Author Guidelines
THIS JOURNAL IS NO LONGER ACCEPTING SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS
Instructions for Authors (updated on February 18th, 2009)
The Annual Review of Biomedical Sciences - ARBS - publishes peer-refereed reviews on diverse topics of the Biomedical Sciences. Coverage in ARBS spans subject areas such as Biochemistry, Genetics, Morphology, Physiology, Psychology, Behavior, Ecology and Evolution. Reviews on the whole range of animals, including invertebrates, vertebrates and humans, are included. ARBS welcomes reviews with medical and production approaches. The reviews may focus on practical, basic, epidemiological or clinical approaches, and may involve molecular, systemic or whole-organism aspects. The reviews should highlight unresolved questions and future directions, and provide an up-to-date synopsis for research workers in the chosen field. Reviews with bold and original proposals are especially welcome.
The manuscripts submitted to this journal may not have not been submitted to another periodical. Reproduction of articles published in the ARBS Annual Review of Biomedical Sciences is forbidden without previous written authorization by the Editorial Board of this periodical.
Submission of the Manuscript
Submissions should be in electronic format. Use a word processor; formatted to Windows for PCs. Please, name the files carefully with the author's name. By submitting a manuscript, the authors agree that the contribution will be subjected to an anonymous peer-review system.
Publication
ARBS has been exclusively online since volume 6 (2004). Each article is published in PDF format, which appears a few days after the final proof is approved by both author and style editors. This article-based scheme speeds up publication and each current volume is completed on December 31st of the respective year.
Manuscript Preparation
1. Cover Letter.
All submissions should be accompanied by a cover letter signed by the corresponding author stating the following information:
- The title of the paper.
- Confirmation that written permission has been obtained from all authors whose work is cited as a personal communication, unpublished work, or work in press, but are not an author of the manuscript.
- Confirmation that written permission has been obtained from all publishers, individuals, or institutions that hold copyright or exclusive license for any work (figure, table, textual extract) included in the submission, whether the work is verbatim or modified.
2. General:Manuscripts must be in English. Write with precision, clarity, and economy; use the active voice whenever appropriate. Manuscripts should be in A4 format, Times New Roman, 12 points. Double-space everything, including references, figure legends, and tables. Number pages at the top right, and number lines of the text in the left margin. Please use the word-processing feature "line numbering" to number the lines. Number all lines in sequence throughout the text, including title, tables, and figure legends, thus making it easy for Reviewers to be specific in their comments. Do not use footnotes.
3. Title (first page): the title should be concise (less than 120 characters, including spaces between words) and attractive for potential readers, yet retain accuracy, be informative, and be suitable for indexing. Express the main idea of the manuscript and avoid wordy expressions like "study, collaboration, review etc.". Do not use abbreviations or acronyms.
4. Authors (first page): author names should be typewritten, in full, below the title, and their affiliations indicated below by numbers (1, 2, 3 ...). The author to whom correspondence, proofs and requests for reprints may be sent must be clearly indicated and his (her) complete address (including phone and fax numbers, and e-mail address) should be given.
5. Financial Support (first page): this is indicated as a footnote on the first page (do not include this item in the acknowledgment section).
6. Table of Contents (second page): please provide a concise table of contents to show the general organization of the review. Use the same section headings and subheadings in the text.
7. Abstract (third page): the abstract (one paragraph) should not exceed 250 words and must be suitable for indexing.
8. Keywords (third page): a list up to 7 indexing terms (from Index Medicus) should be provided.
9. Running-title: a shorter title (no more than 50 letters, including spaces) should be provided to appear on the bottom of the pages.
10. Introduction: the introduction should address the main question the review is intended to solve, give the fundamentals of such an aim and include definitions of important terms if necessary.
11. Headings and Subheadings:no special topics are required, but a logical sequence is necessary and comprised of an introductory idea, development and conclusion. When topics are shown, they should be underlined as in the following example: Introduction; Historical Background; Concluding Remarks. Headings and subheadings should be written with the initial letters capitalized (except articles and prepositions) and differentiated by numbering in the following sequence: 1, 1.1, 1.1.1 etc. The last heading should be "Concluding Remarks", where the main conclusions are outlined.
12. Illustrations:high quality originals should be provided by the authors. Captions should be sufficient to understand the illustration and saved on a separate page. Illustrations are accepted in B&W or color (at no cost).
- Figures: Include only essential figures. Format each figure so that it occupies no more space than is necessary to convey critical information. Do not include lengthy descriptive information in figure legends that is more appropriately incorporated into the text of the manuscript. Figures with multiple sections should be labeled as A, B etc. in the top left-hand corner. Magnification should be indicated by a scale bar in the bottom right-hand corner and the measurement given in the legend.
- Tables: Avoid unnecessary tables; do not put data in tabular form if the information can be presented adequately in a few sentences in the text. Tables with only one row of data will be returned to the author for incorporation into the text. Provide a title above the Table and footnotes at the bottom of the Table (indicated by superscripts).
13. Abbreviations: Use the metric system. Physical measurements should be in accordance with the Intenational System of Unities, e.g., mm, s, g, mg, m. Do not use "O" for "zero" or "l" for "one". Note that quantities and units are separated by one space (except degree centigrades - the unit is not separated from the quantity). Units are not abbreviations and thus are not followed by period (hour is abbreviated as h and not h.).
14. Acknowledgments: brief acknowledgments may be expressed. Note that financial support derived from evaluation of a submitted proposal usually does not require an acknowledgment, but rather a reference on the first page of the manuscript.
15. References: Authors bear total responsibility for the accuracy of all references. If references in an accepted manuscript are not properly formatted, the manuscript will be returned to the author for correction, thereby delaying publication. If changes to references are required in a proof, authors will be charged for each alteration. As far as possible, cite only referred, published work in peer-reviewed publications or other published works that are accessible to most scientists. Use "in press" only when formal acceptance has been granted. Dissertations, theses and abstracts presented at meetings should be cited only if strictly necessary. Authors of quoted unpublished material (e.g. manuscripts under review, internal reports, conference abstracts) should be inserted in the text and designated as "unpublished data" or "personal communication", but should be omitted from the reference list. These citations, however, should be avoided as much as possible. Do not use "apud", except when absolutely necessary. All Latin terms and scientific names of organisms should be in italics.
References with one author: arrange alphabetically by author's name; then chronologically (from the older to the newest one).
References with two authors: arrange alphabetically by the first author's name; then alphabetically by the second author's name; and then chronologically (from the older to the newest one).
References with more than two authors: arrange alphabetically by the first author's name; and then chronologically (from the older to the newest one).
References with more than 12 authors: arrange as articles with more than two authors, but include only name of the first author and then et al. (italics).
In case of doubt, see articles in the current volume. If strictly necessary, contact the style editors.
Abbreviate journal titles according to Medline or Biosis. When in doubt, give the full title. The style for the references is adapted from the proposal of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, 1991 Feb: 7:424-8. Examples of the main preferable references are shown below.
> Article
Binelli M, Thatcher WW. Conceptus-stimulated signal transduction pathway in the endometrium to maintain pregnancy. ARBS Ann Rev Biomed Sci 1999;1:59-85.
- Note
Abbreviations without ".".
No space between numbers (year, volume, pages).
Short references for pages: 169-198 should be replaced by 169-98.
> Works with more than 12 authors
Okasaki Y, et al. Analysis of the mouse transcriptome based on functional annotation of 60,770 full-length cDNAs. Nature 2002;420:563-73.
> Book
Nagata T. Radioautography in Medicine. Matsumoto: Shinshu University Press, 1994.
> Chapter in Book
Bertolini A, Gessa GL, Ferrari W. Penile erection and ejaculation: a central effect of ACTH-MSH-like peptides in mammals. In: Sandler M, Gessa GL (editors). Sexual Behavior: Pharmacology and Biochemistry. New York: Raven Press, 1975.
> Dissertation/Thesis
Davis JA. Fabrication of polydimethylsiloxane devices for embryo manipulation and culture. MSc Thesis, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2000.
> Online Publication
Data for this paper were retrieved from the Mouse Tumor Biology Database (MTB), Mouse Genome Informatics, The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Maine. 2004. World Wide Web (URL: http://www.informatics.jax.org/). (October, 1998 [cite the date the data were retrieved]).
> Citations in the Text
Authors are sequenced by date (first the older literature), and then in alphabetical order: (Montenegro, 1999; Welch, 1999; Antunes-Rodrigues, 2001) or (Montenegro, 1999, 2000, 2001; Antunes-Rodrigues, 2002). "," separates data from the same author, and ";" separates authors. Inside parenthesis or inside the phrase two authors are linked by "&": "... reduced tissue damage (Castro & Spencer, 2000)", "Castro & Spencer (2000) found that ...". In the text, more than two authors are referenced by the first author and "et al." (in italics).
> Acceptance Date
Date of acceptance of the ms is attributed on the day that all the necessary corrections for copy editing are given by the corresponding author.
> Page Proofs and Offprints
When a manuscript is accepted for publication, proofs of the peer-reviewed version are subjected to light copyediting to correct grammar and impose standard journal style and sent to the authors by e-mail as a PDF attachment.
Copyright Notice
Disclaimer
The Publisher does not assume responsibility for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of product liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions or ideas contained in the reviews published by ARBS. All procedures reported are expected to conform to ethical standards; inclusion in the journal does not constitute a guarantee or endorsement of the quality or value of such procedures.
Copyright
Submission of a review to this periodical will be taken to imply that it represents an original unpublished text, not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Written permission to publish illustrations must be obtained by the corresponding author before submission and any acknowledgment should be included in figure captions.
Terminology: Abbreviations, Acronyms, Eponyms, and Nomenclature
- Define ALL abbreviations, acronyms and names of genes, gene products, proteins, and protein products at first mention. Do not use abbreviations in titles. Only universally accepted abbreviations may be used without definition.
- Observe species-appropriate rules of nomenclature formatting with respect to use of upper and lower case letters and italics for both gene and protein designations.
- Avoid beginning sentences with very short abbreviations or acronyms, especially those that begin with a lower case letter (such as hCG, mRNA, etc.; use “Human CG”, “Messenger RNA”, etc., in the latter instances).
- Do not use the possessive form in eponymous terms: use Dulbecco Modified Eagle medium, not Dulbecco's Modified Eagle's medium; Hanks solution, not Hanks' solution; etc.
