About the journal
The International Journal of Mechanics (IJM) is an international forum for the publication and dissemination of original work which contributes to greater scientific understanding of the main disciplines underpinning the Engineering & Technology, Science, Humanities, Social Sciences, Health & Life Sciences and material engineering sciences.
Original contributions providing insight into the use of analytical, computational (e.g. FEM, BEM, mesh-free methods and others) modelling methods for rigid-body mechanics (e.g. dynamics, vibration, stability), structural mechanics, metal forming, behaviour and application of advanced materials (metals, composite, cellular, smart etc.), impact mechanics, strain localization and other effects of nonlinearity (e.g. large deflections, plasticity, fracture etc.), fluid mechanics (external and internal flows), tribology, thermodynamics and materials processing generally form the core of the journal contents.
The International Journal of Mechanical Sciences does not accept for publication material which quite specifically belongs with other established specialist journals. Papers whose concern is primarily with mathematical or computational techniques, developed within a general framework and not aimed at any specific engineering application, are not requested. Similarly, papers whose content is purely descriptive or empirical and which do not make any scientific contribution, will not be considered. Comparison with experiments/tests conducted by the authors or others to validate the main contribution of the paper are strongly encouraged, however design-based studies, based on established formulae and methods, are outside our scope and should not be submitted to theInternational Journal of Mechanics.
Only original, innovative and novel papers will be considered for publication in the International Journal of Mechanics and before considering their work, authors are required to confirm that their paper has not been submitted to any other journal in English or any other language. Occasionally, ‘Letters to the Editor‘ are considered.
Article types
Article type and formatting
Contributions falling into the following categories will be considered for publication:
- Original Research Papers
- Invited Reviews
- Special Issues
- Letters to the Editor
The Invited Reviews and Letters to the Editor must be discussed with the E-i-C prior submission.
Please ensure that you select the appropriate article type from the list of options when making your new submission. Authors contributing to special issues should ensure that they select the special issue article type from this list.
A manuscript should be formatted into a single column with a double vertical space. Figures should be integrated with the text.
Peer review
This journal follows a single anonymized review process. Your submission will initially be assessed by our editors to determine suitability for publication in this journal. If your submission is deemed suitable, it will typically be sent to a minimum of two reviewers for an independent expert assessment of the scientific quality. The decision as to whether your article is accepted or rejected will be taken by our editors.
Our editors are not involved in making decisions about papers which:
- they have written themselves.
- have been written by family members or colleagues.
- relate to products or services in which they have an interest.
Any such submissions will be subject to the journal’s usual procedures and peer review will be handled independently of the editor involved and their research group.
Authors may submit a formal appeal request to the editorial decision, provided it meets all the requirements and follows the procedure outlined. Only one appeal per submission will be considered and the appeal decision will be final.
Special issues and article collections
The peer review process for special issues and article collections follows the same process as outlined above for regular submissions, except, a guest editor may send the submissions out to the reviewers and may recommend a decision to the journal editor. The journal editor oversees the peer review process of all special issues and article collections to ensure the high standards of publishing ethics and responsiveness are respected and is responsible for the final decision regarding acceptance or rejection of articles.
Ethics and policies
Ethics in publishing
Authors must follow ethical guidelines stated.
Submission declaration
When authors submit an article to an IJM it is implied that:
- The work described has not been published previously except in the form of a preprint, an abstract, a published lecture, academic thesis or registered report.
- The article is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.
- The article’s publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out.
- If accepted, the article will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, including electronically, without the written consent of the copyright-holder.
To verify compliance with our journal publishing policies, we may check your manuscript with our screening tools.
Authorship
All authors should have made substantial contributions to all of the following:
- The conception and design of the study, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data.
- Drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content.
- Final approval of the version to be submitted.
Authors should appoint a corresponding author to communicate with the journal during the editorial process. All authors should agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work to ensure that the questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
Changes to authorship
The editors of this journal generally will not consider changes to authorship once a manuscript has been submitted. It is important that authors carefully consider the authorship list and order of authors and provide a definitive author list at original submission.
The policy of this journal around authorship changes:
- All authors must be listed in the manuscript and their details entered into the submission system.
- Any addition, deletion or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list should only be made prior to acceptance, and only if approved by the journal editor.
- Requests to change authorship should be made by the corresponding author, who must provide the reason for the request to the journal editor with written confirmation from all authors, including any authors being added or removed, that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement.
- All requests to change authorship must be submitted using this form. Requests which do not comply with the instructions outlined in the form will not be considered.
- Only in exceptional circumstances will the journal editor consider the addition, deletion or rearrangement of authors post acceptance.
- Publication of the manuscript may be paused while a change in authorship request is being considered.
- Any authorship change requests approved by the journal editor will result in a corrigendum if the manuscript has already been published.
- Any unauthorized authorship changes may result in the rejection of the article, or retraction, if the article has already been published.