Submissions

Author Guidelines

Manuscript types

Research papers
These are original manuscripts that present new findings in chemical engineering research consistent with the UJCEE’s aims and scope. It should not exceed 8000 words including references. Figures and tables are counted as 150 words each.
Review papers
These summarize emerging trends or recent developments in chemical engineering. These papers critically evaluate and summarize existing data and fields of research. It should not exceed 10,000 words including references.
Technical notes
This is a short article giving a brief description of a specific development, technique or procedure, or it may describe a modification of an existing technique, procedure. It should not exceed 4000 words including references.
Perspectives
A perspective article is a short discussion of an area of chemical engineering by an expert in the research area. They can make observations, present a critique, raise questions and pose opinions on contemporary chemical engineering issues. It should not exceed 4000 words including references.

Editorial policy
UJCEE follows the double blind peer-review procedure for submissions of all manuscripts
types. All submitted articles are subjected to an extensive peer review in consultation with
members of the journal’s editorial board and independent external referees (usually three
reviewers). Authors do not need to suggest reviewers at the submission stage. All
manuscripts/chapters are assessed rapidly and the decision based on all the peer reviewers'
comments, taken by the journal’s Editor-in-Chief, is then conveyed to the author(s). All peer
reviewers must accept the manuscript before its eventual acceptance.
Articles must be submitted by one of the authors of the manuscript, and should not be
submitted by anyone on their behalf. The author(s) will confirm that the manuscript (or any
part of it) has not been published previously or is not under consideration for publication
elsewhere. Furthermore, any illustration, structure or table that has been published elsewhere
must be reported, and copyright permission for reproduction must be obtained.
Generally, the editorial decisions are not reverted. However, authors who think that their
manuscript was rejected due to a misunderstanding or mistake may seek an explanation for
the decision. Appeals must give sound reasoning and compelling evidence against the
criticism raised in the rejection letter. A difference of opinion as to the interest, novelty, or
suitability of the manuscript for the journal will not be considered as an appeal. The EIC and
other relevant editors will consider the appeal and the decision thereafter taken by the journal
will be deemed final.
UJCEE editors will use a plagiarism software detect instances of overlapping and similar text
in submitted manuscripts. Any instance of content overlap is further scrutinized for suspected
plagiarism according to this editorial policy. UJCEE allows an overall similarity not exceeding 20% for a manuscript to be considered for publication. Similarity between 20 – 40%, the editor can send the manuscript back to the authors to rework with the option of resubmission. Manuscripts with >40% plagiarism are outrightly rejected.

Manuscript submission

On journal website, the author guidelines and homepage will specify the journal email
address where they can submit their manuscript. The body of the email should be the
submission cover letter. The manuscript should be prepared with the journal’s template
before submission.
Title page
The title page should contain the topic of the article, author names, author addresses,
corresponding author details and author ORCID. The topic should not exceed 30 words and
should have no abbreviations. Author names should be written with last names appearing last
and other names (or initials) appearing before them. Addresses should be assigned by
numbers in superscript. The corresponding author should be assigned by an asterisk. Multiple
corresponding authors can be assigned but only one of them is allowed to submit to the
journal. The inclusion of a list of all authors ORCID number is highly encouraged.
Abstract
UJCEE requires an unstructured abstract between 150 – 250 words. All abbreviations should
be spelt out. A list of 4 – 6 keywords should be provided after the abstract
Article structure
Research articles should contain the basic components of a research paper which are the
introduction, methods, results and discussion and conclusion sections. Each section should be numbered sequentially as 1, 2, 3 and 4. The structure for review articles is more flexible but must contain an introduction and conclusion as the first and last sections respectively.
Subheadings should not exceed two levels (e.g. 2.1.2).
Other requirements
UJCEE accepts either British or American spelling styles. Authors should only ensure a
consistent use of their chosen style. Equation editors should be used to write all equations.
Tables should not be entered as images but as editable word tables. All tables, figures and
equations are to be numbered using Arabic numerals. All tables, figures and equations must
be cited at least once in the text in numerical order. The quality of all images should not be
below 300 dpi.
Formatting
Manuscripts should be submitted preferably in Times new roman, text size 12, line spacing
1.5 and normal margins. All abbreviations should be fully spelt out at first use. Either the SI
units or metric system is acceptable but authors should ensure consistency of styles.
Conflict of interest
Financial contributions to the work being reported should be clearly acknowledged, as should
any potential conflict of interest.
Acknowledgements
This is optional. UJCEE requires an acknowledgement section when a work is not self-
funded. All funding agencies must be correctly acknowledged.
Journal referencing style (APA)

References should follow APA 7th edition and be cited in the text using the author–date system. All sources cited in the manuscript, including those in tables and figure legends, must appear in the reference list, which should be arranged alphabetically by the first author’s surname. Use (Author, Year) for one author, (Author & Author, Year) for two authors, and (Author et al., Year) for three or more authors. Multiple references should be separated by semicolons, e.g., (Adeyemi, 2022; Smith et al., 2023). Authors are encouraged to use EndNote, Mendeley, or Zotero for accurate reference management. References should be described as following:
Reference to a journal publication:

1. Abonyi, M. N., Obi, C. C., Nwabanne, J. T., & Aniagor, C. O. (2024). Emerging and ecofriendly biological methods for agricultural wastewater treatment. Environmental Systems Research, 13(1), 45.
2. Nwabanne, J. T., Iheanacho, O. C., Obi, C. C., & Onu, C. E. (2022). Linear and nonlinear kinetics analysis and adsorption characteristics of packed bed column for phenol removal using rice husk-activated carbon. Applied Water Science, 12(5), 91.
3. Okoye, C. C., Onukwuli, O. D., Onyesolu, C. F. O., & Okafo, I. A. O. (2020). Remediation of crystal violet dye aqueous solution using agro waste based activated carbon: Equilibrium and kinetics studies. J. Eng. Res. Rep, 15, 1-11.

Reference to a book:
4. Igbokwe, P. K., Nwabanne, J. T., & Gadzama, S. W. (2015). Characterization of a 5 litre continuous stirred tank reactor (4th ed.). Longman.

Reference to a chapter in an edited book:
5. Okechukwu, O. D., Joseph, E., Nonso, U. C., & Kenechi, N. O. (2022). Improving heterogeneous catalysis for biodiesel production process. In Age (pp. 281–304). E-Publishing Inc.
Reference to a website:
6. Water Research, NAU, Awka. (2021). Adsorption of doxycycline from aqueous media: A review. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167732221008990 (accessed 27 August 2026).
Reference to a dataset:
7. Ohale, P. E., Amenaghawon, A. N., Kimble Audu, T. O., Ugbodu, F., Okonkwo, L. C., & Oghenehwosa, O. J. (2025). Machine learning-informed one-pot biodiesel synthesis from an optimally formulated mixed non-edible oil feedstock over magnetic sulfonated biobased catalyst. RSC Advances, 15(59), 50856–50880. Scopus database.
Reference to software:
8. Coon, E., Berndt, M., Jan, A., Svyatsky, D., Atchley, A., Kikinzon, E., Harp, D., Manzini, G., Shelef, E., Lipnikov, K., Garimella, R., Xu, C., Moulton, D., Karra, S., Painter, S., Jafarov, E., & Molins, S. (2020). Advanced Terrestrial Simulator (ATS) (Version 0.88) [Computer software]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3727209
Plagiarism
The manuscript should not exceed 20% similarity with other published works.

Charges and publication fee
After peer review and acceptance, authors must pay the APC (Article Processing Charge) since UJCEE is an open access journal with no subscription charges. The charge is non- refundable since it contributes to the handling, editing, and production costs associated with open access publication.

For Nigerian authors: N20, 000 (to a Nigerian bank account)

For international authors: 50 USD (to a domiciliary account)

Note that any manuscript submitted before August 31, 2026 that are accepted for publication after peer review, will be exempted from the APC. This waiver will not apply for the application of offprints.
For authors who require hardcopies of the journal issue, they can place an order with the production editor and a copy will be sent to their address by courier service. A hardcopy offprint of the journal issue will cost N20,000 for Nigerian authors and 200 USD.

Production
The principal/corresponding author will be required to sign a Copyright agreement after acceptance and payment of publication fee, on behalf of all the co-authors (if any). After paying the APC, the production editors ensure the manuscript is in line with the journal template. The manuscript is then added to the production queue of the journal. All papers published in a year are assigned as a volume. The journal can also publish special issues as deemed by the department.
Online and hardcopy publication will occur simultaneously. The production editors will also be the administrator of the journal website. The production editors will mail each corresponding author with a link to the webpage for their article to download a softcopy of their final published paper. The production editors also handle the sending of hardcopy offprints to authors who requested and paid for them. The department will archive every hardcopy of each issue in her library.