ITU Journal of Wireless Communications and Cybersecurity

ITU Journal of Wireless Communications and Cybersecurity aims to publish high-quality research and review articles in mobile communications and cybersecurity.

The scope of the journal includes the topics listed below but not limited to

Wireless Communications

• Artificial Intelligence for Communications
• Beyond 5G and 6G Wireless Communications
• Communication Protocol Design and Analysis
• Device-to-device, Cooperative Communications, and Relay-aided Communications
• Green, Energy Harvesting Communication, and Ambient Backscattering Systems
• IoT Communications
• Integrated Sensing and Communications
• MAC, Routing, and Congestion Control
• MIMO and Massive MIMO Systems
• Nano- and Molecular Communications
• Physical Layer Security, Information- and Communication-theoretic Aspects of Security
• Quantum Communications
• Optical Communications
• Reconfigurable Surfaces and Intelligent Surfaces
• Non-Terrestrial Communication

Cybersecurity

• Access control and authorization
• Authentication and Biometrics
• Blockchain technologies and Cryptocurrencies
• Cloud security and IoT security
• Cryptography and cryptanalysis
• Hardware security
• Human factors in cybersecurity
• Machine learning and cybersecurity
• Malware and unwanted software
• Network security
• Privacy-enhancing technologies, anonymity, and censorship
• Web security
• Wireless and mobile security/privacy

It is requested to submit an article to the journal;
- Download and use Latex template file published on the website and submit article to journal as a pdf file,
- Follow the instructions in the template file,
- Create the bibliography in IEEE style.
Due to the double-blind confidentiality policy, there should be no author information and support / acknowledgment sections in the study. This information will be added after the acceptance of the article.
As a result of the analysis of the article with iThenticate or other plagiarism programmes, the total similarity in the manuscript should be below 20%.

Please download the copyright transfer form here: <link>. This form should be uploaded as a pdf document after signing.

Ethical Principles and Publication Policy
Our journal publishes articles by adhering to international standards and COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) standards and referring to them.

Guide for Editors

An editor (editors and field editors) must objectively evaluate all articles submitted for publication, regardless of race, religion, nationality, gender, seniority or institutional affiliation, by evaluating each on its own merits. An editor must review and process an article submitted for publication at a reasonable pace. The editor has sole responsibility for accepting or rejecting an article for publication. The editor may seek assistance on an article from experts selected for their expertise and fair judgment. Until the review process is complete, the author must not disclose any information about the article under review to anyone other than the author and the assigned referees. The intellectual independence of the authors must be respected.

Authors

Our journal accepts the person who is responsible for at least part of the work as an author. Authors must be able to explain the problem in the study in depth. All authors for our journal are responsible for the content they submit. The corresponding author is responsible for accepting all authors from the first submission of the article and informing them about the submission process. If accepted, all authors are responsible for granting the publication license in their own name. Our journal assumes that the submission of the article is in full agreement of all authors. For articles with more than 8 authors, all authors must provide a statement detailing their contributions to the article. It is unacceptable for ITUJWCC to consider publishing anything that has been published in whole or in part in other journals before. Simultaneous submissions to ITUJWCC and any other journal are considered gross misconduct and all previous publications in ITUJWCC will be retracted. Plagiarism and self-plagiarism will be treated equally. Multiple articles covering closely related topics and/or variables are discouraged (unless they can be included in a single article). For studies involving biological materials obtained from animals and humans, authors must state in their articles (preferably in the Acknowledgements section) that they conducted the study in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki from the authorized committee of their institution and the biological material donors or their relatives, and must submit the "informed consent forms" obtained from the ethics committee.

For research conducted in all branches of science, including social sciences, and for clinical and experimental studies on humans and animals that require an ethics committee decision;
-All kinds of research conducted with qualitative or quantitative approaches that require data collection from participants using survey, interview, focus group study, observation, experiment, interview techniques,
-Use of humans and animals (including material/data) for experimental or other scientific purposes,
-Clinical studies conducted on humans,
-Research conducted on animals,
-Retrospective studies in accordance with the law on the protection of personal data, separate ethics committee approval must be obtained, and this approval must be stated in the article and documented. Information regarding permission (board name, date and issue number) should be included in the “Method” section of the article and also on the first/last page. During article upload, the Ethics Board Approval file should be uploaded to the system in addition to the article file. In addition, in case reports, information indicating that the informed consent/consent form was signed should be included in the article.

The Publication Rights Transfer Agreement file should also be uploaded to the system in addition to the article file.

It should be stated in the article whether legal/special permission is required. If the study covers an application carried out in an institution, it should be clearly stated on which date and with which decision or issue number the permission was obtained from the relevant institution.

For the use of scales, surveys and photographs belonging to others, permission should be obtained from their owners and this should be stated in the article (with reference to the source).

The total similarity level as a result of the analysis of the article with iThenticate or other similarity programs should be below 20%.
In submitted articles, authors are deemed to have accepted and declared that Research and Publication Ethics has been complied with.
Copyright regulations must be observed for the intellectual and artistic works used.

At the end of the article; “Support” or “Acknowledgement” and “Conflict of Interest” declaration should be given. In the “Support” or “Acknowledgement” heading, if the study was supported by an institution or SRP(BAP), the support project number should be stated. In addition, if there are those who are not included as authors in the article but provided support in the data collection etc. stages of the research, they can be thanked. In order to clarify the issue of conflict of interest, the authors should declare whether there is any “Conflict of Interest” at the end of the article.

Reviewers

ITUJWCC invites peers to review submissions based on their expertise, curriculum, and willingness to volunteer to review. By agreeing to review a manuscript, the reviewer commits to doing so in a timely manner. Delays are extremely detrimental to the review process and cause it to take much longer than it should. When a reviewer is asked to respond to an invitation email, they are asked to respond to the invitation email by indicating whether they are willing to review the paper. This is a courtesy and prevents delays. By agreeing to review a paper, the reviewer declares that they have no conflict of interest and that their review is for the enrichment and advancement of science. Reviewers who accept our requests and meet the deadlines receive positive scores and are given priority for all final submissions they may send to ITUJWCC.

Reviewers should consult the Editor regarding the review process if they have any concerns regarding conflicts of interest.

Journal's Open Access Policy

Our journal is open access and uses Dergipark's open access notifications. Once published, the article is made open access and can be accessed by anyone without paying any fee.

The Budapest Open Access Declaration (BOAI) on this subject is as follows:
“By ‘open access’ to this literature, we mean that it is freely available on the public Internet, allowing any user to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search or link to, index the full texts of these articles. They cannot be transferred as data to software or used for any other legitimate purpose, other than the financial, legal or technical barriers inherent in access to the Internet. The only restriction on reproduction and distribution, and the sole role of copyright in this area, should be to give authors control over the integrity of their work and the right to be properly acknowledged and cited.”

The Journal’s Publication Policy

Our journal does not charge any article publication fees. The journal uses a two-way privacy review policy (also known as double-blind review) to evaluate articles. The author submits his/her material and a secretary makes an initial evaluation and decides whether the article is suitable for further processing or rejected. The same applies to all articles with a similarity score higher than 20% by Ithenticate. If the author decides to resubmit the material after a significant revision, he/she is welcome. When the article is accepted for peer review, the editor-in-chief decides who will be the field editor or associate editor and forwards the article file to them. The associate/field editor appoints at least two expert referees in the field and expects them to evaluate it for a considerable period of time. The associate/field editor collects the evaluations from the referees, makes a short list of the referees' suggestions and sends the decision (acceptance, minor revision, major revision, rejection) to the author together with the article. Since these processes are carried out by Dergipark, a lot of time is saved. The author receives the report and starts working, answers questions and sends the corrected article and the response letter. In some cases, the associate/section editor finds this sufficient and does not need to send the corrected material back to the reviewers. Otherwise, the referees comment on the revision and make their final decision. There are rare cases where a revised draft requires additional editing sessions and the process starts over. After the reviews, the article is most likely accepted and forwarded to the Language Editor, who reviews the English usage and makes corrections to the article. The article is forwarded to the Layout Editor, who creates the final version of the draft and the final PDF file. The PDF file is edited and submitted ready for publication, the short name of the PDF file is set, the reference list is checked, the author list is checked, and the ORCID IDs are entered. The final step is to check the title, abstract, publication date, and page range. If all goes well, the article is entered into a journal issue, the ranking is determined, and the process is approved. The article is published and can be viewed on the journal website. If there is still something that needs to be corrected, the process starts over again and the revised article PDF replaces the old one. It is important to note that if the issue is published, there are five extra days to make changes. No changes are allowed after this period.

The time required to review a paper varies from paper to paper; however, it takes between two and four months to get results. There are exceptions when a reviewer responds quickly or when the author prepares the report within a few days of receiving it. In these cases, the review takes only a month or two. On the other hand, reviewers and authors may experience delays, in part because the email gets caught in junk mail filters and they are not aware of the progress; thus, unwanted delays occur. A similar reason is when the reviewer or author's email address is blocked or exceeds the quota, so the message never reaches the user.

Conflict of Interest
Authors should declare any conflicts of interest (if any) at the end of the paper. They should also state that there are no conflicts of interest. If there is a conflict of interest, the author(s) should be specific and state any financial affiliation of all authors of the paper with any sponsoring organization and any for-profit interests represented by the organization and any products discussed or discussed or for-profit.

Withdrawal
There is a form prepared by Dergipark that editors can fill out regarding retraction issues and Dergipark will be notified. Occasionally, a previously published article may be taken back for review to make a change. The journal's editorial team and staff (if necessary) work together to make the necessary changes according to the journal's policies and COPE's guidance.

Required changes (minor errors do not count here) include a post-publication statement that is permanently linked to the original article. Such changes may be an update notice, an Expression of Concern, a Retraction Notice or a Takedown Notice (very rare).

To ensure transparency in the records and to ensure the integrity of the registered record, post-publication notices are included in original articles. Access to all post-publication announcements, starting with the publication content, is free.

Version of Record
The published article "Version of Record" is the final, definitive and reproducible version in the collected record.
The Version of Record for this product consists of the following elements:
a) The final version of the article, including (but not limited to) the abstract, text, references, bibliography, ungrouped tables, illustrations, and data, revised and accepted after peer review.
b) Supplementary material (if any)
Authors should notify the journal as soon as possible if they find errors in their published articles. This becomes particularly important when interpreting the data or finding errors in the information presented that would alter the data. The corresponding author has the responsibility to organize a physical or virtual meeting of all co-authors before written requests for improvements are made.
In particular, if the corresponding author feels that the article needs to be corrected, he/she is free to make corrections. In such a case, the study manager or the managing editor should be contacted.

Notification of Change
A statement of record for the need for equipment for an error or omission that may affect the interpretation of the article but preserves the scientific integrity or original structure.
The corresponding author and all other authors must write and approve the improvement of their article. It is very rare for an error in the publication process to be requested by the journal of the system rules for a correction notice without the direct involvement of the authors. In this very rare case, the journal will do its best to inform the authors.
Changes sometimes lead to a full review of the article, and if there are errors in question, the authors must provide further information before the revision is approved.
The journal will distinguish between major and minor errors. Update notices, major errors or omissions, and changes to the comments of the article are considered changes, but the overall integrity of the presentation remains intact. Minor errors are considered errors or omissions that do not compromise the reliability of the article's commentary or the reader's commentary.
Major errors will always have a separate error notice with the article. This notice should include details of the error and report its record in the version of the record.

Under these conditions, the journal will:
a) Correct the online article.
b) Publish the corrected version electronically in a separate correction notice.
c) Add a footnote to the article indicating the electronic links to the correction notice.
d) Paginate the update notice and publish the updated version in the journal.
e) Provide free viewing of the notice.
f) No separate correction notice can be added to minor errors. Instead, a footnote will be added to the article detailing that the article has been scanned.
g) Concerns regarding the integrity of a published article should be notified to the Editor or via the Publisher via email.

Retractions
A Retraction is issued if there is a serious error (e.g. in the developments or analyses) that invalidates the conclusions of the article or if there is misconduct in the research or publication (e.g. research without the necessary ethical approvals, acceptance data, natural images, plagiarism, repeated publication, etc.).

The journal is determined in accordance with the journal's policies and COPE guidelines. Following the decision, a thorough investigation will be conducted by the journal editorial team in collaboration with the publishing editorial team. Authors and institutions may request that their justifications incorporate the retraction criteria and that their individual articles be reinstated.

Retractions should be made to correct the edits and should not be interpreted as a punishment for the authors.

Retractions cannot be made in the following cases:
a) Misuse (e.g. data falsification or image manipulation) or error (e.g. miscalculation or selective error) causes no one to be trusted or there is clear evidence.

b) The findings have been previously published elsewhere without proper citation, permission or justification (e.g. unnecessary or duplicate publication conditions).

c) The research involves plagiarism.

d) The editor no longer trusts the existence or integrity of the articles.

e) There is evidence or concerns that authorship has been demonstrated.

f) Manipulation of the published reference is obvious.

g) There is evidence of negative peer reviews or systematic manipulation.

h) Evidence of an unethical affiliation will not be altered or evidence of a violation of publication policies will not be distorted.

i) Authors have knowingly provided false or inaccurate information or have breached a guarantee provided by Author Publishing.

Once an article has completed the inclusion process, the journal will take the following actions:
a) Watermark the article’s published Version of Record as “retracted.”

b) Publish a separate retraction notice on the journal website titled “Retraction: [article title]” and cite the article.

c) Paginate the retraction notice and publish it in the journal’s online features.

Expressions of Concern
An Expression of Concern is provided where a certain level of serious concern is expressed (using dissemination of the investigation or publication elsewhere), but is disregarded when the outcome of the investigation is uncertain or when the investigation will not be considered for review due to various complexities. A significant time frame has been completed. This may be due to ongoing institutional investigations or other circumstances beyond the journal's control.

Once the investigation is complete, a Retraction or request may be received following the Expression of Concern, along with the original article. All publications will remain part of the permanent archive.

Explanations of statements are considered as follows:
There are provisional findings of research or publishing misconduct by the authors, but it is necessary to inform readers of what the concerns are.
There are legitimate concerns that the findings are unreliable or that misconduct may occur, but there has been limited cooperation between the institutions of the authors where the concerns were raised.
Allegations of inappropriate conduct are made in relation to an investigation that was not fair, systematic or accurate, or was unclear regarding the publication.
An investigation is ongoing, but a resolution will not be found for an extended period of time, and it is expected that the concerns will be communicated to existing readers.
The Expression of Concern will be linked back to the relevant published article.

Removal of Article
In the rare case where the issues are not retracted or resolved by notification, the version will be removed. Journal management will consider publication of a widely published article if:
a) The article contains content that could pose a serious risk of harm if ignored or followed up on.
b) The article contains content that violates the confidentiality rights of an employment contract.
c) The article is defamatory or violates other legal rights.
d) An article is subject to a court order.

If an article from ITUJWCC is published, a cease and desist notice will be issued instead.

Updates and scientific discussions on published articles

Appendices
A supplement is an announcement that information has been added to an article.
Appendices do not contradict the original publication and are not used to correct errors (a confirmation notice will be published for this), but if the author needs to package or add some important information, this may be published as an appendix.
Appendices may be peer-reviewed according to journal policy and are sometimes subject to review by the journal editors.
All supplements are linked electronically to the published article to which they refer.

Commentary (including reply and reply threads)
Comments are short articles that summarize an observation about a published article. If a comment about a published article is forwarded to the journal's operations, it may be subject to peer review. The comment is shared with the authors of the published article, who are invited to submit a response.

The author's response may be peer-reviewed again and shared with the reviewer, who may be invited to submit a response. The response may be peer-reviewed and shared with the authors of the published article. No further correspondence will be entered into for publication. The Editor may decide to reject correspondence at any time before a comment, response or reply is finalized.

All submitted comments, responses and replies are linked to the relevant published articles.

Pop-up Notifications
If the Publishing Ethics and Integrity team deems it necessary, a pop-up notification may be temporarily added to the online version of the article to encourage readers to investigate and report the article. This is not a permanent notice (unlike an Expression of Concern, submission or Retraction notice), but is a reminder that you are continuing an investigation. Please note that this does not include the article being investigated.

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