Online Submissions

Registration and login are required to submit items online and to check the status of current submissions.

Author Guidelines

The authors must refer to the International Journal of Cyber Forensics and Advanced Threat Investigations for writing format and style (Please download and use the journal layout template for an initial manuscript submission in Microsoft Word or LaTeX formats). No manuscript will be accepted unless it strictly follows the manuscript guidelines, i.e., must be professionally copyedited, references and citations formatted according to APA style guidelines, and includes all mandatory sections (Introduction, Conclusion, and References). Any manuscripts not fulfilling the requirements based on the guideline to authors will not be processed.

All authors must upload as well the originality form together with each article. The references must be processed by a bibliographic management software (Zotero, Mendeley, EndNote, among others).

This is very important.
The author should specify one or more of the basic cybersecurity methodologies that the submission lies within, either red teaming methodology, yellow teaming methodology, or blue teaming methodology in the "Comments for the Editor". This will aid to reduce the time required to nominate prospective reviewers for the article.

Please notice that, although the format and file requirements are only strictly mandatory for final manuscript submission, authors are strongly advised to follow the CFATI guidelines for draft articles submitted for review as well. Also, we advise authors to consult previous articles with similar topics, published in CFATI.

It is the policy of Concept Tech Publishing to ask the author of each submitted article to nominate prospective reviewers for the article. The Editor of CFATI is very grateful if you could send us the names and full contact details (including the correct email address) of five individuals who have significant experience in the area covered by your article. The Editor then will select one of them and send your article to him/her asking if they are willing to act as a reviewer of your article. The Editor will also send your article to two additional reviewers from our reviewers.

As soon as you send us your suggestions for reviewers, your article (if it has matched with the guide for authors) will be sent out for review. The Editor shall inform you of the results of the review as soon as possible, hopefully in 30 to 60 days.

CFATI recommends that all authors register for an ORCiD identifier. An ORCiD is a digital identifier that distinguishes authors from others, and ORCiD numbers for each author will be included in an article’s author list.

How to submit your manuscript

To make a submission, you must have a user account and be enrolled as an Author. User accounts can either be created by the Editor or you can register yourself (this journal policy allow you to create a user account by yourself as a Reader, and an Author). All fields with an asterisk beside them (Username; Password; Repeat Password; First Name; Last Name; Email) are mandatory. Your username and your email address must be unique; furthermore, while you can change your email address at a later date, you will not be able to change your username. If you want to register in another role within the same journal (for example, if you are already a Reader, but also want to become an Author) you can log in; go to Edit My Profile (under My Account on your User Home page); and check off the checkboxes next to any available roles, near the bottom of the page. Once you have an account, log in to the journal site and select the role of the Author.

The Author is asked to upload a submission file and to provide metadata or indexing information. (The metadata improves the search capacity for research online and for the journal) The Author can upload Supplementary Files, in the form of data sets, research instruments, or source texts that will enrich your submission, as well as contribute to more open and robust forms of research and scholarship. The Author is able to track the submission through the review and editorial process by logging in to the journal's website.

One author should be designated as the corresponding author and provide the following information:
• E-mail address
• Full postal address
• Telephone and fax numbers
Please note that any manuscripts which fail to meet our requirements will be returned to the author for amendment. Only manuscripts that are submitted in the correct style will be considered by the Editors.

Viewing and Changing your Profile

To view and edit your profile, log in and click the Edit My Profile link from your User Home page. Alternatively, once logged in you can always click the My Profile link from the User Navigation block on the sidebar, if available. From here, you can update your email address, change your personal information, or change your password.

Resetting your Password

Resetting your password is a simple process if you remember it and just want to change it to something else: log in, and from your User Home page click the Change Password link. You will have to enter your current password, and then your new password twice.

Resetting your password if you have forgotten it is still a simple process, but it takes a few more steps:

• Click the log in link on the topmost navigation bar.
• Click the Forgot Your Password? link.
• Enter your email address in the box provided and click the Reset Password link. This will send a confirmation email to your email address (if you do not see an email in your Inbox, check your spam folder).
• The email will include a link to reset your password: click it, and you should return to the journal website.
• On returning to the journal website, you should be notified that an email containing a new password has been sent to your email address. Check for that second email, and use your new credentials to log into the site.
• After successfully logging in, you will be asked to immediately change your password. Enter the emailed password first (Current Password), and then a new, secret password twice (New Password, Repeat New Password).

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

1. The submission has not been previously published, has not appeared elsewhere, nor is it submitted before to another journal for consideration at the same time of submission (double submission). If it extends a previously published article, email the editor on submission to provide an explanation along with the summary of changes; if a referee or editor detects excessive similarity to other work, the article may be summarily rejected.
2. Is the manuscript clearly written? Does the content flow well from one section to another? Please try to keep your manuscript on the proper level. It should be easy to understand by well-qualified professionals, but at the same time please avoid describing well-known facts (use proper references instead). If an article is poorly written due to grammatical errors, which will make it more difficult to understand the ideas behind it. It will be directly rejected by the editor. Since the referees will have difficulties during evaluation. As well as readers will face the same problem. Hence, there is no reason to publish the manuscript.
3. The submission file is in PDF format along with the source files (either Microsoft Word or LaTeX ) as specified with the layout in the templates described in the Author Guidelines. Where available, URLs for the references have been provided; and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
4. Reference citations are in APA style format, e.g. (Mitchell, 2017) . Use at least 20 references, 20% of the references should be from recent articles. For each reference cited that has a DOI, that reference’s DOI must be included in the reference list. Use a reference manager, such as Mendeley, Endnote, or Zotero to improve the quality of the article. It is advisable for the authors to consult the previous articles with similar topics, published in the journal.
5. The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines, which is found in About the Journal. Please be aware that for the final submission of the article you will be asked to tailor your article with our template.
6. The author's affiliation should be stated on the webform at the time of submission for all authors and usually will not change because the affiliation should reflect where the work was done. All authors agree to the submission of the article and to the order of names and affiliations for each author. If submitting to a peer-reviewed section of the journal, no author details appear on the article and any references that clearly identify the author or authors are anonymized. Additionally, the instructions in Ensuring a Blind Review should be followed.
7. Relation of figures or tables and text: Because tables and figures supplement the text, all tables and figures should be referenced in the text. The authors also must explain what the reader should look for when using the table or figure. Focus only on the important point the reader should draw from them, and leave the details for the reader to examine on her own.
   
   Figures:
   a. All figures appearing in an article must be numbered in the order that they appear in the text.
   b. Each figure must have a caption fully explaining the content
   c. Figure captions are presented as a paragraph starting with the figure number i.e. Figure 1, etc.
   d. Figure captions appear below the figure
   e. Each figure must be fully cited if taken from another article
   f. all figures must be referred to in the body of the article
   
   Tables:
   a. Material that is tabular in nature must appear in a numbered captioned table.
   b. All tables appearing in an article must be numbered in the order that they appear in the text.
   c. Each table must have a caption explaining the content with the table number i.e. Table 1, etc.
   d. Each column must have a clear and concise heading
   e. All tables must be referred to in the body of the article
   f. Each table must be fully cited if taken from another article
8. Please input in the "Comments for the Editor" section below one or more of the basic cybersecurity methodologies that the submission lies within, either
   • Red teaming methodology,
   • Yellow teaming methodology,
   • Blue teaming methodology.
   This will aid to reduce the time required to nominate prospective reviewers for the submission. That is very important.
9. Provide the editor (in the space allowed for comments below) with a list of up to 5 potential reviewers/referees including email addresses, ideally at least one from overseas. For each, indicate why they are suitable. Do not include anyone who has collaborated with any of the authors in the last 5 years. If any reviewer/referee should be excluded inform the editor (in the space allowed for comments below) with details including why the reviewer is not suitable.

Copyright Notice

Please find the copyright terms and conditions of the International Journal of Cyber Forensics and Advanced Threat Investigations. By submitting the manuscript of the article, the author(s) fully agree with this copyright notice.

On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author declares the following:

The corresponding author hereby represents and warrants that the manuscript is original and that he/she is the author of the manuscript, except for material that is clearly identified as to its original source, with permission notices from the copyright owners where required. The corresponding author represents that he/she has the power and authority to make and execute this assignment, and take public responsibility for it.

  

I / We declare that:

1. The manuscript submitted is my/our own original work, and that (I am/we are) the author(s) of the manuscript and participated sufficiently in the conception and design of this manuscript/work and the analysis of the data (wherever applicable), as well as the writing of the manuscript except for material that is clearly identified as to its original source, with permission notices from the copyright owners where required,

2. This manuscript contains no libelous or otherwise unlawful statements and does not infringe on any copyright, trademark, patent, statutory right, or propriety right of others, and I/we will be responsible in the event of all disputes that have occurred and that may occur,

3. The Author(s) certify that the manuscript has no redundancy, plagiarism, data fabrication, or falsification, and I/we will be responsible in the event of all disputes that have occurred and that may occur,

4. The Author(s) have seen and approved the manuscript as submitted,

5. This manuscript has not been published in the same form elsewhere,

6. This manuscript will not be submitted anywhere else for publication prior to acceptance / rejection by this Journal,

7. Copyright permission is obtained for materials published elsewhere and which require this permission for reproduction,

8. E-mail(s), Affiliation(s), and Name(s) of the author(s) of this manuscript, have been entered correctly and accurately into this manuscript submission and evaluation system of Concept Tech Publishing,

9. The corresponding author signs for and accepts responsibility for releasing this material on behalf of any and all co-authors. After submission of this agreement signed by the corresponding author, changes of authorship or in the order of the authors listed will not be accepted,

10. If Concept Tech Publishing found any copyrighted content or any issue related to copyright in the future then Concept Tech Publishing has the right to remove the manuscript without prior notice to authors,

11. The Author(s) agrees to indemnify and hold harmless Concept Tech Publishing from any damage or expense that may arise in the event of a breach of any of the warranties set forth above.

Furthermore, I / We hereby assign the copyright or licence the publication rights of the mentioned manuscript once accepted for publication to Concept Tech Publishing. The intended copyright or licence covers the right to reproduce and distribute the manuscript, including reprints, translations, photographic reproductions, microform, electronic form (offline, online), or any other reproductions of similar nature. Concept Tech Publishing preserves the publishing rights for the accepted article to ensure full copyright protection, to disseminate the article to the widest possible readership in print and electronic formats as appropriate, and to maintain the bibliographical and archival integrity of the published article.

The author(s) reserve the following rights:

1. Copyright and other proprietary rights relating to the article, such as patent rights, are retained by the author(s).

2. Authors retain the right to use the substance of the article in their own future works, including lectures and books,

3. The authors grant Concept Tech Publishing, right of first publication with the manuscript simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the article’s authorship and initial publication in this journal.

4. The authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal’s published version of the article (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.

5. The authors are permitted and encouraged to post their article online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of the published article (See The Effect of Open Access).

6. The article and any associated published material is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

Data Privacy Policy

The data collected from registered and non-registered users of this journal falls within the scope of the standard functioning of peer-reviewed journals. It includes information that makes communication possible for the editorial process; it is used to inform readers about the authorship and editing of content; it enables collecting aggregated data on readership behaviors, as well as tracking geopolitical and social elements of scholarly communication.

This journal’s editorial team uses this data to guide its work in publishing and improving this journal. Data that will assist in developing this publishing platform may be shared in an anonymized and aggregated form, with appropriate exceptions such as article metrics. The data will not be sold by this journal nor will it be used for purposes other than those stated here. The authors published in this journal are responsible for the human subject data that figures in the research reported here.

Those involved in editing this journal seek to be compliant with industry standards for data privacy, including the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) provision for “data subject rights” that include (a) breach notification; (b) right of access; (c) the right to be forgotten; (d) data portability; and (e) privacy by design. The GDPR also allows for the recognition of “the public interest in the availability of the data,” which has a particular saliency for those involved in maintaining, with the greatest integrity possible, the public record of scholarly publishing.

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Author Fees

This journal charges the following author fees.

Article Submission: 0.00 (GBP)

Authors are NOT required to pay an article submission fee as part of the submission process to contribute to review costs. There are No surcharges based on the length of an article, figures, or supplementary data.

Article Publication: 0.00 (GBP)

Authors can publish their articles Free of charge (No Cost). Authors do not need to pay any article processing and publication charge to cover the costs of peer review administration and hosting management, professional production of articles in PDF and other formats, and dissemination of published articles in various venues, in addition to other publishing functions. There are no charges to publish any type of articles. Other items (Editorials, Corrections, Addendums, Retractions, Comments, etc.) are also published free of charge. The Association of Cyber Forensics and Threat Investigators will cover all costs.

This journal is published by Concept Tech Publishing. Unlike many open-access publishers, Concept Tech Publishing does not charge any author fees. This does not mean that we do not have costs. Instead, our costs are paid by the Association of Cyber Forensics and Threat Investigators. We do not want fees to prevent the publication of worthy work.