How do I submit my manuscript to a journal published by PhysMath Central?
All articles must be submitted using PhysMath Central's easy to use online submission system. You can either upload the relevant files from your computer, or use your arXiv id to let us retrieve the relevant files from the preprint server.
The first step of the process is for you to read the 'submission checklist'. This is a list of things that you should do to ensure that you are ready to submit your manuscript. Once you have satisfied the submission checklist, the next step is for you to either register or, if you have already registered, log in.
You do not have to complete the submission process in one go; you can interrupt it at any time and return to it later (carrying on where you left off). All you need to do is log in with your email address and password and go to My manuscripts.
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Can I interrupt the submission process before it's complete?
Yes. You do not have to complete the submission process in one go; you can interrupt it at any time and return to it later (carrying on where you left off). All you need to do is log in with your email address and password and go to My manuscripts.
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Is there a word or page limit for articles published by PhysMath Central?
No, there is no absolute constraint on the length of articles published by PhysMath Central. However, please remember that for the benefit of peer-reviewers and readers articles should be as concise as possible.
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How should I format my manuscript for submission?
Please refer to the 'Instructions for Authors' of the journal concerned.
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How do I prepare illustrations and figures to be submitted with my manuscript?
Please refer to the 'Instructions for Authors' of the journal concerned.
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Can I submit movies and large figure files with my manuscript?
Yes. Given that the full text of each research article is published online rather than in print, we are able to consider large figure files (color or otherwise) and movies (or other interactive material) with your manuscript. There is no additional charge for these files.
See the Instructions for Authors for the journal concerned.
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Can I carry on the submission of a manuscript when my colleague began the process?
No. Once a submission has begun the submitting author takes responsibility for the manuscript during the entire submission, peer review, and, if accepted, publication processes.
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Can I submit my research article to you even though it has already been published elsewhere?
No. Journals published by PhysMath Central only consider original articles. Articles must not have been published in any other journal. However, we do consider manuscripts that have been deposited on preprint servers.
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Are the journals published by PhysMath Central peer reviewed?
All research articles and invited review articles in all journals published by PhysMath Central have been peer-reviewed. Only Editorials are not peer-reviewed.
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How long will it take to peer review my manuscript?
The journals published by PhysMath Central aim to provide a service that is faster than traditional journals, without compromising the quality of the peer review process. Some of the journals do this by using web-based technology to streamline the process. Many manuscripts accepted by journals published by PhysMath Central go through the peer review process in two months or less.
Every effort is made to ensure that manuscripts are reviewed efficiently and to a high quality. The exact length of time will depend on many factors, such as whether peers agree to review a manuscript, and how quickly they submit their reports.
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Does PhysMath Central copy-edit manuscripts?
To keep the publication costs low, articles published in the PMC series and the independent journals are not generally copy-edited. Instead, peer reviewers are asked to indicate whether the standard of English used in is acceptable for publication. If the standard is not acceptable, authors will be asked to submit a revised, edited version.
BioMed Central can provide details of companies that offer professional scientific copy-editing services, if required. Contact editorial@physmathcentral.com for details.
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How long will it take for my article to be available in its final form?
For most journals published by PhysMath Central, publication occurs at the moment of acceptance.
The manuscript is published initially in 'Provisional PDF' form, which is the final version of the manuscript, as seen by the reviewers.
Within a few days, an HTML version of the article will be made available to the authors for checking. After any production errors have been corrected, the HTML version is made public as the 'full text' and a final PDF will be created.
The time between acceptance and the creation of the full text version depends on how quickly authors provide their corrections, but is normally around three weeks.
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Can an article be changed once it is published?
Once an article has been published it is part of the citable scientific record and in general changes cannot be made. Note that most journals published by PhysMath Central publish at the moment of acceptance so corrections must be made during final revisions of a manuscript prior to acceptance. For more information about the acceptance and production procedure, see the FAQ, "How long will it take for my article to be available in its final form?".
Corrections and retractions can be published, and the corrected/retracted article will automatically include a prominent link to the correction or retraction. (more information)
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How can I tell how many times my article has been viewed?
All authors can see how many times their article has been viewed by logging in to the My Manuscripts section of My PhysMath Central. Co-authors will need to register with PhysMath Central if they have not done so already.
If, as a co-author, you find that all of your articles are not listed in My PhysMath Central, it may be because the articles were published using a different email address. If you run into this problem, please contact PhysMath Central Customer Services, who can resolve this issue.
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What is PhysMath Central's copyright policy?
Authors of research articles in any journal published by PhysMath Central keep copyright to their work. Some journals charge a subscription for their non-research content and retain copyright for these articles. Find out more about our copyright policy.
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How do I cite articles published in journals published by PhysMath Central?
Articles in PhysMath Central should be cited in the same way as articles in a traditional journal. Because articles are not printed, they do not have page numbers; instead, they are given a unique article number. Because the journals are online-only, they do not have issue numbers; each volume corresponds to a calendar year.
Article citations follow this format:
Authors: Title. PMC Phys A [year], [volume number]:[article number].
e.g. Lenahan C, Avigan D: Manuscript title in full. PMC Phys A 2006, 8:101
PDFs of these articles have numbered pages, but the numbers are not part of the citation.
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Do journals published by PhysMath Central have impact factors and their citations tracked?
Not fully. For any journal to have an Impact Factor, however, it must be tracked by Thomson Scientific (ISI) for three years. Because PhysMath Central journals are relatively new, most do not yet have Impact Factors. However we do expect them to have impact facors in the near future.
Two other citation tracking services (Scopus and Google Scholar) both
track citations for all PhysMath Central journals.
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Are articles included in arXiv.org and other bibliographic databases?
All articles in journals published by PhysMath Central are included immediately
in arXiv.org. In addition all PhysMath Central's journals are indexed by Scopus.
Note that because the full text of all BioMed Central research articles is
available without registration or subscription, search engines such as Google
also index them, greatly increasing their visibility. All PhysMath Central research
articles are indexed by the science focussed search engine, Scirus.
BioMed Central participates in CrossRef and the Open Citation Project,
allowing direct linking from citations to an article elsewhere to the full text
of that article in a BioMed Central journal.
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How is continued Open Access availability of my articles guaranteed?
For further details, see our Open Access policy.
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