Why submit to NAVIGATION?

NAVIGATION: Distinguished Journal in the PNT Field of Research

• NAVIGATION is recognized in the top ten academic journals in its class. From its first publication in March 1946, more than 2,700 peer-reviewed technical papers have been published.
• NAVIGATION has global reach with a diverse and international audience of Institute of Navigation membership, as well as other international readers.
• NAVIGATION is published in an open access environment, reducing permission requirements, eliminating price barriers, and providing timely access for researchers, developments, and policymakers without a subscription. NAVIGATION is published under the Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license.
• NAVIGATION’s internationally recognized superior editorial advisory board ensures quality and exacting standards of peer review.
• Editorial, typesetting, and publishing are managed by ION staff ensuring a speedy publication process. Manuscripts are provided with a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) and publication date as soon as they are completed. ION can provide a superior product in a timely fashion.

 

Submit a manuscript

 

How to Submit to NAVIGATION

Quality of Manuscripts

NAVIGATION publishes original, high-quality papers that satisfy the following requirements:

• Has not been previously published in open literature, is not currently submitted for publication elsewhere, and has not had its copyright assigned or transferred
• Reflects clear thought through chosen, specific words composed in direct, responsible, and active syntax
• Conforms to the style and format of the journal

Types of Manuscripts

NAVIGATION publishes the following types of manuscripts:

Type	Description	Length
Regular Papers	Regular papers describe new, advanced research or results representing an original contribution to the field of positioning, navigation, and/or timing. The work should be described and argued relative to relevant prior articles in the field and should present the material in a clear and well-supported manner.	20 pages or fewer
Short Papers	Short papers describe an original contribution to the field of positioning, navigation, and/or timing, but with a narrower scope than a regular paper. Typically, these papers concisely address one or two technical issues of relevance to readers of the journal.	4 pages or fewer
Review Papers	Review papers contribute to knowledge by consolidating, explaining, and performing a meta-analysis of research from multiple existing sources. Papers should include a thorough review of the literature, a tutorial element to make the work accessible for newcomers, and some form of knowledge integration, such as a performance comparison or taxonomy exercise. Authors would normally have a documented area of expertise. Authors are encouraged to discuss their proposal with the editor before starting work.	Based on scope

 

Manuscript Preparation

All articles must adhere to APA Style or they will be returned.

• APA Style and Grammar Guidelines
• APA Guide to Preparing Manuscripts for Journals: A Guide for New Authors
• Word template
• LaTex template

TEXT: It is preferable that a manuscript be submitted in the format of Acrobat PDF files. You will be contacted for the native files once the paper is accepted. Microsoft Word, LaTex, and RTF are acceptable. Please use the templates provided.

TABLES: Tables should be able to be edited directly within an appropriate document editor (e.g., Word, LaTeX). Tables should not be pasted as images. Tables are given Arabic numbers in order of appearance and must be keyed to the text.

FIGURES: Figures should be numbered and embedded within the text. Papers should generally contain no more than 15 figures.

REFERENCES: References should follow the APA style. Check all references for completeness, including year, volume number, and pages for journal citations. Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) must appear with each reference (if available). DOIs are an attempt to provide stable, long-lasting links for online articles. To locate a DOI, look on the first page of the document where most usually appear. Finally, make sure that all references mentioned in the text are listed in the reference section and vice-versa, and that the spelling of author names and years are consistent.

English Editing

Papers must be in English. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary or American spelling is acceptable, provided usage is consistent within the manuscript.

Manuscripts that are written in English that is ambiguous or incomprehensible, in the opinion of the editor, will be returned to the authors with a request to resubmit once the language issues have been improved. This policy does not imply that all papers must be written in "perfect" English. Rather, the criterion will require that the intended meaning of the authors must be clearly understandable (i.e., not obscured by language problems) by reviewers who have agreed to review the paper.

Authors requiring assistance with English translation or editing prior to submitting, ION recommends the professional assistance of editage: https://www.editage.com

Address editorial questions to:

Dr. Richard B. Langley
Editor of NAVIGATION
University of New Brunswick
Email: lang@unb.ca

Submission

NAVIGATION has a completely digital submission, review, and production process. Production-quality files at initial submission are required. This speeds the production and distribution of your work across a variety of platforms. Manuscripts that do not meet the guidelines will be returned for additional revision. This will, of course, delay review and, in the event that the work is accepted, would delay publication.

A completed submission is confirmed by email and your manuscript will enter the editorial process. You can check the progress of your manuscript at any time by returning to the submission site. When a decision is made, revisions can be submitted online, with an opportunity to view and respond to all comments.

Required for Original Submission

1. Original manuscript in APA format. All manuscripts must conform to APA Style or they will be returned.
   1. APA Style and Grammar Guidelines
   2. APA Guide to Preparing Manuscripts for Journals: A Guide for New Authors
   3. Word template
   4. LaTex template
   5. Quick Reference Guides
      1. University of Alberta Library APA Citation Style Quick Guide
      2. Quick Guide to Citing Multiple Works 
2. Signed license agreement form. This gives ION permission to handle and distribute your manuscript for peer review and processing. You may be required to update this form prior to final publication. 
   1. License Agreement Form
3. Author photograph. Photo should be in .jpg or .png format. Please crop the photo so that your face is framed in the photo (not too far and not too close). Use a simple background. Group photos are not acceptable. 
4. Electronic agreement ION Ethics/Publication Policy. When you submit your manuscript, you will be asked to agree to the ION Ethics/Publication Policy, found here.
5. Agreement to NAVIGATION’s Article Publication Charges (APC).
   1. Please review the APC policy. When you submit your manuscript, you will be asked to indicate your acceptance of the policy.
   2. If you wish to request a waiver of APC, complete the APC Waiver Application (details below).
6. A video abstract will be required for all accepted manuscripts and will be required prior to distribution/posting of the final paper. A video abstract is a short 2–3-minute introduction of your paper, during which you introduce yourself and tell the reader what is new and/or important about your paper. The video abstract should motivate the watcher to read your full paper. 
   1. Instructions for recording your video abstract
   2. Optional video abstract PowerPoint template available here: PPTX File    PNG File
   3. Upload your video abstract here: https://instituteofnavigation.app.box.com/f/05ccb238b78445af96f0b40ddb8ab168
7. Submit your paper and related files via ScholarOne.

Article Processing Charges (APC)

NAVIGATION is published in an open access (OA) environment, with no paywalls, making papers published in NAVIGATION available to a worldwide audience.

Full-length accepted technical papers (10-20 pages in length) will be charged an APC fee as follows:

• $1,000 for ION members / $1,500 for non-members for manuscripts of 20 pages or less. Manuscripts in excess of 20 pages shall be charged $2,000 for ION members / $2,500 for non-members. Long manuscripts are discouraged.
• The corresponding author of the paper is responsible for making or arranging the payment of the APC upon acceptance of the paper.
• Payment shall be made in U.S. Dollars.
• Payment can be made by credit card or check, and is due within 30 days of editorial acceptance. Payment by wire transfer shall include an additional $35 fee.
• Articles will not be published until payment has been received.

As demand for open access has increased, many research funders and institutions provide funding to cover the costs associated with OA publications. Additionally, a number of funding bodies and institutions have dedicated funds for OA processing charges. Authors will usually need to check with their fund/contract administrator on an article-by-article basis. Authors who do not personally have access to APC funding from an institution or research funder should consider whether co-authors may be eligible for funds from their institution or research funder. Authors planning to use research grants to pay APCs should consider that APC payments are usually made at the point of the paper’s acceptance, which may be after the applicable research grant has been closed.

APCs will not be refunded when papers are retracted as a result of author error or misconduct.

Article Processing Charge Waiver

ION will offer a limited number of APC waivers for accepted technical papers on a case-by-case basis. Considerations for APC Waivers include:

• Authors who are based in a country that is classified by the World Bank as a low-income or a lower-middle-income economy
• Authors who have no institutional affiliation or funding
• Short manuscripts (four pages or fewer)
• Manuscripts representing a technology review article

In order to apply for an APC waiver on any of the above grounds, please send a completed APC Waiver Application form to the journal’s managing office at the time of submission. Requests will not be considered until a paper has been submitted and will be awarded at the discretion of the managing editor. Waiver requests made during the review process, or after acceptance, will not be considered.

• APC Waiver Application form

APC waiver requests shall be sent to: navi@ion.org. A decision on the waiver will normally be made within three working days.

Posting Manuscripts Submitted to NAVIGATION on Public Websites

Manuscripts submitted for publication consideration in NAVIGATION may be deposited to an author’s institutional, personal, or preprint server (e.g., arxiv.org) for dissemination to allow the author to share their manuscript/early results ahead of peer review and publication, and allow the community to provide recommendations and feedback, under the following conditions:

1. The preprint’s status properly identified at the time deposited/posted as “Submitted to NAVIGATION, Journal of the Institute of Navigation. See navi.ion.org” in the appropriate section.
2. If the manuscript is accepted for publication, and the preprint has been previously assigned a DOI by a preprint website, the author shall be required to update pre-print’s cover sheet/landing page with the NAVIGATION assigned DOI and link to the official NAVIGATION manuscript and identify it as the official publication.

Policy for Use of Large Language Modules (LLM)

Authors using a Large Language Models (LLM) (e.g., ChatGPT) in the capacity of an editing tool may need to acknowledge the use in this capacity. When/if an LLM is used to incorporate text, data, or any other content in the manuscript, these sections need to be acknowledged in an appropriate section of the manuscript. Authors are responsible for checking all content incorporated into their manuscript from LLM to ensure that the use of such content does not require citation back to another original source. 

Policy Regarding “Major Revisions”

Manuscripts returned from AE/peer review requiring major revisions will be returned to the authors with 30 days to submit a revision.

Manuscripts failing to be resubmitted within 60-days (30-days after the deadline), that have not been granted an extension by the supervising AE, shall be auto-rejected. Authors will be required to resubmit the manuscript after the 60-day period as a new submission and will be notified that the manuscript status has been changed to “rejected” due to stagnation with the option for resubmission as a new manuscript.