Author Guidelines
Language editing pre submission
Human and animal research ethics
Manuscript format and structure/style
Alternative name in simplified Chinese
Submission
All manuscripts are submitted and reviewed via the journal's web-based manuscript submission system. New authors should create an account prior to submitting a manuscript for consideration. Questions about submitting to the journal should be sent to the editorial office at [email protected]. There are no submission fees for this journal.
Peer review process
This journal operates single-anonymised peer review, meaning that the Authors identity is known to the Editor and to the Reviewers, but that the Reviewers’ identities are known only to the Editor and are hidden from the Authors. For full details about the peer review process, see Fair editing and peer review.
All submissions to the journal are initially reviewed by one of the Editors. At this stage manuscripts may be rejected without peer review if it is felt that they are not of high enough priority or not relevant to the journal. This fast rejection process means that authors are given a quick decision and do not need to wait for the review process.
Manuscripts that are not instantly rejected are sent out for single blind peer review, usually to two independent reviewers. Based on the feedback from these reviewers and the Editors’ judgment a decision is given on the manuscript. The average time from submission to first decision is 4-5 weeks. If a paper is not acceptable in its present form, we will pass on suggestions for revisions to the author.
Language editing pre submission
Language editing, particularly if English is not your first language, can be used to ensure that the academic content of your paper is fully understood by the journal editors and reviewers. Please note that edited manuscripts will still need to undergo peer-review by the journal.
Ethics
Authors should observe high standards with respect to publication ethics as set out by the Commission on Publication Ethics (COPE). Falsification or fabrication of data, plagiarism, including duplicate publication of the authors’ own work without proper citation, and misappropriation of the work are all unacceptable practices. Any cases of ethical misconduct are treated very seriously and will be dealt with in accordance with the COPE guidelines.
Human and animal research ethics
Animal experiments
When reporting animal experiments authors should indicate whether the institution’s, national research council’s, or any other law on the care and use of laboratory animals was followed.
Human subjects
When reporting on human subjects, authors should indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Helsinki Declaration of the World Medical Association. Manuscripts should include a statement that the patient’s written consent was obtained and any information, including illustrations, should be as anonymized as far as possible. Authors should indicate that the design of the work has been approved by local ethical committees or that it conforms to standards currently applied in the country of origin. The name of the authorizing body should be stated in the paper.
Third-party copyright
In order to reproduce any third party material, including tables, figures, or images, in an article authors must obtain permission from the copyright holder and be compliant with any requirements the copyright holder may have pertaining to this reuse. When seeking to reproduce any kind of third party material authors should request the following:
- non-exclusive rights to reproduce the material in the specified article and journal;
- print and electronic rights, preferably for use in any form or medium;
- the right to use the material for the life of the work; and
- world-wide English-language rights.
It is particularly important to clear permission for use in both the print and online versions of the journal, and we are not able to accept permissions which carry a time limit because we retain journal articles as part of our online journal archive.
Further guidelines on clearing permissions can be found here.
Conflict of interest
Oxford University Press requires declaration of any conflict of interest upon submission online. If the manuscript is published, conflict of interest information will be communicated in a statement in the published paper.
Members of the editorial staff of the journal should include the following COI disclosure in their article: '[Author initial] holds the position of [Editor-in-Chief/Deputy Editor-in-Chief/Assistant Editor/Editorial Board Member] for Antibody Therapeutics and is blinded from reviewing or making decisions for the manuscript'
Plagiarism
Manuscripts submitted may be screened with iThenticate anti-plagiarism software in an attempt to detect and prevent plagiarism. Any manuscript may be screened, especially if there is reason to suppose part or all of the text has been previously published. Prior to final acceptance any manuscript that has not already been screened may be put through iThenticate. Please see more information about iThenticate.
Open access charges
Food Quality and Safety is a fully open access journal. All papers will be charged an OA fee of $1,855 once accepted.
Details of the open access licences and open access charges.
Corresponding authors based in countries and regions, that are part of the developing countries initiative are eligible for a full waiver of publishing fees in our fully open access journals. For further details, please see our APC Waiver Policy.
OUP has a growing number of Read and Publish agreements with institutions and consortia which provide funding for open access publishing. This means authors from participating institutions can publish open access, and the institution may pay the charge. Find out if your institution is participating.
For more details about the Open Access charge discount and waive policy, please contact [email protected]
Preparation of manuscript
Manuscript format and structure/style
For full information on required structure and style please see the template and information included here.
Basic formatting guide
- On the first page please include the title of paper, author names, and the address (including email) of the corresponding author. If there are multiple corresponding authors then nominate one for communication with the editorial office.
- We suggest a maximum length of 250 words for the Abstract. Avoid reference citations and abbreviations in the Abstract.
- Tables and figures should be accompanied by a legend. Please use a common image format for figures (e.g. pdf, eps, gif, tif, jpg). The initial submission can have figures and text in one file, rather than separate files if desired. Further information on figures can be found here. You can also send queries about figure files to [email protected].
- Videos can be published in the online article, with a still image of the video appearing in the print version. Please submit videos in MP4 format. Any supplementary videos that you do not want to be included in the article itself can be uploaded as supplementary data. All videos should have an accompanying legend.
- References should be formatted in name year style at submission, authors are responsible for their accuracy.
- Acknowledgements and details of funding sources should be included at the end of the text. Please refer to your funding organizations to acknowledge their support. PubMed Central links will require a specific grant number to be referenced.
- Please list all author contributions upon submission of the manuscript.
- Please also define non-standard abbreviations at the first occurrence and number figures and tables consecutively.
Upon revision papers should be submitted in an editable file format (i.e. not PDF) and figures should be submitted as separate, high-resolution, files.
For information on Latex files please see here.
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.
Supplementary material
Submit all material to be considered as Supplementary Material online at the same time as the main manuscript. Ensure that the supplementary material is referred to in the main manuscript at an appropriate point in the text. Supplementary material will be available online only and will not be copyedited, so ensure that it is clearly and succinctly presented, and that the style conforms with the rest of the paper. Also ensure that the presentation will work on any Internet browser. It is not recommended for the files to be more than 2 MB each, although exceptions can be made at the editorial office’s discretion.
Graphical abstract
Authors are encouraged to submit a graphical abstract, in addition to the text abstract. The graphical abstract should clearly summarize the focus and findings of the article, and will be published online on the issue page. 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. Please ensure graphical abstracts are in landscape format.
Note that graphical abstracts will be subject to any print reproduction charges that the journal levies for colour figures.
Data policy
The journal encourages all authors, where ethically possible, to publicly release all data underlying any published paper.
Availability of Data and Materials
Where ethically feasible, Food Quality and Safety strongly encourages authors to make all data and software code on which the conclusions of the paper rely available to readers. We suggest that data be presented in the main manuscript or additional supporting files, or deposited in a public repository whenever possible. Information on general repositories for all data types, and a list of recommended repositories by subject area, is available here.
Data and Software Citation
Food Quality and Safety supports the Force 11 Data Citation Principles and the recommendations of the FORCE11 Software Citation Implementation Group. 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 guidance on Citing research data and software.
Alternative name in simplified Chinese
The author can add an alternative name in simplified Chinese together with the English name to appear in both PDF and HTML versions of the article.
The alternative name will not display in search results or indexing services such as PubMed and Web of Science.
This is an optional functionality for FQS Chinese authors. At submission the author could include the simplified Chinese name in parentheses after their primary English name on the manuscript, for example:
Wei Zhang (张伟) and Fang Wang (王芳)
Manuscript Types
FQS welcomes the following main types of manuscripts that are subjected to online peer review:
- Research Articles present original research findings and discuss challenging issues in the broad field of plants and their interactions with biotic and abiotic environment.
- Reviews should present timely syntheses of topical themes in a selected area of food quality and safety and provide innovative ideas to inspire future research. The abstract does not need structure, and should be no more than 300 words. The main text should be written with the subject headings selected according to the content.
- Short Communications are shorter, peer-reviewed research articles, presenting new ideas, controversial opinions, “negative” results, or a new theory or concept based on existing research. Short Communication paper should contain an abstract (structure is not required; no more than 200 words), main text (may not be subdivided) and references, and no more than 6 figures or tables, combined, and is ideally published within 4 typeset pages. When submit Short Communication papers, a cover letter should clearly indicate that the paper is being submitted for consideration for the Short Communications section and explain why it should be published as a Short Communication paper.
- Perspectives are short articles, providing synthetic overview, critical commentary, or historical perspective. Perspective papers are often invited papers, but proposals for submitting a Perspective may also be considered, and should be sent to the Editorial Office. The main text should not exceed 1000 words (excluding references, figure legends and tables), with only 1 figure/table and less than 10 references, and with no section heading in the main text.
- Commentary papers are comments on one or a few newly published articles. The goal of publishing commentaries is to advance the research field by providing a forum for varying perspectives on a certain topic under consideration in the journal. A commentary paper can analyze current advances and future directions of a certain topic and can include original data as well as state a personal opinion.
Some other types of manuscripts, e.g. Editorials, News & Views, Correspondence, classified as “Editorial Materials”, are also welcomed. These do not contain primary research data, and thus do not undergo peer review.
