The Official Journal of The International Society of Developmental Biologists


!!! Important information for NIH authors !!!


Access to non-subscribers 12 months after publication
Elsevier is pleased to announce that all articles published in Mechansims of Development are accessible to non-subscribers 12 months after publication via ScienceDirect ( http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal//09254773).

Types of papers
The journal will publish full-length articles describing original, high quality research and occasional invited Reviews. (please note that Gene Expression Patterns are published in a separate sister journal, Gene Expression Patterns: a section of MOD. http://www.elsevier.com/locate/modgep)
Flow charts to help authors decide whether papers are suitable for Mechanisms of Development or Gene Expression Patterns are available HERE.

Submission of papers

Submission to this journal must be made on-line, which greatly speeds up the review and publication processes. Use the following guidelines to prepare your article. Via the homepage of this journal ( http://www.elsevier.com/journals) you will be guided stepwise through the creation and uploading of the various files. Once the uploading is done, our system automatically generates an electronic (PDF) proof, which is then used for reviewing. All correspondence, including notification of the Editor's decision and requests for revisions, will be by e-mail.

Authors are normally expected to submit a revised version within 6 months.

Prior to submitting your manuscript on-line you should have prepared:
• a Word document of the full text (including a title page containing authors' addresses, email and FAX number of the corresponding author, a second page with the abstract and the full text of the manuscript including references and figure legends).
Checklist for colour Figures:
• The figures should be 1000 dpi (min. 300dpi)
• The figures may be in either RGB or CMYK format. If supplying in RGB format please check the typeset proof carefully to ensure the conversion is accurate.
• The figures must be in TIFF format
• The figures should be the correct size so that no reduction or enlargement has to be carried out. If this is not possible it is better if the figures are sent 'too large' so that in the reduction process the colour detail will not be lost.

The sections below explain how manuscripts should be organised and other details.

Submission checklist

It is hoped that this list will be useful during the final checking of an article prior to sending it to the journal's Editors for review. Please consult this Guide for Authors for further details of any item.

Ensure that the following items are present:
• One Author designated as corresponding Author:
• E-mail address
• Full postal address
• Telephone and fax numbers
• All necessary files have been uploaded
• Keywords
• All figure captions
• All tables (including title, description, footnotes)

Further considerations
• Manuscript has been "spellchecked". If you are not a fluent English speaker it is advisable to consult a native speaker for polishing the manuscript
• References are in the correct format for this journal
• All references mentioned in the Reference list are cited in the text, and vice versa
• Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material (including material from the Web), both from the authors (if available) and from the copyright owner.


Language Editing:
International Science Editing and Asia Science Editing can provide English language and copyediting services to authors who want to publish in scientific, technical and medical journals and need assistance before they submit their article or, before it is accepted for publication. Authors can contact these services directly: International Science Editing ( http://www.internationalscienceediting.com) and Asia Science Editing ( http://www.asiascienceediting.com) or, for more information about language editing services, please contact authorsupport@elsevier.com who will be happy to deal with any questions.

Please note Elsevier neither endorses nor takes responsibility for any products, goods or services offered by outside vendors through our services or in any advertising. For more information please refer to our terms and conditions ( http://www.elsevier.com/termsandconditions).

For any further information please contact the Author Support Department at authorsupport@elsevier.com.

Organisation of the manuscript

The general organisation of the sections, nomenclature, reference system, etc., are the same as those adopted by the major cell/developmental biology journals (e.g., Cell, Developmental Cell, The EMBO Journal). An abstract of up to 250 words and a list of up to 10 keywords should be provided. The main text should be ordered under the following headings: Introduction, Results, Discussion (which may be combined with Results), Experimental Procedures, Acknowledgements (when appropriate), References, Figure Legends.

References

Responsibility for the accuracy of bibliographic citations lies entirely with the Authors.

Citations in the text: Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa). The abstract should not contain references unless absolutely essential; any such references must be given in full within the text of the abstract and will be included in the 250 word limit. Unpublished results and personal communications should not be in the reference list, but may be mentioned in the text (personal communications only with the express consent of the communicator) if they are essential.
Citing and listing of Web references. As a minimum, the full URL should be given. Any further information, if known (Author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be given.
Text: All citations in the text should refer to:
1. Single Author: the Author's name (without initials, unless there is ambiguity) and the year of publication;
3. Two Authors: both Authors' names and the year of publication;
3. Three or more Authors: first Author's name followed by "et al." and the year of publication.
Citations may be made directly (or parenthetically). Groups of references cited together (within one set of parentheses) should be listed first chronologically (ie. the oldest reference first), then alphabetically.

Examples: "... as previously demonstrated (Jones, 1995; Allan, 1996a, 1996b, 1999). Kramer et al. (2000) have recently shown ...."

List: References should be arranged first alphabetically and then further sorted chronologically if necessary. More than one reference from the same author combination in the same year must be identified by the letters "a", "b", "c", etc., placed after the year of publication.

Examples:

Reference to a journal publication:

Van der Geer, J., Hanraads, J.A.J., Lupton, R.A., 2000. The art of writing a scientific article. J. Sci. Commun. 163, 51-59.

Reference to a book:

Strunk Jr., W., White, E.B., 1979. The Elements of Style, third ed. Macmillan, New York.

Reference to a chapter in an edited book:

Mettam, G.R., Adams, L.B., 1999. How to prepare an electronic version of your article, in: Jones, B.S., Smith , R.Z. (Eds.), Introduction to the Electronic Age. E-Publishing Inc., New York, pp. 281-304.

Preparation of electronic illustrations


Submitting your artwork in an electronic format helps us to produce your work to the best possible standards, ensuring accuracy, clarity and a high level of detail.

Checklist for colour Figures:
• The figures should be 1000 dpi (min. 300dpi)
• The figures may be in either RGB or CMYK format. If supplying in RGB format please check the typeset proof carefully to ensure the conversion is accurate.
• The figures must be in TIFF format
• The figures should be the correct size so that no reduction or enlargement has to be carried out. If this is not possible it is better if the figures are sent 'too large' so that in the reduction process the colour detail will not be lost.

General points
• Make sure you use uniform lettering and sizing of your original artwork.
• Save text in illustrations as "graphics" or enclose the font.
• Only use the following fonts in your illustrations: Arial, Courier, Helvetica, Times, Symbol.
• Number the illustrations according to their sequence in the text.
• Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files (Fig. 1, Fig. 2, etc.), and supply a separate listing of the files and the software used.
• Provide captions to illustrations separately, at the end of the text.
• Produce images near to the desired size of the printed version.

For more detailed instructions please visit our artwork instruction pages at http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.

Colour figures

The cost of colour reproduction will not be charged to the author. However, the decision to publish figures in colour will be left to the Editors' discretion.

Materials

Publication of a research article in Mechanisms of Development is taken to imply that the authors are prepared to distribute all non-commercially obtained materials used in the experiments (e.g. cells, DNA, antibodies, primary data), to other academic researchers for their own use or for verification. All nucleic acid and protein sequences must have been deposited in the appropriate databases and the Accession Numbers cited in the paper.

For each and every accession number cited in an article, Authors should type the accession number in bold, underlined text. Letters in the accession number should always be capitalised. This combination of letters and format will enable Elsevier's typesetters to recognise the relevant texts as accession numbers and add the required link to GenBank's sequences.

Data from microarray and other similar screens

Please see the MGED open letter specifying microarray standards at http://www.mged.org/Workgroups/MIAME/miame_checklist.html. Authors submitting manuscripts relying on microarray or similar screens must supply the data as Supplementary data (see below) at the time of submission, along with the completed MIAME checklist. The data must be MIAME-compliant and supplied in a form that is widely accessible. The microarray data must also be submitted to either 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 of the paper for publication.
The editors understand that on occasion authors may not feel it appropriate to deposit the entire data set at the time of publication of this paper. We are therefore willing to consider exceptions to this requirement in response to a request from the authors, which must be made at the time of initial submission or as part of an informal pre-submission enquiry.

Supplementary data

Elsevier now accepts electronic supplementary material (e-components) to support and enhance the published paper. These allow the Author to publish movies, animation sequences, high-resolution images, data sets (including microarray data; see above) and more. Supplementary files supplied will be published online alongside the electronic version of your article in Elsevier Web products, including ScienceDirect: http://www.sciencedirect.com. To ensure that your submitted material is directly usable, please ensure that data is provided in one of our recommended file formats. Authors should submit the material in electronic format together with the article and supply a concise and descriptive caption for each file. For more detailed instructions please visit our artwork instruction pages at http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.

Other important conditions

It is essential to give a fax number and e-mail address for the corresponding author when submitting a manuscript. Articles must be written in good English. Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all Authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, without the written consent of the Publisher.

Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to sign a "Journal Publishing Agreement" (for more information on this and copyright see http://www.elsevier.com/copyright). Acceptance of the agreement will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. An e-mail (or letter) will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript together with a "Journal Publishing Agreement" form or a link to the online version of this agreement.
If excerpts from other copyrighted works are included, the Author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit the source(s) in the article. Elsevier has preprinted forms for use by Authors in these cases: contact Elsevier's Rights Department, Oxford, UK: phone (+44) 1865 843830, fax (+44) 1865 853333, e-mail permissions@elsevier.com. Requests may also be completed on-line via the Elsevier homepage (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/permissions]).

Ethics of experimentation

Authors describing investigations in animals or on human tissue must specify that the research conformed to the stipulations of the appropriate institutional review body and ethics committee.

Proofs

When your manuscript is received by the Publisher it is considered to be in its final form. Proofs are not to be regarded as "drafts". One set of page proofs in PDF format will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding Author, to be checked for typesetting/editing. No changes in, or additions to, the accepted (and subsequently edited) manuscript will be allowed at this stage. Proofreading is solely your responsibility.

Offprints

Mechanisms of Development has NO page charges.
The corresponding author, at no cost, will be provided with a PDF file of the article via e-mail. The PDF file is a watermarked version of the published article and includes a cover sheet with the journal cover image and a disclaimer outlining the terms and conditions of use. Additional paper offprints can be ordered by the authors. An order form with prices will be sent to the corresponding author. US National Institutes of Health (NIH) voluntary posting ("Public Access") policy.

US National Institutes of Health (NIH) voluntary posting ("Public Access") policy.

Elsevier facilitates author response to the NIH voluntary posting request (referred to as the NIH "Public Access Policy"; see http://www.nih.gov/about/publicaccess/index.htm ) by posting the author's peer-reviewed manuscript directly to PubMed Central on request from the author, 12 months after formal publication. Upon notification from Elsevier of acceptance, we will ask you to confirm via e-mail (by e-mailing us at NIHauthorrequest@elsevier.com that your work has received NIH funding and that you intend to respond to the NIH policy request, along with your NIH award number to facilitate processing. Upon such confirmation, Elsevier will submit to PubMed Central on your behalf a version of your manuscript that will include peer-review comments, for posting 12 months after formal publication. This will ensure that you will have responded fully to the NIH request policy. There will be no need for you to post your manuscript directly with PubMed Central, and any such posting is prohibited.

Policy for Wellcome Trust funded authors
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorshome.authors/wellcometrustauthors

Authors' rights:

As an author you (or your employer or institution) may do the following:
• make copies (print or electronic) of the article for your own personal use, including for your own classroom teaching use
• make copies and distribute such copies (including through e-mail) of the article to research colleagues, for the personal use by such colleagues (but not commercially or systematically, e.g., via an e-mail list or list server)
• post a pre-print version of the article on Internet websites including electronic pre-print servers, and to retain indefinitely such version on such servers of sites
• post a revised personal version of the final text of the article (to reflect changes made in the peer review and editing process) on your personal or institutional website or server, with a link to the journal homepage (on Elsevier.com)
• present the article at a meeting or conference and to distribute copies of the article to the delegates attending such a meeting
• for your employer, if the articles is a 'work for hire', made within the scope of your employment, your employer may use all or part of the information in the article for other intra-company use (e.g., training)
• retain patent and trademark rights and rights to any processes or procedure described in the article
• include the article in full or in part in a thesis or dissertation (provided that this is not to be published commercially)
• use the article or any part thereof in a printed compilation of your works, such as collected writings or lecture notes (subsequent to publication of your article in the journal)
• prepare other derivative works, to extend the article into book-length form, or to otherwise re-use portions or excerpts in other works, with full acknowledgement of its original publication in the journal.