Information for Submission

Information for Submission

Online submission and review system at http://mts-boneres.nature.com/cgi-bin/main.plex

Bone Research is supported by

West China School of Stomatology, Sichuan University State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, Sichuan University International Chinese Musculoskeletal Research Society (ICMRS)

Type of manuscript accepted

Review articles provide a comprehensive review of the state of the art on topics selected by the Editor-in-Chief. Reviews should not be submitted without contacting the Editorial Office. A comprehensive review or full review should be thoroughly cover the most recent progress in bone related field.

Original articles should report studies originated by the author. Original articles should be no more than 5 000 words (not including the title, author affiliations, abstracts, or references), include no more than 8 figures or tables and no more than 50 references.

Clinical trials are original research studies that answer specific questions about novel therapies or new uses of established therapeutic agents. Bone Research will consider manuscripts in this category for all phases of clinical trials.

Letters to the editor concern timely and important issues raised in articles previously published in Bone Research. All Letters are forwarded to the authors of the original article following an initial editorial review in order to provide an opportunity for a response to appear along with the submitted letter. Note that the Bone Research only considers Letters to the Editor that are primarily about papers previously published in the Journal. Letters should be no more than 900 words (12-point Times New Roman).

Review Process

The editors will promptly reject manuscripts that report work not within the editorial scope of Bone Research or that are likely to fail to achieve a sufficient priority score for publication. All other manuscripts will be reviewed by at least two experts and an editor, who will return detailed comments to the corresponding author. Every effort will be made to complete reviews within 30 days of the initial date of submission.

Editorial Policies

To be considered by the editors of Bone Research, manuscripts must:

· Not have been published before (except in the form of conference abstract or thesis)

· Not be under consideration for publication elsewhere

· List all those who qualify for authorship and only those who qualify for authorship under the criteria established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors

· Acknowledge all those who made substantive contributions to the work, with permission for such acknowledgement to be obtained by the authors

· Have been approved by all coauthors as well as by the responsible authorities at the institution where the work was conducted

Authors and Contributors

All those listed as authors must meet all three of the following requirements and all those who meet these requirements must be listed as authors:

· Conceived and/or designed the work that led to the submission, acquired data, and/or played an important role in interpreting the results

· Drafted or revised the manuscript

· Approved the final version

Individuals who made direct, substantive contributions to the work but do not meet all of the above criteria must be identified, along with their contributions, in the Acknowledgments section of the manuscript.

Conflict of Interest Disclosure

All authors must disclose all financial relationships with any organization or other entity that might be perceived to have influenced the objectivity or integrity of the work being reported in the manuscript. Such relationships include employment, research funding, income (e.g., fees for consulting, expert testimony, or speaking), or ownership interests (e.g., stock, patents) in or from an organization that may gain or lose financially from the work being submitted for publication. Disclosures must be included at the time the manuscript is initially submitted to Bone Research.

Electronic manipulation of images

Digital image enhancement is acceptable if it enhances understanding. During manipulation of images a positive relationship between the original data and the resulting electronic image must be maintained. If a figure has been subjected to significant electronic manipulation, the specific nature of the enhancements must be noted in the figure legend or in the “Materials and Methods” section of the manuscript. The editors reserve the right to request original versions of figures from the authors of a paper under consideration.

Human and animal experiments

For primary research manuscripts reporting experiments on live vertebrates and/or higher invertebrates, the corresponding author must confirm that all experiments were performed in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations. The manuscript must include a statement identifying the institutional and/or licensing committee approving the experiments, including any relevant details regarding animal welfare, patient anonymity, drug side effects and informed consent.

For experiments involving human subjects, authors must identify the committee approving the experiments and include with their submission a statement confirming that informed consent was obtained from all subjects. All studies involving human subjects must conform to the requirements of the Declaration of Helsinki.

Scientific Misconduct

If an author violates any of the editorial policies of Bone Research, the Editors may reject the manuscript, impose a moratorium on the consideration of new manuscripts from the authors, issue a statement of concern, or retract an already-published article. In addition, the Editors may contact the relevant authorities at the authors’home institution.

Organization of Manuscript

Manuscripts must be presented in the following order, with the exception that “Materials and Methods” and “Results” sections are not necessary for a Review.

1. Cover letter Each manuscript must be accompanied by a cover letter including statements that:

· All authors agree with the submission

· The work has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere, either completely or in part, or in another form or language

· If material has been reproduced from another source, the authors have authorization from the copyright holder (usually the Publisher) to use it, and have included this authorization with their submission

· The authors have conformed to all the editorial policies of Bone Research

In addition, for revised manuscripts, the cover letter must include a point-by-point response to each comment raised by the editors and reviewers of the original or previous submission.

2. Title page The title page should include a succinct title (less than 25 words); a concise running title (which should normally not exceed50 characters); the full names of all authors including their given names; the affiliations (including city, state and country) of all authors; and the full contact details of the corresponding author (including telephone and fax numbers, and email address).

3. Abstract A brief abstract (200-300 words) should state the purpose, basic procedures, main findings and principal conclusions of the study. The abstract should not contain abbreviations or references and should not be structured.

4. Introduction Briefly and clearly describe the background and rationale for the stated hypothesis to be tested or objective to be studied. Sufficient detail must be provided to permit the interdisciplinary readers to evaluate the results without review of earlier publications. It should be focused, outlining the historical or logical origins of the study and gaps in knowledge. It should close with the explicit statement of the specific aims of the investigation, or hypothesis to be tested. Describe and cite only the most relevant earlier studies, avoid presentation of an exhaustive review of the field. The Introduction should not contain either results or conclusions.

5. Materials and Methods To ensure the experiments can be repeated, the experimental or study design, specific procedures, and type of statistical analysis must be described clearly and carefully. Use section subheadings in a logical order to title each category or method. Previously published methods should be named and cited. New methods must be described completely. Present the data that validate the new method.

There is something ethical the contributor should follow: First, proprietary names and sources of supply of all commercial products must be given in parentheses in the text (name and model of product, company, country), report generic names and terms wherever possible. Second for protocols involving the use of human subjects or specimens, indicate succinctly that subjects' rights have been protected by an appropriate institutional review board and informed consent was granted. When laboratory animals are used, indicate the level of institutional review and assurance that the protocol ensures humane practices.

6. Results Report results concisely, using tables and figures to present important differences or similarities that cannot otherwise be presented or summarized in the text. Number tables and figures in the order in which they are described and cited in the text.

All tabular data should identify and report, such as either standard deviation values or standard errors of the means, the number of replicate determinations or human or animal subjects, and probability values and name(s) of statistical test(s) for reported differences. Restrict presentation of photo- and electron micrographs to those essential to the results.

7. Discussion The Discussion should not reiterate Results, but rather should consider them in relation to any hypotheses advanced in the Introduction. This may include an evaluation of methodology and the relationship of new information to the existing body of knowledge.

It should end with a brief conclusion and a comment on the potential clinical relevance of the findings. Statements and interpretation of the data should be appropriately supported by original references.

8. Acknowledgments Authors should acknowledge the sources of financial grants and other funding, and declare all organizational links or affiliations. The contribution of colleagues or institutions must also be acknowledged. Personal thanks and thanks to anonymous reviewers should not be included.

9. Disclosures A conflict of interest statement must be included for each contributing author.

10. References References should be cited using Arabic numerals in the order in which they appear in the text. If cited in tables or figure legends, references should be numbered according to the first identification of the table or figure in the text. References are listed sequentially at the end of the paper, according to the numbering and order of citations in the text. Each reference should be listed in the following form: Names and initials of all the authors; Full title of paper followed by a full stop (.); Title of journal in standard abbreviation followed by a full stop (.); Year of publication followed by a semicolon(;); Volume number followed by a colon (:); First and last pages followed by a full stop (.). Following are reference style examples:

1. Endres DB. Investigation of hypercalcemia. Clin Biochem. 2012;45: 954-963.

2. Chapuy MC, Preziosi P, Maamer M, Arnaud S, Galan P, Hercberg S, Meunier PJ. Prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency in an adult normal population. Osteoporos Int. 1997;7:439-443.

Supplementary Online Material

Additional supporting material such as datasets or video may be submitted for publication in the online version of the Journal. Online supplementary material may contribute to understanding by readers. Supplemental material must be included at the time of submission. No supplemental material will be considered once peer review has begun.

File Format of Manuscripts

All manuscripts must be submitted in Microsoft Word format. Use of 12-point Times New Roman font is required. Text, with the exception of figure and table legends and references, must be doublespaced.

Artwork Guidelines

The editors may not require strict adherence to artwork guidelines upon original submission. However, revised manuscripts will not be reviewed unless the images conform to the requirements below.

Color Figures/Images

Color Figures and Image must be supplied in the following format.

For Single Images:

Width: 500 pixels (Select "constrain proportions", or equivalent instructions, to allow the application to set the correct height automatically.)

Resolution: 300 dpi (dots per inch)

Formats: JPG for photographs, GIF for line drawings or charts. Please save images with a .jpg or .gif extension.

For Multi-Part Images:

Width: 900 pixels (Select "constrain proportions", or equivalent instructions, to allow the application to set the correct height automatically.)

Resolution: 300 dpi (dots per inch)

Formats: JPG for photographs, GIF for line drawings or charts. Please save images with a .jpg or .gif extension.

Black and White Figures/Images

Image resolution should be at least 300 dpi at publication size. Images should be scanned at a minimum of 300 dpi. During software manipulation of images, care should be taken that resolution is maintained. Images may be rotated or scaled, but this must be the same in the x and y dimensions. Contrast and brightness can be adjusted, but this must be uniform across the entire image, and must not result in the loss of any feature, band or spot. The background should still be visible. If lanes are removed, and once separate parts of an image are joined together, a black, white or grey line should indicate clearly where the image was cut. If black borders are drawn around the image, the lines should correspond to all edges where the image was cut. Protein molecular weights or DNA fragment sizes should be indicated for all figure panels showing gel electrophoresis.

Graphs, Histograms and Statistics

Error bars must be described in the figure legend. Axes on graphs should extend to zero, except for log axes. Statistical analyses (including error bars and P values) should only be shown for independently repeated experiments, and must not be shown for replicates of a single experiment. The number of times an experiment was repeated must be stated in the legend.