Editorial Policies

Authors should read the “Author Guidelines” before making a submission, and make sure that the manuscripts were written in accordance to the style and specifications of the journal’s policy.
All manuscripts submitted to Journal of Building Design and Environment are subject to rigorous peer review. Prior to peer review process, the manuscripts will be screened for acceptable English language, novelty and relevance to the Aims and Scope of the journal.
Any manuscripts submitted to Journal of Building Design and Environment will be treated as confidential materials. The manuscripts will not be disclosed to anyone except individuals such as editorial staff, reviewers and editors who participate in the initial screening, review, processing and preparation of the manuscript for publication (if accepted).

Publishing Ethics

Ethics and publishing behavior are an essential part of the development of a respected journal. It is a direct reflection of the quality of work of the author. Therefore, it is important to agree upon standards of expected ethical behavior. Our editorial and publishing policies are primarily based on the guidelines recommended by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) and International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

Open Access Policy

All academic journals launched by Omniscient Pte. Ltd. are under the model of Gold Open Access. All articles published in those journals will be immediately freely available to read, download and share on the Internet once it published online. Articles are published under the terms of a Creative Commons Licenses which permits to use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
The gold open access article is free to access online immediately and permanently in its final published version. All articles that are published gold open access are subject to our rigorous peer review, professional editing and production services and will be freely accessible to all on our website.
The benefits of gold open access are:
Enhance visibility and impact of author's work since open access articles are downloaded and cited more frequently than articles from non-open access journals.
Strengthen the exchange and spread of scientific knowledge, information and data to promote education and research development.
Retention of copyright by authors.
Publish faster than articles in non-open access journals.
More public participation. Everyone has access to the latest research.

Publication Frequency

Semi-annual

Article Processing Charges

Journal of Building Design and Environment is an Open Access Journal under Omniscient Pte. Ltd. All articles published in Journal of Building Design and Environment are accessible electronically from the journal website without the need for subscription fees or other forms of payment from the readers. In order to ensure our content is freely available for the benefit of a wider audience while uncompromising our journal quality, an Article Processing Charge (APC) is applicable to all authors who wish to submit their articles to the journal. The APC is intended to cover the underlying costs of article processing, such as peer-review, copyediting, typesetting, publishing, content depositing and archiving processes. Those charges are applicable only to authors whose manuscripts have been successfully accepted after peer-review.

Journal	APC(SGD)
Journal of Building Design and Environment	S$1000

*At Omniscient Pte. Ltd., 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. Authors can write in to apply for a waiver and requests will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Authorship

An author is an individual who has made a significant contribution to the development of the manuscript. ICMJE recommends that authorship be based on the following four criteria:
Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work;
Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content;
Final approval of the version to be published;
Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Corresponding Authors

The corresponding author is responsible for communicating with the editor during the manuscript processing process and ensuring that all listed authors have approved the manuscript prior to submission. The manuscript should include contact information of the corresponding author so that others can contact the research group after publication. A manuscript may have no more than two corresponding authors.

Authorship Change

If authors want to change authorship during manuscript processing, they should explain the reason for the change. Any change in authorship must be approved by all authors. After formal acceptance of the manuscript, the identity of the author cannot be changed.

Corrections and Retractions

Corrections: The published articles can be corrected with the authorization of the editor of the journal. Where changes in published articles affect the interpretation and conclusions of the articles but do not completely invalidate the articles, the corrected version shall also be published. The original and corrected versions will be linked to each other. A statement will also be issued explaining the reasons for the major change to the article.
Retractions: In rare cases, retractions of published articles may be necessary when the scientific information in the articles is materially compromised. All co-authors must sign a retraction to specify the error and briefly explain how the conclusion was affected, and submit it for publication. If misconduct is found in the published article, we will issue a statement of concern during the investigation. If necessary, the published article will be retracted with a statement of explanation.

The Plagiarism Policy

By submitting articles to Omniscient Pte. Ltd., the author attests the followings: None of the part of manuscript is plagiarized from other sources. Proper reference is provided for all contents extracted from other sources. Strong action will be taken against cases of plagiarism. All the papers submitted have to pass through an initial screening and will be checked through the Advanced Plagiarism Dectection Software (CrossCheck by iThenticate).

Copyright

Copyright on any open access article in a journal published by Omniscient Pte. Ltd. is retained by the authors. Authors grant Omniscient Pte. Ltd. a license to publish the article and identify itself as the original publisher. Authors also grant any third party the right to use the article freely as long as its integrity is maintained and its original authors, citation details and publisher are identified. The Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License formalizes these and other terms and conditions of publishing articles.

Ethical Approval

Manuscripts reporting studies involving human participants, human data or human tissue must include a statement on ethics approval and consent, and the name of the ethics committee that approved the study and the committee's reference number if appropriate. Studies involving animals must include a statement on ethics approval.

Consent to Participate and Publication

Studies on patients or volunteers, and manuscripts that contain case details or other personal information or images of patients/any other individuals require an informed consent, which should be documented in the paper. The informed consent should be obtained from the participants or their families. All open access articles are freely available on the internet. All manuscripts involving personal information or data must be approved by the participants or their families before publication.

Research Ethics

Human Subjects Research

Authors must ensure research involving human subjects complies with the Declaration of Helsinki. Authors must include a statement that consent has been obtained from each patient after full explanation of the purpose and nature of all procedures used. For research requiring ethics committee approval, please include a statement to this effect in the manuscript. We will be unable to accept research papers without this statement.

Animal Studies

Experiments with animals must be performed in accordance with international, national and institutional requirements. Include a statement that investigations have been approved by the local ethical committee, along with the following: (1) Give the full binomial Latin names for all experimental animals other than common laboratory animals; (2) State the breed or strain and source of animals, and give details of age, weight, sex and housing; (3) Detail the procedures and anesthetics used, including doses given.
Articles will only be considered if the procedures used are clearly described and conformed with the international and national legal and ethical requirements, as well as the requirements outlined by the institution in which the work took place. A statement identifying the committee approving the study must also be included in the Methods section. Authors are encouraged to refer to the ARRIVE Guidelines, and in particular the checklist within them, when preparing manuscripts detailing animal experiments.

Cell Lines

In general, studies that are based on observations performed in a single cell line will not be considered for publication if other lines of the same general lineage and characteristics are available. If at all possible, observations should be replicated in multiple cell lines.
We require that all cell lines are authenticated for correct origin. Specifically, the author should include the following information supporting the authentication of lines: (1) Source of cell lines. Gifts of cell lines from individuals will not be acceptable; (2) Please state what the method of authentication is. For example, ATCC uses STRS analysis; (3) State the passage number(s) of cell lines used for the experiments described in the submission. Unless the research is specifically about senescence, lines >35 passages would not be acceptable.

Plant

Experimental research on plants (either cultivated or wild), including collection of plant material, must comply with institutional, national, or international guidelines. Field studies should be conducted in accordance with local legislation, and the manuscript should include a statement specifying the appropriate permissions and/or licenses. We recommend that authors comply with the IUCN Policy Statement on Research Involving Species at Risk of Extinction and the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
Specimens must be deposited in a public herbarium or other public collection providing access to deposited material. Information on the voucher specimen and who identified it must be included in the manuscript.

Competing Interests

At the time of submission, the authors must declare the conflicts or competing interests with any financial body or funding agency that might influence the results or interpretation of their submitted works. The disclosure should also include all sources of revenue paid (or promised to be paid) directly to authors or their institution on your behalf over the 36 months before submission of the relevant work. Authors who have nothing to declare are encouraged to add "No conflict of interest was reported by all authors" in this section.

Multiple, Redundant or Concurrent Publication

Authors should not publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal. If the authors have used the work or substantial parts of others, this has been appropriately cited or quoted.

Misconduct Policy

Any violation of this editorial policies, journal policies, publication ethics, or any applicable guidelines/policies prescribed by COPE, WAME and ICMJE would be misconduct. Any other activities that threatens/compromises the integrity of the research/publication process are potential misconduct. All allegations of misconduct will be dealt with case-by-case under the COPE guidelines. Omniscient Pte. Ltd. takes seriously allegations of misconduct pre-publication and post-publication. If formal misconduct is found at any stage, the manuscript being processed will be rejected immediately and the published articles will be withdrawn.