Food & Function

Communications

These must report preliminary research findings that are highly original, of immediate interest and are likely to have a high impact. Communications are given priority treatment, are fast-tracked through the publication process and appear prominently at the front of the journal in a dedicated Communications section.

Authors should provide at the time of submission a short paragraph explaining why their work justifies urgent publication as a Communication. Ideally, a Full paper in Food & Function should follow each Communication.

Full papers

These must describe science that will be of benefit to the community and are judged according to originality, quality of scientific content and contribution to existing knowledge.

Although there is no page limit for Full papers, appropriateness of length to content of new science will be taken into consideration.

Reviews

Reviews must be high-quality and authoritative accounts of the selected research field. They should be timely and add to the existing literature, rather than duplicate existing articles, and should be of interest to the journal's readership. Food & Function has no specific formatting guidelines and leaves the number of pages/figures/references at the author’s discretion. We recommend that systematic reviews and meta-analyses should follow the PRISMA guidelines for the transparent reporting of these studies.

Comments

Comments and Replies are a medium for the discussion and exchange of scientific opinions between authors and readers concerning material published in Food & Function.

For publication, a Comment should present an alternative analysis of and/or a new insight into the previously published material. Any Reply should further the discussion presented in the original article and the Comment. Comments and Replies that contain any form of personal attack are not suitable for publication. 

Comments that are acceptable for publication will be forwarded to the authors of the work being discussed, and these authors will be given the opportunity to submit a Reply. The Comment and Reply will both be subject to rigorous peer review in consultation with the journal’s Editorial Board where appropriate. The Comment and Reply will be published together.

Organisation of material for Communications & Full papers

Title

An article should have a short, straightforward title directed at the general reader. Lengthy systematic names and complicated and numerous chemical formulae should therefore be avoided where possible. Overstating a potential health action without direct proof of such action is discouraged, for example, 'anticancer effect of...' when only cell decreased growth is determined in a cell in culture.

Author names

Full names for all the authors of an article should be given. Only those who have contributed significantly to the research should be listed as authors.

Abstract

Every paper must be accompanied by a summary (50–250 words) setting out briefly and clearly the main objectives and results of the work; it should give the reader a clear idea of what has been achieved.

Please also include a graphical abstract with your submission. This entry should include a colour image (no larger than 8 cm wide and 4 cm high), and 20–30 words of text that highlight the novel aspects of your work.

Introduction

This should give clearly and briefly, with relevant references, both the nature of the problem under investigation and its background.

Materials & methods

Descriptions of methods and/or experiments should be given in detail sufficient to enable repetition of the work reported. It should be clearly indicated and properly described if the study is related with food or food-based matrices.

Results*

Only relevant results should be presented and figures, tables, and equations should be used for purposes of clarity and brevity.

Discussion*

The results should be presented first, followed by a discussion of their significance. The Discussion should not summarise information already present in the results but relate the results to previous knowledge in the subject. Plans for relevant future work can also be briefly included.

It is expected the authors finish this section with conclusions, including a broad interpretation of the key results and highlighting the novelty and significance of the work. This section can be separated from the 'Discussion' section using a separate 'Conclusions' sub-heading at the author’s discretion.

* Authors have the option of combining both these sections into a 'Results & discussion' section and/or including their conclusions as a separate 'Conclusions' section if they prefer. 

Conflict of interest

All manuscripts submitted to Food & Function must include a conflict interest statement in order to be considered for publication in the journal. This statement should highlight any potential conflicts of interest, be they financial, personal or otherwise, which authors consider relevant to disclose to the readers of the published work. This statement should be placed at the end of the manuscript under the sub-heading 'Conflicts of interest' before the references list. If no conflicts of interest are present, please state that 'There are no conflicts of interest to declare' under the heading.

Further guidelines from the Royal Society of Chemistry about conflicts of interest

Acknowledgements

Contributors (that are not included as co-authors) may be acknowledged; they should be as brief as possible. All sources of funding should be declared.

Abbreviations (optional)

Authors may also wish to include a list of abbreviations used in the manuscript although this is not mandatory.

Bibliographic references

These should be listed at the end of the manuscript in numerical order as they appear in the manuscript.Bibliographic details should be cited in the order: year, volume, page, and must include the article title. For example: C. Pereira, L. Barros, A. M. Carvalho, C. Santos-Buelga, I. C. F. R. Ferreira, Infusions of artichoke and milk thistle represent a good source of phenolic acids and flavonoids, Food Funct., 2015, 6, 55. 

Endnote style files

Figures & schemes

Preparation of graphics

Artwork should be submitted at its final size so that reduction is not required. The appearance of graphics is the responsibility of the author.

• Graphics should fit within either single column (8.3 cm) or double column (17.1 cm) width, and must be no longer than 23.3 cm.
• Graphical abstracts should be no larger than 8 x 4 cm.
• Schemes and structures should be drawn to make best use of single and double column widths
• Axes titles and other text should legible in the final size of the artwork

Colour figures

Colour figure reproduction is provided free of charge online.