for initial submission
See the forms required
for initial submission
FRONTIERS IN BIOSCIENCE; GUIDELINE TO AUTHORS
GENERAL INFORMATION
Publishing data in scientific journals is the accepted means of dissemination of information in science. Publications are important to investigators since they reflect the extent of their scholarly activities, are needed for their promotion and are required for obtaining grants. They are also the means of disseminating information that are important to other investigators as well as the public. Therefore, "Frontiers in Bioscience" considers all publications as rapid communications. Attempts will be made to post the manuscript on-line shortly after it has been accepted for publication. Scientists who read a given manuscript can express their opinion, criticisms and suggestions for the improvement of material published in FBS. These comments will be posted in the "Letter to editor" section of the journal. Authors can respond and if necessary can revise a manuscript that has already been accepted for publication.
TYPES OF COMMUNICATIONS
Manuscripts describing recent and important advances in the fields of biology or medicine will be considered for publication in the Frontiers in Bioscience. Manuscripts will be published in one of the following platforms.
Research articles in basic and clinical sciences
Technical notes and protocols
Reviews in basic and clinical sciences
Multimedia medicine on line (Videos, sounds and images, VRML)
Databases
Proceedings of National and International Conferences
Lectures
The research articles, reviews and technical notes contain the title, abstract, introduction, materials and methods, result, discussion, references, acknowledgment, legends to tables and figures, tables and figures. If necessary, the result and discussion sections may be combined. However, the data submitted for publication in multimedia medicine on line or technical protocols may merely contain the title (including the name of the authors), a very brief introduction, method, and discussion section, legends (for figures, videos or sounds) and only pertinent references. In the method section of the technical protocols, write sequential steps involved with each step represented by a number. In the method section, write briefly how the video, sound, image or VRML was obtained. If specific reagents are used provide the information about the manufacturer in a section called materials. The intention of technical protocols and video, sound and image gallery is to provide the basic information that allows the reader to interpret the presented data. Therefore, it is important to be succinct and if warranted, to eliminate the introduction, discussion and references.
ETHICAL STANDARDS
Publication of a scientific article represents the means through which the contribution of the scientists are recognized. Along with this recognition, the authors of a scientific article bear the responsibility to make certain that their contribution is original, reproducible, and clearly and honestly represented. It is not always possible to detect erroneous nature of a set of data by the peer review process. Therefore, it is vital that all the authors carefully review the accuracy of the data that they present. The authors of a manuscript are obligated to:
Refrain from fabricating (falsifying) data Refrain from dishonesty (altering or suppressing information) Refrain from submitting information previously published or under consideration for publication in another journal Describe the work accurately. Provide the details necessary for the duplication of the data by other investigators. Include all the data even if they do not support a given hypothesis. Cite all the relevant contribution of other investigators and references that allow interpretation of the results. Include the source of all the materials that are used. Make available all products that they generate such as protein, DNA, clone, cell or other types of material that they describe to other investigators. This should be done with the spirit that the data that are published can be duplicated and that other ideas can be tested. Abide by the rules set in the Declaration Of Helsinki And Recommendation For Conduct Of Clinical Research. Use laboratory animals for the research according to the Rules And Regulations Of NIH And Their Institution.
REPRODUCIBILITY OF RESULTS AND STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
Submission of data for publication is an indication that the authors are confident that the data are reproducible. Appropriate statistical analysis should be used to determine that the findings are significant. The term "significant" should be used only if such determination has been made. The probability of the significance should be stated. When reporting a new assay, the following data should be listed.
All individuals that are listed as authors should have participated in the following aspects of the work and should be able to take public responsibility for the reported data. Within-assay variability
Between-assay variability
Slope of the dose-response curve
Mid-range of assay
Sensitivity. Least detectable concentration
Specificity
Parallelism of the standard and the unknown on recovery
Comparison with another method for the detection of the compound
AUTHORSHIP
Participation in the conception and planning of the work.
Participation in the analysis of the data.
Participation in preparation and reporting of the data.
The order of authorship should be based on the joint decision of the authors. Participation solely in providing funds for the work, supervision of the staff involved in acquisition of data, collection of samples, collection of data, or providing materials should not be a basis for authorship. These types of contributions should be listed in the acknowledgment section of the manuscript.
PREPARATION OF THE MANUSCRIPT
The manuscript should be prepared in American English and in accordance with the "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals". The requirements are described in detail in :
Annals of Internal Medicine 108, 258-265, 1988
British Medical Journal 296, 401-405, 1988
Correctness of the manuscript in regard to clarity, conciseness, grammar, spelling and typing errors is the responsibility of the authors. Contributors whose native language is not English are encouraged to obtain the help of their colleagues or professional editors proficient in Scientific English who can correct such errors.
An original manuscript should be organized as follows:
Title page
Table of contents
Abstract
Introduction
Materials and Methods
Results
Discussion
Acknowledgments
References
Tables and table legends
Figures and figure legends
Corresponding author's address, key words and running title
In technical notes and protocols, the results and discussion may be combined into one section. In a manuscript in the multimedia medicine on line, if necessary, various sections may be shortened or deleted.
The review articles in basic and clinical science should be organized as follows:
Title page
Table of contents
Abstract
Introduction
Remaining sections of the manuscript with subsections
Perspective
Acknowledgments
References
Tables and table legends
Figures and figure legends
Corresponding author 's address, key words and running title
Reviews should be organized as sections and subsections. Please do not provide materials and methods or discussion section. Number various sections of the reviews in the following style:
1. Section 1
2. Section 2
2.1. Subsection 2.1
2.1.1. Subsection of subsection 2.1.1
Page numbers should not be included in the table of contents. The table of contents should be italizised. Throughout the text, the title should be bold and capped with a double space after the title. The subtitles should be with small letter and bold. Only a return should be inerted after subtitles (see example below).
1. TITLE
Text
1.1. Subtitle
Text
Titles and subtitles are not ended with a period. The titles and subtitles are left justified.
TITLE PAGE
This page should include: Title, and table of contents. Title should be concise.
ABSTRACT
Abstract should be concise and should not exceed 200 words. Abstract should state the background that led to the present series of experiments, the study design, the methods used, the data obtained and the conclusions drawn based on the findings. If a review, the abstract should be a succinct summary of the paper.
INTRODUCTION
Introduction should make the reader familiar with the area of investigation, should cite the relevant and pertinent work of others and the concepts that led to the present series of studies.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The source of the materials used with the appropriate references should be listed. The methods should be thorough so that other investigators can duplicate the work. When the standard deviations or statistical analysis are not reported, it is assumed that the investigators have been able to sufficiently reproduce the data presented in the results section.
RESULTS
Results should be presented with clarity and conciseness. Data should be expressed in Systeme International (SI) units throughout the text. Metric units should be added in parentheses. A complete listing of the SI units and guides to preparation of SI units may be found in the:
Powsner ER: SI quantities and units for American Medicine. JAMA 252, 1737-1741, 1984
Council for scientific affairs. SI units for clinical laboratory data. JAMA 253, 2552-2554, 1985
Powsner ER: The SI for American Medicine. AJDC 140, 97-98, 1986
SI units for reporting of laboratory data. Arch Pathol Lab Med 109, 1054, 1985
Young DS: SI units for clinical laboratory. JAMA 240, 1618-1621, 1978
The SI units are here. JAMA 255, 2329-2339, 1986
Temperature should be expressed in degrees Celsius and the time of day by using 24 hour clock (e.g. 0200 h, 2300 h).
DISCUSSION
In this section, the data that were generated should be analyzed in the light of the available published reports. Attempts should be made not to reiterate the results in the discussion section.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Acknowledge the following: source of support; the personnel who contributed to the technical aspects of the project and to the preparation of the manuscript; those who contributed reagents for use in the project or reviewed or typed the manuscript.
REFERENCES
References should be listed as they appear below. Sequentially number the references throughout the text. Please conform the references to the following format (italicize the name of the journal):
Pampfer, S. Tabibzadeh, F. C. Chuan & J. W. Pollard: Expression of colony-stimulating factor-1 (CSF-1) messenger RNA in human endometrial glands during the menstrual cycle: molecular cloning of a novel transcript that predicts a cell surface form of CSF-1. Mol Endocrinol 5, 1931-1938 (1991)
Books should be cited as follows:
R Jones, M Stacey & J Roberts: The role of cytokines in sperm function. In: Reproductive medicine. Eds: Curran J, Roberts S, Raven Press, NY 322-343 (1994)
Please note that the inclusive paging is required for the references. Do not use et al in the list of the authors. List all the authors. Do not underline the name of the journal and do not use period after the name of the journal. Avoid using manuscripts published in the non-peer reviewed journals, reports published in proceedings or abstracts. Substitute these with peer reviewed manuscripts. Do not cite non-published data as a reference. Refer to these data as "unpublished data" in the text.
TABLES
Throughout the text, refer to each table by sequential "English" numbers such as (
Table 1). Place the citation in bold within parenthesis.Type each table on a separate page at the end of the manuscript. Present data in a real table with columns, rows and cells. Separation of text by setting up "Tab" does not create a real table. Tables set in such a manner will not be converted properly to HTML for on line presentation. In a real table, each variable resides in a cell. Consult the "Help" section of your word processor for finding out how to create tables. For each table, provide a title. Keep the number of columns to a minimum. The table should fit into an 8x11 inch page set up in the portray mode. Tables should be included with at the end of the document as indicated above and should be sequentially numbered using English numbers such as Table 1, Table 2, etc.FIGURE LEGENDS
Throughout the text refer to each figure by sequential "English" numbers such as (Figure 1). Place the citation in bold within parenthesis.Place each figure on a separate page at the end of the manuscript. In the figure legend section, provide a title for each figure follwed by the legend. Type the figure legends in sequence listed in the text.
RUNNING TITLE AND KEY WORDS
In the last page of the manuscript, provide a running title, no more than 40 characters, key words with reference to the discipline, tissue, cell, molecule and technique and the name, address, telephone number, fax number and E-mail address of the corresponding author.
VIDEOS AND SOUNDS
Provide a title for each video or sound. Type the legends to the videos or sounds in sequence listed in the text. Videos and sounds should be brief. Remember that the longer the video or the sound, the longer it will be the download time. So, use the shortest video or sound segments that demonstrate the data.
FIGURES
Each figure can be up to a full page (8x11 inches). However, figures that are 1/4 to 1/6 of a page are preferable. In the back of each figure, put the name of corresponding author, the figure number and indicate the top of each figure. We encourage the authors to submit their figures as .jpg or .gif files.Figures that are not sent to the editorial office electronically, can be submitted on floppy disk or as glossy prints The printed graphs should have a professional quality that allows their evaluation and scanning.
GENERAL FORMATTING INSTRUCTIONS
Manuscripts should be formatted according to the instruction provided at:
http://www.bioscience.org/guides/format.htmMANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION
Manuscripts should be sent via E-mail as an attachment. Figures should be sent as separate files named according to the following format: fig1.jpg, fig2.jpg, etc. Tables should be inserted at the end of the manuscript and not sent as separate files.
If submission by E-mail is not possible, three copies of the manuscript and figure or video sets should be submitted to the editorial office.along with a form letter (submission form). This form is available on line at:
http://www.bioscience.org/subform.htmPlease send all materials along with a self addressed envelope to the editorial office. Manuscripts that are not submitted along with the self addressed envelope will not be returned. Manuscripts will undergo an editorial triage. Therefore, in order to expedite the review process, prior to submission of their manuscript, the authors may wish to submit a copy of the title and abstract of the manuscript to the editorial office. The authors will get a response within a few days regarding the suitability of the manuscript for submission to the "Frontiers in Bioscience".
When sending a manuscript, please always check the current address of the
editorial office at:http://www.bioscience.org/editoff.htm
REVIEW PROCESS
Once the manuscript has been received, it will be designated an accession number. Please refer to the accession number in all correspondence to the
editorial office . The manuscript will be peer reviewed by experts. The manuscript will be published if the manuscript gets a high priority. Every attempt will be made to keep the duration of the review to a minimum. The manuscripts will be published shortly after it has been accepted for publication.RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE REVIEWERS
Peer review is the means through which manuscripts are accepted for publication in scientific journals. Therefore, the reviewers have the following responsibilities:
The peer review should be performed byexperts.
The reviewer should not review a manuscript if he or she is biased for any reason or that there is a conflict of interest.
The reviewer should review the manuscript promptly. If the reviewer feels that more than three weeks is required for the review, the manuscript should be immediately returned.
The content of manuscript should not be disclosed to others.
The purpose of the review is to provide information that is useful to the authors. The review process may reveal errors or potential problems associated with the performance of the experiments, and presentation or interpretation of data. Therefore, the main value of the review process is to offer strategies to correct or improve the data or the content of the manuscript. Reviewer should point out as how to improve the presentation or interpretation of the data. All comments should be constructive and should not contain language that causes the authors to become frustrated, depressed or angry. Work that is submitted to be published is the outcome of hard work and labor and should not, by any means, be ridiculed. The reviewers can report their decisions within the on-line reviewer E-mail box or via E-mail. Otherwise it is recommended that the evaluation form be sent via fax to the
editorial office and the original copy along with all the figure sets be sent back to the to the editorial office. Money and labor are invested in generation of glossy figures, therefore, such materials should be immediately returned to the editorial office after the reviewing.PROOFS AND REPRINTS
Once the manuscript has been accepted, the galley of the manuscript will be submitted electronically as an E-mail attachment to the authors. The galley should be corrected and returned to the editorial office within 48 hours. The manuscript should also be submitted as HTML (for on line presentation) file and SGML (for PubMed and EBiosci Central submission) file to the editorial office. These files should be sent electronically to the
editorial office . The HTML files should contain the appropriate tags as used by the editorial office. The reference to figures should be made as fig1.jpg, fig2.jpg etc. The document should also have the appropriate HTML header and footer. These tags may be copied from one of the recent on line manuscripts. The page number and other missing information will be corrected once the HTML file is received by the editorial office.MANUSCRIPT FEES
Certain fees apply for the preparation of various formats and layouts such as those prepared for creation of reprints, for creation of the Portable Document Format (PDF), and for HTML coding of the document. These charges are waived for authors who are willing to format their manuscripts appropriately. For additional information, please contact the editorial office or access
[http://www.bioscience.org/ guides/charge.htm].
Authors who provide their article as an HTML file are encouraged to include within the text, hypertext links to specific external Web pages containing further information pertinent to any part of the article such as materials and methods, tables, figures, and references. For example, the products within the materials and methods section of the manuscript can be linked to the manufacturer's home page or to specific information including the address, phone and fax numbers of the manufacturers, as well as the price and availability of the product presented in the manuscript. Information about the investigators who have provided some of the reagents used in the experiments can also be added in a hypertext format for electronic E-mail submission. The cited references can be linked to the MEDLINE database such as:
Instruction for preparation of HTML pages can be found in the 
Theoretical and Experimental Approaches to Design Effective Antisense Oligonucleotides
Georg Sczakiel
[Front Biosci 5, d194-201 January 1, 2000]
[Abstract]
[Full text]
[PDF]
[PubMed#:10702382]
The authors may present a video a summary of their findings as a miniconference and express their views of the future directions of their research.
The authors who wish to have the editorial office make corrections in their document, prepare the PDF file of their document, add links in the document, or receive reprints or other optional items should fax their order to the editorial office. Reprints will be available if the authors wish to receive them. The authors may choose to receive the CD-ROM that will contain their manuscript. The order forms will be submitted to the auhtors electronically upon acceptance of their manuscript.
The manuscript will go on line shortly after the corrections are received. The opportunity still exists to revise the manuscript once it has been published, however, unless absolutely essential, we do not recommend revisions after the manuscript is on line. A note will be made to any revisions in the manuscript since the time of its on line appearance.
CITATIONS
Each manuscript can be cited, by the names of authors, title of manuscript, year, volume, and inclusive page numbers, as it is done with traditional journals.
Each manuscript may be cited by its URL such as:
http://www.bioscience.org/1996/v1/a/wang1/htmls/1-15.htm
Once cited by MEDLINE, the manuscript will also be identified by the specific number assigned by Pub Med number or UID such as 9159189
We recommend that manuscripts should be cited as follows:
Theoretical and Experimental Approaches to Design Effective Antisense Oligonucleotides
Georg Sczakiel [Front Biosci 5, d194-201 January 1, 2000] http://www.bioscience.org/1996/v1/a/wang1/htmls/1-15.htm [PubMed#:10702382]
CITATION OF FRONTIERS IN BIOSCIENCE BY INDEXING SERVICES
"Frontiers in Bioscience" is being cited by:
National Library of Medicine (Index Medicus and Medline)
Current Contents and Current Web Contents
BIOSIS
Chemical Abstracts Service
- Editor: Dr David Weisgerber
PO Box 3012
Columbus Ohio 43210
Tel: 614-447-3600
Fax: 614-447-3713
MAILING ADDRESS OF FBS
Frontiers in Bioscience
PO Box 160
- Searingtown, NY 11507
EDITORIAL OFFICE
S Tabibzadeh, MD
Biomedical Research Center
350 Community Drive
Manhasset, NY 11030
Tel: 516-562-1176
Fax: 516-562-1223
E-mail: tabibzadeh@bioscience.org
URL: http://www.bioscience.org/editoff.htm