Civil Engineering

Manuscript preparation guidelines for journal authors

Our engineering journal titles report the latest research and current practice for the benefit of the international civil engineering profession and related disciplines. We also cover historical research and lessons learned from past events. Each Paper is independently assessed and peer reviewed.

All of our engineering titles broadly follow the guidelines below.

Types of content

• Paper (including research, case study or project papers)
  A Research article is an original presentation of findings from an investigation. A case study looks at the effects of the implementation of, for example, a system and analyses it, in context of the situation.
  • State-of-the-art review
    A state-of-the-art review is an up-to-date summary of knowledge on a particular subject or issue and represents an overview of recent developments.
• Briefing articles
  Short, topical updates, which are not sufficiently comprehensive or novel to be submitted as a research article. Typically, briefings are used to provide authoritative updates of relevant technical, regulatory and professional developments. They can introduce new ideas, explain new legislation, reflect on industry trends, provide the background to a new product or service, discuss anniversaries and events, or simply report a short case history.
• Book review
  A book review provides a short description of an academic title and evaluates its quality and contribution to the field in question.
• Discussion
  This article format allows reader to comment on previously published papers. Authors of the paper being discussed are given the right to reply.

Length (excluding abstract and reference list)

• Research articles have a recommended maximum length of 5,000 words +/-10% (excluding article title, abstract and reference list).
• Briefing articles, discussion and book reviews have a recommended maximum length of 2,000 words.

If your article exceeds these restrictions, you can upload the additional information as supplementary data.

Format and elements of submitted texts

Please prepare your main text document in Microsoft Word, text should be double line spaced, line numbered and pages should be numbered. We have a template available should you need it.

We also accept Latex files; you may use our template.

Please note that the style that you submit your paper in (e.g. any additional italics or bold fonts, bullet points, etc.) may be changed on publication to accommodate our house style.

Style

Language:

• The text should be written in UK English, in the third person and all spelling follow the latest edition of The Concise Oxford English Dictionary, with a preference for ‘s’ rather than ‘z’ spellings, e.g. specialise.
• The manuscript should be able to be readily understood by a civil engineer and avoid any colloquialisms.
• The terms, including nomenclature and abbreviations, and style should be consistent throughout the text. Please bear this in mind when collaborating with other authors on the text.
• Referring directly to the names of individuals, organisations, products or services is forbidden unless essential to the comprehension of the manuscript. Gratuitous flattery or derogatory remarks about any person/organisation should not be included.
• Principal participants in a project should be listed separately in a table or acknowledgement at the end of the text. If a person/client is involved, you should seek their permission to detail the project.
• We do not accept footnotes.
• Symbols and Units: SI and derived units should be used, including for historical structures.
• Abbreviations: the use of internationally recognised abbreviations is allowed in the text provided they are defined on first use. Abbreviations should not be used in the title unless a commonly used, non-specialist term. Any abbreviations which can be pronounced as a word (i.e. acronyms) should generally have an upper-case initial only (e.g. Defra). Symbols for chemical elements and compounds should not be used as abbreviations unless in the context of a chemical equation. In particular, ‘carbon dioxide’ should not be abbreviated to ‘CO2’ or ‘carbon’.
• Use bullet points rather than numbered lists.
• Text should be 1.5 spacing or double spaced.

Emerald’s Policy on AI Usage

Emerald’s overarching principles of AI usage:

1) Authors and peer reviewers are responsible and accountable for the accuracy and integrity of their work.

2) AI tools and technology must be used responsibly and transparently.

3) AI tools and technology should not replace human involvement in the publication process but instead supplement it.

Copywriting (creating, drafting, or writing) any part of a submission using generative AI tools and technology to generate new material is not permitted.

Copy-editing (correcting, editing, formatting, modifying, or refining) all or part of an author’s own original existing work using generative AI tools and technology the content to improve its structure and the clarity of the language and grammar is permitted, ensuring users adhere to the following overarching principles.

Emerald’s full policy, including examples of use cases can be found on our Publishing Ethics page.

Guide

The following is a detailed manuscript preparation guide for research articles to ICE Publishing’s engineering titles; however, they can, in the most part, be used as a basis for other article types amending to concur with the word limit and premise of the formats, as appropriate.

First page

On the first page of your main text document please provide:

• The date that the text was written or revised
• Title of paper (please see below for guidance on titles)
• Full names and post-nominal letters of author(s)
• Positions, affiliations and ORCID number of author(s)
• Contact address and email addresses of all authors
• Number of words in the main text (excluding abstract and references) and the number of figures and tables.
• Please DO NOT include your personal telephone number on the title page.

Title

Titles are limited to 90 characters, including spaces. Please avoid the use of any abbreviations, acronyms or formulae. Titles should clearly reflect the content of the manuscript and any search terms that readers may use should be considered and incorporated.

Abstract

Please provide a 150–200 word summary of the submission (briefings, research articles and letters only). This should be a concise reflection of the aims, findings, conclusions and any interesting or important results. Take care to incorporate any terms that may be used by potential interested readers to improve the article’s discoverability online (search engine optimisation). This should contain no references; abbreviations that are not commonly used should be defined (for the benefit of the non-specialist reader) at first use.

List of notations

Please provide a list of symbols and definitions used in the text that would be helpful for the reader.

Keywords

These are used for indexing your article on ICE Virtual Library (this website). Please select a minimum of three keywords from this MS Excel file. When you submit your article, you may also type in keywords not on this list.

Introduction

A concise, accurate, but not exhaustive, summary of current knowledge, with reference to relevant previous and recent works in the field should be presented. This should be accompanied with the aims of and justification for the work contained in the submitted manuscript.

Main text

The methods and processes applied to investigate and achieve the aims should be communicated in sufficient detail that readers could repeat the work successfully. The results should be reported clearly and logically, must be interpreted accurately and discussed fairly. Figures/tables can be used to support these findings, but data must not be reproduced in more than one form.

It is a requirement that all research articles include a section at the end of the main text that highlights the contribution of the findings to the field and any potential applications.

All research articles, case studies and project papers should discuss how the work relates to mitigation of or adaptation to climate change. Where relevant, a section on health and safety should be included.

Figures

In general, we recommend one figure per 500 words of text.

For specific advice and step by step guidance on accepted file formats and our figure requirements please open, download and save our figure guidance.

All figures are published in colour online. The following journals also have a black and white printed version: Bridge Engineering, Géotechnique, Ground Improvement and Magazine of Concrete Research.

If reproducing or adapting figures from other published work, this must be referenced in the caption and appropriate permissions sought. Please see our copyright page for more information.

Conclusions

A concise summary of the findings or, in the instance of case studies or project papers, the lessons learned. No new information should be introduced here. If necessary, you should explain here the applicability / relevance of your article to readers in other countries.

Research papers must explain the practical relevance and potential applications of the work described. This is important to readers working in civil engineering and related practice.

Similarly, case studies and project papers must highlight the relevance of the work described and summarise the lessons learned. As with research papers, they must also include relevant references to demonstrate how previous research and practice has been used. These references could be standards, codes or relevant past ICE Publishing journal papers.

Appendices

Additional information, such as tables or mathematical calculations/derivations can be included and should be clearly referred to, from the main text, as belonging to the appendix. These will be included in the print and online versions of the article.

Acknowledgements

Please provide details from those (individuals and institutions) other than co-authors that contributed to the paper. Additional details required by funding bodies can be placed here too, as well as information about the source of the work (i.e., based on a presentation etc.)

References

Please add a list of literature cited in the manuscript at the end of the text. Harvard style (author, date) referencing is used in engineering papers. Further details about Harvard referencing.

Unpublished material should not be included in the Reference list.

• If an article has been submitted but not yet accepted, it should only be cited within the text and not the reference list. For example, at the first citation ‘(see ‘Title of publication’ by Author, submitted to Journal’). Subsequent citations can be presented as ‘Author (submitted)’ or ‘(Author, submitted)’.
• If an article has been submitted and accepted but is not yet published, it should be included in the reference list with 'in press' at the end. A DOI number should be included where possible.

Mathematical equations

Only relevant equations should be included in the main text and should be numbered – anything else can be added as an appendix or as supplementary information. Simple, single line equations can be written using word; an equation editor program is required for more complex formulae.

Figures and tables caption list: Please supply a figure caption list at the end of your main text document. Figures and tables must be mentioned in the text in consecutive order, but as different sets (i.e., Figure 1, Table 1 etc.) All figures must have a brief title accompanied with a short description that can be able to be understood without reference to the main text.

Author photos

Authors are encouraged to provide a passport style photograph of themselves. These will be published only if a file for every named author is provided.

Corresponding authors

We only permit one corresponding author per submission. Co-authors can be added, and their email addresses and institutions must be provided.

Supplementary information

Where tables, figures, appendices, and other additional content are supplementary to the article but not critical to the reader’s understanding of it, you can choose to host these supplementary files alongside your article on Insight, Emerald’s content-hosting platform (this is Emerald's recommended option as we are able to ensure the data remain accessible), or on an alternative trusted online repository. All supplementary material must be submitted prior to acceptance.

Emerald recommends that authors use the following two lists when searching for a suitable and trusted repository:

• https://commons.datacite.org/repositories
• https://www.re3data.org 

If you choose to host your supplementary files, you must submit these as separate files alongside your article. Files should be clearly labelled in such a way that makes it clear they are supplementary; Emerald recommends that the file name is descriptive and that it follows the format ‘Supplementary_material_appendix_1’ or ‘Supplementary tables’. All supplementary material must be mentioned at the appropriate moment in the main text of the article; there is no need to include the content of the file only the file name. A link to the supplementary material will be added to the article during production, and the material will be made available alongside the main text of the article at the point of EarlyCite publication.

Please note that Emerald will not make any changes to the material; it will not be copy-edited or typeset, and authors will not receive proofs of this content. Emerald therefore strongly recommends that you style all supplementary material ahead of acceptance of the article.

Emerald Insight can host the following file types and extensions:

• Adobe Acrobat (.pdf)
• MS Word document (.doc, .docx)
• MS Excel (.xls, xlsx)
• MS PowerPoint (.pptx)
• Image (.png, .jpeg, .gif)
• Plain ASCII text (.txt)
• PostScript (.ps)
• Rich Text Format (.rtf)

If you choose to use an alternative trusted online repository, you should ensure that the supplementary material is hosted on the repository ahead of submission, and then include a link only to the repository within the article. It is the responsibility of the submitting author to ensure that the material is free to access and that it remains permanently available. Where an alternative trusted online repository is used, the files hosted should always be presented as read-only; please be aware that such usage risks compromising your anonymity during the review process if the repository contains any information that may enable the reviewer to identify you; as such, we recommend that all links to alternative repositories are reviewed carefully prior to submission.

Please note that extensive supplementary material may be subject to peer review; this is at the discretion of the journal Editor and dependent on the content of the material (for example, whether including it would support the reviewer making a decision on the article during the peer review process).

Next steps

Once you have completed your manuscript preparation, please read this submission checklist. When you are ready, please upload your MS Word document text, and separate high-resolution image files, to the journal submission website. This is linked to from each journal webpage. This will save you emailing large files through to us. Please do not submit all of your files as one PDF. You will receive a confirmation email once you have successfully submitted your paper online.

Copyright information

Information on copyright, including text extracts and the reuse of permission published elsewhere, can be found via our Copyright and Permissions page.

If you have any pre-acceptance query, please contact the Journal Editorial Office name given on the journal webpage (tab, ‘Editorial Team). For post-acceptance queries, please contact the Supplier Project Manager name on the same tab.