Author Guidelines
CONCISE MANUSCRIPTS ARE MORE ATTRACTIVE AND BENEFICIAL TO THE READER THAN LENGTHY ONES.
The Reactive Oxygen Species (Apex) (“the Journal” hereafter) uses a fully web-based manuscript submission and tracking system for all types of manuscripts. In addition to its online submission, the Journal also accepts manuscript submission via email attachments. All the requirements/permissions for online submission also apply to email submission. Submitting your manuscript via email attachment to the Journal is taken to mean that you fully agree to the requirements/permissions set forth in the online submission process. For email submission, please send your manuscript via email attachment(s) to: editorial@rosj.com
The Format for Cutting-Edge Research Highlights
The Cutting-Edge Research Highlights section, generally contributed by the Journal's Editorial Office or experts in the field, aims to introduce important original basic and clinical research findings in a format of maximally 1000 words in length with no more than one illustration and no more than 10 references cited. The cutting-edge research findings are related to ROS/antioxidants and are typically published in highly influential journals (usually with an impact factor of ~10 or above ) within the past two years. Listed below are some typical examples of the highly influential journals. An alphabetic list is also available in the 2021 ROS Education & Resources.
New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA (and JAMA Internal Medicine), Lancet (and Lancet Oncology, Lancet Neurology), Cell (and Molecular Cell, Cancer Cell, Cell Metabolism, Cell Stem Cell, Cell Reports), Nature (and Nature Genetics, Nature Medicine, Nature Methods, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Materials, Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Communications, Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, Nature Neuroscience, Nature Immunology, Nature Cell Biology, Nature Chemical Biology), Science (and Science Signaling, Science Translational Medicine), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, EMBO J (and EMBO Molecular Medicine, EMBO Reports), Journal of Cell Biology, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Journal of Experimental Medicine, Genes and Development, Genome Research, British Medical Journal, Annals of Internal Medicine, PLOS Medicine, Blood, Immunity, Circulation, Circulation Research, Journal of American College of Cardiology, Neuron, Gastroenterology, and Gut.
The Format for Mini-Review Articles
The Journal publishes concise review (or mini-review) articles that address high-impact topics on reactive oxygen and related species/entities (including antioxidants). References should be primarily limited to those published in peer-reviewed journals of sufficient quality, especially high impact journals. A high impact journal typically refers to one that has an impact factor of ~7 or above. A detailed list of the journal imapctor factor (2020 released by Web of Science/Clarivate) can be found here (via ResearchGate).
Title Page: It contains the title of the manuscript and the full name and contact information (institution, postal address, email address, phone number, etc.) of the corresponding author(s). The Abbreviations as well as acknowledgment if applicable may be included on the Title Page.
Abstract Page: An abstract must contain no more than 250 words. Abstracts exceeding the limit would be truncated at 250 words.
Key Words Page: Typically 3-6 key words.
Main Text: Typically no more than 3,000 words excluding references. It should be divided into multiple sections. The references should be generally limited to no more than 50 (Please see “Instructions for Preparing References Section” at the end of the “Author Guidelines”).
Illustrations and Legends: Illustrations (e.g., figures, diagrams, schemes) should be typically limited to no more than 2 and provided on separate pages.
Tables and Legends: Tables should be typically limited to no more than 2 and provided on separate pages.
Please note: The Journal strongly discourages lengthy manuscripts. Please be concise and focus on the new findings published in high impact journals.
The Format for Research Method Protocols
The Journal publishes research method protocols in a recipe-style format on commonly used methods for detecting and/or measuring reactive oxygen and related species/entities (including antioxidants) as well as their biological effects. The protocols must deal with established methods that have been previously used by the authors to produce the data published in peer-reviewed research journals. PROTOCOLS are designed to present the readers all the necessary steps for a particular established method along with a brief description of the principles, advantages, and limitations of the method.
Title Page: It contains the title of the manuscript and the full name and contact information (institution, postal address, email address, phone number, etc.) of the corresponding author(s). The Abbreviations as well as acknowledgment if applicable may be included on the Title Page.
Abstract Page: An abstract must contain no more than 250 words. Abstracts exceeding the limit would be truncated at 250 words.
Key Words Page: Typically 3-6 key words.
Introduction and Method Principle: Typically no more than 500 words.
Materials and Instruments: Typically no more than 500 words.
Protocol and Steps: Typically no more than 1000 words.
Discussion of Advantages and Limitations: Typically 500 words.
Conclusion: Typically 2-5 sentences.
References: Generally no more than 50 (Please see “Instructions for Preparing References Section” at the end of the “Author Guidelines”).
Figures, Tables, and Legends: They should be provided on separate pages.
Supplementary Materials (if applicable)
The Format for Original Research Articles
The Journal publishes original research contributions especially short research communications. The manuscripts may address any aspects related to the chemistry, biology, and medicine of reactive oxygen and related species/entities (including antioxidants).
Title Page: It contains the title of the manuscript and the full name and contact information (institution, postal address, email address, phone number, etc.) of the corresponding author(s). The Abbreviations as well as acknowledgment if applicable may be included on the Title Page.
Abstract Page: An abstract must contain no more than 250 words. Abstracts exceeding the limit would be truncated at 250 words.
Key Words Page: Typically 3-6 key words.
Introduction: Typically no more than 500 words.
Materials and Methods: Typically no more than 500 words.
Results: Typically no more than 500 words.
Discussion: Typically no more than 500 words.
Conclusion: Typically 2-5 sentences.
References: Generally no more than 50 (Please see “Instructions for Preparing References Section” at the end of the “Author Guidelines”).
Supplementary Materials (if applicable)
Please note: The Journal strongly discourages lengthy manuscripts. Please be concise and focus on the new findings and limit references to those published in respected journals.
Instructions on Preparing the References Section
References should be cited in the text with a number in brackets (e.g., [1]; [1, 2]; [1–3]; [1, 2, 4]). The references should be listed in numerical order at the end of the document.
- The references cited must be from peer-reviewed journals of sufficient quality. Authors are strongly suggested to avoid citing articles published in low-quality journals.
- Books or book chapters are generally considered as non-peer reviewed materials. As such, they generally should not be cited as references for manuscripts (especially review articles) to be published in the Journal.
- The Journal will reformat the references for accepted manuscripts. As such, there are no strict requirements on reference formatting at submission.