Updated on October 1, 2023

EDITORIAL POLICY

1.Aims and Scope

Magnetic Resonance in Medical Sciences (MRMS or Magn Reson Med Sci) is an international peer-reviewed journal pursuing the publication of the finest articles providing original contributions to the progress of magnetic resonance in the biomedical sciences. The journal especially welcomes articles covering technical developments and clinical applications.

MRMS is an official journal of the Japanese Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (JSMRM). The editorial board strives to select articles that provide important and accurate information for scientists, engineers and physicians with an interest in applications of magnetic resonance to medicine. The journal is published quarterly and is open access, so articles are available to researchers across all fields and the general public.

2.Manuscript Types

The journal publishes 6 manuscript types, all of which are subject to peer review.

• Major Papers (original articles)
• Review Articles
• Technical Notes
• Brief Communications
• Innovative Clinical Image
• Letters to the Editor and Replies

Each type serves a distinct and separate purpose and is judged by different criteria. Manuscripts should be constructed according to specific guidelines as indicated in “19. Format of each manuscript type”.

3.Peer-Review and Decision Categories

The journal uses single-blind peer review. When a manuscript is submitted to the journal, it is assigned to the Editor-in-Chief, who performs initial screening. Manuscripts that do not fit the journal′s scope or are not deemed suitable for publication are rejected without review. The Editor-in-Chief allocates each of the remaining manuscripts to an Editor, who handles peer review. The Editor selects two or more appropriate reviewers (the number of reviewers may change) to provide their assessment of the manuscript. Reviewers are selected based on their expertise, reputation and previous experience as peer reviewers. The deadline for submission of the reviewers′ reports varies by article type.

Once the reviewers′ reports have been received, the Editor determines whether the manuscript requires revision. Authors who are asked to revise their manuscript must do so within three months for Minor Revision, six months for Major Revision, and one year for Reject & Resubmit, otherwise it may be treated as a new submission. The Editor may send revised manuscripts to peer reviewers for their feedback or may use his or her own judgement to assess how closely the authors have followed the comments on the original manuscript. The Editor then makes a final decision on the manuscript′s suitability for publication in the journal.

The Editor-in-Chief acts as an arbitrator when necessary.

It is the journal′s policy to transmit reviewers′ comments to the authors in their original form. However, the journal reserves the right to edit reviewers′ comments, without consulting the reviewers, if they contain offensive language, confidential information or recommendations for publication.

MRMS classifies submitted manuscripts into five decision categories: Accept, Minor Revision, Major Revision, Reject
& Resubmit, Rejection.
--Minor Revision: The revised manuscript should be submitted within 3 months.
--Major Revision: The revised manuscript should be submitted within 6 months.
--Reject & Resubmit: Resubmission is essentially treated as a new submission. However, a point-by-point response explaining what fundamental changes have been made is recommended.

4. Copyright and Open Access

All accepted manuscripts become the property of the JSMRM.
MRMS is an Open Access journal where all manuscripts are published subject to the Creative Commons license CC-BY-NC-ND (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives). This license allows users to share unmodified articles, non-commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given.
In addition to requiring users to provide attribution to the work, JSMRM prohibits commercial use and modification of the article. For commercial use, users need to contact the society office. Legal background for the license is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. The JSMRM does not hold responsibility for the opinions or the accuracy of statements expressed in submitted manuscripts.

Copyright Release Form: Authors should submit a signed copyright transfer agreement before publication. Instructions will be given at the galley proof correction stage.

If a manuscript includes material that is not under the authors′ own copyright, the authors must obtain permission from the copyright holder(s) to reproduce it. If a manuscript includes previously published material, the authors must obtain permission from the copyright owners and the publisher of the original work to reproduce it. The authors must cite the original work in their manuscript.

Some funding bodies require articles funded by them to be published under a specific Creative Commons license. Before submitting your work to the journal, check with the relevant funding bodies to ensure that you comply with any mandates.

5. Conflict of Interest

In the interests of transparency, the journal requires all authors to declare any competing or conflicts of interest in relation to their submitted manuscript. A conflict of interest exists when there are actual, perceived or potential circumstances that could influence an author′s ability to conduct or report research impartially. Potential conflicts include (but are not limited to) competing commercial or financial interests, commercial affiliations, consulting roles, or ownership of stock or equity.

When submitting a manuscript, all authors are required to disclose financial relationships with commercial manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, or other commercial entities that have an interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes any interests held by spouses, other immediate family or close associates that may pose a conflict of interest within three years of the beginning of the work.

Conflicts of interest should be disclosed both by submitting a COI form and inserting an appropriate statement before the References section. If there are no conflicts of
interest to declare, then the sentence “The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.” should be inserted. Please also see “21. Disclosure of Conflicts of Interests” on how to state COI in the manuscript.
COI forms will be sent to all co-authors once the manuscript is put under peer-review. All co-authors should complete and submit their COI form respectively.

[Disclosure Requirements]

The editorial committee also recommends that authors and all people related to the editorial process follow the guidelines provided by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (See II.B. Conflict of interest).
http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/
https://www.honyakucenter.jp/usefulinfo/uniform_requirements2018.html (in Japanese)

6. Authorship

Authors must meet all the criteria below, which are defined by the ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors). Anyone who does not meet all the criteria below must not be listed as an author. Those who do not meet the four criteria should be acknowledged.
1) Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work
2) Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content
3) Final approval of the version to be published
4) Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
Changes to the author list after manuscript submission . such as the insertion or removal of author names, or a rearrangement of author order . must be approved by all authors and the editor.

7. Ethical Policy on Publication

MRMS upholds the highest standards in scholarly publishing.

Before submitting a manuscript to the journal, authors must ensure that they have read and complied with the journal′s policies. The journal reserves the right to reject without review, or retract, any manuscript that the Editor believes may not comply with these policies.

The responsibilities of the journal′s authors, editors, reviewers and publisher regarding research and publication ethics are described in full below.

Submission to the journal implies that the manuscript has not been previously published (in part or in whole, in any language), is not in press, and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.

Authors must inform the editors if any related manuscripts are under consideration, in press or published elsewhere. The availability of a manuscript on a publicly accessible preprint server does not constitute prior publication (see ‘Preprints′).

If authors choose to submit their manuscript elsewhere before a final decision has been made on its suitability for publication in MRMS, they should first withdraw it from the journal.

[Plagiarism software]
Submission to the journal implies that the manuscript is original work. The journal may use Crossref′s Similarity Check plagiarism software to screen manuscripts for unoriginal content. By submitting a manuscript to the journal, authors agree to this screening. If there is any possibility of plagiarism, the editorial committee will suspend the peer-review process and may ask the authors to explain. Any manuscript with an unacceptable level of unoriginal material may be rejected or retracted at the Editors′ discretion.

[Responding to potential ethical breaches]
The journal will respond to allegations of ethical breaches by following its own policies and, where possible, the guidelines of COPE.

8. Human/Animal Experimentation

Authors of manuscripts describing experiments involving humans or materials derived from humans must demonstrate that the work was carried out in accordance with the principles embodied in the Declaration of Helsinki, its revisions, and any guidelines approved by the authors′ institutions. Where relevant, the authors must include a statement in their manuscript that describes the procedures for obtaining informed consent from participants regarding participation in the research and publication of the research, and that the study was conducted with the approval of an institutional review board (IRB) or analogous ethics board.

All papers reporting experiments using animals must include a statement in the Methods section giving assurance that all animals have received humane care in compliance with the “Principles of Laboratory Animal Care” formulated by the National Society for Medical Research and the “Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals” prepared by the Institute of Laboratory Animal Research (ILAR), published by the National Academies Press (19962011; see https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK54050/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK44152/ ).

SUBMISSION AND MANUSCRIPT STYLE

9. Submission

MRMS welcomes manuscript submissions from authors based anywhere in the world. Submission of a manuscript to the journal implies that all authors: have approved it, declare it is factual, have agreed to its submission, and have the right to publish it.

All manuscripts must be submitted via the journal′s online submission system, ScholarOne Manuscripts: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/mrms.

[Revision]
The following files should be uploaded for a revised submission.
-A point-by-point response to the referees′ comments with page and line numbers indicating the modified parts of the manuscript.
-A revised manuscript highlighting changes made to the original manuscript.
-Any tables and figures that changed from the previous version.

10. File Formats

Manuscript files should be saved separately in the formats below with suitably descriptive file names.
1) Text (Title page, Abstract ~ Legends) : Word
2) Tables : Word, Excel (Image data and text boxes placed within a table are unacceptable.)
3) Figures : TIFF or high-quality JPEG (300 dpi for images, 1200 dpi for line art, and no larger than 7 x 7 or smaller than 3 x 3 inches) ready for use in case of publication. EPS files may be used for line art. Additional high quality images may be required during the review process or in case of publication.
4) Movies : AVI, MOV, MP4, MPEG, WMG

[Supplementary Materials]
Supplementary material adds, but is not essential, to a reader′s understanding of a manuscript. Authors are encouraged to submit supplementary material for online-only publication. Supplementary material may comprise data, text, audio or movie files, and is published online alongside the accepted manuscript.

As supplementary material is peer-reviewed, authors must submit it in its final form as part of their manuscript submission. After a manuscript has been accepted for publication, authors may not make any changes to the supplementary material.

11. Documentary Style

Begin numbering with the title page as page 1, the abstract as page 2, and continue throughout the references, figure legends and tables. The file containing the text should be A4 or US Letter size with margins of 25 mm. Text should be double spaced. Font size should be 10~11 point using a standard
type style such as Arial or Times New Roman.

12. English

(English Standard) Manuscripts should be written in clear, grammatically correct English. Authors whose native language is not English are strongly encouraged to have their manuscript checked by a native English speaker or by an editing service prior to submission. If a manuscript is not clear due to poor English, it may be rejected without undergoing peer review.

13. Numerals and Units

SI or SI-derived units should be used. More information on SI units is available at the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM) website.

14. Abbreviation

Each abbreviation should be defined in parentheses together with its non-abbreviated term when it first appears in the text (except in the Title and Abstract).

15. Devices

On referring to devices for the first time, the product name and name, city, and country of the manufacturer should be stated. [Example] 3 Tesla scanner (Verio, Siemens, Erlangen, Germany).

MANUSCRIPT FORMAT

16. Cover Letter

The following should be included in the Cover Letter:

• A very short summary of the work and a description of what is new in the manuscript.
• A statement regarding approval by an IRB or analogous ethics board for human and animal studies.
• A statement about related work that has been submitted to MRMS or elsewhere.
• A declaration that all authors consent to the submission.
• Preferred reviewers (or editors) and unacceptable reviewers (or editors) can be indicated, if any.

17. Title Page

1) Article title (with the exception of prepositions, the first character of each word should be capitalized)
2) Authors′ first name, middle initial, and last name. Affiliation numbers in lower-case superscript should be affixed immediately after each author's name.
3) Authors′ affiliations where the work was done.
4) Identify the corresponding author and provide a full mailing address, phone and fax numbers, and e-mail address for that person.
5) A short running head (abbreviated form of the title) of fewer than 42 characters (including spaces).
6) Three to five key words for indexing.
7) ORCID IDs of the authors (if any)

18. Basic Structure of Manuscripts

Arrange the manuscript in the order of Abstract, Text, (Acknowledgment), Disclosure Statement, References, and Legends. The anonymity of patients and subjects must be preserved.
Abstract: Describe the essential aspects of the investigation. Avoid using specific abbreviations or acronyms. No references should be cited.
Introduction: State clearly the purpose of your study. Only significant references should be given.
Materials and Methods: Describe clearly your apparatus, subjects, and procedure in enough detail to allow reproduction of your results.
Results: Present results in a clear, orderly fashion and include statistical analysis to substantiate the results. If necessary, tables and graphic material may be included to aid understanding. Cite figures to illustrate findings.
Discussion: Start with a summary of the results and then discuss the results of the investigation in context with what has been published in the past, the limitations of your study, the implications for patient care, and potential directions for future research. Where appropriate, cite figures and graphs.
Conclusion: Summarize the major findings of the study and their clinical usefulness (if applicable). This paragraph should address the hypothesis or purpose stated earlier in the paper.

19. Format by Manuscript Type

Manuscripts should conform to one of the formats specified in the table below. The word limit specified for each manuscript type includes tables/figures, but excludes references and figure captions.
*One table or figure is approximately equivalent to 400 words.

20. Acknowledgment

On a separate page, please acknowledge anyone who has made important contributions to the manuscript and obtain their consent to publish before submitting the paper. Recognition of grant support should be included here.

21. Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest

Authors must disclose financial or personal relationships that may pose a conflict of interest within three years of the beginning of the work. All disclosures should be inserted before the References section. If there are no conflicts of interest to declare, then the sentence “The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.” should be inserted.
[Examples] A (author name) serves as a consultant to Z (entity name); B′s spouse is chairman of Y; C received a research grant from X; D received lecture fees from V; E holds a patent on U; F has been reimbursed by T for attending several conferences; G received honoraria for writing promotional material for S; H has no conflict of interest.

22. References

MRMS uses the Vancouver referencing style. On a separate page, type your list of references, double-spaced and numbered consecutively in the order that they appear in the text. All references must be cited in the text in lower-case superscript. Inclusive page numbers (e.g., 333-337) must be provided for all references. Journal names are abbreviated per Index Medicus. All authors should be listed when there are six or fewer; when there are seven or more, the first three are listed with “et al.” Data appearing in abstracts from meetings should be cited in the reference list. For meeting abstracts, cite the authors, title, society meeting, date and location. Citations of personal communications should appear in the “Discussion” section only and should not be used to support the authors′ conclusions. Papers submitted but not yet accepted for publication should also be cited in the text (T. Suzuki, unpublished data, 1999).

Authors may use the EndNote style file at the journal home page.
https://www.jsmrm.jp/modules/mrms/index.php?content_id=1

Style and punctuation of references follow the format illustrated in the following examples:
Journal article: Sasaki M, Oikawa H, Yoshioka K,Tamakawa Y, Konno H, Ogawa A. Combining time-resolved and single phase 3D techniques in contrast-enhanced carotid MR angiography. Magn Reson Med Sci 2002; 1:1-6.
Proceedings: Kuroiwa D, Kershaw J, Hirano Y, et al. Behaviour of compartmentalized diffusion-weighted fMRI signal from human brain during hypercapnia. Proceedings of the 16th Annual Meeting of ISMRM, Toronto, 2008; 238.
Book: Moritani T, Ekholm S, Westesson P-L, Zhong J. Toxic and metabolic disease, In: Moritani T, Ekholm S, Westesson P-L, eds. Diffusion-weighted MR imaging of the brain. Berlin Heidelberg New York:Springer, 2005; 119-130.
Online Material: The Working Group, National QA Programme in Radiology, Faculty of Radiologists, RCSI. Guide lines for the Implementation of a National Quality Assurance Programme in Radiology - Version 2.0. http://www.radiology.ie/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/National-Radiology-QA-Guidelines-rev-2-0.pdf (Accessed: Mar 15, 2015)

The number of references for each type of manuscript is limited to:

Review Article: No limit
Original Article: No limit
Technical Note: 24
Brief Communication: 12
Innovative Clinical Image: 12
Letter to the Editor: 5

23. Legends

The list of legends for figures, illustrations, and supplementary materials should be typed double-spaced on a separate page after the References section in the text document. Each legend should have a brief description and sufficient information for interpretation of the corresponding figure or other material.

24. Tables and Figures

1) Numbering: All tables and figures should be cited in the text in consecutive order.

2) Tables: Submit as a separate Excel or MS Word File containing text data. Use Arabic numerals to number tables as they appear in the text and include a Title, placed above the table. Explanatory material and footnotes should be typed below the table and should be designated with superscript letters, such as a) or b). Units of measurement should be included with numerical values at the top of columns. Avoid detailed explanations of the experimental conditions used to obtain the data shown in tables (which should be included in other sections as relevant). Tables containing image data or text boxes are not acceptable.

3) Submit figures, photography, graphs or diagrams in MS Word, PowerPoint, JPEG, or TIFF. Figures should be of high enough resolution for direct reproduction for printing, and the resolution of the figure should be 300 dpi for images, 1200 dpi for line art, and no larger than 7 × 7 or smaller than 3 × 3 inches. Note that ‘figures′ includes line drawings and photographs, as well as charts. Magnifications of photographs should be indicated in the legends and/or by scales included in the photographs.

Figures must be self-explanatory and they should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals (i.e., Fig. 1, Fig. 2, etc.). Each figure should have a short title. Figure legends should be typed together on a separate sheet(s). Figure legends should include sufficient experimental details to make the figures intelligible; however, duplicating the descriptions provided in other sections should be avoided. We will also consider colored figures and illustrations, however, the authors must bear the cost of any color reproductions used when more than one page is required for printing.

Review Article: No limit
Original Article: No limit
Technical Note: No limit
Brief Communication: No limit
Innovative Clinical Image: No limit
Letter to the Editor: 2

25. Movies and Other Electronic/Digital Supplementary Materials

1) Movies and other electronic/digital supplementary materials will be published online only.
2) Numbering: All movies and other supplementary materials should be cited in the text in consecutive order (e.g., “Movie 1”, “Movie 2”, “Supplementary Table 1”).
3) Write all information in separate legends as indicated in “23. Legends”.

PROOF AND PUBLICATION CHARGE

26. Proof

Manuscripts that are accepted for publication are copyedited and typeset by the journal′s production team before publication. The journal is published 4 times per year and continuously online. All communication regarding accepted manuscripts is with the corresponding author.

After correction for English grammar, the galley proofs will be sent to the authors of accepted manuscripts for final proofreading. Please check these for spelling, punctuation, and overall accuracy. Only essential corrections to typesetting errors or omissions are accepted; excessive changes are not permitted at the proofing stage. Orders for offprints should be placed, and a signed copyright release form should be submitted at this stage.

27. Publication Charge

This journal does not charge submission fees or publication fees. This policy is subject to change without notice. The service of color reproduction in print and orders for offprints are applicable only to society members.

1) Color Reproduction: All color figures will be published in color online for free. For the printed version of the journal, authors may choose to have their color pages printed in black and white at no cost. If color printing is preferred, the society will cover the cost of one color page if it contains images. For all other color pages the authors are required to pay 50,000 JPY per page.
2) Offprints: Offprints should be ordered at the galley proof correction stage. The minimum number of offprints that can be ordered is fifty. An order form and price list for offprints will be sent to the corresponding author with the galley proof.

CONTACT

Inquiry to: MRMS Editorial Office
c/o International Academic Publishing Co. Ltd.
Publishing Center, 332-6 Yamabuki-cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-0801, Japan
TEL: +81-3-6824-9399, FAX: +81-3-5206-5331 Email: mrms-edit@bunken.co.jp