1.       Acta Physiologica Sinica (APS) welcomes original research articles on any aspect of physiology and other biomedical disciplines as well as proceedings of conferences and symposia of physiological sciences.  Articles can be published in either Chinese or English, according to authors¡¯ submission.  Besides ¡°Original Research Articles¡±, papers in other formats such as  ¡°Brief review¡±, ¡°Rapid Communication¡±, ¡°Experimental Technique¡±, and ¡°Letters to the Editor¡± are also accepted for editorial action.  Submissions in English from overseas are welcomed. 

2.       Please use the Manuscript Submitting and Reviewing System to submit your manuscript on the website http://www.actaps.com.cn. A copyright assignment and submission declaration form must be attached with the manuscript, stating that all works are original and have not been published previously, nor are they under consideration by other publications.  The corresponding author who is responsible for the originality, legality, and validity of the work must sign the form.  If the works of the paper were performed outside China, the form must be signed by all contributing authors. The submissions of the manuscript are considered on the understanding that the authors automatically agree to assign the copyright on the material to the APS once the manuscript is accepted for publication.  The work should not be published elsewhere in any forms without written permission of the APS.  The corresponding author is suggested to provide the names, addresses, phone numbers, fax numbers, and e-mail addresses of two or three unbiased researchers in the same area as possible reviewers, the editor will select two of them or others, send the manuscript to them for peer review in 3 working days after the manuscript has been received.

3.       One hard copy of manuscript should be submitted by registered mail then e-mail the electronic WORD format to the Editorial Office.  The text should be typed on A4 paper on one side only, double-spaced with a wide margin on each side.  Microsoft Word for Windows software is required.  The manuscript should be arranged in the following order: Title page, Title, Abstract, Key words, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgements, References and a Chinese translation of the abstract. Illustrations should not be incorporated into the text (except the electronic format).  The main text should start on a separate page. All pages should be numbered.

4.       Title page starts on the first single page, should include the full title, the running page headline (not to exceed 70 characters including spaces) and the names, qualifications, and affiliations of all authors. Capitalize all the letters in the surname of each author.  The name, full postal address, telephone number, fax number, and e-mail address of the corresponding author should be given on the first page.  Footnotes may include the source of financial support with the grant number, and the corresponding author¡¯s phone, fax, and e-mail information

5.  The format and requirements for all manuscripts:

5.1 Original Research Articles:  The length of the original research articles is up to 6 print pages (including abstract, main text, tables, illustrations and legends, and references) with a maximum of 6 tables or figures.

(1) TITLE should be concise and comprehensive and not exceed 120 letters with spaces.

(2) ABSTRACT should not exceed 300 words or phrases, consists of aim, methods, results and conclusion, indicating concisely the scope of the work and major results obtained. For an article written in English, a Chinese abstract is needed.

(3) KEY WORDS.  The author(s) must provide 3 to 10 key words from the latest Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) and the latest list of Index Medicus, part 2.  If suitable MeSH terms are not available, a more general term suitable for indexing may be used.ª¤

(4) INTRODUCTION summarizes the rationale and gives a concise background. Use those references required to provide the most salient background rather than an exhaustive review. State the purpose of the study at the end. Do not include methods, results, or conclusion of this study.

(5) MATERIALS and METHODS.  Explain the experimental objects in this part. Offer enough technical information to allow the experiments to be repeated. Describe new methods or modifications and identify the unusual instruments (manufacturers and types) and procedures in sufficient detail or cite the literature. Manufacturers (not distributors) and specifications should be given for main reagents, drugs, chemicals, and instruments. These materials¡¯ administration schedule should be identified.

   The age and actually measured body weight of tested animals or humans should be expressed as mean (x), standard deviation (s), and total range. Indicate the grade of the animals used and give the certificate number of the animal breeder.

   Human experiments may be performed only in accordance with the ethical standards provided by the responsible committee of the institution or with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, ( revised in 1983). The patients' names, initials, or hospital numbers should be omitted.

   Animal experiments should follow the ethical instructions provided by the institution.

   Experiments dealing with humans or human tissue or animals must follow the international laws and regulations.

   Statistical methods should be described to verify the results. Give number of observations and subjects.  Mean values should be followed by standard deviation (SD) or   standard error (SE) for every appropriate outcome variable.

(6) RESULTS and their significance should be presented in past tense. Simple data may be set forth in the text with no need of tables or figures, but every table and figure must be mentioned in the text. Give absolute values, not merely %, particularly for the control values.

(7) DISCUSSION should deal with the interpretations of the results.  Emphasize any new and important aspects and relate the results to other studies. New hypothesis and recommendations may be proposed when warranted.  Do not repeat the contents and data of the results and do not review the references in this part.

(8) ACKNOWLEDGMENT(S) may briefly include: ¢Ù contributors that do not warrant authorship; ¢Ú technical help; and ¢Û financial or material support.

(9) REFERENCES should be numbered consecutively by Arabic numerals. Avoid using abstracts as references. ¡°Unpublished data¡±, ¡°electronic material¡± and ¡°personal communications¡± can not be used as references, although written communications may be inserted (in parentheses) in the text.  Superscripts should be used to identify which reference article has been mentioned in the text. Old references should be replaced by most updated ones. Papers accepted but not yet published may be used as references. The titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the ¡°List of Journals Indexed¡± in Index Medicus. List all authors in the references.

   The style of citation should be as follows:

Standard journal article:

[1] Terata K, Miura H, Liu YP, Loberiza F, Gutterman DD. Human coronary arteriolar dilation to adrenomedullin: role of nitric oxide and K⁺ channels. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol, 2000;279:H2620-2626.

[2] Ma T (Âí èº), Fan ZZ, He RR. Electrophysiological effects of phytoestrogen genistein on guinea pig papillary muscles. Acta Physiol Sin (ÉúÀíѧ±¨), 2002;54(1):83-87, (Chinese, English abstract).

[3] Xiao YF, Morgan JP, Leaf A. Effects of polyunsaturated fatty acids on cardiac voltage-activated K⁺ currents in adult ferret cardiomyocytes . Acta Physiol Sin (ÉúÀíѧ±¨), 2002;54(4):271-81.

Books and other monographs:

[4]  Paxinos G, Watson C.  The Rat Brain in Stererotaxic Coordinates. 4th ed.  San Diego:  Academic Press, 1999, 96¡«101.

Conference proceedings:

[5]  Vivian VL, ed. Child abuse and neglect: a medical community response. Proceedings of the First AMA  National Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect; 1984 Mar 30¡«31, Chicago. Chicago: American Medical Association, 1985.

5.2  ¡°Rapid Communication¡± reports research observations of high quality and important original findings written in up to three print pages with a maximum of three figures.

5.3  ¡°Experimental Technique¡± publishes new experimental techniques written in up to three print pages with a maximum of two figures.

5.4  ¡°Brief review¡± is invited by the Editor.  The contents of brief review are based mainly on the author¡¯s own work.

6.  The writing of the manuscript should be clear. The use of short sentences and subheadings in the text is encouraged.  The words must be succinct and spelt correctly. Abbreviations and terminologies should be used according to the special abbreviation or terminology dictionary. Terms and phrases should be used according to the Physiological Vocabulary, 1989, Science Press.  If a term appears repeatedly in the manuscript, it may be abbreviated, such as GABA for g-aminobutyric acid.  At its first appearance in the abstract and in the main text, the abbreviation should be preceded by its full spelling.

7.  Tables

Tables should be of print quality and set out in the text. No vertical lines should be used in tables.

8.  Illustrations

A square frame should be placed in the text where a figure is expected to appear. The ordinal number of the figure must be put in the square frame. The title and legends are listed beneath the square frame and should contain sufficient information to be intelligible without reference to the text.  Illustrations should be of drawn on glossy paper and numbered.  Two original photographs must be supplied in a form and condition showing good details that are suitable for reproduction.  The maximum size of a photograph is 16cm in wide for whole column and 8cm in wide for half column. Color plates can be reproduced at the authors' own expense.

Please use standard symbols: ¡ð, ¡ñ, ¡Á, ¡õ, ¡ö, ¡÷, ¡ø. The symbols and curves can be identified in the figure itself or in the legend. Broader lines should be drawn for curves than for the axes. Do not extrapolate the curves, nor extend the axes far beyond the contents.

9.  Quantity, unit and numerical value

All quantities and units should be expressed according to the national standard. Physical quantity is printed in italic type. A subscript that represents a symbol for a physical quantity is printed in italic type. Other subscripts are printed in roman (upright) type. A solidus (/) should not be followed by a multiplication sign or a division sign unless parentheses are inserted to avoid any ambiguity. The unit of blood pressure should be ¡°mmHg¡±.

10. The authors may be asked to revise the manuscript.  If the authors have substantial reasons for believing that their manuscript was declined unfairly, they may appeal for reconsideration. The contents that have been revised in the manuscript must be marked. The period of revision by the author(s) is no longer than two months.  The Editor will notify the corresponding author upon the acceptance of the manuscript. The accepted papers are published in order of the date of acceptance.

11. The journal is edited on computer. The authors may provide the last revised manuscript in electronic form (.TXT documents and Word documents) on disks or by e-mail before typesetting.  Photographs must be of the highest quality showing the best contrast. Color photographs are welcome. Scale bar (eg, 10 ¦Ìm) should be put inside the photomicrographs.

Electronic photographs must be prepared by Photoshop software, 600 dpi, store it in TIFF or JPEG format.  

Figures prepared on computer should also be provided on disk (except the electronic files that have to be e-mailed to the editorial office). Please indicate the type of Microsoft Word for Windows and Photoshop software on which the manuscript and figures were prepared.

12. The page proof will be sent to author for correction of errors only. The manuscript, illustrations, and original set of proof should be returned promptly (within three days) to the Editorial Office.

13. The charge for submission of each manuscript is US$20.  Payment should be mailed to the Editorial Office upon the submission of the manuscript.  The corresponding author will be notified to pay the page charges when a manuscript is accepted for publication. The page charges are US$25 per page. The color page charges are US$190 per page. Remuneration will be sent to the corresponding author after the paper has been published.

14. Remit money from bank to: Editorial Office of Acta Physiologica Sinica (Sheng Li Xue Bao), Shanghai Institutes of Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences.  The number of bank account is 033924---00801048006, FengLin Department of XuHui Branch, China Agriculture Bank. It can also be mailed to: Editorial office of Acta Physiologica Sinica (Sheng Li Xue Bao), Shanghai Institutes of Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 319 YueYang Road, Building 31B, Shanghai 200031, China.

The Editorial Office of Acta Physiologica Sinica

Address: 319 YueYang Road, Building 31B, Shanghai 200031, China.

Phone: +86-21-54922832

Fax: +86-21-54922833

E-mail: actaps@sibs.ac.cn  bwei@sibs.ac.cn

Attachment: ¡°Copyright assignment and submission declaration form¡±

Please download the PDF file at: http://www.actaps.com.cn