Molecular Biology of the Cell

Instructions for Authors

 

Updated June 3, 2009

Molecular Biology of the Cell (MBC) is published twice monthly and is owned by the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB). Contents are freely accessible immediately through MBC in Press and two months after formal publication through the online version of MBC. The online version of MBC is the journal of record and is located at http://www.molbiolcell.org. MBC also is available online through PubMed Central, sponsored by the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Online access earlier than two months is available through subscription or membership in the ASCB. Since January 2008 MBC has been published online only; there is no print edition.

All manuscript submissions are peer-reviewed before being accepted for publication. In submitting a manuscript to MBC, authors affirm that the manuscript is not being submitted elsewhere, that it contains new and unpublished information, and that all authors have read and approved the manuscript. Previously published material will not be considered. Publication of a short abstract does not constitute prior publication, nor does presentation of data at a scientific meeting or in a Webcast of such a meeting. The posting of a manuscript on an author's personal website or in an online institutional repository prior to submission of the manuscript to MBC is not considered prior publication. Publication of a paper in the proceedings of a scientific meeting generally does constitute prior publication. Authors should include copies of all closely related publications with their submission to MBC. A closely related publication is one that is in press or has been submitted elsewhere and includes some or all of the data presented in the manuscript submitted to MBC.

Authors are required to submit manuscripts electronically through MBC's Web-based submission site at http://www.mbcpapers.org. MBC assesses publication charges to authors of accepted manuscripts to offset a portion of the publication costs. The ASCB will consider a partial waiver of publication charges to member authors who have no source of funding for publication.

Scope of MBC

MBC publishes research articles and essays that report the results of original research and present conceptual advances of broad interest and significance within all areas of cell biology, genetics, and developmental biology. Manuscript submissions whose scope bridges several areas of cell and developmental biology are particularly encouraged. MBC publishes articles that describe substantial research progress in full. Therefore, authors should include with their manuscript submissions all previously unpublished data and methods essential to support the conclusions drawn. MBC does not, in general, publish articles that are narrow in scope and better suited to more specialized journals, merely confirmatory or preliminary reports of partially completed or incompletely documented research, findings of as yet uncertain significance, or reports that simply document well-known processes in organisms or cell types not previously studied. Submissions that report new methodologies will be considered only when a new result of biological significance has been achieved or when introduction of the method will significantly accelerate progress within a field.

ASCB Policy on Research Misconduct by Authors

By submitting a paper to MBC, an author acknowledges that he or she is subject to the ASCB Policy on Research Misconduct by Authors. The policy is posted at http://www.ascb.org/files/research_misconduct.pdf.

Preparing a Manuscript Submission for Review

General Instructions
All manuscripts submitted to MBC should be written in clear, concise, and proper English. Every effort should be made to be brief; however, all essential data and methods should be presented. Each section of a manuscript serves a different purpose and authors should avoid repetition between sections (e.g., results should not be summarized in the Introduction nor repeated in the Discussion). Manuscripts are subject to editing to ensure conformity to editorial standards and journal style. Consult the Council of Science Editors’ style manual, Scientific Style and Format, 7th ed., for general manuscript guidelines, along with recent issues of the journal for specific style and format.

To facilitate review, manuscripts should be single-spaced. For initial submissions, figures should appear on single pages together with their figure legends; they need not be greater than 150 dpi resolution. For initial submissions, the manuscript and figures should be compiled into a single PDF that is <5 MB.

Organizing the Manuscript
The manuscript should be organized into the following sections: Title Page, Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgments, References, Tables, Figure Legends, and Figures. Authors are encouraged to be succinct and to avoid repetition between sections (e.g., summarizing findings in Introduction, repeating results in Discussion). If authors feel strongly that their data are best presented in an alternative format, they should explain in their cover letter.

Title Page. Include the following information:

Title. Provide an informative and concise title that describes the topic of the manuscript in terms understandable to a broad readership.

Authors. Provide full names of authors. Use footnote symbols to denote affiliations, current mailing addresses, or other relevant information. Footnote symbols appear immediately after the last name or after the comma when authors are listed in a series. Use only the following footnote symbols in this order: *, †, ‡, §, ||, ¶, #, and @.

Affiliations. Provide complete addresses of all affiliations. Map affiliations to authors with footnote symbols (see above).

Running Head. Provide a running head fewer than 40 characters.

Abbreviations. List only nonstandard abbreviations that are used three or more times in the text.

Abstract. State the problem, summarize the key findings, and state interpretations and conclusions in 200 words or less.

Introduction. Summarize briefly the relevant background, the specific issue or question to be approached, and the experimental tactics. This section should not summarize the findings.

Materials and Methods. Describe in detail any new experimental protocols and indicate the origin of any unusual or special materials, tissue, cell lines, or organisms; genotypes should here be given in full. It is appropriate in this section to include most of the technical details and to provide data to support the identity or purity of reagents (e.g., specificity of an antibody preparation), the reliability of methods (e.g., linearity of an assay), the sensitivity of an instrument, or the essential features of a genotype. For standard procedures, the original references should be cited and any modifications to these published procedures indicated. Interested readers should be able to reproduce the experiments relying solely on the manuscript and cited publications.

Results. Present, in a logical order, the experiments and data that support the conclusions to be elaborated in the Discussion. All essential data should be presented. References to "data not shown" are strongly discouraged. Rather, supportive data that is not critical to the major finding can be published online as Supplemental Material. Particular care should be taken to report findings without extensive interpretations, extended lines of inference, arguments, or speculations.

Discussion (1,200 words). Propose interpretation of the results and place the findings in a larger context. Some degree of speculation, provided it is supported by the data or the published literature, is the prerogative of the authors.

The Materials and Methods, Results, and Discussion sections may be subdivided further if subheadings give the manuscript more clarity.

Acknowledgments. Acknowledge dedications, contributions from others, and funding sources.

References. Only articles published or in press should be listed in the References section. References should contain complete titles and inclusive page numbers and should be listed in alphabetical order. For references with 10 authors or fewer, list all authors. For references with more than 10 authors, list first author followed by "et al." Abbreviate journal titles according to the National Library of Medicine (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=journals) or the most recent issue of BIOSIS Serial Sources. Unpublished results, including personal communications and submitted manuscripts, should be cited as such in the text. Personal communications may be quoted only with the agreement of the person cited.

Samples:

Journal Article:

Rottner, K., Hall, A., and Small, J. V. (1999). Interplay between Rac and Rho in the control of substrate contact dynamics. Curr. Biol. 9, 640­–648.

Book:

Ferry, J. D. (1980). Viscoelastic Properties of Polymers, New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Book Chapter:

Smith, M., and Croft, S. (1991). Embedding and thin section preparation. In: Electron Microscopy in Biology, ed. J. R. Harris, New York: Oxford University Press, 17–37.

Web Site:

Agatep, R., Kirkpatrick, R. D., Parchaliuk, D. L., Woods, R. A., and Gietz, R. D. (1998). Transformation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae by the lithium acetate/single-stranded carrier D.N.A/polyethylene glycol (LiAc/ss-D.N.A/P.E.G) protocol. Technical Tips Online. Available at: http://research.bmn.com/tto. Search for “lithium acetate” from the opening page. Accessed May 2, 2003

Reference Callouts in Text. Cite in the text by name and date and arrange multiple callouts chronologically.

Samples:

(Beckerle et al., 1987)

(Smith et al., 1987; Nagafuchi and Takeichi, 1989).

Tables. Tables should be separate from the text and self-explanatory. Do not use vertical rules. Label each table at the top with an Arabic numeral followed by the table title. Insert explanatory material and footnotes below the table. Supply units of measure in the heads of columns.

Table Callouts in Text. Tables should be called out in numerical order. (However, tables may be referred to ahead of their callout in some cases. For example, a table presented and discussed in the Results section may be mentioned briefly in the Materials and Methods section.) Capitalize “Table” when called out in text. Cite tables using Arabic numerals.

Figure Legends. Figure legends should provide a general overview of the figure, followed by explanations of specific parts, if necessary. Begin the legend with “Figure” and the figure's Arabic numeral in bold. Do not indent. Type the legend in regular, not bold, text. Use uppercase letters to identify parts in the legend and in the figure.

Sample:

Figure 6. Dynamics of SR1/atSRp34-YFP during mitosis in living root epidermal cells. (A) A cell (arrow) just before nuclear envelope breakdown. (B and C) In prophase, as the nuclear envelope breaks down, the splicing factors enter the cytoplasm. (D) In metaphase, splicing factors are diffusely distributed in the cytoplasm. (E–J) Splicing factors are reentering into daughter nuclei. Newly forming speckles are observed in telophase nuclei (arrows in F–I). Bar, 5 µm.

Figure Callouts in Text. Figures should be called out in numerical order. (However, figures may be referred to ahead of their callout in some cases. For example, a figure presented and discussed in the Results section may be mentioned briefly in the Materials and Methods section.) Capitalize and spell out “Figure” when called out in text. Cite figures using Arabic numerals. Use uppercase letters for multiple parts of a single figure.

Samples:

Figure 1; Figures 1–3; Figure 1, A and B; Figures 2A and 3C; Figure 3, A–D

Preparing Figures for Publication in MBC

General Information
All figures must be prepared digitally and conform to the specifications described under Resolution of Digital Figures. Multiple panels in a figure should be laid out and appear together on a single page. For initial submission, the figures should be combined into a single, merged PDF document with the manuscript text. Where possible, the figure legend should be placed on the same page as the figure. However, for submission of a revised manuscript each figure must be uploaded as a separate file. Before a manuscript is officially accepted for publication, figures will be evaluated by MBC publications staff for compliance to MBC standards. These standards provide the easiest way for authors to submit publication-quality figures successfully to MBC. Authors will be asked to modify figures that do not follow the standards.

For review, figure resolution needs to be no greater than 150 dpi.

RGB Mode Color Figures. Because MBC is an online journal, authors are requested to prepare color digital artwork in RGB mode rather than CMYK mode.

Software for Preparing Digital Art. Because the quality of artwork reproduction is important, MBC requires that all artwork be prepared using professional graphic art software. Word processing and presentation software packages (such as Word and PowerPoint) are inadequate for preparing high-quality digital artwork. A digital image (gel, autoradiograph, micrograph, etc.) should not be manipulated to enhance one part of the image relative to another or to remove any potentially relevant features. Brightness, contrast, or color may be uniformly (not selectively) adjusted as long as no potentially important information is obscured.

Figure File Types. For revised manuscripts, figure files should be in .tif, .eps, or .pdf format. Files in .eps or .pdf formats must have their fonts embedded, and the images in them must meet the resolution requirements below.

Figure Size. Prepare figures at the size they are to be published.

Up to 1 column wide: Figure width should be 4.23–8.47 cm

1 to 1.5 columns wide: Figure width should be 10.16–11.43 cm

2 columns wide: Figure width should be 14.39–17.57 cm

The figure height must be ≤ 23.5 cm.

Color Mode. Save all color figures in RGB mode at 8 bits/channel.

File Size. Final figures should be <10 MB in size. Figures larger than 10 MB are likely to be returned for modification. Tips for managing file sizes:

1. Crop out all extraneous white space.
2. Use RGB color mode for color images only; use Grayscale for images not containing color.
3. Avoid excessive use of imbedded color.
4. Select the LZW compression option when saving tif files in Photoshop; this is a lossless compression mechanism.

Locants and Labels. Locants and labels can be between 1.5 and 2 mm high. Wherever possible, place locants and labels within the figures.

Line Images. Prepare line drawings at one-column width (≤ 8.47 cm) or less if the graph or histogram is relatively simple. Symbols should be at least 1 mm high and large enough to be distinguishable from the lines connecting them.

Gels. Reduce each gel image to a lane width of between 4 and 5 mm. Prepare images of gels at the size they are to be published.

1 to 5 lanes 4.23 cm

6 to 15 lanes ≤ 8.47 cm

>15 lanes 10.16-17.57 cm

Gel labels should be at least 1.5 to 2 mm high after preparation at the appropriate column width. Labeling should be sufficiently compact to avoid large blank spaces around gel lanes. Separate groups of lanes should be separated by no more than 3 mm.

Authors may delete or crop irrelevant parts of a gel image (such as blank lanes) but should explicitly describe such manipulations in the figure legend and should add lines to the image to show where sections have been deleted.

Figure Parts. Figure parts should be separated by no more than 3 mm.

Micrographs. Micrographs should be carefully cropped to emphasize the main point of the image. Blank background areas and irrelevant or repetitive material should be cropped out. Micrographs or groups of micrographs must show scale bars. Define scale bars in the figure legend.

Use of Color
Although there is no charge for color figures, authors should be judicious in their use of color. Color should not be used when data can be clearly presented in black and white.

When color must be used, authors are encouraged to present color figures in a manner that will allow the data to be interpreted by colorblind readers. In particular, many colorblind readers are unable to interpret dual-labeled micrographs presented in green and red because the red is hard to distinguish from the black background and the yellow that represents the merge is impossible to distinguish from the green signal. MBC suggests that authors present dual-labeled images in green and magenta rather than in green and red so that the merge will be represented by white and the colors will be easily distinguished by most colorblind readers. Green/magenta images can be generated from green/red images in Photoshop by copying the red channel into the blue channel. Alternatively, authors may wish to consider showing the red and green panels in grayscale, which can both assist colorblind readers and provide better contrast resolution for all readers. See the website of the Jfly data depository for Drosophila researchers (http://jfly.iam.u-tokyo.ac.jp/color/) for more information on how to make figures and presentations that are intelligible to a colorblind audience.

Resolution of Digital Figures
For initial submission and peer review, a merged PDF file of the manuscript and figures is preferred, and figure resolution should be ≤ 150 dpi. For revised manuscripts, prepare final, publication-quality figures according to the following specifications:

Type of figure

Minimum resolution

Line Art

600 dpi

Grayscale

300 dpi

Combinations (line art and grayscale)

300 dpi

Color

300 dpi

Standards for Preparing Supplemental Material for MBC

Minimizing the Number of Supplemental Data Files
For the convenience of reviewers and readers, authors should minimize the number of data supplement files to be uploaded with their manuscript by combining multiple figures, tables, and textual elements into single files where possible. However, files must be <10 MB.

Videos
Create videos using QuickTime Version 4.0 or higher. Save each video as a self-contained file. Video filenames should clearly correspond to the figure they represent (e.g., figure1.mov) or indicate order of placement (e.g., Video3.mov). All videos should be submitted at the desired reproduction size. Videos should be <10 MB in size. For best viewing, limit frame size to approximately 450 × 375 pixels. Avoid lengthy files.

Indicate clearly in text when a figure has a video associated with it and the name of the corresponding video file. If the video is not associated with a figure, please include a one- or two-sentence description for the video. Submit videos through the online submission system. In the MBC online submission system, a text field is provided for the video description.

Large Data Sets
Large data sets (those too large to be submitted comfortably for print publication) must be submitted through the online submission system for peer review and inclusion in the online version of MBC. Each file should be prepared as a PDF, Excel, or text (.txt) file (no Word or PowerPoint files). If a file is larger than 10 MB, it should be submitted via FTP. Follow guidelines provided under Sending Files through FTP. Be sure all files are clearly labeled to correspond with the figure or table they represent, if any.

Sending Files through FTP
To send files via FTP, MBC recommends you use FTP client software. For MAC Fetch users, select "Preferences..." from the "Customize" menu, select the Firewall tab, and uncheck the "Use passive mode transfers (PASV)" checkbox.

The FTP address is ftp.ascb.org, the login is mbcftp, and the password is ascb*mbc.

Supplying Reviews and Decision Letters from Other Journals

It may be possible to expedite review of a manuscript that has been previously reviewed by another journal if the authors provide (as supplemental material) the reviewers' comments, the editor's disposition letter, and a letter responding to the reviews and stating what changes have been made to the manuscript. The authors must certify that they are sending all reviews and that the reviews and disposition letter are unaltered. Authors should be aware that the previous reviews and disposition letter may be shown to new reviewers. The use of such material in evaluating the manuscript is at the sole discretion of the Monitoring Editor.

Electronic Submission of Manuscripts

All manuscripts and figures must be submitted electronically using the MBC Web-based manuscript submission system. Go to http://www.mbcpapers.org and select the "Author Log On" button. Authors using the system for the first time should follow the online instructions for setting up an author account.

The following materials should be uploaded as separate files:

File size is important. Files larger than 10 MB do not transfer properly over the Internet. Authors are requested to modify files so the total file size (text and figures inclusive) is <10 MB for submission and reviewing purposes.

After files have been received successfully, authors will receive a manuscript number. Submission is not complete until authors approve the submitted files. Questions regarding submitted manuscripts should be directed to the Journal Production Manager at mbc@ascb.org.

Peer Review Procedure

The manuscript submission and peer review process consists of the following steps:

1. The Corresponding Author (or someone on his/her behalf) submits a manuscript. Do not list the Corresponding Author as a Contributing Author. Editorial staff assumes the order of authors you choose is correct.

2. The Editor-in-Chief or an Editor assigns an Associate Editor with knowledge of the manuscript subject to handle the manuscript as Monitoring Editor (ME).

3. Each manuscript is subjected to a two-tiered review system. The ME will first assess the manuscript to determine whether it is, in principle, suitable for publication in MBC.

a) The ME will recommend that a manuscript be declined without further review if it is deemed unsuitable based either on its failure to meet the standards set by MBC's Scope and Philosophy or on significant scientific flaws. In this case, the opinion of a second Editorial Board member will be sought. Authors will be quickly informed of the decision and rationale, typically within one week. Authors cannot appeal a decision to decline without further review and are instead encouraged to seek publication elsewhere.

b) If the manuscript is, in principle, acceptable for publication in MBC, the ME assigns at least two potential Reviewers who are experts in the field and who will advise the ME as to the suitability of the manuscript for publication. Authors are encouraged to recommend appropriate referees and/or  provide names of referees who should be excluded due to potential conflicts of interest. However, these are recommendations and the ME will assign referees at his or her discretion.

4. The Reviewers accept or decline to review the manuscript.

 

5. Once Reviewers are secured, they are asked to submit their reviews to the ME within two weeks.

6. The ME makes a decision based on the reviewer comments. In the case of conflicting reviews, the ME may seek a third review.

7. The staff contacts the Author with the decision. An editorial decision based on reviews will generally be provided to the author within 30 days after submission.

8. MBC will consider revised versions of manuscripts judged by reviewers to be of substantial merit. Manuscripts that are judged to be lacking essential experiments or data or that require extensive alteration for other reasons will be returned to the Corresponding Author. A point-by-point reconciliation with the reviewer comments will be required. Revised manuscripts will be examined by the Associate Editor and may be re-reviewed.

 

Publication

The online version of MBC is the official journal of record. Accepted manuscripts are published online first in unredacted form on MBC In Press (http://www.molbiolcell.org/in_press.shtml) as soon as one week after acceptance. An article's appearance on MBC In Press establishes the official publication date for the article. Access to MBC In Press is available without subscription. A redacted version of each manuscript will be published in an online journal issue released within three months of manuscript acceptance. Access to MBC Online is available without a subscription after two months.

Proofs
Page proofs are emailed to the Corresponding Author, along with instructions on handling text and figure proofs. Corrections should be restricted to printer’s errors. Authors may be charged for alterations that are not the result of printer’s errors. Information on reprint purchases and special services will also be provided at this time.

Reprints
A reprint order form included with the page proofs must be returned before MBC goes to press. As indicated on the forms, an institutional purchase order must be sent to the printer before reprints will be released.

Publication Charges
PAGE CHARGES are $126 per typeset article page for articles published before October 1, 2009. Page charges will be $130 per typeset page for articles published on or after October 1, 2009. There are no charges for color figures. The average conversion rate for number of single-spaced manuscript pages to number of typeset article pages is 2:1.

Corresponding authors who become ASCB members at any time before page proofs and the reprint order / payment form are due at the typesetter will receive a 20% discount on page charges.

Special Policies

Experiments Involving DNA, Humans, and Animals
All manuscripts are reviewed with the understanding that authors reporting research involving recombinant DNA, humans, and animals have carried out all of the experiments in accordance with the recommendations from the Declaration of Helsinki and the appropriate National Institutes of Health guidelines and that the research protocols have been approved where necessary by the appropriate institutional committees.

Crystallographic Data
Authors of manuscripts reporting crystallographic studies of proteins and other biopolymers must submit the relevant structural data to the Protein Data Bank (Chemistry Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973) [see Commission on Biological Macromolecules (1989) Acta Crystallogr. Sect. A45, 65]. This submission will be specified in a footnote to the paper.

Distribution of Material
Publication of a manuscript in MBC implies that the authors agree to make available all propagative materials such as mutant organisms, cell lines, recombinant plasmids, vectors, viruses, and monoclonal antibodies that were used to obtain results presented in the article. Prior to obtaining these materials, interested scientists will provide the authors with a written statement that they will be used for noncommercial research purposes only. The requirement that propagative material be shared can be satisfied by making the material available through an organization such as Addgene (http://www.addgene.org) or ATCC (http://www.atcc.org/).

Financial Support
All sources of financial support for the work reported must be acknowledged.

Submission of Sequences
Manuscripts published in MBC that have nucleotide sequences must have a GenBank (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Genbank/submit.html), European Molecular Biology Laboratory (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/embl/Submission/), or DNA Databank of Japan (http://www.ddbj.nig.ac.jp/sub-e.html) database accession number. An accepted manuscript that does not have such a number by page proof stage will be held until the number is provided.

Copyright Assignment

Authors are required to sign a Publishing Agreement and Copyright Transfer form when a manuscript is accepted for publication. Except for materials prepared as a result of employment by the U.S. government or Canadian government, all material published by MBC is copyrighted and protected under U.S. copyright law. Under the Copyright Act of 1976, the term of copyright for materials registered by an organization is 75 years from the date of first publication. Authors of materials published by MBC must transfer full and complete ownership of any copyright to MBC and to the ASCB.


After publication, the ASCB grants authors the right to reprint the manuscript in any publication of which authors serve as an author or editor, subject to proper ASCB copyright credit and link to the original publication of the Manuscript in MBC Online. Also, authors are permitted to post the MBC Online PDF of their articles (and/or supplemental material) on their personal websites or in an online institutional repository provided there appears always the ASCB copyright credit and link to the original publication of the manuscript in MBC Online. (The unedited accepted manuscript as it appears in MBC In Press should not be posted.) Authors further retain the right to revise, adapt, prepare derivative works, present, or distribute the manuscript provided that all such distribution is for noncommercial benefit and there appears always the ASCB copyright credit and link to the original publication of the manuscript in MBC Online.