Guilde for Authors
Journal "Natural Science and Advanced Technology Education" is a peer-reviewed, scientific journal which provides researchers, experts, university professors, PhD students, university students, teachers and pupils with a forum for exchange and discussion of theoretical, experimental and methodological studies, innovations and good practices in the field of education in the natural sciences, technologies and related fields for all educational levels – from preschool education to higher education and professional development.
The journal accepts for publication:
- original scientific research
- systematic review articles
- short scientific communications (letters to the editor, etc.)
- book reviews
Recommended character count of an original scientific article / review – up to 35 000 characters, and of a book review – up to 15 000 characters (including spaces).
The journal accepts manuscripts in Bulgarian and in English which have not been sent for publication elsewhere. When sending a manuscript to the Journal, the Author explicitly declares that the manuscript is not already submitted or under consideration for publication elsewhere.
The submitted articles must contain original ideas and scientific results. The circumstantial description of widely known theories, terms or definitions that are easily accessible elsewhere is not encouraged. The journal reserves the right not to publish a text which, upon examination, reveals a degree of similarity higher than 20%.
The Authors are obligated to promptly answer the Editors’ questions related to the primary data for their research, clarifications on the manuscript’s text, or issues regarding copyright.
Manuscripts that do not correspond to the journal’s scope or manuscripts that are not formatted according to the Guidelines will be rejected without going through the blind peer review procedure. All remaining materials are sent for review to two anonymous independent reviewers, who are experts in the scientific field of the manuscript in question.
The list of potential reviewers must not include members of the journal's Editorial Board, researchers affiliated with the same institution as the authors, as well as researchers with real or potential conflict of interest with the authors. The journal’s Editorial Board members reserves its right to not take into consideration the reviewers proposed by the author.
The decision for publication is based on the value and significance of the manuscript, on the comments and recommendations of the reviewers and on adherence to the requirements and guidelines of the journal in question. Should the two reviewers’ opinions differ, a super-reviewer is appointed and their recommendation is taken as final.
Authors must respond to the reviewers’ comments promptly; additionally, they must make the necessary corrections (marking the changes made with colour), complying with the recommendations given, and resubmit the manuscript, or provide reasoning in all cases where a suggestion has been dismissed.
Authors are informed whether their manuscript has been accepted for publication or rejected as soon as the review process is over.
Every article, accepted for publication, is edited for grammar.
Access and licensing
Journal "Natural Science and Advanced Technology Education" is published with completely open access.
Publishing in the journal is free both for the authors and for their scientific or scholarly organisations.
All published materials are made public, with open access and on the conditions of the Creative Commons license Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY 4.0). This means is that reuse is permitted, provided the Author is appropriately credited and all changes are denoted properly.
The author may freely share their manuscript in the version it was originally submitted for consideration to the journal (a preprint). Should the text be accepted, after publication the author should add to the shared manuscript the name, volume and issue of the journal where it is published.
Preprint Availability Statement: A preprint version of this manuscript is available on [Repository Name/e.g., bioRxiv] at [DOI or URL].
The author is free to share the final published version—without any embargo period—in academic and research-sharing networks (e.g., ResearchGate.net and Academia.edu), or on personal websites/blogs, provided that a link to the original publication is included.
Copyright
The author waives to the Publisher the rights for the use of the materials submitted for publication (articles, images, graphs, databases) in full, for an unlimited period of time and on unlimited territory.
The use of third-party images and other materials within the materials submitted is permissible solely with the agreement of the original author (including in cases when those images were published under an appropriate standard license, compatible with CC-BY 4.0.) and provided the source is referenced correctly. In case the submitted materials include items created by third parties, the author declares and guarantees that they have permission from the creators to use those items.
By submitting a manuscript, the author agrees to follow the Guidelines, requirements and ethical principles for scientific research publishing. The latter’s violation will be considered a refusal for future cooperation between the author and the journal.
Financial support transparency
The sources of funding that aided the creation of the text, if there are any, must be declared openly. It is recommended that other types of aid, e.g. access to infrastructure, etc., be clearly stated in the manuscript, usually within the Acknowledgements section.
Acknowledgements & Funding: The work was supported and funded by […], [grant number XXX].
The author would like to acknowledge the […].
If no funding has been provided for the research, it is recommended to include the following sentence:
Acknowledgements & Funding: The authors declare that no financial support or funding was received for the research, and/or publication of this manuscript.
Conflict of interest statement
The authors must declare all possible professional, financial or personal interests by other parties, or any other conflicts of interest which may be interpreted as influencing the results or their interpretation in the manuscript. The declaration of possible conflict of interest is a mandatory step in the process of submitting a manuscript.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) statement
Authors may use tools with generative artificial intelligence to better the language, grammar and style of the text; regardless, they bear full responsibility for maintaining the truthfulness and originality of any contents presented in their manuscripts.
Using tools with generative artificial intelligence in order to fabricate research data, sources, analyses, or to generate parts of the manuscript is impermissible. In case the use of artificial intelligence tools is a part of the research itself, that should be described in a sufficiently detailed manner in the “Materials and Methods” part of the manuscript (or in an appropriate alternative section thereof).
Using tools with generative artificial intelligence to generate or modify figures and images is prohibited (unless it is to technically improve the quality). This is permitted solely in case it is a part of the research’s design, in which case it should be explicitly stated; reproducibility should also be guaranteed.
Each and every use of a tool with artificial intelligence should be explicitly stated by the Authors in an Artificial Intelligence Disclosure (AID) Statement within the text of the manuscript.
Artificial Intelligence Statement: During the preparation of this work the author(s) used [NAME OF TOOL / SERVICE] in order to [REASON]. After using this tool/service, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as needed and take(s) full responsibility for the content of the published article.
Submission of manuscripts
Manuscripts are to be submitted through the electronic system ScholarOne at the following address: https://mc04.manuscriptcentral.com/nsate
Detailed instructions regarding the manuscript submission process can be found at the Guide for the authors: ScholarOne Manuscript.
To contact the Editorial Board, please send an email to science@azbuki.bg
The transfer of manuscripts service
The journal uses "Az-buki" National Publishing House‘s Transfer of Manuscripts. This means that, should an editor decide that a particular manuscript is more appropriate for another of the publishing house’s journals, the author may be asked to consider transferring the manuscript to that journal. Should the author agree, the manuscript will be transferred and the author will have the option of making changes to the presented material before submission. The transferred manuscript will once again be examined by two independent reviewers.
Proofs
Before publication of the accepted manuscripts the authors receive proofs of their articles, which are to be returned to the editors within a week. The purpose of the proof is to check the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of your article text, tables and figures. At this stage of preparing the manuscript, significant changes to the text are not allowed.
Requirements for formatting the manuscript
The submitted manuscripts must be formatted using a standard text-processing program (Microsoft Word) in adherence to the following:
Font: Times New Roman – Font size 12
Page formatting: Page Setup: Top: 2,5 см, Bottom: 2,5 см, Left: 2,5 см, Right: 2,5 см ; Line Spacing: 1,5 lines.
Specific formatting of the text itself concerning underlining, tabulators, usage of bullet points etc. is not encouraged. Tabulators are only accepted when formatting tables.
You can follow the layout of the articles in Bulgarian and in English in the samples given below:
DocX – in Bulgarian
DocX – in English
Structure of the manuscript
Title page
Every manuscript must be made completely anonymous, so as not to compromise the review process. The author must make sure that all identifying information has been removed from the main document and is included in the title page in a separate file, which is not to be sent to the reviewers.
The title page must include:
- Title of the article – it is recommended that the title of the article be short (5-10 words), with no abbreviations, and that it presents the main topic of study.
- Full name of the author(s), institutional affiliation (including university, institute), city and country (with no mention of academic and other titles).
- Detailed data about the author(s) in English – including full name, academic title and scientific degree, institutional affiliation (including university, institute), city and country, personal ID of the author (WoS Researcher ID, Scopus Author ID, ORCID ID), work postal address, е-mail address for correspondence.
- Acknowledgements and Funding (if any) are to be written in both Bulgarian and English. Any individuals, institutions and/or organizations who provided you with help during your research, as well as the funding of the scientific study are acknowledged in this section.
- Any and all other identifying information, related to the authors and/or their institutions, organizations providing funding, etc., which could compromise anonymity.
Abstract
The abstract contains the specific features of the study in a concise form – aim/subject, methodology used, main results and conclusions. The abstract must correspond to the title, keywords and text of the scientific work. Recommended wordcount of the abstract – 150 words.
Keywords (between 3 and 6 keywords/phrases).
Main exposition
Should be structured in different sections, divided by short titles with a clearly indicated position in the hierarchy of the text.
The standard structure of a scientific article consists of an Introduction (which presents the topic and provides the necessary context and literature review; it formulates the research question, hypothesis, or objective of the study); a Materials and Methods (which describes in detail how the research was conducted, including information on the instruments, procedures, data collection, and data analysis); Results (which objectively present the collected data and may include text, tables, and figures); a Discussion (which interprets the results, compares them with findings from previous studies, and identifies the limitations of the research); and a Conclusion (which summarizes the main findings and their significance and may suggest directions for future research).
Figures and images
Figures (illustrations) and their descriptions must be provided both in the main text and separately in an additional file in a format which allows for them to be processed and edited with widely used programs. As an exception, if the figures have a big size and cannot be put in the main text, their place must be explicitly shown – fig. 1, fig. 2, etc. Enumeration and description of the figures are to be put below them.
If possible, the figures should be created in graphics editor programs (Corel Draw, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe PhotoShop) or in Excel. Titles of the figures must not be included in the image.
Photos and scanned images should be in separate good quality files (at least 300 dpi), preferably in JPG, JPEG, PNG or TIFF format.
Tables
Tables and their titles must be provided both in the main text and separately in an additional file. Numeric data showcasing functional relations between magnitudes or variables can be presented in a table. Text tables complicate printing and reading of the articles, therefore their usage is not recommended.
Tables must be created in Word Table or Excel. They should be numbered consecutively according to their citation in the text. Every table must have a title. The number and title of tables are to be put above them. Any explanations needed are to be put below the table, marked with the appropriate symbols.
Abbreviations
Specific abbreviations used in the text should be introduced in parentheses at the first usage of the full term. Only standard abbreviations are to be used, and they should be avoided in the title and abstract.
Equations
If you’re using Word, please use Microsoft Equation Editor or the addition MathType. The equations must be editable by the Editorial Board and must not appear as images.
Chemical structures and reaction schemes
Chemical structures and reaction schemes must be made using an appropriate software packet. They should be drawn at such a scale, so that all details and text are clearly readable when inserted in the manuscript (i.e. the text must be with a font of no less than 8 or 9 points).
Additional materials (if any) in the form of graphs, tables or illustrations must be readable and processable with widely used programs and applications.
Notes
All archival sources, documents, laws, etc., including online sources, should be recounted in the Notes section. Additional explanations or information that would make the main text convoluted may also be included there. The notes must be written only in the language of the main text of the manuscript. Their place should be marked in the text of the article with Arabic numerals as superscript.
References
The list of references must include literary sources accessible for examination or consultation. References to literature which is irrelevant to the submitted text, or enumeration of sources not used in the text are not permitted. Self-citation in a particular manuscript must not exceed 20% of the total amount of cited sources.
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools do not meet the criteria for authorship and therefore may not be included as authors, or cited as such.
Sources in the Cyrillic script must be enumerated in a separate section called Literature, as well as repeated transliterated or translated in the main list of sources (References).
In case the manuscript is in Bulgarian, the title, abstract and keywords in English should follow.
In-text citations and list of reference
References to the publications must be written in accordance with the Harvard citation and APA Style 7th Edition (2020). The following examples showcase how this should be done.
In-text citations
Authors, cited in the text, should be presented in one of the following ways:
Citing the author’s surname and the year of publication (e.g. Sendak, 2015).
If a particular page should be noted (e.g. p. 689), it must be done like this: (Sendak, 2015, p. 689).
Citing both authors’ surnames and the year of publication (e.g. Sendak & Wise, 2015).
In the case of three or more authors, only the name of the first author is written, followed by “et al.” and the year of publication (Sendak et al., 2015).
Citing the collective author and the year of publication (e.g. American Library Association [ALA], 2015).
When citing two or more articles by the same authors published in the same year, you must add lowercase Latin letters (a, b, c, etc.) after the publication year. This distinction applies to both in-text citations and the reference list (e.g., Ivanov & Petrov, 2020a, 2020b).
List of reference
The literary sources must be ordered alphabetically according to the surname of the first author.
In case there are several articles by the same author(s), the articles must be ordered chronologically – from oldest to newest.
In the titles of books, chapters, articles, reports and other sources, only the first word of the title and subtitle, the first word after a semicolon or a dash in the title, or proper names are to be written with a capital first letter.
Books
Fraser, C. (2017). Prairie fires: The American dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder. (2nd ed.). Metropolitan Books.
Edited Books
Melendy, R., & Kincaid, C. (Eds.). (2018). Birth order and personality. Doubleday.
Books by an anonymous author
Anonymous. (2021). Kritika na porochnata praktika. PAN [in Bulgarian].
Chapters of books / Collections
Carman, T. (2005). On the Inescapability of Phenomenology. In: D.W. Smith &, A. L. Thomasson (Eds.). Phenomenology and Philosophy of Mind (pp. 67 – 89). Clarendon Press.
Articles in journals
The titles of the journals are written in full and in cursive (italics). In the titles of scientific journals all main words are written with a capital first letter if they are in English, whilst that should not be done in the articles’ titles.
Capizzi, M. T., & Ferguson, R. (2005). Loyalty trends for the twenty-first century, Journal of Consumer Marketing, 22(2), 72 – 80. https://doi.org/10.1002/pon.750
Unpublished conference proceedings
Bland, A. (2017, November). The implementation of a junior Samoan language programme in a South Island, New Zealand secondary school context [Paper presentation]. Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) Conference 2017, Canberra, Australia. https://bit.ly/37DvrHR
Articles in a newspaper
Bidey, S. (2018, January 1). Bid to curb youth crime. Townsville Bulletin, p. 13.
Online sources
Rogers, O. (2021, July 9). Why naming race is necessary to undo racism. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/who-am-i-who-are-we/202107/why-naming-race-is-necessary-undo-racism
Dissertation
Dodov, I. (2016). Automation of station setup processes in repair. [Dissertation, Virtual institute]. CSU ScholarWorks. https://www.kardam.com/daily-news/2016/12/11/ 1576104511.
In all other cases not described in the guidelines, authors must consult the APA Style 7th Edition (2020) and follow those guidelines when citing.