About the Journal
Focus and Scope
The spectrum of relevant research themes covered by the ASFE edition encompasses modelling of fire dynamics, heat transfer to structural elements, numerical modelling of thermo-structural behaviour at elevated temperatures, structural fire testing at elemental and structural scales, the development of simplified design methods and studies based on the structural Eurocodes, practical design case studies, active/passive fire protection, smoke development, evacuation of buildings and human behaviour, energy efficiency and fire safety, fire brigade investigations, environmental protection or human response, benchmarking, etc.
Our aim is to be a high-quality fire engineering title publishing the results of basic research and also applied research. We place emphasis on the quality of all published papers.
The ASFE should also serve as a bridge between practitioners, building/fire control authorities, fire-fighters and academic research network. The non-research fire safety community should benefit from exposure to advanced research findings, discussion with researchers and the sharing of best practice. The input from this community gives researchers and awareness of real-world constrains, and an appreciation of where new research and standards are needed.
We hope that you will find our title interesting, and that it will serve as a valuable source of scientific information.
Peer Review Process
Applications of Structural Fire Engineering covers a wide spectrum of fire engineering topics.
We welcome high-quality scientific work that has not previously been published and that contains outputs that are beneficial and original.
All papers are assessed by the editorial board, and accepted papers are then reviewed by at least two independent reviewers in single blind review process. Reviewers are asked to recommend papers of particularly high importance, which they consider significant and interesting for the scientific community.
The review process is usually completed within four months. Deadlines for acceptance of abstracts, full papers and final papers are specified at upcoming conference web pages.
Publication Frequency
Proceedings of ASFE conference are published once per two years, depending on the date of conference.
Open Access Policy
ASFE provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.
Publication ethics and malpractice statement
The publisher and editorial board of the Applications of Structural Fire Engineering have adopted the ethical standards and guidelines published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE; http://publicationethics.org). These guidelines specify the ethical principles that are expected from the authors, reviewers, editors, and the publisher.
The authors shall follow the international standards stated in the COPE document: Responsible research publication: international standards for authors.
Available at: http://publicationethics.org/files/International%20standards_authors_for%20website_11_Nov_2011.pdf
Retrieved from: http://publicationethics.org/resources/international-standards-for-editors-and-authors
Summary:
Authors shall publish only original work, which is not plagiarized and has not been published anywhere else. The same work should not be submitted to multiple publications unless agreed between all parties involved. Authors shall inform editors if the same research findings have been published previously or if multiple reports or multiple analyses of a single data set are under consideration for publication elsewhere. All information incl. data, graphs, charts, pictures, etc. shall be properly acknowledged and cited.
All parties (authors, co-authors, funders, etc.) shall be properly recognized, acknowledged, and introduced honestly. Authors shall not omit any contributors; however also shall not listed co-authors without a significant contribution to the work. No contribution shall be given to any party that had brought no contribution to the work. Authors shall prevent from guest, gift, and ghost authorship. All authors shall agree on the final version of the document and should agree to be listed as authors.
All authors are responsible for the entire work. All authors shall work with the editors to correct any mistakes if those have been discovered. Authors should respond appropriately to reviewers’ comments and provide additional information past the review process if necessary.
Presented research should have been conducted in ethical manner. Methods used, calculations, findings, and data presentation shall be checked carefully to make sure all information at all stages is correct. Authors should take collective responsibility for their work and for the content of their publications.
Research results shall be presented honestly, without falsifications, or any inappropriate data manipulation. All stages of the research shall be described clearly to allow other researchers and research teams to repeat the research. The authors shall describe complete and final research results. Work of others shall be cited properly, all read documents shall be listed; no literature that has not been used for the research shall be listed in the reference list.
The full citation of the document:
Wager E & Kleinert S (2011) Responsible research publication: international standards for authors. A position statement developed at the 2nd World Conference on Research Integrity, Singapore, July 22 - 24, 2010. Chapter 50 in: Mayer T & Steneck N (eds) Promoting Research Integrity in a Global Environment. Imperial College Press / World Scientific Publishing, Singapore (pp 309-16). (ISBN 978-981-4340-97-7) Also available online at: http://publicationethics.org/files/International%20standards_authors_for%20website_11_Nov_2011.pdf
The reviewers shall follow the COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers.
Available at: http://publicationethics.org/files/Peer%20review%20guidelines.pdf
Retrieved from: http://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines
Summary:
Reviewers are expected to review such works they have professional expertise for. Reviewers shall keep confidentiality of the reviewed document, shall not use any information they gain during the peer review process to their own or to third parties benefit, nor to discredit others.
Reviews are expected to be completed in a timely manner and reviewers are asked to respond as soon as possible especially if they cannot conduct the review for any reason. The review shall be objective, constructive, not influenced by the authors’ identity or background, or by any commercial issues. Reviewers shall also report all potential conflict interests to the journal.
The editors shall follow the COPE Code of Conduct for Journal Editors
Available at: http://publicationethics.org/files/Code%20of%20Conduct.pdf
Retrieved from: http://publicationethics.org/resources/code-conduct
Summary:
Editors are responsible for the content of the journal. They assure quality of the content they publish, and shall publish errata, or clarification immediately when necessary. They also assure authors freedom of expression.
The peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed sections of the journal shall be clearly marked. Peer review shall be conducted by qualified reviewers and professionals in the particular subject area. Peer review shall be fair, unbiased, and timely process. Editors shall ensure confidentiality of all material and information gained during the peer review and publication process.
The decision on acceptance / rejection of the paper shall be done upon the paper’s importance and suitability for the journal in terms of its originality, validity, and aims of the journal. Authors of the criticized papers shall be given an opportunity to respond to the critique and comments. Editors respond promptly to all complaints and ensure to make all effort to resolve these. In case of misconduct, or suspicion of misconduct, editors are obliged to take all steps to pursue and properly investigate all individual cases and take appropriate conclusions. Commercial considerations shall not affect editorial decisions, nor the quality or scope of the articles published. All detailed requirements and information, incl. information about the peer review process, are stated in the “information for authors” section.
The editors further provide information for reviewers, communicate with them on issues related to their agreement to review papers, and protect the reviewers’ identity in case of (single- or double-) blind peer review process. Further information for reviewers is stated in the “information for reviewers” section.
The editors shall ensure intellectual property rights of authors and shall be aware of all new issues within intellectual property laws and conventions. They shall also be aware of new editorial policies and standards and shall keep all related parties (authors, reviewers, members of the editorial board, journal owners, publishers) informed about these.
Editors shall make sure all research published has been done in ethical manners. They shall also have to have tools to deal with any conflicts of interest of their staff, authors, reviewers, editorial board, owner / publisher, and their own.
The publisher shall follow the COPE Code of Conduct for Journal Editors
Available at: http://publicationethics.org/files/Code%20of%20conduct%20for%20publishers%20FINAL_1_0.pdf
Retrieved from: http://publicationethics.org/resources/code-conductSponsors
Journal History
The APPLICATIONS OF STRUCTURAL FIRE ENGINEERING (ASFE) is an edition of serial international conferences´ proceedings published by the Czech Technical University in Prague. The first title is connected to International Conference held in Prague on 19-20 February, 2009.
The main purpose of the conference was to present European practice in structural fire engineering tending more and more to acceptance of the benefits to be gained from performance-based approaches to fire-resistant design. The proceedings from the first Applications of Structural Fire Engineering conference presents the state of the art in the development and application of both simple and advanced performance-based design methods for concrete, steel and timber structures.
Since 2009 the conferences of ASFE edition as well as proceedings have been appearing once per two years.
The spectrum of relevant research themes covered by the ASFE edition encompasses fire modelling, heat transfer to structural elements, numerical modelling of thermo-structural behaviour at elevated temperatures, structural fire testing at elemental and structural scales, the development of simplified design methods and studies based on the structural Eurocodes. Practical design case studies demonstrating the ways in which performance-based structural fire safety design methods have been applied to real projects, and the economic and safety implications of using these methods in place of the traditional rules, are also included.
Proceedings are available both in printed and online version.
