Please read the guidelines in full before submitting your manuscript.
Manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.
This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics.
The Journal recommends that authors follow the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals formulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).
Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the author responsibilities section on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.
We also encourage you to familiarize yourself with our Editorial Policies and our Publication Ethics Policies.
Sage Publishing disseminates high-quality research and engaged scholarship globally, and we are committed to diversity and inclusion in publishing. We encourage submissions and peer review from a diverse range of authors and reviewers from across all countries and backgrounds. Read our diversity, equity, and inclusion pledge.
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this journal. Open access options are available – see below.
Please read the guidelines below then submit your manuscript here.
Access: Subscription
Accepts preprints? Yes
Identity transparency: Single anonymized
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this journal.
Figures submitted in color will be published in color in the online version of the journal at no cost. If you wish to have color figures in the printed version, the fee will be determined at Production.
Optional open access publishing is available for a fee via the Sage Choice program, and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. Open Access agreement eligibility is determined by the corresponding author’s affiliation matching an agreement at acceptance. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access.
For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.
Open access fees do not cover page or color charges and are charged separately.
Your article must be within the scope of the journal and be of sufficient quality. If not, it will not be reviewed. Please read the journal’s Aims and Scope to see if your article is appropriate.
The manuscript must be your original work, you must have the rights to the work, and you must have obtained and be able to supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you, including figures, illustrations, tables, lengthy quotations, or other material previously published elsewhere.
Please visit the Sage Journal Author Gateway for guidance on producing visual and/or video abstracts.
Submitted Papers are works of original research that should be detailed reports of the authors’ work in a particular research area. The work, or a substantial and identifiable portion of the work, should be complete. Original research papers generally run from 5,000–10,000 words, must include an abstract, keywords, and references, and will undergo peer review. Tables should be limited to four (4) and manuscripts should not contain more than six (6) figures. Additional figures or materials should be included as Supplemental Material.
Focal Point Reviews are invited depth overviews of a particular topic or field of study. Reviews should have at least 100 citations and generally run from 15,000–20,000 words, must include an abstract, keywords, and references, and will undergo peer review.
Rapid Communications may report significant results originating from research that is not yet complete. Rapid Communications are brief overviews of typically 3,000 words, must include an abstract, keywords, and references, and will undergo peer review.
Spectroscopic Techniques should address a specific new, novel, and useful technique as applied to an area of spectroscopy. Spectroscopic Technique papers typically run from 5,000–12,000, must include an abstract, keywords, and references, and will undergo peer review.
Notes are brief communications, usually of no more than 2,000 words, describing a new instrument, a particularly interesting finding, or a novel application. Notes must include an abstract, keywords, and references, and will undergo peer review.
Correspondence should address an author’s questions or concerns regarding a specific paper and may be answered by the authors of that paper in the same or a subsequent issue of Applied Spectroscopy®.
Graphical Abstract Guidelines
Applied Spectroscopy® is in the process of implementing graphical abstracts as part of its overall initiative to help its researchers to promote their research. A graphical abstract is meant to be a clear, quick and concise pictorial representation of the published research. Please refer to our guidelines on graphical abstracts.
Spectroscopic Nomenclature
The spectroscopic nomenclature must comply with the conventions recommended by the International System of Units (SI) and the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). A brief summary of acceptable terms and their accurate use can be found here.
1. Define acronyms and abbreviations on first use, followed by the acronym or abbreviation in parentheses.
2. Please do not begin a paragraph with an acronym or abbreviation, and avoid their use in headings where possible and practical.
3. Provide names of manufacturers in parentheses for instruments, equipment, and materials.
4. Latin terms (i.e., et al., in vivo, in situ, ca., etc.) should not be italicized.
Mathematical Expressions
Take great care with mathematical equations and expressions. Math that is not properly set may be re-keyed, increasing the possibility of error:
1. “Display” equations should be set apart by line breaks and should be created using MathType or MS Word Equation Editor. They should have no ending punctuation, should be numbered consecutively in parentheses (i.e., (1), (2), (3), etc.), and should not be linked as fields within the manuscript.
2. Display equations should be immediately followed by a description of the variables used.
3. Shorter mathematical expressions should appear in the text (“in-line”). These should be created using standard keyboard characters and the “Insert Symbol” palette whenever possible. MathType or Equation Editor should only be used when absolutely necessary, i.e., for stacked subscripts and superscripts.
4. Conventions for publishing mathematics should be followed. All Greek characters should appear in normal face (i.e., Roman, not italic). All variables represented by a Latin letter should be in italics. All constants and designators (i.e., λmax) should be in normal (Roman) face. Vectors should be lowercase bold and matrices should be UPPERCASE bold (both in normal, Roman, face).
5. Refer to equations using ‘‘Eq. #’’ in the body of the text. Do not use the abbreviation “Eqn.”
6. Do not repeat mathematical derivations that are easily found elsewhere in the literature; merely cite the references.
The journal conforms to the ICMJE requirement that clinical trials are registered in a WHO-approved public trials registry at or before the time of first participant enrollment as a condition of consideration for publication. The trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be included at the end of the abstract.
Your manuscript must follow the relevant EQUATOR Network reporting guidelines, depending on the type of study. The EQUATOR wizard can help identify the appropriate guideline. You will need to upload the appropriate checklist with your submission.
Other resources can be found at NLM’s Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives.
If your research involves animals, you will be asked to confirm that you have carefully read and adhered to the ARRIVE guidelines.
The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. You do not need to follow a template, but please ensure your heading levels are clear, and the sections clearly defined.
The LaTeX files are also accepted. A LaTeX template is available on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.
Your article title, keywords, and abstract all contribute to its position in search engine results, directly affecting the number of people who see your work. For details of what you can do to influence this, visit How to help readers find your article online.
Your manuscript’s title should be concise, descriptive, unambiguous, accurate, and reflect the precise contents of the manuscript. A descriptive title that includes the topic of the manuscript makes an article more findable in the major indexing services.
Please include an unstructured abstract between the title and main body of your manuscript that concisely states the purpose of the research, major findings, and conclusions. If your research includes clinical trials, the trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be included at the end of the abstract. Submissions that do not meet this requirement will not be considered.
For clinical trials, the trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be included at the end of the abstract.
Please include a minimum of 4 keywords, listed after the abstract. Keywords should be as specific as possible to the research topic.
For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures, and graphs in electronic format, please read Sage’s artwork guidelines.
Figures supplied in color will appear in color online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in color in the printed version. If you have requested color reproduction in the print version, we will advise you of the costs on receipt of your accepted article.
Please ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures, or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Frequently Asked Questions page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.
Please include a section with the heading ‘Statements and Declarations’ at the end of your submitted article, after the Acknowledgements section [and Author Contributions section if applicable] including each of the sub-headings listed below. If a declaration is not applicable to your submission, you must still include the heading and state ‘Not applicable’ underneath. Please note that you may be asked to justify why a declaration was not applicable to your submission by the Editorial Office.
Please include your ethics approval statements under this heading, even if you have already included ethics approval information in your methods section. If ethical approval was not required, you need to explicitly state this. You can find information on what to say in your ethical statements as well as example statements on our Publication ethics and research integrity policies page.
All papers reporting studies involving human participants, human data or human tissue must state that the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board approved the study, or waived the requirement for approval, providing the full name and institution of the review committee in addition to the approval number. If applicable, please also include this information in the Methods section of your manuscript.
Please include any participant consent information under this heading and state whether informed consent to participate was written or verbal. If the requirement for informed consent to participate has been waived by the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board (i.e. where it has been deemed that consent would be impossible or impracticable to obtain), please state this. If this is not applicable to your manuscript, please state ‘Not applicable’ in this section. More information and example statements can be found on our Publication ethics and research integrity policies page.
Submissions containing any data from an individual person (including individual details, images or videos) must include a statement confirming that informed consent for publication was provided by the participant(s) or a legally authorized representative. Non-essential identifying details should be omitted. Please do not submit the participant’s actual written informed consent with your article, as this in itself breaches the patient’s confidentiality. The Journal requests that you confirm to us, in writing, that you have obtained written informed consent to publish but the written consent itself should be held by the authors/investigators themselves, for example in a patient’s hospital record. The confirmatory letter may be uploaded with your submission as a separate file in addition to the statement confirming that consent to publish was obtained within the manuscript text. If this is not applicable to your manuscript, please state ‘Not applicable’ in this section.
The journal requires a declaration of conflicting interests from all authors so that a statement can be included in your article. For guidance on conflict of interest statements, see our policy on conflicting interest declarations and the ICMJE recommendations.
If no conflict exists, your statement should read: ‘The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article’.
All articles need to include a funding statement, under a separate heading, even if you did not receive funding. You’ll find guidance and examples on our Funding page.
The Journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages.
Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to:
All references cited in the text should be collected in a reference list at the end of the manuscript, but before figure captions and tables. Citation formats are given below.
1. References should consist solely of citations to material that has been published elsewhere, i.e., in journals, books, technical reports, etc.
2. Papers that have been submitted or accepted for publication may be cited using the authors, the full title of the article, and the journal title, followed by “paper submitted” or “paper in press,” and the year. If a DOI is available for papers that are in press but not yet published, it should be included after the year. “In preparation” and “To be submitted” citations are generally unacceptable.
3. References to “unpublished data” or “private communications” are acceptable, but they should be cited as footnotes in the text and should identify the source of the information cited, such as name, institution, type of communication, and year.
4. Electronic publications, such as web pages, databases, or on-line reports, may be cited by including the author or authoring organization, the name of the page or database if available, the date the page was created, if available, the full URL, and the date the material was accessed by the author.
5. All references must be numbered consecutively in order of appearance in the text. Reference citations in the text should appear as Arabic numerals (without parentheses or brackets), placed as superscripts, outside punctuation marks. Ranges of references should be shown using a dash (2–5) rather than written out (2,3,4,5,)
Example of reference citations in the text:
The equipment used8—inexpensive and easily constructed in the laboratory—met the criteria established by Smith et al.9,10 In later experiments, Jones and Percy,11–13 who perfected the technique, found modifications unnecessary.
6. Each reference number should refer to only one article, chapter, or book; multiple citations within one reference are not acceptable.
7. Direct quotes from other sources must be cited, including the page number where the quoted material appears.
Formats and Samples for Citations
All references should be double-spaced and in 12-point font, collected in a list at the end of the manuscript. Journal titles should be abbreviated using the standard ACS/CASSI abbreviations (http://cassi.cas.org/search.jsp).
PERIODICALS — the ordering is as follows: Authors. “Title of the Article”. Full journal name (abbreviated). Year. Volume number(issue number): page range.
1. E.C. Navarre, J.M. Goldberg. “Design and Characterization of a Theta-Pinch Imploding Thin Film Plasma Source for Atomic Emission Spectrochemical Analysis”. Appl. Spectrosc. 2010. 65(1): 26-35.
2. A. Vrij. “Possible Mechanism for the Spontaneous Rupture of Thin, Free Liquid Films”. Discuss. Faraday Soc. 1966. 42: 23-33.
3. C. Xu, B.A. Maxwell, J.A. Brown, L. Zhang, Z. Suo. “Global Conformational Dynamics of a Y-Family DNA Polymerase during Catalysis”. PLoS Biol. 2009. 7(10): e1000225. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1000225.
BOOKS — the ordering is as follows: Authors. “Title of chapter”. In: Editor Names, editor. Title of Book. Location of Publisher: Name of Publisher, Year. Vol. #, Chap. #, Pages cited.
1. P.R. Griffiths. “Introduction to the Theory and Instrumentation for Vibrational Spectroscopy”. In: E.C.Y. Li-Chan, J.M. Chalmers, P.R. Griffiths, editors. Applications of Vibrational Spectroscopy to Food Science. Chichester, UK: John Wiley and Sons, 2010.
2. Y. Ozaki. “Application in Chemistry”. In: H.W. Siesler, Y. Ozaki, S. Kawata, H.M. Heise, editors. Near-Infrared Spectroscopy: Principles, Instruments, Applications. Weinheim, Germany: Wiley-VCH, 2002. Pp. 179-211.
3. W.H. Press, S.A. Teukolsky, W.T. Vetterling, P.B. Flannery. Numerical Recipes in C: The Art of Scientific Computing. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999. 2nd ed.
THESES — the ordering is as follows:
Author. Title of Thesis. [M.S. or Ph.D. Thesis/Dissertation]. Location of institution: Name of institution, year.
1. A.-M. Saariaho. Resonance Raman Spectroscopy in the Analysis of Residual Lignin and Other Unsaturated Structures in Chemical Pulps. [Doctor of Science in Technology Dissertation]. Espoo, Finland: Helsinki University of Technology, 2005.
EXTRANEOUS MATERIAL
Patents:
Inventor name. Item description. Patent number. Filed Year. Issued Year.
1. M. Foquet, P. Peluso, S. Turner, D. B. Roitman, G. Otto. Zero Mode Waveguide Substrate. US Patent 7486865. Filed 2007. Issued 2009.
Papers, posters, or workshops presented at a meeting:
1. S. Student. “Title of My Paper”. Paper (poster) presented at: FACSS 2011. Reno, NV; Sept 30-Oct 5 2011.
2. S.M. Clegg, J.E. Barefield, R.C. Wiens, C.R. Quick, S.K. Sharma, A.K. Misra, M.D. Dyar, M.C. McCanta, L. Elkins-Tanton. Workshop on Venus Geochemistry: Progress, Prospects, and New Missions. Workshop presented at: Venus Geochemistry: Progress, Prospects, and New Missions. Gilruth Center, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX; February 26–27, 2009.
Websites:
At a minimum, provide the URL and the date that the reference was last accessed. Any further information, particularly the author of a page, the host organization, copyright dates, or a DOI, should also be provided. A few examples follow:
1. Unicef. “Health: Malaria”. 2009. http://www.unicef.org/health/index_malaria.html [accessed Oct 15 2011].
2. United States Department of Labor, OSHA. “Safety and Health Topics: Laser Hazards”. Page last reviewed Jan 10 2008. http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/laserhazards/ [accessed Jan 11 2011].
Every in-text citation must have a corresponding citation in the reference list and vice versa. Corresponding citations must have identical spelling and year.
Authors should update any references to preprints when a peer reviewed version is made available, to cite the published research. Citations to preprints are otherwise discouraged.
If you are including an Acknowledgements section, this will be published at the end of your article. The Acknowledgments section should include all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship. Per ICMJE recommendations, it is best practice to obtain consent from non-author contributors who you are acknowledging in your manuscript.
Writing assistance and third party submissions: if you have received any writing or editing assistance from a third-party, for example a specialist communications company, this must be clearly stated in the Acknowledgements section and in the covering letter. Please see the Sage Author Gateway for what information to include in your Acknowledgements section. If your submission is being made on your behalf by someone who is not listed as an author, for example the third-party who provided writing/editing assistance, you must state this in the Acknowledgements and also in your covering letter. Please note that the journal editor reserves the right to not consider submissions made by a third party rather than by the author/s themselves.
This Journal can host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc.) alongside the full text of the article. Your supplemental material must be one of our accepted file types. For that list and more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplemental files.
Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Author Services. Visit Sage Author Services for further information.
As part of the submission process you will need to confirm that this is your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that this is for first publication in this Journal, that it is not being considered for/has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you.
Please see our guidelines on prior publication and note that the journal may accept submissions of manuscripts that have been posted on preprint servers.
The journal will consider submissions of manuscripts that have been posted on preprint servers.
Please enter the preprint DOI in the designated field when submitting your manuscript. We advise that you inform the Journal Editorial office about your posted preprint at submission.
Note that you should not post an updated version of your manuscript on a preprint server while it is being peer reviewed.
Submit your manuscript online via Sage Track.
IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in Sage Track before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created. For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.
Manuscripts should only be submitted with the consent of all contributing authors. The individual responsible for submitting the manuscript should carefully check that all those whose work contributed to the manuscript are listed as authors.
Ensure you upload all relevant manuscript files, including any additional supplemental files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).
Please view our authorship policies, which includes information on criteria for authorship, who should be the corresponding author and more.
Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.
The following summary describes the peer review process for this journal:
Identity transparency: Single-anonymized
Reviewer interacts with: Editor
Review information published: None
Your manuscript will undergo an initial evaluation. If it does not conform to the requirements laid out in these guidelines, it will be returned to you for amendments prior to peer review. Manuscripts may be desk rejected without peer review at this point if they are out of scope for the journal or otherwise unsuitable.
After passing the initial evaluation, your manuscript will then be peer reviewed. You can log in at any time to check the status of your manuscript. We will notify you when a decision has been reached.
The journal operates a conventional single-anonymized reviewing policy in which the reviewer’s name is always concealed from the submitting author. Two independent reviews are required for a manuscript to reach a Revise or Accept decision.
The following manuscript types may not require two independent reviews to be accepted: Editorials and Correspondence .
To ensure the integrity of the peer review process we assign reviewers and cannot accept author recommendations.
All manuscripts are reviewed as rapidly as possible, while maintaining rigor. Reviewers make comments to the author and recommendations to the Editor who then makes the final decision on all manuscripts, including those appearing in a special issue or special collection. The Editor or members of the Editorial Board may occasionally submit their own manuscripts for possible publication in the Journal. In these cases, the peer review process will be managed by alternative members of the Board and the submitting Editor/Board member will have no involvement in the decision-making process.
As a COPE member we engage with multiple forms of post-publication discussion in line with wider guidance from Sage: Commentaries, Critiques and Responses.
You can view our complaints and appeals policy here.
Read Sage's complete peer review policy.
Applied Spectroscopy Express
Applied Spectroscopy® now makes articles that have been accepted following peer review available immediately on the Journal website, before they have gone through the production process at Sage. These accepted manuscripts are published within the Online First programme on Sage Journals Online upon peer review acceptance for publication and before copyediting, typesetting and other value added by the Editorial staff and Sage.
The journal and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. Please read Sage's complete policy on plagiarism and the actions we may take.
Before publication, we require the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive license agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and license to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the Sage Journal Author Gateway.
If your manuscript was posted on a preprint server prior to acceptance, you must include a link in your preprint to the final published version of your published article.
Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be made available to the corresponding author via our editing portal, Sage Edit, or by email, and should be returned promptly to avoid delaying publication. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence, and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate. This is the final opportunity to make changes to your manuscript. Further corrections will not be possible after publication. Changes to the author list are not permitted at this stage.
OnlineFirst publication: This enables us to publish final articles online immediately, without waiting for assignment to a future issue of the Journal. This usually significantly reduces publication lead time. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite OnlineFirst articles.
Access to your published article: We provide you with online access to your published article. The online access link is provided to the corresponding author for sharing with their co-authors.
Publication is not the end of the process. Between us, we can ensure that your article is found, read, downloaded and cited as widely as possible. Many of the most effective tactics are those you can do quickly and easily to your network of contacts and peers. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway for numerous resources to help you promote your work.
The Sage Journal Author Gateway has some general advice on how to get published, plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance your article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.
If you have any questions about publishing with Sage, please visit the Sage Journals Solutions Portal.
You can view our complaints and appeals procedure.
You can direct any questions to the journal’s editorial office:
Applied Spectroscopy®
Kristin S. MacDonald, M.Sc.
Managing Editor
University of British Columbia
Department of Chemistry
E211–2036 Main Mall
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2
Canada
applied_spectroscopy@chem.ubc.ca
Tel.: 001 1518-463-8644