Editorial Policies

Focus and Scope

IAES International Journal of Robotics and Automation (IJRA) is an open-access, international, peer-reviewed journal dedicated to publishing high-quality research that advances the science, engineering, and applications of robotics, automation, manufacturing systems, and robot-centric sensor technologies. The journal provides a global forum for researchers, scientists, engineers, and practitioners to disseminate original research articles, comprehensive reviews, case studies, and short communications addressing both foundational theories and practical implementations. IJRA focuses on the integration of mechanical design, electronics, control theory, sensing, perception, artificial intelligence, and computation to develop robotic and automated systems capable of operating autonomously or collaboratively in complex, dynamic, and unstructured environments. The journal aims to push the frontiers of robotics and automation toward systems in which motion, perception, intelligence, communication, and control are seamlessly unified to enhance productivity, safety, reliability, sustainability, and quality of life. The journal welcomes interdisciplinary contributions that bridge theory, algorithms, hardware, software, and real-world deployment, with particular emphasis on artificial intelligence and sensor technologies directly supporting robotics and automation systems.

Robotics Systems, Design, and Intelligence

IJRA covers all aspects of robotic system development, including but not limited to:

  • Industrial robotics and robotic manufacturing systems
  • Autonomous, intelligent, and cognitive robotic systems
  • Mobile robots, humanoids, service robots, social robots, and household robots
  • Medical, surgical, rehabilitation, and assistive robotics
  • Neurorobotics, bio-inspired robotics, soft robotics, and hybrid robotic systems
  • Telerobotics, teleoperation, telepresence, and remote robotic platforms
  • Swarm robotics, multi-robot coordination, and collective intelligence
  • Robot kinematics, dynamics, modeling, calibration, and workspace analysis
  • Motion planning, trajectory generation, navigation, and manipulation
  • Human–robot interaction, collaboration, safety, ethics, and societal impact

Automation, Control, and Cyber-Physical Systems

The journal addresses automation technologies enabling intelligent and efficient operation of machines and processes, including:

  • Automation engineering and industrial automation systems
  • Process control, supervisory control, PLC, SCADA, and distributed control systems
  • Autonomous and semi-autonomous automated systems
  • Cyber-physical systems, smart factories, and digital manufacturing
  • Industry 4.0 and Industry 5.0 technologies
  • Automated mining, construction, logistics, inspection, and maintenance
  • Adaptive, robust, optimal, predictive, and intelligent control strategies
  • Real-time control, fault diagnosis, condition monitoring, and system reliability

Artificial Intelligence and Computing for Robotics and Automation

IJRA emphasizes AI and computing approaches developed for or applied to robotic and automated systems, including:

  • Artificial intelligence for robotic perception, cognition, and autonomy
  • Machine learning, deep learning, and reinforcement learning for robotics and control
  • Neural networks, fuzzy logic, and evolutionary computation in automation
  • Behavior-based, reactive, deliberative, and cognitive robotic architectures
  • Task planning, scheduling, optimization, and decision-making in automated systems
  • Multi-agent systems and distributed intelligence for robotic networks
  • Embedded systems, real-time computing, and edge/cloud computing for robotics
  • Simulation, digital twins, and virtual commissioning for robotics and automation

Sensors, Perception, and Sensing Systems for Robotics and Automation

The journal covers sensing technologies enabling perception, awareness, and interaction in robotic and automated systems, including:

  • Physical, chemical, biological, biomedical, and wearable sensors integrated into robots
  • Vision-based sensors, image sensors, camera systems, and sensor-captured imaging
  • 3D sensing, depth sensors, LiDAR, radar, and multimodal perception
  • Smart, intelligent, AI-enabled, and IoT-based sensors for automation
  • Sensor networks and distributed sensing in robotic and automated environments
  • Multi-sensor fusion, signal processing, and data fusion for robotic perception
  • MEMS/NEMS, micro- and nanosensors for robotics and automation applications
  • Optoelectronic, photonic, and optomechanical sensors for machine perception
  • Sensor interfaces, calibration, diagnostics, benchmarking, and sensor datasets
  • Localization, positioning, navigation, mapping (SLAM), and situational awareness

Robotics and Automation Applications

IJRA publishes application-oriented studies demonstrating the impact of robotics and automation technologies in:

  • Manufacturing, assembly, welding, inspection, and quality assurance
  • Healthcare systems, surgical robotics, rehabilitation, and medical automation
  • Agricultural robotics, precision farming, and environmental monitoring
  • Autonomous vehicles, drones, and intelligent transportation systems
  • Smart infrastructure, warehouses, logistics, and supply-chain automation
  • Human-centered automation, collaborative robots, and assistive technologies
  • Robotics and automation for sustainability, safety, and disaster response

All articles published in IJRA are freely accessible online, ensuring unrestricted global dissemination, high visibility, and broad impact for the international robotics, automation, and intelligent sensing research community.

 

Section Policies

 

Peer Review Process

This journal operates a conventional single-blind reviewing policy in which the reviewer's name is always concealed from the submitting author. Authors should present their papers honestly without fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, or inappropriate data manipulation. Submitted papers are evaluated by anonymous referees for contribution, originality, relevance, and presentation. Papers will be sent for anonymous review by at least two reviewers who will either be members of the Editorial Board or others of similar standing in the field. In order to shorten the review process and respond quickly to authors, the Editors may triage a submission and come to a decision without sending the paper for external review. The Editor shall inform you of the results of the review as soon as possible, hopefully in 6-12 weeks. The editors' decision is final, and no correspondence can be entered into concerning manuscripts considered unsuitable for publication in this journal. All correspondence, including notification of the editors’ decision and requests for revisions, will be sent by email.

 

Open Access Policy

This journal 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.

 

Archiving

This journal utilizes the LOCKSS system to create a distributed archiving system among participating libraries and permits those libraries to create permanent archives of the journal for purposes of preservation and restoration. More...

 

Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

Institute of Advanced Engineering and Science (IAES) is a non-profit international scientific association of distinguished scholars engaged in engineering and science devoted to promoting research and technologies in the engineering and science fields through digital technology. IAES Journals are peer-reviewed international journals. This statement clarifies the ethical behavior of all parties involved in the act of publishing an article in our journals, including the authors, the editors, the peer-reviewer­­­­­s and the publisher (Institute of Advanced Engineering and Science). This statement is based on COPE’s Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors.

Click here for more information on Research and Publication Ethics.

 

Checklist for preparing your paper for publication

  1. Is your manuscript written in IJRA format? At this stage, it is not that essential that you follow every detail of the IJRA format. Please try to follow the format as closely as possible.
  2. Is your title adequate and is your abstract correctly written? The title of the paper should contain a maximum of 10 words, without acronyms or abbreviations. The Abstract (MAX 200 WORDS) should be informative and completely self-explanatory (no citation in the abstract), provide a clear statement of the problem, the proposed approach or solution, and point out major findings and conclusions.
  3. Authors are suggested to present their articles in the sections' structure: 1. Introduction - 2. The Proposed Method/Algorithm/Procedure specifically designed (optional) - 3. Research Method - 4. Results and Discussion – 5.  Conclusion. Authors may present complex proofs of theorems or non-obvious proofs of the correctness of algorithms after the introduction section (obvious theorems & straightforward proofs of existing theorems are NOT needed).
  4. Introduction section: explain the context of the study and state the precise objective. An Introduction should contain the following three parts (within 3-7 paragraphs):
    - Background: Authors have to make clear what the context is. Ideally, the authors should give an idea of the state-of-the-art field the report is about.
    - The Problem: If there was no problem, there would be no reason for writing a manuscript, and definitely no reason for reading it. So, please tell readers why they should proceed with reading. Experience shows that for this part a few lines are often sufficient.
    - The Proposed Solution: Now and only now! - authors may outline the contribution of the manuscript. Here authors have to make sure readers point out what are the novel aspects of the authors' work.
    Authors should place the paper in the proper context by citing relevant papers. At least 10 references (recent journal articles) are used in this section.
  5. Method section: the presentation of the experimental methods should be clear and complete in every detail facilitating reproducibility by other scientists.
  6. Results and discussion section: The presentation of results should be simple and straightforward in style. This section reports the most important findings, including results of statistical analyses as appropriate and comparisons to other research results. Results given in figures should not be repeated in tables. This is where the author(s) should explain in words what he/she/they discovered in the research. It should be clearly laid out and in a logical sequence. This section should be supported with suitable references.
  7. Conclusion section: Summarize sentences the primary outcomes of the study in a paragraph. Are the claims in this section supported by the results, do they seem reasonable? Have the authors indicated how the results relate to expectations and to earlier research? Does the article support or contradict previous theories? Does the conclusion explain how the research has moved the body of scientific knowledge forward?
  8. Language. If an article is poorly written due to grammatical errors, it may make it more difficult to understand the science.
  9. Please make sure that the manuscript is up to date. The minimum number of references is 20 to 25 entries (and the 15 entries are recent journal articles) for original research articles, and the minimum number of references is 50 to 55 entries for review papers.
  10. Is the manuscript clearly written? Is the article exciting? Does the content flow well from one section to another? Please try to keep your manuscript on the proper level. It should be easy to understand by well-qualified professionals, but at the same time please avoid describing well-known facts (use proper references instead). Often manuscripts receive negative reviews because reviewers are not able to understand the manuscript, and this is the authors' (not the reviewers') fault. Notice that if reviewers have difficulties, then other readers will face the same problem and there is no reason to publish the manuscript.
  11. Do you have enough references? We will usually expect a minimum of 20 to 25 references primarily to journal papers, depending on the length of the paper. Citations of textbooks should be used very rarely and citations to web pages should be avoided. All cited papers should be referenced within the text of the manuscript.
  12. Figures and Tables. Relation of Tables or Figures and Text: Because tables and figures supplement the text, all tables and figures should be referenced in the text. Avoid placing figures and tables before their first mention in the text. Authors also must explain what the reader should look for when using the table or figure. Focus only on the important points the reader should draw from them and leave the details for the reader to examine on her own.

    Figures:
    1. All figures appearing in the article must be numbered in the order that they appear in the text.
    2. Each figure must have a caption fully explaining the content.
    3. Figure captions are presented as a paragraph starting with the figure number i.e. Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.
    4. Figure captions appear below the figure
    5. Each figure must be fully cited if taken from another article
    6. All figures must be referred to in the body of the article

    Tables:
    1. Material that is tabular in nature must appear in a numbered captioned table.
    2. All tables appearing in the article must be numbered in the order that they appear in the text.
    3. Each table must have a caption fully explaining the content with the table number i.e. Table 1, Table 2, etc.
    4. Each column must have a clear and concise heading
    5. Tables are to be presented with a single horizontal line under the table caption, the column headings, and at the end of the table
    6. All tables must be referred to in the body of the article
    7. Each table must be fully cited if taken from another article
  13. Each citation should be written in the order of appearance in the text in square brackets. For example, the first citation [1], the second citation [2], and the third and fourth citations [3], [4]. When citing multiple sources at once, the preferred method is to list each number separately, in its own brackets, using a comma or dash between numbers, such as [1], [3], [5]. It is not necessary to mention an author's name, pages used, or date of publication in the in-text citation. Instead, refer to the source with a number in a square bracket, e.g. [6]-[9], that will then correspond to the full citation in your reference list. Examples of in-text citations:
    • This theory was first put forward in 1970 [9]."
    • Sutikno [10] has argued that...
    • Several recent studies [7], [9], [11]-[15] have suggested that ....
    • ... end of the line for my research [16].
  14. Self-citations: to control citation manipulation (COPE, 2019), this journal asks that authors keep self-citation to a minimum. We would strongly recommend no more than 5 (including jointly authored publications), or 20% self-citations, whichever number is lower.
  15. Please be aware that for the final submission of a regular paper, you will be asked to tailor your paper, so the last page is not half empty.

 

Abstracting and Indexing

 

Publication Frequency

Submit your manuscripts today!
Papers published four times in a year (Mar, Jun, Sep, Dec).

Kindly please download the IJRA template in MS Word or LaTeX

 

Authorship

Authorship provides credit for a researcher's contributions to a study and carries accountability. 

IJRA considers individuals who meet all the following criteria to be authors:

  • Made a significant intellectual contribution to the theoretical development, system or experimental design, prototype development, and/or the analysis and interpretation of data associated with the work contained in the article.
  • Contributed to drafting the article or reviewing and/or revising it for intellectual content.
  • Approved the final version of the article as accepted for publication, including references.

Each author has approved the submitted version (and any substantially modified version that involves the author's contribution to the study).

Each author has agreed both be personally accountable for the author's own contributions and to ensure that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work, even ones in which the author was not personally involved, are appropriately investigated, resolved, and the resolution documented in the literature.

IJRA does not require all authors of a research paper to sign the letter of submission, nor do they impose an order on the list of authors. Submission to IJRA is taken to mean that all the listed authors have agreed on all of the contents, including the author list and author contribution statements. The corresponding author is responsible for having ensured that this agreement has been reached that all authors have agreed to be so listed, and have approved the manuscript submission to the journal, and for managing all communication between the journal and all co-authors, before and after publication. The corresponding author is also responsible for submitting a competing interest statement on behalf of all authors of the paper.

It is expected that the corresponding author (and on multi-group collaborations, at least one member of each collaborating group, usually the most senior member of each submitting group or team, who accepts responsibility for the contributions to the manuscript from that team) will be responsible for the following with respect to data, code and materials:

  • ensuring that data, materials, and code comply with transparency and reproducibility standards of the field and journal;
  • ensuring that original data/materials/code upon which the submission is based are preserved following best practices in the field so that they are retrievable for reanalysis;
  • confirming that data/materials/code presentation accurately reflects the original;
  • foreseeing and minimizing obstacles to the sharing of data/materials/code described in the work
  • ensuring that all authors (or group leaders in multi-lab collaborations) have certified the author list and author contributions

Author lists should be carefully considered before submission. At submission, the corresponding author must include written permission from the authors of the work concerned for mention of any unpublished material cited in the manuscript (for example others' data, in press manuscripts, personal communications, or work in preparation). The corresponding author also must clearly identify at submission any material within the manuscript (such as figures) that has been published previously elsewhere and provide written permission from authors of the prior work and/or publishers, as appropriate, for the re-use of such material.

After acceptance, the corresponding author is responsible for the accuracy of all content in the proof, including the names of coauthors, addresses, and affiliations. Changes to the author list post-acceptance are not allowed.

After publication, the corresponding author is the point of contact for queries about the published paper. It is their responsibility to inform all co-authors of any matters arising in relation to the published paper and to ensure such matters are dealt with promptly. Authors of published material have a responsibility to inform the journal immediately if they become aware of any aspects that require correction.

Any changes to the author list after submissions, such as a change in the order of the authors or the deletion or addition of authors, must be approved by every author. IJRA editors are not in a position to investigate or adjudicate authorship disputes before or after publication. Such disagreements, if they cannot be resolved amongst authors, should be directed to the relevant institutional authority.

The primary affiliation for each author should be the institution where the majority of their work was done. If an author has subsequently moved, the current address may also be stated.

 

Plagiarism Detection Policy

The peer-review process is at the heart of scientific publishing. As part of IAES's commitment to protecting the integrity of the scholarly record, IAES feels a strong obligation to support the scientific community in all aspects of research and publishing ethics. All submitted manuscripts must be free from plagiarism contents. All authors are suggested to use plagiarism detection software to do the similarity checking before submitting their manuscript to the journal (please use iThenticate or Turnitin to check the similarity). Editors will also check the similarity of manuscripts in this journal by using Turnitin or iThenticate software. The manuscript will instantly be rejected if there is plagiarism indicated or detected.

The final camera-ready also will be checked again for a similarity rate. The overall similarity rate of a manuscript should not exceed 25 percent, and the similarity rate to a single source should not exceed 10 percent.

 

Retraction and Correction Policy

Institute of Advanced Engineering and Science (IAES) takes its responsibility to maintain the integrity and completeness of the scholarly record of our content for all end users very seriously. Changes to articles after they have been published online may only be made under the circumstances outlined below. IAES places great importance on the authority of articles after they have been published and our policy is based on best practices in the academic publishing community. An Erratum is a statement by the authors of the original paper that briefly describes any correction(s) resulting from errors or omissions. Any effects on the conclusions of the paper should be noted. The corrected article is not removed from the online journal but notice of erratum is given. The Erratum is made freely available to all readers and is linked to the corrected article. A Retraction is a notice that the paper should not be regarded as part of scientific literature. Retractions are issued if there is clear evidence that the findings are unreliable, this can be as a result of misconduct or honest error; if the findings have previously been published elsewhere without proper referencing, permission, or justification; if the work is plagiarized; or if the work reports unethical research. To protect the integrity of the record, the retracted article is not removed from the online journal, but notice of retraction is given, is made freely available to all readers, and is linked to the retracted article. Retractions can be published by the authors when they have discovered substantial scientific errors; in other cases, the editors or publisher may conclude that retraction is appropriate. In all cases, the retraction indicates the reason for the action and who is responsible for the decision. If a retraction is made without the unanimous agreement of the authors, that is also noted. In rare and extreme cases involving legal infringement, the Publisher may redact or remove an article. Bibliographic information about the article will be retained to ensure the integrity of the scientific record. A Publisher’s Note notifies readers that an article has been corrected subsequent to publication. It is issued by the publisher and is used in cases where typographical or production errors (which are the fault of the Publisher) affect the integrity of the article metadata (such as title, author list, or byline) or will significantly impact the readers' ability to comprehend the article. The original article is removed and replaced with a corrected version. Publisher’s Notes are freely available to all readers. Minor errors that do not affect the integrity of the metadata or a reader's ability to understand an article and that do not involve a scientific error or omission will be corrected at the discretion of the Publisher. In such a case, the original article is removed and replaced with a corrected version. The date the correction is made is noted on the corrected article. Authors should also be aware that an original article can only be removed and replaced with a corrected version less than one year after the original publication date. Corrections to an article that has a publication date that is older than one year will only be documented by a Publisher’s Note. The following guideline may also be helpful: COPE Guidelines for Retracting Articles

 

Withdrawal of Manuscripts

Authors are not allowed to withdraw submitted manuscripts, because the withdrawals are a waste of valuable resources that editors and referees spend a great deal of time processing submitted manuscripts, money, and works invested by the publisher.

If authors still request withdrawal of their manuscripts when the manuscripts are still in the peer-reviewing process, authors will be punished with paying $200 per manuscript, as a withdrawal penalty to the publisher. However, it is unethical to withdraw submitted manuscripts from one journal if accepted by another journal. The withdrawal of manuscripts after the manuscripts are accepted for publication, the author(s) will be punished by paying US$500 per manuscript. Withdrawal of manuscripts is only allowed after the withdrawal penalty has been fully paid to the Publisher.

If the author doesn't agree to pay the penalty, the authors and their affiliations will be blacklisted for publication in this journal. Even, their previously published articles will be removed from our online system.