Proceedings of the International Conference on Smart Villages and Rural Development (COSVARD)

ISSN 2982-0731 (Online) | ISSN 2982-0723 (Print)

Publication type: Peer-reviewed international serial conference proceedings
Publication frequency: Annual
First published: 2018
Language: English
Publisher: Smart Villages Lab, Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, The University of Melbourne, Australia
Proceedings Editor / Editor-in-Chief: Associate Professor Hemanta Doloi, The University of Melbourne, Australia

The COSVARD Proceedings publish original, full-length, peer-reviewed research presented at the International Conference on Smart Villages and Rural Development. Established in 2018, the annual series provides an interdisciplinary international forum for researchers, educators, practitioners, policymakers, industry representatives and community partners working to advance inclusive, resilient and climate-positive rural transformation.

The series is founded on the principle that improvements in rural quality of life should not depend on reproducing resource-intensive models of conventional urbanisation. It promotes integrated approaches to housing, infrastructure, livelihoods, technology, governance, landscape, social value and community services that strengthen rural prosperity while respecting cultural, environmental and spatial identity.

Aims and scope

The COSVARD Proceedings aim to advance rigorous research, critical debate and practical innovation relating to Smart Villages and sustainable rural development. The series welcomes conceptual, empirical, methodological, policy-oriented and practice-based contributions in areas including:

• Smart Villages and integrated rural development;
• affordable, resilient and culturally responsive rural housing;
• sustainable infrastructure, mobility, water, sanitation, waste and energy;
• climate adaptation, disaster resilience and climate-positive development;
• nature-based solutions, ecosystem restoration and regenerative landscapes;
• rural livelihoods, local enterprise, food systems and inclusive economic development;
• digital inclusion, data systems, artificial intelligence and appropriate technologies;
• community participation, co-design, living laboratories and Indigenous or local knowledge;
• governance, public policy, planning and institutional capacity;
• social value, equity, health, wellbeing and access to essential services;
• construction and infrastructure development in developing-country contexts;
• rural–urban interdependence, migration and balanced regional development;
• education, capacity building and interdisciplinary collaboration;
• sustainable energy, Just Energy Transitions, Social and Environmental Safeguarding;
• measurement of environmental, social and economic outcomes, including contributions to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Contributions should demonstrate clear relevance to rural communities or rural–urban systems and make an identifiable scholarly, policy or practical contribution.

Editorial governance

The scholarly direction and integrity of the COSVARD Proceedings are overseen by the Proceedings Editor/Editor-in-Chief, supported by an international Editorial and Scientific Advisory Board. Board members are selected for their relevant disciplinary expertise, scholarly standing and geographic diversity. The Board reflects the interdisciplinary and international scope of COSVARD and provides expertise across sustainable rural development, construction, infrastructure, climate resilience, social value, planning, technology and related fields.

The Proceedings Editor is responsible for editorial oversight, scope and quality assurance, reviewer appointment, management of conflicts of interest, final publication decisions, and the implementation of publication-ethics and correction procedures. Conference hosting or sponsorship does not determine editorial decisions.

Peer-review policy

All full papers submitted for publication in the COSVARD Proceedings undergo double-blind peer review. The identities of authors and reviewers are concealed from one another during the review process.

Each submission is initially screened by the editorial team for relevance to the aims and scope of the proceedings, completeness, scholarly presentation, originality and compliance with submission requirements. Manuscripts that pass the initial screening are assigned to independent reviewers with relevant subject expertise. Each manuscript is normally assessed by at least two independent reviewers.

Reviewers assess submissions against the following criteria:

• relevance to Smart Villages and rural development;
• originality and significance of the contribution;
• clarity of the research purpose or questions;
• appropriateness and transparency of the methodology;
• quality of evidence, analysis and interpretation;
• engagement with relevant scholarship;
• ethical and responsible research practice;
• clarity, organisation and quality of presentation; and
• strength and relevance of the conclusions and implications.

Following review, a manuscript may be accepted, accepted subject to revision, invited for resubmission and further review, or declined. Authors receiving revision requests must respond to the reviewers' and editors' comments and submit a revised manuscript. Final acceptance is subject to satisfactory completion of revisions and editorial verification of the camera-ready paper.

The Proceedings Editor makes the final publication decision on the basis of the reviews, the authors' response and the manuscript's compliance with the proceedings' scholarly and ethical requirements. Where the Proceedings Editor has a conflict of interest, responsibility for the decision is assigned to an independent suitably qualified editor or committee member.

Publication ethics and research integrity

The COSVARD Proceedings are committed to responsible scholarly publishing and to maintaining the integrity of the academic record. Authors, reviewers and editors are expected to follow recognised principles of research and publication ethics, including the guidance of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), where applicable.

Author responsibilities

Authors must:

• submit original work that has not been published previously and is not simultaneously under consideration elsewhere;
• identify and cite all sources appropriately;
• avoid plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, data manipulation and misleading reporting;
• report methods and findings accurately and transparently;
• obtain all required research-ethics approvals, permissions and informed consent;
• protect participant privacy and confidential or culturally sensitive information;
• ensure that all listed authors meet accepted authorship criteria and that all eligible contributors are appropriately acknowledged;
• disclose relevant financial, professional, institutional or personal conflicts of interest;
• identify funding sources and the role of funders, where applicable;
• disclose any substantial use of generative artificial intelligence or AI-assisted technologies in accordance with the policy below; and
• notify the Proceedings Editor promptly if a significant error or ethical concern is identified before or after publication.

Authorship

Authorship must be limited to individuals who have made a substantial intellectual contribution to the conception or design of the work; the acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data; or the drafting or substantive revision of the manuscript. All authors must approve the final version and accept accountability for the work. Administrative support, funding acquisition or general supervision alone does not justify authorship and should instead be acknowledged appropriately.

Plagiarism and duplicate publication

Submissions may be screened for textual similarity and other indicators of publication misconduct. Material copied or closely paraphrased from another source must be properly attributed. Redundant or duplicate publication, including publication of substantially the same paper in another proceedings series or outlet, is not permitted.
Papers selected for publication in a separate publisher's volume, including a Springer Nature proceedings volume, are not reproduced in the COSVARD ISSN Proceedings. This separation is maintained to protect the scholarly record and avoid duplicate publication.

Conflicts of interest

Authors must disclose any relationship or interest that could reasonably be perceived to influence the research or its interpretation. Reviewers and editors must declare conflicts that could affect or appear to affect their impartiality and must withdraw from the relevant review or decision where necessary.

Human participants, communities and sensitive knowledge

Research involving people, communities, personal information or culturally sensitive knowledge must comply with applicable institutional and legal ethics requirements. Authors should state the relevant approval or exemption and describe consent arrangements where applicable. Research involving Indigenous peoples or local communities should demonstrate respectful engagement, appropriate permissions, protection of knowledge and fair representation.

Complaints and allegations

Concerns about authorship, plagiarism, undisclosed conflicts, data integrity, unethical research or other publication misconduct may be submitted confidentially to the Proceedings Editor at hdoloi@unimelb.edu.au. Allegations will be assessed fairly and confidentially, with relevant parties given an opportunity to respond. Where appropriate, the proceedings may consult the authors' institutions or other competent bodies and follow COPE-informed procedures.

Corrections, retractions and expressions of concern

The COSVARD Proceedings are committed to preserving an accurate and transparent scholarly record.

• A correction may be published where an error affects the interpretation, discoverability or completeness of a paper but does not invalidate its central findings.
• A retraction may be issued where findings are unreliable because of serious error or misconduct, the work constitutes plagiarism or redundant publication, ethical approval was absent where required, or other serious breaches are established.
• An expression of concern may be issued while a substantial unresolved concern is under investigation.

Notices will identify the affected paper, explain the reason for the action and remain permanently accessible and linked to the published version. The original record will be retained and clearly marked except where removal is required by law or necessary to prevent serious harm.

Generative artificial intelligence policy

Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies cannot be listed as authors because they cannot take responsibility for the work, approve the final manuscript or manage conflicts of interest and copyright obligations.

Authors must disclose any substantive use of generative AI in developing the manuscript, including its use in producing or transforming text, images, code, data or analysis. Routine spelling, grammar and reference-formatting assistance need not be disclosed. Authors remain fully responsible for the accuracy, originality, citations, permissions, confidentiality and integrity of all submitted content.

Reviewers and editors must not upload confidential manuscripts, reviews or unpublished data to external generative-AI systems where doing so could breach confidentiality, privacy, copyright or research-integrity obligations.

Editorial independence

Editorial decisions are based on scholarly quality, relevance, integrity and the outcomes of peer review. Decisions are not influenced by an author's nationality, institutional affiliation, seniority, political views, commercial relationships or ability to pay. Sponsoring, hosting and partner organisations do not control individual publication decisions.

Appeals

Authors may appeal an editorial decision where they can demonstrate a material error in the review or decision-making process. Appeals must be submitted to the Editor-in-Chief by email within 21 days of the decision and must provide a concise, evidence-based explanation. An appeal does not guarantee reconsideration or acceptance. Where practicable, it will be assessed by an editor or suitably qualified committee member who was not responsible for the original decision.

Open access, copyright and permissions

The COSVARD Proceedings provide open access to published papers through the Smart Villages Lab website to support the widest possible dissemination, accessibility and use of research.

Copyright in individual papers remains with the authors. Papers are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence, which permits sharing and adaptation of the published work, provided appropriate attribution is given to the original authors and source.

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce any third-party copyrighted material included in their papers. Copyright and licensing information is provided on each published paper and within the relevant proceedings volume.

Publication charges

COSVARD does not charge any separate Article Processing Charges (APCs) or publication fees beyond the stipulated conference registration fee. For an accepted paper to be considered for inclusion in the COSVARD Proceedings, at least one author must complete the required conference registration and pay the applicable registration fee. Payment of the conference registration fee, however, does not guarantee publication. Inclusion of a paper in the COSVARD Proceedings remains subject to successful completion of the peer-review process, submission of the final camera-ready manuscript in accordance with the prescribed requirements, and final editorial acceptance.

Archiving and digital preservation

The COSVARD Proceedings maintain a publicly accessible annual archive through the Smart Villages Lab, Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, The University of Melbourne. Published proceedings and individual papers are retained as part of the continuing scholarly record of the COSVARD series.

Each annual proceedings volume is assigned clear bibliographic information, including publication year, volume information and ISSN. Article-level bibliographic metadata are maintained to support persistent identification, citation, discovery and indexing of published papers.

The publisher is committed to maintaining continuing public access to published COSVARD content and to preserving the integrity and accessibility of the scholarly record.

Indexing and discoverability

The COSVARD Proceedings are a peer-reviewed serial conference publication with registered print and online ISSNs. The publisher is progressively strengthening article-level metadata, persistent identifiers and digital preservation, and may apply for inclusion in appropriate scholarly abstracting and indexing services in accordance with their independent selection requirements.

The COSVARD Proceedings are not currently described as Scopus-indexed unless and until written confirmation of source acceptance has been received from Scopus. Inclusion of selected COSVARD papers in a separately published Springer Nature volume does not constitute Scopus coverage of the independent COSVARD ISSN Proceedings series.

Relationship with separately published selected papers

Selected papers presented at COSVARD may be invited for consideration in a separate scholarly volume published by an external publisher, subject to that publisher's independent editorial and peer-review requirements.

Papers published in a separate volume are excluded from the COSVARD ISSN Proceedings. The COSVARD archive clearly identifies the separate publication pathway so that readers, authors and indexing services can distinguish the two records and verify that papers have not been published twice.