Guide to authors

Instructions to Authors

Metallomics Research introduces international open access journal and online publication systems, which covers all aspects of biomedical sciences related to trace elements.

• Aims and Scope
• Manuscript Types
• Journal & Ethics Policies
• Peer Review Process
• Copyright, Open Access and Fees
• Manuscript Submission
• Manuscript Preparation
• Accepted Manuscripts
• Contact

Aims and Scope

Metallomics Research is an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal publishing significant and novel contributions on the roles of metals, metalloids, and other trace elements in biological function. The journal welcomes investigations from a broad range of research fields including analytical chemistry, biochemistry, toxicology, epidemiology, nutrition, pharmacology, medical sciences, environmental sciences, health sciences, agriculture sciences, and plant biology. Studies about metal/metalloid-dependent processes in health and disease or metal-related drugs are strongly encouraged. Studies about other trace element-dependent biological processes are also welcome. Article types include Regular Articles, Reviews, and Notes. Metallomics Research also welcomes themed issues edited by Guest Editor(s).

The official journal of the Japan Society for Biomedical Research on Trace Elements, Metallomics Research is published quarterly online. The journal welcomes original, innovative and high-quality submissions in English from members and non-members of the society and provides authors around the world with rapid but rigorous peer review. Metallomics Research articles are available freely online to an international audience interested in metallomics.

Manuscript Types

The journal welcomes 3 manuscript types, all of which are subject to peer review.

Regular Articles

Metallomics Research publishes Regular Articles that contain original and significant research undertaken by the authors. There are no restrictions on length.

Reviews

Metallomics Research publishes both Regular Reviews and Invited Reviews. Regular Reviews can be submitted by any author or authors and provide overviews and cogent summaries of scientific discoveries including recent results of the author(s). Invited reviews are submitted by invitation from the Editorial Board, and encompass recent important scientific discoveries in metallomics. There are no restrictions on length.

Notes

Metallomics Research publishes short communications called Notes that contain new and important facts that are limited in scale or scope or derived from incomplete or partial studies. Informational data sets obtained from the fields of health sciences or small-scale clinical studies are also considered for publication. Notes should not exceed 3,000 words.

Journal & Ethics Policies

The journal upholds the highest standards in scholarly publishing. Before submitting a manuscript to the journal, authors must ensure that they have read and complied with the journal’s policies. The journal reserves the right to reject without review, or retract, any manuscript that the Editor believes may not comply with these policies.

The responsibilities of the journal’s authors, editors, reviewers and publisher regarding research and publication ethics are described in full below.

Submission to the journal implies that the manuscript has not been previously published (in part or in whole, in any language), is not in press, and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.

Authors must inform the editors if any related manuscripts are under consideration, in press or published elsewhere. The availability of a manuscript on a publicly accessible preprint server does not constitute prior publication (see ‘Preprints’).

If authors choose to submit their manuscript elsewhere before a final decision has been made on its suitability for publication in the journal, they should first withdraw it from the journal.

Submission

Metallomics Research welcomes manuscript submissions from authors based anywhere in the world.
Submission of a manuscript to the journal implies that all authors: have approved it, warrant it is factual, have agreed to its submission, and have the right to publish it.

Originality

Submission to the journal implies that the manuscript is original work. Any manuscript with an unacceptable level of unoriginal material may be rejected or retracted at the Editors’ discretion. It is strongly recommended for authors to check for plagiarism prior to the submission.

Preprints

To support the wide dissemination of research, the journal encourages authors to post their research manuscripts on community-recognized preprint servers, either before or alongside submission to the journal. This policy applies only to the original version of a manuscript that describes primary research. Any version of a manuscript that has been revised in response to reviewers’ comments, accepted for publication or published in the journal should not be posted on a preprint server. Instead, forward links to the published manuscript may be posted on the preprint server.

Authors should retain copyright in their work when posting to a preprint server.

Scooping

When assessing the novelty of a manuscript submitted to the journal, the editors will not be influenced by other manuscripts that are posted on community-recognized preprint servers after the date of submission to the journal (or after the date of posting on a preprint server, if the manuscript is submitted to the journal within 4 months).

Authorship

Submission to the journal implies that all authors have seen and approved the author list. Changes to the author list after manuscript submission – such as the insertion or removal of author names, or a rearrangement of author order – must be approved by all authors and the Editor-in-Chief.

Authors are encouraged to consider the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations on ‘Defining the Role of Authors and Contributors’. The ICMJE recommends that authorship is based on four criteria: making a substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work, or the acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data for the work; drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content; approving the final version of the manuscript for publication; and agreeing to be held accountable for all aspects of the work. Any contributor who has met all four criteria should be an author on the manuscript. Contributors who do not meet all four criteria should not be authors of the manuscript but may be included in the Acknowledgements section instead. Brief author contribution statements should be included in the manuscript.

Data falsification, data fabrication and image integrity

Authors must not falsify or fabricate data. Authors may digitally manipulate or process images, but only if the adjustments are kept to a minimum, are applied to the entire image, meet community standards, and are clearly described in the manuscript. All images in a manuscript must accurately reflect the original data on which they are based. Authors must not move, remove, add or enhance individual parts of an image. The editors reserve the right to request original, unprocessed images from the authors. Failure to provide requested images may result in a manuscript being rejected or retracted.

Reproducing copyrighted material

If a manuscript includes material that is not under the authors’ own copyright, the authors must obtain permission from the copyright holder(s) to reproduce it.

If a manuscript includes previously published material, the authors must obtain permission from the copyright owners and the publisher of the original work to reproduce it. The authors must cite the original work in their manuscript.

Copies of all reproduction permissions must be included with the manuscript when it is first submitted.

Availability of data and materials

Authors must disclose the source of publicly available data and materials, such as public repositories or commercial manufacturers, by including accession numbers or company details in their manuscript, as appropriate.

Authors may make their own data and materials available in Supplementary Material, or by linking from their manuscript to relevant community-recognized public databases or digital repositories. All data sets must be made available in full to the editors and reviewers during the peer review process, and must be made publicly available by the date of publication. Authors commit to preserving their data sets for at least three years from the date of publication in the journal.

The journal encourages authors to grant reasonable requests from colleagues to share any data, materials and experimental protocols described in their manuscript.

Animal/human experimentation

Authors of manuscripts describing experiments involving humans or materials derived from humans must demonstrate that the work was carried out in accordance with the principles embodied in the Declaration of Helsinki, its revisions, and any guidelines approved by the ethical committee of the authors’ institutions. Where relevant, the authors must include a statement in their manuscript that describes the procedures for obtaining informed consent from participants regarding participation in the research and publication of the research.

Authors of manuscripts describing experiments involving animals or materials derived from animals must demonstrate that the work was carried out in accordance with the guidelines approved by the authors’ institution(s). The authors must include a statement in their manuscript that describes the approval. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that the descriptions are accurate and agreed by all authors.

Specimen collection

Manuscripts describing the collection of archaeological, geological, paleontological or wildlife specimens or samples should include detailed information on their provenance and collection methods. Authors must include a statement in their manuscript describing the relevant ethics guidelines, local laws and collection permits under which the research was conducted.

Clinical trial registration

The journal adheres to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) policy on Clinical Trials Registration, which recommends that all clinical trials are registered in a public trials registry at or before the time of first patient enrollment as a condition of consideration for publication. Manuscripts describing clinical trials must include the registration number of the trial and the name of the trial registry.

Reporting guidelines

The journal requires authors to follow the EQUATOR Network’s Reporting Guidelines for health research. Study types include, but are not limited to, randomized trials, observational studies, systematic reviews, case reports, qualitative research, diagnostic and prognostic studies, economic evaluations, animal pre-clinical studies and study protocols.

Author competing interests and conflicts of interest

In the interests of transparency, the journal requires all authors to declare any competing or conflicts of interest in relation to their submitted manuscript. A conflict of interest exists when there are actual, perceived or potential circumstances that could influence an author’s ability to conduct or report research impartially. Potential conflicts include (but are not limited to) competing commercial or financial interests, commercial affiliations, consulting roles, or ownership of stock or equity. More information on how and where to include a statement is available in the Manuscript Preparation section.

Authors should list all funding sources for their work in the Acknowledgements section of their manuscript.

Confidentiality

The journal maintains the confidentiality of all unpublished manuscripts. By submitting their manuscript to the journal, the authors warrant that they will keep all correspondence about their manuscript (from the Editorial Office, editors and reviewers) strictly confidential.

Self-archiving (Green Open Access) policy

Self-archiving, also known as Green Open Access, enables authors to deposit a copy of their manuscript in an online repository. The journal encourages authors of original research manuscripts to upload their article to an institutional or public repository immediately after publication in the journal, with.

Long-term digital archiving

J-STAGE preserves its full digital library, including the journal, with Portico in a dark archive (see https://www.portico.org/publishers/jstage/). In the event that the material becomes unavailable at J-STAGE, it will be released and made available by Portico.

Peer Review Process

Editorial and peer review process

The journal uses double-blind peer review. When a manuscript is submitted to the journal, it is assigned to the Editor-in-Chief, who performs initial screening. Manuscripts that do not fit the journal’s scope or are not deemed suitable for publication are rejected without review. The remaining manuscripts are assigned to a handling Editor who assigns two reviewers to assess each manuscript. Reviewers are selected based on their expertise, reputation and previous experience as peer reviewers. The deadline for submission of the reviewers’ reports varies by article type.

Upon receipt of the two reviewers’ reports, the Editor makes the first decision on the manuscript. If the decision is to request revision of the manuscript, authors have 2 weeks to resubmit their revised manuscript. Revised manuscripts submitted after this deadline may be treated as new submissions. If the revised manuscript is likely to be delayed, please contact the Editor by e-mail (brte-post@seisin.cc).

The Editor may send revised manuscripts to peer reviewers for their feedback or may use their own judgement to assess how closely the authors have followed the Editor’s and the reviewers’ comments on the original manuscript.

The Editor then makes a recommendation to the Editor-in-Chief on the manuscript’s suitability for publication. The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for making the final decision on each manuscript.

The members of the Editorial Committee act in advisory roles, providing feedback as reviewers and making suggestions to improve the journal. In cases where the Editor-in-Chief is an author on a manuscript submitted to the journal, a member of the Editorial Committee is responsible for making the final decision on the manuscript’s suitability for publication in the journal.

Reviewer selection, timing and suggestions

Reviewers are selected based on their expertise in the field, reputation, recommendation by others, and/or previous experience as peer reviewers for the journal.

Reviewers are asked to submit their first review within 2 weeks of accepting the invitation to review. Reviewers who anticipate any delays should inform the Editorial Office as soon as possible.

When submitting a manuscript to the journal, authors may suggest reviewers that they would like included in or excluded from the peer review process. The Editor may consider these suggestions but is under no obligation to follow them. The selection, invitation and assignment of peer reviewers is at the Editor’s sole discretion.

Reviewer reports

It is the journal’s policy to transmit reviewers’ comments to the authors in their original form. However, the journal reserves the right to edit reviewers’ comments, without consulting the reviewers, if they contain offensive language, confidential information or recommendations for publication.

Acceptance criteria

If a manuscript satisfies the journal’s requirements and represents a significant contribution to the published literature, the Editor may recommend acceptance for publication in the journal.

Articles in the journal must be:

• within the subject area of the journal’s scope
• novel and original
• descriptions of technically rigorous research
• of high interest to the journal’s audience
• important additions to the field.

If a manuscript does not meet the journal’s requirements for acceptance or revision, the Editor may recommend rejection.

Editorial independence

The Japan Society for Biomedical Research on Trace Elements (JSBRTE) has granted the journal’s Editorial Board complete and sole responsibility for all editorial decisions. The JSBRTE will not become involved in editorial decisions, except in cases of a fundamental breakdown of process.

Editorial decisions are based only on a manuscript’s scientific merit and are kept completely separate from the journal’s other interests.

Appeals

Authors who believe that an editorial decision has been made in error may lodge an appeal with the Editorial Office. Appeals are only considered if the authors provide detailed evidence of a misunderstanding or mistake by a reviewer or editor. Appeals are considered carefully by the Editor-in-Chief, whose decision is final. The guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) are followed where and when relevant.

Confidentiality in peer review

The journal maintains the confidentiality of all unpublished manuscripts. Editors and reviewers will not:

1. disclose a reviewer’s identity unless the reviewer makes a reasonable request for such disclosure
2. discuss the manuscript or its contents with anyone not directly involved with the manuscript or its peer review
3. use any data or information from the manuscript in their own work or publications
4. use information obtained from the peer review process to provide an advantage to themselves or anyone else, or to disadvantage any individual or organization.

In addition, reviewers will not reveal their identity to any of the authors of the manuscript or involve anyone else in the review (for example, a post-doc or PhD student) without first receiving permission from the Editor.

Editor and reviewer conflicts of interest in peer review

A conflict of interest exists when there are actual, perceived or potential circumstances that could influence an editor or reviewer’s ability to act impartially when assessing a manuscript. Such circumstances might include having a personal or professional relationship with an author, working on the same topic or in direct competition with an author, having a financial stake in the work or its publication, or having seen previous versions of the manuscript.

Reviewers and members of the journal’s Editorial Board undertake to declare any conflicts of interest when handling manuscripts. An editor or reviewer who declares a conflict of interest is unassigned from the manuscript in question and is replaced by a new editor or reviewer.

Editors try to avoid conflicts of interest when inviting reviewers, but it is not always possible to identify potential bias.

Errata and retractions

The journal recognizes the importance of maintaining the integrity of published literature.

A published article that contains an error may be corrected through the publication of an Erratum. Errata describe errors that significantly affect the scientific integrity of a publication, the reputation of the authors, or the journal itself. Authors who wish to correct a published article should contact the editor who handled their manuscript or the Editorial Office with full details of the error(s) and their requested changes. In cases where co-authors disagree over a correction, the Editor-in-Chief may consult the Editorial Board or external peer reviewers for advice. If a Correction is published, any dissenting authors will be noted in the text.

A published article that contains invalid or unreliable results or conclusions, has been published elsewhere, or has infringed codes of conduct (covering research or publication ethics) may be retracted. Individuals who believe that a published article should be retracted are encouraged to contact the journal’s Editorial Office with full details of their concerns. The Editor-in-Chief will investigate further and contact the authors of the published article for their response. In cases where co-authors disagree over a retraction, the Editor-in-Chief may consult the Editorial Board or external peer reviewers for advice. If a Retraction is published, any dissenting authors will be noted in the text.

The decision to publish Errata or Retractions is made at the sole discretion of the Editor-in-Chief.

Editors as authors in the journal

Any member of the journal’s Editorial Board, including the Editor-in-Chief, who is an author on a submitted manuscript is excluded from the peer review process and from viewing details about their manuscript.

A manuscript authored by an editor of the journal is subject to the same high standards of peer review and editorial decision making as any manuscript considered by the journal.

Responding to potential ethical breaches

The journal will respond to allegations of ethical breaches by following its own policies and, where possible, the guidelines of COPE.

Copyright, Open Access and Fees

The journal is fully Open Access and publishes articles under a Creative Commons (CC) license, which allow users to use, reuse and build upon the material published in the journal without charge or the need to ask prior permission from the publisher or author.

Copyright and licensing

Authors retain copyright but are required to sign a License to Publish to grant the JSBRTE permission to reproduce the work in the journal under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 (Attribution 4.0 International) license. This license allows users to share and adapt an article, even commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given.

Some funding bodies require articles funded by them to be published under a specific Creative Commons license. Before submitting your work to the journal, check with the relevant funding bodies to ensure that you comply with any mandates.

Article Processing Charge

There are many costs associated with publishing scholarly journals, such as those of managing peer review, copy editing, typesetting and online hosting. To cover these costs in the absence of journal subscriptions, authors (or their representatives) are asked to pay article processing charges (APCs).

The journal charges an APC of 50,000 JPY per article for JSBRTE members and 70,000 JPY per article for non-members (prices include any relevant taxes). When there are multiple authors in an article, if the first author or the corresponding author is a member, it will be treated as a member price.
There is no charge for Invited Reviews. The Invited Regular Article is half the member price.
These prices may be revised due to rising publishing costs. Payment must be received before each article is published.

There is no additional charge to publish figures in color in the online version. There is a color charge only when authors choose color for any reprints that are ordered; more details are provided after acceptance. The journal does not charge submission fees.

Waiver policy

Waivers are provided automatically when the corresponding author is from a “Group A” Research4Life country. In cases of demonstrated financial hardship, the journal will consider a pre-submission application for a waiver from any corresponding author. Applications cannot be made after the peer review process has begun. When the author submits, please indicate your exemption request in the Remarks section of the submission form.

The ability of an author to pay the APC does not influence editorial decisions. To avoid any possibility of undue influence, Editors involved with the decision-making process for articles are not involved in any deliberations on waivers.

Manuscript Submission

Authors should fill out the required items on the dedicated online submission form and upload the manuscript file as directed. To send several files, zip them into one file before uploading. The maximum size of files that can be sent at one time on the form is 5MB.

If you are having trouble submitting through the form, please attach the manuscript to an email and send to the Editor-in-Chief at brte-post@seisin.cc. In the body of the email, please include the same information as the items on the online submission form.

The manuscript text should be submitted as a single file of Microsoft Word containing the text, tables and figures. Tables, figures and photographs must also be submitted as PDFs.

Manuscript Preparation

Style

Use Times New Roman font 12-point for MS Word files, with A4 page dimensions (210 mm wide × 297 mm high). If necessary, tables can be displayed horizontally in the MS Word file. Each page should be paginated using sequential numbers centered at the bottom of the page; set the title page as page 1.

English standards

Manuscripts should be written in clear, grammatically correct English. Authors whose native language is not English are strongly encouraged to have their manuscript checked by a native English speaker or by an editing service prior to submission. If a manuscript is not clear due to poor English, it may be rejected without undergoing peer review.

Cover Letter

A cover letter must be included which includes the name of the manuscript and the contact details of the corresponding author (author’s name, affiliation, and address, telephone/fax numbers, and e-mail address). Authors should summarize the aims and outcomes of their work and how and why the work is appropriate for publication. The conflict of interest statement, as well as details of any relevant consent and/or ethics approvals must be included in the cover letter. In addition, any other requests such as applications for APC waivers, should be included at the time of submission within the cover letter.

Format

Each Regular Article should comprise the following sections: Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion. In other article types, sections may be omitted or combined as appropriate.

Title page

The first page should include the following: (1) manuscript category: Regular Article, Review, Note, (2) title, (3) a short running title (maximum 50 letters), (4) full names of the authors, (5) departments or institutions in which the work was performed, (6) full postal address, e-mail address, and the telephone number of the corresponding author. An asterisk (*) should be added to the right of the corresponding author’s name. Authors who have contributed equally should be marked with a symbol (†) in the author list.

Title

The title should describe the content of the article briefly but clearly and is important for search purposes by third-party services. Do not use the same main title with numbered minor titles, even for a series of papers by the same authors. Do not use abbreviations in the title, except those used generally in related fields.

Abbreviations

Each abbreviation should be defined in parentheses together with its non-abbreviated term when it first appears in the text (except in the Title and Abstract).

Units

SI or SI-derived units should be used. More information on SI units is available at the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM) website. Chemical compounds and biomolecules should be referred to using systematic nomenclature, preferably using the recommendations by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC).

Abstract and keywords

The second page should contain an abstract of up to 250 words. It should clearly express the general significance and conceptual advance of the work in style that is accessible to the journal’s broad readership. All article types require 3 to 6 descriptive keywords, listed in decreasing order of importance. The first 3 keywords must be independent, as they will be used in combination in the annual index (within 80 characters). Abbreviations should not be used as keywords.

Acknowledgments

This section should be brief. Authors should list all funding sources for their work in the Acknowledgements section.

References

Metallomics Research uses the Vancouver referencing style. Cite references in the order in which they appear in the text by using sequential superscripted Arabic numerals and sequentially list the cited materials in the References list. Examples of correct reference format are as follows:

Tables and figures

Tables and figures: Authors are encouraged to prepare figures and schemes in color.

Tables and figures should be included on a separate page. Each of them must be referred to in the text. Explanatory matter should be placed in footnotes below the tabular matter and not be included in the title.

Figures, tables and photographs must also be submitted as PDF data. They must be clear, with a minimum resolution of 300 dpi. In case of acceptance, our production office might require high-resolution files of the figures included in the manuscript in EPS, JPEG or TIF/TIFF format. To upload more than one figure at a time, save the figures (labeled in order of appearance in the manuscript) in a zip file and upload them.

Conflicts of Interest

Authors must identify and declare any personal circumstances or interest that may be perceived as influencing the representation or interpretation of reported research results. If there is no conflict of interest, please state “The authors declare no conflict of interest associated with this manuscript.”

Author contributions

The role(s) of all authors should be listed, using the relevant above categories.

Supplementary material

Supplementary material adds, but is not essential, to a reader’s understanding of a manuscript. Authors are encouraged to submit supplementary material for online-only publication. Supplementary material may comprise data, text, audio or movie files, and is published online alongside the accepted manuscript.

As supplementary material is peer-reviewed, authors must submit it in its final form as part of their manuscript submission. After a manuscript has been accepted for publication, authors may not make any changes to the supplementary material.

Accepted Manuscripts

Upon acceptance, the corresponding author will be sent an invoice for the publication fee. Production of manuscripts does not commence until payment is made via credit card at the online portal (details are sent via email). If the publication fee is not paid within 2 months after the payment request is issued, the acceptance of the manuscript will be withdrawn.

The journal is published continuously online as articles are ready for publication. All communication regarding accepted manuscripts is with the corresponding author.

Proofs

After payment and production, page proofs are sent to the corresponding author, who should check and return them within three days. Only essential corrections to typesetting errors or omissions are accepted; excessive changes are not permitted at the proofing stage.

Reprints

To order Reprints, the author must reply to the acceptance email with the manuscript number, author name, address, desired number of copies, color or monochrome specification in the body of the email and send to brte-post@seisein.cc. The editorial office will check the order and supply a quote.

Contact

Editorial Office
Japan Society for Biomedical Research on Trace Elements
c/- Seishinsha, co. Ltd.,

2-8-13 Fukashi, Matsumoto-shi, Nagano 390-0815, Japan

Tel: +81-263-32-2301
Fax: +81-263-36-4691
Editorial Office: brte-post@seisin.cc
URL: https://www.brte.org/

Updated: May 11, 2023