Bioengineering studies publishes original scientific articles, Reviews, Mini-Reviews, and Communications, including, but not limited to the following aspects:

• Bioinformatics – system biology studies (Computational and Applicational)
• Biomolecular, cellular and tissue engineering and applications
• Biocatalysis and applied enzymology, including enzyme reactors, protein engineering, and nanobiotechnology
• Environmental biotechnology, including biofilms, algal systems, and bioremediation
• Biofuels, including biomass and renewable resource engineering
• Biomaterials, including delivery systems and materials for tissue engineering
• Spectroscopic and other analytical techniques for biotechnological applications
• Tissue engineering, stem-cell bioengineering, regenerative medicine, gene therapy and delivery systems
• Bioelectronics
• Biomedical engineering and applications
• Biochemical engineering and applications

With the aim of providing high quality work, all papers are subject to initial appraisal by the Editors, and if suitable for further consideration, will be sent for single blind peer review. BES is a cutting-edge content that delivers novel topics to researchers, academicians, students, and practitioners over the globe.

Peer Review Process

Bioengineering Studies (BES), ISSN 2744-1636 (UDC 61, UDC 57), applies single-blind peer-review for each paper type. If the paper reaches minimum quality criteria, follows the scope, and aims of the Journal, fulfills the Editorial policies, it is sent to at least two external reviewers for evaluation. Reviewer selection is up to the editor-in-chief, based on previous experience, competence, and previous experience in reviewing papers for this journal.

The single-blind peer-review process is managed using this OJS software platform. Reviewers evaluate the paper and record their comments to the journal system. The editor passes the reviewers' anonymous comments back to the author(s) for corrections. Anonymity is strictly maintained.
Review Process has the following steps:

1. Paper submission by author
2. Editorial office checks whether the submission is prepared in accordance with Author’s guidelines.
3. Editor-in-Chief checks whether the paper is appropriate for the journal and if not, paper will be rejected at this point. If the paper is appropriate for the journal, it will be sent to review.
4. Reviewers Invitation - at least two reviewers are invited to assess the paper (or more). At least two positive responses are required for the paper to be accepted.
5. Response to invitations - reviewers accept or decline the invitation, based on their availability, expertise or conflict of interest.
6. Conducting the review - once the reviewers accept the invitation, they have three weeks to conduct and complete the review and submit the comments to the editorial office, with a recommendation to accept, reject or request revisions (major or minor).
7. Review evaluation by journal - all returned reviews are considered by editor before overall decision is made. In case the reviews differ widely, editor will invite additional reviewer before overall decision is made.
8. Editor Decision - is sent to the author with reviewer's comments. If accepted the paper will be sent to production. If rejected the paper will be archived. If minor/major revision is required, the author will be instructed how to improve the paper. Once the revised paper is received, it will be sent to review again for verification (Round 2).

Publication Frequency and APC

The journal is committed to making research available for the community as quickly as possible, which is beneficial for both readers and authors.

Frequency of publication is twice per year: 1st January - June; 2nd July - December.
Journal items can be published collectively, as part of an issue with its own Table of Contents. Alternatively, individual items can be published continuously as soon as they are ready, by adding them to the "current" volume's Table of Contents.
Expected time to the first response is about four weeks, but time to publishing is between two and three months.

APC: Publishing in this journal is free of charge (no submission charges nor processing charges).

Authorship and Contributorship

An individual to be listed as an author on the byline of the published paper must meet the following criteria:

• Substantial contribution to the conceptualization, design, data acquisition, analysis and results interpretation.
• Drafting or reviewing the article for intellectual content
• Approval of final version for publication
• Agreement to be accountable to investigate and resolve any question related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work.

All individuals who contributed to the work but do not meet the previous four criteria should be listed by name in the Acknowledgments.

Contributorship - Some types of contributions do not necessarily justify authorship. This includes assisting to the research, general supervision of a research group, obtaining financial support; administrative support; providing study materials and writing assistance, technical editing, language editing, and proofreading.

It is the researcher’s responsibility to identify which individuals are qualified for authorship or acknowledgment. The corresponding author has primary responsibility for correspondence with the journal. He ensures that all the journal’s administrative requirements are properly completed and reported. The corresponding author should be available to cooperate with any requests from the journal during the review process and after publication to respond to critiques.

AI and AI assisted tools - Authorship entails responsibility for the written text and ensuring that questions relating to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work have been properly investigated and resolved. Therefore, an AI tool cannot fulfill this authorship requirement since it cannot take responsibility for the written work.

If AI tools are used in the manuscript writing, the authors must declare it in the Materials and Methods or write a declaration at the end of the paper before References. The declaration must state which AI tool was used and the reason. As a legal entity, the authors are fully responsible for the content of the manuscript including the parts produced by AI tools.

Open Access Statement

This journal provides immediate open access to its content, making the research freely available to the public and supports a greater global exchange of knowledge (all content of the journal is immediately available upon publication to the public). Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author.

Funding

This journal is run by society completely on voluntary efforts and with zero income/funding from any source.  

Archiving

To create permanent archives of the journal for purposes of preservation and restoration, PKP Preservation Network is used and the National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a legal obligation to archive mandatory copies. Additionally, as the whole journal content is open access it is included in the Internet Archive's collections as well.

Journal Ethics and Malpractice Statement

BES journal is committed to ensure and uphold standards of ethical behavior at all stages of the publication process, whereby such values also rely on editors, reviewers, contributors, and authors who are expected to behave ethically. The standards are based on Committee on Publication Ethics' (COPE) code of conduct, and provide guidelines for best practices in order to meet these requirements. The following ethical guidelines are only intended to give a summary of our key expectations of editors, peer-reviewers, and authors but if you have any questions or concerns, please also feel free to contact the Editor of the Journal.

1. Ethical Expectations

All conflicts of interest, including any personal or financial in the research, should be declared by the editors, reviewers, or authors.

Editors' responsibilities

• To carry out their duties in a fair, objective, and consistent manner, without discrimination on grounds of gender, sexual orientation, religious or political beliefs, ethnic or geographical origin of the authors.
• To take care that each article undergoes the proper peer-review process.
• To promote consistent ethical policies of BES journal, and to ensure the confidentiality of the reviewing process.
• To uphold integrity in their work as editors of the journal, doing away with any personal interest, so that articles are considered and accepted solely on their academic merit and without commercial influence.
• To work with authors, reviewers, and the Editorial Board members to ensure the implementation of journals’ ethics and publishing policies.
• To adopt and follow reasonable procedures in the event of complaints of an ethical or conflict nature, in accordance with the policies and procedures. To handle the process of complaints and always give authors an opportunity to respond to any complaints.
• To investigate all complaints, to retain associated documentation and to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when needed.

Reviewers' responsibilities

• To act objectively, fairly and in a timely manner in reviewing submitted manuscripts with the aim of improving its quality such as pointing out relevant published work, which is not cited, etc.
• To alert BES in case of any competing interest that could affect the impartiality of their reviewing, or any potential conflict of interest that includes any relationship between reviewer and author, or any content that is substantially similar to that under review.
• To conduct themselves fairly and impartially.
• To keep the articles and the review process confidential and to not retain or copy the manuscripts.

Authors' responsibilities

• To ensure that each author listed on the byline has significant contribution to the work, and to identify which individuals/organizations are qualified for contributorship/acknowledgment (including information about financial support for the research).
• To ensure that their work submitted to the journal is original and authored by them and has not been previously published nor under consideration or accepted for publication elsewhere.
• To ensure that original ideas, data, findings, and materials taken from other sources (including their own published writing) are properly documented and cited. Any content reproduced from other sources author should have permission.
• To ensure that their data is their own, true, and not manipulated. Thus, authors are responsible to maintain accurate records and to provide access to their data associated with their manuscript.
• To ensure their work does not violate any rights of others, including privacy rights and intellectual property rights. In addition, authors should ensure that any studies involving human, or animal subjects are in accordance with the principles stated in The Declaration of Helsinki and The Belmont Report, local laws and requirements.
• In studied with human participants, ensure that writing is free from stereotypes or cultural assumptions, use non-stigmatizing language, and follow the guidance onbias-free language provided by the American Psychological Association.
• To ensure that a list of references is provided in IEEE reference style.
• To declare any real or apparent conflicting or competing interest at any stage during the publication process that could be considered or viewed as exerting an undue influence on his/her duties.
• To alert this journal in case a significant error in their publication is identified and provide retraction or correction of any mistake prior or after publication of their work.
• To adhere to all research ethics guidelines of their discipline, and to ensure that authorship and/or contributorship of the paper was accurately represented.

Journal responsibilities

• The journal and the publisher shall ensure that good practice is maintained to the standards outlined above.
• To deal with research misconduct allegations appropriately when it is occurred. The journal and the publisher shall undertake reasonable actions to identify and prevent the publication of papers where research misconduct has occurred.
• To maintain the editorial independence of journal editors.
• To support journal editors in ethical and academic matters.
• To ensure critical and objective assessment of all articles by reviewers and referees.
• Keep an accurate and transparent record, including publishing corrections and retractions when necessary.

The following commonly recognized procedure for dealing with unethical behavior is adopted.

2. Procedures for Dealing with Unethical Behavior

Identification of unethical behavior

• Misconduct and unethical behavior may be identified and brought to the attention of the editor and publisher at any time, by anyone.
• Misconduct and unethical behavior may include, but need not be limited to, examples as outlined above.
• For an investigation sufficient information and evidence should be provided. All allegations should be taken seriously and treated in the same way, until a successful decision or conclusion is reached.

Investigation

• An initial decision should be taken by the editor, who should consult with or seek advice from the publisher, if appropriate.
• Evidence should be gathered, while avoiding spreading any allegations beyond those who need to know.

Minor breaches

• A minor misconduct might be dealt with without the need to consult more widely. In any event, the author should be given the opportunity to respond to any allegations.

Serious breaches

• A serious misconduct might require that the employers of the accused be notified. The editor, in consultation with the publisher should make the decision whether or not to involve the employers, either by examining the available evidence themselves or by further consultation with a limited number of experts.

Outcomes

(in increasing order of severity; may be applied separately or in conjunction)

• Informing or educating the author or reviewer where there appears to be a misunderstanding or misapplication of acceptable standards.
• Provide guidelines on how to correct or retract papers if needed.
• A more strongly worded letter to the author or reviewer covering the misconduct and as a warning to future behavior.
• Publication of a formal notice detailing the misconduct.
• Publication of an editorial detailing the misconduct.
• A formal letter to the head of the author’s or reviewer’s department or funding agency.
• Formal retraction or withdrawal of a publication from the journal, in conjunction with informing the head of the author or reviewer’s department, Abstracting & Indexing services and the readership of the publication.
• Imposition of a formal embargo on contributions from an individual for a defined period.
• Reporting the case and outcome to a professional organization or higher authority for further investigation and action.

Research Policy on Human and Animal Subjects

Research involving human or animal subjects must be approved by an appropriate ethics committee organization (e.g., author’s Institutional Ethics Review Board) and declared in the manuscript. The statement must include the name of the ethics committee and the reference number (if applicable), in all manuscripts involving human/animal subjects. That includes data obtained from surveys, observation, medical records, or participation in research. If an exemption from requiring ethics approval is granted, it should be reported including the name of the ethics committee that granted that exemption. These documents should be enclosed if required by Editor, otherwise the manuscript may be rejected.

Human Research

The research involving human participants and subjects must be performed in accordance with the principles stated in The Declaration of Helsinki and The Belmont Report, as well as local governing laws and regulations. Therefore, the authors should ensure that their research practices are compliant with the following general principles:

• Individuals should be treated as autonomous agents, capable of deliberating and making decisions independently.
• Adherence to the principle of informed consent and justice.
• Researchers are obligated to maximize possible benefits and minimize possible harm.
• The selection of subjects should be in a fair procedure, and the participants should be treated fairly.
• The risks and benefits should be evenly distributed.
• The participant rights and interests must be protected
• Compliance with relevant institutional, local, and international regulations, including data protection and confidentiality obligations.

Research that includes any personal data such as images, personal details, or the other distinguishing characteristic, must have written consent for publication from that person or legal guardian. Written consent is not required if the manuscript does not contain images that could identify a person and other information is anonymized. If images are reused from previous publications, authors must provide appropriate attribution for republished images. In this case, the journal will assume that the original publication obtained the consent for publication. At the editor's request, these supporting documents should be available, otherwise the manuscript may be rejected.

Animal Research

Experimental research on vertebrates or any regulated invertebrate must comply with institutional, national or international regulations and should be approved by an appropriate ethics committee or organization and must be declared in the manuscript. If research is conducted on non-regulated animals, ethical approval may not be required, and the statement should be about why ethical approval was not required. While conducting animal research, authors are encouraged to follow the ARRIVE guidelines and local legislation. The manuscript should include a statement specifying the appropriate permissions and/or licenses. In case of involvement client-owned animals in research, authors must have informed consent from the owner.

It is highly recommended that authors comply with the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

Informed Consent

In research involving human participants, authors are required to adhere to the following guidelines:

• The procedures used to obtain informed consent from participants must be clearly described, ensuring that participants are adequately informed about the study purpose, procedures, potential risks, and benefits.
• Participation in the study must be voluntary and participants have the right to withdraw at any time without repercussions.
• In cases where participants are unable to provide informed consent (e.g., minors etc.), authors must explain the procedures used to obtain consent from legally authorized guardians.
• In cases where the study involves certain sensitive topics/activities, authors should describe in detail the strategies used to reduce potential harm to participants.

Participant Anonymity and Confidentiality

Authors must take appropriate measures to protect the anonymity and confidentiality of participants by observing the following guidelines:

• ensure that all personal information, including names, contact details and other direct identifiers, is removed or anonymized in publication.
• avoid any details or descriptions that could potentially indirectly reveal the identity of the participants.
• images, audio/video recordings should be anonymized or used only with the explicit consent of the participants, ensuring that their identity cannot be inferred.
• authors should outline the steps taken to securely store and handle any data containing personal information of the participants, ensuring compliance with relevant data protection and privacy regulations.

Ethical Approvals

Authors should indicate in their manuscript that the research study received appropriate ethical clearance from an institutional review board or ethics committee. Details such as the name of the board / committee and the approval reference number (if appropriate), should be provided. If an exemption from requiring ethics approval is granted, it should be reported including the name of the ethics committee that granted that exemption.

Declarations

Author contribution

This declaration is optional. If authors choose to include this declaration, each author's name must appear in this declaration (a name may appear more than once).

Example of statement

“The contribution to the paper is as follows: X. Author, Y. Author: study conception and design; Y. Author: data collection; X. Author, Y. Author. Z. Author: analysis and interpretation of results; X. Author: draft preparation. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript.”

Declaration of competing interest

If any of the authors has any financial and non-financial competing interest, they must be declared in this section.

In case of no competing interests, the following statement you may use:

"The authors declare that they have no known financial or non-financial competing interests in any material discussed in this paper."

Funding information

In this section all sources of funding for the research should be declared.

In case of no funding, the following statement you may use:

“No funding was received from any financial organization to conduct this research.”

Acknowledgements

Collate acknowledgements in a separate section at the end of the article before the references and do not, include them on the title page, as a footnote to the title or otherwise. List here those institutions or individuals who provided help during the research.

Ethical approval statement

Research involving human or animal subjects must be approved by an appropriate ethics committee and declared in this section. The statement must include the name of the ethics committee and the reference number (if appropriate), in all manuscripts involving human/animal subjects. That includes data obtained from surveys, observation, medical records, or participation in research. If an exemption from requiring ethics approval is granted, it should be reported including the name of the ethics committee that granted that exemption.

Example of statement

“Research ethics approval was obtained by the Ethical approval to report this case was obtained from * name of the ethics committee (reference number / ID) *.”

or

“Our institution does not require research ethics approval for reporting individual cases or case series.”

or

“Ethical approval is not applicable for this research.”

Informed consent

Research that includes any personal data such as images, personal details, or the other distinguishing characteristic, must have written consent for publication from that person or legal guardian. Written consent is not required if the manuscript does not contain images that could identify a person and other information is anonymized. If images are reused from previous publications, authors must provide appropriate attribution for republished images. In this case, the journal will assume that the original publication obtained the consent for publication. In case of involvement client-owned animals in research, authors must have informed consent from the owner.

Example of statement

“Informed consent for the publication of personal data in this article was obtained from the participant(s).”

or

“Informed consent for the publication of personal data in this article was not obtained because *REASON*.”

Declaration of use of AI in the writing process

If AI tools are used in the manuscript writing, the authors must declare it in the Materials and Methods or write a declaration at the end of the paper before References. The declaration must state which AI tool was used and the reason. Therefore, the following format of the statement is suggested:

“The author(s) used [NAME AI TOOL USED] during preparation of this work to [REASON]. The author(s) reviewed and edited the work as necessary and take(s) full responsibility for the final version.”

Originality and Plagiarism Policy

Authors by submitting their manuscript to BES declare that their work is original and authored by them, their work submitted to BES has not been previously published, original ideas, data, findings, and materials taken from other sources (including their own published writing) are properly documented and cited. Their work does not violate any rights of others, including privacy rights and intellectual property rights, their data is their own, true, and not manipulated. 

Plagiarism in whole or in part without proper citation is not tolerated. Submitted manuscripts are checked for originality using Turnitin anti-plagiarism software. It is expected that submitted manuscripts have a Similarity Index of less than 10%, to be processed.

Correction and Retraction Policy

The journal is committed to maintaining the integrity and accuracy of scientific literature. In cases where errors, inaccuracies, or ethical issues are identified in published work, we have established the following correction and retraction policy.

Corrections

Minor Errors: For minor errors that do not significantly impact the scientific validity or interpretation of the paper, we encourage authors to submit a request for a correction. This could include typographical errors, omissions, or minor clarifications. Corrections will be reviewed by our team, and if approved, an erratum or corrigendum will be issued, clearly stating the nature of the correction and providing a link to the original article.

An Erratum will be issued by the Editor if the journal itself has made a significant error in Editing / production process, which affects the publication record, the scientific integrity of the work, the reputation of the author or the reputation of the journal.

A Corrigendum will be issued by the Editor if the author(s) have made a significant error that affects the publication record, the scientific integrity of the work, the reputation of the author / journal.

Retractions

This journal adheres to COPE Retraction Guidelines  and will issue retractions in cases of significant errors or breaches of scholarly integrity.

Grounds for Retraction: Retractions are considered in cases of serious ethical concerns, scientific misconduct, compromised peer review, double publication, substantial data fabrication or falsification, plagiarism, inability of authors to provide evidence they undertook the research themselves or other factors that fundamentally undermine the validity and trustworthiness of the published work. Retraction requests can be submitted by the authors, readers, or external parties providing substantial evidence of the concerns.

Investigation and Decision-making: Once a retraction request is received, an internal investigation will be initiated. This may involve consultation with experts in the relevant field and consideration of any supporting evidence or documentation. The decision to retract will be made by the editorial team based on the investigation's findings and in adherence to recognized guidelines and ethical standards.

Retraction Notice: If a retraction is deemed necessary, a formal retraction notice will be issued. Retraction notices will state the specific reasons for retraction and the entity who is retracting the article. Authors will be informed and given the opportunity to offer comments, but their approval is not necessary for a retraction decision. The decision to retract will be reevaluated only if new evidence emerges. The retraction notice will be published prominently on our website to ensure its visibility to the scientific community and readership.

Removals

In exceptional circumstances we may have to remove the original content or parts if it is legally required to do so such as:

• An article is a subject of a court order.
• In cases where the article contains errors that could pose a serious health or security risk to the public,
• If a participant's privacy has been breached in an inappropriate manner,
• If the article includes defamatory remarks about individuals or their work.

A notice explaining the reason for removal will be prominently presented instead of the retracted and subsequently removed article. The bibliographic metadata, including the author(s) name(s) and the title of the article, will be retained.

Author Change Policy

• Requests for changes in authorship, such as adding or removing authors or modifying author affiliations, should be submitted in writing to the editorial office.
• Such requests will be evaluated based on ethical considerations, including consent from all affected parties and compliance with guidelines from relevant research and publication organizations.
• Changes in authorship will be made transparently, either through a published corrigendum or by updating the author information on the article's metadata.

Copyright Notice

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) that allows others to share and adapt the material for any purpose (even commercially), in any medium with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

Self-archiving

This journal permits and encourages authors to archive Pre-print and Post-print items submitted to the journal in personal websites or institutional repositories per author's choice, while providing bibliographic details that credit its submission/publication in this journal. This includes archiving of submitted version, accepted version, or published version without any embargo.