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Types of paper
Contributions falling into the following categories will be considered for publication: [example: Original article, reviews].

Please ensure that you select the appropriate article type from the list of options when making your submission. Authors contributing to special issues should ensure that they select the special issue article type from this list.

Submission checklist

You can use this list to carry out a final check of your submission before you send it to the journal for review. Please check the relevant section in this Guide for Authors for more details.

Ensure that the following items are present:

One author has been designated as the corresponding author with contact details:
• E-mail address
• Full postal address

All necessary files have been uploaded:
Manuscript:
• Include keywords
• All figures (include relevant captions)
• All tables (including titles, description, footnotes)
• Ensure all figure and table citations in the text match the files provided
• Indicate clearly if color should be used for any figures in print
Graphical Abstracts / Highlights files (where applicable)
Supplemental files (where applicable)

Further considerations
• Manuscript has been 'spell checked' and 'grammar checked'
• All references mentioned in the Reference List are cited in the text, and vice versa
• Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Internet)
• A competing interests statement is provided, even if the authors have no competing interests to declare
• Journal policies detailed in this guide have been reviewed
• Referee suggestions and contact details provided, based on journal requirements

For further information, visit our Support Center.

Before you begin

Ethics in publishing

Please see our information on Ethics in publishing.

Declaration of interest

All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. Examples of potential competing interests include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding. Authors must disclose any interests in two places: 1. A summary declaration of interest statement in the title page file (if double anonymized) or the manuscript file (if single anonymized). If there are no interests to declare then please state this: 'Declarations of interest: none'. 2. Detailed disclosures as part of a separate Declaration of Interest form, which forms part of the journal's official records. It is important for potential interests to be declared in both places and that the information matches. More information.

Declaration of generative AI in scientific writing

The below guidance only refers to the writing process, and not to the use of AI tools to analyse and draw insights from data as part of the research process.

Where authors use generative artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process, authors should only use these technologies to improve readability and language. Applying the technology should be done with human oversight and control, and authors should carefully review and edit the result, as AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that can be incorrect, incomplete or biased. AI and AI-assisted technologies should not be listed as an author or co-author, or be cited as an author. Authorship implies responsibilities and tasks that can only be attributed to and performed by humans, as outlined in Elsevier’s AI policy for authors.

Authors should disclose in their manuscript the use of AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process by following the instructions below. A statement will appear in the published work. Please note that authors are ultimately responsible and accountable for the contents of the work.

Disclosure instructions
Authors must disclose the use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process by adding a statement at the end of their manuscript in the core manuscript file, before the References list. The statement should be placed in a new section entitled ‘Declaration of Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process’.

Statement: During the preparation of this work the author(s) used [NAME TOOL / SERVICE] in order to [REASON]. After using this tool/service, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as needed and take(s) full responsibility for the content of the publication.

This declaration does not apply to the use of basic tools for checking grammar, spelling, references etc. If there is nothing to disclose, there is no need to add a statement.

Submission declaration and verification

Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract, a published lecture or academic thesis, see 'Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication' for more information), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, including electronically without the written consent of the copyright-holder. To verify compliance, your article may be checked by Crossref Similarity Check and other originality or duplicate checking software.

Preprints
Please note that preprints can be shared anywhere at any time, in line with Elsevier's sharing policy. Sharing your preprints e.g. on a preprint server will not count as prior publication (see 'Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication' for more information).

Use of inclusive language

Inclusive language acknowledges diversity, conveys respect to all people, is sensitive to differences, and promotes equal opportunities. Content should make no assumptions about the beliefs or commitments of any reader; contain nothing which might imply that one individual is superior to another on the grounds of age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability or health condition; and use inclusive language throughout. Authors should ensure that writing is free from bias, stereotypes, slang, reference to dominant culture and/or cultural assumptions. We advise to seek gender neutrality by using plural nouns ("clinicians, patients/clients") as default/wherever possible to avoid using "he, she," or "he/she." We recommend avoiding the use of descriptors that refer to personal attributes such as age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability or health condition unless they are relevant and valid. When coding terminology is used, we recommend to avoid offensive or exclusionary terms such as "master", "slave", "blacklist" and "whitelist". We suggest using alternatives that are more appropriate and (self-) explanatory such as "primary", "secondary", "blocklist" and "allowlist". These guidelines are meant as a point of reference to help identify appropriate language but are by no means exhaustive or definitive.

Reporting sex- and gender-based analyses

Reporting guidance
For research involving or pertaining to humans, animals or eukaryotic cells, investigators should integrate sex and gender-based analyses (SGBA) into their research design according to funder/sponsor requirements and best practices within a field. Authors should address the sex and/or gender dimensions of their research in their article. In cases where they cannot, they should discuss this as a limitation to their research's generalizability. Importantly, authors should explicitly state what definitions of sex and/or gender they are applying to enhance the precision, rigor and reproducibility of their research and to avoid ambiguity or conflation of terms and the constructs to which they refer (see Definitions section below). Authors can refer to the Sex and Gender Equity in Research (SAGER) guidelines and the SAGER guidelines checklist. These offer systematic approaches to the use and editorial review of sex and gender information in study design, data analysis, outcome reporting and research interpretation - however, please note there is no single, universally agreed-upon set of guidelines for defining sex and gender.

Definitions
Sex generally refers to a set of biological attributes that are associated with physical and physiological features (e.g., chromosomal genotype, hormonal levels, internal and external anatomy). A binary sex categorization (male/female) is usually designated at birth (""sex assigned at birth""), most often based solely on the visible external anatomy of a newborn. Gender generally refers to socially constructed roles, behaviors, and identities of women, men and gender-diverse people that occur in a historical and cultural context and may vary across societies and over time. Gender influences how people view themselves and each other, how they behave and interact and how power is distributed in society. Sex and gender are often incorrectly portrayed as binary (female/male or woman/man) and unchanging whereas these constructs actually exist along a spectrum and include additional sex categorizations and gender identities such as people who are intersex/have differences of sex development (DSD) or identify as non-binary. Moreover, the terms ""sex"" and ""gender"" can be ambiguous—thus it is important for authors to define the manner in which they are used. In addition to this definition guidance and the SAGER guidelines, the resources on this page offer further insight around sex and gender in research studies.

Author contributions

For transparency, we require corresponding authors to provide co-author contributions to the manuscript using the relevant CRediT roles. The CRediT taxonomy includes 14 different roles describing each contributor’s specific contribution to the scholarly output. The roles are: Conceptualization; Data curation; Formal analysis; Funding acquisition; Investigation; Methodology; Project administration; Resources; Software; Supervision; Validation; Visualization; Roles/Writing - original draft; and Writing - review & editing. Note that not all roles may apply to every manuscript, and authors may have contributed through multiple roles. More details and an example.

Changes to authorship

Authors are expected to consider carefully the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of the original submission. Any addition, deletion or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list should be made only before the manuscript has been accepted and only if approved by the journal Editor. To request such a change, the Editor must receive the following from the corresponding author: (a) the reason for the change in author list and (b) written confirmation (e-mail, letter) from all authors that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement. In the case of addition or removal of authors, this includes confirmation from the author being added or removed.
Only in exceptional circumstances will the Editor consider the addition, deletion or rearrangement of authors after the manuscript has been accepted. While the Editor considers the request, publication of the manuscript will be suspended. If the manuscript has already been published in an online issue, any requests approved by the Editor will result in a corrigendum.

Copyright
Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' (for more information on this and copyright, see https://www.elsevier.com/copyright). An e-mail will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript together with a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' form or a link to the online version of this agreement.

Author rights
As an author you (or your employer or institution) have certain rights to reuse your work. For more information on author rights please see https://www.elsevier.com/copyright

Elsevier supports responsible sharing
Find out how you can share your research published in Elsevier journals.

Open access

Please visit our Open Access page for more information about open access publishing in this journal.

Elsevier Researcher Academy
Researcher Academy is a free e-learning platform designed to support early and mid-career researchers throughout their research journey. The "Learn" environment at Researcher Academy offers several interactive modules, webinars, downloadable guides and resources to guide you through the process of writing for research and going through peer review. Feel free to use these free resources to improve your submission and navigate the publication process with ease.

Language (usage and editing services)
Please write your text in good English (American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of these). Authors who feel their English language manuscript may require editing to eliminate possible grammatical or spelling errors and to conform to correct scientific English may wish to use the Language Editing service available from Elsevier's Language Services.

Submission
Submission to this journal proceeds totally online. Use the following guidelines to prepare your article. Via the homepage of this journal (https://www.editorialmanager.com/jpa/default.aspx) you will be guided stepwise through the creation and uploading of the various files. The system automatically converts source files to a single Adobe Acrobat PDF version of the article, which is used in the peer-review process. Please note that even though manuscript source files are converted to PDF at submission for the review process, these source files are needed for further processing after acceptance. All correspondence, including notification of the Editor's decision and requests for revision, takes place by e-mail and via the author's homepage, removing the need for a hard-copy paper trail. If you are unable to provide an electronic version, please contact the editorial office prior to submission [e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; telephone: +86-29-82657423].

Additional information
Tables and figures may be presented with captions within the main body of the manuscript; if so, figures should additionally be uploaded as high resolution files.

Preparation

Parameter Settings for Chemical Structures
Journal of Pharmaceutical Analysis (JPA) requests that chemical structures be prepared according to the guidelines below. The parameters below are specifically for ChemDraw, using the ACS 1996 document settings; authors using other drawing packages should adapt these parameters to their systems. Most commercial and freeware packages allow these settings to be reproduced either by manual settings or by some sort of journal template feature.

Drawing Settings chain angle 120 degrees
bond spacing 18% of width
fixed length 14.4 pt (0.2 in.)
bold width 2.0 pt (0.0278 in.)
line width 0.6 pt (0.0083 in.)
margin width 1.6 pt (0.0222 in.)
hash spacing 2.5 pt (0.0345 in.)
Text Settings page setup US/Letter/Paper
scale 100%
font Helvetica (Mac), Arial (PC)
size 10 pt
Preferences units points
tolerances 3 pixels

Peer review

This journal operates a double anonymized review process. All contributions will be initially assessed by the editor for suitability for the journal. Papers deemed suitable are then typically sent to a minimum of two independent expert reviewers to assess the scientific quality of the paper. The Editor is responsible for the final decision regarding acceptance or rejection of articles. The Editor's decision is final. Editors are not involved in decisions about papers which they have written themselves or have been written by family members or colleagues or which relate to products or services in which the editor has an interest. Any such submission is subject to all of the journal's usual procedures, with peer review handled independently of the relevant editor and their research groups. More information on types of peer review.

Use of word processing software
It is important that the file be saved in the native format of the word processor used. The text should be in single-column format. Keep the layout of the text as simple as possible. Most formatting codes will be removed and replaced on processing the article. In particular, do not use the word processor's options to justify text or to hyphenate words. However, do use bold face, italics, subscripts, superscripts etc. When preparing tables, if you are using a table grid, use only one grid for each individual table and not a grid for each row. If no grid is used, use tabs, not spaces, to align columns. The electronic text should be prepared in a way very similar to that of conventional manuscripts (see also the Guide to Publishing with Elsevier). Note that source files of figures, tables and text graphics will be required whether or not you embed your figures in the text. See also the section on Electronic artwork.
To avoid unnecessary errors you are strongly advised to use the 'spell-check' and 'grammar-check' functions of your word processor.

LaTeX
You are recommended to use the Elsevier article class elsarticle.cls to prepare your manuscript and BibTeX to generate your bibliography.
Our LaTeX site has detailed submission instructions, templates and other information.

Article structure

The detailed requirement for each article type is available HERE.

Subdivision - numbered sections
Divide your article into clearly defined and numbered sections. Subsections should be numbered 1.1 (then 1.1.1, 1.1.2, ...), 1.2, etc. (the abstract is not included in section numbering). Use this numbering also for internal cross-referencing: do not just refer to 'the text'. Any subsection may be given a brief heading. Each heading should appear on its own separate line.

Introduction
State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results.

Material and methods
Provide sufficient details to allow the work to be reproduced by an independent researcher. Methods that are already published should be summarized, and indicated by a reference. If quoting directly from a previously published method, use quotation marks and also cite the source. Any modifications to existing methods should also be described.

Theory/calculation
A Theory section should extend, not repeat, the background to the article already dealt with in the Introduction and lay the foundation for further work. In contrast, a Calculation section represents a practical development from a theoretical basis.

Results
Results should be clear and concise.

Discussion
This should explore the significance of the results of the work, not repeat them. A combined Results and Discussion section is often appropriate. Avoid extensive citations and discussion of published literature.

Conclusions
The main conclusions of the study may be presented in a short Conclusions section, which may stand alone or form a subsection of a Discussion or Results and Discussion section.

Appendices
If there is more than one appendix, they should be identified as A, B, etc. Formulae and equations in appendices should be given separate numbering: Eq. (A.1), Eq. (A.2), etc.; in a subsequent appendix, Eq. (B.1) and so on. Similarly for tables and figures: Table A.1; Fig. A.1, etc.

Essential title page information

Title. Concise and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.
Author names and affiliations. Please clearly indicate the given name(s) and family name(s) of each author and check that all names are accurately spelled. You can add your name between parentheses in your own script behind the English transliteration. Present the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name and, if available, the e-mail address of each author.
Corresponding author. Clearly indicate who will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication. This responsibility includes answering any future queries about Methodology and Materials. Ensure that the e-mail address is given and that contact details are kept up to date by the corresponding author.
Present/permanent address. If an author has moved since the work described in the article was done, or was visiting at the time, a 'Present address' (or 'Permanent address') may be indicated as a footnote to that author's name. The address at which the author actually did the work must be retained as the main, affiliation address. Superscript Arabic numerals are used for such footnotes.

Highlights

Highlights are mandatory for this journal as they help increase the discoverability of your article via search engines. They consist of a short collection of bullet points that capture the novel results of your research as well as new methods that were used during the study (if any). Please have a look at the example Highlights.

Highlights should be submitted in a separate editable file in the online submission system. Please use 'Highlights' in the file name and include 3 to 5 bullet points (maximum 85 characters, including spaces, per bullet point).

Abstract

A concise and factual abstract is required. The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results and major conclusions. An abstract is often presented separately from the article, so it must be able to stand alone. For this reason, References should be avoided, but if essential, then cite the author(s) and year(s). Also, non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined at their first mention in the abstract itself.

Graphical abstract
A graphical abstract is mandatory for this journal. It should summarize the contents of the article in a concise, pictorial form designed to capture the attention of a wide readership online. Authors must provide images that clearly represent the work described in the article. Graphical abstracts should be submitted as a separate file in the online submission system. Image size: please provide an image with a minimum of 531 × 1328 pixels (h × w) or proportionally more. The image should be readable at a size of 5 × 13 cm using a regular screen resolution of 96 dpi. Preferred file types: TIFF, EPS, PDF or MS Office files. You can view Example Graphical Abstracts on our information site.

Keywords
Authors are invited to submit keywords associated with their paper.

Abbreviations
Define abbreviations that are not standard in this field in a footnote to be placed on the first page of the article. Such abbreviations that are unavoidable in the abstract must be defined at their first mention there, as well as in the footnote. Ensure consistency of abbreviations throughout the article.

Acknowledgements
Collate acknowledgements in a separate section at the end of the article before the references and do not, therefore, include them on the title page, as a footnote to the title or otherwise. List here those individuals who provided help during the research (e.g., providing language help, writing assistance or proof reading the article, etc.).

Nomenclature and units
Follow internationally accepted rules and conventions: use the international system of units (SI). If other quantities are mentioned, give their equivalent in SI. You are urged to consult IUPAC: Nomenclature of Organic Chemistry for further information.

Math formulae
Please submit math equations as editable text and not as images. Present simple formulae in line with normal text where possible and use the solidus (/) instead of a horizontal line for small fractional terms, e.g., X/Y. In principle, variables are to be presented in italics. Powers of e are often more conveniently denoted by exp. Number consecutively any equations that have to be displayed separately from the text (if referred to explicitly in the text).

Footnotes
Footnotes should be used sparingly. Number them consecutively throughout the article. Many word processors can build footnotes into the text, and this feature may be used. Otherwise, please indicate the position of footnotes in the text and list the footnotes themselves separately at the end of the article. Do not include footnotes in the Reference list.

Artwork

1. Figure format
Please upload figures as separate TIFF files (not WORD/PDF format) in the system. Each figure, including the graphical abstract, must be a TIFF file of at least 300 dpi at the final printing size. The high resolution images you upload will automatically be converted to PDF and HTML for reviewers, editors, and readers to download. Avoid using different shades of grey or colors that are close in hue to identify different symbols or columns in a bar chart. Color should be used sparingly to identify different categories of data, and red and green should not be used together in graphs. Avoid shadows and unnecessary 3D effects. Please kindly check figures for color-blind compatibility.

2. Figures in the text
Figures shall not be embedded in the text, which shall be uploaded as separate TIFF files in the system. Please label and number your figures and figure captions clearly. In the text, please refer to figures as Fig. 1, Fig. 2A, Fig. 2B, Figs. 3A and B, Figs. 4A–C, Figs. 1–5, etc. For figures in the Supplementary data files, please refer it as Fig. S1, Figs. S1A and B, Figs. S1 and S2, Figs. S1–S3, etc.

3. Figure captions
Figure captions should be listed at the end of the main text. All figure captions should have a short figure heading. The figure panels shall be marked with uppercase letters, with both left- and right-half brackets, e.g., (A), (B), (C), etc. Abbreviations, numbers, and symbols used in a figure must be defined in the figure caption regardless whether they have been used/defined in the previous mentioned figures or not. The commonly-known abbreviations, such as DNA and RNA, does NOT need to be defined. For all figures, if the abbreviation is only once, the abbreviation is not necessary and the full-spelling definition shall be used.

The format is shown below:

Fig. 1. Physical characterizations of nanomagnets. (A) Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) depicting their morphological distributions. (B) Dark-field microscopy showing hyperspectral reflectance from the particles. (C) Elemental analysis revealing the presence of iron and other elementals. The peak for Cu is from the copper grid on which the sample was prepared. (D) X-ray diffractometry confirming the crystalline nature of the nanomagnets.

Fig. 2. Extracted ion chromatograms obtained by HPLC-FT-ICR MS for Flos Puerariae and reference standards. (A) Extracted ion chromatograms of Flos Puerariae in negative-ion mode. (B) Extracted ion chromatograms of reference standards in negative-ion mode. (C) Extracted ion chromatograms of Flos Puerariae in positive-ion mode. (D) Extracted ion chromatograms of reference standards in positive-ion mode. Peaks 3, 6, 9, 12, 14, 15, 16, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 30, 31, 32, and 35 are puerarin, daidzin, glycitin, rutin, genistin, tectoridin, nicotiflorin, ononin, daidzein, glycitein, luteolin, quercetin, genistein, tectorigenin, formononetin, and biochanin A, respectively.

Fig. 3. (A) Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy of different modified electrodes in solution containing 0.1 M KCl and 5 mM [Fe(CN)6]3–/4–. (B) Differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) of different modified electrodes after enrichment for the same time in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) solution containing 50 ng/mL rutin. (a) Bare gold electrode (230 U, 0.12); (b) PC-modified electrode (400 U, 2.02); (c) PC/CoWO4-modified electrode (880 U, 4.03); and (d) CoWO4-modified electrode (26,000 U, 1.32).

4. Figures requirements
  • For half-column figures, the length shall be no more than 90 mm; for two-column figures, the length shall be no more than 160 mm. Half-column figures are preferred and highly recommended.
  • In the figure itself, panels should be arranged reading left to right, top to bottom.
  • In figures, the font and size of all words, numbers, and punctuations shall be Arial and 7.5 pt respectively. No character spacing shall be used and the line spacing should be 100%. The font and size of each panel numbers (i.e., A, B, C, D, etc.) shall be Arial and 10.5 pt, respectively.
  • If the titles of each panel are described in the figure caption, they should be deleted within the panel, as shown in the original figure Fig. 12 ("GO: biological process", "GO: cellular component", "GO: molecular function", and "KEGG: signaling pathway") listed below.
  • Coordinate axis: The line width of axes should be 0.2 mm. The scale mark of axes should be 0.8 mm and outward. Both x- and y-axes shall be retained. The titles and units shall be provided for both x- and y-axes, e.g., Time (min). The distance between the axis titles and scale values (e.g., the numbers on scale marks) shall be 2 mm. The scale mark and the values shall be center-aligned. Generally, the axes shall be sealed (i.e., axes should not extend beyond the range of the data). Scientific notation shall be used. For example, if the scale values in y-axis "Intensity (a.u.)" are "4000, 3000, 2000, and 1000", the title and values shall be corrected to "Intensity (a.u., ?103)" and "4, 3, 2, and 1", respectively.
  • The frame of annotations in each panel shall be deleted. If there are several annotations within one panel, they can be arranged to 2–3 lines above the panel.
  • The first letter of a sentence shall be capitalized and other words shall be in lowercase, except certain terminologies and nomenclatures.
  • Use leading zeros on decimals (e.g. 0.1 instead of .1).
  • Use long hyphen "–" as the negative sign and the connector of two numbers, e.g., "–200" instead of "-200" and "Compounds 1–10" instead of "Compounds 1-10".
  • The "I" (current), "V" (volume), "E" (energy), and "m/z" shall be in italics when used as axis title. The "c" (concentration), "m" (mass), "v" (velocity) shall be lowercase and in italics. The "x" and "y" in the equations shall also be lowercase and in italics.
  • All arrows shall be small solid arrows (arrow type: triangle).
  • All micrographs must carry a magnification bar/scale bar, which shall be at the bottom right corner of each panel. The words/numbers (above the scale bar) and the scale bar shall be center-aligned.
  • Avoid unnecessary empty space or clutter.
  • Keys to symbols should be simple.
  • Continuously distributed data should be displayed either by showing all data-points or by using box-and-whisker plots, with all elements defined in the figure captions.
  • Solid symbols are preferable to open symbols except to indicate data overlap. Circles, squares, diamonds, and triangles are preferable to crosses. Symbols and lines should be distinguishable when the figure is reduced, and no smaller than 5 and 0.5 pt, respectively at the final size.
  • Bar charts with a single bar or with a bar indicating 100% should be avoided. Keep bar width to the minimum required for legibility.
  • Tables are not allowed in figures. Please provide tables as separate display items.

For the author's convenience, please refer to the attached template "JPA Figure Requirements" for detailed information and examples.

Tables

Please upload one Word file, not PDF format, as a separate file to include all tables in the system. Tables should be in an editable format and should not be inserted into Word as images. Tables can be supplied in portrait or landscape orientation. Large tables that are more than one page in length, particularly in landscape orientation, are difficult to read and should be uploaded as Supplementary data files for online publication only. Supplementary tables containing large amounts of text can be summarized in a smaller table for publication in the article. Tab separated tables should not be used. Please include the table heading and any footnotes on the same page as the table.

Table requirements
  • Please do not use color or shaded cells.
  • Please do not change font size or the margins to make your data 'fit'.
  • Please do not use three-line tables. All frame lines of each cell shall be added in the table.
  • Tables shall NOT be in text wrap.
  • The first row (table header) should not be in bold.
  • Font effects (bold) to highlight particular data.
  • Please use superscript letters, which should be listed alphabetically in the Table footnote, to describe features of data.
  • Font style: Times New Roman.
  • Font size: 10 pt.
  • Margins: based on A4 page size, top/bottom margins are 2.54 cm (1.0 inches); and left/right margins are 3.18 cm (1.25 inches) each side for portrait. For landscape orientation, top/bottom margins are 2.54 cm (1.0 inches); and left/right margins are 3.18 cm (1.25 inches) each side. This document has the correct margins and can be used as a template.
  • Use single spacing.
  • All abbreviations used in the table caption shall be defined (e.g., LOD: limit of detection;) regardless whether they have been defined in the previous tables or not. The commonly-known abbreviations, such as DNA and RNA, does NOT need to be defined. All abbreviations used within the table shall be defined in the footnote. If they are only used once, please use the full-spelling definitions instead of abbreviations.
  • The units shall be added in the header of each column, e.g., "Linear range (?g/mL)".
  • All symbols used in the table shall be defined in the footnote, e.g., "–: no data.".
  • Excel files: For the large original data/dataset, you may prepare tables in Excel format and such tables shall be added into the Supplementary data for online publication only. The format for font and size is the same as for the Word document. Cell height can be left at the default setting.

For the author's convenience, please refer to the attached template "JPA Table Requirements" for detailed information and examples.

Chemical structures

Chemical structures MUST be prepared in ChemDraw and provided as separate files. Structure drawing preferences must be according to the ACS style sheet.

CRediT author statement

For transparency, we encourage authors to submit an author statement file outlining their individual contributions to the paper using the relevant CRediT roles: Conceptualization; Data curation; Formal analysis; Funding acquisition; Investigation; Methodology; Project administration; Resources; Software; Supervision; Validation; Visualization; Writing -Original draft preparation; Writing - Reviewing and Editing. Authorship statements should be formatted with the names of authors first and CRediT role(s) following.

Please pay extra attention to the following points:

  • The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that the descriptions are accurate and agreed by all authors.
  • The role(s) of all authors should be listed, using the relevant above categories.
  • The author's order in this section shall be identical to the ones in the Title page.
  • Authors may have contributed in multiple roles.
  • CRediT in no way changes the journal's criteria to qualify for authorship.

Detailed roles of each author's contribution is available HERE and an example of this section is shown below.

CRediT author statement

Author 1: Methodology, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Writing - Original draft preparation, Reviewing and Editing, Visualization; Author 2: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Writing - Reviewing and Editing, Visualization; Author 3: Resources, Writing - Reviewing and Editing, Supervision, Funding acquisition.

References

1. References citing in the manuscript
  1. References should be cited consecutively in manuscript and tables. Please check them all.
  2. Please double-check all cited references and ONLY cite important/key references. Please pay extra attention that the less important references shall NOT be cited and should be deleted.
  3. Please carefully check all the cited reference to ensure they are cited in the correct sentences in the text.
  4. Please carefully check all the cited references. The duplicated references shall be deleted and the entire reference citation sequence shall be re-arranged and checked carefully.
  5. For citing two references in one sentence, the space between two reference numbers is not necessary. The format should be: "The drug-incorporated granules are coated and/or mixed by medical polymers in order to achieve formulations with the sustained/delayed release ability [12,13]".
  6. For citing 3 or more references: Please use long hyphen "-" when citing 3 or more references, e.g., "???. environmental toxicity [4-6]".
  7. If the cited references' author names need to be mentioned, only the first author's last name needs be shown in the manuscript. The format is "First author's last name + [Reference number]". For journals with more than 3 authors, the format is "First author's last name + et al. + [Reference number]".

    For example:

    Madhavi and Rani [64] reported an UPLC estimation for simultaneous determination of SXG and DPG in its tablet dosage form.

    Generation of graphene was first reported by Novoselov et al. [1], in which mechanical exfoliation was adopted.

  8. If the LAST author's name needs to be mentioned in the text, the format should be: "the Last author's last name + co-workers + [Reference number]".

    Kim and co-workers [65] established another method to validate simultaneous investigation of 26 anti-diabetic compounds in dietary supplements which were illegally adulterated.

2. Reference style
  1. If there are more than three authors, please just list the first three authors with a form: first name initial + last name, such as "D.W. Lachenmeier, J. Zhao, A.J. Bard", and the rest authors are represented by "et al.,". The italics of "et al." is not necessary.
  2. Name initials: Please write "Yi-Wei Tang" as "Y.-W. Tang", "Yi Wei Tang" as "Y.W. Tang", and "Yiwei Tang" as "Y. Tang".
  3. Please check all the references and ensure they are totally right and related.
  4. All journal titles shall be in the abbreviation form, and the dot "." shall be added following each abbreviated word, e.g., "J. Biol. Chem.". The italics of journal title is not necessary.
  5. The issue number is not necessary.
  6. DOI is not necessary, and can be deleted if the page numbers can be obtained.
  7. In the "Reference" section, "in vivo", "in vitro", "ex vivo", and "in situ" should be in italics.
  8. The Latin names of medicines and bacteria needs to be in italics.
  9. For journals using page numbers, please DO NOT use comma following the publication year. The format shall be "volume no. (year) starting page no. -ending page no.". Please use long hyphen "-" between the starting and ending page numbers.

    [1] K. Yang, L. Feng, X. Shi, et al., Nano-graphene in biomedicine: theranostic applications, Chem. Soc. Rev. 42 (2013) 530-547.

  10. For journals with the article number presented as the page number: "(year), article number".

    [2] D. Li, Q. Wei, C. Wu, et al., Superhydrophilicity and strong salt-affinity: Zwitterionic polymer grafted surfaces with significant potentials particularly in biological systems, Adv. Colloid Interface Sci. 278 (2020), 102141.

  11. For articles in Preprints:

    [3] J. Born, G. Brandle, M. Cossio, et al., PoCOVID-net: Automatic detection of COVID-19 from a new lung ultrasound imaging dataset (POCUS), arXiv. 2020. https://arXiv.org/abs/2004.12084.

  12. For articles cited with doi numbers:

    [3] X. Lu, Y. Jin, Y. Wang, Multimodal integrated strategy for the discovery and identification of quality markers in traditional Chinese medicine, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpha.2022.05.001.

  13. For books:

    [2] M.B. Nodwell, S.A. Sieber, ABPP methodology: introduction and overview. B.S. Jones, R.Z. Smith, Activity-Based Protein Profiling, Topics in Current Chemistry, third ed., Vol. 324, Springer, Berlin, 2011, pp. 3–14.

  14. For online material/websites, the accessed date shall be provided.

    [3] U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Bioanalytical method validation guidance for industry. https://www.fda.gov/regulatory-information/search-fda-guidance-documents/bioanalytical-method-validation-guidance-industry. (Accessed 24 May 2018).

  15. Thesis/Dissertation:

    [15] K.T. Li, Pharmacokinetics and metabolism of quaternary protoberberine alkaloids of Corydalis Yanhusuo [master's thesis], Beijing: Peking Union Medical College, 2012.

    [15] K.T. Li, Pharmacokinetics and metabolism of quaternary protoberberine alkaloids of Corydalis Yanhusuo [dissertation], Beijing: Peking Union Medical College, 2012.

  16. For material presented at meetings (Proceedings or Abstracts):

    [4] G. Kolbl, M. Krachler, K. Kalcher, Proceedings of the Fifth International Symposium on Use of Selenium and Tellurium, May 23–25, 2018, Grimbergen, Belgium, 2020, pp. 291–193.

  17. For legal documents (laws, legislation, amendments, etc.):

    [1] Preventive Health Amendments of 1993, Pub. L. No. 103–183, 107 Stat. 2226 (Dec. 14, 1993).

  18. For patent:

    [1] J.K. Konopa, B. Horowska, E.M. Paluszkiewicz, et al., Inventors; Asymmetric bis-acridines with antitumour activity and use thereof, United States patent US 3070078A1, 13 November 2019.



For detailed information regarding journal format, please kindly refer to the attached folder "JPA Templates".

Journal abbreviations source
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