Title

Concise and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.

Authors and affiliations

Please clearly indicate the given name(s) and family name(s) of each author and check that all names are accurately spelled. Present the authors' affiliation addresses below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a superscript Arabic numeral immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address. Each affiliation should include department, institution, and complete address, with the ZIP/postal code.

For example: Yu-Gang Ma^1,2

¹Key Laboratory of Nuclear Physics and Ion-beam Application (MOE), Institute of Modern Physics, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China

²Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China

Corresponding author

Clearly indicate who will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication. This responsibility includes answering any future queries about Methodology and Materials. Corresponding author(s) should be identified with an asterisk. Ensure that the e-mail address is given and that contact details are kept up to date by the corresponding author.

Abstract

A concise and factual abstract is required. The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results and major conclusions. An abstract is often presented separately from the article, so it must be able to stand alone. For this reason, references should be avoided, but if essential, then cite the author(s) and year(s). Also, non-standard or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined at their first mention in the abstract itself.

Keywords

Immediately after the abstract, provide three to six keywords, using American spelling and avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, 'and', 'of').

Introduction

State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results.

Material and methods

Provide sufficient details to allow the work to be reproduced by an independent researcher. Methods that are already published should be summarized, and indicated by a reference. If quoting directly from a previously published method, use quotation marks and also cite the source. Any modifications to existing methods should also be described.

Results and discussion

Results should be clear and concise. Discussion should explore the significance of the results of the work, not repeat them. A combined Results and Discussion section is often appropriate. Avoid extensive citations and discussion of published literature.

Conclusion

A conclusion section should be provided in instances where the key elements of the results and discussion may require amplification or clarification. This section should not simply restate the Abstract.

Acknowledgements

List acknowledgements in a separate section at the end of the article before the references. Do not include thanks to anonymous referees or editors, or effusive comments.

Funding

List funding sources in this standard way to facilitate compliance to funder's requirements. When funding is from a block grant or other resources available to a university, college, or other research institution, submit the name of the institute or organization that provided the funding.

For example: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. xxxx), the 973 National Major State Basic Research and Development of China (No. xxxx), and the Development Program of China (No. xxxx).

Units

Follow internationally accepted rules and conventions: use the International System of Units (SI units).

Math formulae

Please submit math equations as editable text and not as images. Number equations consecutively with equation numbers in parentheses flush with the right margin, as in (1). Be sure that the symbols in your equation have been defined before the equation appears or immediately following.

For example: If volume V and temperature T are known, the ideal gas law can be used to get a reasonable approximation for the pressure of a gas as P = nRT/V, where n is the number of moles of gas and R is the gas constant.

Physical quantities

Physical quantities have both numbers and units, and each physical quantity should be expressed as the product of a number and a unit. Typesetting physical quantities requires care to ensure that the combined mathematical meaning of the number–unit combination is clear. In particular, the SI units system lays down a consistent set of units with rules on how these are to be used. The overall rule is that symbols representing physical quantities (or variables) are italic, but symbols representing units, or labels, are roman. Sometimes there may seem to be doubt as to whether a symbol represents a quantity or has some other meaning (such as a label): a good general rule is that quantities, or variables, can be given a value, but labels cannot. Vectors and matrices are usually denoted using a bold-face (heavy) font, but they should still be italic since they are still quantities.

Figure

Graphs should be self-explanatory, their purpose evident without reference to the text. Relevant nongraphic material, such as the key to the symbolism in the graph, may be included within the confines of the graph frame if it will fit without crowding; otherwise put the explanatory material in the caption.

General points

• Provide images in .tiff or .jpg format at 300 dpi or higher resolution.

• Preferred fonts: Arial (or Helvetica), Times New Roman (or Times), Symbol, Courier.

• Make sure you use uniform lettering and sizing of your original artwork.

• Figures are best prepared at the size you would expect them to appear in print. At this size, the optimum font size is 7pt.

• Text should be placed in the caption, not on the figure.

• Number the illustrations according to their sequence in the text.

Formats

Regardless of the application used, when your electronic artwork is finalized, please 'save as' or convert the images to one of the following formats (note the resolution requirements for line drawings, halftones, and line/halftone combinations given below):

EPS (or PDF): Vector drawings. Embed the font or save the text as 'graphics'.

TIFF (or JPG): Color or grayscale photographs (halftones): always use a minimum of 300 dpi.

Compound figure

When you have multiple graphs, or graphs and others illustrative materials that are interrelated, it may be most efficient to present them as a compound figure. Compound figures combine multiple graphs into one common figure and share a common legend. The legend of the compound figure must also identify each graph and the data it presents by letter.

Figure captions

Ensure that each illustration has a caption. A caption should comprise a brief title (not on the figure itself) and a description of the illustration. Keep text in the illustrations themselves to a minimum but explain all symbols and abbreviations used.

Tables

Please submit tables as editable text and not as images. Tables should be placed next to the relevant text in the article. Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text and place any table notes below the table body. Be sparing in the use of tables and ensure that the data presented in them do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article. Please avoid using vertical rules and shading in table cells.

References

Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). Number the references (numbers in square brackets) in the list in the order in which they appear in the text. Any references cited in the abstract must be given in full. Unpublished results and personal communications are not recommended in the reference list, but may be mentioned in the text. If these references are included in the reference list they should follow the standard reference style of the journal and should include a substitution of the publication date with either 'Unpublished results' or 'Personal communication'. Citation of a reference as 'in press' implies that the item has been accepted for publication.

Web References

As a minimum, the full URL should be given and the date when the reference was last accessed. Any further information, if known (DOI, author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be given.

Reference formatting

References can be in any style or format as long as the style is consistent. Where applicable, author(s) name(s), journal title/ book title, chapter title/article title, year of publication, volume number/book chapter and the article number or pagination must be present. Use of DOI is highly encouraged. The reference style used by the journal will be applied to the accepted article by Elsevier at the proof stage. Note that missing data will be highlighted at proof stage for the author to correct. If you do wish to format the references yourself they should be arranged according to the following examples:

Reference style

Reference style should be consistent. Where applicable, author(s) name(s), article title, journal title/book title, volume number/book chapter, the article number or pagination, and year of publication must be present. Use of DOI is highly encouraged. If there are more than three authors, please list the first three authors followed by the phrase et al in place of the other authors' names. The last name should come after the first and middle names. Most journal names in the list of references should be abbreviated, and the authors can find the commonlyused journal name abbreviation from Journal Title Abbreviations.

 

Examples:

Reference to a journal publication:

[1]M. Yu, K.J. Duan, S.S. Wang et al., A nuclear density probe: isobaric yield ratio difference. Nucl. Sci. Tech. 26, S20503 (2015). https://doi.org/10.13538/j.1001-8042/nst.26.S20503

[2] X.G. Deng, Y.G. Ma, Electromagnetic field effects on nucleon transverse momentum for heavy ion collisions around 100 A MeV. Nucl. Sci. Tech. 28, 182 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41365-017-0337-1

[3] W.B. He, X.G. Cao, Y.G. Ma et al., Application of EQMD model to researches of nuclear exotic structures. Nucl. Tech. 37, 100511 (2014). https://doi.org/10.11889/j.0253-3219.2014.hjs.37.100511 (in Chinese)

Reference to a book:

[4] H. Ibach, H. Lüth, Solid-State Physics, 2nd edn. (Springer, New York, 1996), pp. 45–56

[5] D.M. Abrams, in Conductive Polymers, ed. by R.S. Seymour, A. Smith (Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, 1973), p. 307

[6] R.S. Seymour (ed.), Conductive Polymers (Plenum, New York, 1981)

Reference to a proceeding:

[7] C. Honsberg, A. Doolittle, M. Allen, et al., GaN betavoltaic energy converters, Paper Presented at the Thirty-first IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (Lake Buena Vista, USA 3–7 Jan. 2005)

[8] S.-T. Chung, R.L. Morris, in Abstracts of the 3rd International Symposium on the Genetics of Industrial Microorganisms, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 4– 9 June 1978

Reference to a patent:

[9] L.O. Norman, U.S. Patent 4,379,752, 9 Sept 1998

Reference to a dissertation:

[10] G.N. Yakubova, Dissertation (Department of Nuclear, Plasma and Radiological Engineering University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2010)

Reference to a e-print:

[11] K. Hattori, S.Y. Li, D. Satow, et al., Longitudinal conductivity in strong magnetic field in perturbative QCD: Complete Leading Order (2016). arXiv:1610.06839

Reference to a website:

[12] Cancer Research UK. Cancer statistics reports for the UK, http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/aboutcancer/statistics/cancerstatsreport/; 2003 [accessed 13 March 2003].

Reference to a online document:

[13] J. Cartwright, Big stars have weather too. (IOP Publishing PhysicsWeb, 2007), http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/11/6/16/1. Accessed 26 June 2007