Information for Authors

About the Journal

HBRC Journal is an Open Access international, peer-reviewed journal publishing high-quality, original research. Please see the journal's Aims & Scope for information about its focus and peer-review policy.
Open Access means you can publish your research so it is free to access online as soon as it is published, meaning anyone can read (and cite) your work.
Please note that this journal only publishes manuscripts in English.
HBRC Journal accepts the following types of article: original papers only.

Language

Manuscripts must be written in English in a clear and concise manner. Any author who is not fluent in idiomatic English is urged to seek assistance with manuscript preparation prior to submission. Reviewers are not expected to correct grammatical errors and any deficiency in this area may detract from the scientific content of the paper and result in acceptance delays or rejection.

Types of Articles

The journal seeks to publish original articles.

Original articles: Articles which represent in-depth research in various scientific disciplines.

Before Submission

Please make sure that your manuscript meets the below criteria:

Your manuscript is an original work and has not been published or is currently under review with another journal or Conference Proceedings.
Your work meets all the Research Ethics.
The English of the manuscript is acceptable and it should be free of grammatical and spelling errors.
The manuscript should be edited according to the …………. template (Manuscript Template).
Your figures are of acceptable quality and uploaded as separate files.
Your references are formatted correctly and numbered as they appear in the text. Please show the reference style.
Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims & scope of the journal will be reviewed.
Manuscripts must conform to the guidelines of the journal shown below.

Submissions that don't adhere to these guidelines will be rejected or returned to the Author prior to the peer review process.

Preparation of Manuscripts

Authors should submit their manuscripts to the editorial office as word files (word 2007 or higher) via the online Manuscript Tracking System. Manuscripts with mathematical content can also be submitted in Latex.
The original manuscript should be formatted with double line spacing using Times New Roman fonts (10 pt) and fully justified right and left.
The text must be in a single-column format with justified margins. Use bold face, italics, subscripts, and superscripts where appropriate.
To avoid unnecessary errors, the authors are strongly advised to use the "spell-check" and "grammar-check" functions of their word processing software.
Use continuous line numbering throughout the text and all manuscript pages must be numbered.
Use the equation editor or Math Type for equations.
Use the table function to make tables.
Use the decimal system of heading with no more than three levels, for instance, 1., 2., 2.1, 2.1.1, …etc.

Online Submission

Manuscripts should be submitted by one of the authors of the manuscript through the online Manuscript Tracking System (MTS) following the instructions given on the screen. Only Word (.doc, .docx, .rtf) files can be submitted through the MTS. Submissions by anyone other than one of the authors will not be accepted. The submitting author takes responsibility for the manuscript during submission and peer review. If for some technical reason, submission through the MTS is not possible, the author can contact the editorial office for support.

Initial evaluation

All submitted manuscripts will be checked by the Editorial Office to determine whether they are properly prepared and whether they follow the ethical policies of the journal. All submitted manuscripts are screened for potential plagiarism via iThenticate software. Manuscripts that do not fit the journal's ethics policy or do not meet the standards of the journal will be rejected before peer review. Incomplete manuscripts not prepared in the advised style will be sent back to authors without scientific review. After these checks, the Editorial Office will consult the journal’s Editor-in-Chief to determine whether the manuscript fits the scope of the journal and whether it is scientifically sound. Manuscripts with insufficient priority for publication will be rejected promptly. Please write your text in good English (American usage is accepted). The Editor reserves the right to reject a manuscript on the grounds of insufficient language quality. Reject decisions at this stage will be verified by the Editor-in-Chief.

Submission Declaration and Verification

Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract, a published lecture, or an academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it 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 originality, all manuscripts submitted to HBRC Journal are screened using Crossref Similarity Check Powered by iThenticate to identify any plagiarized content.

Article structure

The manuscript should be compiled in the following order:

Title page
Abstract, Keywords
Introduction
Material and methods (Experimental or Methodology)
Results
Discussion (Results and discussion can be combined in one section)
Conclusion
Acknowledgment(s)
Conflicts of Interest
References
Tables
Figures

Title page

The title page should include the following in English:

Title: The title should be brief, concise, and descriptive. It should not contain any literature references or compound numbers or non-standardized abbreviations. It should be centered, typed in Times New Roman 14 point and boldface.
Authors and affiliations: Supply given names, middle initials, and family names for complete identification. They should be centered beneath the title and typed in Times New Roman 11-point, non-italic, and boldface. Use superscript lowercase letters to indicate different affiliations, which should be as detailed as possible and must include department, faculty/college, University, the city with zip code or P.O. Box and country. The primary affiliation for each author should be the institution where most of their work was done. if an author has subsequently moved, the current address may additionally be stated. Addresses will not be updated after the publication of the article.
Corresponding author: Should be indicated with an asterisk, and contact details (Tel., fax, and e-mail address) should be placed in a footnote. If available, the 16-digit ORCID of the corresponding author.

Abstract

The abstract should be self-contained, citation-free, and should not exceed 300 words. The abstract should briefly describe the purpose of the study, how the investigation was performed, the most important results, and the principal conclusions that were drawn from the results, respectively. Nonstandard or uncommon abbreviations should be defined at first mention within the abstract. The abstract should be typed in Times New Roman, 9-point, non-italic and non-boldface.

Keywords

Authors are asked to provide (4 to 6) keywords, separated with semicolons, and should be typed in Times New Roman, 10-point, non-italic and non-boldface.

Introduction

This section should be succinct, with no subheadings. The author(s) should strive to define the significance of the work and the justification for its publication. Any background discussion should be brief and restricted to pertinent material.

Material and methods (Experimental or Methodology)

This part should contain sufficient detail that would enable all procedures to be repeated. It can be divided into subsections if several methods are described. Authors should be as concise as possible in experimental descriptions. The experimental section must contain all of the information necessary to guarantee reproducibility. Previously published methods should be indicated by a reference and only relevant modifications should be described. All vendor details, including company, city, and country, should be mentioned for chemicals, reagents, strains, etc. For statistical analysis, please state the appropriate test(s) in addition to a hypothesized p-value or significant level (for example 0.05).

Results and Discussion

They should be combined. The study results should be clear and concise. Restrict the use of tables and figures to depict data that is essential to the message and interpretation of the study. The results should be presented in a logical sequence in the text, tables and illustrations. The discussion should explore the significance of the results of the work, not repeat them. Include in the discussion the implications of the findings and their limitations, how the findings fit into the context of other relevant work, and directions for future research.

Conclusion(s)

The main conclusion(s) of the study should be presented in a short conclusion statement highlighting the goals of the study and its importance. State new hypotheses when warranted. Include recommendations when appropriate.

Acknowledgment(s)

All acknowledgments (if any) should be included at the very end of the manuscript before the references. Anyone who made a contribution to the research or manuscript, but who is not a listed author, should be acknowledged (with their permission).

Conflicts of Interest

Authors must declare all relevant interests that could be perceived as conflicting. Authors should explain why each interest may represent a conflict. If no conflicts exist, the authors should state this. Submitting authors are responsible for co-authors declaring their interests.

References

Text: Indicate references by Arabic numerals in brackets, which run in order of appearance throughout the text (Vancouver style). For instance [4] or [7-10, 13,15]. The actual authors can be referred to, but the reference number(s) must always be given.

Figures

Figures and tables should not be submitted in separate files. If the article is accepted, authors will be asked to provide the source files of the figures. Each figure should be supplied in a separate electronic file. All figures should be cited in the manuscript in consecutive order. Figures should be supplied in either vector art formats (Illustrator, EPS, WMF, FreeHand, CorelDraw, PowerPoint, Excel, etc.) or bitmap formats (Photoshop, TIFF, GIF, JPEG, etc.). Bitmap images should be of 300 dpi resolution at least unless the resolution is intentionally set to a lower level for scientific reasons. If a bitmap image has labels, the image and labels should be embedded in separate layers. Figures should be referred to as Fig. 1, Figs. 2, 3-5, using Arabic numerals. Ensure that all tables, figures, and schemes are cited in the text in numerical order. Figure parts should be denoted by lowercase letters (a,b,c,..etc).

Tables

Tables should be cited consecutively in the text. Every table must have a descriptive title and if numerical measurements are given, the units should be included in the column heading. Vertical rules should not be used. Figure and table captions should be 9-point Times New Roman, boldface, and non-italic. Initially capitalize only the first word of the caption. Figure captions are to be below the figures and Table titles are to be fully justified right and left above the table.

Funding Statement

Authors must state how the research and publication of their article were funded, by naming financially supporting body(s) (written out in full) followed by associated grant number(s) in square brackets (if applicable), for example: “This work was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council [grant numbers xxxx, yyyy]; the National Science Foundation [grant number zzzz]; and a Leverhulme Trust Research Project Grant”. If the research did not receive specific funding but was performed as part of the employment of the authors, please name this employer. If the funder was involved in the manuscript writing, editing, approval, or decision to publish, please declare this.

Nomenclature and Units

All measurements and data should be given in SI units where possible, or in other internationally accepted units in parentheses throughout the text. Illustrations and Tables should use conventional units, with conversion factors given in legends or footnotes.

Statements & Declarations

The following statements must be included in your submitted manuscript under the heading 'Statements and Declarations'. This should be placed after the References section. Please note that submissions that do not include required statements will be returned as incomplete.

Funding

Please describe any sources of funding that have supported the work. The statement should include details of any grants received (please give the name of the funding agency and grant number).
Example statements:
“This work was supported by […] (Grant numbers […] and […]). Author A.B. has received research support from Company A.”
“The authors declare that no funds, grants, or other support were received during the preparation of this manuscript.”

Competing Interests

Authors are required to disclose financial or non-financial interests that are directly or indirectly related to the work submitted for publication. Interests within the last 3 years of beginning the work (conducting the research and preparing the work for submission) should be reported. Interests outside the 3-year time frame must be disclosed if they could reasonably be perceived as influencing the submitted work.
Example statements:
“Financial interests: Author A and B declare they have no financial interests. Author C has received speaker and consultant honoraria from Company M. Dr. C has received speaker honorarium and research funding from Company M and Company N. Author D has received travel support from Company O. Non-financial interests: Author D has served on advisory boards for Company M and Company N.”
“The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.”
Please refer to the “Competing Interests” section below for more information on how to complete these sections.

Author Contributions

Authors are encouraged to include a statement that specifies the contribution of every author to the research and preparation of the manuscript.
Example statement:
“All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by [full name], [full name] and [full name]. The first draft of the manuscript was written by [full name] and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.”
Please refer to the “Authorship Principles” section below for more information on how to complete this section.

Author contributions: CRediT

Corresponding authors are required to acknowledge co-author contributions using CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) roles:

Conceptualization
Data curation
Formal analysis
Funding acquisition
Investigation
Methodology
Project administration
Resources
Software
Supervision
Validation
Visualization
Writing – original draft
Writing – review and editing

Not all CRediT roles will apply to every manuscript and some authors may contribute through multiple roles.
We advise you to read more about CRediT and view an example of a CRediT author statement.

Data Availability

This journal encourages authors to provide an optional statement of data availability in their article. Data Availability Statements should include information on where data supporting the results reported in the article can be found, including, where applicable, hyperlinks to publicly archived datasets analysed or generated during the study. Data availability statements can also indicate whether data are available on request from the authors and where no data are available, if appropriate.
Example statements:
“The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available in the [NAME] repository, [PERSISTENT LINK TO DATASETS]”
“The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.”
Please refer to the “Research Data Policy and Data Availability” section below for more information on how to complete this section.

Consent to publish

Individuals may consent to participate in a study, but object to having their data published in a journal article. If your manuscript contains any individual person’s data in any form (including any individual details, images or videos), consent for publication must be obtained from that person, or in the case of children, their parent or legal guardian. This is in particular applicable to case studies. A statement confirming that consent to publish has been received from all participants should appear in the manuscript.
Example statement:
“The authors affirm that human research participants provided informed consent for publication of the images in Figure(s) 1a, 1b and 1c.”
Please refer to the section on “Informed Consent” for additional help with completing this information.

Another example

Author Contributions:
Each author is expected to have made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; or the creation of new software used in the work; or have drafted the work or substantively revised it; AND has approved the submitted version (and version substantially edited by journal staff that involves the author’s contribution to the study); AND agrees to be personally accountable for the author’s own contributions and for ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work, even ones in which the author was not personally involved, are appropriately investigated, resolved, and documented in the literature.
For research articles with several authors, a short paragraph specifying their individual contributions must be provided. The following statements should be used "Conceptualization, X.X. and Y.Y.; Methodology, X.X.; Software, X.X.; Validation, X.X., Y.Y. and Z.Z.; Formal Analysis, X.X.; Investigation, X.X.; Resources, X.X.; Data Curation, X.X.; Writing – Original Draft Preparation, X.X.; Writing – Review & Editing, X.X.; Visualization, X.X.; Supervision, X.X.; Project Administration, X.X.; Funding Acquisition, Y.Y.

Funding:
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. Note that some funders will not refund article processing charges (APC) if the funder and grant number are not clearly and correctly identified in the paper. Funding information can be entered separately into the submission system by the authors during submission of their manuscript.
Please add: “This research received no external funding” or “This research was funded by [name of funder] grant number [xxx]” and “The APC was funded by [XXX]” in this section. Check carefully that the details given are accurate and use the standard spelling of funding agency.

Data Availability Statement:
In this section, please provide details regarding where data supporting reported results can be found, including links to publicly archived datasets analyzed or generated during the study. Please refer to suggested Data Availability Statements in section “MDPI Research Data Policies”. You might choose to exclude this statement if the study did not report any data.

Acknowledgments:
In this section you can acknowledge any support given which is not covered by the author contribution or funding sections. This may include administrative and technical support, or donations in kind (e.g., materials used for experiments).

Conflicts of Interest:
Authors must identify and declare any personal circumstances or interest that may be perceived as influencing the representation or interpretation of reported research results. If there is no conflict of interest, please state "The authors declare no conflict of interest." Any role of the funding sponsors in the choice of research project; design of the study; in the collection, analyses or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results must be declared in this section. For more details please see Conflict of Interest.

Data Availability

Please refer to the “Research Data Policy and Data Availability” section below for more information on how to complete this section.

Research Data Policy and Data Availability Guidelines for Authors

Research Data Policy

HBRC Journal encourages the sharing of research data to promote transparency, reproducibility, and the advancement of knowledge within the academic community. We recognize the importance of making data accessible to other researchers while respecting ethical and legal considerations. To this end, we have established the following guidelines for the inclusion of research data statements in submitted manuscripts:

Data Sharing Expectations:

Authors are encouraged to make their data available to the public whenever possible, except where privacy, confidentiality, or legal constraints apply. Data should be shared in a manner that allows verification of results and the reuse of data for further research.

Data Availability Statements

Authors are required to include a Data Availability Statement in their manuscripts. This statement should clearly outline where the data supporting the findings of the study can be accessed, or explain why the data cannot be shared. Below are examples of acceptable Data Availability Statements:

Data Available in a Public Repository:
The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available in the [NAME] repository, [PERSISTENT LINK TO DATASETS].
Data Available on Request:
The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
No Data Available:
No datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.

Proofs

One set of page proofs (as PDF files) will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author. Please use this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness, and correctness of the text, tables, and figures. We will do our best to get your article published quickly and accurately. Therefore, it is important to ensure that all of your corrections are sent back in one communication within 48 h. Proofreading is solely your responsibility. Note that the publisher may proceed with the publication of an article if no response is received.

Revised manuscripts

When you revise your manuscript, upload your revised submissions including the following files:

Revised manuscript: Clarifying the changes you have made since the original submission by using the "Track Changes" option in Microsoft Word. Upload this as a "Revised Article with Changes Highlighted" file.
Response to reviewers: Type the specific points made by each reviewer. Include your responses to all the reviewers' and editors' comments and list the changes you have made to the manuscript. Upload this document as a "Response to reviewers" file.
Revised manuscript (clean copy): Upload a clean copy of your revised manuscript with names, which does not show your changes. Upload this as your "Manuscript" file.

After acceptance

Upon acceptance, your article will be exported to production to undergo typesetting. Once the typesetting is complete, you will receive the proofs.

Peer Review

All manuscripts are subjected to peer review and are expected to meet the standards of academic excellence. If approved by the editor, submissions will be considered by peer reviewers, whose identities will remain anonymous to the authors and vice versa, identities of authors will remain anonymous to the reviewers (Double-blind peer review). The decision regarding the acceptance or rejection of a manuscript is the responsibility of the editorial board and is based on the recommendations of the reviewers (peer-reviewed process).

Article Publishing Charge

submission fee: .

Publication Charges

Submission fee:
• Regarding non-HBRC researchers: (in Egypt)
The fees will be 7500 Egyptian pounds and will be paid as follows:
1000 Egyptian pounds (non-refundable) and 6500 Egyptian pounds (the rest of the 7500 Egyptian pounds) in case, the manuscript is accepted.
• Regarding HBRC researchers:
The fees will be 2000 Egyptian pounds.
They will be paid as follows:
700 Egyptian pounds (non-refundable) and 1300 Egyptian pounds (the rest of the 2000 Egyptian pounds) in case, the manuscript is accepted.
• For researchers outside Egypt:
The fees will be 500 American dollars.
They will be paid as follows:
100 American dollars (non-refundable) and 400 American dollars (the rest of the fees) in case, the manuscript is accepted.