About the Journal
Journal of Science & Engineering (J S&E) publishes high quality, peer-reviewed, original research, short articles, articles, letters, and reports by promising students of science and engineering. J S&E is a publication of the Freehold Regional High School District Press. Our online ISSN is 3066-7623 and our print ISSN is 3066-7607. Metadata and digital object identifiers (DOI) are registered with Crossref. J S&E is an open access journal.
Our primary aim is to highlight science and engineering original research done by secondary students. An ancillary goal is to teach science/engineering communication, technical writing, and the peer review process to secondary students.
The Journal began providing content online in 2024. The Science & Engineering Program at Manalapan High School has existed and nurtured student work since 1985. J S&E is supported by Science & Engineering alumni, and by the Freehold Regional High School District.
Open Access
J S&E is an open access journal and a paywall annihilator. There are no fees charged to authors. Articles are published under a Creative Commons license (BY-NC 4.0) and are open immediately upon publication.
This is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.
J S&E is archived. CLOCKSS system has permission to ingest, preserve, and serve this open access Archival Unit. LOCKSS system has permission to collect, preserve, and serve this open access Archival Unit.
Peer-review process
All submitted manuscripts undergo a rigorous, single-blinded anonymous peer review process to ensure academic integrity. Reviewers may include editorial board members, external experts, and other peers (including students); and may include reviewers suggested by authors. Reviewers will not include close collaborators, and generally will be drawn from students outside of the author's section (for manuscripts originating from classwork). All submitted materials, including supplementary materials, data, video, and code, are subject to peer review.
Upon submission, manuscripts are bench reviewed by an editor, then sent for peer review to at least three peer reviewers. The process is described further on the submission page. Authors, editors, and peer reviewers should refer to COPE's Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers and are expected to protect the confidentiality of participants in the peer review process. During the peer-review process, submissions are checked for AI use and plagiarism.
In AY2027, we will be trialing ways to accomplish double-blinded reviews. J S&E will also begin listing dates of submission and acceptance with published works.
Editorial Responsibilities
J S&E is under the editorial direction of the editors. It is the editors who make the final publication decisions; they ensure the accuracy, completeness, and originality of every published article; they are accountable for all the content published in the journal. All editorial decisions are made following rigorous, fair, and timely peer review. Editors and peer reviewers should refer to COPE's Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers and are expected to protect the confidentiality of participants in the peer review process.
This journal follows the guidelines and code of conduct of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). We are committed to maintaining the highest standards of publication ethics and take all possible measures against publication malpractice. All submitted manuscripts undergo a rigorous, single-blinded anonymous peer review process to ensure academic integrity. Authors must ensure their work is original, properly cited, and free from plagiarism or data fabrication. All authors must disclose any financial or substantive conflicts of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. Policies on consent to publication, research on vulnerable populations, and ethical conduct of research using animals or human subjects are strictly enforced.
All submissions are checked for AI use and plagiarism during the review process. All submissions are screened for plagiarism using iThenticate / Crossref Similarity Check. J S&E is willing to publish corrections, clarifications, and retractions when needed. J S&E is committed to preserving the integrity of the scholarly version of record. Anyone who has reason to think that specific research exhibits research malpractice should bring their concern directly to the editor, or email at devangelista at frhsd.com.
Author Responsibilities
Authors should submit only original work that properly cites or quotes the work of others. JS&E will not accept work substantially written by generative AI and Large Language Models (LLM). Authors must provide AI and plagiarism checks as part of submission. Articles should not be simultaneously under consideration by another journal. Article submissions are routinely screened for plagiarism using iThenticate / Crossref Similarity Check.
Authors are fully responsible for the entirety of their work. Authors must guarantee that their submitted work contains no matter that can be construed as libelous or as infringing in any way on the copyright of another party. All listed authors must disclose in their submission any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their work. All sources of financial support for their research must be disclosed.
Authors should be prepared to provide the raw data in connection with their work for editorial review and should be prepared to provide public access to such data.
If an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in their published work, it is the author's obligation to promptly notify the journal editor and cooperate fully with the editor to correct the article with a published erratum or to retract it.
Authors are not charged any submission or article-processing fees.
Editors, editorial board members, reviewers, and authors are expected to communicate in a respectful and professional manner. Any form of intimidation, harassment, or discrimination is unacceptable and may lead to appropriate action.
Authors may post their accepted article manuscript noncommercially, without embargo, on their personal website, in their university or school repository, and in other nonprofit or governmental open access repositories, with copyright and source information provided along with a link to the published version as soon as it is available. Where required by their funder or institution, authors may also apply a Creative Commons license (BY 4.0) to the AAM.
Publication Ethics Statement
There are standards of expected ethical behavior for all parties involved in the publishing of scholarly journal articles: the authors, the journal editors, the peer reviewers, and the publisher. This publication ethics statement is based on COPE’s Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors. The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) provides resources for journal editors, peer reviewers, and authors on the topic of professional publishing standards at publicationethics.org. In addition to COPE, the following organizations have also collaborated to identify best practices for scholarly publications: the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA), and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME).
The Journal of Science & Engineering is committed to high standards of critical scholarly review and professional publishing judgment. Journals published by J S&E are under the editorial direction of their independent editor or editors. It is the journal editors who make all decisions regarding the content published in each issue; they ensure the accuracy, completeness, and originality of each article published. J S&E supports our journal editors and sponsors in their efforts to manage their journals ethically and transparently, while adhering to established editorial principles and practices in their disciplines.
Editorial Decisions
The editors of each journal are responsible for selecting which articles will be accepted for publication. Each journal editor, with the assistance from their editorial board, create the policies and guidelines for their journal while abiding by legal requirements regarding plagiarism, libel, and copyright infringement. The editors may request assistance from other journal editors or reviewers when making their decisions.
The journal editors evaluate the content of each manuscript for appropriateness for the journal. Each manuscript is also evaluated for the intellectual content without regard to the author’s sex, race, ethnic origin, religious beliefs, or political philosophy.
Any unpublished materials which have been included within a submitted manuscript must not be used in an editor’s own research without the express written consent of the original manuscript author.
Peer Reviewer Duties
This journal has a Peer Review Process in place which assists the editor in making editorial decisions about a manuscript’s quality and suitability for publication. The journal editor may provide manuscript authors with each peer-reviewer’s response, which can help authors in improving their manuscript.
Potential peer reviewers who do not feel qualified to review a manuscript, or believes that they will not be able to provide a prompt response, should notify the editor as soon as possible. The reviewer should be an impartial party with respect to the author(s) of the manuscript. It is important for reviewers to inform the journal editor, if they suspect, or are aware of, a conflict of interest which may include prior co-authorship, a close professional relationship, or a personal relationship.
All submissions received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shared or discussed with others, except as permitted by the journal editor.
Manuscript reviews must be conducted objectively and without personal criticism of the author. Each Reviewer should express their views clearly and provide supporting arguments.
Reviewers should identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the authors. Reviewers should also make the editor aware if they recognize a significant resemblance between the manuscript under review and any other published paper.
Any ideas or information obtained through peer review is considered privileged information and should be kept confidential. If a Reviewer has a professional or personal connection with any of the authors or institutions connected to the paper, they should inform the editor that a conflict of interest may exist.
The scholarly peer review process applies to original research articles only. Other types of scholarly content which regularly appear in scholarly journals such as book and media reviews, political reviews, dialogue, editorial commentary, and others, are not usually subject to the peer review process.
Additional information on Ethical Guidelines for Peer-Reviewers may be reviewed on the COPE website.
Authorship
Each author listed on the manuscript should be limited to only those who have made a significant contribution to the concept, design, execution, or interpretation of the research or study. Every person who has made a significant contribution to the paper should be listed as co-author. If there are others who have participated in a significant way to the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as a contributor. The corresponding author should review and confirm that co-authors are included on the paper, and that all co-authors have seen and approved and agreed to submit the final version of the paper.
All authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be understood to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the research project should also be properly acknowledged.
Authors of papers reporting on original research must provide an accurate description of the research/work performed and an objective discussion of its importance to the field. All evidence and supporting data should be represented accurately in the paper. Each manuscript should also include references that allow others the ability to reconstruct the argument. It is unacceptable to intentionally include inaccurate statements or fabricated data in the manuscript, which is considered unethical behavior.
Authors must guarantee that their submitted work contains no content that may be considered as libelous or as infringing in any way on the copyright of another party. If the authors have used the work and/or words of others, it has been appropriately cited or quoted.
Authors are asked to provide the raw evidence and data in connection with a paper for editorial review and should be prepared to provide access to such evidence (consistent with the ALPSP-STM Statement on Data and Databases) and should be prepared to retain such evidence and data for a reasonable time after publication.
Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable. The journal editor will make every effort to process and evaluate submissions in a timely fashion. Should an author decide to submit the manuscript to another journal, he/she must request the journal editor to withdraw their manuscript from consideration.
Authors must properly acknowledge the work of others and should cite all publications that have been influential in determining their scholarly understanding of the subject of their paper.
Authors must sign a publication agreement in order for their accepted manuscript to be published in the journal. Each journal has its own publication agreement which will be provided to the author upon acceptance of their manuscript.
Errors in Published Works
When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in their own published paper, it is the author’s responsibility to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor and publisher to retract or correct their paper.
If the journal editor finds that a significant error has been published for which a correction needs to be made, and in cases where there is reason for concern about matters such as plagiarism, fabrication of research, duplicate publication, or failure to disclose conflicts of interest, the editor will review and resolve the matter in consultation with J S&E. In all instances, the publisher is committed to preserving the integrity of the scholarly version of record.
AI and Automated Tools
As a major aim of J S&E is to develop students ability to communicate science themselves, generative AI may not be used in initial submissions. Generative AI may not be used in revisions beyond straightforward spelling and grammar correction. The human inputs provided by reviewers and the editors are considered better guides for editing of revisions; and the editor will provide assistance with final formatting. Automated tools may not be credited as authors or as sources.
Peer reviewers and editors should not use generative AI to create assessments due to risks such as breaches of confidentiality, superficial and non-specific feedback, bias, hidden prompts, and false information such as fake references. J S&E does not use generative AI tools in editing and preparing final copy.
Authors and reviewers are encouraged to self-check their manuscripts using free AI detection tools, and J S&E uses the Turnitin / Crossref similarity checker in screening for plagiarism.
