Submission Manuscripts submitted to the journal must be original work and has not been published elsewhere in any language, and is not under consideration for publication. Authors should submit the manuscript by our online submission system. For author who has not submitted a paper to the journal before, registration is needed to get an account in the submission center. It is strongly suggested to read the journal policies and relevant guidelines at our website before submission. Valid e-mail addresses for each author must be provided at submission. Once completing submission, we will send an acknowledge email to confirm. It is inappropriate for authors to submit the manuscript elsewhere before receiving final decision from the journal editor.
Initial review
A scientifically qualified editor pre-screens submitted papers for suitability of peer review process. All manuscripts will go through crosscheck for duplicated publication and anti-plagiarism. If a submission is determined as duplicated publishing, or prominent plagiarism, or its topic is found not in the journal’s scope, it will be rejected without external peer reviews. Authors are required to submit supporting documents if applicable, that is related to the manuscript, including funding support document, approval of Institutional Ethic Board, etc.
Peer review If a manuscript is found to have sufficient quality and worth for further evaluation, it will be sent to at least two independent peer specialists for double blind reviews. The reviewers provide recommends for the manuscript and suggestions such as acceptance, acceptance after revision, reevaluate after revision, or rejection. If both reviewers recommend acceptance or rejection, the decision stands. If their opinions differ, editors may invite the third specialist reviewer for opinion.
Final decision and revision
Final decision is made upon sufficient and objective opinions from reviewers. The procedure from submission to final decision usually takes less than 3 months. If our editor invites you for revision, you should make revision according to the reviewer’s and editor’s comments, return the revised version by the deadline specified in the decision letter, with a letter including point-to-pointe response. Authors should contact the editor when not able to meet the timeline for return; if authors decide not to make any of requested changes, they should make a clear and reasonable explanation as a rebuttal.
If a manuscript has been accepted, an email announcing the acceptance will be sending to the corresponding author, with a permanent DOI number for the paper in the email. Authors will sign a Copyright Transfer Statement that grant the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences as owner of copyright for publishing, reproduce, translation, distributing, displaying at the website, and indexing by databases, in forms of print, video, audio, or digital, etc., and work with our editors for the final version, which will be published both online and in print.
If a paper is determined not suitable for publication by the journal, our editors will notified the corresponding author by email for rejection. The reasons for rejection and suggested revision from referees are usually accompanied with the rejection notification.
Copy editing
Before publication, all accepted paper need to go through editing procedure to make sure the text, figures and tables are readable and clear enough for reader outside the immediate field to understand, and conform with international style for publication. Then the manuscript will be send back to the corresponding authors for any necessary revision. Copy revision should follow editor’s comments and return in time. It is expected that each author has approved the contents in final version of the article.
Proofreading
After editing and typesetting the article, the final version as a PDF file will be sent to you via email. Do carefully proofread your article and clearly mark any corrections in the hard-copy version, and sign on it for confirmation. Chinese Medical Sciences Journal will not responsible for any problem that arise from this final version.
Online first Publishing
After a manuscript has been accepted, it will be assigned a DOI number from the editorial office, which you could use to identify your paper publication worldwide. The manuscript, after copy editing, will be put on the journal’s website, where it is visible internationally before published in print.
Publication fee and remuneration
Authors are subjected to pay the publication fee based on total pages of typesetting. The corresponding author will receive a notification for publication fee via email when typesetting has been completed and complete the payment in time. Authors will receive remuneration for their contribution to the journal as well.
Complimentary copies
Authors usually receive two complimentary copies after a paper has been published. Special request should be addressed by contacting editorial office.
Timeliness
Time from submission to publication usually takes 6-9 months. It varies depending on the actual time that reviews and revisions proceed. Authors may log in the online submission system to track the status of the manuscript, or give a phone call to the editorial office (86-10-65105897).