Editorial Policy

Radiation Environment and Medicine (REM) is published by Hirosaki University Press. The Editorial Board is responsible for the content and other editorial matters related to the Journal. The submitted manuscripts are initially screened for their suitability by our Reviewing Editors and those that appear appropriate for publication in REM are sent to an expert reviewer for evaluation, and may be sent to another reviewer for a second review. It is our intention to reach a decision on the disposition of a paper on the basis of no more than two rounds of reviewing. Only for exceptional situations will an additional review be undertaken. Such extended reviews are time-consuming, and should not be used as a mechanism to change an otherwise unacceptable manuscript into an acceptable publication. 

The authors may appeal the Editor’s decision to reject a manuscript by making a request to the Editor. The Managers will not make direct decisions whether or not a paper should be accepted for publication, but rather will assess whether procedures were followed properly. Additional rounds of review or adjudication would only be called for if proper procedures were not followed. 

The mission of REM is to offer prompt publication of experimental and theoretical reports on significant findings in those studies. To be acceptable for publication in REM, the submission should be original and interesting to the field of REM. 

Because of their redundancy, if the findings are not new or novel, they should not be submitted to REM. The reviewer’s question is important; Is the paper especially important, interesting, and timely enough to warrant rapid publication in Radiation Environment and Medicine? A fraction of papers, which report new results but in a mature field, do not fulfill the condition of timeliness required by REM, and should be submitted for consideration as a Communication elsewhere.    

Manuscripts must be written in correct English. This is the responsibility of not the editors, but the authors. Papers that are judged to be below the standards for REM will be returned to the authors for rewriting and can be rejected for the language reason alone. The manuscript should be edited by a native English speaker with sufficient scientific knowledge or a professional editing service before the initial submission.

“Instructions for Authors” is published in the issue of ever y volume, twice a year, and is also posted on the Journal’s website. Rapid changes in publication technology require that authors follow the instructions for preparation of figures with particular care.

REM requires that copyright will be assigned to Hirosaki University. It is a tradition of standing that submission to REM implies that the work has neither been copyrighted, nor accepted for publication elsewhere. Since copyright transfer is required before publication. REM also requires authors to inform the editors if a paper has been previously submitted to another journal, whether or not it is currently active with that journal.