Extended Guide for Authors click for pdf file

Analytical Biochemistry is an international journal that publishes original material on methods and methodology of interest to the biological sciences and all fields that impinge on biochemical investigation. Manuscripts of two types are considered: Full-length Articles and short contributions of about two printed pages, including tables and figures, which fall under the heading of Notes & Tips. Reviews on timely topics and Prospectives on methods at a stage of development at which they are "likely to come about" are generally invited, although unsolicited outlines or manuscripts will be considered.

In addition to the expected techniques that apply to biochemical preparations and analysis, the following should be considered as within the scope of the journal:


• Cell biology and cell, tissue, and organ culture methods that are of general application.
• Membrane preparation and signaling systems.
• Procedures of interest in the field of recombinant technology and molecular genetics.
• Purification of enzymes and other proteins, but only if the methods are both novel and applicable generally; i.e., the interest is in a means of purification rather than in the protein that is being purified.
• Immunological techniques, both analytical and preparative, if they are of general applicability by biochemists. Immunoassays are included but only if a unique approach is introduced rather than the application of an established method to a substance not previously assayed.
• Pharmacological and toxicological research techniques that offer a biochemical approach. Again, the interest is in the novelty of the method rather than the assay of specific drug.

Submission of Manuscripts

It is a condition of publication that all manuscripts must be written in clear and grammatical English and be submitted to the Analytical Biochemistry Web site at http://ees.Elsevier.com/yabio. Each manuscript must be accompanied by an electronic cover letter outlining the basic findings of the paper and their significance. PDFs of all related manuscripts under consideration for publication must also be included with the submitted manuscript. Minimal exceptions will be allowed. If you are unable to provide an electronic version of your paper, please contact the Editorial Office prior to submission (e-mail: ab@elsevier.com; telephone: (619) 699-6302; fax: (619) 699-6211).

There are no submission fees or page charges.

Language polishing. Authors who require information about language editing and copyediting services pre- and post-submission should visit http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorshome.authors/languagepolishing or contact authorsupport@elsevier.com for more information. 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 at http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/termsconditions.cws_home/termsconditions.

Policy

Manuscripts are accepted for review with the understanding that the same work has not been and will not be nor is currently submitted elsewhere, and that its submission for publication has been approved by all of the authors and by the institution where the work was carried out; further, that any person cited as a source of personal communications has approved such citation. Written authorization may be required at the Editor's discretion. Manuscripts with multiple authorship are accepted on the assumption that all authors participated meaningfully in the work and agree on the submitted version of the work. Articles and any other material published in Analytical Biochemistry represent the opinions of the author(s) and should not be construed to reflect the opinions of the Editor(s) or the Publisher.

Redundant or duplicate publication in another peer-reviewed primary research journal of the same paper (or substantially similar paper) reporting the same results arising from the same research work does not serve the research or library community well, and any such publication will be subject to review by the editor and to the retraction and removal policies of the journal.

Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to transfer copyright (for more information on this and copyright see http://www.elsevier.com/copyright.com. Acceptance of the agreement will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. A 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 material from other copyrighted works is 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.

Ethics of experimentation. Scientific investigations involving humans or animals must have approval of the appropriate ethics committee. When conducting scientific research using human tissue and which is intended for publication in CCA, authors should follow procedures that are in accordance with the ethical standards as formulated in the Helsinki Declaration of 1975 (revised 1983). Authors conducting experiments on animals must do so in accordance with the EU (86./609/EEC), NIH guidelines, or local or national requirements for the care and use of laboratory animals. A statement that informed consent was obtained from all subjects must accompany investigations involving humans.

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.

Manuscript Preparation

Manuscripts should be concise and consistent in style, spelling, and use of abbreviations and be double-spaced with 1-in. margins on all sides. Each manuscript should have a separate title page noting the title of article, the authors' names (without degrees), complete affiliations, the address to which proofs should be mailed, and the corresponding author's telephone and fax numbers and e-mail address. In creating a title for your paper, please omit words such as novel, rapid, improved, simple, sensitive, efficient, convenient, new. Each is felt to be redundant and actually slows down the reader who is scanning the article titles and wants to know more about the method itself. Please substitute informative words that will give readers a more complete idea of the usefulness of your paper with regard to the limitations of their equipment or sample type. Only standard abbreviations should be used in the article title or running title. See the extended Instructions for Authors (pdf file above) for more detailed information regarding abbreviations. As a general rule, please also restrict the length of the title to 15 words. Number all pages of the manuscript. The appropriate subject category should be indicated on the title page (see listing below).


•Carbohydrates
•Cell Biology
•Chromatographic Techniques
•DNA Recombinant Techniques and Nucleic Acids
•Electrophoretic Techniques
•Enzymatic Assays and Analyses
•Immunologicl Procedures
•Inorganic and Metallo-organic Compounds
•Labeling Procedures
•Lipids, Lipoproteins and Prostaglandins
•Mass Spectrometry
•Membranes and Receptors
•Metabolic Determinations
•Peptides, Amino Acids, and Amino Acid Derivatives
•Physical Techniques
•Protein Structure and Analysis
•Purification of Enzymes and Proteins
•Special Topics

Be sure to include a short title of less than 50 characters (50 letters and spaces). An abstract should be included on the second page for all Regular Articles and Reviews (200 words or less), and for Notes & Tips (100 words).
Keywords should be listed immediately after the abstract.

Text. The suggested organization of an Article is abstract; introductory statement; materials and methods; results; discussion; acknowledgments; references. Some of these sections may be combined if the presentation is thereby made clearer or more effective. Although this is the general form, the journal will accept variation from it but does require an abstract.

Notes & Tips should be about two printed pages but no longer than three pages (approximately 7 typed pages or 2400 words, including text, tables, figures, and references). Please note that a maximum of two figures or tables (or one figure and one table) can be included. The intent is to accommodate methods that can be summarized in a shorter format allowing more rapid publication, as well as to provide helpful "kitchen tricks". The standards are the same as those for other articles. There is no formal organization and no headings. A succinct abstract of less than 100 words is required. An opening paragraph should state the problem and the means for its resolution; a brief summary statement concludes the paper.

Names of chemical or organic substances should follow the recommendations of the IUPAC-IUBMB Joint Combined Commission on Biochemical Nomenclature (JCBN) as published in the extended Instructions for Authors (see below). Authors should draw attention to any particular chemical or biological hazards that may be involved in carrying out the experiments described. Any relevant safety precautions should be described; if an accepted code of practice has been followed, a reference to the relevant standards should be given.

References to the literature should be cited in the text by Arabic numerals in brackets and listed at the end of the paper in consecutive order. Full titles of the papers must be included. Authors are instructed to cite all relevant prior work. Failure to do so will lead to rejection and can be actionable. Whenever reference is made to an author's manuscript "in press" or "submitted," copies of the manuscript must be included. References to manuscripts as "submitted," "in preparation," "personal communication," or the like are unacceptable if they refer to an essential method or to a key reagent described in the submission to Analytical Biochemistry. Abbreviations of journal titles should follow the style used in the most recent edition of Chemical Abstracts Service Source Index. Please note the style of capitalization and punctuation for journal articles and edited books in the following examples:


[1] P.D. Bonin, L.A. Erickson, Development of a fluorescence polarization assay for peptidyl-tRNA hydrolase, Anal. Biochem. 306 (2002) 8–16.
[2] B. Birren, E. Lai, Pulsed Field Gel Electrophoresis: A Practical Guide, Academic Press, San Diego, 1993.
[3] O.R. Melts, L.B. Adams, How to prepare an electronic version of your article, in: B.D. Jones, R.Z. Smith (Eds.) Introduction to the Electronic Age, E-Publishing Inc., New York, 1999, pp. 281–304.

Figures should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals in order of mention in the text: each figure should have a descriptive legend. Legends should be typed together on a separate page, double-spaced. All illustrations should be in finished form. Lettering on drawings must be large enough that in the printed version the lettering is 6-8 points. Except for single-letter part designations, lettering on printed figures should not be larger than 10 points. Wide variation in type sizes is undesirable.

Photographs should be kept to a minimum. The magnification should be indicated by a scale where possible. Simple histograms should be avoided; a table or a paragraph in the text is preferred.

Illustrations in color in the printed issue can be accepted only if the authors defray the cost. Authors of invited Reviews will receive one free page of color. However, if together with your accepted article you submit usable color figures, then Elsevier will ensure, at no additional charge, that these figures will appear in color on the Web (e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites) regardless of whether these illustrations are reproduced in color in the printed version. For color reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article. [Please note: Because of technical complications that can arise in converting color figures to "gray scale" (for the printed version should you not opt for color in print), please submit in addition usable black-and-white files corresponding to all the color illustrations.] For in-depth information about submitting electronic artwork visit http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.

Tables should be typed on separate pages, numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals in order of mention in the text. Each table should have a short explanatory title.

Footnotes should be designated in text by superscript numbers and typed on a separate sheet following the References. Footnotes to tables should be identified with lowercase superscript letters and placed at the bottom of the table.

Preparation of Supplementary Material

Elsevier accepts electronic supplementary material to support and enhance your scientific research. Supplementary files offer additional possibilities for publishing 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). To ensure that your submitted material is directly usable, please provide the data 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. Please note, however, that supplementary material will not appear in the printed journal.

Proofs

PDF proofs will be e-mailed to the corresponding author. To avoid delay in publication, only necessary changes should be made, and corrections should be returned within 2 business days.


E-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.

Author Inquiries

For inquiries relating to the submission of articles (including electronic submission where available) please visit www.elsevier.com/authors. Register for free to receive email updates from the article tracking service at http://www.elsevier.com/trackarticle. The article tracking service also provides the facility to set up e-mail alerts to inform you of when an article's status has changed, as well as detailed artwork guidelines, copyright information, frequently asked questions, and more.

Summary of Requirements
1. Submit the manuscript electronically to the Analytical Biochemistry Web site at http://ees.elsevier.com/yabio.
2. Ensure that the text is in both correct and idiomatic English.
3. Designate the corresponding author and provide telephone and fax numbers and e-mail address.
4. Include a short title of less than 50 characters, and indicate on the title page your choice of category assignment (see below).
5. For Articles provide an abstract of less than 200 words; no references here.
6. For Notes & Tips, ensure that the length is less than three printed pages, including all tables and figures; an abstract of 100 words or less is required; please see instructions for introduction and summary.
7. Provide full titles for references; unpublished papers will not be listed unless in press.
8. Check that references to all essential methods and key reagents have been published or are in press.

July 2007 version