Submissions

This page is designed to help you ensure your manuscript fits the scope of the journal AND is ready for submission.

Before submitting you should review the journal Scope and Submission Checklist, then register an account (or login if you have an existing account).

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Focus and Scope

The Journal of Mass Spectrometry and Advances in the Clinical Lab (JMSACL) is an open access journal that publishes peer-reviewed articles addressing mass spectrometry and OTHER advances in Laboratory Medicine and Pathology with a focus on development of diagnostic and related applications, including data science, to improve patient outcomes and reduce healthcare costs. Submissions are NOT restricted to mass spectrometry as an analysis technique.

Beyond communication of the application of technologies in the routine clinical diagnostic setting, by publishing critically validated analytical protocols, the journal also addresses the translation of experimental techniques and analytical research into patient care, and the use of these technologies in clinical research and routine patient management. The scope of the journal is not restricted to any particular technology, but covers the entire range of technologies and advancements that are expected to impact the clinical lab. 

The journal encourages submissions that have a clear path to patient care, including basic and translational research, and animal studies.

Subject Areas covered, but not restricted to:

  • Automation
  • Clinical Studies and Implementation
  • Cross-Technology Investigations
  • Data Science
  • Endocrinology<
  • Error Sources, Risk Assessment and Patient Safety
  • Glycomics
  • Harmonization and Standardization
  • Imaging
  • Instrumentation
  • Lipidomics
  • Metabolomics and Metabolic Analyses
  • Method Development and Validation
  • Metrology
  • Microbiology
  • Neonatal Screening
  • New Technologies
  • Point-of-Care Technologies
  • Protein Quantification
  • Protein Variant Detection
  • Proteomics
  • Quality Management
  • Reference Methods and Materials
  • Regulatory Aspects in Diagnostic Applications
  • Sample Preparation
  • Separation Science
  • Small Molecules
  • Spatialomics
  • Therapeutic Drug Monitoring
  • Toxicology

Submission Checklist

  1. Document Format (detail)
    1. You must submit your manuscript as a word document (.doc or .docx) using the provided templates
    2. LaTeX files are NOT accepted.
    3. Number pages and lines continuously.
    4. Make sure you have followed all of the Document Format, Content Format and Content Detail requirements.
    5. If you have multiple authors who have equally contributed be sure to use the ‡double-dagger and use the appropriate verbiage for equally contributing authors (detail).
  2. Capitalization (detail)
    1. Title: Title Case
    2. Lone Header: Title Case
    3. Level 1 Header: Title Case
    4. Level 2-5 headers: Sentence case
  3. Permissions
    1. Ensure permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources.
  4. Non-Specialist Summary (detail)
    1. A summary of your work in 500 characters (including spaces) or less written AVOIDING technical language or non-standard acronyms. 
      1. The aim is to convey the meaning and importance of your research to a non-expert.
  5. Abstract (detail) 
    1. Required for all sbmissions except Editorials.
    2. Must be fewer than 251 words.
    3. MUST be Structured if it is either of the following:
      1. Original Research.
      2. Short Report with original research.
  6. Keywords
    1. Include a list of 5-7 keywords following the Abstract.
  7. Abbreviations (detail)
    1. Use the title “Abbreviations”.
    2. Include a list of all relevant abbreviations, in alphabetical order, following the Keywords and prior to the Abstract. 
    3. Format as "ABBR, abbreviation1; ABBR2, abbreviation2; LC-MS, liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, etc ".
    4. List in sentence (not table) format.
  8. Tables (detail) and Figures (detail)
    1. Do NOT embed captions in any image. They must be editable. 
    2. Please follow all of the guidance in the 'detail' links above.
  9. Supplementary Material (detail)
    1. There should be NO separate Supplemental Materials document submitted with your manuscript.
    2. ALL Supplementary Material MUST be accessible through one or more DOI links created by the author.
    3. The link(s) can be placed as references in the manuscript OR listed under this section title.
      1. If a Supplementary Materials section is included it should be placed prior to the Declarations & Disclosures. 
    4. Supplementary Material should ONLY be used for information or work that is:
      1. supportive, but is ALSO peripheral and detracts from the flow of the manuscript, or
      2. too lengthy to fit in a standard article format.
    5. It should NOT be used as a reference document for information that should be in the manuscript, including materials and methods and relevant figures and tables.
  10. Declarations & Disclosures <-- do NOT include this text title in your manuscript (detail)
    1. The following are to be included between your Conclusion and References in the order specified below. Do not add numeric or other sequential labels. 
    2. Acknowledgements (detail)
    3. Conflicts of Interest (detail)
      1. Submit via specificly labelled text box in tandem with manuscript submission.
        1. If you DO NOT have any Conflicts to Disclose, you MUST include the following in your Conflicts of Interest statement.
          1. “The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial, personal or financial relationships that could be construed as potential conflicts of interest.”
        2. IF you DO have Conflicts to Disclose
          1. "The authors declare the following commercial, personal or financial relationships which may be considered as potential conflicts of interest: [ list authors and conflicts ]".
    4. CRediT Author Statement (detail)
    5. Data and/or Code Availability Statement (detail)
    6. Ethics Statement (detail)
      1. Complete and Submit the Ethics and IRB Protocol Assessment form.
        1. Use the form to guide the language used here and in the Materials and Methods section (if required)
        2. Even if you DID NOT use human patient samples or specimens, you still MUST have an Ethics Statement.
          1. use language provided by form.
      2. PDF the completed form (PDF the copy received via email) and include with your submission.
        1. Use filename Ethics_and_IRB_Protocol_Assessment_form_LASTNAME_of_Corresponding_Author.pdf
    7. Funding Sources (detail)
      1. Detail all funding sources, including grant numbers, if applicable.
      2. Also include funds received for open access publication fees, from your institution, library, or other grants.
      3. If you had no funding, this MUST be stated, as shown below:
        1. "No funding was received in support of the work represented in this article."
    8. Funding Influence (detail)
      1. The role of Funding Sources, if any, should be stated in relation to the study design, collection, analysis and interpretation of data, writing of the report, the decision to submit the article for publication, and which journal(s) to submit in.
      2. If no influence was imparted, this MUST be stated, as shown below:
        1. "Funding Sources had no influence on any aspect of this work or its publication."
  11. References (detail)
    1. Vancouver style
    2. Square brackets for all references [1]. 
    3. Not superscript.
    4. Place references on the inside of periods or commas (e.g., this is a test [1], of the emergency broadcast system [2].)

Questions, concerns? Or do you see something that needs to be, or should be, changed? Send an email to chris.herold@msacl.org.

Copyright Notice

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). This license allows others to share, adapt, and redistribute the work in any medium or format, provided proper attribution is given to the original author(s) and the journal.

Peer Review

This journal operates a single anonymous peer review policy.

Licences

The following licences are allowed:

  • CC BY 4.0
    Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Publication Fees

There is no APC for MSACL members who are either the first or last author. Annual Membership is not pro-rated.

Non-members are required to pay the fee shown in the table below.

JMSACL follows tiered pricing based on country of residence.

MSACL Member Non-Member
USD 0 A: USD 2,200
B: USD 1,400
C: USD 690
D: USD 0

A: Original Research, Review, Inspirational Profile (unsolicited) B: Mini-Review, Short Report, Case Study C: Editorial D: Correction

Publication Cycle

This journal publishes continuously.

Sections

Section or article type

Public Submissions

Peer Reviewed

Indexed

Original Research

Short Report

Review

Mini-Review

Case Study

Editorial

Inspirational Profile