Information for Submission

Manuscript Preparation

Contribution Rules and Procedure for Publication

  1. Basic Rules
  2. Types of Articles
  3. Submission
  4. Refereeing
  5. English Correction
  6. Final Version for Publication
  7. Galley Proof
  8. [NEW]Publication Charge and Aid Grant Program
  9. Online Publication
  10. Paper Publication
  11. Copyright
  12. Reprints

1. Basic Rules

  • There is no qualification requirement for contributors. Submissions are welcome, irrespective of whether or not the contributor is a member of the Physical Society of Japan.
  • Double submission is not permitted. Manuscripts submitted to JPSJ must not be submitted to other journals, must not be under review elsewhere and must not have been previously published. Further, the contents of the manuscripts should not considerably overlap with those of other papers. If authors submit manuscripts that include contents that are related to those of other papers, they should include reprints or copies of these papers when submitting.
  • Manuscripts must be written in English.
  • Manuscripts should conform to the JPSJ style instructions for manuscript preparation above.

2. Types of Articles

2.1 Full Papers

  • Contents Original research papers including information that is sufficient to enable retests by others.
  • Length No limit
  • Abstract Necessary
  • Keywords Necessary (about 5 to 10)

2.2 Letters

  • Contents Intended to facilitate the prompt publication of significant new discoveries in physics. Original research papers including information that is sufficient to enable retests by others. Should be self-contained.
  • Length Within four printed pages when the paper is submitted. This limit can be relaxed to five printed pages, only when the editorial board considers it necessary.
  • Abstract
    • Necessary
  • Keywords
    • Necessary (about 5 to 10)
  • Other rules The results of extended research should be presented as a full paper. Therefore, a series of letters (I, II, etc.) is not permitted.

2.3 Short Notes

  • Contents Brief reports on recent breakthroughs
  • Length Within two printed pages
  • Abstract Not necessary
  • Keywords Necessary (about 5 to 10)

2.4 Comments

  • Contents Comments on original articles published in JPSJ
  • Length Within two printed pages
  • Abstract Not necessary
  • Keywords Necessary (about 5 to 10)

2.5 Addenda

  • Contents An author's comment to his/her own article published in JPSJ
  • Length Within one printed page
  • Abstract Not necessary
  • Keywords Necessary (about 5 to 10)

2.6 Errata

  • Contents Corrections to the author's own article published in JPSJ
  • Length Within one printed page as a general rule
  • Abstract Not necessary
  • Keywords Not Necessary
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3. Submission

There are two options for submitting a manuscript. An email acknowledgement of the submission will be sent from the JPSJ Editorial Office after the submitted items are checked technically. Inappropriate submissions will be returned to the author. Factors leading to this action include excessive length, technically inappropriate material, and manuscripts not conforming to the Instructions for Preparation of Manuscript.

3.1 Online submission

Authors can submit their electronic manuscripts as Adobe PDF file after a simple registration. This service is available via the JPSJ Online Submission-Review System. In order to complete this online submission, authors are required to send an Agreement Form for Copyright Transfer and Payment of Publication Charge. Failure to return this agreement will cause the delay in publication.

3.2 Postal submission

  • Items required:
    1. Application form
    2. Two copies of the manuscript
    3. PDF file of the manuscript on a CD/FD/MO disk (if any)
    4. Reprints or copies of any papers that the contents of the manuscript are related to.

  • Send to:
    JPSJ Editorial Office, Institute of Pure and Applied Physics
    5F, 2-31-22 Yushima, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0034, Japan.
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4. Refereeing

4.1 The refereeing process

After the submission is acknowledged, an editorial board member ascertains its contents are appropriate for publication in JPSJ. After this brief examination, the manuscript is sent to a suitable referee selected for comments. Authors will receive a notification regarding the acceptance or rejection of their manuscripts or a request for revision. The manuscripts for which revision is requested should be resubmitted within three months in the case of letters, and six months in the case of full papers, short notes, and others. Manuscripts that are not returned within the above mentioned period will be regarded as having been withdrawn.

4.2 Appointment of associate editors and referees

Manuscripts submitted to the Letters section are transferred to an associate editor appointed by the Editor-in-Chief. The associate editor then chooses an appropriate referee. With regards to the Full Papers/Short Notes sections, the editorial board chooses the referees for manuscripts twice a month: first for the set of manuscripts submitted by the 15th* and then for the set submitted by the last day of every month (*When the 15th falls on a weekend or a national holiday, this deadline is reset to 12 a.m. of the next working day in case of postal submissions). The Editor-in-Chief appoints reviewers for Comments, Addenda and Errata.

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5. English Correction

After a manuscript is accepted for publication, the English correction service offered by the JPSJ Editorial Office can be used. This service is only available for accepted papers for which English correction has been suggested by a referee or an editor prior to publication. In the case of papers other than Invited Papers, authors are required to pay additional charges for this service, apart from the publication charge.

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6. Final Version for Publication

After a manuscript is accepted for publication, the JPSJ Editorial Office will request the author to send the items required for publication. This request is sent by email along with the English corrections (if any). The requested items must be submitted by the deadline.

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7. Galley Proof

After the JPSJ Editorial Office receives the items required for publication, a galley proof is sent to the author by email prior to publication. The author should download the galley proof in PDF format from the URL provided in the email. It is mandatory to return the corrections along with an invoice order form within three business days. As a general rule, corrections can be made only once to misprints. We assume no responsibility whatsoever for any mistakes in the published paper which were not corrected during this author's proofreading stage. If an author withdraws his/her paper after a galley proof is supplied, the author has to pay the base charge of publication charges described below as cancellation fee.

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8. Publication Charges and Aid Grant Program

[NEW] The following publication charge will be revised effective January 1, 2009. For more information, please click here.

  • Publication charge should be paid by the author or by his/her institution. This charge includes 50 reprints without cover.
  • The base charge is 5000 P+1800 P{(n-50)/50} (JPY; Japanese Yen).
    where p is the number of printed pages and n is the number of total reprints(additional reprints can be ordered in lots of 50). The calcurated rates are found in the table below. These rates are applied to a full paper, letter, short note, comment, addendum and erratum.
    • Printed
    pages    		Number of reprints
    50 100 150 200
    1 5,000 6,800 8,600 10,400
    2 10,000 13,600 17,200 20,800
    3 15,000 20,400 25,800 31,200
    4 20,000 27,200 34,400 41,600
    5 25,000 34,000 43,000 52,000
    6 30,000 40,800 51,600 62,400
    7 35,000 47,600 60,200 72,800
    8 40,000 54,400 68,800 83,200
    9 45,000 61,200 77,400 93,600
    10 50,000 68,000 86,000 104,000
    15 75,000 102,000 129,000 156,000
    20 100,000 136,000 172,000 208,000

  • Additional charges are as below:
    1. Figures and photographs cost (600×F)JPY, where F is the total number of figure captions.
    2. Extra charge for covered reprints is 2000JPY per 50 copies.
    3. Extra page charge for color printing is 50000JPY per color page.
    4. Change of figures at the proof stage requires 600JPY per figure.
    5. Also it requested to pay 300 per one line for Note added in proof, when the Note amounts to 6 or more lines.

  • Aid Grant Program (for authors who have difficulty in paying the charge):

    In the interest of international cooperation, we help authors who have genuine difficulty in paying the publication charge. However, this aid is limited to several papers per year. The Editorial Board will evaluate individual applications based on the importance of research and financial situation of the authors. This authorization of the exemption will take up to one month, in addition to the usual review process. Therefore, the decision of publication will be delayed when the exemption of the publication charge is requested.

    Authors who wish to apply for this program should download an application form and send this form to the Editorial Office when submitting. The signature of the head of the department of the affiliated organization is required on this form. No reprints will be provided to the authors when the publication charge is exempted.

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9. Online Publication

All articles are published online in advance, before they are printed on paper. The online version of JPSJ is updated twice a month (on the 10th and 25th*). As soon as a paper is published online, an email alert, including a page number, is sent to the author.

*When these dates fall on weekends or national holidays, the publication of articles will be carried out on the next working day.

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10. Paper Publication

The paper version of JPSJ is printed once a month (on the 15th). This version comprises the two groups of articles that are published online on two different dates.

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11. Copyright

Copyright for articles published in JPSJ is transferred to the Physical Society of Japan, when the article is accepted for publication in the journal in any form. JPS shall have the right to publish the article in whole or in part(s), in any medium and by any means, including those not yet known and later developed.

  • To reproduce article(s), figures, or tabular material from the articles published in JPSJ, please send a permission request to the Physical Society of Japan by postal mail or fax (more details).
  • In some exceptional cases described in the table below, the reproduction of JPSJ articles is permitted without an explicit written permission.
  • Applicants are responsible for (1) crediting the original material(s), and for (2) obtaining the consent of the author(s) in advance.

See this table (PDF) for details.

12. Reprints

Reprints will be dispatched to the author about two weeks after the publication of the paper version. Seamail is used for shipping to foreign countries.

Last Updated Apr. 7, 2008