Instructions for Authors: How to Prepare Texts, Tables, Charts, Photos etc.
Soffeh Journal is a scientific-research publication about architecture and urban planning, accepting articles in accordance with the National Codes for Evaluation of Scientific Publications and 'Soffeh Codes of Conduct'.
A 'scientific-research' article is an article in which the author(s) poses and expands on one or more questions which are concept-oriented, concrete, important and answerable. The author(s) then adopts a credible, relevant method in order to answer those questions.
Admissions are in line with Soffeh's specialty, namely, architecture and urban planning. These include land use and regional planning, urban planning and design, landscape architecture and land use, architecture, interior design, conservation of historically and culturally significant buildings, and post-disaster reconstruction. Accepted articles are expected to have one of the following natures and/or approaches: theoretical principles, theories, histories, case studies, criticisms of theories, methods and works, pedagogies, researches about applications of theories, researches about methods and techniques, and researches about construction implementation and management. It is recommended that the above is clarified in articles.
All articles by faculty members, students and experts are accepted for review, provided they comply with the above.
The refereeing procedures are confidential.
Soffeh reserves the right to edit accepted articles.
Submissions should exclusively be made through journal website (https://soffeh.sbu.ac.ir). Please contact Soffeh office in case there was any problems.
An acknowledgement letter shall be emailed to the corresponding author once a submission is successfully made.
The article review results shall be announced through email, phone or fax, typically within two months, though it might occasionally take longer.
The following material needs to be included in submission packages:
1. The main text
2. Illustrations (if any)
3. The contents list
4. A Persian abstract (max. 300 words)
5. An English summary (max. 1000 words)
6. Keywords
7. Research questions
8. A page containing the title and authors' details and addresses. In case there are more than one author, an author shall be designated as 'corresponding author', with whom Soffeh keeps in touch during refereeing and preparation procedures. The first author is assumed to be to corresponding author in case no author is named as corresponding.
– Unless exempted by the editorial board, no article should exceed 6,000 words (ca. 20 pages, including footnotes)
– Mainstream file types (e.g. opt, rtf, doc, docx, indd) are acceptable for submissions. Most desktop applications such as MS Word, Open Office, and In Design can work with these formats. The inclusion of a PDF version is also necessary, particularly if no hard copies are submitted. This shall help to prevent possible incompatibility errors.
– The use of the standard Iranian code page, as approved by the Iranian High Council of Informatics, is recommended. This code page and its associated pens are downloadable, together with Soffeh's templates from Soffeh website.
– Please use the following format to name the article file:
XXX_020109
The first three characters shall be the first three letters of the corresponding author's surname, and the following six digits shall indicate submission date in Iranian solar calendar.
– All illustrations (photos, maps, charts and designs) are numbered in a single sequence marked by 'ت'. (for example, '11ت' for the 11th illustration of whatever category). Tables are numbered in an independent sequence.
– Please submit all print-quality illustrations on a separate CD, and only include those illustrations that are crucial for the understanding of the text.
– The suitable format for print-quality illustrations is 300 dpi tif or tiff. Most freely available online images, and images taken by non-professional cameras lack this level of quality. Nor can this quality be achieved through upscaling poor-quality images. It is recommended to consult an IT expert in this regard if required.
– The inclusion of a small-size version of images would suffice for the initial submission, to be followed with high-quality images once the article is accepted.
– Drawings should preferably be submitted as images, PDFs or DWFs. Vectorial files like DWGs need to be accompanied by pen setting files such as CTBs.
– Table and chart files (usually in Excel or Visio formats) shall be submitted separately together with PDF or JPG versions.
– Image files need to be named as follows:
XXX_020109_P09.tif
The first two components are named and numbered like the main file. The third component shall indicate the illustration number as mentioned in the text (figure 9 in this example).
– Figure captions and sources shall also be added in the end of the text.
– Please be careful about caption wording, so that the author and the source of the image are not confused.
– The referencing for images shall be in accordance with Soffeh Manual. Please make sure they are all listed, along other sources, in the references list. If an image is produced specially for your article, please cite its creator. In articles with more than one author, it would be inaccurate to mention 'authors' as creators of images. Unless they are indeed created by more than one of the authors, these images should be attributed to one specific author.
– If the images are elaborated versions of some other original image, the original should also be cited, for example when markings are made on an aerial photo.
– If you are specific about the location of certain images, this needs to be clarified.
– The list of contents should accurately reflect the structure and hierarchies of the text. This list is necessary both for refereeing and laying out pages, but is not published per se.
– A copy of the Persian abstract should be submitted separately. This shall be a 300-word (max.) text with no references, and with a similar format to the main text.
– A Persian or English summary (1000 words max.) shall also be submitted. An English version of the summary will be published.
– Please also submit up to five keywords both in Persian and English.
– Each article can have up to five research questions in full sentences and in a similar format to the main text. These will be published along the main text.
– The authors' details page is the only page in which the identities of authors are disclosed. Please arrange the article in a way that authors' identities are not disclosed elsewhere. The information required for this page are as follows:
1. Full names in Persian and English
2. The naming of the corresponding author where there is more than one author
3. Addresses, emails addresses and phone numbers of authors
4. Academic ranks and affiliations of authors
5. Any possible connections with theses or research projects
6. Please also note:
a) All author names are necessary, and the use of academic emails is preferred.
b) Please avoid the general title 'faculty member', and mention your exact academic position (e.g. Lecturer, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Full Professor, Visiting Lecturer etc.). For example: Ali Alipour, Associate Professor, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Shahid Beheshti University
– It is fine to integrate all text material into one file. The authors' details should come first and on a separate page in these cases.
– Please use Soffeh Manual for preparing the article. This is available online, and occasionally printed in the publication as well.
– Please also use Soffeh Manual for referencing.
– Unless absolutely necessary, please avoid using non-Persian letters in the Persian text. Non-Persian equivalents of words and names can be mentioned in footnotes, accompanied by explanations if necessary.
– Key information about people (e.g. birth and death dates and other milestones) should be compiled using credible sources, together with people's names in original language and short biographies, all in footnotes.
– Authors' own insertions should be put into square brackets'[ ]'. Earlier insertions by others should be put into accolades '{ }'. Square brackets are always reserved for the latest insertions.
What Soffeh would not publish:
1. Translations
2. Articles by the same individual in one issue
3. Articles by the same individual in two consecutive issues
– All articles express their respective authors' views
– Subject to correctly citing the source, any quotations from Soffeh articles are allowed.
– Soffeh uses the 17th edition of Chicago Manual of Styles for referencing.