About the Journal

Cultural and scientific profile and purpose of the Journal

TECHNE, Journal of Technology for Architecture and Environment, founded in December 2010, is the official open access scientific journal of the Italian Society of Architectural Technology (SITdA) http://www.sitda.net/.

In line with the statutory objectives of SITdA, TECHNE represents a nationally and internationally accredited critical observatory for theoretical reflection, scientific comparison, development, dissemination and exchange of knowledge, methodologies and experiences on the topics of innovation of technological and environmental design methods and tools.

TECHNE falls within the field of scientific publications with a precise cultural positioning on the topics of the architectural project, basing its statutes on the complexity of the multidisciplinary inputs that contribute to the construction of architecture and to the eco-systemic regeneration of habitats.

The objective of TECHNE is to have an effective and proactive social role in the promotion and dissemination of cognitive advances and theoretical, research methodological and operational acquisitions, including their transferability to the real context of projects, works, infrastructures and services production.

To this end, TECHNE selects the articles for publication through a Call for abstract which guides the contents of critical observation and research practices for the project rooted in the social demand and its productive and institutional context. Through the Calls, TECHNE promotes innovative and multidisciplinary reflections and experimentations for quality projects and works, for technological innovation and for the protection, regeneration and enhancement of the built environment.

The evaluation process is rigorous and transparent (traceable ex post when evaluating the quality of scientific publications) and it is divided into two phases (selection of abstracts and subsequent double-blind peer review of articles).

The Authors belong to academia and research, industry, company and structures of public and private clients. 

Keywords

Structure of the Journal

Each issue of TECHNE begins with an Introduction to the Issue by the Director/SITdA President and an Editorial by the Editor in Chief, which illustrate and contextualize the contents of the issue.

In addition, the sections always present are:

  • a Dossier, edited by the authors of the Call, which collects the contributions of authoritative figures of significant scientific relevance, invited to express a critical-propositional reflection on the topics of the Call;
  • a reasoned photographic Reportage, developed by invitation or starting from a special Call for Photo organized by SITdA and relevant to the topics of the issue.

Subsequently, the Contributions (articles selected through the Call for abstract and subjected to double-blind review) are presented grouped into two sections that collect respectively different types of contributions: Essays and Viewpoints and Research and Experimentation.

Each TECHNE issue is also accompanied by the three following sections:

  • Dialogue, a moment of confrontation with a key figure of the architectural culture or research field, institutions, the profession or production.
  • Reviews, which reports and comments a brief review of books and publications selected for their relevance to the topics of the Call and to the cultural interests of the scientific community;
  • Innovation and industrial development, which hosts one or more scientific research contributions from the world of industrial research and construction production.

Ethical values

TECHNE is based on the following values:

  • promoting sustainability, in all its forms, in the transformation of buildings and environment, disseminating contributions whose outcomes and repercussions are of interest in terms of cultural, socio-economic, environmental and technological impact;
  • increasing the quality and rigor of the scientific production, disseminating original, significant, responsible, accurate and independent contributions, adequately supported by theoretical and/or methodological reflections, as well as by experiences and research activities carried out in the cultural, technical-scientific and operating fields;
  • carrying on a consolidated cultural tradition of openness to the scientific debate in a multidisciplinary perspective, for the advancement of knowledge, methods and tools, dialoguing with the international and national scientific community;
  • recognizing and enhancing the contributions for publication according to the criteria of the scientific and academic research evaluation, as defined at national and international level. To this end, TECHNE is indexed according to international criteria (ISI, Thomson JCR and SCImago Journal Rank -SJR- indicator on Scopus) and aligned with the indications of ANVUR and CUN for the evaluation of research products.

All the Editorial Team (Board, Assistant Editor, Staff), the Scientific Commission and the Reviewers refer to shared ethical values ​​that conform their behavior according to principles of fairness and impartiality, with full transparency of the qualitative and cultural selection processes of the contributions for publication, whether they are presented by SITdA members, by scholars of Architectural technology or by other figures.

The affiliation, gender identity, religious and political orientations of the Authors or other variables independent of the quality of the content cannot be a reason for prejudice or foreclosure in the evaluation. All evaluations (abstract selection and double-blind peer review process) are carried out strictly anonymously, based exclusively on the scientific quality, originality, relevance of the presented contributions and their relevance to the issues proposed by the Journal.

The rules of ethical behavior and the related monitoring procedures published on the Journal website are constantly updated and aligned with international guidelines and ethical standards, such as:

Quality Committee of the Journal and its publications

On 7 February 2022 SITdA established a Committee dedicated to the quality of TECHNE Journal and its publications, coordinated by Maria Teresa Lucarelli and composed by Filippo Angelucci, Monica Cannaviello, Paola Gallo, Francesca Giglio, Massimo Lauria, Elena Mussinelli, Cesare Sposito and Antonella Violano.

The Committee has the task of defining and coordinating actions for improving the quality of TECHNE journal and providing strategic guidelines for its dissemination, enhancement and scientific capitalization at national and international level.

Abstracts selection and double-blind peer review process

The selection process of the articles published on TECHNE foresees two phases:

  • the first phase involves the submission of the abstracts, which are made anonymous by the Editorial Staff and then evaluated and selected by the Editorial Board and the Assistant Editors;
  • the second phase involves the submission of articles by the authors whose abstracts have been selected, which are made anonymous by the Editorial Staff and then subjected to a double-blind peer review process.

The procedures and criteria for evaluation and selection in the two phases are described in the document “Guidelines and instructions for authors”.

Just Accepted Article

Since n. 24/2022, TECHNE Journal provides for the possibility of making the articles in the issue immediately available after their acceptance through the double-blind review phase, by publishing them in the form of Just Accepted Article. This method, already practiced by numerous scientific journals, allows an additional and free service to be offered to the Authors and to the entire scientific community, as it significantly accelerates the dissemination of contributions (with a fully citable format-DOI-Digital Object Identifier) compared to the longer times of publication of the complete issue.

The Editorial Board selects “accepted articles” that in the double-blind review have not received any judgment of insufficiency and publishes them after explicit authorization by the Authors.

Open Access Policy

TECHNE is a Full Open Access online journal and therefore provides open and immediate access to all published contents, according to the principle of making research freely accessible to the public, thus globally promoting the exchange and advancement of knowledge.

The publisher of TECHNE, Firenze University Press (FUP) of the University of Florence, adheres to the “Budapest Open Access Initiative definition of Open Access”.

The “open access” through the public internet allows all users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search or link the contents published by the magazine, to process the information and data through software and to use them for any legitimate purpose, free of charge, without financial, legal or technical barriers other than those of accessing the internet itself.

The only restriction on reproduction and distribution is that relating to the copyright (control over the integrity of the work of the authors and the right to be adequately recognized and cited).

TECHNE supports the global exchange of knowledge by publishing in open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY-4.0)

TECHNE does not earn any profit from subscriptions and from the printed or online versions. No user, library or individual reader will ever have to buy a subscription or pay a fee to access the published contents.

How to publish

All information relating to the procedures for participating in the TECHNE Call for abstracts are described in the document “Guidelines and instructions for authors” (IT)  (EN)

Copyright

Authors of TECHNE journal accept the following conditions:

  • Authors keep the copyright and grant the right of first publication to journal according to the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY-4.0)., Creative Commons License which allows others to share the work with the acknowledgment of authorship of the work itself and of the initial publication on TECHNE;
  • Authors may stipulate separate and additional contractual agreements for the non-exclusive distribution of the published version by the journal (for example, publish it in an institutional archive or publish it in a book), with the acknowledgment of its initial publication in the TECHNE journal;
  • After the online publication, Authors are authorized and encouraged to publish it online (e.g. in institutional archives or on their website), to facilitate dissemination and encourage discussion in the scientific community.

Article Processing Charge (APC) 

In order to support the editorial services offered in open access, TECHNE adopts a form of conditional submission fee referred to as Article Processing Charge (APC).

The fee is only requested if the article is accepted for publication in this Journal after peer-review and possible revision of the manuscript and it is established annually by the SITdA Board of Directors.

For the year 2022, the contribution is set at:

  • € 300 for SITdA Members (at least one of the Authors must be SITdA Member);
  • € 400 for all other Authors.

These amounts are VAT exempt pursuant to art. 4 of Presidential Decree no. 633/1972. The contribution has to be paid to SITdA Onlus, according to the instructions that will be delivered to Authors together with the communication of acceptance of the article for publication.

In order to support the publication activity of young SITdA Member researchers, for each issue the TECHNE Board can select for free-of-charge publication a maximum of two articles  of the typology “Research and Experimentation” developed by one or more Authors, SITdA Members and all under 35 years old, that have obtained an “excellence” evaluation in the double-blind peer review process.

Publication Frequency

TECHNE publishes 2 issues per year.

Further issues are also published in the Special Series dedicated to topics of general interest to the international scientific community.

Indexing

Corrections and Retractions / Withdrawals

In accordance with the commonly accepted standards of scientific and academic publishing, TECHNE does not alter articles after publication, which remain on the website in their exact and unaltered form to the maximum extent possible.

In the event of serious errors, which affect or significantly prejudice the reader’s understanding or evaluation of the article, TECHNE may publish corrections and retractions, also upon notification by the Authors themselves. In this case TECHNE publishes a corrective note linked to the published article, leaving the article unchanged.

In case of suspected misconduct, TECHNE will carry out the appropriate investigations and, in accordance with the “Retraction Guidelines” by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) the journal will retract a published article if:

  • clear evidence that the contents of the article and/or the results of the research are not reliable (due to misconduct or a good faith mistake);
  • clear evidence that the contents of the article and/or the results of the research have been previously published elsewhere, without adequate cross-references, authorization or justification;
  • clear evidence of plagiarism.

At the same time as the withdrawal, TECHNE will publish a reasoned notice to replace the withdrawn article.

Legal Deposit

Firenze University Press is experimenting a National legal deposition and long-term digital preservation service.

Personal Data Protection

The names and e-mail addresses entered in TECHNE 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.