Article Types and Submission Requirements

Spectrum of Engineering and Technology Applications Journal (SETAJ) accepts the following article types:

• Research Article are high-quality scientific papers that address significant and challenging research topics within the journal’s scope. Research Articles should present comprehensive studies, novel findings, or innovative methodologies that contribute meaningfully to the advancement of the field. Authors are encouraged to follow the structure (Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, and Discussion). Conclusions must be clearly supported by the presented data.
• Review Article provide an in-depth overview of a specific research area, summarizing existing literature, identifying research gaps, and suggesting future directions. Authors are expected to critically evaluate referenced works, discuss conflicting viewpoints, and articulate the current state and trajectory of the field. A well-developed conclusion should reflect on the limitations of current knowledge and the significance of the reviewed topic.
• Case Study describe experimental demonstrations, real-world implementations, or specific phenomena relevant to the journal’s scope. They aim to inform researchers and practitioners by sharing insights from practical applications or problem-solving experiences.

The journal publishes articles that have not been previously published elsewhere. The journal also welcomes studies offering new perspectives on previously published research findings, provided that the work has been significantly revised and expanded in comparison to its earlier version (major value-added extensions articles). This may include the addition of new data, deeper analysis, or an expanded literature review. When submitting such an article, authors are required to transparently disclose all previous forms of publication and verify whether they have retained the rights to the work or if those rights have been transferred to the conference organizers. If the rights have been transferred, authors must obtain permission from the conference organizers to republish the work in the scientific journal. This information must be clearly stated in the Acknowledgments, Ethical Statement, or Conflicts of Interest sections. Example statement: "This paper is an extended and revised version of a paper previously presented at [Conference Name] and published in the proceedings of [Conference Proceedings Title]. New data, analyses, and an expanded literature review have been added to this work." Additionally, authors are encouraged to highlight the changes made and what is new in comparison to the previous version in the Cover Letter upon submission. Each submission will undergo rigorous evaluation, adhering to the same editorial standards applied to all other submissions.

Formatting Requirements

The article should be written in clear, coherent English, free from notable errors in spelling, grammar, syntax, punctuation, or formatting. References should be correctly formatted.

There are no strict formatting requirements at the initial submission stage; however, all manuscripts must include the essential elements necessary for evaluation: Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Main Text, Conclusions, and References.

During the revision stage, authors will be required to ensure that their manuscript adheres to the journal’s formatting guidelines.

Article Structure

All sections must be numbered properly with descriptive titles. The structure of an article typically includes the following sections: 

• Title: Ensure that the title accurately reflects the content and focus of your research. It should be concise yet informative, clearly conveying the core idea of the study. Avoid unnecessary words or vague phrasing. A good title provides insight into the study’s objectives, key variables, methodology, or outcomes, helping attract the attention of potential readers and reviewers. Authors are encouraged to experiment with different title formats—descriptive, declarative, or question-based—to determine which structure best communicates the article’s contribution.
• Abstract: A brief summary of the article, typically 150 to 250 words. It should succinctly summarize the objectives, methodology, main findings, and principal results of the study. No figures, tables, equations, or references should be included. It is recommended that the abstract follows a structured format to help readers quickly understand the abstract.
• Keywords: Provide a list of 4 to 8 keywords, separated by commas, that best describe the topic of your article. Keywords are essential for indexing, searchability, and ensuring that your article reaches the right audience. Choose terms that clearly reflect the main subject, methodology, or key findings of your study. Avoid overly broad or vague terms, and prioritize phrases commonly used in your research field.
• Introduction: Provides a clear and concise overview of the research topic and its context. Begin with relevant background information to frame the study and establish its importance within the field. Clearly state the research objectives, questions, or hypotheses, and explain the motivation behind the study. Highlight the significance of the research and its potential contribution to existing knowledge. Conclude the Introduction with a brief outline of the article’s structure to help guide the reader through the following sections.
• Literature Review: The Literature Review provides a detailed and critical examination of existing research relevant to the article’s topic. While not mandatory, including a literature review can enhance the credibility of the research and offer valuable context for interpreting results. This section may be presented separately and should demonstrate the author’s understanding of key theories, methodologies, and findings in the field. Authors are encouraged to evaluate and compare prior studies, highlighting methodological strengths or weaknesses, as well as conflicting conclusions or research gaps. The purpose of the literature review is to identify unresolved issues, theoretical ambiguities, or trends in the field, thereby justifying the need for the present study.
• Main Text: Presents the core content of the article, including the research findings and their interpretation within the broader context of the field. It should be organized into logically structured sections that guide the reader through the research process and outcomes. The Results section should objectively present the key findings, supported by relevant tables, figures, or graphs, without interpretation. The Discussion section should interpret these findings in relation to the research objectives, highlighting their significance, implications, and consistency or divergence from existing literature. Authors are encouraged to maintain clarity and coherence throughout, ensuring that each section builds upon the previous one.
• Conclusion: The Conclusion should provide a concise summary of the article’s main contributions, key findings, and their practical or theoretical implications. Revisit how the results align with the study’s original objectives and highlight their relevance to the broader field. Authors are encouraged to acknowledge any limitations encountered during the study and suggest potential directions for future research. Conclude by emphasizing the overall significance and impact of the research, offering final insights that reinforce the value of the study.
• Nomenclature (Optional): Articles that include multiple technical terms, symbols, or abbreviations should feature a Nomenclature section that adheres to the International System of Units (SI). This section must provide a comprehensive, alphabetically organized list of all symbols, terms, and abbreviations used throughout the article, along with their full definitions and explanations. Providing a clear and complete nomenclature improves the readability and clarity of the article, especially for interdisciplinary readers or those less familiar with specific terminology. Therefore, the Nomenclature section should be placed immediately after the Introduction, before the main body of the paper. This section should be titled “Nomenclature” or, if applicable, “Nomenclature and Abbreviations”. It should be excluded from the section numbering (as are Abstract, Keywords, Acknowledgments, and References).
• Acknowledgments (Optional): Authors should acknowledge the contributions of individuals, organizations, or funding agencies that have provided support or assistance to the research, placed before the reference list. Full names of funding organizations should be provided. Contributions that do not meet the criteria for authorship should be acknowledged in the acknowledgments section of the article. 
• Conflicts Interest Statement: The conflict of interest statement helps the reader to understand if there are any conflicts interests they should be aware of. Authors should include a declaration of conflicts  interests following the conclusion, such as: 'The authors declare that they have no known conflicts financial interests or personal relationships that could have influenced the work reported in this article' or authors should disclose any potential conflicts of interest that could be perceived as influencing the research or its outcomes.
• Data Availability Statement: It is important that your article includes a statement on how/if data supporting the research is available. This is mandatory statement if specific data or materials were utilized in the article. Authors are encouraged to make the data used in the research available and to provide a statement on data availability. Additionally, authors can specify the conditions under which the data are available. Examples of statements regarding data availability include: 'Supplementary materials and data used in this research are accessible upon request. For access, please contact the corresponding author via [email address].' or 'No data or additional materials were utilized for the research described in the article.'
• Author Contribution Roles (Optional): For transparency, we encourage corresponding authors to provide co-author contributions either at the end of the article or in the cover letter and using the relevant CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy). The CRediT taxonomy includes 14 different roles describing each contributor’s specific contribution to the scholarly output. Describes each author's role in the research process. Be specific about the unique roles and responsibilities undertaken by each author to ensure transparency and credit for their contributions. 
• Additional Information (Optional): Authors are encouraged to include the following information: Funding Statement (if available), Declaration of Generative AI-assisted Tools, Author Contributions Roles, and any other relevant details. For more information visit Publication Ethics guidelines.
• Appendix (Optional): Contains supplementary materials supporting the research, such as detailed experimental procedures, additional data, or mathematical proofs.  For example, explanations of experimental details that would disrupt the flow of the main text but remain crucial to understanding and reproducing the research shown; figures of replicates for experiments of which representative data is shown in the main text can be added here if brief. Organized into sections, if necessary, labeled sequentially (e.g., Appendix A, Appendix B) and referenced in the main text. Each appendix starts on a new page and includes labels for figures and tables (e.g., Figure A1, Table A1).  The appendix appears after the Reference list. 

References

The authors are responsible for ensuring the completeness and accuracy of all references cited in their articles. It is essential for articles to appropriately acknowledge the relevant literature on the topic. 

Authors should ensure that every reference in the text appears in the list of references and vice versa. Authors are expected to check the original source reference for accuracy. Only scholarly literature (journals, proceedings, patents, standards, online books, authentic websites with permanent archival policy, etc.) are acceptable references. Do not use grey literature (unauthentic websites, news portals, social media, Wikipedia, etc.) as a reference.

Authors are required to use the IEEE citation style for referencing all sources. All references must be numbered consecutively and citations of references in the text should be identified using numbers in square brackets (for example, “The theory was first put forward in 1986 [1]” or “…as discussed in many reports [2], [3], [4]”). Authors are encouraged to use reference management software (e.g. Mendeley, Endnote, Word References, etc.).

Each citation in the text should correspond to a reference at the end of the article, including up to six authors' names. All references, except those ending with URLs, should end with a period. If a reference includes both a DOI (or accessed date) and a URL, the DOI (or accessed date) precedes the URL, separated by a period. Do not combine references or use an en dash for reference ranges in text; each number should have a single corresponding reference. For example, avoid use a dash “[1]–[4]”, instead “[1], [2], [3], [4]”.

Useful tools for checking references: https://apps.crossref.org/SimpleTextQuery and https://edit.paperpal.com/manuscript.

Below are examples of styles for reference.

Periodicals (Journals):

1. Author, “Name of article,” Title of Periodical, vol. x, no. x, pp. xxx-xxx, Abbrev. Month, year.

Periodicals (Journals with article doi):

1. Author, “Name of article,” Title of Periodical, vol. x, no. x, pp. xxx-xxx, Abbrev. Month, year, doi: xxx.

Periodicals (Journals with article ID):

1. Author, “Name of article,” Title of Periodical, vol. x, no. x, pp. xxx-xxx, Abbrev. Month, year, Art. no. xxx.

Conferences and Proceedings:

1. Author, “Title of article,” in Abbreviated Name of Conf.,Location of the conference is optional, (Month and day(s) if provided) year, pp. xxx-xxx (or article number), doi: xxx (for Conference Proceedings with DOI).

Conference Proceedings with Editors

1. Author, “Title of article,” in Abbreviated Name of Conf.,Editor Name, Location of the conference is optional, (Month and day(s) if provided) year, pp. xxx-xxx (or article number), doi: xxx (for Conference Proceedings with DOI).

Conference Proceedings (Online)

1. Author, “Title of article,” in Abbreviated Name of Conf.,Editor Name, Location of the conference is optional, (Month and day(s) if provided) year, pp. xxx-xxx (or article number), [Online]. Available: site/path/file

Books (Basic Format):

1. Author, “Title of chapter in the book,” in Title of Published Book, edition (if not first). City of Publisher, Country: Abbrev. of Publisher, year, pp. xxx–xxx.

Books (Online):

1. Author, “Title of chapter in the book,” in Title of Published Book, edition (if not first). City of Publisher, Country: Abbrev. of Publisher, year, pp. xxx–xxx. [Online]. Available: http://www.web.com

Book (with Chapter Title and/or with Editor(s))

1. Author, “Title of chapter in the book,” in Title of Published Book, X. Editor, edition (if not first). City of Publisher, Country: Abbrev. of Publisher, year, pp. xxx–xxx.

Other References:

Dataset:

Author, Date, Year. “Title of Dataset,” distributed by Publisher/Distributor, http://url.com (or if DOI is used, end with a period)

Patent:

1. Author, “Title of patent,” U.S. Patent x xxx, Abbrev. Month, day, year.

Thesis and Dissertations:

1. Author, “Title of dissertation,” Ph.D. dissertation, Department, University, City, Country, year.

Handbooks:

Name of Manual/Handbook, x ed., Abbrev. Name of Co., City of Co., year, pp. xxx-xxx.

Course:

Name of University. (Year). Title of course. [Online]. Available: URL

Coursepack and Course with Instructor Name:

1. Instructor. Title of coursepack. (Semester). Title of course. University/Publisher location: University

Software:

1. Author. Title of Software. Date Repository or Archive. (version or year). Publisher Name. Accessed: Date (when applicable). [Type of Medium]. Global Persistent Identifier. Available: site/path/file

Standards:

Title of Standard, Standard number, Corporate author, location, date.

Websites:

First Name Initial(s) Last Name. “Page Title.” Website Title. Date Accessed. [Online]. Available: Web Address.

Note 1: For references that are available online, the following information can be added: For online Accessed: Date. [Online]. Available: URL

Note 2: Common Abbreviations of Words in References: Annals (Ann.), Annual (Annu.), Colloquium (Colloq.), Conference (Conf.), Congress (Congr.), Convention (Conv.), Digest (Dig.), Exposition (Expo.), International (Int.), Meeting (Meeting), National (Nat.), Proceedings (Proc.), Record (Rec.), Symposium (Symp.), Technical Digest (Tech. Dig.), Technical Paper (Tech. Paper), Workshop (Workshop), First (1st), Second (2nd), Third (3rd), Fourth/nth... (4th/nth…)

Additional recommendations

• The article should be composed in clear, coherent English, devoid of any notable errors concerning spelling, grammar, syntax, punctuation, or formatting.
• Define abbreviations and acronyms the first time they are used in the text, even after they have already been defined in the abstract, for example, “Information and Communications Technology (ICT)”. Abbreviations should be used consistently throughout the text.
• Footnotes should not be used. Instead, try to integrate the footnote information into the text. Please, do not edit the header and footer from this template.
• Number figures and tables sequentially in the article, referencing them within the text. Ensure figure captions are concise and placed below the figure, while table captions are above. Figures should be of high resolution.
• Experiments, statistics, and other analyses are performed to a high technical standard and are described in sufficient detail.
• Exclude section numbering for the nomenclature, abbreviations, abstract, keywords, acknowledgments, and references.
• Mathematical expressions have to be numbered consecutively for ease of discussion and reference in the text.  Therefore, equations are numbered by Arabic numerals in parenthesis on the right margin of the text. In the text an equation is referenced by its number in parenthesis, e.g. "... from Eq. (1) follows ...". Math equations shall be submitted as editable text, not as images. Symbols are to be presented in italics and defined immediately after the equation. Do not duplicate the symbol description when it is used repeatedly in two or more equations.
• The use of SI units and their standard symbols and abbreviations is encouraged. Put unit symbols in figures, tables, and descriptions of equation symbols into square brackets, i.e., [m/s]. A space should always be inserted between a number and the unit, except for the degree symbol. Be consistent in using unit symbols throughout your article. To avoid confusion with math symbols, do not italicize unit symbols.
• Code blocks: Format your code blocks in a clear and readable manner. Use consistent indentation, appropriate syntax highlighting (if possible), and concise comments to explain complex sections or algorithms. Decide on a numbering scheme that aligns with the overall structure of your article. You could use a sequential numbering system (e.g., Code 1, Code 2, Code 3), or you could tie the numbering to sections or chapters if your article is organized that way (e.g., Code 2.1, Code 2.2, etc.). Whenever you refer to a specific piece of code in your article, use the corresponding code number in the text. For example, "In Code 2, we implement the sorting algorithm." Therefore, present code as separate blocks within the text. Use a monospace font for the code to differentiate it from the regular text. Include appropriate syntax highlighting to make the code more readable. Code blocks can be used for small code snippets or to showcase specific sections of larger codebases. 
• It is important that the grammar and spelling of your article are correct. Please proofread the article. Avoid contractions; for example, write “do not” instead of “don’t.” You may write in the first person singular or plural and use the active voice (“I observed that ...” or “We observed that ...” instead of “It was observed...”). Some useful tools for proofreading: https://www.grammarly.com and https://edit.paperpal.com

Article Submission

Article should be submitted using the online submission service by following the instructions given on the submission website. If you experience difficulty uploading large files, please contact the editorial office for assistance.

The corresponding author must ensure that all authors have seen and approved the article and meet the criteria for authorship. The corresponding author who submits the article should add all other authors in the correct order.

It is recommended that all authors provide an ORCID identifier during the article submission process. Entering your ORCID ID at submission will help identify you and distinguish you and your academic work from others. If you do not already have an ORCID ID, you can register at www.orcid.org.