Guide for Authors

Clinical and Laboratory Studies

Guide for Authors Submission of Articles

All Articles and Material should be submitted on-line via EES - http://ees.elsevier.com/lr/ . Please refer to the 'Tutorial for Authors' located on the EES site for guidance on the electronic submission process.

Dr John M. Bennett
University of Rochester Medical Center
Hematology-Oncology and Pathology Laboratory Medicine
601 Elmwood Avenue, Box 626
Rochester, NY 14642
USA Tel: +1 585 275 4915
Fax: +1 585 276 2390
E-mail: john_Bennett@urmc.rochester.edu

Professor Terry Hamblin
Royal Bournemouth Hospital
Castle Lane East
Bournemouth BH7 7DW
UK

Tel: +44 (0) 1202 704783
Fax: +44 (0) 1202 300248
E-mail: terjoha@aol.com

Editorial Office
Phoebe A. Downing
University of Rochester Medical Center
Hematology-Oncology and Pathology Laboratory Medicine
601 Elmwood Avenue, Box 626
Rochester, NY 14642
USA

Tel: +1 585 275 4915
Fax: +1 585 276 2390
Email: leukemiaresearch@urmc.rochester.edu

For Case of the Month (chosen from Letters)
Ellin Berman, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center,
1275 New York Avenue,
New York, NY 10021, USA


Tel: +1 212 639 7762
Fax: +1 212 794 4338

Types of Contribution
Original Articles usually do not exceed 10 to 12 pages of text but longer papers may be considered if relevant. Original full-length research papers which have not been published previously, except in a preliminary form, may be submitted as regular papers. Original articles reporting on clinical trials must conform to the guidelines of the Working Group on Recommendations for Reporting of Clinical Trials (Table 1).

Reviews and Editorials should be submitted after prior consultation with the Editors.

Brief Communications and Preliminary Reports should not exceed 5 pages of text, 4 illustrations and 8 references.

Letters to LEUKEMIA RESEARCH should clearly indicate the purpose of the letter by a brief striking title and should not exceed 2 pages of typescript.

Comments on Published Papers like "Letters to LEUKEMIA RESEARCH" but also mentioning the title of the paper to which it is addressed.

Cases of the Month - should be as Letters. One Letter will then be chosen as the Case of the Month. Letters should not exceed 5 pages of typescript.

Congress Letters are free reports on one or several sessions of Congress, Workshops or Symposia (also closed ones), signed by the author(s) whose name appears in the List of Contents. Indicate complete information on the meeting covered, including programme.

Open Forum concerns hypotheses, models or experiments which authors wish to see performed but cannot perform themselves. Comments made under this heading engage only the authors and not the Journal, and publication will be at the discretion of the Editors.

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.

Role of corresponding author
The corresponding author of a manuscript for Leukemia Research has the duty to ensure that all the named authors have seen and approved the original and any revised version of the paper and are in agreement with its content before it is submitted to the Editorial Office. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for the content. The corresponding author should also ensure that all those who have contributed to the research are acknowledged appropriately either as a co-author or in the Acknowledgements. In addition, the corresponding author has the prime responsibility for ensuring the paper is correctly prepared according to the Guide for Authors. Submitted manuscripts not complying with the Guide for Authors may be returned to the authors for possible revision and resubmission.

Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to transfer copyright (for more information on copyright see http://ees.elsevier.com/lr/). This transfer will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. A letter will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript. A form facilitating transfer of copyright will be provided. 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, Global Rights Department, P.O. Box 800, Oxford, OX5 1DX, UK; phone: (+44) 1865 843830, fax: (+44) 1865 853333, e-mail: permissions@elsevier.com

All manuscripts are peer-reviewed. On receipt of the first decision letter authors should send their revised manuscript within three months in order to ensure that the scientific content of their manuscript is timely and up to date.

Authorship
All authors should have made substantial contributions to all of the following: (1) the conception and design of the study, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data, (2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content, (3) final approval of the version to be submitted.

Acknowledgements
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship as defined above should be listed in an acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance, or a department chair who provided only general support. Authors should disclose whether they had any writing assistance and identify the entity that paid for this assistance.

Conflict of interest
At the end of the text, under a subheading "Conflict of interest statement" all authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organisations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding.

Role of the funding source
All sources of funding should be declared as an acknowledgement at the end of the text. Authors should declare the role of study sponsors, if any, in the study design, in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; and in the decision to submit the manuscript for publication. If the study sponsors had no such involvement, the authors should so state.

Randomised controlled trials
All randomised controlled trials submitted for publication in Leukemia Research should include a completed Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) flow chart. Please refer to the CONSORT statement website at http://www.consort-statement.org for more information. Leukemia Research has adopted the proposal from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) which require, as a condition of consideration for publication of clinical trials, registration in a public trials registry. Trials must register at or before the onset of patient enrolment. The clinical trial registration number should be included at the end of the abstract of the article. For this purpose, a clinical trial is defined as any research study that prospectively assigns human participants or groups of humans to one or more health-related interventions to evaluate the effects of health outcomes. Health-related interventions include any intervention used to modify a biomedical or health-related outcome (for example drugs, surgical procedures, devices, behavioural treatments, dietary interventions, and process-of-care changes). Health outcomes include any biomedical or health-related measures obtained in patients or participants, including pharmacokinetic measures and adverse events. Purely observational studies (those in which the assignment of the medical intervention is not at the discretion of the investigator) will not require registration. Further information can be found at http://www.icmje.org.

Disclosure of clinical trial results
In line with the position of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, the Journal is willing to consider manuscripts which include results posted in the same clinical trials registry in which primary registration resides. It will not consider such postings to be prior publication, providing the results are presented in the form of a brief structured (500 words) abstract or table. However, divulging results in other circumstances (eg, investors' meetings) is strongly discouraged and may jeopardise consideration of the manuscript. Authors should fully disclose all postings in registries of the same or closely related work.

Ethics
Identifying information, including patients? images, names, initials, or hospital numbers, should not be included in videos, recordings, written descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and you have obtained written informed consent for publication in print and electronic form from the patient (or parent, guardian or next of kin where applicable). If such consent is made subject to any conditions, Elsevier must be made aware of all such conditions. Written consents must be provided to Elsevier on request.

Even where consent has been given, identifying details should be omitted if they are not essential. If identifying characteristics are altered to protect anonymity, such as in genetic pedigrees, authors should provide assurance that alterations do not distort scientific meaning and editors should so note.

If such consent has not been obtained, personal details of patients included in any part of the paper and in any supplementary materials (including all illustrations and videos) must be removed before submission.

Preparation of manuscripts
1. All contributions must be double spaced.

2. All contributions must have a title page. A title page is the first page of the paper and must contain: title, name of authors, name of departments and institutions and their addresses, and corresponding author information to comprise name, department, institution, complete address, telephone number, fax number and email address.
3. The Chief Editors request that papers submitted for publication should be written concisely and clearly. Manuscripts should be written in English. Authors whose native language is not English are strongly advised to have their manuscripts checked by an English-speaking colleague prior to submission. Either the Concise Oxford Dictionary or Webster's New International Dictionary may be used as a standard for English spelling.

Authors in Japan please note:
Upon request, Elsevier Japan will provide authors with a list of people who can check and improve the English of their paper (before submission). Please contact our Tokyo office:
Elsevier Japan
9-15, Higashi-Azabu 1-chome
Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0044
Japan
Tel. (+81) 3-5561-5032
Fax: (+81)3-5561-5045
E-mail: info@elsevier.co.jp

4. Manuscripts should be organized in the following sequence:
Title page (see above)
Abstract
Keywords
Introduction
Materials and methodsm
Results
Discussion (including Conclusions)
Acknowledgments and any additional information concerning research grants, etc.
References
Tables
Figure captions

5. In typing the manuscript, titles and subtitles should not be run within the text. They should be typed on a separate line, without indentation. Use lower-case letter type. First and second order headings should be numbered.

6. SI units should be used, but authors may include conversions for unfamiliar units (1 bar=0.1 MPa). Do not include periods. Note the following conventions: e.g. not eg., rev min^-1 not rpm, mg kg^-1 or l^-1 not ppm, 1 bar equals 0.1 MPa, round off units to eliminate unnecessary decimal places, e.g. 124 mu not 0.124 mm (note space between number and unit), l not L for litre, kg not Kg, s not sec, min not mins, h not hr, d for day, y not yr, 25 t ha^-1 not 25 tonnes/ha, 3 mg cm^-3 not three mg per cubic cm, 23?C and 23% (no spaces), (Keating et al., 1996) not (Keating et al., 1996), al. is an abbreviation of alii (others - Latin). Molar concentrations should appear in small caps.

7. Abbreviations may be used for unwieldy names which occur frequently and such abbreviations must be defined the first time they occur in the text. Conventional abbreviations, e.g. EDTA, ATP, 2,4-D should be used in preference to freshly coined ones.

8. Elsevier reserves the privilege of returning to the author for revision accepted manuscripts and illustrations which are not in the proper form given in this guide. On arrival at the Editorial Office, papers will be checked to determine if they conform to the style and format for Leukemia Research. Papers that do not comply may be returned to the corresponding author with a check list detailing faults and omissions.

9. Avoid new or uncommon acronyms. Use single letters (Greek, Roman, italic) for variables with subscripts as appropriate.

Title
This should be clear, descriptive and brief. Avoid non-specific phrases such as "A study of..." or "The effects of...". Do not give the title a numbered subtitle or series number.

Abstract
The abstract should be clear, descriptive and not longer than 100 words.

Keywords
Keywords are index terms or descriptions for information retrieval systems, normally 6 to 8 items. Words selected should reflect the essential topics of the article and may be taken from both the title and the text.

Introduction
This should give the reasons for doing the work. As this is a specialist journal a detailed review of the literature is not necessary. The Introduction should preferably conclude with a final paragraph stating concisely and clearly the Aims and Objectives of the investigation.

Materials and methods
A full technical description of a method should be given in detail only when the method is new.

Results
This need only report results of representative experiments illustrated by Tables and Figures. Use well-known statistical tests in preference to obscure ones. Consult a statistician or a statistics text for detailed advice.

Discussion
This section must not recapitulate results but should relate the authors' experiments to other work and give their conclusions, which may be given in a subsection headed Conclusions.

Acknowledgments
Include as a separate document.
Do not include grant numbers or institutional journal publication numbers. All papers must include an acknowledgements section that details financial support and any conflicts of interest.

An example of an acknowledgement section follows below:

This work was supported in part by a grant-in-aid from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan (No.14570180).

Tables

1. All tables must be uploaded separately. One table per file and the table must be labeled (. e.g. Table 1) in the file. Use the table description when uploading.

2. Authors should take notice of the limitations set by the size and lay-out of the journal. Large tables should be avoided. Reversing columns and rows will often reduce the dimensions of a table.

3. If many data are to be presented, an attempt should be made to divide them over two or more tables.

4. Drawn tables, from which blocks need to be made, should not be folded.

5. Tables should be numbered according to their sequence in the text. The text should include references to all tables. Tables should never be included in the text.

6. Tables and their footnotes should be typed using a readable uniform font of the same size as that used in the text. Each text should have a brief and self-explanatory title.

7. Column headings should be brief, but sufficiently explanatory. Standard abbreviations of units of measurement should be added between parentheses.

8. Vertical lines should not be used to separate columns. Leave some extra space between the columns instead.

9. Any explanation essential to the understanding of the table should be given as a footnote at the bottom of the table.

10. Zero results must be represented by 0 and no determination by ND; the dash sign (-) is ambiguous. Report data in such a way that readers can assess the degree of experimental variation and estimate the variability or precision of the findings. Use the standard deviation SD and the mean to summarise data and to show the variability among individuals. Use the standard error of the mean SEM to show the precision of the sample mean. Always state the number of measurements on which means are based. In tables and figures use asterisks to indicate probability values (P). In footnotes or text show the degree of significance of P, e.g. P <0.05*.

Figures
1. All figures must be uploaded separately. One figure per file and the figure must be labeled. (e.g. Figure 1) in the file. Use the figure description when uploading.

2. Create a word document with all the figure legends. Name the document figure legends and upload the document under the figure description.

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.

• Always supply high-quality printouts of your artwork, in case conversion of the electronic artwork is problematic.
• 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, and supply a separate listing of the files and the software used.
• Provide all illustrations as separate files and as hardcopy printouts on separate sheets.
• Provide captions to illustrations separately.
• Produce images near to the desired size of the printed version.

Files can be stored on 3? inch diskette, ZIP-disk or CD (either MS-DOS or Macintosh).

A detailed guide on electronic artwork is available on our website: http://ees.elsevier.com/lr/.

You are urged to visit this site; some excerpts from the detailed information are given here.

Formats Regardless of the application used, when your electronic artwork is finalised, please "save as" or convert the images to one of the following formats (Note the resolution requirements for line drawings, halftones, and line/halftone combinations given below.):

EPS: Vector drawings. Embed the font or save the text as "graphics".
TIFF: Colour or greyscale photographs (halftones): always use a minimum of 300 dpi.
TIFF: Bitmapped line drawings: use a minimum of 1000 dpi.
TIFF: Combinations bitmapped line/half-tone (colour or greyscale): a minimum of 500 dpi is required.
DOC, XLS or PPT: If your electronic artwork is created in any of these Microsoft Office applications please supply "as is".

Please do not:
• Supply embedded graphics in your wordprocessor (spreadsheet, presentation) document;
• Supply files that are optimised for screen use (like GIF, BMP, PICT, WPG); the resolution is too low;
• Supply files that are too low in resolution;
• Submit graphics that are disproportionately large for the content.

Colour reproduction

Submit colour illustrations as original photographs, high-quality computer prints or transparencies, close to the size expected in publication, or as 35 mm slides. Polaroid colour prints are not suitable. If, together with your accepted article, you submit usable colour figures then Elsevier will ensure, at no additional charge, that these figures will appear in colour on the web (e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites) regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article. For further information on the preparation of electronic artwork, please see http://ees.elsevier.com/lr/.

Please note: Because of technical complications which can arise by converting colour figures to 'grey scale' (for the printed version should you not opt for colour in print) please submit in addition usable black and white prints corresponding to all the colour illustrations.

References
All publications cited in the text should be presented in a list of references following the text of the manuscript. In the text refer to references by a number in square brackets on the line (e.g. Since Peterson[1]), and the full reference should be given in a numerical list at the end of the paper. References should be given in the following form:
1. Latagliata R, Concetta Petti M, Mandelli F. Acute myeloid leukemia in the elderly: 'per aspera ad astra'? Leukemia Res 1999;23:603-613.
2. Alfrey V. The isolation of subcellular components. In: Brachet J, Mirsky AE, editors. The cell, biochemistry, physiology, morphology I. New York: Academic Press, 1959. p. 200.

Revisions
We allow up to 6 months to make the revisions suggested by our Editors and Reviewers. The revised paper must be submitted without tracking or highlights and double spaced. A letter detailing the changes made onthe revised manuscript must be included.

Note: Authors are strongly encouraged to check the accuracy of each reference against its original source.

In the case of publications in any language other than English, the original title is to be retained. However, the titles of publications in non-Roman alphabets should be transliterated, and a notation such as "(in Russian)" or "(in Greek, with English abstract)" should be added.

Work accepted for publication but not yet published should be referred to as "in press". Authors should provide evidence (such as a copy of the letter of acceptance).

References concerning unpublished data, theses, and "personal communications" should not be cited in the reference list but may be mentioned in the text.

Formulae
1. Formulae should be typewritten, if possible. Leave ample space around the formulae.

2. Subscripts and superscripts should be clear.

3. Greek letters and other non-Roman or handwritten symbols should be explained in the margin where they are first used. Take special care to show clearly the difference between zero (0) and the letter O, and between one (1) and the letter l.

4. Give the meaning of all symbols immediately after the equation in which they are first used.

5. For simple fractions use the solidus (/) instead of a horizontal line.

6. Equations should be numbered serially at the right-hand side in parentheses. In general only equations explicitly referred to in the text need be numbered.

7. The use of fractional powers instead of root signs is recommended. Also powers of e are often more conveniently denoted by exp.

8. Levels of statistical significance which can be mentioned without further explanation are *P <0.05, * *P <0.01 and * * *P <0.001.

9. In chemical formulae, valence of ions should be given as, e.g., Ca²⁺, not as Ca⁺⁺.

10. Isotope numbers should precede the symbols, e.g., ¹⁸O.

Footnotes
Footnotes should only be used to provide addresses of authors or to provide explanations essential to the understanding of Tables.

Supplementary data

Elsevier now accepts electronic supplementary material to support and enhance your scientific research. Supplementary files offer the author additional possibilities to publish supporting applications, movies, animation sequences, high-resolution images, background datasets, sound clips 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.
In order 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: http://ees.elsevier.com/lr/.

Enquiries
Authors can keep a track on the progress of their accepted article, and set up e-mail alerts informing them of changes to their manuscript's status, by using the "Track a Paper" feature at: http://www.elsevier.com/trackarticle. For privacy, information on each article is password-protected. The author should key in the "Our Reference" code (which is in the letter of acknowledgement sent by the publisher on receipt of the accepted article) and the name of the corresponding author. In case of problems or questions, authors may contact the Author Service Department, E-mail: authorsupport@elsevier.com.

Proofs
When your manuscript is received at 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.

A form with queries from the copy editor may accompany your proofs. Please answer all queries and make any corrections or additions required.

The Publisher reserves the right to proceed with publication if corrections are not communicated. Return corrections within two working days of receipt of the proofs. Should there be no corrections, please confirm this.

Elsevier will do everything possible to get your article corrected and published as quickly and accurately as possible. In order to do this we need your help. When you receive the (PDF) proof of your article for correction, it is important to ensure that all of your corrections are sent back to us in one communication. Subsequent corrections will not be possible, so please ensure your first sending is complete. Note that this does not mean you have any less time to make your corrections, just that only one set of corrections will be accepted.

Offprints
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.