1. Submission Overview

Before you decide to publish with us, please read the following items carefully and make sure that you are well aware of Editorial Policies and the following requirements.

1.1 Topic Suitability

he topic of the manuscript must fit the scope of the journal. Please refer to Aims and Scope for more information.

1.2 Open Access and Copyright

The journal adopts Gold Open Access publishing model and distributes content under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Copyright is retained by authors. Please make sure that you are well aware of these policies.

1.3 Publication Fees

Space Mission Planning & Operations (SMPO) is an open access journal. When a paper is accepted for publication, authors are required to pay Article Processing Charges (APCs) to cover its editorial and production costs. The APC for each submission is $1500. There are no additional charges based on color, length, figures, or other elements. For more details, please refer to OAE Publication Fees.

1.4 Language Editing

All submissions are required to be presented clearly and cohesively in good English. Authors whose first language is not English are advised to have their manuscripts checked or edited by a native English speaker before submission to ensure the high quality of expression. A well-organized manuscript in good English would make the peer review even the whole editorial handling more smooth and efficient.

If needed, authors are recommended to consider the language editing services provided by OAE to ensure that the manuscript is written in correct scientific English before submission. An extra charge is required to enjoy this service. Please visit https://www.oaepublish.com/services or contact English-Editing@oaepublish.com for more details.

1.5 Work Funded by the National Institutes of Health

If an accepted manuscript was funded by National Institutes of Health (NIH), the author may inform Editors of the NIH funding number. The Editors are able to deposit the paper to the NIH Manuscript Submission System on behalf of the author.

2. Submission Preparation

2.1 Cover Letter

A cover letter is required to be submitted accompanying each manuscript. It should be concise and explain why the study is significant, why it fits the scope of the journal, and why it would be attractive to readers, etc.
If the manuscript is contributed to a Special Issue, please also mention it in the cover letter.
If the manuscript was presented partly or entirely in a conference, the author should clearly state the background information of the event, including the conference name, time and place in the cover letter.

2.2 Types of Manuscripts

There is no restriction on the number of figures, tables and references, provided that the manuscript is concise and comprehensive. The journal publishes Original Article, Review, Short Notes, Editorial, etc. For more details about paper type, please refer to the following table.

2.3 Manuscript Structure

2.3.1 Front Matter

2.3.1.1 Title

The title of the manuscript should be concise, specific and relevant, with no more than 16 words if possible. When gene or protein names are included, the abbreviated name rather than full name should be used.

2.3.1.2 Authors and Affiliations

Authors' full names should be listed. The initials of middle names can be provided. Institutional addresses and email addresses for all authors should be listed. At least one author should be designated as corresponding author. In addition, corresponding authors are suggested to provide their Open Researcher and Contributor ID upon submission. Please note that any change to authorship is not allowed after manuscript acceptance.

2.3.1.3 Abstract

The abstract should be a single paragraph with word limitation and specific structure requirements (for more details please refer to Types of Manuscripts). It usually describes the main objective(s) of the study, explains how the study was done, including any model organisms used, without methodological detail, and summarizes the most important results and their significance. The abstract must be an objective representation of the study: it is not allowed to contain results which are not presented and substantiated in the manuscript, or exaggerate the main conclusions. Citations should not be included in the abstract.

2.3.1.4 Keywords

Three to eight keywords should be provided, which are specific to the article, yet reasonably common within the subject discipline.

2.3.2 Main Text

anuscripts of different types are structured with different sections of content. Please refer to Types of Manuscripts to make sure which sections should be included in the manuscripts.

2.3.2.1 Introduction

The introduction should contain background that puts the manuscript into context, allow readers to understand why the study is important, include a brief review of key literature, and conclude with a brief statement of the overall aim of the work and a comment about whether that aim was achieved. Relevant controversies or disagreements in the field should be introduced as well.

2.3.2.2 Methods

Methods should contain sufficient details to allow others to fully replicate the study. New methods and protocols should be described in detail while well-established methods can be briefly described or appropriately cited. Experimental participants selected, the drugs and chemicals used, the statistical methods taken, and the computer software used should be identified precisely. Statistical terms, abbreviations, and all symbols used should be defined clearly. Protocol documents for clinical trials, observational studies, and other non-laboratory investigations may be uploaded as supplementary materials.

2.3.2.3 Results

This section contains the findings of the study. Results of statistical analysis should also be included either as text or as tables or figures if appropriate. Authors should emphasize and summarize only the most important observations. Data on all primary and secondary outcomes identified in the section Methods should also be provided. Extra or supplementary materials and technical details can be placed in supplementary documents.

2.3.2.4 Discussion

This section should discuss the implications of the findings in context of existing research and highlight limitations of the study. Future research directions may also be mentioned.

2.3.2.5 Conclusion

It should state clearly the main conclusions and include the explanation of their relevance or importance to the field.

2.3.3 Back Matter

2.3.3.1 Acknowledgments

Anyone who contributed towards the article but does not meet the criteria for authorship, including those who provided professional writing services or materials, should be acknowledged. Authors should obtain permission to acknowledge from all those mentioned in the Acknowledgments section. This section is not added if the author does not have anyone to acknowledge.

2.3.3.2 Authors' Contributions

Each author is expected to have made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work, or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data, or the creation of new software used in the work, or have drafted the work or substantively revised it.
Please use Surname and Initial of Forename to refer to an author's contribution. For example: made substantial contributions to conception and design of the study and performed data analysis and interpretation: Salas H, Castaneda WV; performed data acquisition, as well as provided administrative, technical, and material support: Castillo N, Young V.
If an article is single-authored, please include "The author contributed solely to the article." in this section.

2.3.3.3 Availability of Data and Materials

In order to maintain the integrity, transparency and reproducibility of research records, authors should include this section in their manuscripts, detailing where the data supporting their findings can be found. Data can be deposited into data repositories or published as supplementary information in the journal. Authors who cannot share their data should state that the data will not be shared and explain it. If a manuscript does not involve such issue, please state "Not applicable." in this section.

2.3.3.4 Financial Support and Sponsorship

All sources of funding for the study reported should be declared. The role of the funding body in the experiment design, collection, analysis and interpretation of data, and writing of the manuscript should be declared. Any relevant grant numbers and the link of funder's website should be provided if any. If the study is not involved with this issue, state "None." in this section.

2.3.3.5 Conflicts of Interest

Authors must declare any potential conflicts of interest that may be perceived as inappropriately influencing the representation or interpretation of reported research results. If there are no conflicts of interest, please state "All authors declared that there are no conflicts of interest." in this section. Some authors may be bound by confidentiality agreements. In such cases, in place of itemized disclosures, we will require authors to state "All authors declare that they are bound by confidentiality agreements that prevent them from disclosing their conflicts of interest in this work.". If authors are unsure whether conflicts of interest exist, please refer to the "Conflicts of Interest" of OAE Editorial Policies for a full explanation.

2.3.3.6 Ethical Approval and Consent to Participate

Research involving human subjects, human material or human data must be performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by an appropriate ethics committee. An informed consent to participate in the study should also be obtained from participants, or their parents or legal guardians for children under 16. A statement detailing the name of the ethics committee (including the reference number where appropriate) and the informed consent obtained must appear in the manuscripts reporting such research.
Studies involving animals and cell lines must include a statement on ethical approval. More information is available at Editorial Policies.
If the manuscript does not involve such issue, please state "Not applicable." in this section.

2.3.3.7 Consent for Publication

Manuscripts containing individual details, images or videos, must obtain consent for publication from that person, or in the case of children, their parents or legal guardians. If the person has died, consent for publication must be obtained from the next of kin of the participant. Manuscripts must include a statement that a written informed consent for publication was obtained. Authors do not have to submit such content accompanying the manuscript. However, these documents must be available if requested. If the manuscript does not involve this issue, state "Not applicable." in this section.

2.3.3.8 Copyright

Authors retain copyright of their works through a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License that clearly states how readers can copy, distribute, and use their attributed research, free of charge. A declaration "© The Author(s) 2023." will be added to each article. Authors are required to sign License to Publish before formal publication.

2.3.3.9 References

References should be numbered in order of appearance at the end of manuscripts. In the text, reference numbers should be placed in square brackets and the corresponding references are cited thereafter. List all authors when the number of authors is less than or equal to six, if there are more than six authors, only the first three authors' names should be listed, other authors' names should be omitted and replaced with "et al.". The journal's name should be required to be italicized and the journal references should have corresponding DOI numbers. Information from manuscripts accepted but not published should be cited in the text as "Unpublished material" with written permission from the source. Journal names should be abbreviated according to the List of Title Word Abbreviations.

References should be described as follows, depending on the types of works:

The journal also recommends that authors prepare references with a bibliography software package, such as EndNote to avoid typing mistakes and duplicated references.

2.3.3.10 Supplementary Materials

Additional data and information can be uploaded as Supplementary Materials to accompany the manuscripts. The supplementary materials will also be available to the Referees as part of the peer-review process. Any file format is acceptable, such as data sheet (word, excel, csv, cdx, fasta, pdf or zip files), presentation (powerpoint, pdf or zip files), image (cdx, eps, jpeg, pdf, png or tiff), table (word, excel, csv or pdf), audio (mp3, wav or wma) or video (avi, divx, flv, mov, mp4, mpeg, mpg or wmv). All information should be clearly presented. Supplementary materials should be cited in the main text in numeric order (e.g., Supplementary Figure 1, Supplementary Figure 2, Supplementary Table 1, Supplementary Table 2, etc.). The style of supplementary figures or tables complies with the same requirements on figures or tables in main text. Videos and audios should be prepared in English, and limited to a size of 500 MB.

2.4 Manuscript Format

2.4.1 File Format

Manuscript files can be in DOC and DOCX formats and should not be locked or protected.

2.4.2 Length

The word limit is specified in the item "Types of Manuscripts". There are no restrictions on number of figures or amount of supporting documents. Authors are encouraged to present and discuss their findings concisely.

2.4.3 Language

Manuscripts must be written in English.

2.4.4 Multimedia Files

• The journal supports manuscripts with multimedia files. The requirements are listed as follows:
• Video or audio files are only acceptable in English. The presentation and introduction should be easy to understand. The frames should be clear, and the speech speed should be moderate.
• A brief overview of the video or audio files should be given in the manuscript text.
• The video or audio files should be limited to a size of up to 500 MB.
• Please use professional software to produce high-quality video files, to facilitate acceptance and publication along with the submitted article. Upload the videos in mp4, wmv, or rm format (preferably mp4) and audio files in mp3 or wav format.

2.4.5 Figures

• Figures should be cited in numeric order (e.g., Figure 1, Figure 2) and placed after the paragraph where it is first cited;
• Figures can be submitted in format of tiff, psd, AI or jpeg, with resolution of 300-600 dpi;
• Figure caption is placed under the Figure;
• Diagrams with describing words (including, flow chart, coordinate diagram, bar chart, line chart, and scatter diagram, etc.) should be editable in word, excel or powerpoint format. Non-English information should be avoided;
• Labels, numbers, letters, arrows, and symbols in figure should be clear, of uniform size, and contrast with the background;
• Symbols, arrows, numbers, or letters used to identify parts of the illustrations must be identified and explained in the legend;
• Internal scale (magnification) should be explained and the staining method in photomicrographs should be identified;
• All non-standard abbreviations should be explained in the legend;
• Permission for use of copyrighted materials from other sources, including re-published, adapted, modified, or partial figures and images from the internet, must be obtained. It is authors' responsibility to acquire the licenses, to follow any citation instruction requested by third-party rights holders, and cover any supplementary charges.

2.4.6 Tables

• Tables should be cited in numeric order and placed after the paragraph where it is first cited;
• The table caption should be placed above the table and labeled sequentially (e.g., Table 1, Table 2);
• Tables should be provided in editable form like DOC or DOCX format (picture is not allowed);
• Abbreviations and symbols used in table should be explained in footnote;
• Explanatory matter should also be placed in footnotes;
• Permission for use of copyrighted materials from other sources, including re-published, adapted, modified, or partial tables from the internet, must be obtained. It is authors' responsibility to acquire the licenses, to follow any citation instruction requested by third-party rights holders, and cover any supplementary charges.

2.4.7 Abbreviations

Abbreviations should be defined upon first appearance in the abstract, main text, and in figure or table captions and used consistently thereafter. Non-standard abbreviations are not allowed unless they appear at least three times in the text. Commonly-used abbreviations, such as DNA, RNA, ATP, etc., can be used directly without definition. Abbreviations in titles and keywords should be avoided, except for the ones which are widely used.

2.4.8 Italics

General italic words like vs., et al., etc., in vivo, in vitro; t test, F test, U test; related coefficient as r, sample number as n, and probability as P; names of genes; names of bacteria and biology species in Latin.

2.4.9 Units

SI Units should be used. Imperial, US customary and other units should be converted to SI units whenever possible. There is a space between the number and the unit (i.e., 23 mL). Hour, minute, second should be written as h, min, s.

2.4.10 Numbers

Numbers appearing at the beginning of sentences should be expressed in English. When there are two or more numbers in a paragraph, they should be expressed as Arabic numerals; when there is only one number in a paragraph, number < 10 should be expressed in English and number > 10 should be expressed as Arabic numerals. 12345678 should be written as 12,345,678.

2.4.11 Equations

Equations should be editable and not appear in a picture format. Authors are advised to use either the Microsoft Equation Editor or the MathType for display and inline equations.

2.5 Submission Link

Submit an article via https://oaemesas.com/login?JournalId=smpo.

3. Research and Publication Ethics

3.1 Research Involving Human Subjects

All studies involving human subjects must be in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration and seek approval to conduct the study from an independent local, regional, or national review body (e.g., ethics committee, institutional review board, etc.). Such approval, including the names of the ethics committee, institutional review board, etc., must be listed in a declaration statement of Ethical Approval and Consent to Participate in the manuscript. If the study is judged exempt from ethics approval, related information (e.g., name of the ethics committee granting the exemption and the reason for the exemption) must be listed. Further documentation on ethics should also be prepared, as Editors may request more detailed information. Manuscripts with suspected ethical problems will be investigated according to COPE Guidelines.

3.1.1 Consent to Participate

For all studies involving human subjects, informed consent to participate in the studies must be obtained from participants, or their parents or legal guardians for children under 16. Statements regarding consent to participate should be included in a declaration statement of Ethical Approval and Consent to Participate in the manuscript. If informed consent is not required, the name of the ethics committee granting the exemption and the reason for the exemption must be listed. If any ethical violation is found at any stage of publication, the issue will be investigated seriously based on COPE Guidelines.

3.1.2 Consent for Publication

All articles published by OAE are freely available on the Internet. All manuscripts that include individual participants' data in any form (i.e., details, images, videos, etc.) will not be published without Consent for Publication obtained from that person(s), or for children, their parents or legal guardians. If the person has died, Consent for Publication must be obtained from the next of kin. Authors must add a declaration statement of Consent for Publication in the manuscript, specifying written informed consent for publication has been obtained.

3.2 Publication Ethics Statement

OAE is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). We fully adhere to its Code of Conduct and to its Best Practice Guidelines.

The Editors of this journal enforce a rigorous peer-review process together with strict ethical policies and standards to guarantee to add high-quality scientific works to the field of scholarly publication. Unfortunately, cases of plagiarism, data falsification, image manipulation, inappropriate authorship credit, and the like, do arise. The Editors of Space Mission Planning & Operations (SMPO) take such publishing ethics issues very seriously and are trained to proceed in such cases with a zero tolerance policy.

Authors wishing to publish their papers in Space Mission Planning & Operations (SMPO) must abide to the following:

• The author(s) must disclose any possibility of a conflict of interest in the paper prior to submission.
• The authors should declare that there is no academic misconduct in their manuscript in the cover letter.
• Authors should accurately present their research findings and include an objective discussion of the significance of their findings.
• Data and methods used in the research need to be presented in sufficient detail in the manuscript so that other researchers can replicate the work.
• Authors should provide raw data if Referees and the Editors of the journal request.
• Simultaneous submission of manuscripts to more than one journal is not tolerated.
• Republishing content that is not novel is not tolerated (for example, an English translation of a paper that is already published in another language will not be accepted).
• The manuscript should not contain any information that has already been published. If you include already published figures or images, please get the necessary permission from the copyright holder to publish under the CC-BY license.
• Plagiarism, data fabrication and image manipulation are not tolerated.
• Plagiarism is not acceptable in OAE journals.

Plagiarism involves the inclusion of large sections of unaltered or minimally altered text from an existing source without appropriate and unambiguous attribution, and/or an attempt to misattribute original authorship regarding ideas or results, and copying text, images, or data from another source, even from your own publications, without giving credit to the source.

As to reusing the text that is copied from another source, it must be between quotation marks and the source must be cited. If a study's design or the manuscript's structure or language has been inspired by previous studies, these studies must be cited explicitly.

If plagiarism is detected during the peer-review process, the manuscript may be rejected. If plagiarism is detected after publication, we may publish a Correction or retract the paper.

Falsification is manipulating research materials, equipment, or processes, or changing or omitting data or results so that the findings are not accurately represented in the research record.

Image files must not be manipulated or adjusted in any way that could lead to misinterpretation of the information provided by the original image.

Irregular manipulation includes: introduction, enhancement, moving, or removing features from the original image; grouping of images that should be presented separately, or modifying the contrast, brightness, or color balance to obscure, eliminate, or enhance some information.

If irregular image manipulation is identified and confirmed during the peer-review process, we may reject the manuscript. If irregular image manipulation is identified and confirmed after publication, we may publish a Correction or retract the paper.

OAE reserves the right to contact the authors' institution(s) to investigate possible publication misconduct if the Editors find conclusive evidence of misconduct before or after publication. OAE has a partnership with iThenticate, which is the most trusted similarity checker. It is used to analyze received manuscripts to avoid plagiarism to the greatest extent possible. When plagiarism becomes evident after publication, we will retract the original publication or require modifications, depending on the degree of plagiarism, context within the published article, and its impact on the overall integrity of the published study. Journal Editors will act under the relevant COPE Guidelines.

4. Authorship

Authorship credit of OAE journals should be solely based on substantial contributions to a published study, as specified in the following four criteria:
1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work, or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work;
2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content;
3. Final approval of the version to be published;
4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

All those who meet these criteria should be identified as authors. Authors must specify their contributions in the section Authors' Contributions of their manuscripts. Contributors who do not meet all the four criteria (like only involved in acquisition of funding, general supervision of a research group, general administrative support, writing assistance, technical editing, language editing, proofreading, etc.) should be acknowledged in the section of Acknowledgement in the manuscript rather than being listed as authors.

If a large multiple-author group has conducted the work, the group ideally should decide who will be authors before the work starts and confirm authors before submission. All authors of the group named as authors must meet all the four criteria for authorship.

AI and AI-assisted technologies should not be listed as an author or co-author.

5. Reviewers Exclusions

You are welcome to exclude a limited number of researchers as potential Editors or reviewers of your manuscript. To ensure a fair and rigorous peer review process, we ask that you keep your exclusions to a maximum of three people. If you wish to exclude additional Referees, please explain or justify your concerns—this information will be helpful for Editors when deciding whether to honor your request.

6. Editors and Journal Staff as Authors

Editorial independence is extremely important and OAE does not interfere with editorial decisions.
Editorial staff or Editors shall not be involved in the processing their own academic work. Submissions authored by Editorial staff/Editors will be assigned to at least three independent outside reviewers. Decisions will be made by other Editorial Board members who do not have conflict of interests with the author. Journal staffs are not involved in the processing of their own work submitted to any OAE journals.

7. Policy of the Use of AI and AI-assisted Technologies in Scientific Writing

Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies (e.g., large language models) are expected to be increasingly used to create content. In the writing process of manuscripts, using AI and AI-assisted technologies to complete key researcher work, such as producing scientific insights, analyzing and interpreting data or drawing scientific conclusions, is not allowed, and they should only be used to improve the readability and language of manuscripts.

AI and AI-assisted technologies should be used under human control and supervision as they may generate incorrect or prejudiced output, and they should not be listed as an author or co-author, nor cited as an author.

The use of AI and AI-assisted technologies should be disclosed by authors in their manuscripts, and a statement will be required in the final publication.

OAE will keep monitoring the development and adjust the policy when necessary.

8. Conflict of Interests

OAE journals require authors to declare any possible financial and/or non-financial conflicts of interest at the end of their manuscript and in the cover letter, as well as confirm this point when submitting their manuscript in the submission system. If no conflicts of interest exist, authors need to state "The authors declare no conflicts of interest". We also recognize that some authors may be bound by confidentiality agreements, in which cases authors need to sate "The authors declare that they are bound by confidentiality agreements that prevent them from disclosing their competing interests in this work".

9. Editorial Process

9.1 Initial check

9.1.1 Initial manuscript check

New submissions are initially checked by the Managing Editor from the perspectives of originality, suitability, structure and formatting, conflicts of interest, background of authors, etc. Poorly-prepared manuscripts may be rejected at this stage. If your manuscript does not meet one or more of these requirements, we will return it for further revisions.

9.1.2 Publishing ethics

All manuscripts submitted to Space Mission Planning & Operations (SMPO) are screened using iThenticate powered by CrossCheck to identify any plagiarized content. Your study must also meet all ethical requirements as outlined in our Editorial Policies. If the manuscript does not pass any of these checks, we may return it to you for further revisions or decline to consider your study for publication.

9.2 Editorial assessment

Once your manuscript has passed the initial check, the Editor-in-Chief, or an Associate Editor in the case of a conflict of interest, will be notified of the submission and invited to check. The Editor-in-Chief, or the Associate Editor may reject manuscripts that they deem highly unlikely to pass peer review without further consultation. Once your manuscript has passed the editorial assessment, the Editor-in-Chief will assign it to an Associate Editor to organize peer-review.

9.3 Process

Space Mission Planning & Operations (SMPO) operates a single-blind review process. The technical quality of the research described in the manuscript is assessed by a minimum of three independent expert reviewers. The Academic Editor is responsible for the final decision regarding acceptance or rejection of the manuscript. For controversial manuscripts, the Editor-in-Chief is responsible for making the final decision.

9.4 Decisions

Your research will be judged on technical soundness only, not on its perceived impact as judged by Editors or Eeferees. There are three possible decisions: Accept (your study satisfies all publication criteria), Invitation to Revise (more work is required to satisfy all criteria), and Reject (your study fails to satisfy key criteria and it is highly unlikely that further work can address its shortcomings).

10. Contact Us

Journal Contact
Space Mission Planning & Operations (SMPO) Editorial Office
OAE, 245 E Main Street, ste122, Alabama, CA 91801, USA
editorial@smpojournal.com
Tel.: +1 323 9987086; +86 (0)29 8954 0089

Wendy Gong
Managing Editor
Wendy@oaepublish.com

Margie Ma
Publishing Manager
Margie@oaepublish.com

Last updated on 2 June, 2023