After choosing the right journal for your research, the next step on your journey to publication is to prepare your paper for submission. Managing this step in the publishing process can be difficult if you are not aware of what editors expect to see on receipt of your submission. Familiarising yourself with expectations and formal requirements ensures that publication of your research paper is not delayed or unsuccessful.   

In this article, we will walk you through what you need to submit a research paper for publication, including supporting documentation and statement requirements you are expected to provide.

What do editors check for in a submission?

Although journal submission requirements differ between journals and disciplines, editors do check that certain information has been provided within or alongside the research manuscript.   

Here is a useful checklist for preparing your paper for submission: 

• Front matter: Title, Author list, Affiliations, Abstract, Keywords. 

• Research manuscript sections: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion (optional). 

• Back matter: Supplementary Materials, Author Contributions, Funding, Data Availability Statement, Acknowledgments, Conflicts of Interest, References. 

The contents of your research paper must also be formatted appropriately. Scholarly journals have specific expectations around manuscript formatting. Therefore, you need to familiarise yourself with the formatting guidelines for your target journal. 

Many journals offer templates that you can download for free and utilise. You can download the MDPI Article template here, allowing you to easily prepare your paper in the format suitable for MDPI journals. 

Preparing the front matter

The information found on the title page of a research article is also known as the front matter. This includes your article title, author list and affiliations, abstract, and keywords.

Title

Your title should be concise and specific to your topic. It should also identify if the study reports (human or animal) trial data, or is a systematic review, meta-analysis, or replication study.

Author list and affiliations 

Authors’ full first and last names must be provided. For submission to MDPI journals, the PubMed/MEDLINE standard format is used for affiliations, which consists of complete address information including city, zip code, state/province, and country. 

At least one author should be designated as the corresponding author. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to ensure that consent for the display of email addresses is obtained from all authors. For more information, see our article on who the corresponding author is, which explains the key responsibilities of the role.  

Authors who have contributed equally should be identified and are typically done so with the statement: “These authors contributed equally to this work.” 

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools and other large language models (LLMs) cannot be listed as an author as they do not qualify for authorship. See MDPI’s article on authorship guidance for further information.

Abstract 

Abstracts provide editors with a concise overview of your study and should therefore be about 200 words maximum. The abstract should be a single paragraph and should follow the style of structured abstracts, but without headings. 

For more information, see our article on how to write an abstract.  

Written abstracts can also be turned into graphical abstracts that can effectively communicate your findings in striking visuals and are increasingly important in scientific publishing.

Keywords 

Three to ten pertinent keywords need to be added after the abstract. It is recommended that you select keywords specific to your article, yet reasonably common within your subject discipline.  

For more guidance, see our article on how to choose keywords for your research paper.

Preparing the research manuscript sections 

The structure of your manuscript is crucial for clearly organising your argument and providing a mental roadmap for editors to follow when assessing the content of your scientific paper.  

The IMRaD structure (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion) is the global standard for organising scientific papers. The contents of each of these manuscript sections will of course vary depending on your topic, but the IMRaD structure typically follows this narrative:  

1. Place the question addressed in a broad context and highlight the purpose of the study (Introduction); 
2. Briefly describe the main methods or treatments applied (Methods);
3. Summarise the article’s main findings (Results);
4. Consider the implications of your main conclusions or interpretations (Discussion/Conclusion). 

For more information on structure, see our article on how to organise each section of your research paper.

Preparing the back matter 

The information that goes at the end of your research paper, or that functions as supplementary material, comprises the back matter. This includes author contributions, funding sources, data availability, acknowledgments, conflicts of interest, and references.

Supplementary material 

Any supplementary material that is published alongside your manuscript to provide extra information or context should be described. This includes figures and tables, videos, spreadsheets, etc.

Author contributions 

Your author contributions statement is for identifying who did what in your study. Authors must be identified for the following contributions: 

• Conception or design; 

• Acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; 

• Creation of new software used in the work; 

• Drafting or substantial revising of work. 

You can refer to the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT) for further clarification on author contributions.  

For research articles with several authors, a short paragraph specifying their individual contributions must be provided.

Funding 

All sources of funding used to complete your study need to be disclosed. To do so, write “This research was funded by [name of funder], grant number [xxx]”. If no funding was received, “This research received no external funding”.

Data availability 

You must provide details of where to find data that supports your study results, including links to publicly archived datasets analysed or generated during the study.  

Acknowledgements 

In this section you can acknowledge any support given which does not fall under the author contribution or funding sections. This may include administrative and technical support, or donations (e.g., experiment materials). 

Conflicts of interest 

Conflicts of interest are any personal circumstances or interest that may be perceived as influencing the representation or interpretation of reported research results. Authors must identify and declare these in advance of submission. If there is no conflict of interest, please state “The authors declare no conflict of interest.”  

References  

References must be numbered in order of appearance in the text (including table captions and figure legends) and listed individually at the end of the manuscript. Bibliography software such as EndNote, ReferenceManager, or Zotero can help you avoid typing and duplication errors during referencing.  

Submission help with MDPI Author Services 

Preparing a paper for submission can be time-consuming and difficult to get right considering the numerous expectations and requirements. This is where professional editing services can help. 

At MDPI Author Services, we specialise in helping researchers prepare their paper for submission and publication. Our Academic Editing Service provides four rounds of editing carried out by PhD specialist editors. This service includes a review of structure, terminology, a technical review report, and free layout editing. Click here for a free quote.   

Subscribe to the Author Services Newsletter for tips, discounts, and updates.