Author Guidelines

We welcome original research articles, reviews, case studies, short communications, and technical notes that have not been published previously and are not under consideration elsewhere.

Manuscript types

Your manuscript must not have been published previously, and must not be under consideration elsewhere at the same time. A preprint (for example on arXiv) is fine.

Not every journal accepts every type below – the submission form will show only the types accepted by the journal you select.

How to submit

One author submits the manuscript and creates the author-dashboard account it's tracked under – usually the corresponding author. That person is responsible for the manuscript throughout submission and review, and must confirm that every listed co-author meets the criteria for authorship and has approved the submitted version. Only the submitting author's account can track the manuscript's status – co-authors should follow up with them directly rather than creating a separate account for the same submission.

Free Format Submission

Lyra Science accepts free-format submission – there is no strict formatting requirement for an initial submission. Your manuscript must include: Title, Abstract, Keywords, the main sections for its article type (see Manuscript types above), Figures & Tables, Author Contributions, Funding, Data Availability Statement, Acknowledgments (optional), Conflicts of Interest, and References. Add an Ethics Statement if the work involves people, their personal data or animals: the approving committee and approval number, or why no approval was needed; how consent was obtained; and, if anyone could be identified, their consent to publication. Add an AI-Use Statement if you used generative AI beyond language editing.

After acceptance, you will be asked to format the final version according to these guidelines. For a Word file, use our Word template; if your manuscript reached us as a PDF, we'll ask for your source files.

Author affiliation

List the affiliation you hold now, and the one where the research was mainly carried out if that's a different institution – check with your institution first if a grant or contract requires a specific affiliation to be listed. Get the name and spelling right: this is what readers cite you by, and affiliation corrections after publication aren't always possible.

If you have no affiliation to list at all – neither a current one nor one from when the research was carried out – list "Independent Researcher" instead of leaving the field blank.

Author Contributions

Applies only if your manuscript has more than one author – for a single-author manuscript, this section isn't needed. Otherwise, briefly describe what each author contributed, in a short paragraph. You can use CRediT taxonomy roles – e.g., "Conceptualization, A.B.; methodology, A.B.; formal analysis, C.D." – or plain language, whichever is clearer. Authorship itself should be limited to people who made a substantial contribution to the work; anyone else should go in the Acknowledgments instead.

Funding

State the funding source for this research, or note that it received no external funding. If funded, double-check the funder and grant details for accuracy – some funders won't reimburse an article processing charge if their name and grant number aren't stated correctly.

Data Availability Statement

Required for every submission. State where the data behind your reported results can be found – ideally a link to a public repository, with its DOI or accession number. If no new data were generated, or it can't be shared for privacy, legal, or ethical reasons, say so explicitly rather than leaving this out. A few common examples:

• "The data presented in this study are available in [repository] at [DOI/URL]."
• "No new data were created in this study."
• "Data are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request."
• "The data are not publicly available due to [privacy/ethical/legal] restrictions."

Conflicts of Interest

Declare any conflicts of interest, or state that the authors declare none. Also state whether your funders had any role in the study's design, in collecting, analyzing, or interpreting data, in writing the manuscript, or in the decision to publish – or explicitly state that they had no such role.

Reference style

At submission, references may be in any consistent style, provided each entry includes the author(s), the journal or book title, the article or chapter title (where applicable), the year of publication, the volume and issue (where applicable), and the page range. DOIs are not mandatory but are encouraged. We recommend using reference-management software such as Zotero, EndNote, or Mendeley.

If your manuscript reaches the revision stage, format your references according to the American Chemical Society (ACS) style: number them in the order they first appear in the text, and cite them in the text with the number in square brackets (e.g., "…as shown in [1]."). A reference cited more than once keeps its original number. List full references at the end of the manuscript in numerical order, following the format for whichever type of source you're citing:

1. 1

   Journal article

   Smith, J.; Doe, A.; Lee, K. Title of the Article in Title Case. Journal Name Year, Volume, page range. https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx (if available)

2. 2

   Book

   Smith, J. Book Title, 3rd ed.; Publisher: City, Country, Year; pp. page range.

3. 3

   Book chapter

   Smith, J. Title of the Chapter in Title Case. In Book Title; Doe, A., Ed.; Publisher: City, Country, Year; pp. page range.

4. 4

   Conference paper

   Smith, J.; Doe, A. Title of the Presentation in Title Case. In Proceedings of the Conference Name, City, Country, Date of Conference; Publisher: City, Country, Year; page range. https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx (if available)

5. 5

   Thesis or dissertation

   Smith, J. Title of Thesis. Ph.D. Thesis, University Name, City, Country, Year.

6. 6

   Report

   Smith, J.; Doe, A. Title of the Report; Report No. XXX; Institution or Organization Name: City, Country, Year.

7. 7

   Patent

   Smith, J. Title of the Patent. Patent Number, Date Issued.

8. 8

   Website

   Title of the Page. Available online: URL (accessed on Day Month Year).

9. 9

   Preprint

   Smith, J.; Doe, A. Title of the Preprint. Preprint Server Year. https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx (if available)

10. 10

    Dataset

    Smith, J. Title of the Dataset (Version X); Repository Name, Year. https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx (if available)

11. 11

    Software

    Smith, J. Title of the Software (Version X); Repository Name, Year. https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx (if available)

The numbers above are for layout only – number your own list by the order each source first appears in your manuscript's text.

Ethics disclosure

Studies involving people, their personal data or animals must include an ethics statement; the editor may ask for the approval or exemption letter. See our Publication Ethics page for the full set of expectations.

AI tools. AI tools can't be authors or be cited as sources. If you used generative AI beyond language editing – for example to draft text, analyse data or make figures – describe the tool and how you used it in an AI-Use Statement at the end of the manuscript. You remain responsible for everything in it.

Article processing charge

Accepted manuscripts are subject to an article processing charge (APC), payable only after acceptance. See our APC page for the current amount and waiver policy.