Instructions for Authors

Fundamental Toxicological Sciences (Fundam. Toxicol. Sci.) is a peer-reviewed scientific journal, is one of the two official journals of the Japanese Society of Toxicology and an international official journal for the Japanese Society of the Clinical Toxicology, that publishes toxicological research, such as in the toxicity of drugs, food additives, food contaminants, environmental pollutants and natural products, and their safety evaluation, experimental techniques, analytical methods and researches in the field of clinical toxicology. Case reports from the field of clinical toxicology are acceptable. Fundamental Toxicological Sciences is open access and published online. Manuscripts are rapidly reviewed. Authors are informed of the editor's decision within two weeks after submission of a manuscript. In the event of rejection, only the result of grading evaluated by reviewers is provided. Fundamental Toxicological Sciences will publish original and innovative submissions in English with the understanding that the work is unpublished, except in abstract form, and is not being considered for publication elsewhere.

1. Types of Article

(1)
Original Articles: An article that contains new findings obtained from innovative research.
(2)
Letters: A short paper containing preliminary or more limited research results supported by less data than a regular paper, but of general or special interest. Manuscripts containing interesting findings without detailed discussion, research results of narrow scope or of a predominantly negative nature may also be suitable for publication as a Letter.
(3)
Data reports: A short paper containing data that cannot be sufficiently discussed the significance but are of material value in various toxicological experiments and measurement results of concentrations of chemical substances in the environment, foods, and others.
(4)
Toxicomics Reports: A short paper containing new knowledge of genes and proteins related to toxicity and biological responses. This includes data on genes (or proteins) the level of expression of which varies according to exposure to toxic substances or drugs, and the identification of genes (or proteins) that affect toxicity. For DNA array analysis, work dealing with a single substance can be considered as one article; similarly, for the identification of genes related to toxicity, description of one gene can be accepted as one article. The Journal may also publish data on new polymorphisms of genes related to toxicity and the results of studies on the relationships between known polymorphisms and medicinal or metabolic effects of drugs (negative data can be acceptable). Because this type of article is intended to make reference information available, detailed discussion and assessment is not required.
(5)
Reviews and Minireviews: A review paper encompassing recent important scientific discoveries. Minireviews will mainly describe recent research results from the authors’ own laboratories. Reviews will be broader based and will not have a page limit.

2. Preparation of Manuscripts

Type the manuscript single-spaced in an 11-point font on A4 file with upper, lower, left and right margins of 2 cm. If there is a restriction on the number of pages, create a manuscript taking into account that the number of characters in a single page in print is about 4,700 (including spaces). Print sequential page numbers centrally at the bottom of the page, setting the title page as page one.

(1)
Give the title, the names of the authors, the name and address (es) of the institution (s), the type of article, the running title (70 characters or less, including spaces), and the categories (see below) on the first page (title page). Following these, give the name, institution, street address, phone number, e-mail address (required) of the corresponding author.
(2)
Provide an Abstract in the form of a single paragraph of 250 words or less and 3-6 keywords on the second page. The abstract must not start a new line. Subtitles, such as methods, Results must not be used.
(3)
The main text should start from page 3 with an “Introduction,” followed by “Materials and Methods,” “Results,” “Discussion,” “Acknowledgments,” “Conflict of interest,” “References,” and “Figure Legends.” “Results” and “Discussion” may also be combined as “Results and Discussion”.
(4)
Abbreviations: At first use, spell out the word followed by the abbreviation in parentheses. Use only that defined abbreviation thereafter.
(5)
Units: Units should be used as follows:
μm, mm, cm, m, μg, mg, g, kg, μL, mL, L, mmol, mol, μM, mM, M, ppm, mol/L, mg/mL, %, sec, min, hr, S.D., S.E., s.c., i.c., i.m., i.v. ,i.p., p.o., Bq, Ci, Sv, Gy, cpm, °C.
(6)
Reagents and equipment used: Give the names, cities (states), and nations of companies providing materials.
(7)
Tables: Using the same word-processing software as used for the text, create tables on A4 file numbered sequentially with Arabic numerals (e.g. Table 1.). Give the title on the top of each table, and footnotes, legend etc. under the table.
(8)
Figures: Use figures directly created as camera-ready copy. Place each figure on A4 file and number sequentially with Arabic numerals (e.g. Fig. 1.). Titles and footnotes, descriptions etc. should be given on a separate page, under the heading “Figure Legends”. If your manuscript is accepted, the author required sending electronic file for the figures.
(9)
References: When citing references in the text, give the name of the authors and the year of publication in parentheses: e.g. (Smith, 1999) or (Jones and Cohen, 2003). If there are three or more authors give only the first author followed by et al., e.g. (Smith et al., 2004). If the same author (s) published more than one paper in the same year, use a, b etc to distinguish them: e.g. (Smith et al., 2004a, 2004b). Cited references should be listed as “References” at the end of the text in alphabetical order. Give the name of the author, the year of publication in parentheses, the article name, the journal abbreviation (please use the abbreviation specified by the journal (if any), or refer to Chemical Abstracts), the volume number, and inclusive pagination, in that order. For chapters in books, give the name of the author, the year of publication in parentheses, the title of the chapter, the name of the book, the name of the editor, the page (inclusive), and the name and city of the publisher, in that order. For books, give the name of the author, the year of publication in parentheses, the name of the book, and the name and city of the publisher, in that order.
 
(Examples)
Kennedy, M.L., Smith, J.K. and Jones, W.T. (2005): The pharmacokinetics of methylmercury in new-born rats. J. Toxicol. Sci., 30, 126-135.
Steel, J.M. and Whiteny, M.C. (2003): The effect of diethylstilbestrol on the reproductive system in rat offspring. In: Toxicology of Diethylstilbestrol (Walton, W.H., ed.), pp. 551-564, Thomson Press, New York.

3. Category

Select categories (up to five) appropriate to the article, and list them in order of relevance on the first page (title page). When submit a clinical research paper, the authors should select “D15 Clinical Toxicology”.
A1 Drug A5 Toxin A9 Carcinogenic substance
A2 Pesticide A6 Food additive A10 Endocrine disrupter
A3 Metal A7 Food contaminant A11 Nanomaterial
A4 Industrial chemical substance A8 Environmental pollutant A12 Radiation
B1 Central nervous system B5 Sensory system B9 Genital system
B2 Liver B6 Digestive system B10 Embryo
B3 Kidney B7 Respiratory system    
B4 Skin B8 Circulatory system    
C1 General toxicity C5 Behavioral toxicity C9 Drug dependence
C2 Reproductive toxicity C6 Immunotoxicity C10 Cytotoxicity
C3 Genetic toxicity C7 Developmental toxicity C11 Oxidative stress
C4 Carcinogenesis C8 Chemical poisoning C12 Inflammation
D1 Accumulation/Excretion D6 Toxicological pathology D11 Toxicity evaluation method
D2 Kinetics D7 Toxicological biochemistry D12 Analysis
D3 Drug metabolism D8 Molecular toxicology D13 Toxicomics
D4 Mechanism of toxicity D9 Toxicity-related gene D14 Statistics
D5 Biological (cell) response D10 Safety evaluation D15 Clinical Toxicology

4. Copyright

The copyright of articles published in Fundamental Toxicological Sciences belongs to the Japanese Society of Toxicology, and reproduction of each article requires approval by the Editorial Office of the Journal.

5. Articles Including Work on Humans or Animals

All human and animal studies must have been approved by the authors’ institutional review board. All clinical investigation must have been conducted according to Declaration of Helsinki principles.
The Code of Ethics of J. Toxicol. Sci. conforms to "Instruction for Authors" of The Japanese Journal of Clinical Toxicology, and authors are subject to this rule.

6. Conflict of Interest

All authors are requested to disclose any financial conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript.

7. Submission of Manuscripts

Articles should be submitted through the online submission system at https://www.e-kenkyu.com/fts-scied/, but only in the form of a single file of Microsoft Word file or PDF file with the tables and figures included at the end of the paper. Separate files for the manuscript and for the figures will not be accepted. If you are using the system for the first time, you must create an account before you can submit a manuscript.

8. Proof Reading

The author will be required to proof-read the galley of an accepted manuscript. Major changes at this time will no longer be permitted.

9. Executive Editors

Fundamental of Toxicological Sciences has a small number of Executive Editors who are chosen by the Executive Editors' Subcommittee of the Editorial Committee. When an Executive Editor is the corresponding author of a submitted article, or if he recommends it, it will be accepted by the Editorial Board without review. However, the Executive Editor must request that such articles are first read by two specialists belonging to organizations other than his own before sending the article to the Editorial Office. The article published will carry the name of the Executive Editor who submitted or recommended it.

10. Page Charge

The page charge is the total amount of the basic charge, the total number of words, and the total number of figures, tables and references. The corresponding author will be invoiced before publication. Manuscripts are published after receipt of the page charge. To publish the article quickly, the payment must be done by a credit card. If the page charge is not paid within two months after issuance of the invoice, acceptance of the manuscript is canceled.
  Page Charge(excluding tax)
Basic charge
(yen/article)
Number of Wordsa
(yen/word)
Number of Figuresb
(yen/figure)
Number of Tablesb
(yen/table)
Number of Referencesb
(yen/reference)
Original Article 20,000 4 2,500 3,000 150
Letter 30,000 5 2,500 3,000 150
Data Report 30,000 6 2,500 3,000 150
Toxicomics Report 30,000 6 2,500 3,000 150
Review 30,000 5 2,500 3,000 150
Minireview 40,000 5 2,500 3,000 150

aTotal number of words in the text, legends for figures, tables and references in the manuscript.
bTotal number of figures, tables, and references in the manuscript.
*There is no additional charge to publish figures in color.