Instructions to Authors

• How We Publish
• Editorial Policies
• Submission
  • Article Types
  • Preparing Your Manuscript
• Publication and Research Ethics
• Publishing Agreements and Charges

Scope of the Journal

Bulletin of the Chemical Society of Japan (BCSJ) is devoted to the publication of scientific research papers in the fields of Theoretical and Physical Chemistry, Analytical and Inorganic Chemistry, Organic and Biological Chemistry, and Applied and Materials Chemistry. BCSJ appears monthly with two kinds of papers (Accounts and Articles) describing original research and Reviews. The purpose of BCSJ is to select and publish the most important papers with the broadest significance to the chemistry community in general.

How We Publish

The BCSJ is a peer-reviewed journal publishing 12 issues per year online. Once a paper is accepted and the publishing agreement is signed, the Journal will publish the Accepted Manuscript version of the paper (before copyediting and review of the final proof) within one week on the Advance Access page. Substantial changes to the published Accepted Manuscript may require a correction notice. The Accepted Manuscript will be removed from Advance Access when the Version of Record of the paper (after copyediting and proof review process) is published into the currently open issue. The Version of Record requires a correction notice for any changes after it is published, even if it is not yet placed in an issue. See the definitions of the Version of Record and other versions of the paper for more details. The Editors may return manuscripts that do not follow these instructions.

Editorial Policies

Peer Review Process

The Journal operates single-anonymized peer review, meaning that the identity of the authors is known to the editors and to the reviewers, but that the reviewers’ identities are known only to the editors and are hidden from the authors.

Once a submitted manuscript passes initial assessment by the Section Editors, it will then be passed to an Associate Editor to undergo peer review before recommending a final decision. The Editor-in-Chief and Section Editors reserve the right to change the decision made by the Associate Editor. During the peer review phase, your manuscript is typically sent to two reviewers. You may suggest potential reviewers at submission. However, there is no guarantee the suggested reviewers will be selected by the Journal.

For full details about the peer review process, see Fair editing and peer review or OUP author FAQs. 

Appeals and Complaints

Authors may appeal an editorial decision. To do so, please contact the editorial office, providing as much specific detail as possible about why the original decision should be reconsidered. Every appeal will be assessed by the Editor-in-Chief and the Section Editor and will receive a response within a reasonable timeframe. Please do not resubmit your manuscript in the interim.

Availability of Data and Materials

Where ethically feasible, the Journal strongly encourages authors to make all data and software code on which the conclusions of the paper rely available to readers. Whenever possible, data should be presented in the main manuscript or additional supporting files or deposited in a public repository. Visit OUP’s Research data page for information on general repositories for all data types, and resources for selecting repositories by subject area. When data and software underlying the research article are available in an online source, authors should include a full citation in their reference list. For details of the minimum information to be included in data and software citations see the OUP guidance on citing research data and software.

Self-archiving

Self-archiving refers to posting a copy of your work on a publicly accessible website or repository. Under certain circumstances, you may self-archive versions of your work on your own webpages, on institutional webpages, and in other repositories. For information about the Journal's policy, and to learn which version(s) of your paper are acceptable for self-archiving, please see our Author self-archiving policy.

Contact Us

For questions regarding submission and review, including appeals, you can reach the editorial office by email at: [email protected].

After your paper has been sent to production, you can contact [email protected] for questions regarding the production process or publication. Please see Post-publication changes if you need to request a substantive correction to your published paper.

Submission

How to Submit

Authors must submit their papers via our web-based submission system ScholarOne Manuscripts, which may be found at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/bcsj. If authors have not published with BCSJ before, they will need to create an account. More information is available on the ScholarOne Manuscripts FAQ and help page. Questions about submitting can be sent to the editorial office at: [email protected].

Article Types

This journal publishes several different article types:

Please note that, as of October 2023, the journal is no longer accepting submissions of Short Articles.

Articles

Articles are original research papers describing meaningful studies that are complete. However, Articles may contain results already published in journals for rapid publication such as Chemistry Letters.

Each piece should include:

• Abstract—suggested word count: 200
• Keywords—Just 3 keywords
• References— No limitation
• May include tables and figures— No limitation

The main text may contain subheadings such as Experimental (or Theoretical), Results, Discussion, and Conclusion. Acknowledgements may be placed at the end of the text. Availability of Supporting Information may be mentioned before the References.

Accounts and Reviews (Invited Only)

Account and Review articles are contributions of overview with perspectives of active research areas with current interest. The contents of the Accounts may be largely from the author's own laboratory. Review articles include balanced descriptions of research developments by a wide range of the research community, to which the author's own specialist views are added.

Each piece should include:

• Abstract— suggested word count: 200
• Keywords— Just 3 keywords
• References— No limitation
• May include tables and figures— No limitation

CSJ Accounts

Contributed Account or Review articles by authors who wish to contribute them are highly welcome.

Each piece should include:

• Abstract— suggested word count: 200
• Keywords—Just 3 keywords
• References— No limitation
• May include tables and figures.

Award Accounts

Recipients of specific awards administered by the CSJ are requested to contribute Award Accounts to BCSJ based on their outstanding accomplishments: They include The CSJ Award, The CSJ Award for Creative Work, The CSJ Award for Young Chemists, and The CSJ Award for Outstanding Young Women Chemists.

Each piece should include:

• Abstract—suggested word count: 200
• Keywords—Just 3 keywords
• References
• May include tables and figures.

Preparing Your Manuscript

All authors are required to prepare their manuscript using the BCSJ template. The template files for the main article text and supplementary material can be downloaded from the links below:

BCSJ manuscript template

BCSJ template for supplementary material

General guidelines on preparing your manuscript for publication can be found on OUP’s Preparing and submitting your manuscript page. Specific instructions for BCSJ can be found below.

Pre-submission Language Editing

You may wish to use a language-editing service before submitting to ensure that editors and reviewers understand your manuscript. Our publisher, Oxford University Press, partners with Enago, a leading provider of author services. Prospective authors are entitled to a discount of 30% for editing services at Enago, through the OUP-Enago partner page. Enago is an independent service provider, who will handle all aspects of this service, including payment. As an author you are under no obligation to take up this offer. Language editing is optional and does not guarantee that your manuscript will be accepted. Edited manuscripts will undergo the regular review process of the Journal.

Title Page

Please include the following:

• The title of the paper
• All author names and affiliations
• Mailing address and email address of one corresponding author

Abstracts

Text abstracts must be written in English. Abstracts have a suggested length of 200 words and must not contain reference citations or abbreviations.

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments should be clearly labeled and included at the end of your manuscript.

Study Funding

You must fully declare all funding information relevant to the study, including specific grant numbers, under a separate subheading at the end of your manuscript.

Style

US spelling should be used throughout, except in quotations and in references.

Abbreviations

Journal abbreviations should conform to those used in Chemical Abstracts.

Nomenclature

Nomenclature should be clear, consistent, and unambiguous. It should conform as closely as possible to one of the following two nomenclature systems: the rules established by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), or the rules used in the Chemical Abstracts Index Guide. In any single manuscript, the authors should use only one system.

Symbols and Units

Symbols and units should conform as closely as possible to those of the System International (SI). In their use of symbols and units, authors should refer to ‘‘Quantities, Units, and Symbols in Physical Chemistry,’’

International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, RSC Publishing (2007).

Formulas, Equations, and Numbers of Compounds

Empirical and structural formulas and mathematical and chemical equations should be arranged to fill the width of one- or two-column format. All mathematical equations must be numbered in either Arabic or Roman numerals. In the labeling of equations, the following format is used:

x + y = z (1a)

3x + 3y = 4z (1b)

Compounds should be numbered with Arabic numerals, as a rule. Letters such as a, b, and c may be used in addition to the numerals.

Analyses

New compounds should be characterized by spectroscopic evidence as well as by elemental analysis to an accuracy of within 0.4%. The data are described as in this example. Found: C, 47.69; H, 3.94; N, 20.98%. Calcd for C21H20N8O9: C, 47.75; H, 3.81; N, 21.24%. In special cases, for example when the compound is unstable or not available in sufficient quantities for complete analysis, other supporting data, such as 1H and 13C NMR charts or GC or HPLC traces with appropriate integration, should be supplied for proving the purity and homogeneity of the compound. In such cases, evidence of molecular composition (i.e., HR-MS data) should also be provided.

Description of Crystal Structure Analyses

Reports of crystal structure analyses are to be presented as recommended by the Commission of Crystallographic Data of the International Union of Crystallography. Details can be found in the Notice to Authors of recent issues of Acta Crystallographica, Section C, or in the Web edition downloaded from http://www.iucr.org/. The paper should include most crystallographic data and details of refinement, figures of the crystal structure, molecular structure, or both, and selected bond distances and angles. Tables of final atomic coordinates and thermal factors may be submitted as Supplementary Materials for Review Only.

Deposition of X-ray Crystallographic Data

Authors are requested to deposit all the X-ray data in the Crystallographic Information File (CIF) format electronically to the CCDC for each structure, after receiving notification of the manuscript’s acceptance. Authors are requested to include the following standard text in the ‘‘Experimental’’ section of the manuscript at the initial submission and add the deposit number(s) in the final revised manuscript:

Crystallographic data reported in this manuscript have been deposited with Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre as supplementary publication no. CCDC-000000. Copies of the data can be obtained free of charge via CCDC Website.

Instruction for depositing the crystallographic data is available on the Web at https://www.ccdc.cam.ac.uk/community/access-deposit-structures/deposit-a-structure/.

Tables

Authors must number all tables (e.g., Table 1, Table 2, Table 3) and reference them in the text. Authors must place all tables at the end of the main text. Tables should be in an editable format, and not embedded as an image file.

Figures

Figures should be submitted in one of the following file formats: .jpeg, .jpg, .tiff or .eps. Images prepared as .bmp, .gif, .doc/.docx or .pdf files will not be accepted. You must include figure titles and legends within the manuscript file—they should not be included in the image file. You must submit each figure as an individual image file. Submit all panels of a multipanel figure on a single page as one file. For example, if the figure has 3 panels, the figure should be submitted as one file. Each panel should be labelled as a letter (A, B, C, D, etc.) in the upper-left corner of each panel.

Images of photographs or paintings can be provided as raster images. The resolution of raster files is measured by the number of dots or pixels in a given area, referred to as “dpi” or “ppi.”

• minimum resolution required for printed images or pictures: 350dpi
• minimum resolution for printed line art: 600dpi (complex or finely drawn line art should be 1200dpi)
• minimum resolution for electronic images (i.e., for on-screen viewing): 72dpi

Images of maps, charts, graphs, and diagrams are best rendered digitally as geometric forms called vector graphics. Vector images use mathematical relationships between points and the lines connecting them to describe an image. These file types do not use pixels; therefore resolution does not apply to vector images.

Figure accessibility and alt text

Incorporating alt text (alternative text) when submitting your paper helps to foster inclusivity and accessibility. Good alt text ensures that individuals with visual impairments or those using screen readers can comprehend the content and context of your figures. The aim of alt text is to provide concise and informative descriptions of your figure so that all readers have access to the same level of information and understanding, and that all can engage with and benefit from the visual elements integral to scholarly content. Including alt text demonstrates a commitment to accessibility and enhances the overall impact and reach of your work.  

Alt text is applicable to all images, figures, illustrations, and photographs. 

Alt text is only accessible via e-reader and so it won’t appear as part of the typeset article. 

Detailed guidance on how to draft and submit alt text. 

Reference List

Authors may format references in any readable style at submission. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of reference information. Styles for reference managers are available here.

Supplementary Material

You must submit supplementary data or supplementary material at the same time as the main manuscript.

• Supplementary material must be cited in the text of the main manuscript.
• Supplementary material will be available online only and will not be copyedited or typeset.
• Style and formatting of supplementary material should be consistent with that of the manuscript.
• Supplementary material should be formatted to function on any internet browser.
  • Documentation and online appendices should be submitted in PDF file format.
  • Data files should be submitted in a .zip file format.
• Materials (such as additional experimental details, routine spectral data, and movies) that accompany papers, but are too lengthy to be included in the main article, may be deposited and published as Supporting Information on the website.

Graphical Abstracts

Authors are required to submit a graphical abstract as part of the article, in addition to the text abstract. The graphical abstract should clearly summarize the focus and findings of the article and will be published as part of the article online and in the PDF  (please note that captions will not be included in the final published article, so authors are requested not to submit one). The graphical abstract should be submitted for peer review as a separate file, selecting the appropriate file-type designation in the journal’s online submission system. The file should be clearly named, e.g. graphical_abstract.tiff. See this page for guidance on appropriate file format and resolution for graphics.

Author Videos

Authors are encouraged to provide informative and educational digital videos that supplement the article submitted. Background music in videos will not be accepted and will be returned to the authors for removal. All videos should be pertinent to the article and complement the submission. All video submissions must adhere to the Journal’s peer review policy. Furthermore, video submissions should satisfy the following criteria.

For ease of download, the upper size limit of a single MMC file is 100 MB; 10 MB is recommended. The video must be formatted with a screen size no smaller than 320 × 240 pixels. Resolution of 1920 × 1080 is recommended. Acceptable file extensions are: .wmv, .mp4, .avi, .mov, and .mpg. Signed photo consent forms must be included for any patients featured in the video[s].

Video File Preparation:

• All videos must include either clear English-language narration (preferred) or subtitles (in English) as a guide to the viewer.
• Video segments should be no longer than 3 minutes in duration, if possible.
• The combined duration of all submitted video content should not exceed 15 minutes.
• Recommended frame rate: 24 fps (or 23.976 fps), 25 fps, and 30 fps (or 29.97 fps)
• Desired aspect ratio: 4:3 (standard) or 16:9 (widescreen)
• If compression is required to reduce file size for uploading, please use a minimum bit rate of 10,000 kbit/s – 20,000 kbit/s.
• Background music should not be included in the video.

For Optimal Video Quality:

• Film in landscape orientation with reproducible lens type, diffused light, and white-balanced conditions.
• Correct orientation should be provided in some form.
• Avoid excess zoom but apply when indicated.
• Coordination of optimal vantage point must be obtained to avoid typical obstructions of the camera’s main view.
• Audio can be included as part of the video but should be focused and informative.

Open Science Badges

BCSJ supports Open Science Badges to acknowledge open science practices. These badges are offered as incentives to share data and materials and preregister research, and signal to the reader that the content has been made available in a persistent location. These badges will feature in the published article. When submitting a manuscript, authors should indicate the desired badge, and include a completed Open Science Badge application form and eligibility will be confirmed upon acceptance.

The four badges are as follows:

• Open Materials Badge: This will be granted to authors who deposit research materials needed to reproduce the reported procedure and analysis in an Open Access repository; for example, the Open Science Framework (for other repositories please consult the Registry of Research Data Repositories). Open materials criteria can be found here, and a link should be given in the submitted paper with a link to the deposited materials.
• Open Data Badge: This will be awarded to authors who deposit their data in an Open Access repository (either an entire dataset or part of it, or a transformed dataset, as long as an independent researcher can reproduce the reported results). Criteria can be found here, and a link to the deposited data should be included in the paper.
• Preregistered Badge: This is awarded for having a preregistered design. A preregistered design includes: (1) Description of the research design and study materials including planned sample size, (2) Description of motivating research question or hypothesis, (3) Description of the outcome variable(s), and (4) Description of the predictor variables including controls, covariates, independent variables (conditions). When possible, the study materials themselves are included in the preregistration. More information can be found here.
• Preregistered Plus Analysis Plan Badge: This is awarded for having a preregistered research design (described above) and an analysis plan for the research and reporting results according to that plan. An analysis plan includes specification of the variables and the analyses that will be conducted. More information can be found here.

Please note that for all four badges, manuscripts should contain a link to data, materials, or preregistered research in the Open Science Framework or other recognized repository.

Publication and Research Ethics

Authorship

Authorship is confined to those who have made a significant contribution to the design and execution of the work described. The Journal will contact all listed authors at the point of submission to confirm their role. Any contributors whose participation does not meet the criteria for authorship should be acknowledged but not listed as an author. For a detailed definition of authorship, please see the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) definitions of authors and contributors.

The Journal does not allow ghost authorship, where an unnamed author prepares the article with no credit, or guest/gift authorship, where an author who made little or no contribution is listed as an author. The Journal follows Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidance on investigating and resolving these cases. For more information, please see the OUP Publication Ethics page.

After manuscript submission, no authorship changes (including the authorship list, author order, and who is designated as the corresponding author) should be made without the approval of the editor. All co-authors must agree on the change(s), and neither the Journal nor the publisher mediates such disputes. If individuals cannot agree on the authorship of a submitted manuscript, contact the editorial office. The dispute must be resolved among the individuals and their institution(s) before the manuscript can be accepted for publication. If an authorship dispute or change arises after a paper is accepted, contact OUP’s Author Support team. COPE provides guidance for authors on resolving authorship disputes.

ORCID

Authors are encouraged to provide their ORCID iDs (Open Researcher and Contributor IDs) at submission and take advantage of the benefits of participating in ORCID. If you do not already have an ORCID iD, you can register for free via the ORCID website. As ORCID identifiers are collected, they are included in papers and displayed online, both in the HTML and PDF versions of the publication, in compliance with recommended practice issued by ORCID. ORCID functionality online allows users to link to the ORCID website to view an author’s profile and list of publications. ORCID iDs are displayed on web pages and are sent downstream to third parties in data feeds, where supported. If you have registered with ORCID, you can associate your ORCID iD with your submission system account by going to your account details, entering your ORCID iD, and validating your details. Learn more about ORCID and how to link it to your account.

Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest

Authors

The Journal requires all authors to disclose any potential conflict of interest at the point of submission. Conflicts of interest should be clearly labeled and included at the end of the manuscript. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to ensure that conflicts of interest of all authors are declared to the Journal. A conflict of interest exists when the position, activities, or relationships of an individual, whether direct or indirect, financial or non-financial, could influence or be seen to influence the opinions or activities of the individual. For more information, refer to OUP’s definition of conflict of interest. The Journal follows the COPE guidance for any undisclosed conflict of interest that emerges during peer review, production, or after publication.

Peer Reviewers

Individuals that have a conflict of interest relating to a submitted manuscript should recuse themselves and will not be assigned to oversee, handle, or peer review the manuscript. If during peer review an editor, reviewer, or author becomes aware of a conflict of interest that was not previously known or disclosed they must inform the Editor-in-Chief immediately.

Editors and Editorial Board Members

At initial submission, the corresponding author must declare if the Editor-in-Chief, an Editor, or an Editorial Board Member of the Journal is an author of or contributor to the manuscript. Another Editor without a conflict of interest will oversee the peer review and decision-making process. If accepted, a statement will be published in the paper describing how the manuscript was handled.

Previously Published Material

You should only submit your manuscript(s) to the Journal if:

• It is original work by you and your co-author(s).
• It is not under consideration, in peer review, or accepted for publication in any other publication.
• It has not been published in any other publication.
• It contains nothing abusive, defamatory, derogatory, obscene, fraudulent, or illegal.

The submitting author must disclose in their cover letter and provide copies of all related or similar preprints, dissertations, manuscripts, published papers, and reports by the same authors (i.e., those containing substantially similar content or using the same, similar, or a subset of data) that have been previously published or posted electronically or are under consideration elsewhere at the time of manuscript submission. You must also provide a concise explanation of how the submitted manuscript differs from these related manuscripts and papers. All related previously published papers should be cited as references and described in the submitted manuscript. 

For previously published materials including tables and figures, please see the Reusing copyrighted materials section.

Preprints

CSJ does not recognize a preprint manuscript as a final version. BCSJ will receive a preprint manuscript under the following conditions.
A. This submitted manuscript is completely identical to the preprint manuscript, including the contents and authors.
B. DOI number of the preprint manuscript, clarification for not presenting in the media, and clarification that no content in whole or in part has been published in other journals are required in the cover letter.

Reusing Copyrighted material

As an author, you must obtain permission for any material used within your manuscript for which you are not the rightsholder, including quotations, tables, figures, or images. In seeking permissions for published materials, first contact the publisher rather than the author. For unpublished materials, start by contacting the creator. Copies of each grant of permission should be provided to the editorial office of the Journal. The permissions agreement must include the following:

• nonexclusive rights to reproduce the material in your paper in BCSJ
• rights for use in print and electronic format at a minimum, and preferably for use in any form or medium
• lifetime rights to use the material
• worldwide English-language rights

If you have chosen to publish under an open access license but have not obtained open access re-use permissions for third-party material contained within the manuscript, this must be stated clearly by supplying a credit line alongside the material with the following information:

• Title of content
• Author, Original publication, year of original publication, by permission of [rightsholder]
• This image/content is not covered by the terms of the Creative Commons license of this publication. For permission to reuse, please contact the rights holder.  

Our publisher, Oxford University Press, provides detailed Copyright and Permissions Guidelines, and a summary of the fundamental information.

Misconduct

Authors should observe high standards with respect to research integrity and publication ethics as set out by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Falsification or fabrication of data including inappropriate image manipulation, plagiarism, including duplicate publication of the author's own work without proper citation, and misappropriation of work are all unacceptable practices.  Allegations of ethical misconduct, both directly and through social media, are treated seriously and will be investigated in accordance with the relevant COPE guidance.

• If misconduct has been established beyond reasonable doubt, this may result in one or more of the following outcomes, among others:
• If a submitted manuscript is still under consideration, it may be rejected and returned to the author.
• If a paper has already been published online, depending on the nature and severity of the infraction, either a correction notice will be published and linked to the paper, or retraction of the paper will occur, following the COPE Retraction Guidelines.
• The relevant party’s institution(s) and/or other journals may be informed.

Manuscripts submitted to the Journal may be screened      with plagiarism-detection software. Any manuscript may be screened, especially if there is reason to suppose that part or all the of the manuscript has been previously published. COPE defines plagiarism as “when somebody presents the work of others (data, words or theories) as if they were their own and without proper acknowledgment.” COPE defines redundant/overlapping publication as “when a published work (or substantial sections from a published work) is/are published more than once (in the same or another language) without adequate acknowledgment of the source/cross-referencing/justification, or when the same (or substantially overlapping) data is presented in more than one publication without adequate cross-referencing/justification, particularly when this is done in such a way that reviewers/readers are unlikely to realize that most or all the findings have been published before.” COPE defines citation manipulation as “behaviors intended to inflate citation counts for personal gain, such as: excessive self-citation of an authors’ own work, excessive citation to the journal publishing the citing article, and excessive citation between journals in a coordinated manner.” Data fabrication is defined as intentionally creating fake data or misrepresenting research results. An example includes making up data sets. Data falsification is defined as manipulating research data with the purpose of intentionally giving a false representation. This can apply to images, research materials, equipment, or processes. Examples include cropping of gels/images to change context and omission of selected data. If notified of a potential breach of research misconduct or publication ethics, the Journal editor and editorial office staff may inform OUP and/or the author’s institutional affiliation(s).

Ethical Research

The Journal follows Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines on ethical oversight.  We take research integrity seriously, and all research published in the Journal must have been conducted in a fair and ethical manner. Wherever appropriate, the Journal requires that all research be done according to international and local guidelines.

Human Subjects

When reporting on human subjects, you should indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Helsinki Declaration, which were developed by the World Medical Association. For non-interventional studies, where ethical approval is not required or where a study has been granted an exemption by an ethics committee, this should be stated within the manuscript with a full explanation. Otherwise, manuscripts must include a statement in the Methods section that the research was performed after approval by a local ethics committee, institutional review board and/or local licensing committee, or that such approval was not required. The name of the authorizing body and any reference/permit numbers (where available) should also be stated there. Please be prepared to provide further information to the editorial office upon request.

Human subjects must give written informed consent, or if they are minors or incapacitated, such consent must be obtained from their parents or guardians. Consent forms should cover not only study participation but also the publication of the data collected. Also, any patient or provider information should be anonymized to the extent possible; names and ID numbers should not be used in the text and must be removed from any images (X-rays, photographs, etc.). Please note blanking out an individual’s eyes in a photograph is not an effective way to conceal their identity. In studies where verbal, rather than written, informed consent was obtained, this must be explained and stated within the manuscript. If informed consent is not required or where a study has been granted an exemption, this must be included in the Methods section along with the name of the authorizing body. Please be prepared to provide written consent forms signed by the participants or other appropriate documentation to the editorial office upon request.

Animal Subjects

Studies involving animals require approval from the relevant institutional ethics committee or institutional animal use and care committee, and the research must be conducted in accordance with applicable national and international guidelines. All such manuscripts must include a statement in the Methods section providing details of the name of the committee(s) that approved the study, as well as the permit or animal license numbers where available. Where a study has been granted an exemption, this must be stated in the Methods section along with the name of the authorizing body. Please be prepared to provide further information to the editorial office upon request.

ARRIVE Guidelines

You are encouraged to consult the ARRIVE guidelines recommended by the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3R).

Euthanasia or Anaesthesia Methods

Where applicable, any euthanasia or anesthesia methods must be carried out in accordance with applicable veterinary guidelines. These methods must be described in detail in the manuscript.

Laboratory Animals

Manuscripts describing research involving laboratory-based animals must include details on housing, husbandry, and steps taken to reduce suffering. In studies where experimental animals were euthanized, details must be provided on humane endpoints. Details on the planned behavioral observations or physiological measurements used to determine the humane endpoint must be described. You are advised to consult the NC3Rs guide on Humane Endpoints and the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) Guidelines for the Humane Slaughter of Animals.

Third-Party Permissions

If you wish to reproduce any material for which you do not own the copyright—including quotations, tables, or images—you must obtain permission from the copyright holder. The permissions agreement must include the following documents:

• nonexclusive rights to reproduce the material in your article in BCSJ
• both print and electronic rights, preferably for use in any form or medium
• lifetime rights to use the material
• worldwide English-language rights

Further information on obtaining permissions is available.

After Publication

Changes to Published Papers

The Journal will only make changes to published papers if the publication record is seriously affected by the academic accuracy of the published information. Changes to a published paper will be accompanied by a formal correction notice linking to and from the original paper.

As needed, we follow the COPE guidelines on retractions.

For more information and details of how to request changes, including for authors who wish to update their name and/or pronouns, please see OUP’s policy on changes to published papers.

Promoting Your Work

As the author, you are the best advocate for your work, and we encourage you to be involved in promoting your publication. Sharing your ideas and news about your publication with your colleagues and friends could take as little as 15 minutes and will make a real difference in raising the profile of your research.

You can promote your work by:

• Sharing your paper with colleagues and friends. If your paper is published open access, it will always be freely available to all readers, and you can share it without any limitations. Otherwise, use the toll-free link that is emailed to you after publication. It provides permanent, free access to your paper, even if your paper is updated.
• Signing up for an ORCID iD author identifier to distinguish yourself from any other researchers with the same name, create an online profile showcasing all your publications, and increase the visibility of your work.
• Using social media to promote your work. To learn more about self-promotion on social media, see our social media guide for authors.

Find out how Oxford University Press promotes your content.

Publishing Agreements and Charges

Publishing Agreements

After your manuscript is accepted, you will be asked to sign a license to publish through the Journals Licensing and Online Payments portal. The Journal offers the option of publishing under either a non-open access (standard) license or an open access (Creative Commons) license. There is a charge to publish under an open access license, which allows your paper to be freely accessible to all readers immediately upon online publication. Editorial decisions occur prior to this step and are not influenced by payment or ability to pay. The standard license makes your paper available only to Journal subscribers and there is no license charge. This license provides an exclusive license to publish and distribute the content. There is no transfer of ownership of the copyright. You, the author, retain copyright for the content.

Please note that some funders require open access publication as a condition of funding. If you are unsure whether you are required to publish open access, please check with your funder or institution before selecting your license.

Papers can be published under the following license types:

• Standard license to publish (Oxford University Press (OUP) Journals, Standard Publication Model)
• Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY)
• Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial license (CC BY-NC)
• United States Government License
• Crown Copyright License

Please see the OUP guidance on Licenses, copyright, and re-use rights for more information regarding these publishing agreement options.

Open Government License

The Open Government license is an open licensing model for content produced by employees of UK Crown bodies allowing users to copy, publish, distribute adapt and transmit the Information for commercial and non-commercial purposes. For additional information see here.

Charges

Open Access Charges

Please see the details of open access licenses and charges. If you select an open access license, you must pay the open access charge or request to use an institutional agreement to pay the open access charge through the Journals Licensing and Online Payments portal

Read and Publish

OUP has a growing number of open access agreements with institutions and consortia, which provide funding for open access publishing (also known as Read and Publish agreements). This means corresponding authors from participating institutions can publish open access, and the institution may pay the charge. Find out if your institution has an open access agreement.

Member Discounts

Corresponding authors who are members of the Chemical Society of Japan are eligible for a discount on the open access charge. If you wish to receive the member discount, please provide your member identifier when prompted as you submit your manuscript.

Open access charge discount: Please see the open access charge list.