Submissions

1. Submission Process

     a. Manuscript Submission

     b. Peer-review Process and Publication

     c. Article-Processing Charge

     d. Withdrawal and Cancellation Policy

2. Editorial Policies

     a. Manuscript Policy

     b. Competing Interests

     c. Human and Animal Rights

3. Services Offered

     a. English Proofreading Services

     b. Formatting Services

     c. Printing Services

4. Preparing Manuscript

     a. File Formats

     b. Article Types

     c. Research Article Required Sections

     d. Review Article Required Sections

     e. Section Details

     f. Images

     g. Tables

     h. Style and Language 

     i. References

5. Manuscript Formatting

6. Submission Preparation Checklist

7. Privacy Statement

     a. Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement

     b. Editors’ Responsibilities

     c. Author’s Responsibilities

     d. Reviewers’ Responsibilities

 8. Author Fees

1. SUBMISSION PROCESS

To help with the manuscript drafting process, we offer a PFD checklist that offers a summary of everything on this page to help guide you through the writing process here: Checklist

Another resource that all authors must check when preparing their manuscripts is found here. Please check that your article follows all 8 points outlined in this document.

a. Manuscript Submission

Manuscripts must be submitted by one of the authors of the manuscript, and should not be submitted by anyone on their behalf. The submitting author should also take responsibility for the article during the submission and peer-review process. All authors—including the submitting author—are responsible for the article publication fee.

When submitting your article please also provide a cover letter. In your cover letter, explain why your manuscript should be published in the journal and elaborate on any issues relating to our editorial policies described in the submission guidelines. Be sure to also include if you can pay the publication fee and the method of payment. For examples on how your article should be organized and formatted, see our sample article. Make sure to also include co-author emails in the Author’s Contributions section. These emails are for our records only and co-author emails will not be published in the final version.

To maintain the integrity of our journal. Each submission will be checked via the iThenticate Plagiarism Detection Software. We will share these PDF results with you if there are any sections that need to be re-written. Our editorial team pays close attention to any complete sentences or paragraphs taken word for word from another source.

Assistance with the process of manuscript preparation and submission is available from our editorial team. Please contact [email protected].

b. Peer Review Process and Publication

The Functional Food Science journal uses online peer review to expedite the publication process. The time it takes to reach a final decision for an article depends on the extent of the reviewer’s comments and how quickly the authors respond.

The average time for article processing is 30-45 days from submission, with publication following immediately. The peer-review process takes about 2-4 weeks and articles are published as articles are finalized throughout the month. The ultimate responsibility for any decision regarding articles belongs to the Editor(s) in Chief, to whom any appeals about rejection should be forwarded to.

c. Article-Processing Charge

There is an article-processing charge for every accepted article, which is used to cover the costs of open access publication. The publication fee currently is $1395.00 US dollars (from June 2024) for all articles and will include formatting for our 2 columns format and minor English services for the article for articles under 5000 words. Articles beyond 5000 words may incur an additional processing fee due to additional work required. Once an article has been generally accepted and sent to the author, he or she must make the payment within 10 calendar days.

Discounts and waivers may be granted, especially for authors from developing countries. However, any discount or waivers should be discussed and an amount agreed upon at the time of article submission.

Food Science Publisher offers article publication cost waivers to papers whose corresponding authors are based in countries classified low-income economies. The list can be found via the following link:  [Click Here]

Once an article has been published, no significant change should be made to the article. Grammatical errors and similar edits will be considered, but any changes related to the content of the article would violate the ethics of the peer-review processes. Accordingly, the journal will charge 199.00 US dollars for any significant changes needed to be made after the article has been published.

d. Withdrawal, Cancellation and Late Payment Policy

If the author withdraws their article within the first week of submission, there is no cancellation fee. However, if an author still desires to withdraw their article after the initial stage of submission, there will be a cancellation fee of 50% of the article publication fee. If the author withdraws after the peer review process has concluded and we have sent the general article acceptance letter, they will have to pay the full article publication fee.

Once the corresponding author receives the final galley proof of their article with page numbers, the article cannot be withdrawn. There also should be no more significant changes or edits to the content of the manuscript. 

If we do not receive payment for the article and the article has not been withdrawn, a late fee will be added on top of the publication fee. The late fee amount depends on the length of time in which we do not receive a payment.

If we provide the authors with the reviewer’s comments but do not receive the final draft or any reply, then we may publish the article as is (following editing and formatting to fit our journal guidelines). Further action will be taken if the article has been published and we still do not receive payment. We will send the authors reminder emails and the details of the steps we are taking throughout this entire process to ensure that they have multiple chances of rectifying the situation. As a peer-reviewed, open-access journal, we are supported by the funds provided by publishing authors. These funds are necessary to allow us to continue publishing excellent articles as well as providing discounts to authors from developing countries.

2. EDITORIAL POLICIES

a. Manuscript Policy

Any manuscripts or substantial parts of the manuscripts submitted to the journal must not be under consideration by any other journal. The manuscript should not have been already published in any journal or other citable form.

However, our journal is willing to consider manuscripts which are translations of articles originally published in another language besides English. In this case, the consent of the journal in which the article was originally published must be obtained. In addition, if the article has been previously published, this should be stated within the abstract. Authors are required to ensure that no material submitted as a part of a manuscript infringes existing copyrights or the rights of a third party. Authors who published in Functional Food Science retain copyright to their work. Correspondence concerning articles published in Functional Food Science is encouraged.

b. Competing interests

Our official Conflict of Interest or Competing Interests policy is defined as the following. A competing interest exists when your interpretation or presentation of information may be influenced by personal or financial interests with other people or organizations. Accordingly, authors should disclose any personal or financial interests that may influence their scientific judgment and the manuscript. Conflicts of interest will undermine the credibility of the authors, the journal, and the research they are trying to present.

c. Human and Animal Rights

When submitting a manuscript to our journal, all authors are expected to have read and agreed to all our author’s guidelines. In particular, any experimental research reported in the manuscript should have been performed with the approval of an appropriate ethics committee. Research carried out on humans must be in compliance with the Helsinki Declaration. Any experimental research on animals must follow internationally recognized guidelines.

A statement to this effect must be included in the Methods section of the manuscript. This statement should include the name of the body which gave approval, with a reference number where appropriate. Informed consent must also be documented. A manuscript may be rejected if the editorial office considers that the research has not been carried out within an ethical framework. For example, if the severity of the experimental procedure is not justified by the value of the knowledge gained.

3. SERVICES OFFERED

a. English proofreading services

We recommend non-native English speaking authors to consider sending their manuscripts to an English speaking colleague or using a professional English editing service prior to submission. However, the FFS journal also provides English proofreading services. Our services are provided by native English-speakers experienced in proof-reading and editing. If you are submitting an article to our journal or simply need affordable proofreading and editing services, we encourage you to consider the FFS journal’s English proofreading services. 

The base rates for our proofreading services are the following:

Regular: $70.00 US dollars per 500 words

Express: $130 US dollars per 500 words

Premium: Comprehensive language review with extensive revisions (i.e. rephrasing, reorganization, logic, clarity, and flow) : $155 US dollars per 500 words

For more information about the Editing Services please click here:

Comprehensive language review with extensive revisions (i.e. rephrasing, reorganization, logic, clarity, and flow) 

Once your manuscript is edited with our services, we can also provide a certificate. The certificate will confirm your paper was edited by a native English speaker at the Food Science Publisher (FSP), assuming all of the changes proposed by the editors were incorporated into the manuscript. If you are interested in our proof-reading services, let us know. We review manuscripts and determine the costs beforehand. We will not charge authors for this service without their interest or consent.

b. Formatting Services: If your manuscript has extensive formatting issues, there will be an extra $199.00 US dollars charge for re-formatting. Let us know if you are interested in our formatting services. We review manuscripts and determine the costs beforehand. We will not charge authors for this service without their interest or consent.

c. Printing Sevices: We are also able to print individual articles in full color for authors. If you are interested in printing your article please let us know. The minimum page numbers for printing is 25 and the prices are as follows:

4. PREPARING MANUSCRIPT

a. File Formats

The following word processor file formats are acceptable for the main manuscript document:

• Microsoft Word 

Note that figures, diagrams, tables, etc. should be incorporated within the text. Please also send all figures, diagrams, and tables as separate files with high resolution. This will help the peer-review process to go smoothly.

b. Article Types

The following types of articles we accept for publication: Research, Review, Case Report, Short Report, Editorial, Perspective Piece, Theoretical, and Methodological.

Please view the following links to view samples of these articles within our journals: Research, Review, Case Report, Short Report, Editorial

c. Research Article Required Sections

Manuscripts for Research articles submitted to Functional Food Science should be divided into the following sections:

• Title page
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Methods
• Results
• Discussion
• Conclusions
• List of abbreviations used (if any)
• Competing interests
• Authors' contributions
• Authors' information (if any)
• Acknowledgments and Funding
• References
• Figure legends (if any)
• Tables and captions (if any)
• Description of additional data files (if any)

d. Review Article Required Sections

Manuscripts for Review articles should be divided into the following sections:

• Title page
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Review
• Conclusions
• List of abbreviations used (if any)
• Competing interests
• Authors' contributions
• Acknowledgments and Funding
• References
• Figure legends (if any)
• Tables and captions (if any)
• Description of additional data files (if any)

Please read the descriptions of each of the article types choose which is appropriate for your article and structure it accordingly. If you are unsure, your article should be formatted as a Research article.

e. Section Details

Title page: This should list the title of the article. The title should include the study design. The full names, institutional addresses, and e-mail addresses for all authors must be included on the title page. The corresponding author should also be indicated.

Abstract: The abstract of the manuscript should not exceed 350 words and must be structured into separate sections: Introduction, the context and purpose of the study; Results, the main findings; Conclusions, brief summary and potential implications. Please minimize the use of abbreviations and do not cite references in the abstract. Trial Registration, if your research article reports the results of a controlled health care intervention, please list your trial registry, along with the unique identifying number, e.g. Trial registration: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN73824447. Please note that there should be no space between the letters and numbers of your trial registration number.

Graphical Abstract: The graphical abstract portion is a visual representation of the article that readers should be able to understand within a quick glance. should be equivalent to the written abstract portion of the article. This should focus on providing readers with a visual summary of the main topics and findings from the article.

Please submit the graphical abstract within the contents of the submitted manuscript as well in a separate source file.

Tips for a good graphical abstract:

     - Try to have good use of colors to make it stand out

     - Keep the amount of words minimal while maintaining empty space around the text

     - Flow diagrams and visual representations are good ideas for the graphical abstracts

Introduction: The introduction section should be written from the standpoint of researchers without specialist knowledge in that area and must clearly state - and, if helpful, illustrate - the introduction to the research and its aims. Reports of clinical research should, where appropriate, include a summary of a search of the literature to indicate why this study was necessary and what it aimed to contribute to the field. The section should end with a very brief statement of what is being reported in the article.

Methods: This should include the design of the study, the setting, the type of participants or materials involved, a clear description of all interventions and comparisons, and the type of analysis used, including a power calculation if appropriate.

Results and Discussion: The Results and Discussion may be combined into a single section or presented separately. Results of statistical analysis should include, where appropriate, relative and absolute risks or risk reductions, and confidence intervals. The results and discussion sections may also be broken into subsections with short, informative headings.

Conclusions: This should state clearly the main conclusions of the research and give a clear explanation of their importance and relevance. Summary illustrations may be included.

List of abbreviations: If abbreviations are used in the text, they should be defined in the text where first used, and a list of abbreviations can be provided, which should precede the competing interests and authors' contributions.

Competing interests: A competing interest exists when your interpretation of data or presentation of information may be influenced by your personal or financial relationship with other people or organizations. Authors should disclose any financial competing interests but also any non-financial competing interests that may cause them embarrassment were they to become public after the publication of the manuscript.

Authors' contributions: In order to give appropriate credit to each author of a paper, the individual contributions of authors to the manuscript should be specified in this section. 

Authors' information: You may choose to use this section to include any relevant information about the author(s) that may aid the reader’s interpretation of the article, and understand the standpoint of the author(s). This may include details about the authors' qualifications, current positions they hold at institutions or societies, or any other relevant background information. Please refer to the authors using their initials. Note this section should not be used to describe any competing interests.

Acknowledgments and Funding: Please acknowledge anyone who contributed towards the study by making substantial contributions to conception, design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data, or who was involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content, but who do not meet the criteria for authorship.

f. Images

Note that figures, diagrams, tables with a portrait, not landscape orientation, etc. should be incorporated within the text.  This makes the peer-review process go forward more smoothly.

The number of figures and/or tables (combined) is limited to 8. Figures or tables beyond 8 may be considered, but would be subject to an additional processing fee due to the additional work required.

All images must be submitted separately from the manuscript document as legible, uncompressed TIF files. Line art (such as graphs) must be submitted as Monochrome 1-bit or RGB at 900-1200 DPI. Halftones (microscope photos) are only acceptable in TIF format prepared in Grayscale or RGB color mode and must be at least 300 DPI. Images that contain both line art and halftone elements must be submitted as Grayscale or RGB at 500-900 DPI. All other photos must be easily viewable at least 300 DPI.

g. Tables

All tables should be produced in Microsoft Word and not as images.

For each figure, the following information should be provided: Figure number (in sequence, using Arabic numerals - i.e. Figure 1, 2, 3 etc); short title of figure (maximum 15 words); detailed legend, up to 150 words. Please note that it is the responsibility of the author(s) to obtain permission from the copyright holder to reproduce figures or tables that have previously been published elsewhere.

Each table should be numbered in sequence using Arabic numerals (i.e. Table 1, 2, 3, etc.). Tables should also have a title that summarizes the whole table, maximum of 15 words. Detailed legends may then follow, but should be concise.

Smaller tables considered to be integral to the manuscript can be pasted into the document text file. These will be typeset and displayed in the final published form of the article. Such tables should be formatted using the 'Table object' in a word processing program to ensure that columns of data are kept aligned when the file is sent electronically for review; this will not always be the case if columns are generated by simply using tabs to separate text. Commas should not be used to indicate numerical values. Color and shading should not be used.

Larger datasets can be uploaded separately as additional files. Additional files will not be displayed in the final, published form of the article, but a link will be provided to the files as supplied by the author.

Tabular data provided as additional files can be uploaded as an Excel spreadsheet (.xls) or comma-separated values (.csv). As with all files, please use the standard file extensions.

h. Style and Language

Currently, Functional Food Science can only accept manuscripts written in English. Gene names should be in italic, but protein products should be in plain type. There is no explicit limit on the length of articles submitted, but authors are encouraged to be concise. There is no restriction on the number of figures, tables or additional files that can be included with each article online. Figures and tables should be sequentially referenced. The authors should include all relevant supporting data with each article.

Functional Food Science will not edit submitted manuscripts for style or language; reviewers may advise rejection of a manuscript if it is compromised by grammatical errors. Authors are advised to write clearly and simply and to have their articles checked by colleagues before submission. In-house copyediting will be minimal. Non-native speakers of English may choose to make use of a copyediting service.

The abstract is one of the most important parts of a manuscript. For guidance, please view the following link for the sample article.

Abbreviations should be used as sparingly as possible. They can be defined when first used or a list of abbreviations can be provided preceding the acknowledgments and references.

Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published before or under consideration for publication elsewhere and that the authors agree to automatic transfer of the copyright to the publisher.

i. References

All references must be numbered consecutively, in square brackets, in the order in which they are cited in the text, followed by any in tables or legends. Only articles and abstracts that have been published or are in press, or are available through public e-print/preprint servers, may be cited; unpublished abstracts, unpublished data and personal communications should not be included in the reference list, but may be included in the text and referred to as "unpublished data", "unpublished observations", or "personal communications" giving the names of the involved researchers. Notes/footnotes are not allowed. Obtaining permission to quote personal communications and unpublished data from the cited author(s) is the responsibility of the author. Journal abbreviations follow Index Medicus/MEDLINE. Citations in the reference list should contain all named authors, regardless of how many there are. Examples of the Functional Food Science reference style are shown below. Please take care to follow the reference style precisely; references not in the correct style may be retyped, necessitating tedious proofreading.

Links: Web links and URLs should be included in the reference list. They should be provided in full, including the title of the site, the URL in brackets, and the retrieval date in month, day, year format.

Functional Food Science reference style:

Article within a journal: 1. Mardunts EV, Orengo SF, Bork P: BRCA1 protein products: functional motifs. Nat Genet 1997, 13:266-267. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31989/ffhd.vXiX.xxx

Article within a journal supplement: 2. Ivanov CA, Bray JE, Lee T, LoConte L.: Analysis and assessment of ab initio three-dimensional prediction, secondary structure, and contacts prediction. Proteins 1998, 43(Suppl 3):149-170.

In press article: 3. Burger SA, Barnes PJ: Clinical aspects of exhaled nitric oxide. Eur Respir J, in press.

Published abstract: 4. Taylor NJ, Burger JA, Marinova-Mutafchieva L, Maini RN: Mesenchymal cells, stromal-derived factor-1, and rheumatoid arthritis [abstract]. Arthritis Rheum 1998, 42:s250.

Article within conference proceedings: 5. Barnes X: Zeolites and synthetic mechanisms. In Proceedings of the First National Conference on Porous Sieves: 27-30 June 1996; Baltimore. Edited by Smith Y. Stoneham: Butterworth-Heinemann; 1997:16-27.

Book chapter or article within a book: 6. Johnston E: From prey via endosymbiont to plastids: comparative studies in dinoflagellates. In Origins of Plastids. Volume 2. 2nd edition. Edited by Lewin RA. New York: Chapman and Hall; 1992:53-76.

Whole issue of journal: 7. Mardunts B, Johnston S.: Innovative oncology. In Breast Cancer Res 1997, 10:1-72.

Whole conference proceedings: 8. Margolis (Ed): Proceedings of the First National Conference on Porous Sieves: 27-30 June 1999; Baltimore. Stoneham: Butterworth-Heinemann; 1999.

Complete book: 9. Martirosyan D: Origin of Eukaryotic Cells. New Haven: Yale University Press; 1989.

Monograph or book in a series: 10. Das GW, Gadek JE: The alveolar macrophage. In Cultured Human Cells and Tissues. Edited by Harris TJR. New York: Academic Press; 1999:54-56. [Stoner G (Series Editor): Methods and Perspectives in Cell Biology, vol 1.]

Book with institutional author: 11. Advisory Committee on Genetic Modification: Annual Report. London; 1998.

Ph.D. thesis: 12. Taylor R: Wrappers for performance enhancement and oblivious decision graphs. Ph.D. thesis. Stanford University, Computer Science Department; 1999.

Internet resource (Link/URL): 13. The Mouse Tumor Biology Database   [http://tumor.informatics.jax.org/mtbwi/index.do] Retrieved July 4, 2019.

5. MANUSCRIPT FORMATTING

General Page

• Document size 8.5” x 11”
• Margins Top: 0.75”, Bottom: 0.75”, Left: 1”, and Right: 1”
• Paragraph spacing 1.15 from title to end of references
• Times New Roman font
• 12 pt font (excluding header and title)
• No orphans or widows (single lines left behind on a page, or moved forward on to next page)
• No unnecessary page breaks included

Header

• Font size 10
• Bolded
• Information on the left italicized
• Listed Page X of XX on left
• Remove all excess space before and after the header

Article Title

• Centered 
• 16 pt font
• Bolded

Author information

• Centered
• 12 pt font
• Bolded
• Separate multiple with commas
• If multiple organizations, use the corresponding superscript after name 1

Authors Organizations

• Remove email addresses and phone numbers if listed
• Separate organizations with a semicolon
• If multiple organizations, label 1before with superscript

Body Paragraphs

• Titles bolded
• Subtitles bolded and italicized
• No extra space between paragraphs under one title
• The first paragraph has no indentation
• All following paragraphs have 0.3” indentation on the first line only
• Each section should have one space between the title and the last sentence of the preceding section

References

• When listing multiple authors, include no more than 7 author names and use the notation of "et al." for the remaining authors
• Unnecessary punctuation should be removed (e.g. "...")
• Avoid usage of an ampersand symbol (&) and instead, write out "and" 
• Left indentation of 0.44” 
• Hanging by 0.24”
• If the list is over 100, then a left indentation of 0.3” and hanging by 0.4” will work as well