Guidelines for Authors

Guide for Authors

Acta Physiologica Sinica is the official journal of Chinese Association for Physiological Sciences (CAPS), sponsored by Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and CAPS. Acta Physiologica Sinica publishes articles on physiological sciences and related research on life sciences. The article types included in the journal are Original Article, Rapid Report, Experimental Method and Review. Aperiodically, we also have Physiology Matters, Feedbacks/Viewpoints, and Book Reviews.

We accept and publish either Chinese or English articles while encourage authors to contribute their manuscripts in English to our journal. Accepted manuscripts excellent in academic contents and English writings will be given priority in publishing. Manuscripts should have original results, clear arguments, reliable conclusions, rigorous logic, and conciseness in writing. We welcome scholars both at home and abroad to submit their manuscripts in physiology as well as related areas of biological sciences.

1 Submission
Please log on to our online submission system ScholarOne at http://mc03.manuscriptcentral.com/aps-en to submit your manuscript. Enter the “Author Center”, and follow the instructions on the webpage to submit online once you have registered. While submitting, please download the Submission Declaration Form, complete it as required, have every author sign his or her name, and make it into an electronic document. This document should be uploaded together with the manuscript. If the work was done overseas with participation of foreign colleagues, their written confirmation (letter or e-mail with signature) should be enclosed to show their agreement to the submission. Authors may suggest two to three preferred reviewers to the editorial office and provide their institutions, positions, addresses, telephone numbers, and e-mail addresses. A non-preferred list could also be suggested. In the cover letter, the corresponding author should assure the editorial office that the submitted work has neither been published nor is it under consideration for publication in any other journal or form. Authors will be informed within a week if their manuscript is not deemed by the editors to be submitted for review. Otherwise, manuscripts will be sent to peer reviewers for assessment. The editorial office will send the reviewers’ comments to the authors via the online submission system within 4–6 weeks. Authors should inform editorial office in time if they take the initiative to withdraw the submission.

2 The Format of Manuscript
The Manuscript Template on our webpage serves as a reference. When making electronic documents of your manuscript, please adopt Microsoft Word to edit with standard page setup (2.54 cm for top and bottom margins, 3.17 cm for left and right margins), lining space of 1.5, 12-point font size, and Song typeface for Chinese and Times New Roman for English. Each figure and table should be given a title in Chinese as well as in English. All the attached figures (including charts and images) and tables should be put separately on pages after the reference and saved as a single Word document for uploading to the online submission system. Manuscripts should be organized in this order: title page, Chinese abstract, English abstract, main text, acknowledgements, references, figures (with figure titles in Chinese and English and figure legends in English), and tables (with titles in Chinese and English and table notes in English). Pages should be numbered from the title page.

3 Title Page
The title page should contain the title, names of all authors, names of their institutions, mailing addresses, postal codes as well as the corresponding author’s gender, age, academic degree, academic title, mailing address, telephone and fax number, and e-mail address, Chinese Library Classification code (based on Chinese Library Classification, the Fourth Edition), total number of the pages, figures and tables, the total character count (excluding the references), acknowledgement (the grant number and the organization name of the foundation in Chinese and English if your research is funded), and running title (not exceeding 70 characters including spaces).

4 Requirements for Different Types of Manuscripts

4.1 Original Article
We accept manuscripts in Chinese or English. Chinese manuscripts should include English abstract and key words. The figure legends and table notes should also be written in English. In English contributions, Chinese abstract and key words should be provided.

(1) Title: The title should be clear and concise, reflecting the focus of your manuscript and containing the main key words. It should normally contain no more than 30 Chinese characters or 150 English characters (including spaces). Avoid abbreviations if possible. In order to make the title clearer and more distinctive, and to avoid being too general or repetitive, try not to use words such as “Effect (Role) of...”, but directly specify the effect or influence in the title instead.

(2) Authorship: Authors who sign should be those who participated in determining research objectives, making research plans and/or directly participating in all or part of the experimental work and making material contributions.
All the authors should sign names correctly according to the definition of “author” stipulated in Copyright Law of the People’s Republic of China and the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals stipulated by International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. The corresponding author is considered to be the person who should bear the overall responsibility for research topic selections and the manuscript submission, as well as the experimental procedures, ethical standards, experimental results and academic viewpoints described in the manuscripts.

(3) Affiliations and postal addresses of the authors: Both the author and author’s institution or employer qualify for authorship. Apart from the name of the author, the name and correspondence address of his or her institution or employer should also be included. The author who studies, visits or works in short period in the corresponding author’s workplace should not list the name and address of his or her institution or employer but can indicate them by footnote.

(4) Abstract: All manuscripts submitted in Chinese should contain not only Chinese but also English abstracts, including title, authors, institutions or employers, main text of abstract, key words, and Chinese Library Classification Code. Our journal does not adopt “structured abstract”, but both the Chinese and English abstracts should include four elements: research objectives and significance, methods, results and conclusions.
Chinese abstract should be limited between 400 to 500 words. For the convenience of overseas readers to get more information, English abstract should be more detailed than Chinese abstract, providing-information about methods and results as much as possible. The English abstract should be in accordance with the Chinese abstract in content, but does not need to the translated word by word. The limit of English abstract is between 300 to 500 words. Specific requirements on the English abstract are as follows: (i) the language should conform to English grammar and norms；(ii) the objectives of the study should be more focused; do not simply repeat the information provided in the title and the introduction; (iii) do not use symbols, terms and abbreviations that are not widely recognized and publicly used; (iv) the initial of the first word of the title should be capitalized while other words should use lowercase; (v) the author name should use Chinese Pinyin with the family name and the initial of the given name capitilized, e.g., YANG Xiong-Li.

(5) Key words: Provide 3 to 6 English words or phrases which can reflect the core content of the manuscript as key words. Better choose key words from MeSH, which is published in Part II of the first Issue of the newest Index Medicus. The Chinese key words should be translated according to the corresponding Chinese version of MeSH.

(6) Introduction: No title is needed. It should briefly elaborate and review the theoretical basis of the research, previous studies and major issue(s) that still need to be addressed. It should also clearly state the objectives and significance of the current study.

(7) Materials and methods: Conventional methods should be described simply, but for innovative methods or methods with considerable improvements, details should be sufficient to allow the work to be repeated by others. Methods that have been published but not so widely known should be described briefly by citing literature. The manufacturer and production place of the chemicals and drugs used in the experiment should be provided. For apparatus and equipment, the model as well as the manufacturer and place of production should be provided. For experimental animals, the strain, gender, weight and source should all be provided.
If experiments are conducted on human subjects, or if human tissues or cells are used as experimental samples, authors must provide written confirmation that informed consent was obtained from the person(s), and approval was given by the Institutional Ethical Committee. Meanwhile, experimental procedures should conform to the provisions of the Declaration of Helsinki (2013 edition) and standards established by international ethics committee.
Animal experiments should be carried out in accordance with the Regulations for the Administration of Affairs Concerning Experimental Animals and related laws and regulations concerning the protection and use of animals, or with the related regulations accepted internationally, such as U.S. National Institutes of Health Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (NIH Publication 85-23, revised 2011).
The statistical analysis of experimental data should be described clearly in this part.

(8) Results: Besides giving an objective description of all the experimental results and data, it is also necessary to process the raw data statistically. When presenting the statistical results, report the number of samples, standard deviation or standard error, and P value. Sample number should be indicated as n, standard deviation of the mean or standard error of the mean should be indicated respectively as mean ± SD or mean ± SEM.
Besides textual descriptions, figures and/or tables can be used to visualize the statistics if needed. The design of the figures and tables should be reasonable and easy to understand. Every figure or table should be cited in the main text and indicated by square frame and number to show its approximate location in the text.

(9) Discussion: This part should be closely related to the research purpose with necessary analysis and logic reasoning of the experimental results, especially highlighting the new findings and conclusions from them. Point out the theoretical or practical significance of the research findings and the influences they may exert on future research. Do not repeat the data or results that have already been described in “results”, and avoid reasoning and making conclusions with insufficient results. Do not write literature review in this part.

(10) Acknowledgements: Acknowledge the individuals or organizations who give assistance or financial support (please indicate specific aspects) to the work.

(11) References: List all the references. Consult “5. References” for the style of references.

4.2 Rapid Report
This column aims to report outstanding, innovative and influential partial results of a research in time. Both English and Chinese manuscripts are accepted. English manuscripts are more welcomed.
Rapid report should follow the same layout as the Original Article. The Chinese manuscript should include abstracts in both English and Chinese, key words, introduction, materials and methods, results and discussion, etc. All paragraphs, except for Chinese and English abstracts, should not be titled. All figures and tables should be titled in either English or Chinese and noted in English. The main text should be limited to 3 000 words. Chinese abstract and key words are required for English manuscript.
Manuscript submitted as Rapid Report would be handled rapidly by the editors. Accepted manuscripts would be arranged to be published as quickly as possible.

4.3 Experimental Method
The column presents innovative experimental techniques or those methods with significant improvements. The Chinese manuscript should include abstract and key words (in both English and Chinese), introduction, materials and methods, results and discussion. If you submit your manuscript in English, the Chinese abstract and key words are required.

4.4 Review
This column publishes reviews of new developments in physiology and related fields. Accepted manuscripts will be given priority for publication if the authors include their published works related to the topic.
Both English and Chinese manuscripts are welcomed, especially the former. Chinese manuscript should contain main text (paragraphs can either be titled or not), references, Chinese and English abstracts and key words. English manuscript should include Chinese abstract and key words.
There are no limits on the number of words, figures, tables and references.

4.5 Unscheduled Columns
This part includes Physiology Matters, Interactions and Viewpoints, and Book Reviews. Only Chinese manuscripts are accepted.
Physiology Matters publish articles that recount the historical events in the development of Chinese physiological sciences, introduce the academic achievements or activities of prominent Chinese physiologists. Usually, submissions to this column will be invited by the Editor-in-Chief or editorial office.
Interactions and Viewpoints provide comments and academic views on the research paper published in our journal. Original authors will be invited to reply if necessary.
Book Reviews cover reviews on academic books and textbooks from both domestic and abroad. Besides invited submissions, free submissions are also welcome.

5 References
References should include only articles that are directly related to the manuscripts. Unpublished conference proceedings, confidential academic reference, unpublished observations, personal communications and unpublished information from the Internet cannot be cited. Articles published ahead of print with the DOI can be cited. Articles that have been accepted but not yet published can be cited and noted as “in press” after the name of the journal.
Our journal adopts numbered reference system, i.e., the reference list is ordered in the order of their appearance in the paper. When citing, put the number of the reference in the superscript brackets at the end of sentence. All references are written in English with the name of every author. For Chinese references, the name of the first author and the journal should also be given in Chinese and noted as “in Chinese with English abstract”. Write the English name of Chinese books if they have one. If they do not, translate the name from Chinese into English and note it as “in Chinese” before listing it in the reference. Refer to List of Journals Indexed in Index Medicus or Title Abbreviations of International Journal in Medicine, Pharmacy and Chemistry (China Medical Science Press, 1988) for the abbreviated title of journals in Western languages. Or refer to PubMed for the journal title abbreviations.
Please use the styles shown below for references.
Articles in periodicals:
Fraser GM, Morton JS, Schmidt SM, Bourque S, Davidge ST, Davenport MH, Steinback CD. Reduced uterine perfusion pressure decreases functional capillary density in skeletal muscle. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 2015; 309(12): H2002–H2007.
Wang JJ (王隽隽), Yao WQ, Chen YJ, Ma L, Tao YZ. Neurons in NAc core and BLA are activated during cocaine context-associated reward memory retrieval in mice. Acta Physiol Sin (生理学报) 2014; 66(5): 545–558 (in Chinese with English abstract).
Books:
Zheng J, Trudeau M. Handbook of Ion Channels. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2015, 13–14.
Han JS (韩济生). Neuroscience. 3rd ed. Beijing: Peking University Medical Press, 2009, 101–110 (in Chinese).
Articles published in a conference proceedings:
Vivian VL, ed. Child abuse and neglect: a medical community response. Proceedings of the First AMA National Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect; 1984 Mar 30–31, Chicago. Chicago: American Medical Association, 1985.

6 Language Requirements
English manuscripts: The manuscript should be concise, with correct grammar and spelling. The language should reach publication quality in wording and style. Abbreviations, short forms and symbols should be understandable for professional persons and readers from related fields. When using abbreviations, give their full terms followed by the abbreviations in parenthesis, e.g., corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), when they appear for the first time and use the abbreviations consistently ever after. Note that, except for terms derived from person’s name such as Parkinson’s disease (PD), the first letter of each word needs not to be capitalized (e.g., corticotropin-releasing hormone cannot be written as Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone).
Chinese manuscripts: When abbreviations of English terms appear in abstract and main text for the first time, provide their Chinese translations in full and place their English versions and abbreviations in parenthesis, e.g.,促肾上腺皮质激素释放激素(corticotropin-releasing hormone, CRH). English abbreviations universally accepted in this field (e.g., DNA) can be directly used in the text. Please refer to relevant dictionaries for more information.
Use of abbreviations should be kept at a minimum in both English and Chinese manuscripts. For readers’ convenience, avoid using non-standard or uncommon abbreviations. Please refer to Chinese Terms in Physiology released by the China National Committee for Terms in Sciences and Technologies (China Science Publishing & Media Ltd., Beijing, 1989) for Chinese physiological terminology. For using terms from other disciplines, please follow the official publications of the same committee.

7 Figures
Draw a frame in the place where you need to insert figures and number each figure in it. Figures, figure titles and legends should all be placed after reference at the end of the manuscripts.
Figure titles in Chinese manuscripts should be written in both Chinese and English, with figure legends in English only. In order to help non-Chinese speakers know the experimental results, figure legends should not be too simple, but redundant descriptions still need to be avoided.
Figures should be made scientifically and with high quality. Data points, captions and numbers in figures should be clearly marked and precisely positioned and the layout of the figures should be rational with logic. Captions and numbers in figures should be in Arial. Provide figure images in TIFF format, and the resolution should be?300 dpi at a minimum. The maximal widths for single-column and double-column figures are 70 mm and 140 mm, respectively. For microscopy image, the micro scale should not be expressed as magnification. Instead, a scale bar should be provided in the figure at an appropriate place and corresponding illustration for the bar (e.g., Scale bar, 50 μm) needs to be given in figure legend. For colored microscopy image, indicate staining technique in the figure legend.

8 Tables
Draw a frame in the place where you need to insert tables and number each table in it. Tables, table titles and legends should all be placed after reference at the end of the manuscripts. Table titles in Chinese manuscripts should be given in both Chinese and English, but the table and table legends should be written in English only.
Use 3-line table, and add lines when necessary. The column name should be clear and concise. Use *, #, +, and etc. to note in sequence.

9 Unit of Measurement, Unit Symbol and Numerical Expressions
Write according to Usage of Legal Units of Measurement of the People’s Republic of China, published in September 6, 1984. The unit of blood pressure can be “mmHg”, while other units should adopt the units of measurement stipulated?in the national standard. Physical quantities and variable symbols should be written in italics.

10 Revision and Rejection of the Manuscript
Upon receiving the new manuscript from authors, the editorial office will examine the format first. If the manuscript does not meet the requirements in Guide for Authors, the editorial office will return the manuscript and require the authors to do necessary re-format before submitting again. The date of editorial office receiving authors’ re-formatted manuscript will be recorded as the receipt date of the manuscript.
Upon receiving the reviewers’ comments forwarded by the editorial office, the corresponding author should revise the manuscript carefully in accordance with the comments of the reviewers and/or the journal editors and respond to the comments point by point. If holding a different opinion toward any peer review, the authors can put forward their own ideas or give explanations. When revising the manuscript, the author should highlight the changes in red in order to facilitate the review. We generally allow 2 months for revisions and the manuscript submitted beyond the time limit will be treated as a new submission.
The editorial office will inform the authors whether the manuscript is accepted or not within 2–4 weeks after receiving the final revised version. The editorial office will notify the authors of the rejection of the manuscript within 1–2 months if the manuscript is regarded as not up to the requirements for publication after being reviewed by the reviewers, the editorial board members and Editor-in-Chief.

11 The Final Version
Before accepting the manuscript, the editorial office reserves the right to edit the manuscript or notify the authors to revise the manuscript in line with the edited version by the editors if the text, figures, tables or references do not meet the requirements of the journal.

12 The Proofreading
After receiving the proof (usually as a PDF file), the authors should carefully proofread the whole file. Except for pointing out typographical errors, the author cannot make additions, deletions or any other changes. The authors should complete the proofreading and return it to the editorial office within 48 hours after receiving the proof.

13 Remuneration
After the manuscript is published, the authors will be paid the remuneration and will get two free copies of the journal issue in which the authors’ article is published.

14 Publication Fees
We do not charge for manuscript processing fee but charge for publishing the accepted manuscript. The publication fee is charged as follows: CNY300 (USD80) for each printed page of text; CNY400 (USD100) for each page with black-and-white printed figure; CNY1 500 (USD350) for each page with color printed figure. If more than one page with color figure need to be printed, authors will be charged CNY1 000 (USD300) for the second page with color figure and RMB700 (USD200) for the third page with color figure. The editorial office will inform the authors of the publication fees when sending out the publishing proofs.

15 Ways to Contact Us
The Editorial Office of Acta Physiologica Sinica
Address: 319 YueYang Road, Building 31B, Shanghai 200031, China.
Phone: +86-21-54922832
E-mail: actaps@sibs.ac.cn, bwei@sibs.ac.cn

(Revised in January, 2016)

Guardlines for Authors [PDF]

Copyright Assignment and Submission Declaration Form [PDF]