Journal of Wood Science is the official journal of the Japan Wood Research Society. This journal provides an international forum for the exchange of knowledge and the discussion of current issues in wood and its utilization. The journal publishes original papers on basic and applied research dealing with the science, technology, and engineering of wood, wood components, wood and wood-based products, and wood constructions. Papers concerned with pulp and paper, fiber resources from non-woody plants, wood-inhabiting insects and fungi, wood biomass, and environmental and ecological issues in forest products are also included. In addition to original papers, the journal publishes review articles on selected topics concerning wood science and related fields. The editors welcome the submission of manuscripts from any country.

Manuscripts for publication and all correspondence: Please submit all manuscripts and send all correspondence to the electronic submission-tracking site of the Journal of Wood Science (JWS), at http://www.jwrs.org/index-e.html (English) or http://www.jwrs.org/ (Japanese), the Web site of the Japan Wood Research Society (JWRS).

Prerequisites for publication: The first author must be a member of the Japan Wood Research Society; however, nonmembers from outside Japan are also accepted as authors. Upon submission of the manuscript, both the Certification form and the Submission form, which can be downloaded from the above-mentioned site, must be submitted electronically. Please note that the Certification form must be submitted as a pdf file showing the author's signature.

Types of articles: The Journal of Wood Science publishes peer-reviewed Original articles, Notes, Rapid communications, and Review articles, based on the principles and theories of wood science. These articles should be no longer than 6, 4, 2, and 8 printed pages, respectively. Original articles should describe novel ideas based on new results that provide new perspectives in the scientific community. Notes should be short reports of original studies of limited scope. Rapid communications should be for rapid, preliminary publication of a significant discovery, thus the manuscript must be accompanied by a letter from the author stating reasons that would justify publication as a rapid communication. Review articles should be overview articles of recent advances in the research of selected topics. Letters to the editor should be short discussions on recently published articles in the journal, published together with response(s) from the original article's author(s). The text of the letter should be no longer than 750 words. All manuscripts for all types of articles should be written in English.

Peer-review: All received manuscripts are subject to peer-review by at least two referees appointed by the editorial board. After peer-review, the editorial board decides in consultation with referees whether the submitted manuscripts are to be accepted. The board aims to send the results of the review to the author within 3 weeks after manuscript submission. The editor often recommends revisions. When this occurs, the author(s) must submit a revised version within 2 months after receiving the review results. Otherwise, the submission will be treated as having been retracted by the author.

Manuscript submission: The work described in the manuscript must not have been published in whole or in part elsewhere nor can it be under consideration elsewhere, and its publication must have been approved by all co-authors, if any, as well as by the responsible authorities - tacitly or explicitly - at the institute where the work has been carried out. The publisher will not be held legally responsible, should there be any claims for compensation. Authors wishing to include figures, tables, or text passages that have already been published elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) and to include evidence that such permission has been granted when submitting their papers. Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors. Manuscripts, excluding figures, should be submitted in Word in 12-point Times New Roman. Files should be saved in .doc format; .docx files should not be submitted.

Title page: The title page includes the title, which should be brief, specific, and informative; the type of article; the authors' full names, affiliations, and addresses; the e-mail address, telephone and fax numbers of the corresponding author to which proofs are to be sent; and 3-5 key words or phrases for indexing. If part or all of the paper has been presented at any scientific meeting, this must be stated in a footnote to the title page.

Abstract: For Original articles, Notes, and Review articles, provide an abstract of not more than 200 words containing a concise description of the purpose, methods, results, and conclusions of the article. Give only the most essential data, emphasizing new and important aspects of the research. The abstract should not contain any undefined abbreviations or unspecified references.

Text: For Original articles and Notes, the text should be, if possible, divided into the following sections: Introduction, Theory, Materials and methods (or Experimental), Results, and Discussion. Headings should be no more than three lev-els. Abbreviations should be defined at first appearance and used consistently thereafter. However, their use in the title and abstract should be avoided. Footnotes should be used sparingly and numbered consecutively.

Conclusions: A "Conclusions" section is optional. If it is included, it should highlight as succinctly as possible the research achievements described in the article.

Acknowledgments: Acknowledgments of people, grants, funds, etc. should be placed in a separate section immediately before the reference list.

References: References in the text should be cited using superscript numbers, e.g., "Ross et al.,¹ Suzuki and Tanaka,² and Harada³ show that...." in the order of their appearance. For cited works that were written in Japanese, follow the style shown below. The list of references should include only those works that are cited in the text and that have been published or accepted for publication. The accuracy of reference data is the authors' responsibility. Personal communications and works not yet accepted for publication should not be included in the reference list but may be cited in parentheses in the text. If such a citation is from someone other than the authors, a letter should be submitted in which the direct quotation is given with the signature of its author. Do not use footnotes or endnotes as a substitute for a reference list. Unpublished papers accepted for publication may be included in the list by designating the journal followed by the DOI (Digital Object Identifier) of the article. In the reference list, provide inclusive page numbers for all references and give the names of all authors (the use of "et al." in the reference list is unacceptable). Listing of a Web site as a reference should be avoided except as the equivalent of a published reference. If a site is listed, the date it was most recently accessed should be included. Always use the standard abbreviation of a journal's name according to the ISSN List of Title Word Abbreviations, available at http://www.issn.org/2-22661-LTWA-online.php

1. Ross JR, DeGroot RC, Nelson WJ, Lebow PK (1997) The relationship between stress wave transmission characteristics and the compressive strength of biologically degraded wood. Forest Prod J 47(5):89-93
2. Suzuki T, Tanaka J (1987) Engineering plastics from lignin (in Japanese). Mokuzai Gakkaishi 33:213-218
3. Slifka MK, Whitton JL (2000) Clinical implications of dysregulated cytokine production. J Mol Med. doi:10.1007/s001090000086
4. Harada H (1965) Ultrastructure and organization of gymnosperm cell walls. In: Côté WA Jr (ed) Cellular ultrastructure of woody plants. Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, pp 215-233
5. Minami E, Saka S (2004) Chemical conversion of woody biomass in supercritical methanol to liquid fuels and chemicals. In: Science in thermal and chemical biomass conversion (Poster), 8/30-9/2, 2004, Victoria, Canada, http://www.ecs.energy.kyoto-u.ac.jp/english/kenkyu/kenkyu-4-1.pdf (Accessed May 29, 2009)

Tables: Use the table functions of Word, not spreadsheets, to make tables. Tables should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals in the order cited in the text. Each table should be given a brief informative title. Explain in footnotes all abbreviations used. Submit all tables as separate files and do not integrate them within the text.

Figures: All figures, whether photographs, graphs, or diagrams, should be cited in the text in consecutive numerical order with Arabic numerals. Submit all figures as separate files and do not integrate them within the text. For line-drawing figures, the preferred format is EPS; for halftone figures, please use TIFF format. Microsoft Office files are also acceptable. Each figure should be of publication quality (halftone figures: minimum 300dpi, line drawings and other figures: minimum 600dpi) without requiring any retouching by the printer. In photomicrographs, a bar should be used to show magnification, with the length of the bar indicated on the micrograph. Including a magnification factor in the legend is not acceptable. Previously published figures usually are not accepted. If used, however, the previously published material must be identified by giving the original source in the form of a reference citation at the end of the figure legend. Figure legends must be brief, self-sufficient explanations of the illustrations. The legends should be placed at the end of the main text. Color illustrations will be accepted, but the author is expected to pay the extra cost for the use of color printing. (See details below.) The publisher reserves the right to reduce or enlarge figures.

Terminology: Always use internationally accepted signs and symbols for units, i.e., SI units. Insofar as possible, authors should use systematic names similar to those used by the Chemical Abstract Service or IUPAC. Genus and species names should be in italics. The common names of animals should not be capitalized. Generic names of chemicals are preferred; if trade names are used, the generic name should be given at first appearance. Please use the standard mathematical notation for formulae, symbols, etc. Use italics for single letters that denote mathematical constants, variables, and unknown quantities; use roman/upright for numerals, operators, punctuation, and commonly defined functions or abbreviations, e.g., cos, det, e or exp, lim, log, max, min, sin, tan, d (for derivative); use bold for vectors, tensors, and ma-trices.

Proofreading: The purpose of the proof is to check for typesetting, conversion errors, and the completeness and accuracy of the text, tables and figures. Substantial changes in content, e.g., new results, corrected values, changes in title and authorship, are not allowed without the approval of the Editor. After online publication, further changes can be made only in the form of an Erratum, which will be hyperlinked to the article.

Copyright transfer: Authors will be asked to transfer copyright of the article to the Japan Wood Research Society. This will ensure the widest possible protection and dissemination of information under copyright laws.

Offprints: Complimentary offprints are not provided but may be purchased in lots of 100. To order offprints, please complete and return the form from Springer provided with the proofs.

Online First: The article will be published online after receipt of the corrected proofs. This is the official first publication citable with the DOI. After release of the printed version, the paper can also be cited by issue and page numbers.

Editorial Office
The Editorial Office of the Journal of Wood Science
c/o Prof. Yoshiyuki Nishio (Editor-in-Chief)
Division of Forest and Biomaterials Science,
Graduate School of Agriculture,
Kyoto University
Sakyo-Ku, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan
Phone and Fax: +81-75-753-6074
E-mail: edit-office@jwrs.org
Home Page: http://www.jwrs.org/