Instructions for Authors
Molecules (ISSN
1420-3049)
aims to
maintain
a rigorous peer-review system and a rapid editorial system. This open
access journal is funded by publication
charges paid
by authors and charge
waiver program. It is
also funded
through the
deposit of samples
with MDPI. This allows us to provide unlimited free access to the
online
edition for all readers. Authors may distribute an unlimited number of
e-reprints via e-mail free of charge. Accepted papers will be published
immediately. Authors are kindly asked to prepare and submit manuscripts
according the following instructions.
Submission of Manuscripts
- Manuscripts (regular papers, reviews and
communications)
should
be submitted by e-mail to [email protected]
- Molbank
section became a
separate journal since 2002 and the short notes should
be submitted to [email protected].
Manuscript Preparation
- Manuscripts
should be prepared in English using a word processor.
A template
file can be used. MS
Word
for Macintosh or for Windows .doc or .rtf files are preferred.
Manuscripts
may be prepared with other software, provided that the full document
(with
figures, schemes and tables inserted into the text) is exported to a MS
Word format for submission. Times or Times New Roman font is preferred.
The font size should be 12 pt. and the line spacing "at least" 17 pt.
Although our final output is in .pdf format, authors are
asked
to not send manuscripts in this format as editing
them is much
more
complicated.
Special Notes regarding MS Word files:
- Please do not
insert any graphics (schemes,
figures, etc.)
into a movable frame which can superimpose the text and make the layout
very difficult.
- Most
formatting codes will be removed or
replaced
on processing
your article so there is no need to use excessive layout
styling.
In addition, options such as automatic word breaking, double columns,
footnotes,
automatic numbering (especially for references) or add-ins
like
EndNote
should not be used. However, bold face, italic, subscripts,
superscripts,
etc. may be used for emphasis as needed. Authors from countries where
right-to-left
writing is used should ensure their manuscripts have Western style
(left-to-right)
formatting.
- The
standard style of Molecules should be followed.
Prospective
authors should consult any current issue of Molecules for
examples
of this style. A template
file may be downloaded from the Molecules
homepage.
- Authors' full mailing addresses,
homepage addresses, phone and
fax
numbers,
e-mail addresses and homepages can be included in the title page and
these
will be published in the manuscripts and the Table of Contents. The
corresponding
author should be clearly identified. It is the corresponding author's
responsibility
to ensure that all co-authors are aware of and approve of the contents
of a submitted manuscript.
- A brief (200 word
maximum) Abstract should be provided. The use
in the
Abstract of numbers to identify compounds should be avoided,
unless
these compounds are also identified by name.
- A
list of three to five keywords must be given, and placed after
the
Abstract.
Keywords may be single words or very short sentences.
- Although
variations in accord with a manuscript's contents are
permissible,
in general all papers should have the following sections: Introduction,
Results and Discussion, Conclusions, Acknowledgments (if applicable),
Experimental
and References (or References and Notes, if applicable).
- Authors
are encouraged to prepare figures and schemes in color.
Full
color
graphics will be published free of charge. Conference slides, video
sequences,
software, etc., can also be included and will be published as
supplementary
material.
- Tables should be inserted into the main
text, and numbers and
titles
supplied
for all tables. All table columns should have an explanatory heading.
To
facilitate layout of large tables, smaller fonts may be used, but in no
case should these be less than 10 pt. in size. Authors should use the
Table
option of MS Word to create tables, rather than tabs, as tab delimited
columns are often difficult to format in .pdf for final output.
- Figures and schemes should also be placed in numerical
order
in
the
appropriate
place within the main text. Numbers, titles and legends should be
provided
for all schemes and figures. These should be prepared as a separate
paragraph
of the main text and placed in the main text before the figure or
scheme. Chemical
structures and reaction schemes should be drawn using an appropriate
software
package designed for this purpose. As a guideline, these should be
drawn
to a scale such that all the details and text are clearly legible when
placed in the manuscript (i.e. text should be no smaller that 8-9 pt.).
To facilitate editing we recommend the use of any of the software
packages
widely available for this purpose: MDL®
Isis/Draw,
ACD/ChemSketch®,
CS ChemDraw®, ChemWindow®,
etc.
Free
versions of some of these products are available for personal or
academic
use from the respective publishers. If another less common structure
drawing
software is used, authors should ensure the figures are saved in a file
format compatible with of one of these products.
- X-ray crystallographic data. To avoid
publication of
extensive compilations
of crystallographic data and facilitate refereeing of manuscripts, Molecules
has entered a data deposition scheme with the Cambridge
Crystallographic
Data Centre (http://www.ccdc.cam.ac.uk/).
Authors planning to include such results in their papers should contact
the CCDC to deposit the crystallographic data and obtain the
corresponding
CCDC deposition number(s) before submitting their
manuscripts
to Molecules (for instructions on doing this, see:
http://www.ccdc.cam.ac.uk/conts/depositing.html).
The deposition number(s) (usually provided by the CCDC within 3 working
days) should be included in the manuscript, along with the following
text:
"CCDC ...... contains the supplementary crystallographic data for this
paper. These data can be obtained free of charge via www.ccdc.cam.ac.uk/conts/retrieving.html
(or from the CCDC, 12 Union Road, Cambridge CB2 1EZ, UK; fax: +44 1223
336033; e-mail: [email protected])". This text may be included
in
the General subsection of the Experimental or as a suitably referenced
endnote.
- Experimental data. Molecules
is first and
foremost a
repository
of synthetic procedures and data. The Experimental section should have
an initial subsection labeled General, containing
information
on
materials, methods, analytical instrumentation used, etc. To allow for
correct abstracting of the manuscripts all compounds should be
mentioned
by correct chemical name, followed by any numerals used to refer to
them
in the paper. The use of the IUPAC nomenclature conventions is
preferred,
although alternate naming systems (for example CAS rules) may be used
provided
that a single consistent naming system is used throughout a manuscript.
For authors perhaps unfamiliar with chemical nomenclature in English we
recommend the use of compound naming software such as AutoNom. Full
experimental
details must be provided, or, in the case of many compounds prepared by
a similar method, a representative typical procedure should be given.
The
general style used in the Journal of Organic Chemistry
is
preferred.
Complete characterization data must be given for all new compounds. For
papers mentioning large numbers of compounds a tabular format is
acceptable.
For known compounds appropriate literature references must be given.
- References. For bibliographic
citations
the reference
numbers should be placed in square brackets, i.e., [ ], and placed
before the punctuation, for example [4]. or [1-3], and all the
references should be listed separately and as the last section at the
end of the manuscript. The ACS style for
references(http://pubs.acs.org) is used for all MDPI journals.
Journal references should cite the title of the
paper and its
starting and ending pages, thus
8.
Bowman, C. M.; Landee, F. A.; Reslock, M. A.
Chemically
Oriented Storage and Retrieval System. 1. Storage and Verification of
Structural
Information. J. Chem. Doc. 1967,
7, 43-47.
Journal titles should be abbreviated
according
to standard ISO rules. A useful list of journal title abbreviations is
available
on the Molecules website at http://www.mdpi.org/molecules/journallist.htm.
Other relevant listings are widely available on the Internet, for
example: http://www.cas.org/sent.html
(CASSI abbreviations).
References to books should cite the
author(s), title, publisher,
publication
date, and page(s).
9. Smith, A. B. Textbook
of Organic Chemistry; D.
C.
Jones: New York, 1961; pp 123-126.
In referring to a book written by various contributors, cite author(s)
first, as in
10.
Winstein, S.; Henderson, R.
B. In Heterocyclic
Compounds; Elderfield, R. C., Ed.; Wiley: New York, 1950;
Vol. 1,
Chapter
1, p 60.
- Copyright
of
published
papers. We will typically insert the following note at the end of the
paper:
©
200... by
the authors; licensee Molecular Diversity Preservation International,
Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open-access article distributed
under
the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
Referees
Authors
should suggest at
least five referees
with
the appropriate
technical expertise, although the Editor will not necessarily approach
them. Their addresses, homepage addresses, phone and fax numbers and
e-mail
addresses should be provided as fully as possible.
English
corrections
This
journal is published in English,
so it is
essential that for proper refereeing
and quick publication all manuscripts be submitted in grammatically
correct English. For this purpose we ask that non-native English
speakers ensure their manuscripts are checked before submitting them
for consideration. We suggest that for this purpose your manuscript be
revised by an English speaking colleague before submission. Additional
fees of 250 CHF will be paid by authors if extensive English
corrections must be done by the editors.
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Copyright /
Open Access
Articles published in
Molecules
will be open-access articles distributed under the terms and conditions
of the Creative Commons Attribution license. MDPI will insert following
note at the end of the published text:
© 200... by the
authors;
licensee Molecular Diversity Preservation International,
Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open-access article distributed
under
the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
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Reprints
Printed
reprints may be ordered at a
nominal cost. Electronic files
of the published papers (e-reprint) can be distributed by the authors
for
noncommercial purposes.
Sample
Deposit and Exchange
In
adition to the payment of Open
Access publishing fees, authors are encouraged to
register
or submit samples of the key compounds and appropriate intermediates
from each paper to
MDPI
in
Switzerland
for
deposit
and
distribution
at a reasonable price to help defray the publication costs.
Contributions
of starting materials, intermediates or other non-commercially
available
samples are also acceptable.
Sample Availability
information
should
be included after the "References and Notes" section of the manuscript,
and before the copyright notice. For details, visit:
http://www.mdpi.org/.
Samples should be sent to
Dr. Shu-Kun Lin
Molecular Diversity Preservation International (MDPI)
Kandererstrasse 25, CH-4057 Basel, Switzerland
Tel.: (+41) 79 322 3379, Fax: (+41) 61 302 8918
E-mail: [email protected] (http://www.mdpi.org/lin/)
Correct
identification of components of
natural products
The
correct identification of the various
components of extracts from natural sources is of key importance, and
as
publishers we are keenly aware of our responsibility to the scientific
community in this area. Consequently, for papers on this topic, we have
adopted
the recommendations of the Working Group on Methods of Analysis of the
International Organization of the Flavour Industry (IOFI), as published
in Flavour
Fragr. J. 2006, 21,
185. These recommendations may
be
summarized as follows:
Any
identification of a natural compound
must pass scrutiny by the latest forms of available analytical
techniques. This
implies that its identity must be confirmed by at least
two
different
methods, for example, comparison of chromatographic and
spectroscopic
data (including mass, IR and NMR spectra) with those of an authentic
sample,
either isolated or synthesized. For papers claiming the first discovery
of a
given compound from a natural source, the authors must provide full
data
obtained by their own measurements of both the
unknown and
an
authentic sample, whose source must be fully documented. Authors should
also
consider very carefully potential sources of artifacts and contaminants
resulting from any extraction procedure or sample handling.
Molecules
(ISSN 1420-3049)
Last change: 26 July 2008, Webmaster: [email protected]
© 2007 by Molecular Diversity Preservation International