The "Caritas International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Sciences" (CIJMES) is an peer reviewed journal published by the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Mechatronics Caritas University Enugu, Nigeria. It publishes original and review articles that advance the understanding of both fundamentals of engineering science and its applications. The journal also provides a platform for academicians, researchers and practitioners all over the world to promote, share, and discuss various new issues and developments in all areas of Mechanical Sciences, Engineering and Mechatronics. Manuscripts are subject to a rigorous and fair peer-review process. Accepted papers will appear online within 3-4 weeks after their submission. The journal publishes papers including but not limited to the following topics:

Aerodynamics, Fluid Dynamics, Compressible Flows, Computational Mechanics, Biomechanics, Automotive Engineering, Heat and Mass Transfer, Nanomaterial Engineering, Plasticity Mechanics, Fracture, Geomechanics, Multibody Dynamics, Nonlinear Dynamics, Structural Dynamics, Vibrations, Acoustics, Noise Control, Material Engineering, Transport Phenomena, Manufacturing Process, Mechatronics, Transport phenomena (heat, mass transfer and fluid flows), Mathematical modeling in Mechanical engineering, Mechanical engineering education, Plasticity, Fracture and Damage Mechanics, Mechanics of Nanomaterials, Fluid-Structure Interaction, Damage Identification and Non Destructive Evaluation (NDE), Computational and Experimental Mechanics, Geomechanics and Mechanics of Granular Materials, Flows in Porous Media, Impact and Multibody, Dynamics, Nonlinear Dynamics, Structural Dynamics and Control, Dynamic Instability and Buckling, Vibrations, Acoustics and Noise Control, Manufacturing Processes, Advanced Materials and Smart Structures, Micro ElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS), Mechatronics, Transport Phenomena in Micro/Nanoscale, Aerodynamics and Aeroelasticity, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), Turbulence and Multiphase Flows, Biomechanics and Biomaterials, Surface Engineering and Contact Mechanics, Heat and Mass Transfer.

CIJMES Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement

1. Editorial Board Responsibilities

• Editorial Independence: The editorial board of CIJMES is responsible for making independent and fair decisions on manuscript selection, review, and publication, regardless of any potential conflicts of interest, race, gender, religion, nationality, or political beliefs.
• Confidentiality: Editors and reviewers must maintain the confidentiality of submitted manuscripts and refrain from disclosing any information about manuscripts to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, and the publisher.
• Fair Review: Manuscripts will be evaluated based on their academic and intellectual content, regardless of the author's race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy.
• Publication Decisions: Editors have the sole authority to accept or reject a manuscript. In cases of conflict of interest or questions regarding the quality or accuracy of the work, the editors should consult with the editorial board.

2. Author Responsibilities

• Originality: Authors must ensure that their work is entirely original and properly cited if they have used the work and/or words of others.
• Data Access and Retention: Authors may be asked to provide the raw data of their study for editorial review, and they should be prepared to retain such data for a reasonable time after publication.
• Plagiarism and Citation Manipulation: Authors should not engage in plagiarism or inappropriately manipulate citations. All sources should be properly cited.
• Authorship: All authors should have made a substantial contribution to the research and should be listed as co-authors. Corresponding authors must ensure that all co-authors have approved the final version of the paper and agree to its submission for publication.

3. Reviewer Responsibilities

• Confidentiality: Reviewers must keep the content of the manuscript confidential and refrain from using the information for personal gain.
• Objectivity: Reviews should be conducted objectively, with constructive feedback to help authors improve their work.
• Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest: Reviewers should disclose any potential conflicts of interest that may compromise their ability to provide a fair review.

4. Publisher Responsibilities

• Publication Decisions: The publisher is responsible for making editorial decisions based on the journal's policies and should not interfere with these decisions.
• Access and Archiving: The publisher should ensure the journal's content is available to the widest possible audience and should provide proper archiving and digital preservation of the journal's content.

5. Procedures for Dealing with Ethical Issues

In cases of ethical violations, the following procedures will be followed:

• Identification of Ethical Violations: If ethical violations are suspected, the editors will conduct a preliminary investigation.
• Investigation: An investigation may be initiated to gather evidence and determine the appropriate course of action.
• Resolution: Depending on the severity of the ethical violation, actions may include contacting the author, reviewers, or institutions involved, retracting the manuscript, and publishing a formal retraction notice.
• Appeals: Authors have the right to appeal editorial decisions, and reviewers have the right to appeal a decision to reject a manuscript for publication.

CIJMES encourages its editors, reviewers, and authors to uphold the highest standards of publication ethics and integrity. Violations of these principles may result in appropriate actions to uphold the integrity of the journal and the academic community.

Peer Review Process

Manuscripts submitted to CIJMES will generally be reviewed by two (2) anonymous experts in the field. Each author may recommend four (4) experts in the field of study. Authors should be communicated the final decision on their articles within four (4) months of submission. CIJMES aims for very fast publication and will endeavour to reach a first decision within four (4) weeks.

Abstracted and indexed in

CIJMES is currently indexed in the following databases; however, it is still under evaluation by Scopus:

Google Scholar

DOAJ

Ethics Approval for Human/Animal-Related Studies

In terms of what constitutes acceptable ethics and consent/animal welfare declarations, clarity and thoroughness are crucial. CIJMES has a global reach, so what may be standard in one country may not be applicable elsewhere. Editors are advised to adhere to the following guidelines:

1. If ethics approval has been secured, the approving body's name and approval number/ID should be included in the manuscript. Authors are encouraged to provide more detailed information than simply stating "Approval was obtained from the local ethics committee."
   2. With the reason for the exemption. Manuscripts should explain why ethics approval and/or informed consent were not sought for a particular study in a specific country or region. Generic statements like "Ethics approval was not required" are inadequate; authors should provide suitable reasons and citations if applicable.
   3. When informed consent is obtained, it should specify the scope of the consent. For instance, consent for treatment may not cover sample use or inclusion in a retrospective study. Additionally, consent for treatment differs from consent for publication of patient information in a case report unless specified otherwise.
   4. Authors should indicate whether consent was written or verbal and explain why if verbal consent was used, including how it was recorded.
   5. If informed consent was waived, authors should specify who waived it and the reason.
   6. CIJMES policy typically requires informed consent for publishing case reports and non-research case series, except in exceptional circumstances or when waived by an ethics committee/IRB. Nonetheless, editors may still request consent for publication for completeness.
   7. Declarations on animal welfare should confirm adherence to international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for humane animal treatment and compliance with relevant laws. If the study involved client-owned animals, it should demonstrate a high standard of veterinary care and informed client consent. Alternatively, if human treatment guidelines didn't apply, authors should explain why.

 Copyright (License) / Open Access

Articles published in the journal are fully Open-Access and distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The copyright and full publishing rights are retained by the author(s).

Editorial Policy

All research articles submitted to Caritas International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Sciences have undergone rigorous peer review, based on initial editor screening and double-blind refereeing by at least two anonymous referees that often lead to multiple rounds of revisions.

Language Policy

For journals that have human subjects, this sample policy from CIJMES may be useful: Language must be inclusive, respectful to all, and free of bias based on individual characteristics, conveying no stereotypes (e.g. use “chairperson” instead of “chairman”). Use people first language, to place person before characteristic label or adjective (e.g. “person with lower limb loss” instead of “leg amputee”). While submissions to CIJMES are accepted in English only, we encourage authors whose English is not their first language to also submit.

Open Access Policy

Caritas International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Sciences is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search for and search within, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. Authors retain their copyright. You can read more about Creative Commons licenses at creativecommons.org.

Copyright and Authors' Rights

Authors who publish with us retain copyright of their work. Works published in the CIJMES are licensed under a Creative Commons attribution license. Authors are free to put their content into an institutional repository or personal archive, or share or repurpose their content for other purposes.

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

Ethics Policy

CIJMES upholds a zero-tolerance policy for plagiarism and the use of unauthorized materials by prospective authors. Any concerns should be directly addressed to the Editors-in-Chief of CIJMES. In the interest of a fair deliberation process, CIJMES requires all members of its editorial board and prospective authors to report conflicts of interest. Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to:

• The reuse of exact wording or phrases from another published work
• The improper use of quotation marks
• A failure to attribute quoted texts and ideas to their original authors
• Using tables, data visualizations, illustrations, and other elements without proper

attribution

• Reusing one’s own previously published words or ideas without attribution

Issues of plagiarism will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis by the editorial board. In the event that the editors are notified of suspected plagiarism in a submitted manuscript or published article, the editors will follow guidelines suggested by the Committee.

 

 

Submission of Manuscript

Authors are advised to read the Guidelines for Authors” on the journal's page before making a submission. Manuscript should be prepared according to the style and specifications of the journal’s policy. Authors listed on the manuscript should have met the requirements for Authorship specified above. Contribution of each of the authors in the entire research should be specified. All authors should approve the final version of the manuscript prior to submission. Once a manuscript is submitted, it is therefore assumed that all authors have read and given their approval for the submission of the manuscript. Contact information of all authors should be provided on the manuscript. Names (First name, middle name initial and surname), institutional affiliations, emails, phone numbers are required of authors. Declaration of conflict of interest should be stated at the appropriate section of the manuscript. Submission should be made online:

 banniewankwo@yahoo.com

• Submit soft copies of the paper to the Editor-in-chief. Submission can also be made online to the journal’s email and stipulated WhatsApp lines.
• The paper should be typed one-sided, double-spaced on A4 paper with left and right margins of 1.5 inches. Spellings should be according to the Oxford English Dictionary. The APA format of referencing should be used.
• Provide an abstract of not more than 250 words, and five key words of the study.
• Each Table should be typed on a separate page and identified by a short descriptive title immediately above the table. Tables should be numbered consecutively and in the order in which they are referred to in the text.
• Where necessary, footnotes should appear as ‘Notes’ at the end of the paper. They should be typed single-spaced on a separate sheet and numbered consecutively throughout the text.
• All illustrative materials, drawings, maps, diagrams and photographs should appear as Figures, each with a short title placed immediately below it.

This Journal is published annually by the Departments of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, Faculty of Engineering Sciences, Caritas University Enugu.. It publishes dependable and timely information emanating from original research and new perspectives in different fields of Engineering and related fields. Regular articles – present and discuss original research within any specified subject matter areas. The maximum length is 15 double-spaced pages including references, tables and figures.

All articles submitted are reviewed anonymously by at least two experts in the field. Submissions can take various forms including:

1. Review or reflective articles– based on contemporary topic of scholarly interest. This should not exceed 15 pages double-spaced pages.
2. Policy papers– report research relevant to policy-making on various aspects of social development. Policy reports should not be more than 15 double-spaced pages.
3. Short Commentaries– about completed or on-going research projects on a subject of interest in Engineering, should not exceed 8 pages double-spaced pages.
4. Letter to the Editor and Comments– usually on a paper previously published in the Journal or on issues highly relevant to Engineering Sciences are welcome. These are subject to editorial review before publication.
5. Book Reviews– are encouraged. Publishers are also encouraged to submit complimentary copies of their books to the Editor-in-Chief for review.
6. Advertising in the Journal– is accepted subject to editorial approval. Rates can be obtained from the Managing Editor.

Preparation of Manuscripts

Soft copy of manuscript should be submitted on the submission platforms. Contributions are accepted on the understanding that the authors have obtained the necessary authorization for publication of the results of their work. Unless otherwise stated, submission of a paper will be held to imply that it contains original unpublished work, devoid of plagiarized materials, and is not being considered for publication elsewhere.

Statement on Conflict of Interest

Authors must report any conflicts of interest, such as financial gain from, or obligation to, their research subjects or expected payment for flattering publication of research findings.

Policy on Diversity and Inclusion

The editorial board is dedicated to ensuring diversity among its own members and the authors it publishes.