Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation

Categories of manuscripts

Brief Articles. Manuscripts in this category are in the same format as a Regular Article, but are generally less than 20 total manuscript pages in length (double-spaced) and have three or less figures or tables.

Regular Manuscripts. Manuscripts submitted in this category are expected to be concise, well organized, and clearly written. Acceptance is based on originality and importance to the field of blood and marrow transplantation. These manuscripts are reviewed by two or more experts in the field, and detailed comments from the reviewers are generally returned to the authors. Manuscripts requiring extensive revision will be at a disadvantage for publication. Manuscripts are submitted with the understanding that they are original contributions and do not contain data that have been published elsewhere, including symposia volumes, etc. Meeting abstracts do not constitute prior publication.

Rapid Communications. Definitive papers of exceptional scientific importance within the discipline of blood and marrow transplantation will be considered for expedited review and publication. Consideration as a Rapid Communication must be requested at the time of submission by the authors and requires approval by the Editorial Board. Papers that the Editors decide not to process as Rapid Communications will be handled as regular manuscripts unless the authors choose to have them returned without further review. Criteria for selection as Rapid Communications include originality, importance, and the potential value of accelerated publication to the readers of Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation. Decisions on these manuscripts will be made within four weeks of receipt and in general will not be accompanied by detailed reviewers' comments. Although there is no page limit for manuscripts in this category, clear and concise presentation of data is required. Manuscripts requiring extensive revisions or editing will be at a disadvantage for publication in this category. Case reports, methods papers, or preliminary studies should not be submitted for consideration as Rapid Communications.

Review Articles. Review articles on topics of broad interest are highly desired and may be solicited by the Editor-in-Chief. Individuals who wish to write a review article should correspond with the Editor in Chief regarding the appropriateness of the proposed topic. Such articles are expected to be thorough and detailed and should include appropriate references to the literature. The addition of tables and figures to summarize critical points is encouraged. These articles are reviewed by the Editors and other expert reviewers before a final decision regarding publication is made, and revisions may be required. Review articles should be limited to no more than 5,000 words and no more than 80 references.

Clinical Reviews. Short, highly focused articles that review topics related to therapy, diagnosis, or other clinical issues in hematology may be published as Clinical Reviews. Authors who wish to write a Clinical Review should correspond with the Editor in Chief regarding the proposed topic. Such manuscripts will be reviewed by expert reviewers and will be accepted for publication based on their educational value and clarity. Manuscript submission fees and page charges are not assessed on review articles.

Editorials. Concise, invited commentaries on articles published in Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation or other topics in hematology are highly desired.

Letters. Letters to the Editor commenting on articles published in Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation are welcomed. Letters should be as concise as possible (no more than three double-spaced pages), include no more than 10 references, and should have titles.

Case Reports are not published in BBMT, and will not be accepted in any format.

Manuscript Submission and Handling

Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation utilizes a web-based manuscript submission and peer-review system. Authors should submit their manuscripts, with figures and tables, electronically at the journal Web site, www.bbmt.org. Authors can also visit http://ees.elsevier.com/ybbmt. Complete instructions are available at the Web site. If authors experience any difficulty during the submission process or require any assistance, they should contact authorsupport@elsevier.com. If authors do not receive an e-mail confirmation of submission within 24 hours, it may be an indication that the manuscript has not been received by the editorial office. In this instance, authors should contact the editorial office (Robert Korngold, PhD, The Cancer Center, Hackensack University Medical Center, David Joseph Jurist Institute for Research/ Rm 356 30, Prospect Avenue, Hackensack, NJ 07601; Tel: (201) 336-8664; Fax: (201) 336-8696; E-mail: rkorngold@humed.com).

Copyright. All material in Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation represents the opinions of the authors and does not reflect the opinions of the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (ASBMT), Elsevier Inc., or the institutions with which the authors are affiliated. Authors submitting manuscripts do so with the understanding that, if accepted, copyright in the article, including the right to reproduce the article in all forms and media including electronic media, shall be assigned exclusively to the ASBMT and authors will be requested to sign a copyright release form.

Ethical Considerations. Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation considers research and publication misconduct to be a serious breach of ethics, and will take such actions as necessary to address such misconduct. Authors should refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors for full information. Authors are also encouraged to visit Elsevier's Ethical Guidelines for Journal Publication.

Plagiarism and duplicate submission are serious acts of misconduct. Plagiarism is defined as unreferenced use of published or unauthorized use of unpublished ideas, and may occur at any stage of planning, researching, writing, or publication. Plagiarism takes many forms, from 'passing off' another's paper as the author's own paper, to copying or paraphrasing substantial parts of another's paper (without attribution), to claiming results from research conducted by others. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable. Duplicate submission/publication occurs when two or more papers, without full cross-reference, share the same hypothesis, data, discussion points, or conclusions.

NIH Public Access Policy Compliance
To comply with the NIH Public Access Policy, Elsevier will deposit to PubMed Central (PMC) author manuscripts on behalf of authors reporting NIH funded research. The NIH policy requires that NIH-funded authors submit to PubMed Central (PMC), or have submitted on their behalf, their peer-reviewed author manuscripts, to appear on PMC no later than 12 months after final publication. Elsevier will send to PMC the final peer-reviewed manuscript, which was accepted for publication and sent to Elsevier's production department, and that reflects any author-agreed changes made in response to peer-review comments. Elsevier will authorize the author manuscript's public access posting 12 months after final publication. Following the deposit by Elsevier, authors will receive further communications from the NIH with respect to the submission.

Note: Authors must declare their NIH funding (or the other funding bodies listed below) when completing the copyright transfer form.

Other Funding Body Policies

Elsevier has also worked with the following funding bodies to ensure that our authors can comply with their policies:

- Arthritis Research Campaign (UK)
- British Heart Foundation (UK)
- Cancer Research (UK)
- Chief Scientist Office
- Department of Health (UK)
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute (US)
- Medical Research Council (UK)
- Wellcome Trust (UK)

For full details on how these policies are implemented, please see complete information at: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorsview.authors/fundingbodyagreements

Organization of the Manuscript
Organize submitted manuscripts as follows: Cover Letter, Title Page (including title; authors' full names, academic degrees, and affiliations; corresponding author's address, phone number, fax number, and e-mail address; and a short title), Financial Disclosure Statement, Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgments, References, Tables, Figure Legends, and Figures. Manuscripts should be double-spaced and formatted for standard paper with 1-inch margins.

Cover Letter. Please identify the name, address, phone number, fax number, and e-mail address of the corresponding author. The cover letter should also specify the category of manuscript (such as Rapid Communication). Papers that the Editors decide not to process as Rapid Communications will be handled as regular manuscripts unless the authors request in the cover letter that the manuscript be returned without further review. The cover letter also should indicate where appropriate that the authors are willing to pay the extra costs involved in publishing any color photographs. At the end of the cover letter, all authors must sign a statement that they have reviewed the manuscript, agree with its contents, and consent to its submission to BBMT. The author agreement can alternatively be e-mailed as a pdf separately to the Editorial Office: Robert Korngold, Ph.D; E-mail: rkorngold@humed.com.

Financial Disclosure Statement. Authors must disclose any primary financial relationship with a company that has a direct financial interest in the subject matter or products discussed in the submitted manuscript, or with a company that produces a competing product. These relationships (such as honoraria, ownership of stock, patents, or consulting fees) and any direct support of research by a commercial company will be included in the Acknowledgements section of the published article.

References. Include double-spaced references in numerical order at the end of the article according to the order of citation in the text. The names of all authors should be given unless there are more than 6, in which case the names of the first 3 authors should be given, followed by "et al." Abbreviate the names of journals according to the abbreviations used in the latest edition of Index Medicus, Superintendent of Documents, US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402. References to abstracts and letters must be appropriately identified. References to personal communications, unpublished observations, and manuscripts submitted and "in preparation" must appear parenthetically in the text.

Please use the following form for references:
9. Singer JW, Charbord P, Keating A, et al. Simian virus 40?transformed adherent cells from human long-term marrow cultures: cloned cell lines produce cells with stromal and hematopoietic characteristics. Biol Blood Marrow Transplant. 1995;7:464-469.
10. Cone RD, Williams DA, Davies TF. Establishment of differentiated cell lines using oncogene-containing retroviral vectors. In: Glunzman Y, Hughes SH, eds. Viral Vectors. Cold Spring Harbor, NY: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press; 1993:34-39.

Footnotes and Abbreviations. Footnotes should appear at the bottom of the page. Abbreviations should be defined at their first use and applied consistently throughout the article. Do not use nonstandard abbreviations or abbreviate terms appearing fewer than three times. Give the chemical name of a compound after the first use of the trivial name. The trivial name may follow throughout the article.

Tables. Each table should be printed or typed on a separate page, appropriately numbered and cited in numerical order in the text. Legends giving sufficient explanation to make the data intelligible without reference to the text must be typed on the same page.

Figures and Figure Legends. Figures must be cited in the text in numerical order using Arabic numerals. Figures should be generated in .tif format; see instructions on Web site. Figure legends should be double-spaced on a separate page and should include a brief title and a concise explanation of each figure. Part of the cost of publishing color photographs will be borne by the authors and payment must be made to the publisher prior to publication. The cost to publish color figures in print is $500 for the first color figure and $100 for each additional color figure.

Supplementary Material for Online Publication. In cases where essential information associated with an article is too extensive for print publication (e.g., data sets, additional figures, video files), this content can be included as online-only supplemental information. Supplementary material file(s) should be provided at the time of manuscript submission, and should be called out in the text (egg, Table S2, Fig S1, Item S4). Titles and/or legends for each supplementary figure or item should be included as the final page of the manuscript document. Unless otherwise requested, supplementary material will generally be corrected for style, grammar, and format.

Proofs. Authors of accepted manuscripts will receive galley proofs as pdf files via e-mail directly from the publisher and are responsible for proofreading. Except for correcting typesetting errors, authors may be charged for extensive alterations. Corrections should be returned within 48 hours to avoid delay in publication.

Reprints. Reprints must be ordered and paid for in advance. An order form with the cost of reprints and instructions for payment will be sent directly from the publisher with page proofs. Reprint orders, payments, and inquiries should be directed to Elsevier.

Announcements. Announcements of meetings that are of interest to the readers of Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation should be sent to the Editor at least three months before the first day of the month of issue. Fees for announcements vary depending on their size and number of insertions; please call the Editorial Office for details.

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Updated March 2012