Instructions to Authors −Solvent Extraction Research and Development, Japan−

Aims and Scope

Solvent Extraction Research and Development, Japan (Solvent Extr. Res. Dev., Jpn.) is a periodical issued from Japan Association of Solvent Extraction (JASE) containing papers dealing with all aspects of solvent extraction and their related methods, underlying principles, and materials.

Solvent Extraction Research and Development, Japan is an international, peer-reviewed, and Open Access journal publishing outstanding and informative papers in all fields of solvent extraction. The journal is fully peer-reviewed and upholds the highest standards research and publishing ethics.

The journal publishes Articles, Notes, Technical reports, and Reviews. The journal particularly welcomes articles that promote the exchange of information between academics and industry. Subject areas include fundamentals, novel techniques, equipments, novel reagents, diluents, and applications of the solvent extraction, but does not include extraction for componential analysis and Soxhlet extraction.

The journal welcomes submissions from around the world. A broad international audience which includes researchers, engineers, and policy makers, have free access to the articles that are published continuously online.

Manuscript Types

The journal welcomes 4 manuscript types, all of which are subject to peer review. The manuscript should be prepared with the word processor by A4 size (29.6 cm × 21.0 cm) with 40 lines as camera-ready format. Detail information for the preparation of the manuscript will be described in “Manuscript Preparation” section.

Articles
Full and comprehensive reports describing original research presented in the standard format of Abstract, Introduction, Experimental, Results and Discussion, Conclusion, and References. The manuscript should be 6 - 14 pages.

Notes
Notes are short reports including new ideas or data, especially even when an early stage of development. The manuscript should be within 6 pages. and should follow the format for Articles.

Technical reports
Technical reports are the papers having practical importance, such as new technical information, new apparatus, novel extractant, and novel diluent. The manuscript should be within 6 pages. and should follow the format for Articles.

Reviews
Articles presenting novel or unique overviews of recent or important developments in the field. Reviews must be insightful and must address the question(s) of interest using appropriate and fully presented evidence; exhaustive general summaries will not be published. Reviews should be 6 - 14 pages and can explore several aspects of importance in a broader subject area. Reviews are occasionally commissioned by the Editor-in-Chief, and the journal welcomes proposals from interested authors.

Journal & Ethics Policies

Solvent Extraction Research and Development, Japan upholds the highest standards in scholarly publishing.

Before submitting a manuscript to the journal, authors must ensure that they have read and complied with the journal’s policies. The journal reserves the right to reject without review, or retract, any manuscript that the Editor believes may not comply with these policies.

The responsibilities of the journal’s authors, editors, reviewers, and Japan Association of Solvent Extraction (publisher) regarding research and publication ethics are described in full below.

Submission to the journal implies that the manuscript has not been previously published (in part or in whole, in any language), is not in press, and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.

Authors must inform the editors if any related manuscripts are under consideration, in press or published elsewhere.

If authors choose to submit their manuscript elsewhere before a final decision has been made on its suitability for publication in Solvent Extraction Research and Development, Japan, they should first withdraw it from Solvent Extraction Research and Development, Japan.

Submission
Solvent Extraction Research and Development, Japan welcomes manuscript submissions from authors based anywhere in the world.
Submission of a manuscript to the journal implies that all authors have approved it, warrant it is factual, have agreed to its submission, and have the right to publish it.

Originality
Submission to the journal implies that the manuscript is original work. Any manuscript with an unacceptable level of unoriginal material may be rejected or retracted at the Editors’ discretion.

Preprints
The journal does not accept the manuscript previously posted on any preprint servers.

Authorship
Submission to the journal implies that all authors have seen and approved the author list. Changes to the author list after manuscript submission - such as the insertion or removal of author names, or a rearrangement of author order - must be approved by all authors and the editor.
Authors are encouraged to consider the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations on ‘Defining the Role of Authors and Contributors’. The ICMJE recommends that authorship is based on four criteria: making a substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work, or the acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data for the work; drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content; approving the final version of the manuscript for publication; and agreeing to be held accountable for all aspects of the work. Any contributor who has met all four criteria should be an author on the manuscript. Contributors who do not meet all four criteria should not be authors of the manuscript but may be included in the Acknowledgements section instead.

Image integrity
Authors may digitally manipulate or process images, but only if the adjustments are kept to a minimum, are applied to the entire image, meet community standards, and are clearly described in the manuscript. All images in a manuscript must accurately reflect the original data on which they are based. Authors must not move, remove, add or enhance individual parts of an image. The editors reserve the right to request original, unprocessed images from the authors. Failure to provide requested images may result in a manuscript being rejected or retracted.

Reproducing copyrighted material
If a manuscript includes material that is not under the authors’ own copyright, the authors must obtain permission from the copyright holder(s) to reproduce it.
If a manuscript includes previously published material, the authors must obtain permission from the copyright owners and the publisher of the original work to reproduce it.
Copies of all reproduction permissions must be included with the manuscript when it is first submitted.

Availability of data and materials
Authors must disclose the source of publicly available data and materials, such as public repositories or commercial manufacturers, by including accession numbers or company details in their manuscript, as appropriate.
Authors may make their own data and materials available in Supplementary Material, or by linking from their manuscript to relevant community-recognized public databases or digital repositories. Authors commit to preserving their data sets for at least three years from the date of publication in the journal.
The journal encourages authors to grant reasonable requests from colleagues to share any data, materials and experimental protocols described in their manuscript.

Animal/human experimentation
Authors of manuscripts describing experiments involving humans or materials derived from humans must demonstrate that the work was carried out in accordance with the principles embodied in the Declaration of Helsinki, its revisions, and any guidelines approved by the authors’ institutions. Where relevant, the authors must include a statement in their manuscript that describes the procedures for obtaining informed consent from participants regarding participation in the research and publication of the research.
Authors of manuscripts describing experiments involving animals or materials derived from animals must demonstrate that the work was carried out in accordance with the guidelines approved by the authors’ institution(s).

Specimen collection
Manuscripts describing the collection of archaeological, geological, paleontological or wildlife specimens or samples should include detailed information on their provenance and collection methods. Authors must include a statement in their manuscript describing the relevant ethics guidelines, local laws and collection permits under which the research was conducted.

Clinical trial registration
The journal adheres to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) policy on Clinical Trials Registration, which recommends that all clinical trials are registered in a public trials registry at or before the time of first patient enrollment as a condition of consideration for publication. Manuscripts describing clinical trials must include the registration number of the trial and the name of the trial registry.

Reporting guidelines
The journal requires authors to follow the EQUATOR Network’s Reporting Guidelines for health research. Study types include, but are not limited to, randomized trials, observational studies, systematic reviews, case reports, qualitative research, diagnostic and prognostic studies, economic evaluations, animal pre-clinical studies and study protocols.

Author competing interests and conflicts of interest
In the interests of transparency, the journal requires all authors to declare any competing or conflicts of interest in relation to their submitted manuscript. A conflict of interest exists when there are actual, perceived or potential circumstances that could influence an author’s ability to conduct or report research impartially. Potential conflicts include (but are not limited to) competing commercial or financial interests, commercial affiliations, consulting roles, or ownership of stock or equity. Authors should declare conflicts of interest in the Declaration section of their manuscript.
Authors also should list all funding sources for their work in the Acknowledgements section of their manuscript.

Confidentiality
The journal maintains the confidentiality of all unpublished manuscripts. By submitting their manuscript to the journal, the authors warrant that they will keep all correspondence about their manuscript (from the Editorial Office, editors and reviewers) strictly confidential.

Self-archiving (Green Open Access) policy
Self-archiving, also known as Green Open Access, enables authors to deposit a copy of their manuscript in an online repository. Authors of original research manuscripts can upload their article to an institutional or public repository after publication in the journal.

Long-term digital archiving
J-STAGE preserves its full digital library, including Solvent Extraction Research Development, Japan, with Portico in a dark archive (see https://www.portico.org/publishers/jstage/). In the event that the material becomes unavailable at J-STAGE, it will be released and made available by Portico.

Peer Review Process

Editorial and peer review process
The journal uses single-blind peer review.
When a manuscript is submitted to the journal, it is assigned to the Editor who the authors choose when submitting. The Editor performs initial screening. Manuscripts that do not fit the journal’s scope or are not deemed suitable for publication are rejected without review. The Editor allocates each of the remaining manuscripts to an Associate Editor, who handles peer review. The Associate Editor selects two appropriate reviewers to provide their assessment of the manuscript. Reviewers are selected based on their expertise, reputation, and previous experience as peer reviewers. The deadline for submission of the reviewers’ reports varies by article type.
Once the reviewers’ reports have been received, the Associate Editor determines whether the manuscript requires revision. Authors who are asked to revise their manuscript must do so within one month, otherwise it may be treated as a new submission. The Associate Editor may send revised manuscripts to peer reviewers for their feedback or may use his or her own judgement to assess how closely the authors have followed the comments on the original manuscript. The Associate Editor then makes a final decision on the manuscript’s suitability for publication in the journal.
The Editor-in-Chief acts as an arbitrator when necessary.

Reviewer selection, timing, and suggestions
Reviewers are selected without regard to geography and need not belong to Solvent Extraction Research and Development, Japan Editorial Committee. Reviewers are selected based on their expertise in the field, reputation, recommendation by others, and/or previous experience as peer reviewers for the journal.
Reviewers are invited within 1 week of an article being submitted. Reviewers are asked to submit their first review within 3 weeks of accepting the invitation to review. Reviewers who anticipate any delays should inform the Editorial Office as soon as possible.

Reviewer reports
It is the journal’s policy to transmit reviewers’ comments to the authors in their original form. However, the journal reserves the right to edit reviewers’ comments, without consulting the reviewers, if they contain offensive language, confidential information or recommendations for publication.

Acceptance criteria
If a manuscript satisfies the journal’s requirements and represents a significant contribution to the published literature, the Editor may recommend acceptance for publication in the journal.
Articles in Solvent Extraction Research and Development, Japan must be:
• within the subject area of the journal’s scope
• novel and original
• descriptions of technically rigorous research
• of high interest to the journal’s audience
•important additions to the field.
If a manuscript does not meet the journal’s requirements for acceptance or revision, the Editor may recommend rejection.

Editorial independence
Japan Association of Solvent Extraction has granted the journal’s Editorial Board complete and sole responsibility for all editorial decisions. Japan Association of Solvent Extraction will not become involved in editorial decisions, except in cases of a fundamental breakdown of process.
Editorial decisions are based only on a manuscript’s scientific merit and are kept completely separate from the journal’s other interests. The authors’ ability to pay any publication charges has no bearing on whether a manuscript is accepted for publication in the journal.

Appeals
Authors who believe that an editorial decision has been made in error may lodge an appeal with the Editorial Office. Appeals are only considered if the authors provide detailed evidence of a misunderstanding or mistake by a reviewer or editor. Appeals are considered carefully by the Editor-in-Chief, whose decision is final. The guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) are followed where and when relevant.

Confidentiality in peer review
The journal maintains the confidentiality of all unpublished manuscripts. Editors and reviewers will not:
1. disclose a reviewer’s identity unless the reviewer makes a reasonable request for such disclosure
2. discuss the manuscript or its contents with anyone not directly involved with the manuscript or its peer review
3. use any data or information from the manuscript in their own work or publications
4. use information obtained from the peer review process to provide an advantage to themselves or anyone else, or to disadvantage any individual or organization.
In addition, reviewers will not reveal their identity to any of the authors of the manuscript or involve anyone else in the review (for example, a post-doc or PhD student) without first requesting permission from the Editor.

Conflicts of interest in peer review
A conflict of interest exists when there are actual, perceived or potential circumstances that could influence an editor’s ability to act impartially when assessing a manuscript. Such circumstances might include having a personal or professional relationship with an author, working on the same topic or in direct competition with an author, having a financial stake in the work or its publication, or having seen previous versions of the manuscript.
Members of the journal’s Editorial Board and reviewers undertake or are asked to declare any conflicts of interest when handling manuscripts. An editor or reviewer who declares a conflict of interest is unassigned from the manuscript in question and is replaced by a new editor or reviewer.
Editors try to avoid conflicts of interest when inviting reviewers, but it is not always possible to identify potential bias.

Errata and retractions
The journal recognizes the importance of maintaining the integrity of published literature.
A published article that contains an error may be corrected through the publication of an Erratum. Errata describe errors that significantly affect the scientific integrity of a publication, the reputation of the authors, or the journal itself. Authors who wish to correct a published article should contact the editor who handled their manuscript or the Editorial Office with full details of the error(s) and their requested changes. In cases where co-authors disagree over a correction, the Editor-in-Chief may consult the Editorial Board or external peer reviewers for advice. If a Correction is published, any dissenting authors will be noted in the text.
A published article that contains invalid or unreliable results or conclusions, has been published elsewhere, or has infringed codes of conduct (covering research or publication ethics) may be retracted. Individuals who believe that a published article should be retracted are encouraged to contact the journal’s Editorial Office with full details of their concerns. The Editor-in-Chief will investigate further and contact the authors of the published article for their response. In cases where co-authors disagree over a retraction, the Editor-in-Chief may consult the Editorial Board or external peer reviewers for advice. If a Retraction is published, any dissenting authors will be noted in the text.
The decision to publish Errata or Retractions is made at the sole discretion of the Editor-in-Chief.

Editors as authors in the journal Any member of the journal’s Editorial Board, including the Editor-in-Chief who is an author on a submitted manuscript is excluded from the peer review process and from viewing details about their manuscript.
A manuscript authored by an editor of Solvent Extraction Research and Development, Japan is subject to the same high standards of peer review and editorial decision making as any manuscript considered by the journal.

Responding to potential ethical breaches
The journal will respond to allegations of ethical breaches by following its own policies and, where possible, the guidelines of COPE.

Copyright, Open Access and Fees

Solvent Extraction Research and Development, Japan is fully Open Access and uses Creative Commons (CC) licenses, which allow users to use, reuse and build upon the material published in the journal without charge or the need to ask prior permission from the publisher or author. More details on the CC licenses are below.

Copyright and licensing
Authors are required to assign all copyrights in the work to the Japan Association of Solvent Extraction, who then publish the work under the Creative Commons CC BY) 4.0 International license, as detailed below.
All articles in the journal are Open Access. Authors can choose the following Creative Commons license: CC BY 4.0 (Attribution 4.0 International). This license allows users to share and adapt an article, even commercially, as long as they cite the original authors and source properly.
Some funding bodies require articles funded by them to be published under a specific Creative Commons license. Before submitting your work to the journal, check with the relevant funding bodies to ensure that you comply with any mandates.

Article Processing Charge
There are many costs associated with publishing scholarly journals, such as those of managing peer review, copy editing, typesetting and online hosting. To cover these costs in the absence of journal subscriptions, authors (or their representatives) are asked to pay article processing charges (APCs).
The journal charges an APC of 3,000 JPY/page for member of Japan Association of Solvent Extraction and of 5,000 JPY/page for non-member of Japan Association of Solvent Extraction for all article types except commissioned Reviews, which is free to publish. Authors of accepted manuscripts will be invoiced for the APC before publication of their manuscript.

Manuscript Submission

All manuscripts must be submitted via the journal’s online submission system, http://www.solventextraction.gr.jp/serdj/submitapaper.php. The original manuscript text may be uploaded as a PDF or Microsoft Word file, but a Word file is required for the final manuscript text. The manuscript must be prepared as camera-ready format. Reviewer reports will be sent via e-mail, and the corresponding revised manuscript should be submitted via e-mail.
If you encounter any problems with online submission, please contact the Editorial Office by e-mail to serdj@solventextraction.gr.jp

Manuscript Preparation

Style
Manuscripts should be prepared in Microsoft Word as camera-ready format. Since the original manuscript properly prepared is essential, any manuscript impossible to camera-ready publication will be rejected.
The manuscript should be prepared by A4 size (29.6 cm × 21.0 cm) with 40 lines. Serif fonts such as Times and Times New Roman are recommended, and point size is 10.5. Leave each margin: 30 mm on the top margin, 36 mm on the bottom margin, and 25 mm on the left and the right margins for all pages. Please refer the "Manuscript Template" file for the details. This template includes line numbers, which may be used for reviewing. After reviewing, these line numbers should be deleted (In Word, select Layout tab, Line Numbers are changed to None).

English standards
Manuscripts should be written in clear, grammatically correct English. Authors whose native language is not English are strongly encouraged to have their manuscript checked by a native English speaker or by an editing service prior to submission. If a manuscript is not clear due to poor English, it may be rejected without undergoing peer review.

Cover Letter
A cover letter must be included which includes the name of the manuscript and the contact details of the corresponding author. Authors should summarize the aims and outcomes of their work and how and why the work is appropriate for publication. Details of any relevant consent and/or ethics approvals, and other such items must be included in the cover letter.

Format
Each Article should comprise the following sections: Title, Authors and Affiliations, Abstract, Introduction, Experimental, Results and Discussion, Conclusion, and References. In other article types, such as Reviews, sections may be omitted or combined as appropriate.

Title
The title should describe the content of the article briefly but clearly and is important for search purposes by third-party services. Do not use the same main title with numbered minor titles, even for a series of papers by the same authors. Do not use abbreviations in the title, except those used generally in related fields.

Authors and Affiliations
Provide the full names, with initials, of the author(s). Provide full names and addresses of institutions (including department, institute and/or university, city, state and country). When authors belong to different institutions, their respective addresses should be indicated by superscript numbers. When authors have new addresses, they should be given below the present address and should be indicated by superscript symbols of §.

Abbreviations
Each abbreviation should be defined in parentheses together with its non-abbreviated term when it first appears in the text (except in the Title and Abstract).

Units
SI or SI-derived units should be used. More information on SI units is available at the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM) website.

Abstract
The Abstract should clearly express the basic content of the paper in a single paragraph and should include the problem addressed, experimental approach, main results and findings, and conclusions. Abstracts should be 100 - 150 words for all article types. Avoid using specific abbreviations. If it is essential to refer to a previous publication, omit the article title (e.g. T. Oshima, T. Asano, T. Ishibashi, K. Ohe, K. Ohto, Jumina, Solvent Extr. Res. Dev., Jpn., 30, 59-69 (2023)).

Introduction
The Introduction should provide sufficient background information to allow the reader to understand the purpose of the investigation and its relationship with other research in related fields, although it should not include an extensive review of the literature.

Experimental
The description of the experimental should be brief, but it must include sufficient details to allow the experiments to be repeated. The sources of unusual chemicals, animals, microbial strains or equipment should be described, and the location (city, country) of the company should be provided in parentheses. If hazardous materials or dangerous procedures are used in the experiments and the precautions related to their handling are not widely recognized, it is recommended that the authors provide the necessary details.

Results and Discussion
This section includes the results of the experiments and discussion for the results. Tables and figures, including photographs, can be used to present the experimental results (see below). Excessive explanations of the data presented in tables and figures should be avoided. Discussion should be concise and should deal with the interpretation of the results. Novel models or hypotheses may be proposed in this section only if they are suggested by the results obtained in the experiments. Do not repeat the description of the experimental results in this section. Discussion can be combined with Results as “Results and Discussion”.

Conclusion
The Conclusion should be concise and should deal with the interpretation of the results.

Acknowledgments
This section should be brief. Authors should list all funding sources for their work in the Acknowledgements section.

Declaration
Conflicts of interest should be declared in this section.

References
Arabic numerals in brackets on the line are used in the text to indicate a reference. Reference should be numbered consecutively. Full references should be listed at the end of the text in numerical order. The author(s) initials and last name to a referenced paper, the title of journal (use Chemical Abstracts abbreviations), the volume number, the first page and the last page, and the year in parentheses should appear in that order. Books are similarly cited and should include the publisher's name and location, along with the title of the book and the published year. Reference to a patent should include the name of the inventor(s), title of the patent, patent number, and the year in parentheses.

Tables
Number tables consecutively using Arabic numerals (Table 1, Table 2, etc.). A title should be given to each table. Explanatory material and footnotes should be typed below the table and should be designated with superscript letters, such as a) or b). Units of measurement should be included with numerical values at the top of columns. Avoid detailed explanations of the experimental conditions used to obtain the data shown in tables (which should be included in other sections as relevant).

Figures
Figures should be of high enough resolution for direct reproduction for printing. Note that ‘figures’ includes line drawings and photographs, as well as charts. Magnifications of photographs should be indicated in the legends and/or by scales included in the photographs. Illustrations must be self-explanatory and they should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals (i.e., Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.). Each figure should have a short title. Figure legends should be typed together in a separate sheet(s). Figure legends should include sufficient experimental details to make the figures intelligible; however, duplicating the descriptions provided in other sections should be avoided.

Supplementary Information
Supplementary material adds, but is not essential, to a reader’s understanding of a manuscript. Authors are encouraged to submit supplementary material for online-only publication. Supplementary material may comprise data, text, audio or movie files, and is published online alongside the accepted manuscript.
As supplementary material is peer-reviewed, authors must submit it in its final form as part of their manuscript submission. After a manuscript has been accepted for publication, authors may not make any changes to the supplementary material.

Accepted Manuscripts

Manuscripts that are accepted for publication are adjusted by the journal’s production team before publication. The journal is published 2 times per year. All communication regarding accepted manuscripts is with the corresponding author.

English Editing
The accepted manuscript will be edited by English-native speaker for further processing of “English polish-up”.

Proofs
Page proofs are sent to the corresponding author, who should check and return them within 2 days. Only essential corrections to typesetting errors or omissions are accepted; excessive changes are not permitted at the proofing stage.

Reprints
Reprints are not provided by the journal. The authors can download the PDF file after published the paper.

Contact

To contact the Editorial Office or the Editor-in-Chief, please write to:
Keisuke Ohto
Professor, Saga University
serdj @ solventextraction.gr.jp

Established on July 8, 2024