Digital Technologies Research and Applications

About the Journal

 

Aim and Scope

Digital Technologies Research and Applications (DTRA) is a peer-reviewed open-access journal published two issues a year in English-language, providing researchers, scholars, scientists, and engineers throughout the world with the exchange and dissemination of theoretical and practice-oriented papers dealing with digital technologies and applications. The DTRA covers the theory and application of digital technologies in various scientific, technological, engineering, and social fields. All the papers are refereed by at least two international reviewers and accepted papers will be available online (free access).

Topics include, but are not limited to:

  • 5G Networks
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Big Data
  • Blockchain
  • Computer Graphics and Animation
  • Connected and Wearable Devices
  • Cybersecurity
  • Data Analytics
  • Data Mining
  • Digital Archiving and Preservation
  • Digital Humanities
  • Digital Museums
  • Digital Twins
  • Edge, Fog, and Cloud Computing
  • Green Communications
  • Human-AI Interaction
  • Identity and Access Management
  • Immersive Technologies
  • Industrial Design
  • Industry 4.0
  • Intelligent Information Systems
  • Intelligent Sensing and Fusion
  • Internet of Things (IoT)
  • Machine Learning
  • Multimedia Processing
  • Natural Language Processing and Speech Recognition
  • Neurocomputing
  • Robotics
  • Sensor Networks
  • Smart Cities
  • Virtual and Augmented Reality
  • Web and Mobile App Development

Publication Frequency

The Digital Technologies Research and Applications is published two issues per year.

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate Gold Open Access to its content as it believes that making research freely available to the public helps promote the research results benefiting the scholarly community.

  • Higher Visibility, Availability, and Citations – free and unlimited accessibility of the publication over the internet without any restrictions, increases citation of the article;
  • Ease of Search – publications are easily searchable in search engines and indexing databases;
  • Rapid Publication – accepted papers are immediately published online.

Types of Publications

Manuscripts submitted to Digital Technologies Research and Applications should neither be published previously nor be under consideration for publication in another journal. The main types of publications are listed below.

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, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusions (optional) sections, with a suggested minimum word count of 4000 words.

Review

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, Conclusions, and Future Directions, with a suggested minimum word count of 4000 words.

Communication

Communications are 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.

Editorial

These are non-peer-reviewed texts used to announce the launch of a new journal, a new section, a new Editor-in-Chief, a Special Issue, or an invited editorial. The main text should provide a brief introduction of the purpose and aim of the Editorial—to present the new journal, close the Special Issue, report on a pressing topic, etc. Editorials should not include unpublished or original data, although must provide a Conflict of Interest statement. Editorials prepared for the launch of new journals may also include a short biography of the Editor-in-Chief.

Peer Review Process

All manuscripts submitted to Digital Technologies Research and Applications must follow the scope and author guidelines of this journal. The submitted manuscripts must address scientific merit or novelty appropriate to the scope. The Editor has the right to reject articles that do not meet the scope or the Guidance for Authors' requirements. Editors check the plagiarism detection of articles in this journal by using iThenticate.

The research article submitted to this journal will be peer-reviewed with a double–blind review. Peer Review Statement Quality is ensured by rigorous and integrity, anonymous peer evaluation of each main paper by at least two independent referees. The reviewers give valuable scientific comments improving the contents of the manuscript. The final decision on article acceptance will be made by the Editor, on behalf of the Editorial Board according to the reviewer's comments.

Utilizing feedback from the peer review process, the Editor will make a final publication decision. The review process will take approximately 2 to 4 weeks. Decisions categories include：

Accept: Accepted manuscripts will be published in the current form with no further modifications required.

Accept with Revisions: Manuscripts receiving a revisions decision will be published in Digital Technologies Research and Applications under the condition that minor/major modifications are made. Revisions will be reviewed by an editor to ensure necessary updates are made prior to publication.

Resubmit for Review: The submission needs to be re–worked, but with significant changes, may be accepted. However, It will require a second round of review.

Reject: Rejected manuscripts will not be published and authors will not have the opportunity to resubmit a revised version of the manuscript to Digital Technologies Research and Applications.

In one or two weeks, the author sends the revised version of it to the editors’ office. If after this period the article is not returned (or the editorial board is not informed about any delay) – the article is refused.

Publishing Ethics

Digital Technologies Research and Applications requests all members involved in the journal publishing process to adhere to the Code of Conduct and to its Best Practice Guidelines by Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

The editors of this journal enforce a rigorous peer-review process together with strict ethical policies and standards to ensure to add high quality scientific works to the field of scholarly publication. Unfortunately, cases of plagiarism, data falsification, image manipulation, inappropriate authorship credit, and the like, do arise. The editors of Digital Technologies Research and Applications take such publishing ethics issues very seriously and are trained to proceed in such cases with a zero tolerance policy.

The in-house editors will investigate any allegations of publication misconduct and may contact the authors' institutions or funders if necessary. If evidence of misconduct is found, appropriate action will be taken to correct or retract the publication. Authors are expected to comply with the best ethical publication practices when publishing with Digital Technologies Research and Applications.

Human and Animal Rights Policy

Human Research

If human subjects were used in the experiments, authors must identify the committee or organization (e.g., author’s Institutional Ethics Review Board) approving the experiments in the Materials and Methods section of the manuscript, which should also detail ethics approval information such as the name of the granting committee or organization and the approval identifiers, i.e., reference numbers. Our journal requires that authors provide proof of research ethics or ethics statement along with the submission. In the case that ethics approval identifiers are not available, written approval from the granting committee or organization must be provided as a confidential supplementary file.

In the manuscript, include a statement in the Materials and Methods section confirming that the experiments were carried out in adherence to the ethical principles set out in the WMA Declaration of Helsinki or other relevant institutional and national guidelines and regulations and that informed consent was obtained from all human subjects. For investigations undertaken on human subjects, the manner in which the informed consent was obtained from the study participants (i.e., oral or written) should be stated clearly as well.

The authors should inform the study participants of the purpose(s) of publication, the possible risks and benefits as a result of the experiment, and the patient's right to withhold or withdraw consent. Consent should be obtained from the parent(s) or legal guardian(s) if the study participant is a minor.

Authors are obliged to declare and clearly specify any restrictions on the availability or the use of human data in the manuscript.

Patient Anonymity and Privacy

Human subjects have a right to privacy that should not be violated without informed consent. Identifying information or patient identifiers, including patient names, initials, date of birth, contacts, medical record numbers, hospital numbers, and geographical location, should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, or pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. Efforts must be made by the authors to at least mask or conceal any identifying information of the patients that appear in writing or within photographs.

Authors are obliged to explain to the patient if revealing the patient’s identity cannot be fully avoided, e.g., an image of an identifiable body part like the face has to be published in the report. The relevant identifying information to be published, e.g., the image, must be shown to the patient, and consent for publication taken for the use of that information in the publication. If the patient dies, then consent must be obtained from the next of kin or legal representative. We shall consider the author's version of the consent form for publication if all the essential items as shown in our sample consent form were included.

All submissions will be checked for documentation of patient consent for publication and for any potentially identifying information. Submissions that include identifying patients.

Animal Research

For studies describing testing on regulated animals (i.e., all live vertebrates and/or higher invertebrates), authors must identify the committee or organization (e.g., author’s Institutional Ethics Review Board) approving the experiments in the Materials and Methods section of the manuscript, which should also detail ethics approval information such as the name of the granting committee or organization and the approval identifiers, i.e., reference numbers. For research conducted on non-regulated animals, a statement should be made as to why ethical approval was not required. Our journal requires that authors provide proof of research ethics or ethics statement along with the submission. In the case that ethics approval identifiers are not available, written approval from the granting committee or organization must be provided as a confidential supplemental file.

Authors are encouraged to follow the ARRIVE guidelines while reporting animal research. In the manuscripts, any additional guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals that were used in the experiment should be indicated. Briefly, the authors should also include animal details (e.g., species, gender, age, weight), animal housing conditions and husbandry information, and relevant steps taken to ameliorate the pain and suffering of the animals in the Materials and Methods section.

Specifically, experiments on non-human primates must be performed in accordance with the recommendations set out in the Weatherall report (The Use of Non-Human Primates in Research).

Application of Cell Lines

To ensure research reproducibility, authors must declare what cell lines were used in their experiment and the source or origin of all cell lines utilized. It is advisable to provide information regarding the authentication of cell lines and testing for mycoplasma contamination.

The generation of de novo cell lines derived from human tissue must be approved by the relevant ethics committee (or the author’s Institutional Ethics Review Board). Authors must identify the committee or organization (e.g. author’s Institutional Ethics Review Board) approving the experiments in the Materials and Methods section of the manuscript, which should also detail ethics approval information such as the name of the granting committee or organization and the approval identifiers, i.e., reference numbers. Our journal requires that authors provide proof of research ethics or ethics statement along with the submission. In the case that ethics approval identifiers are not available, written approval from the granting committee or organization must be provided as a confidential supplementary file. Authors must confirm that they obtained consent from the donor or next of kin for deriving a cell line from the donor.

Authorship

The consent of all authors, as well as related authorities/institutions has been received prior to the submission of the manuscript.

The order of the authors (as to be reflected in the published article) has been established. The adding or deleting of authors once the manuscript has been accepted for publication would have to be accompanied by a signed statement of consent from all authors.

All authors have contributed significantly to the research. Authors are obligated to participate in the peer review process, providing retractions/corrections/amendments when necessary.

Conflict of Interest

Conflicts of interest may exist when professional judgments concerning a primary interest have the possibility of being influenced by a secondary interest (e.g.: financial gains). It is to be noted that even perceptions of conflicts of interest are as important as actual conflicts of interest.

Any agreements with study sponsors (for-profit or non-profit), which interfere with the authors’ access to the study data, ability to analyze or interpret the data and publish manuscripts independently according to their own decision, should be avoided by authors at all costs.

A declaration of interest for all authors must be received before an article can be reviewed and accepted for publication.

Indexing & Archiving

As a young journal, the Editorial Team behind Digital Technologies Research and Applications is currently doing its best to have the journal indexed in databases all around the world.

The journal has been indexed/included by

Google Scholar

WorldCat

Scilit

Article Processing Charges (APC)

This journal is Gold open access, and the Article Processing Charge (APC) is 300 USD, which is applicable only to authors whose manuscripts have been successfully accepted after peer review.

At UK Scientific Publishing Limited, we strongly believe that the APC should not become a barrier in the publication process. A range of discounts or waivers are offered to authors who are not able to cover the APC.

Withdrawal Policy

If the author decides to withdraw an article after it has been accepted (but not yet published),  he/she would be required to pay a penalty fee. Authors are advised to keep in mind that an article should only be withdrawn if the authors detect significant errors or flaws, as it is not an acceptable practice to withdraw an article after it has been sent for peer review. The withdrawal process is considered to be complete once the author receives a confirmation of withdrawal from the Journal Editorial Office.

Language

This journal is published in the English language.

Authors whose first language is not English may want to have their manuscripts professionally edited before the final submission to ensure that the academic content of the paper is fully understood by its prospective readers.

Journal History

2022                         The inaugural issue was released. DTRA was published as a semiyearly journal.

2022-present           Editor-in-Chiefs: Prof. Dr. Ashraf Darwish and Prof. Dr. Maria Alessandra Ragusa

Advertising Policy

All advertisements are subject to approval by the Publisher. Advertisements must comply with the relevant regulations in the country where the advertisements appear. For more inquiries, please send an email to dtra@ukscip.org.

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.