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. Valid e-mail addresses of each author must be provided at submission. Upon successful submission, the editorial office sends a confirmation email with a manuscript ID number, which should be used in all subsequent communications with the editorial office.

Initial Review

All manuscripts undergo an initial review by the editorial team, which includes a submitted document check and research integrity check. The authorship and contribution declaration, conflict of interest disclosure, and open access publication agreement are mandatory documents. Clinical studies involving human being or any animal experiments must provide an institutional ethical review approval. The manuscript is likely be rejected if the submission documents are incomplete, or invalid. We may notify the authors by email to supply valid documents for selected submission. 

Peer Review

Manuscripts that pass the initial review will be invited to undergo double-blind peer reviews by experts in the field.  At least two expert opinions are needed for making a final decision on the manuscript.  For research articles, an additional statistical review is usually indispensable.

Final decision and Revisions

The final decision is made upon sufficient and objective opinions from reviewers. We may invite authors to make major or minor revise based on the decision, and send the new version paper for further assessment. Authors are required to revise according to the reviewers' comments, return the updated manuscript within 2 weeks,  accompanied with a point-to-point respond letter. If the authors decide not to make any of the requested changes, they should make a clear and reasonable explanation as a rebuttal. In specific circumstances that authors need a postpone, please contact the editorial office in advance. 

Copy editing

The accepted manuscripts need to go through an copy editing procedure before publication to ensure the text, figures, and tables are presented clear enough for readers outside the immediate field, and conform with the international norms of scientific publication. An in-house publication editor will assist the authors in making necessary modifications and providing constructive suggestion for clarity improvements. We ask authors to cooperate with the editor and return the manuscript in time.

Proofreadings

After the editing and typesetting, the article goes through at least three rounds in-house proofreading by our editorial team. The publication editor will send a PDF file back to authors for proofread. Authors are strongly suggested to carefully proofread, clearly mark, correct any errors on the hard copy, or annotate the PDF version. Signature on the first page is needed when completing proofread as a confirmation before returning to the editorial office.

Online Publication

All accepted manuscript will be published online in the website of Chin Med Sci J under CC BY-NC licence before assigned to an issue, and registered in the PubMed for global search. Each online publication will receive a unique digital object identifier (doi) , by which the article can be indexted, identified internationally, and cited formly.

Post-Publication

For selected articles, the editorial office provide post-publication promotion, including social media, video production, as well as email promotion, aiming to disseminate scientific achievements to a wider audience.

Publication Fees

After the manuscript is accepted for publication, the authors are subjected to pay an article processing charge (APC) of 5000 RMB or 850 USD. The corresponding author will receive a payment notification via email. In special circumstances authors can apply for a waive or reduction. The editorial office will handle such requests on a case-by-case basis.

Complimentary copies

Authors usually receive offprints or two complimentary copies after the issue publication in print. For request on additional more copies, please contact the editorial office. 

Timeliness

It usually takes less than 3 months 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 regarding the progress of manuscript review, publication scheduling, and content modification, and other related issues.