期刊名称:MOLECULAR PSYCHIATRY
期刊简介(About the journal)
投稿须知(Instructions to Authors)
编辑部信息(Editorial Board)
About the journal
Molecular Psychiatry
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Molecular Psychiatry publishes work aimed at elucidating biological mechanisms underlying psychiatric disorders and their treatment. The emphasis is on studies at the interface of pre-clinical and clinical research, including studies at the cellular, molecular, integrative, clinical, imaging and psychopharmacological levels.
Abstracted in: Index Medicus/MEDLINE, Neuroscience Citation Index, Current Contents, SciSearch, Science Citation Index, Research Alert, Excerpta Medica/EMBASE. |

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Instructions to Authors
Editorial Note Molecular Psychiatry is an independent journal published by Nature Publishing Group, a division of Macmillan Publishers Ltd. All contributions and general correspondence regarding editorial matters should be addressed to the Editor and sent to the editorial office. Manuscripts submitted to the journal must represent reports of original research. Authors will be notified of acceptance, rejection or need for revision within approximately 3 weeks. When a manuscript is returned to the corresponding author for revision, it should be returned to the editor within 2 months, otherwise it may be considered withdrawn. It is understood that by publishing a paper in Molecular Psychiatry, authors agree to make freely available to colleagues in academic research any plasmids, viruses, antibodies, nucleic acids and living materials such as microbial strains and cell lines that were used in the research and that are not available from commercial suppliers. To expedite the review process, authors should recommend five reviewers. Please provide the name, address, telephone and fax number, e-mail address and area of expertise for each. Note that recommended reviewers will be used at the discretion of the editor. Authors are asked to write their manuscripts in English using an easily readable style. Spelling and phraseology should conform either to standard English or to standard American usage and should be consistent throughout the paper.
FORMAT OF PAPERSArticle Types Table
| Article Type |
Description |
Specifications |
| Original Article |
These should follow the structure outlined below this table. |
Non-structured Abstract of 150-250 words, and a brief Introduction that assumes the reader is knowledgeable in the field (no more than 1,500 words). The maximum word count is 3,500, including everything except the abstract and the references. There is a maximum of 5 display items (pictures and/or tables) and 75 references. |
| Feature Review |
Scholarly reviews of topics within the scope of Molecular Psychiatry are commissioned and will be considered for publication after peer review. We will also consider special review formats such as 'sounding board', 'commentary', 'hypothesis' or 'point of view'. Please send a one-page letter of inquiry to the editor before preparing your manuscript. |
We recommend 4,000 words max. |
| Letters to the Editor |
Scientific correspondence meets any of the following criteria:
- Short reports of a novel, topical finding of general interest, usually needing only one small figure or table
- Comments on original research papers or other technical material published in Molecular Psychiatry (see below)
- Communication of preliminary results of exceptional interest that are particularly topical and relevant, and for which fast publication is essential
- A scientific perspective on a topical issue of international public interest
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- Contributions should contain no more than 700 words, or 900 words if there is no figure or table.
- Titles may be changed by the editors for space or other reasons. Authors will be consulted about title changes, but Molecular Psychiatry will make the final decision.
- Contributions should start with a two- or three-sentence paragraph that contains the message of the article without specialized terminology.
- Contributions should have a simple message that requires only one small figure or table. Figures and tables should be sized so that they can be reduced to single-column width (58mm). They should be presented in a rectangular shape, and should be as simple as possible.
- Contributions should not have more than 10 references (ideally fewer); reference style is Vancouver, but do not include titles of articles. All other reference guidelines are as for Original Research (see ‘References’ section below).
- Letters to the Editor should not include an Acknowledgments section.
- ‘Joint first authors' are not allowed.
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| News & Commentary |
These are short overviews of new original work. |
Text should be preceded by a brief sentence of 20-30 words that summarizes the article. |
| Perspectives |
These are summaries of development in fast-moving areas of interest to the readers of Molecular Psychiatry. Perspective articles will be solicited. |
No more than five printed pages in length. |
| Immediate Communications |
These are definitive studies of high merit, exceptional significance and novelty, which warrant rapid dissemination. This format is not for preliminary data, and should be used solely for complete studies of exceptional caliber. Rigorous review according to stringent criteria will be completed whenever possible by members of the editorial board. Immediate Communications are selected from accepted manuscripts at the sole discretion of the Editor. Review and publication of Immediate Communications will be maximally expedited with a goal of publication within 3-10 weeks of submission. Authors who wish to have their papers considered by the Editor as Immediate Communications should indicate thus in their cover letter; however, this in no way ensures the Editor will select the paper for this category. |
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Preparation of Original Articles
- Cover letter (must include a Conflict of Interest statement)
- Title page (excluding acknowledgements)
- Abstract and keywords
- Introduction
- Materials (or patients) and methods
- Results
- Discussion
- Acknowledgements
- Conflict of Interest
- References
- Tables
- Figures
Cover letter The uploaded covering letter must state the material is original research, has not been previously published and has not been submitted for publication elsewhere while under consideration. The covering letter must also contain a Conflict of Interest statement (see Editorial Policy section).
Title page The title page should bear the title of the paper, the full names of all the authors, highest academic degree obtained, and their affiliations, together with the name, full postal address, telephone and fax numbers and e-mail address of the author to whom correspondence and offprint requests are to be sent (This information is also asked for on the electronic submission form). The title should be brief, informative, of 150 characters or less and should not make a statement or conclusion. The running title should consist of not more than 50 letters and spaces. It should be as brief as possible, convey the essential message of the paper and contain no abbreviations. Authors should disclose the sources of any support for the work, received in the form of grants and/or equipment and drugs.
Abstract and Keywords The abstract should be 150-250 words in length and three to six keywords should be included to aid web searches after publication.
Introduction The Introduction should assume that the reader is knowledgeable in the field and should therefore be as brief as possible but can include a short historical review where desirable.
Materials / subjects and Methods This section should contain sufficient detail, so that all experimental procedures can be reproduced, and include references. Methods, however, that have been published in detail elsewhere should not be described in detail. Authors should provide the name of the manufacturer and their location for any specifically named medical equipment and instruments, and all drugs should be identified by their pharmaceutical names, and by their trade name if relevant.
Results and Discussion The Results section should briefly present the experimental data in text, tables or figures. Tables and figures should not be described extensively in the text, either. The discussion should focus on the interpretation and the significance of the findings with concise objective comments that describe their relation to other work in the area. It should not repeat information in the results. The final paragraph should highlight the main conclusion(s), and provide some indication of the direction future research should take.
Acknowledgements These should be brief, and should include sources of support including sponsorship (e.g. university, charity, commercial organization) and sources of material (e.g. novel drugs) not available commercially.
Conflict of interest Authors must declare whether or not there is any competing financial interests in relation to the work described. This information must be included at this stage and will be published as part of the paper. Conflict of interest should also be noted on the cover letter and as part of the submission process. See the Conflict of Interest documentation in the Editorial Policy section for detailed information.
References Only papers directly related to the article should be cited. Exhaustive lists should be avoided. References should follow the Vancouver format. In the text they should appear as numbers starting at one and at the end of the paper they should be listed (double-spaced) in numerical order corresponding to the order of citation in the text. All authors should be quoted for papers with up to six authors; for papers with more than six authors, the first six only should be quoted, followed by et al. Abbreviations for titles of medical periodicals should conform to those used in the latest edition of Index Medicus. The first and last page numbers for each reference should be provided. Abstracts and letters must be identified as such. Papers in press and papers already submitted for publication may be included in the list of references but no citation is required for work that is not yet submitted for publication.
Journal article, up to six authors followed by et al.: Barbosa MDFS, Ngyen QA, Tchernev VT, Ashley JA, Detter JC, Blaydes SM et al. Identification of the homologous beige and Chediak-Higashi syndrome genes. Nature 1996; 382: 262-265.
Journal article, e-pub ahead of print: Yolken RH, Torrey EF. Are some cases of psychosis caused by microbial agents? A review of the evidence. Mol Psychiatry 2008; e-pub ahead of print 12 February 2008; doi:10.1038/mp.2008.5.
Journal article, in press: Jeste DV, Blazer D, Casey D, Meeks T, Salzman C, Schneider L et al. ACNP white paper: update on use of antipsychotic drugs in elderly persons with dementia. Neuropsychopharmacology (in press).
Complete book: Badcock C. Evolutionary Psychology: A Critical Introduction. Polity Press: Cambridge, UK, 2000.
Chapter in book: Panksepp J. Affective neuroscience: a conceptual framework for the neurobiological study of emotions. In Strongman K (ed). International Reviews of Emotion Research. Wiley: Chichester, UK, 1991, pp 59–99.
Abstract: Pasanen J. Epigenetics and bipolar disorder. Am J Med Genet C Semin Med Genet 2003; 123(Suppl 1): 45 (abstract 678).
Letter to the Editor Kyritsis AP, Rao JS. Cloning the differences between two complex genomes [letter]. Science 1993; 259: 946.
EndNote users should select the Molecular Psychiatry output style for the correct reference style.
Personal communications must be allocated a number and included in the list of references in the usual way or simply referred to in the text; the authors may choose which method to use. In either case authors must obtain permission from the individual concerned to quote his/her unpublished work.
Tables These should be labelled sequentially and cited within the text. Each table should be presented on its own page, numbered and titled. Reference to table footnotes should be made by means of Arabic numerals. Tables should not duplicate the content of the text. They should consist of at least two columns; columns should always have headings. Authors should ensure that the data in the tables are consistent with those cited in the relevant places in the text, totals add up correctly, and percentages have been calculated correctly. Unlike figures or images, tables may be embedded into the word processing software if necessary, or supplied as separate electronic files.
Figures Figures and images should be labelled sequentially, numbered and cited in the text. Figure legends should be brief, specific and appear on a separate manuscript page after the References section. Refer to (and cite) figures specifically in the text of the paper. Figures should not be embedded within the text. If a table or figure has been published before, the authors must obtain written permission to reproduce the material in both print and electronic formats from the copyright owner and submit it with the manuscript. This follows for quotes, illustrations and other materials taken from previously published works not in the public domain. The original source should be cited in the figure caption or table footnote. The use of three-dimensional histograms is strongly discouraged when the addition of the third dimension gives no extra information. Scale markers should be used in the image for electron micrographs, and indicate the type of stain used. Detailed guidelines for submitting artwork can be found by downloading the artwork guidelines PDF.
Supplementary information Supplementary information (SI) is peer-reviewed material directly relevant to the conclusion of an article that cannot be included in the printed version owing to space or format constraints. The article must be complete and self-explanatory without the SI, which is posted on the journal's website and linked to the article. SI may consist of data files, graphics, movies or extensive tables, view the artwork guidelines PDF for more information on accepted file types. Authors should submit documents in their FINAL format as they are not edited, typeset or changed, and will appear online exactly as submitted. When submitting SI authors are required to:
- Include a text summary (no more than 50 words) to describe the contents of each file.
- Identify the types of files (file formats) submitted.
- Include the text "Supplementary information is available at Molecular Psychiatry's website" at the end of the article and before the references.
House Style
General
- Do not make rules thinner than 1pt (0.36mm)
- Use a coarse hatching pattern rather than shading for tints in graphs
- Color should be distinct when being used as an identifying tool
- Spaces, not commas should be used to separate thousands
- Abbreviations should be preceded by the words they stand for in the first instance of use
- Use SI units throughout
- Text should be double spaced with a wide margin
- At first mention of a manufacturer, the town (and state if USA) and country should be provided
Availability of data and materials An inherent principle of publication is that others should be able to replicate and build upon the authors' published claims. Therefore, a condition of publication is that authors are required to make materials, data and associated protocols available in a publicly accessible database (as detailed in the sections below on this page). Where one does not exist, the information must be made available to referees at submission and to readers promptly on request. Any restrictions on materials availability or other relevant information must be disclosed in the manuscript’s methods section and should include details of how materials and information may be obtained.
Sequences, structures and 'omics': Papers reporting protein or DNA sequences and molecular structures will not be accepted without an accession number to Genbank/EMBL/DDBJ, Protein DataBank, SWISS-PROT or other appropriate, identified, publicly available database in general use in the field that gives free access to researchers from the date of publication.
Authors of papers describing structures of biological macromolecules must provide experimental data upon the request of editors if they are not already freely accessible in a publicly available database such as Protein DataBank, Nucleic Acids Database or Biological Magnetic Resonance Databank. Five separate copies of these data should be provided to the editors in an appropriate format (for example, CD or DVD) for the purposes of peer review.
Gene Nomenclature Authors should use approved nomenclature for gene symbols, and use symbols rather than italicized full names (Ttn, not titin). Please consult the appropriate nomenclature databases for correct gene names and symbols. Approved human gene symbols are provided by HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC), e-mail: nome@galton.ucl.ac.uk; see also http://www.gene.ucl.ac.uk/nomenclature. Approved mouse symbols are provided by The Jackson Laboratory, e-mail: nomen@informatics.jax.org; see also http://www.informatics.jax.org/mgihome/nomen . For proposed gene names that are not already approved, please submit the gene symbols to the appropriate nomenclature committees as soon as possible, as these must be deposited and approved before publication of an article. Avoid listing multiple names of genes (or proteins) separated by a slash, as in 'Oct4/Pou5f1', as this is ambiguous (it could mean a ratio, a complex, alternative names or different subunits). Use one name throughout and include the other at first mention: 'Oct4 (also known as Pou5f1)'.
SUBMISSION OF PAPERSFirst, if you have not done so already, register for an account.
For optimum performance, your browser should be either Netscape 4.7 or above, or Internet Explorer 5.0 and above. Make sure that your browser is set to accept cookies. Our tracking system requires cookies for proper operation. (If you have Windows XP the defaults will need changing. For more details on this, please refer to the 'Tips' function on this site.)
Navigating the system When you first access our tracking system, you will be taken to your Home page, where different categories of tasks are listed. If you are required to perform a pending action item or task, there will be a red arrow next to a "Manuscript" link. Throughout the system, red arrows reflect pending action items which you should address. If there are no red arrows visible on your Home page, then you are finished and have no outstanding tasks to complete. At any time please press HOME to go to the submission home page.
'What you'll need' You will need to have the following details for all authors to submit your paper online. Items in parenthesis are not essential for co-authors:
- Email Addresses
- First and Last Names
- Institution
- (Full Postal Address)
- (Work Telephone Numbers)
- Fax Numbers
In addition you will need:
- Covering letter (including Conflict of Interest statement)
- Title and Running Title (you can copy and paste this from your manuscript
- Abstract (you can copy and paste this from your manuscript)
- Manuscript files in Word, WordPerfect, text or any RTF format
- Figures/Images in external files in TIFF or JPEG, in either grayscale or CMYK color, not in RGB
- Tables in Excel (preferred) as separate files or embedded at the end of the manuscript file
The manuscript submission process is broken down into a series of 4 primary tasks that gather detailed information about your manuscript and allow you to upload the pertinent text and figure/image files. The sequence of screens is as follows:
- The 'Files' primary task allows you to select the actual file locations (via an open file dialogue). You will be able to 'Browse' for the relevant files on your computer. Please include the figure number in the title line for each figure. On the completion screen, you will be asked to specify the order in which you want the individual files to appear in the merged document. Editors and/or reviewers will also be able to look at the individual PDF files if necessary. For more information on accepted file types, view the Artwork Guidelines PDF.
- The 'Manuscript Information' primary task which asks for author details, the manuscript title, abstract, other associated manuscript information and types/number of files to be submitted. Please note, if you are the corresponding author please submit your details in the corresponding author fields; DO NOT re-enter the same details in the contributing author fields.
- The 'Validate' primary task gives you the opportunity to check and verify the manuscript files and manuscript information uploaded. If you are submitting manuscript files separately, we create a merged PDF containing your manuscript text, figures and tables to simplify the handling of your paper. You will need to approve the merged PDF file, and a PDF or any other file not included in the merge, to submit your manuscript. You may also update and/or change manuscript files and manuscript information by clicking on the 'Change' or 'Fix' links respectively.
- The 'Submit' primary task is the last step in the manuscript submission process. At this stage the Manuscript Tracking System will perform a final check to ensure that all mandatory fields have been completed. Any incomplete fields will be flagged by a red arrow and highlighted by a red box. Click on the 'Fix' link to return to relevant section for completion. Once your manuscript has been finalised, click on the 'Approve Submission' button to submit your manuscript for consideration. A 'Manuscript Approved' message will display on your author desktop to confirm the submission.
Conflict of interest It is essential that you note whether or not there is any conflict of interest in the submission form. This does not act as a substitute for the information that must be provided in the manuscript. See the Conflict of Interest documentation in the Editorial Policy section for detailed information.
Six preferred reviewers Authors are welcome to suggest suitable independent reviewers and may also request that the journal excludes one or two individuals or laboratories. It is at the editor's discretion to determine the choice of referees and these decisions are final.
Submitting additional files For more information on submitting figure files and tables, please refer to the artwork guidelines PDF.
Saving files with Microsoft Office 2007 Microsoft Office 2007 saves files in an XML format by default (file extensions .docx, .pptx and xlsx). Files saved in this format cannot be accepted for publication. Save Word documents using the file extension .doc
- Select the Office Button in the upper left corner of the Word 2007 Window and choose "Save As"
- Select "Word 97-2003 Document"
- Enter a file name and select “Save”
These instructions also apply for the new versions of Excel and PowerPoint.
Equations in Word must be created using Equation Editor 3.0 Equations created using the new equation editor in Word 2007 and saved as a "Word 97-2003 Document" (.doc) are converted to graphics and can no longer be edited. To insert or change an equation with the previous equation editor:
- Select "Object" on the “Text” section of the "Insert" tab
- In the drop-down menu - select "Equation Editor 3.0"
Do not use the “Equation button in the “Symbols” section of the “Insert” tab.
Adobe Acrobat Best results are achieved if you have access to Adobe Acrobat Reader (6.0 or above). The program is FREE and is downloadable from the link here. (Once the download is complete, you should amend the default settings. Select: Edit - Preferences - Web Capture, and select Open Web links: In Acrobat. This will open PDF files in Acrobat Reader rather than in your browser. The amendment will not affect functionality of either Acrobat Reader or your browser.) If the site replicates your details on screen, then your paper was successfully submitted. Once the files are submitted, the system will convert them to PDF. The conversion process can take up to 10 minutes before the PDF is ready for approval. Please note the manuscript will not move to the next stage and progress to the editorial office until you have approved the converted files.
Getting help If you need additional help, you can click on help signs available throughout the system and a box will appear with context sensitive help. If further assistance is required, then please contact the MTS helpdesk.
Manuscript status After your manuscript is approved, you will receive an email acknowledgement. You can check the manuscript’s status at any time in the review process by:
- Accessing the system with your password or via the link provided in the acknowledgement email.
- Clicking on the link represented by your manuscript tracking number and abbreviated title on your homepage.
- Clicking on the "Check Status" link at the bottom of the displayed page.
This procedure will display tracking information about where your manuscript is in the submission/peer-review process. See Navigating the system in the Submission of Papers section for more information.
License to Publish Once a manuscript is accepted, the corresponding author must complete and sign the "License to Publish" form and return it to the editorial office. Failure to promptly return the form will result in delays of your paper’s publication. A copy of the License to Publish form can be found at http://mts-mp.nature.com/letters/mp_copyright.pdf. US Government employees should use the form at http://mts-mp.nature.com/letters/mp_gov.pdf. For the Open Access License to Publish form go to http://www.nature.com/mp/mp_ltp_open.pdf.
Nature Publishing Group does not require authors of original research papers to assign copyright of their published contributions. Authors grant NPG an exclusive license to publish, in return for which they can re-use their papers in their future printed work. NPG's author license page provides details of the policy and a sample form. Authors are encouraged to submit their version of the accepted, peer-reviewed manuscript to their funding body's archive for public release six months after publication. In addition, authors are encouraged to archive their version of the manuscript in their institution's repositories (as well as on their personal web sites), also six months after the original publication. Authors should cite the publication reference and doi number on any deposited version, and provide a link from it to the published article on the NPG website. This policy complements the policies of the US National Institutes of Health, the Wellcome Trust and other research funding bodies around the world. NPG recognizes the efforts of funding bodies to increase access of the research they fund, and strongly encourages authors to participate in such efforts.
Open access publication
Upon submission of an original research paper, authors can indicate within the manuscript tracking system whether they wish to pay an article processing charge to allow their article to be published open access. The fee is £2,000/$3,000/€2,400 (plus VAT where applicable) and can be paid via credit card or by requesting that an invoice be raised.
By paying this article processing charge, authors are permitted to post the final, published, pdf of their article on a website, institutional repository or other free public server immediately on publication.
Upon acceptance, authors must fill out and send back a payment form. This is mandatory and failure to send in the payment form along with the License to Publish form will result in the article being published as a standard paper behind access control. The License to Publish form has been amended to offer authors the choice of which license to use on their paper and these choices are described below:
The first is the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License and allows readers to download the article and share it with others as long as they mention the author and link back to the original article. The article cannot be changed in any way or used commercially.
The second is the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share Alike 3.0 Unported License and allows readers to alter, transform, or build upon the article and then distribute the resulting work under the same or similar license to this one. The work must be attributed back to the original author and commercial use is not permitted.
For further information please see the FAQs and payment form.
Proofs An e-mail is sent to the corresponding author with a URL link from where proofs can be downloaded. Proofs must be returned within 48 hours of receipt. Failure to do so may result in a delay to publication. Extensive corrections cannot be made at this stage.
Advance online publication All original articles are published ahead of print on advance online publication. This is the final version and will subsequently appear in print unchanged.
Offprints Offprints may be ordered on the form accompanying the proofs. The charges are necessarily higher if orders for offprints are received after the issue has gone to press.
Color charges
| Number of color illustrations |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7+ |
| Cost |
Rest of world USA |
£509 $1,017 |
£757 $1,514 |
£1,006 $2,012 |
£1,158 $2,314 |
£1,309 $2,617 |
£1,439 $2,877 |
£130 $260 |
per additional color figure |
Page charges The cost for each printed page of published manuscripts is £60 ($120).
Further information To find out who to contact for advertising, subscriptions, permissions, papers in production or publishing a supplement, please visit our publisher’s contacts page. Alternatively, you can write to: Molecular Psychiatry, Nature Publishing Group, 75 Varick St., 9th Floor, New York, NY 10013 USA.
EDITORIAL POLICY
Copyright permissions If a table or figure has been published before, the authors must obtain written permission to reproduce the material in both print and electronic formats from the copyright owner and submit it with the manuscript. This follows for quotes, illustrations and other materials taken from previously published works not in the public domain. The original source should be cited in the figure caption or table footnote. Color figures can be reproduced if necessary, but the authors will be expected to contribute towards the cost of publication. A quote will be supplied upon acceptance of your paper.
Duplicate publication Papers must be original and not published or submitted for publication elsewhere. This rule applies to non-English language publications. NPG allows and encourages prior publication on recognized community preprint servers for review by other scientists before formal submission to a journal. The details of the preprint server concerned and any accession numbers should be included in the cover letter accompanying manuscript submission. This policy does not extend to preprints available to the media or that are otherwise publicized outside the scientific community before or during the submission and consideration process.
Conflict of interest In the interests of transparency and to help readers form their own judgments of potential bias, effective from January 1st 2009, authors must declare whether or not there is any competing financial interests in relation to the work described. This information must be included in their cover letter and in the conflict of interest section of their manuscript. In cases where the authors declare a competing financial interest, a statement to that effect is published as part of the article. If no such conflict exists, the statement will simply read that the authors have nothing to disclose.
For the purposes of this statement, competing interests are defined as those of a financial nature that, through their potential influence on behavior or content, or from perception of such potential influences, could undermine the objectivity, integrity or perceived value of a publication. They can include any of the following:
- Funding: Research support (including salaries, equipment, supplies, reimbursement for attending symposia, and other expenses) by organizations that may gain or lose financially through this publication. The role of the funding body in the design of the study, collection and analysis of data and decision to publish should be stated.
- Employment: Recent (while engaged in the research project), present or anticipated employment by any organization that may gain or lose financially through this publication.
- Personal financial interests: Stocks or shares in companies that may gain or lose financially through publication; consultation fees or other forms of remuneration from organizations that may gain or lose financially; patents or patent applications whose value may be affected by publication.
It is difficult to specify a threshold at which a financial interest becomes significant, but note that many US universities require faculty members to disclose interests exceeding $10,000 or 5% equity in a company. Any such figure is arbitrary, so we offer as one possible practical alternative guideline: "Declare all interests that could embarrass you were they to become publicly known after your work was published." We do not consider diversified mutual funds or investment trusts to constitute a competing financial interest.
The statement must contain an explicit and unambiguous statement describing any potential conflict of interest, or lack thereof, for any of the authors as it relates to the subject of the report. Examples include “Dr. Smith receives compensation as a consultant for XYZ Company,” “Dr. Jones and Dr. Smith have financial holdings in ABC Company,” or “Dr. Jones owns a patent on the diagnostic device described in this report.” These statements acknowledging or denying conflicts of interest must be included in the manuscript under the heading Conflict of Interest. The Conflict of Interest disclosure appears in the cover letter, in the manuscript submission process and before the References section in the manuscript.
Following the Conflict of Interest heading, there must be a listing for each author, detailing the professional services relevant to the submission. Neither the precise amount received from each entity nor the aggregate income from these sources needs to be provided. Professional services include any activities for which the individual is, has been, or will be compensated with cash, royalties, fees, stock or stock options in exchange for work performed, advice or counsel provided, or for other services related to the author’s professional knowledge and skills. This would include, but not necessarily be limited to, the identification of organizations from which the author received contracts or in which he or she holds an equity stake if professional services were provided in conjunction with the transaction.
Examples of declarations are:
- Conflict of interest.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
- Conflict of interest.
Dr Caron's work has been funded by the NIH. He has received compensation as a member of the scientific advisory board of Acadia Pharmaceutical and owns stock in the company. He also has consulted for Lundbeck and received compensation. Dr Rothman and Dr Jensen declare no potential conflict of interest.
Communication with the media Material submitted must not be discussed with the media. We reserve the right to halt the consideration or publication of a paper if this condition is broken. If a paper is particularly newsworthy, the press release will be sent to our list of journalists in advance of publication with an embargo that forbids any coverage of the manuscript, or the findings of the manuscript, until the time and date clearly stated. Authors whose papers are scheduled for publication may also arrange their own publicity (for instance through their institution’s press offices), but they must strictly adhere to our press embargo and are advised to coordinate their own publicity with our press office.
Communication between scientists We do not wish to hinder communication between scientists. We ask you to communicate with other researchers as much as you wish, whether on a recognized community preprint server, on Nature Precedings, by discussion at scientific meetings or by online collaborative sites such as wikis, but we do not encourage premature publication by discussion with the press (beyond a formal presentation, if at a conference).
Pre-publicity Authors are welcome to post pre-submission versions or the original submitted version of the manuscript on a personal blog, a collaborative wiki or a recognized preprint server (such as ArXiv or Nature Precedings) at any time (but not subsequent pre-accept versions that evolve due to the editorial process).
For subscribed content, the accepted version of the manuscript, following the review process, may only be posted 6 months after the paper is published in an NPG journal. A publication reference and URL to the published version on the journal website must be provided on the first page of the postprint. The published version — copyedited and in the individual NPG journal format — may not be posted on any website or preprint server.
For open access content published under a creative commons license, authors can replace the submitted version with the final published version at publication as long as a publication reference and URL to the published version on the journal website are provided.
Statement of Ethics
Authorship A manuscript will be considered for publication on the understanding that:
- all named authors have agreed to its submission
- it is not currently being considered for publication by another journal
- if the paper is accepted it will not subsequently be published in the same or similar form in any language without the consent of publishers
Any changes to the author list after submission, such as a change in the order of the authors, or the deletion or addition of authors, needs to be approved by a signed letter from every author.
Correspondence with the journal One author is designated the contact author for matters arising from the published paper (materials requests, technical comments and so on). It is this author's responsibility to inform all coauthors of matters arising and to ensure such matters are dealt with promptly. After acceptance for publication, proofs are e-mailed to this corresponding author who should circulate the proof to all coauthors and coordinate corrections among them.
Plagiarism and fabrication Plagiarism is when an author attempts to pass off someone else's work as his or her own. Duplicate publication, sometimes called self-plagiarism, occurs when an author reuses substantial parts of his or her own published work without providing the appropriate references. Minor plagiarism without dishonest intent is relatively frequent, for example, when an author reuses parts of an introduction from an earlier paper.
If plagiarism is found, the journal will contact the author's institute and funding agencies. The paper containing the plagiarism will be marked on each page of the PDF and depending on the extent of the plagiarism, the paper may also be formally retracted. Image integrity and standards Images submitted with a manuscript for review should be minimally processed (for instance, to add arrows to a micrograph). Authors should retain their unprocessed data and metadata files, as editors may request them to aid in manuscript evaluation. If unprocessed data is unavailable, manuscript evaluation may be stalled until the issue is resolved.
A certain degree of image processing is acceptable for publication (and for some experiments, fields and techniques is unavoidable), but the final image must correctly represent the original data and conform to community standards. The guidelines below will aid in accurate data presentation at the image processing level:
- Authors should list all image acquisition tools and image processing software packages used. Authors should document key image-gathering settings and processing manipulations in the Methods section.
- Images gathered at different times or from different locations should not be combined into a single image, unless it is stated that the resultant image is a product of time-averaged data or a time-lapse sequence. If juxtaposing images is essential, the borders should be clearly demarcated in the figure and described in the legend.
- Touch-up tools, such as cloning and healing tools in Photoshop, or any feature that deliberately obscures manipulations, is to be avoided.
- Processing (such as changing brightness and contrast) is appropriate only when it is applied equally across the entire image and is applied equally to controls. Contrast should not be adjusted so that data disappear. Excessive manipulations, such as processing to emphasize one region in the image at the expense of others (for example, through the use of a biased choice of threshold settings), is inappropriate, as is emphasizing experimental data relative to the control.
For gels and blots, positive and negative controls, as well as molecular size markers, should be included on each gel and blot – either in the main figure or an expanded data supplementary figure. The display of cropped gels and blots in the main paper is encouraged if it improves the clarity and conciseness of the presentation. In such cases, the cropping must be mentioned in the figure legend.
- Vertically sliced gels that juxtapose lanes that were not contiguous in the experiment must have a clear separation or a black line delineating the boundary between the gels.
- Cropped gels in the paper must retain important bands.
- Cropped blots in the body of the paper should retain at least six band widths above and below the band.
- High-contrast gels and blots are discouraged, as overexposure may mask additional bands. Authors should strive for exposures with gray backgrounds. Immunoblots should be surrounded by a black line to indicate the borders of the blot, if the background is faint.
- For quantitative comparisons, appropriate reagents, controls and imaging methods with linear signal ranges should be used.
Microscopy adjustments should be applied to the entire image. Threshold manipulation, expansion or contraction of signal ranges and the altering of high signals should be avoided. If ‘Pseudo-coloring’ and nonlinear adjustment (for example ‘gamma changes’) are used, this must be disclosed. Adjustments of individual color channels are sometimes necessary on ‘merged’ images, but this should be noted in the figure legend. We encourage inclusion of the following with the final revised version of the manuscript for publication:
- In the Methods section, specify the type of equipment (microscopes/objective lenses, cameras, detectors, filter model and batch number) and acquisition software used. Although we appreciate that there is some variation between instruments, equipment settings for critical measurements should also be listed.
- The display lookup table (LUT) and the quantitative map between the LUT and the bitmap should be provided, especially when rainbow pseudocolor is used. It should be stated if the LUT is linear and covers the full range of the data.
- Processing software should be named and manipulations indicated (such as type of deconvolution, three-dimensional reconstructions, surface and volume rendering, 'gamma changes', filtering, thresholding and projection).
- Authors should state the measured resolution at which an image was acquired and any downstream processing or averaging that enhances the resolution of the image.
Bioethics
Human and other animal experiments For primary research manuscripts reporting experiments on live vertebrates and/or higher invertebrates, the corresponding author must confirm that all experiments were performed in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations. The manuscript must include in the Supplementary Information (methods) section (or, if brief, within of the print/online article at an appropriate place), a statement identifying the institutional and/or licensing committee approving the experiments, including any relevant details regarding animal welfare, patient anonymity, drug side effects and informed consent.
For experiments involving human subjects, authors must identify the committee approving the experiments, and include with their submission a statement confirming that informed consent was obtained from all subjects.
Biosecurity policy The Editor may seek advice about submitted papers not only from technical reviewers but also on any aspect of a paper that raises concerns. These may include, for example, ethical issues or issues of data or materials access. Very occasionally, concerns may also relate to the implications to society of publishing a paper, including threats to security. In such circumstances, advice will usually be sought simultaneously with the technical peer-review process. As in all publishing decisions, the ultimate decision whether to publish is the responsibility of the editor of the journal concerned.
Peer Review Policy
All contributions that are selected for peer-review are sent to at least one, but usually two or more, independent reviewers. To save time for authors and peer-reviewers, only those papers that seem most likely to meet our editorial criteria are sent for formal review. Those papers judged by the editors to be of insufficient general interest or otherwise inappropriate are rejected promptly without external review. The editors then make a decision based on the reviewers' advice, from among several possibilities:
Accept, with or without editorial revisions. Invite the authors to revise their manuscript to address specific concerns before a final decision is reached. Reject, but indicate to the authors that further work might justify a resubmission. Reject outright, typically on grounds of specialist interest, lack of novelty, insufficient conceptual advance or major technical and/or interpretational problems.
Anonymity We do not release reviewers' identities to authors, except when reviewers specifically ask to be identified. Unless they feel strongly, however, we prefer that reviewers should remain anonymous throughout the review process and beyond. We ask reviewers not to identify themselves to authors without the editor's knowledge. If they wish to reveal their identities while the manuscript is under consideration, this should be done via the editor, or if this is not practicable, we ask authors to inform the editor as soon as possible after the reviewer has revealed his or her identity to the author. We deplore any attempt by authors to confront reviewers or determine their identities. Our own policy is to neither confirm nor deny any speculation about reviewers' identities, and we encourage reviewers to adopt a similar policy.
Selecting peer reviewers Reviewer selection is critical to the publication process, and we base our choice on many factors, including expertise, reputation, and specific recommendations.
Correction and Retraction Process
We recognize our responsibility to correct errors. Content published online (as Advance Online Publication - AOP) or in an issue is final and cannot be amended. The online and print versions are both part of the published record hence the original version must be preserved and changes to the paper should be made as a formal correction. If an error is noticed in an AOP article, a correction should accompany the article when it publishes in print. An HTML (or full-text) version of the correction will also be created and linked to the original article. If the error is found in an article after print publication the correction will be published online and in the next available print issue.
Please note the following policy for making corrections to print and online versions of peer-reviewed content:
Erratum. Notification of an important error made by the journal that affects the publication record or the scientific integrity of the paper, or the reputation of the authors, or of the journal.
Corrigendum. Notification of an important error made by the author that affects the publication record or the scientific integrity of the paper, or the reputation of the authors or the journal.
Retraction. Notification of invalid results. All coauthors must sign a retraction specifying the error and stating briefly how the conclusions are affected.
Decisions about corrections are made by the Editor (sometimes with peer-reviewers' advice) and this sometimes involves author consultation. Requests to make corrections that do not affect the paper in a significant way or impair the reader's understanding of the contribution (a spelling mistake or grammatical error, for example) are not considered.
In cases where coauthors disagree about a correction, the editors will take advice from independent peer-reviewers and impose the appropriate correction, noting the dissenting author(s) in the text of the published version.
Non-Native Speakers of English
Researchers who are not native speakers of English who submit manuscripts to international journals sometimes receive negative comments from referees or editors about the English-language usage in their manuscripts, and these problems can contribute to a decision to reject a paper. To help reduce the possibility of such problems, we strongly encourage such authors to take at least one of the following steps:
- Have your manuscript reviewed for clarity by a colleague whose native language is English.
- Use one of the many English language editing services that are available, such as that offered by Nature Publishing Group Language Editing. An editor will improve the English to ensure that your meaning is clear and to identify problems that require your review.
Please note that the use of Nature Publishing Group Language Editing is at the author's own expense and in no way implies that the article will be selected for peer review or accepted by an NPG journal (or any other journal). The decisions that the editors of any NPG journal make based on the quality and suitability of a manuscript for that journal are entirely independent of whether that manuscript has been language-edited by Nature Publishing Group Language Editing.
Editorial Board
Editor
Julio Licinio, M.D. c/o Aimee Midei Editorial Assistant Nature Publishing Group The Macmillan Building 4 Crinan Street London N1 9XW UK E-mail: molecularpsychiatry@mednet.ucla.edu
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