Instructions for Authors

Authors are required to provide a graphical abstract (a feature figure) upon acceptance of their manuscript for publication. The graphical abstract should succinctly summarize the content of the paper in a visually engaging manner, designed to attract a wide readership and facilitate database compilation. It will be published online in the table of contents. Figures should be carefully crafted to illustrate the paper’s theme and may include a brief text (up to 30 words). The graphical abstract should be in color and fit within a 12 cm (width) x 6 cm (height) area. The image should have a minimum resolution of 600 dpi, with line art at 1200 dpi. Note: The height of the image should not exceed half of its width. Graphical abstracts can be submitted in jpg (preferred), PDF, Word, PowerPoint, or png formats when the manuscript is accepted.

Ethics Committee Approval and Patient Consent

Experimental research involving human or animals should have been approved by author's institutional review board or ethics committee. This information should be mentioned in the manuscript including the name of the board/committee that gave the approval. Investigations involving humans will have been performed in accordance with the principles of Declaration of Helsinki. Authors should also comply with the clinical trial registration statement from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, and the clinical trial registration number should be provided.

"The ICMJE accepts publicly accessible registration in any registry that is a primary register of the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) that includes the minimum acceptable 24-item trial registration data set or in ClinicalTrials.gov, which is a data provider to the WHO ICTRP. The ICMJE endorses these registries because they meet several criteria. They are accessible to the public at no charge, open to all prospective registrants, managed by a not-for-profit organization, have a mechanism to ensure the validity of the registration data, and are electronically searchable."

For research involving human subjects, informed consent from each patient or participant should be obtained. Patient or participants' identities and privacy must be fully protected in the manuscript. Please follow the guidelines from ICMJE on Protection of Research Participants:

"Patients have a right to privacy that should not be violated without informed consent. Identifying information, including names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, or pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. Informed consent for this purpose requires that an identifiable patient be shown the manuscript to be published. Authors should disclose to these patients whether any potential identifiable material might be available via the Internet as well as in print after publication. Patient consent should be written and archived with the journal, the authors, or both, as dictated by local regulations or laws. Applicable laws vary from locale to locale, and journals should establish their own policies with legal guidance. Since a journal that archives the consent will be aware of patient identity, some journals may decide that patient confidentiality is better guarded by having the author archive the consent and instead providing the journal with a written statement that attests that they have received and archived written patient consent."

The information of whether informed consent has been obtained should be written in the manuscript, either in the Methods section, Acknowledgement, or in a separate section. If informed consent was obtained orally only or not obtained, the authors must clearly explain the reasons with a statement in the manuscript and this should have been approved by author's institutional review board or ethics committee.

Publication Fee

Publication fees are payable only if a manuscript is accepted for publication. There is no additional charge for color figures, nor is there a submission fee. Payment instructions will be provided during the publication process, and an invoice will be available on the manuscript login page after acceptance. Payments can be made via credit card (Visa/MasterCard/UnionPay new ) or bank transfer. The publication fee is required to cover the cost of publication and must be paid before copyediting, and within 3 months of acceptance.

Research paper/
Review/
Erratum/
Others

$AUD 750

* $AUD: Australian dollar. Currency Converter (external source)

Authorship

Each author listed on a manuscript submitted to this journal must adhere to the four authorship criteria set by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE):

Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
Final approval of the version to be published; AND
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.

Submission

★ To submit a new manuscript, please use the new submission link.

★ To submit a revision, please log in, select your manuscript, and click the 'Submit Revision' link. Do not submit a revision as a new manuscript.

All files must be uploaded directly to the journal's website. Manuscripts submitted via email (either to the editors or the journal office) will not be accepted and will be automatically discarded.

According to ICMJE definition, the corresponding author is the one individual who takes primary responsibility for communication with the journal during the manuscript submission, peer review, and publication process, and typically ensures that all the journal’s administrative requirements, such as providing details of authorship, ethics committee approval, and gathering conflict of interest forms and statements, are properly completed, although these duties may be delegated to one or more coauthors.

Manuscripts previously posted on preprint servers (e.g., BioRxiv, MedRxiv, ChemRxiv) may be submitted to our journal. Authors can also post their manuscripts to other preprint servers if the manuscripts are accepted by our journal.

Categories of Contributions

Nanotheranostics welcomes original research and review articles. Letters commenting on previously published articles must be submitted within one year of the referenced article’s publication date. Please note that case reports are not considered for publication.

Submission Checklist

A complete submission includes the following:

Cover letter to the editors
Full contact details of the corresponding author(s)
List of suggested referees
Manuscript file with embedded tables and figures
Supplementary files (optional)

Authors for whom English is not the first language are encouraged to have a colleague proofread the manuscript before submission.

Cover Letter

All manuscripts should be accompanied by a cover letter from the corresponding author. The cover letter should contain a statement that the manuscript has been seen and approved by all authors. If there are more than 10 authors, the specific contribution of each author must be substantiated in the cover letter. The cover letter should inform the editor of potential overlap with other material already published or submitted for publication and should provide a reference to or a copy of this material. The cover letter should also disclose any conflict of interest—financial or otherwise—that may directly or indirectly influence the content of the manuscript submitted. Finally, the cover letter should provide any additional information that may be helpful to the editor.

Manuscript File

Please embed all figures and tables within the manuscript to create a single file for submission in Microsoft Word. Once the submission is complete, the system will generate a manuscript ID and send it to the corresponding author's contact email.

Supplementary Material

During the initial submission, you may upload one supplementary file along with the main manuscript and cover letter. Additional supplementary files can be uploaded after the initial submission via the manuscript login page by clicking the "[Add More]" link under the 'Supplementary File' section. Large files should be compressed into a ZIP file (RAR files will not be accepted). To create a ZIP file in Windows, first select the files, then right-click and choose "Send to > Compressed (zipped) folder." Supplementary materials will be linked to the paper online and will not be edited.

Peer Review

Submitted manuscripts are reviewed for originality, significance, adequacy of documentation, composition, and adherence to these guidelines. However, editorial decisions are based not only on the technical merits of the work but also on factors such as priority for publication and relevance to the general readership of Nanotheranostics. All manuscripts are judged in relation to other submissions currently under consideration.

Manuscripts that are deemed of insufficient quality or unlikely to be competitive for publication will be rejected during the initial screening. The remaining manuscripts undergo a single-blind peer review process, involving two or more reviewers. In this process, the identities of the reviewers are concealed from the authors, but not vice versa. Possible decisions include: accept as is, minor revision, major revision, de novo resubmission, or rejection.

Rebuttals to rejected manuscripts are strongly discouraged. Requests for the resubmission of rejected manuscripts are generally not granted unless there is a substantial demonstration of errors in the review or decision process. Most articles are rejected on grounds of insufficient priority or lack of relevance to Nanotheranostics, not data quality or technical issues.

Plagiarism Policy: Our journal upholds a zero-tolerance policy toward plagiarism, including self-plagiarism. Manuscripts are screened for plagiarism at all stages—before, during, and after publication. Any manuscript found to contain plagiarism will be rejected at any point in the process.

Revisions

Authors are required to submit their revisions within 1 month for minor revisions, 3 months for major revisions, and 4 months for de novo resubmissions. To submit a revision, please sign in to the manuscript login page and click the 'Submit revision' button on the right side. Manuscripts with significant findings are given the highest priority for review and publication.

Acceptance

Note: Once the manuscript is accepted, any publishing-related inquiries (such as copyediting, fees, proofs, etc.) should be directed to our publishing team only. Please do not send or cc such inquiries to the editor-in-chief or editors, as they are not involved in the publishing process after acceptance.

License

Articles in our journal are now distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC-BY license). Authors retain copyright of their articles.

For articles published prior to June 10, 2019, the default license was the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (CC BY-NC license), with copyright held by the publisher. Please refer to the copyright and open access statement for each individual article.

Review Articles

A well-written review should provide an authoritative and in-depth understanding of key topics in medicine, offering a high-quality, state-of-the-art account of the subject matter along with a balanced evaluation of the current primary literature. The review should highlight the implications of recent developments for the broader scientific community and encourage progress in the field. Reviews must be of general interest, engaging the journal’s diverse readership, and should present a timely, relevant account that adds value to the existing literature. References should be carefully selected to provide a balanced perspective. Special terms, acronyms, and symbols must be clearly defined, and fundamental concepts should be explained in an accessible manner. We strongly encourage international and multidisciplinary collaborations among our authors.

All review content should be original, with new text and interpretation, avoiding direct reproduction. Authors are encouraged to create original figures that effectively illustrate the subject matter and research themes. If any substantial material from other sources, whether textual or image-based, is included, authors must obtain permission in accordance with copyright law, and this must be clearly indicated in the manuscript.

Style Guide

General Remarks

Once a manuscript is accepted, authors must submit the final version in Microsoft Word format, following the guidelines provided, for copyediting and publication purposes. Please note that we can only accept Microsoft Word files and cannot process LaTeX or TeX files.

Please apply minimal additional formatting and stylization to the manuscript. During processing, all articles will be reformatted to Times New Roman font with left alignment. Authors whose first language is not English are encouraged to use Times New Roman to avoid the inclusion of non-English characters.

In the main text and figure/table legends, please refrain from using colored fonts or smaller font sizes to differentiate text. In our XML, only bold, italic, superscript, and subscript formatting are permitted.

Please note that supplementary material is not subject to copy-editing. Authors are responsible for ensuring that all supplementary material adheres to the scientific and style standards of the main text and figures.

Manuscript Format

All manuscripts should include the following sections, in order. All sections are mandatory unless designated "optional":

Title page
Abstract
Main text
Abbreviations
Acknowledgements (optional)
Contributions (optional)
Competing interests
References
Tables
Figures
Author biography (optional)

Title Page

Include in the title page the manuscript title, author’s name(s), affiliations, and corresponding author’s phone/fax number and/or email.

Title: Use sentence format; only the first word and proper nouns should be capitalized.

Authors: The list of authors and contributors should follow the guidelines set by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Please provide the full names of all authors.

Important: The first name and middle name should be listed before the surname, e.g., "Mike Johnson" (not "Johnson, Mike"; not "Johnson M."; not "M. Johnson").

Abstract: A structured abstract is required for each original scientific manuscript and must include four clearly identifiable elements: rationale (goals of the investigation), methods (description of study subjects, experiments, and observational and analytic techniques), results (major findings), and conclusions. Except for the rationale, these sections should be preceded by appropriate headings (i.e., Methods, Results, and Conclusions). The abstract should not include citations, images, or mathematical equations.

Keywords: Submit 3-5 keywords with the abstract.

Main Text

Subsections: For original research articles, subdivide the main text into categories such as "Introduction", "Methods", "Results", "Discussion", "Conclusions". Results, discussion, and conclusion can be combined in one section and methods can come before or after the results. Please do not add numbers before subtitles. Write subtitles and headings in sentence case.

Citation of Tables and Figures: Tables and figures should be numbered consecutively using the format: Table 1, Table 2, Figure 1, Figure 2, etc. Parts of figures can be identified by A, B, C, D, etc. and cited as Figure 1A, Figure 1A-B, etc. Supplementary tables and figures should be identified with an "S": Table S1, Figure S1, etc. All tables and figures included with the manuscript must be cited in the main text.

Mathematical Formulas and Symbols: Simple mathematical formulas should be constructed using superscripts, subscripts, italics, and symbols in Microsoft Word. Please avoid using math equations in Microsoft Word whenever possible, as they have to be replaced by images in xml full text. To insert a symbol use Insert/Symbol/ in the Microsoft Word menu. Select symbols from the fonts "(normal text)" or "Symbol". Use "/" for "divide" or "over", e.g., 1/7, 5/(4+6). Use Symbol fonts for "±"; "≤" and "≥" (avoid underlining characters).

Scientific Units: Use the International System of Units (SI) to communicate numerical data. However, where the field standard differs from SI, use the most common unit in the field. For example, "mg/mL" and "mM" are acceptable non-SI units for concentration. Units of time (hours, minutes seconds) should be expressed as "h", "min", "s". A space must be added between all numerical values and their unit (e.g., 5 mL, 30 s, 37 °C), except for units %, $, ° (angular degrees), ′ (angular minutes), and ″ (angular seconds) (e.g., 25%, $10, 90°). Above all, communicate numerical data consistently throughout the manuscript and figures.

Abbreviations

Abbreviations should be presented in a single paragraph in the format: "term: definition." Separate items with a semicolon. Please strictly follow this format.

Example: HIV: human immunodeficiency virus; SIV: simian immunodeficiency virus; ...

Web pages and Web links

We strongly discourage mentioning or citing web links/URLs in your manuscript, as web addresses are frequently changed by their owners. This often results in broken (dead) links, which can frustrate readers.

References

References should be numbered consecutively starting from 1, with one article per reference (e.g., do not use 1a, 1b, 1c). In the manuscript text, references should be cited by number, e.g., [1,2], and inserted before punctuation, with a space between the preceding word and the citation (e.g., “… as previously observed [4-7].”). Personal communications, unpublished observations, conference abstracts, or conference papers should not be included as references. References should not be formatted as footnotes. Please use plain text for references, without images or mathematical equations.

EndNote: An EndNote reference style for our journal can be downloaded. Place the style file in the Windows directory: C:\Program Files (x86)\EndNote X?\Styles (where '?' is the EndNote version number). Afterward, open MS Word and select the "ivyspring" style from the EndNote tab. This style applies to all Ivyspring journals.

Journal Article:

[Author surname] [Author initials], [Other author surnames & initials]. [Article title]. [Journal name abbreviation]. [Year]; [Volume]: [First page number]-[Last page number].

Please use the NLM Catalog (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals) to find the abbreviations of journals. Omit any "." in the journal abbreviations. It is not necessary to italicize or bold the title, journal name, or any other part of the references. For journals that do not use pagination, use the article number in place of the page range. Use sentence format for article titles (only capitalize the first word). Include names of the first six authors for multi-author articles. For articles with six or more authors, use "et al."

Example:
1. Eknoyan G, Beck GJ, Cheung AK, et al. Effect of dialysis dose and membrane flux in maintenance hemodialysis. N Engl J Med. 2002; 347: 2010-9.

Supplement example:
2. Volk HD, Reinke P, Krausch D, et al. Monocyte deactivation-rationale for a new therapeutic strategy in sepsis. Intensive Care Med. 1996; 22 (Suppl 4): S474-81.

No author given example:
3. [No authors listed]. Medicare program; criteria for Medicare coverage of adult liver transplants-HCFA. Final notice. Fed Regist. 1991; 56: 15006-18.

In press example:
4. Cheung TMT, et al. Effectiveness of non-invasive positive pressure ventilation in the treatment of acute respiratory failure in severe acute respiratory syndrome. Chest; in press.

Epub ahead of print example:
5. Li W, Chen Y, Cameron DJ, et al. Elovl4 haploinsufficiency does not induce early onset retinal degeneration in mice. Vision Res 2007; [Epub ahead of print].

Book:

[Author surname] [Author initials], [Other author surnames & initials]. [Book title]. [Edition] ed. [Place published]: [Publisher]; [Year].

Example:
1. Kiloh LG, Smith JS, Johnson GF, et al. Physical treatment in psychiatry. Boston, USA: Blackwell Scientific Publisher; 1988.

Chapter in Edited Book:

[Author surname] [Author initials], [Other author surnames & initials]. [Chapter title]. In: [Editor surname] [Editor initials], Ed. [Book title]. [Edition] ed. [Place published]: [Publisher]; [Year]: [First page number]-[Last page number].

Example:
1. Beckenbough RD, Linscheid RL. Arthroplasty in the hand and wrist. In: Green DP, Ed. Operative Hand Surgery, 2nd ed. New York: Churchill Livingstone; 1988: 167-214.

Website:

[[Internet]] [Title]. [Publish date]. [URL]

Examples:
1. [Internet] WHO. Summary of probable SARS cases with onset of illness from 1 November 2002 to 31 July 2003. Revised 26 September 2003. https://www.who.int/
2. [Internet] Kornberg R. https://nobelprize.org/

Tables

Insert tables as editable tables with minimal formatting. Do not insert tables as images.

Captions: Include a caption above each table. Number the captions with an Arabic numeral after the word "Table." Define all abbreviations used in one row at the bottom of the table.

Figures

Figures should clarify and augment the text. The selection of sharp, high quality figures is of paramount importance. The author will be required to correct or replace figures of inferior quality. Each submitted figure should clearly identify areas of interest with only enough surrounding white-space for orientation.

If possible, the figures should be submitted as the size they will appear when published so that no reduction is necessary. Figures should be either single-column format (published width, 8.5 cm; maximum submitted width, 11 cm), mid-size format (published width, 11.4 cm; maximum submitted width, 14 cm), or double-column format (published width, 17.4 cm; maximum submitted width, 22 cm).

The Arial lower case font should be used for all figure text, and the size should be 8–12 points. Composite figures should be preassembled, with each figure part (e.g., A, B, C) lettered in 12-point upper case Arial bold font type in the upper left corner.

Resolutions for photo images should be at least 600 dpi, and for line arts at least 1200 dpi. Graphics downloaded from Internet are not acceptable because the 72 dpi resolution is too low for satisfactory reproduction. The file format can be pdf (most preferred), ppt, doc, docx, png, tiff, or jpeg. Please submit one (1) highest quality PDF containing all figures (one figure per page).

Legends: Include a legend below each figure. Legends should be concise and should not repeat the text. Number the legends with an Arabic numeral after the word "Figure." If a figure has more than one part, describe each part clearly. Any letter designations or arrows appearing on the figures should be identified and described fully. Abbreviations used in each figure should be defined in the legend in alphabetical order. For figures adapted from other articles, write "Adapted with permission from [REFERENCE], copyright YEAR PUBLISHER".

Author Biography

Authors have the option to include a biography with their paper, detailing information such as MD/PhD degrees, past and current positions, research interests, awards, and more. This helps increase the authors' visibility and is well received by international readers. The author biography should be added at the end of the paper under the section heading 'Author Biography.' For reference, see Sample A or Sample B.

English-Language Editing Services

Authors who wish to refine the use of English in their manuscript may consider asking a colleague whose native language is English to review the manuscript or utilizing the services of a professional English-language editing company. Please note that the use of language editing services does not guarantee acceptance of the submission. Any agreement between the author and the editing company is solely the responsibility of the author, including any associated costs.

Archiving

Our journal is fully open-access, with articles freely available on the journal website, including PDF, XML, and supplementary materials (if applicable). All published articles are permanently archived by PubMed Central (U.S. National Library of Medicine) and Europe PMC. Authors are also encouraged to self-archive their published articles on their personal or institutional websites, as well as governmental or library platforms, without needing permission.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools

In accordance with COPE guidelines, if any AI tool (such as ChatGPT) is used in the manuscript—whether for writing, generating images, collecting data, or analyzing data—authors must fully disclose this in the Acknowledgements section. Additionally, the Materials and Methods section should specify how the AI tool was used, which tool was used, and which parts of the manuscript (text or images) were affected. Please note that AI tools cannot be listed as authors of the manuscript.

Competing Interests

Competing interests (also known as "conflicts of interest") that may influence the objective presentation of research findings should be disclosed in a paragraph titled "Competing Interests," placed after the Acknowledgments section and before the References.

According to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, financial relationships—such as employment, consultancies, stock ownership or options, honoraria, patents, and paid expert testimony—are the most easily identifiable and often considered potential conflicts of interest. These can undermine the credibility of the journal, the authors, and science itself. Other potential conflicts may include personal relationships, academic rivalries, intellectual beliefs, or competition. Authors should avoid agreements with study sponsors (both for-profit and non-profit) that restrict access to all study data or hinder the ability to analyze, interpret, and publish the data independently. Policies that limit where authors may publish their work violate academic freedom. Authors may be asked to provide these agreements confidentially.

Authors must fully disclose any conflicts of interest. If no conflicts exist, please state: "The authors have declared that no competing interests exist."

Data Availability

Authors are recommended to deposit large datasets in a public repository. Smaller datasets may be published as supplementary materials. Authors may provide the following:

The location and method for accessing the data. If all data are included in the manuscript or supplementary materials, please specify.
If the data will be shared upon request, provide detailed contact information.
If the data are deposited in a public repository, include the URLs (and DOIs, if available).
If the data cannot be shared openly, explain the reasons (e.g., to protect study participants or patient privacy).

Publication Ethics

Our journals follow the guidelines set by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) for addressing publication ethics issues. For more details, please visit our dedicated Publication Ethics page.

Commercial advertising

Commercial advertising is not allowed in our journal.

For general information about preparing biomedical manuscripts, please consult the "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication", available from http://www.icmje.org/.