The Journal of Unique and Crazy Ideas (JUCI) is part of the Single Page Publication series on the STARA platform. Instead of asking you to produce a full experimental paper, JUCI asks you to do something harder: state one original idea clearly, in one page, and explain how it could be tried.

The JUCI article, in three parts:

1. Background. The problem, gap, observation, or itch that made you stop and think. Keep it tight — a paragraph or two.
2. Idea. The core of the paper. What is the idea, why is it new, and what would it change if it worked? Be specific. “Use AI to cure cancer” is not an idea; “train a small transformer on patient-specific methylation patterns to flag relapse three months earlier” is.
3. Possible Implementation. A concrete sketch of how the idea could be tested or built: what you’d need, what the first experiment or prototype looks like, and what would count as evidence for or against it.

Instructions for authors. Register on STARA and write your manuscript directly in the online editor — no templates, no formatting gymnastics. The system formats and typesets your paper into the JUCI layout automatically. A short video tutorial is available under the “Manuscript” card in Documentations. Before submission, the system validates your manuscript and suggests at least two reviewers; once the checks pass, the Submit button appears.

Publication process.

1. Write the manuscript text in the online editor (or paste from Word — text only, no inline figures/tables).
2. Upload figures (JPG, PNG, TIFF) and provide a caption for each.
3. Add tables via the online editor or by pasting from Word. Do not attach Word files.
4. Add references: search our library, add manually, import a BibTeX export from Google Scholar, or import a JSON export from NCBI.
5. Once the system confirms all requirements are met, you can submit.
6. The handling editor checks scope fit and assigns reviewers.
7. Decisions follow the review rules below.
8. Accepted papers are auto-typeset into a PDF, sent to the author for galley proofs, and published online immediately after proofs are returned.

Review procedure. JUCI uses double-blind peer review.

1. Authors must suggest at least two reviewers at submission. Suggested reviewers should have published at least ten papers in a relevant field.
2. If the manuscript fits JUCI’s scope, the editor invites reviewers and asks for comments within 30 days.
3. Reviewers sign in to a dedicated panel where each section (title, background, idea, implementation, references) is reviewed separately with its own comment field.
4. Each reviewer must choose one of: Accept, Minor Revision, Major Revision, or Reject.
5. For acceptance, at least two reviewers must recommend acceptance (with or without revisions). Two rejections end the process. A split decision may be resolved by a third reviewer.
6. Author responses and revisions are submitted through the same online system.

Article processing charges (APC). Submission is always free. On acceptance, the standard APC is 50 USD per article. JUCI actively waives or reduces APCs for authors from lower-income countries, because a good idea shouldn’t depend on where you were born.

No APC — low-income countries:

• Afghanistan, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo (Dem. Rep.), Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Yemen, Zimbabwe.

50% APC — lower-middle-income countries with GDP below $200B (USD):

• Angola, Bhutan, Bolivia, Cabo Verde, Cambodia, Cameroon, Congo (Rep.), Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, El Salvador, Georgia, Ghana, Honduras, Kenya, Kiribati, Kosovo, Kyrgyz Republic, Lao PDR, Lesotho, Mauritania, Micronesia (Fed. Sts.), Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, São Tomé and Príncipe, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Timor-Leste, Tunisia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, West Bank and Gaza, Zambia.

Copyright and licensing. Authors retain full copyright. Articles are published under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) unless otherwise stated. There are no copyright transfer forms to sign.

Archiving. Accepted and published articles are archived as PDFs at the Central Library of Adnan Menderes University (Turkey) and the Islamia College University Library (Pakistan), in addition to the Zenodo record created at the time of publication.

Contact. starainternational2019@gmail.com