Submission guidelines

Editorial policy

Before preparation of your manuscript, read the 'Instructions for Authors' carefully. We will not accept manuscripts that do not comply with these instructions.

The Journal of Natural Medicines invites papers that make a significant contribution to the knowledge and understanding of naturally occurring medicines and their related foods and cosmetics, including identification and structure elucidation of natural products, biosynthesis, biotechnology, and pharmacology of herbs, natural products, and Kampo formulas. Papers are also published concerning chemical and botanical identification of herbs or their products where such information contributes to the overall safety of plant-based medicines currently and/or formerly in use. Submission of a paper implies that it has been approved by all the named authors, that it has not been published before, and that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.

Acceptance of papers will be decided by the Editorial Board after examination by at least two referees. Manuscripts that require revision and/or correction and/or condensation will be returned to the authors with comments specifying alterations from the referees and/or the Editorial Board.

This journal may publish special/guest-edited issues. The peer review process for these articles is the same as the peer review process of the journal in general. Additionally, if the guest editor(s) authors an article in their special issue, they will not handle the peer review process.

The following types of papers may be submitted.

(i) Original Papers: Original Papers are the usual form of publication of this journal describing original experimental results.

(ii) Notes (up to 4 printed pages): Notes are brief articles reporting new facts and/or valuable data.

(iii) Rapid Communications (up to 3 printed pages): These are short preliminary reports of novel and significant findings that merit urgent publication. Full details of the Rapid Communication may be published later as a comprehensive original paper, in this or another journal. An explanatory statement is required for urgent publication. The statement should explain why the findings merit urgent publication rather than publication as an Original Paper, and should be submitted alongside the manuscript as its own file. Select the Item Type 'Article Type Explanatory Statement' when uploading the file.

(iv) Reviews (up to 12 printed pages): Reviews cover recent discoveries or topics of current interest.

(v) Mini-Reviews (up to 6 printed pages): These provide a short overview of a particular subject.

(vi) Natural Resource Letters (up to 6 printed pages): Natural Resource Letters are reports on biological screening data, field observations, market surveys, quality evaluation or quantitative methods of crude drugs, etc., which may contribute to the scientific knowledge of the readers. An explanatory statement is required for publication as a Natural Resource Letter. The statement should explain why the manuscript is being submitted as a Natural Resource Letter rather than an Original Paper, and should be submitted alongside the manuscript as its own file. Select the Item Type 'Article Type Explanatory Statement' when uploading the file.

Documentation of experimental biological materials

Use the correct scientific name and indicate who identified the biological materials. The herbarium deposit site and voucher number should be recorded. Authors who purchase herbal materials from companies must make provision for their deposit in a herbarium.

Pharmacological investigations of extracts require detailed extract characterization

This includes botanical characterization of plant material(s), solvent(s), duration and temperature of extraction, plus other method(s) used for preparation(s). A chromatographic (e.g., HPLC profile recorded at different wavelengths) or chemical characterization (quantities of typical constituents) must be presented. The investigation must clearly indicate a dose/activity dependence in comparison with a reference compound (positive control) together with the appropriate statistics. Authors must mention it in the main text if there was no appropriate reference compound available.

Criteria of Authorship

Authorship should be based on the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICJME) recommendations concerning authorship. All authors are required to meet the following 4 criteria:

• Substantial contribution to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
• Drafting the work or vising 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.

ICJME recommendations concerning authorship

Other Rules of the Editorial Committee

The following manuscripts are not currently accepted as Original Papers.

• Preliminary screening tests of extracts, such as: a) Antimicrobial and cytotoxic screening tests of extracts, including essential oils, and b) Antioxidant or radical scavenging in vitro tests.
• Pharmacological studies of extracts and their fractions without an HPLC profile.
• Reports of preliminary quantitative analyses using common HPLC methods.
• Clinical studies and studies of safety and toxicity in experimental animals. The editorial committee recommends submitting such manuscripts to another journal.

Chief Editor

Hiroshi Morita

Email: moritah@hoshi.ac.jp

Page Charges

A page charge of JPY 4,000 per printed page, up to a maximum of JPY 20,000 for 5 pages and above, is to be paid within one month after publication of a paper in the printed issue. The same page charge applies to all article types.

Page charges will be waived for Open Access articles for all article types, whether the Article Processing Charge (APC) is paid by the author or their institution, or covered by a Springer compact agreement.

Online Submission

Authors should submit their manuscripts online. Electronic submission substantially reduces the editorial processing and reviewing times and shortens overall publication times. Please log directly onto the link below and upload all your manuscript files following the instructions given on the screen.

http://www.editorialmanager.com/jonm

Legal requirements

The author(s) guarantee(s) that the manuscript will not be published elsewhere in any language without the consent of The Japanese Society of Pharmacognosy and Springer, that the rights of third parties will not be violated, and that the publisher will not be held legally responsible should there be any claims for compensation.

Authors wishing to include figures or text passages that have already been published elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) and to include evidence that such permission has been granted when submitting their papers. Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors.

Manuscript preparation

Authors are requested to read this section carefully before preparing manuscripts and to prepare manuscripts in accordance with the following rules . This journal has provisions for image data and the quantification based on it (See “Image data and Quantification”). Authors should also comply with the provisions of this section, and should understand that this journal may be asked to ask them to provide additional materials, such as raw data.

Manuscripts must be written in English using Times font; pages should be numbered. Authors whose first language is not English are urged to have their manuscript read by a colleague who is a native English speaker and is familiar with their field of work before submitting the paper.

Manuscripts with extensive English language deficiencies will be returned to the author without the full reviewing process.

The manuscript should be arranged as follows:

• Title page (including an article title, name(s) of author(s), affiliation(s) and address(es) of the author(s), e-mail address and telephone number(s) of the corresponding author, and the 16 digit ORCID of the aurhot(s) if available.)
• Abstract Abstracts should be unstructured, between 200-250 words, and should not contain citations.
• Four to six keywords
• Text of the paper Introduction; main text (divided into sections, if appropriate); Acknowledgments; References; tables; figure legends
• Abbreviations Abbreviations must be spelled out in full at their initial appearance in the abstract and main text, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses. Thereafter, the abbreviation may be employed.

  However, the following need not be defined : AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome), ATP (adenosine 5'-triphosphate), cAMP (adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate), CD (circular dichroism), cDNA (complementary DNA), CoA (coenzyme A), COSY (correlated spectroscopy), DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), ED₅₀ (50% effective dose), EI-MS (electron ionization mass spectrometry), FAB-MS (fast atom bombardment mass spectrometry), FAD (flavin adenine dinucleotide), GC-MS (gas chromatography-mass spectrometry), HMBC (heteronuclear multiple bond connectivity), HMQC (heteronuclear multiple quantum coherence), HPLC (high-pressure liquid chromatography, high-performance liquid chromatography), HSQC (heteronuclear single quantum coherence), IC₅₀ (inhibitory concentration, 50%), IR (infrared), LD₅₀ (50% lethal dose), mRNA (messenger RNA), MS (mass spectrum), NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance, as ¹³C-NMR, ¹H-NMR), NOE (nuclear Overhauser effect), NOESY (nuclear Overhauser and exchange spectroscopy), ORD (optical rotatory dispersion), P450 (as in cytochrome P450), RNA (ribonucleic acid), rRNA (ribosomal RNA), TLC (thin-layer chromatography), tRNA (transfer RNA), UV (ultraviolet).

• Units The following units should be used: length (m, cm, mm, μm, nm, Å), mass (kg, g, mg, μg, ng, pg, mol, mmol), volume (l, ml, μl), time (s, min, h, d), temperature (°C, K), radiation (Bq, Ci, dpm, Gy, rad), concentration (M, mM, mol/l, mmol/l, mg/ml, μg/ml, %, %(v/v), % (w/v), ppm, ppb).

• Spectral and elemental analysis data Please report spectral and elemental analysis data in the following format, ¹H-NMR (CDCl₃) δ:1.25 (3H, d, J=7.0 Hz), 3.55 (1H, q, J=7.0 Hz), 6.70 (1H, m). ¹³C-NMR (CDCl₃) δ:20.9 (q), 71.5 (d), 169.9 (s). IR (KBr) cm^-1: 1720, 1050, 910. UV λ_max(H2O) nm (log ε):280 (3.25). MS m/z :332 (M⁺), 180, 168. HRFAB-MS m/z:332.1258 (Calcd for C₁₈H₂₀O₆: 332.1259). [α]_D²³—74.5° (c 1.0, MeOH). Anal. Calcd for C₁₉H₂₁NO₃:C, 73.29; H, 6.80; N, 4.50. Found: C, 73.30; H, 6.88; N, 4.65.
• Nomenclature The nomenclature of chemical compounds should be in accordance with the nomenclature rules formulated by IUPAC. Alternatively, naming may conform to the nomenclature in the index of Chemical Abstracts or the Ring Index.
• X-ray crystal structure analyses When structure determination by X-ray crystallographic analysis is a central theme of the paper, the data required for registration with the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Base (CCDB) should be attached as supplementary material. Although this does not apply in cases where crystallographic analysis plays only a supplementary role, crystal data (unit cell parameters, space group, Z density) and R-factor should still be noted. Atomic coordinates, bond lengths and angles, thermal parameters, and torsion angles should be presented when they are important for the issues addressed in the paper. When papers have been accepted, the authors are advised to register the data with CCDB.
• Chemical structures The graphics for chemical structure should be created with drawing programs such as ChemDraw (ChemBioDraw) and use of the ACS 1996 document settings is preferred.

References

The list of References should include only works that are cited in the text and that have been published or accepted for publication. Personal communications should be mentioned only in the text. If available, the DOI can be added at the end of the reference in question.

References should be numbered in the order in which they appear in the text and be listed in numerical order. Journal titles should be abbreviated according to Chemical Abstracts. References should be styled as follows, with correct punctuation:

1. Kuroyanagi M, Umehara K, Hayashi T, Hirayama Y (2002) Cell differentiation inducers and antiandrogenic active compounds from zingiberis rhizoma. Nat Med 56:47–50

2. Chen W, Punja Z (2002) Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of American ginseng with a rice chitinase gene. Plant Cell Rep 20:1039–1045 DOI 10.1007/s00299-002-0446-z

3. Tsukaya H, Iokawa Y, Kondo M, Ohba H (2005) Large-scale general collection of wild-plant DNA in Mustang, Nepal. J Plant Res DOI 10.1007/s10265-005-0196-4

4. Capasso F, Gaginella TS, Grandolini G., Izzo AA (2003) Phytotherapy. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York

5. Bauer BA (2003) Herbal therapy and the elderly. In: Cherniack P, Cherniack N (eds) Alternative medicine for the elderly. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 111–132

Graphical abstract

Authors are required to submit a graphical abstract figure (chemical structures, charts, graphs, images, or other informative illustrations) with their manuscript in order to give the reader a representative idea of the topic discussed in the paper. The graphical abstract figure must be original and not previously published, and should be prepared in one of the following file types: .tiff, .eps, .jpg, .bmp, .doc, or .pdf. It should be no wider than 8 cm and no taller than 4 cm when printed at full scale (100%), and must be approximately 7 : 4 in ratio to fit the image display window on the journal website.

Tables

• All tables are to be numbered using Arabic numerals.
• Tables should always be cited in text in consecutive numerical order.
• For each table, please supply a table caption (title) explaining the components of the table.
• Identify any previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference at the end of the table caption.
• Footnotes to tables should be indicated by superscript lower-case letters (or asterisks for significance values and other statistical data) and included beneath the table body.

Artwork and Illustrations Guidelines

Electronic Figure Submission

• Supply all figures electronically.
• Indicate what graphics program was used to create the artwork.
• For vector graphics, the preferred format is EPS; for halftones, please use TIFF format. MS Office files are also acceptable.
• Vector graphics containing fonts must have the fonts embedded in the files.
• Name your figure files with "Fig" and the figure number, e.g., Fig1.eps.

Line Art

• Definition: Black and white graphic with no shading.
• Do not use faint lines and/or lettering and check that all lines and lettering within the figures are legible at final size.
• All lines should be at least 0.1 mm (0.3 pt) wide.
• Scanned line drawings and line drawings in bitmap format should have a minimum resolution of 1200 dpi.
• Vector graphics containing fonts must have the fonts embedded in the files.

Halftone Art

• Definition: Photographs, drawings, or paintings with fine shading, etc.
• If any magnification is used in the photographs, indicate this by using scale bars within the figures themselves.
• Halftones should have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi.

Combination Art

• Definition: a combination of halftone and line art, e.g., halftones containing line drawing, extensive lettering, color diagrams, etc.
• Combination artwork should have a minimum resolution of 600 dpi.

Color Art

• Color art is free of charge for print and online publication.
• Color illustrations should be submitted as RGB.

Figure Lettering

• To add lettering, it is best to use Helvetica or Arial (sans serif fonts).
• Keep lettering consistently sized throughout your final-sized artwork, usually about 2–3 mm (8–12 pt).
• Variance of type size within an illustration should be minimal, e.g., do not use 8-pt type on an axis and 20-pt type for the axis label.
• Avoid effects such as shading, outline letters, etc.
• Do not include titles or captions within your illustrations.

Figure Numbering

• All figures are to be numbered using Arabic numerals.
• Figures should always be cited in text in consecutive numerical order.
• Figure parts should be denoted by lowercase letters (a, b, c, etc.).
• If an appendix appears in your article and it contains one or more figures, continue the consecutive numbering of the main text. Do not number the appendix figures, "A1, A2, A3, etc." Figures in online appendices [Supplementary Information (SI)] should, however, be numbered separately.

Figure Captions

• Each figure should have a concise caption describing accurately what the figure depicts. Include the captions in the text file of the manuscript, not in the figure file.
• Figure captions begin with the term Fig. in bold type, followed by the figure number, also in bold type.
• No punctuation is to be included after the number, nor is any punctuation to be placed at the end of the caption.
• Identify all elements found in the figure in the figure caption; and use boxes, circles, etc., as coordinate points in graphs.
• Identify previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference citation at the end of the figure caption.

Figure Placement and Size

• Figures should be submitted within the body of the text. Only if the file size of the manuscript causes problems in uploading it, the large figures should be submitted separately from the text.
• When preparing your figures, size figures to fit in the column width.
• For large-sized journals the figures should be 84 mm (for double-column text areas), or 174 mm (for single-column text areas) wide and not higher than 234 mm.
• For small-sized journals, the figures should be 119 mm wide and not higher than 195 mm.

Permissions

If you include figures that have already been published elsewhere, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) for both the print and online format. Please be aware that some publishers do not grant electronic rights for free and that Springer will not be able to refund any costs that may have occurred to receive these permissions. In such cases, material from other sources should be used.

Accessibility

In order to give people of all abilities and disabilities access to the content of your figures, please make sure that

• All figures have descriptive captions (blind users could then use a text-to-speech software or a text-to-Braille hardware)
• Patterns are used instead of or in addition to colors for conveying information (color-blind users would then be able to distinguish the visual elements)
• Any figure lettering has a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1

Generative AI Images

Please check Springer’s policy on generative AI images and make sure your work adheres to the principles described therein.

Image data and Quantification

• For manuscripts that contain cropped image data (tissue staining, western blot, and other gel image datum), this journal may request the additional submission of a file containing whole uncropped/unedited images from which figures have been derived. For example, in the case of a western blot, each gel should be annotated as “full unedited gel for Figure X,” and the authors should highlight which lanes of the unedited gel correspond to those shown in the cropped images within the manuscript.
• For studies reporting semi-quantitative analyses using image data, authors should clearly explain how quantitative data were obtained and was normalized among lanes or areas. Authors may be requested to submit raw data or other information as needed.
• Authors must state the number of independent samples (biological replicates) and the number of replicate samples (technical replicates) and report how many times each experiment was repeated.
• Key statements about increases, decreases, or lack of changes in protein abundance, phosphorylation, posttranslational modification, association, and activation must be supported by quantification of data amalgamated from at least 3 Western blots (that represent independent biological replicates) and statistical analysis where appropriate. Showing the densitometry from a single Western blot is not acceptable.

Ethical Responsibilities of Authors

This journal is committed to upholding the integrity of the scientific record. As a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) the journal will follow the COPE guidelines on how to deal with potential acts of misconduct.

Authors should refrain from misrepresenting research results which could damage the trust in the journal, the professionalism of scientific authorship, and ultimately the entire scientific endeavour. Maintaining integrity of the research and its presentation is helped by following the rules of good scientific practice, which include*:

• The manuscript should not be submitted to more than one journal for simultaneous consideration.
• The submitted work should be original and should not have been published elsewhere in any form or language (partially or in full), unless the new work concerns an expansion of previous work. (Please provide transparency on the re-use of material to avoid the concerns about text-recycling (‘self-plagiarism’).
• A single study should not be split up into several parts to increase the quantity of submissions and submitted to various journals or to one journal over time (i.e. ‘salami-slicing/publishing’).
• Concurrent or secondary publication is sometimes justifiable, provided certain conditions are met. Examples include: translations or a manuscript that is intended for a different group of readers.
• Results should be presented clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification or inappropriate data manipulation (including image based manipulation). Authors should adhere to discipline-specific rules for acquiring, selecting and processing data.
• No data, text, or theories by others are presented as if they were the author’s own (‘plagiarism’). Proper acknowledgements to other works must be given (this includes material that is closely copied (near verbatim), summarized and/or paraphrased), quotation marks (to indicate words taken from another source) are used for verbatim copying of material, and permissions secured for material that is copyrighted.

Important note: the journal may use software to screen for plagiarism.

• Authors should make sure they have permissions for the use of software, questionnaires/(web) surveys and scales in their studies (if appropriate).
• Research articles and non-research articles (e.g. Opinion, Review, and Commentary articles) must cite appropriate and relevant literature in support of the claims made. Excessive and inappropriate self-citation or coordinated efforts among several authors to collectively self-cite is strongly discouraged.
• Authors should avoid untrue statements about an entity (who can be an individual person or a company) or descriptions of their behavior or actions that could potentially be seen as personal attacks or allegations about that person.
• Research that may be misapplied to pose a threat to public health or national security should be clearly identified in the manuscript (e.g. dual use of research). Examples include creation of harmful consequences of biological agents or toxins, disruption of immunity of vaccines, unusual hazards in the use of chemicals, weaponization of research/technology (amongst others).
• Authors are strongly advised to ensure the author group, the Corresponding Author, and the order of authors are all correct at submission. Adding and/or deleting authors during the revision stages is generally not permitted, but in some cases may be warranted. Reasons for changes in authorship should be explained in detail. Please note that changes to authorship cannot be made after acceptance of a manuscript.

*All of the above are guidelines and authors need to make sure to respect third parties rights such as copyright and/or moral rights.

Upon request authors should be prepared to send relevant documentation or data in order to verify the validity of the results presented. This could be in the form of raw data, samples, records, etc. Sensitive information in the form of confidential or proprietary data is excluded.

If there is suspicion of misbehavior or alleged fraud the Journal and/or Publisher will carry out an investigation following COPE guidelines. If, after investigation, there are valid concerns, the author(s) concerned will be contacted under their given e-mail address and given an opportunity to address the issue. Depending on the situation, this may result in the Journal’s and/or Publisher’s implementation of the following measures, including, but not limited to:

• If the manuscript is still under consideration, it may be rejected and returned to the author.
• If the article has already been published online, depending on the nature and severity of the infraction:

  - an erratum/correction may be placed with the article

  - an expression of concern may be placed with the article

  - or in severe cases retraction of the article may occur.

The reason will be given in the published erratum/correction, expression of concern or retraction note. Please note that retraction means that the article is maintained on the platform, watermarked “retracted” and the explanation for the retraction is provided in a note linked to the watermarked article.

• The author’s institution may be informed
• A notice of suspected transgression of ethical standards in the peer review system may be included as part of the author’s and article’s bibliographic record.

Fundamental errors

Authors have an obligation to correct mistakes once they discover a significant error or inaccuracy in their published article. The author(s) is/are requested to contact the journal and explain in what sense the error is impacting the article. A decision on how to correct the literature will depend on the nature of the error. This may be a correction or retraction. The retraction note should provide transparency which parts of the article are impacted by the error.

Suggesting / excluding reviewers

Authors are welcome to suggest suitable reviewers and/or request the exclusion of certain individuals when they submit their manuscripts. When suggesting reviewers, authors should make sure they are totally independent and not connected to the work in any way. It is strongly recommended to suggest a mix of reviewers from different countries and different institutions. When suggesting reviewers, the Corresponding Author must provide an institutional email address for each suggested reviewer, or, if this is not possible to include other means of verifying the identity such as a link to a personal homepage, a link to the publication record or a researcher or author ID in the submission letter. Please note that the Journal may not use the suggestions, but suggestions are appreciated and may help facilitate the peer review process.

Competing Interests

Authors are requested to disclose interests that are directly or indirectly related to the work submitted for publication. Interests within the last 3 years of beginning the work (conducting the research and preparing the work for submission) should be reported. Interests outside the 3-year time frame must be disclosed if they could reasonably be perceived as influencing the submitted work. Disclosure of interests provides a complete and transparent process and helps readers form their own judgments of potential bias. This is not meant to imply that a financial relationship with an organization that sponsored the research or compensation received for consultancy work is inappropriate.

Editorial Board Members and Editors are required to declare any competing interests and may be excluded from the peer review process if a competing interest exists. In addition, they should exclude themselves from handling manuscripts in cases where there is a competing interest. This may include – but is not limited to – having previously published with one or more of the authors, and sharing the same institution as one or more of the authors. Where an Editor or Editorial Board Member is on the author list we recommend they declare this in the competing interests section on the submitted manuscript. If they are an author or have any other competing interest regarding a specific manuscript, another Editor or member of the Editorial Board will be assigned to assume responsibility for overseeing peer review. These submissions are subject to the exact same review process as any other manuscript. Editorial Board Members are welcome to submit papers to the journal. These submissions are not given any priority over other manuscripts, and Editorial Board Member status has no bearing on editorial consideration.

Interests that should be considered and disclosed but are not limited to the following:

Funding: Research grants from funding agencies (please give the research funder and the grant number) and/or research support (including salaries, equipment, supplies, reimbursement for attending symposia, and other expenses) by organizations that may gain or lose financially through publication of this manuscript.

Employment: Recent (while engaged in the research project), present or anticipated employment by any organization that may gain or lose financially through publication of this manuscript. This includes multiple affiliations (if applicable).

Financial interests: Stocks or shares in companies (including holdings of spouse and/or children) that may gain or lose financially through publication of this manuscript; consultation fees or other forms of remuneration from organizations that may gain or lose financially; patents or patent applications whose value may be affected by publication of this manuscript.

It is difficult to specify a threshold at which a financial interest becomes significant, any such figure is necessarily arbitrary, so one possible practical guideline is the following: "Any undeclared financial interest that could embarrass the author were it to become publicly known after the work was published."

Non-financial interests: In addition, authors are requested to disclose interests that go beyond financial interests that could impart bias on the work submitted for publication such as professional interests, personal relationships or personal beliefs (amongst others). Examples include, but are not limited to: position on editorial board, advisory board or board of directors or other type of management relationships; writing and/or consulting for educational purposes; expert witness; mentoring relations; and so forth.

Primary research articles require a disclosure statement. Review articles present an expert synthesis of evidence and may be treated as an authoritative work on a subject. Review articles therefore require a disclosure statement. Other article types such as editorials, book reviews, comments (amongst others) may, dependent on their content, require a disclosure statement. If you are unclear whether your article type requires a disclosure statement, please contact the Editor-in-Chief.

Please note that, in addition to the above requirements, funding information (given that funding is a potential competing interest (as mentioned above)) needs to be disclosed upon submission of the manuscript in the peer review system. This information will automatically be added to the Record of CrossMark, however it is not added to the manuscript itself. Under ‘summary of requirements’ (see below) funding information should be included in the ‘Declarations’ section.

Summary of requirements

The above should be summarized in a statement and placed in a ‘Declarations’ section before the reference list under a heading of ‘Funding’ and/or ‘Competing interests’. Other declarations include Ethics approval, Consent, Data, Material and/or Code availability and Authors’ contribution statements.

Please see the various examples of wording below and revise/customize the sample statements according to your own needs.

When all authors have the same (or no) conflicts and/or funding it is sufficient to use one blanket statement.

Examples of statements to be used when funding has been received:

• Partial financial support was received from [...]
• The research leading to these results received funding from […] under Grant Agreement No[…].
• This study was funded by […]
• This work was supported by […] (Grant numbers […] and […]

Examples of statements to be used when there is no funding:

• The authors did not receive support from any organization for the submitted work.
• No funding was received to assist with the preparation of this manuscript.
• No funding was received for conducting this study.
• No funds, grants, or other support was received.

Examples of statements to be used when there are interests to declare:

• Financial interests: Author A has received research support from Company A. Author B has received a speaker honorarium from Company W and owns stock in Company X. Author C is consultant to company Y.

  Non-financial interests: Author C is an unpaid member of committee Z.

• Financial interests: The authors declare they have no financial interests.

  Non-financial interests: Author A is on the board of directors of Y and receives no compensation as member of the board of directors.

• Financial interests: Author A received a speaking fee from Y for Z. Author B receives a salary from association X. X where s/he is the Executive Director.

  Non-financial interests: none.

• Financial interests: Author A and B declare they have no financial interests. Author C has received speaker and consultant honoraria from Company M and Company N. Dr. C has received speaker honorarium and research funding from Company M and Company O. Author D has received travel support from Company O.

  Non-financial interests: Author D has served on advisory boards for Company M, Company N and Company O.

Examples of statements to be used when authors have nothing to declare:

• The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.
• The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.
• All authors certify that they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial interest or non-financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript.
• The authors have no financial or proprietary interests in any material discussed in this article.

Authors are responsible for correctness of the statements provided in the manuscript. See also Authorship Principles. The Editor-in-Chief reserves the right to reject submissions that do not meet the guidelines described in this section.

Supplementary Information (SI)

Springer accepts electronic multimedia files (animations, movies, audio, etc.) and other supplementary files to be published online along with an article or a book chapter. This feature can add dimension to the author's article, as certain information cannot be printed or is more convenient in electronic form.

Before submitting research datasets as Supplementary Information, authors should read the journal’s Research data policy. We encourage research data to be archived in data repositories wherever possible.

Submission

• Supply all supplementary material in standard file formats.
• Please include in each file the following information: article title, journal name, author names; affiliation and e-mail address of the corresponding author.
• To accommodate user downloads, please keep in mind that larger-sized files may require very long download times and that some users may experience other problems during downloading.
• High resolution (streamable quality) videos can be submitted up to a maximum of 25GB; low resolution videos should not be larger than 5GB.

Audio, Video, and Animations

• Aspect ratio: 16:9 or 4:3
• Maximum file size: 25 GB for high resolution files; 5 GB for low resolution files
• Minimum video duration: 1 sec
• Supported file formats: avi, wmv, mp4, mov, m2p, mp2, mpg, mpeg, flv, mxf, mts, m4v, 3gp

Text and Presentations

• Submit your material in PDF format; .doc or .ppt files are not suitable for long-term viability.
• A collection of figures may also be combined in a PDF file.

Spreadsheets

• Spreadsheets should be submitted as .csv or .xlsx files (MS Excel).

Specialized Formats

• Specialized format such as .pdb (chemical), .wrl (VRML), .nb (Mathematica notebook), and .tex can also be supplied.

Collecting Multiple Files

• It is possible to collect multiple files in a .zip or .gz file.

Numbering

• If supplying any supplementary material, the text must make specific mention of the material as a citation, similar to that of figures and tables.
• Refer to the supplementary files as “Online Resource”, e.g., "... as shown in the animation (Online Resource 3)", “... additional data are given in Online Resource 4”.
• Name the files consecutively, e.g. “ESM_3.mpg”, “ESM_4.pdf”.

Captions

• For each supplementary material, please supply a concise caption describing the content of the file.

Processing of supplementary files

• Supplementary Information (SI) will be published as received from the author without any conversion, editing, or reformatting.

Accessibility

In order to give people of all abilities and disabilities access to the content of your supplementary files, please make sure that

• The manuscript contains a descriptive caption for each supplementary material
• Video files do not contain anything that flashes more than three times per second (so that users prone to seizures caused by such effects are not put at risk)

Generative AI Images

Please check Springer’s policy on generative AI images and make sure your work adheres to the principles described therein.

Research Data Policy

This journal operates a type 1 research data policy. The journal encourages authors, where possible and applicable, to deposit data that support the findings of their research in a public repository. Authors and editors who do not have a preferred repository should consult Springer Nature’s list of repositories and research data policy.

List of Repositories

Research Data Policy

General repositories - for all types of research data - such as figshare and Dryad may also be used.

Datasets that are assigned digital object identifiers (DOIs) by a data repository may be cited in the reference list. Data citations should include the minimum information recommended by DataCite: authors, title, publisher (repository name), identifier.

DataCite

If the journal that you’re submitting to uses double-blind peer review and you are providing reviewers with access to your data (for example via a repository link, supplementary information or data on request), it is strongly suggested that the authorship in the data is also blinded. There are data repositories that can assist with this and/or will create a link to mask the authorship of your data.

Authors who need help understanding our data sharing policies, help finding a suitable data repository, or help organising and sharing research data can access our Author Support portal for additional guidance.

After acceptance

Upon acceptance of your article you will receive a link to the special Author Query Application at Springer’s web page where you can sign the Copyright Transfer Statement online and indicate whether you wish to order OpenChoice and offprints. Once the Author Query Application has been completed, your article will be processed and you will receive the proofs.

• Copyright transfer. Authors will be asked to transfer copyright of the article to the Japanese Society of Pharmacognosy (or grant the Publisher exclusive publication and dissemination rights). This will ensure the widest possible protection and dissemination of information under copyright laws.

• Offprints. Offprints can be ordered by the corresponding author.
• Color illustrations. Publication of color illustrations is free of charge.
• Proof reading. Proofreading is the responsibility of the author. The purpose of the proof is to check for typesetting or conversion errors and the completeness and accuracy of the text, tables and figures. Substantial changes in content, e.g., new results, corrected values, title, and authorship, as well as replacement of figures, are not allowed without the approval of the responsible editor. In such a case the Editorial Office should be contacted before the proofs are returned to the publisher. After online publication, corrections can be made only in exceptional cases and in the form of an Erratum, which will be hyperlinked to the paper.

• Online First. Papers will be published online about one week after receipt of the corrected proofs. Papers published online can be cited by their DOI immediately. After release of the printed version, the paper can also be cited by issue and page numbers.

Open Choice

Open Choice allows you to publish open access in more than 1850 Springer Nature journals, making your research more visible and accessible immediately on publication.

Article processing charges (APCs) vary by journal – view the full list

Benefits:

• Increased researcher engagement: Open Choice enables access by anyone with an internet connection, immediately on publication.
• Higher visibility and impact: In Springer hybrid journals, OA articles are accessed 4 times more often on average, and cited 1.7 more times on average*.

• Easy compliance with funder and institutional mandates: Many funders require open access publishing, and some take compliance into account when assessing future grant applications.

It is easy to find funding to support open access – please see our funding and support pages for more information.

*) Within the first three years of publication. Springer Nature hybrid journal OA impact analysis, 2018.

Open Choice

Funding and Support pages

Copyright and license term – CC BY

Open Choice articles do not require transfer of copyright as the copyright remains with the author. In opting for open access, the author(s) agree to publish the article under the Creative Commons Attribution License.

Find more about the license agreement

Date of issue

The journal will be issued in January, April, July, and October each year.

(Revised on 10 April 2019)

To find out more about publishing your work Open Access in Journal of Natural Medicines, including information on fees, funding and licenses, visit our Open access publishing page.