Guidelines for Authors

Editorial Policy

When a manuscript is submitted, the Editors assume that no similar paper has been or will be submitted for publication elsewhere. Further, it is understood that all authors listed on a manuscript have agreed to its submission. Upon acceptance, authors must transfer copyright to Landes Bioscience. Download copyright transfer form.

Manuscripts should conform to the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (URMSBJ), which can be found in full at www.icmje.org. This is in addition to their need to conform to our general guidelines about layout etc. In particular, the attention of authors is drawn to the following conditions (which are extracted from the URMSBJ):

Authorship

Authorship credit should be based on 1) substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; 2) drafting the article or reviewing/revising it critically for important intellectual content and 3) final approval of the version to the published. Each authors should meet all three of these criteria. Acquisition of funding, or general supervision of a research group, are not valid criteria for authorship. Individuals who have a lesser involvement should be thanked in the acknowledgements. If meeting these requirements causes problems for a particular manuscript, authors are encouraged to contact the Editor for advice on alternative ways in which other contributors can be listed.

Acknowledgment of funding

Authors should list all sources of funding for the research described in a manuscript in the 'Acknowledgments' section.

Potential conflicts of interest

Potential conflicts of interest exist when an author or reviewer has financial or personal interests in a publication that might, in principle, influence their scientific judgment. Financial interests include, but are not limited to, stock-holding, consultancy, paid expert testimony and honoraria; they also include any limitations on freedom to publish that are imposed on an author by an employer or funding agency. In order to encourage transparency without impeding publication, authors are required that to include a statement at the end of a manuscript that lists all potential financial interests or, if appropriate, that clearly states that there are none. Possible conflicts of interest of a personal nature should also be communicated to the Editor, who will discuss with the author whether these ought to be listed. Peer reviewers are also required to inform the Editor of any potential conflicts of interest, financial or otherwise.

Ethical statements

If a study involves any ethical issues, which include patient confidentiality and treatment of animals, the paper must be accompanied by a statement to the effect that the authors complied with all of the legal requirements pertaining to the location(s) in which the work was done.

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.

Corrections and retractions

Authors are obliged to notify the Editor at once if they find that a published manuscript contains an error, plagiarism or fraudulent data. The journal will publish a correction, retraction or notice of concern at the earliest possible date: authors are encouraged to contact the Editor to discuss the most appropriate course of action. Duplicate or redundant publication: We publish only original manuscripts that are not also published or going to be published elsewhere.

Duplicate publications, or redundant publications (re-packaging in different words of data already published by the same authors) will be rejected. If they are detected only after publication, the Editor reserves the right to publish a notice of the fact without requiring the authors' approval. Competing manuscripts on the same study, for example by collaborators who have split into rival teams after the data were gathered, are acceptable only under special circumstances: please contact the Editor for advice.

Plagiarism and other fraud

If the Editor has reason to suspect that a manuscript is plagiarized or fraudulent, he reserves the right to bring his concerns to the authors' sponsoring institution and any other relevant bodies.

Limits to freedom of expression

We are committed to academic freedom. It does, however, have to operate within the laws of the USA, where it is published. A liberal democracy that is committed to academic freedom, it does have certain legal restrictions on the publication of specific types of material (for example, defamation of character, incitement to racial hatred, material intended to aid terrorism etc). In the unlikely event that a manuscript contains material that contravenes these restrictions, the journal reserves the right to request that the material is removed from the manuscript or that the manuscript is withdrawn. In any case, the journal requires authors to take full legal responsibility for what they have written.

Peer Review

Each contribution is typically vetted by at least two expert reviewers who are either members of the Editorial Board or are recruited by Board members. Expedited reviews may be possible for papers that are submitted along with reviews from another journal as described above under "Editorial Policy."

For original articles or short reports, reviewers will be asked to comment on the following aspects of the submitted manuscripts:

  • significance to the field
  • study of data
  • quality of data
  • quality of controls
  • whether conclusions are justified
  • whether the effects are meaningful
  • whether the study is described clearly
  • comment on the novelty of the wor

If the reviewers believe the paper is potentially acceptable but could be improved, specific suggestions will be made for improvement.

Final acceptance of all submitted manuscripts is a decision made by the Editors in consultation with the Editorial Board and reviewers. If a manuscript is believed to not meet the standards of the journal or is otherwise lacking in scientific rigor or contains major deficiencies, the reviewers will attempt to provide constructive criticism to assist the authors in ultimately improving their work for publication, here or elsewhere. Manuscripts not invited for resubmission will not be reconsidered.

If a manuscript receives favorable reviews but is not accepted outright following the initial review, it may be invited for reconsideration with the expectation that the authors will fully address the reviewer’s criticisms. Resubmitted manuscripts with major revisions will be sent back for peer review.

Accepted papers will be rapidly posted to the journal website as an E-publication (ahead of print).

Open Access Policy

Landes Bioscience recognizes that some authors prefer that their research be freely available to all potential readers upon publication, and that certain funding agencies (Howard Hughes Medical Institute, MRC, NIH, Wellcome Trust) request open access of agency-funded research within six months to one year of publication.

To address these requests, we provide the following options for our authors and readers:

(1) One year after publication. ALL papers will become open access to ALL users throughout the world after having been published online for one year. Authors may deposit a PDF of the final manuscript with PubMed Central or UK PubMed Central once the paper has been made freely availble at the journal's website.

(2) Immediately upon publication. Authors may purchase open access of their paper at the proof stage and the paper will be made freely available at our website. Again, if the paper is funded by a NIH, MRC or Wellcome Trust grant, authors may deposit a PDF of the final manuscript  with PubMed Central or UK PubMed Central. The fee for open access is $750.

NIH Manuscript Submission System (link to: http://www.nihms.nih.gov/)

UK PubMed Central Manuscript Submission System (link to: https://ukmss.mimas.ac.uk/ukmss/login/uls.cgi?rss=wt&url=https://ukmss.mimas.ac.uk/MyUKPMC/menu.html)

Availability of Materials and Data

As a condition of publishing in any Landes Bioscience journal, authors should be able to provide any materials and/or protocols used in published experiments to other qualified researchers for their own use. Materials include (but are not limited to): cells, DNA, antibodies, reagents, organisms, mouse strains, and Drosophila strains. These should be made available in a timely manner and it is acceptable to request reasonable payment to cover the cost of maintenance and transport. If there are restrictions to availability, this should be made clear in the cover letter and in the Materials and Methods section of the Research Paper, Brief Communication or Report.

For materials such as mutant strains and cell lines, authors are encouraged to use established public repositories and provide relevant accession numbers wherever possible. Repositories include: 

Jackson Laboratory (mouse strains)

Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center at Indiana University (fly strains)

Drosophila Genomics Resource Center (DNA clones and cell lines)

MMRRC (Mutant Mouse Regional Resource Centers)

UK Stem Cell Bank

Papers reporting protein or DNA sequences and molecular structures should provide an accession number to any of the three major collaborative databases: DDBJ, EMBL or GenBank. It is only necessary to submit to one database as data are exchanged between DDBJ, EMBL and GenBank on a daily basis. The suggested wording for referring to accession-number information is: 'These sequence data have been submitted to the DDBJ/EMBL/GenBank databases under accession number U12345.'

Manuscript Submission

Pre-submission inquiries

Pre-submission inquiries are encouraged but not necessary. 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 Editors-in-Chief, J. Lee Nelson or William J. Burlingham.

Submission

We utilize an online submission and tracking system which is designed to provide a better, more efficient service to authors.

  1. Authors can submit manuscripts online from anywhere in the world.

  2. Authors can track their manuscript through the peer review process.

  3. Author files are automatically converted into a PDF (Portable Document Format) file and submissions are acknowledged by email.

  4. Editors and reviewers access the PDF files on the website.

Please read the guidelines for Manuscript Preparation below before submitting a manuscript to Chimerism: http://chimerism.msubmit.net/

All submissions must be accompanied by a completed copyright transfer form. Fax to Chimerism at 512.637.6079

There are no word limits for papers published in Chimerism, however, accepted manuscripts are published with the understanding that the author will pay a charge of $100 USD for pages 5 and greater (Pages 1–4 are FREE).

PLEASE NOTE: Black and white and color page charges are FREE for articles published in Chimerism's first year (2010).

For guidance, a four page article with 2 figures (approx 9 cm x 9 cm, =3.5" x 3.5") and 75 references would consist of approximately 2000 words of text including figure legends. A five page article with 3 figures (approx 9cmx9cm, =3.5" x 3.5") and 100 references would consist of approximately 2000 words of text including figure legends. These word counts do not include the references.

Under exceptional circumstances, when no grant or other source of support exists, the author(s) may apply (at the time of submission) to the Editors-in-Chief, J. Lee Nelson or William J. Burlingham, for a waiver of the page charges.

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

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 journal editing service.

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

Bioedit English Language Editing

Bioedit Ltd, an online English editing company, offers unprecedented, high-quality English editing of biomedical texts destined for submission to peer-reviewed journals in the life sciences. The texts are edited by a large, expert team of native English-speaking editors with PhDs and years of experience in a broad range of disciplines in medicine and biology.

• Editing of the same manuscript by up to three independent editors, including a subject-specific editor and a grammar expert.

• Tremendous value with no hidden costs.

• Express editing in less than 48 hours.

• Secure and confidential.

First-time clients will receive a special 20% rebate if they are submitting their work to a Landes Bioscience journal.

Editage

Editage, a leading international English editing, writing, and publication service provider, offers multiple-level editing services that check for meaning, punctuation, grammar, sentence construction, logic, structure, and journal formatting. Editage is a preferred brand for nonnative English speakers in East Asia.

• Subject-matter expertise—editors from bioscience disciplines
• Fast turnaround times—24-hour delivery for emergencies
• 24/7 online system—manage accounts, track manuscripts, post requests
• 100% confidentiality
• Unlimited questions for editor
• ISO 9001:2000-certified editing processes
• Free journal formatting

To submit a manuscript, please visit the website in your choice of language:

Japanese | English |Traditional Chinese | Korean

Mention “Landes Bioscience” as “Reference” while submitting manuscript and receive a flat 10% discount.

Global BioEditing

Global BioEditing is a specialist service for the editing of English in biological documents. Our editing will not only make your manuscripts appear as though written by a native speaker of English but will also clarify your writing.

Inter-Biotec

Inter-Biotec also provides a free online writing course to help biomedical scientists whose first language is not English to write and publish their papers in English-language journals.

SPI Professional Editing Services

Write Science Right

Manuscript Preparation

Text should be prepared in Microsoft Word, double-spaced, with page numbers throughout. Papers should be written as concisely as possible in clear, grammatical English and organized in the following manner:

  1. Title page, including title, author's names, degrees and affilitations and email addresses.

  2. 5-10 key words (for indexing purposes)

  3. A list of abbreviations and acronyms used throughout the text

  4. An abstract (150-250 words; depends upon type of paper, see below. There is no abstract for Letters to the Editor, News and Editorials)

  5. A running title of no more than 50 characters in length

  6. Text (length depends upon type of paper, see below)

  7. References

  8. Tables (with descriptive titles and legends)

  9. Figure legends

Types of Papers

We are flexible regarding the department in which a paper fits and recognize that some papers may include elements of more than one type of paper as listed below. There are no word limits for papers published in Chimerism, however, please see the section below regarding Page and Color Charges.

Original Research

Research Papers 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: 5-10, for indexing purposes

  3. Introduction

  4. Materials and Methods

  5. Results

  6. Discussion

  7. References: No limit to number. Please see section below for reference format.

Brief Reports

These are short experimental papers that may present as little as a single experiment or observation. Brief Reports should constitute unusually interesting data combined with a discussion of what the data might mean, or an explanation of why the data contradicts current paradigms. In addition to basic research studies, Chimerism welcome papers describing clinical studies that pertain to the field. Researchers who have made observations that are fundamentally important for scientists in the field, but do not constitute a regular Original Research article, are encouraged to consider the Brief Report format. All of the guidelines for Original Research apply, but the total number of references should not exceed 50 and the abstract should concsist of a single paragraph of fewer than 150 words.

Letters to the Editor

These are short experimental papers that may present as little as a single experiment or observation and should constitute unusually interesting data combined with a discussion of what the data might mean, or an explanation of why the data contradicts current paradigms.

The letter is a single paragraph of fewer than 2000 words, no abstract, no subheadings and less than 15 references (one author et al, no titles).

Reviews

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.

Article Addenda

Addenda are essentially an auto-commentary. The Editor or 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. 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.

Commentaries and Views

Commentaries and Views may be short and focused opinion articles, commentaries on papers recently published in Chimerism 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.

Hypotheses

Case Reports

Text Files and Tables

Please save text and table files as Microsoft Word documents. Save each table in a file separate from text. Figure legends, however, should be at the end of the manuscript as text (following the references). Tables will be reformatted during production and therefore should only be minimally formatted in your text file.

Figures (Illustrations)

We require each figure to be submitted individually in electronic format. Any image processing should be explained clearly in the Materials and Methods section of your manuscript.

DO NOT EMBED GRAPHICS WITHIN YOUR MICROSOFT WORD TEXT DOCUMENT.

Figures should be as small and simple as is compatible with clarity. Figures must conform to the following guidelines or authors will be asked to revise them.

    Resolution. All submitted images must be of high quality and have resolutions of at least 300 dpi ready for print.

    Formats. We require figures in electronic format. Please do not send PowerPoint or Word processing, presentation files, or paint files as they are inadequate for the creation of high quality images. Much of the information contained in PowerPoint or other file types is lost or skewed in the conversion of images. Figures should be provided as TIFF, Photoshop, EPS files or high resolution PDF files. Compatible graphic art programs are Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop.

    Figure size. Figures should be submitted at the size they are to be published. Maximum width = 7.1667 in. Maximum height = 9.6663 in.

    For multi-panel figures (such as figure 1a, 1b, 1c, etc), each panel should be assembled into one image file. Do not include separate panels on multiple pages, i.e. A, B, C and D should all fit on one page. Each panel should be sized so that the figure as a whole can be reduced by the same amount and reproduced on the printed page at the smallest size at which essential details, including type, are visible and readable.

    Color mode. Save all color figures in CMYK mode at 8 bits/channel. Layering type directly over shaded or textured areas and using reversed type (white lettering on a colored background) should be avoided.

    Type. Please be sure to embed all fonts. Use a sans serif font such as Helvetica. The font size should be no greater than 9 pt. and no smaller than 6 pt; however, panel labels (A, B, C) should be 15 pt. uppercase (not bold). Lettering in figures (labeling of axes and so on) should be in lower-case type, with the first letter capitalized and no full stop. Please keep font size relatively the same throughout the figures so as to avoid scaling issues. Also note that readability suffers if type is layered over a pattern or color other than white or black.

    Units. Units should have a single space between the number and the unit, and follow SI nomenclature or the nomenclature common to a particular field. Thousands should be separated by commas (1,000). Unusual units or abbreviations should be defined in the legend. Please use the proper microsymbol (denoting a factor of one millionth) rather than a lower case u.

References

There are no limits on the number of references.

Include in the reference list only those articles that have been published or are in press. Unpublished data or personal communications must be cited within the text.

The list of references should be numbered consecutively according to the first time mentioned within the article. Cite only the number assigned to the reference:

Correct: according to Jones.1

Incorrect: according to Jones1.

Correct: noted by Smith et al.1

Incorrect: Smith et al (1).

When referring the reader to specific references as part of a sentence please state:

Correct: For a review see refs. 20-25.

Incorrect: For a review see 20-25

Journal References

The reference format is the same for all of our journals. You may download the output style for Cell Cycle from Endnotes.

Abbreviate journal names according to the style used in Index Medicus or a comparable source and omit punctuation after journal titles. Spell out foreign or less commonly known journal names.

[Author's last name] [Author's initials], [up to six author's last names followed by their initials, et al.]. [Title of article with only the first word capitalized]. [Journal's standard abbreviated name] [Year]; [Volume (number)]:[Inclusive pages].

For Example:

  1. Hahn WC, Counter CM, Lundberg AS. Creation of human tumour cells with defined genetic elements. Nature 1999; 400:464-8.
  2. Fisher MJ, Virmani AK, Wu L, Aplenc R, Harper JC, Powell SM, et al. Nucleotide substitution in the ectodomain of trail receptor dr4 is associated with lung cancer and head and neck cancer. Clin Cancer Res 2001; 7:1688-97.

Book References

[Author's last name] [Author's initials], [Other authors' last names followed by initials]. [Chapter title]. In: [Editor's last name] [Editor's initials], ed(s). [Book Title]. [Number of edition]. [City]:[Publisher], [Year]:[Inclusive pages].

For Example:

  1. Ozoren N, El-Diery WS. Introduction to cancer genes and growth control. In: Ehrlic M, ed. DNA Alterations in Cancer: Genetic and Epigenetic Changes. Natick, MA: Eaton Publishing, 2000:3-43.

Supplementary Files

Please provide supplementary material in the following formats:

  • Text: MS Word file
  • Table/Data: MS Word file or Excel file
  • Figures: Please provide figures in a MS Word file or in a PPT file, clearly labeled with figure legends below them.
  • Please provide ALL files also in one PDF file. Links to supplemental data will be included in the PDF of the published manuscript and in the online abstract.
  • Video Files: Video submissions for viewing online should be Audio Video Interleave (.avi), MPEG (.mpg), or Quick Time (.qt, .mov).
    1. AVI files can be displayed via Windows Media Player (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/players.aspx); MPEG files can be displayed via Windows Media Player; Quick Time files require Quick Time software (free) from Apple (http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/index.html)
    2. Videos should be brief whenever possible (<2-5 minutes). Longer videos will require longer download times and may have difficulty playing online. Videos should be restricted to the most critical aspects of your research. A longer procedure can be restructured as several shorter videos and submitted in that form.
    3. It is advisable to compress files to use as little bandwidth as possible and to avoid overly long download times. Video files should be no larger than 5 megabytes. This is a suggested maximum. If files are larger please contact Kim Mitchell.
    4. A caption giving a brief overall description of the video content should be provided for each video.
    5. If your paper is accepted for publication you may wish to supply the editorial office with several different resolutions of your video files. This will allow viewers with slower connections to download a lower resolution version of your video.

Page and Color Charges

PLEASE NOTE: There are no black and white or color page charges for articles published in Chimerism's first year (January 2010 - December 2010).

For original research papers that occupy more than four pages of the journal, publication of the first four monochrome (black and white) pages is free but papers are published on the understanding that the author will pay a charge of $100 U.S. dollars for each additional page or part-page used.

For guidance, a four page article with 2 figures (approx 9 cm x 9 cm, =3.5" x 3.5") and 75 references would consist of approximately 2000 words of text including figure legends. A five page article with 3 figures (approx 9 cm x 9 cm, =3.5" x 3.5") and 100 references would consist of approximately 2000 words of text including figure legends. These word counts do not include the references.

Under exceptional circumstances, where there are no funds to cover page charges and articles cannot be reduced in size, authors may appeal directly to the Editor for page charges to be waived. This appeal must be supported by a letter signed by finance official at the author’s institution, confirming that no funds are available to cover page charges.

Page (Galley) Proofs

Page proofs should be returned within two working days, preferably by email. Corrections should be marked on the actual proof and provided in a numbered list. Lengthy additions should be avoided, but where necessary should be provided in a MS Word file with explicit instructions regarding placement.

Reprints

A reprint order form will be sent to the author prior to the issue going to press or you may download it here.

Cover Image Submissions

Chimerism 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 Chimerism please email a high-resolution version of your image, conforming to the specifications below, and an explanatory caption of 50-60 words to the Managing Editor.

All potential cover images should be sized to fit on a singler letter size (8.5" x 11") page. 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) .PSD (Adobe Photoshop: if graphics are built with layers, do not flatten), 300 dpi, CMYK at 100% size.

(2) .TIF, 300 dpi, CMYK at 100% size

(3) .JPG, 300 dpi highest quality, CMYK at 100% size.

(4) .EPS (scalable vector line art)

(5) .AI (Adobe Illustrator)

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