Instructions for Authors

Open access statement

This is open access journal. Every article published in this journal will be published open access. This means that the article is universally and freely accessible via the Internet in perpetuity, in an easily readable format immediately after publication. The authors are not charged with any publication fees. Central Mining Institute – National Research Institute will cover publication charges to make the article open access. Permitted third party (re)use is defined by the following Creative Commons user license: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Ensure before you submit:

manuscript is suitable for this journal in terms of the Aims & Scope
the Microsoft Word template has been used to prepare the manuscript;
manuscript does not exceed preferable volume (number of words);
issues about publication ethics, copyright, authorship, figure formats, data and references format have been appropriately considered;
manuscript has been 'spell-checked' and 'grammar-checked';
permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Internet);
all authors have approved the content of the submitted manuscript.

Criteria for manuscripts

The Editors of Journal of Sustainable Mining take under consideration for publication original articles with the understanding that neither the manuscript nor any part of its essential substance, tables or figures have been published previously in print form or electronically and are not under consideration by any other publication or electronic medium. Copies of any closely related manuscripts should be submitted to the Editor along with the manuscript that is to be considered by Journal of Sustainable Mining.

Types of articles

Original Research Articles: Original high-quality research papers presenting a novel research problem based on reliable, globally sound literature review. All the key components of article are included and presented in proper order. Original research article includes complete presentation of the state-of-the-art, consistent terminology, interpretation based on facts and objective statements. Preferably 5000–7000 words.

Short communications: Brief papers that present original and significant material or addressing new ideas for rapid dissemination. Preferably 1000–3000 words.

Letters: A short commentary discussing an article previously published in Journal of Sustainable Mining. No more than 1000 words and two figures/tables.

Review articles: Before preparing a review article for Journal of Sustainable Mining, authors are encouraged to discuss any proposed review with the Editor-in-Chief. There are no specific guidelines regarding length, although it should be commensurate with the scope of the review article.

Technical Note: Briefly explains of a single concept, technique, or study. It contains less information than an article and is suitable for rapid dissemination of results. Preferably 1000–3000 words.

Editorial procedure

Initial evaluation

All submitted manuscripts will be checked by the Editorial Office to determine whether they are properly prepared and whether they follow the ethical policies of the journal. All submitted manuscripts are screened for potential plagiarism via iThenticate software. Manuscripts that do not fit the journal's ethics policy or do not meet the standards of the journal will be rejected before peer review. Incomplete manuscripts not prepared in the advised style (not prepared in the article template) will be sent back to authors without scientific review. After these checks, the Editorial Office will consult the journal’s Editor-in-Chief to determine whether the manuscript fits the scope of the journal and whether it is scientifically sound. Manuscripts with insufficient priority for publication will be rejected promptly. Please write your text in good English (American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of these).The Editor reserves the right to reject a manuscript on the grounds of insufficient language quality. Reject decisions at this stage will be verified by the Editor-in-Chief.

Peer review statement

All manuscripts deemed suitable are sent to a minimum of two external peer reviewers to assess the scientific quality of the paper. The selection of peer reviewers is made by the article handling editor (the Editor-in-Chief or the Deputy Editor-in-Chief or an Associate Editor). Authors are requested to suggest reviewers but the editors reserve the right of final selection. This journal operates a single-blind review process (the names of the reviewers are hidden from the author). After completing all reviewers’ reports, the handling editor makes a decision (accept, major revision, minor revision or reject). The authors receive from 3 to 21 days to prepare the revision depending on the reviewers’ comments. Any revisions should be clearly highlighted, for example using the font in color, so that they are easily visible to the editors and reviewers. The authors should provide a response to reviewers’ comments detailing any changes, for the benefit of the editors and reviewers. The revisions that have been made should be detailed citing the line number and exact change, so that the editor can check the changes expeditiously. Revisions that do not meet with these requirements will be sent back to authors with request for corrections and resubmission. Some articles may have two or three rounds of peer review. The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for the final decision regarding acceptance or rejection of articles. The Editor's decision is final.

Submission Process

Manuscripts for Journal of Sustainable Mining should be submitted online at Submit Article. Our online submission system guides you stepwise through the process of entering your article details and uploading your files. The submitting author, who is typically the corresponding author, is responsible for the manuscript during the editorial process. The submitting author must ensure that all eligible co-authors have been included in the author list and that they have all read and approved the submitted version of the manuscript. To submit your manuscript, register and log in to the submission website.

Ethics in publishing

Journal of Sustainable Mining is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and follows the COPE guidelines on how to deal with potential acts of misconduct. Cases of plagiarism, data falsification, image manipulation, inappropriate authorship credit are not tolerated in Journal of Sustainable Mining. If evidence of misconduct is found, the following actions may be taken: retraction of published work; publication of a correction or statement of concern; refusal of future submission; notification of misconduct sent to an author’s local institution, superior, and/or ethics committee.

The editors and reviewers of Journal of Sustainable Mining follow the best ethical publication practices. They are obliged to disclose any potential conflict of interest that might arise during the term of editorial and review process; they are obliged also to raise immediately any ethical concern about manuscript that is handled/reviewed. The editors and reviewers are expected to handle all manuscripts in confidence. Every effort is made by the editors to see that no inaccurate or misleading data, opinion or statement appear in Journal of Sustainable Mining. The data and opinions appearing in the articles herein are the responsibility of the contributor concerned.

Authors are expected to comply with the ethical standards when publishing in Journal of Sustainable Mining.

Conflict of interest

All authors are requested to disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest including any financial, personal or other relationships with other people or organizations within three years of beginning the submitted work that could inappropriately influence, or be perceived to influence, their work. The respective statement is requested to be made directly in the manuscript.

Contributors

Journal of Sustainable Mining follows the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors the following criteria for the authorship:

Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
Final approval of the version to be published; AND
Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

All forms of ghost, guest or gift authorship are considered unethical.

Any reasons for changes in names of the authors and the number of authors needed after a manuscript submission, before or after publication should be clarified and communicated to the Editorial Office. All authors should agree for changes in authorship. In the case when Editors spot authorship problems, they follow COPE flowcharts.

Ethical statement

The authors should uphold the highest standards of conduct including openness and integrity; they should act in a reliable and trustworthy manner. The authors are requested to disclose any ethical issues related to the study presented in the article or state that the research was conducted according to ethical standards.

Role of the funding source

The authors are requested to identify who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article and to briefly describe the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement then this should be stated.

Acknowledgments

The authors may acknowledge any support given which can not be defined as the authorship or mentioned in funding section, for example administrative and technical support, materials used for experiments, data.

Manuscript Preparation

All requirements for manuscript preparation are detailed in the article template. Articles which have not been prepared according to this requirements will be sent back to authors without scientific review.