Author Guidelines
The Tontchev Press Journal of Diagnostics, Engineering and Technology Studies (TP-JDETS) welcomes original research across engineering, diagnostics, applied technology, and interdisciplinary studies. This page contains all requirements for preparing and submitting a manuscript. Please read these guidelines carefully before submitting.
Editor-in-Chief: Prof. Dr. Eng. Nikolay Tontchev · Contact: editor@journal.tonchevpress.com
1. Aims & Scope
TP-JDETS publishes four issues per year and covers, but is not limited to, the following subject areas:
- Mechanical engineering and material science
- Automotive and transport diagnostics
- Additive manufacturing (WAAM, DED, PBF)
- Control systems, automation, and SCADA
- Bayesian optimisation and surrogate modelling
- Laser surface engineering and thermomechanical processing
- Computational methods in engineering
- Interdisciplinary studies at the interface of engineering and digital technology
The journal does not consider manuscripts that have been published elsewhere or are currently under review in another journal. All content is published under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 licence. There are no article processing charges (APCs).
2. Manuscript Types
| Type | Word count | References | Abstract |
|---|---|---|---|
| Original Research Article | 4,000–8,000 | Up to 60 | 200–300 words |
| Review Article | 6,000–12,000 | Up to 120 | 250–350 words |
| Technical Note | 1,500–3,000 | Up to 30 | 100–150 words |
| Case Study | 2,500–5,000 | Up to 40 | 150–250 words |
3. Formatting Requirements
Page setup
- A4 paper (210 × 297 mm)
- Margins: 2.5 cm on all sides
- Two-column layout for final submission
- Single-column draft accepted for review
Typography
- Body text: Times New Roman 10pt or equivalent serif
- Section headings: Arial Bold 10pt (numbered)
- Line spacing: single (9pt between paragraphs)
- No hyphenation in headings
File format
- Accepted: PDF, DOC, DOCX
- Maximum file size: 15 MB
- All fonts must be embedded in PDF submissions
- Remove author information for blind review
Language
- English (primary), Bulgarian, Chinese, Turkish, Spanish
- Non-English manuscripts must include an English abstract
- Use British or American English consistently
4. Manuscript Structure
Original research articles must follow the standard IMRaD structure. The elements below are listed in the required order:
- Title page — Title (max 20 words), running head (max 8 words), author names and affiliations, corresponding author email, ORCID iDs (recommended)
- Abstract — Structured (Background / Objectives / Methods / Results / Conclusions) for original research; unstructured for reviews. Max 300 words.
- Keywords — 4–8 keywords, semicolon-separated, not duplicating title words
- Introduction — Background, rationale, objectives, brief overview of the paper structure
- Materials and Methods — Sufficient detail for reproducibility; sub-sections permitted
- Results — Presented objectively without interpretation
- Discussion — Interpretation, comparison with literature, limitations
- Conclusions — Concise summary of findings and future directions (no new data)
- Acknowledgements (if applicable) — Funding sources, technical assistance
- Conflicts of Interest — Mandatory declaration (or "The authors declare no conflict of interest.")
- References — IEEE numeric format (see §5)
- Appendices (if applicable) — Supplementary data, derivations, raw results
5. References
TP-JDETS uses IEEE numeric citation format. References are numbered in the order they appear in the text, cited as [1], [2, 3], etc. The reference list at the end must be numbered accordingly.
Examples
[1] N. Tontchev, "Laser surface hardening of 42CrMo4 steel using Bayesian optimisation," TP-JDETS, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 1–12, 2026.
[2] A. Author, B. Author, and C. Author, Book Title, 2nd ed. City, Country: Publisher, 2020.
[3] A. Author, "Conference paper title," in Proc. Int. Conf. Name, City, Country, Year, pp. 100–105.
[4] A. Author, "Article title," Journal Name, vol. X, no. Y, pp. ZZ–ZZ, Year, doi: 10.xxxx/xxxxx.
DOIs must be included where available. URLs must include the access date in the format "(accessed: DD Mon. YYYY)".
6. Figures & Tables
Figures
- Minimum resolution: 300 dpi at print size
- Accepted formats: TIFF, EPS, PDF (vector preferred), PNG
- Captions below each figure: "Fig. 1. Description."
- Figures must be cited in the text as Fig. 1, Fig. 2…
- Colour figures are permitted; grayscale must remain legible
Tables
- Captions above each table: "Table 1. Description."
- Tables must be cited in the text as Table 1, Table 2…
- Use horizontal rules only (no vertical lines in body)
- All abbreviations in table footnotes
- Avoid excessively wide tables exceeding column width
7. Ethical Requirements
All submissions must comply with the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) guidelines. By submitting, authors confirm the following:
- Originality: The manuscript is the authors' own work and has not been published elsewhere, in whole or in part.
- No concurrent submission: The manuscript is not under review at another journal or conference.
- Author contributions: All listed authors have made a substantial contribution to the work.
- Data integrity: Figures, data, and results are accurate and unaltered.
- Conflicts of interest: All financial and non-financial conflicts of interest are disclosed.
- Human/animal subjects: Where applicable, ethics committee approval is obtained and stated in the manuscript.
- AI-generated content: Use of AI writing tools must be disclosed in the Methods or Acknowledgements section. AI cannot be listed as an author.
TP-JDETS may retract articles found to violate these requirements after publication, following COPE retraction guidelines.
8. Review Process
Initial screening (1–3 business days)
The editorial office checks the submission for completeness, scope, and formatting compliance. Incomplete or out-of-scope submissions are desk-rejected.
Double-blind peer review (3–6 weeks)
Qualifying manuscripts are assigned to at least two independent expert reviewers. Author and reviewer identities are hidden from each other throughout the process.
Editorial decision
Possible outcomes: Accept · Minor revision · Major revision · Reject. Authors receive detailed reviewer comments regardless of the decision.
Revision & resubmission
Authors have 4 weeks to submit a revised manuscript along with a point-by-point response to reviewers.
Production & publication
Accepted manuscripts enter copyediting and layout. The published version is issued as a DOI-assigned PDF under CC BY 4.0.
9. Pre-Submission Checklist
Verify every item before clicking "Submit Manuscript". Incomplete submissions will be returned.
- ☐Manuscript is within the stated word-count range for its type
- ☐Abstract is structured and within 300 words
- ☐4–8 keywords provided
- ☐All author names, affiliations, and ORCID iDs (if available) on the title page
- ☐Author details removed from the manuscript body for blind review
- ☐Figures at ≥ 300 dpi; captions below figures
- ☐References in IEEE numeric format with DOIs where available
- ☐Conflicts of Interest declaration included
- ☐File format is PDF, DOC, or DOCX; size ≤ 15 MB
- ☐All fonts embedded (for PDF submissions)
10. Template & Submission
Use the official TP-JDETS manuscript template to ensure correct formatting. The template is provided as a pre-formatted DOCX file. Authors submitting PDF manuscripts must also ensure their layout conforms to the two-column format described in §3.