International Journal of Protective Structures
Because of increased terrorist activities, the effective protection of critical civil infrastructure such as embassies, government buildings, airports and bridges against blast loads has become a critical issue.
Moreover, the effects of military ordnance on civil infrastructure, and collateral damage estimation, are increasingly topics of relevance to defence agencies and government. Hence, there has been a significant increase in research activities related to infrastructure protection against blast loads around the world. Many new research results have been obtained.
In addition to blast loads from terrorist actions or accidental gas explosions, vehicle impact on road and bridge infrastructure, ship impact on bridge structures, and impact between adjacent structures during earthquake shakings, drop weight effects, etc have also been reported to cause structural damage and failure.
Many research activities are devoted to the modeling and analysis of shock and impact effects on structures. Penetration and perforation analysis, material failure in high strain rate loading, test method developments in shock and impact conditions have also attracted increasing research interests in recent years.
International Journal of Protective Structures is a peer-reviewed journal publishing high quality research papers related to civil infrastructure protection against natural or man-made shock and impact loads.
The journal is the flagship publication of the International Association of Protective Structures (http://www.protectivestructures.org/).
International Journal of Protective Structures is a peer-reviewed journal publishing high quality research papers related to civil infrastructure protection against natural or man-made shock and impact loads, including but not limited to blast loads from terrorist actions or accidental gas explosions, vehicle impact on road and bridge infrastructure, ship impact on bridge structures, impact between adjacent structures during earthquake shakings, and drop weight effects.
The journal is the flagship publication of the International Association of Protective Structures (http://www.protectivestructures.org/).
It welcomes original papers related to the themes of the journal. Civil infrastructure may include, but is not limited to, buildings, bridges, pipelines, offshore platforms, shipping, defence facilities and other onshore, offshore, above-ground or underground structures.
The journal will be an effective medium for the timely dissemination of research findings that will not only benefit the professional communities, but also society as a whole for effective infrastructure protection. It will serve as a bridge to link active researchers, academics, engineers and policy makers around the world.
| Hong Hao | Curtin University, Australia |
| Wensu Chen | Curtin University, Australia |
| James Davidson | Auburn University, USA |
| Norbert Gebbeken | University of the Bundeswehr Munich, Germany |
| Yong Lu | University of Edinburgh, UK |
| Daniel Ambrosini | CONICET / National University of Cuyo, Argentina |
| Masuhiro Beppu | National Defense Academy, Japan |
| Ezio Cadoni | University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland, Switzerland |
| Li Chen | Southeast University, China |
| Suwen Chen | Tongji University, China |
| Xiaowei Chen | Beijing Institute of Technology, China |
| Nawawi Chouw | University of Auckland, New Zealand |
| Steeve Chung Kim Yuen | University of Cape Town, South Africa |
| Avraham Dancygier | Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Israel |
| Xiuli Du | Beijing University of Technology, China |
| Qin Fang | Army Engineering University of PLA, China |
| Kazunori Fujikake | National Defense Academy, Japan |
| Hezi Grisaro | Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Israel |
| Yifei Hao | Hebei University of Technology, China |
| Toshiyuki Horiguchi | National Defense Academy, Japan |
| Mohd Ashraf Iqbal | Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee, India |
| Leopold Kruszka | Military University of Technology, Poland |
| A. Praveen Kumar | Easwari Engineering College, India |
| Genevieve Langdon | University of Sheffield, UK |
| Jun Li | University of Technology Sydney, Australia |
| Qingmin Li | The University of Manchester, UK |
| Zhong-Xian Li | Tianjin University, China |
| Guoxing Lu | Swinburne University, Australia |
| Bibiana Luccioni | National University of Tucumán, Argentina |
| Guowei Ma | Hebei University of Technology, China |
| Vasant Matsagar | Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, India |
| Priyan Mendis | The University of Melbourne, Australia |
| Tuan Ngo | The University of Melbourne, Australia |
| Jeffrey Packer | University of Toronto, Canada |
| Thong M. Pham | Curtin University, Australia |
| Ser Tong Quek | National University of Singapore, Singapore |
| Malte von Ramin | Fraunhofer Ernst-Mach-Institute (EMI), Germany |
| Ghani Razaqpur | McMaster University, Canada |
| Alex Remennikov | University of Wollogong, Australia |
| Werner Riedel | Fraunhofer EMI, Germany |
| Sam Rigby | University of Sheffield, UK |
| Hani Salim | University of Missouri, USA |
| Yanchao Shi | Tianjin University, China |
| Piotr Sielicki | Poznan University of Technology, Poland |
| Yoshimi Sonoda | Kyushu University, Japan |
| Catherine Stephens | Army Engineer Research and Development Center, USA |
| Lauren Stewart | Georgia Tech, USA |
| Mark Stewart | University of Technology Sydney, Australia |
| Andrew Tyas | University of Sheffield, UK |
| Andrew Whittaker | MCEER/University at Buffalo, USA |
| Chengqing Wu | University of Technology Sydney, Australia |
| David Yankelevsky | Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Israel |
| Chunwei Zhang | Qingdao University of Technology, China |
| Xihong Zhang | Curtin University, Australia |
| Hongyuan Zhou | Beijing University of Technology, China |
| Xiaoqing Zhou | Shenzhen University, China |
| Yan Zhuge | University of South Australia, Australia |
| Zhouhong Zong | Southeast University, China |
Manuscript Submission Guidelines: International Journal of Protective Structures
This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics.
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal. Open Access options are available - see section 3.3 below.
Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ijops to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.
Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of International Journal of Protective Structures will be reviewed.
As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you.
- What do we publish?
1.1 Aims & Scope
1.2 Article types
1.3 Writing your paper - Editorial policies
2.1 Peer review policy
2.2 Authorship
2.3 Acknowledgements
2.4 Funding
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
2.6 Research Data - Publishing policies
3.1 Publication ethics
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
3.3 Open access and author archiving - Preparing your manuscript
4.1 Formatting
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
4.3 Supplementary material
4.4 Reference style
4.5 English language editing services - Submitting your manuscript
5.1 ORCID
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
5.3 Permissions - On acceptance and publication
6.1 Sage Production
6.2 Online First publication
6.3 Access to your published article
6.4 Promoting your article - Further information
Before submitting your manuscript to International Journal of Protective Structures, please ensure you have read the journal’s Aims & Scope.
Research articles
Review articles
Discussions
Manuscripts should not normally exceed 10,000 words. The main body of the paper is to be preceded by an abstract about 150 words, as well as a list of 4 to 8 keywords.
The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources.
1.3.1 Make your article discoverable
When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines such as Google. For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.
International Journal of Protective Structures operates a conventional single-anonymize reviewing policy in which the reviewer’s name is always concealed from the authors.
The Editorial Team conducts a preliminary assessment of each paper submitted to International Journal of Protective Structures before it is sent out to reviewers. Papers that are marginal to the scope of the journal and/or below the minimum standard of the journal will be declined directly without going through the peer-review process. A manuscript that passes the preliminary assessment is sent to at least two reviewers to assess its suitability for publication in the journal. All manuscripts are reviewed as rapidly as possible, and an editorial decision is generally reached within 6-8 weeks of submission.
The Editor or members of the Editorial Board may occasionally submit their own manuscripts for possible publication in the journal. In these cases, the peer review process will be managed by alternative members of the Board and the submitting Editor/Board member will have no involvement in the decision-making process.
Papers should only be submitted for consideration once consent is given by all contributing authors. Those submitting papers should carefully check that all those whose work contributed to the paper are acknowledged as contributing authors.
The list of authors should include all those who can legitimately claim authorship. This is all those who:
- Made a substantial contribution to the concept or design of the work; or acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data,
- Drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content,
- Approved the version to be published,
- Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.
Authors should meet the conditions of all of the points above. When a large, multicentre group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship.
Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute authorship, although all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgments section. Please refer to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) authorship guidelines for more information on authorship.
Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.
2.3.1 Third party submissions
Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:
- Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input
- Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
- Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.
Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.
2.3.2 Writing assistance
Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance”).
It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.
Any acknowledgements should appear first at the end of your article prior to your Declaration of Conflicting Interests (if applicable), any notes and your References.
International Journal of Protective Structures requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading. Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
It is the policy of International Journal of Protective Structures to require a declaration of conflicting interests from all authors enabling a statement to be carried within the paginated pages of all published articles.
Please ensure that a ‘Declaration of Conflicting Interests’ statement is included at the end of your manuscript, after any acknowledgements and prior to the references. If no conflict exists, please state that ‘The Author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest’. For guidance on conflict of interest statements, please see the ICMJE recommendations here.
The journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages.
Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to:
- share your research data in a relevant public data repository
- include a data availability statement linking to your data. If it is not possible to share your data, we encourage you to consider using the statement to explain why it cannot be shared.
- cite this data in your research
Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway.
3.1.1 Plagiarism
International Journal of Protective Structures and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.
3.1.2 Prior publication
If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the Sage Author Gateway.
3.3 Open access and author archiving
International Journal of Protective Structures offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.
4. Preparing your manuscript for submission
The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.
Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article.
This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files.
International Journal of Protective Structures adheres to the Sage Harvard reference style. View the Sage Harvard guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.
If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the Sage Harvard EndNote output file.
4.5 English language editing services
Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.
International Journal of Protective Structures is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ijops to login and submit your article online.
IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created. For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.
As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.
The collection of ORCID iDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID iD you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID iD will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID iD is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.
If you do not already have an ORCID iD please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).
Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway.
6. On acceptance and publication
Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be sent by PDF to the corresponding author and should be returned promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.
Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.
6.3 Access to your published article
Sage provides authors with online access to their final article.
Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.
Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the International Journal of Protective Structures editorial office as follows:
Prof. Hong Hao (Editor-in-Chief), Curtin University, Australia
Email: Hong.Hao@curtin.edu.au.