General Information

Print edition: ISSN 0288-4534　Online edition: ISSN 2187-5537
Diamond Open Access FREE for Reading & Publication

KONA Powder and Particle Journal ceased publication with Issue No. 43 (2026). Submissions closed at the end of 2024. All articles published in the journal remain accessible on J-STAGE. <https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/browse/kona>.

History

Journal Policies

Publication Ethics Policies

Data Repository Information

History of the Journal

The KONA Powder and Particle Journal was first published in 1983 as “KONA Powder Science and Technology in Japan”, becoming the first English-language journal in the field of powder technology published in Japan. It was established to disseminate outstanding Japanese research to the global scientific community at a time when international publication opportunities in this discipline were limited.

The Journal was planned and edited by the Council of Powder Technology, Japan (CPT)—a nonprofit organization founded in 1969 by Hosokawa Micron Corporation to promote powder technology—with editorial support provided by the Hosokawa Micromeritics Laboratory. From its inception, KONA aimed to serve as a bridge between Japanese innovation and international research.

Responding to the growing globalization of powder and particle science, KONA adopted an international editorial structure in 1990 (Issue No. 8), establishing editorial boards across three regions: Asia–Oceania, the Americas, and Europe–Africa. At the same time, the Journal expanded its scope to include original contributions from researchers worldwide and revised its title to “KONA Powder and Particle”.

Publication of the Journal was undertaken by the CPT until Issue No. 12 (1994), after which responsibility was transferred to the Hosokawa Powder Technology Foundation beginning with Issue No. 13 (1995) onward. Throughout this transition, KONA maintained its editorial policy and international framework.

Over more than four decades of annual publication, KONA continuously adapted to changes in scholarly communication. The introduction of electronic publishing in 2003, indexing in major databases such as Web of Science and Scopus, and full availability on J-STAGE significantly enhanced its global accessibility. The Journal consistently operated under an open-access model and was later recognized internationally as a Diamond Open Access journal, requiring no fees from authors or readers.

After 43 volumes, the KONA Powder and Particle Journal ceased publication with Issue No. 43. All articles remain permanently available online, preserving the Journal’s substantial contribution to the advancement and internationalization of powder and particle science and technology.

Journal Policies

Aims and Scope

KONA publishes papers in the broad field of powder science and technology, ranging from fundamental principles to practical applications. Papers describing technological experience and critical reviews of existing knowledge in special areas are also welcome.
Submitted papers are published only when they are judged by the Editor to contribute to the progress of powder science and technology and approved by one of the three Editorial Committees. Papers submitted to KONA should not have been previously published.

Categories of Papers

Invited articles
Review papers, original research papers, and special contributions invited by the KONA Editorial Committees
Contributed papers
Original research and review papers submitted to the KONA Editorial Committees and refereed by reviewers and editors.

Subscription

KONA is distributed free of charge to senior researchers at universities and laboratories as well as to institutions and libraries in the field throughout the world. The publisher is always glad to consider the addition of names of those, who want to obtain this journal regularly, to the mailing list. Distribution of KONA is made by each Secretariat.

Free electronic publication of KONA is available at https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/browse/kona

Open Access

The journal has a fully Open Access publication model, which means that all articles are available on the internet to all users immediately upon publication. In addition, KONA offers free publication for well-prepared manuscripts submitted and accepted by KONA Editorial Committees.
Authors are required to sign a License to Publish, permitting the Hosokawa Powder Technology Foundation to reproduce the work in the journal under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

KONA_Open Access Publishing Agreement and Submission Declaration Form (updated July 2023) (PDF, 192 KB)

Copyright and permission

The original paper to be submitted to KONA has not been published before in any language or in any journals or media; it is not submitted and not under consideration for publication in whole or in part elsewhere.
Authors are responsible for obtaining permission from the copyright holders to reproduce any figures, tables, and photos for which copyright exists.
The KONA Journal applies theCreative Commons Attribution Licenseto all works published by the Journal. Copyright stays with the agreed copyright owner, and the Hosokawa Powder Technology Foundation is granted the right to publish and distribute the work, and to provide the work in all forms and media.
Users of the journal will be able to reuse the contents in any way they like, provided they are accurately attributed. No permission is required from either the authors or the publisher.
But you must obtain permission from the copyright holder (usually a publisher) by yourself if you want to use any figures, tables and photos in the original work for which copyright exists.

Publication Ethics Policies

KONA Powder and Particle Journal upholds the highest standards of research and publishing practice. Its comprehensive policies cover the main responsibilities of the journal’s authors, reviewers, editors, and publisher, Hosokawa Powder Technology Foundation.

Author Responsibilities

Submission

KONA Powder and Particle Journal welcomes manuscript submissions from authors anywhere in the world.

Submission to the journal implies that all authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript, have agreed to its submission, and have the right to publish their work.

Submission to the journal also implies that all authors have read and complied with the journal’s policies on publication ethics. Authors of submitted manuscripts acknowledge that the journal’s editors reserve the right to reject or retract any manuscript that they believe may breach any of these policies.

Duplicate, Fragmented, and Redundant Submissions

Submission to the journal implies that the manuscript has not been previously published (partly or wholly in any language), is not in press, and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Authors should inform the editors if there are any potential conflicts of copyright with regard to the following: (1) university undergraduate, master, or doctoral theses; (2) proceedings, preprints, or abstracts of meetings, conferences, or symposia; and (3) technical reports, both academic and corporate.

Authors must inform the editors if any related manuscripts are under consideration, in press, or published elsewhere.

If authors choose to submit their manuscript elsewhere before a final decision is made on its suitability for publication in KONA Powder and Particle Journal, they should first withdraw it from this journal.

Authors should avoid fragmenting their work into multiple manuscripts and should not engage in redundant publication. Redundant publication refers to sharing the same hypothesis, data, discussion, or conclusion in two or more papers. Authors should fully disclose previously submitted abstracts or preprints of conference proceedings to the editors; such disclosure does not preclude publication in KONA Powder and Particle Journal.

Originality

Submission to the journal implies that the manuscript is original. The journal may use software to screen manuscripts for unoriginal content. By submitting a manuscript to the journal, authors agree to this screening. Any manuscript with an unacceptable level of unoriginal material or proof of one or more misconducts may be rejected or retracted at the editors’ discretion. The misconducts related to originality include, but are not limited to, plagiarism, fabrication, and falsification.

Authorship

Submission to the journal implies that all authors have approved the author list. Changes to the author list after manuscript submission (such as insertion or removal of author names or rearrangement of author order) must be approved by all the authors and the Editor. All authors must take public responsibility for the content of their papers.

Image Integrity

Authors may digitally manipulate or process images, but only if the adjustments are kept to a minimum, are applied to the entire image, meet community standards, and are clearly described in the manuscript. All images in a manuscript must be original or an original adaptation, and they must accurately reflect the original data on which they are based. Authors must not move, remove, add, or enhance individual parts of an image. The editors reserve the right to request original, unprocessed images from the authors. Failure to provide requested images may result in a manuscript being rejected or retracted.

Reproducing Copyrighted Material

If a manuscript includes material that is not under the authors’ own copyright, they must obtain permission from the copyright holder to reproduce it.

If a manuscript includes previously published material, the authors must obtain permission from the copyright owner and publisher of the original work to reproduce it. The authors must properly cite the original work in their manuscript.

Copies of all reproduction permissions must be included with the manuscript upon first submission.

Availability of Data and Materials

Authors must disclose the source of publicly available data and materials (such as public repositories and commercial manufacturers) by including accession numbers or company details in their manuscripts, as appropriate.

Authors may make their own data and materials available in Supplementary Materials or by providing links in their manuscript to relevant community-recognized public databases or digital repositories. All data sets must be made available in full to the editors and reviewers during the peer-review process and must be made publicly available by the date of publication. Authors must commit to preserving their data sets for at least 3 years from the date of publication in the journal.

The journal encourages authors to grant reasonable requests from other researchers to share any data, materials, and experimental protocols described in their manuscripts.

Conflicts of Interest

In the interests of transparency, the journal requires that all authors declare any conflicts of interest in relation to their submitted manuscripts. A conflict of interest exists when there are actual, perceived, or potential circumstances that could influence an author’s ability to conduct or report research impartially. Potential conflicts include, but are not limited to, competing commercial or financial interests, commercial affiliations, consulting roles, and ownership of stock or equity.

Authors should list all funding sources for their work in the Acknowledgments section of their manuscript.

Confidentiality

The journal maintains confidentiality with all unpublished manuscripts. By submitting their manuscript to the journal, the authors warrant that they will keep all correspondence about their manuscript (from the Editorial Office, editors, and reviewers) strictly confidential.

Editor and Publisher Responsibilities

Editorial and Peer-Review Processes

The journal uses single-blind peer reviews for invited articles and double-blind peer reviews for contributed papers.

When a manuscript is submitted to the journal, it is assigned to the Editor, who performs initial screening. Manuscripts that do not fit the journal’s scope or are deemed unsuitable for publication are rejected without review. The remaining manuscripts are assigned to one or two reviewers for assessment. Reviewers are selected based on their expertise, reputation, and previous experience as peer reviewers. The deadline for submission of reviewers’ reports is within 1 month.

Upon receipt of one or two reviewers’ reports, the Editor makes a decision about the manuscript. If the decision is to request revision of the manuscript, authors have 1 month to resubmit their revised version. Revised manuscripts submitted after this deadline may be treated as new submissions. The Editor may send revised manuscripts to peer reviewers for feedback or may use his or her own judgment to assess how closely the authors have addressed the reviewers’ comments on the original manuscript.

The Editor then makes a recommendation to the Editor-in-Chief on the manuscript’s suitability for publication. The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for making the final decision with each manuscript.

The members of the Editorial Committee act in advisory roles, providing feedback as reviewers and making suggestions to improve the journal. In cases where the Editor-in-Chief is an author of a manuscript submitted to the journal, a member of the Editorial Committee is responsible for making the final decision about the manuscript’s suitability for publication.

Reviewer Suggestions

When submitting a manuscript to the journal, authors may suggest reviewers that they would like included in or excluded from the peer-review process. The Editor may consider these suggestions but is under no obligation to follow them. The selection, invitation, and assignment of peer reviewers are at the Editor’s sole discretion.

Reviewer Reports

It is the journal’s policy to transmit reviewers’ comments to authors in their original form. However, the journal reserves the right to edit reviewers’ comments, without consulting the reviewers, if they contain offensive language, confidential information, or recommendations for publication.

Editorial Decisions

If a manuscript satisfies the journal’s requirements and represents a significant contribution to the published literature, the Editor may recommend acceptance for publication in the journal.

If a manuscript does not meet the journal’s requirements for acceptance, but it has a high probability of acceptance after minor or major revisions, the Editor may ask the authors to revise it accordingly. Revised manuscripts must be submitted within 1 month, otherwise they will be treated as new submissions.

If a manuscript does not meet the journal’s requirements for acceptance or revision, the Editor may recommend rejection.

Editorial Independence

KONA Powder and Particle Journal has granted the journal’s Editorial Board complete and sole responsibility for all editorial decisions. KONA Powder and Particle Journal will not become involved in editorial decisions, except in cases of a fundamental breakdown of the editorial process.

Editorial decisions are based only on a manuscript’s scientific merit and are completely separate from the journal’s other interests. Authors’ ability to pay any publication charges has no bearing on whether or not a manuscript is accepted for publication in the journal.

Appeals

Authors who believe that an editorial decision has been made in error may lodge an appeal with the Editorial Office. Appeals are considered only if the authors provide detailed evidence of a misunderstanding or mistake by a reviewer or editor. Appeals are considered carefully by the Editor-in-Chief, whose decision is final.

Confidentiality

The journal maintains confidentiality with all unpublished manuscripts. Editors will not do the following:

disclose a reviewer’s identity unless the reviewer makes a reasonable request for such disclosure
discuss the manuscript or its contents with anyone not directly related with the manuscript or its peer review
use any data or information from the manuscript in their own work or publication
use information obtained from the peer-review process to provide an advantage to themselves or anyone else or to disadvantage any individual or organization.

Conflicts of Interest

A conflict of interest exists when there are actual, perceived, or potential circumstances that could influence an editor’s ability to act impartially when assessing a manuscript. Such circumstances might include having a personal or professional relationship with an author, working on the same topic as or in direct competition with an author, or having a financial stake in the work or its publication.

Members of the journal’s Editorial Board undertake to declare any conflicts of interest when handling manuscripts. An editor who declares a conflict of interest is unassigned from the manuscript in question and replaced by a new editor.

Errata and Retractions

The journal recognizes the importance of maintaining the integrity of published literature.

A published article that contains an error may be corrected through the publication of an erratum. Errata describe errors that could significantly affect the scientific integrity of a published article, the reputation of its authors, or the journal itself. Authors who wish to correct a published article should contact the editor who handled their manuscript or the Editorial Office and provide full details of the error and their requested changes. In cases where coauthors disagree over a correction, the Editor-in-Chief may consult the Editorial Board or external peer reviewers for advice. If a correction is published, any dissenting authors will be noted in the text.

A published article that contains invalid or unreliable results or conclusions, has been published elsewhere, or has infringed codes of conduct (covering research or publication ethics) may be retracted. Individuals who believe that a published article should be retracted should contact the journal’s Editorial Office with full details of their concerns. The Editor-in-Chief will investigate further and contact the authors of the published article for their response. In cases where coauthors disagree with a retraction, the Editor-in-Chief may consult the Editorial Board or external peer reviewers for advice. If a retraction is made and published, any dissenting authors will be noted in the text.

The decision to publish errata or retractions is made at the sole discretion of the Editor-in-Chief.

Editors’ Own Publications in the Journal

Any member of the journal’s Editorial Board who is an author of a submitted manuscript is automatically excluded from the peer-review process. Within the journal’s online manuscript submission and tracking system, they will be able to see their manuscript as an author but not as an editor, thereby maintaining the confidentiality of the peer review.

A manuscript authored by an editor of KONA Powder and Particle Journal will be subjected to the same high standards of peer review and editorial decision making as any manuscript submitted to the journal.

Responding to Potential Ethical Breaches

The journal will respond to allegations of ethical breaches by following its own policies and, where possible, the guidelines of the Committee of Publication Ethics.

Reviewer Responsibilities

Confidentiality

As part of their responsibilities, reviewers agree to maintain confidentiality with unpublished manuscripts at all times. By accepting the invitation to review a manuscript, reviewers agree not to do the following:

disclose their role in reviewing the manuscript
reveal their identity to any of the authors of the manuscript
discuss the manuscript or its contents with anyone not directly involved in the review process
involve anyone else in the review (for example, a postdoctoral or PhD student) without first requesting permission from the Editor
use any data or information from the manuscript in their own work or publications
use information obtained from the peer-review process to provide an advantage to themselves or anyone else or to disadvantage any individual or organization.

Conflicts of Interest

A conflict of interest exists where there are actual, perceived, or potential circumstances that could influence a reviewer’s ability to assess a manuscript impartially. Such circumstances might include having a personal or professional relationship with an author, working on the same topic as or in direct competition with an author, having a financial stake in the work or its publication, or having seen earlier versions of the manuscript.

Editors try to avoid conflicts of interest when inviting reviewers, but it is not always possible to identify potential bias. Reviewers are asked to declare any conflicts of interest to the Editor, who will determine the appropriate course of action.

Data Repository Information

In order to promote open data discoverability and use of research outputs, this journal encourages authors to submit the data files supporting your manuscript work, which can be deposited in the journal’s J-STAGE Data* site <https://jstagedata.jst.go.jp/kona> after acceptance of the paper through the peer-review process.

These data may describe observations, experiments, modeling or analyses and may take the form of databases, simulations, movies, large figures or as otherwise appropriate.

If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact the KONA Editorial Office (contact_zainq@hmc.hosokawa.com).

J-STAGE Data* is the data repository provided by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) to promote research data sharing and reuse. J-STAGE Data facilitates the circulation of research data associated with articles published on J-STAGE, an electronic journal platform for science and technology information in Japan. Each data item on J-STAGE Data and corresponding J-STAGE articles are linked to each other. The use of J-STAGE Data is for free and user registration is not required.
See the J-STAGE Data Frequently Asked Questions.
Learn about J-STAGE Data Site Navigation and Search.