DECENT Database is an international publishing peer-reviewed database, which consists of a series of research journals. DECENT Database accepts contributions as short communications, full research articles, and review articles. The DECENT research journals, under the platform of the DECENT Database, will focus on three major areas of Science, Engineering, and Health. A breakdown of the scheme and scope of the journals is presented in the Figure. Please note that DECENT Database only accepts manuscripts in English.
1. Manuscript submission
DECENT Database has developed its own online manuscript submission system which allows authors, reviewers, and editors to easily interact with each other throughout the course of the review process.
All authors are required to submit their manuscript via the online manuscript submission system DECENT Manager. Full instructions on how to submit your manuscript and navigate the DECENT Manager system will be available once DECENT Database is open for manuscript submission.
Files such as manuscripts, figures, tables and other supporting information submitted during manuscript submission should be in PDF.
All authors will receive a confirmation email once the manuscript has been received by DECENT Database. At this stage, the author(s) may cancel the submission if they have decided not to proceed. If no action is taken, the manuscript will proceed through the submission process.
2. The peer-review process
It is important to point out that all contributions (short communications, full research articles, and review articles) submitted to DECENT Database go through the single-blind peer-review process.
All manuscripts are subjected to an initial screening stage. This stage will look at the following: plagiarism, originality of the research, and grammatical inconsistencies.
If the manuscript is found to be original and suitable for the potential audience within the research community, the manuscript is sent out by the editor to at least three reviewers. Reviewers are selected across the globe based on their expertise, reputation and recommendations.
The editor has the final decision to accept, reject or request further revisions.
3. Manuscript preparation
The full details of the guidelines for the preparation of the manuscript to be submitted to DECENT Database will be available once the online manuscript submission system (DECENT Manager) is open.
4. Article Processing Charges
Authors have the option of choosing between two publishing models after their manuscript has been accepted for publication:
- Open access model
- Non-open access model
Open Access Publishing Model
All articles published by DECENT Database under the open access model can be accessed free of charge by the research community and general public irrespective of their location.
The article processing charge (APC) for all articles published under the open access publishing model is fixed, irrespective of the article length. However, authors are advised to keep their manuscript succinct, and within a reasonable word limit.
Below are the article processing charges for each DECENT Journal listed under the open access publishing model.
- DECENT Engineering - AUD1,400.00
- DECENT Health - AUD1,400.00
- DECENT Science - AUD1,400.00
Note: Fees are not charged for manuscript submission. All APCs are paid only after a manuscript has been accepted for publication.
DECENT Journal may waive part of the fee for authors from low-income countries provided they meet certain criteria.
Non-Open Access Publishing Model
Articles published using this model cannot be accessed free of charge by members of the research community or the general public. Access fee per article – AUD30.00
Authors are not charged a publication fee if the non-open access publishing model is selected. Additionally, authors will be rewarded with tokens for every subscription made to their article on the DECENT Database platform. However, authors need to publish one open access article to be eligible to publish a non-open access article.
It is important to note that the final decision on any manuscript is based on the editorial teams’ assessment, and it is not in any way determined or influenced by the publication fees.
Authors who pay an OPTIONAL annual membership subscription of AUD50.00 to DECENT Journals get free access to the non-open access articles and 20% off APCs for the year in which their membership is valid, irrespective of the number of articles published.