Molecular Vision has a new manuscript submission system. All new manuscript submissions should use the new submission system. Instructions for manuscript preparation and the journal guidelines are detailed below and must be followed as in the past. Revisions to active manuscripts not submitted through the new system should be submitted in the same way the original manuscript was submitted.
A major benefit of submitting a manuscript to Molecular Vision is the potential for rapid publication. For this to happen, the following instructions must be carefully followed. Departures from these instructions create more work for the editorial staff and will result in delays. Substantial departures will result in the manuscript being returned to the authors without consideration.
For questions not covered in these instructions, please email the Editors.
Manuscript organization and styles:
Molecular Vision encourages the submission of manuscripts on the molecular biology, the cell biology, or the genetics of the visual system (ocular and cortical). Manuscripts should present original, unpublished material not being considered for publication elsewhere and written to be accessible to vision scientists. If accepted, the material (data and text) shall not be published elsewhere without the consent of the Editors and Publisher of Molecular Vision. While there is no limit on the length of a manuscript, manuscripts are expected to be concise.
Following are descriptions of the types of manuscripts Molecular Vision accepts with an outline of the required elements for each manuscript type. Detailed descriptions of the elements of a manuscript are given in the section on "Preparation of manuscripts."
Research Article:
A detailed description of original, unpublished work covering a positive or negative result of significance. Reports of negative results must be investigations that other investigators would be likely to pursue in the absence of the report.
Molecular Vision does not publish simple reports of sequence data. Reports of new sequence (nucleotide or protein) may accompany related biological data. Simple sequencing data should be submitted to GenBank.
A research article must include the following sections: Title Page, Structured Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and References. Acknowledgements, Figures, and Tables should be included as appropriate.
Technical Brief:
This is a short account detailing a novel method or unique use of current technology that of itself, regardless of the experimental question studied, represents a significant addition to scientific enquiry.
A technical brief must include the following sections: Title Page, Descriptive Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and References. Acknowledgements, Figures, and Tables should be included as appropriate.
Review:
The Editors solicit suggestions for comprehensive articles reviewing the current status of a particular field or topic. The Editors should be contacted in advance with topics so that appropriateness for publication is confirmed. Appropriateness will be determined by the importance of the topic, lack of existing reviews on topic, and timeliness of request. Reviews of appropriate topics are still subject to peer review; a determination that a topic is acceptable does not guarantee acceptance of a manuscript.
A review must include the following sections: Title Page, Descriptive Abstract, Introduction, Discussion, and References. If Results are to be presented, the manuscript should include both a Methods and a Results section. Acknowledgements, Figures, and Tables should be included as appropriate.
Preparation of manuscripts:
The sections of the manuscript (Abstract, Introduction, Methods, etc.) should be clearly labelled with the name of the section on a line by itself. Figure legends and Tables should follow the References section. Each paragraph should be preceded and followed by a blank line. The Editors recommend that authors read the Molecular Vision Style Guide before preparing a manuscript for submission.
If any figures, graphs, tables, or data previously published are used, written permission of the publisher of the previous work must be presented. This includes works by the authors of the current submission. Obtaining this permission is the sole responsibility of the author.
Manuscript information
All manuscripts should begin with the title of the manuscript, the names of the authors, the authors' institutional affiliations, and contact information for the corresponding author. Each author may also include an email address or a web address (URL).
Abstract
The abstract should concisely (in fewer than 4000 characters) summarize the work presented. Manuscripts submitted as a Research Article must have a structured abstract consisting of four subsections: Purpose, Methods, Results, and Conclusions. Other types of manuscripts must include a descriptive abstract that details the topics covered in the manuscript.
Introduction
A succinct introduction without subheadings should describe the purpose or goals that led to the production of the manuscript. This should include a concise review of relevant literature.
Methods
This section should detail everything that would be required to replicate the work presented. Non-proprietary names should be used whenever possible. Where relevant, the name of the supplier of items used in the investigation should be identified. Suppliers should be identified by their full company name and location (city, state/country); if the company maintains an online presence, that may also be given.
Studies involving animals should include a statement that animal care guidelines comparable those published by the Institute for Laboratory Animal Research (Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals) or the US Public Health Service (Public Health Service Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals) were followed. Studies that involve humans subjects should indicate that an appropriate institutional review board has approved the project. If such a review process is unavailable, the authors should follow the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki (JAMA 1997; 277:925-926).
Results
The findings of the investigation should be presented without interpretation or discussion. In short manuscripts where the interpretation of the data is relatively simple, the data may be discussed in a combined Results and Discussion section.
Statistics
Provide sample sizes (N) of each sample group in each experiment. For data presented with statistical analyses, the type of statistical test(s) must be named. The level of significance must be provided. It is the responsibility of the authors to ensure that the assumptions of a given test are met by their data. If this information is not provided, the manuscript will be returned or rejected.
Discussion
An interpretation and commentary on the data (research article) or technique (technical brief) should be presented without speculating beyond the scope of the investigation. For reviews, the discussion is the bulk of the manuscript. It may be sectioned to fit the topic being reviewed and each section may be titled by the author.
Acknowledgements
Authors may briefly mention individuals making significant non-authorship contributions to the manuscript. Funding support for the work presented should be detailed. Authors should also disclose any commercial interest in the subject of the manuscript or in entities discussed in the manuscript. All prior presentation of the manuscript's data at meetings should be indicated; such presentations should not appear among the manuscripts references.
References
Citations in the text are noted in appropriate places by numbers in brackets (e.g., [3,5,8-12]). References must be numbered in the order of appearance in the text of the manuscript. All references cited in the text should be listed in the References with corresponding numbers. References should follow the Vancouver style as described by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (Ann Intern Med 1997; 126:36-47) except for part 33 which is outdated (see Example 4 below). This style orders elements of the source of journal articles from least to most specific and has been adopted by the National Library of Medicine.
References to unpublished work should be made parenthetically in the body of the text and not listed as a citation in the References section. If the data comes from some or all of the authors of this work, you may simply list it as "[Unpublished data]." If the data was provided by some other party (e.g., "John Smith"), the party that conveyed the information should be named as "[Personal communication, John Smith]." If you want to provide a more detailed acknowledgement of a person's contribution, you may add that to the Acknowledgements section. Citations to submitted manuscripts are not allowed because there is no guarantee that the source material will ever exist in the form in which it was cited.
Molecular Vision has compiled a page of citation tools with links to tools that are useful in preparing the References section of a manuscript. Additionally, the page includes excerpts of the most commonly used citation types in the Vancouver Style. Remember that incomplete or inaccurate references are not useful to the reader. Following are a few referencing examples that cover what most Molecular Vision articles require:
1. Watson JD, Crick FHC. Molecular structure of nucleic acids. A structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid. Nature 1953; 171:737-38.
2. Sambrook J, Fritsch EF, Maniatis T. Molecular cloning: a laboratory manual. 2nd ed. Cold Spring Harbor (NY): Cold Spring Harbor Press; 1989.
3. Watson JD. How we did it. In: Pauling LC, Kant E, Nietzsche FW, editors. We may have been wrong, progress in thinking. Vol 29. New York: Putnam; 1995. p. 278-99.
4. Wistow G. Peptide sequences for β-crystallins of a teleost fish. Mol Vis 1995; 1:1 <http://www.molvis.org/molvis/v1/a1/>.
Figures
Figures should be numbered with Arabic numerals according to their sequence of appearance in the text, where they are cited as "Figure 1", "Figure 2", etc. Figure legends should follow the References section in the body of the manuscript. Each figure legend should have a title and caption. The text of a caption should be sufficient to explain the figure without referring to the body of the manuscript. Captions for figures presenting data must describe the result presented. Labels and abbreviations must also be explained in the caption. Authors should feel free to use color figures in any way that better communicates their message.
Figures that are composites of multiple images (e.g., gels, micrographs) should contain readily discernable white space between the different images. This also applies to composite images of non-adjacent lanes of the same gel.
Tables
Tables must be submitted as a Table-formatted Word document. Tables should be numbered with Arabic numerals according to their sequence of appearance in the text, where they are cited as "Table 1", "Table 2", etc. Each table should have a title and caption. The text of a caption should be sufficient to explain the table without referring to the body of the manuscript.
Release of Data
Every manuscript should contain all necessary data for the reader to reach the conclusions reported by the authors. This is much easier to accomplish today because of the public databases available for sequence and structure data. Depositing data in these databases makes it easily available by reference to an identification code which may be cited throughout the literature. Further, it allows for a systematic organization and searching of a class of data.
Authors submitting manuscripts containing newly reported nucleotide or protein sequences must deposit those sequences in the GenBank database. Submissions reporting new gene expression data must submit those data to the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). Submissions reporting new three-dimensional structures must submit those structures to the Protein Data Bank. Such submissions should include all structural data supporting the manuscript's conclusions, including any derived atomic coordinates. The accession or identification numbers for these deposits must be provided to Molecular Vision prior to acceptance and must be released (available to the public) prior to publication. It is the authors responsibility to arrange for the release of this information with the relevant database. Authors are also required to include accession numbers for any sequences or structures relevant to their manuscript.
Molecular Vision reserves the right at any time to require the submission of other large datasets to major public databases as the editors deem appropriate. These data sets will include metabolomics and protein data sets.
Genome-wide association studies
Molecular Vision encourages authors of genetic association studies to follow prevailing standards (Little et al. PLoS Med 2009; 6: 151-62) for reporting results. Replication of prior studies, whether positive or negative are of value to the community and will receive consideration until the association is clearly established or refuted. Replication studies will receive priority if they extend the work of previous studies and provide a better understanding of the nature of the association. Novel findings in genetic association studies will be given priority if they are replicated in an independent group of subjects. Such replication is important for initial observations and novel findings in replication studies, whether they are derived from genome-wide or candidate gene approaches.
Genetic Analysis
For pedigree analysis and linkage studies, relatively large pedigrees should provide lod scores (>+3.0 or <-2.0) sufficient to accept or exclude linkage to a new locus unless also supported by identification of a high probability mutation in a gene in the included region or other evidence of biological significance. Studies confirming previously published results will be considered as long as they provide additional insight into the existing association or linkage data. This includes identification or refinement of the biological import, the importance of previously identified linkage or associations in specific populations, and the genetic mechanism for population differences.
Polymorphism studies
Polymorphism reports are not generally acceptable unless there are a large number of new polymorphisms reported such that the resource needs explanation in the literature, or the manuscript provides insight into a biological process of general interest. In general, polymorphisms should be deposited in a suitable public database such as dbSNP (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/SNP/) prior to publication.
Negative Data
Studies of a negative nature are accepted only if the logic for carrying out the experiment is compelling, it is highly likely that other groups in the field would inevitably perform the same futile studies repeatedly, and such a report would warn them away from wasting time and money. Studies showing an inability to confirm previously reported association or linkage data will be considered depending on comparability to the original study in terms of disease phenotype, population of interest, methodology, and the power of the repeat study to exclude association or linkage (e.g., 95% probability limits for the odds ratio).
Submission of manuscripts:
New manuscript submissions should use our new submission system. Instructions for sending your transfers of copyright forms are below.
Revisions to active manuscripts not submitted through the new system should be submitted in the same way the original manuscript was submitted. The old submission instructions are now on a separate page.
Transfer of Copyright
Each author should read and sign the "Transfer of Copyright" agreement. Authors who prepared a manuscript as part of their official duties as employees of the US federal government should read and sign the "US Government Employee Statement" instead. These forms can be printed from your web browser or the text may be downloaded and printed. The signed forms must be mailed or FAXed to Molecular Vision. To be valid, a transfer of copyright must be in writing, signed, and dated. The authors may choose to sign a common copy of the Transfer of Copyright, sign separate copies of the Transfer of Copyright, or some combination thereof. The corresponding author does not need to collect Transfers of Copyright; each author may mail or FAX their own Transfer of Copyright to the Editors.
FAX numbers
Preferred: (404) 778-2231
Alternate: (404) 778-4143