Submissions Guidelines

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Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
  • The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
  • Use the Microsoft Word template to prepare your submission.
  • Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
  • The text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
  • The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines, which is found in About the Journal.
  • If submitting to a peer-reviewed section of the journal, the instructions in Ensuring a Blind Review have been followed.

Author Guidelines

Types of Articles:

The journal welcomes submission of full-length research articles, review articles, and short communications.

Manuscript Preparation:

Section headings, sub-headings, and sub-subheadings should be differentiated by number. Please number the section headings (e.g. 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.) in boldface. Likewise, use boldface to identify subheadings too but please distinguish them from major headings using numbers (e.g. 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2, etc.).

All figures (include relevant captions). 

All tables (including titles, descriptions, and footnotes).

Ensure all figure and table citations in the text match the files provided. 

The section titles given are for research articles. Review articles and other article types have a more flexible structure.

Cover Letter:

A cover letter should be concise and explain why the content of the paper is significant, placing the findings in the context of existing work. It should explain why the manuscript fits the scope of the journal.

Title:

Concise and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid using uncommon jargons, abbreviations, and punctuation, and should not exceed 50 words.

Author Details: 

Please clearly indicate the given name(s) and family name(s) of each author and check that all names are accurately spelled.

Abstract: 

The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results, and major conclusions. An abstract is often presented separately from the article, so it must be able to stand alone. A concise and factual abstract is required. References should be avoided.

Keywords:

Provide a maximum of 6 keywords, avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, 'and', 'of'). Be sparing with abbreviations: only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be eligible. These keywords will be used for indexing purposes.

Introduction: 

The introduction should briefly place the study in a broad context and highlight why it is important,in particular, in relation to current state of research in the field. Finally, it can conclude with a brief statement of the aim of the work and a comment about whether that aim was achieved.

Materials and Methods: 

They should be described with sufficient detail to allow others to replicate and build on published results.  Methods that are already published should be summarized, and indicated by a reference. Any modifications to existing methods should also be described.

Results: 

Provide a concise and precise description of the experimental results, their interpretation as well as the experimental conclusions that can be drawn.

Discussion: 

It should not be redundant or similar to the content of the results section. A combined Results and Discussion section is often appropriate. Suggestions for future research can also be discussed in this section.

Conclusions: 

This should clearly explain the main conclusions of the article, highlighting its importance and relevance. This section is not mandatory but can be added to the manuscript if the discussion is unusually long or complex.

Author Contributions: 

The contributions of all listed authors should be described here. Co-first authors should have a more detailed description of their involvement compared to the other authors.

Conflict of Interest: 

Declaration of conflict of interest.  If there is no conflict of interest, please state "The authors declare no conflict of interest."

Funding: 

All sources of funding for the study should be disclosed. Clearly indicate grants that you have received in support of your research work and if you received funds to cover publication costs.
Please add: “This work received no external funding” or This work was supported by [name of funder] grant number [xxx].

Acknowledgments: 

In this section, you can acknowledge any support given which is not covered by the author contribution or funding sections. This may include administrative and technical support, or donations in kind (e.g., materials used for experiments).

Appendix: 

The appendix is an optional section that can contain details and data supplemental to the main text.

References:

  • References must be numbered in order of appearance in the text (including table captions and figure legends) and listed individually at the end of the manuscript. We recommend preparing the references with a bibliography software package, such as EndNoteReference Manager, or Zotero to avoid typing mistakes and duplicated references. We encourage citations to data, computer code, and other citable research material. If available online, you may use reference style 8. below.
  • Citations and References in Supplementary files are permitted provided that they also appear in the main text and in the reference list.

In the text, reference numbers should be placed in square brackets [ ], and placed before the punctuation; for example [1], [1–3] or [1,3]. For embedded citations in the text with pagination, use both parentheses and brackets to indicate the reference number and page numbers; for example [5] (p. 10). or [6] (pp. 101–105).

The reference list should include the full title, as recommended by the ACS style guide. Style files for Endnote and Zotero are available.

References should be described as follows, depending on the type of work:

  1. Author 1, A.B.; Author 2, C.D. Title of the article. Abbreviated Journal Name Year, Volume, page range.
  2. Author 1, A.; Author 2, B. Title of the chapter. In Book Title, 2nd ed.; Editor 1, A., Editor 2, B., Eds.; Publisher: Publisher Location, Country, 2007; Volume 3, pp. 154–196.
  3. Author 1, A.; Author 2, B. Book Title, 3rd ed.; Publisher: Publisher Location, Country, 2008; pp. 154–196.
  4. Author 1, A.B.; Author 2, C. Title of Unpublished Work. Abbreviated Journal Nameyear, phrase indicating stage of publication (submitted; accepted; in press).
  5. Author 1, A.B. (University, City, State, Country); Author 2, C. (Institute, City, State, Country). Personal communication, 2012.
  6. Author 1, A.B.; Author 2, C.D.; Author 3, E.F. Title of Presentation. In Proceedings of the Name of the Conference, Location of Conference, Country, Date of Conference (Day Month Year).
  7. Author 1, A.B. Title of Thesis. Level of Thesis, Degree-Granting University, Location of University, Date of Completion.
  8. Title of Site. Available online: URL (accessed on Day Month Year).

Supplementary Material:

In addition to the content of the main part of the paper, the content can contain supporting tables, pictures, raw data, etc., and sometimes it can also contain video material.

Graphs, Figures, Tables, and Equations:

Graphs and tables should be labeled immediately below the paragraph corresponding to the text and aligned with the center. Each data presentation type should be labeled as Figure or Table, and their order should be sequential and separate from each other.

Graphs and tables should be high-resolution images, closely linked to their corresponding titles and numbers.

Equations should be left-aligned and numbered in running order with their numbers in parentheses (right-aligned).

*All graphs, tables, and equations should be numbered and embedded in the main article.

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