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The following form is required with submittal and available for download.
(If you have not installed and configured the Adobe Acrobat Reader on your system,
please see our Help with printing
page.)
Manuscript content verification
and provisional license to publish
| Contents (in alphabetical order) | |
Scope of articlesThe Journal of Cell Biology publishes papers on all aspects of cellular structure and function. Areas of interest include, but are not restricted to, nuclear organization and structure, protein and membrane trafficking, signal transduction, cytoskeleton and molecular motors, cell cycle and division, cell growth, survival and death, cellular adhesion and motility, and intercellular communication. The Editors also encourage the submission of manuscripts that define the interfaces between cell biology and other fields, especially those elucidating the cell biological basis of problems in immunology, neurobiology, microbial pathology, developmental biology, and disease. As the methodology of cell biology has come to encompass everything from structural biology to molecular biology, biochemistry to immunocytochemistry, genetics to live cell imaging, submissions are welcome regardless of experimental approach.
To warrant publication in the JCB, a manuscript must provide novel and significant mechanistic insight into a cellular function that will be of interest to a general readership. Manuscripts containing purely descriptive observations will not be published. Manuscripts reporting new techniques will be published only when judged by the Editors to represent advances of exceptional significance. Computational manuscripts must provide novel hypotheses that are experimentally testable.
The JCB guarantees scholarly review of each submission in a timely fashion by leading scientists active in the relevant field.
Editorial policiesWhen submission of a revised manuscript is invited, only a single revised version will be considered, and it must be received within three months of the decision date. Otherwise the manuscript will be considered as a new submission, subject to reconsideration of novelty and possibly sent to new reviewers.
All animal studies must be approved by the authors' Institutional Review Board(s), and a statement to this effect must be included in Materials and methods section.
Free exchange of materials. Since January 1, 1999, the JCB has required the free exchange of all clones, cell lines, and biological reagents published in the Journal, to promote the transmission of scientific information and facilitate the progress of research in cell biology. In addition, the source code for all computational methods published in the Journal must be made freely available. These requirements are in accordance with the recently articulated recommendations of the National Academy of Sciences.
Authors are encouraged to deposit plasmid constructions in a public repository, such as Addgene. They are also encouraged to deposit genetically modified animals in a public repository. If you are having difficulty obtaining materials, please contact the ehill{at}rockefeller.edu.
Nucleic acid and protein sequences, microarray data, and structural data must be deposited in a public database and must be available on the date of publication. Relevant accession numbers must be included in the manuscript text.
Prior publication. When submitting a manuscript, the authors should affirm that the material has been neither published nor submitted for publication elsewhere--other than as an abstract <400 words in length and containing no figures. If any other form of publication has occurred or is contemplated, a pdf version of such other publication should accompany the manuscript submitted to the JCB, and the authors should explain in a letter of submission how this publication relates to the submitted manuscript. Any manuscript submissions/publications that are related to or could be perceived as overlapping with the submitted manuscript should be included. This material will be sent with the manuscript to the reviewers, who will be asked to advise the Editors whether there is overlap between the submitted manuscript and the other material. The data presented in a submitted manuscript should not be made available prior to publication in any article listed in a public citation database or in a book identified with an ISBN. If submitted data are posted on a personal website they must not be associated in any way with the Journal (e.g., listed as "submitted", "accepted" or "in press" with the Journal, or posted with a Journal identification number). Any such posting may be considered prior publication. After publication, authors may post the published pdf version of an article on their own web sites, but they are asked to include a link to the original html version at www.jcb.org.
Conflict of interest. All authors are expected to disclose any commercial affiliations or consultancies, stock or equity interests, or patent-licensing arrangements that could be considered to pose a conflict of interest regarding the submitted manuscript. Specifics of such disclosures will remain confidential. If appropriate, general statements in the Acknowledgments section of the manuscript regarding such disclosures may be recommended by the Editors. All funding sources, institutional and corporate, should be credited in the Acknowledgments section.
Image acquisition and manipulation. The following information must be provided about the acquisition and processing of images:
1. Make and model of microscope
2. Type, magnification, and numerical aperture of the objective lenses
3. Temperature
4. Imaging medium
5. Fluorochromes
6. Camera make and model
7. Acquisition software
8. Any subsequent software used for image processing, with details about types of operations involved (e.g., type of deconvolution, 3D reconstructions, surface or volume rendering, gamma adjustments, etc.).
No specific feature within an image may be enhanced, obscured, moved, removed, or introduced. The grouping of images from different parts of the same gel, or from different gels, fields, or exposures must be made explicit by the arrangement of the figure (i.e., using dividing lines) and in the text of the figure legend. If dividing lines are not included, they will be added by our production department, and this may result in production delays. Adjustments of brightness, contrast, or color balance are acceptable if they are applied to the whole image and as long as they do not obscure, eliminate, or misrepresent any information present in the original, including backgrounds. Without any background information, it is not possible to see exactly how much of the original gel is actually shown. Non-linear adjustments (e.g., changes to gamma settings) must be disclosed in the figure legend. All digital images in manuscripts accepted for publication will be scrutinized by our production department for any indication of improper manipulation. Questions raised by the production department will be referred to the Editors, who will request the original data from the authors for comparison to the prepared figures. If the original data cannot be produced, the acceptance of the manuscript may be revoked. Cases of deliberate misrepresentation of data will result in revocation of acceptance, and will be reported to the corresponding author's home institution or funding agency.
Numerical data. Error bars on graphic representations of numerical data must be clearly described in the figure legend. The number of independent data points (N) represented in a graph must be indicated in the legend. Numerical axes on graphs should go to zero, except for log axes. Statistical analyses should be done on all available data and not just on data from a "representative experiment". Statistics and error bars should only be shown for independent experiments and not for replicates within a single experiment.
Submission to a Public Access
database. The complete content of the JCB will be posted on PubMed Central and UK PubMed Central, where it will be available to the public 6 months after the publication date. There is no need for authors to submit their papers independently to these repositories. This service is free of charge.
Submission
Types of submissionReports. Submissions in this format should describe definitive observations of outstanding interest that have the potential to open up new avenues of research. Reports are limited to 5 figures and can be no longer than 20,000 characters in length (not counting spaces). The character count includes ALL sections EXCEPT the Materials and methods and References. We recommend that the Materials and methods be kept to ~3,000 characters and the number of references be kept to ~30. The number of characters must be listed on the title page. Reports will be reviewed rapidly, usually within 14 days of receipt, most often by members of the Editorial Board. All editorial decisions on manuscripts in this format will be final. Reports should be divided into the following sections, each beginning on a new page: Title page, Abstract, Introduction, Results and discussion, Materials and methods, Acknowledgements, Abbreviations list, References, Figure legends, Tables. Note that the Results and Discussion should be combined.
Mini-Reviews. Authors wishing to contribute a brief manuscript to this category should contact one of the kdell{at}cmp.ucsf.edu. Mini-reviews are limited to 20,000 characters (including ~50 references). They should not contain an exhaustive review of an area, but rather a focused, brief treatment of a contemporary development or issue in a single area. Please include a short (two to three sentence) abstract. All contributions to this category will be peer reviewed.
Supplemental material. Supporting data that are not essential for appreciating the conclusions made in a manuscript may be included as supplemental material. The number of supplemental display items (figures and/or tables) is limited to 5 for Articles and 3 for Reports. Examples include DNA sequences or Western blots showing the specificity of an antibody. Videos or flash animations (.mov, .mpg, .avi, .swf, and .fla) may be included as supplemental material. A maximum of 10 videos may be posted for Articles or Reports. Please note that we do not permit supplementary text (other than figure legends) or materials and methods. Please make sure any relevant text is included within the manuscript text itself (we do this to ensure thorough review of all material published).
Manuscript
organization and preparationFile format. Acceptable file formats for your manuscript are DOC or PDF. Please use double-line spacing for the text throughout the manuscript.
Conventions. The JCB follows the abbreviations and other conventions of Scientific Style and Format: The CBE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers (6th Edition, 1994, Council of Biology Editors, Inc., 9650 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20814). For chemical nomenclature, follow the Subject Index of Chemical Abstracts. Capitalize trade names and give manufacturers' names. Gene names must be italicized. Authors must use the original name published for a gene unless they have obtained permission to rename the gene from the authors of the original study (or from a governing body such as, in the case of a yeast gene, the Saccharomyces Genome Database curator). American spelling should be used throughout the manuscript. Please use Symbol font for all Greek characters.
Title page. The title should be <100 characters (not including spaces). Provide the complete names of the institutions where the work was done, and the name, mailing address, telephone number, fax number, and email address of the author to whom correspondence and proofs are to be sent. If you wish to have two corresponding authors listed for the paper, you must designate one of them to communicate with the editorial and production offices. If a change of address is imminent, indicate the change and the date effective. Furnish a condensed title of <45 characters for incorporation in the running head. A revised manuscript should include the original manuscript number and the word "Revision." The number of characters must be listed on the title page.
Abstract. The abstract may be paragraphed and should give a synopsis of the work reported that is self-explanatory and suitable for use without changes by abstracting services. Abstracts must not exceed 160 words. References must be cited in full in the abstract.
Abbreviations. A term that does not appear on the JCB standard abbreviations list must be used at least three times in a paper to qualify as an abbreviation. Spell out the term on first mention, and follow it with the abbreviated form in parentheses. Thereafter, use the abbreviated form. Supply a list of nonstandard abbreviations used in the paper, in alphabetical order, giving each abbreviation followed by its spelled-out version.
Materials and methods. Please see the JCB policy on image acquisition and manipulation above.
An 'Online Supplemental Material' section, providing a brief description of any materials submitted for online only publication (such as videos, data sets, or supplemental figures), must appear at the end of Materials and methods section.
References. References
should be cited parenthetically by author and year of publication. If automatic
referencing systems are used, the references must be finalized and reduced
to text before submission. References should be listed alphabetically by first
author’s last name. The authors must be cited in the order in which they
first appeared in publication and as they subsequently appear in Medline,
even in cases where more than one author contributed equally to the work.
Include all authors’ names (do not use "et al."), year, complete
article title, and inclusive page numbers. See examples below. Abbreviate
the names of journals according to PubMed;
spell out the names of unlisted journals. Unpublished material should not
appear in the reference list. Citations such as "manuscript in preparation,"
"manuscript submitted," "unpublished results," "unpublished
observation," and "data not shown," must appear parenthetically
in the text as "unpublished data." As an alternative to "unpublished
data," additional images, video, data sets, or methods not shown in the
article may be included as Online Supplemental Material. When a person(s)
who is not an author of the article is the source of unpublished data, those
data must be cited as a "personal communication." In the case of
"personal communications," authors must provide a signed letter
of permission from the source of the communication authorizing the authors
to cite the communication. Unpublished work may not be cited in the Materials
and methods section. Citation of abstracts in the reference list is not permitted;
these should be incorporated parenthetically into the text, giving the authors'
names, meeting name and year, and abstract number. Adhere to the reference
formats provided by the following examples:
Journal Articles
Two authors: Yalow, R.S., and S.A. Berson. 1960. Immunoassay of endogenous plasma insulin in man. J. Clin. Invest. 39:1157-1175.
More than two authors: Benditt, E.P., N. Ericksen, and R.H. Hanson. 1979. Amyloid protein SAA is an apoprotein of mouse plasma high density lipoprotein. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 76:4092-4096.
In press: Brown, W., and A. Nelson. 1983. Phosphorus content of lipids. J. Lipid Res. In press.
Online Peer-Reviewed Articles
Published article with only DOI: Lopez-Soler, R.I., R.D. Moir, T.P. Spann, R. Stick, and R.D. Goldman. 2001. A role for nuclear lamins in nuclear envelope assembly. J. Cell Biol. doi:10.1083/jcb.200101025
Published article with both DOI and pagination: Lopez-Soler, R.I., R.D. Moir, T.P. Spann, R. Stick, and R.D. Goldman. 2001. A role for nuclear lamins in nuclear envelope assembly. J. Cell Biol. 154:61-71. doi:10.1083/jcb.200101025.
Complete Books
Myant, N.B. 1981. The Biology of Cholesterol and Related Steroids. Heinemann Medical Books, London. 882 pp.
Articles in Books
Innerarity, T.L., D.Y. Hui, and R.W. Mahley. 1982. Hepatic apoprotein E (remnant) receptor. In Lipoproteins and Coronary Atherosclerosis. G. Noseda, C. Fragiacomo, R. Fumagalli, and R. Paoletti, editors. Elsevier/North Holland, Amsterdam. 173-181.
Tables. Tables should always use rows and columns to correlate two variables. Double space tables on pages separate from the text and make them self-contained and self-explanatory. Do not divide into sub tables and do not use vertical rules. Label each table at the top with a Roman numeral followed by the table title. Insert explanatory material and footnotes below the table. Designate footnotes using lowercase superscript letters (a, b, c) reading horizontally across the table. Supply units of measure at the heads of the columns. Abbreviations that are used only in a table should be defined in the footnotes to that table.
Equations. Word 2007 users please note: With Word 2007 Microsoft has introduced a new proprietary math editor as the default editor for equations, but there are incompatibilities which prevent us from using equations created with this new editor. Please use the Design Science Equation Editor (formerly the default Word editor) or MathType rather than the new default math editor featured in the Insert ribbon. To use either Equation Editor or MathType, in the Insert ribbon, click “Object” and choose object type “Microsoft Equation 3.0” or “MathType Equation.” The Equation Editor toolbar or MathType window will appear and will work as in previous versions of Word.
Digital imagesFor background information, see our Editorial of January 5th, 2003.
Image acquisition and manipulation. See policies above.
File names. Should be alphanumeric. Do not include any spaces or special characters.
File formats. Acceptable file formats are EPS or TIFF. We cannot accept PowerPoint files. Please note that files saved in TIF format from within the PowerPoint application are NOT at sufficiently high resolution to meet our formatting requirements.
Scale bars. All micrographs must include a bar to indicate the scale.
Molecular weights / fragment sizes. Protein molecular weights or DNA fragment sizes should be indicated on all figure panels showing gel electrophoresis.
Black & white photographic images. Submitted digital halftones must have an image resolution of at least 300 dpi at publication size. To check the size and resolution of the image in Adobe Photoshop, select "Image Size" in the "Image" menu. Make sure the "Resample Image" box in "Image Size" dialog window is not checked and the "Width", "Height", and "Resolution" boxes are linked by the graphic chain. (It may be necessary to click twice on the "Resample Image" box to establish this link.) This will mean that no resolution (i.e., dots or data) is lost when reducing the dimensions of an image and that the machine does not add dots to an image when increasing its dimensions. Set the print size to the desired size of the image in the printed journal and make sure that the resolution at this size is equal to or above 300 dpi. Please submit in the TIF format by selecting this choice in the format box of the "Save" dialog window. Files should be in grayscale format.
Color images. As above, resolution should be at least 300 dpi. Please submit files in RGB format. For published manuscripts, image files will be posted online in their original RGB format, maintaining the full color of your original files. When saving, always embed any ICC profile you’ve been working with. All profiles will be accurately converted to Adobe RGB (1998). If possible, we recommend that authors use Adobe RGB (1998) when preparing files. Note that we will still need to convert all RGB files to CMYK for printing on paper and color shifts may occur in conversion. You will not receive a CMYK proof. You can view an approximation of print results by converting to CMYK in Photoshop or Illustrator.
Line art. Vector files should be created in an illustration program such as Adobe Illustrator and should be saved and submitted as EPS (Encapsulated PostScript). Only Times, Helvetica, Arial, or Symbol fonts should be used. Using other fonts may result in lost or improperly converted characters. All color art should be in RGB format.
Figures with a combination of photographs and line art. Prepare photographic image files in Photoshop as above at 300 dpi as described above. Prepare line art in Illustrator as above (if you will be importing color images, be sure to create an RGB Illustrator file). Image files should be placed into the file containing the line art. Always embed images, never link. In Illustrator, copying and pasting or dragging directly from Photoshop will embed the image. If you use the “Place” command, be sure to uncheck “Link” in the dialogue box. If you use another illustration program, please refer to the specific documentation for that application (generally there will be a “link”, “proxy” or “OPI” option on import which should be unchecked). Save as EPS, always embedding any color profile used. We recommend Adobe RGB (1998).
Videos. The JCB can
post video files online. Videos must be cited both at the relevant place in
the text of the Results section, and in the legends of any figures that contain
video stills or images related to the video. In addition, an "Online Supplemental
Material" paragraph, providing a brief description of each video, must
appear at the end of the Materials and methods section. Each video must also
be accompanied by a text legend, which must contain the following information:
what the video is showing, the cell line or cell type being viewed, what each
color represents, how often frames were collected, the frames/second display
rate, and the number of any figure that has related video stills or images.
Videos must be peer reviewed with the manuscript. A maximum of 10 videos
may be posted for Articles and Reports.
Videos must be no larger than 10 MB. We recommend Sorenson or
Cinepak compression, although other codecs may be used. However, please do not
use Intel Indeo because of incompatibilities across platforms. Color depth should
be kept to a minimum, using grayscale for black and white videos. Frame size
should be limited to 450 x 375 pixels for best viewing within a browser on most
monitors. Videos should be named by order of citation appearance (e.g., video1.mov).
If a video is directly related to a figure or table, name accordingly (e.g.,
Fig4video3.mov). Lengthy file names should be avoided. We accept .mov, .mpg, and .avi files. Please verify that all
videos are viewable in QuickTime
before submission. Note that in some instances it may be necessary to resave
from within QuickTime Pro.
Cover submissionsAuthors whose manuscripts are accepted for publication in the JCB may submit cover images for consideration with the accepted version of the manuscript. A brief cover legend should be submitted with the image. Authors may submit as many versions of their subject as they wish. Additional information can be obtained from the Managing Editor: ehill{at}rockefeller.edu
Manuscripts accepted for publicationA manuscript will be published within six weeks after receipt of the final and complete version, including figures files in the correct formats. Authors can help maintain this publication time of a manuscript by promptly returning corrected page proofs to the production office.
Copyediting and production. All correspondence concerning the copyediting and production of manuscripts that have been accepted for publication should be addressed to:
The Journal of Cell Biology
Production Office
The Rockefeller University Press
1114 First Avenue
New York, NY 10021-8325
Tel.: (212)327-8552; Fax: (212)327-8513email: jcb@mail.rockefeller.edu
Proofs. A Rough Galley proof is supplied to the corresponding author as a PDF along with instructions. Proofs must be returned within 48 hours. Authors will be provided with information on charges for offprints and special services at that time. The cost of authors' text alterations in proof is $4.00 per change. Figure reprocessing at the author's request will be charged at $55.00 per subject.
Offprints. An offprint order form must be returned before the article is released.
Publication charges. Authors will be charged a rate of US$0.06 per character, not counting spaces, and not including Materials and methods, References, or Tables. There will also be a flat fee of $250 for posting of ANY supplemental material. Color reproduction is free. An author's inability to meet charges will not affect the publication of acceptable manuscripts.
Copyright Policy. Please see our License to Publish.
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