Submission

Manuscript submitted to the journal must be an original work, and has not been published elsewhere in any language or under consideration for publication. Manuscripts should be submitted through our online submission system. A valid e-mail address of each author must be provided at submission. Once the submission is completed, we will send an acknowledgement by email to confirm.

Initial review

A scientifically qualified editor pre-screens submitted papers for suitability of peer review process. All manuscripts will go through iThenticate 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. The supporting documents that are related to the manuscript, such as funding support, approval from Institutional ethic board, if applicable, and electronic copy of signed Authorship and Contribution Statement, conflict of interest disclosure forms, are assessed at the internal review process.

Peer review

If a manuscript is found to have sufficient quality and be worth further evaluation, it will be sent to at least two independent peer specialists for blind reviews. The reviewers provide recommends and suggestions for the manuscript, as well as their decisions, i.e. acceptance, acceptance after revision, reevaluation 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 an opinion.

Final decision and revision

The final decision is made upon sufficient and objective opinions from reviewers. The procedure from submission to final decision usually takes less than 3 months. We may invite authors for revision according to reviewers’ and the editor’s comments, and send the revised paper to a new reviewer for further assessment. If the authors decide not to make any of the requested changes, they should make a clear and reasonable explanation as a rebuttal.

Copy editing

Before publication, all accepted papers need to go through an editing procedure to make sure the text, figures and tables are readable and clear enough for readers outside the immediate field to understand, and conform with the international style of publication. Then the manuscript will be send back to the corresponding author for any necessary revision. Copy revision should follow the editor’s comments and be returned 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 editor will sent you the final version as a PDF file via email. Do carefully proofread your article, and clearly mark any corrections in the hard-copy version, and sign on it for confirmation. The journal is not responsible for any problems that arise from this final version.

Online Publishing

For the accepted manuscript, it will go through necessary editing/revision, and be published online at the journal’s website, with an e-pub date and a unique doi number, by which it can be indexed, identified, and cited internationally.

Publication fee

Authors are subjected to pay the article processing charge (APC) at a rate of RMB 5000, or US$ 850 per article for open access publication. The corresponding author will receive a payment notification via email. 

Complimentary copies

Authors usually receive two complimentary copies of the print journal after publication in print. For special request on additional more copies, please contact the editorial office.

Timeliness

It usually takes about 3 months for authors to receive a decision on accept/reject/revise of a manuscript.  Authors may log in the online submission system to track status of the manuscript, or give a phone call to the editorial office at 86-10-65105897.