Information For Readers
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The Authors may submit articles electronically round the year using Article Submission System. The editors reserve the right to reject articles without sending them out for review. Submitted articles should not have been previously published or be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. Briefs and research notes are not published in this journal. Submitted articles must be within the scope of the journal. All articles go through a peer review process.
Authors must acknowledge that they have read and agree to the content of the submitted article with an acceptable standard of good English grammar and usage. A tool like Grammarly (or similar) can be used for proofreading articles before submission. Authors should also be aware of editorial and publishing policies.
Article Submission/ Submission Criteria:
Authors should be aware of the Submission Guidelines of publishing which are set out below:
- Types of Articles
- Submission Checklist
- Article Format/Structure
- Article Submission and Template
- Abstract
- Keywords/Index Items
- Cover Letter
- Revised Article
- Copy Editing Services
- Methods
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Author Contributions
- Competing Interests/ Conflict of Interest
- Availability of Data and Material/ Data Access Statements
- Code of Conduct for Medical Ethics: Animal and Human Research Participants
- Consent to Participate/Consent to Publish
- Supplementary Information
- Figure Legends
- Tables
- Equations
- General Figure Guidelines
- Figures for Peer Review
- Figures for Publication
- Statistical Guidelines
- Chemical and Biological Nomenclature and Abbreviations
- Gene Nomenclature
- Characterization of Chemical and Biomolecular Materials
Types of Articles
Authors must ensure that while submitting the article, it should fall under the appropriate category from the list of options:
- Original Research – Original research articles should describe confirmed findings and experimental methods should be given with sufficient details for others to verify the work. The length of an original article should describe and interpret the work clearly.
- Occasional Review – Review articles, often known as literature reviews or secondary sources, synthesize or assess primary source research. In general, they summarize the status of research in a certain area. Review articles usually focus on presenting and discussing recent developments in a field.
- Case Study – A case study is a detailed study of a specific area that involves researching a problem, often using an experiment or survey, and providing potential solutions from that research. It is an in-depth look at one research problem, looking at it from different angles and aspects.
Submission Checklist:
Author (s) can use this list to carry out a final check of article submission before sending it to the journal for peer review process. Authors should ensure to have the following items in the article which should be available:
- Authorship:
Authorship provides credit and bears responsibility for a researcher’s contribution to a study.- Authors Contacts: Authors should have been designated with contact details: Authors should have been designated with contact details: Full postal address, E-mail address, and Orcid ID.
- Corresponding Authors (CAs): CAs are authors and act as a communicator between authors and the journal. CAs provide the basic requirements of articles to the Journal. CAs must have Orcid ID. CAs should not be more than three. This responsibility incorporates answering any future queries about methodology and materials. Ensure that the e-mail address is given, and the contact details are kept up to date by the corresponding author.
- Basic Requirements for the Article- A Brief Summary:
- Words Count: Not more than 5000 words (excluding Abstract, Methods, Tables, References, and figure legends).
- Page Range: Not more than 20 pages.
- Submitting File Size: Not more than 5MB (.doc/.docx/ PDF).
- Title: Not more than 50 words.
- Abstract: Minimum of 200 words and maximum of 300 words.
- Keywords: Minimum of 3 and maximum of 5 appropriate keywords.
- Font Name and Font Size: Times New Roman, Font Size 10, single or double column with 1.5 line spacing and justified.
- Figures: Not more than 8 figures. The figures should be in 300 dpi or more.
- Tables: Not more than 8 tables. The length of the table should not be more than 01 page.
- Figure Legends: Not more than 350 words per figure.
- Graphical Abstracts / Highlights files: Optional.
- Supplemental files: Optional
- Spell and Grammar: Compulsory.
- Abbreviations: Not more than 10 abbreviations. Ensure consistency of abbreviations throughout the article.
- Declaration: Authors are required to include a declaration of accountability in the article, counting review-type articles, that stipulate the involvement of each author. The level of detail differs; some subjects yield articles that consist of isolated efforts that are easily voiced in detail, while other areas function as group efforts at all stages. It should be after the conclusion and before the references.
- Conflicts of Interest/ Competing Interests: The article should not be under Conflict of Interest.
- Funding/ Grants/ Financial Support: Authors should detail if any financial support received.
- Ethical Approval and Consent to Participate: The authors must submit a statement that the study does not require ethical approval and consent to participate with evidence.
- Availability of Data and Material/ Data Access Statement: The Authors should mention source of research data and data access terms and conditions in the article.
- Authors Contributions: Authors should describe the role of each author if there is more than one author. See authorship for more details.
- References: Not more than 60 references.
- Referee suggestions: To be bestowed based on journal requirements.
- Footnote: Footnote should not be employed.
Article Format/Structure:
Article text file (msword/pdf) should start with a title page that shows author affiliations and contact information, identifying the corresponding author with an asterisk. For the main body of the text, there are no specific requirements. It can be organized in a way that best suits the research. However, the following structure will be suitable in many cases:
- Abstract: Do not incorporate any references in Abstract. Verify they serve both as a general introduction to the topic and as a brief, non-technical summary of the main results and their implications.
- Keywords/index terms: There should be appropriate keywords.
- Introduction: Articulate the objectives of the work and bestow an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results.
- Material and Methods: Specify sufficient particulars to Favour the work to be reproduced by an independent researcher. Methods that are already published should be illustrated and indicated by a reference. If quoting directly from a previously published method, use quotation marks and cite the source. Any modifications to existing methods should be proclaimed.
- Theory/Calculation: A Theory section should only extend and not repeat the background to the article already dealt with in the Introduction and lay the foundation for further work. In contrast, a Calculation section represents a practical development from a theoretical basis.
- Results (with subheadings if applicable): Results should be clear and concise.
- Discussion (without subheadings): This should explore the significance of the results of the work without repetition. A combined Results and Discussion section is often appropriate. Avoid extensive citations and discussion of published literature.
- Conclusion: The main conclusions of the study should be presented in a short Conclusions section, which may stand alone or form a subsection of a Discussion or Results and Discussion section.
- Acknowledgement: Individuals who imparted cooperation during the research (e.g., providing language help, writing assistance, or proofreading the article, etc.) should be listed here.
- Declaration: Authors are required to include a declaration of accountability in the article, counting review-type articles, that stipulate the involvement of each author. The level of detail differs; Some subjects yield articles that consist of isolated efforts that are easily voiced in detail, while other areas function as group efforts at all stages. It should be after the conclusion and before the references.
- Conflicts of Interest/ Competing Interests: The article should not be under Conflict of Interest.
- If not applicable: No conflicts of interest to the best of our knowledge.
- If applicable: Yes, having competing interests. Provide proper explanation. Examples: 1. The author(s) declare no competing interests. 2. Dr X’s work has been funded by A. He has received compensation as a member of the scientific advisory board of B and owns stock in the company. He also has consulted for C and received compensation. Dr Y and Dr Z declare no potential conflict of interest.
- Funding/ Grants/ Financial Support: The authors should provide any kind of funds, grants, or financial support details.
- If not applicable: No, I did not receive.
- If applicable: Yes, received funds/grants/financial support for this article. Example: This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health [grant numbers xxxx, yyyy]; the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, WA [grant number zzzz]; and the United States Institutes of Peace [grant number aaaa]. Also include a website link if any.
- Ethical Approval and Consent to Participate: The author must submit a statement that the study does not require ethical approval and consent to participate with evidence.
- If not applicable: No, the article does not require ethical approval and consent to participate with evidence.
- If applicable: Yes, required ethical approval and consent to participate with evidence. The author must submit a statement that the study does not require ethical approval with evidence. If available, then please write here.
- Availability of Data and Material/ Data Access Statement: Authors should mention source of research data and data access terms and conditions in the article.
- If not applicable: Not relevant.
- If applicable: Yes, it is relevant. Availability of Data and Material tells the reader where the research data associated with an article is available, and under what conditions the data can be accessed. They also include links (where applicable) to the data set.
- Authors Contributions: Authors should describe the role of each author if there are more than 01 authors.
- Not applicable: I am only the sole author of the article.
- If applicable: It is applicable if having more than 01 authors. All authors have individual partnerships in this article. OR All authors have equal participation in this article. Authors are required to include a declaration of accountability in the article, counting review-type articles, that stipulates the involvement of each author. The level of detail differs; Some subjects yield articles that consist of isolated efforts that are easily voiced in detail, while other areas function as group efforts at all stages.
- Conflicts of Interest/ Competing Interests: The article should not be under Conflict of Interest.
- Figures: Ensure that each illustration has a caption. Equip captions separately and not attached to the figure. A caption should comprise a brief title (not on the figure itself) and a description of the illustration. Keep text in the illustrations themselves to a minimum but clearly explain all symbols and abbreviations used.
- Tables: All tables should be editable as text and not as images. Tables can be implanted either next to the relevant text in the article, or on separate page(s) at the end. Number tables consecutively in accordance with their emergence in the text and place any table notes beneath the table body. Use tables sparingly and avoid duplicity of the data presented in them described elsewhere in the article. Please avoid using vertical rules and shading in table cells.
- Appendices: If there is more than one appendix, they should be identified as A, B, etc. Formula and equations in appendices should be given separate numbering: Eq. (A.1), Eq. (A.2), etc.; in a subsequent appendix, Eq. (B.1) and so on. Similarly for tables and figures: Table A.1; Fig. A.1, etc.
- References: Ensure that all references mentioned in the reference list are cited in the text, and vice versa.
Article Submission and Template:
An article can be submitted online directly to the journal using the ‘Article Submission System’. A submission template is available in the download section that will help to prepare msword file within the journal formatting criteria.
Abstract:
A concise and factual abstract is mandatory. The abstract should briefly state the intention of the research, the principal results and major conclusions. An abstract is often presented separately from the article, so it must be able to stand alone. For this reason, References should be avoided, but if essential, then cite the author(s) and year(s). Also, non-standard, or uncommon abbreviations should be avoided, but if essential they must be defined at their first mention in the abstract itself.
Keywords/ Index Terms:
Promptly after the abstract, bestow a maximum of 6 keywords, using American spelling and avoid general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, ‘and’, ‘of’). Be sparing with abbreviations: only abbreviations firmly established in the field will be eligible. These keywords will be used for indexing purposes.
Cover Letter:
The submission must also comprise a cover letter. In the cover letter, author should incorporate:
- The affiliation and contact information of the corresponding author.
- A brief explanation of why the work is appropriate for the journal.
- The names and contact information of any reviewer’s author consider suitable.
- The names of any referee’s author would like to be excluded from reviewing.
Finally, authors should affirm whether he/she has had any prior discussions with journal Editorial Board Member about the work described in their article.
Revised Articles:
For revised articles, impart all textual content in a single file, composed using Microsoft Word (.doc/.docx). Please note, journal does not acknowledge PDF files for the article text of revised articles. Please Ensure:
- Format the article file as single-column text with justification.
- Number the pages using a number (ex. 1,2,3..) in the footer of each page.
- Adopt the Times New Roman fonts for text, and the ‘symbols’ font for any Greek characters.
- Supply any figures as individual files or incorporate figures into the main article file, ensuring that the image quality in 300 dpi.
- Integrate and supply any Supplementary Information as a separate file, preferably in PDF format.
- Comprise the title of the article and author list in the first page of the Supplementary Information file.
If the author does not wish to incorporate the article text and figures into a single file, he/she should furnish all textual content in a separate single file, composed using Microsoft Word.
Copy Editing Services:
In-depth copy editing is not yielded as part of the production process. So, if the author perceives that his/her article would benefit from someone looking at the copy, please consider using a copy editing or language editing service. This can either be done before submission or at the revision stage. Author can also get a fast, free grammar check of article that consider all aspects of readability in English.
American Journal Experts who will arbitrate these services are recommended. Please note that the use of an editing service is at author’s own expense and does not ensure that his/her article will be selected for peer-review or acknowledged for publication.
Methods:
Word limits are not imposed on the description of methods. Ensure that it encloses adequate exploratory and characterization data for others to be able to reproduce work. Authors should:
- Incorporate descriptions of standard protocols and experimental approaches.
- Only identify commercial suppliers of reagents or instrumentation when the source is critical to the outcome of the experiments.
- Identify sources for kits author used in his/her procedures.
- Insert any experimental protocols that describe the synthesis of new compounds.
- Apply the systematic names of any new compound and put its bold Arabic numeral in the heading for the experimental protocol, indicating it thereafter by its assigned, bold numeral.
- Illustrate the experimental protocol in detail, referring to number of reagents in parentheses, when possible (eg 1.03 g, 0.100 mmol).
- Adopt standard abbreviations for reagents and solvents.
- Precisely identify safety hazards posed by reagents or protocols.
- Report isolated mass and percent yields at the end of each protocol.
If author is reporting experiments on live vertebrates (or higher invertebrates), humans or human samples, author must comprise a statement of ethical approval in the Methods section (see Code of Conduct for Medical Ethics: Animal and Human Research Participants for further information on formulating these statements).
References:
Edit references are not copied. Therefore, it is essential that the author formats them accurately, as they will be linked electronically to external databases where feasible. So, when formatting references, ensure that:
- Run sequentially (and are always numerical).
- Sit within square brackets.
- Only have one publication associated to each number.
- Only comprise articles or datasets that have been published or accepted by a named publication, recognized preprint server or data repository (if author include any preprints of accepted articles in reference list, ensure to submit them with the article).
- Incorporate published conference abstracts and numbered patents if authors wish.
- Do not comprise grant details and acknowledgements.
In reference list, author should:
- Incorporate all authors unless there are six or more, in that case only the first author should be mentioned, followed by ‘et al.’.
- Classify authors by last name first, followed by a comma and initials (followed by full stops) of given names.
- Adopt Roman text for Article and dataset titles, with only the first word of the title having an initial capital and written exactly as it appears in the work cited, ending with a full stop.
- Apply italics for book titles, giving all words in the title an initial capital.
- Apply italics for journal and data repository names, abbreviating them according to common usage (with full stops).
- Use bold for volume numbers and the subsequent comma.
- Contribute the full-page range (or article number), where appropriate.
Examples:
- Published Articles: For articles with more than five authors include only the first author’s name followed by ‘et al.’.
- Printed journals
Schott, D. H., Collins, R. N. & Bretscher, A. Secretory vesicle transport velocity in living cells depends on the myosin V lever arm length. J. Cell Biol. 156, 35-39 (2002). - Online only
Bellin, D. L. et al. Electrochemical camera chip for simultaneous imaging of multiple metabolites in biofilms. Nat. Commun. 7, 10535; 10.1038/ncomms10535 (2016).
- Printed journals
- Books: Smith, J. Syntax of referencing in How to reference books (ed. Smith, S.) 180-181 (Macmillan, 2013).
- Online Material:
- Babichev, S. A., Ries, J. & Lvovsky, A. I. Quantum scissors: teleportation of single-mode optical states by means of a nonlocal single photon. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0208066 (2002).
- Manaster, J. Sloth squeak. Scientific American Blog Network http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/psi-vid/2014/04/09/sloth-squeak (2014).
- Hao, Z., AghaKouchak, A., Nakhjiri, N. & Farahmand, A. Global integrated drought monitoring and prediction system (GIDMaPS) data sets. figshare https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.853801 (2014).
Acknowledgements:
Aggregate acknowledgements in a separate section at the end of the article before the references and do not, therefore, include them on the title page, as a footnote to the title or otherwise. List here those individuals who contributed cooperation during the research (e.g., providing language help, writing assistance or proofreading the article, etc.).
Author Contributions:
The author must supply an Author Contribution Statement as described in the Author Responsibilities section.
Please be aware:
- The author’s name which author gives as the corresponding author will be the main contact amid the review process and should not be changed.
- The information author bestows in the submission system will be used as the source of truth when his/her article is published.
Competing Interests/ Conflict of Interest:
Authors must yield a competing Interests Statement (see Competing Interests Statement section for further information on formulating these statements). If there is no conflict of interest, authors should include a statement declaring this.
Statements must be explicit and unambiguous, describing any potential competing interest (or lack thereof) for each contributing author. The information author bestows in the submission system will be used as the source of truth when his/her article is published.
Examples of declarations are:
- The author(s) declare no competing interests.
- Dr X’s work has been funded by A. He has received compensation as a member of the scientific advisory board of B and owns stock in the company. He also has consulted for C and received compensation. Dr Y and Dr Z declare no potential conflict of interest.
Availability of Data and Materials/ Data Access Statement:
Authors must include a Data Availability Statement in all submitted articles (at the end of the main text, before the References section); see ‘Availability of Data and Materials‘ section for further information on formulating these statements.
Code of Conduct for Medical Ethics: Animal and Human Research Participants:
If the research submission encompasses human or animal subjects, authors must include appropriate ethics declarations in the Methods section of the article.
- Approval for Animal Research:
For experiments involving live vertebrates and/or higher invertebrates, Method section must include a statement that:- Identifies the institutional and/or licensing committee that approved the experiments, including any relevant details.
- Confirms that all experiments were executed in accordance with relevant named guidelines and regulations.
- Confirms that the authors complied with the ARRIVE guidelines.
- Approval for Human Research Participants:
For experiments involving human subjects (or tissue samples), Method section must include a statement that:
- Identifies the institutional and/or licensing committee that approved the experiments, including any relevant details.
- Confirms that all experiments were performed in accordance with relevant named guidelines and regulations.
- Confirms that informed consent was obtained from all participants and/or their legal guardians.
Consent to Participate/Consent to Publish:
Authors should note that:
- Study participant names (and other personally identifiable information) must be eliminated from all text/figures/tables/images.
- The use of colored bars/shapes or blurring to obscure the eyes/facial region of study participants is not an adequate means of anonymization. For articles that include information or images that could lead to identification of a study participant, in the Methods section must incorporate a statement that confirms informed consent was obtained to publish the information/image(s) in an online open access publication.
Supplementary Information:
If any data that is essential to appraise the entitlements of article is not obtainable via a public depository, make sure you provide it as Supplementary Information. Authors should submit any Supplementary Information composed with the article so that journal can send it to referees during peer-review. This will be published online with accepted articles. It is vigorous that authors carefully check Supplementary Information before submission as any amendment after his/her article is published will require a formal correction. Journal do not edit, typeset, or proof Supplementary Information, so please present it precisely and concisely at preliminary submission, ensure it conforms to the style and terminology of the rest of the article.
To avoid any suspensions to publication, please follow the strategies below for creation, citation, and submission of your Supplementary Information:
- Authors can syndicate numerous pieces of Supplementary Information and supply them as a single composite file.
- Designate each item as Supplementary Table, Figure, Note, Data, Discussion, Equations or Methods, as appropriate. Number Supplementary Tables and Figures as, for example, “Supplementary Table S1”. This numbering should be separate from that used in tables and figures appearing in the main article. Supplementary Note or Methods should not be numbered; titles for these are optional.
- Denote each piece of supplementary substantial at the appropriate point(s) in the main article. Be sure to include the word “Supplementary” each time one is mentioned. Please do not refer to individual panels of supplementary figures.
- Adopt the following examples as a controller (note: abbreviate “Figure” as “Fig.” when in the middle of a sentence): “Table 1 provides a particular subset of the most active compounds. The entire list of 96 compounds can be found as Supplementary Table S1 online.” “The biosynthetic pathway of L-ascorbic acid in animals involves intermediates of the D-glucuronic acid pathway (see Supplementary Fig. S2 online). Figure 2 shows…”.
- Reminisce to embrace a brief title and legend (incorporated into the file to appear near the image) as part of every figure submitted, and a title as part of every table.
- Retain file sizes as small as conceivable, with a maximum size of 50 MB, so that they can be downloaded quickly.
Figure Legends:
Figure legends must commence with a brief title sentence for the whole figure and continue with a short description of what is exhibited in each panel. Use any symbols in sequence and minimize the methodological details as much as possible. Keep each legend total to not more than 350 words. Yield text for figure legends in numerical order after the references.
Tables:
Please acknowledge tables as editable text and not as images. Tables can be positioned either next to the relevant text in the article, or on a separate page(s) at the end. Number tables consecutively in accordance with their appearance in the text and place any table notes below the table body. Be sparing in the use of tables and ensure that the data presented in them do not duplicate results described elsewhere in the article. Please avoid using vertical rules and shading in table cells.
Equations:
Include equations and mathematical expressions in the main text of the article. Identify equations that are referred to in the text by parenthetical numbers, such as (1), and refer to them in the article as “equation (1)” etc.
For submissions in a .doc or .docx format, please ensure that all equations are yielded in an editable Word format. Authors can compose equation editor included in Microsoft Word.
General Figure Guidelines:
Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to publish any figures or illustrations that are protected by copyright, including figures published elsewhere and pictures taken by professional photographers. Images downloaded from the internet cannot be published without appropriate permission.
Authors should state the source of any of the images used. If the author or one of co-authors has drawn the images, it should be mentioned in the acknowledgements. For software, authors should state the name, version number and URL.
Number any figures separately with Arabic numerals in the order they occur in the text of the article. Include error bars when appropriate. Include a description of the statistical treatment of error analysis in the figure legend.
Scheme should not be used. Authors should submit sequences of chemical reactions or experimental procedures as figures, with appropriate captions. Authors may include in the article a limited number of uncaptioned graphics depicting chemical structures – each labelled with their names, by a defined abbreviation, or by the bold Arabic numeral.
Use a clear, Times New Roman typeface (for example, Helvetica) for figure lettering. Use the same typeface in the same font size for all figures in the article. For Greek letters, use a ‘symbols’ font. Put all display items on a white background, and avoid excessive boxing, unnecessary color, spurious decorative effects (such as three-dimensional ‘skyscraper’ histograms) and highly pixelated computer drawings. Never truncate the vertical axis of histograms to exaggerate small differences. Ensure, labelling is of sufficient size and contrast to be legible, even after appropriate reduction. The thinnest lines in the final figure should be not smaller than one point wide. The author will be sent proof that will include figures.
- Figures divided into parts should be labelled with a lower-case, bold letter (a, b, c and so on) in the same type size as used elsewhere in the figure.
- Lettering in figures should be in lower-case type, with only the first letter of each label capitalized.
- Units should have a single space between the number and the unit, and follow SI nomenclature (for example, ms rather than msec) or the nomenclature common to a particular field.
- Thousands should be separated by commas (1,000).
- Unusual units or abbreviations should be spelled out in full or defined in the legend.
- Scale bars should be used rather than magnification factors, with the length of the bar defined on the bar itself rather than in the legend.
In legends, please adopt visual cues rather than verbal explanations such as “open red triangles”. Avoid unnecessary figures: data presented in small tables or histograms, for instance, can generally be stated briefly in the text instead. Figures should not encompass more than one panel unless the parts are logically associated; each panel of a multipart figure should be assessed so that the whole figure can be diminished by the same amount and reproduced at the smallest size in which essential details are visible.
Figures for Peer Review:
At the initial submission stage of the article, incorporate figures into the main article file, ensuring that any figures are of sufficient quality to be clearly legible. When submitting a revised article, upload all the figures as separate figure files or incorporate figures into the main article file, ensuring that the image quality and formatting conforms to the specifications below.
Figures for Publication:
Authors must supply each complete figure as a separate file upload. Multi-part/panel figures must be processed and arranged as an independent file (including all sub-parts; a, b, c, etc.). Please do not upload each panel individually.
Please read the Digital Images Integrity section for further information on formulating these statements. When possible, original digital figures are preferred to be used to ensure the highest-quality reproduction in the journal. When creating and submitting digital files, please follow the guidelines below. Failure to do so, or to adhere to the following guidelines, can significantly delay publication of work. Journal remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
- Line Art, Graphs, Charts and Schematics: For optimal outcome, author should supply all line art, graphs, charts and schematics in vector format, such as EPS or AI. Please save or export it directly from the application in which it was made, making sure that data points and axis labels are apparently legible.
- Photographic and Bitmap Images: Please contribute all photographic and bitmap images in a bitmap image format such as tiff, jpg, png, or psd. If saving tiff files, please ensure that the compression option is selected to avert exceedingly large file sizes. Please do not supply Word or Power point files with placed images. Images can be supplied as RGB or CMYK (note: journal will not convert image color modes). Figures that do not meet these standards will not reproduce well and may delay publication until journal receive high-resolution images.
- Chemical Structures: Please produce Chemical structures using ChemDraw or a similar program. All chemical compounds must be assigned a bold, Arabic numeral in the order in which the compounds are presented in the article text. Structures should then be exported into a 300 dpi RGB tiff file before being submitted.
- Stereo Images: Author should exhibit stereo diagrams for divergent ‘wall-eyed’ viewing, with the two panels separated by 5.5 cm. In the final accepted version of the article, authors should submit the stereo images at their final page size.
Statistical Guidelines:
If the article incorporate statistical testing, it should state the name of the statistical test, the n value for each statistical analysis, the comparisons of interest, a justification for the use of that test (including, for example, a discussion of the normality of the data when the test is appropriate only for normal data), the alpha level for all tests, whether the tests were one-tailed or two-tailed, and the actual P value for each test (not merely “significant” or “P < 0.05”). Please clarify which statistical test was used to generate every P value. Use of the word “significant” should always be accompanied by a P value; otherwise, use “substantial,” “considerable,” etc.
Data sets should be summarized with descriptive statistics, which should include the n value for each data set, a clearly labelled measure of Centre (such as the mean or the median), and a clearly labelled measure of variability (such as standard deviation or range).
Ranges are more appropriate than standard deviations or standard errors for small data sets. Graphs should include clearly labelled error bars. Authors must state whether a number that follows the ± sign is a standard error (s.e.m.) or a standard deviation (s.d.).
Justify the use of a particular test and explain whether the data conforms to the assumptions of the tests. Three errors are particularly common:
- Multiple Comparisons: When accomplishing multiple statistical comparisons on a single data set, authors should explain how they adjusted the alpha level to avoid an inflated Type I error rate, or authors should select statistical tests appropriate for multiple groups (such as ANOVA rather than a series of t-tests).
- Normal Distribution: Many statistical evaluations require that the data be approximately normally distributed; when using these tests, authors should demonstrate how author examine his/her data for normality. If the data does not meet the assumptions of the test, authors should adopt a non-parametric alternative instead.
- Small Sample Size: When the sample size is small (less than about 10), authors should use tests appropriate to small samples or justify the use of large-sample tests.
Chemical and Biological Nomenclature and Abbreviations:
Authors should analyze molecular structures by bold, Arabic numerals assigned in the order of presentation in the text. Once identified in the main text or a figure, Authors may refer to compounds by their names, by a defined abbreviation, or by the bold Arabic numeral (if the compound is referred to consistently as one of these three).
When conceivable, Authors should mention chemical compounds and biomolecules adopting systematic nomenclature, preferably using IUPAC. Authors should adopt standard chemical and biological abbreviations. Please ensure that define unconventional or specialist abbreviations at their first occurrence in the text.
Gene Nomenclature:
Use authorized nomenclature for gene symbols and employ symbols rather than italicized full names (for example Ttn, not titin). Please consider the appropriate nomenclature databases for correct gene names and symbols. An appropriate resource is Entrez Gene.
Get approved human gene symbols from HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC), e-mail: hgnc@genenames.org; see also www.genenames.org.
Obtain approved mouse symbols from The Jackson Laboratory, e-mail: nomen@informatics.jax.org; see also www.informatics.jax.org/mgihome/nomen.
For proposed gene names that are not already approved, please submit the gene symbols to the appropriate nomenclature committees as soon as possible, as these must be deposited and approved before publication of an article.
Avoid scheduling multiple names of genes (or proteins) separated by a slash, as in ‘Oct4/Pou5f1’, as this is ambiguous (it could mean a ratio, a complex, alternative names, or different subunits). Use one name throughout and include the other at first mention: ‘Oct4 (also known as Pou5f1)’.
Characterization of Chemical and Biomolecular Materials:
Journal is committed to publish technically intact research. The Article submitted to the journal will be adhered to rigorous standards with respect to experimental methods and characterization of new compounds.
Authors must yield requisite data to support submitted assignment of identity and purity for each new compound illustrated in the article. Please yield a statement endorse the source, identity and purity of known compounds that are central to the scientific study, even if they are purchased or resynthesized using published methods:
- Chemical Identity: Chemical recognition for organic and organometallic compounds should be established through spectroscopic analysis. Standard peak listings (see formatting guidelines below) for 1H NMR and proton-decoupled 13C NMR should be bestowed for all new compounds. Other NMR data should be reported (31P NMR, 19F NMR, etc.) when appropriate. For new materials, authors should also bestow mass spectral data to support molecular weight identity. High-resolution mass spectral (HRMS) data is preferred. Authors may report UV or IR spectral data for the identification of characteristic functional groups, when appropriate. Authors should yield melting-point ranges for crystalline materials. Authors may report specific rotations for chiral compounds. Authors should administer references, rather than detailed mechanisms, for acknowledged compounds, unless their protocols constitute a departure from or refinement on published methods.
- Combinational Compound Libraries: When depicting the establishment of combinatorial libraries, authors should include standard characterization data for a diverse panel of library components.
- Biomolecular Identity: For advanced biopolymeric materials (oligosaccharides, peptides, nucleic acids, etc.), direct structural analysis by NMR spectroscopic methods may not be hypothetical. In these cases, authors must administer evidence of identity based on sequence (when appropriate) and mass spectral characterization.
- Biological Constructs: Authors should contribute sequencing or functional data that validates the integrity of their biological construction (plasmids, fusion proteins, site-directed mutants, etc.) either in the article text or the Methods section, as appropriate.
- Sample Purity: Journal solicitate evidence of sample purity for respective new compound. Methods for purity analysis depend on the compound class. For most organic and organometallic compounds, purity may be demonstrated by high field 1H NMR or 13C NMR data, although elemental analysis (±0.4%) is encouraged for small molecules. Authors may use quantitative analytical methods including chromatographic (GC, HPLC, etc.) or electrophoretic analyses to demonstrate purity for small molecules and polymeric materials.
- Spectral Data: Please contribute precise spectral data for advanced compounds in list form (see below) in the Methods section. Figures containing spectra generally will not be published as an article figure unless the data are directly relevant to the central conclusions of the article. Authors are encouraged to include high-quality images of spectral data for key compounds in the Supplementary Information. Authors should list specific NMR assignments after integration values only if they were unambiguously determined by multidimensional NMR or decoupling experiments. Authors should contribute information about how assignments were made in a general Methods section. Example format for compound characterization data. mp: 100-102 °C (lit.ref 99-101 °C); TLC (CHCl3:MeOH, 98:2 v/v): Rf = 0.23; [α]D = -21.5 (0.1 M in n-hexane); 1H NMR (400 MHz, CDCl3): δ 9.30 (s, 1H), 7.55-7.41 (m, 6H), 5.61 (d, J = 5.5 Hz, 1H), 5.40 (d, J = 5.5 Hz, 1H), 4.93 (m, 1H), 4.20 (q, J = 8.5 Hz, 2H), 2.11 (s, 3H), 1.25 (t, J = 8.5 Hz, 3H); 13C NMR (125 MHz, CDCl3): δ 165.4, 165.0, 140.5, 138.7, 131.5, 129.2, 118.6, 84.2, 75.8, 66.7, 37.9, 20.1; IR (Nujol): 1765 cm-1; UV/Vis: λmax 267 nm; HRMS (m/z): [M]+ calcd. for C20H15Cl2NO5, 420.0406; found, 420.0412; analysis (calcd., found for C20H15Cl2NO5): C (57.16, 57.22), H (3.60, 3.61), Cl (16.87, 16.88), N (3.33, 3.33), O (19.04, 19.09).
- Crystallographic Data for Small Molecules: If the article is reporting new three-dimensional structures of small molecules from crystallographic analysis, authors should include a .cif file and a structural figure with probability ellipsoids for publication as Supplementary Information. These must have been checked using the IUCR’s CheckCIF routine, and authors must include a PDF copy of the output with the submission, together with a justification for any alerts reported. Authors should submit crystallographic data for small molecules to the Cambridge Structural Database and the deposition number referenced appropriately in the article. Full access must be contributed to the publication.
- Macromolecular Structural Data: If the article is reporting new structures, it should contain a table summarizing structural and refinement statistics. Templates are available for such tables describing NMR and X-ray crystallography data. To facilitate assessment of the quality of the structural data, authors should submit with the article, a stereo image of a portion of the electron density map (for crystallography articles) or of the superimposed lowest energy structures (≳10; for NMR articles). If the reported structure represents a novel’s overall fold, authors should also yield a stereo image of the entire structure (as a backbone trace).