《生物学前沿（英文版）》投稿指南
Instructions for Authors
General information
Frontiers in Biology is a bimonthly academic English journal supervised by the Ministry of Education of China. The journal is sponsored by Higher Education Press and jointly published by Higher Educaiton Press and Springer. The journal is available in both print and electronic versions.
http://journal.hep.com.cn/fib, http://www.springer.com/journal/11515
Scope
Frontiers in Biology provides a forum for a broad range of invited and unsolicited high quality critical review papers, in English, on the latest advances in all areas of Biology in order to promote rapid communication and the exchange of ideas among biologists all around the world. Frontiers in Biology also publishes, from time to time, original scientific research, short communications, selected topics, timely reviews, mini-reviews, and a section devoted to correspondence and comments. The primary criterion for publication is that the articles present new insights that are of broad interest to biological scientists, biomedical scientists, and health professionals with a presentation style appropriate for a wide audience of biologists. This includes biological research in the disciplines of genetics and genomics, proteomics, neurobiology, cell and developmental biology, biochemistry and molecular biology, medical biology, microbiology, immunology, and plane sciences.
Editorial Process
To minimize publication times and ensure that important data reach readers and the public as quickly as possible, we now post accepted articles online as soon as they are made ready, prior to the print publication, at http://journal.hep.com.cn/fib.
once the proof is approved by the authors, we will post the article as a PDF. An Online-First article is not "pre-print", but rather is considered as the full publication of that article. At the time of posting, the bibliographic information is forwarded to indexing agencies, so the article can be searched for and found on bibliographical databases and can be cited as published.
Ethical Approval of Studies and Informed Consent For all manuscripts reporting data from studies involving human participants or animals, formal review and approval, or formal review and waiver, by an appropriate institutional review board or ethics committee is required and should be described in the ¨Compliance with ethics guidelines〃 section. For those investigators who do not have formal ethics review committees, the principles outlined in the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000（5）, should be followed. For investigations of humans, state in the ¨Compliance with ethics guidelines〃 section the manner in which informed consent was obtained from the study participants (i.e., oral or written). Editors may request that authors provide documentation of the formal review and recommendation from the institutional review board or ethics committee responsible for oversight of the study.
The Journal requirements are in accordance with the uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals, drawn up by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).
Conflicts of Interest and Financial Disclosures
A conflict of interest exists if authors or their institutions have financial or personal relationships with other people or organisations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their actions. Financial relationships are easily identifiable, but conflicts can also occur because of personal relationships, academic competition, or intellectual passion. A conflict can be actual or potential, and full disclosure to The Editor is the safest course. Failure to disclose conflicts might lead to publication of a statement or even to retraction. All submissions to Frontiers in Biology must include disclosure of all relationships that could be viewed as presenting a potential conflict of interest. The Editor may use such information as a basis for editorial decisions The corresponding author should confirm that he or she had full access to all the data in the study and had final responsibility for the decision to submit for publication. All authors are required to provide a Conflict of Interest Statement.
Manuscript submission
Authors are encouraged to submit their papers electronically via the online submission system (https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/fib). The web site guides authors stepwise through the creation and uploading of the various files. Manuscripts should be in a Word format. When you first submit your paper, please upload the PDF file.
When your paper is accepted, you will be required to send the original source files. All correspondence, including the editor's decision and request for revisions, will be by e-mail. After reviewing process, the manuscript will be judged by one of the section editors and EIC who have the right to accept or reject a paper.
Submission requirements
Cover letter
A cover letter from the corresponding author must accompany the manuscript and should provide a brief description of what was known in the field, the conceptual breakthrough, and the significant impact of the reported findings. The authors are encouraged to suggest appropriate reviewers and are permitted to make request for up to three reviewer exclusions.
Cover letter should state that the submitted material is original research, has not been previously published, and has not been submitted elsewhere while under review by Frontiers in Biology. The cover letter is confidential and will not be sent to the reviewers.
Manuscript components
Manuscript should be arranged in the following order:
(a) Title section (b) Abstract (c) Introduction (d) Materials and Methods (e) Results (f) Discussion (g) Acknowledgements (h) Compliance with ethics guidelines (i) References (j) Figure Legends (k) Tables (l) Figures and (m) Supplemental Materials.
Manuscripts should be prepared with Microsoft Word in double space and size 12 Times New Roman font. The following components are required for a complete manuscript: Title page (including Title, Running Title, Keywords, Authors, Author Affiliations, and Correspondence), Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgements, References, Legends, and displayed items including Tables and Figures, and Supplemental Materials. All Pages except for displayed items should be numbered.
For more details, please refer to examples of manuscripts (Research article, Review) or contact editorial office (zhangxl@hep.com.cn).
Research article format
Title The title should be informative and concise, and not longer than 150 characters (including space). It should describe the topic of the manuscript in terms understandable to a broad readership in either a complete sentence or a phrase.
Running title The running title that describes the key meaning of the paper should be within 50 characters (including space).
Authors Authors should be listed in full names, beginning with the given name, and followed by the family name.
Affiliations (including department/subunit, institution, city, state/region, postal code and country) should be provided for each author. If the authors are affiliated to different units, the affiliation sequence should be in the same order of author list, marked at the right upper corner of the author names using 1, 2, 3, etc. Corresponding author's name, full postal address, telephone and fax numbers and e-mail address need to be provided.
Abstract Each manuscript should be prefaced by an abstract of not more than 250 words and should state concisely the background, methods, results, and conclusions of the manuscript. Extensive experimental detail and reference should be avoided.
Keywords Up to 6 words separated by commas.
Introduction It mainly includes the following parts: the background of the research through literature citation, the problems or questions needed to be solved, the objectives of the research, and the main methods used.
Materials and methods Methods must be described completely enough so that other laboratories can replicate results and verify claims. Generally, standard procedures should be referenced, though significant variations should be described.
Appropriate experimental design and statistical methods should be applied and described wherever necessary for proper interpretation of data and verification of claims. All novel materials and procedures should be described in sufficient detail to allow their reproduction (e.g., DNA constructs, genetic stocks, enzyme preparations, and analytical software).
Results Results can be described using text, tables and figures. The text should complement material given in Tables and/or Figures but should not directly repeat it. Please give full details of statistical analysis either in the text or in Tables and/or Figure legends. Please include the type of test, the precise data to which it was applied, the value of the relevant statistics, the sample size and/or degrees of freedom, and the probability level.
Compliance with ethics guidelines
In order to comply with the ethical requirements, the following sentences should be included in a separate section of each article just before the reference list. The section should be called ¨Compliance with Ethics Guidelines〃.
Author enquiries
For submission inquiries, tracking articles and any information please contact the Frontiers in Biology Editorial Office in Higher Education Press. All correspondence for the journal should be sent to the following address. Please include the manuscript dispatch number in all correspondences.
Frontiers in Biology Editorial Office
Editor: Xueli Zhang
Academic Journal Publishing Division, Higher Education Press
Floor 15, Fusheng Building, No. 4, Huixindongjie Str., Chaoyang Dist.
Beijing 100029, China
Tel: 86-10-58556534, Fax: 86-10-58556034
E-mail: zhangxl@hep.com.cn
http://www.springer.com/journal/11515
