Guidelines

⚠ Graphical Abstract is mandatory for all submissions received from 12 June 2026 onwards.

• 1. Submission Requirements
• 2. Manuscript Structure
• 3. Manuscript Length
• 4. General Formatting Guidelines
• 5. Sections and Subsections
• 6. Figures and Tables
• 7. Equations and Symbols
• 8. Use of Artificial Intelligence
• 9. References
• 10. Editorial Evaluation Process
• 11. Copyright and Open Access

Empirical Validation Requirement

The journal publishes original research articles whose findings have been empirically verified on real physical objects or systems. Manuscripts that report simulation or modelling results must include empirical validation of the proposed model or simulation. Validation results may be presented within any appropriate section of the manuscript and do not require a separate dedicated section. For full details, see Aims and Scope. Manuscripts that do not address empirical validation will be returned to the authors without peer review.

1. Submission Requirements

Articles are accepted in English only and must be submitted in Microsoft Word format (.doc or .docx). PDF files cannot be accepted. No special formatting is required at the submission stage; authors will be asked to prepare a fully formatted file following acceptance. However, the manuscript must already contain all mandatory elements listed in Section 2.

Submissions are accepted exclusively through the online submission system. The Editorial Office does not accept manuscripts sent by e-mail.

The journal does not consider manuscripts that have been previously deposited in any preprint repository, including arXiv, bioRxiv, SSRN, or any other publicly accessible preprint server. This applies regardless of whether the preprint was posted before or after the date of submission to this journal. By submitting a manuscript, authors confirm that the work has not been made publicly available in any preprint form.

Suggested reviewers

Authors may be asked to suggest up to three potential reviewers at the time of submission. No more than one suggested reviewer may be affiliated with an institution in the same country as any of the co-authors. The remaining suggested reviewers must be affiliated with institutions in different countries. Suggested reviewers must be specialists in the relevant subject area and must not have any conflict of interest with the authors, including co-authorship within the past three years, institutional affiliation, or supervisory relationship. The Editorial Office is not obliged to contact suggested reviewers and retains full discretion over the final selection. Authors may also indicate individuals who should be excluded from the review process, providing a brief reason for each such request.

2. Manuscript Structure

Each submission must include the following elements:

Authors should not include their names, affiliations, or any other identifying information in the manuscript file. The journal operates a double-blind peer review system.

3. Manuscript Length

The maximum manuscript length at submission is 9,000 words and 25 pages in A4 format, formatted according to the guidelines in Section 4. Both limits apply simultaneously.

The word count covers the main text and all figure and table captions. The abstract, keywords, highlights, and reference list are excluded from this count.

Manuscripts that exceed either limit will be returned to the authors without entering the review process. Authors are responsible for verifying compliance before submission.

4. General Formatting Guidelines

5. Sections and Subsections

Number sections and subsections consecutively: 1., then 1.1., 1.2., 1.3., and so on. The abstract is not assigned a section number.

The main text must follow the structure below. Sections 1–5 are mandatory and numbered; the remaining elements appear after the main text without section numbers.

The Author Contributions section must specify each author’s role using the CRediT taxonomy (Contributor Roles Taxonomy). The following 14 roles are available:

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

Authors should select only the roles that apply to their specific contribution to the article; not all roles need to be used. Each author must be assigned at least one role. Multiple roles per author are permitted. Example:

J. Smith: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – original draft. A. Kowalski: Investigation, Data curation, Writing – review & editing. B. Nowak: Supervision, Funding acquisition.

In section and subsection titles, capitalise only the first word and any proper nouns.

Subdivision of sections is permitted up to the third level only (e.g. 3.3.1., 4.1.1.).

6. Figures and Tables

Figures

Example: Figure 1. Schematic diagram of the experimental test rig.

Tables

Example: Table 1. Summary of experimental results.

7. Equations and Symbols

7. Equations and Symbols

η	–	the scale parameter,
β	–	the shape parameter,
e	–	the base of the natural logarithm,
t	–	the time or distance for which we compute MRL,
Γ	–	the gamma function,
Γτ(r)	–	the incomplete gamma function defined as FΓ(r) = ∫0t tr−1e−tdt.

8. Use of Artificial Intelligence in Manuscript Preparation

Generative AI tools and large language models (for example ChatGPT, Copilot, or Gemini) do not satisfy the journal’s authorship criteria and may not be listed as authors. Full responsibility for the accuracy and integrity of all submitted content rests with the human authors.

The use of AI tools is acceptable for the following supporting tasks only:

AI tools must not be used to generate, draft, or substantially write any part of the scientific content, including the introduction, methods, results, discussion, or conclusions.

Where AI tools have been used, authors are required to state this in the Acknowledgements section. For example: “The authors used [tool name] to assist with language editing.”

Manuscripts in which AI-generated scientific content is identified will be withdrawn from the publication process at any stage, including after acceptance.

9. References

Reference Examples

Hisakata R, Nishida S, Johnston A. An adaptable metric shapes perceptual space. Current Biology 2016; 26(14): 1911-1915. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2016.05.047

Hogue CWV. Structure databases. In: Baxevanis AD, Ouellette BFF (eds). Bioinformatics, 2nd ed. New York, NY: Wiley-Interscience; 2001: 83-109.

Sambrook J, Russell DW. Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual, 3rd ed. Cold Spring Harbor, NY: CSHL Press; 2001.

Motor Transport Institute. https://www.its.waw.pl/en.html; 2026 [accessed 11 March 2026].

Author A, Author B. Title of paper. In: Proceedings of the Conference Name; Date; Location. Publisher; Year: page range. https://doi.org/xxxxx

10. Editorial Evaluation Process

• Compliance with the Aims and Scope, including the empirical validation requirement.
• Completeness of all mandatory sections and overall quality of preparation.
• Relevance and currency of the research.
• Presentation of original findings or methods that make a meaningful contribution.
• Self-citations: no more than 3–4 items and no more than 5% of all references.

11. Copyright and Open Access

All accepted articles are published Open Access under the Creative Commons Attribution Licence CC-BY 4.0. This licence permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original authors and source are credited.

Authors retain copyright in their work but grant the Polish Maintenance Society, as Publisher of the quarterly, the right of first publication.