Guide for authors

1 Covered scope

  Magnetic Resonance Letterswelcomes all papers with scientific excellenceinvolving areas of magnetic resonance, and interaction of atoms with microwave field, including high resolution liquid and solid state NMR; in vivo MRI, MRS, and fMRI; ESR; NQR; LMR etc. The journal especially seeks and invites papers describing the novel, new and significant developments in thephysical principles underlying all these spectroscopies,and methodologiesand applications of magnetic resonance in chemistry, biology, medicine, geochemistry, ecology, and related fields.

2 Types of paper

  Contributions mainly include four classes:

  Articles: Reports not exceeding 6,000 words in length, including figures, tables, references, abstracts, generally.

  Short communications: Reports of creative partial or stage results not exceeding 4,500 words in length generally.

 Rapid communications: Presents results of general interest which merit rapid publication. Communications often will be complete publications, but follow-up publication may occasionally be justified when the research is continued and a more complete account of the work is deemed necessary.

  Review articles: In combination with one's own systematic results, reviews of the new progress in the latest 5-10 years at both domestic and abroad related fields not exceeding 9,000 words.

3 Basic principles for submission

  Articles submitted to Magnetic Resonance Letters must not be published, neither being reviewed forconsideration elsewhere at the same time.

  Contributions are requested to be original, clear discussion, reliable data, and in succinct language.

4 Submission checklist

  Before submission, please check this list to complete and ensure your preparation.

4.1 Necessary files

(1) Title

  The title should be indexable, informative, precise and brief, and must not be more than 120 characters. Authors should avoid the use of non-standard abbreviations.

(2) Authors and author affiliations

  Authors: The order of authors' names should be agreed by all coauthors, since every author has contributed to and holds responsibility for the published content. The phone number and email address of the corresponding author are required.

  Author affiliations: The author affiliations should be the institution where the work was conducted. Complete addresses with post codes are required.

(3) Financial support

  Each financial support provided should include the funding name and number. And the names of the funding organizations should be written in full.

(4) Abstract and keywords

  Abstract: The abstract must be a single paragraph, approximately 150 words, and which should summarize the essential features of the article including the purpose of the study, basic methodology, main findings and key conclusion(s). The use of abbreviations should be reduced to a minimum and the references should not be cited in the abstract.

  Keywords: Below the abstract, authors should provide 4-7 key words to reflect the theme of a manuscript,and for indexing.

(5) Main content

  For research articles and notes, the preparation of the text must be structured into separate sections as Introduction, Materials and Methodology, Results and Discussion, and Conclusion. For Review, the manuscript should contain a comprehensive discussion starting with the general background of the field. It should then go on to discuss the salient features of recent developments. The main text may be subdivided further according to the areas to be discussed.

·Introduction:

  The introduction provides the relevant research background and the progress made within the field/top over the past 2-3 years, with references cited in numerical order. It presents the problem to be solved, and then describes the method adopted in the work. The aim of the research and its significance should be indicated as well.

  When manuscripts focusing on compound assignments, the authors must search the structure information of the target compound(s) and its/their structural analogues in the databases before submission, such as web of science, Chemspider, Pubchem, Chemicalbook, SciFinder, Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry of CAS. Chemistry Database, and so on, to ensure the contributions of the assigned data is present for the first time or for the correction or complement of the existed data. A detailed summary of assignments of the target compounds and their analogues, the related literatures, and the necessity and creativity of the current assignments should be described in the Introduction. The completeness of the above description will determine whether the primary review is approved. After the article is received or even published, if the readers find that this assignment data is not the first time, the editorial office will retract the article, and the responsibility shall be borne by the authors.

·Materials and methodology:

  This section lists the materials, method, and experimental procedure of the work, so readers can have a clear understanding of how the research was carried out and are able to repeat the work if needed.

·Results and discussion:

  Research results, including data and models, are presented and discussed in this section. Tables and figures may be used. Only the most significant and representative data should be included. Extended or supplemental results should appear as "Supporting Information" in another section. Avoid comparisons and speculations that are irrelevant or not supported by the results in the paper.

·Conclusions:

  Conclusions should be derived from the observation and results in the paper. Do not summarize information already presented in earlier sections or fabricate conclusions to fit with the hypotheses or the assumptions.

·Figures and tables:

  Figures and tables should be numerically listed, inserted in the text near the point of first mention, and cited in the order of appearance within the text. The figures should have a resolution no lower than 600 dpi and clear lines of 5 px, with signs and letters in Times New Roman at 7.5 pt. A space should always be maintained between the variable and the unit. Please place the scale lines on the outside of the coordinate axis, and a ‘/' should always be maintained between the physical variable and the unit, for example, t/min. The maximum width of the picture is 16.5 cm. And acceptable figure formats are .cdr、.ai、.org、.xls、.tiff, .wmf, .emf, .jpg, and MS office files with words' fonts and sizes editable. Please do not supply figures by screen capturing, for the resolution is too low. Chemical structures should be produced with the use of ChemDraw. All figures should have relevant captions. Please use figures in black and white as possible.

  All tables should include a brief and self-explanatorytitles, description, and footnotes (if necessary), and three-line table is recommended. A ‘/' should always be maintained between the physical variable and the unit, for example, t/min.

·Equations:

  All equations should be edited with equation editor (MathType) and numerically numbered, with the number on its right side.

·Acknowledgements:

  In this section, the author(s) express thanks to the people and/or organizations who helped with this work.

·Declaration of conflict of interest:

  In this section, the authors should declare all the conflict of interest.

·Appendix of supplementary data:

  All the descriptions of supplementary data (such as caption, and table's title) should be listed before the references.

(6) References

  Reference citation is regarded as an important indicator of the paper's quality. If the relevant references are not cited, especially those published in the past 2−3 years, or if most citations come from publications of the authors themselves, it may reflect negatively on the paper. References should be numerically numbered and cited according to the order of appearance within the text, with the numbers expressed in square brackets. Carefully check the names of authors, the journal name, the year, volume and page of the paper to be cited, and make the list according to the format discussed below.

  Journal references should be formed as name of authors, title of the reference, name of the journal, year, volume (number), and beginning and finishing pages. For example:

[1] GOUDSMIT G H, PAUL H, SHUSHIN A I, et al. Electron spin polarization in radical triplet pairs. Size and dependence on diffusion[J]. J Phys Chem, 1993,97:13 243-13 249.

  For monographs, please cite according to author/s (editor/s), title of book[M], Edition (the first edition is not needed), publishing place: publisher, year of appearance, page number/s. For example:

[1] MORTON L T, ed. Use of medical literature[M]. 2nd ed. London: Butterworths, 1977. 462-500.

(7) TOC graphic

  A graphic for the Table of Contents (TOC) with all characters in English is required in conjunction with the manuscript title, conveys to readers the essence of the work. It may be a key structure, reaction, equation, concept, theorem, or an ingenious representation discussed in the manuscript and should be visually appealing so as to capture the readers' attention. The TOC graphic should have a size no larger than 7.5 cm (horizontal)×6.5 cm (vertical) and an image resolution no less than 600 dpi, and appear on the last page of the text file or as a separate file. Preferred file types: TIFF, jpg or MS Office files. Color picture is recommended.

4.2 Further considerations

  (1) Manuscript has been 'spell checked' and 'grammar checked', and all measurements and data should be given in SI units.

  (2) Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material (including figure, table, data, and so on) from other sources (including the internet).Please be aware that some publishers do not grant electronic rights for free. And all the cited source should be indicated.

  (3) A competing interests statement is provided, even if the authors have no competing interests to declare.

  (4) Journal policies detailed in this guide have been reviewed

  (5) We welcome the authors to supply any applicablesupplementalfiles (including figure, table, text description, video, original data, voice, etc.) to enhance your research results and discussion.

5 Ethics in publishing of Magnetic Resonance Letters

  Magnetic Resonance Lettersis committed to meeting and upholding standard ethical requirements and guidelines given by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) at all stages of the publication process.

5.1 Ethical requirements

(1) Responsibilities of editors

  Handle all submissions with a balanced, objective, fair and timely way, regardless of the gender, sexual orientation, religious or political beliefs, ethnic or geographical origin of the authors, or relationship with the author(s), so that articles are considered and accepted solely on their academic merit.

  Proceed with reason when complaints of an ethical or conflictual nature arise. To give authors a reasonable opportunity to respond to any complaints. All complaints should be investigated no matter when the original publication was approved. Any documentation associated with any such complaints should be retained.

(2) Responsibilities of reviewers

  Review the papers to be published in an objective and timely manner.

  Manuscripts under review must be treated as confidential documents. Reviewers should not retain and/or copy the manuscripts or discuss them with others.

  Any relevancy or overlaps between published papers and the manuscript under consideration should be raised to editors.

  Reviewers should not consider manuscripts with conflicts of interest (financial, institutional, competitive or collaborative), or other relationships with any of the authors, companies, and/or institutions connected to the manuscripts.

(3) Responsibilities of authors

  Confirm that the manuscript being submitted is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.

  Confirm that all the work in the submitted manuscript is original (no plagiarism), and to acknowledge and cite any content reproduced from other sources. To obtain permission to reproduce any content from other sources.

  No data should be fabricated or manipulated (including images) in order to fit the conclusion/ hypothesis.

  Maintain accurate records of data associated with their submitted manuscript, and to supply or provide access to such data on reasonable request.

  Ensure that any studies involving human and/or animal subjects conform to national, local and institutional laws and requirements; and confirm that approval has been sought and obtained where appropriate. Authors should obtain clear, explicit permission from human subjects and always respect their privacy.

  Consent to submit must be received from all co-authors before the work is finally submitted; and the corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that this agreement has been reached beforehand.

  Authors whose names appear on the submission have all made sufficient contributions to the scientific work and therefore share collective responsibility and accountability for the results.

(4) Signature of authors

  Authorship is limited to those who have contributed substantially to the work, and thus every author included should be responsible for the data and argument in the paper. The corresponding author must obtain permission from all authors for the submission of any version of the paper or for any change in authorship.

  Changes in authorship or the order of authors are not permitted after a manuscript's acceptance. Adding or deleting authors at the revision and proof stage, or after publication may be considered only when justifiably warranted. A written approval from all authors and a convincing, detailed explanation should send to the editorial office when changing authorship, and adding/deleting author(s). Therefore, authors are strongly advised to ensure that the author group, corresponding author, and order of authors are all correct/agreed to before submission.

(5) Declaration of interest

  All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. Authors should complete the declaration of interest statement at the last page of the text. This statement will be published within the article if accepted.

5.2 Dispose of unethical behavior

  Any misconduct and/or unethical behavior bringing the attention of the editor and publisher at any time will be disposed according to the general procedures of COPE https://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts.

6 Submission

  All manuscripts must be submitted online through the website:https://mc03.manuscriptcentral.com/mrl. Please prepare a manuscript file (allowed formats: Word, PDF) containing all schemes, figures, and tables integrated in the text, and with the Supporting Information as a separate file. Then follow the instructions on the submission website. A successful electronic submission of a manuscript will be followed by a system-generated acknowledgement to the principal/corresponding author with a manuscript ID. The Manuscript ID should be included when the authors contact with the editorial office.

  Authors must also submit all revisions of manuscripts via the web site. Authors who are unable to provide an electronic version should contact the editorial office prior to submission (E-mail: mrl@apm.ac.cn).

7 Review process

  After receiving the submissions, the editors will use a web-based program which compares documents and marks found similarities as a possible instance of plagiarismfirstly.

  This journal operates a single blind review process. All contributions will be initially assessed by the editor for suitability for the journal. Papers deemed suitable are then enter into the peer review process, which typically sent to at least two independent expert reviewers to assess the scientific quality of the paper. The editorial board is responsible for the final decision regarding acceptance or rejection of articles. The editor's decision is final. Authors may suggest 3-5 specific individuals be or not be involved as reviewer. The referees' comments usually will be returned to the principal/corresponding author(s) in two months.

8 Proof

  After reviewing and preliminary composing the accepted manuscript, the corresponding author will receive an email from the editorial office to request sending back a proved version of the manuscript for pre-publication online at the "just accepted" section. If the author(s) don't agree with the pre-publication online, please also send the declaration back to the editorial office.

  Before printed publication, the corresponding author will receive an email from the editorial office to request sending back a final proof of the manuscript as soon as possible (best in the three days).

  If changes have been made to the author(s)' contact information/address during this time, it is the duty of the author to immediately inform us of their new contact information or assign someone else to look over the edited manuscript for them.

9 Articles download

  Readers are able to gain free access to electronic versions of the "just accepted" articles, and articles in archive and current issue from our homepage.

10 Relevant fees

  Magnetic Resonance Letters is an open access journal. No fees are required in the reviewing process for the articles submitted to the journal.

  For published papers, 2 copy of that issue will be presented to the author(s) free of charge.

11 Copyright transfer statement

  Authors will be asked to complete a 'Copyright Agreement' (A completed form of the copyright transfer statement) and upload it to the website at latest before the paper is accepted for publication. Copyright consists of the exclusive right to reproduce and distribute the article (in any language), including offprints and reprints, translations, photographic reproductions, microform, electronic form (offline, online) or other reproductions of similar nature. The Copyright Transfer Statement here can be downloaded from our website.

  Not published manuscripts usually, will not be returned. Please keep your manuscript draft.