Author checklist

The purpose of this checklist is to help authors ensure that their manuscripts are ready for submission to Mass Spectrometry. It does not need to be submitted to anywhere.

Ethics

  • ▢ All authors have seen and approved the manuscript.
  • ▢ All authors have agreed to its submission to Mass Spectrometry.
  • ▢ All authors have permission to publish their work.
  • ▢ The manuscript represents original work and contains no plagiarized material.
  • ▢ Authors have disclosed any potential conflicts of interest.
  • ▢ Experiments using animals or humans (or their material) conform to appropriate ethical guidelines.
  • ▢ Digital image processing follows the journal’s guidelines.

Manuscript

  • ▢ The manuscript file is formatted in Microsoft Word.
  • ▢ Text is written in clear, grammatically correct English.
  • ▢ Title page includes the title, authors’ full names, affiliations, abstract, key words, and the name and full address of the corresponding author(s).
  • ▢ Main text includes all relevant sections for the article type.
  • ▢ The authors have obtained the permission of the copyright holder(s) and relevant publisher to include any previously published material.
  • ▢ The authors have cited all funding sources for the work.
  • ▢ All the data necessary to support the conclusions of a paper should be included with the main body of the paper. Authors may include as supporting information additional results and data such as extensive MS data including large data sets – e.g., those obtained with omics analysis. Supporting information will be reviewed as a part of the normal manuscript review process and will be judged by the same rigorous criteria as the main body of the paper. Supporting information cannot be added after acceptance.
  • ▢ When submitting spectral data with the manuscript, the authors should check if they can open them with MSSJ’s viewing software, Spectrum Viewer Tool.

Submission process

  • ▢ The submitting author has the full names, institutional addresses and email addresses for all authors.
  • ▢ The submitting author has the names and email addresses of any preferred or non-preferred referees.
  • ▢ A cover letter that briefly describes an overview of the work, its significance and justification for publication, as well as suggestions for potential associate editors to handle the manuscript.
  • ▢ For the case of a revised manuscript, it is also required to provide a copy of the original manuscript marked with the changes using Track Changes (MS Word), highlighting, or colored text.
  • ▢ A point-by-point response to all of the issues raised in the reviews should be made in a separate letter.

Open access

  • ▢ The authors understand the Creative Commons and its implications.
  • ▢ All authors are aware that accepted manuscripts are published under a CC BY NC license.