Experimental Hematology

JOURNAL'S AIM AND SCOPE

Experimental Hematology publishes original research reports (regular and fast-track submissions), reviews, perspectives, letters to the editor, and abstracts of the annual meeting of ISEH - Society for Hematology and Stem Cells. We welcome manuscripts describing basic in vitro and in vivo research centered on normal and malignant hematopoiesis as well as non-malignant hematologic diseases. Submissions focused on non-hematopoietic stem cells (e.g. mesenchymal stem cells, embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stems) with potential relevance to hematopoiesis are also welcome, as are studies involving experimental or early phase clinical cell transplantation. Studies employing genomic and systems biology approaches to the study of normal and malignant hematopoiesis are strongly encouraged, as are those employing model organisms.

Instructions for Contributors

REVIEW PROCESS AND POLICIES

Experimental Hematology welcomes submissions in the categories listed below. Each submitted manuscript will undergo peer review by at least two editorial board members or other experts designated by the editor-in-chief or associate editor in charge of the manuscript's review. Authors' names will be seen by reviewers, but reviewers' names will not be disclosed to the authors. A paper can be rejected without undergoing the peer review process if the editor determines that the content is inappropriate for the journal. Authors usually receive the editorial decision within 4 to 6 weeks of their manuscript's arrival at the editorial office.

The editorial office assigns a manuscript number and acknowledges receipt of submission within 3 days of receipt. Papers submitted by editors or editorial board members are subjected to the same rigorous standards as other manuscripts. An editor who submits a manuscript for consideration does not have access to the reviewers' identities or their confidential remarks for that submission.

Regular Submissions: These are full-length reports of original research. We welcome articles on a range of topics with particular interest in those covering regulation and development of normal hematopoietic stem cells, stem cell expansion and self-renewal; novel sources of hematopoietic cells including embryonic stem cells and reprogrammed induced pluripotent stem cells; hematopoietic progenitors and differentiation control; growth factors/ receptors and signal transduction; genomics, transcription factors and epigenetics; mechanisms of hematopoietic transformation; properties of leukemic stem cells and novel therapeutic targets; the hematopoietic niche/ microenvironment; homing and engraftment of hematopoietic stem cell; immunotherapy of hematologic malignancy; non-malignant hematopoietic disease; application of model organisms to the study of hematopoiesis, and new techniques/methods and technology for hematopoiesis investigation. Studies centered on cell transplantation, both at the pre-clinical/experimental and early clinical stage are also of high priority.

Research articles will be published under the following scientific categories: Stem Cells (hematopoietic, mesenchymal, embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells); Normal Hematopoiesis (myelopoiesis, erythropoiesis, lymphopoiesis, megakaryocytopoiesis); Malignant Hematopoiesis; Microenvironment and Niche; Systems Biology; Genomics/Proteomics of Hematopoiesis; Immunobiology and Immunotherapy; Gene Therapy; Clinical Investigations (stem cell or other cell transplant related therapies); New Techniques and Technologies.

Fast-Track Submission: Expedited review will be offered, on request, for research articles that have been previously considered by other top ranked journals and for which the previous reviewers' comments and the appropriate responses can be provided. Decisions will be made by the Editor-in-Chief in consultation by one or more members of the Editorial Board within 7-10 days of submission.

Reviews and Perspectives: Review Articles are summaries of a topic of interest to Experimental Hematology's broad readership. Perspectives are articles discussing significant topics and controversies relevant to the field of hematology and stem cells, generally from a more personal or opinion-based standpoint than a Review Article. Review Articles and Perspectives are welcomed by the journal and are generally solicited by the Editor-in-Chief; however, authors wishing to submit an unsolicited Review Article or Perspectives are invited to contact the editorial office prior to submission.

Letters to the Editor: They may relate to material published in the journal, to ISEH business, editorial policy, or anything else pertinent to the field of experimental hematology and/or stem cells. A letter that addresses an article published in this journal should be submitted as soon as possible, no later than two calendar months after publication. Such a letter will be sent to the authors of that paper for a possible reply. All letters and their replies are published at the editor's discretion and are subject to peer-review. Letters should not exceed 1,000 words, must have no title page, no abstract, no headings throughout the text, and no Materials and Methods section. One black and white figure or one table can be included, and no more than 10 references may be used.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST POLICY A conflict of interest exists when an author, reviewer, or editor has finan cial or personal relationships with other persons or organizations that may inappropriately influence or bias his or her actions. There is a potential for a conflict of interest whether or not an individual believes that a relationship affects his or her scientific judgment. Conflicts can occur as the result of employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony or opinions, personal and family relationships, or academic competitive pressures. All participants in the peer review and publication process must disclose all relationships that could be viewed as a potential conflict of interest.

Potential Author Conflicts
Authors should disclose at the time of manuscript submission all financial and interpersonal relationships that could be viewed as presenting a potential conflict of interest. These include, but are not limited to, any financial relationship that involves conditions or tests or treatments discussed in the manuscript or alternatives to tests or treatments. Authors should disclose information even when there is a question as to whether a relationship constitutes a conflict. Potential conflicts should be listed for each author on the page following the title page; a summary of relevant information will be published with the manuscript.

Authorship of editorials and reviews requires interpretation of the literature and therefore is inherently subject to bias, thus authors of such manuscripts should not have a significant financial interest in the subject matter of the manuscript.

MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION Experimental Hematology utilizes the Elsevier Editorial System (EES), a web-based manuscript submission and peer-review system. Authors should submit their manuscripts, with figures and tables, electronically at theExperimental Hematology website, www.exphem.org. Authors can also visit ees.elsevier.com/exphem. Complete instructions are available at the website. If authors do not receive an email confirmation of submission within 24 hours, it may be an indication that the manuscript has not been received by the editorial office. If authors experience any difficulty during the submission process or require any assistance, please contact the editorial office at exphem@iseh.org.

All authors should use EES when submitting manuscripts to the journal.

Reviewers: Authors are encouraged to suggest several potential reviewers without conflicts of interest, including at least one member of the journal's editorial board. When submitting your manuscript electronically through EES, both suggested and opposed reviewers can be identified as part of the submission process. If a manuscript is submitted outside of the EES, suggested and opposed reviewers should be identified in the cover letter accompanying the manuscript.

Statement of Authorship: Authors are also required to fill out an Authorship Statement form at the time of manuscript submission. The statement must include the names and signatures of ALL authors who have contributed significantly to the research described in the paper and have read and approved the final manuscript. The Authorship Statement form is available at on the EES homepage( http://ees.elsevier.com/exphem/). It must be submitted off-line by either email or fax to the editorial office address listed at the end of this document.

Manuscript Length: Write succinctly. Authors are urged to keep the word count of their papers (excluding references, figure legends, and tables) to less than 3,600 words. Longer papers of scientific merit will not be excluded from publication, but should still be as concise as possible.

CHARGES TO AUTHORS Authors pay the following charges:

1. Experimental Hematology requires a submission fee of $50.00 USD to process Regular Submissions (not applicable for Letters to the Editor or Invited Review articles). Current members of ISEH are not required to pay the submission fee when they are the corresponding author of the submission. You may pay by check or credit card. If paying by check, please make checks payable to the ISEH and mail to the Editorial Office address listed at the end of this document. To pay the submission fee by credit card please click on the manuscript submission fee link on the EES homepage ( http://ees.elsevier.com/exphem/). Please note that we cannot release the editorial decision if we have not received the submission fee.
2. Page charges for manuscripts (as of the June 2003 issue) $50 per page for the first eight published pages or portions thereof, and $160 for each additional page over eight or portion thereof, plus tax (except for employees of nonprofit institutions who provide tax-exempt numbers at time of payment).
3. Expense for color reproduction of figures: $650 for the first figure and$100 for each additional figure, plus tax (except for employees of nonprofit institutions who provide tax-exempt numbers at time of payment).
4. Expense for offprints. The publisher will send the corresponding author the price quotation with the page proofs.

MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION
The EES will guide you through all of the steps for submitting your article to Experimental Hematology. Please type manuscripts doublespaced with 10- or 12-point type-including references, figure legends, and tables?on one side of the page only. Please type the page number on every page. Leave 1.25-inch margins on all sides, and do not use justified margins. European authors using A4-size paper: please leave a 2.5-inch margin on the bottom of the page.

Title Page: The first page of the manuscript must include (1) the title (the title should accurately reflect the manuscript's content), (2) the full names of all authors, (3) each author's institutional affiliations, (4) the corresponding author's courtesy title (Prof. or Dr.), full name, credentials (MD, PhD), complete mailing address, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address, (5) contact information for offprints if different from that of the corresponding author, (6) the Table of Contents category that best describes the manuscript's topic: Cell Cycle Regulation, Clinical Investigations, Cytokines, Erythropoiesis, Gene Transfer/Gene Therapy, General Hematopoiesis, Granulopoiesis, Hematological Malignancies, Immunobiology, Immunotherapy, Lymphopoiesis, Megakaryocytopoiesis, Microenvironment, Monocyte Development, Molecular Genetics, Signal Transduction, Stem Cell Biology, Stem Cell Plasticity, or Stem Cell Transplantation, and (7) the paper's word count (excluding references, figure legends, and tables).

For manuscripts about clinical studies, use the category of "Clinical Investigation." If your manuscript's topic does not fit within one of these categories, it may not be within the journal's scope. Contact the editorial office for confirmation before submitting the manuscript.

Abstract: The second page of the manuscript should present an abstract of no more than 250 words. Briefly state the rationale, objective, findings, and conclusion. Abstracts should be a continuous narrative and not broken up into subheadings, and should not contain references.
Please include a short list of key words. Where possible, consider using MESH terms. For a list of MESH terms please visit http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/.

Text: The body of the paper should begin on the third page and conform to the "Style Guidelines" described below. Do not include a summary at the end of the text. Cite each figure and table in the text in numerical order. Cite each reference in the text in numerical order and list in the References section. In the text, set the reference numbers in brackets. In-text reference numbers may be repeated but not omitted. Authors who are not fluent in English are strongly advised to seek editorial help from a colleague before submitting their papers.

Support and Financial Disclosure Declaration
List all sources of support for research (from funding agencies or industry) and disclose any potential financial conflicts of interest (relevant consulting fees, stock options, employment, etc) for each author. If no financial conflict of interest is identified, 'none' should be written next to the author name.
Note: If the manuscript is accepted for publication, a summary of the relevant information will be transferred to the Acknowledgements section.

Acknowledgements
If authors wish to express thanks or acknowledge substantive contributions or assistance of individuals who are not authors, this should be included in the Acknowledgments section after the manuscript text and before the reference list. Authors are responsible for informing all named individuals/parties that they are being mentioned in their submitted manuscript and obtaining their approval prior to publication.

References: Include only published materials or those accepted for publication (in press) in the reference list. Cite references in numerical order according to first mention in the text. Verify all entries against original sources, especially journal titles, publication dates, accents, diacritical marks, and spelling in languages other than English. All listed references must be cited in the text.

Journal titles should be abbreviated according to titles listed in Index Medicus. Cite abstracts only if they are the sole source.References should include complete page ranges. Follow these models when organizing references:

1. For a journal article with up to 6 authors, list all authors:
   Fraser ST, Ogawa M, Yu RT, Nishikawa S, Yoder MC, Nishikawa S-I. Definitive hematopoietic commitment within the embryonic vascular endothelial-caderin⁺ population. Exp Hematol. 2002;30:1061-1069.
2. For a journal article with more than 6 authors, list the first 3 authors, followed by et al.:
   Berries VM, Dooner GJ, Nowakowski G, et al. The molecular basis for the cytokine-induced defect in homing and engraftment of hematopoietic stem cells. Exp Hematol. 2001;29:1326-1335.
3. For a journal article in press:
   Riley RL, Knowles J, King AM. Levels of E2A protein expression in B cell precursors are stage-dependent and inhibited by stem cell factor (c-kit ligand). Exp Hematol. In press.
4. For a chapter in a book:
   Munshi NC, Tricot G, Barlogie B. Plasma cell neoplasms. In: DeVita Jr. VT, Hellman S, Rosenberg SA, eds. Cancer: Principles & Practice of Oncology, 6th ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2001. p. 2491-2493.
5. For an abstract or letter:
   Roberts A, Croker B, Handman E, Williams D, Tarlinton D. Rac2 Regulates T and B Lymphocyte Chemotaxis, Distribution and Function [abstract]. Exp Hematol. 2002;30(suppl 1):143. Abstract 427.

For other formats, please follow the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors at http://www.icmje.org/ . (this will help those individuals utilizing referencing software.)

Unpublished observations and personal communications cannot be included in the References section, although they may be cited in the text as "(unpublished data, year)." Papers that rely on such citations for details that are essential for critical review of the manuscript may be rejected. For personal communications, the permission of the individual who communicated the data is required.

Figures: Prepare artwork using professional standards and photographed as camera-ready, unmounted, glossy prints if color, halftones, or photomicrographs. Glossy prints of line drawings, graphs, etc. are not required if good quality computer-generated laser prints (not photocopies) are submitted.

Figures should be created at the highest resolution possible and saved as individual files. Photographic figures should not be mounted. Indicate the figure number unobtrusively in the lower right corner of each page containing a line drawing, graph, or other laser-printed art. For photomicrographs, indicate the figure number and the orientation with an arrow on the back. Figures that are grouped together must match in size, particularly in height, and be uniform in style and size of lettering. Supply a scale bar with photomicrographs.

Proofread all text in the figures and ensure that all figure components are clearly distinguishable from each other (e.g., bar graph hatchings). Ensure that the body of the paper does not repeat data reported in figures.

Figure Legends: Provide double-spaced text for figure legends on separate pages within the manuscript. Include a title for each figure and define any acronyms, abbreviations, initialisms, or symbols used in the figures.

Tables: Begin each table on a separate page in double-spaced type. Title the table with "Table" and the Arabic numeral, followed by a period and a brief informative title. Use the same size type as in the text.

Indicate footnotes in the table in this order:
Do not use vertical lines in tables. Use horizontal lines above and below the column headings and at the bottom of the table only. Use extra space to delineate sections within the table.

Ensure that the text does not duplicate data reported in tables. Provide a legend defining all acronyms, abbreviations, and initialisms.

Previously Published Material: For manuscripts containing tables or figures adapted or reproduced from other sources, submit signed statements from both the author and the publisher giving permission to Experimental Hematology for usage. Also, acknowledge the original source in the table or figure legend. Permission is required irrespective of authorship or publisher, except for documents in the public domain.

STYLE GUIDELINES Abbreviations: All abbreviations must be defined the first time that they are used in the text.

Distribution of reagents: By publishing in this journal, authors imply that they will make freely available to other academic researchers any easily provided materials (e.g., cells, clones of cells, antibodies, DNA probes, nucleic acid sequences, or genetic strains of animals) that were used in the research reported and that are not available from commercial suppliers.

Drugs: Trade names, spelled exactly as trademarked and with the initial letter capitalized, may be used after a drug has been identified once by its generic name or by its systematic chemical name. Unfamiliar compounds other than drugs must also be designated, when first issued, by their correct systematic names. Systematic chemical names should conform to the usage given in the indexes of Chemical Abstracts.

Human Experimentation: In experimental studies with human subjects, details of age, race, and sex of the subject must be included. There must also be a statement that informed consent was obtained from the subjects and that the investigations had been approved by an institutional Human Research Committee. In addition, safeguards for protection of the rights of minors and mentally impaired subjects should be stated. In all material, patients must be identified by number or serial letter and not by initials or names. If the manuscript requires photographs of faces or other identifiable body parts or detailed case descriptions, authors must obtain written consent from the identifiable subject and provide a copy of the permission with the manuscript upon submission.

Manufacturers: Include the name of the pharmaceutical or equipment company, as well as the city, state or province, and country, in parentheses after the first mention of every material used.

Mathematical Notation: Use typewritten letters, numbers, and symbols whenever possible. Identify boldface, script letters, etc., at their first occurrence. Distinguish between one and the letter "I" and zero and the letter "O" whenever confusion might result.

Any data previously published in any form (except abstracts) must be clearly identified as such.

Measurements: Use metric system and Celsius degrees; use L for liter.

Nomenclature and Symbols: Follow the recommendations of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and the International Union of Biochemistry (IUB). In respect to molecular regulators of hemopoiesis that are either essential for proliferation and differentiation of a given cell line or potentiate the action of a specific regulator, sufficient information should be given in respect to its molecular weight, chemical characteristics, stability, resistance to enzymatic digestion, method of assay, etc., so that others can appreciate the basic properties. When a regulatory molecule has been purified to homogeneity, sequenced, cloned, and produced as a pure entity, the name then given to the humoral regulator should be used. When there are numerous synonyms, these should be listed once. Until there is a consensus in respect to nomenclature, authors may use the names they prefer.

Statistical Analyses: In respect to bioassay or radioimmunoassay, potency estimates should be accompanied by a measure of the precision of these estimates. Both bioassays and radioimmunoassays should be precision-related to within-assay variability and to the variability measurements or subsequent independent assays. When data are insufficient to determine whether the data conform to a normal or other distribution, it is more appropriate to use nonparametric tests of significance. Manuscripts must describe novel methods, models, and approaches to statistical analysis concisely, but in sufficient detail to allow evaluation of the results reported.

Recombinant DNA: With the use of "recombinant" material in research, particularly with recombinant viral vectors that may infect human cells, investigators must include a statement regarding the containment category of genetically engineered organisms. Procedures and safeguards must be specified for the construction and handling of recombinant DNA molecules and organisms and viruses containing recombinant DNA.

COPYRIGHT All material that is accepted for publication becomes the sole property of the ISEH. Authors must sign a copyright transfer form upon acceptance of any material for publication. The ISEH does, however, grant the authors the right to reproduce tables and figures from their articles published by the ISEH in the author's future publications.

EDITORIAL OFFICE For more information, contact the journal's:

Editor-in-Chief:
R. Keith Humphries, MD, PhD
British Columbia Cancer Agency and
University of British Columbia
Terry Fox Laboratory
BCCA Cancer Research Centre
601 West 10th Avenue
Vancouver, BC V5Z L3 Canada
Phone: 604-675-8140
Fax: (604) 877-0712
E-mail: khumprie@bccrc.ca

Managing Editor:
Carolina Abramovich, PhD
Phone (604) 277-3894
Fax (604) 288-5006
Mobile: (778) 896-9584
E-mail: exphem@iseh.org



Updated September 2011