Author Guidelines
To reduce the time to first decision, authors should verify that their submission (online and all files) includes the following:
Title, author names and author order in the online form exactly match those on the Title page in the Manuscript file
Valid email address for all authors
Completed Mandatory Submission Form (see section 1.8) uploaded as additional files
Manuscript formatted as instructed in section 1.2.
Table files submitted and formatted as instructed in section 1.3.
Figure files submitted and formatted as instructed in section 1.4.
Supplementary files as instructed in section 1.7.
Verification that the information in the PDF-generated for reviewers/editors is complete and in the correct order, and that all text in figures is legible at 100% (see section 2.3)
Please ensure that you have read and understood the journal’s policies and procedures which can be found at: https://www.ebm-journal.org/ journals/experimental-biology- and-medicine/for-authors/ policies-and-publication- ethics
1.10 English language editing services
2.2 Information required for completing your submission
1. Manuscript Preparation
1.1 Cover letter
The cover letter is important as it helps the Editor in his/her preliminary evaluation. The letter should indicate why you think the paper is suitable for publication, how your paper is innovative, provocative, timely, and of interest to a broad audience. The letter should list any paper on related topics by any of the authors that have been published within the past year or that are in review or in press. The letter must state that the non-signing author(s) have read and approved the manuscript. The cover letter must be uploaded as a supplementary file.
The Manuscript must be uploaded as a Word (or LaTex with BiB) and PDF file, formatted using 1-inch margins, 11 pt or larger font size, double-spacing, left-aligned text, and single-column text. Do not use numbers/letters in headings or subheadings. The default language style is American English.
Trade name, popular name or abbreviation when first used must be preceded by the chemical, scientific or technical name. Trade names should begin with a capital letter. Structural formulas of chemicals should be used only when absolutely necessary. Symbols and abbreviations should be those currently in use. Authors should not create new abbreviations and acronyms. Lists of abbreviations are not permitted. All measurements should be expressed in SI units.
Please see the Article Types page for all information about formatting your manuscript, depending on the type of article you are submitting.
Title page: The Title page should be the first page of the Manuscript and include the following information: full title of the manuscript, a short running title, a keyword list, the author(s) name(s), the author(s) affiliation(s) (including postal/zip codes) and corresponding author contact information (name, postal address and email address). All article types require a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 8 keywords. The title should be a declarative statement of key findings and should be limited to 15 words. Use of abbreviations in the title is not permitted. Do not include degrees in the list of authors.
The manuscript title and author information (names/order) on the Title page must exactly match the information in the online submission form.
Abstract: An abstract of no more than 300 words should be placed on the page 2 of the Manuscript and formatted as a single paragraph. Structured abstracts with subheadings are not permitted. The abstract should be copied/pasted in the Abstract section of the submission form. As a primary goal, the abstract should render the general significance and conceptual advance of the work clearly accessible to a broad readership. In the abstract, minimize the use of abbreviations and do not cite references, figures or tables.
Impact Statement: An Impact Statement is required for all submissions. Your impact statement will be evaluated by the Editor-in-Chief, Global Editors, and appropriate Associate Editor. For your manuscript to receive full review, the editors must be convinced that it is an important advance in the field. The Impact Statement is not a restating of the abstract. It should address the following:
• Why is the work submitted important to the field?
• How does the work submitted advance the field?
• What new information does this work impart to the field?
• How does this new information impact the field?
The Impact statement should be no more than 150 words and formatted as a single paragraph without questions. Lists are not permitted. The Impact statement should be copied/pasted in the Impact Statement section of the online submission portal.
Authors’ Contributions: Authors must include a statement that specifies the actual contribution of each co-author to the completed work. The “Authors’ Contributions'' statement should be placed immediately after the Discussion/Conclusions and formatted as a single paragraph. For example: "All authors participated in the design, interpretation of the studies and analysis of the data and review of the manuscript; MPV, MNS, KAM, and YZ conducted the experiments, RJS supplied critical reagents [or animals] (specify), RAS and WEZ wrote the manuscript, and XYZ contributed [other] (specify)." Full names are not permitted.
Acknowledgements: Individuals whose contribution does not reach the level required for their inclusion as an author should be acknowledged in the traditional way, with their full names(s) given. For example, "The authors thank Dr. John Doe for advice in statistical analysis". The corresponding author must verify that all individuals who made contributions to this study are included either as authors or are acknowledged at the end of the paper.
Conflict of Interests: Authors are required at the time of submission to disclose potential conflict of interests (eg., consultancies, stock ownership, equity interests, patent-licensing arrangements, lack of access to data, or lack of control of the decision to publish) in the submission portal. If no conflict exists, please state that “The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article”.
Ethical Approval (if applicable): For studies involving human or animal subjects, provide the full name and institution of the review committee and the approval grant number if applicable. Informed written consent from all human subjects involved in the study (including for publication of the results) must be provided.
Funding: The funding agency(s) should be written out in full, followed by the grant number in square brackets, see following example: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the Medical Research Council [grant number xxx].
Multiple grant numbers should be separated by comma and space. Where the research was supported by more than one agency, the different agencies should be separated by semicolon, with “and” before the final funder. For example: This work was supported by the Trust [grant numbers xxxx, yyyy]; the Natural Environment Research Council [grant number zzzz]; and the Economic and Social Research Council [grant number aaaa].
Where no specific funding has been provided for the research authors should state tha: “This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors”.
Figure Legends: Legends for figures should be placed before the References in the Manuscript. Legends for supplementary figures should be included in the supplementary files and NOT in the Manuscript. Legends should contain sufficient experimental detail to permit the figures to be interpreted without reference to the text.
References: Extensive citation should be avoided, if possible while adhering to the applicable conventions of the scientific community. Authors are responsible for verifying citations against the original source material, and for obtaining permission to reproduce from the appropriate sources cited in the text. Citation of non-English and non-peer-reviewed publications is not permitted. "Personal communication", "unpublished", "submitted" and references with DOIs only must be excluded from the references.
References should be cited numerically in order of appearance in the text using superscript numerals. The references section should be formatted as seen in this endnote template: https://endnote.com/style_download/experimental-biology-and-medicine/
ARTICLE IN AN ONLINE JOURNAL
Tahimic CGT, Wang Y, Bikle DD. Anabolic effects of IGF-1 signaling on the skeleton. Front Endocrinol (2013) 4:6. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2013.00006
ARTICLE IN A PRINT JOURNAL
Kunko, PM, Smith, JA, Wallace, MJ, Maher, JR, Saady, JJ, and Robinson, SE. Perinatal Methadone Exposure Produces Physical Dependence and Altered Behavioral Development in the Rat. J Pharmacol Exp Ther (1996) 277(3):1344–51.
ARTICLE OR CHAPTER IN A BOOK
Sorenson PW, Caprio JC. "Chemoreception,". In: Evans DH, editor. The Physiology of Fishes. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press (1998). p. 375-405.
BOOK
Cowan WM, Jessell TM, Zipursky SL. Molecular and Cellular Approaches to Neural Development. New York: Oxford University Press (1997). 345 p.
ABSTRACT
Christensen S, Oppacher F. An analysis of Koza's computational effort statistic for genetic programming. In: Foster JA, editor. Genetic Programming. EuroGP 2002: Proceedings of the 5th European Conference on Genetic Programming; 2002 Apr 3-5; Kinsdale, Ireland. Berlin: Springer (2002). p. 182-91.
WEBSITE
World Health Organization. E. coli (2018). https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/e-coli [Accessed March 15, 2020].
PATENT
Pagedas AC, inventor; Ancel Surgical R&D Inc., assignee. Flexible Endoscopic Grasping and Cutting Device and Positioning Tool Assembly. United States patent US 20020103498 (2002).
DATA
Perdiguero P, Venturas M, Cervera MT, Gil L, Collada C. Data from: Massive sequencing of Ulms minor's transcriptome provides new molecular tools for a genus under the constant threat of Dutch elm disease. Dryad Digital Repository. (2015) http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.ps837
THESES AND DISSERTATIONS
Smith, J. (2008) Post-structuralist discourse relative to phenomological pursuits in the deconstructivist arena. [dissertation/master's thesis]. [Chicago (IL)]: University of Chicago.
Tables should not duplicate information given in the text, numbered with Arabic numerals and cited consecutively in the text. Each table should be titled and double-spaced on a separate page. The title of each table should clearly indicate the nature of the contents, and sufficient experimental detail should be included in footnotes in the table to permit the reader to interpret the results without reference to the text. Units must be clearly indicated for each of the entries in the table. Tables should be inserted at the end of the manuscript in an editable format. Supplementary tables can be uploaded as Supplementary Material.
All figures should be cited consecutively by Arabic numerals in the text. Figures should be submitted as individual jpeg, tif, or tiff files (1 figure/file) in such form as to permit photographic reproduction without retouching or redrawing. Units should be clearly indicated in the figures themselves. The lettering should be large enough to allow a reduction of two thirds. In addition, all text must be legible at 100% (i.e. without zooming/enlargement) in the PDF generated for reviewers and editors. Panels with micrographs/photographs must include at least one scale bar and a numerical definition for the scale bar within the figure legend in the Manuscript. Magnification is NOT an appropriate unit for scale. Do not include legends in the figure files.
Figures should be uploaded/submitted in sequential order. Filenames should use the following template where X is the figure number: Figure X. EBM does not accept PDFs for figure files.
Chemical structures should be prepared using ChemDraw or a similar program. If working with another program please follow the guidelines given below:
Drawing settings: chain angle, 120° bond spacing, 18% width; fixed length, 14.4 pt; bold width, 2.0 pt; line width, 0.6 pt; margin width, 1.6 pt; hash spacing, 2.5 pt. Scale 100% Atom Label settings: font, Arial; size, 8 pt.
Assign all chemical compounds a bold, Arabic numeral in the order in which the compounds are presented in the manuscript text.
All figures, tables, and images will be published under a Creative Commons CC-BY license, and permission must be obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including re-published/adapted/modified/partial figures and images from the internet). It is the responsibility of the authors to acquire the licenses, follow any citation instructions requested by third-party rights holders, and cover any supplementary charges.
Authors are encouraged to make the figures and visual elements of their articles accessible for the visually impaired. An effective use of color can help people with low visual acuity, or color blindness, understand all the content of an article.
These guidelines are easy to implement and are in accordance with the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1), the standard for web accessibility best practices.
A. Ensure sufficient contrast between text and its background
People who have low visual acuity or color blindness could find it difficult to read text with low contrast background color. Try using colors that provide maximum contrast.
WC3 recommends the following contrast ratio levels:
Level AA, contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1
Level AAA, contrast ratio of at least 7:1
Level AA
Contrast ratio 4.6:1
Level AA
Contrast ratio 9.5:1
You can verify the contrast ratio of your palette with these online ratio checkers:
B. Avoid using red or green indicators
More than 99% of color-blind people have a red-green color vision deficiency.
C. Avoid using only color to communicate information
Elements with complex information like charts and graphs can be hard to read when only color is used to distinguish the data. Try to use other visual aspects to communicate information, such as shape, labels, and size. Incorporating patterns into the shape fills also make differences clearer; for an example please see below:
Guidelines to assist authors prepare statistical data for publication can be found in the Statistical Guidelines. These guidelines are not a substitute for the detailed guidance required to design a study or perform a statistical analysis.
Please refer to items included in Editorial Policies 3.2 and 3.3 (https://www.ebm-journal.org/ journals/experimental-biology- and-medicine/for-authors/ policies-and-publication- ethics) with regard to the journal’s policy on making data, used to prepare the manuscript, available publicly.
Please note that, at the Editor in Chief’s discretion, authors may be required to submit to the editorial team the original data sets used to prepare their manuscript at the time of submission, and before the review process can take place.
Supplementary material relevant to scientific review should be uploaded/submitted in the submission portal. The Supplementary materials are available for reviewers/editors to download the relevant files. If a manuscript is accepted, this file is available for download online as provided without modification or typesetting by the publisher.
The Mandatory Submission form (required) and Copyediting Certificate (if applicable), should be uploaded/submitted as Additional files and be the final manuscript files. Filenames should include the name of the form. After uploading the Mandatory Submission form and Copyediting certificate (if appropriate), click the pencil to change these to "For review purpose only".
A completed Mandatory Submission Form is required for all submissions. Authors should sign in English in the same order as on the manuscript title page. Computer-generated signatures are NOT accepted. Multiple pages are acceptable, but all pages should be uploaded/submitted in a single Supplementary file in the Additional Files section of the submission portal
If you are not fluent in English, you may find it helpful to obtain assistance in writing your papers before submission. This may not only save time in the review process but also increase the effectiveness of your submission. Quality of written English is judged by the Editor-in-Chief, Global Editors, and appropriate Associate Editor. They must be convinced that the quality of written English is sufficient for your manuscript to receive full review.
EBM offers low-cost English services for authors (http://www.EBMEnglishServices.squarespace.com).
Editage
Frontiers recommends the language-editing service provided by our external partner Editage. These services may be particularly useful for researchers for whom English is not the primary language. They can help to improve the grammar, syntax, and flow of your manuscript prior to submission. Frontiers authors will receive a 10% discount by visiting the following link: editage.com/frontiers.
CrossMark is a multi-publisher initiative to provide a standard way for readers to locate the current version of a piece of content. By applying the CrossMark logo the journal is committed to maintaining the content it publishes and to alerting readers to changes if and when they occur. Clicking on the CrossMark logo will tell you the current status of a document and may also give you additional publication record information about the document.
When, as a result of reviewers' comments, it is necessary to revise a manuscript, it is recommended that authors submit the revised manuscript within the time-frame allotted in the decision letter. Longer delays may result in the revised manuscript receiving a lower priority score. Extensions require approval by the Associate Editor and should be requested prior to the due date as the online submission system will not permit submission if the revision option has expired. Journal policy permits only ONE extension. Delays in excess of 60 days require submission as a new manuscript.
Revised submission must include a detailed response to the decision letter for the previous version. The response letter should be uploaded/submitted during the online submission process as a supplementary file. Do not include the response letter in the manuscript files. In addition, modifications in the manuscript files must be denoted using red text. Do not use track-changes, highlighted/underlined/strike-out text or comments to denote modified text.
Experimental Biology and Medicine is hosted on Frontiers' Publishing Partnerships platform, an online submission and peer review system.
Before creating a new user account, please verify that you do not already have an account in the system. If you have reviewed or authored for Frontiers Publishing Partnerships' journals in the past, it is likely that you will have an account in the system. You must have an account to submit your manuscript.
As part of the submission process you will be required to state that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal, that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere, that it has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you.
You will be asked to provide valid email addresses, contact details, and academic affiliations for all co-authors and identify who is to be the corresponding author. You will also be asked to provide an Abstract, keywords, an Impact statement, Funding information, and Conflict of Interest information.
These details must match what appears in the Manuscript file. You will also be asked to select a category and provide information regarding copyediting and membership in the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine. You must also provide information regarding recommended and/or opposed reviewers. Finally, you will be asked to verify that your submission meets all guidelines outlined in these Instructions.
The submission system will generate a PDF for reviewers. Please review this file carefully and ensure your submission documents have been properly converted, as this is the ONLY file provided to reviewers.
Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere.