Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part K: Journal of Multi-body Dynamics
Multi-body Dynamics
The Journal of Multi-body Dynamics is a multi-disciplinary forum covering all aspects of mechanical design and dynamic analysis of multi-body systems. It is essential reading for academic and industrial research and development departments active in the mechanical design, monitoring and dynamic analysis of multi-body systems.
"The Journal is regarded as a leading publication in the very broad field of dynamics, not only by the leading lights and emerging individuals who regularly publish their latest findings, but also by practicing engineering professionals from a wide variety of industry. The Editorial Board has always comprised leading scientists and professional engineers, a mix that has inspired growing numbers of submissions of high quality science-based and application-oriented articles." Professor Homer Rahnejat, Loughborough University, UK
This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
For more information about the Journal please contact jmultibody@sagepub.co.uk.
The Journal of Multi-body Dynamics is an international multi-disciplinary forum publishing peer reviewed research covering all aspects of system dynamics, comprising an assembly of parts or a cluster of material points. This constitutes the physics of motion, covering interactions of all material points from scale of minutiae such as small particles to the very large bodies. The emphasis in the Journal is put upon the analysis of mechanical multi-body systems, but not exclusively. In the case of mechanical systems, all forms of vehicles, machines and mechanisms constitute an assembly of parts that affect the dynamic behaviour of the system as a whole. The multi-physics nature of dynamic analysis often includes interactions of various phenomena, such as large rigid body motions, flexible body oscillations, friction induced stick-slip perturbations, fluid-structure interactions and lubricated contact dynamics. These interactions are described by various force laws, some well understood, but others particularly in the very small physical scale are subject to ongoing research. All contributions, applied or at the frontiers of science of interacting matter are welcome.
The contributions to the Journal should reflect a fundamental approach to the analysis of dynamic systems. Those related to practical engineering multi-body dynamic problems should have a holistic system dynamics approach. Those on design, analysis and experimentation should highlight the interactions between various system components. New techniques of analysis are welcome, as well as practical applications of problem solving methods to industrial systems and products.
There have been a wide variety of published papers in the Journal, dealing with dynamics from nano- and micro-scales to those extending to astronomical distances, from Newtonian mechanics to special and general relativity. Within this broad spectrum there has been a large volume of work in the application of dynamics analysis to mechanical multi-body systems.
Typical topics covered include:
- Fundamentals of dynamics analysis, from Newtonian mechanics to Lagrangian dynamics and onto relativistic mechanics, as well as many-body systems
- Kinetic interactions from Newtonian perspective to the minutiae; in micro and nano-scales
- Dynamics of vehicles in all forms from automobiles to spacecrafts
- Bearings, rotors and powertrain systems
- Noise, Vibration and Harshness (NVH)
- Elastodynamics of all forms of structures and mechanisms
- Kinematics, dynamics and synthesis of all kinds of machines and mechanisms
- Tribodynamics of all types of bearings, transmission systems and powertrains .
| Professor H Rahnejat | University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK |
| Hamid R Hamidzadeh | Tennessee State University, USA |
| Professor A A Shabana | University of Illinois at Chicago, USA |
| P. Alevras | University of Birmingham, UK |
| Alberto Cardona | CIMEC, CONICET, Argentina |
| J Cuadrado | University of La Coruña, Spain |
| N Dolatabadi | Loughborough University, UK |
| M Gnanakumarr | Jaguar Land Rover, UK |
| Paulo Goncalves | State University of São Paulo (UNESP), Brazil |
| A L Guzzomi | The University of Western Australia, Australia |
| S Howell-Smith | Capricorn Automotive Ltd., UK |
| A Kahraman | The Ohio State University, USA |
| Ioannis Karagiannis | Whole Vehicle Engineering BENTLEY MOTORS LIMITED, UK |
| P Kelly | Ford Werke AG, Germany |
| E Keskinen | Tampere University of Technology, Finland |
| Manu Kushwaha | Magna Mechatronic, USA |
| Jing Liu | University of Maryland, USA |
| Dr. George Mavros | Loughborough University, UK |
| A. R. Mohanty | Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India |
| S Natsiavis | Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece |
| M Patel | Navistar Inc, USA |
| M Perera | Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology, Sri Lanka |
| A A Popov | University of Nottingham, UK |
| Subir Kumar Saha | Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India |
| C Sandu | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA |
| A Senatore | University of Salerno, Italy |
| H Sugiyama | University of Iowa, USA |
| M Teodorescu | UC Santa Cruz, USA |
| Prof. Qiang Tian | Beijing Institute of Technology, China |
| Prof. Alberto Trevisani | University of Padova, Italy |
Manuscript Submission Guidelines: Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part K: Journal of Multi-Body Dynamics
This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics.
Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/Jmbd to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.
Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part K: Journal of Multi-Body Dynamics will be reviewed.
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal. Open Access options are available - see section 3.3 below.
As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you.
- What do we publish?
1.1 Aims & Scope
1.2 Article types
1.3 Writing your paper - Editorial policies
2.1 Peer review policy
2.2 Authorship
2.3 Acknowledgements
2.4 Funding
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
2.6 Research Data - Publishing policies
3.1 Publication ethics
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
3.3 Open access and author archiving - Preparing your manuscript
4.1 Formatting
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
4.3 Supplementary material
4.4 Reference style
4.5 English language editing services - Submitting your manuscript
5.1 ORCID
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
5.3 Permissions - On acceptance and publication
6.1 Sage Production
6.2 Online First publication
6.3 Access to your published article
6.4 Promoting your article - Further information
Before submitting your manuscript to Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part J: Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part K: Journal of Multi-Body DynamicsJournal of Engineering Tribology, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.
Original Article: Describes a piece of original or substantially original research, or some aspect of design development, manufacture, operation and maintenance, or engineering education
Review Article: A critical review of the state-of-the-art with examples of applications in design and profitable manufacture without extensive analysis
Case Study: Describes the application of a technique, procedure or management concept in a real situation
Technical Note: A short, interim statement on a research project or description of some new development
Length
- In general, Original Articles, Review Papers and Case Studies should not normally exceed 5000 words (with up to 10 illustrations). Longer articles will be considered; however, as our criterion is that the content justifies the length of the article.
- Technical Notes should not exceed 1500 words and 5 illustrations.
Discussions on papers already published should not exceed 500 words and 2 illustrations.
The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance their article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.
1.3.1 Make your article discoverable
When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines such as Google. For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.
Sage does not permit the use of author-suggested (recommended) reviewers at any stage of the submission process, be that through the web-based submission system or other communication. Reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Our policy is that reviewers should not be assigned to a paper if:
• The reviewer is based at the same institution as any of the co-authors
• The reviewer is based at the funding body of the paper
• The author has recommended the reviewer
• The reviewer has provided a personal (e.g. Gmail/Yahoo/Hotmail) email account and an institutional email account cannot be found after performing a basic Google search (name, department and institution).
Papers should only be submitted for consideration once consent is given by all contributing authors. Those submitting papers should carefully check that all those whose work contributed to the paper are acknowledged as contributing authors.
The list of authors should include all those who can legitimately claim authorship. This is all those who:
- Made a substantial contribution to the concept or design of the work; or acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data,
- Drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content,
- Approved the version to be published,
- Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.
Authors should meet the conditions of all of the points above. When a large, multicentre group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship.
Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute authorship, although all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgments section. Please refer to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) authorship guidelines for more information on authorship.
Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.
Any acknowledgements should appear first at the end of your article prior to your Declaration of Conflicting Interests (if applicable), any notes and your References.
2.3.1 Third party submissions
Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:
- Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input
- Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
- Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.
Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.
2.3.2 Writing assistance
Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance”).
It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.
Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part K: Journal of Multi-Body Dynamics requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading. Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
It is the policy of Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part K: Journal of Multi-Body Dynamics to require a declaration of conflicting interests from all authors enabling a statement to be carried within the paginated pages of all published articles.
Please ensure that a ‘Declaration of Conflicting Interests’ statement is included at the end of your manuscript, after any acknowledgements and prior to the references. If no conflict exists, please state that ‘The Author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest’. For guidance on conflict of interest statements, please see the ICMJE recommendations here.
The journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages.
Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to:
- share your research data in a relevant public data repository
- include a data availability statement linking to your data. If it is not possible to share your data, we encourage you to consider using the statement to explain why it cannot be shared.
- cite this data in your research
Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway.
3.1.1 Plagiarism
Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part K: Journal of Multi-Body Dynamics and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.
3.1.2 Prior publication
If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the Sage Author Gateway.
3.3 Open access and author archiving
Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part K: Journal of Multi-Body Dynamics offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.
4. Preparing your manuscript for submission
Preferred formats for the text and tables of your manuscript are Word DOC, RTF, XLS. LaTeX files are also accepted. The text should be double-spaced throughout and with a minimum of 3cm for left and right hand margins and 5cm at head and foot. Text should be standard 10 or 12 point. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.
Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article.
This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files.
Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part K: Journal of Multi-Body Dynamics adheres to the Sage Vancouver reference style. View the Sage Vancouver guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.
If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the Sage Vancouver EndNote output file.
4.5 English language editing services
Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.
Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part K: Journal of Multi-Body Dynamics is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/Jmbd to login and submit your article online.
IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created. For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.
As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.
The collection of ORCID iDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID iD you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID iD will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID iD is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.
If you do not already have an ORCID iD please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).
Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway.
6. On acceptance and publication
Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be sent by PDF to the corresponding author and should be returned promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.
Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.
6.3 Access to your published article
Sage provides authors with online access to their final article.
Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.
Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part K: Journal of Multi-Body Dynamics editorial office as follows:
Assistant Managing Editor
Sage Publications Ltd
1 Oliver's Yard, 55 City Road
London, EC1Y 1SP
UK
Email: jmultibody@sagepub.co.uk