Before Submitting

Please read these guidelines fully and carefully before submitting.

All manuscripts should be submitted through the Advanced Imaging ScholarOne online system (https://mc03.manuscriptcentral.com/clp-ai). You will need to create an account before you submit, unless you already have a ScholarOne account for other CLP journals, including Advanced Photonics, Advanced Photonics Nexus, Chinese Optics Letters, and High Power Laser Science and Engineering.

When completing the online submission form, please follow these guidelines:

Submission Method:

1. Note that if you are uploading an EndNote manuscript via the system, sections of the submission form will be populated automatically.

2. Manuscript Information:

• The Title & Abstract should match your uploaded manuscript. You may use the “Special Characters” function to insert a special character.
• Enter three to six keywords for the submission. Select one subject from the existing list.
• The Cover Letter can be entered directly into the system or uploaded as a separate file in .docx or .pdf format. Novelty and Impact Statement are also required to be uploaded to the system as separate file.

3. Authors:

• All the authors’ names, institutions, and email addresses should be added. Only one author can be selected as the corresponding author.
• Use the function “Find using Author’s email address” when adding a co-author. If no co-author is found, please click “create a new co-author” to add the information for this author yourself.

4. Please view the PDF and HTML proof before submitting.

5. Please note that all items marked with an asterisk (*) in the submission form are required.

Note: The total combined limit for submission files is ~100 MB.

Publication Policies

The following requirements will permit you to determine if you can submit a paper to Advanced Imaging.

Significance:

Contributions should be substantial and significant in content. We may decline to publish papers that report only incremental progress. Although a paper may be correct and appropriate for Advanced Imaging, if it does not demonstrate, in the estimation of the reviewers and editors, sufficient new and important information to warrant publication, or provide a comprehensive review of the current state of the art, it will be declined. Manuscripts that are commercial in nature will not be considered.

Originality:

Papers should describe the original work of the authors that has not been previously published in a refereed journal and is not currently under consideration for publication in another refereed journal. Advanced Imaging does not allow or sanction duplicate or concurrent submissions of a paper to more than one peer-reviewed journal. Papers should not report work that the author has already published in another refereed journal. Any copying of text, figures, data, or results of other authors without giving credit is defined as plagiarism and is a breach of professional ethics. Such papers will be rejected and other penalties may be assessed.

Guidelines for Ethical Publishing

The purpose of these guidelines is to present ethical guidelines for authors, editors, and reviewers to abide by when submitting to or editing/reviewing for Advanced Imaging.

Authors are expected to read the Ethics prior to submission.

Authorship

Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the concept, design, execution or interpretation of the research study. All those who have made significant contributions should be offered the opportunity to be listed as authors. Other individuals who have contributed to the study should be acknowledged, but not identified as authors. The sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.

All collaborators share some degree of responsibility for any paper they coauthor. Some coauthors have responsibility for the entire paper as an accurate, verifiable, report of the research. These include, for example, coauthors who are accountable for the integrity of the critical data reported in the paper, carry out the analysis, write the manuscript, present major findings at conferences, or provide scientific leadership for junior colleagues.

Coauthors who make specific, limited, contributions to a paper are responsible for them, but may have only limited responsibility for other results. While not all coauthors may be familiar with all aspects of the research presented in their paper, all collaborations should have in place an appropriate process for reviewing and ensuring the accuracy and validity of the reported results, and all coauthors should be aware of this process.

Every coauthor should have the opportunity to review the manuscript before its submission. All coauthors have an obligation to provide prompt retractions or correction of errors in published works. Any individual unwilling or unable to accept appropriate responsibility for a paper should not be a coauthor.

Because authorship attribution requires accountability for the submitted work, Advanced Imaging does not allow ChatGPT and other Large Language Models (LLMs) to be listed as an author on a manuscript. If authors use AI tools when writing a manuscript, it should be disclosed along with all other tools used in the study in the Materials and Methods section of the paper. This section should describe which AI tool was used and how it was used.

Collaborations are expected to have a process to archive and verify the research record; to facilitate internal communication and allow all authors to be fully aware of the entire work; and respond to questions concerning the joint work and enable other responsible scientists to share the data. All members of a collaboration should be familiar with, and understand, the process.

Plagiarism Screening

Advanced Imaging defines plagiarism as the reuse of someone else's prior ideas, processes, results, or words without explicit attribution of the original author and source. Unauthorized use of another researcher’s unpublished data or findings without permission is considered to be a form of plagiarism even if the source is attributed. Advanced Imaging considers plagiarism in any form, at any level, to be unacceptable and a serious breach of professional conduct.

Advanced Imaging uses the Crossref Similarity Check plagiarism screening service to detect instances of overlapping and similar text in submitted manuscripts.

Use of Human Subjects and Animals

All authors are expected to observe internationally accepted principles and practices related to the ethical conduct of research involving the use of human subjects or animals. A brief statement must be included in the manuscript identifying the institutional oversight or licensing body that approved the studies. For studies involving human subjects, a statement must also be included confirming that informed consent was either obtained from all subjects or this requirement was waived by the oversight body.

Authors must obtain written permission from the subject (or parent/guardian, if the subject is a minor child) to publish a photograph with an identifiable human face. Such photographs should be used only when scientifically relevant.

Preparing a Manuscript

Overview

Manuscripts should be submitted in English, and the presentation should be as succinct as comprehension will permit. Manuscripts are reviewed and refereed. Those accepted for publication are edited for conformance to the journal's style.

Cover Letter

Authors are required to include a separate cover letter with their submission explaining the significance and novelty of the work, the problem that is being addressed, and why the manuscript belongs in this journal.

Manuscript Templates

To make your initial submission process as easy as possible, as well as to make it easier for the editors and referees to review your manuscript, for the initial submission we only require a single document containing the manuscript and figures, along with any supporting multimedia files. The document may be in MS Word, LaTeX, or PDF. The figures and their captions should be placed within the manuscript, near the first mention each figure in the text. Upon acceptance, authors will be asked to submit individual figure files and a properly formatted manuscript for use in production.

Microsoft Word

A Microsoft Word template (.docx) is available to assist you with formatting. Use MathType for equations. Or, if using MS Word 2007 or later, the native equation editor can be used, but the document must be saved as .docx. Backsaving to .doc format will convert all equations to low-resolution graphics, which cannot be used for typesetting. Please note that all accepted papers are professionally typeset; the template is intended only as a guideline for author convenience, and it is not necessary to rigidly adhere to the format.

LaTeX: A LaTeX template (.zip) is available to assist you with formatting, LaTeX submissions should include the manuscript, a locally compiled PDF, the bibliography, all referenced style files (such as .cls, .bst, .sty, etc.), and all figures and tables. Please note that all accepted papers are professionally typeset; the template is intended only as a guideline for author convenience, and it is not necessary to rigidly adhere to the format.

Manuscript types

• Research articles present original, technically robust, scientifically rigorous, and highly significant research in the fields of computational imaging and imaging devices.

• Review articles aim to be comprehensive, critical, and readable reviews of general interest to the optics community (not simply a summary of the author’s own research). They also intend to address the growing demand for educating the next generation of optics scientists. We aim to include one review article in each issue. Potential authors are encouraged to contact the Co-Editors-in-Chief with proposals.

• Commentaries (by invitation only) are description of options on a topic of general interest to the readers of Advanced Imaging. They may be linked to articles in Advanced Imaging or they may focus on papers of significance that are published in other journals. Commentaries will not peer-reviewed. Potential authors are encouraged to contact the Co-Editors-in-Chief with proposals.

• Perspectives (by invitation only) are forward-looking articles designed to enlighten the broad imaging information community about near- and long-term developments in a specific topic. In addition to emphasizing the importance of recent findings and their potential implications, they also shed light on the challenges and opportunities for scientific, technological, and engineering collaborations that can help overcome key obstacles.

• Letters: A short technical communication of significant interest intended for publication in the Letters section of the journal. The manuscript length should not exceed five published journal pages. This corresponds to approximately 5000 words; however, the inclusion of figures will necessitate a reduction in the word count. 

Parts of a Manuscript

Title

The title of your paper should be descriptive and concise.

• Titles should not begin with the articles A, An, or The.
• Avoid use of the words "new" or "novel" in the title.
• Acronyms should be spelled out.

Authors and Affiliations

Provide full author names, including given name and family name. These names will be used in official databases and indexes. Initials are not allowed for the given name. Provide full affiliations, including institution, department, street address, city, postal code, and country. An email address should be provided for the corresponding author, and this person should be noted with a footnote.

Abstract

The abstract should be a summary of the paper and not an introduction (200 words maximum). Because the abstract may be used in abstracting journals, it should be self-contained (i.e., no numerical references) and substantive in nature, presenting concisely the objectives, methodology used, results obtained, and their significance. For further guidelines, please read the brief article titled " How to Write an Abstract," Leaving site by Philip Koopman (Carnegie Mellon University). Abstracts should not make claims of novelty, as publication implies novelty.

Plain-Language Summary

You have the option to include a short summary of your research (200 words maximum) and its potential applications. This research summary may be used by the journal for promotion of significant work. Nonspecialist readers of the summary should be able to understand the language used and the significance of the research. The summary should provide an accurate description of the importance of the research without overstating the potential impact of the paper.

Subject terms or keywords

Keywords are required. Please provide 3-6 keywords related to your paper.

Text

Type manuscript in a single column, using a readable font size (for example, 12-point type). Please add page numbers. Note the following style points:

1. The standard order of sections for research papers is Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions.
2. Journal style does not permit use of bold and italic font for emphasis; these styles should be reserved for formatting math.
3. Words should be spelled using American English.
4. Spell out all abbreviations and acronyms at first use.
5. Metric units should be used unless to do so is not feasible or would result in a serious loss of clarity.
6. Footnotes are not allowed for the main body of the text.

Equations

Create equations using MathType or Equation Editor 3.0. If using Word 2007 or later, the native equation editor can be used, but the document must be saved as .docx. When equations built with Microsoft's Editor are back-saved to the .doc format, they are converted to low-resolution graphics and will not be usable for composition. To use MathType or the old Equation Editor 3.0, you will need to select Object on the Text section of the Insert tab and then select MathType/Equation Editor in the drop-down menu. Variables should be written in italic font.

Biographies

Biographies of authors are published with each paper. Manuscripts should include a brief professional biography not to exceed 75 words.

Appendices

Any figures, tables, or equations in appendices should continue the numbering sequence established in the body of the paper. Appendices may not be consist of only tables and figures; they must also include explanatory text and captions.

Disclosures

Conflicts of interest should be declared under a "Disclosures" header. If the authors have no competing interests to declare, then a statement should be included declaring no conflicts of interest. For assistance generating a disclosure statement, see the form available from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors website: http://www.icmje.org/conflicts-of-interest/.

Code, Data, and Materials Availability

In support of open scientific exchange, Advanced Imaging require Data and Code Availability Statements in all accepted papers under the heading “Code, Data, and Materials Availability,” which should follow the Disclosures section. These statements should provide access information regarding the computer code, data, and materials that would be required to replicate or interpret the findings reported in the paper. Examples of materials may include cell lines, devices unique to the lab, or any purchased materials critical to the results reported in the paper. See the section below about Code, Data, and Materials for more information about what to include in this section.

Acknowledgments/Funding Sources

Use this section to identify people who have aided the authors in accomplishing the work presented and to acknowledge sources of funding. Include grant numbers and the full name of the funding body. Funding information will be deposited to FundRefLeaving site.

References

The purpose of a reference is to make the source easy for the reader to locate. To this end, each reference should provide as much information as is available. The basic elements of a reference include author names (including first initials), article/chapter title, journal or book title, volume number, issue number, page range, and year of publication. References are professionally copyedited on accepted manuscripts to conform to journal style, and authors do not need to spend a lot of time adapting references to the journal's reference format, so long as all of the required information is present.

References to published literature should be listed at the end of the manuscript and numbered consecutively in the order of their citation in the text. In-text citations can use superscript or bracketed reference numbers. Private communications or unpublished reports should be treated as references. Click here for sample book, journal, and Internet references. For references with three or fewer authors, list all authors. For references with four or more authors, list the first author only followed by "et al."

Artwork Preparation

For peer review, manuscripts should be submitted with the figures/tables and their captions incorporated into the same file as the manuscript text. However, upon first revision or acceptance, authors will be asked to submit individual figure files and a properly formatted manuscript for use in production. The total combined limit for submission files is ~100 MB.

General Figure Guidelines: Figures must be submitted in EPS, TIFF, PNG, or PDF format for publication. We cannot accept application files, i.e., Corel Draw, Microsoft Word, etc. Number all figures in the order that they appear in the text. All figure parts/panels must be labeled (a), (b), etc. Submit high-resolution figures. The quality of the published figure is only as good as the original file—it cannot be improved by the typesetter.

Advanced Imaging strongly discourages the use of the Lena (Lenna) image. Authors are advised to use other suitable images to illustrate and compare image processing algorithms. Authors who submit new manuscripts containing the Lena image will be asked to replace the image with a substitute image if they cannot provide a convincing scientific justification for its use.

Figure Permissions: If the figure is derived from a previously published image, the author must obtain permission from the original copyright holder, who may be the publisher and/or the author. Once permission is granted, the figure caption should include the line "Reproduced with permission, courtesy of [copyright owner]," or the publisher's required copyright statement. Many permissions can be obtained via the Copyright Clearance Center

Figure Requirements:

Tables

Tables should be built in Word, Excel (embedded in Word), or LaTeX. They should not contain graphics. Tables containing images must be numbered as figures. Colored fonts will not appear in the typeset version, so bold and italic should be used for emphasis instead. Explain use of bold or italic in the caption or table footnote. Do not use shading. Very large tables may be vertically oriented, or they may span multiple typeset pages. A caption must be included with the table.

Video

Research articles, letters, and reviews may include video. Acceptable file formats, including MOV, MPG, and MP4, are playable using standard media players, such as VLC or Windows Media Player.

The video should be mentioned according to the following naming/numbering convention: Video 1, Video 2, etc. If videos are included as part of an existing figure, they should be described and identified within the figure caption. The file type and size should be included in parentheses at the end of the caption, e.g., (Video 1, MPEG, 2.5 MB).

Fig. 1 Confocal microscopic images of red blood cells in (a) an isotonic buffer (Video 1) and (b) a hypertonic buffer (Video 2) in three different viewing projections (Video 1, MPEG, 3.1 MB; Video 2, MPEG, 4.2 MB).

Authors are encouraged to provide a representative still image for any stand-alone video. The image should be treated as a figure, numbered in sequence, and submitted in one of the accepted figure file formats. A caption describing the content of the video file is required, similar to a typical figure caption. For example:

Fig. 4 Photodynamic therapy response of the targeted region (MP4, 5 MB).

Supplemental Information

Authors may submit supplementary material supporting original research. Please indicate whether the supplementary material is intended for publication.

If intended for publication, supplementary material such as notes, figures, and tables should be compiled by the author into a single “Supplementary Material” PDF file to be linked to the parent article upon publication (e.g., doi 10.3788/AI.2024.10001).

Any references cited in the supplementary material must be included in the full list of references in the main article; if any references are not cited in the main text, they should be listed in order at the end of the main reference list.

Countable supplementary items mentioned in the primary text should be numbered sequentially with an uppercase S to identify them as supplementary, i.e. Figure S1, Figure S2, etc.

All supplementary material submitted will be assessed for appropriateness and value. The journal editor has final authority to decide whether supplementary material should be published with the article. Authors are responsible for ensuring that any supplemental materials they submit are not subject to any prior copyright.