Editorial Policy

The Editorial Board realizes that many highly selective journals accept only a small fraction of submitted papers; accordingly, even papers of very high quality may not be published in certain journals. Autophagy will reconsider papers that have been rejected by Cell, Developmental Cell, EMBO Journal, Journal of Cell Biology, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Nature, Nature Cell Biology, Nature Medicine, Neuron, Plant Cell and Science, and similar journals, in the original format of those journals, thus saving the authors effort and time. The authors are encouraged to enclose editorial and reviewers' comments from the above-mentioned journals. This will expedite the evaluation of the article; decisions on these papers will generally be made within two weeks. If the paper is accepted for publication in Autophagy, the authors will need to provide the paper in Autophagy format.

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Peer Review

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Non-Native Speakers of English

Authors who are not native speakers of English and submit manuscripts to international journals often receive negative comments from referees or editors about English-language usage. These problems can contribute to a decision to reject a paper. To help reduce the possibility of such problems, we strongly encourage such authors to take at least one or both of the following steps:

* Have your manuscript reviewed for clarity by a colleague whose native language is English.

* Use a service such as one of those listed below. An editor will improve the English to ensure that your meaning is clear and identify problems that require your review. Note that the use of such a service is at the author's own expense and risk and does not guarantee that the article will be accepted. Landes Bioscience accepts no responsibility for the interaction between the author and the service provider or for the quality of the work performed.

American Journal Experts
http://www.JournalExperts.com?rcode=Landes

American Journal Experts (AJE) provides professional language editing services to authors around the globe who wish to publish in scientific, technical, medical and humanities journals. AJE employs expert editors with post-graduate training in a wide variety of fields who will check your manuscripts not only for terminology and language specific to your field but also for proper English usage, grammar, punctuation, spelling, verb tense, and phrasing. In addition, AJE's professional editors will make sure the text sounds natural and the sentences are well constructed.

Visit their website for more information or to submit a document for their service.

Receive a 10% discount: enter code 'Landes' into your account to receive your discount.

Pre-submission inquiries are not necessary but are welcome. These may include either an abstract or a full length manuscript as an email attachment (Microsoft Word). Pre-submission inquiries should be emailed to the Editor, Daniel J. Klionsky.

• Authors can submit manuscripts online from anywhere in the world.
• Authors can track their manuscript through the peer review process.
• Author files are automatically converted into a PDF (Portable Document Format) file and submissions are acknowledged by email.
• Editors and reviewers access the PDF files on the website.

Manuscript Preparation

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Types of Papers

Research Papers should include the following sections:

1. Abstract: A single paragraph of fewer than 250 words. The primary goal of the abstract should be to make the general significance and conceptual advance of the work clearly accessible to a broad readership. References should not be cited in the abstract.
2. Key words: Include 5-10 for indexing purposes.
3. Introduction.
4 . Results: Present results in logical sequence in tables and illustrations. In the text, explain, emphasize or summarize the most important observations. Units of measurement should be expressed in accordance with Systeme International d'Unites (SI Units).
5 . Discussion: Do not repeat in detail data given in the Results section. Emphasize the new and important aspects of the study. Relate observations to other relevant studies. On the basis of your findings (and others'), discuss possible implications/conclusions. When stating a new hypothesis, clearly label it as such.

6. Patients and Methods/Materials and Methods: Describe selection of patients or experimental animals, including controls. Do not use patients' names or hospital numbers. Identify methods, apparatus (manufacturer's name and address), and procedures in sufficient detail to allow other workers to reproduce the results. Provide references and brief descriptions of methods that have been published. When using new methods. Evaluate their advantages and limitations. Identify drugs and chemicals, including generic name, dosage, and route(s) of administration.

Indicate whether the procedures were approved by the Ethics Committee of Human Experimentation in your country, or are in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975.

7. References: No more than 85.
8. Tables: Tables should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals and include descriptive titles and legends.
9. Figure legends.

In addition to basic research studies, Autophagy welcomes papers describing clinical studies that pertain to the field.

Brief Reports follow the general guidelines for Research Papers, but that are substantially shorter, usually having no more than two figures. Researchers who have made observations that are fundamentally important for scientists in the field of autophagy, but do not constitute a regular Research Paper, are encouraged to consider the Brief Report format. All of the guidelines for Research Papers apply, but the total number of references should not exceed 50.

Toolbox This category is for papers that follow the general guidelines for Research Papers or Brief Reports, but have a focus on methodology. The number of references should be commensurate with the length of the article.

Reviews should be recognized as scholarly by specialists in the field being covered, but should also be written with a view to informing readers who are not specialized in that particular field, and should therefore be presented using simple prose. Please avoid excessive jargon and technical detail. Reviews should capture the broad developments and implications of recent work. The opening paragraph should make clear the general thrust of the review and provide a clear sense of why the review is now particularly appropriate. The concluding paragraph should provide the reader with an idea of how the field may develop or future problems to be overcome, but should not summarize the article. To ensure that a review is likely to be accessible to as many readers as possible, it may be useful to ask a colleague from another discipline to read the review before submitting it. Submitted reviews are subject to the same page charges as full-length reports -- whether and how page charges will apply for commissioned reviews will be made clear when each review is commissioned. Reviews should include an abstract of 150 words and should cite no more than 150 references. Please include 5-10 key words for indexing purposes.

Commentaries and Views may be short and focused opinion articles, commentaries on papers recently published in Autophagy or elsewhere, or commentaries on significant conceptual changes, important trends or new directions in the field. These may include figures and up to 30 references. Please include an abstract of 150-200 words and 5-10 key words for indexing purposes.

Addenda are essentially an auto-commentary. The Editorial Board will solicit authors of the most significant recent and forthcoming papers, published elsewhere, to provide a short summary with additional insights, new interpretations or speculation on the relevant topic. These manuscripts may include data or models, which due to space limitations were not included or discussed in the original paper. In other words, the authors may provide biased and uncensored points of views, complementing their article. As with other papers published in Autophagy, addenda will appear on-line, in print and eventually on MedLine/Pubmed. Addenda will appear simultaneously, or very soon after, publication of the original paper.

Please include an abstract of 150-200 words and 5-10 key words for indexing purposes. The citation for the original article including the full author list, title of article and journal information should be included on the title page. The typical length of an addendum will be approximately 500-1,000 words and may include up to 30 references. There will be no page charges for addenda and you are encouraged to include figures; however, please note the journal policy regarding color charges below.

Meeting Reports are summaries of presentations from recent meetings in the field. Authors are encouraged to contact the Editor with proposals for meeting reports. Also, please contact the meeting organizers to verify that reports will be permitted. Please include an abstract of 150-200 words and 5-10 key words for indexing purposes.

Autophagy publishes cover illustrations that are taken from articles in each issue, or that are designed to accompany an accepted article.

The cover illustration should be scientifically interesting and visually attractive. The illustration need not be a figure from the paper but should be closely related to the subject of the paper. If you are interested in submitting a figure for use as the cover of Autophagy please email a high-resolution version of your image, conforming to the specifications below, and an explanatory caption of 50-60 words to Kathryn Sauceda.

Autophagy Cover Image Specifications: All potential cover images should be sized to fill the entire cover. 12'' high and 9'' wide should be the minimum size. Larger files are even better. Please remove all text, captions, etc. from the image. If you have variations of the image you may send additional files. Please send no more than 2 alternate versions.

Accepted formats and resolution:
1. Native Photoshop .psd (if graphics are built with layers, do not flatten), 300dpi, CMYK at 100% size.
2. 300 dpi .tif, CMYK at 100% size.
3. 300 dpi highest quality .jpg, CMYK at 100% size.
4. Scalable vector .eps line art or native Illustrator or Freehand files.