General information

Journal of Cell Identity papers will appear online, will be distributed quarterly in .pdf-format as a single periodical or as individual papers, and will occasionally appear in print. The page size is A4 (210 mm x 297 mm). The journal layout will favour large images – full- or half-page format. Please ensure the image material you submit fits this purpose.

Journal of Cell Identity requires authors to submit their manuscripts online using the http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cellidentity.

While we do encourage authors to read our manuscript preparation guidelines early on, first submission manuscripts may disregard them. All revised manuscripts should however adhere to the guidelines below.

 

Preparing the text and tables

 

STYLE GUIDELINES
Please refer to these quick style guidelines when preparing your paper:

 

FILE FORMATS
The preferred formats for manuscript text and tables are .doc, .docx and .rtf. The submission platform takes care of the rest. Use 1.5 line spacing throughout the paper in order to facilitate online reviewing.

 

Lettering
Use Helvetica or Arial for text and figure preparation.
Use 12 pt bold uppercase letters (A, B, C, etc.) to distinguish figure panels (headings should be bold); for gene sequences, use Courier to ensure equal letter spacing. For special characters not available on a standard keyboard (e.g. Greek characters, mathematical symbols), use the Symbol font or the ‘Insert Symbol’ function in Microsoft Word, where possible. For special characters that are not available via this route, please use MathType characters; do not use embedded images (e.g. GIF).
Define abbreviations at first mention and include a List of Symbols and Abbreviations.
Do not embed figures and tables in the text. Please include tables as part of the manuscript file on a separate page at the end of the manuscript.
Please indicate in the text where the tables and the figures should appear:
[Insert Table x. here]
[Insert Figure z. here]

 

ARTICLE SECTIONS CHECKLIST

Title page

The title page should…:

– … include a title of less than 150 characters which summarizes your specific findings; please avoids abbreviations,

– … indicate a running title of less than 30 characters,

– … give the full names (including middle initials) andaffiliationsof all authors,

– … indicate the corresponding author’s email address.

Please make a special mention for authors who contributed equally to the work.

 

Abstract
Provide an abstract of less than 2000 characters (about 250 words). The abstract must be a continuous body of text (no subheads, references, notes etc.). It should introduce the topic of your paper, summarize the main findings, highlight the significance of the data and outline main conclusions.
Your abstract is used by abstracting services without modification. It often enjoys a far wider readership than the full paper and therefore needs to be comprehensible in its own right.
Please also include 3-8 key words for indexing purposes (key words make your manuscript easily searchable).

 

Introduction
This section provides the compact background information that is required to set the results into their proper biological context.
Summary statement: explain how the results presented in the article contribute to defining cell identity.

 

Materials and methods
This section should include all details necessary for understanding and replicating your experiments. The materials and methods should be divided into sections, and should include subsections detailing reagents, animal models and statistical analysis. Provide names and locations (country) for all equipment and reagent suppliers.
Reporting standards should follow those recommended by National Institutes of Health.

 

Results
This section should describe the results of the experiments performed. Structure your findings into subsections and use subheadings to organize your text.

 

Discussion
This section should explain the significance of the results and should place them into the broader context of the current literature. It may contain subheadings to highlight important areas.

 

Acknowledgements
This section should mention any individuals or groups that are not named as authors but have contributed to the research presented or writing of the manuscript.

 

Funding
Details of all funding sources must be provided. Please provide the full name of the official funding agency and all relevant grant numbers. Where individuals need to be specified for certain sources of funding, please add initials after the grant number.
Please use the following format: ‘This work was supported by the [Funding Agency a] under Grant [number x] (AB); …; and [Funding Agency b] under Grant [number y] (DC)’.

 

Competing interests/conflict of interests
Authors without financial or competing interests should explicitly assert this and include the statement ‘No competing interests to declare’ or ‘The authors declare no conflict of interest’. Others please state any potential influences that readers may need to know about when thinking about the implications of the presented research.

 

References
All references cited in the text, tables and figure legends should be included in a single reference list at the end of the article. Please cite primary literature rather than review articles wherever possible. We do not have a limit on the number of references that can be included.
Each reference cited in the text (including those cited in supplementary information) must be listed in the Reference list and vice versa: please check these carefully.
References in the text should be cited using the Harvard (name, date) referencing system. References are listed in alphabetical order according to surname and initials of first author.
Literature citations in text are as follows:

  • One author – (Jones, 1995) or (Jones, 1995; Smith, 1996).
  • Two authors – (Jones and Kane, 1994) or (Jones and Kane, 1994; Smith, 1996).
  • More than two authors – (Jones et al., 1995) or (Jones et al., 1995a,b; Smith et al., 1994, 1995).
  • Manuscripts accepted for publication but not yet published: include in Reference list and cite as (Jones et al., in press).
  • Manuscripts posted on preprint servers but not yet published: include in Reference list and cite as (Smith et al., 2016 preprint).
  • Dataset: we recommend that all publicly available datasets are fully referenced in the reference list with an accession number or unique identifier such as a DOI. Cite as (Jones and Jane, 1994).
  • Citation of unpublished work: we discourage citation of unpublished data; if it is necessary, use the format (S. P. Jones, unpublished observations/data). Unpublished data cannot be included in the Reference list.
  • PhD theses: include in Reference list and cite as (Smith, 2016).
  • Website URLs: cite in the text but do not include in the Reference list; provide the URL and, if the website is frequently updated, the date that the site was accessed.
  • Personal communications (i.e. the unpublished observations of other scientists): when a person who is not an author on the paper is the source of unpublished data, those data should be cited as a personal communication using the format (full name, institution, personal communication). Personal communications should not be cited in the Reference list and will only be published when substantiated by written permission (e.g. email) from the scientist cited.

References should be arranged first alphabetically and then further sorted chronologically if necessary.

Examples:

  • Journal publication:

Ceafalan LC, Popescu BO (2016) Juxtacerebral Tissue Regeneration Potential: Telocytes Contribution. Adv Exp Med Biol. 913:397–402. doi: 10.1007/978-981-10-1061-3_25

Ceafalan LC, Fertig TE, Popescu AC, et al (2017) Skeletal muscle regeneration involves macrophage-myoblast bonding. Cell Adhes Migr. 31:1-8. doi: 10.1080/19336918.2017.1346774

  • Reference to a book:

Ross HM, Pawlina W (eds) (2015) Histology: A text and atlas, 6th ed. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, ISBN: 9781469889313

  • Reference to a website:

NIH Stem Cell Information Home Page. In Stem Cell Information [World Wide Web site]. Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2016 [cited May 14, 2018] Available at http: //stemcells.nih.gov/info/basics/1.htm

 

Tables
Tables must be editable and not embedded as an image. For the lettering use Arial or Helvetica.
The title of the table should be a single sentence and should summarize the contents of the table. Details referring to one or more isolated item(s) in the table are best given in a table footnote. Simplify as far as possible. For instance, units should be given in parentheses at the top of each column (not repeated in the table).

 

Units and nomenclature
Units of measurement should follow the SI system, e.g. ml s-1 rather than ml/s. Guidance on using the SI convention can be found here. Type a space between a digit and a unit, e.g. 1 mm (except 1%, 1°C).
Use s.e.m. and s.d. for standard errors, etc.
Taxonomic nomenclature: the Latin names and taxonomic authority (e.g. Linnaeus) should be provided for all experimental species. All species names should be italicized.
Genetic nomenclature: gene names should be in italic type, but the protein product of a gene should be in Roman type. Genetic nomenclature should be in accordance with established conventions and should be approved by the relevant nomenclature curator if applicable.

 

Preparing figures
The page size is A4 (210 mm x 297 mm). The JoCI-layout will favor large images – full- or half-page format. Please ensure the image material you submit fits this purpose.
Figures should be numbered using Arabic numerals in the order in which they are referred to in the text.
For proofreading purposes, please also submit a single PDF file containing all text and figures in the final form. Once an article has been accepted for publication, please also submit separate files for each figure.

 

File Formats
JPG, TIF, PDF, EPS. Save any other format to pdf (all modern computer systems allow “print to pdf”) and proof the saved file.

 

Lettering
Use Helvetica or Arial for figure preparation. Use 12 pt bold uppercase letters (A, B, C, etc.) to distinguish figure panels; for gene sequences, use Courier to ensure equal letter spacing; use Symbol font for Greek characters.  Variance of type size within an illustration should be minimal. Do not include titles or captions within your illustrations.

 

Figure Captions
The first sentence of the legend should summarize the figure and be in bold. Each figure caption should stand alone and should contain enough information to ensure that the figure is understandable without having to refer to the main text. Figure panels should be labelled with uppercase letters (A, B, C, etc.), and each panel should be described in the legend. Any abbreviations not given in the main text should be defined.
Figure caption should be included in the main text-file, at the end of the manuscript, and not in the figure file.

 

Graphs and diagrams, line-art
Source figures should be submitted in an editable format (vector graphic) that retains font, line and shape information (ai, eps, pdf – applications like Illustrator, Canvas, DeltaGraph, Corel Draw, FreeHand etc. provide these formats).
Export or save with native/editable text (not curves or outlines) and font information included.
If adding bitmaps to vector-data, please always embed the photographic image.
Please do not use gratuitous coloring, use colors only to improve clarity in graphs and diagrams. Do not use spot-colors, Pantone, or Hex in graphics and do not assign a color profile.
Please submit the smallest size that will convey the essential scientific information; final figure size is at the discretion of the journal.

 

Photographic images
Please send unadulterated, non-composite images.  Inappropriate manipulation leads to the rejection of the article. Any images must be representative of the original data. The corresponding author will be asked to confirm this at submission.
JPGs are preferred, with the image quality option set to “maximum quality” (least compression, less loss). Tiff-images are welcome if jpg compression-artefacts prove inadequate for the level of detail required for your research.
Prefer the LAB color-mode. RGB is accepted. Please do not convert to CMYK, and do not assign any color profile.
Save at 288 dpi. This should result in open/working file sizes of about 8 Mb for b/w and 24 Mb for RGB/LAB in A4 size, 4 Mb/12Mb for A5 (at 6-8 megapixel in digital camera resolution terms). More is acceptable, less should be avoided if quality of detail is relevant to your research.

 

Movies
Accepted formats: mov, mp4, flv. A separate text file containing the titles and captions of all movies is needed. Please keep captions short and ensure that they explain what is being shown in the movie. Give the necessary details on how the movie was made. Keep movie-files as small as possible.

 

Permissions
It is the responsibility of the author to obtain permission to use figures from third parties and to ensure that their use is credited to the source. Any copyright fees are the responsibility of the author. Written permission should be provided at the time of submission. Please note that modifying figures or images requires the permission of the original author(s).

 

Please note that we reserve the right to make articles, images, movies or other data forms available on an Open Access basis. Under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC-BY) Licence (see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode).  These terms permit the copying and/or adaptation and the distribution of the original or any such adaptation by any means and in any medium or format to any other person, including for commercial purposes, provided that the original author/s is/are credited.

 

Supplementary information
Data that are essential for interpretation of the results of the main paper should be included in the main paper. Supplementary information provides access to supporting data that do not appear in the printed article or PDF but that accompany the final version of a paper online.
These data are peer reviewed and subject to the same criteria as the data that are to be published in the paper itself. During peer review, editors and reviewers are asked to assess whether supplementary information is appropriate and essential for supporting the findings of a paper.
The number of supplemental figures must be equal to or less than the total number of main-text figures, but there is no limit on the number of supplementary tables or movies.
We only accept data files – such as datasets, movies, audio, figures and tables – as supplementary information. We do not accept text files that provide additional materials and methods, results or discussions related to the article; these should be included in the article itself. Very large files or those requiring specialist software are not suitable as supplementary information.
Use a separate numbering system from that used in the main article and use the format Fig. S1, Fig. S2, Table S1 etc. If a supplementary figure relates to a particular figure in the text, please cite it as close to this figure as possible. For the convenience of readers, please place each figure next to the corresponding legend in the supplementary information PDF. Please include a caption for each figure and a title for each table.
Refer to each piece of supplementary information at least once within the text of the main article (the article that is published in the print issue of the journal).
With the exception of movies and large tables, all supplementary information should be collated into a single PDF file. If your table is very large, or you wish readers to be able to export and/or manipulate the data, we would prefer you to submit it as a Microsoft Excel file.
Please note that supplementary data files are not copyedited by JoCI and therefore authors must ensure that all files are checked carefully before submission and that the style of terms and figures conforms to that of the article. Modification of supplementary information after publication will require a formal correction.