One of the nine topical sections of Biochimica et Biophysica Acta Former title: BBA - Protein Structure and Molecular Enzymology
Guide for Authors
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 Biochimica et Biophysica Acta - Proteins and Proteomics web site at http://ees.elsevier.com/bbapro.
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: bbapro@elsevier.com; telephone; (619) 699-6599; fax: (619) 699-6700).
Each manuscript
is to be accompanied by an electronic cover letter outlining the basic findings of the paper and their significance, providing the following
information:
The full name and address of the corresponding author (including telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail
address).
Any known changes of address within a period of six months after submission of the paper.
The full
title of the submitted paper.
All materials submitted become the property of BBA. While manuscripts and figure copies
of refused manuscripts will be returned to the authors whenever possible, this cannot be guaranteed.
Submission of a manuscript
implies that the work described has not been published before (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 has been approved by all the authors
and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities in the laboratories where the work was carried out and that, if accepted, it
will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in either the same or another language, without the consent of the editors and the
publisher. Reference should be made to previously published abstracts, etc. in the introductory section. Responsibility for the accuracy
of the material in the manuscript, including bibliographic citations, lies entirely with the authors. Ethics
When
conducting scientific research using human tissue and which is intended for publication in BBA, authors should follow procedures that
are in accordance with the ethical standards as formulated in the Helsinki Declaration of 1975 (revised in 1983). When conducting experiments
on animals, authors should follow the institution's or the National Research Council's guide for the care and use of laboratory animals. Revisions and publications dates
Papers requiring revision and/or condensation will be returned to the authors by the
Executive Editors, specifying the requested alterations and including the (anonymous) referee reports.
Authors are requested
to resubmit the revised paper within three months. Papers not resubmitted within three months will be treated as new submissions. Proofreading
Authors will receive proofs. Since acceptance is based upon the submitted version of the paper, it is essential
that no new material be inserted in the text at the time of proofreading; furthermore, no alteration to style or meaning will be permitted
at this stage. Any new material that the authors wish to introduce for reasons of scientific accuracy will be checked by the Executive
Editors, and a charge may be made for corrections. Authors are encouraged to return their proofs by e-mail. Offprints
The corresponding author, at no cost, will be provided with a PDF file of the article via e-mail or, alternatively, 25 free paper
offprints. There are no page charges. An offprint order form, price list and copyright transfer form are sent upon receipt of the manuscript
at the Publisher so that extra offprints may be ordered. It is also essential that copyright be transferred at this stage. Publication
Information concerning your accepted article can be obtained by using the "Track a Paper" feature of Elsevier's Author Gateway.
This will provide you with:
general production status (in preparation, in proof, in issue)
date of publication
and offprints dispatch date
volume, issue and page numbers
Through this site you can also set up e-mail alerts
informing you of changes to your manuscript's status. Electronic publishing
Authors are required to submit electronic
manuscripts. Typesetting from computer files has several advantages, not the least of which is the avoidance of re-keying errors in the
article.
Acceptable file types. Most word-processing packages are acceptable; however, we prefer that authors use a recent version
of Microsoft Word or Corel WordPerfect. Manuscripts saved with formatting intact are preferred. Rich-text format (.rtf extension) is
acceptable, but plain text (.txt extension) files are discouraged. Submit each figure as a separate TIFF or EPS file.
Once a
paper is accepted, BBA cannot use PDF or PostScript files because they do not allow editing of the text. Files created in layout programs
such as Adobe FrameMaker or PageMaker, QuarkXPress, and Corel Ventura are unacceptable. Artwork should not be embedded within the manuscript.
It must be supplied in electronic files separate from the manuscript file. BBA's publications
BBA publishes English-language
papers only. Papers may be written in either American or British English, provided that the preferred spelling is used consistently throughout.
Many readers of the journal are not native speakers of English. It is therefore important to write succinctly and clearly, using
short, simple sentences and avoiding long adjectival phrases and laboratory jargon. The following types of papers are published:
A Regular paper is the normal medium of publication. Although there is no fixed length, Regular papers should be as concise
as possible, while providing sufficient information for the work to be repeated and for the claims of the authors to be judged by the
readers.
BBA reviews are published in the independent section "Reviews on Cancer" and in all other sections of the
journal. They are contributed by scientists who are leading specialists in their field of expertise, normally at the invitation of the
Executive Editors. Authors wishing to contribute a review paper are advised first to contact one of the responsible Executive Editors
(listed in the issues of BBA) to avoid overlap with Reviews already commissioned. Preparation of papers
Authors
should consult a recent issue of the journal to make themselves familiar with the conventions and layout of articles.
The entire
text, including figures and table legends and the reference list, should be double-spaced, leaving a left margin of approx. 3 cm. All
pages should be numbered consecutively, starting with the title page of the manuscript. Every new paragraph should be clearly indented.
Expressions of Latin origin, for example, in vivo, in vitro, et al., and per se should be typed in normal typeface. They should be neither
italicized nor underlined.
Equations should be numbered in the right margin as follows:
A+B C+D(1) Title page
The title should be concise, descriptive and informative. The names of the authors should be followed by their addresses and indicated
by corresponding letters. Changes in address should be indicated by footnotes. The author(s) to whom correspondence and proofs should
be sent should be indicated, giving a full address (including fax number and e-mail address).
Authors are requested to select
a maximum of six keywords and to present them on the title page. These keywords will be used in the compilation of the annual cumulative
index. They should cover precisely the contents of the submitted paper and should give readers sufficient information as to the relevance
of the paper to his/her particular field. Summary
The second page should be reserved for the Summary. This should
be self-explanatory and intelligible without reference to the body of the paper.
A Regular paper should have a Summary of 100-200
words.
Since summaries are increasingly used by abstracting services which will cut off after a fixed number of words, it is
important not to exceed the maximum number of words and to avoid bibliographic references and non-standard abbreviations. Regular
papers
After the Summary, Regular papers are usually divided into the sections Introduction, Materials and methods, Results,
Discussion and Acknowledgments. Introduction
This is a short section in which the authors should state the reasons
for performing the work, with brief reference to relevant previous work.
Materials and methods, Results, Discussion The section
Materials and methods should be detailed enough for readers to reproduce the experiments. Authors should always refer to other work on
the same subject, indicating whether or not their experimental results are in agreement with previous work. Conclusions drawn from experiments
described in the tables or figures can often appear most conveniently in the Results section. The overall conclusions based on the work
reported should be given in the Discussion. In shorter papers the Results and Discussion sections may be combined. Acknowledgements
Acknowledgments should be presented at the end of the main text in a separate section. References and citations
The numerical system of references should be used. References in the text should be cited by numbers in square brackets in the order
of their citation.
References are listed together in their order of appearance in a separate section at the end of the text
under the heading References. All references should be numbered consecutively. References to journals should contain initials and names
of all authors, article title, abbreviation of the name of the journal according to the List of Serial Title World Abbreviations (International
Series Data System, 20, rue Bachaumont, 75002 Paris, France. ISBN 2-904938-02-8), volume number, year of publication (between brackets),
and page numbers. References to books should also include the title (of series and volumes), initials and names of the editor(s), the
publisher and place of publication.
Examples
[1]M. Wikstrom, J.E. Morgan, M.I. Verkhovsky, Proton and electrical charge
translocation by cytochrome-c oxidase, Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1318 (1997) 299-306. [2]E.C. Slater, Biochimica et Biophysica Acta:
The Story of a Biochemical Journal, Elsevier Publishers, Amsterdam, 1986.
[3]D.E. Vance, Glycerolipid biosynthesis in eukaryotes,
in: D.E. Vance, J.E. Vance (Eds.), New Comprehensive Biochemistry, vol. 31, Biochemistry of Lipids, Lipoproteins and Membranes, Elsevier
B.V., Amsterdam, 1996, pp. 153-181.
Reference to a paper as "in press" implies that it has been accepted for publication. Evidence
(e.g., a photocopy of the note of acceptance from the journal concerned) should accompany the submitted typescript. Papers that are "in
press" should be included as a number in the text. Other papers submitted before or simultaneously with the paper in question should
be included as a number in the text and in the References section, stating the name of the journal. Copies of papers that are submitted
elsewhere should be provided for inspection by the Editors. Omission of this information will delay publication and may lead to redating
of a submitted manuscript. Papers presented at scientific meetings that are not available in published form should not be cited as references
in the References section.
Unpublished results should not be listed in the References section. In the text they are mentioned
as follows: "(Tervoort, M.V. and Glimcher, J., unpublished data)". When unpublished results are cited, the data should be provided for
the Editors' information when essential for proper evaluation, or if requested.
A personal communication should be mentionedin
the text as follows: "(Tervoort, M.V., personal communication)". Authors should not make unauthorized use of personal communications.
Personal communications are not to be included in the References section. Tables
Tables should be used sparingly;
they should be used only when the data cannot be presented clearly in the text. Authors are requested to consult recent issues of BBA
for the proper table layout.
Each table, including its legend, should be included on a separate page. The heading of the table
should make its general meaning understandable without reference to the text. Figures and illustrations
Figures should
be used to illustrate experimental results clearly. As figures are often reduced to a one-column width, authors should bear in mind the
size of BBA's printed page and they should ensure that symbols, lettering and lines are sufficiently large and clear to be legible after
reduction. (Column width is 8.4 cm, preferred figure size is approximately double this).
Legends should be collated and typed
with double- or triple- spacing on a separate sheet. A legend should consist of an opening sentence constituting a brief title (without
extra capitalization), followed by a brief description of the figure.
BBA encourages the submission of illustrations (grayscale
as well as colour) as ppt or xls files. The resolution of the illustrations should be 300 dpi or higher. 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 and for a complete list of acceptable file formats, please
see http://authors.elsevier.com/artwork.
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.
When essential to the understanding of a paper, figures may
be reproduced in colour, at the author's own expense. The price of single printed full-colour page is EUR340,- exclusive of sales tax.
Two, three or four full-colour pages in combination will cost EUR227,- per additional page excluding sales tax.
Funding
body agreements and policies
Elsevier has established agreements and developed policies to allow authors whose articles appear
in journals published by Elsevier to comply with potential manuscript archiving requirements as specified as conditions of their grant
awards. To learn more about existing agreements and policies, please visit http://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies.
Preparation of 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 our Author Gateway at http://authors.elsevier.com.
