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While "Your Paper Your Way" Since its conception in 2011, it has influenced many academic journals, but many journals still require authors to follow very specific submission regulations when submitting papers for the first time.

These requirements typically include font type, margins, and allowable The number of subgraphs, etc.

These regulations make the paper submission and peer review process more lengthy and laborious, Especially when the paper is rejected, the author needs to rearrange the format to adapt to the format requirements of other journals, and this format modification may even happen several times before the paper can finally be published.

Based on the current status of journals, authors still need to understand and strictly follow Journal submission policies. Journal submission guidelines can indeed be confusing and even contradictory at times.

This article examines the important steps in the author's process of following the journal submission guidelines, Attempts to enable readers to avoid common problems and ensure that manuscripts will not be rejected for violating journal regulations at the time of submission.

Will a paper be rejected if specific journal rules are not followed?

The simple answer is "It's possible, yes." Thesis Manuscript rejected, for technical reasons (such as inappropriate methodology or inaccurate conclusions), It can also be editorial (including language and format). Even if you think your scientific work is excellent, your discoveries are groundbreaking, and the world absolutely needs to know about your work, journal editors, with so many submissions to deal with every day, may be overwhelmed after skimming through your manuscript. Making a rejection decision because the content of your paper does not meet the scope of the journal, or the format does not meet the journal's regulations (e.g. the article is too long), all of which can happen before the journal editor has had a chance to carefully read the details of your paper in the case of. The best way to avoid this outright rejection problem is to prepare your manuscript according to the structure and format generally adopted in your subject area before choosing a journal for submission. Specifically, this usually means that papers need to follow theIMRD (or IMRaD) structure , i.e. Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and then based on this structure are further revised to fit the format required by the submitting journal, for example regarding the format for citing references in the text and the list of references at the end of the paper.

Table of Contents

1. Find Contribution Guidelines
2. Purpose and scope
3. Paper Submission Guide
4. Paper Submission process
5. Common ambiguity and self-context Contradictions
6. Inquiry letter before submission

1. Find Contribution Guidelines

< span style="color: #000000; --tt-darkmode-color: #A3A3A3;">You can find the submission guidelines on the homepage of the journal you are submitting to, usually in the section containing "author", "instructions" , "guidelines" (guidelines) these words label. Sometimes you have to find the page titled "Publish", "Submit" or "Contribute" instead of "About", "Content", "Current Issue" (latest issue) or "Archive" (older issues), and then point to a page titled "For Authors" instead of "For Referees" or "For Reviewers" webpage.

You don't see any links to author guidelines at first, don't assume that The journal does not publish specific submission guidelines.

The submission rules must exist, but you can't find it.

If you can't find it, you can use the search function of the journal website or Google (Google) Search for "[your target journal< span style="color: #000000; --tt-darkmode-color: #A3A3A3;">] author guidelines" ([target journal name] author guidelines).

2. Purpose and scope

The next step is to make sure that the paper complies with the "aims and scope" of the journal it is submitting to. If you don't find a statement about the purpose and scope or the journal's "purpose" on the Author Guidelines page, you can go back to the journal home page to find it, or use the search function. Matching in goals and scope means that your research area is covered by the journal, which is important; for example, don't submit a paper on rodent behavior to a journal that only publishes research in human medicine. Moreover, you need to pay attention to the topic of your paper should be related to the type of journal readers, for example, whether the readers are basic medical researchers or medical staff. The content of a manuscript manuscript outside the scope of the journal is one of the main reasons why editors reject manuscripts outright. In this case, the paper is not sent to peer reviewers at all, a rejection known as a "desk rejection".

In addition, you need to check whether the submitting journal can publish the type of paper you submit. If you submit a single-case medical report to a journal that only publishes longer case series (including 4 or more patients) and review papers, then the journal will definitely reject the manuscript without exception. Many journals do not publish review papers. If you publish a review paper, there are often more specific regulations for such papers, such as the literature search method, the time period covered by the literature, and the number of literature that must be included. No matter how much you want to publish in a given journal, if you do not scrutinize these submission requirements and hope that the editor will accept your manuscript due to its relevance, things will probably backfire. If you are not sure which journal to submit your paper to, you can refer to this article on how to find the right journal.

3. Paper Submission Guidelines

When you are sure that your paper is suitable for the selected journal, you need to carefully check whether the format meets the requirements of the journal according to the submission guidelines, focusing on the following aspects.

(1)Title page:

The peer review process for journals is usually single-blind or double-blind. This means that reviewers can see the author's name and affiliation, but the author does not know who the reviewer is (ie, single-blind review), or the reviewer does not know who the author is (ie, double-blind review). In the case of double-blind review, the title page must be submitted as a separate file from the rest of the paper, and the paper must not contain information that could reveal the identity of the author, such as the author's institution, the ethics review committee of the institution, and the author's name. Also, you need to make sure that the corresponding author is clearly named on the title page, and only so, so that the journal knows which author to contact during the peer review process.

If the journal editor does not know who the corresponding author is after receiving the submission, or Editors are likely not willing to spend the extra time and energy required to deal with the hassle of needing to send a paper back to the author with redacted identification before it is sent for peer review. They would rather spend their time on someone else's paper without this kind of trouble, which will result in your paper being rejected outright by the editor.

(2)The length of the paper:

You may feel that there is a lot to say in the paper, think that each paragraph and Every message counts. However, if the submitting journal has restrictions on the number of words or figures and references, any chance of submitting a manuscript in violation of these regulations will often result in an outright rejection of the manuscript by the editor. If you forcefully submit a manuscript in violation of the regulations, and you are lucky, the editor is lucky enough to ignore it and is very interested in your paper, then the editor will send the paper back to you for revision, and then ask you to submit it again so that the paper can be accepted. Submit for peer review. If you don't want to cut down on the length, and you don't want to risk going back and forth or even being rejected by the editor outright, then you can check to see if the journal allows you to submit supplemental files, so that you can reorganize the material before submission.

(3)Specific regulations on what content should be placed where in the paper:

Some journals have questions about whether and where details should be included in the paper , have very strict regulations. Even if these rules seem excessive, you cannot expect a journal to make an exception and change the rules just for you. For example, you need to look carefully at the submission guidelines to see if results or study design should be included in the subtitle of the paper. Likewise, you need to check whether the Introduction section is allowed to end with a brief summary of the results, or just to state the research question and present the methodology. In summary, you need to make sure that every part of your paper follows the journal's rules for submission.

An important content when submitting a manuscript is about research funding, potential conflicts of interest, ethical Statement on regulations and data sharing. You need to check whether these must appear on the title page (especially if the paper is going to be double-blind) or whether they must be listed at the end of the text.

（4）Tables and Figures:

Many journals expect authors to include figures in the text file of their paper when submitting their paper , to facilitate peer review, even though text and figures must be resubmitted separately in a specific format and in separate files after approval for publication. Most journals insist upon initial submission that illustrations be of high quality, i.e. high resolution, clarity and readability, and be labeled in a consistent, sometimes journal-specified format. You need to check all the details on the Contributor Guidelines page, and don't skip rules that seem excessive to you, such as font type, font size, color format, or file format, just to save time. If the journal editor thinks that your paper is too far from the format requirements, or feels that you do not seem willing to comply with the journal regulations, then your incorrect behavior of saving time by not carefully reading the submission guidelines can easily lead to you being directly rejected by the journal editor.

(5)Text format:

What kind of font, font size, margins and lines are used by many journals The spacing is clearly defined. Although these regulations may seem finicky, if your paper already conforms to the common format requirements of journal articles, you actually need to spend very little time to revise your paper to comply with these regulations. In particular, you need to make sure you follow the journal's rules on: the use of the required subtitle text in the abstract and the text; the capitalization of subtitles, i.e. whether to capitalize the first letter of each English content word ( title case), or whether to capitalize only the first letter of the subtitle phrase or the first English word of a sentence (sentence case); and whether to use page numbers and line numbers (continuous line numbers or section line numbers).

There are a few other submission rules to be aware of, including spelling and punctuation Whether American or British English is used, whether acronyms are spelled out the first time they are used or listed before the text, and what format the journal expects to use for references.

(6)Commission letter:

Not all journals require a cover letter, but those that do There are usually very clear rules about what statements (such as the paper has not been published in the past) and information (such as recommended reviewers) must be included in the cover letter. In fact, the cover letter is your chance to convince the journal editor that your paper is worthy of publication. It is possible to convince the editor with a cover letter even before the editor has a deep knowledge of the content of your paper. Therefore, you need to make sure that you not only follow all the rules in your cover letter, but also make an effort to write it well.

4. Paper submission process

When you have organized your paper according to all important regulations, you can submit it. Submissions are usually made through the journal's online website. You may need to download and fill out some formal forms (e.g. author declaration) and also some standardized checklists (e.g. CONSORT for randomized clinical trials, PRISMA for systematic reviews and metadata analysis). Don't skip these steps when submitting your manuscript because they are too much trouble. Don't fantasize about first seeing if the paper will be submitted for peer review and then submitting those materials later. In fact, journal editors expect to see these complete checklists and tables when you submit your manuscript to ensure that your paper complies with all submission regulations. Then, they are willing to invest their own time and the time of reviewers to review whether your paper is worthy of publication in the journal.

5. Common ambiguities and contradictions

There are some common ambiguities and even inconsistencies in some journals' submission guidelines, which can cause serious authors to be at a loss as to where to follow provisions. This inconsistency is usually due to journals adding more regulations to past regulations over time; or merging submission guidelines for several sub-journals without reviewing them as a whole and coordinate them. If you encounter conflicting rules like this, don't despair, make your own choices, and tell the journal editor in your cover letter that you are not sure which rule to follow. Alternatively, you can follow the general formatting guidelines (for example regarding abstract writing) and wait for further clarification from the journal later in the review process. If you encounter conflicting submission policies regarding the following, you can take a look at the advice given in this article.

Position of statement: A frequent occurrence is that journals Instruct authors to place Acknowledgments or Funding statements on the title page and at the end of the text. However, you really shouldn't make the declaration twice. You certainly don't want to split the statement in two when the journal's rules are ambiguous, putting one half on the title page and the other half at the end of the text. First, you can check whether the journal's peer review is single-blind or double-blind. If the author's name (including initials), location, and affiliation need to be removed from the paper, place all statements in a separate title page document, as funding information and ethics statements often reveal author identity. If the peer review of the journal is not double-blind, then you can choose a position yourself and put several statements together. Journal editors generally do not reject manuscripts outright because of the misplacement of these statements. However, if your paper as a whole looks cluttered, then your practice of throwing or splitting statements here and there will exacerbate the bad impression of the journal editor.

The word count of the paper: The author often cannot figure out what the journal is Whether the stated word count for the thesis refers to the entire manuscript including abstract and statement, or to the text only. If your entire manuscript has a word count over the limit, but when you cut out parts of the text, the word count is just below the limit, then you need to find a few papers from recent issues of the target journal to see what rules the journal is using . If you are still unsure, you should address this issue in your cover letter, noting that the word count can be cut if necessary. It should be noted that this approach is only applicable to situations where the length of papers is close to the upper limit of the number of words in journals according to different algorithms. If the length of the paper is far beyond the word limit, then don't waste time writing that in the cover letter, you can either reduce the length of the paper, or find another journal that does not need to reduce the length of the paper.

Format of references:Journals often use words to describe the required citation format, yet gives examples of contradictory citations, including the abbreviation of journal titles and the use of punctuation. If so, you can review and use the reference format for papers in the latest issue of the journal.

No explicit formatting guidelines: If the submitting journal does not indicate that it should use whatever font or line spacing, then choose simple, basic formatting that follows common standards, including: Times New Roman 12 point, double-spaced, no justified text, 1-inch margins, consecutive page numbers, Paragraph indents of half an inch. If the structure of the paper (such as titles and capitalization of subheadings) and format (such as the practice of citing references within the text) is consistent throughout, then any necessary revisions that need to occur later in the paper review process are relatively easy implement.

6. Inquiry letter before submission

If you want to submit to a journal, but it takes a lot of time to modify the manuscript to meet the submission requirements of the journal, and you are not sure whether the paper will be accepted Publish, so you're hesitant to invest time and effort in formatting things. At this point, you can choose to ask before submission (presubmission inquiry). You will need to write an email, similar to a cover letter, explaining why you think the paper is in line with the scope of the journal, attach a summary or abstract of the paper, and any relevant information, which can be included as an attachment to the email . Some journals mention in their submission guidelines that pre-submission inquiries are available and provide instructions on how to do so. However, many journals did not mention it. In fact, you can always send a pre-submission inquiry letter to the journal editor, especially if you have specific questions to clarify. For example, you are concerned that the journal has not published an article similar to yours in the past, or that you use methods that are not commonly used in your subject area. For this kind of pre-submission inquiry, even if the response is negative or negative, it can actually save you a lot of delay due to missubmission, so that you can quickly decide to submit to other more suitable journals.

Finally, it is important to note that getting English correct in your paper is Equally important thing as making sure the content is correct. Therefore, do consider obtaining professional English editing and proofreading services before submitting your manuscript.