Submission guidelines

1. Submission Instructions

1.1 Submission Checklist

1.2 Submission Policies

1.3 Article Processing Charge

1.4 How to Submit

2. Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

3. Ethics Guidelines for Authors

3.1 Authorship

3.2 Plagiarism

3.3 Conflict of Interest

3.4 Citation Policy

3.5 Ethics Approval

3.6 Appeals and complaints

4. Manuscripts Preparation

4.1 Manuscript Types

4.2 Format Instruction

4.3 Manuscript Sections

4.4 Reference Format

4.5 Supplementary Materials

4.6 Permissions Information

4.7 Research data sharing and reproducibility

5. Editorial Policies

5.1 Peer Review

5.2 Editorial Process

5.3 Article Retraction & Withdrawal

6. Publication

6.1 Copyright and License

6.2 Open Access Policy

6.3 Archiving Policy

 

 

1. Submission Instructions

1.1 Submission Checklist

Before submitting to us, there are a lot of things you need to consider and check. We create a checklist which serves as a quick reference guide to assist authors in the submission process and to avoid any potential delays, risks or rejections.

 

• Check by reading the aims and scope of the journal and look at recently published articles under the target journal's page to make sure your manuscript is fit for the journal that you are going to submit to.
• Ensure the manuscript has not been published before, nor is it under consideration for publication anywhere else.
• The submission of the manuscript has been approved by all the authors and the order of author list is agreed upon by them.
• Submit the manuscript emanating from a particular institution with the approval of this institution.
• Obtain the permission for the use of any or all copyrighted materials from other sources.
• Cite all references mentioned in the References List, and vice versa.
• Make sure to submit your manuscript in Microsoft Word. If it contains special characters, equations or any precise formatting that needs to be retained, please submit a PDF of your manuscript for reference in addition to an editable version. Figures should also be uploaded in high-resolution quality for printing at the journal production stage.
• Guarantee that the journal policies (submission, editorial and review process, publication ethics, article processing charge, etc.) under the submission guidelines page are completely read and understood.

 

1.2 Submission Policies

Submission to us will be taken to imply that there is no significant overlap between the submitted manuscript and any other manuscripts from the same authors under consideration or in press elsewhere. The authors must obtain copies of all related manuscripts with any overlap in authorship that are under consideration or in press elsewhere. If a related manuscript is submitted elsewhere while the manuscript is under consideration at Luminescience journal, a copy of the related manuscript must be sent to the editors. The publisher will not shoulder any responsibilities should there be any claims for compensation due to the misappropriation of materials.

 

The primary affiliation for each author should be the institution where the majority of their work was done. If an author has subsequently moved, the current address may also be stated.

 

If the manuscript includes personal information or communication, please provide a written statement of permission from any person who is quoted. Permission by email is acceptable.

 

We reserve the right to reject or retract a manuscript even after it has been accepted or published if it becomes apparent that there are serious problems with the scientific content, or our publishing policies are violated.

 

1.3 Article Processing Charge

In order to ensure the papers are freely available and maintain the publishing quality, Article Processing Charge (APC) is applicable only to authors whose manuscripts are accepted by Luminescience and will be published in our journals. Such cost will cover the peer review, copy editing, typesetting, content publishing and long-term archiving.

 

Luminescience offers waivers or discounts on APC for papers whose corresponding authors live in low-income countries, which is classified by the World Bank. 

 

Decision Making and Analysis will be free to authors on APC until December 31, 2024. For manuscripts requiring extensive English editing, translation or graphics/image optimization, a fee will be charged for these additional services.

 

1.4 How to Submit

Online submission

Authors are suggested to submit your manuscripts via our online system by clicking "Submit" for registration or login first. With a streamlined process and guidance for each step, authors can upload manuscript files (text, figures and supplementary materials) directly via this system and check on the status of your manuscripts during the review process.  Submit online at: https://ojs.luminescience.cn/DMA/login

 

Submission by email

If the authors cannot get access to our system or fail to submit online,  you can turn to submit by sending an email to editor-dma@luminescience-press.com. We will respond to you within two working days upon receiving your submission files.

 

 

2. Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

Luminescience is committed to maintaining the integrity and ensuring the high standards of scientific publications through a rigorous peer review and ethical policies. We comply with the Code of Core Practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and follow the COPE Flowcharts for Resolving Cases of Suspected Misconduct, such as plagiarism, the fraudulent use of data and bogus claims of authorship. Any violation of the Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct will be taken seriously by our journal editors with zero tolerance.

 

 

3. Ethics Guidelines for Authors

3.1 Authorship

Authorship must be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the research, conception, design, execution or interpretation of the reported study. Author contributions may be described at the end of the submission, optionally using roles defined by CRediT. Those who contributed to the research or manuscript preparation, but is not an author, should be acknowledged with their permission.

 

The corresponding author should consider carefully the list and order of authors before submitting and ensure that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the article and have agreed to its submission for publication.

 

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 editors. To request such a change, the editors must receive the following from the corresponding author: (a) the reason for the change in author list and (b) written confirmation (email or letter) from all authors that they freely consent to the addition, removal or rearrangement. In the case of the addition or removal of authors, the authors added or removed should confirm that they have freely provided such consent.


Only in exceptional, perhaps extenuating circumstances will the editors consider the addition, deletion or rearrangement of authors after the manuscript has been accepted. When such is the case, the publication of the manuscript under such review shall be suspended while the editors consider the request. In rare cases, if the manuscript has already been published in an online issue, any requests approved by the editors may result in a corrigendum.

 

3.2 Plagiarism

Authors must not use the words, figures or ideas of others without attribution. All sources must be cited at the point of use, and the reuse of wording must be limited and attributed or quoted in the text.

 

Luminescience uses the Crossref Similarity Check powered by iThenticate to screen submitted manuscripts for unoriginal material. Authors should not engage in plagiarism, verbatim or near verbatim copying or very close paraphrasing of texts or results from other's work. Self-plagiarism is known as duplicate or redundant publication, and the unacceptably close replication of author's own previously published texts or results without an acknowledgement of the source is also not allowed.

 

3.3 Conflict of Interest

Conflict of interest (COI) may happen when there is a divergence between an individual's private interests (competing interests) and his or her responsibilities to scientific and publishing activities such that a reasonable observer might wonder if the individual's behavior or judgment is motivated by considerations of his or her competing interests.

 

Conflicts include the following:

• Finance: funding and other payments, goods and services received or expected by the authors relating to the subject of the work or from an organization with an interest in the outcome of the work;
• Affiliation: being an employee, advisor or member of an organization with an interest in the outcome of the work;
• Intellectual property: patents or trademarks owned by someone or their organization;
• Personal: friends, families, relationships and other close personal connections;
• Ideology: beliefs or activism, for example, politically or religiously related to the work;
• Academic: competitors or someone whose work is critiqued.

COI in publishing affects everyone with a stake in research integrity including journals, research/academic institutions, funding agencies, the popular media and the public. Authors are required to declare a potential interest to the editorial office, otherwise, undeclared interests may incur sanctions. 

 

3.4 Citation Policy

Research articles and non-research articles (e.g. opinion, review and commentary articles) must cite appropriate and relevant literature in support of the claims made. Authors should ensure that when materials are taken from other sources (including their own published materials), the sources are clearly cited and the permission is obtained.

 

• Authors should not engage in excessive self-citation of their own work;
• Authors should avoid citing derivations of original work (for example, they should cite the original work rather than a review article that cites the original work);
• Authors should not copy references from other publications if they have not read the cited work;
• Authors should not preferentially cite their own or their friends',  peers' or institutions' publications;
• Authors should not use an excessive number of citations to support one point;
• Authors should not cite advertisements or advertorial materials.

 

3.5 Ethics Approval

Authors should conduct research from research proposal to publication in line with the best practices and codes of conduct of relevant professional bodies and/or national and international regulatory bodies.

 

Statement of Informed Consent

Patients have a right to privacy that should not be infringed without informed consent. Identifying information, including patients' names, initials or hospital numbers, should not be published in written descriptions, photographs and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patients (or parents or guardians) give written informed consent for publication. Informed consent for this purpose requires that a patient who is identifiable be shown in the manuscript to be published. Authors should identify individuals who provide writing assistance and disclose the funding source for this assistance. Identifying details should be omitted if they are not essential. Complete anonymity is difficult to achieve, however, and informed consent should be obtained if there is any doubt. For example, masking the eye region in photographs of patients is inadequate for the protection of anonymity. If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, such as in genetic pedigrees, authors should provide assurance that alterations do not distort scientific meaning and editors should so note.

 

Protection of Human Subjects and Animals in Research

When reporting experiments on human subjects, authors should indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the appropriate institutional and/or national research ethics committee (including the name of the ethics committee) and certify that the study was performed in line with the ethical standards as laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Whether the research was conducted in accordance with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration or comparable standards, if it is doubtful, the authors must explain the reasons for their approach and demonstrate that an independent ethics committee or institutional review board explicitly approved the doubtful aspects of the study. If a study was granted exemption from requiring ethics approval, this should also be detailed in the manuscript (including the reasons for the exemption). When reporting experiments on animals, authors should indicate whether the institutional and national guide for the care and use of laboratory animals was followed.

 

Clinical Trials Registration

Luminescience follows the recommendations from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and the Enhancing the Quality and Transparency of Health Research (EQUATOR) Network for registration and reporting clinical studies.

 

All interventional trials must be registered before the enrollment of the first participant. Trial registration records must be available in a primary register of the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP), in ClinicalTrials.gov or in any publicly accessible database that meets the minimum 24-item trial registration dataset.

 

The trial number must be clearly indicated in the abstract and methods section of the manuscript. Trials with retrospective registration or with registration in a database that is not publicly accessible cannot be considered.

 

3.6 Appeals and complaints

Luminescience will carefully consider complaints, appeals and allegations in line with guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). This applies both pre- and post-publication. When a complaint is made to a journal, it must be passed to the journal's Editor, who must then inform the publisher, Luminescience Press and address the issue following COPE guidelines. Where necessary, allegations will be referred to the appropriate institution for further investigation.
To submit a complaint or raise an issue of potential misconduct to a journal, or to appeal an editorial decision: Contact the journal's Editor with an explanation of your complaint or appeal. If you have a complaint regarding the editors of a journal you may, alternatively, address your complaint directly to the publisher by writing to publisher@luminescience.cn.
Please submit complaints or appeals by email, by visiting the journal's 'Contact' page. Our aim is to acknowledge complaints or appeals within 5 days of receipt, and to keep complainants updated throughout the process. If the resolution reached by the journal/publisher is not satisfactory to the complainant, the matter may be escalated to COPE or a similar, appropriate body.

 

 

4. Manuscripts Preparation

4.1 Manuscript Types

Decision Making and Analysis publishes original research articles, review articles, case reports and conceptual papers.

 

4.2 Format Instruction

To simplify the submission process and save authors' time, Luminescience practices the format-free policy at the initial submission stage. Providing that your manuscript includes everything necessary for review and uses a consistent citation format, you can submit your manuscript in the original format, which will be used in the refereeing process. Only when your manuscript is required for revision after peer review should you follow our specific format requirements for acceptance and subsequent publication in the target journal.

 

Guidelines to submit the format-free manuscripts to our journal

Use consistent citations: Your references can be in any scholarly citation format, so long as you use the same citation format throughout the manuscript. It is essential to include the following elements in your references:

• Author name(s)
• Journal or book title
• Article or chapter title
• Year of publication
• Volume and issue ( if applicable)
• Page numbers

We recommend that you include Digital Object Identifier (DOI) numbers for online published journal articles, books and other works to make it easier for readers to retrieve the citation sources.

 

Include information needed for peer review: The elementary but essential information in your original format manuscript required for peer review should be included the following:

• Manuscript title, abstract and keywords
• Main text (introduction, materials and methods, results and discussion, conclusion, etc.)
• Figures, tables or supplementary materials
• References
• Conflict of interest disclosures and other ethics statements

 

4.3 Manuscript Sections

Front Matt

General information about a manuscript and its authors is presented on a manuscript front page and usually includes the manuscript title, author(s)' name and affiliation and correspondent information. These should appear in all manuscript types and have the following elements:

 

Article Type

It is necessary for authors to declare the type of the manuscript and remark it on the left corner of the first page. For manuscript types accepted by this journal, please refer to 4.1.

 

Article Title

An appropriate title should be concise, indexable and informative. The title should not be more than 120 characters (including letters and spaces). A running title is unacceptable. When gene or protein names are included, the abbreviated name should be used, while colons, questions and nonstandard abbreviations should be avoided.

 

Author List and Affiliations

Each author's full name, affiliation and email address should be listed. The initial of any middle name can be added. The PubMed/MEDLINE standard format is used for affiliations: complete address information, including city, zip code, state/province and country. At least one author should be designated as the corresponding author, and the email address and other details should be provided at the end of the affiliation section.

 

Abstract

A concise and factual abstract is required. The abstract should briefly state the purpose of research, principal results and major conclusions. An abstract is often presented separately from the article, so 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.

 

Keywords

Keywords are necessary for the paper because they are important to help indexers and search engines find relevant papers. The effective keywords represent the content of the manuscript and are specific to the manuscript research field. Provide a maximum of 6 keywords and avoid general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid for example, "and" and "of"). Be sparing with abbreviations: only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be eligible.

 

Main Text

Introduction

The introduction should provide the research background (including the significance), current state, reason, objective and steps of the study. The key publications should be cited to illustrate the background and current state. The main aim and conclusion should be highlighted, which can make the manuscript comprehensible to scientists out of the research area.

 

Materials and Methods

This section provides the reader with all the details of how authors conducted the study, including principles, steps, materials, equipment and so on. This section should be sufficiently detailed so that other readers would be able to reproduce the results. To meet the requirement, authors should:

 

• Use subheadings to separate different methodologies;
• Briefly describe established methods;
• Describe the detailed procedure of experiments, including specific operation methods and steps;
• Provide detailed information (model, manufacturer and address) of the experiment equipment (including software);
• Please precisely identify all drugs and chemicals used, including the generic name, dose and route of administration. Identify appropriate scientific names and gene names. The manufacturer and its address should also be provided;
• Please state all statistical tests and parameters. Define statistical terms, abbreviations and most symbols. Specify the statistical software packages and versions used. When possible, quantify findings and present them with appropriate indicators of measurement error or uncertainty.

 

Results

Result section is a concise and precise description of the experimental results, their interpretation and the experimental conclusions that can be drawn. In this section, please present different results in a logical order. Usually present the main or the most important finding at first. You can use subheadings to separate the different results and illustrate these in the order of importance. Data duplication among figures, tables and text is not acceptable. It is necessary for authors to summarize and highlight key findings, and there is no need to explain all the data in the tables or figures.

 

Analysis and Discussion

In this part, authors should carefully interpret the results. Authors should discuss and analyze results in the order of importance, compare the results with other publications and illustrate the influence and significance. The limitations and possible further research directions also need to be mentioned.

 

Conclusions

This section is mandatory, ending the main text within one or two paragraphs. This part summarizes the main results of the analyses and states the author(s)' opinions of the manuscript.

 

Figures and Tables

All Figures and Tables should be inserted into the main text close to their first citation and must be numbered according to the order of appearance (Figure 1, Table 1, Figure 2, Table 2, etc.).

 

Each table should be provided with a title explaining the main content. If necessary, extra explanations and illustrations for non-standard abbreviations and symbols should be provided in footnotes.

 

Each figure should have its own caption, and the caption should explain the main information. The sub-figures should all be mentioned in the caption.

 

For figures, letters, numbers and symbols in figures should be clear and consistent throughout. All numbers in figures should be in scientific notation. We encourage authors to provide high-resolution figures. The scale markers for photomicrographs and the original blots for pictures should be remained. 

 

Abbreviations

Using abbreviations can be an effective way to avoid repeating lengthy, technical terms throughout a piece of writing. However, they should be used sparingly to prevent the text from becoming difficult to read and comprehend. To use an abbreviation, write out the term or phrase on first use, for comprehension of meaning and ease of reference, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses. Use brackets if introducing an abbreviation inside parentheses.

 

Back Matter

List of Abbreviations and Symbols

In this part, authors can provide a list of abbreviations and symbols to define all of these and make the manuscript understandable and professional.

 

Supplementary Materials

In this part, please describe any supplementary material (figure, tables, video, spreadsheets, etc.) published online alongside the manuscript. Please indicate the name and title of each element (Figure S1: title, Table S1: title, etc.). Authors need to mention supplementary materials in the main text (one by one in numerical sequence or as an entirety).

 

Author Contributions

All submitted manuscripts are required to include author's contribution statement to illustrate an accurate and detailed description of each author's contributions to the published work. For research articles with multiple authors, a short paragraph should be provided to explain their personal contributions.

 

We suggest authors refer to CRediT taxonomy to explain each author's contribution. We follow the guidelines of ICMJE about authors’ qualifications and require that the authorship be limited to those who have contributed substantially to the work.

 

Acknowledgments

The purpose of the section is to thank all of the people who helped with the research but did not eligible for authorship (check Guidelines for Authors). Authors can acknowledge anyone who provided intellectual assistance, technical help (including writing and editing) or special equipment or materials.

 

Funding

All sources of funding of the study should be disclosed. Clearly indicate grants that you received in support of your research work, and note whether you received funds to cover publication costs. Please identify the funder and grant number clearly and correctly in the manuscript.

 

Please add: "This research received no external funding" or "This research was funded by [name of funder] grant number [xxx]" and "The APC was funded by [XXX]" in this section. Please check carefully that the details given are accurate and the standard spelling of funding agency names at https://search.crossref.org/funding is used.

 

Institutional Review Board Statement

If the research is related to humans and animals, the author should add the institutional review board's statement and approval number in this section. The format of the statement should be "This research follows the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki and has been approved by the Institutional Review Board (or Ethics Committee) of the institute's name (protocol code XXX and approval date)." or "For some reasons, this study is exempt from ethical review and approval (please provide detailed reasons)." If the research does not involve humans or animals, please state "Not applicable."

 

Informed Consent Statement

If the study is related to subjects, please add "Informed consent has been obtained from all subjects participating in the study." or "The patient's consent was given up due to reasons (please provide detailed reasons)." in this section. If the research does not involve the consent, please state "Not applicable."

 

Conflict of Interest

The author must confirm and declare any personal circumstance or interest that may be deemed to improperly influence the presentation or interpretation of the reported research results. Any role of the funding sponsors in the design of the study, in the collection, analysis or interpretation of the data, in the writing of the manuscript or in the decision to publish the results must be declared in this section. If it is invalid, please state "The sponsor has no role in the design of the study, in the collection, analysis or interpretation of the data, in the writing of the manuscript or in the decision to publish the results." If there is no potential conflict of interest, please indicate "The author/authors declares/declare no conflict of interest."

 

4.4 Reference Format

Citation in text

Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). References should be identified in the text and numbered consecutively in the order of appearance by using Arabic numerals in a square bracket, e.g.[1], which will then correspond to the full citation in the reference list. Personal communications, manuscripts in preparation and other unpublished data should not be cited in the reference list but may be mentioned in parentheses in the text. Authors should obtain the permission from the source to cite unpublished data.

 

References list

The references list appears at the end of manuscript and provides the full citations for all the references that have been used. List all references numerically in the order cited within the manuscript and include the bracketed number at the beginning of each reference. All references should be consistent in Vancouver-like style.

 

Book: print

• Author/Editor (if it is an editor, always put (ed.) after the name)
• Title (this should be in italics)
• Series title and number (if part of a series)
• Edition (if not the first edition)
• Place of publication (if there is more than one place listed, use the first named)
• Publisher
• Year of publication

e.g.

[1] Simons NE, Menzies B, Matthews M. A Short Course in Soil and Rock Slope

   Engineering. London: Thomas Telford Publishing; 2001.

 

Book: online/electronic

• Author/Editor (if it is an editor, always put (ed.) after the name)
• Title (this should be in italics)
• Series title and number (if part of a series)
• Edition (if not the first edition)
• Place of publication (if there is more than one place listed, use the first named)
• Publisher
• Year of publication
• Available from: URL
• [Date of access]

e.g.

[2] Grech ED. ABC of interventional cardiology. 2nd ed. Chichester: Wiley blackwell;

   2011 Available from: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/imperial/detail.

   action?docID=822522 [Accessed 6th July 2017].

 

Book: chapter in an edited book

• Author of the chapter
• Title of chapter followed by, In:
• Editor (always put (ed.) after the name)
• Title of book (this should be in italics)
• Series title and number (if part of a series)
• Edition (if not the first edition)
• Place of publication (if there is more than one place listed, use the first named)
• Publisher
• Year of publication
• Page numbers (use 'p.' before single and multiple page numbers)

e.g.

[3] Partridge H, Hallam G. Evidence-based practice and information literacy. In: 

   Lipu S, Williamson K, Lloyd A. (eds.) Exploring methods in information literacy  

   research. Wagga Wagga, Australia: Centre for Information Studies; 2007. p.149-170

 

Journal article: print

• Author
• Title of journal article
• Title of journal (this should be in italics)
• Year of publication
• Volume number
• (Issue number)
• Page numbers of the article

e.g.

[4] Chhibber PK, Majumdar SK. Foreign ownership and profitability: Property rights,

   control, and the performance of firms in Indian industry. Journal of Law &  

   Economics.1999;42(1): 209–238.

 

Journal article: online/electronic

• Author
• Title of journal article
• Title of journal (this should be in italics)
• Year of publication
• Volume number
• (Issue number)
• Page numbers of the article
• Available from: URL (include [Date of access]) or DOI (if available)

e.g.

[5] Errami M, Garner H. A tale of two citations. Nature. 2008;451(7177): 397-399.

   Available from: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v451/n7177/full/451397a.html

   [Accessed 20th January 2015].

[6] Wang F, Maidment G, Missenden J and Tozer R. The novel use of phase 

   change materials in refrigeration plant. Part 1: Experimental investigation. Applied 

   Thermal Engineering. 2007;27(17–18): 2893-2901. Available from: 

   doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2005.06.011.

 

4.5 Supplementary Materials

Supplementary material that is not essential for inclusion in the main text of the manuscript but would benefit the reader can be made available as online-only content. Such information might include more detailed methods, extended data sets/data analyses, a list of investigators or additional figures. Submitted supplementary materials are published exactly as received (Excel or PowerPoint files will appear as such online). Authors can submit supplementary materials together with the manuscript and supply a concise, descriptive caption for each supplementary file. If you wish to make changes to supplementary materials during any stage of the submission process, please provide an updated file. Do not annotate any corrections on a previous version. Please switch off the 'Track Changes' option in Microsoft Office files as these will appear in the published version.

 

4.6 Permissions Information

If illustrations or figures are to be duplicated from previously published work, a written permission must be obtained from both the publisher and the author, and a credit line indicating the source must be added in the relevant Figure Legend. If text material (250 to 300 words) is to be reproduced from published sources, written permission is required from both publisher and author. For shorter quotations, it is sufficient to add a bibliographic credit. Letters containing reprint permission for the reproduction of either text or illustrations must be included in the manuscript upload. Please indicate if it is not possible to obtain permissions.

 

If all illustrations and figures in the manuscript are original, have not been previously published and therefore do not require the permission to reproduce, please include the following statement in the file uploaded for Permissions Information: "The authors hereby declare that all illustrations and figures in the manuscript are entirely original and do not require the reprint permission."

 

4.7 Research data sharing and reproducibility

Luminescience is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research and supports the Joint Declaration of Data Citation Principles. We encourage authors of articles published in our journals to share their research data including, but not limited to: raw data, processed data, software and supplementary materials in a relevant public data repository and include a data availability statement to confirm the presence or absence of shared data.

 

 

5. Editorial Policies

5.1 Peer Review

Luminescience practices the policy of double-blind peer review. Independent researchers, scholars and professionals in the relevant research area will be invited as the reviewers to assess the validity, originality and significance of the submitted manuscript, combined with journal editors' evaluation to determine whether a manuscript is qualified for publication. The ultimate purpose of peer review is to maintain the integrity of scientific inquiry by filtering out invalid or poor-quality manuscripts.

 

The recommendation and invitation of potential reviewers will be made by journal editors after manuscript goes through the initial assessment and is proven to be appropriate for further check by external reviewers. Authors are at liberty to suggest reviewers be included in or request that certain individuals be excluded from peer review with explicit reasons.

 

The reviewers must hold a Ph.D. , have no conflicts of interest, may not have published with the authors in the previous five years, or have recent publications in a field similar or related to the submitted manuscript. Reviewers will assess the technical soundness and validity of the methods, analysis and interpretation, all of which must be properly and especially ethically conducted to support the data. Through the peer review, at least two reports are collected for each manuscript-three if the advice from the first two reviewers differs substantially.

 

5.2 Editorial Process

Luminescience strictly follows a systematic editorial process with an embedded quality control mechanism outlined by the COPE, the DOAJ, the OASPA, and the WAME. Manuscripts submitted to our journals will be scrutinized critically by the editorial and peer review. All journal editors and reviewers act completely independently when making their decisions or suggestions on the submitted manuscripts.

Exceptions: Some manuscripts may be exempt from regular peer review, e.g., invited editorials, letters to the editor, book reviews, corrections, retractions, etc. These manuscripts are carefully reviewed and approved for publication by journal editors.

 

Pre-check

After receiving a new submission, the journal editors will perform an initial check on manuscripts with the following factors to concern:

• Manuscript's structure, style and compatibility based on journal guidelines;
• Whether the study fits the scope of the journal;
• Manuscript's originality to avoid plagiarism by using Crossref Similarity Check powered by iThenticate;
• Whether the requisite statements, pertaining to research ethics, conflicts of interests, etc., are included;
• Whether the methodology and/or data analysis are obviously defective;
• Whether the language and presentation are of a standard that permits peer review.

Lacking or inadequate in the aforementioned parameters, the manuscript may be rejected without further peer review.

 

Peer review

Luminescience practices the double-blind peer review, which means that both the reviewers and authors keep anonymous for each other throughout the review process. To facilitate this, authors need to ensure that their manuscripts are prepared in a way that does not give away their identities.

 

Generally, the reviewers will be given 3-4 weeks to complete the review report, and extensions can be granted on request that is not presumed to be frivolous or would unduly prolong the publication process in the case of potentially qualified, promising or interesting submissions.

 

Reviewers can recommend acceptance, minor revisions, major revisions or rejection. Specific comments for manuscript revision are also required. At least two valid review reports are collected for each manuscript. When deemed necessary, a third report will be solicited.

 

Editor decision

With the comprehensive consideration of the capability of selected reviewers, the adequacy of reviewer comments and author responses, the overall scientific quality of the paper, the journal editor, Guest Editor or Editor-in-Chief will make a decision on the paper under three parameters: rejection, acceptance or minor/major revision.

 

For a declined/rejected paper, the editorial process ends with no further step to the next level in the process. An accepted paper may proceed to the production stage after the author complies with any recommendation to improve the manuscript format as required. Manuscripts requiring minor revision may proceed to the next level of revision and accompanying reviews, where applicable. Conversely, manuscripts requiring major revisions will entail any such revisions made privy to the original blinded peer reviewer for further comments since they have become already conversant with its contents. The editors may alternatively elect a new round of peer reviews for any reason, including the unavailability of the previous reviewer(s). 

 

Manuscript revision

The authors are expected to:

• Revise the manuscript according to the written comments and advice from reviewers and journal editor(s), highlight the revised sections and mark any differences made;
• Conduct the manuscript formatting based on journal requirements for the resubmitted manuscript;
• Prepare a response letter, in which the author ought to provide feedback to reviewers' comments point-by-point and clarify what you act upon accordingly. For advice or suggestions that the author does not agree with, clarification or explanations shall be provided.

 

We would normally allow authors to make only two rounds of revision to avoid a lengthy peer-review process, which can become frustrating for authors and reviewers alike. If a manuscript needs extensive revisions, we would recommend rejection with an invitation to resubmit the revised manuscript. If further revisions would not make the manuscript acceptable, it should be rejected without an offer to resubmit.

 

Production

After being accepted for publication in our journal, the manuscripts will go through the production process, including copy editing, language editing, layout editing, proofreading and conversion to other formats, e.g., XML, HTML, PDF.

 

We encourage authors to carry out spelling and grammar checks prior to submission and after revision, and then we will help to edit the language of the accepted version for free. An additional fee will be charged if the author needs an extensive language editing service from our editorial office.

 

5.3 Article Retraction & Withdrawal

Luminescience recognizes the importance of the integrity and completeness of scholarly record to researchers and the academic community. We attach the highest importance to maintaining the trust in the authority of our electronic archives.

 

Articles that have been published should remain unaltered as far as possible. However, occasionally, if any unavoidable circumstances arise after the publication, the article will be retracted or even removed from a particular journal. Such actions must not be undertaken lightly and can only occur under exceptional circumstances, such as the severe breach of research and publication ethics like the violation of copyrights and the repetition or republication of the manuscript by manipulating the facts and figures.

 

Article Withdrawal

This is applicable for manuscripts in the stage of "Article in Press" which represents the early versions of the accepted manuscripts. If any manuscript at this stage infringes the Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct, such as multiple submissions, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarisms and the fraudulent use of data, the manuscript may be withdrawn depending on the Editor’s discretion. In this regard, editors assess and analyze the entire situation on a case-by-case basis.

 

Article Retraction 

This is applicable for articles published already. Infringements of the Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct, such as multiple submissions, sham claims of authorship, plagiarisms, the fraudulent use of data and similar claims, will lead to the retraction of an article. Occasionally, a retraction may be considered to correct errors in the submission or publication. Contingently, this best practice paradigm is adopted for article retraction by Luminescience, namely:

 

A retraction note entitled "Retraction: [article title]" and signed by the authors and/or the editors will be published in the paginated part of a subsequent issue of the journal and listed in the table of contents. In the electronic version, a link is made to the original article, and the online article is preceded by the screen containing the retraction note. The reader can then proceed to the article itself. The original article remains unchanged, except for a watermark on the PDF on every page indicating that it has been "retracted." Note that if authors retain the copyright for an article, this does not mean that they automatically have the right to retract it after publication. The integrity of the published scientific record is of paramount importance, and COPE's Retraction Guidelines still apply and override any other considerations in such cases.

 

Article Removal: legal limitations

In an extremely limited number of cases, it may be necessary to remove an article from the online database. This will only occur when the article is clearly defamatory or infringes upon others' legal rights,  or Luminescience has reasons to suspect it will be, the subject of a court order, or when the article, if acted upon, might pose a potentially serious health risk to consumers. In these circumstances, while the metadata (Title and Authors) will be retained, the text will be replaced with a screen, which indicates that the article has been removed for legal reasons.

 

Article Replacement 

In cases where the article, if acted upon, might pose a potentially serious health risk, the authors of the original article may wish to retract the flawed original and replace it with a corrected version. In such circumstances, the procedures for retraction will be followed by a specification that the database retraction notice will publish a link to the corrected re-published article and the history of the document.

 

 

6. Publication

6.1 Copyright and License

Luminescience do not require the transfer of copyright as the copyright remains with the author. In opting for open access, the authors should agree to publish the article under the CC BY license (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License). The CC BY license allows for the maximum dissemination and re-use of open access materials and is preferred by many research funding bodies. Under this license, users are free to share (copy, distribute and transmit) and remix (adapt) the contribution, including for commercial purposes, providing they attribute the contribution in the manner specified by the author or licensor.

 

6.2 Open Access Policy

All journals published by Luminescience are open access. We serve authors, scientific communities and global readers by publishing high-quality, peer-reviewed open access content which is immediately freely available to read, download and share.

 

By breaking the barriers preventing knowledge from being freely accessed, the rights to fully use these achievements in the digital environment are provided, and, therefore, scholars from different disciplines are endowed with more opportunities to exchange academics.

 

Once the author contributes to us, it means that the author tacitly agrees to the open access policy of the Luminescience Press.

 

6.3 Archiving Policy

To ensure permanent access to our publications, we will reserve all journals' content in CLOCKSS and make it to be indexed by PubMed Central databases.

 

Authors are encouraged to self-archive the final version of their published articles into institutional repositories (such as those listed in the Directory of Open Access Repositories). For this purpose, authors are strongly encouraged to use the final PDF version published on the website of Luminescience.

 

For the purpose of record-keeping, Luminescience retains copies of submitted manuscripts and supporting files. However, for articles that are rejected we will comply with requests from authors to delete such files from our database.