SCITECH Nepal is published by the Nepal Engineering College, Pokhara University. The SCITECH Nepal has been hosted by the Nepal Journal Online (NepJOL) platform.

SCITECH Nepal is a peer-reviewed, double-blind, multidisciplinary, and open access international journal. It publishes original research articles, reviews, and short communications in the field of science, engineering and technology.Turnitin or ithenticate plagiarism checker will be used to check for plagiarism in all submitted manuscripts.The journal aims to provide clear and applicable suggestions for science and engineering research across the globe. Papers having a clear hypothesis with novel findings will get priority for publication. SCITECH Nepal includes papers related to various disciplines of science, engineering and technology such as physical science, chemistry, biology, engineering, construction engineering, transportation engineering, natural resources, water resources, environment conservation and management, and technology, law, and policies of science, engineering and technology.

The mission of the journal is to promote different facets of science, engineering and technology by encouraging researchers across the globe to publish and share their research and scientific information in an accessible form.

The SCITECH Nepal has a licensing policy that permits distribution, remixing, adaption, and build upon your work under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0License. Authors retain the copyright of the contents published in SCITECH Nepal and need to grant the right of first publication to the journal. It also allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., on their website) prior to and during the submission process (e.g., as a preprint), as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of the published work. However, authors need to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements with SCITECH Nepal for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., publish it in an institutional book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.

The publication of an article in a peer-reviewed journal is an essential work of scientists to disseminate their research findings on a global scale. It also reflects the quality of research of the authors and their institutions. Prior to publishing their work, authors need to agree upon standards of expected ethical behavior. The following points should be considered as ethical topics before submitting papers for publication in the SCITECH Nepal:

Authorship of the paper:Authorship of the paper should be limited to those who have significantly contributed to the conception, design, execution, or writing of the study. There should be transparency on the contributions of authors and authors need to provide author contribution statement as mentioned above.

Originality and plagiarism:The authors should ensure that they have developed entirely original works. They have to use the contents of works, part of work, and words or statements of others, that has been cited or quoted appropriately.

Acknowledgment of sources:Acknowledgment of other people's work must always be provided.

Reporting standards:Results of the original research work of authors should provide an accurate account of the work with a clear discussion of its implications.

Conflicts of interest:The authors must disclose a potential conflict of interest for all submissions and relationships with others.

Data access and retention:Authors may be asked to provide the raw data in connection with a paper for editorial review, and should be agreed to provide public access to such data if the editorial board finds something doubtful.

Critical errors in published works:If an author finds a critical error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author's responsibility to promptly notify the journal editor and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.

Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication:Authors should not submit/publish the same research, idea, concept, and papers in more than one journal or primary publication. These contents include publication in the form of an abstract, publication as an academic dissertation, conference proceeding, and publication as an electronic preprint.

Use of hazards and human or animal subjects and work in restricted areas:Authors should not use hazardous chemicals or weapons or equipment to handle animals or humans at the time of data collection. They should state complications if their research work involves chemicals, procedures, or equipment that have any unusual hazards to animals or humans. Besides, authors require approval of the ethics committee, prior informed consent to study on patients, direct handling of animals, and working in restricted areas. Authors should get permission to do such works from concerned authorities/people and should declare in the cover letter to the journal at the time of submission.

Plagiarism policy: All the submissions will go for a plagiarism check prior to go review process. It is one of the most common types of publication misconduct when an author deliberately uses another's work without permission, credit, or acknowledgment. It includes Ideas and Concepts, Data, Words, and Phrases. Authors should declare that their work does not have plagiarized contents or parts throughout the paper. For details of plagiarism, authors can check internet sources and published books.

Conflict of interest All authors must disclose a conflict of interest (COI) in their contributions. The COI includes financial, and personal relationships supporting organizations, employment, consultancies, ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding.The authors need to provide a statement declaring the conflict of interest in the title page file.

Changes to authorship At the time of submission, authors need to provide the list and order of authors without any conflict. Further addition, deletion, or rearrangement of author names and order in the author's list should be requested journal editor just before the manuscript has been accepted. For such change, the corresponding author should send written confirmation letters from all authors to the editor explaining the reason for change including the consent of all authors. This would be possible only in exceptional circumstances and the Editor considers the addition, deletion, or rearrangement of authors' names and order after the manuscript has been accepted. Before that, the manuscript will be suspended from publication.

Review process Reviewers are the honorary volunteers that play a pivotal role in publishing standards. The review process involves the following steps:

Double-blind peer-review

Initial assessment by the editor for suitability and standard for the journal Checking for: Plagiarism and Ethical standard

If the paper deemed suitable for publication, assigning to the handling subject editor

Send to at least two independent subject expert reviewers to assess the scientific quality of the paper

The handling editor submits the report of review including the authors' response to the reviewer's comments and based on the reports, the chief editor is responsible for the final decision of revisions required, acceptance, or rejection of papers. The chief editors decision is final. Also, check the editorial process for details

SCITECH Nepal follows a double-blind peer-review process. Author names are concealed. Editors and reviewers are expected to handle the manuscripts confidentially and must not disclose any details to anyone outside of the review process. Reviewers also have the right to confidentiality and their names are not revealed to authors unless they choose to sign their review. Further, peer review comments should remain confidential even after a manuscript receives a final decision. Manuscripts are normally reviewed by at least two independent experts in the relevant subjects. All correspondence between an author, editor, and peer reviewer should remain in confidence unless explicit consent has been given by all parties, including the journal, or unless there are exceptional ethical or legal circumstances that require identities or details of the correspondence to be revealed. Reviewers are acknowledged by publishing a list of contributing reviewers for each year on the journal website.

Types of editorial decisions:

Desk rejection: The paper does not follow the guidelines of the journal and is unrelated to the scope and standard of the journal.

Reject: The paper is not acceptable for publication in the journal and re-submission will not be considered.

Decline without prejudice: The paper is rejected but with the option to submit, for further review, a completely new version of the paper that has undergone considerable changes.

Major Revision: The paper requires major changes and needs to go through the review process again, with no guarantee of acceptance.

Minor Revision:The paper requires minor changes. Further review is occasionally required. There is no guarantee of acceptance.

Final acceptance: After a final editorial check, acceptance is confirmed and the manuscript files along with the obtained forms are sent to the publisher.

Accepted papers: After a paper has been accepted for publication, authors will receive galley proof of manuscript within one week. After receiving corrections from the authors, the manuscript will be corrected and then it will be uploaded online within one week. Any final, minor corrections can still be made to the article at the following proofing stage. ? Offprints: A PDF offprint is available to authors via an automated system integrated with SCITECH Nepal Author Services. The authors will be directed to retrieve the final PDF file of their article online. A copy of the Publisher's Terms and Conditions for the use of the PDF file will accompany the PDF offprint and the file can only be distributed in accordance with these requirements.

Presently, the journal is supported by the Nepal Engineering College, Pokhara University, Nepal for any cost associated with the handling, publishing, and technical things.

The Manuscript has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).

Authors retain the copyright of the contents published in SCITECH NEPAL and need to grant the right of first publication to the journal with the work simultaneously licensed under a creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY-NC) 4.0 License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

The submission file is in Microsoft Word or Latex.

Manuscripts should be in English, typed on the A4 paper, single column, 1.5 spaced with ample margins (Left 1.25'', Top, Bottom, and Right 1'') including line and page number for each page separately. Authors are suggested to use Times New Roman font (12pt bold for headings, 12pt for the text including captions of figures and illustrations). A clear justification must be provided in the cover letter during submission for manuscripts over the word count in each form of paper type.

Line numbers and page numbers.

The International System of Units (meters, kilograms, seconds) should be used for all measurements.

Where available, Uniform Resource Locator (URL)s and Digital Object Identifier (DOI) for the references have been provided.

During submission author (s) require to submit:

a. A cover letter to the editor,

b. A manuscript files with list of author names, affiliation(s), and e-mail address of the corresponding author

c. The name, complete mailing address

d. Tables and figures should be placed at the end of the manuscript file

e. Supplementary files (if applicable) should submitted separately

Title: A concise and informative title of fewer than 25 words. For original research papers and short communications, the text should normally consist of Abstract, Introduction, Materials and methods, Results and discussion, Conclusion, Research implications (if any), Acknowledgments, and References.

Abstract: This section should be written in a paragraph with less than 250-300 words and includes the following: Scope, Location, Methods, Results, Research implications in the respective fields, and ending with a list of 5-6 keywords arranged in alphabetical order.

Introduction:State the clear reason for the research work, the context, background, aims, and the hypotheses that are being tested. A brief statement of what has been achieved should be written at the end of the introduction.

Materials and Methods: Include sufficient details for the work to be repeated. Where specific equipment and materials are named, the manufacturer's details (name, city, and country) should be given so that readers can trace specifications by contacting the manufacturer. Where commercially available software has been used, details of the supplier should be given in brackets or the reference given in full in the reference list.

Results and discussion: State the results of experimental or modeling work, drawing attention to important details in tables and figures. The Results section should conform to the highest standards of rigor. Point out the importance of the results and place them in the context of previous studies and in relation to the application of the work (expanding on the Synthesis and applications section of the Summary). Include clear recommendations for management or policy. Conclusions: Highlight the key findings of your research.

Acknowledgments: It must be placed after the main text and before the references. Be brief (Acknowledgments of people, grants, funds, etc.). If authors refer to themselves as recipients of assistance or funding, they should do so by their initials separated by points (e.g., J. B. T.). Do not acknowledge Editors by name.

Author's contributions: A brief author contributions statement must be provided for all submissions with more than one author. A general guideline for author contributions statement is given below:

"Subedi, J. R. Designed research, and collected data; Subedi, J. R. and Smith, H. analyzed and wrote the manuscript. All authors contributed critically to the drafts and gave final approval for publication."

Funding Information (if any): Provide the funding source in less than 50 words. ORCID: Provide the ORCID ID(s) of the author(s).

References:Only the cited references should be used in the papers. The references should be limited to published work, work in press, research reports of authentic institutions, or theses and dissertations. References should be listed in cited numerical order. Check the manuscript to make sure that all references are cited and that all citations in the text are included in the references. DOI is compulsory for citing journal research papers. Follow the following given citation style.

Citations in the text:

For one author: Shrestha (2010) and (Shrestha 2010)

For two authors: (Subedi & Pandey 2004) and Subedi and Pandey (2004)

For more than two authors: Shrestha et al. (2015) and (Shrestha et al. 2015)

Multiple citations within a bracket are to be kept in chronological order of old to new references and separated by a comma, for example: (Sharma & Jackson 1996, Khadka et al. 2011, Shrestha et al. 2018)

Citations for Personal Communication are not included in the reference list. Cite such references only in text. Provide the full name of the communicator with the date of communication if possible. It can be written as: (Krishna Khadka Pers. Comm., March 26, 2022).

In reference list:

Journal article, single author

Sharma, N. J. 2002. Neural networks in civil engineering: 1989-2000.Computer-Aided Civil and Infrastructure Engineering,16(2), pp.126-142 https://doi.org/10.1034/j.1600-0587.2002.250104.x

Journal article, two authors

Schlaepfer, M. A. and Gavin, T. A. 2001. Computer-Aided Civil and Infrastructure Engineering 15:1079-1090  https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1523-1739.2001.0150041079.x

Journal article, more than two authors

Tscharntke, T., Sekercioglu, C. H., Dietsch, T. V., Sodhi, N. S., Hoehn, P. and Tylianakis, J. M. 2008. Computer-Aided Civil and Infrastructure Engineering 89:944-951. https://doi.org/10.1890/07-0455.1

Journal article, more than six authors

Whiles, M.R., Lips, K.R.,Pringle, C. M., Kilham, S.S., Bixby, R.J., Brenes, R. et al.2006. Computer-Aided Civil and Infrastructure engineering 4:27-34. https://doi.org/10.1890/1540-9295(2006)004[0027:TEOAPD]2.0.CO;2

Proceedings

Teng, J.G. ed., 2001. FRP Composites in Civil Engineering: Proceedings of the International Conference on FRP Composites in Civil Engineering, 12-15 December 2001, Hong Kong, China(Vol. 1). Taylor & Francis. pp 1976-1980

Report

Sharma, A. P. 1993. Status of water pollution in Nepal. A report submitted to the Man and Biosphere, Kathmandu, Nepal, p 320.

Book

Schuh, R. T. and Brower, A. V. Z. 2009. Pavement Analysis. Developments in Civil Engineering (2nd edition). Cornell University Press, Ithaca, USA, p 311.

Edited book

Glatston, A. R. (Ed.) 2011. Red Panda, the Biology and Conservation of the First Panda. Academic Press, London, UK, p 456.

Chapter in an edited book

Nesheim, M. C. 1989. Ascariasis and human nutrition. In: Crompton, D. W. T., Nesbemi, M. C. and Pawlowski, Z. S. (Eds.) Ascariasis and its prevention and control. Taylor and Francis, London, UK, pp 87-100.

Dissertation/Thesis

Bam, A. B. 2005. Vibrational based inspection of civil engineering structures.. MSc Thesis, Nepal Engineering College, Pokhara University, Pokhara, Nepal. Thapa, T. B. 2011. Vibrational based inspection of civil engineering structures. PhD Thesis, Saurashtra University, India.

Website

Goodrich, J., Lynam, A., Miquelle, D., Wibisono, H., Kawanishi, K., Pattanavibool, A., Hunt, S.,Tempa, T., Karki, J. and Jhala, Y. 2015.Panthera tigris. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2015: e.T15955A50659951.USGS.2015. Fresh water mussels of the upper Missipi River. http://www.fws.gov/midwest/mussel/current_threats.html. Accessed on 19 June 2019.

Tables: Each table should be on a separate page, numbered, and accompanied by a legend at the top. These should be referred to in the text as Table 1, Table 2, etc. Each table should be the plain format (without any effects and vertical lines). Any additional information on the table should be indicated by superscript upper-case letters and provided beneath the table body. Avoid duplication between figures and tables.

Figures: Figures and their legends should be grouped together at the end of the paper before Supporting Information (if present). Figures (including artwork, map, design except for table) should be referred to in the text as Fig. 1, Fig. 1 & 2, etc. (For multiple figures as:- Fig.1a, 1b, etc.) Figure caption should be clear enough to understand without refereeing text. Figures including any other graphical objects should be in TIFF/JPEG format and should have a resolution not less than 300 dpi.

Supporting Information: Essential supporting information can be published in the online version of the article. It includes additional artwork, design, maps, supporting data, appendices,