JOURNAL POLICIES

The journal International Journal of Cognitive Research in Science, Engineering and Education (IJCRSEE) is dedicated to cognitive science, perception, natural language understanding, inference, memory processes, learning, problem solving, planning, connectionism, and other areas of interdisciplinary concern related to education, pedagogy and psychology.

The journal International Journal of Cognitive Research in Science, Engineering and Education (IJCRSEE) publishes original papers that have not been published previously: Original Research, Review Articles, Studies and articles, Book Reviews, Case Studies and Monographic studies.

International Journal of Cognitive Research in Science, Engineering and Education (IJCRSEE) is an Open Access journal.

Contributions to the journal shall be submitted in English language, with summaries in English language.

The Journal is issued three times a year.

The journal is indexed in Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics) – Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) - Impact Factor 2022 - 0.7, Q3 in Education & Educational Research; SCOPUS Q2 - CiteScore 2022 = 2,0; SJR - Scimago Journal- Q3; DOAJ – Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ Seal); ERIH PLUS – European Reference Index for the Humanities and the Social Sciences; ProQuest; EBSCO HOST (Academic Search Complete, Academic Search Elite, Academic Search Ultimate, EBSCO Discovery Services, The Belt and Road Initiative Reference); EBSCO Essentials; Scilit; CrossRef; Central and Eastern European Online Library (CEEOL); World Catalogue of Scientific Journals (WCOSJ); Library of Congress; Dimensions; Mendeley; Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development (M24); doiSerbia; SHERPA/RoMEO; Internet Archive; Internet Archive Scholar; eLibrary RU; Science index-eLibrary RU; CyberLeninka; SciUp; НейроАссистент научного издательства (NeuroAssistant Scientific Publishing); Index Copernicus; PBN (Polskiej Bibliografii Naukowej); Ulrichsweb; Google Scholar; Cabell`s directory; WorldCat; Ingenta Connect; COBIS SR; MIAR; ROAD - Directory of open access scholarly resources; Dialnet; CIRC EC3METRICS; The digital repository of the National Library of Serbia; ScienceGate; Wikipedia; CNKI...

Digital copies of the journal are archived in the legal deposit library of the National Library of Serbia , Keepers Registry using  PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN) platform and also in the Internet Archive which is a non-profit library of millions of free books, articles, and etc. 

 

Editorial Policies

EDITORIAL RESPONSIBILITIES

The Editorial Board is responsible for deciding which articles submitted to International Journal of Cognitive Research in Science, Engineering and Education (IJCRSEE) will be published. The Editorial Board is guided by the Editorial Policy and constrained by legal requirements in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism.

 

The Editorial Board reserves the right to decide not to publish submitted manuscripts in case it is found that they do not meet relevant standards concerning the content and formal aspects. The Editorial Staff will inform the authors whether the manuscript is accepted for publication within 60-90 days from the date of the manuscript submission.

Editorial Board must hold no conflict of interest with regard to the articles they consider for publication. If an Editor feels that there is likely to be a perception of a conflict of interest in relation to their handling of a submission, the selection of reviewers and all decisions on the manuscript shall be made by the Editorial Board.

Editorial Board shall evaluate manuscripts for their scientific content free from any racial, gender, sexual, religious, ethnic, or political bias.

The Editor and the Editorial Staff must not use unpublished materials disclosed in submitted manuscripts without the express written consent of the authors. The information and ideas presented in submitted manuscripts shall be kept confidential and must not be used for personal gain.

Editors and the Editorial Staff shall take all reasonable measures to ensure that the reviewers remain anonymous to the authors before, during and after the evaluation process and the authors remain anonymous to reviewers until the end of the review procedure.

 

AUTHORS’ RESPONSIBILITIES

Authors warrant that their manuscript is their original work, that it has not been published before and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Parallel submission of the same manuscript to another journal constitutes misconduct and eliminates the manuscript from consideration by International Journal of Cognitive Research in Science, Engineering and Education (IJCRSEE). Also, one author cannot have two manuscript in the same issue. Please note that posting of preprints on preprint servers or repositories is not considered prior publication. Authors should disclose details of preprint posting upon submission of the manuscript. This must include a link to the location of the preprint. Should the submission be published, the authors are expected to update the information associated with the preprint version on the preprint server/repository to show that a final version has been published in the journal, including the DOI linking directly to the publication.

If a manuscript has previously been submitted elsewhere, authors should provide information about the previous reviewing process and its outcome. This provides an opportunity for authors to detail how subsequent revisions have taken into account previous reviews, and why certain reviewer comments were not taken into account. Information about the author's previous reviewing experience is to the author's advantage: it often helps the editors select more appropriate reviewers.

In case a submitted manuscript is a result of a research project, or its previous version has been presented at a conference in the form of an oral presentation (under the same or similar title), detailed information about the project, the conference, etc. shall be provided in Acknowledgements.

It is the responsibility of each author to ensure that manuscripts submitted to International Journal of Cognitive Research in Science, Engineering and Education (IJCRSEE) are written with ethical standards in mind. Authors affirm that the manuscript contains no unfounded or unlawful statements and does not violate the rights of third parties. The Publisher will not be held legally responsible should there be any claims for compensation.

Reporting standards

International Journal of Cognitive Research in Science, Engineering and Education (IJCRSEE) is committed to serving the research community by ensuring that all articles include enough information to allow others to reproduce the work. A submitted manuscript should contain sufficient detail and references to permit reviewers and, subsequently, readers to verify the claims presented in it - e.g. provide complete details of the methods used, including time frames, etc. Authors are required to review the standards available for many research applications from Equator Network and use those that are relevant for the reported research applications. The deliberate presentation of false claims is a violation of ethical standards.

Authors are exclusively responsible for the contents of their submissions and must make sure that they have permission from all involved parties to make the content public. Authors are also exclusively responsible for the contents of their data/supplementary files. Authors affirm that data protection regulations, ethical standards, third party copyright and other rights have been respected in the process of collecting, processing and sharing data - Data Sharing Policy.

Authors wishing to include figures, tables or other materials that have already been published elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright holder(s). Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors.

Authorship

Authors must make sure that only contributors who have significantly contributed to the submission are listed as authors and, conversely, that all contributors who have significantly contributed to the submission are listed as authors. If persons other than authors were involved in important aspects of the research project and the preparation of the manuscript, their contribution should be acknowledged in a footnote or the Acknowledgements section.

As a guide, authors should refer to the criteria for authorship that have been developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). In order to be named on the author list one must have:

  • made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
  • contributed to the drafting the work, or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
  • provided final approval of the version to be published; AND
  • agreed 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; AND
  • agreed to be named on the author list, and approved of the full author list.

Each author’s contribution must be detailed by selecting CRediT roles on the article submission form.

The addition or removal of authors during the editorial process will only be permitted only if a justifiable explanation is provided to the editorial team and publisher. Attempts to introduce 'ghost', 'gift' or ‘honorary’ authorship will be treated as cases of misconduct.

Acknowledgment of sources

Authors are required to properly cite sources that have significantly influenced their research and their manuscript. Information received in a private conversation or correspondence with third parties, in reviewing project applications, manuscripts and similar materials, must not be used without the express written consent of the information source.

When citing or making claims based on data, authors should provide the reference to data in the same way as they cite publications. We recommend the format proposed by the FORCE11 Data Citation Principles.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism, where someone assumes another's ideas, words, or other creative expression as one's own, is a clear violation of scientific ethics. Plagiarism may also involve a violation of copyright law, punishable by legal action.

Plagiarism includes the following:

  • Word for word, or almost word for word copying, or purposely paraphrasing portions of another author's work without clearly indicating the source or marking the copied fragment (for example, using quotation marks);
  • Copying equations, figures or tables from someone else's paper without properly citing the source and/or without permission from the original author or the copyright holder.

Please note that all submissions are thoroughly checked for plagiarism. All papers published in the International Journal of Cognitive Research in Science, Engineering and Education (IJCRSEE) are tested using iThenticate software and AntiPlagiatRU.

Any manuscript that shows obvious signs of plagiarism will be automatically rejected.

In case plagiarism is discovered in a paper that has already been published by the journal, it will be retracted in accordance with the procedure described below under Retraction policy, and authors submission of paper will be prohibited.

Conflict of interest

Authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might have influenced the presented results or their interpretation. If there is no conflict of interest to declare, the following standard statement should be added: ‘No competing interests were disclosed’.

A competing interest may be of non-financial or financial nature. Examples of competing interests include (but are not limited to):

  • individuals receiving funding, salary or other forms of payment from an organization, or holding stocks or shares from a company, that might benefit (or lose) financially from the publication of the findings;
  • individuals or their funding organization or employer holding (or applying for) related patents;
  • official affiliations and memberships with interest groups relating to the content of the publication;
  • political, religious, or ideological competing interests.

Authors from pharmaceutical companies, or other commercial organizations that sponsor clinical or field trials or other research studies, should declare these as competing interests on submission. The relationship of each author to such an organization should be explained in the ‘Competing interests’ section. Publications in the journal must not contain content advertising any commercial products.

Fundamental errors in published works

When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in their own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal Editor or publisher and cooperate with the Editor to retract or correct the paper.

By submitting a manuscript the authors agree to abide by the International Journal of Cognitive Research in Science, Engineering and Education (IJCRSEE)’s Editorial Policies.

ORCID

The journal asks that all authors submitting a paper register an account with Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID). ORCID numbers for all authors and co-authors should be added to the author data upon submission and will be published alongside the submitted paper, should it be accepted.

ORCID registration provides a unique and persistent digital identifier for the account that enables accurate attribution and improves the discoverability of published papers, ensuring that the correct author receives the correct credit for their work.

 Funding information

If a paper is a result of the funded project, authors are required to specify funding sources according to their contracts with the funder.

Funding Policy

The journal is committed to transparency in all aspects of research and publishing.

Journal Funding
The publication of this journal is supported by [Institution/Faculty/Association name]. No fees are charged to authors for submission or publication, unless otherwise specified.

Author Funding Disclosure
Authors must clearly disclose all sources of financial support for their research, including:

  • research grants,

  • institutional support,

  • private or commercial funding,

  • or any other financial contributions.

Funding statements should be included in the Acknowledgments section of the manuscript. If no external funding was received, authors must state: “This research received no external funding.”

Conflict of Interest
Authors are responsible for declaring any potential conflicts of interest related to funding sources.

For questions regarding this policy, please contact:
Prof. Lazar Stošić, Editor-in-Chief
Email: editor@ijcrsee.com

REVIEWERS’ RESPONSIBILITIES

IJCRSEE does not currently allow the use of Generative AI or AI-assisted technologies such as ChatGPT or similar services for peer review. We strive to protect authors' rights and research confidentiality.

Reviewers must not recommend citations of work by themselves, close colleagues, another author, or the journal when it is not clearly necessary to improve the quality of the manuscript under review.

Reviewers are required to provide written, competent and unbiased feedback in a timely manner on the scholarly merits and the scientific value of the manuscript.

The reviewers assess manuscript for the compliance with the profile of the journal, the relevance of the investigated topic and applied methods, the originality and scientific relevance of information presented in the manuscript, the presentation style and scholarly apparatus.

Reviewers should alert the Editor to any well-founded suspicions or the knowledge of possible violations of ethical standards by the authors. Reviewers should recognize relevant published works that have not been cited by the authors and alert the Editor to substantial similarities between a reviewed manuscript and any manuscript published or under consideration for publication elsewhere, in the event they are aware of such. Reviewers should also alert the Editor to a parallel submission of the same manuscript to another journal, in the event they are aware of such.

Reviewers must not have conflict of interest with respect to the research, the authors and/or the funding sources for the research. If such conflicts exist, the reviewers must report them to the Editor without delay.

Any selected reviewer who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the Editor without delay.

Reviews must be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.

Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. Reviewers must not use unpublished materials disclosed in submitted manuscripts without the express written consent of the authors. The information and ideas presented in submitted manuscripts shall be kept confidential and must not be used for personal gain.

Peer Review

The submitted manuscripts are subject to a peer review process. The purpose of peer review is to assist the Editorial Board in making editorial decisions and through the editorial communication with the author it may also assist the author in improving the manuscript.

A manuscript goes through the peer review process - Double-blind peer-review. Double-blind peer review means that reviewers are unaware of the identity of the authors, and authors are also unaware of the identity of reviewers. There are at least two reviewers.

The choice of reviewers is at the discretion of the Editorial Board. The reviewers must be knowledgeable about the subject area of the manuscript; they must not be from the authors' own institution and they should not have recent joint publications with any of the authors.

In the main review phase, the Editor sends submitted manuscripts to the two of reviewers’ experts in the field. The reviewers’ evaluation form contains a checklist in order to help reviewers cover all aspects that can decide the fate of a submission. In the final section of the evaluation form, the reviewers must include observations and suggestions aimed at improving the submitted manuscript; these are sent to authors, without the names of the reviewers.

All of the reviewers of a manuscript remain anonymous to the authors before, during and after the evaluation process and the authors remain anonymous to reviewers until the end of the review procedure.

All of the reviewers of a manuscript act independently and they are not aware of each other’s identities. If the decisions of the two reviewers are not the same (accept/reject), the Editorial Board may assign additional reviewers.

During the review process, the Editorial Board may require authors to provide additional information (including raw data) if they are necessary for the evaluation of the scholarly merit of the manuscript. These materials shall be kept confidential and must not be used for personal gain.

The editorial team shall ensure reasonable quality control for the reviews. With respect to reviewers whose reviews are convincingly questioned by authors, special attention will be paid to ensure that the reviews are objective and high in academic standard. When there is any doubt with regard to the objectivity of the reviews or quality of the review, additional reviewers will be assigned.

Members of the editorial team/board/guest editors are permitted to submit their own papers to the journal. In cases where an author is associated with the journal, they will be removed from all editorial tasks for that paper and another member of the team will be assigned responsibility for overseeing peer review.

 

POST-PUBLICATION DISCUSSIONS

International Journal of Cognitive Research in Science, Engineering and Education (IJCRSEE) encourages post-publication debate either through letters to the editor, or on an external moderated site, such as PubPeer.

 

Use of Large Language Models and generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools

International Journal of Cognitive Research in Science, Engineering and Education (IJCRSEE) conforms to the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) recommendations on chat bots, ChatGPT and scholarly manuscripts and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)’s position statement on Authorship and AI tools.

AI bots such as ChatGPT cannot be listed as authors on your submission.

Authors must clearly indicate the use of tools based on large language models and generative AI in the manuscript (which tool was used and for what purpose), preferably in the methods or acknowledgements sections.

Authors are responsible for the accuracy, validity, and appropriateness of any content generated by tools based on large language models and generative AI and they must ensure that the cited references are correct and that the submission is free from plagiarism.

Editors and Reviewers must ensure the confidentiality of the peer review process. Editors must not share information about submitted manuscripts or peer review reports with any tools based on large language models and generative AI. Reviewers must not use any tools based on large language models and generative AI to generate review reports.

Declaration on Independent Work and the Use of AI Tools

  • I confirm that the submitted Article is the result of original and independent academic work by the author(s), based on our own intellectual effort, analysis, and interpretation.
  • No part of the manuscript was written, translated, paraphrased, or otherwise generated by artificial intelligence tools, bots, automated systems, or machine learning algorithms (e.g., ChatGPT, Bard, Gemini, Claude, DeepL, etc.).
  • The manuscript does not contain automatically generated content or data visualizations created using AI software, and any tools used (e.g., for grammar checking or referencing) were employed under human supervision without altering the scientific substance.
  • I/we affirm full responsibility for the content, structure, arguments, and conclusions of the manuscript.
  • I/we are fully aware of the ethical responsibilities and possible academic consequences of misrepresentation, including the undisclosed use of AI-based technologies in academic publishing.

Procedures for dealing with complaints and appeals

Anyone may inform the editors and/or Editorial Staff at any time of suspected unethical behaviour or any type of misconduct by giving the necessary information/evidence to start an investigation.

 

INVESTIGATION

  • Editor-in-Chief will consult with the Editorial Board on decisions regarding the initiation of an investigation.
  • During an investigation, any evidence should be treated as strictly confidential and only made available to those strictly involved in investigating.
  • The accused will always be given the chance to respond to any charges made against them.
  • If it is judged at the end of the investigation that misconduct has occurred, then it will be classified as either minor or serious.

Appeals Process

Authors who wish to appeal a decision regarding their manuscript may submit a written appeal within 30 days of receiving the editorial decision. The appeal must clearly state the reasons for requesting a reconsideration and provide supporting information or evidence.

Appeals should be addressed to:
Prof. Lazar Stošić, Editor-in-Chief
Email: editor@ijcrsee.com

All appeals will be reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief or a designated member of the Editorial Board who was not involved in the original decision. The review of the appeal will focus on whether the editorial process was conducted fairly and according to the journal’s policies.

A response to the appeal will normally be provided within 4–6 weeks. The decision made after the appeals process is final.

 

Complaints Process

Our journal is committed to maintaining the highest editorial and ethical standards. We welcome complaints that help us to improve our processes and uphold the integrity of scholarly publishing. Complaints may relate to:

  • the editorial and peer review process,

  • potential research or publication misconduct,

  • the behavior of editors, reviewers, or staff,

  • or any other concern regarding the operation of the journal.

Complaints should be submitted in writing to:
Prof. Lazar Stošić, Editor-in-Chief
Email: editor@ijcrsee.com

All complaints will be acknowledged within 7 days. They will be investigated by the Editor-in-Chief or a designated member of the Editorial Board who is not involved in the matter of the complaint. If the complaint concerns the Editor-in-Chief, it will be referred to the Editorial Board.

A formal response will normally be provided within 4 weeks. The outcome of the complaints process is final.

MINOR MISCONDUCT

Minor misconduct will be dealt directly with those involved without involving any other parties, e.g.:

  • Communicating to authors/reviewers whenever a minor issue involving misunderstanding or misapplication of academic standards has occurred.
  • A warning letter to an author or reviewer regarding fairly minor misconduct.

 

MAJOR MISCONDUCT

The Editor-in-Chief, in consultation with the Editorial Board, and, when appropriate, further consultation with a small group of experts should make any decision regarding the course of action to be taken using the evidence available. The possible outcomes are as follows (these can be used separately or jointly):

  • Publication of a formal announcement or editorial describing the misconduct.
  • Informing the author's (or reviewer's) head of department or employer of any misconduct by means of a formal letter.
  • The formal, announced retraction of publications from the journal in accordance with the Retraction Policy (see below).
  • A ban on submissions from an individual for a defined period.
  • Referring a case to a professional organization or legal authority for further investigation and action.

When dealing with complaints and appeals, the editorial team will rely on the guidelines and recommendations provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE):  https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Flowcharts.

 

Anonymisation, confidentiality, and informed consent

1) Anonymisation Policy

Purpose
This journal requires authors to protect participant identity and privacy by removing or masking direct and indirect identifiers from manuscripts and all supplementary materials. Where there is any doubt that anonymity can be preserved, written consent for publication is required before submission.

Scope and definitions

  • Direct identifiers include names, initials, exact dates of birth, faces in photographs, social media handles, email addresses, medical record numbers, or exact geolocation.
  • Indirect (quasi) identifiers include combinations of demographic or clinical details that could reasonably re-identify an individual (e.g., rare disease + small community + age band).
  • Anonymisation must not distort scientific meaning (e.g., use cell suppression or aggregation rather than inventing data).  

Minimum author requirements

  • Remove/blur faces and identifying marks in images; simple “eye-bar” masking is insufficient.
  • Generalise dates and small-cell counts; consider data minimisation in tables/figures.
  • State in the Methods or Ethics section how anonymisation was performed.
  • If anonymity cannot be guaranteed, obtain and retain written consent for publication (see “Consent for Personal Data and Media”).  

Editorial checks
Editors may request a description of anonymisation steps and, where necessary, evidence that consent for publication was obtained.

 

2) Confidentiality Policy

Commitment
The journal safeguards the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts, reviewer identities (where applicable), and participant information obtained during editorial handling. Materials under review must not be shared or used for purposes other than peer review.

Expectations for editors and reviewers

  • Do not disclose any content from submissions without written permission from the Editor-in-Chief.
  • Do not retain or use data, analyses, or ideas from submissions for personal advantage.
  • Report any suspected privacy breaches immediately to the Editor-in-Chief.  

Participant information in publications
Only information essential to scientific understanding will be published, and then either anonymised or accompanied by explicit consent for publication (see related policies below).  

Complaints
Suspected breaches of confidentiality will be investigated according to COPE guidance. Contact: Prof. Lazar Stošić, Editor-in-Chief — editor@ijcrsee.com.   

 

3) Informed Consent for Participation in the Study

Suggested URL: /policies/informed-consent-participation

Requirement
Manuscripts reporting research involving human participants must state:

  • the approving research ethics committee/IRB (name and institution),
  • the approval number/code and date, and
  • that informed consent for participation was obtained from all participants or their legally authorised representatives.
    Studies must adhere to the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki.

Minors and vulnerable groups
For minors, obtain consent from a legal guardian and age-appropriate assent from the child where feasible.  

Where to place the statement
Include an “Ethics Approval and Consent to Participate” subsection in the Methods (or an Ethics section) with IRB/EC details and consent wording.  

Example wording for authors

“This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of [Institution] (Approval No. XXXX, Date). Written informed consent for participation was obtained from all participants (or their legal guardians). The study complied with the Declaration of Helsinki.”  

Animal studies
For animal research, state ethics approval and compliance with EU Directive 2010/63/EU and report according to ARRIVE 2.0.   

 

4) Consent for Personal Data, Images, Audio, or Video in Publications

Suggested URL: /policies/consent-personal-data-media

When consent for publication is required
If any identifiable personal data or recognisable images/audio/video will be published, authors must obtain written consent for publication that explicitly acknowledges online, open-access distribution. Masking the eye region alone is not an adequate de-identification method.

Minimum elements of the consent for publication

  • Clear description of what will be published (text, photos, audio/video).
  • Statement that materials may be freely accessible online and redistributed.
  • For EEA data subjects, consent must meet GDPR standards (freely given, specific, informed, unambiguous). Retain dated copies; provide to editors on request.  

Special populations
For minors, obtain legal-guardian consent and, where appropriate, the child’s assent; identifiable patients should be shown the manuscript to be published before consenting.  

Example wording for authors

“Written consent for publication of identifiable information/images was obtained from the participant (or legal guardian). The consent form states that the article and associated media will be openly available on the internet.”  

Contact
Policy questions: Prof. Lazar Stošić, Editor-in-Chief — editor@ijcrsee.com.

 

RETRACTION POLICY

The infringement of the legal limitations of the publisher, copyright holder or author(s), the violation of of professional ethical codes and research misconduct, such as multiple submissions, duplicate or overlapping publication, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data and data fabrication, undisclosed use of tools based on large language models and generative AI, honest errors reported by the authors (for example, errors due to the mixing up of samples or use of a scientific tool or equipment that is found subsequently to be faulty), unethical research  or any major misconduct require retraction of an article. Occasionally a retraction can be used to correct errors in submission or publication.

For any retracted article, the reason for retraction and who is instigating the retraction will be clearly stated in the Retraction notice. Standards for dealing with retractions have been developed by a number of library and scholarly bodies, and this practice has been adopted for article retraction by International Journal of Cognitive Research in Science, Engineering and Education (IJCRSEE): in the electronic version of the retraction note, a link is made to the original article. In the electronic version of the original article, a link is made to the retraction note where it is clearly stated that the article has been retracted. The original article is retained unchanged, save for a watermark on the PDF indicating on each page that it is “retracted.”

 

Research data policy

International Journal of Cognitive Research in Science, Engineering and Education (IJCRSEE) encourages authors to share research data that are required for confirming the results published in the manuscript and/or enhance the published manuscript under the principle ‘as open as possible, as closed as necessary. We accept supporting software applications, high-resolution images, background datasets, sound or video clips, large appendices, data tables and other relevant items that cannot be included in the article.

Authors may submit data together with the manuscript through our journal management system. In this case, the data will be made available to reviewers and published once the manuscript is accepted for publication online. Each data file will be assigned a DOI, enabling the data to be cited the same way as traditional publications. Note that these materials will not be copy-edited or typeset: their appearance and format is entirely the author's responsibility.

Alternatively, authors may deposit relevant data in a FAIR-compliant repository – institutional, disciplinary, or general-purpose. If you need assistance in finding a FAIR compliant repository, check this link: https://repositoryfinder.datacite.org/. Authors should also provide via the repository any information needed to replicate, validate, and/or reuse the results / your study and analysis of the data. This includes details of any software, instruments and other tools used to process the results. Where possible, the tools and instruments themselves should also be provided.

Exceptions: We recognize that openly sharing data may not always be feasible. Exceptions to open access to research data underlying publications include the following: obligation to protect results, confidentiality obligations, security obligations, the obligation to protect personal data and other legitimate constraints. Where open access is not provided to the data needed to validate the conclusions of a publication that reports original results, authors should provide the relevant access needed to validate the conclusions to the extent their legitimate interests or constraints are safeguarded.

 

ETHICAL AND SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS

If data access is restricted for ethical or security reasons, the manuscript must include:

  • a description of the restrictions on the data;
  • what, if anything, the relevant Institutional Review Board (IRB) or equivalent said about the data sharing; and
  • all necessary information required for a reader or reviewer to apply for access to the data and the conditions under which access will be granted.

 

Data protection issues

Where human data cannot be effectively de-identified, data must not be shared in order to protect participant privacy unless the individuals have given explicit written consent that their identifiable data can be made publicly available.

In instances where the data cannot be made available, the manuscript must include:

  • an explanation of the data protection concern;
  • any intermediary data that can be de-identified without compromising anonymity;
  • what, if anything, the relevant Institutional Review Board (IRB) or equivalent said about data sharing; and
  • where applicable, all necessary information required for a reader or peer reviewer to apply for access to the data and the conditions under which access will be granted.

In addition, data should be linked to from a Data Accessibility Statement within the submitted paper, which will be made public upon publication. If data is not being made available within the journal publication, a statement from the author should be provided to explain why. When depositing data for a submission, the below should be considered:

  • The repository the data is deposited in must be suitable for this subject and have a sustainability model.
  • The data must be deposited under an open license that permits unrestricted access (e.g., CC0, CC-BY). More restrictive licenses should only be used if a valid reason (e.g., legal) is present.
  • The deposited data must include a version that is in an open, non-proprietary format.
  • The deposited data must have been labeled in such a way that a 3rd party can make sense of it (e.g., sensible column headers, descriptions in a readme text file).
  • Research involving human subjects, human material, or human data, must have been performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Where applicable, the studies must have been approved by an appropriate Ethics Committee. The identity of the research subject should be anonymized whenever possible. For research involving human subjects, informed consent to participate in the study must be obtained from participants (or their legal guardian).
  • A ‘Data Accessibility Statement’ should be added to the submission, prior to the reference list, providing the details of the data accessibility, including the DOI linking to it. If the data is restricted in any way, the reasoning should be given.

Ethics Approval Statement

All manuscripts reporting research involving human participants or animals must include a clear statement regarding ethics approval.

Human Studies
Authors must identify the ethics committee or institutional review board (IRB) that approved the study, including the approval number/code, and confirm that the study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. A statement confirming that informed consent was obtained from all participants (or their legal guardians) must also be included.

Animal Studies
Research involving animals must include a statement that the study was approved by the appropriate ethics committee and conducted in compliance with recognized standards such as the EU Directive 2010/63/EU for animal experiments and/or the ARRIVE guidelines.

Manuscripts without Formal Approval
If ethics approval was not required, authors must provide a clear explanation and indicate how ethical standards were otherwise maintained.

Example statement for manuscripts:
“This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of [Institution name] (Approval No. XXXX, Date). Written informed consent was obtained from all participants.”

For questions about this policy, please contact:
Prof. Lazar Stošić, Editor-in-Chief
Email: editor@ijcrsee.com

 

Open Access policy

International Journal of Cognitive Research in Science, Engineering and Education (IJCRSEE) is an Open Access journal. All its content is available free of charge. Users can read, download, copy, distribute, print, search the full text of articles, as well as to establish HTML links to them, without having to seek the consent of the author or publisher.

 

Article processing charge

 

Journal International Journal of Cognitive Research in Science, Engineering and Education / IJCRSEE charges authors costs of publishing papers in the amount of 500 Euros (60,000.00 RSD). The Article Processing Charge is a fee charged to authors to allow for immediate, unrestricted access to the full version of the article. Please note that the payment of this charge does not guarantee acceptance of the manuscript for publication and does not influence the outcome of the review procedure.

 

Waiver Policy

The International Journal of Cognitive Research in Science, Engineering and Education (IJCRSEE) is committed to ensuring that financial limitations do not prevent authors from publishing their work. Authors from low-income or lower-middle-income countries (as classified by the World Bank) or those experiencing financial hardship may apply for a full or partial waiver of the Article Processing Charge (APC).

Waiver requests should be submitted at the time of manuscript submission with a short explanation. All requests are reviewed confidentially and independently of the editorial process, ensuring that the decision to grant a waiver does not influence the peer review or acceptance of the manuscript.

Our goal is to support equitable access to scholarly publishing while maintaining the highest standards of academic quality.

For waiver requests, please contact: editor@ijcrsee.com

 

Revenue sources

The journal’s operating revenue comes solely from (i) Article Processing Charges (APCs) and (ii) association memberships. We do not accept advertising orcommercial supplements. Editorial decisions are independent of all financial considerations; editorial and operational functions are separated. 

Membership contributions do not confer any role in editorial decision-making, peer review, or acceptance criteria. Editorial policies are set and enforced by the Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board.

1) Revenue Streams (what we fund and how)

Stream What it covers  
Article Processing Charges (APCs) Post-acceptance production (copyediting, XML/JATS, layout, proofreading), platform hosting (OJS), DOI/membership fees, long-term archiving, website maintenance, editorial office operations.  
Society/Association Memberships Unrestricted support for editorial infrastructure and operations; members do not influence editorial decisions.  

No other revenue sources: The journal does not carry advertising, receive commercial sponsorships, sell reprints/supplements, or solicit donations.

2) Editorial Independence & Firewalls

  • Editorial decisions are based solely on scholarly merit, research integrity, and compliance with journal policies.

  • APC payment status is processed after the editorial decision; editors and reviewers have no access to payment information during peer review.

  • Membership income is unrestricted and confers no editorial control.

  • Editorial and operational/finance functions are organisationally separated.

3) Conflicts of Interest & Disclosures

  • Authors must disclose external research funding and the role of funders within the article’s Funding/Acknowledgments sections.

  • Editors and reviewers disclose relevant interests under the journal’s COI policy.

Contact
Questions about revenue or independence: Editor-in-Chief — editor@yourjournal.org.

 

Advertising Policy
The journal does not accept or display advertising of any kind, including but not limited to banner ads, programmatic/third-party ad networks, sponsored content, native advertising, or promotional inserts in issues or articles.

Editorial independence
Because we do not carry advertising, there is no commercial influence on editorial decisions, peer review, acceptance, or rejection of manuscripts. Editorial and operational functions remain independent.

Email/newsletters and tracking
We do not include paid advertisements in email alerts or newsletters, nor do we serve third-party advertising scripts or pixels on article pages.

Future changes
If the journal ever introduces advertising, we will:

  • publish acceptance criteria and placement rules;

  • keep a strict firewall between editorial and commercial operations;

  • clearly label all ads;

  • prohibit formats that could be confused with editorial content (no advertorials);

  • disclose the policy and provide contact information for queries or complaints.

Contact
Questions about this policy: Editor-in-Chief — editor@ijcrsee.com

 

Journal sponsorship/support (last five years)


In the past five (5) years, the journal has received the following institutional support:

  • Don State Technical University (DSTU), Rostov-on-Don — coverage of Crossref DOI costs.

  • University Business Academy – Faculty of Economics and Engineering Management (FIMEK), Novi Sad — coverage of UDC (UDK) numbering costs and other Association-related expenses connected to the journal’s operations.

Sponsors have no influence on editorial decisions or the peer-review process.

 

SELF-ARCHIVING POLICY

Authors can deposit author’s preprint, author’s postprint (accepted version) and publisher's version (PDF) of their work in an institutional repository, subject-based and general-purpose repository, author's personal website (including social networking sites, such as ResearchGate, Academia.edu, etc.), and/or departmental website prior or during the submission process, at any time after the acceptance of the manuscript and at any time after publication.

Full bibliographic information (authors, article title, journal title, volume, issue, pages) about the original publication must be provided and links must be made to the article's DOI and the license.

 

COMMITMENT TO RESPONSIBLE RESEARCH ASSESSMENT (DORA)


The International Journal of Cognitive Research in Science, Engineering and Education (IJCRSEE) proudly endorses the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) - https://sfdora.org/ and affirms its commitment to responsible research evaluation.

In line with DORA principles:

  • Quality of research above metrics
    We assess scholarly work based on its content, methodological rigor, scientific contribution, and ethical standards, rather than relying solely on impact factor or other journal-based metrics.

  • Transparency and integrity
    We support open and transparent science, promote ethical conduct in research and publishing, and encourage authors to highlight the value and impact of their work for the academic community.

  • Equal opportunity for all authors
    We do not discriminate against researchers based on institutional affiliation, geographical location, or publication history. We pay particular attention to supporting early-career researchers.

  • Rejecting inappropriate reliance on single metrics
    We recognize that the journal impact factor does not reflect the quality of individual research articles, and we commit not to use it as the primary measure of scholarly contribution.

  • Support for diverse forms of research contributions
    We value a wide range of scholarly outputs – from theoretical and empirical studies to literature reviews, case studies, teaching materials, and innovative research methods.

 

Copyright and licensing

Authors retain copyright of the published papers and grant to the publisher the non-exclusive right to publish the article, to be cited as its original publisher in case of reuse, and to distribute it in all forms and media. Articles will be distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.

Authors can enter the separate, additional contractual arrangements for non-exclusive distribution of the published paper (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

 

METADATA POLICY

The journal metadata are freely accessible to all, and freely reusable by all, under the terms of the Creative Commons Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication license.

 

Disclaimer

The views expressed in the published works do not express the views of the Editors and Editorial Staff. The authors take legal and moral responsibility for the ideas expressed in the articles. The publisher shall have no liability in the event of issuance of any claims for damages. The Publisher will not be held legally responsible should there be any claims for compensation.

Developed by EIFL, inspired by:

 

Data Availability Policy

1. Introduction

In line with best practices for transparency and open science, the International Journal of Cognitive Research in Science, Engineering and Education (IJCRSEE) requires all manuscripts to include a Data Availability Statement. This statement must clearly describe where the data supporting the findings of the study can be accessed, and under what conditions.

Data availability enhances the reproducibility of research, allows verification of findings, and increases the overall impact and credibility of scientific work. Manuscripts submitted without a Data Availability Statement will not be accepted for publication.

2. Author Responsibilities

Authors are responsible for:

  • Ensuring that the data supporting their research findings are preserved in a secure and accessible form.

  • Providing accurate and verifiable links (URLs or DOIs) to repositories where the data can be accessed.

  • Stating clearly any restrictions on data availability due to ethical, legal, or commercial considerations.

  • Confirming whether the data are included in the article, supplementary materials, or hosted elsewhere.

3. Acceptable Forms of Data Availability

Authors may choose one of the following standard options, depending on the nature of their research and data:

  1. Openly available data in a repository with DOI

    • The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in [repository name] at [DOI link].

  2. Openly available data in a repository without DOI

    • The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in [repository name] at [URL].

  3. Data derived from public domain resources

    • The data that support the findings of this study are available in [repository name] at [URL/DOI]. These data were derived from the following resources: [list resources].

  4. Data available within the article or supplementary materials

    • The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article [and/or] its supplementary materials.

  5. Data available upon request

    • The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

  6. Data available upon request due to ethical or privacy restrictions

    • The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request. Restrictions apply due to [ethical/legal/privacy] considerations.

  7. Embargoed data due to commercial reasons

    • The data will be available in [repository name] at [URL/DOI] following a [period] embargo to allow for commercialization of the research findings.

  8. Non-digital or third-party data

    • Non-digital data supporting this study are curated at [location].

    • The data are available from [third party]. Restrictions apply to the availability of these data.

  9. No new data generated

    • Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study.

  10. Data not available due to restrictions

  • Due to the nature of this research, participants did not consent to public data sharing; therefore, supporting data are not available.

4. Journal Policy Enforcement

  • All submitted manuscripts must contain one of the above Data Availability Statements.

  • The statement should be placed at the end of the manuscript, before the References section.

  • Editors and reviewers may request clarification if the statement is incomplete, inconsistent, or does not align with the research described.

  • Manuscripts without a compliant Data Availability Statement will be returned to the authors for revision prior to acceptance.

5. Recommended Repositories

Authors are encouraged to use recognized repositories that ensure long-term data preservation and accessibility, such as:

6. Contact

For questions regarding this policy or assistance with data deposition, please contact the editorial office of IJCRSEE at:
✉️ editor@ijcrsee.com