Editorial Board

Research’s editorial board is comprised of active researchers and experts selected from a pool of scholars who have made significant and well recognized contributions to the field. The overall duties of our editors include, but are not limited to, overseeing the review process and soliciting submissions of high-quality manuscripts.

Members of the Editorial Board have a term of three years, which can be renewed. The founding Editorial Board (February 2018-February 2021) consisted of 102 internationally renowned scholars. The founding Editor-in-Chief (China) was Huang Wei, Professor of Northwestern Polytechnical University and academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences. The founding, and current, Editor-in-Chief (International) is Tianhong Cui, McKent Distinguished Professor at the University of Minnesota.

Editors-in-Chief

• Tianhong Cui, Editor-In-Chief (International), University of Minnesota, USA
• Weimin Bao, Editor-In-Chief (China), China Association for Science and Technology, China

Advanced Energy

Advisory Editors

• Jun Chen, Nankai University, China
• Peixue Jiang, Tsinghua University, China
• Donald G. Truhlar, University of Minnesota, USA
• Zhonglin Wang, Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems, China; Georgia Institute of Technology, USA

Deputy Editors

• Fangyi Cheng, Nankai University, China
• Binghui Ge, Anhui University, China
• Yunhui Huang, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China
• Xinping Qiu, Tsinghua University, China
• Rodney S. Ruoff, University of Texas at Austin, USA
• Rusen Yang, Xidian University, China
• Qiang Zhang, Tsinghua University, China

Associate Editors

• Wei Chen, National University of Singapore, Singapore
• Xiaofeng Guo, Université Paris Cité, France
• Chenguo Hu, Chongqing University, China
• Li Ji, Fudan University, China
• Zhongyi Jiang, Tianjin University, China
• Oomman K. Varghese, University of Houston, USA

Advanced Manufacturing

Advisory Editors

• Yonggang Huang, Northwestern University, USA
• Jie Li, Tongji University, China
• Yu Sun, University of Toronto, Canada
• Chuanzeng Zhang, University of Siegen, Germany

Deputy Editors

• Christoph J. Brabec, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
• Huigao Duan, Hunan University, China
• Huiling Duan, Peking University, China
• Lan Jiang, Beijing Institute of Technology, China
• Longqiu Li, Harbin Institute of Technology, China

Associate Editors

• Hanqing Jiang, Westlake University, China
• Ning Xi, Michigan State University, USA
• Li Zhang, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, China

Advanced Materials

Advisory Editors

• Marco Amabili, McGill University, Canada
• Christian Amatore, Sorbonne University, France
• Hui-Ming Cheng, Tsinghua University, China
• Tiejun Cui, Southeast University, China
• Wenhui Duan, Tsinghua University, China
• Philippe Dubois, University of Mons, Belgium
• Yu Fang, Shaanxi Normal University, China
• Song Gao, South China University of Technology, China
• Jinfeng Jia, Shanghai Jiaotong University, China
• Lei Jiang, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
• Jinsong Leng, Harbin Institute of Technology, China
• Weimin Liu, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
• Yichun Liu, Northeast Normal University, China
• Yuguang Ma, South China University of Technology, China
• Ningsheng Xu, Fudan University, China
• Chunhua Yan, Lanzhou University, China
• Dong Hui Zhang, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
• Yihe Zhang, China University of Geosciences, China
• Wanhua Zheng, Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
• Ji Zhou, Tsinghua University, China

Deputy Editors

• H.C. Markus Antonietti, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Germany
• Suryanarayana Challapalli, University of Central Florida, USA
• Dongge Ma, South China University of Technology, China
• Alessandro Molle, CNR-IMM unit of Agrate Brianza, Italy
• Ishwar K. Puri, McMaster University, Canada
• Zhigang Shuai, Tsinghua University, China
• Yanlin Song, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
• Andreas Stein, University of Minnesota, USA
• Jianpu Wang, Nanjing Tech University, China

Associate Editors

• Vicki Colvin, Brown University, USA
• Marco Di Renzo, Paris-Saclay University, France
• Andreas Greiner, University of Bayreuth, Germany
• Jian Ji, Zhejiang University, China
• Zaixing Jiang, Harbin Institute of Technology, China
• Guigen Li, Texas Tech University and Nanjing University, United States and China
• Nian Lin, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, China
• Bingbing Liu, Jilin University, China
• Xiaogang Liu, National University of Singapore, Singapore
• Anlian Pan, Hunan Normal University, China
• Dennis W. Smith, Mississippi State University, USA
• Galen D. Stucky, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
• Xun Wang, Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, China
• Hexiu Xu, Air Force Engineering University, China

Artificial Intelligence

Advisory Editors

• Songxi Chen, Peking University, China
• Guangren Duan, Harbin Institute of Technology, China
• Huijun Gao, Harbin Institute of Technology, China
• Wen Gao, Peking University, China
• Tomaso Poggio, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
• Hong Qiao, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
• Fuji Ren, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, China

Deputy Editors

• Licheng Jiao, Xidian University, China
• Wei Lin, Fudan University, China

Associate Editors

• Gautam Biswas, Institute for Software Integrated Systems (ISIS), USA
• Xiang Li, Fudan University, China
• Derong Liu, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA
• Theodore Simos, University of Peloponnese, Greece
• Mengchu Zhou, New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA

Environmental Science

Advisory Editors

• Michael R. Hoffmann, California Institute of Technology, USA
• Jianping Huang, Lanzhou University, China
• Derek R. Lovley, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA
• Thalappil Pradeep, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India
• Yongguan Zhu, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Deputy Editors

• Roy Michael Harrison, University of Birmingham, UK
• Jianming Xu, Zhejiang University, China
• Zhi-Kang Xu, Zhejiang University, China

Associate Editors

• Charles Thurston Driscoll, Syracuse University, USA
• Hanqing Yu, University of Science & Technology of China, China
• Baoli Zhu, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Flexible Electronics

Advisory Editor

• Yuqiang Ma, Nanjing University, China

Deputy Editors

• Xuemin Du, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology (SIAT), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China
• Fengwei Huo, Nanjing Tech University, China
• Samson A. Jenekhe, University of Washington, USA
• Yong Qin, Lanzhou University, China
• Li Tao, Southeast University, China

Associate Editors

• Shaoxing Qu, Zhejiang University, China

Health Science

Advisory Editors

• Xuetao Cao, Nankai University, China
• Ye-Guang Chen, Tsinghua University, China
• Erdan Dong, Peking University Health Science Center, China
• Fuchu He, PLA Academy of Military Science, China
• Dietmar W. Hutmacher, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
• Lanjuan Li, Zhejiang University, China
• Guanghui Ma, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
• Zihe Rao, Tsinghua University, China
• Weihong Tan, Hunan University, China
• Yuquan Wei, Sichuan University, China
• Itamar Willner, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
• Xiang Zhou, Wuhan University, China
• Jiankang Zhu, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
• Min Zhu, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Deputy Editors

• Wenguo Cui, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, China
• Jie Du, Beijing Institute of Heart Lung and Blood Vessel Diseases, China
• Bo Huang, Chinese Academy of Medical Science, China
• Ren Lai, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
• Chenzhong Li, Florida International University, USA
• Heyu Ni, University of Toronto, Canada
• Richard S. Nowakowski, FSU College of Medicine, USA
• Zilong Qiu, Songjiang Research Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, China
• Yi Rao, Capital Medical University, China
• Yongyong Shi, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China
• Renxiang Tan, Nanjing University, China
• Mei Tian, Fudan University, China
• Fudi Wang, Zhejiang University, China
• Wei Wang, Nanjing University, China
• Zhilu Yang, The Tenth Affiliated Hospital, Southern Medical University, China
• Hongbo Zhang, Abo Akademi University, Finland
• Shuyang Zhang, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, China
• Yuanjin Zhao, Southeast University, China
• Hairong Zheng, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
• Lei Zheng, Hefei University of Technology, China

Associate Editors

• Chao Chang, Peking University, China
• Jie Cui, Fudan University, China
• Qiaomei Fu, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
• Trey Ideker, University of California, San Diego, USA
• Yi Jiang, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
• Yuguo Lei, Penn State University, USA
• Huiying Li, University of California, Los Angeles, School of Medicine, USA
• Guanghui Liu, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
• Yujia Qing, University of Oxford, UK
• Lydia L. Sohn, University of California, Berkeley, USA
• Daowen Wang, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China
• Guixue Wang, Chongqing University, China
• Jiaqi Wang, Institute of Food and Nutrition Development, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, China
• Yunfang Wang, Beijing Tsinghua Changgeng Hospital, China
• Junjie Xiao, Shanghai University, China
• Kai Zhang, Yale University, USA
• Luxia Zhang, Peking University, China
• Jin Zhao, Nanjing University, China

Information Science

Advisory Editor

• Tieniu Tan, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Deputy Editors

• Ajith Abraham, Scientific Network for Innovation and Research Excellence (SNIRE), USA
• Xinbo Gao, Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China
• Wang-Chien Lee, Pennsylvania State University, USA
• Xin (Shane) Li, Louisiana State University, USA
• Massoud Pedram, University of Southern California, USA
• Kun Zhou, Zhejiang University, China

Associate Editors

• Xilin Chen, Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
• Hai Jin, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China

Micro/Nano Technology

Advisory Editors

• Ru Huang, Peking University, China
• Charles M. Lieber, Harvard University, USA
• Luis Liz-Marzán, CIC biomaGUNE, Spain
• Xinyu Liu, University of Toronto, Canada
• Muthukumaran Packirisamy, Concordia University, Canada
• Lianmao Peng, Peking University, China
• F. Dean Toste, University of California, Berkeley, United States
• Suyuan Xie, Xiamen Universiy, China
• Shu-Hong Yu, University of Science and Technology of China, China

Deputy Editors

• Katsuhiko Ariga, National Institute for Materials Science, Japan
• Yuehe Lin, Washington State University, USA
• Yi-Tao Long, Nanjing University, China
• Zheng Ouyang, Tsinghua University, China
• Martin Pumera, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
• Joseph Wang, University of California, San Diego, USA
• Yadong Yin, University of California, Riverside, USA
• Yongsheng Zhao, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Associate Editors

• Helmut Cölfen, University of Konstanz Physical Chemistry, Germany
• Ying Jiang, Peking University, China
• Yogendra Kumar Mishra, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
• Xiaomu Wang, Nanjing University, China
• Hu Yang, Missouri University of Science and Technology, United States
• Hua Zhang, Department of Chemistry City University of Hong Kong, HK, China
• Mingjun Zhang, Ohio State University, USA

Quantum Information

Advisory Editor

• Jianwei Pan, University of Science and Technology of China, China

Deputy Editor

• Guilu Long, Tsinghua University, China

Space Science

Advisory Editors

• Ronggen Cai, Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
• Shengcai Shi, Purple Mountain Observatory, Chineses Academy of Sciences, China

Deputy Editor

• Hongjian He, Tsinghua University, China

Chief Managing Editors

• Runhua Lin, President, Science and Technology Review Publishing House
• Yongchao Shi, Vice President, Science and Technology Review Publishing House

Vice Chief Managing Editor

• Tian Tian, Ph.D., Science and Technology Review Publishing House
• Zhimin Wang, Ph.D., Science and Technology Review Publishing House

Managing Editors

• Chengyin Liu, Ph.D., Science and Technology Review Publishing House
• Wei Wang, Science and Technology Review Publishing House
• Yehua Zhu, Ph.D., Science and Technology Review Publishing House

Peer Review Process

The scientific editors of each Science Partner Journal (SPJ) evaluate each submission and those manuscripts that warrant further consideration for publication are sent out for in-depth peer review by external reviewers.

Peer Review Model

All Science Partner Journals operate under a single-blind peer review process. This means that editors and reviewers know the identity of the authors, however, the authors do not know the identity of the editors or reviewers. The reviewers’ identifies are also kept anonymous from each other.

When a manuscript is submitted to a Science Partner Journal, it first goes through a technical check by the editorial office. This ensures all necessary items are included in the submission prior to sending to a scientific editor for evaluation. If the scientific editor deems the manuscript worthy of full peer review, the scientific editor will then send the manuscript out for in-depth peer review by external reviewers.

Decision Making Process

A decision can be made at any point in the evaluation process to reject the manuscript, whether this be without review, or with one review. The final decision on every manuscript is made by a scientific editor.

Confidentiality

The submitted manuscript is a privileged communication and must be treated as a confidential document. Reviewers should destroy all copies of the manuscript after review and not share the manuscript with any colleagues without the explicit permission of the editor. Reviewers should not make personal or professional use of the data or interpretations before publication without the authors’ specific permission (unless they are invited to write an editorial or commentary to accompany the article).

Artificial intelligence (AI)

Reviewers may not use AI technology in generating or writing their reviews because this could breach the confidentiality of the manuscript.

Conflicts of Interest

If a reviewer cannot judge a paper impartially, they should not accept the invitation to review it. If a reviewer has any professional, personal, or financial affiliations that are or even may be perceived as a conflict of interest in reviewing the manuscript, they should not accept the invitation for review, or, if this conflict of interest is uncovered after seeing the full manuscript materials, they should recuse themselves immediately and fully inform the journal editors. If there is an aspect of a manuscript that a reviewer does not feel they are qualified to evaluate, they should inform the editor.

If the manuscript’s author is an editor, it will be assigned to another, independent editor for evaluation. It must also meet the same criteria for evaluation as all other manuscripts.

Special Issue Process

Manuscripts submitted as part of a special issue may be assigned to a guest scientific editor instead of a member of the editorial board to manage the peer review process. A guest editor is an expert in a sub-topic who is invited by an Editor-in-Chief, in consultation with the editorial board, to provide specialized leadership for a particular special issue. Articles published in a special issue must adhere to the same evaluation criteria and publication ethics as a regular article published in the journal. The peer review process for a special issue manuscript also follows the same peer review process as a regular manuscript submitted to the journal. For example, when a special issue manuscript is submitted, it first goes through a technical check by the editorial office before it is assigned to an editor or guest editor to evaluate it and select external peer reviewers. If the manuscript’s author is an editor or guest editor, it will be assigned to another, independent editor or guest editor and it must meet the same criteria for evaluation as all other manuscripts.

Publication Ethics

The Science Partner Journal (SPJ) Program advocates and adheres to the highest standards for accurate and ethical publication of science.

Authorship and conflict of interest

Authorship

To be included as an "author," a researcher must meet the criteria for authorship laid out in the definition of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), which states that authorship should be based on whether an individual:

1. Provided substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work.
2. Participated in drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content.
3. Participated in final approval of the version to be published.
4. Provided 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.

The Science Partner Journals do not permit ghost, guest, or honorary authorship. "Ghost authorship" refers to any context where an individual has made author-level contributions to the paper but is not included in the author list. "Guest or honorary authorship" refers to any context when someone who has not met all criteria of authorship is listed as an author. Individuals who have participated in generation of the research paper but who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgments section of a paper alongside a brief indication of the nature of their contribution.

All authors will also receive an email from the submission system asking them to confirm receipt and verify authorship of each paper that is submitted. Submission of a paper that has not first been approved by all authors listed will result in immediate rejection without appeal. Any changes in authorship following submission must be approved in writing by all of the original authors. The Authorship Change Form may be used in these cases.

Conflict of interest

The Science Partner Journals have a primary responsibility to its readers and to the public to provide in its pages clear and unbiased scientific results and analyses. We think that our readers should be informed of additional relationships of our authors that could pose a conflict of interest. Thus, for readers to evaluate the data and opinions presented in any Science Partner Journal, they must be informed of financial and other interests of our authors that may be at odds with unbiased presentation of data or analysis.

Therefore, the Science Partner Journals believe that manuscripts should be accompanied by clear disclosures from all authors of their affiliations, funding sources, or financial holdings that might raise questions about possible sources of bias.

Prior to publication each author listed on the manuscript must complete a copy of the Authorship and Conflict of Interest Form (located in the Information for Authors). This form asks authors to specify the nature and level of their contribution to the article, their understanding regarding the obligation to share data and materials, and any affiliations, funding sources or financial holdings that might raise questions about possible sources of bias.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI-assisted technologies [such as large language models (LLMs), chatbots, and image creators] do not meet Research's criteria for authorship and therefore may not be listed as authors or coauthors, nor may sources cited in Research journal content be authored or coauthored by AI tools. Authors who use AI-assisted technologies as components of their research study or as aids in the writing or presentation of the manuscript should note this in the cover letter and in the acknowledgments section of the manuscript. Detailed information should be provided in the methods section: The full prompt used in the production of the work, as well as the AI tool and its version, should be disclosed. Authors are accountable for the accuracy of the work and for ensuring that there is no plagiarism. They must also ensure that all sources are appropriately cited and should carefully review the work to guard against bias that may be introduced by AI. Editors may decline to move forward with manuscripts if AI is used inappropriately. Reviewers may not use AI technology in generating or writing their reviews because this could breach the confidentiality of the manuscript.

AI-generated images and other multimedia are not permitted without explicit permission from the editors. Exceptions may be granted in certain situations—e.g., for images and/or videos in manuscripts specifically about AI and/or machine learning. Such exceptions will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis and should be disclosed at the time of submission. Research recognizes that this area is rapidly developing, and the position on AI-generated multimedia may change with the evolution of copyright law and industry standards on ethical use.

Plagiarism and duplicate publication

Plagiarism

All Science Partner Journals utilize iThenticate, a plagiarism detection tool that compares all submissions against millions of published articles and web pages. Authors should appropriately cite all quotations and not heavily lean upon large swaths of content from other publications, including your own publications. If there is significant overlap with existing sources (not including the submission 's preprint posting), the editorial office will evaluate the overlap and contact the authors for clarification or editing if needed. Authors must comply with any requests from the editorial office regarding the iThenticate report to proceed with the review process. Significant, verbatim overlap with published sources indicating clear plagiarism will result in immediate rejection.

Use of third-party materials (image permissions)

Papers may occasionally include images or figures created by a third-party (i.e., a non-author). Express permission must be received from the copyright holder prior to publication. The copyright holder, who could be a publisher, corporation, or individual, must complete the Image Permission form. Permission is only needed if the copyright holder is not an author on the paper. The form can be found in the Information for Authors.

Preprints and prior publication

Science Partner Journals will not consider any paper or component of a paper that has been published or is under consideration for publication elsewhere in any language. Distribution on the internet and conference proceedings may be considered prior publication and may compromise the originality of the paper, although we will accept submissions of papers first made available on not-for-profit preprint servers, such as ArXiv, AgriRxiv, and bioRxiv. Please contact the editorial office with questions regarding this policy or allowable postings. In addition, copies of papers submitted to other journals by any of the authors that relate to a research article submitted to any Science Partner Journal must be included with the submission.

Data sharing and materials availability

After publication, all data and materials (including computer codes) necessary to understand, assess and extend the conclusions of the manuscript must be available to any reader of the Science Partner Journals. All reasonable requests for data or materials must be fulfilled. Unreasonable restrictions on data or material availability may prevent publication.

Public data repositories

Before publication, large data sets must be deposited in a community approved database and an accession number or a specific access address must be included in the published paper. The DataCite Repository Finder can help authors find an appropriate repository for their data.

Fossils or other rare specimens must be deposited in a public museum or repository and available for research.

Materials sharing or transfer agreements

Any restrictions on the availability of data, codes, or materials, including fees and restrictions on original data obtained from other sources must be disclosed to the editors as must any Material Transfer Agreements (MTAs) that place constraints on providing the data or materials used or produced in this research. Please disclose this information when completing the Authorship and Conflict of Interest Form. Material Transfer Agreements must be included in the acknowledgements. Patents (whether applications or awards to the authors or home institutions) related to the work should also be declared at submission.

Unpublished data and personal communications

Citations to unpublished data and personal communications cannot be used to support claims in the paper. In press citations are allowed.

Reproducibility

In research articles, the Materials and Methods section should provide sufficient detail to allow replication of the study.

We also encourage authors to consider submitting their step-by-step protocols to online protocol repositories such as Bio-protocol and Protocols.io and to cite them in their submissions.

Ethical experimental design

Use of animals

For all animal experimentation described in the manuscript, all Science Partner Journals require that authors state in the Methods section their adherence to the NIH Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals or the equivalent. Species, strain, sex, and age of laboratory animals should be provided in the main text or Supplementary Materials.

For genetically modified animals and to avoid confounding effects of inbred strain background, littermate controls should generally be used, although exceptions may be allowed. Justification for other control animals should be included. Authors should fully describe the source of their animals and number of times backcrosses were performed.

Studies with human subjects

Informed consent must be obtained for studies on humans after the nature and possible consequences of the studies are explained. A statement that informed consent was obtained must also appear in the manuscript. All research on humans must have approval from the institutional IRB (Institutional Review Board) or an equivalent body. The editors reserve the right to request IRB documents associated with a particular paper. Gender and age of all subjects should be provided in the main text or Supplementary Materials.

Reporting guidelines

Authors are encouraged to follow published standard reporting guidelines for their study discipline. Many guidelines can be found at the EQUATOR website.

Embargo policy

Accepted papers will be published online in an unformatted version as an Article in Press while the paper undergoes production. This accepted version is fully citable as an in press article.

If research is under an embargo that would be violated by such publication practices, please notify the editorial office upon acceptance.

Archiving policy

All Science Partner Journals are archived in Portico, which provides permanent archiving for electronic scholarly journals, as well as via the LOCKSS initiative. All Science Partner journals operate a fully Open Access publishing model which allows open global access to its published content.

For authors funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) or other funding agencies that require their research results to be made publicly available in a designated repository such as PubMed Central (PMC), authors may deposit the final published version of the work themselves to PMC/UKPMC for immediate release (see https://publicaccess.nih.gov/Methods-C-D-BP). Note that some Science Partner Journals automatically deposit the final published version of the work to PMC upon publication. Please see the journal's Abstracting and Indexing page for a current list of repositories where all journal articles will be deposited automatically.

Security concerns

Authors and reviewers are expected to notify editors if a manuscript could be considered to report dual use research of concern (DURC). The National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity has defined DURC as "life sciences research that, based on current understanding, can be reasonably anticipated to provide knowledge, information, products, or technologies that could be directly misapplied to pose a significant threat with broad potential consequences to public health and safety, agricultural crops and other plants, animals, the environment, materiel, or national security". Papers identified as possible DURC will be brought to the attention of the Editor-in-Chief for further evaluation. If necessary, outside reviewers with expertise in the area will be consulted.

Reporting ethical concerns

AAAS and all of its journals follow all COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) guidelines and we require all of our partnering institutions to do the same. All Science Partner Journals are committed to following these guidelines regarding ethical concerns including issues related to:

• Scientific misconduct
• Undisclosed conflicts of interest
• Errors in published articles
• Technical concerns in published articles

Any ethical concerns should be directed to the specific Science Partner Journal's editorial office.

Post-publication corrections and comments

All Science Partner Journals are committed to addressing and correcting errors in published papers through the following.

• Erratum: Errata are issued when errors are discovered that do not affect the core conclusions of a paper but are still needed to correct the record of publication.
• Editorial Expression of Concern: This is published when an institutional investigation of large-scale error or misconduct is under way regarding a published paper.
• Retractions: A paper may be retracted if misconduct or errors that significantly change the conclusion of the study are discovered.

Errata, Expressions of Concern, and Retractions are completed at the discretion of the editors. They are published online and linked to the related published article.

Authors or readers that discover an error in a published paper should contact the specific Science Partner Journal's editorial office.

Guidelines for Authors

For more infomration, please visit the journal page for author submission details here.

To check on the status of your submission, please visit Research's manuscript submissions site.

For general guidance on using the manuscript submission system, please read the tutorials for Authors, Editors, and Reviewers. For questions on specific functionality, explore the Editorial Manager video library.

Categories of manuscripts

The journal Research accepts submissions for original research articles, reviews, perspectives, and editorials. Prior to submission, each author should review and be prepared to fulfill the submission requirements outlined in the Publication Ethics page and comply with following limitations.

Research Articles should present a major advance and must include an abstract of up to 250 words, an introduction and sections with brief and informative subheadings. Authors may include up to six figures and/or tables and about 40 references. Total research article length should be under 10,000 words. Supplementary materials should be limited to information that is not essential for the general understanding of the research presented in the main text and can include data sets, figures, tables, videos or audio files. For ease in preparing your submission, please follow the manuscript templates in Word and LaTex. Instructions for preparing figures are provided in our one-page figure guide.

Review Articles should describe and synthesize recent developments of significance and highlight future directions. Reviews must include an abstract, an introduction that outlines the main theme, brief subheadings and an outline of important unresolved questions. Reviews should be no longer than 8,000 words, although longer manuscripts will be considered. Authors may include up to six figures and/or tables and up to 100 references. Most reviews are solicited by the editors, but unsolicited submissions will be considered.

Perspectives highlight recent exciting research, but do not primarily discuss the author’s own work. They may provide context for the findings within a field or explain potential interdisciplinary importance. Perspectives that comment on papers in Research should add a dimension to the research and not merely be a summary of the experiments described in the paper. As these are meant to express a personal viewpoint, with rare exceptions, Perspectives should have no more than five authors. Perspectives should include an abstract, have no more than 1,000 words, one figure or table, and no more than 20 references.

Commentaries are short observations or discussions about findings that concern a current issue in the field. Commentaries should have no more than three authors, include an abstract, and have no more than 1,000 words and one figure or table.

Rapid Reports present ground-breaking developments or discoveries in the field. Submissions must include a short abstract (maximum of 150 words), no more than 10 references, and two data elements (any combination of figures or tables). Rapid Reports should be divided into an introduction, a combined results and discussion section, and a materials and methods section. Total length should be less than 1,000 words excluding the abstract, materials and methods, and references. Junior scientists are encouraged to contribute their exciting validated short advances for consideration as a Rapid Report. 

Editorials are short, invited opinion pieces that discuss an issue of immediate importance to the research community. Editorials should have fewer than 1,000 words total, no abstract, a minimal number of references (no more than five) and no figures or tables. Editorials are solicited by the editors.