Journal Submission Checklist (Free Template)
A complete pre-submission checklist for academic manuscripts, covering every element editors and reviewers will check, organized by category.
Guide
Desk rejection is preventable. The vast majority of desk rejections result from checklist-level issues: missing sections, incomplete metadata, absent declarations, or formatting violations. This checklist covers everything you should verify before clicking 'Submit'. Use it alongside CheckMyManuscript's automated review for maximum coverage.
Manuscript structure
Verify the following structural elements:
Title page with all author information
Abstract (correct length and format for target journal)
Keywords (correct number and format)
Introduction (clear problem statement and research question)
Methods section (sufficient detail for reproducibility)
Results section (data and statistics clearly presented)
Discussion (findings interpreted, limitations stated)
Conclusion (contribution and implications stated)
Acknowledgments (funding, support, data acknowledged)
References list (complete and consistently formatted)
Required declarations
Most journals require these statements. Verify they are present:
Author contributions (CRediT taxonomy for Nature, Elsevier, Springer)
Conflict of interest / competing interests declaration
Funding acknowledgment with grant numbers
Ethics approval statement (for human or animal research)
Patient/participant consent declaration (for clinical research)
Data availability statement
Code availability statement (for computational papers)
Clinical trial registration number (for clinical trials)
Author information
Verify all author metadata is complete:
Full name for all authors (consistent with previous publications)
Complete institutional affiliations for all authors
ORCID iDs for all authors (mandatory at many journals)
Corresponding author identified with email address
Guarantor identified (for medical journals)
Citations and references
Reference errors are among the most common manuscript issues:
All in-text citations have a matching bibliography entry
All bibliography entries are cited at least once in text
Reference format is consistent (APA, Vancouver, Harvard, IEEE, pick one)
All entries include required fields (year, journal, volume, pages, DOI)
DOIs are present for all journal articles that have them
No broken URLs, use permanent identifiers (DOI, PMID) where possible
Figures and tables
Verify figure and table formatting:
Every figure is referenced at least once in the text
Figures numbered sequentially (Figure 1, 2, 3...)
All figure captions are complete and self-contained
All tables have captions and are referenced in text
Tables numbered separately from figures
Figure image quality meets journal requirements (usually 300 dpi for print)
Color figures, confirm open access or color publication charges if applicable
Language and writing
Final language checks:
No typos or spelling errors (run spell check in your manuscript language)
Grammar checked (especially subject-verb agreement, tense consistency)
No contractions or informal language
All abbreviations defined on first use
No undefined acronyms in title or abstract
Consistent terminology throughout (don't alternate between synonym terms)
File preparation
Final file checks before upload:
File format matches journal requirements (DOCX, PDF, or LaTeX)
Blind review: author information removed from main manuscript file if required
Supplementary materials prepared and labeled correctly
Cover letter prepared (see our cover letter guide)
Suggested reviewers list prepared if journal accepts
Manuscript word count within journal limits
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Frequently asked questions
The submission process itself takes 30–60 minutes if your manuscript and files are properly prepared. Desk review (before peer review) typically takes 1–2 weeks. Peer review varies from 1–3 months.
Minor issues may trigger a request for revision from the editorial office. Serious issues (missing sections, major formatting violations) typically lead to desk rejection. Running CheckMyManuscript before submission catches most checklist items automatically.
Yes: journal requirements vary and what passed at one journal may be non-compliant at another. Always verify against the target journal's 'Instructions for Authors'.