Guide to Authors
Herald Journal of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (HJEEE)
Kindly read the instruction carefully before submitting your manuscript.
Authorship
Authorship credit should be given to the author who makes the most substantial intellectual contribution, considering however, that all the other authors will have played significant roles in conducting a research work that bears their names. Therefore, the list of authors in an article serves multiple purposes: it indicates who is responsible for the work and to whom questions regarding the work will be addressed. Moreover, authorship credit is often used as a measure of the contributors’ productivity when they are evaluated for employment, promotions, grants, and awards.
The authorship criteria must be based on substantial contributions to the concept and design of study, acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation of data, and final approval of the version of the paper to be published.
Cover letter
The cover letter should include the corresponding author's full address and telephone/fax numbers and should be in an e-mail message sent to the editor with the paper attached as a file bearing the names of the authors, beginning with the surname of the first author.
Research Articles
Research articles should be original works and should address a clearly stated specific hypothesis or question. They should provide novel approaches and new insights into the problem addressed. They should be arranged in the following order: title, authors name and affiliations, abstract, key words, brief introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, conclusion, acknowledgments, abbreviations and references.
Reviews/Mini-Reviews
Review articles are an attempt by one or more authors to sum up the current state of the research on a particular topic. Ideally, the author searches for everything relevant to the topic, and then presents in a coherent view that is state-of-the- art. Review articles should give information about the main researchers who have worked in a field, recent major advances and discoveries, significant gaps in researches, current debates and future directions, all relative to the field.
Research Note
A technical note is an article giving a brief description of a technique or procedure. It may also refer to the modification of a technique, procedure or equipment of interest to the journal. It should be no more than 2,500 words, and can include two figures or tables. It should have at least 8 references. Technical notes will also be sent for peer review.
Case Reports
Case reports consist of brief and illustrative reports. The discussion should highlight any previous similar reports, the importance of the issues identified and recommendations by the authors. They should have a maximum of 1,000 words.
Short Communications
Short Communications are limited to a maximum of two figures and one table. They should present a complete study that is more limited in scope than full-length papers. The items of manuscript preparation listed above apply to Short Communications with the following differences: (1) Abstracts are limited to 100 words; (2) instead of a separate Materials and Methods section, experimental procedures may be incorporated into figure legends and table footnotes; and (3) Results and Discussion may be merged to become a single section.
Submission
All manuscripts must be in English, in MS Word format; text, tables and figures should be included in a single Microsoft Word file, preferably in Arial font and should be submitted via our online system. To avoid unnecessary errors author(s) are strongly advised to use the "spell-check" and "grammar-check" functions of your word processor.
The submitting (corresponding) author is responsible for ensuring that the articles for publication are approved by all other coauthors. In addition, it is also the author’s responsibility to ensure that the articles emanating from a particular institution are submitted with the approval of the necessary institution. Only an acknowledgment from the editorial office officially establishes the date of receipt. Further correspondence and proofs will be sent to the corresponding author(s) before publication unless otherwise indicated. Upon receipt, a manuscript is assigned a reference number which will be immediately mailed to the corresponding author either on the same day or within 48 hours, while the manuscript file’s number will be given the last name of the first author. Submit manuscripts as e-mail attachment to the editorial office at ; ;
Electronic submission of manuscripts is strongly encouraged as the editorial office will only accept manuscripts submitted as e-mail attachments.
Review Process
The author(s) may suggest three to five potential reviewers of the manuscript for editorial consideration. Suggested reviewers may include anyone knowledgeable in the given area of study. Authors should not deliberately recommend as a potential reviewer, a person with a potential conflict of interest, either financially or personally, or someone with a positive or negative bias such as a mentor or close associate. Additionally, individuals who work in the same institution with any of the authors should not be recommended. Furthermore, to eliminate bias during the editorial process, HJEEE will employ the classic double-blind peer review process: a copy of the numbered manuscript is electronically sent to 3 or 4 referees, they evaluate the manuscript according to established criteria on an evaluation form, and then HJEEE editorial office transmits reviewer evaluations and comments to the corresponding author within three weeks. The final decision on the manuscript rests with the Editor-in-Chief.
Revised manuscripts
Frequently, authors are required to submit revised versions of manuscripts in the light of reports from expert reviewers and editorial comments. When submitting revised article, authors should include the referees’ remarks and point to point clarifications on those remarks at the beginning of the revised article file itself. In addition, they should mark the changes by underlining or coloring them in the article. They should include in a single file, referees’ comments, point to point clarifications on the comments and revised article with text highlighting the changes done. They should also include the original comments of the reviewers/editor with point to point reply at the beginning of the article in the article file. In the event that an author disagrees with a suggestion from the reviewers, we invite the author to respond by explaining his or her reason which will be respectfully considered. Manuscripts with significant results will be reviewed and published at the highest priority and speed. Possible decisions which may be taken on a manuscript are: accepted as it is, accepted after minor revision, accepted after major revision, or rejected.
Proofs and Reprints
Electronic proofs will be sent (as e-mail attachment) to the corresponding author in a portable document format (PDF) file. Page proofs are considered to be the final version of the manuscript. Changes made by technical editors for style, grammar, and readability are not to be altered by authors unless a scientific error has been introduced. With the exception of typographical or minor clerical errors, no changes will be made in the manuscript at the proof stage. Corrected galley proof must be returned within three days after receipt via e-mail to g with subject line galley proof and manuscript number. If we do not receive galley proof within four days we will publish the manuscript as it appears on the galley proof. HJEEE reserves the right to edit for clarity, organization, style, or space.
Authors will have free electronic access to the full text (PDF) of the article published and can freely download and print unlimited copies from our website: http://heraldjournals.org/hjeee
Copyright
The submission of a manuscript implies that the work described has not been published before (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture, or thesis). That is, it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, and that if and when the manuscript is accepted for publication, the authors agree to automatic transfer of the copyright to the publisher.
Processing Fees Policy
It is the vision of HJEEE to support the Open Access initiative. All journals by HJEEE are published without restriction to the global community. We strongly believe that the open access model will spur researches across the world, especially in developing nations as researchers gain unrestricted access to high quality research articles. It is the policy of HJEEE to not request for grants to carry out its operations as grants sometimes fail, forcing organizations to discontinue their operations. We have rather chosen the model of self-sustenance by collecting processing fee for articles published.
Processing Fees
HJEEE is a self-supporting organization; it does not receive funding from any institution/government. Instead, the operation of the Herald Journals is solely financed by the processing fees received from authors. The processing fees are required to meet operational expenses such as staff cost, internet services and other bills. It is capital-intensive to produce a peer-reviewed, edited and formatted article that is ready for online publication. Hosting publications on a server that is freely accessible without barriers all round the clock equally implies additional cost for Herald Journals. Being an Open Access Publisher, HJEEE does not receive payment for subscription as the journals are freely accessible on the internet. We ask that authors, institution, funding agency should pay a modest fee to facilitate our publication process. HJEEE will only publish articles whose payments have been met. We kindly appeal to our authors to support this initiative by submitting their articles for publication
Regular Articles
Title
All portions of the manuscript must be typed double-spaced and all pages numbered starting from the title page.
The title should be a brief phrase describing the contents of the paper. The Title Page should include the authors' full names and affiliations, the name of the corresponding author along with phone, fax and e-mail information. Present addresses of authors should appear as a footnote.
Abstract
The abstract should be informative and completely self-explanatory, briefly present the topic, state the scope of the experiments, indicate significant data, and point out major findings and conclusions. The abstract should be 100 to 200 words in length. Complete sentences, active verbs, and the third person should be used, and the abstract should be written in the past tense. Standard nomenclature should be used and abbreviations should be avoided. No literature should be cited. Following the abstract, about 3 to 10 key words that will provide indexing references should be listed.
Introduction
The introduction should provide a clear statement of the problem, the relevant literature on the subject, and the proposed approach or solution. It should be understandable to colleagues from a broad range of scientific disciplines.
Materials and Methods
Materials and methods should be complete enough to allow experiments to be reproduced. However, only truly new procedures should be described in detail; previously published procedures should be cited, and important modifications of published procedures should be mentioned briefly. Capitalize trade names and include the manufacturer's name and address. Subheadings should be used. Methods in general use need not be described in detail.
Results
Results should be presented with clarity and precision. The results should be written in the past tense when describing findings in the author(s)'s experiments. Previously published findings should be written in the present tense. Results should be explained, but largely without referring to the literature. Discussion, speculation and detailed interpretation of data should not be included in the results but should be put into the discussion section.
Discussion
Discussion should interpret the findings in view of the results obtained in this and in past studies on this topic. State the conclusions in a few sentences at the end of the paper. The Results and Discussion sections can include subheadings, and when appropriate, both sections can be combined.
Acknowledgements
Contributors to the research other than authors credited should be mentioned under acknowledgement. The specifications of the source of funding for the research if appropriate can be included. Suppliers of resources may be mentioned along with address. The Acknowledgments of people, grants, funds, etc should be brief.
Abbreviations
A list of non-standard abbreviations should be added. In general, non-standard abbreviations should be used only when the full term is very long and used often. Each abbreviation should be spelt out and introduced in parentheses the first time it is used in the text. Only recommended SI units should be used. Author(s) should use the solidus presentation (mg/ml). Standard abbreviations (such as ATP and DNA) need not be defined.
Tables
Tables should be kept to a minimum and be designed to be as simple as possible. Tables are to be typed double-spaced throughout, including headings and footnotes. Each table should be on a separate page, numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals and supplied with a heading and a legend. Tables should be self-explanatory without reference to the text. The details of the methods used in the experiments should preferably be described in the legend instead of in the text. The same data should not be presented in both table and graph forms or repeated in the text.
Figure Legends
Figure legends should be typed in numerical order on a separate sheet. Graphics should be prepared using applications capable of generating high resolution GIF, TIFF, JPEG or PowerPoint before pasting in the Microsoft Word manuscript file. Tables should be prepared in Microsoft Word. Use Arabic numerals to designate figures and upper case letters for their parts (Figure 1). Begin each legend with a title and include sufficient description so that the figure is understandable without reading the text of the manuscript. Information given in legends should not be repeated in the text.
Format
Language: The language of publication is UK English. Authors, for whom English is a second language, must have their manuscript efficiently edited by an English speaking person before submission to make sure that, the English is of high excellence. It is preferable, that manuscripts should be professionally edited.
References
References should be listed at the end of the paper in alphabetical order. Articles in preparation or articles submitted for publication, unpublished observations, personal communications, etc. should not be included in the reference list but should only be mentioned in the article text (e.g., A. Kingori, University of Nairobi, Kenya, personal communication). Journal names are abbreviated according to Chemical Abstracts. Authors are fully responsible for the accuracy of the references. Example;
Omoru (2004), Okoro et al. (2003), (Kelebeni, 1983), (Usman and Smith, 1992), (Chege, 1998; Chukwura, 1987a,b; Tijani, 1993,1995), (Kelechi et al., 2001)
Moran GJ, Amii RN, Abrahamian FM, Talan DA (2005). Methicillinresistant Staphylococcus aureus in community-acquired skin infections. Emerg. Infect. Dis. 11: 928-930.
Charles AL, Sriroth K, Huang TC (2005). Proximate composition,mineral contents, hydrogen cyanide and phytic acid of 5 cassava genotypes. Food Chem. 92: 615-620.
Citing References in the Text
Whenever citing a reference in the text source, it is made with its author’s surname and the year of publication is to be inserted in the text. Choose from the listed below to see examples: Citing the author in the text, Using direct quotes, Citing works by more than one author, Citing works by three or more authors, Citing a chapter of section, Citing an organization, Citing works by the same author written in the same year
Citing the Author in the Text
Dogs were the first animals to be domesticated (Sheldrake, 1999). If the author’s name occurs naturally in the sentence the year is given in brackets. Sheldrake (1999) asserted that dogs were the first animals to be domesticated.
Using Direct Quotes
If you quote directly from a source, you must insert the author’s name, date of publication and the page number of the quotation. The domestication of dogs, long predated the domestication of other animals (Sheldrake, 1999).
Citing works by more than one Author
If your source has two authors, you should include both names in the text. Anderson and Peterson (2000) note that a “narrow line often separates plagiarism from good scholarship.”
Citing works by three or more Authors
If there are three or more authors, you should include the first named author and then add ‘et al.’ in italics followed by a full stop. This is an abbreviation of ‘et alia’ which means ‘and others’ in Latin. In the United States, revenue from computer games now exceeds that of movies (Kline et al., 2003).
Citing Chapter or Section
When referring to a chapter or section which is part of a larger work, you should cite the author of the chapter not the editor of the whole work. The sea level has risen by approximately 10cm in the last 100 years (Mason, 1999)
Citing an Organization
If an organization or company (e.g., Department of Health, Arcadia Group Limited) is named as the author of a work rather than a person, you should cite their names. Make sure that you use the same version of the organizations name in both the Text and List of references (e.g., always use ‘Department of Health’, don’t abbreviate to ‘DoH’).
Spain became a member of the United Nations in 1955 (United Nations, 2000).
Citing Secondary Sources
When citing secondary sources (i.e., an author refers to a work which you have not read) cite the secondary source, but include the name of the author and date of publication of the original source in the text. Only the secondary source should be listed in your List of references. You should only cite secondary sources if you are unable to read the original source yourself. Sheriff (1993) notes that Nintendo invested heavily in advertising (cited in Kline et al., 2003, p.118).
