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The journal Die Küste – code of conduct

'Die Küste' code of conduct PDF

Die Küste is an open access publication under the CC BY 4.0 NC ND licence that focuses on coastal engineering and coastal protection along Germany's coastal waters; it has featured articles since 1952. Die Küste is published by the German Coastal Engineering Research Council (KFKI).
Articles published in Die Küste meet internationally accepted scientific standards and are subject to a rigorous single-blind peer review process. The ‘DFG Guidelines for Safeguarding Good Practice’, the ‘Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing’ and the ‘COPE Guidelines (Committee on Publication Ethics)’ are applied as minimum standards for quality assurance.

Content

The journal Die Küste publishes articles on coastal engineering. The published articles focus on the (German) North and Baltic Sea including their coasts with their islands and the Halligen, the coastal waters, maritime waterways, and the coastal infrastructure, also including sea/river ports as well as harbours for pleasure and recreational vessels. The content of published articles focuses on coastal engineering and coastal protection with flood protection, coastal defence and maritime hydraulic engineering including coastal hydrology, coastal morphology and water management. This does - not exclusively - include:

Categories of articles

  1. Original research article: an original research article contains research that has been conducted by the authors themselves and published as a comprehensive article, containing the sections introduction, methods, results and discussion. The purpose of an original research article is to publish knowledge about processes, interconnections, findings, possibilities, natural phenomena, etc. that has not been previously described. The methods used must be described in sufficient detail for other researchers to be able to verify the results. The readership of original research articles published in Die Küste not only includes scientists working in related fields but also experts in specialised authorities and implementing administrative bodies.

  2. Review article: a review article summarizes the current state of knowledge about a specific topic (e.g. a process, a construction method, a geographical area, etc.) based on current knowledge and previously published results or research.

  3. Case study: case study articles report on a specific process, procedure, event, place, or even a specific structure or building that has particular relevance to the German coast.

  4. Practice reports and technical guidelines: these are technical and strategic instructions and recommendations for action with particular relevance to coasts, also including summaries of comprehensive sets of rules or regulations.


Articles published in Die Küste in the category of practice reports and technical guidelines (category 4) are labelled as non-scientific articles. Nevertheless, they are also subject to a rigorous quality assessment procedure; the criteria applied in this case differ to some extent from those of a scientific peer review: scientific articles (categories 1 to 3) are specifically reviewed with regard to whether they contain scientifically relevant findings; practice reports are evaluated for their general practical relevance.

General conditions and rights of use

Open access, licensing, costs

Die Küste is an open-access publication, licensed under the LCC BY 4.0 NC ND licence and published by the German Coastal Engineering Research Council (KFKI). Individual articles and entire issues are available online on the KFKI website and as a print edition. Manuscripts can be submitted or downloaded for free.

Publication frequency, archive and index

Die Küste appears at least once a year, is published by the German Federal Waterways Engineering and Research Institute (BAW) with the ISSN 0452-7739 and is available in the BAW's specialist repository HENRY (Hydraulic ENgineering RepositorY). Since issue 87, PDF versions of articles in Die Küste have appeared as online first publications with DOIs (digital object identifiers) on the KFKI website. Issues also appear in print as soon as all the articles on a planned issue are ready.
Die Küste is listed and indexed in the subject databases SCOPUS, Google Scholar, Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (BASE) and the German Digital Library (DDB).

Data

The data on which the results discussed in the article are based, must be stored transparently and completely in archives or repositories that comply with the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Re-Usable). Articles for Die Küste contain a reference identifying the location of the research data.

Requirements for contributions from KFKI research projects

The KFKI promotes application-oriented and practice-relevant coastal research.
The research findings resulting from these research projects have to be published in Die Küste in compliance with the rights and obligations arising from legal requirements and from contracts with third parties in accordance with the requirements for scientific articles defined above.

Review procedure

Manuscripts submitted to Die Küste pass through a single-blind peer review process that involves at least two independent reviews. The responsibilities of the individual bodies and the procedure are described below.

Responsibilities

Publisher

The KFKI is the publisher of the journal series Die Küste.

Journal manager

The KFKI Administrative Office is the journal manager and organises the publication process. It is responsible for the administrative platform and technical support, and it assists the chief editor, the editorial board and the reviewers.

KFKI Administrative Office
Wedeler Landstr. 157
DE - 22559 Hamburg
GERMANY
kfki@baw.de
+49 (0)40 81908 392

Chief editor

The chief editor is appointed by the KFKI as the editorial head of Die Küste. The chief editor is responsible for the publication process and, together with the members of the editorial board and the reviewers, ensures that articles meet customary international scientific standards. Prof. Dr. Jürgen Jensen, senior professor at the Research Institute for Water and Environment (fwu) at the University of Siegen, has been the chief editor of Die Küste since 1 June 2021:

Prof. Dr. Jürgen Jensen
kfki-redaktion@baw.de
+49 (0)271 740 3462

The chief editor may temporarily delegate his/her duties to a member of the editorial board.

Editorial board

The editorial board of Die Küste consists of experts from various fields who have an outstanding scientific and practice-related expertise or record of scientific commitment. The members of the editorial board support the chief editor with regard to the peer review of submitted manuscripts, ensure the quality of articles, assist in the search for new topics, potential authors and reviewers and contribute to the alignment of content with strategy. Appointments to the editorial board are usually limited to 5 years; an extension is possible. Members of the editorial board receive no remuneration. An invitation to join the editorial board is a sign of respect and recognition of expertise in the field.

The members of the editorial board are currently (as of September 2023)

Reviewer

Reviewers are experts with a proven track record in the field (usually credibly conferred by a doctorate) who review submitted manuscripts according to internationally accepted scientific standards. Reviewers must also have peer-reviewed publication experience.
Reviewers receive guidance for their work in the form of review guidelines that contain evaluation criteria. Reviewers are not remunerated financially for their reviews.

Peer review process

Manuscripts for publication in Die Küste are submitted using the software OMP (https://diekuste.kfki.de/). The chief editor carries out a preliminary review of all submitted manuscripts and decides whether the manuscript is suitable for publication and should therefore pass through the peer review process or whether the manuscript should be rejected upfront.

Manuscripts are rejected upfront when there is a lack of subject fit and they are therefore not suitable for publication in Die Küste, or if it is immediately evident that the manuscript does not meet scientific standards. If a submitted manuscript does not meet the formal criteria (overall length, use of the format template, etc.), the chief editor will draw the attention of the authors to the applicable stipulations and ask them to resubmit the manuscript with the necessary changes.

If a submitted manuscript is suitable for publication in Die Küste, the chief editor selects a suitable member of the editorial board to lead the peer review. This member chooses at least two reviewers who work and have published in the field relevant to the manuscript, and invites each of these persons to prepare a review. Reviewers are carefully chosen to exclude bias or any conflict of interest. If the invited reviewer has competing interests, he or she must declare such conflicts of interest directly to the responsible editor and decline the invitation to review.
Reviews are thorough, detailed, objective and impartial. Statements are supported by clear, scientific arguments; personal criticism is not tolerated. Furthermore, reviewers act in strict confidence; this means that reviews are not delegated and content is not shared with third parties, passed on or used for reviewers' own purposes.

Reviews are conducted in a single-blind procedure, i.e. reviewers know the names of the authors, but to the authors the names of the reviewers are not disclosed.

Invited reviewers accept or reject the review as quickly as possible, but at the latest within a period of 14 days. This enables alternative reviewers to be invited promptly. Reviews must be completed within 6 weeks of the invitation. reviewers can agree on an extension of the deadline with the responsible member of the editorial board. If the review is still not completed after the deadline has been extended, the review will be withdrawn from the reviewer and an alternative reviewer invited to review. The duration of the peer review should allow for a scientifically thorough review and, at the same time, enable the manuscript to be published as soon as possible.

Based on the feedback received from the reviewer, the member of the editorial board responsible for the submitted manuscript decides, together with the chief editor if required, whether the manuscript is accepted for publication, needs to be revised by the authors or is rejected. If the manuscript has been revised on the basis of reviewers' comments, the responsible member of the editorial board decides whether the manuscript must be reviewed again or if the manuscript is accepted for publication. If a new review of the revised manuscript is required, another review round will take place. Authors are entitled to appeal against the chief editor's decision to reject an article. The chief editor then decides on the further procedure with the involvement of the editorial board if necessary.

A galley proof of accepted manuscript is created and must be finally checked and corrected by the authors. Then a print-ready PDF file is created by the journal manager and the manuscript is published online on the KFKI website as an article with a DOI (digital object identifier). Several articles relating to a common subject area are combined and printed in a single issue of Die Küste.

Members of the editorial board can submit manuscripts themselves. In such cases, the chief editor ensures that the same procedure is followed as for non-member submissions. The chief editor and journal manager can also submit manuscripts. In this case, a member of the editorial board or a designated representative is responsible for the procedure. The chief editor must be informed immediately by members of the editorial board or reviewers of any suspected misconduct in research or publication.

Notes for authors

Submission

Manuscripts are submitted using the OMP Software Die Küste. Submission of papers in MS-Word "Die Küste" format template in English or German is preferred, but papers may also be submitted (unformatted) in Latex format. As described in the formatting guidelines, the manuscript, including all figures and tables, should not exceed a total length of 30 pages.
Authors who use Citavi software for reference management purposes can use the Citavi corresponding citation style in Englisch (EN) oder German (DE).
Authors can suggest or exclude reviewers when they submit their manuscript.

Authorship

Authors are exclusively those persons who have made substantial contributions to the conception, design, interpretation, drafting or critical revision of the work (see also DFG Guideline 14). The authors are listed in the order of importance of their contribution to the work and assume joint responsibility for the submitted manuscript. Contributions made by others may be acknowledged

Rights

The main author concludes an author's contract with KFKI in which it is agreed that KFKI is granted a simple right of use for the purpose of publication. The article may not be published in any other public repositories prior to publication in Die Küste.

No remuneration shall be due for rights of use granted. The main author retains the copyright and declares that his or her co-authors are also aware of the agreements made.
The main author declares that all texts, graphics, diagrams and photos used originate from him/herself or that the rights to these have been transferred in writing by a simple right of use from the author or other authorised third parties.

Checklist

Authors must check the following before submitting a manuscript:

Publication ethics

The chief editor, editorial board, journal manager, reviewers and authors adhere to the guidelines developed by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Complaints and appeals

Complaints and appeals will be handled in accordance with the [https://publicationethics.org/files/cope-ethics-toolkit-journal-editors-publishers.pdf COPE]] guidelines; they will be reviewed by the chief editor (kfki-redaktion@baw.de) or journal manager kfki@baw.de and treated confidentially.

Final remark

Feedback on the code of conduct, on publications in Die Küste or of a general nature is accepted by the KFKI Administrative Office (kfki@baw.de).