Editorial Policies
The following policies apply to the SPACE International Journal of Conference Proceedings published by SPACE Studies Publications. Please read these policies carefully in order to ensure you have totally and correctly followed all the requirements if you are submitting an abstract to SPACE International Conferences, as all the papers submitted to our conferences are also submitted to this Journal and will be published in this Journal.
Peer Review Policy
All articles published in the SPACE International Journal of Conference Proceedings undergo a rigorous double-blind peer review by at least two referees. Each paper submitted is initially screened by the journal’s Editorial board to determine whether the paper’s quality and content suit the aims and scope of the journal. If yes, the paper is sent to at least two anonymous reviewers. SPACE International Journal of Conference Proceedings does not permit the authors to recommend peer reviewers.
Each submitted manuscript is evaluated on the following basis:
- The originality of the work by means of its contribution to knowledge and understanding in the field of scholarly publishing.
- Theory and methodology in terms of explanation and reflection of the theory and the research method/s of the work as well as themselves.
- The quality of the data or theoretical analysis and argumentation.
- Its ability of expression, use of the English language and structure of the manuscript, including the abstract.
- The significance of the paper to space studies in architecture and urban design.
Therefore, all reviewers are asked to provide a clear assessment of the issues given above and use a series of decision categories to assess submitted papers. These decisions and their explanations are provided in the table below.
Table: Decision categories of SPACE International Journal of Space Studies in Architecture and Urban Design
| Decision Category | Explanation of the Category |
| Accept | The editors and the reviewers decide that the paper meets the standards of the journal and that it should be accepted for publication without the need for further revisions. Some minor editing tasks may still be required at the proofs-checking stage. |
| Accept with minor revisions. | The assessment of the editors and the reviewers is that the paper makes a solid contribution to the field. Thus, it has significant merit, but some further revisions are required to meet the journal’s standards, which also maximises its contribution. Editors typically assess the revised version of the paper and do not send it out again for peer review. |
| Accept with major revisions. | The assessment of the editors and the reviewers is that the paper has potential, but significant further revisions are required for the paper to meet the journal’s standards. Authors are informed of the required revisions that need to be made. In all cases, the revised version of the paper is sent out for further peer review and, if possible, by involving the original reviewers. |
| Reject | The assessment of the editors and reviewers is that the paper is unlikely to meet the required standards of the journal, OR the paper does not meet the required standards of the journal even following revision, OR a resubmitted or revised paper has failed to proceed with the next stage of the decision process* |
| Managing Editor Immediate Reject |
When a paper does not meet the journal’s required standards, the editors can reject it immediately and not send it out for peer review. This may occur when the paper
In all cases except plagiarism check, at the editors’ discretion, they may consider the author’s resubmitting the paper. |
* According to the journal’s editorial policy, a paper should advance to at least the next level of decision in each submission round. For example, a paper’s revised version, which was previously accepted with significant revisions, should receive a new decision of at least ‘accept with minor revision’. This applies at all levels of decisions.
The comments and the decision requests by peer reviewers will be considered by the Editor when making a decision. Still, the ultimate responsibility for acceptance or rejection rests solely with the Editor-in-Chief.
Peer Review Statement
All submitted articles in this journal have undergone rigorous double-blind peer review by at least two referees based on initial editor’s screening. More information regarding the peer review process is available.
Please read the Instructions for Authors for information on how to submit your article.
Peer Review Process
The steps of the peer review process are as follows:
- The Author submits a manuscript.
- The Editor does the initial screening. If the Editor decides that the paper’s content and quality suit the journal’s standards, forward it to at least two reviewers. If not, immediately rejects.
- Each reviewer reviews the manuscript according to the journal’s guidelines and requests a decision.
- The article is returned to the Editor along with recommendations to reject it or accept it with minor revisions or accept with major revisions or accept it.
- The Editor drafts a decision to be sent to the author.
- The article is returned to the Author along with the reviewer’s feedback.
o If the paper is rejected, the author has the reviewers’ feedback.
o If the paper is accepted with major revisions, a revised version will be submitted and peer-reviewed again. The revised version should achieve at least an ‘accept with minor revisions’ decision.
o If the paper is accepted with minor revisions, a revised version of the paper should be submitted. The editors will assess the revised version and not send it again for peer review.
o If the paper is accepted, it will return to the Editor. - The Editor receives the last and revised version of the article and sends it to the production editors to be published.
Appeals and Complaints
We welcome genuine appeals to either editor decisions or reviewer comments. However, you will have to provide both strong evidence and information in response to the editor’s decision and reviewers’ comments.
If you wish to appeal the editor’s decision or reviewers’ comments, please submit an appeal letter to the journal’s online editorial office. Please address this to the editor-in-chief and be sure that you explain the basis for the appeal clearly. You should:
- Elaborate why you disagree with the decision and/or comments and provide replies specifically to any of the editor’s and/or reviewers’ comments related to the rejected decision.
- Include evidence if you think and believe that a reviewer has made technical errors in his/her assessment of your manuscript.
- Provide evidence if you believe that a reviewer may have a conflict of interest.
In the case that the author/s have reasonable objections to the review/s, it will be taken into consideration seriously by the Editorial Board. If there is a doubt about the objectivity or quality of the review, the Editor-in-Chief will assign additional reviewer(s).
Additional reviewers may also be assigned when reviewers’ decisions are contrary to each other (accept or reject) or otherwise substantially incompatible.
The final decision on the acceptance of the manuscript for publication rests solely with the Editor-in-Chief.
Confidentiality of Peer Review
Maintaining confidentiality of the peer review and editorial decision-making process at all levels is a requirement, as well as complying with data protection regulations (including GDPR). The invited reviewer should declare any competing interest before assessing the manuscript. SPACE International Journal of Conference Proceedings does not permit reviewers to involve a colleague as a co-reviewer for an article and to share the manuscript.
In the process of investigating any ethical query, the submitted manuscript, author, reviewer/s, and any other person/s who is involved will be treated in confidence. It should be known that during an investigation, there may be a need to share information with third parties, such as the ethics committee and/or the authors’ institution, at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief.
Open Access Publication Policy
SPACE Studies Journal of International Conference Proceedings is an Open Access Journal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY) license. This Journal is published by SPACE Studies Publications which is owned by SPACE STudies of Planning and Architecture through an Open Journal System as part of the Public Knowledge Project (PKP).
Copyright and Licencing
The authors retain the copyright and full publishing rights for their published articles (all available versions, including PDFs, HTML, and XML) without restrictions under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY) licence, where others can distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation and grant the publisher non-exclusive rights to publish their articles, to be cited as the original publisher in case of reuse, and to distribute it in all forms and media.
Publication Ethics for Authors
While submitting an article to the SPACE International Journal of Conference Proceedings, there are ethics to be followed by the authors, which are as follows.
- Authors should be clear about the authorship. Being clear means all the contributions to the article are in the right order, all the acknowledgements are given, and they are up to date, all the co-author/s (if any) have contributed to the article and thus agree to submit the paper, and if you are not submitting the paper in the existence of your co-authors you inform them when you submit.
- Authors should be sure that they include all the funding and funders (if any).
- The data used by authors should be either of their own, or the permission/s should be taken.
- Authors should avoid plagiarism and self-plagiarism. This means they should be sure that they cited their own and others’ works correctly, and they have permission to re-use and/or reproduce the figures and tables of others.
- Authors should submit their article to just one journal at a time, which means it will be considered by one journal and its team at a time. If the author decides to submit their paper to another journal, they have the right to withdraw it before the editing stage starts.
