Guide for Authors

Welcome to the electronic manuscript submission website for Oncogene. The instructions below are structured so you can quickly and easily answer the following questions:

1. Is my manuscript suitable for Oncogene? (Scope + Editorial Policy)
2. How do I format my manuscript for Oncogene? (Format of Papers)
3. How do I submit my manuscript to Oncogene? (Submission of Papers)

• Index Medicus/MEDLINE
• Current Contents
• Current Contents/Life Sciences
• Biotechonology Citation Index
• Elsevier BIOBASE/Current Awareness in Biological Sciences
• EMBASE/Excerpta Medica
• Science Citation Index
• SciSearch
• BIOSIS
• Research Alert
• Index Veterinarius

Scope

Oncogene covers all aspects of the structure and function of oncogenes, especially:

• Cellular oncogenes and their mechanism of activation
• Structure and function of their encoded proteins
• Oncogenes of the DNA and RNA tumour viruses
• The molecular oncology of human tumours
• Tumour suppressor genes
• Growth regulatory genes
• Cell cycle control
• Growth factors and receptors
• Apoptosis
• Immortalisation and cellular senescence

The prime objective of the journal is the advancement and dissemination of knowledge concerning the molecular basis of malignant change. Overriding criteria for publication are originality, exemplary scientific merit and general interest. Oncogene publishes full and detailed papers as well as short communications relevant to all aspects of oncogene research.

Editorial Policy

Dr John Jenkins, the UK Editorial Office, and Dr E. Premkumar Reddy, US Oncogene Editorial Office

Oncogenomics

With the completion of the human genome project, it is anticipated that the identification of genes that regulate cell growth, differentiation, apoptosis and transformation will constitute a major effort in cancer research. To facilitate the progress in this field, the editors of Oncogene have decided to publish sequence mapping papers as a separate section in the journal entitled 'Oncogenomics'.
Authors interested in publishing novel sequences of genes that regulate cell growth, as well as studies describing positional cloning and chromosomal localization data, may submit their studies to Oncogene. Articles with supporting functional or mechanistic data, or that provide gene signatures with diagnostic or prognostic implications, are particularly encouraged. Articles may be submitted either as original articles or in a short communication format and they will be grouped together in the Oncogenomics section.
There is opportunity on the online submission form to state if your submission should be considered for inclusion in this section of the journal.

Format of Papers

Preparation of manuscripts

All manuscripts should be in English. Please ensure that the manuscripts are well presented and that grammar, spelling and punctuation are checked. The manuscript should be legibly typed in A4 or American quarto format. All sections of the manuscript must be double-spaced with generous margins. Number each page, including the title page. Underline only words or letters to appear in italics. Please indicate the position of each figure and table in the margin.

Non-Native Speakers of English
Authors who are not native speakers of English who submit manuscripts to international journals often receive negative comments from referees or editors about the English-language usage in their manuscripts, and these problems can contribute to a decision to reject a paper. To help reduce the possibility of such problems, we strongly encourage such authors to take at least one of the following steps:

• Have your manuscript reviewed for clarity by a colleague whose native language is English.
• Use a service such as one of those listed below. An editor will improve the English to ensure that your meaning is clear and identify problems that require your review. Note that the use of such a service is at the author's own expense and risk and does not guarantee that the article will be accepted. Nature Publishing Group accepts no responsibility for the interaction between the author and the service provider or for the quality of the work performed.

American Journal Experts

Inter-Biotec

Inter-Biotec also provides a free online writing course to help biomedical scientists whose first language is not English to write and publish their papers in English-language journals.

SPI Professional Editing Services

Write Science Right

Short Communications
Manuscripts with four display items or less should be prepared as Short Communications, comprising a title page, abstract, main text, acknowledgements, references, tables and legends to figures. They describe novel experimental findings, with the introduction, results and discussion sections combined. Please note that all materials and methods should be included in the figure legends. The text (including references and figure legends) should be succinctly written, and figures prepared to occupy a minimum of space. In general, Short Communications should not exceed four pages of the journal in their final printed form; therefore please aim for a word total (including references and legends) of 3000 or less. Please include a word count for your manuscript in your covering letter.

Original Articles
Manuscripts describing novel experimental findings with more than four display items should be subdivided into the following sequence of sections: title page, abstract, introduction, results sections, discussion, materials and methods, acknowledgements, references, tables, legends to figures. Please keep the text as brief and clear as possible, and prepare figures to occupy a minimum of space. In general, full-length papers should not exceed a total (excluding abstract, references and figure legends) of 4500 words. Please include a word count for your manuscript in your covering letter.

Technical Reports
These describe a new methodology or a new approach to investigate an existing problem. They follow the format of Short Communications.

Review Articles
These are usually summaries of a large field of research. They are ordinarily published in Oncogene Reviews, but may on occasion be included in Oncogene depending on the content. Please do not submit a review article intended for Oncogene Reviews on this tracking system. Instead, please contact the journal office.

Title Page
The title should be short and to the point. The surname and initials of each author should be followed by his or her department, institution, city with postal code and country. Any changes of address may be given in numbered footnotes. The author(s) to whom proofs are to be addressed should be indicated. Please provide a running title of not more than 50 characters and from 3 to 6 keywords. Make sure that the manuscript has a contact telephone number on it.

Abstract
The second page of every manuscript must contain only the abstract, which should be a single paragraph not exceeding 200 words. Please abide strictly by this limitation of length. The abstract should be comprehensive to readers before they have read the paper, and abbreviations and reference citations should be avoided.

Acknowledgements
These should be included at the end of the text and not in footnotes. Personal acknowledgements should precede those of institutions or agencies.

Abbreviations
Try to restrict the use of abbreviations to SI symbols and those recommended by the IUPAC. Abbreviations should be defined in brackets after their first mention in the text. Standard units of measurements and chemical symbols of elements may be used without definition in the body of the paper.

References

Authors are responsible for the accuracy of references. Online publications and articles in the press (state the journal which has accepted them) may be included. In the text a reference should be cited by author and date; not more than two authors may be cited per reference; if there are more than two authors cite one author and et al. At the end of the manuscript the citations should be typed in alphabetical order, with the authors' surnames and initials inverted. All authors should be quoted for papers with up to six authors; for papers with more than six authors, the first six only should be quoted followed by et al. References should include, in the following order: authors' names, year, article title, journal, volume number, inclusive page numbers, and name and address of publisher (for books only). The name of the journal should be abbreviated according to the International List of Periodical Title World Abbreviations and underlined to indicate italics. References to web-only journals should give authors, article title and journal name as above, followed by url in full - or doi if known - and the year of publication in parentheses. References should therefore be listed (and will subsequently appear in type) as follows):

Shaw RJ, Cantley LC. (2006). Ras, PI(3)K and mTOR signalling controls tumour cell growth. Nature 441: 424-430.

Baba T, Ara T, Hasegawa M, Takai Y, Okumura Y, Baba M et al. (2006). Construction of Escherichia coli K-12 in-frame, single-gene knockout mutants: the Keio collection. Molecular Systems Biology. 10.1038/msb4100050.

Jumppanen M, Gruvberger-Saal S, Kauraniemi P, Tanner M, Bendahl PO, Lundin M et al. (2007). Basal-like phenotype is not associated with patient survival in estrogen receptor negative breast cancers. Breast Cancer Research. http://breast-cancer-research.com/content/9/1/R16.

Beyaert R (ed). (2003) Nuclear Factor-kappaB: Regulation and Role in Diseases. Kluwer Academic Publishers: The Netherlands.

De Bosscher K, Vanden Berghe W, Haegeman G. (2003) Beyaert R (ed). Nuclear Factor-kappaB: Regulation and Role in Diseases. Kluwer Academic Publishers: The Netherlands, pp 221–239.

Oshima H, Matsunaga A, Fujimura T, Taketo MM, Oshima M. (2006). Carcinogenesis in mouse stomach by simultaneous activation of the Wnt signaling and prostaglandin E2 pathway. Gastroenterology. in press.

Personal communications should be avoided. Manuscripts in preparation or submitted, but not yet accepted, may be cited in the text and should NOT be included in the list of references.

Figures

Figures and images should be labeled sequentially, numbered and cited in the text. Figure legends should be printed, double spaced, on a separate sheet titled ‘Titles and legends to figures’. Figures should be referred to specifically in the text of the paper but should not be embedded within the text. The use of three-dimensional histograms is strongly discouraged when the addition of the third dimension gives no extra information. If a table or figure has been published before, the authors must obtain written permission to reproduce the material in both print and electronic formats from the copyright owner and submit it with the manuscript. This follows for quotes, illustrations and other materials taken from previously published works not in the public domain. The original source should be cited in the figure caption or table footnote. Colour figures can be reproduced if necessary, but the authors will be expected to contribute towards the cost of publication. A quote will be supplied upon acceptance of your paper.

Detailed guidelines for submitting artwork can be found by downloading the guidelines PDF. Using the guidelines, please submit production quality artwork with your initial online submission. If you have followed the guidelines, we will not require the artwork to be resubmitted following the peer-review process, if your paper is accepted for publication.

Colour on the web

Authors who wish their articles to have FREE colour figures on the web (only available in the HTML (full text) version of manuscripts) must supply separate files in the following format. These files should be submitted as supplementary information and authors are asked to mention they would like colour figures on the web in their submission letter.

For Single Images:

Width	500 pixels (authors should select "constrain proportions", or equivalent instructions, to allow the application to set the correct height automatically.)
Resolution	125 dpi (dots per inch)
Format	JPEG for photographs GIF for line drawings or charts
Filenaming	Please save image with .jpg or .gif extension to ensure it can be read by all platforms and graphics packages.

For Multi-part Images :

Width	900 pixels (authors should select "constrain proportions", or equivalent instructions, to allow the application to set the correct height automatically.)
Resolution	125 dpi (dots per inch)
Format	JPEG for photographs GIF for line drawings or charts
Filenaming	Please save image with .jpg or .gif extension to ensure it can be read by all platforms and graphics packages.

Authors may be asked to pay the full colour fee for figures that are not submitted in the format described above.

These should be labeled sequentially as Table 1, Table 2, etc. Each table should be typed on a separate page, numbered and titled, and cited in the text. Reference to table footnotes should be made by means of Arabic numerals. Tables should not duplicate the content of the text. They should consist of at least two columns; columns should always have headings. Authors should ensure that the data in the tables are consistent with those cited in the relevant places in the text, totals add up correctly, and percentages have been calculated correctly. Unlike figures or images, tables may be embedded into the word processing software if necessary, or supplied as separate electronic files.

House Style

As the electronic submission will provide the basic material for typesetting, it is important that papers are prepared in the general editorial style of the journal.

1. See the artwork guidelines for information on labeling of figures
2. Do not make rules thinner than 1pt (0.36mm)
3. Use a coarse hatching pattern rather than shading for tints in graphs
4. Color should be distinct when being used as an identifying tool
5. Use Si units throughout
6. Spaces, not commas should be used to separate thousands
7. Abbreviations should be proceded by the words for which they stand in the first instance of use
8. Text should be double spacing with a wide margin
9. At first mention of a manufacturer the town, (state if USA) and country should be provided

File Formats:

File formats for manuscript files, figures and tables that are acceptable for our electronic manuscript submission process are given on the online forms. Further advice on file types is also available from the Tips webpage. Please follow our artwork guidelines for submitting figures, and use a common word-processing package (such as Microsoft Word) for the text. Either embed tables converted into images at the end of your Word document, or as a separate files in which ever program you used to generate them. If you submit raw data, this can be done in Excel, or tab/comma delimited format.

Saving files with Microsoft Office 2007

Microsoft Office 2007 saves files in an XML format by default (file extensions .docx, .pptx and xlsx). Files saved in this format cannot be accepted for publication.

Save Word documents using the file extension .doc

• Select the Office Button in the upper left corner of the Word 2007 Window and choose "Save As"
• Select "Word 97-2003 Document"
• Enter a file name and select "Save"

These instructions also apply for the new versions of Excel and PowerPoint.

Equations in Word must be created using Equation Editor 3.0

Equations created using the new equation editor in Word 2007 and saved as a "Word 97-2003 Document" (.doc) are converted to graphics and can no longer be edited. To insert or change an equation with the previous equation editor:

• Select "Object" on the "Text" section of the "Insert" tab
• In the drop-down menu - select "Equation Editor 3.0"

Do not use the "Equation" button in the "Symbols" section of the "Insert" tab.

Supplementary information

Supplementary information is peer-reviewed material directly relevant to the conclusion of an article that cannot be included in the printed version owing to space or format constraints. It is posted on the journal's web site and linked to the article when the article is published and may consist of data files, graphics, movies or extensive tables.

The printed article must be complete and self-explanatory without the supplementary information. Supplementary information enhances a reader’s understanding of the paper but is not essential to that understanding.

Supplementary information must be supplied to the editorial office in its final form for peer review. On acceptance the final version of the peer reviewed supplementary information should be submitted with the accepted paper. Supplementary information is not subedited, so authors should ensure that it is supplied ready for publication online.

To ensure that the contents of the supplementary information files can be viewed by the editor(s), referees and readers, please also submit a ‘read-me’ file containing brief instructions on how to use the file.

Supplying supplementary information files

Authors should ensure that supplementary information is supplied in its FINAL format because it is not subedited and will appear online exactly as originally submitted. It cannot be altered, nor new supplementary information added, after the paper has been accepted for publication.

Please supply the supplementary information via eJP, the electronic manuscript submission and tracking system, in an acceptable file format (see below).
Authors should:

Adobe Acrobat

We recommend that for accessing the PDF files, best results are achieved if you have access to Adobe Acrobat Reader (4.0 or above). Should you require installation of this FREE program, please download from the link here and follow the on-screen instructions. (We recommend that on completion of installation, you amend one of the default settings. Select: File - Preferences - General, and UNCHECK Web Browser Integration. This will open PDF files in Acrobat Reader itself rather than in your browser. The amendment will not affect any functionality of either Acrobat Reader or your browser software.)
Please refrain from submitting your manuscript by e-mail attachment. If the site replicates your details on screen, then your paper has been successfully submitted.

Once you have submitted your files and the conversion is in progress, you may log off the Internet and come back later to check and approve the conversion. This process can take up to 5 - 10 minutes before the PDF, created in the conversion process, is ready for approval. Please remember that your manuscript will not be submitted until you have approved the converted files.

Getting Help

If you need additional help, you can click on the help signs spread throughout the system. A help dialogue will pop up with context sensitive help. Should further assistance be required, then please contact Denise Minnis, editorial@oncogene.org.uk.
or oncogene@assetpublishing.net.

Manuscript Status

After you approve your manuscript it is submitted and you will receive an acknowledgement email. You can check the status of your manuscript at any time in the review process by:

1. Accessing the system with your password or link sent to you in the acknowledgement email
2. Clicking on the link represented by your manuscript tracking number and abbreviated title.
3. Clicking on the "Check Status" link at the bottom of the displayed page.

Licence to Publish

The corresponding author must complete and sign the Licence to Publish form upon acceptance of the manuscript and return it to the editorial office. Failure to do so will result in delays to the publication of your paper. A copy of the Licence to Publish form can be found at http://mts-onc.nature.com/letters/onc_copyright.pdf

Nature Publishing Group does not require authors of original research papers to assign copyright of their published contributions. Authors grant NPG an exclusive licence to publish, in return for which they can re-use their papers in their future printed work. NPG's author licence page provides details of the policy and a sample form. Authors are encouraged to submit their version of the accepted, peer-reviewed manuscript to their funding body's archive, for public release six months after publication. In addition, authors are encouraged to archive their version of the manuscript in their institution's repositories (as well as on their personal web sites), also six months after the original publication. Authors should cite the publication reference and doi number on any deposited version, and provide a link from it to the published article on the NPG website. This policy complements the policies of the US National Institutes of Health, the Wellcome Trust and other research funding bodies around the world. NPG recognizes the efforts of funding bodies to increase access of the research they fund, and strongly encourages authors to participate in such efforts.

Advance Online Publication

All original articles are published ahead of print on Advance Online Publication. This will be the final version of the manuscript and will subsequently appear, unchanged, in print.

Proofs

An e-mail will be sent to the corresponding author with a URL link from where proofs can be collected. Proofs must be returned by fax within 48 hours of receipt. Failure to do so may result in a delay to publication. Extensive corrections cannot be made at this stage.

Offprints

Offprints may be ordered using the order form available for download with the proofs. Later orders submitted after the journal is printed are subject to increased reprint prices.

Page Charges

Manuscripts accepted for publication in Oncogene will incur a page charge of £55 (US$99) per printed page for pages 1 to 6. Each additional page over 6 printed pages will incur a page charge of £110 (US$198) per printed page.

Colour charges

The colour charges for Oncogene are as follows:

Business Matters

To find out who to contact for business correspondence and enquiries such as advertising, subscriptions, permissions, papers in production or publishing a supplement, please visit our publisher’s contacts page.

Alternatively, you can write to: Oncogene, Nature Publishing Group, 75 Varick Street, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10013-1917, USA.

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