Author Guidelines
Manuscript Preparation
All submitted manuscripts must use British English. The writing style needs to be concise, accessible and, when appropriate, a glossary box for technical jargon provided.
We ask authors to kindly adhere to the page limit indicated in the Journal’s Section Policies, and, especially for Reviews, Research Articles and Technical Notes, we recommend adherence to the structure outlined below:
- Title
- Abstract
- Key Points box
- Introduction
- Materials, Methodologies and Techniques
- Results
- Discussion
- Acknowledgements
- References
- Figure Legends
- Tables
For manuscripts in non peer-reviewed sections (Letters, News, Reports), we suggest:
- Title
- Abstract
- Introduction
- Main text body separated by headings (max. 2 levels)
- Acknowledgements (not compulsory)
- References
- Figure Legends
- Tables
While consistency and uniformity in the format is beneficial for readers, there is scope for some flexibility in the structures outlined here, given the variety of manuscript types accepted.
Manuscript format
Prepare your manuscript (text only) in one of the following file formats:
The length of the manuscript should adhere to the information given in the "Section Policies" - without figures (one page without pictures contains about 5 000 characters). We occasionally accept longer papers in multiple parts. The parts should be submitted at the same time, so that the editorial board appreciates the complete work and ensures the necessary space in contiguous issues.
All figures must be provided as separate files (for details about figure format see "Figures" below).
Acronyms & Abbreviations
These should be used as sparingly as possible. They should be defined when first used, and should adhere to the following format: e.g., Gene Ontology (GO). If first used in the abstract, they should again be defined in the same way when first used in the main body of the manuscript.
Conventions
- Where possible, use the recommended SI units;
- use 'and' instead of '&';
- use 'one', 'two', 'three', etc., not '1', '2', '3', etc., for numbers up to ten; from 11 onwards, use numerals);
- ensure all species names are in italics;
- ensure all other latin words/phrases are italicised (and not hyphenated) (for example, e.g., i.e., in vitro, in vivo, in silico, etc.);
- do not follow a colon or semi-colon with a capital letter;
- use European date format: e.g., "16-17 June 2010", not "June 16-17, 2010";
- use British English not American English (make sure you use proper MS Word dictionary!).
Title
The title should be short, specific and informative, not exceeding 80 characters (if possible). The title can consist of main title and subtitle.
Authors and their Affiliation
Provide all authors information during "Submission Step Three: Entering the Submission's Metadata". Do not include author names and affiliations in the main manuscript file. Please note, author order in metadata section must correspond to the final author order in your article. Provide:
- first name, middle name initials and last name for all authors
- department, university or organization, city, state/province (if applicable), and country for all authors; if multiple affiliations are entered, insert numbers in front of each of them; do not include these data in the main manuscript file - use only metadata fields during the sumbmission process
- Competing interests field must be filled for all the authors (see CI Policy); use the word none if no CI are declared
- picture(s) of all authors in appropriate resolution and format (for details see "Figures" bellow)
Note: If you have submitted your picture(s) to the EMBnet.journal in last years (and your picture is available in our
author's picturedatabase), it is not necessary to submit them again.
Abstract
Abstracts are required for all submissions. They should be clear and succinct (max 250 words), explicitly mentioning the aims and objectives, and summarising the main results and conclusions. They should include URLs but not citations; abbreviations should be avoided.
During submission, please enter the abstract text into the relevant box. The text will typically consist of a single unstructured paragraph. If the article describes a Web tool or a database, please include the appropriate URL at the end of the abstract, with the heading ‘Availability: ‘.
Key Points box
Authors should concisely summarise (max. 5 bullet points) the key points their contribution brings. The style of the writing should be comprehensible to non-specialist audiences.
Introduction
The introduction should introduce the motivation for the work. This section should include a review of the relevant literature, different points of view/controversies and comparable efforts/initiatives or activities.
Materials, Methodologies and Techniques
This section should provide sufficient details of the methodologies (when appropriate, with citations), materials and techniques used in order to enable replication of the work.
Supporting data
Data-sets or other accessory materials should be provided as
Supplementary Files. When applicable, supporting data must include permanent identifiers or accession numbers, and persistent hyperlink(s) for the named data-set(s) or repositories. For
Training and Education manuscripts, supplementary data may include materials such as lesson plans, training data-sets, problem-solving components,
etc. Where possible, training materials (slides, tutorials, and so on) should be submitted to the
GOBLET Training Portal.
Results
This section presents the principal outcomes of the study, and may include additional sub-headings and Tables, flow-grams, illustrations, etc. to improve clarity.
For Training and Education manuscripts, where relevant, this section should present qualitative and quantitative evidence-based information from training activities, significant patterns from comparative review, and analysis of feedback from and evaluation of the learning.
Discussion
This section provides a critical evaluation of the main results, and sets out the conclusions from the study. Any questions posed by the work should be addressed here, as should issues concerning its adoption and implementation, together with an analysis of how the results could be extended.
FiguresAll figures should be prepared as individual files and uploaded as Supplementary files in the step "4. Upload Supplementary Files" in one of the following formats
- JPEG (for photographs)
- TIFF (for bitmaps)
- PNG (for bitmaps)
- EPS (for vector graphics)
- PDF (for vector graphics)
with bitmap format (JPEG/TIFF/PNG) resolution at least 150 DPI for photographs and 300 DPI for line drawings is required. Approximate pixel size of figures are as follows:
- author picture: minimal width 150 px
- one column picture: minimal width 450 px (900 px for line drawings)
- two column picture: minimal width 900 px (1800 px for line drawings)
Figure legends should be embedded within the main document file. Figures should be referred in the text as "Figure 1" etc. Their approximate final positions should be indicated in the text.
If the manuscript contains mathematical formulas, these should be provided as individual files and uploaded as Supplementary files in the step "4. Upload Supplementary Files". In this case, we also advise authors to upload PDF version of their manuscript as additional Supplementary file.
During submission, authors can upload cover image to be displayd in TOC and along with abstract of the article. Width for this picture shoud be 300 px.
Tables
All tables should be provided as separate files or embedded into the text, preferably in one of the following formats:
- MS Word (any version)
- MS Excel (any version)
Table legends should be embedded within the main document file and referred in the text as "Table 1" etc.. Their approximate final positions should be indicated in the text.
References
All references must be cited in the text by author and date, and enclosed by round brackets. Not more than two authors may be cited per reference; if there are more than two authors, use "et al." (e.g., Hugenholtz, 2002; Stach and Bull, 2005; Hong et al., 2009).
Authors must ensure that they have received authorisation for any personal communications and these should be cited as “(J. Smith, personal communication)”. Unpublished data should be cited in the text as “(unpublished data)”. Both forms of citation should be used as sparingly as possible.
Wherever possible, literature citations are required for programs, statistical packages, databases and other Web-based resources. When not available, URLs can be provided in the text in the following style: e.g., “EMBnet website (http://www.embnet.org/)". Citations to Electronic Articles should, however, be cited in the References section. As far as possible, please cite URLs in the text as sparingly as possible, in particular to void future links to inaccessible data.
At the end of the manuscript, the citations should be given in alphabetical order in the References section and must NOT be numbered. For papers with large numbers of authors, please list the first six and then add ‘et al.’ The name of the journal should be abbreviated according to the NLM Catalog. References should be in the NLM format. When available, the DOI must be given at the end of the reference.
EMBnet.journal
