The Review Process

Structural Dynamics is jointly published by AIP Publishing and ACA. The editor, aided by the associate editors, is responsible for the content and other editorial matters related to the journal. Editors initially screen submitted manuscripts for their suitability. Manuscripts that pass the screening are evaluated by expert referees.  Generally, we decide whether to publish a manuscript after one or two rounds of review. We allow additional reviews in exceptional situations only.

Criteria for Publication

Papers are accepted for publication in Structural Dynamics according to the following criteria:

  • Contain high-quality science with strong evidence for the conclusions
  • Contain timely information and are of extreme importance to scientists in the field
  • Are of interest to researchers in other related disciplines

Language standard: It is the authors’ responsibility to ensure that manuscripts are written clearly. A manuscript can be rejected if the scientific meaning is unclear due to poor English. Manuscripts that do not meet Structural Dynamics’  language standard will be returned to the authors for rewrite before peer review, during the review process and/or if provisionally accepted pending language editing.

Because good science has no value unless it is clearly communicated, AIP Publishing recommends that authors use AIPP Author Services to improve the quality of your paper’s written English. AIPP Author Services was developed in line with our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion for all authors. Using this service ensures that your paper will be free of language deficiencies, so editors and reviewers will be able to fully understand your research during the review process. A native English-speaking subject matter expert of AIP Author Services will correct spelling, grammar and punctuation and verify the use and consistency of technical terms and content in your paper. Note that this is not a requirement or a guarantee of acceptance for review or publication.

Serial Submissions: Avoid submitting material of ongoing work in a series of manuscripts. Although there is a need for rapid communication of important results, the literature becomes fractured and less accessible when serial publication of specialized advances becomes the norm. Additionally, serial submissions designed solely to meet the length requirement for manuscripts are not suitable for publication in Structural Dynamics. Instead, authors should report their results in a full-length manuscript for submission to a regular journal. The scientific community will be better served by a comprehensive paper than by several separate Letters.

Length: Structural Dynamics publishes SD Communications, Topical Reviews, and Regular Articles. SD Communications are papers of letter format fewer than 3500 words. Manuscripts more than 3500 words will be considered as a Regular Article, unless it has been submitted as a Topical Review. Guidelines for estimating length are included in the Information for Contributors.

Estimating the length of SD Communications

Manuscripts should not exceed 3500 words.

TeX Users

For all submissions to SD, authors must use the SD styles included in the REVTeX 4.1 package. If the manuscript using the "reprint" option fits on four pages (excluding abstract, author list, acknowledgments, and references), the length is acceptable.

If you have questions, please contact PXP Help.

Microsoft Word Users

Highlight the manuscript text (excluding abstract, author list, acknowledgements, and references) and note the word count at the bottom of the screen. Add to the word count the word-count equivalents for figures, tables, and equations as follows:

  1. Figures: An average single-column figure will displace 220 words. For a more accurate estimation, use [(150/aspect ratio) + 20 words] for single-column figures and [(300/(0.5 x aspect ratio)) + 40 words] for double-column figures; the aspect ratio = width/height.
    2. Tables: 6.5 words per line, plus 13 words for single-column tables; 13 words per line, plus 26 words for double-column tables
    3. Equations: 16 words per row for single-column equations; 32 words per row for double-column equations

If the total number of words (text + figures + tables + equations) is 3500 or fewer, the length is acceptable.

Format: Author Instructions are published on the journal's website. Because of rapid changes in publication technology, authors must use special care when following the instructions for preparing figures (for detailed information, see https://publishing.aip.org/authors/journal-guidelines#sdy).

Ethics and Responsibilities of Authors

Structural Dynamics is published as part of the charter of its publishers, AIP Publishing, and the American Crystallographic Association to advance and report knowledge of time-domain structural studies to human welfare. It is essential that authors, reviewers, editors, and publishers conduct themselves with the highest level of professional ethics and standards.

A detailed statement of what this journal expects can be found here.

By submitting a manuscript to Structural Dynamics, authors implicitly confirm that it meets the highest ethical standards.

Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license: Structural Dynamics is funded with an author-pays model. Authors publishing manuscripts in Structural Dynamics retain the copyright and grant the publisher a license to publish under a Creative Commons agreement.

Patents: Authors who submit manuscripts that contain patentable ideas do so at their own risk. Neither Structural Dynamics, the American Institute of Physics, nor the American Crystallographic Association assume any responsibility in this regard.

Article Types

(All types are subject to the journal’s length limit)

  • * SD Communications (up to 3500 words). Letter articles reporting new and important research that require quick publication.
  • * Regular Articles (up to 12,000 words). Succinct and helpful to new researchers in a given field of structural dynamics research.
  • * Topical reviews (up to 20,000 words). Accessible to a general audience, these highlight a given area of structural dynamics research and include as much as possible of the literature (avoid excessive self-referencing).
  • * Comments and Responses (up to 1000 words). The purpose of Comments is to correct significant errors in articles published in the journal, to rebut conclusions reached, or to provide additional insight or corroboration. Comments must address scientific issues only and be concise, substantive, and contain no harsh criticism. We discourage Comments on questions of priority or calling attention to an oversight in a reference list.  Comments should not exceed 1000 words. When estimating word count, also consider equations, tables, figures, and figure captions. The title of a Comment should read: “Comment on original title [Struct. Dyn. volume, page (year)].” Generally, the editor will invite the authors of the targeted Comment to respond in print. The Response word count should not exceed 1000 words. The title of the response should read: “Response to Comment on original title [Struct. Dyn. volume, page (year)].”  An anonymous referee reviews both the Comment and its Response. If the Comment is rejected, neither the Comment nor the Response will be published. If the Response alone is rejected, the Comment will be published without the Response. The editors will not consider any further exchange beyond this point for publication. If both are accepted, the Comment and the Response will appear in the same issue. We cannot guarantee as rapid a publication schedule as that for which we maintain regular submissions. Because a Comment is published only if it is informative to the readership and if the same result cannot be achieved either by an Erratum or by a separate article in another journal, we encourage authors of a Comment to first contact the authors of the Letter in question for a direct response before submitting their Comment to Structural Dynamics. However, the editor does not require such a step.

Appeal

Authors may appeal the editor's decision to reject a manuscript by asking the editor to reconsider. If the editor is not persuaded that further review is warranted, the editor will consult one of the associate editors for a second opinion. If the decision to reject is upheld, a subsequent appeal will be reviewed by the Publisher at AIP Publishing. The publisher will not decide whether to accept a manuscript for publication, but rather will assess whether the editors followed the proper procedures. Additional rounds of review or adjudication would be called for only if proper procedures were not followed.

Retraction and Correction Policies

AIP Publishing’s policy is based on best practices in academic publishing. We take seriously our responsibility to maintain the integrity and completeness of the scholarly record of our content. We place great importance on the authority of articles after we publish them. Authors may make changes to articles after they have been published online only under the circumstances outlined in AIP Publishing’s Retraction and Correction Policies.