Writing for Biomedical Optics Express? This template gives you a submission-ready structure—sections, abstract, and references—so you focus on the research, not the formatting.
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Authored by Sumalatha Gangadhar | Published on 25 July, 2026
Submitting to Biomedical Optics Express goes smoothly when your draft already matches the journal's own rules. Editors screen new manuscripts against the Biomedical Optics Express guide for authors before peer review, so formatting, structure, and required statements should be right on the first draft rather than repaired during upload. This template sets that structure up for you.
It is a manuscript shell aligned to Biomedical Optics Express. It covers front matter, the abstract the journal expects, a body organized to the journal's article types, and a reference list in the journal's required style. Confirm current scope and article types on the Biomedical Optics Express journal page before you draft.
Prepare the title, authors, affiliations, and ORCID iDs. Write the abstract to the journal's rule and word limit, organize the body to the article type, and apply the required reference style from the first citation. Complete every declaration (ethics, competing interests, funding, data availability) the Biomedical Optics Express guide for authors lists, and cite figures and tables in order.
The common failure modes are formatting or reference style that does not match the guide for authors, missing required statements, and an incomplete portal checklist. Clear all three against the Biomedical Optics Express guide for authors before you submit.
The shell mirrors what editorial staff check first: article-type fit, the abstract rules, required declarations, and the journal's reference style. For more detail see the submission system. When your draft is ready, upload it through Prism (Optica submission).
| Element | BOE requirement |
|---|---|
| Abstract | Unstructured abstract, limited to approximately 100 words. It should be an explicit summary of the paper that states the problem, the methods used, and the major results and conclusions. If another publication is referenced in the abstract, abbreviated information (authors, journal, volume number, first page, year) must be given in the abstract itself without a reference number. Use of 'first,' 'new,' or 'novel' in the abstract should be qualified as, for example, 'believed to be first' or 'new to our knowledge.' |
| Main text | Section order and length per article type |
| Declarations | Ethics, competing interests, funding, data as required |
| Figures/tables | Publication-ready; cited in order |
| Supplemental | Upload separately when used |
| References | Optica Publishing Group style - numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first referenced in the body of the paper. Always list the first three authors in references and use et al. if there are additional authors. Reference management files available: opgjnl.ens (EndNote), Optica-Publishing-Group.csl (Zotero, Mendeley), opticajnl.bst (BibTeX). |
| Peer review | Single-anonymous review (reviewers know the identity of the authors, but the authors do not know the identity of the reviewers) |
| Submission | opg.optica.org |
Read the Biomedical Optics Express guide for authors once before drafting and once before upload. Draft the abstract after results are stable. Set the reference style before adding citations. Keep a cover letter that states your contribution and fit to Biomedical Optics Express in under a page.
Skim two or three recent BOE papers to calibrate depth and figure style. Make the novelty clear in the first two pages. Deposit data and code when the policy on the Biomedical Optics Express journal page requires it. Disclose any preprint or conference version with identifiers in the cover letter.
Do one focused pass against the Biomedical Optics Express guide for authors: scope, length, reference style, required declarations, and figure quality. Then submit through Prism (Optica submission).