Author Guidelines

2. Suitability for the Journal

Manuscripts submitted to ETII should make a clear contribution to the study, development, implementation, evaluation, or governance of emerging technologies for intelligent industrial systems. Contributions may be theoretical, methodological, computational, experimental, data-driven, engineering-oriented, or application-focused.

Appropriate topics include, but are not limited to:

• industrial artificial intelligence and machine learning;
• smart manufacturing and Industry 4.0/5.0;
• digital twins and cyber-physical systems;
• industrial robotics and autonomous systems;
• Industrial Internet of Things and connected industrial systems;
• intelligent control, automation, and optimization;
• industrial data science and predictive analytics;
• computer vision and intelligent inspection;
• predictive maintenance and fault diagnosis;
• industrial cybersecurity and trustworthy intelligent systems;
• smart logistics, supply chains, and industrial operations;
• digital engineering and intelligent infrastructure;
• sustainable and low-carbon intelligent industry; and
• other emerging engineering technologies relevant to intelligent industry.

Manuscripts that are primarily descriptive, provide only minor algorithmic modifications, lack adequate validation, or have limited connection to intelligent industrial applications may be considered outside the journal's scope.

3. Article Types

ETII considers the following principal categories of scholarly contribution.

Original Research Articles

Full-length articles reporting original theoretical, methodological, computational, experimental, or empirical research.

Review Articles

Critical, systematic, or state-of-the-art reviews that synthesize existing knowledge, identify research gaps, evaluate technological progress, and establish meaningful directions for future research.

Technical Articles

Articles presenting significant engineering methods, algorithms, technical architectures, system designs, platforms, prototypes, or technological implementations.

Application and Case Studies

Rigorous studies demonstrating the implementation, evaluation, and practical implications of emerging technologies in real or realistically simulated industrial settings.

Data and Benchmark Studies

Contributions presenting valuable industrial datasets, benchmark environments, testing protocols, reproducible resources, or comparative evaluation frameworks.

Perspectives and Research Frontiers

Scholarly perspectives addressing emerging technological directions, interdisciplinary challenges, future industrial paradigms, or important research frontiers.

4. General Manuscript Preparation

Manuscripts should be written in clear, professional English and should present the research in a logical, concise, and technically rigorous manner.

• Submit the main manuscript as an editable Microsoft Word file whenever possible.
• Use A4 page size and a single-column manuscript layout.
• Use approximately 25 mm margins on all sides.
• Times New Roman, 11-point font is recommended for the main text.
• Use approximately 1.1-1.2 line spacing.
• Number major headings and subheadings consistently.
• Use SI units wherever applicable.
• Define abbreviations at first use.
• Avoid excessive use of abbreviations, acronyms, and field-specific shorthand.
• Ensure that terminology, mathematical symbols, and variable definitions are consistent throughout the manuscript.

5. Recommended Manuscript Structure

The following structure is recommended for Original Research Articles. Authors may adapt the structure when another organization is more appropriate to the article type.

1. Title
2. Author names and affiliations
3. Corresponding author information
4. ORCID identifiers
5. Abstract
6. Keywords
7. Nomenclature or list of abbreviations, where required
8. Introduction
9. Related Work or Theoretical Background, where appropriate
10. Materials and Methods / Methodology
11. Results
12. Discussion
13. Conclusions
14. Industrial or Practical Implications, where appropriate
15. Author Contributions
16. Funding
17. Data Availability Statement
18. Code Availability Statement, where applicable
19. Conflict of Interest Statement
20. Ethics Statement, where applicable
21. AI-Assisted Technology Disclosure, where applicable
22. Acknowledgements
23. References
24. Supplementary Material and Appendices, where applicable

6. Title Page

The title page should contain the following information:

• a concise and informative article title;
• the full name of each author;
• complete institutional affiliations;
• city and country for each affiliation;
• the corresponding author's name and email address;
• ORCID iDs for authors where available;
• a running title where requested; and
• any other submission metadata required by the online submission system.

7. Abstract and Keywords

The abstract should normally contain approximately 150-300 words and should provide a concise, self-contained summary of the study.

• the research context or problem;
• the objective of the study;
• the principal methodology;
• the most important results; and
• the main conclusion or implication.

References should not normally be cited in the abstract. Undefined abbreviations should be avoided. Authors should provide 4-8 keywords or short keyword phrases.

8. Introduction

The Introduction should establish the importance of the research problem and explain the scientific, technological, engineering, or industrial context of the study.

• identify the problem and its significance;
• summarize the most relevant prior research;
• identify limitations or unresolved issues in the existing literature;
• clearly articulate the research gap;
• state the study's objective, research question, or hypothesis; and
• explain the principal contribution and novelty of the manuscript.

9. Materials and Methods / Methodology

The methodological section should contain sufficient information for readers and reviewers to evaluate the validity of the research and, where possible, reproduce the work.

• datasets and data sources;
• industrial systems or experimental environments;
• hardware, software, sensors, equipment, or computational infrastructure;
• system architecture;
• algorithms, models, and parameter settings;
• training, validation, and test procedures;
• benchmark or baseline methods;
• simulation environments;
• sampling procedures;
• statistical analysis;
• evaluation metrics;
• uncertainty or sensitivity analysis;
• ethical approvals where applicable; and
• other information necessary for reproducibility.

10. Results

Results should be presented clearly and objectively and should directly address the research objectives.

• quantitative performance measures;
• confidence intervals or uncertainty estimates;
• effect sizes;
• statistical significance;
• benchmark comparisons;
• ablation studies;
• robustness or sensitivity analysis; and
• computational or operational performance.

11. Discussion

The Discussion should interpret the results in relation to the research question and the existing literature rather than simply restating numerical findings.

• the meaning of the principal findings;
• comparison with previous studies;
• possible technological or theoretical mechanisms;
• industrial relevance and implementation implications;
• generalizability;
• limitations; and
• directions for future investigation.

12. Conclusions

Conclusions should summarize the main contributions and findings of the study without introducing substantial new evidence.

Conclusions should be proportionate to the evidence reported in the manuscript and should avoid unsupported claims concerning technological readiness, superiority, scalability, or industrial impact.

13. Industrial and Practical Implications

Application-oriented manuscripts are encouraged to explain the practical implications of the findings for industrial design, manufacturing, operations, maintenance, control, safety, cybersecurity, sustainability, logistics, infrastructure, or decision-making.

14. Figures

• Figures should be numbered consecutively as Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.
• Every figure must be cited in the manuscript.
• Provide a concise and self-contained caption below each figure.
• Use consistent fonts, symbols, units, and terminology.
• Axis labels and legends must remain legible at publication size.
• Authors should avoid unnecessary decorative effects and excessive visual complexity.
• Multi-panel figures should identify panels consistently as (a), (b), (c), etc.

For production-quality raster figures, a resolution of approximately 300 dpi or higher is recommended. Line drawings should be supplied at a sufficiently high resolution to preserve text and line clarity.

15. Tables

• Tables must be editable rather than embedded as images.
• Number tables consecutively as Table 1, Table 2, etc.
• Provide a concise table title above the table.
• Define abbreviations, statistical symbols, and unusual units in table notes.
• Avoid excessive vertical or horizontal ruling.
• Do not duplicate information already presented adequately in a figure.

16. Equations and Mathematical Notation

Mathematical expressions should be supplied in editable form using the Word equation editor or another compatible mathematical format.

• Number displayed equations consecutively where they are referred to in the text.
• Place equation numbers in parentheses, for example, Eq. (1).
• Define variables and parameters at first use.
• Use consistent notation throughout the manuscript.
• Use internationally accepted mathematical symbols and SI units.

17. References and Citations

References should be numbered according to the order in which they first appear in the text. In-text citations should normally appear in square brackets.

• verify every reference before submission;
• ensure that each reference cited in the text appears in the reference list;
• ensure that every item in the reference list is cited in the text;
• include complete bibliographic information;
• provide DOI links whenever available; and
• avoid inappropriate, irrelevant, or excessive citation practices.

Journal Article

Book

Conference Paper

Dataset

18. Research Data, Code, and Reproducibility

ETII encourages research transparency and reproducibility. Where appropriate and legally permissible, authors are encouraged to make underlying data, source code, models, experimental configurations, benchmark environments, and supplementary resources available.

Manuscripts should include a Data Availability Statement. When software or source code represents a material component of the contribution, authors should also provide a Code Availability Statement.

Where data or code cannot be publicly shared because of privacy, security, confidentiality, commercial restrictions, intellectual property, contractual obligations, or other legitimate reasons, these restrictions should be clearly stated.

19. Reporting Quality for AI and Engineering Studies

Manuscripts involving artificial intelligence, machine learning, optimization, simulation, robotics, control, or data-driven engineering should provide sufficient technical detail to permit meaningful evaluation.

• dataset origin and characteristics;
• training, validation, and test splits;
• pre-processing procedures;
• model architecture;
• hyperparameters;
• optimization settings;
• baseline selection;
• evaluation metrics;
• random seeds or repeated runs where relevant;
• computational environment;
• ablation analysis;
• sensitivity analysis;
• uncertainty analysis;
• failure cases;
• model limitations; and
• industrial deployment constraints.

20. Research Ethics

Authors are responsible for ensuring that all research has been conducted in accordance with applicable ethical, institutional, legal, and professional requirements.

• the approving organization;
• the approval or protocol number;
• the date or period of approval where appropriate;
• the informed-consent procedure; and
• any relevant waiver or exemption.

21. Publication Ethics and Research Integrity

Submissions must represent original scholarly work and must not involve plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, inappropriate image manipulation, duplicate publication, unauthorized use of data, citation manipulation, peer-review manipulation, or other forms of research or publication misconduct.

Authors are responsible for ensuring the accuracy and integrity of all submitted information, including data, images, references, authorship information, ethical declarations, and supplementary material.

22. Authorship and Contributor Roles

All listed authors should have made meaningful scholarly contributions to the work and should be able to take appropriate responsibility for the manuscript.

ETII encourages authors to describe individual contributions using the CRediT taxonomy, including as applicable:

Conceptualization; Methodology; Software; Validation; Formal Analysis; Investigation; Resources; Data Curation; Writing - Original Draft; Writing - Review & Editing; Visualization; Supervision; Project Administration; and Funding Acquisition.

23. Competing Interests

Authors must disclose financial and non-financial interests that could reasonably be perceived to influence the research, interpretation, or publication of the manuscript.

24. Funding

Authors should identify all financial support relevant to the submitted work, including funding organization names and grant numbers where applicable.

25. Artificial Intelligence-Assisted Technologies

Artificial intelligence systems and generative AI tools cannot be listed as authors because they cannot assume responsibility for scholarly content, provide consent, or manage conflicts of interest.

Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, attribution, integrity, and interpretation of all submitted content.

Where generative AI or another AI-assisted technology has materially contributed to manuscript preparation, coding, analysis, image generation, or another component of the research process, the use should be transparently disclosed when appropriate.

26. Originality and Previous Publication

Manuscripts submitted to ETII should not have been formally published elsewhere and should not normally be under simultaneous consideration by another journal.

Authors should disclose relevant preprints, conference versions, working papers, or closely related publications where necessary and should clearly explain how the submitted manuscript differs from earlier dissemination.

27. Peer Review and Anonymization

Submitted manuscripts undergo an initial editorial assessment to determine their relevance, scholarly quality, originality, methodological adequacy, and compliance with journal policies. Manuscripts considered suitable are sent for independent peer review.

When an anonymized manuscript is requested for peer review, authors should remove information that directly identifies the authors or institutions from the main manuscript.

• author names;
• institutional affiliations;
• corresponding-author information;
• identifying acknowledgements;
• author-identifying file metadata; and
• other direct identifiers.

28. Supplementary Material

Supplementary files may include additional tables, figures, datasets, videos, source code, detailed derivations, experimental configurations, questionnaires, technical appendices, or other material that supports the manuscript but is not essential to the main narrative.

Supplementary items should be clearly labeled and cited in the main manuscript where relevant.

29. Language and Technical Writing

Authors are responsible for ensuring that manuscripts are written in clear professional English and use appropriate scientific and engineering terminology.

Language editing may improve readability but does not guarantee acceptance. Editorial decisions are based on scholarly quality, originality, relevance, methodological rigor, and contribution.

30. Submission Files

• title page;
• main manuscript;
• figures;
• supplementary material;
• data or code documentation;
• cover letter; and
• other declarations requested by the submission system.

Authors should verify that uploaded files are complete and correspond to the latest manuscript version before finalizing submission.

31. Revised Manuscripts

When submitting a revised manuscript, authors should provide a detailed response to the editor and reviewers.

• reproduce or clearly identify each reviewer comment;
• provide a specific response to every substantive point;
• identify where changes have been made in the revised manuscript;
• explain respectfully when a suggested change has not been adopted; and
• ensure that the revised manuscript and response letter remain consistent.

32. After Acceptance

Accepted manuscripts may undergo copyediting, formatting, metadata verification, reference checking, production preparation, and author proof review.

Authors are responsible for carefully reviewing proofs and reporting genuine production errors within the requested timeframe. Proof correction should not normally be used to introduce substantial new analyses or extensive changes to the accepted manuscript.

33. Pre-Submission Checklist