Accreditation and Quality Assurance - READ-ME for authors
- Basic requirements
- Legal requirements and conflict of interest
- Technical requirements and writing style
- Conventions on scientific presentation
- Important requests
Basic Requirements
To be considered for publication in ACQUAL, the topic of an article must comply with the journals scope as outlined in the section Aims and Scope. The development of analytical methods, their applications in a given case and their characterization by figures of merit can be considered to fall within the scope of the journal when metrological aspects - such as metrological traceability or measurement uncertainty - prevail.
All manuscripts must be in English. Non-native speakers of English are strongly advised to have their manuscripts corrected by a native speaker prior to submission, in order to avoid unnecessary constraints of the reviewing process. The production of the journal includes basic language editing, but cannot clarify scientific issues which are not comprehensible from the manuscript. The editors reserve the right to withhold manuscripts from the reviewing process as long as the quality of English in the manuscript is not ensured by the author(s).
A manuscript should be optimized for one of the topical sections structuring ACQUAL's content. The according attributes are listed in the section Article Types (this opens in a new tab).
Legal Requirements and Conflict of Interest
The section S (this opens in a new tab)ubmission Guidelines (this opens in a new tab) summarizes legal prerequisites. Authors are requested to submit their manuscripts online (Submit Online). Uploading your manuscript confirms your intention to have it published in ACQUAL.
Authors are responsible to declare any Conflict of Interest, whether caused by financial reasons, e.g., by financial relationship with the organization that sponsored the research, or related to personal commitments. The declaration must be given in a separate section 'Disclosure' of the submitted manuscript.
The relevant sources of funding for the work in the manuscript must be disclosed. The sources are to be mentioned in the section 'Disclosure', unless stated in the section 'Acknowledgment'."
Technical Requirements and Writing Style
Please refer to the sections on the right:
- Text (information on formatting, the usage of headings, abbreviations, and footnotes)
- Title page (title, keywords, abstract)
- References
- Tables
- Art work
- Electronic Supplementary Material (ESM).
Concerning the Writing Style, authors are kindly asked to keep in mind the diversified audience of the journal. When dealing with specialized topics, an introduction will be appreciated which gives readers a chance to follow the author's argumentation. Terms which are specific for a specialized subfield should be introduced and abbreviations should be explained the first time they are used in the main text. On the whole, the presentation should be as concise as possible, avoiding repetition or duplication of data in Tables and Figures and in the Text.
Conventions on Scientific Presentation
To promote global understanding of metrological information and data, the journal requests all authors to comply with international conventions for concepts, terms, quantities, and units as well as formal presentation as laid down in, e.g.,
"VIM3" International Vocabulary of Metrology – Basic and General Concepts
and Associated Terms (VIM), 3rd edn.;
*JCGM 200:2008 at http://www.bipm.org/en/publications/guides/vim (this opens in a new tab)
"GUM" A Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement, 2nd edn., 1995,
ISO Geneva
*JCGM 100:2008 at http://www.bipm.org/en/publications/guides/gum (this opens in a new tab)
GUM Supplement 1, Evaluation of measurement data,
*JCGM 101:2008 at http://www.bipm.org/en/publications/guides/gum (this opens in a new tab)
"SI Brochure"
The International System of Units (SI), 8th edn.; BIPM 2006
*http://www.bipm.org/utils/common/pdf/si_brochure_8_en.pdf (this opens in a new tab)
"IUPAC Green Book"
Quantities, Units and Symbols in Physical Chemistry, 3rd edn., RSC Publishing,
Cambridge 2007; *"full text" at http://www.iupac.org/web/ins/110-2-81 (this opens in a new tab)
ACQUAL's series of Tutorials "Recommendations on quantities, symbols, and measurement
units for publication in ACQUAL"
- *Reporting measurement results in chemistry (2007)
Accred Qual Assur 12:497-498
- *The meaning of concentration (2007) Accred Qual Assur 12:661-663
- *Reporting measurement uncertainty in chemical analysis (2008)
Accred Qual Assur 13:113-114
- *Correct use of equations for calculating chemical measurement results (2008)
Accred Qual Assur 13:731 DOI 10.1007/s00769-008-0455-x
- *Preparation of tables and graphs (2011)
Accred Qual Assur 16:53 DOI 10.1007/s00769-010-0734-1
to be continued
* available free of charge
Please give your special attention to the section Compulsory Conventions
These conventions should be used whenever possible, and deviations must be indicated explicitly and explained.
ACQUAL's Editors reserve the right to reject a manuscript not complying with these conventions or to adjust it to ACQUAL's standards.
Nomenclature
IUPAC rules must be used for designating chemical compounds.
The use of tradenames alone to identify compounds such as drugs, pharmaceutical products, or pesticides is not allowed. For proprietary substances, materials, and instruments, the correct designation and the manufacturer’s name should be indicated. Trademarks and Registered Trademarks must be designated as such in the text.
Important requests
- Formal presentation should comply with international convention (see below)
- Please activate page numbering option
- Abstract should comprise 150-250 words
- Please upload diagrams without frame and headline, but provide explicative captions
- Using colored or grey background in Figures or Tables is not encouraged
Accreditation and Quality Assurance
Journal for Quality, Comparability and Reliability in Chemical Measurement
Editor-in-Chief: A. Fajgelj; A.M.H. van der Veen
ISSN: 0949-1775 (print version)
ISSN: 1432-0517 (electronic version)
Journal no. 769