About the Journal

General Information

TEMA – Technologies Engineering Materials Architecture is a peer-reviewed scientific journal addressing the international community of scholars, researchers, and professionals in architecture, building engineering, and construction.

The journal promotes research on the history of building construction, methods and tools for building performance analysis, traditional and innovative technologies for architectural design, and strategies for the conservation, reuse, and transformation of the built heritage.

The main objectives of the journal are:

• to support the cultural and scientific advancement of scholars, researchers, and professionals in the fields of architecture, building engineering, and construction;
• to disseminate research outcomes at national and international levels;
• to foster scientific debate grounded in academic freedom, methodological rigour, and disciplinary relevance.

TEMA is a scientific journal within Area 08 – Civil Engineering and Architecture, as defined by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR). It is accredited as a Class A journal by ANVUR, the Italian National Agency for the Evaluation of Universities and Research Institutes.

TEMA also serves the scientific community of the disciplinary sector CEAR/08A – Architectural Engineering, recognized by MUR.

Focus and Scope

TEMA publishes original research, review articles, methodological contributions, case studies, and critical essays concerning the built environment, with particular attention to architectural engineering, building technologies, construction processes, and the conservation and transformation of existing buildings.

The journal covers, but is not limited to, the following thematic areas.

A - Construction and Conservation History

1. Materials and construction techniques in historical architecture
2. Recovery, enhancement, and reuse of the existing building heritage
3. Interventions on monumental architecture
4. Industrial archaeology: knowledge, conservation, and reuse
5. Vernacular architecture: lessons learned and future perspectives
6. Regeneration strategies for historic centres and peripheral urban areas
7. Digital twins and immersive visualization for the interpretation, management, and accessibility of built heritage

B - Building Construction and Performance

1. Traditional and innovative technologies and materials for buildings
2. Modelling, simulation, and diagnostics under uncertainty for performance assessment
3. Building pathologies and intervention strategies
4. Relationships between buildings, users, and the environment, including extended accessibility
5. Building management and maintenance for safety and quality of living environments
6. Mitigation and management of vulnerabilities and risks for the preservation of the built environment
7. Regulatory frameworks, design quality control, and construction processes

C - Building Design and Technologies

1. Form, technique, and technology in architectural design
2. Circular design, embodied carbon, and extended building life cycle
3. Digital transition and design strategies for Construction 4.0
4. Technological innovation: processes, patents, and products for future construction
5. Integrated and participatory design for the quality of the built environment
6. Adaptive and responsive buildings
7. Design for Manufacturing and Assembly and Design for Disassembly

Editorial Structure

TEMA is published at least twice a year through Open Journal Systems (OJS), a cloud-based platform for manuscript submission and peer-review management.

TEMA is an open-access journal. Its scientific content is freely available without registration or payment, supporting the international dissemination of research.

Issues typically include two main sections:

• General Section: contributions submitted on a rolling basis that are not linked to a specific call for papers but fall within the journal’s focus and scope. Submissions are always open.
• Call for Papers Section: contributions selected in response to a specific call for papers and curated by Guest Editors. Submission deadlines are applied.

Articles submitted to both sections undergo double-blind peer review and plagiarism or similarity screening.

TEMA may also publish editorials and invited essays on specific topics. These article types are not subject to double-blind peer review.

TEMA accepts contributions in English only. Either British or American English may be used, provided that spelling and terminology are consistent throughout the manuscript.

Open Access and Licenses

TEMA is an Open Access Journal.

TEMA provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global knowledge exchange.

Authors retain the copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY-4.0) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication.and CC0  1.0  Universal for metadata.

To learn more about the journal's policies, please refer to the publisher's policies here: https://journals.fupress.net/our-policies/ or browse our policies.

Peer-Review Process

The TEMA peer review process is double-blind, meaning both referees and authors remain anonymous. To facilitate this, authors need to guarantee that their manuscripts are submitted without any reference to their identity.

Before being sent out for review, each submission undergoes an initial editorial screening to verify its consistency with the journal's aims and scope and adherence to the author guidelines.

Each manuscript that passes the editorial screening is then evaluated by at least two independent reviewers under the double-blind procedure. Based on the reviewers’ reports, the handling editor may make one of the following decisions: accept submission, revisions required, resubmit for review, decline submission.

When revisions are required, authors are asked to submit a revised version together with a point-by-point response to the reviewers’ comments; the revised manuscript may be sent back to the reviewers for a further round of evaluation. The final decision is taken by the Editor in accordance with the reviewers' assessments.

Publication and peer-review timeline

TEMA follows the indicative publication timeline outlined below.

• Preliminary editorial assessment: the Editorial Board evaluates the manuscript and decides whether to reject it or assign it for double-blind peer review within 2 weeks of submission;
• First round of peer review: reviewers are expected to submit their reports within 6 weeks of assignment;
• Communication of the first round decision: the editorial decision and reviewers’ comments are sent to the authors within 1 week of completion of the first review round;
• First author revision: authors are expected to submit the revised manuscript and their response to the reviewers within 2 weeks of the revision request.
• Second round of peer review: where required, the revised manuscript is reassessed within 2 weeks of resubmission;
• Further revisions: where further reviews are required, authors are normally given 2 weeks to submit each subsequent revised version. Further review and revision rounds may be conducted following the same iterative procedure until the manuscript is considered ready for a final decision.
• Final editorial decision: the final decision is communicated within 1 week of completion of the last review round.

Article Processing Charges (APC)

TEMA does not earn money from selling its publications in digital or paper format.

TEMA applies an Article Processing Charge (APC) only if the contribution is accepted for publication after the double-blind peer review process and the possible manuscript revision in order to cover the costs of journal production and management and the peer review manuscript evaluation process.

The contribution for the publication of each article is:

• euro 300,00 for Ar.Tec. Members;
• euro 400,00 for authors who are not Ar.Tec. Members.

Article No. 4 of Presidential Decree No. 633/1972 exempts these amounts from VAT.

A single APC is required even if there is more than one author for a single article.

A discounted APC is applied if at least one author is an Ar.Tec. Member.

The contribution must be paid to Ar.Tec. following the instructions sent to the authors, together with the notification of acceptance of the work for publication.

Publication Frequency

TEMA  is a peer-reviewed journal that is published biannually online.

Waiver Information

Fee waivers do not apply at Firenze University Press.

Archiving

TEMA  and Firenze University Press are experimenting Long Term Preservation service with PKP/PN.