Author Guidelines

These guidelines follow the official SMATIKA manuscript template. Authors are asked to read them together with the template before submitting.

1. General Requirements

SMATIKA accepts original research articles, systematic literature reviews, and case studies within the journal scope: Computer Science, Information Systems, Information Technology, Software Engineering, and Computer Engineering (see Type of Manuscript and Focus and Scope).
Manuscripts are written in English only, are original, and must not have been published or be under review elsewhere.
Manuscripts are submitted exclusively through the OJS platform and are checked for similarity before review (see Plagiarism Check).
The journal is published four times a year, in March, June, September, and December.

2. Manuscript Template

Authors must use the official SMATIKA manuscript template, available from the SMATIKA Template link on the journal website. Manuscripts that do not follow the template and structure may be returned before review.
Files to upload: submit three files in OJS: (1) the Anonymized Manuscript in the SMATIKA template, without any author information; (2) the Title Page and Declarations, prepared with the SMATIKA Title Page Template; and (3) the Similarity Report (Turnitin). Because SMATIKA applies double-blind peer review, the anonymized manuscript replaces the author names, affiliations, e-mail addresses, ORCID iDs, acknowledgements, funding details, and identifying information in the Declarations with “[Removed for double-blind review]”, refers to the authors’ own previous work in the third person, and has personal information removed from the document properties. The Title Page is seen by the editors only; the editorial team merges both files at the layout stage after acceptance.
Page format: Letter-size paper, 1-inch margins, Cambria font. Do not change the heading styles, font sizes, or layout of the template.
The first-page elements that identify the article are completed by the editorial team at the layout stage: the article type label (Research Article, Systematic Literature Review, or Case Study), volume, issue, month, year, page range, DOI, article history dates, the copyright and licence statement, and the "How to cite" line. Authors leave these placeholders unchanged.

3. Title, Author Names, and Affiliations

Title: specific, informative, reflecting the main finding, no more than 20 words; avoid stating the research location unless essential.
Write the authors' full names without academic or professional titles. The family name must not be abbreviated.
Superscript numbers indicate institutional affiliation only, not author order or contribution. If all authors share one affiliation, no superscript numbers are needed.
Write each affiliation in full without abbreviations: faculty/department, institution, city, and country.
Mark the corresponding author with an asterisk (*) and provide an active e-mail address.
The author list and order must be identical in the manuscript and in the OJS metadata. Changes in authorship are only permitted before the manuscript enters peer review, through a written request signed by all authors; any change after review has begun results in rejection (see Authorship Criteria).

4. Abstract and Keywords

Abstract: one paragraph of 200–300 words, in English, containing in order: brief background (if relevant), research objective, method, key findings, and a brief conclusion. No citations, tables, or figures.
Keywords: 3–5 keywords, listed alphabetically or in order of importance, chosen to aid indexing.

5. Article Structure

Introduction: should follow this order: context and problem → state of the art → research gap → research objective → contributions. It must contain (a) an adequate state of the art based on recent and relevant literature, (b) a clear statement of the research gap and the novelty of the study, (c) a clearly stated research objective, and (d) a clear statement of the main contributions of the study at the end of the Introduction, written either as a paragraph or as a list. The introduction should be about 10–15% of the manuscript.
Research Method: describe the research flow, tools, materials, data, and procedures in enough detail to allow replication. State the ethical approval for research involving human participants or animals (see Ethical Oversight).
Results and Discussion: address four aspects: (1) the appropriateness of the method used to obtain the results, (2) a precise description of the findings, (3) depth of interpretation, explaining why the results were obtained, and (4) a critical comparison with recent and relevant studies, preferably presented quantitatively in a comparison table (e.g., the proposed method versus previous methods on the same metrics), followed by an explanation of why the results differ.
Conclusions and Future Works: written as narrative paragraphs (not bullet points) that directly answer the research objective, state the novelty of the study, and explain the theoretical and/or practical implications of the findings, followed by the limitations and directions for future work; no citations and no repetition of the Results and Discussion.
Declarations: mandatory, with the following seven parts (choose the applicable statement from the template): Author Contributions, Acknowledgements, and Funding, together with the identifying details of Data Availability and Ethical Approval, are written on the Title Page; in the anonymized manuscript these parts read “[Removed for double-blind review]”.
1. Use of AI and AI-assisted technologies: if AI was used, name every tool with its version or provider (e.g., ChatGPT (GPT-4o, OpenAI), Grammarly, DeepL), state exactly what it was used for and in which sections, and confirm that the authors reviewed, revised, and edited the output and take full responsibility for it. General statements such as "AI was used as a supporting tool" are not accepted. Otherwise, state that no AI tools were used (see Use of AI).
2. Author Contributions (CRediT): state each author's contribution by name using the 14 CRediT roles (Conceptualization, Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Funding Acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project Administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – Original Draft, and Writing – Review & Editing).
3. Conflict of Interest: declare any conflict of interest or state that there is none (see Conflict of Interest).
4. Acknowledgements: acknowledge contributors who do not meet the authorship criteria, with their consent.
5. Data Availability: state where the data can be accessed, or why they cannot be shared (see Data Availability).
6. Funding: state the funding source and grant number, or that the research received no specific funding.
7. Ethical Approval: state the ethics committee and approval number, or explain why approval was not required.
References: see Section 7.

Structure for Other Article Types

Systematic literature reviews may consist of Introduction, Method (review protocol, e.g., search strategy, databases, inclusion and exclusion criteria, and screening following PRISMA), Discussion, and Conclusions, followed by Declarations and References.

Case studies keep the same four main sections as research articles, so that the article structure remains consistent across issues. The case is described as a subsection of the Research Method:

Introduction: the real-world context and problem in the organisation or system studied; why the case is worth studying (unique, representative, or critical); the state of the art and comparable previous cases; the research gap, novelty, and research objective or questions.
Research Method:
- Case Description: profile of the organisation or object (type, scale, existing business processes or systems), case boundaries, and observation period. The organisation may be anonymised with permission.
- Research Design: type of case study (single or multiple; exploratory, descriptive, or explanatory) and research flow.
- Data Collection: interviews, observation, documents, system logs, or questionnaires, with the number of informants or data points.
- Analysis or Development Method: e.g., thematic analysis, a system development method (Waterfall, RAD, Scrum), or an evaluation framework (TAM, UTAUT, ISO/IEC 25010, COBIT).
- Validity and Ethics: triangulation, member checking, organisational permission, and informed consent (see Ethical Oversight).
Results and Discussion: findings or implementation and evaluation results in the case; interpretation within the organisational context; critical comparison with other cases and studies; lessons learned and practical implications for similar organisations; limitations, particularly the extent to which the results can be generalised beyond the case.
Conclusions and Future Works: answer the research questions, state the theoretical and practical contributions, and suggest further research.

A case study must generate understanding or lessons that are relevant beyond the case itself. Manuscripts that only report the development of an application for a single organisation, without evaluation and comparison with the literature, are not considered case studies and may be declined at the initial screening.

6. Tables, Figures, Equations, and Algorithms

Place every table, figure, equation, and algorithm directly in the section where it is first discussed, not in a separate section or at the end of the manuscript.
Tables: caption above the table, centered, in sentence case.
Figures: caption below the figure; minimum resolution 300 dpi; state the source for secondary images. If a figure was generated or modified with generative AI, state this in the caption.
Equations: numbered consecutively in parentheses, aligned to the right, e.g., (1); define all symbols; refer to them as "(1)".
Algorithms/pseudocode: numbered as Algorithm 1, Algorithm 2, …, and cited if adopted from another source.
Every table, figure, equation, and algorithm must be referred to and explained in the text. Use no more than three heading levels.

7. References

Cite a minimum of 25 references, of which at least 80% are primary sources (journal articles, conference proceedings, books or patents reporting original research) and at least 80% were published in the last 10 years.
Use the IEEE citation style with numbered references in square brackets, e.g., [1], [2]. Every in-text citation must match the reference list.
Include the DOI where available. The use of a reference manager such as Mendeley is strongly recommended.
Chained (secondary) citations, i.e., citing a source only as reported in another source (e.g., "… in Sinta (2017)"), are not permitted; cite the original source directly.

8. Copyright and Licence

Authors retain the copyright of their articles and grant SMATIKA the right of first publication. Articles are published open access under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence (see Copyright Policy and Licensing Policy).

9. Submission Checklist

The latest official SMATIKA template is used, and its styles are unchanged.
The manuscript is written in English and the title has no more than 20 words.
Three files are uploaded: the Anonymized Manuscript (no author information, including in the document properties), the Title Page and Declarations, and the Similarity Report (Turnitin).
Author names, affiliations, and the corresponding author on the Title Page follow the required format, and all authors are entered in OJS in the same number and order.
The abstract (200–300 words) and 3–5 keywords meet the requirements.
The Introduction states the state of the art, research gap, novelty, objective, and main contributions.
The Results and Discussion critically compare the findings with relevant recent studies.
The Conclusions answer the research objective, state the contribution and implications, and contain no citations.
All seven Declarations are completed; the AI statement names each tool, its purpose, and confirms the authors' review and editing.
Tables, figures (≥300 dpi), equations, and algorithms are embedded in the relevant sections, numbered, and referred to in the text.
The references meet the minimum of 25 references, 80% primary sources, and 80% recent sources, and follow IEEE style.
The similarity index is no more than 20%, excluding quotations and references.