ACI Journal Publication Information

Writing & Formating

The language of publication is English. The manuscript must be understandable and correct in English writing, grammar, and syntax. The English language editing service found on the ScholarOne Manuscripts author dashboard, will help ensure your paper is clearly written in Standard English. The following documents describe the editor's expectations for your paper.


Some tips for working in Microsoft Word:

    • Do not use Microsoft Word's automatic footnote capability. Place footnotes at the end of the document as opposed to within the text. Reference the footnotes using an asterisk (*).
    • Do not use end notes in the final version of the manuscript.
    • Do not link references or figures; rather, embed them.
    • Do not use tabs with text (i.e., do not indent blocks of text).
    • Use consistent line spacing throughout the document.
    • Use automatic word-wrap (soft returns) consistently for sentences within a paragraph and the Enter or Return key (hard return) at the end of a paragraph.


Initial Manuscript Submission

Submission of a manuscript to ACI implies that it represents original, unpublished work, and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. By submitting a manuscript, the author intends to transfer copyright to ACI.

ACI uses the ScholarOne Manuscripts service to manage the journal paper peer review process. Go to the website http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/aci and log in. If you are not a registered user, you must register to use the site. This peer review management system is separate from ACI and requires you to have a separate login from the one you use on the ACI website.

Before submitting your paper, please make sure that it meets the formatting requirements. If the paper does not meet the requirements, ACI staff will send it back for modification.

Enter the Author Center on ScholarOne and click on the link to submit a new manuscript. Answer all of the questions and click submit. You will receive an e-mail confirmation of your submission. In case of difficulties with online manuscript submission, please use the "Get Help Now" link found on ScholarOne Manuscripts.

Once your paper is received, staff will perform an initial check. You may be asked to make changes to the paper before it can be sent out for peer review. If this happens, please submit a clean manuscript that does not show changes, corrections, or deleted material marked on the manuscript.


Review

Each paper is read by a minimum of three reviewers who are asked to assess the technical quality of the paper. Authors are welcome to include names of suggested reviewers and/or names of individuals who should not be invited to review the manuscript in a cover letter submitted with the manuscript with a description of why the reviewers should or should ot be considered. The suggestions may or may not be utilized as one of the reviewers. The selected reviewers will make one of four recommendations:

    • Accept
    • Accept with revisions (minor revisions requested)
    • Decline with advice to rewrite and resubmit (major revisions requested)
    • Decline

Authors of accepted papers will be asked to submit their final manuscript. Authors of papers accepted with minor revisions requested will receive the reviewer comments so changes can be incorporated into the manuscript. Authors of papers declined with major revisions requested can rewrite the paper addressing the comments and resubmit for rereview. Declined papers cannot be resubmitted and revisions of the manuscript will not be accepted.

Authors who wish to appeal a decision to decline should write to the Managing Editor. Please be sure to include the reasons for appeal and the manuscript ID number.


Final Manuscript Submission & Publication

After the manuscript has been approved for publication, please refer to and complete the author's Final Submission Checklist. The final electronic version must follow all formatting requirements of the initial submission.

E-mail the following final materials to Journals.Manuscripts@concrete.org:

    • A Microsoft Word file of the manuscript (please note that we are unable to open LaTex files)
    • A PDF file of the manuscript
    • A detailed list or table documenting the authors' response to the review comments
    • A completed digitally-signed Copyright Transfer Agreement from all authors

    Accepted papers will be lightly copyedited, laid out, and paginated. Authors will have an opportunity to review the final pages before they are published. Authors are free to post their papers in their institutional repositories.


    Copyright Transfer Requirement

    By the terms of United States Copyright Law, ACI must obtain a Copyright Transfer Agreement, completed and signed by all authors. ACI uses the ScholarOne Manuscripts service to manage the journal paper peer-review process, including the collection and tracking of copyright transfer agreements. An email will be sent to all authors listed on the manuscript with a web link to complete the digital Copyright Transfer Agreement. Alternatively, authors may log in to their ScholarOne account, navigate to their submitted manuscript, and digitally sign the Copyright Transfer Agreement. ACI must receive the digitally signed Copyright Transfer Agreement from all authors listed on the manuscript before the manuscript will be checked in for initial review.

    Prior to final publication, ACI will verify that the author listing in the final manuscript matches the Copyright Transfer Agreements collected across all versions of the submitted manuscript. Any discrepancies between the author listing and the Copyright Transfer Agreements collected will be investigated by ACI.


    ACI Journal Author Policy on AI-Based Text Generative Technologies

    The use of AI-based text generative technologies by ACI journal article authors is permitted solely for improving the language and readability of the work and must be disclosed at the end of the manuscript in the 'Acknowledgments' section. The disclosure should state "The authors acknowledge the use of [NAME OF AI TOOL] to improve the language and readability of this manuscript but claim full responsibility for the content of the publication."


    Discussion, Closures, and Errata

    Discussions - Discussions are open to anyone who has significant comments or questions regarding the content of a published ACI Journal manuscript. Discussions must be written in a professional manner and should not contain matter readily found elsewhere, advocate special interests, contain obvious commercial intent, controvert established facts, or be purely speculative.

    Discussions must reach ACI headquarters before the deadline date. Because of deadlines, all discussion contributions must be complete and in compliance with all requirements to be considered for publication. Discussions should be brief. Do not repeat references cited in the original paper; cite them by original number. Discussions should be about the paper, not new or outside work on the same subject. Use references wherever possible instead of repeating available information.

    Discussions, not exceeding 1800-word equivalents (illustrations and tables count as 300 words each), must be submitted within 4 months after the date of publication of the manuscript. Discussion manuscripts follow the requirements for other manuscripts except that they do not have abstracts, introductions, or conclusions. Numbering of additional references, figures, tables, and equations should follow sequentially from the original manuscript throughout the discussion. The discusser must indicate the month, year, volume number, issue number, authors' names, and manuscript number of the original manuscript.

    Closures - The author's closure should be related to the discussion received. When discussions are received and approved for publication, the author(s) of the original manuscript is asked to prepare a closure, that provides clarification of and responses to the points raised in the discussions. A closure responding to a single discussion should not exceed 1800-word equivalents in length, and to multiple discussions, approximately 1/2 of the combined lengths of all discussions. Closures are published together with the discussions. Numbering of additional references, figures, tables, and equations should follow sequentially from the original manuscript throughout the discussion(s) and closure.

    The discussion and author closure will be published simultaneously. Publication concludes discussion of the published manuscript.

    Errata - If an error appears in print that is serious enough to impair understanding or mislead readers, the author(s) should prepare a correction, which will be published in hard copy and incorporated into the Web version of the paper.

    E-mail discussions, closures, and errata to Journals.Manuscripts@concrete.org. The following information should be included:

      • Title of manuscript for which the discussion, closure, or errata is being submitted
      • Complete names, affiliations, postal addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses of all authors


    Hybrid Open Access for Authors

    In today's publishing environment, many authors would like to make their research freely available to all groups of readers. To assist authors with providing increased exposure to their research, ACI has launched a hybrid open access model for the ACI Structural Journal and ACI Materials Journal.

    For a publication fee, authors publishing in the ACI Structural Journal or ACI Materials Journal have the option to submit their paper for open access. The publication fee is $2,000 USD per paper. At the time of journal publication, the individual paper will be made freely available on the ACI website, allowing any reader full access to the paper.

    To submit a paper for open access, please complete the Open Access Form. Authors will be invoiced the publication fee upon ACI's receipt of the form. For any questions regarding open access, please contact Journals.Manuscripts@concrete.org.

    Awards

    ACI annually awards meritorious papers published in the Journals. Award winners are listed on the ACI website.

    Questions/Assistance

    If you have questions or need assistance, please contact:

    Managing Editor
    American Concrete Institute
    Journals.manuscripts@concrete.org
    +1.248.848.3748

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Journals

ACI produces two bi-monthly technical journals – the ACI Materials Journal and the ACI Structural Journal. Edited for professional and technical personnel in engineering, construction, design, research, manufacturing, and education. Journal subscriptions are available for both the ACI Materials Journal and the ACI Structural Journal.

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