Submissions

Author Guidelines

The aim of the Journal of Software Engineering and Research Development (JSERD), a fully open access journal, is to inform the readers about state of the art of software engineering by publishing high quality papers that represent results of consolidated research and innovations in software engineering and related areas.

JSERD operates a single-blind peer-review system, where the reviewers are aware of the names and affiliations of the authors, but the reviewer reports provided to authors are anonymous Publication of research articles by JSERD is dependent primarily on their scientific validity and coherence as judged by our external expert editors and/or peer reviewers, who will also assess whether the writing is comprehensible and whether the work represents a useful contribution to the field.

Submitted manuscripts will generally be reviewed by two to three experts who will be asked to evaluate whether the manuscript is scientifically sound and coherent, whether it duplicates already published work, and whether or not the manuscript is sufficiently clear for publication. Reviewers will also be asked to indicate how interesting and significant the research is. The Editors will reach a decision based on these reports, and where necessary, they will consult with members of the Editorial Board.

For editors and reviewers to accurately assess the work presented in your manuscript you need to ensure the English language is of sufficient quality to be understood. If you need help with writing in English, you should consider asking a native speaker to proofread your paper.

If you are submitting an extended version of a previously published conference paper, ensure that the paper is a non-trivial extension from the version that has appeared in the conference. As a rough guide, authors should ensure that the extended paper contains, at a minimum, 30% new material that provides a conceptual extension of the previously published work. Please, also upload a cover letter during the submission. This cover letter should explain why the manuscript is suitable for publication in the journal, thus indicating how the authors have extended the paper and why it constitutes a worthwhile extension of the original work. Authors should, for instance, point out areas where new text or results have been included, where the text has been re-written, and where extra depth is provided.

JSERD publishes the following article types:

• Research Article: research articles aim at informing the readers about results of consolidated research and innovations in Software Engineering, bringing experimental evidences about the effects of a technology or phenomena. 
• Case Studies: case studies usually present a major program intervention or policy option relevant to Software Engineering. Manuscripts that include a rigorous assessment of the processes and the impact of the study, as well as recommendations for the future, will generally be considered favorably.
• Review: reviews are a feature of the journal that may include, but are not limited to (1) systematic and substantial syntheses of specific research areas of Software Engineering, (2) evaluations of progress in specific areas of Software Engineering, and (3) critical assessments with respect to issues within the scope of the journal.  Contributions that only provide metadata analysis (e.g., relevant authors, publications density by year, most influential papers, etc.) are not encouraged. 
• Software Article: software articles should describe a Software Engineering tool likely to be of broad utility that represents a significant advance over previously published software, usually demonstrated by direct comparison with available related software.

Please, use the "Comments for the Editor" field during submission to provide any extra information, such as:

• An explanation of why your manuscript should be published in JSERD
• An explanation of any issues relating to journal policies
• A declaration of any potential competing interests
• The name of the special issue that you are submitting for (if this is the case)
• The title and venue of previously published papers that this paper extends (if this is the case)
• Suggestion of potential reviewers for your paper

All submissions should be in pdf, following the JSERD LaTeX or MS Word templates. Although we suggest the use of the template since the first submission, the adherence to the template will be enforced only upon acceptance.

JSERD is free of charges for both the authors and the readers, and all papers published by JSERD follow the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.

Peer-Review Process

All articles submitted to the journal are peer-reviewed by at least two reviewers (double-blind) with analysis and meta-review by an associate editor of the JSERD Editorial Board. The editorial board is formed by experienced researchers with recognized expertise and experience in the area of software engineering. 

Authors must submit their articles using the journal's online submission system.

All submitted articles go through a preliminary analysis conducted by the editors-in-chief, who assess whether the research topic aligns with the journal's scope and meets the requirements specified on the authors' instructions page. If this initial analysis is positive, the submitted paper is sent to an associate editor to conduct the evaluation phase with the reviewers, or it will get desk rejected; otherwise. 

Upon receiving the reviews, the responsible editor performs a meta-review to decide on the paper's acceptance or rejection. If acceptance is conditional on revisions, the paper will undergo further rounds of review before a final decision is made. Typically, two or three rounds are necessary. After acceptance, the paper moves to the editing stage, where authors must submit the final editable version and update the submission metadata. Finally, the paper undergoes an editorial process to be published.

Response time

The preliminary analysis usually takes place within one to three weeks of submission. The review stage depends on the reviewers' responses and the number of rounds required. In general, each round lasts around 45 days. The average time to publication is 6-8 months.