Author Guidelines

Template

Template (English)

Enacted
Revised February 28, 2022


1. General information

Elastomers and Composites is the official journal of The Rubber Society of Korea. Anyone who would like to submit a manuscript is advised to carefully read the aims and scope section of this journal. Manuscripts should be prepared for submission to Elastomers and Composites according to the following instructions.

2. Copyright and Creative Commons Attribution license

A submitted manuscript, when published, will become the property of the journal. Copyrights of all published materials are owned by The Rubber Society of Korea. Corresponding author must sign the Transfer of Copyright agreement before the article can be published. The copyright transfer covers the exclusive rights to reproduce and distribute the article, including reprints, photographic reproductions, microfilm or any other reproductions of similar nature and translations. Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce any figures for which copyright exists from the copyright holder.

3. Research and publication ethics

The journal adheres to the ethical guidelines for research and publication described in Guidelines on Good Publication (http://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines).

1) Authorship

Authorship credit should be based on 1) substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, and/or analysis and interpretation of data; 2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; 3) final approval of the version to be published; and 4) 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. Every author should meet all of these four conditions. After the initial submission of a manuscript, any changes whatsoever in authorship (adding author(s), deleting author(s), or re-arranging the order of authors) must be explained by a letter to the editor from the authors concerned. This letter must be signed by the coresponding author on behalf of all authors of the paper.

• Correct ion of authorship after publication: Elastomers and Composites does not correct authorship after publication unless a mistake has been made by the editorial staff. Authorship may be changed before publication but after submission when an authorship correction is requested by all of the authors involved with the manuscript.

2) Originality, plagiarism and duplicate publication

Submitted manuscripts must not have been previously published or be under consideration for publication elsewhere. No part of the accepted manuscript should be duplicated in any other scientific journal without the permission of the Editorial Board. Submitted manuscripts are screened for possible plagiarism or duplicate publication by Similarity Check upon arrival. If plagiarism or duplicate publication is detected, the manuscripts may be rejected, the authors will be announced in the journal, and their institutions will be informed. There will also be penalties for the authors.

A letter of permission is required for any and all material that has been published previously. It is the responsibility of the author to request permission from the publisher for any material that is being reproduced. This requirement applies to text, figures, and tables.

3) Conflict of interest statement

The corresponding author must inform the editor of any potential conflicts of interest that could influence the authors’ interpretation of the data. Examples of potential conflicts of interest are financial support from or connections to companies, political pressure from interest groups, and academically related issues. In particular, all sources of funding applicable to the study should be explicitly stated.

4) Ethics in publishing

Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, including electronically without the written consent of the copyright-holder. In the event of serious infringements of ethical obligations of authors, such as significant duplication of authors’ own papers or uncredited partial use of other people’s research results, a Committee on Publication Ethics will be formed by the editorial board to decide the appropriate sanctions including the retraction of the articles and the prohibition of publication in this journal.

5) Process for handling cases requiring corrections, retractions, and editorial expressions of concern

Cases that require editorial expressions of concern or retraction shall follow the COPE flowcharts available from: http://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts.

Honest errors are a part of science and publishing and require publication of a correction when they are detected. Corrections are needed for errors of fact. Minimum standards are as follows: First, it shall publish a correction notice as soon as possible detailing changes from and citing the original publication on both an electronic and numbered page that is included in an electronic or a Table of Contents to ensure proper indexing; Second, it shall post a new article version with details of the changes from the original version and the date(s) on which the changes were made through Cross-mark; Third, it shall archive all prior versions of the article. This archive can be either directly accessible to readers; and Fourth, previous electronic versions shall prominently note that there are more recent versions of the article via Cross-mark.

6) Editorial responsibilities

The Editorial Board will continuously work to monitor and safeguard publication ethics: guidelines for retracting articles; maintenance of the integrity of the academic record; preclusion of business needs from compromising intellectual and ethical standards; publishing corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies when needed; and excluding plagiarism and fraudulent data. The editors maintain the following responsibilities: responsibility and authority to reject and accept articles; avoiding any conflict of interest with respect to articles they reject or accept; promoting publication of corrections or retractions when errors are found; and preservation of the anonymity of reviewers.

4. Aqualifications, language requirement, and reporting guideline

1) Author qualifications

Any researcher throughout the world can submit a manuscript if the scope of the manuscript is appropriate.

2) Language

Manuscripts should be submitted in good scientific English.

3) Reporting guidelines for specific study designs

Research reports frequently omit important information. As such, reporting guidelines have been developed for a number of study designs that some journals may ask authors to follow. Authors are encouraged to also consult the reporting guidelines relevant to their specific research design.

5. Submission and peer review process

1) Submission

All manuscripts should be submitted via e-submission system available from: https://rubber.or.kr/online_paper2/.

2) Peer review process

Elastomers and Compososites reviews all manuscripts received. A manuscript is first reviewed for its format and adherence to the aims and scope of the journal. If the manuscript meets these two criteria, it is checked for plagiarism or duplicate publication with Similarity Check. After confirming its result, it is dispatched to three investigators in the field with relevant knowledge. As-suming the manuscript is sent to reviewers, Elastomers and Composites waits to receive opinions from at least two reviewers. In addition, if deemed necessary, a review of statistics may be requested. The acceptance criteria for all papers are based on the quality and originality of the research and its scientific significance. Acceptance of the manuscript is decided based on the critiques and recommended decision of the reviewers. An initial decision will normally be made within 4 weeks of receipt of a manuscript, and the reviewers’ comments are sent to the corresponding author by e-mail. The corresponding author must indicate the alterations that have been made in response to the reviewers’ comments item by item. Failure to resubmit the revised manuscript within 4 weeks of the editorial decision is regarded as a withdrawal. If further revision period is required, author should contact editorial office A final decision on acceptance/rejection for publication is forwarded to the corresponding author from the editor.

3) Peer review process for handling submissions from editors, employees, or members of the editorial board

All manuscripts from editors, employees, or members of the editorial board are processed same to other unsolicited manuscripts. During the review process, submitters will not engage in the selection of reviewers and decision process. Editors will not handle their own manuscripts although they are commissioned ones.

6. Manuscript preparation

1) General requirements

  • The mainn document with manuscript text and tables should be prepared in an MS Word (docx) or RTF file format.
  • The mauscript should be double spaced on 21.6 × 27.9 cm (letter size) or 21.0 × 29.7 cm (A4) paper with 3.0 cm margins at the top, bottom, right, and left margin.
  • All muscript pages are to be numbered at the bottom consecutively, beginning with the abstract as page 1.
  • The authors should express all measurements according to International System (SI) units with some exceptions such as seconds, mmHg, or °C.
  • Only st andard abbreviations should be used. Abbreviations should be avoided in the title of the manuscript. Abbreviations should be spelled out when first used in the text—for example, extensible markup language (XML)—and the use of abbreviations should be kept to a minimum.
  • The nam es and locations (city, state, and country only) of manufacturers should be given.
  • When qu oting from other sources, a reference number should be cited at the end of the quotation.

Manuscript preparation is different according to the publication type, including original articles, reviews, editorials, and book reviews, Other types are also negotiable with the Editorial Board.

2) Original articles

Original articles are reports of basic investigations. The manuscript for an original article should be organized in the following sequence: title page, abstract and keywords, main text (introduction, methods, results, and discussion), conflict of interest, acknowledgments, references, tables, figure legends, and figures. The figures could be received as separate files or embedded in the manuscript.

Maximum length: 2,500 words of text (not including the abstract, tables, figures, and references) with no more than a total of 10 tables and/or figures.

  • Title p ge: The following items should be included on the title page: 1) the title of the manuscript, 2) author list, 3) each author’s affiliation, 4) the name and e-mail address of the corresponding author, 5) when applicable, the source of any research funding and a list of where and when the study has been presented in part elsewhere, and 6) a running title of fewer than 50 characters.
  • Abstract and keywords: The abstract should be concise content of equal to or less than 250 words in an structured format including purpose, methods, results, and conclusion. Abbreviations or references are not allowed in the abstract. Up to 5 keywords should be listed at the bottom of the abstract to be used as index terms.
  • Introduction: The purpose of the investigation, including relevant background information, should be described briefly. Conclusion should not be included in the Introduction.
  • Methods : The research plan, materials (or subjects), and methods used should be described in that order. The names and locations (city, state, and country only) of manufacturers of equipment and software should be given. Methods of statistical analysis and criteria for statistical significance should be described.
  • Results : The results should be presented in logical sequence in the text, tables, and figures. If resulting parameters have statistical significance, P-values should be provided, and repetitive presentation of the same data in different forms should be avoided. The results should not include material appropriate for the discussion.
  • Discussion: Observations pertaining to the results of the research and other related work should be interpreted for readers. New and important observations should be emphasized rather than merely repeating the contents of the results. The implications of the proposed opinion should be explained along with its limits, and within the limits of the research results, and the conclusion should be connected to the purpose of the research. In a concluding paragraph, the results and their meaning should be summarized.
  • Conflict of interest: Any potential conflict of interest that could influence the authors’ interpretation of the data, such as financial support from or connections to companies, political pressure from interest groups, or academically related issues, must be stated.
  • Acknowledgments: All persons who have made substantial contributions, but who have not met the criteria for authorship, are to be acknowledged here. All sources of funding applicable to the study should be stated here explicitly.
  • Appendix: If any materials are not enough to be included in the main text such as questionnaires, they can be listed in the Appendix.
  • Supplementary materials: If there are any supplementary materials to help the understanding of readers or too great amount data to be included in the main text, it may be placed as supplementary data. Not only text, audio or video files, but also data files should be added here.
  • References: In the text, references should be cited with superscript Arabic numerals, which run consecutively through the full paper.
    • Journal articles:
      1. C. E. Son, S. R. Yang, and S.-S. Choi, "Abrasion Behaviors of NR/SBR Compounds Using Laboratory Abrasion Tester", Elast. Compos., 40, 45 (2021).
    • Books and book chapters:
      1. J. E. Mark, “Science and Technology of Rubber”, ed. by J. E. Mark, 2nd ed., p. 100, Academic Press, New York, 1994.
    • Patents:
      1. G. Lee, “Antistatic Silicone Rubber Composition”, U.S. Patent 20220064450 (2022).
  • Tables: Tables are to be numbered in the order in which they are cited in the text. A table title should concisely describe the content of the table so that a reader can understand the table without referring to the text. Each table must be simple and typed on a separate page with its heading above it. Explanatory matter is placed in footnotes below the tabular matter and not included in the heading. All nonstandard abbreviations are explained in the footnotes. Footnotes should be indicated by a), b), c), .... Statistical measures such as standard deviation (SD) or standard error (SE) should be identified. Vertical rules and horizontal rules between entries should be omitted.
  • Figures and legends for illustrations: Figures should be numbered, using Arabic numerals, in the order in which they are cited. Each figure should be uploaded as a single image file in either uncompressed EPS, TIFF, PSD, JPEG, and PPT format over 600 dots per inch (dpi) or 3 million pixels (less than 6 megabytes). Written permission should be obtained for the use of all previously published illustrations (and copies of permission letters should be included). In the case of multiple prints bearing the same number, English letters should be used after the numerials to indicate the correct order (e.g., Fig. 1A; Fig. 2B, C).

3) Reviews

Reviews are invited by the editor and should be comprehensive analyses of specific topics. They are to be organized as follows: title page, authors, abstract and keywords, main text (introduction, text, and conclusion), conflict interest, acknowledgments, references, tables, figure legends, and figures. There should be an unstructured abstract of no more than 200 English words. The length of the text excluding references, tables, and figures should not exceed 5,000 words. The number of references is limited to 100.

4) Editorials

Editorials are invited by the editor and should be commentaries on articles published recently in the journal. Editorial topics could include active areas of research, fresh insights, and debates in all fields of journal publication. Editorials should not exceed 1,000 words, excluding references, tables, and figures. References should not exceed 10. A maximum of 3 figures including tables is allowed.

5) Book reviews

Book reviews are solicited by the editor. These will cover recently published books in the field of journal publication. The format is same as that of Editorials.

Table 1 shows the recommended maximums of manuscripts according to publication type; however, these requirements are negotiable with the editor.

Table 1. Recommended maximums for articles submitted to Elastomers and Composites
Type of article Abstract (word) Text (word)a) References Tables & Figures
Original article 250 2,500 40 10
Review 200 5,000 100 No limits
Editorial No 1,000 3 3
Book review No 1,000 10 3

a) Maximum number of words is exclusive of the abstract, references, tables, and figure legends.

7. Final preparation for publication

1) Final version

After the paper has been accepted for publication, the author(s) should submit the final version of the manuscript. The names and affiliations of the authors should be double-checked, and if the originally submitted image files were of poor resolution, higher resolution image files should be submitted at this time. Color images must be created as CMYK files. The electronic original should be sent with appropriate labeling and arrows. The EPS, TIFF, Adobe Photoshop (PSD), JPEG, and PPT formats are preferred for submission of digital files of photographic images. Symbols (e.g., circles, triangles, squares), letters (e.g., words, abbreviations), and numbers should be large enough to be legible on reduction to the journal’s column widths. All of the symbols must be defined in the figure caption. If the symbols are too complex to appear in the caption, they should appear on the illustration itself, within the area of the graph or diagram, not to the side. If references, tables, or figures are moved, added, or deleted during the revision process, they should be renumbered to reflect such changes so that all tables, references, and figures are cited in numeric order.

2) Manuscript corrections

Before publication, the manuscript editor may correct the manuscript such that it meets the standard publication format. The author(s) must respond within 2 days when the editor contacts the author for revisions. If the response is delayed, the manuscript’s publication may be postponed to the next issue.

3) Galley proof

The author(s) will receive the final version of the manuscript as a PDF file. Upon receipt, within 2 days, the editorial office (or printing office) must be notified of any errors found in the file. Any errors found after this time are the responsibility of the author(s) and will have to be corrected as an erratum.

8. Page charges or article processing charges

If the manuscript is accepted for publication, processing fee of Korean Won 200,000 should be paid by the corresponding author before printing.


Contact Us

Editor-in-Chief: Seunghyun Lee
Chemical and Molecular Engineering, Hanyang University
E-mail: leeshyun@hanyang.ac.kr

Editorial Office: The Rubber Society of Korea
E-mail: rubber@rubber.or.kr


These instructions to authors will be applied beginning with the March 2024 issue.