Salt and Seawater Science & Technology (hereinafter referred to as SSS&T) is an international, peer-reviewed and Open Access journal publishing outstanding and informative papers in all fields (see page I, keywords for SSS&T) of seawater sciences and salt technologies, including science, engineering, agriculture, fisheries, and food science, ranging fundamental principles to practical applications. SSS&T is fully peer-reviewed and upholds the highest standards research and publishing ethics.
SSS&T publishes Original Papers, Short Papers (SP) Reviews, and Notes. SSS&T particularly welcomes articles that promote the exchange of information between academics and industry. SSS&T welcomes submissions from around the world. The authors are not limited to members of the Society of Sea Water Science, Japan (hereinafter referred to as SWSJ). A broad international audience which includes researchers, engineers and policy makers, have free access to the articles that are published continuously online.
1. Manuscript types
SSS&T welcomes four manuscript types, all of which are subject to peer review.
Original Papers are manuscript describing the works which are significant to the field and in fully detailed. A typical format is 6 to 8 pages with a 200 words abstract.
Short Papers (SP) are brief reports or research notes, prepared with a templates, two printed pages, and a 100 words abstract.
Reviews are critical reviews or keynote papers in areas of salt and seawater science. Prospective authors must consult with one of the editors to check the suitability of their topics. A typical format is 8 to 12 pages with a 200 words abstract.
Notes are short reports which include novel and valuable information to explore new areas. A typical format is 3 to 4 pages with a 200 words abstract.
2. Manuscript Submission
All manuscripts must be submitted via email to the Editor-in-Chief via an e-mail (contact information is provided at the end of this Guideline). In addition, any other relevant information such as applications for APC waivers and so forth should be included at the time of submission within the e-mail. Upon initial submission, please provide a single Microsoft Word document that contains the text, tables, figures and any other material.
3. Manuscript Preparation
Style: Manuscript is to be prepared using Microsoft Word in a 12-point, a page size of A4 or US letter with top and bottom margins of 30 mm, and left and right margins of 25 mm, double spaced. About 750 words are corresponding to one page of a typeset document.
English standards: It is highly recommended that the authors use the professional English editing and proofreading service before submitting their manuscript. It is also recommended that they submit a proofreading certification along with the manuscript, if available.
Cover Letter: The template for the cover letter is available from the SWSJ website, together with an example. It is necessary to the required items. Pay particularly careful attention to authors’ affiliations and addresses, which should not have any omissions.
Format: Each Article should comprise the following sections: Introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, etc. Sections may be omitted or combined as appropriate.
1) The First page
The first page of manuscript should contain Title, Authors’ full names, Affiliations, Key words and abstract.
Title: The title should describe the content of the article briefly but clearly and is important for search purposes by third-party services. Do not use the same main title with numbered minor titles, even for a series of papers by the same authors. Do not use abbreviations in the title, except those used generally in related fields.
Authors: Provide the full names, with initials, of the author(s).
Affiliations: Provide full names and addresses of institutions (including laboratory, department, institute and/or university, city, state and country). When authors belong to different institutions, their respective addresses should be indicated by superscript numbers.
Keywords: A maximum of five key words should be provided.
Abstract: The abstract summarizes the paper or article, such as the objectives, methods, and results, and discussion.
2) Body Style
(1) Decimal headings are used for sections, such as 1., 2. …, 1.1, 1.2 …, 1.1.1, 1.1.2 …, and so on. These figures are written in boldface.
(2) References to equation(s) are expressed as Eq. (1) or Eqs. (3-5).
(3) Figures and Tables are referred to in the text as Fig. 1, Figs. 2, 3, and Table 1. In the case of the first occurrence, they are written in boldface.
(4) The names of biological species and the symbols for physical quantities are written in italic.
(5) Citations of references are numbered and placed in the text as superscripts, e.g., 1), 2,3), and 4-6).
(6) The nomenclature used to describe chemical compounds conforms to the rules laid down by IUPAC.
(7) SI units are to be used. Units are enclosed in brackets [ ], if attached to a symbol or a word while the brackets are omitted when the units are attached to a numerical value.
(8) The sources of unusual chemicals, animals, microbial strains or equipment should be described, and the location (city, country) of the company should be provided in parentheses. If hazardous materials or dangerous procedures are used in the experiments and the precautions related to their handling are not widely recognized, it is recommended that the authors provide the necessary details.
(9) 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.
3) References
All references mentioned in the Reference List are cited in the text, and vice versa.
References are numbered consecutively and list in the order of citation in the text. The names of all the authors are written as the initial of the first name before the last name. After the authors, the title of the paper is written in English. If the title in English is not available, convert the title and author names into Romanized characters. The names of journals are abbreviated according to Chemical Abstracts and written in italic. The volume number of the journal is written in boldface. The start and end pages and year of publication of the paper follow. Several examples are shown below.
Journals
1) T. Suzuki, M. Abe, H. Yamasaki, M. Niinae, Immobilization of fluoride in kaolinite and montmorillonite with the addition of magnesium oxide, Salt Seawater Sci. Technol., 1, 78-79 (2021)
Books
2) G. D. Christian, P. K. Dasgupta, K. A. Schug, Analytical Chemistry (7th ed.), 452-461, John Wiley and Sons, Inc. (2013)
Proceedings and Abstracts
5) A. Ellor, P. E. K. Craner, J. Repp, Novel methods for evaluating epoxy-barrier coatings for seawater service, Proc. of US-Pacific Rim Workshop on Emerging Nonmetallic Materials for Marine Environment, 2101, Honolulu, USA (1997)
Patents
6) T. Kaisui, Japan Tokkyo Kaiho, JP 9-12345 (1997)
Web sites
7) The Salt Industry Center of Japan, “Development of salt production technologies”, (https://www.shiojigyo.com/english/method/) (last accessed 2024.9.13)
4) Figures and Tables
Figures and Tables are to be prepared on separate sheets and are to be of sufficiently high quality and resolution for printing. Photographs are handled as Figures. Each sheet of a figure or a table is to be numbered consecutively, such as Fig. 1 or Table 1, followed by the title and the name of the first author. Color figures can be published. However, a printing fee of JPY 30,000 per page is necessary.
4. Editorial and peer review process
SSS&T uses double-blind peer review. When a manuscript is submitted to SSS&T, it is assigned to the Editor-in-Chief, who performs initial screening. The Editor-in-Chief allocates each of the remaining manuscripts to an Editor, who handles peer review. The Editor selects two appropriate reviewers to provide their assessment of the manuscript. The deadline for submission of the reviewers’ reports 2 weeks by any type of article.
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 90 days, 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.
5. Copyright and licensing
SSS&T is fully Open Access and uses Creative Commons (CC) licenses, which allow users to use, reuse and build upon the material published in the journal without charge or the need to ask prior permission from the publisher or author. More details on the CC licenses are below.
Copyright and licensing: Authors are required to assign all copyrights in the work to SWSJ, who then publish the work under the Creative Commons license. The Society’s preferred initial license is CC BY 4.0. Authors wish to grant a license other than this, please apply to the Editorial Board with the copyright transfer form.
CC BY 4.0 (Attribution 4.0 International). This license allows users to share and adapt an article, even commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given.
6. Article Processing Charge
There are many costs associated with publishing scholarly journals, such as those of managing peer review, copy editing, typesetting and online hosting. To cover these costs in the absence of journal subscriptions, authors (or their representatives) are asked to pay article processing charges (APCs).
SSS&T charges an APC (see Table 1) for all article types except manuscripts requested or invited by the Editorial Board, which are free to publish. Authors of accepted manuscripts will be invoiced for the APC before publication of their manuscript. Color figures can be published. However, a printing fee of JPY 30,000 per page is necessary. The corresponding author will be sent a PDF of the paper on publication. For SWSJ members, reduced rates apply (see Table 2). If the first author of the paper is a student, this fee will be halved (Table 1 and 2).
Table 1 APC of SSS&T (Japanese Yen)
| Pages | Original Paper | Short Paper | Note | Review |
| ≤ 2 | ― | 15,000 | ― | ― |
| 3-4 | ― | 20,000 | 25,000 | ― |
| 5-6 | 30,000 | ― | 30,000 | ― |
| 7-8 | 35,000 | ― | 35,000 | 25,000 |
| 9-10 | 40,000 | ― | ― | 30,000 |
| 11-12 | 50,000 | ― | ― | 35,000 |
| 13-14 | 60,000 | ― | ― | 40,000 |
| 15-16 | 70,000 | ― | ― | 45,000 |
Student discounts; reduced to 50%
Table 2 APC of SSS&T (Japanese Yen) for SWSJ member
| Pages | Original Paper | Short Paper | Note | Review |
| ≤ 2 | ― | 10,000 | ― | ― |
| 3-4 | ― | 15,000 | 15,000 | ― |
| 5-6 | 20,000 | ― | 20,000 | ― |
| 7-8 | 25,000 | ― | 25,000 | 25,000 |
| 9-10 | 30,000 | ― | ― | 30,000 |
| 11-12 | 40,000 | ― | ― | 35,000 |
| 13-14 | 50,000 | ― | ― | 40,000 |
| 15-16 | 60,000 | ― | ― | 45,000 |
Student discounts; reduced to 50%
7. Accepted Manuscripts
Manuscripts that are accepted for publication are copyedited and typeset by the journal’s production team before publication. The journal is published once a year, always available continuously online, as a pre-release. All communication regarding accepted manuscripts is with the corresponding author.
1) Proofs
Page proofs are sent to the corresponding author, who should check and return them within 7days. Otherwise, the manuscript will be published after being solely corrected by the editorial board. Only essential corrections to typesetting errors or omissions are accepted; excessive changes are not permitted at the proofing stage.
2) Reprints
Order forms for reprints are sent with the proofs to the corresponding author and should be returned with the proofs.
3) Errata and retractions
The journal recognizes the importance of maintaining the integrity of published literature.
A published article that contains an error may be corrected through the publication of an Erratum.
8. Contact
To contact the Editorial Office or the Editor-in-Chief, please write to:
Editorial Office, edit[at mark]aiselect.co.jp
Updated: 24 December 2024
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, SWSJ, all right reserved
Manuscript submission
Aiselect, Co. Ltd., Editorial Office for Bulletin of the Society of Sea Water Science, Japan,
5-30-6, Nishinippori, Arakawa, Tokyo, 116-0013, Japan
+81-3-6806-8503 +81-3-6806-8504
edit◎aiselect.co.jp (Please change ◎ to @ when sending e-mail.)