Author Guidelines

Guidelines for Authors

INGE CUC accepts original and unpublished articles that contribute to the dissemination of knowledge advancement in the areas of engineering including renewable energies, sustainability, and the environment; civil and structural engineering; environmental engineering; decision sciences; energy engineering and technology; and computer sciences. INGE CUC accepts articles in Spanish and English, adhering to style and grammatical norms.

Authors must organize their articles according to the detailed specifications in the corresponding template, which can be downloaded from the following link: Article Template (download).

Authors submitting to INGE CUC are required to comply with the editorial requirements outlined in these guidelines. Articles that do not meet all the detailed author guidelines will not be considered for the editorial process.

Articles submitted to INGE CUC must be in Word format, using Arial font, size 12, and 1.5 line spacing. Additionally, authors must submit the Certification Form of Article Originality (download) through OJS. This form should include the article title, author names, corresponding author, institutional affiliation, email, country, and signature, affirming that the manuscript is original and unpublished, and has not been submitted or will be submitted elsewhere while under evaluation and publication in INGE CUC. Authors should also specify each author's contribution following the fourteen authorship guidelines established by CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) (https://credit.niso.org/).

Every article submitted to INGE CUC must be accompanied by the Author Information Form (download), which includes the following details: highest academic degree obtained; university, city, and country; institutional email address; ORCID (http://orcid.org/); Google Scholar (https://scholar.google.com/); Scopus Author ID (https://www.scopus.com/freelookup/form/author.uri). Additionally, authors must upload the Copyright Transfer Form (download) to the OJS.

INGE CUC publishes original and unpublished research results in the form of research articles and systematic reviews. The manuscript length should not exceed 8,000 words.

Original Research Article: Detailed presentation of original results from completed research projects. The required structure includes: Title; Structured Abstract; Keywords; Introduction; Methodology; Results and Discussion; Conclusions; and References.

Case Studies: Reports on specific cases of interesting phenomena. One of the objectives of such articles is to inform other researchers about the possibility of the occurrence of a specific phenomenon. Generally, they illustrate a problem and suggest solution approaches. The structure required is: Title; Structured Abstract; Keywords; Introduction; Methodology; Results and Discussion; Conclusions; and References.

Review Article: Document that analyzes, systematizes, and integrates results from different studies published on the same subject. It is characterized by an exhaustive literature review with a minimum of 50 references. Special attention will be given to updated references from Scopus and Web of Science. The required structure includes: Title; Abstract; Keywords; Introduction; Methodology; Results and Discussion of the Review; Conclusions; and References.

Next, the main characteristics of each section for different types of articles are briefly described:

Title: Should be concise and descriptive, not exceeding 15 words. Must be in both Spanish and English.

Abstract: Should be structured (with an introductory idea with objectives, methodology, results, and conclusions), within 250 words. The abstract should briefly describe the purpose or objective of the study, the methods used, the most important results, and the main conclusions drawn from the results. Avoid references and abbreviations. Must be provided in both Spanish and English.

Keywords: Authors are requested to provide four to six keywords to identify the main themes addressed. These keywords are used for indexing purposes and should be included in the UNESCO Thesaurus (https://vocabularies.unesco.org/browser/thesaurus/en/). In both Spanish and English.

Introduction: Authors should define the significance of the work and justify its publication. Any background discussion should be brief and relevant. Discuss the theme descriptors, what is known, and what is believed about the problem (incorporating citations from mainstream scientific literature in different languages). Unresolved question or problem (however, to date there are no data); central questions. Hypotheses, goals, objectives, purposes: describe why the study was conducted, and justification in terms of inherent scientific reasoning in the process. It is recommended to organize into four or five paragraphs. The introduction must adhere to the particularities of scientific-technical writing: internal coherence, logic, main and secondary ideas, connectors, verb tenses (preferably past or present continuous), and impersonal tone (third person).

Literature Review: Optional for research articles, may include a literature review section. It is the theoretical foundation of the research that will support the obtained results and discuss agreements and/or discrepancies with other authors, demonstrating that the proposed research is an effective scientific contribution (incorporating citations from mainstream scientific literature in different languages).

Methodology: Describe directly how the research was conducted; briefly incorporate epistemological references. Focus contributions on the method and research design (populations, units of documentary and/or empirical analysis; techniques and instruments for collecting information; validity and reliability of instruments; processing techniques and analysis of results), procedural systematization. Refer to different moments or stages of the research process, rescuing substantive and important information to understand how theoretical, empirical, or propositional findings were obtained.

Results and Discussion: Findings expressed as results are oriented towards deepening and arguing in correspondence with the central theoretical categories addressed in the article. It is important to demonstrate a thorough understanding of the results and their implications. Data should be described from findings, then in the discussion, inference is made (generalization, explanation, analysis, interpretation, and understanding). Subtitles may be used per paragraph corresponding to the methodological systematization declared in the results. If statistical determinations are included, they must be truly significant. It is suggested that the analysis be based on processes of contrastation between: objectives - supporting theory - meaning of finding or data itself - and critical/argumentative position of researchers. Include recent mainstream literature citations that support the statements (in different languages).

Conclusions: Should be independent and linked to the research objectives, with new hypotheses when justified. Include recommendations when appropriate. All conclusions are based on the results; however, they should transcend them. They are precise, non-redundant, and visualize the study's impact, and possible future lines to delve into the central thematic area of the article. Do not include citations in this section.

Funding: Authors must specify the funding sources that supported the research from which the submitted article derives. Provide: project title, funding entity or person, project code or identifier (optional).

Declaration of Conflict of Interest: Authors must specify that the submitted work does not represent any conflict of interest with them, the journal, the publishing entity, or the funding entities.

Acknowledgments: Authors may extend their thanks to individuals (with permission to use names), entities, or others who made publication possible by providing technical, operational, and financial resources (optional).

Authors are encouraged to take special care not to suppress the authorship of individuals who participated in the research processes from which the article derives. In case of doubts about this clause, it is recommended to consult COPE parameters on contributions and authorship, available at the link: https://publicationethics.org/authorship

Similarly, public or private entities or personal contributors who have made publication possible should be acknowledged appropriately, stating references to projects or other identifiers that allow identification of resource provenance.

References: References must be correctly formatted according to the journal's citation style (IEEE).

Figures should be submitted at a minimum resolution of 266 dpi in jpg format.

Figures, graphs, and tables should be created in color and named considering the following: Use the abbreviation "Fig. x" to refer to a figure or graph and "Table x" to refer to a table. Please do not include subtitles as part of the figures. Do not add captions in "text boxes" linked to the figures. Do not place external borders on your figures. When reproducing partial data, the source must be indicated, and properly cited in the table title; (source: taken from citation in IEEE format).

The reference list must include links or DOIs for each source. References should be cited numerically in order of appearance, consecutively, in square brackets [1]. The sentence's period follows the square brackets [2]. Multiple references [1], [2], [3] are numbered with separate brackets. When citing a section in a book, please provide relevant page numbers. In sentences, simply refer to the reference number, "as in [3]". Do not use "Ref. [3]" or "reference [3]" except at the beginning of a sentence: "The reference [3] shows...".

The reference list will be structured according to the order of appearance, i.e., [1], [2], [3], etc. All references cited in the list must be cited and included within the manuscript text.

Primary bibliographic sources are recommended to be taken from Scopus and Web of Science.

Metadata

INGE CUC generates metadata for each of its contents, which can be tracked and accessed with respective permission. INGE CUC allows readability of its metadata through the OAI-PMH protocol to facilitate content interoperability on the Web. OAI-PMH enables easier availability in various international databases, also collecting metadata automatically and standardized.

Funding and Revenue Sources of the Journal

INGE CUC is solely funded by Universidad de la Costa, Colombia, and does not have any form of external sponsorship or funding for advertising or in favor of third parties. Therefore, all editorial decisions are completely impartial, although they may be made in consensus between the Editorial Committee and the Editor, the final decision rests with the Editor regarding an article. 

Advertising 

INGE CUC does not feature any advertising content on its website or within its content. The only advertisements INGE CUC considers are those related to other high-impact publications and academic events. However, these ads will only be accepted after a review of advertising requirements by the Editor. If necessary, the Editor may consult the Editorial Committee on the relevance of such advertisements. Therefore, all editorial decisions are completely independent of any advertising content that may be published.

Direct Marketing

Any direct marketing activities, including article calls, conducted by INGE CUC comply with the ethical policies established by COPE (https://publicationethics.org/guidance/Guidelines) in this matter.

DOI System 

INGE CUC supports the use of DOI (Digital Object Identifier) for registering and using its data on the web. Through DOI, content can be identified regardless of its URL, ensuring each article has a unique identifier for tracking purposes. DOI usage provides metadata information including author details, title, publication date, and references.

Country of Publication 

Colombia is the country of publication for INGE CUC, and its ISSN is duly registered at https://portal.issn.org/.