Journal Policy

The scientific journal ATU Design Science, founded by JSC "Almaty Technological University," holds registration certificate No. KZ56VPY00100289, dated September 3, 2024. The journal aims to publish articles on scientific research related to the history and theories of design, design education, and project design activities by both domestic and foreign specialists.

ATU Design Science is published quarterly and accepts articles in three languages: Kazakh, Russian, and English. The editorial board comprises leading Kazakh and foreign scientists who have significantly contributed to the development and management of this field.

The journal upholds strict confidentiality regarding submitted information while ensuring openness and accessibility for authors. All articles are made available on the journal's website in full-text format in Kazakh, Russian, and English.

Goals and objectives of the journal

Goals of the journal:

• Create thematic discussion and scientific platforms for the exchange of experiences, ideas, and proposals in the field of design among domestic and foreign master’s students, doctoral students, faculty, and staff.
• Provide information on advanced research conducted by Kazakhstani and foreign scientists in the realm of project design activities.
• Address current issues related to lighting in the areas of architectural environment design (interior and exterior), fashion design, graphic and industrial design, including ecodesign.
• Ensure a high quality of design education that aligns with modern directions for training specialists in creative industries.
• Promote research results in the field of design to attract international attention and secure funding to support the scientific and creative activities of young scientists and professional specialists.

Objectives of the journal

• Provide opportunities for publishing the results of applied research across various areas of design, including acoustic environment (interior and exterior), fashion design, graphic design, and industrial design.
• Attract international and domestic expertise from professional associations and educational institutions within the field of design.
• Expand the dissemination and indexing of published scientific works in various international citation databases.

The journal of thematic areas publishes articles on the following thematic areas: current issues in design education, design activities, design engineering in graphic and industrial design, fashion design, and isolated environment design (interior and exterior).

Manuscript Publication Terms

The journal ATU Design Science is published quarterly in an online (electronic) format, with the following established release dates: the first issue is published by March 30, the second by June 30, the third by September 30, and the fourth by December 30.

Articles in Kazakh, Russian, or English that align with the journal's thematic areas and adhere strictly to the manuscript design requirements are accepted for publication. Manuscripts must be uploaded via the electronic platform by the corresponding author, including all article and author metadata. An author (whether individually or as a co-author) may publish no more than one article in each issue of the journal.

Authors must submit original work that has not been previously published in any format (print, electronic, or other open sources). They are responsible for ensuring the reliability, novelty, and evidence-based nature of their research results in architectural design, fashion design, industrial design, and graphic design. Research should be presented in the form of theoretical studies, practical development of design objects (including concept design), experimental studies, drawings, calculations, or graphic and design solutions.

During the manuscript review process and after publication, authors agree not to submit the manuscript to any other publication for consideration. Communication between the editorial board, the corresponding author, and reviewers occurs primarily via the Open Journal Systems electronic platform, with email communication used only in exceptional cases. The editorial board reviews submitted manuscripts, organizes peer review, and makes publication decisions within six months of receipt via the electronic platform.

With the authors' agreement, the editors reserve the right to translate the article into English. Authors of manuscripts approved for publication are required to pay the publication fee according to the price list posted on the journal's website. A PDF receipt for the publication fee must be sent by the authors to the editorial board's email address.

Borrowing and plagiarism

When reviewing manuscripts for compliance with formal requirements (manuscript design), the Editorial Board of ATU Design Science checks for any borrowed text using a plagiarism detection system, accessible through a university subscription or a national subscription. Only original manuscripts, or those with an originality score exceeding 75% as determined by the anti-plagiarism system, will be sent for further review. If a manuscript fails to meet the journal’s design requirements or does not demonstrate originality based on the plagiarism check, it will be returned to the author for necessary revisions and re-submission via the journal’s electronic platform.

If authors reference the works, articles, provisions, quotes, or statements of other researchers, they must properly cite these sources and correctly format any quoted text. Plagiarism is considered an unethical act that violates the principles of the Code of Ethics of Almaty Technological University and is unacceptable in ATU Design Science.

All individuals involved in the publishing process, particularly members of the editorial board, are committed to ensuring high-quality scientific publications and to preventing unfair practices, such as the use of false information or data falsification. They also aim to promote the recognition of scientific achievements by society. To this end, they adhere to the principles, standards, and norms of scientific ethics accepted by the international community and ATU, and take measures to prevent any violations.

In the event of a violation of these principles, standards, or norms, the editorial board will act in accordance with the Ethics of Publication of the ATU Scientific Journal, the Code of Ethics of the ATU Scientist, and the standards set forth by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

If clear evidence of ethical violations is found in an article published in ATU Design Science, the editorial board will retract the article from the issue in which it was published and from the journal's official website. This retraction will include a mandatory statement outlining the specific violations committed by the author(s) and will be accompanied by a corresponding announcement in the next issue of the journal.

Authors of articles in which a demonstrable ethical violation has been identified will be barred from submitting any articles to ATU Design Science for a period of three calendar years from the date of the violation's discovery.

Use of Artificial Intelligence and Generative AI Technologies

The editorial board of the "ATU Design Science" journal adheres to the COPE guidelines regarding the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in manuscript preparation.

• Authorship: AI tools (such as ChatGPT, etc.) cannot be listed as an author or co-author of a paper.
• Disclosure: Authors are required to declare the use of AI in the preparation of their article. If AI was used for text generation, image creation, or data collection/analysis, this must be clearly described in the "Methods" or "Acknowledgements" section.
• Responsibility: Authors bear full responsibility for the accuracy of the data and are required to provide direct references to original sources when using AI. The use of AI tools does not exempt authors from the obligation to properly cite original works.
• Peer Review: Reviewers are prohibited from uploading manuscripts into AI systems (e.g., ChatGPT) for evaluation, as this violates copyright confidentiality.
• Dispute Resolution: All controversial issues related to the use of artificial intelligence tools in submitted manuscripts are reviewed by the Ethics Committee. The Committee has the right to request additional clarifications from the authors regarding the scope and nature of the use of AI technologies in the preparation of the manuscript. The Ethics Committee can reject the material upon review.

When using AI systems, the following must be specified:

1. Which model was used (name, version, date of access);
2. For what purposes (style editing, translation, code generation, or data analysis).

Example: "Claude 3.5 was used in the preparation of this article to improve the English stylistic flow. All content was verified by the authors."

The review process

Manuscripts received by the journal's editorial board that meet the formal requirements, design criteria, and originality standards based on the plagiarism check will be sent for further review.

If the author(s) of a manuscript has a conflict of interest with any scientist, they must disclose this in the cover letter to avoid sending the manuscript to that specific reviewer and to prevent biased assessments.

ATU Design Science employs a "double-blind" peer review process, conducted by at least two reviewers who hold a PhD, Doctor of Science, or Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree and possess scientific expertise relevant to the manuscript's topic. The review process is confidential; manuscripts are sent to reviewers via the journal's electronic platform without disclosing the authors' identities. Reviewers are required to provide clear, objective, and reasoned assessments regarding the manuscript's compliance with essential scientific criteria, quality, and significance.

After receiving the reviewers' feedback, the editor-in-chief will forward their comments to the corresponding author without disclosing the reviewers' identities. The author is then expected to respond to the comments, make the necessary revisions, and re-submit the manuscript via the electronic platform. Authors may choose, without explanation, to decline to respond to comments or to revise the manuscript.

Upon receiving the revised manuscript, the scientific editor will send all materials back to the reviewers for re-evaluation. A manuscript that receives positive feedback from two reviewers and the editor-in-chief will be recommended for publication in ATU Design Science, in accordance with the publication acceptance order. Approved manuscripts will be forwarded to the executive secretary for inclusion in the journal issue.

In cases where one reviewer provides a positive assessment and the other a negative one, the scientific editor will send the manuscript to a third reviewer or a member of the editorial board who is an expert in the subject matter. If the third reviewer or board member gives a positive opinion, the final decision on acceptance or rejection will be made by the scientific editor.

If both reviews are negative, the manuscript will be rejected. The materials of rejected articles will not be used by the editorial board for any purpose. The editor or executive secretary will inform the corresponding author of the rejection and provide the reviewers' comments.

Reviews of manuscripts are stored in electronic format on the journal's platform for three years. The review period is determined by the editor-in-chief and should not exceed two months from the date the materials are sent to the reviewers.

Open Access Policy and Archiving

The ATU Design Science journal provides open access to its content on the official journal website, ensuring wider accessibility to information for the global scientific community.

The website contains essential information for both authors and readers regarding the journal's activities, including publication conditions, manuscript design and submission guidelines, the review process, publication ethics, details about the editorial board, and contact information for the scientific editor and executive secretary.

Readers and authors can access electronic versions of the current issue as well as archives of previous issues. All publications are distributed free of charge and without restrictions under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

Copyright and Licensing

Authors of articles in the ATU Design Science journal retain their rights to the scientific work while granting the journal the right of first publication. This includes licensing the work under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

Authorship of the manuscript is attributed to those researchers who directly contributed to its creation, including forming the concept, writing the article, interpreting the results, and making significant contributions to the scientific findings.

Under the Creative Commons Attribution License, authors retain their rights to their manuscripts while allowing others to freely download, reuse, reprint, modify, distribute, or copy their works, provided that proper credit is given to the authors and a link to the original publication in the journal is included. For these actions, permission from the authors or the publisher is not required.

Additionally, authors reserve the right to disseminate their article in other venues (e.g., institutional repositories, social networks) as long as they include a link to the original publication in this journal.

Confidentiality Terms

Information about the authors—including their names, affiliations, contact details, positions, academic degrees, and links to their author profile identifiers in international databases—will be published in the "Author Information" section of the article.

Members of the editorial board of the ATU Design Science journal are obligated to keep information about manuscripts under consideration confidential and will not disclose it to third parties prior to publication, except to appointed reviewers. Additionally, the editors will not reveal the identities of the reviewers to the authors or any other parties.

These confidentiality rules, along with other guidelines for participants in the publication process, including the principles, norms, and standards of conduct for authors, editorial board members, the publisher, and reviewers, are outlined in the Publication Ethics for the ATU Design Science journal.

Ethics of scientific publications

Members of the editorial board of the ATU Design Science journal adhere to the principles and norms outlined in the "Publication Ethics for the ATU Scientific Journal" (hereinafter referred to as the Publication Ethics). These ethics have been developed in alignment with international publication standards set by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), as well as the Ethical Principles of Publication for Scopus (Elsevier) Journals and the Code of Ethics for ATU Scientists.

The Publication Ethics establish the norms, principles, and standards of ethical behavior for editors, reviewers, and authors. It also outlines measures for identifying conflicts of interest and unethical behavior, along with instructions for withdrawing (retraction), correcting, or refuting articles.

All participants in the publication process—including each author, scientific editor, reviewer, responsible secretary, and members of the editorial board—are required to unconditionally adhere to these principles, norms, and standards of publication ethics. Compliance is crucial for ensuring the quality of the scientific journal and fostering trusting and respectful relationships among all participants in the publication process.

Unethical behavior includes actions by authors, editors, or publishers such as self-review of their own articles, contractual or false peer review, utilizing agency services to publish research results, false authorship, falsification and fabrication of research data, publication of unreliable pseudo-scientific texts, transferring article manuscripts to other publications without the authors' permission, disclosing authors' materials to third parties, violating copyright and confidentiality principles in editorial processes, manipulating citations, and committing plagiarism.

Principles of Publication Ethics of Editorial Board Members

Members of the editorial board of the ATU Design Science journal, responsible for the journal's development, improvement, and promotion in international databases, must adhere to several key principles:

Freedom of Opinion: They should respect diverse viewpoints and satisfy the scientific and professional needs of both authors and readers.

Prevention of Conflicts of Interest: Editorial board members must prevent the influence of commercial interests from authors, reviewers, and publishers on the decision to publish materials. They should also take all possible measures to enhance the quality of scientific publications and protect the confidentiality of information at all stages of the publication process.

Equality of Authors: Members of the editorial board are responsible for making decisions regarding the publication of materials submitted by authors. They must evaluate manuscripts based on their intellectual content, irrespective of the authors' race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, ethnic origin, citizenship, political views, or any commercial considerations.

Decision-Making for Publication: The editorial board decides which articles to publish based on adherence to formatting requirements, plagiarism checks, and the results of scientific peer review. In making these decisions, the board follows the journal's policies and publication ethics, ensuring that articles showing signs of plagiarism, violations of scientific ethics, or copyright infringements are not published.

Confidentiality Principle: During the manuscript consideration stage (prior to publication), editors and board members must not disclose information about manuscripts to anyone other than the authors, appointed reviewers, and the publisher. All manuscripts received for consideration are considered confidential material and should not be shown or discussed with third parties without the scientific editor's permission.

Handling Rejected Manuscripts: Members of the editorial board guarantee that rejected manuscripts will not be used in their own research without the authors' written consent.

Addressing Claims of Unethical Behavior: Each complaint regarding unethical behavior by authors of manuscripts and articles published in ATU Design Science will be considered individually by board members, regardless of when the complaint is received. The board will take objective and appropriate measures in response to such complaints. If the complaint's arguments are substantiated, the editorial board may refuse to publish the manuscript, terminate further cooperation with the corresponding author, issue appropriate refutations, and take additional measures to address the unethical behavior.

Retraction of articles

Members of the editorial board are responsible for ensuring that articles are not published if they exhibit known signs of unethical behavior, such as plagiarism, excessive self-citation, or conflicts of interest. If violations of publication and/or scientific ethics are identified in an article, the scientific editor, following the editorial board's decision, must retract the publication. Articles can be retracted by the authors or by the editorial board.

The editorial board will withdraw (retract) published articles based on recommendations from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) in the following circumstances:

Unreliable Data: If there is clear evidence that the data are unreliable or were obtained through unethical actions, such as data falsification.

Duplicate Publication: If it is discovered that the manuscript has been published in another journal prior to its publication in ATU Design Science.

Plagiarism: If plagiarism is detected in the article, including the unauthorized use of figures, graphs, tables, etc.

Gross Errors: If significant errors are found in the article that could adversely affect other researchers and their work, such as miscalculations or experimental errors.

Copyright Claims: If third parties raise claims regarding the copyright of the article or its individual components.

Ethical Violations: If the article contains information that contradicts established principles, standards, and norms of publication and/or scientific ethics.

In such cases, the editorial board will conduct an investigation, and based on its findings, the article may be retracted from publication. A formal act of retraction will be prepared, confirmed, and signed by the scientific editor. A copy of this act will be sent to the corresponding author.

Subsequently, the article will be marked as retracted on the journal's website, along with the reasons for the retraction. The editors will also publish information about the retraction on the main page of the journal's website and include this information in the next issue of the journal.

The editorial team of ATU Design Science is committed to responsibly, objectively, and carefully considering all justified requests regarding violations found in published issues. The editors view it as both a responsibility and a duty for authors and reviewers to promptly inform them of any errors or violations discovered post-publication.

Principles of Publication Ethics for Authors

1. Single Publication

Authors guarantee that the manuscript submitted to the editors has not been submitted for consideration to other publications. Submitting a manuscript to multiple journals simultaneously is unacceptable and constitutes a serious violation of publication ethics.

2. Authorship

The individual who has made the most significant intellectual contribution to the preparation of the manuscript (if there are two or more co-authors) should be listed first. Each article must designate a corresponding author, responsible for preparing the final version, communicating with the editorial board, ensuring all contributors are acknowledged, and obtaining approval for submission from all authors. All authors listed on the manuscript are accountable for its content.

3. Principle of Originality

Authors guarantee that the research results presented in the manuscript represent original, independent work. The manuscript should not contain unacknowledged borrowing or plagiarism, which may be detected through plagiarism checks.

4. Responsibility for Ethical Conduct

Authors are responsible for ensuring that their articles do not exhibit unethical behavior, including plagiarism, self-plagiarism, excessive self-citation, data falsification, fabrication, false authorship, duplication, or conflicts of interest.

5. Confirmation of Sources

Authors must accurately cite all scientific and other sources used in their research. If any part of another author’s work is utilized, appropriate bibliographic references must be provided. Information from questionable sources should not be included in the manuscript.

6. Verification of Research Results

If reviewers, the scientific editor, or members of the editorial board have doubts about the authenticity or reliability of the research findings, authors must provide additional materials to substantiate the results or facts presented in the manuscript.

7. Correction of Errors

If errors or inaccuracies are detected at any stage of the publication process, authors are obligated to promptly inform the scientific editor and assist in correcting the error for publication on the journal's website. In cases of significant errors that cannot be corrected, authors must retract the manuscript or article.

8. Compliance with Publication Ethics

Authors are required to adhere to ethical standards in their research, including in their interactions with the editorial board during the review and publication process. Non-compliance with these ethical principles is considered a serious violation and may result in the removal of the manuscript from review and/or publication.

Principles of Publication Ethics of the Reviewer

The principle of objective review. The reviewer(s) of the journal «ATU Design Science» undertake(s) to conduct an objective expert assessment of the manuscript. Personal criticism of the author(s) of the manuscript is unacceptable. The reviewer must substantiate their comments and justify their decision to accept or reject the manuscript.

The nationality, religious affiliation, political or other views of the author(s) should not be taken into account and considered in the process of reviewing the manuscript by the reviewer(s).

The reviewer's contribution to editorial decisions. The expert assessment prepared by the reviewer(s) contributes to the editorial board's decision on publication, and also helps the author(s) to improve the manuscript. The decision to accept the manuscript for publication, return the work to the author for changes or revision, or the decision to reject is made by the editorial board based on the review.

The principle of timeliness of review. The reviewer is obliged to provide a review within the time period specified by the editorial board, but no later than two months from the date of receipt of the manuscript for review. If it is impossible to review the article and prepare a review within the specified time period, the reviewer must immediately notify the scientific editor about this.

A reviewer who believes that his/her qualifications do not correspond or are insufficient for making a decision when reviewing the submitted manuscript must immediately notify the scientific editor about this and refuse to review the manuscript.

Principle of confidentiality on the part of the reviewer. A manuscript provided to the reviewer for review must be considered confidential material. The reviewer has the right to demonstrate it and/or discuss it with other persons only after receiving written permission from the scientific editor of the journal and/or the author(s).

The information and ideas of the scientific work obtained in the course of reviewing and ensuring the publication process must not be used by the reviewer(s) for personal gain.

The principle of confirmation of sources. The reviewer should indicate scientific works that could have influenced the research results of the manuscript under consideration, but were not cited by the author(s). The reviewer is also obliged to draw the attention of the scientific editor to significant similarities or coincidences between the manuscript under consideration and a previously published work of which he/she is aware. If the reviewer has sufficient grounds to believe that the manuscript contains plagiarism, incorrect borrowing, false and fabricated materials or research results, then he/she should not allow the manuscript for publication and inform the scientific editor of the journal about the identified violations of the principles, standards and norms of publication and scientific ethics.

Conflict of Interest

A conflict of interest, as defined by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), occurs when authors, reviewers, or members of the editorial board have undisclosed interests that could influence their judgment regarding published material.

Such conflicts may arise from financial, personal, or professional relationships that could affect the scientific assessment of a manuscript and ultimately the editorial board's decision on its publication.

The editor-in-chief of the journal mandates that all participants in the manuscript publication process disclose any conflicts of interest.

The scientific editor, editorial board members, and reviewers are responsible for notifying the editorial board of any potential conflicts that could impact their decision-making.

Members of the editorial board must recuse themselves from reviewing any manuscript if they have a competitive relationship with the authors or if another conflict of interest exists.

When submitting a manuscript, authors are required to disclose all funding sources for the study and to identify any commercial, financial, personal, or professional factors that could create a conflict of interest related to the manuscript.

In the cover letter, authors may also suggest scientists who they believe would be unable to objectively evaluate their manuscript due to potential biases.

Reviewers should refrain from considering manuscripts if they may present a conflict of interest arising from competition, collaboration, or other relationships with the authors.

If a conflict of interest is identified concerning the manuscript content, the responsible editor must inform the scientific editor, who will then assign another editor or reviewer to handle the manuscript's assessment.

The presence of a conflict of interest does not automatically result in the rejection of a manuscript.

All parties involved should actively work to avoid conflicts at all stages of the publication process.

If any conflict is discovered, the individual who identifies it must promptly notify the editorial board.

This requirement also applies to any other violations of publication ethics standards and norms.

Publication fee

For partial reimbursement of the costs of publishing the journal, the cost of one publication is set at 25,000 tenge. For employees of JSC “Almaty Technological University”, the fee is 20,000 tenge. Payment is made after the article is accepted for publication and the editorial board is notified. The selling price of one issue of the journal through JSC Kazpost by subscription is 1,100 tenge.