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Cell was launched in 1974 as the journal of exciting biology. Now a part of Cell Press, a family of ten journals, Cell maintains editorial independence from its sister journals. Cell’s Ph.D.-trained scientific editors work with authors, reviewers, and editorial board members with the goal of publishing 26 issues of the most interesting discoveries in biology every year, including an annual Review Issue. Every paper published in Cell is freely available starting 12 months after publication.

Sections:

Aims and Scope

Editorial Process

Transfer of Papers between Cell Press Journals

Editorial Policies

Copyright

Prepublication Policies

Presubmission and Status Inquiries

Research Article Formats

Preparation and Online Submission

Organization of Article Sections

Acceptable Figure File Formats for Submission

Submission of Revised Manuscripts

Checklist for Final Submission

Figure Formats for Publication

Production and Proofs

Leading Edge

Submission of Leading Edge Articles

Contacts at Cell

Aims and Scope

Cell publishes findings of unusual significance in any area of experimental biology, including but not limited to cell biology, molecular biology, neuroscience, immunology, virology and microbiology, cancer, human genetics, systems biology, signaling, and disease. The basic criterion for considering papers is whether the results provide significant conceptual advances into, or raise provocative questions and hypotheses regarding, an interesting biological question. In addition to primary research articles in four formats, Cell features review and opinion articles on recent research advances and issues of interest to its broad readership in the Leading Edge section.

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Editorial Evaluation Timeline

All submissions are initially evaluated in depth by the scientific editors. Papers that do not conform to the general criteria for publication will be returned to the authors without detailed review, typically within 3-5 days. Otherwise, manuscripts will be sent to reviewers who have agreed in advance to assess the paper rapidly. The editors will make every effort to reach decisions on these papers within 3 weeks of the submission date. If revisions are a condition of publication, we generally allow two months for revisions and consider only one revised version of the paper. Evaluations of conceptual advance and significance are made based on the literature available on the day of the final decision, not the day of submission. Accepted papers will be published within 3 months of acceptance. Any major changes after acceptance are subject to review and may delay publication.

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Relationship between Cell Press Journals

Transfer of Papers between Cell Press Journals

Each Cell Press journal is editorially independent. Cell Press has developed a manuscript transfer policy designed to provide maximal flexibility, efficiency, and control for the authors. If a paper is reviewed and rejected at one Cell Press journal, the Editor of that journal can, upon the author’s request, make the reviews and reviewer identities available to the Editor of another Cell Press journal. Authors interested in pursuing this option should email the Editor of the second Cell Press journal directly. In many cases the second Editor will be able to reach a decision based on the advice of these reviewers. In some cases he/she may need to seek comments from additional reviewers. The authors are also free to submit the paper to another Cell Press title without mentioning the first review process, in which case the manuscript will be evaluated by the Editor and, as appropriate, reviewed independently without reference to the original reviews.

Cosubmission

In the limited number of instances where a paper is potentially appropriate in scope for the readership of two different Cell Press titles, the Cell Press journals also offer authors a unique opportunity not provided by any other journal group to submit a manuscript for joint consideration at two journals at the same time. Authors interested in pursuing this option should please contact the Editors of both journals for further information.

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Editorial Policies

Manuscripts are considered with the understanding that no part of the work has been published previously in print or electronic format and the paper is not under consideration by another publication or electronic medium. All in-press or submitted works that are pertinent to the manuscript under consideration by the journal (including those cited in the manuscript under consideration) must accompany the submission. Related manuscripts that have been submitted elsewhere during the period of revision must accompany revised manuscripts. Failure to provide copies of related manuscripts under consideration elsewhere may delay the review process and may be grounds for rejection. Under no circumstances will any paper be considered that contains any data that have been submitted for publication elsewhere.

Authorship

The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all appropriate contributors are listed as authors and that all authors have agreed to the manuscript’s content and its submission to Cell. In a case where we become aware of an authorship dispute, authorship must be approved in writing by all of the parties.

# Conflict of Interest

Cell requires all authors to disclose any financial conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. Authors must declare any such conflict in the cover letter accompanying the manuscript and in the Acknowledgments section of the manuscript itself. The corresponding author will be asked to sign a form on behalf of all the authors regarding potential conflicts of interest at the time of acceptance. As a guideline, any affiliation associated with a payment or financial benefit exceeding $10,000 p.a. or 5% ownership of a company or research funding by a company with related interests would constitute a conflict that must be declared. This policy applies to all submitted research manuscripts and review material. Examples of statement language include: AUTHOR is an employee and shareholder of COMPANY; AUTHOR is a founder of COMPANY and a member of its scientific advisory board; This work was supported in part by a grant from COMPANY.

Studies Involving Humans and Animals

For manuscripts reporting studies involving human subjects, statements identifying the committee approving the studies and confirming that informed consent was obtained from all subjects must appear in the Experimental Procedures section. All experiments on live vertebrates or higher invertebrates must be performed in accordance with relevant institutional and national guidelines and regulations. In the manuscript, a statement identifying the committee approving the experiments and confirming that all experiments conform to the relevant regulatory standards must be included in the Experimental Procedures section. The editors reserve the right to seek comments from reviewers or additional information from authors on any cases in which concerns arise.

# Distribution of Materials and Data

One of the terms and conditions of publishing in Cell is that authors be willing to distribute any materials and protocols used in the published experiments to qualified researchers for their own use. Materials include but are not limited to cells DNA, antibodies, reagents, organisms, and mouse strains, or if necessary the relevant ES cells. These must be made available with minimal restrictions and in a timely manner, but it is acceptable to request reasonable payment to cover the cost of maintenance and transport of materials. If there are restrictions to the availability of any materials, data, or information, these must be disclosed in the cover letter and the Experimental Procedures section of the manuscript at the time of submission.

Nucleic acid and protein sequences, macromolecular structures determined by X-ray crystallography (along with structure factors), and microarray data must be deposited in the appropriate public database and must be accessible without restriction from the date of publication. An entry name or accession number must be included as the last paragraph of the Experimental Procedures section in the final version of the manuscript. Microarray data should be MIAME compliant (for guidelines see http://www.mged.org/Workgroups/MIAME/miame.html).

In addition to the information that must be deposited in public databases as detailed above, authors are encouraged to contribute additional information to the appropriate databases. Authors are also encouraged to deposit materials used in their studies to the appropriate repositories for distribution to researchers.

Open Archive

Cell Press papers are freely available starting 12 months after publication.

Copyright

Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to transfer copyright. This transfer will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. A form facilitating transfer of copyright will be provided upon acceptance of the manuscript. After transfer of copyright, authors retain rights as discussed below.

Authors’ rights

As an author you (or your employer or institution) may do the following:

- Make copies (print or electronic) of the article for your own personal use, including for your own classroom teaching use;
- Make copies and distribute such copies (including through e-mail) of the article to known research colleagues, for the personal use by such colleagues (but not for commercial purposes as described below);

- Post a revised personal version of the final text (including illustrations and tables) of the article (to reflect changes made in the peer review and editing process) on your personal or your institutional website or server, with a link (through the relevant DOI) to the article as published, provided that such postings are not for commercial purposes as described below;
- Present the article at a meeting or conference and to distribute copies of the article to the delegates attending such meeting;
- For your employer, if the article is a ‘work for hire,’ made within the scope of your employment, your employer may use all or part of the information in the article for other intra-company use (e.g., training);
- Retain patent and trademark rights and rights to any process or procedure described in the article;
- include the article in full or in part in a thesis or dissertation (provided that this is not to be published commercially);
- Use the article or any part thereof in a printed compilation of your works, such as collected writings or lecture notes (subsequent to publication of the article in the journal); and
- Prepare other derivative works, to extend the article into book-length form, or to otherwise re-use portions or excerpts in other works, with full acknowledgement of its original publication in the journal.

All copies, print or electronic, or other use of the paper or article must include the appropriate bibliographic citation for the article’s publication in the journal. However you should not indicate in the citation that the version that you are reproducing or posting is the final published version as published in the journal. As an example, it may be appropriate to indicate “This paper has been submitted to [Journal] for consideration.”

Commercial purposes include: the posting by companies or their employees for use by customers (e.g., pharmaceutical companies and physician-prescribers); commercial exploitation such as associating advertising with such posting (including the linking to advertising by search engines); the charging of fees for document delivery or access; or the systematic distribution to others via e-mail lists or list servers (to parties other than known colleagues), whether for a fee or for free.

US National Institutes of Health (NIH) Voluntary Posting Policy

Cell Press facilitates author posting in connection with the voluntary posting request of the NIH (referred to as the NIH “Public Access Policy,” see http://publicaccess.nih.gov/) by submitting the peer-reviewed author’s manuscript directly to PubMed Central on request from the author, immediately after final publication. Please e-mail us at NIHauthorrequest@elsevier.com that your work has received NIH funding (with the NIH grant/project number(s), as well as name and e-mail address of the Principal Investigator(s)) and that you intend to respond to the NIH request. Upon such confirmation, Elsevier will submit to PubMed Central on your behalf a version of your manuscript that reflects changes made in the peer review process, for public access posting 12 months after the final publication date. 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 to PubMed Central.

Permissions

If excerpts from other copyrighted works are included in your manuscript, you must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit the sources in the article. To obtain permission to use material from Cell Press and Elsevier journals and books, e-mail permissions@elsevier.com. If you have adapted a figure from a published figure, please check with the copyright owners to see if permission is required and include a complete citation/reference for the original article. Obtaining permissions can take up to several weeks. As lack of appropriate permissions can delay publication, we recommend that you request permission at the time of submission.

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Prepublication Publicity

Work intended for submission to Cell, currently under consideration at Cell, or in press at Cell may not be discussed with the media before publication. Providing preprints, granting interviews, discussing data with members of the media, or participating in press conferences in advance of publication without prior approval from the Cell editorial office may be grounds for rejection. With regards to the scientific literature, papers in press in Cell should not be discussed in reviews elsewhere prior to the date of publication. Authors are welcome to present and discuss material intended for publication in Cell at scientific meetings; however, we do require that they refrain from discussing the findings with members of the press beyond those included in the formal presentation. In addition, we encourage meeting organizers to contact our editorial office in advance of a meeting if they have any questions regarding this policy. Any questions or issues regarding prepublication publicity should be directed to the Press Officer of Cell Press, Heidi Hardman (hhardman@cell.com).

Interaction with Members of the Press for Papers in Press

Authors are free to talk with the press starting on the Friday of the week before publication and to release information provided that its use is embargoed until noon Eastern Time on the day of online publication. We also allow authors to discuss their work in press with other scientific journals for purposes of coverage in review material. Please refer any inquiries from other journals to us. If your press office wishes to issue a press release, they should contact us in advance for final embargo information. Any questions or issues regarding interaction with the press should be directed to the Press Officer of Cell Press, Heidi Hardman (hhardman@cell.com).

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Presubmission and Status Inquiries

Presubmission Inquiries

If you would like editorial input on whether your paper might be a strong candidate for consideration at Cell, you can send a presubmission inquiry. This should include an abstract plus a brief description of the results and an explanation of the interest and significance to the broad readership of Cell and be emailed to celleditor@cell.com. We try to respond to these within 2-5 days.

Status Inquiries

Editorial Manager identifies the status as “with editor” until a decision is made. If you would like more information about the status of your submitted manuscript, please email celleditor@cell.com or call 617-397-2825.

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Research Article Formats

Research, Resource, Theory, and Matters Arising articles are all handled through our online submission system, Editorial Manager, at http://cell.edmgr.com/. A brief description of each article type is provided below. Please refer to Preparation and Online Submission of Research Manuscripts for detailed information about the organization of research articles and their submission.

Research Articles

Research Articles present conceptual advances of unusual significance regarding a biological question of wide interest. Research papers should be as concise as possible and written in a style that is accessible to the broad Cell readership. The total character count of an article must be under 55,000 (including spaces, references, and figure legends), and there should be no more than 7 figures and/or tables. Additional items may be published online as Supplemental Data at the discretion of the editor.

Resource Articles

The Resource format is designed to highlight significant technical advances, and/or major informational databases that are of value and interest to the broad Cell readership. Resource articles are organized like Research articles, have the same limits on length and figure/table number, and should be presented to be accessible to the broad Cell readership.

Theory Articles

The Theory format is intended for papers that employ computational, theoretical, or analytical approaches to derive novel conceptual models with clearly experimentally testable predictions. Like Research and Resource articles, Theory papers must be of broad interest and written in a manner accessible to the general reader. They follow the same format and length guidelines as Research articles.

Matters Arising Articles

The Matters Arising format provides a venue for presenting a significant challenge to a scientific model that was previously published in Cell. They follow the same format and length as Research articles.

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Article Preparation and Online Submission of Research, Resource, Theory, and Matters Arising Articles

Overview

Cell encourages authors to submit manuscripts via our online submission system, Editorial Manager (http://cell.edmgr.com/) . An author tutorial regarding online submission is available at the Editorial Manager website. Authors may contact the editorial office (celleditor@cell.com or 617-397-2825) for assistance. If you are unable to submit your manuscript online, a copy of the manuscript may be sent to Editor, Cell, Cell Press, 600 Technology Square, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. Please include a CD with electronic files of text and figures in the acceptable formats (see below).

Editorial Manager will prompt you to upload the individual components of your manuscript (cover letter, text, figures, supplemental data, etc.) as separate files. Upon completion of this step, the website will build a composite PDF file of your entire manuscript that will contain links for the editors and reviewers to download the individual high-resolution files of each component. Please note that the version of the PDF file that is accessible to reviewers does not contain the cover letter; any information therein will remain confidential.

Please be aware that Editorial Manager will send all communications about the paper (including the request for final approval and the confirmation of submission) to the person who is checked off as corresponding author during the submission process, or if no name is designated, to the person whose account is used to submit the manuscript. If you wish to specify a different author for editorial correspondence after submission please contact the editorial assistant at celleditor@cell.com.

Cover Letter

Each submission should be accompanied by a cover letter, which should contain a brief explanation of what was previously known, the conceptual advance provided by the findings, and the significance of the findings to a broad readership. A cover letter may contain suggestions for appropriate reviewers and up to three requests for reviewer exclusions. The cover letter is confidential to the editor and will not be seen by reviewers.

General Article Organization and Text Specifications

Cell Research articles generally contain the following sections in this order: Title, Authors, Affiliations, Contact Information, Additional title page Footnotes, Summary, Introduction, Results, Discussion, Experimental Procedures, Acknowledgements, References, Figure and Table Legends, Figures and Tables, Supplemental Data. The text (Title through Legends) should be provided as one document, which may also contain the Tables. Figures should be provided separately. Supplemental Data should be provided separately.

The total character count of the main text, including all sections and including spaces but excluding supplemental data, should not exceed 55,000. An article may contain up to 7 figures and/or tables. Gene symbols should be italicized; protein products of the loci are not italicized. Nonstandard abbreviations should be defined when first used in the text. Use of abbreviations should be kept at a minimum. Manuscript file types that we can accept for submission include Word, RTF, and TXT. Required items differ for each article type and are specified during the submission process.

Please note that the text should be double spaced and pages should be numbered. Although summaries need to be entered as text files separate from the body of the manuscript during the online submission process, they should also be included within the manuscript file as usual.

Manuscripts that do not conform to the format guidelines may be returned to the authors for reformatting.

Preparation of Specific Sections

Title
Titles can occupy no more than three lines of type. Each line should contain no more than 38 characters, including spaces. The title should convey the conceptual significance of the paper to a broad readership.

Authors/Affiliations
Author names should be spelled out rather than set in initials. Authors should be footnoted to corresponding affiliations. Affiliations should contain the following core information: department(s)/subunit(s); institution; city, state/region, postal code; country.

Contact

The contact line should include the email address and phone/fax numbers of the corresponding author. The published corresponding author is responsible for ensuring adherence to all editorial and submission policies and for any communications that may result post-publication. One corresponding author is preferred, but two are allowed.

Additional Footnotes
Footnotes are only allowed on page 1 of the text (and in tables). They may include a present address or statement of equal contribution to the manuscript.

Summary
The Summary consists of a single paragraph of fewer than 150 words. It should clearly convey the conceptual advance and significance of the work to a broad readership. In particular, the abstract should contain a brief background of the question, a description of the results without extensive experimental detail, and a summary of the significance of the findings. References should not be cited in the Summary.

Introduction
The Introduction should be succinct, with no subheadings, and should present the background information necessary to provide a biological context for the results.

Results

This section should be divided with subheadings. Footnotes should not be used and will be transferred to the text.

Discussion

The Discussion should explain the significance of the results and place them into a broader context. It should not be redundant with the Results section. This section may contain subheadings and can in some cases be combined with the Results section.

Experimental Procedures
The Experimental Procedures section needs to include sufficient detail so that readers can understand how the experiments were done, and so that all procedures can be repeated, in conjunction with cited references. This section should also include a description of any statistical methods employed in the study. A more detailed version of the procedures and details such as oligo sequences, strains, and specifics of how constructs were made can be included in Supplemental Data, but it is not appropriate to move the majority of the Experimental Procedures to Supplemental Data in order to shorten the text.

Acknowledgments

This section may acknowledge contributions from non-authors, list funding sources, and should include a statement of any conflict of interests. Please check this section carefully, as we are unlikely to make amendments or publish corrections post-publication. This section may be used to list the contributions of individual authors.

References

References should include only articles that are published or in press. Unpublished data, submitted manuscripts, abstracts, and personal communications should be cited within the text only. Personal communication should be documented by a letter of permission. Submitted articles should be cited as unpublished data, data not shown, or personal communication. Note: "et al." should only be used after 10 authors. Please use the following style for references:

Article in a periodical: Sondheimer, N., and Lindquist, S. (2000). Rnq1: an epigenetic modifier of protein function in yeast. Mol. Cell 5, 163-172.

Article in a book: King, S.M. (2003). Dynein motors: Structure, mechanochemistry and regulation. In Molecular Motors, M. Schliwa, ed. (Weinheim, Germany: Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH), pp. 45–78.

An entire book: Cowan, W.M., Jessell, T.M., and Zipursky, S.L. (1997). Molecular and Cellular Approaches to Neural Development (New York: Oxford University Press).

Figure Legends
Legends should be included in the submitted manuscript as a separate section. Each figure legend should have a brief title that describes the entire figure without citing specific panels, followed by a description of each panel. For any figures presenting pooled data, the measures should be defined in the figure legends (for example, data are represented as mean +/- SEM).

Tables

When creating a table, please use the Microsoft Word table function and do not place an Excel table in a Word document. Word tables should not be tab or space delineated and should not use color. Tables should include a title, and footnotes and/or legend should be concise. Include tables in the submitted manuscript as a separate section. Tables not created using the Microsoft Word table function will need to be revised by the author.

Supplemental Data
Supplemental data are restricted to items that are directly pertinent to the conclusions of the paper. Editors reserve the right to limit the scope and length of Supplemental Data. Supplemental Data should be provided with the original submission. Please follow the digital figure guidelines below for preparing figures. In general, supplemental files (movies, databases, tables, etc.) must each be less than 10 MB. All figures and tables should have titles and legends. In general, every attempt should be made to submit the Supplemental Data in a composite Word file.

Supplemental Movies and Excel Spreadsheets

Supplemental movies may be submitted through Editorial Manager as .mov, .avi, .mpeg, or .gif files. By choosing the submission item labeled "Supplemental Movies and Spreadsheets," the PDF builder will imbed links within the PDF where editors and reviewers will be able to download the files. This also works for Excel files that do not display properly once converted to a PDF. Please note that the size limit for these items is 10 MB per file.

If you have supplemental movies or spreadsheets over 10 MB in size, we ask that you send the files on four CDs to our offices at 600 Technology Square, fifth floor, Cambridge, MA 02139.

Figure Organization, Formats, and Style

Figures must conform to the following guidelines or authors will be asked to revise them. For figures that have multiple panels, the labels should be set in uppercase Helvetica or Arial letters and should not contain periods or parentheses. Please be sure to embed all fonts. Each figure must be assembled into one file that prints onto one 8 1/2 × 11 page. Please do not include separate panels on multiple pages. Micrographs should be provided with a scale bar, if appropriate, instead of magnification.

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Acceptable Image Formats for Online Submission:

- TIFF (.tif)

- Encapsulated Postscript (.eps)

- Portable Document File (.pdf)

- JPEG (.jpg) – use maximum quality

Please note that we cannot accept PowerPoint, Adobe Photoshop, or Adobe Illustrator files for online submission through Editorial Manager.

These files must be converted to one of the above file types. Converting PowerPoint files frequently results in unexpected changes to the figures (e.g., missing or shifted text; shifted image elements). We recommend that you not create figures in PowerPoint. If you do try to convert from PowerPoint to one of these file types, be very careful to compare the final version to your original.

We also cannot accept image files in Canvas, Freehand, or Microsoft Word.

TIFF Files (.tif)

TIFF is our preferred format.

Encapsulated Postscript Files (.eps)

As with all vector files (Adobe Illustrator, etc.), when saving as .eps, please be sure to embed all fonts or convert to outlines or paths.

Postscript Files (.ps)

There are many different drawing programs, not all of them supported by the software we use. From almost all of these programs, you should be able to produce a postscript file. When printing, select to print to a (postscript) file, rather than printing by default to a printer. The image must be in portrait orientation. Please be sure to embed all fonts when you save as postscript.

Resolution Requirements

For black and white photographs or micrographs and for any type of graph or drawing in grayscale, the resolution of your file should be a minimum of 500 dpi. For figures that contain color, the resolution should be a minimum of 300 dpi. Please note that figures should meet these resolution numbers at their approximate print sizes.

Color Images

We encourage authors to use colors that can be distinguished by color-blind readers. Please submit your figures in RGB or grayscale -- do not convert your files to CMYK. This will optimize their appearance online. However, please be aware that we will convert to CMYK for the print version. If possible, embed the ICC profile.

Line Weights

Please make sure that all graph lines, error bars, and outlines are at least ½ point in weight. Lines that are less than ½ point may disappear or be broken during printing.

If you have any questions about digital files, please contact Meredith Adinolfi, Senior Managing editor of Cell, at madinolfi@cell.com.

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Submission of Revised Manuscripts

In addition to the sections described above, revised manuscripts must also contain a detailed point by point response to the comments of the reviewers and/or editors. The cover letter should briefly summarize how the revised manuscript addresses these comments. In general, revised manuscripts will be reconsidered only if resubmitted within two months of the date of the original decision.

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Checklist for Final Submission

In order for a paper to be accepted and scheduled for publication, the author will be asked to send the following items. Please refer to the letter from your editor for further details and to the additional guidelines below for final figures.

1. Please make sure your final manuscript:

- Meets our length restrictions of 55,000 characters, including spaces, and 7 figures and/or tables

- Includes database accession numbers for new gene sequences, protein sequences, structures, or microarray data

- Includes explanation of statistical methods in the Experimental Procedures

- For any figures presenting pooled data, defines the measures in the figure legends

- Includes experimental procedures of sufficient detail

2. Please submit the final version of text and figures through our online system.

3. Please send to us:

In hard copy:

- One printed copy of the text

- Two high-quality glossy hard copies of each figure (including supplemental)

- A signed copy of the conflict of interest statement

On a single CD:

- A modifiable electronic version of the final text

- High-resolution digital files of the figures in an accepted format

- Supplemental dataset as a single Word document with embedded figures and tables

- Additional supplemental data such as movies and spreadsheets

- A short paragraph of 100 words describing the context and significance of the findings, to be adapted for email alerts and In this Issue pages

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Figure Formats Acceptable for Final Submission:

- TIFF (.tif)

- Encapsulated Postscript (.eps)

- Postscript (.ps)

- Portable Document File (.pdf)

- JPEG (.jpg) – use maximum quality

- PhotoShop (all versions) (.psd)

- Adobe Illustrator (all versions) (.ai)

Please note that we cannot accept PowerPoint files. (See note under Figure Organization, Formats, and Style above).

File Naming

Please name files by first author and number of figure, e.g., Smith1.tif, Smith2.tif, etc.

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Production and Proofs

After final acceptance, the manuscript will be passed to the production team to be copyedited and prepared for printing. Authors will be charged $1000 for the first color figure and $250 for each additional color figure. Figures may be resized during the production process.

PDF proofs will arrive via email about 2 weeks prior to publication and need to be returned with vital corrections no more than 24 hours after receipt. If you will be unreachable at all during this period or anticipate any problems meeting this timeline, please contact Meredith Adinolfi, Senior Managing Editor (madinolfi@cell.com).

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Leading Edge

Cell’s Leading Edge presents scholarly, thought-provoking opinion and review style articles that provide a balanced overview and fresh outlook on exciting research advances and scientific policy issues of interest to Cell’s broad readership. Leading Edge contains both traditional formats—Previews, Minireviews, and Reviews—and several new formats including Commentaries, Essays, and Correspondence. Leading Edge articles should be written in an engaging, accessible style bearing in mind the broad readership of Cell. The majority of Leading Edge articles are commissioned, but we do accept presubmission inquiries about proposed timely contributions.

Leading Edge Formats

Commentaries

Commentary articles are opinion pieces that discuss issues—such as science policy, research funding, bioethics—that affect research in the biological sciences. Commentaries are 2000 to 3000 words in length (with a 2-sentence abstract), 10 or fewer references, and one or two figures where appropriate.

Essays

Essays are concise opinion pieces that provide fresh insights into published scientific data. They may contain more speculation than traditional formats. Essays may also take a historical perspective, discussing a landmark paper from long ago and highlighting what we can learn from the scientific accomplishments of the past. Essays are 2000 to 3000 words in length (with a 2-sentence abstract), 15 or fewer references, and one or two figures.

Correspondence

The Correspondence format provides our readers with the opportunity to respond to an article in Cell—either a research article or Leading Edge article—that has been published within the last 2 months. Correspondence should be no more than 900 words in length with up to 5 references and should be of interest to the broad readership, providing new information or a fresh perspective on the published article. If selected for publication, the Correspondence will be sent to the authors of the published article for a response.

Meeting Reports

Cell occasionally publishes reports that present the important themes of a recent conference that has relevance for Cell readers. Meeting reports are 2000 to 4000 words (with a 30-word abstract), 20 or fewer references, and one or two figures if appropriate and must be submitted within one month of the conference.

Previews

Previews highlight one or several research papers published in the same issue of Cell or in a recent issue of another journal, placing the results in context for Cell’s broad readership. Previews are usually 1200 to 1500 words in length (with a 2-sentence abstract), no more than 10 references, and one figure. Most Previews are commissioned, but timely unsolicited contributions will be considered.

Minireviews

Minireviews discuss a sharply focused scientific topic of interest, usually highlighting emerging themes from papers in the recent literature. Minireviews must fit within 4 pages of the journal and therefore can be no more than 3500 words in length (including figure legends, a 40-word abstract, and no more than 20 references) and may include one or two figures.

Reviews

Leading Edge publishes full-length reviews on topics of interest to Cell’s broad readership. Reviews are usually 5000 to 8000 words in length (including an abstract that is no more than 100 words), up to 75 references, and 3 to 5 figures.

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Submission of Leading Edge Articles

Leading Edge articles should be submitted as word files by email to the Leading Edge editor who commissioned the article.

Figures

We welcome the use of figures to illustrate and enhance the text of Leading Edge articles. Figures should be submitted by email to the commissioning editor as graphics files. They should be either Photoshop or Illustrator files (in tiff, psd, eps, ai, pdf, or JPEG formats) at 300 dpi resolution (for a figure 3 to 5 inches in width). Our professional in-house illustrator will work with authors to ensure the highest quality and clarity of published figures.

Presubmission Inquiries

Presubmission inquiries should contain an outline of the proposed article and an explanation of the interest and significance to the broad readership of Cell. Presubmission inquiries should be submitted to celleditor@cell.com or to the Leading Edge Editor osmith@cell.com.

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Contacts at Cell

Presubmission inquiries: celleditor@cell.com

Assistance with online submission: 617-397-2825 or celleditor@cell.com

Leading Edge questions: celleditor@cell.com or osmith@cell.com

Status inquiries about submitted papers and Leading Edge articles: celleditor@cell.com

Proofs: Meredith Adinolfi, Senior Managing Editor, madinolfi@cell.com

Prepublication publicity and press issues: Erin Doonan, Press Officer, edoonan@cell.com

Permissions: permissions@elsevier.com

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