Instructions for Authors
Pharmaceuticals (ISSN 14240-8247)
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
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 Pharmaceuticals should be followed.
Prospective
authors should consult any current issue of Pharmaceuticals for
examples
of this style. A template
file may be downloaded from the Pharmaceuticals 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, Pharmaceuticals
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 Pharmaceuticals (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. Pharmaceuticals 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 Pharmaceuticals website at http://www.mdpi.org/pharmaceuticals/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 MDPI (http://www.mdpi.org). Reproduction is permitted
for noncommercial purposes. For alternate arrangements concerning
copyright
please contact the Editor-in-Chief.
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 Transfer
When
you submit a paper and the paper
is received, your paper will be asigned a manuscript ID and you will be
asked to transfer copyright.
The
copyright
transfer form
should be downloaded, signed, and returned to the indicated Fax
number or postal address. This is a prerequisite for publication of
your paper in this journal. Manuscript ID should be provided for
copyright transfer form.
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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)
Matthaeusstrasse 11, 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.