Submission Guidelines

1. Aims and Scope

Surface Technology primarily focuses on the surface/interface performance of materials and new technologies for surface treatment. It publishes research and review articles in the following fields: friction, wear, and lubrication; corrosion and protection; functional (photo-electromagnetic, biomedical, hydrophobic, biomimetic, etc.) surfaces; precision and ultra-precision machining; laser surface treatment; thermal and cold spraying; surface strengthening (fatigue resistance), etc.

Regular columns: research review; friction, wear and lubrication; corrosion and protection; precision and ultra-precision machining, and surface functionalization. Featured columns: laser surface modification technology, thermal and cold spraying technology, and surface strengthening technology. Please select the appropriate column for your submission.

2. Submission Requirements

The article should be of originality, novelty, scientific rigor, significance, interest, and clarity, with accurate expressions, concise language, a focused emphasis, authentic data, and credible conclusions.

2.1 Titles

The title should be clear and concise, and must accurately reflect the main content of the article, usually not exceeding 20 Chinese characters. The use of symbols, abbreviations, acronyms, and brand names should be avoided whenever possible. All articles must be submitted with an English title that is consistent with the Chinese title.

2.2 Author Information

Please list the authors below the title. The first-listed institution should be the one that holds the intellectual property rights of the research reported. If the author is affiliated with multiple institutions, please list the full names of all institutions involved. Please provide a Chinese-English listing of the first author and corresponding author, including their names, year of birth, education background, professional title, position, and research field.

Special note: Please list the authors with affiliations in the submission system. Please do not mention the author's name or affiliation in the uploaded Word document to facilitate blind review.  

2.3 Abstract and Key Words

1) Abstract. Please provide a Chinese-English abstract, with the Chinese abstract containing no fewer than 400 Chinese characters and the English abstract with at least 500 words. For research articles, the Chinese abstract should be constructed into four sections: Objective, Method, Result, and Conclusion. Please elaborate the research content and list key data. The Objective statement must not repeat the article title, but should clarify the research objective rather than merely restating the research content. For English abstracts, please adopt the past tense to describe the research and the present tense to draw conclusions.

2) Key words. Please provide 5 to 8 keywords which can be used for indexing purposes under the abstract.

2.4 Text

The text should be of appropriate length, with no less than 3,500 Chinese characters for research articles and 5,000 Chinese characters for review articles.

A research article should include the following information: Introduction, Experimental Methods, Results and Discussion, and Conclusion. Requirements: clear argument (well-defined viewpoints supporting the thesis); conclusive evidence (accurate experiment and test data, figures, and tables); thorough analysis (detailed yet concise discussion, results interpretation, and mechanism exploration); and complete conclusion.

1) Introduction

The Introduction should clearly describe the theoretical basis and background of the research (i.e., the rationale for conducting the research), summarize its current domestic and international research status, present the expected outcomes, cite directly relevant references, and highlight the novelty and innovation of the research. The Introduction should be clear and concise, and free of the data and conclusions of the article (not repeated with the abstract). 

2) Experiment Statement

The Experiment Statement should be clearly distinguished from the Experiment Report. In principle, instruments and drugs need not to be listed as a separate section but should be adequately described during the experimental process. The basic research process should be detailed with proper literature citations. Please ensure the research reliability and enable the readers to verify the experiments based on the provided information.

3) Results and Discussion

Results and Discussion should present the observed results in the text and figures/tables in a logical sequence, following the principle of "text first, then figures and tables". The figures/tables should not span across sections. There should be neither repeated data between figures and tables, nor repeated figure/table data in the text. Images must be clear with a resolution no lower than 300 dpi. Please number the figures and tables consecutively based on their order in the text. Figure/table captions should be concise (no detailing experimental conditions) and provided in both Chinese and English. Coordinate graphs must include axis labels (indicating the physical meaning of values) and units (using the International System of Units). Photographs should include a scale bar. If figures or tables are quoted from other publications, please indicate their sources and provide a written permission from the copyright holder.

All terminologies in the text should be subject to the official terms approved by the China National Committee for Terminology in Science and Technology. Terms in Chinese or foreign languages should be used in full names, with abbreviations enclosed in parentheses upon their first appearance.

Please use legal measurement units. For percentage concentrations, please specify the specific type (e.g., mass fraction, molar fraction, volume fraction).

4) Conclusion

The Conclusion should mainly include the innovative and significant findings of the research, existing limitations, and conclusions drawn from the experimental results---without repeating data or materials already covered in the Introduction or the Results. While discussing the potential impacts of the findings and their significance for future research, please note that all interpretations should be grounded in the research results.

2.5 Fund Information

If the research program in which the article is involved is funded by a grant, please indicate the name and number of the fund in both Chinese and English.

2.6 References

Please list recently published journal articles or books that the authors have personally reviewed according to the numeric references method in the sequential order of appearance in the text, with superscript numerals in brackets. In general, review articles require a minimum of 50 references, while research articles require at least 25 references at the end of the article in citation order. The Editorial Department reserves the right to modify or supplement references that are deemed inappropriate or insufficient. Chinese references should include the English title in the original text. Please pay attention to reference accuracy. References should adopt the following formats:

(1) Journal: [Number] Author(s). Title of Literature [J]. Journal Name, Year, Volume (Issue): Start Page - End Page.

(2) Monograph: [Number] Author(s). Title of Literature [M]. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication: Start Page-End Page.

(3) Dissertation: [Number] Author(s). Title of Literature [D]. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication: Start Page-End Page.

(4) Conference Proceedings: [Number] Author(s). Title of the Paper[C]//Title of the Proceedings. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication: Start Page-End Page.

(5) Patent: [Number] Patent Holder(s). Patent Title: Patent Country, Patent Number[P]. Date of Publication or Announcement (Year-Month-Day).

(6) Standard: [Number] Standard Number, Standard Name [S].

(7) Online Document: [Number] Author(s). Title of Electronic Document [Electronic Document and Carrier Type Identifier]. Source or Retrieval Address, Publication or Update Date/Reference Date (optional) of Online Document .

If there are no more than 3 authors, please list all the authors and separate them with commas. If there are more than 4 authors, list the first 3 followed by "et al.". For the format of author names in English literature, surname should come first, followed by given name. The names of journals in the references should be written in their full standard names.

3. Processing of Submissions

Steps for processing of submissions: Submission → Internal Review → Peer Review → Final Review. All manuscripts should be submitted online; and offline submissions will not be accepted.

The authors may submit manuscripts after registering an account on our website www.surface-techj.com. The submission status can be monitored online post-login. Before submission, the authors should read the “Submission Guidelines” carefully. By submitting an article, the authors automatically acknowledge that they have read, understood, and agreed to comply with these guidelines. When submitting an article, the authors must make sure to fill in all information on the article and authors accurately and completely, so as not to affect the submission.

A double-blind peer review process is adopted for this journal. All submissions, including featured articles, special issues, editor-in-chief invited contributions, editor-invited papers, and free submissions will be reviewed by two or more experts. For detailed submission processing procedures and timelines, please refer to the Appendix: Submission Processing Procedures and Timelines of Surface Technology at the end of these guidelines. 

4. Confidentiality

(1) Authors must ensure that the article does not contain any state secrets, corporate trade secrets, technical secrets, or politically sensitive information. The fund program supporting the article must not be a classified research project (or topic). The names of the authors’ affiliations must be publicly identifiable; otherwise the authors should be solely responsible.

(2) When submitting an article, please include a non-classified certificate issued by the confidentiality department of the first copyright-affiliated institution (please download the template from the left Download Zone of this journal’s official website, complete the required information, and then stamp it with the official seal of the first institution. Note: The filled-in content, signature, and date must be either entirely handwritten or entirely printed. A secondary department seal may be used. Please upload a scanned PDF version with the seal and signature clearly visible and compliant with regulations.

5. Transfer of Copyright

Before submission, the authors should carefully read the "Agreement on Transfer of Article Copyright" (available for download in the Download Zone) of this journal. By submitting the manuscript, authors are deemed to have acknowledged the aforementioned agreement and agreed to transfer the following rights worldwide to the journal: ?Modification, ?Reproduction, ?Distribution, ?Information Network Dissemination, ?Translation and ?Compilation.

Upon receiving the acceptance notice, the authors are required to promptly submit an "Agreement on Transfer of Article Copyright" signed by all contributing authors. This journal will proceed with publication-related arrangements upon receipt of the agreement.

6. Cost of Publication

After the article passes internal review, this journal will charge a review fee at RMB 200 per article. For articles finalized for publication, this journal will charge a publication service fee at the rate of RMB 600 per 1,000 Chinese characters, with a maximum of RMB 5,100.

For articles that have been published, appropriate remuneration will be paid in a suitable manner. 

7. Appeal

If an author disagrees with the review decision, he/she may submit an appeal to the Editorial Department with detailed reasons for disputing the review decision.

After receiving the appeal, the Editorial Department will organize specially-assigned persons for verification. Once the appeal is confirmed to be reasonable, review arbitration will be arranged as soon as possible.

8. Publication Date

Surface Technology is a semimonthly publication. The electronic version of each issue's articles is finalized on the 10th and 25th days of every month and then submitted to each database for processing and printing.

The time when the authors can retrieve their articles in the databases depends on the processing progress of each database, which is usually 4 to 8 weeks.

9. Accessibility

The authors will receive complimentary print publications in the month following the publication, with a standard allocation of 2 copies of each issue/article. In addition, the authors may obtain print publications of this journal through subscription. For subscription details, please refer to the "Subscription" section on this journal's website.

All authors can have access to the full text of articles published in this journal for free on the following platforms: this journal's website, VIP, Wanfang Data Knowledge Service Platform and CNKI.

For any other special circumstances, please contact the Publishing Department. For contact details, please refer to the "Contact Us" section of this journal's website.

10. Archiving

Surface Technology archives both print and electronic data from the past 10 years.

Appendix:

Submission Processing Procedures and Timelines of Surface Technology (After paying the review fee and page charge, please register the relevant information on this journal's official website in a timely manner!)