Author Guidelines

Submission Checklist

All submissions must meet the following requirements:

• This submission is suitable with the journal’s Focus and Scope.
• This submission meets the requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines.
• This submission has not been previously published, nor be under consideration for publication in another journal.
• All references have been checked for accuracy and completeness.
• All tables and figures have been numbered and labeled.
• Permission has been obtained to publish all photos, datasets and other material provided with this submission.

Manuscript Submission Overview

Types of Article

The main article types are listed below:

• Research Article: These are original research manuscripts. The work should report scientifically sound experiments and provide a substantial amount of new information. The article should include the most recent and relevant references in the field. The structure should include an Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Method, Results and Discussion, and Conclusion sections, with a suggested minimum word count of 4000 words.
• Review Article: Reviews offer a comprehensive analysis of the existing literature within a field of study, identifying current gaps or problems. They should be critical and constructive and provide recommendations for future research. No new, unpublished data should be presented. The structure can include an Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Relevant Sections, Discussion, Conclusion, and Future Directions, with a suggested minimum word count of 4000 words.
• Case Studies: Report on a specific instance of an interesting or particular phenomenon or instance related to research areas covered by a journal’s scope. The structure of case reports differs from articles and includes an Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Detailed Case Description, Discussion, and Conclusion, with a suggested minimum word count of 2500 words.
• Short Communication: Short articles that present groundbreaking preliminary results or significant findings that are part of a larger study over multiple years. They can also include cutting-edge methods or experiments, and the development of new technology or materials. The structure is similar to an article and there is a suggested minimum word count of 2000 words.

Submission Process

Manuscripts for the Journal of Power, Energy, and Control (PEC) should be submitted through our online submission system. The submitting author, who is generally the corresponding author, is responsible for the manuscript during the submission and peer-review process. The submitting author must ensure that all eligible co-authors have been included in the author list and that they have all read and approved the submitted version of the manuscript. To submit your manuscript, register and log in to the submission website. Once you have registered, go to the submission form. All co-authors can see the manuscript details in the submission system, if they register and log in using the e-mail address provided during manuscript submission.

File Formats

Authors are encouraged to use the Microsoft Word to prepare their manuscript. This will substantially shorten the time to complete copy-editing and publication of accepted manuscripts. The total amount of data for all files must not exceed 10 MB. If there is a problem with this matter, please contact the editorial office journal.pec@msdinstitute.org.

Manuscripts prepared in Microsoft Word must be converted into a single file before submission. Please insert your graphics (schemes, figures, etc.) and tables in the main text after the paragraph of its first citation.

PEC offers free format submission for a simplified and streamlined submission process:

• We do not have strict formatting requirements, but all manuscripts must contain the required sections: Author Information, Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Method, Results and Discussion, Conclusion, Acknowledgement, References, and other Ethics Statements if available.
• Your references may be in any style, provided that you use the consistent formatting throughout the manuscript. It is essential to include author(s) name(s), journal or book title, article or chapter title (where required), year of publication, volume and issue (where appropriate) and pagination. DOI numbers (Digital Object Identifier) are highly encouraged. The bibliography software package such as EndNote, Zotero, or Mendeley are recommended.

Authorship

All authors should list their current affiliation and the affiliation where most research was carried out for the preparation of their manuscript. We recommend adding as primary the affiliation where most of the research was conducted or supported, but please check with your institution for any contractual agreement requirements.

It is very important that author names and affiliations are correct. Incorrect information can mean a lack of proper attribution or incorrect citation and can even lead to problems with promotion or funding. After the publication of an article, updates or corrections to the author’s address or affiliation may not be permitted.

If one or all the authors are not currently affiliated with a university, institution or company, or have not been during the development of the manuscript, they should list themselves as an “Independent Researcher”.

Use of AI

The following guidance only refers to the writing process, and not to the use of AI tools to analyze and draw insights from data as part of the research process.

Where authors use generative artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process, authors should only use these technologies to improve readability and language. Applying the technology should be done with human oversight and control, and authors should carefully review and edit the result, as AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that can be incorrect, incomplete or biased. AI and AI-assisted technologies should not be listed as an author or co-author, or be cited as an author. Authorship implies responsibilities and tasks that can only be attributed to and performed by humans.

Authors should disclose in their manuscript the use of AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process by following the instructions below. A statement will appear in the published work. Please note that authors are ultimately responsible and accountable for the contents of the work.

Manuscript Preparation

General Considerations

Research article manuscripts should comprise:

• Front matter: Title, Author list, Affiliations, Abstract, Keywords.
• Manuscript body section: Introduction, Method, Results and Discussion, Conclusion.
• Back matter: Supplementary materials, Acknowledgement, References, Nomenclature, etc.

Review article manuscript should comprise the Front matter, Literature review sections, and the Back matter. Structured reviews and meta-analyses should use the same structure as research articles and ensure they conform to the PRISMA guidelines.

Acronyms/Abbreviations/Initialisms should be defined the first time they appear in each of three sections: the abstract; the main text; the first figure or table. When defined for the first time, the acronym/abbreviation/initialism should be added in parentheses after the written-out form.

SI Units (International System of Units) should be used. Imperial, US customary and other units should be converted to SI units whenever possible. When using Microsoft Word, please use either the Microsoft Equation Editor or the MathType add-on for writing equations. Equations should be editable by the editorial office and not appear in a picture format.

Front Matter

These sections should appear in all manuscript types:

• Title: The title of your manuscript should be concise, specific and relevant. It should identify if it is the case study, or is a systematic review, meta-analysis or replication study. Try to avoid using abbreviation as it could lead to confusion or have different meanings for different people.
• Author list and Affiliations: Authors' full names must be provided. Write the affiliation for authors as follows: name of department, name of institution/university, city, country, and zip code. At least one author should be designated as the corresponding author. The email addresses of corresponding author will be displayed on published papers. After acceptance, updates to author names or affiliations may not be permitted.
• Abstract: The abstract should be a total of about 250 words maximum. The abstract should be a single paragraph and should follow the style of structured abstracts, but without headings: 1) Background: Place the question addressed in a broad context and highlight the purpose of the study; 2) Methods: Describe briefly the main methods or treatments applied. Include any relevant preregistration numbers, and species and strains of any animals used; 3) Results: Summarize the article's main findings; and 4) Conclusion: Indicate the main conclusions or interpretations. The abstract should be an objective representation of the article: it must not contain results which are not presented and substantiated in the main text and should not exaggerate the main conclusions.
• Keywords: Three to six pertinent keywords need to be added after the abstract. We recommend that the keywords are specific to the article, yet reasonably common within the subject discipline.

Manuscript Body Section

• Introduction: The introduction should briefly place the study in a broad context and highlight why it is important. It should define the purpose of the work and its significance, including specific hypotheses being tested. The current state of the research field should be reviewed carefully and key publications cited. Please highlight controversial and diverging hypotheses when necessary. Finally, briefly mention the main aim of the work and highlight the main conclusions. Keep the introduction comprehensible to scientists working outside the topic of the paper.
• Method: This section should be described with sufficient detail to allow others to replicate and build on published results. New methods and protocols should be described in detail while well-established methods can be briefly described and appropriately cited. Give the name and version of any software used and make clear whether computer code used is available. Include any pre-registration codes.
• Results and Discussion: Provide a concise and precise description of the experimental results, their interpretation as well as the experimental conclusions that can be drawn. Authors should discuss the results and how they can be interpreted in perspective of previous studies and of the working hypotheses. The findings and their implications should be discussed in the broadest context possible and limitations of the work is highlighted. Future research directions may also be mentioned.
• Conclusion: This section is concluding all the findings and way forward from the Results and Discussion section. Conclusion usually used to simplify long and complex discussion.
• Patents: This section is not mandatory but may be added if there are patents resulting from the work reported in this manuscript.

Back Matter

• Supplementary Materials: Describe any supplementary material published online alongside the manuscript (figure, tables, video, spreadsheets, etc.). Please indicate the name and title of each element as follows Figure S1: title, Table S1: title, etc.
• Acknowledgments: In this section you can acknowledge any support given related to the manuscript or work that has been done. All sources of funding of the study should be disclosed. Clearly indicate grants that you have received in support of your research work and if you received funds to cover publication costs. In addition, this section may include administrative and technical support, or donations in kind (e.g., materials used for experiments).
• References: We recommend preparing the references with a bibliography software package, such as EndNote, Mendeley or Zotero to avoid typing mistakes and duplicated references. We encourage citations to data, computer code and other citable research material. DOI numbers (Digital Object Identifier) are highly encouraged to include.