Requirements for the structure, layout and submission of articles to the Editorial Board of the Materials and Technologies Journal

General provisions and requirements for the structure

1. Articles on two thematic areas are allowed for publication in the Journal in accordance with the current nomenclature of scientific specialties of the Republic of Belarus:

  • Machine Building and Machine Science (including: Mechanical Engineering, Drive Systems and Machine Parts; Friction and Wear in Machines; Robots, Mechatronics and Robotic Systems; Technology and Equipment for Mechanical and Physical-Technical Processing; Technology of Machine Building; Technologies and Machines for Pressure Processing; Welding, Related Processes and Technologies; Control Methods and Diagnostics in Mechanical Engineering; Machines, Units, and Processes (in industries); Theory of Mechanisms and Machines; Industrial Engineering (in industries); Standardization and Quality Management of Products)
  • Technical Aesthetics and Design.

2. The Journal publishes the following types of work: research article, review article, editor's notes.

3. Manuscripts submitted to the Journal must be original material, not previously published elsewhere.

4. The structure adopted for the publication of papers is as follows:

  • UDC index
  • The paper title in Russian or Belarusian
  • Authors' names and initials in Russian or Belarusian
  • Names of authors’ organizations, cities and countries, in Russian or Belarusian;
  • Authors’ emails
  • Abstract in Russian or Belarusian
  • Keywords in Russian or Belarusian
  • Title of the article in English
  • Authors' names and initials in English
  • Names of authors’ organizations, cities and countries, in English
  • Abstract in English
  • Keywords in English
  • Text of the article
  • List of References in Russian or Belarusian
  • List of References in English
  • Information about the authors in Russian or Belarusian (last name, first name, patronymic, academic degree, academic title, position, email, ORCID (if available) of each author)
  • Information about the authors in English (last name, first name, patronymic, academic degree, academic title, position, email, ORCID (if available) of each author)

5. If article is submitted in English from foreign countries, it is permissible to exclude structural elements in Russian or Belarusian.

6. Additionally, a list of accepted designations and abbreviations may also be included in the structure of the article.

7. The title of the article shall reflect the main idea of the research, be concise, and contain relevant keywords. The title shall be as correct as possible, without sensational or intriguing statements, jargon, and correspond to the principles of scientific style. Words that are not of great importance shall be avoided as they increase the overall length of the title and may mislead indexing services. It is recommended to avoid using highly technical abbreviations or formulas. Only commonly accepted abbreviations may be used. It is not allowed to use vague words in the title, e.g. “Some issues of…”, “Study of…”, “Research of…”, “On the topic of…”.

8. When translating the title of an article into English, no transliterations from Russian shall be used, except for untranslatable proper names, names of devices and other specific names; untranslatable slang specific only to Russian-speaking specialists shall also be avoided.

9. The abstract shall be informative, original, and meaningful (clearly stating the content of the article). It shall be organized (following the logic of the description of the results in the article), suitable for publication in journal abstracts separately from the article, and concise (120–200 words). The abstract shall reflect the relevance of the research topic, the statement of the problem, the purpose and methods of the research, the results obtained and the area of their application, and conclusions.

10. The information contained in the title of the article shall not be repeated in the text of the abstract. It is recommended to avoid excessive introductory phrases (e.g., “the author of the article considers ...”). Citations and references to other works are not allowed in the abstract. Historical references, if they do not constitute the main content of the document, descriptions of previously published works and generally known provisions shall not be included in the annotation. The text of the abstract shall use syntactic constructions typical of the language of scientific and technical documents and avoid complex grammatical constructions.

11. If the research carried out within the framework of funded projects or grants, the source of funding may be indicated after the abstract.

12. Keywords include 5-8 words or phrases.

13. The text of the article shall be divided into the following sections: introduction, main part and conclusion.

14. A scientific article is to be a complete and logically coherent work devoted to a specific issue that is a part of the range of problems (tasks) addressed to during the research. A scientific article shall reveal the most significant results that require detailed presentation and argumentation.

15. The introduction shall mention the relevance of the topic and provide a brief overview of the literature on the given issue, indicate previously unresolved issues, outline and formulate the purpose of the work and research objectives. If necessary, it shall also indicate their connection with important scientific and practical areas, and provide research methods and tools.

16. The analysis of sources used in the preparation of a scientific article shall demonstrate the author(s)' knowledge of scientific achievements in the relevant field. References to the works of other authors, including foreign publications in this field (if any), are mandatory.

17. The main part of the article shall contain formulations and descriptions of methods, equipment, materials, research objects, and also cover in detail the content of the research conducted by the authors. The results shall be analyzed in terms of their reliability, scientific novelty, and compared with relevant known data. The main part of the article can be divided into subsections (with explanatory headings) and include an analysis of the latest publications addressing issues related to these subsections.

18. The conclusion shall contain findings that briefly formulate the main results obtained by the authors. Findings shall not be of a definitive nature and shall not include information that is not present in the main text of the article.

19. The List of References shall include citations to relevant scientific publications on the topic of the article. Maximum number of sources in a scientific article is 10, and in a review article is 25.

Minimum proportion of citations to scientific works published within the last 10 years shall be 60%. In manuscripts of articles on specific topics, for which there have been no freely accessible publications in the last 10 years, references to sources chosen by the author are permitted. In this case, the author must provide appropriate arguments in the manuscript of the article.

Excessive self-citation is not permitted. Maximum proportion of citations to the works of the author (co-authors) shall be 20% of the total number of cited scientific publications.
The List must contain at least 20% of citations from publications indexed by the leading international bibliometric databases, Scopus and/or Web of Science.
The List of References shall include scientific publications such as monographs, collections of scientific papers, dissertation abstracts, articles from scientific journals, collections, serial publications, as well as deposited manuscripts. The List of References must not include standards, other regulatory documents, methodological recommendations, articles from dictionaries and encyclopedias, statistical bulletins, and websites. Citations to such sources are presented in the form of notes in the text of the article, in-text or footnote references.

 

Requirements for layout

The paper layout must meet the following requirements:

  • The article shall be typeset (in Microsoft Word) and printed on A4 sheets with page margins (top, bottom, left, right) of 20mm, single line spacing, Times New Roman font
  • For the text of the article, abstract, List of References, and information about the authors, use 12pt Times New Roman, regular font. For the title of the article, use 14pt, bold font. For keywords, use 12pt, italic font. The title should be typeset in both lowercase and uppercase

 Sample layout of the main structural elements and information about the authors

  • Pages of the article manuscript must be numbered
  • Minimum length of a scientific article, excluding the title, abstract, List of References, and information about the authors, shall be 14,000 printed characters (including spaces between words, punctuation marks, numbers, etc.). Maximum length shall be 40,000 printed characters (or 10-11 pages). Minimum length of a review article shall be 8 pages
  • The files shall not contain macros, headers, footers, or other complex formatting elements except for page numbers
  • Use of automatic or manual hyphenation is not permitted
  • Formulae shall be typeset in a formula editor compatible with Microsoft Word, in regular italics
  • Tables are arranged after the first mention in the text. They must not duplicate the information displayed on the graphs. Table headings shall be placed after the wordTable, the table number and a dash. Left alignment shall be used. Tabular data shall be centered or left-aligned. No color fill shall be used
  • Illustrations shall be placed after their first mention in the text. Each illustration must have a caption located after the word Figure, the figure number and a dash. Center alignment shall be used. Graphs and charts shall be submitted as drawings created in graphics editor compatible with Microsoft Word. Photos shall be a contrast black-and-white image
  • Illustrations, graphs, diagrams, and photographs must be saved on an electronic medium, each as a separate file in raster graphics standards and in the following format: JPEG; RAW; TIFF; BMP; PSD; PCX; PNG, minimum resolution shall be 300 dpi
  • If graphs, charts, diagrams, and other illustrations are created in Excel or PowerPoint, authors must additionally provide the source files of spreadsheets, presentations, etc.
  • Illustrations, formulae, equations and footnotes shall be numbered in accordance with the order of citation in the text; formulae shall be numbered in Arabic numerals in parentheses along the right edge of the page
  • If the article is submitted in Russian (Belarusian), it is required to supplement the captions and table titles with a translation into English
  • The printed version of the article must fully comply with the attached file
  • The List of References in Russian (Belarusian) shall be arranged in accordance with GOST 7.1-2003, and the List of References in English shall be arranged in accordance with Vancouver Citation Style. Sources shall be arranged and numbered as they are mentioned in the text

A guide to formatting a List of Refences in English

  • At the end of the bibliographic description of the source used, the DOI number shall be indicated. The article's DOI number can be checked on the CrossRef website. To find a DOI number, enter the title of the article in English in the search bar. The official title of the article in English from Russian-language sources can be found on eLIBRARY.RU website of the Scientific Electronic Library. In cases where the article does not have a DOI number, the URL (Internet address of the location of the full text of the source used) shall be indicated
  • To format behind-the-text bibliographic references, the number of the bibliographic entry from the List of References shall be indicated in square brackets. For example: [15]; [15-23]; [1; 15; 34].

 

Requirements for submission of materials

1. The package of materials and documents submitted to the Editorial Board shall include:

  • Manuscript of the article
  • Agreement on the transfer of rights to publish the manuscript of the article with certified signatures

Form of Agreement on the transfer of rights to publish the manuscript of the article

  • A cover letter from the organization where the research work was performed or an extract from the minutes of the department meeting (for authors from Vitebsk State Technological University)
  • Expert opinion on the possibility of publishing the submitted materials in the public press
  • A note containing contact information for the authors (last name, first name, patronymic, address (in Russian and English), telephone, email).

The package of materials and documents shall be submitted to the editorial office at the following address:

  • 210038, Republic of Belarus, Vitebsk, prospect Moskovski, 72, Berashevich Iryna.

2. An electronic version of all the aforementioned materials and documents, except for the cover letter, as well as files with tables, photographs, graphs, diagrams, charts and other illustrations specified in the design rules, is sent to the Executive Secretary of the Journal, Nikolai Belyakov, via email.

3. Manuscripts that do not meet the specified requirements will not be accepted.

4. Before submitting an article to the editor, it is recommended that the author conducts a self-assessment of the article for compliance with the requirements for structure, layout, and presentation, using the following checklist.

Compliance (checklist)