Instructions for Authors
2014-03-26
Instructions for Authors
relationships that may inappropriately in fl uence (bias) his or her actions. Cancer Biology & Medicine requires all authors to disclose any relationship that might result in an actual, potential, or perceived con fl ict of interest about the manuscript submied for review. Reviewers and editors should also disclose all relationships that may undermine the credibility of the publication process.
Exclusive Submission
Manuscripts are considered for review only if no part of the work has been previously published in print or electronically. Previous publication of an abstract in the proceedings of meetings does not preclude whole manuscript submission for publication, but full disclosure should be made. At submission, the corresponding author is responsible to aest that the manuscript, in whole or in part, is not under consideration, in press, or published in any other publication or electronic medium. member, manuscripts without sufficient priority for publication will be editorially rejected within 5-7 days. Those qualifying for peer review will be sent to at least two expert reviewers for unbiased, independent and critical assessment. Peer reviewers’identities are kept confidential, but authors’ information will be provided to the reviewers.e editors endeavor to reach decisions on these papers within four weeks from the original submission date. We allow authors two weeks for general revision and one month for major revision. Accepted papers will be published in print within three months of acceptance.
Embargo Policy
Scientific information in a manuscript which is under consideration or in press in Cancer Biology & Medicine may not be discussed with the media before publication. Preliminary reporting to public media, governmental agencies, or manufacturers should not jeopardize publication, and should be discussed with and approved by the editor in advance.
Copyright and Permissions
If a manuscript includes copyrighted materials of others, authors must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and indicate the sources in the article.e wrien permission should be simultaneously submied with the manuscript.
Upon submission, authors are required to grant Cancer Biology & Medicine the exclusive right to edit, adapt, translate, publish, and reproduce the manuscript. Cancer Biology & Medicine will not publish a manuscript until the Author Form with all authors’signatures is submied. Aer copyright transfer, authors (or their employees and institutions) reserve the following rights.
·Reproducing the manuscript in whole or in part for teaching, lecture presentation, and communication in conferences.
·Including parts of the manuscript in subsequent articles or books, with acknowledgement of its original publication in Cancer Biology & Medicine.
·Posting the accepted version of the manuscript (revised according to peer reviewers’ opinions) on personal or institutional website, with a link to the fi nal published version at the website of Cancer Biology & Medicine
·Using the manuscript fully or in part in a doctoral thesis or dissertation.
For third parties who intend to use materials copyrighted by Cancer Biology & Medicine, please send request for permission to editior@cancerbiomed.org.
Peer Review
Responses to Scientific Misconduct
Cancer Biology & Medicine has an obligation to ensure that its published research is accurate and adheres to the highest ethical standard. In the cases of falsification, plagiarism, redundant or duplicate publication, the journal will send a leer of reprimand to the authors’ institution, publish a notice of misconduct and formally retract the published manuscript.e journal will remove further association with the involved authors and institutions.
Advance Online Publication
All accepted articles will be published online (www.cancerbiomed. org) before print as the fi nal version aer revision and editing, with a unique digital object identi fi er (DOI).
Open Access
All accepted articles will be archived as open access documents at www.cancerbiomed.org and www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/ journals/2000/, with no charge for authors.
MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION
Presubmission Inquiries
Authors interested in getting rapid feedback on whether a manuscript is likely to be published in Cancer Biology & Medicine are envouraged to send inquiries via our online submission system (http://mc03.manuscriptcentral.com/cbm) or by e-mail (editor@cancerbiomed.org). The inquiries should at least include an abstract and signi fi cant fi gures and tables. A paper that is invited for submission aer a presubmission inquiry is still subject to editorial review to assess for external peer review.
Online Submission
We encourage authors to submit manuscripts via our online submission and tracking system: http://mc03.manuscriptcentral. com/cbm. Please avoid sending your manuscript by e-mail aachment. with no more than 8 figures and/or tables. Additional display items may be published online as supplementary information.
Our online submission system will prompt you to upload the components of your manuscript (cover letter, text, figures, supplemental data, etc.) as separate files. Upon completion of this step, the website will build a composite PDF file of your entire manuscript. Authors are responsible to check the format of manuscript and quality of figures in the converted PDF file and approve the submission.
Editorial
Editorials are usually invited, commenting on the leading-edge discoveries in cancer research and signi fi cant advances on cancer diagnosis and treatment. Editorials are no more than 3,000 words in length (with a two-sentence abstract), with less than 10 references.
Cover Letter
Each submission must be accompanied by a cover leer, which should contain the following information:
·e title and a brief summary of the signi fi cant fi ndings or points of the manuscript.
· A statement of exclusive submission and no plagiarism or other misconducts.
· A statement that the manuscript has been read and approved for submission by all the authors.
· Suggestions for appropriate reviewers and reviewer exclusions.
Perspective
Perspectives present a viewpoint on an important area of research and are written only at the invitation of the Editorial Board. Perspectives focus on a specific field or subfield within a larger discipline and discuss current advances and future directions, sometimes with personal insights. A perspectvie should include no more than 3,500 words, including abstract but excluding references, tables and figures. The number of references should not exceed 20.
Review
Reviews discuss recent progress on topics of broad interest to cancer researchers or cancer care professionals. Reviews should not exceed 6,000 words in length, including abstract but excluding references, tables and fi gures. Solicited reviews will also be sent out for peer review.
Status Inquiries
Authors can check the status of the submitted manuscripts at any time in the review process by accessing the system with their account and password. Please feel free to send status queries to the editor@cancerbiomed.org
Minireview
Minireviews are shorter reviews, usually based on recently published original studies.ese manuscripts should not exceed 4,000 words, including abstract but excluding references, tables and figures. Solicited minireviews will also be sent out for peer review.
Revision Submission
The revised version of manuscript should be submitted within one months after authors receive the reviewers' comments. Please contact the editor if extra time is needed for revision.e journal generally allows only one round of revision. Except for the revisions, authors should upload a point-by-point response to the reviewers’ comments. Please do not upload revised manuscripts as new submissions.
Letter to the Editor
Readers are encouraged to comment on articles published in Cancer Biology & Medicine, via Leers to the Editor. A Leer should clearly indicate the original source. Response to a Letter should reference the Letter in the first paragraphs and its title should include the Letter title. The word limit for letters is 500 maximum. Leers to the editor will not undergo peer review.
MANUSCRIPT FORMATS
Original Article
Original Articles report significant new findings or important clinical experience in cancer area, which have valuable implications. The total word count should not exceed 5,000 (including abstract, but excluding references, tables and fi gures),
Case Report
Case Reports introduce new, rare or typical cancer cases. The features, diagnosis or treatment of these cases should have valuable implications and provide practical information for clinicians. A case report should include an abstract of no more than 100 words and three sections as follows: Introduction, Case Report, and Discussion.e word limit is 1,000 words including abstract, but excluding references, tables and fi gures.
Practice Guideline
Practice Guidelines introduce consensuses or clinical guidelines produced by international authoritative groups or societies about cancer.
Meeting Report
Meeting Report presents essence of important cancer conferences or symposium all over the world, with a word limit of 3,000 words including abstract but excluding references, tables and figures. Such manuscripts should contain novel information and insightful views of the meeting and should be submitted within three months of the meeting date.
MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION
Authors should prepare their manuscripts according to the Uniform Requirements of Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals established by the ICMJE (http://www.icmje.org).e editors have the right to return manuscripts that are not in accordance with the journal’s policies and format requirements. Manuscripts must be written in concise and fluent English. It is suggested that authors have their manuscript reviewed by colleagues and/or by professional English language editing services before submission.
The manuscript of observational and experimental articles should include title page, abstract, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, acknowledgements, conflict of interest statement, references, fi gures, tables, and supplementary information. All pages of the manuscript should be numbered consecutively, beginning with the title page.
Title Page
TitleKey information should be included in the title, which enables electronic retrieval of the article both sensitive and speci fi c.e title should not contain any abbreviations except for commonly used gene or protein acronyms. The total length of the title should not exceed 20 words.
Authors and Af fi liationsMultiple first-authorships are acceptable and should be indicated. Multiple senior authors are also acceptable. The name, mailing address, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address of the corresponding author should be indicated clearly. Numbers in superscript should be used to indicate the department, institution, city with postal code and country, for each author.
Author ContributionCancer Biology & Medicine requires a statement specifying the contributions of every author in the title page.
Source(s) of SupportAny support in the form of grants, equipment, drugs, or all of these should be claimed.
Running TitleA running title of no more than 10 words is required.
is should be a single paragraph of about 250 words, accurately reflecting the content of the article. Abbreviations and reference citation should be avoided in the abstract. The abstract should describe all key novel findings of the study. Structured abstracts (Objective, Methods, Results, and Conclusion) are preferred for original research articles. For articles on clinical trials, items identified by the CONSORT group should be provided and the trial registration number should be listed at the end of the abstract.
Authors should list keywords (at least fi ve) which re fl ect the key information of the article. Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) should be used as a guide (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/ meshhome.html).
Introduction
The Introduction section should provide the necessary background and the specific purpose of the research. Cite references to the most pertinent articles and avoid including data or conclusion of the study being reported.
Materials and Methods
Information about materials and methods should be brief and adequate so that all procedures can be repeated by others. Methods that have been well described in previous publications should be merely cited with appropriate references. Only new and substantially modi fi ed methods need detailed explanation.e generic name (s), dose (s), and administration route (s) of all drugs and chemicals should be precisely identi fi ed.
Describe statistical methods with enough details. Provide references for the statistical methods when possible and explain whether their data conform to the assumptions of the tests.e computer soware used should be speci fi ed. Authors should be aware that statistical analysis and presentation is an essential part to review for all referees.
Manuscripts involving humans and animals must include a statement in this section that the research has been reviewed and approved by institutional ethical commiee before conduction of research. For manuscripts involving human subjects, a statement that the informed consent was obtained from each subject is required.
Results
Discussion
Accurately interpret the new and important fi ndings of the study and discuss the results in a broader context. Avoid repeating materials already showed in the Introduction or the Results section. Pertinent data in previous publications should be appropriately discussed and cited. Discuss the limitations and implications of the study. Avoid drawing conclusions without adequate support by the data.
Tables
Type tables on separate sheets and number them consecutively in Arabic numerals according to the order of their first mention in the text. Tables should be self-explanatory and include a brief descriptive title above. Column headings should be concise, with units of measurement in parentheses. Explain all abbreviations in footnotes and use the following symbols, in sequence: †, ‡, §,, etc. *, **, ***, etc. should be reserved for P values.
Acknowledgements
Contributions of non-authors should be acknowledged. The corresponding author is responsible to obtain the written permission from those mentioned in this section. The funding sources (if any) should be listed, with grant name and number.
Figures
Figures should be labeled in consecutive Arabic numerals and presented in the order they are mentioned in the text. If reuse of a fi gure in previously publications is necessary, the author must provide the written permission from the copyright holder and indicate the original source in the legend.
Conflict of Interest Statement
In this section, whether there is a con fl ict of interest should be stated. Authors must disclose the details of all con fl icts if there are any.
Cancer Biology & Medicine requires the citation of articles wherever appropriate. Number the references in the order of their first mention. References should include only articles that are published or in press. Avoid citing abstracts, personal communication, or retracted articles. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of references and should ensure that the pertinent literatures are appropriately cited and comprehensively discussed. Please use the following style for references:
Article in a Journal:Anderson WF, Jatoi I, Tse J, Rosenberg PS. Male Breast Cancer: A Population-Based Comparison With Female Breast Cancer. J Clin Ocol 2010; 28: 232-239.
Article in a book:Gradishar W. Male breast cancer. In: Harris J, Lippman M, Morrow M, Osborne C, eds. Diseases of the breast. 2nd ed. Philadelphia: LippincoWilliams & Wilkins; 2000: 661-667.
An entire book:Bruce A. Chabner, Dan L. Longo. Cancer Chemotherapy and Biotherapy: Principles and Practice. Philadelphia: LippincoWilliams & Wilkins; 2006.
Online first articles:Gregg W. Stone, Akiko Maehara,
Figure legends should be concise and comprehensive and be listed in a separate page. Ensure that legends and fi gures match up correctly. Indicate stains and magnifications and clearly explain symbols, arrows, abbreviations, and letters used in the legends.
Supplementary Information
Supplementary information may include additional tables, fi gures, or movies, which directly support the main conclusions of the article. Supplementary information will be peer-reviewed and posted online only due to restrictions of print space or fi le format.e printed article must be complete and self-contained without the supplementary information. Supplementary information should enhance, but not be essential to, a reader's understanding of the paper.
Submit supplementary information as a separate file through the submission system. Tables and figures should meet the requirements listed in the “Tables” and “Figures” parts mentioned above. Multimedia fi les in .mov, .avi, .mpg, .mp3, and .mp4 formats are acceptable.e fi le size should not exceed 10 MB.
PROOFS
Authors whose articles are accepted will receive an e-mail with their proof before publication. Authors should check the accuracy and the layout of the text, tables and fi gures.e PDF should be clearly annotated for necessary corrections and then returned via e-mail to editor@cancerbiomed.org by the date indicated. Major alterations which may delay the publication are not encouraged.
CHARGES
Sponsored by CACA and Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, Cancer Biology & Medicine is dedicated to rapidly publishing leading-edge information on cancer and promoting its dissemination. In 2014, no fees will be charged for color fi gures, online/print publication, or open access.
OFFPRINTS
Offprint order forms will be sent with the proofs. Authors who request offprints should complete and return the forms to the editorial office before the journal is printed. Late orders submitted after the print publication may be subject to an increased price.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Mainland China
Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, Huan-Hu-Xi Road, He-xi District, Tianjin 300060, China
Tel: 86-22-2352 2919
Fax: 86-22-2352 2919
E-mail: editor@cancerbiomed.org
Website: www.cancerbiomed.org
North America
Kai Fu, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Editor-in-Chief
Department of Pathology and Microbiology
University of Nebraska Medical Center
983135 Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE 68198-3135, USA
Tel: 1-402-559-7526 or 1-402-559-3870
Fax: 1-402-559-6018
E-mail: editor-us@cancerbiomed.org