期刊名称：NUCLEIC ACIDS RESEARCH
 期刊简介(About the journal)
投稿须知(Instructions to Authors)
编辑部信息(Editorial Board)
About the journal
Nucleic Acids Research (NAR) publishes the results of leading edge research into physical, chemical, biochemical and biological aspects of nucleic acids and proteins involved in nucleic acid metabolism and/or interactions. It enables the rapid publication of papers under the following categories: RNA, molecular biology, chemistry, genomics, computational biology and structural biology. A Survey and Summary section provides a format for brief reviews. The first issue of each year is devoted to biological databases.
NAR Methods Online provides a forum for the online publication of methods papers.
Abstracting and Indexing Services
Nucleic Acids Research is covered by the following major indexing services:-
Science Citation Index
Current Contents: Life Sciences
Reference Update
Medline (Index Medicus)
Embase
BIOSIS |
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Instructions to Authors
Editorial - important new information for papers published from January 2004.
All material to be considered for publication in Nucleic Acids Research should be submitted in electronic form via the Journal's online submission system. Full instructions for manuscript preparation and submission can be found in the sections below. If you are unable to submit your manuscript via the online submission system, please contact either the UK or US Editorial Office at nar@mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk or nar@neb.com, respectively.
Nucleic Acids Research (NAR) provides rapid publication of papers on physical, chemical, biochemical and biological aspects of nucleic acids and proteins involved in nucleic acid metabolism and/or interactions. The Journal welcomes the submission of manuscripts that present some novel development and meet the general criteria of originality, timeliness, significance and scientific excellence. More detailed criteria for manuscripts in particular subject areas are presented below.
Types of paper
The online edition comprises all articles, including Methods papers, and supplementary material. The Methods papers and supplementary material are referenced in the printed Table of Contents. The print edition contains standard papers, Surveys and Summaries, Database and Web Server articles only.
Standard papers. Standard papers are published in the following categories: Chemistry, Computational Biology, Genomics, Molecular Biology, RNA and Structural Biology.
Surveys and Summaries. This section accommodates brief formal reviews relevant to nucleic acid chemistry and biology as well as other articles requiring more latitude in subject and/or format. Please contact Professor William Dynan (E-mail: narsands@mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk) for further information.
Methods papers. Significant new methods can be published in two forms:
1. As Methods papers in NAR Methods Online for novel techniques or advances in existing techniques that are highly significant and very useful. The full texts of Methods papers are published in the online edition only. The papers are searchable through both the general NAR search page and the separate NAR Methods facility and are fully citable. In addition, titles of newly published Methods papers are included in the Table of Contents of the print edition to alert readers to the full text in the online edition.
2. Within standard papers. Such papers must describe, as their main topic, significant new results appropriate for one of the standard subject categories, with the addition of a new method. Papers that describe a new method but do not contain significant new results cannot be considered as standard papers. The titles of standard papers that contain a new method are listed in the Table of Contents under the appropriate subject category (Chemistry, Computational Biology, Genomics, Molecular Biology, RNA and Structural Biology) and are marked with an ?B>M? The text of these papers is published in both the online and the print editions. They are also searchable through the NAR Methods facility.
If you have a query about submission to the online Methods section, please contact Dr Alan Kimmel (E-mail: ark1@helix.nih.gov) or Professor Keith Fox (E-mail: foxnar@soton.ac.uk).
Database articles. The first issue of each year is a special one devoted to biological databases. Authors proposing to submit an article describing a new database, not previously featured, should contact Dr Alex Bateman (E-mail: nardatabase@mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk) before July 1 of the preceding year.
Web Server articles. The first July issue will be devoted to papers describing web-based software resources of value to the biological community. The deadline for articles submitted to this special issue will be February 15. Please contact Dr R. J. Roberts (Tel: +1 978 927 3382; Fax: +1 978 921 1527; E-mail: roberts@neb.com) for further information.
Criteria for consideration
The Journal can publish only a fraction of the manuscripts it receives. For this reason, the Editors insist that all manuscripts considered for publication must present some novel development and meet the general criteria of originality, timeliness, significance and scientific excellence. In addition, specific criteria have been established for papers in the following specialised areas.
Genomics and DNA sequences
The Journal’s primary focus in this area is on genomic studies directly related to nucleic acid biochemistry with novel biological insights relevant to genome function or evolution. Manuscripts are primarily in two categories:
- genome analysis, either complete chromosomal or genomic sequences, or comparative genomics. Both genome analysis and comparative studies should contain complementary data with relevance to genomic organisation, transcription, RNA processing, expression, genetic analysis or other novel biology. The reported sequence must shed significant new light on basic questions of structural or functional interest.
Except for whole genome sequences, reports that merely summarize information from DNA sequence database annotations are discouraged;
or
- those that apply whole genomic approaches to the analysis of gene regulation (e.g. array and proteomic technologies). Such manuscripts must provide novel insights into biological problems and provide evidence to corroborate and validate hypotheses that have been generated using whole genomic approaches.
Purely descriptive accounts of microarray data, or sequence characterizations (data mining) not leading to a testable hypothesis will not be considered.
Nucleic acid sequences must be deposited in a databank; only those parts relevant to the discussion of the results will be printed.
Computational biology
Manuscripts will be considered if they describe novel applications or algorithms relevant to nucleic acid or protein sequence manipulation. Small improvements in existing programs or variations of well-established algorithms will generally not be suitable. Papers describing new algorithms must include an application.
RNA biogenesis
Manuscripts dealing with transcription (including promoters, enhancers and terminators as well as RNA polymerases and transcriptional regulatory proteins) and RNA processing (including constitutive and differential splicing, polyadenylation, editing and turnover as well as assembly of ribosomes and other ribonucleoprotein particles).
These manuscripts will be considered if they provide:
- new insights into the mechanism or control of transcription or RNA processing, especially if the significance extends beyond a particular gene, organism, or cell type, or
- biologically significant information about regulation of genes involved in nucleic acid metabolism, or
- structural insights into proteins and protein-nucleic acid complexes relevant to transcription or RNA processing, particularly if these involve new motifs.
Vectors
Manuscripts describing the construction of vectors will only be considered for publication in NAR Methods Online, and must be based on completely new principles and accompanied by novel biological applications.
Restriction enzymes and DNA methyltransferases
Manuscripts describing the identification of restriction enzymes or DNA methyltransferases with novel recognition sequences will be considered for publication in NAR Methods Online.
Chemical synthesis
The Journal encourages manuscripts describing:
- chemical synthesis of novel oligonucleotide analogues and their physical characterisation where there is a clear and potentially useful biological or structural application
- novel chemistry applied to nucleic acids (e.g. array technology, cross-linking and modifying agents) that includes a demonstration of a significant biological application
- chemical synthesis of novel nucleoside or nucleotide analogues where there is a significant and potentially useful application relating to oligonucleotide or nucleic acids structure or function.
NOTE: Manuscripts dealing with improvements in array technology or array data handling that do not include novel chemistry will be considered for publication under current Methods papers guidelines (see above) and will generally be considered for publication in NAR Methods Online.
Antisense, ribozymes, RNA interference and other gene control reagents
The Journal encourages manuscripts describing:
- novel nucleic acid analogues, combinations and conjugates where there is a demonstrated antisense, ribozyme, RNAi or other significant biological effect or application, particularly those that focus on mechanisms of action
- in vivo or cell delivery and localisation of nucleic acids and their analogues that are based on novel principles or which cast new light on cellular or tissue uptake mechanisms.
In general, manuscripts describing clinical applications will not be considered.
Antisense RNA transcripts
In addition to determination of the existence of an antisense RNA transcript, evidence for functional significance must be presented. This might include mutational data, demonstration that the abundance of the RNA exceeds that of the target, information on differential control, or other convincing evidence of function.
In vitro nucleic acid selection
The Journal encourages manuscripts describing in vitro selection of RNA or DNA or their analogues from random pools (aptamers, selex) that include substantial new information or which have novel applications relevant to nucleic acid structure or function, or to proteins that interact with nucleic acids.
NOTE: Manuscripts dealing with improvements in nucleic acid selection methodology will be considered under current Methods papers guidelines (see above) and will generally be considered for publication in NAR Methods Online.
Small molecule-nucleic acid interactions
The Journal encourages manuscripts describing novel aspects of recognition of DNA and RNA sequences by small molecules where this is biologically relevant. This may include:
- sequence-dependent binding
- base recognition
- novel recognition motifs
Manuscripts emphasizing the biological relevance of small molecule-nucleic acid interactions, and their potential applications, are especially welcome. Studies using emerging biophysical approaches such as surface plasmon resonance and single-molecule methods are also encouraged.
DNA and RNA structures and proteins that interact with nucleic acids
The Journal encourages manuscripts describing significant new biologically relevant structural features or principles (including novel solvent structures), as determined by X-ray crystallographic or NMR studies. Reports on minor variants of well-established structures are generally not suitable unless significant new insights are obtained. Manuscripts that utilise database and bioinformatics approaches are especially welcome, but must be firmly related to experimental observations.
Biophysical and structural methods must address an important biological problem.
NMR
Manuscripts containing a simple NMR assignment are not acceptable. Only those that present new structural information not previously available from other methods will be considered.
Repetitive DNA
The Journal encourages manuscripts that describe novel insights into the regulated expression and function of SINEs, LINEs and other repetitive sequences. The Journal discourages manuscripts that describe the identification of new subfamilies or refinement of existing subfamilies, the relative mobilities of such subfamilies, or evolutionary studies and sequence comparisons, unless they provide novel insights.
GENERAL POLICIES OF THE JOURNAL
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30 September 2003
Authors?responsibilities
Submission of a manuscript implies that it reports unpublished work and that it is not under consideration elsewhere. The corresponding author checks the relevant boxes during online submission on behalf of all authors to indicate that they are in complete agreement with the contents of the manuscript and are prepared to abide by the general policies of NAR as listed below.
Conflicts of Interest
NAR policy requires that all authors of all manuscripts reveal (1) any financial interest in or arrangement with a company whose product was used in a study or is referred to in a manuscript, (2) any financial interest in or arrangement with a competing company, (3) any direct payment to an author(s) from any source for the purpose of writing the manuscript, and (4) any other financial connections, direct or indirect, or other situations that might raise the question of bias in the work reported or the conclusions, implications, or opinions stated ?including pertinent commercial or other sources of funding for the individual author(s) or for the associated department(s) or organization(s), personal relationships, or direct academic competition. Please provide details of potential conflicts of interest in your letter to the editor. If the manuscript is published, such information may be communicated in a note following the text and references.
Copyright
Copyright of any article published in NAR will belong to the author or their designee. However, it is a condition of publication in the journal that authors grant an exclusive licence to publish to Oxford University Press. A copyright licence form should be completed and returned to Oxford University Press at the time of acceptance of the manuscript. This ensures that requests from third parties to reproduce articles are handled efficiently and consistently and allows the article to be as widely disseminated as possible. As part of the licence agreement, Authors may use their own material in other publications provided that the Journal is acknowledged as the original place of publication and Oxford University Press as the Publisher.
Authorisations
If previously published tables, illustrations or more than 200 words of text are to be included in an article in NAR, then the copyright holder's permission must be obtained, and copies of such permission letters should be forwarded to the production office upon acceptance of the manuscript. Authors must obtain authorisation for all personal communications.
Joint first authorship
Such a footnote is allowed, provided that the relevant boxes are completed during the initial online submission. The footnote should contain the statement: "The authors wish it to be known that, in their opinion, the first x authors should be regarded as joint First Authors". Other statements concerning joint authorship will not be published.
Back-to-back publication
The Editors will honour requests for back-to-back publication only if the manuscripts are submitted simultaneously and the relevant boxes completed during online submission.
Proofs
Corresponding authors will be sent proofs in PDF format by e-mail. It is the authors' responsibility to check proofs thoroughly.
Page charges
There are no page charges for papers that occupy 9 pages or less, and there are no page charges for Survey and Summary articles or for supplementary material. Papers published after January 1st 2004 that occupy more than 9 pages will incur a charge of $208/?38 for each page in excess of 9. Up to 2 colour figures may be free of charge, subject to editorial approval. Starting January 1st 2004, further colour figures will be subject to a charge of $500/?00 per colour figure. Special arrangements will apply to the Database and Web Server issues, and authors wishing to submit manuscripts to these should consult the specific instructions available at http://www3.oup.co.uk/nar/instauth/auth4.html (Database issue) and http://www3.oup.co.uk/nar/instauth/auth5.html (Web Server issue). Authors from certain developing countries (http://www3.oup.co.uk/jnls/devel/) are eligible for a waiver of page and/or colour charges.
Offprints
For papers appearing in the print edition, the publisher will provide free electronic access to the full text (in both HTML and PDF) of the article. Print offprints are available for a charge. Offprints of papers containing colour figures are subject to a 110% surcharge. An offprint order form (for standard papers and for Methods Online papers) detailing these options should be completed and returned directly to the publisher on acceptance. (Authors should note that in order to minimise download times, online figures are of a lower resolution than those in the printed copy. Figures in offprints printed from PDF files will therefore be of a lower resolution than those in offprints produced at the time of printing.) For papers that are published online only, the publisher will give free electronic access to the full text (in both HTML and PDF) of the article. High quality print offprints of online-only papers may be requested from the publisher for a charge.
Availability of materials
- Research materials including strains, clones, cell lines, hybridomas, X-ray and NMR co-ordinates, algorithms and computer programs that are described in publications in the Journal should be made available to any qualified investigator promptly upon request.
- Databases must be available via the web and not be password protected. Authors are encouraged, but not required, to make the contents of their databases freely available as flat or relational files upon request.
- Web server: Authors are encouraged, but not required, to make the code available for their web tools upon request.
The Editors are prepared to deny further publication rights in the Journal to authors unwilling to abide by these principles.
Deposition of sequence and structural data
Sequence information, co-ordinates used to create molecular models described in a manuscript, and structural data must be submitted in electronic form, prior to acceptance, to the appropriate database for release no later than the date of publication of the corresponding article in the Journal. Deposition numbers and/or accession numbers provided by the database should be included in the manuscript and entered into the relevant boxes during online submission or communicated to the Executive Editor handling the manuscript as soon as received. In cases where there may be no appropriate database, atomic co-ordinates may be included in the publication as supplementary material. Manuscripts will not be published until the Journal is in receipt of the deposition number.
For papers reporting novel nucleic acid sequences
Nucleic acid sequence information must be deposited with one of the three major collaborative databases (EMBL/GenBank/DDBJ). For sequences obtained from a public or private web site, it is the author's responsibility to ensure that any sequence used within the manuscript is deposited into GenBank before publication. It is necessary to submit sequences to one database only since data are exchanged between EMBL, GenBank and DDBJ on a daily basis. New sequence names and their accession numbers should be listed at the beginning of the Materials and Methods section to aid searches by readers. In order to allow new methods of data search, NAR encourages authors to cite GenBank accession numbers when referring to established sequences within their manuscript. Contact details for submission to databases.
For papers reporting novel three-dimensional structures
Atomic co-ordinates and structure factor amplitudes must be deposited with a database. The release date should be prior to or simultaneous with the date of publication. The Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre (CCDC) is appropriate for deposition of data on nucleosides, nucleotides and other small molecules. The Protein Data Bank (PDB) is appropriate for deposition of atomic co-ordinate and structure factor data for proteins determined by X-ray crystallography and for all macromolecules determined by NMR methods. The Nucleic Acid Database (NDB) is appropriate for atomic co-ordinate and structure factor data for crystal structures of nucleic acids. Contact details for submission to databases.
For papers reporting novel protein sequences
Protein sequences, which have been determined by direct sequencing of the protein, must be submitted to SWISS-PROT at the EMBL Outstation - the European Bioinformatics Institute. Please note that we do not provide accession numbers, IN ADVANCE, for protein sequences that are the result of translation of nucleic acid sequences. These translations will automatically be forwarded to us from the EMBL nucleotide database and are assigned SWISS-PROT accession numbers on incorporation into TrEMBL. Results from characterization experiments should also be submitted to SWISS-PROT at the EBI. This can include such information as function, subcellular location, subunit, etc. Contact details for submission to databases.
Microarray data
All authors must comply with the 'Minimal Information About a Microarray Experiment' (MIAME) guidelines published by the Microarray Gene Expression Data Society, which can be found at http://www.mged.org/Workgroups/MIAME/miame_checklist.html. NAR also requires submission of microarray data to the GEO ( http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/) or ArrayExpress (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/arrayexpress/) databases, with accession numbers at or before acceptance for publication.
PubMed Central
NAR is a participant in PubMed Central. Papers published in NAR that are over six months old can be accessed free of charge by all readers from both PubMed Central (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/) and the NAR web site (http://nar.oupjournals.org/). | |
Editorial Board
| Founding Editors |
R.T.Walker, Birmingham, UK
D.Soll, New Haven, CT, USA
A.S.Jones, Birmingham, UK
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| Senior Executive Editors |
R.J.Roberts, Beverly, MA, USA
nar@neb.com
M.J.Gait, Cambridge,UK
nar@mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk
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| Executive Editors |
W.Dynan, Augusta, GA, USA
nar@mail.mcg.edu
H.J.Gross, Wurzburg, Germany
nar@biozentrum.uni-wuerzburg.de
R.I.Gumport, Urbana, IL, USA
gumport@uiuc.edu
R.B.Hallick, Tucson, AZ, USA
nar@u.arizona.edu
S.M.Linn, Berkeley, CA, USA
slinn@socrates.berkeley.edu
A.Maxwell, Norwich, UK
maxnar@leicester.u-net.com
E.Westhof, Strasbourg, France
nar@ibmc.u-strasbg.fr
J.A.Wise, Cleveland, OH, USA
jaw17@po.cwru.edu
K.R.Fox, Southampton, UK
foxnar@soton.ac.uk
A.R.Kimmel, Bethesda, MD, USA
ark1@helix.nih.gov
A.Bateman, The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, UK
nardatabase@mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk
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| Editorial Board |
P.Becker, Munich, Germany
M.Belfort, Albany, NY, USA
E.H.Blackburn, San Francisco, CA, USA
E.H.Bresnick, Madison, WI, USA
R.Brimacombe, Berlin, Germany
M.Busslinger, Vienna, Austria
X.Cheng, Atlanta, GA, USA
S.Eddy, St Louis, MO, USA
J.D.Engel, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
D.R.Engelke, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
I.C.Eperon, Leicester, UK
M.Famulok, Bonn, Germany
D.J.Finnegan, Edinburgh, UK
A.Gewirtz, Philadelphia, PA, USA
H.U.Goringer, Darmstadt, Germany
W.Gruissem, Zurich, Switzerland
S.Halford, Bristol, UK
J.Hoheisel, Heidelberg, Germany
P.Hsieh, Bethesda, MD, USA
W.N.Hunter, Dundee, UK
E.T.Kool, Stanford, CA, USA
E.Koonin, Bethesda, MD, USA
A.R.Krainer, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, USA
R.Krumlauf, Kansas City, MO, USA
A.N.Lane, Louisville, KY, USA
A.R.Lehmann, Brighton, UK
J.D.Licht, New York, NY, USA
D.M.J.Lilley, Dundee, UK
L.J.Maher, Rochester, MN, USA
C.Malvy, Villejuif, France
N.C.Martin, Louisville, KY, USA
A.Matsuda, Sapporo, Japan
M.McClelland, San Diego, CA, USA
J.McCloskey, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
S.Neidle, London, UK
M.G.Parker, London, UK
M.Paule, Fort Collins, CO, USA
N.Proudfoot, Oxford, UK
A.M.Pyle, New Haven, CT, USA
D.B.Roth, New York, NY, USA
B.Sauer, Kansas City, MO, USA
C.W.Schmid, Davis, CA, USA
G.Sczakiel, Lubeck, Germany
B.Seraphin, Gif sur Yvette, France
P.M.Sharp, Nottingham, UK
A.Sharrocks, Manchester, UK
S.Shuman, New York, NY, USA
S.T.Smale, Los Angeles, CA, USA
A.Stasiak, Lausanne, Switzerland
G.Stormo, St Louis, MO, USA
M.Tabler, Heraklion, Crete, Greece
K.Taira, Tokyo, Japan
G.Verdine, Cambridge, MA, USA
K.Watanabe, Chiba, Japan
M.Wegner, Erlangen, Germany
D.B.Wigley, Potters Bar, UK
T.Wirth, Ulm, Germany
R.D.Wood, Pittsburg, PA, USA
S.A.Woodson, Baltimore, MD, USA
S.Yokoyama, Tokyo, Japan
M.Zhang, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, USA
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