar to original research articles, reviews, short communications, case reports, or technical notes.

Sectioning and Structure

The manuscript should be organized in the following sequence: title, abstract, keywords, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, ethics committee approval (for the human survey and animal experimental or clinical studies), conflict of interest, acknowledgments (optional), references, tables, and figures.

1) Title page

The type of the manuscript should be specified on the title page, such as original research articles, reviews, short communications, case reports, or technical notes.

The title of the manuscript should be typed in bold-faced print using upper letters and set in the center of the page. The title length of the manuscript must be limited to 250 characters, including spaces. Abbreviations are not permitted in the title.
Full names of all authors should be provided, with the family name, and indications of academic rank or other professional titles should not be used.
All authors' institutional addresses must include the institution name, city, postal code, and country information. ORCID numbers of all authors must be given on the cover page. The authors should be marked with "1" "2" "3", which should appear in superscript at the top right-hand corner of the author's name and at the beginning of each institution.
The email information of the corresponding author must be given. The corresponding author should be marked with "*".

2) Abstract and Keywords

The abstract is required for all article types (original research articles, reviews, short communications, case reports, or technical notes). The abstract should be one paragraph without sections and should not exceed 350 words for the Turkish abstract and 450 words for the English abstract (minimum 100 words for both languages), following the title section. The abstract should be free of references and abbreviations. The abstract should summarize the pertinent results in a concise yet clear manner.

At the end of the abstract, at least three and up to six keywords that best describe the research content should be listed. The term "Keywords" should appear in bold, followed by a colon. The first letter of each keyword is capitalized, separated by a comma, and should be ordered in order of importance.

3) Introduction

The introduction should provide the relevant background to the study, explain why the study was conducted, and specify the hypotheses to be tested. Extensive discussion of relevant literature should be included in the discussion of results, not in the introduction.

4) Materials and Methods

The materials and methods should present essential details, experimental design, and statistical analysis. A clear description or original reference is required for all biological, analytical, and statistical procedures used in the study. All modifications of procedures must be explained. Treatments and measurements should be described in clear terms. Statistical models and methods to analyze should be described clearly and fully.

5) Results

The results should present the results of the study. The results of the study should be presented in a table, and data means (numbers) should not be repeated broadly in the text. The results should be separate from the discussion and written in the past tense. Results and Discussion can be combined if the editor accepts.

6) Discussion

The discussion should clearly and concisely assess the results in terms of biological mechanisms. Previous findings in the discussion should not be repeated; instead, the author's results should be interpreted within the broader context of other studies on the subject with a minimum of speculation. The discussion should integrate with the research findings of other studies to provide the readers with a broad base for understanding whether the hypotheses tested were accepted or rejected. A conclusion section consisting of one or two paragraphs that concludes the main text should be added to the final part of the "Discussion" section. A conclusion can be presented under a separate heading.

7) Conclusion (optional)

This section is not mandatory. If included in the article, it consists of one or two paragraphs that conclude the main text.

8) Conflict of interest

The corresponding author must inform the editor of any potential conflicts of interest that could influence the author's interpretation of the data.

9) Ethical Consideration

For survey studies, experimental animal studies, or clinical studies, ethics committee approval must be obtained, and the approval date and number must be stated. If the article does not require an ethics committee approval (please check the "Ethical Principles Flow Chart"; https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/bsengineering/page/13482), add the following statement to the ethics approval statement section: " Ethics committee approval was not required for this study because of there was no study on animals or humans."

10) Acknowledgments (optional)

The acknowledgments should be as brief as possible

11) References

References should be organized according to the APA (7.0). Examples and exceptions are listed below;

In the text, references should be cited in brackets and sorted chronologically.

Samples;
Onder et al. (2015)
Sen and Kuran (2017)
Sen (2014)
(Wu et al., 2006; Kenyon and Blair, 2014; Sen, 2015)

In the References section, articles should be listed in alphabetical order. The journal names in which the reference articles were published should be written in their full form, without abbreviations. Sample references are provided below.

Journal Articles
Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Article title. Journal Name, Volume (Issue), page range. (if any: https://doi.org/xxxx)

Books
Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of the book: If there is a subtitle, it is written here (edition number, if any). Publisher.

Book Chapters
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Chapter title: Subtitle added if any. In Editor, E. E. (Ed.), Book title: Subtitle (edition number, pp. xx–xx). Publisher. https://doi.org/xxxx (if any)

Conference Papers
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title: Subtitle is added if any. Congress or symposium name (Page range). Publishing institution.

Thesis
Author, A. A. (Year). Thesis title (Doctoral dissertation, University name, Institute name). URL or DOI (if any)
Author, A. A. (Year). Thesis title (Master's thesis, University name, Institute name). URL or DOI (if any)

Internet Addressed Articles or Reports
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title: İf any subtitle. Publication name or organization. URL (accessed on Day Month Year).

12) Table

Any abbreviation used in a table must be defined in that table. Tables should be double-spaced with each table on a separate sheet. The font size can be adjusted according to the size of the Table (s). All tables should be cited in the text. The title of the table continues on the same line with only the first letter capitalized. For numerals less than 1, a zero should be inserted to the left of the decimal point, and if possible, columns should be center-aligned. If there are no data for a particular entry, a hyphen should be inserted in its place. If an explanation is necessary, an abbreviation can be used in the body of the table (e.g., ND), and it should be explained clearly in the footnotes. References to footnotes in a table are to be specified by superscript numbers, independently for each table. Superscript letters are used to designate statistical significance. Use an upper-case P to indicate probability values (i.e., P<0.05 or P<0.05). Presentation of pooled standard errors, the general basis for statistical comparisons of means, is recommended when the variance is homogeneous. These should be presented in a separate column or row. Standard errors can be attached to each mean by ± signs when the variance or SE is heterogeneous (e.g., unbalanced experiments or unequal numbers of observations in treatment means).

13) Figure

Figures (including graphs, photographs, etc.) should be clearly visible and understandable in the article, with sufficient resolution. Each figure should be placed in an appropriate location within the text or on a separate page, as needed. Figures should fit in one column (8 cm wide) or full-page width (17 cm wide). Unnecessary backgrounds and grid lines should be removed from graphs. Each axis should have a description and a unit. For bar charts, different fill patterns may be used if needed (black, white, gray, and stripes). The preferred file type for figures is JPEG, TIFF, or PPT. The minimum resolution is 300 dpi for color and grayscale figures, and 600 dpi for line art. A caption should be prepared to provide sufficient information and all abbreviations, and the symbols used in the figure should be defined in the caption. The figure caption should be prepared at the bottom of the figure.

14) Equations

The Equations should be numbered, and the formula number should be shown in parentheses on the right side of the formula. The main characters and variables should be given in italics, while numbers and mathematical expressions should be given with normal characters. The formulas should be given as 12 points. The equations should be cited in the text and given as "equation 1".

15) Manuscript file format

We request that you submit the article in "Word" (.doc or .docx) format. If you are using another word processor, please save the final version of the manuscript (using the 'Save As' option of the File menu) as a Word document. In this case, please double-check that the saved file can be opened in Word. We cannot accept PDFs or any other text files.