FRONTIERS IN BIOSCIENCE 

GUIDELINES TO AUTHORS

Cited by index medicus, MEDLINE, Current Contents, Swets-Blakwell, BIOSIS and chemical abstracts 

GENERAL INFORMATION 


Publishing data in scientific journals is 
the accepted means for dissemination of 
information in science. Publications are 
important to investigators since they reflect 
the extent of their scholarly activities, are 
needed for their promotion and are required 
for obtaining grants. They are also the sole 
accepted method for dissemination of 
information important to other investigators 
the public. Therefore, "Frontiers in 
Bioscience" considers all publications as 
important communications. Attempts will be 
made to post the manuscript on-line after it 
has been accepted for publication. Scientists 
who read a given manuscript can express 
their opinion, criticism and suggestion for the 
improvement of material published in FBS. 
These comments will be posted in the "Letter 
to editor" section of the journal. Authors can 
respond and if necessary can revise a 
manuscript that has already been accepted 
for publication. 

TYPES OF COMMUNICATIONS 

Manuscripts describing recent and 
important advances in the fields of biology 
or medicine will be considered for 
publication in the Frontiers in Bioscience. 
Manuscripts will be published in one of the 
following platforms.

 
Research articles in basic and clinical sciences 
Technical notes and protocols 
Reviews in basic and clinical sciences 
Multimedia medicine on line (Videos, sounds and 
images, VRML) 
Databases 
Proceedings of National and International 
Conferences 
Lectures 
The research articles, reviews and 
technical notes contain the title, abstract, 
introduction, materials and methods, result, 
discussion, acknowledgment, references, 
legends to figures, tables and figures. If 
necessary, the result and discussion sections 
may be combined. However, the data submitted 
for publication in multimedia medicine 


on line or technical protocols may merely 
contain the title (including the name of the 
authors), a very brief introduction, method, and 
discussion section, legends (for figures, videos 
or sounds) and only pertinent references. In the 
method section of the technical protocols, 
sequential steps involved with each step should 
be represented by a number. In the method 
section, the method as how the video, sound, 
image or VRML was obtained should be 
included. For reagents the information about the 
manufacturer should be provided. The intention 
of technical protocols and video, sound and 
image gallery is to provide the basic information 
that allows the reader to interpret the presented 
data. Therefore, it is important to be succinct 
and if warranted, to eliminate the introduction, 
discussion and references. 

ETHICAL STANDARDS 

Publication of a scientific article 
represents the means through which the 
contribution of the scientists is recognized. 
Along with this recognition, the authors of a 
scientific article bear the responsibility to 
make certain that their contribution is 
original, reproducible, and clearly and 
honestly represented. It is not always 
possible to detect erroneous nature of a set 
of data by the peer review process. 
Therefore, it is vital that all authors carefully 
review the accuracy of the data that they 
present. The authors of a manuscript are 
obligated to: 


Refrain from plagiarism (total or partial submission 
of the work of others) 
Refrain from fabricating (falsifying) data 
Refrain from dishonesty (altering or suppressing 
information) 
Refrain from submitting information previously 
published or under consideration for publication in 
another journal 


Describe the work accurately. 
Provide the details necessary for the duplication of 
the data by other investigators. 
Include all the data even if they do not support a 
given hypothesis. 


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Frontiers in Bioscience, Guidelines to Authors 

Cite all the relevant contribution of other 
investigators and references that allow interpretation 
of the results. 

 Include the source of all the materials that are 
used. 

 Make available all products that they generate such 
as protein, DNA, clone, cell or other types of material 
that they describe to other investigators. This should 
be done with the spirit that the data that are published 
can be duplicated and that other ideas can be tested. 

 Abide by the rules set in the Declaration Of 
Helsinki And Recommendation For Conduct Of 
Clinical Research. 

 Use laboratory animals for the research according 
to the Rules And Regulations Of NIH And Their 
Institution. 

Use of recombinant DNA for the research 
according to the Rules and Regulations Of NIH and 
the Institution. 

REPRODUCIBILITY OF RESULTS AND 
STATISTICAL ANALYSIS 

Submission of data for publication is 
an indication that the authors are confident 
that the data are reproducible. Appropriate 
statistical analysis should be used to 
determine that the findings are significant. 
The term "significant" should be used only if 
such determination has been made. The 
probability of the significance should be 
stated. When reporting a new assay, the 
following data should be listed. 


Within-assay variability 
Between-assay variability 
Slope of the dose-response curve 
Mid-range of assay 
Sensitivity. Least detectable concentration 
Specificity 
Parallelism of the standard and the unknown on 
recovery 
Comparison with another method for the detection 
of the compound 

AUTHORSHIP 

All individuals that are listed as 
authors should have participated in the 
following aspects of the work and should be 
able to take public responsibility for the 
reported data. 

Participation in the conception and planning of the 
work. 
Participation in the analysis of the data. 

 
Participation in preparation and reporting of the 
data. 
The order of authorship should be 
based on the joint decision of the authors. 
Participation solely in providing funds for the 
work, supervision of the staff involved in 
acquisition of data, collection of samples, 
collection of data, or providing materials 
should not be a basis for authorship. These 
types of contributions should be listed in the 
acknowledgment section of the manuscript. 

PREPARATION OF THE MANUSCRIPT 

The manuscript should be prepared 
in Flawless American English and in 
accordance with the "Uniform Requirements 
for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical 
Journals". The requirements are described 
in detail in : 


Annals of Internal Medicine 108, 258-265, 1988 
British Medical Journal 296, 401-405, 1988 
Correctness of the manuscript in 
regard to clarity, conciseness, grammar, 
spelling and typing errors is the responsibility 
of the authors. Contributors whose native 
language is not English are encouraged to 
obtain the help of their colleagues or 
professional editors proficient in Scientific 
English who can correct such errors. 

An original manuscript should be 
organized as follows: 

 
Title page 
Table of contents 
Abstract 
Introduction 
Materials and Methods 
Results 
Discussion 
Acknowledgments 
References 
Key words 
Corresponding author's address, Tel, Fax & E-mail 
Running title 
Figure legends 
Tables 
Figures to be submitted as files named fig1.jpg, fig2.jpg 
etc 
In technical notes and protocols, the 
results and discussion may be combined 
into one section. In a manuscript in the 
multimedia medicine on line, if necessary, 

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Frontiers in Bioscience, Guidelines to Authors 

various sections may be shortened or 
deleted. 

The review articles in basic and 
clinical science should be organized as 
follows: 


Title page 
Table of contents 
Abstract 
Introduction 
Remaining sections of the manuscript with 
subsections 
Perspective 
Acknowledgments 
References 
Key words 
Corresponding author's address, Tel, Fax & E-mail 
Running title 
Figure legends 
Tables 
Figures to be submitted as files named fig1.jpg, fig2.jpg etc 
TITLE PAGE 

This page should include: Title, Full 
names of authors (do not abbreviate 
names), affiliations, and table of contents. 
Title should be concise. 

Reviews should be organized as 
sections and subsections. Please do not 
provide materials and methods section. 
Number various sections of the reviews in 
the following style: 

1. Section 1 
2. Section 2 
2.1. Subsection 2.1 
2.1.1. Subsection of subsection 2.1.1 
Page numbers should not be included 
in the table of contents. The table of contents 
should be italicized. Throughout the text, the 
title should be bold and capped with a double 
space after the title. The subtitles should be 
with small letter and bold. Only a single hard 
return should be inserted after subtitles (see 
example below). 

1. TITLE 
Text 

1.1. Subtitle 
Text 

Titles and subtitles are not ended with 
a period. The titles and subtitles are left 
justified. 

ABSTRACT 

Abstract should be concise and 
should not exceed 200 words. Abstract 
should state the background that led to the 
present series of experiments, the study 
design, the methods used, the data 
obtained and the conclusions drawn based 
on the findings. If a review, the abstract 
should be a succinct summary of the paper. 

INTRODUCTION 

Introduction should make the reader 
familiar with the area of investigation, 
should cite the relevant and pertinent work 
of others and the concepts that led to the 
present series of studies. 

MATERIALS AND METHODS 

The source of the materials used 
with the appropriate references should be 
listed. The methods should be thorough so 
that other investigators can duplicate the 
work. When the standard deviations or 
statistical analysis are not reported, it is 
assumed that the investigators have been 
able to sufficiently reproduce the data 
presented in the results section. 

RESULTS 

Results should be presented with 
clarity and conciseness. Data should be 
expressed in Systeme International (SI) 
units throughout the text. Metric units should 
be added in parentheses. A complete listing 
of the SI units and guides to preparation of 
SI units may be found in the: 

Powsner ER: SI quantities and units for American 
Medicine. JAMA 252, 1737-1741, 1984 

Council for scientific affairs. SI units for clinical 
laboratory data. JAMA 253, 2552-2554, 1985 

 Powsner ER: The SI for American Medicine. AJDC 
140, 97-98, 1986 

 SI units for reporting of laboratory data. Arch Pathol 
Lab Med 109, 1054, 1985 

 Young DS: SI units for clinical laboratory. JAMA 
240, 1618-1621, 1978 

 The SI units are here. JAMA 255, 2329-2339, 1986 


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Frontiers in Bioscience, Guidelines to Authors 

Temperature should be expressed in 
degrees Celsius and the time of day by 
using 24 hour clock (e.g. 0200 h, 2300 h). 

DISCUSSION 

In this section, the data that were 
generated should be analyzed in the light of 
the available published reports. Attempts 
should be made not to reiterate the results 
in the discussion section. 

ACKNOWLEDGMENT 

Acknowledge the following: source 
of support; the personnel who contributed to 
the technical aspects of the project and to 
the preparation of the manuscript; those 
who contributed reagents for use in the 
project or reviewed or typed the manuscript. 

REFERENCES 

References should be listed as they 
appear below. Sequentially number the 
references throughout the text. Please 
conform the references to the following 
format (italicize the name of the journal): 

V. M. Bolotina, S. Najibi, J. J. Palacino, P. J. 
Pagano and R. A. Cohen: Nitric oxide directly 
activates calcium-dependent potassium 
channels in vascular smooth muscle. Nature 
368, 850-853 (1994) 
Books should be cited as follows: 

J. Corrigan, Religion and Emotion - Approaches 
and Interpretations. New York: Oxford University 
Press, 2004. Oxford Scholarship Online. Oxford 
University Press, New York (2005) 
REFERENCES: LINKING BY DOI 

CrossRef (http://www.crossref.org) is the 
official DOI (digital object identifier) 
registration agency for scholarly and 
professional publications which allows 
connection of references for ease of 
retrieval. CrossRef operates a cross-
publisher citation linking system that allows 
a researcher to click on a reference citation 
on one publisher’s platform and link directly 

to the cited content on another publisher’s 
platform. At the present time, CrossRef 
citation-linking network covers millions of 
articles and other content items from 
several hundred scholarly and professional 
publishers. To enhance the retrieval of each 
article, the HTML document will be linked to 
the respective DOI as follows: 

Clow GD, McKay CP, Simmons Jr. GM, and Wharton 
RA, Jr. 1988. Climatological observations and 
predicted sublimation rates at Lake Hoare, Antarctica. 
Journal of Climate 1:715-728.10.1175/15200442(
1988)001<0715:COAPSR>2.0.CO;2 

Please note that the inclusive paging 
is required for the references. Do not use et 
al in the list of the authors. List all the 
authors. Do not underline the name of the 
journal and do not use period after the 
name of the journal. Avoid using 
manuscripts published in the non-peer 
reviewed journals, reports published in 
proceedings or abstracts. Substitute these 
with peer reviewed manuscripts. Do not cite 
non-published data as a reference. Refer to 
these data as "unpublished data" in the text. 

INCLUSION OF FBS REFERENCE STYLE 
INTO THE ENDNOTE PROGRAM 

To include the FBS style of 
references into the EndNote program, 
please do the following: 

1. Open the Endnote program 
2. Click the Style Folder within 
Endnote 
3. Copy or drag the template style file 
(fbs.ens) into the Style Folder. This file is found 
at http://www.bioscience.org/guides/endnote/endnote.htm 
With this done, the format of 
Frontiers of Bioscience will become a part of 
the style format selection choices in the 
EndNote Program. 

TABLES 

Throughout the text, refer to each 
table by sequential "English" number such 
as (Table 1). Place the citation in red font 

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Frontiers in Bioscience, Guidelines to Authors 

within parenthesis. Place each table on a 
separate page at the end of the manuscript. 
Present data in a real table with columns, 
rows and cells. Separation of text by setting 
up "Tab" does not create a real table. 
Tables set in such a manner will not be 
converted properly to HTML for on line 
presentation. In a real table, each variable 
resides in a cell. Consult the "Help" section 
of your word processor for finding out how 
to create a table. For each table, provide a 
title. Keep the number of columns to a 
minimum. The table should fit into an 8x11 
inch page set up in the "portrait" mode. 
Tables should be included at the end of the 
document as indicated above and should be 
sequentially numbered using English 
numbers such as Table 1, Table 2, etc. 
References in table should be referred to by 
their numbers. Footnotes or other notes 
should be referred to by numbers and not 
text. 

FIGURE LEGENDS 

Throughout the text refer to each 
figure by sequential "English" numbers such 
as (Figure 1). Place the citation in red font 
within parenthesis. Place each figure on a 
separate page at the end of the manuscript. In 
the figure legend section, provide a title for 
each figure followed by the legend. Type the 
figure legends in sequence listed in the text. 

RUNNING TITLE AND KEY WORDS 

In the last page of the manuscript, 
provide a running title, no more than 40 
characters. Key words should define the 
discipline, tissue, cell, gene, gene signaling, 
molecule and technique. For 
correspondence, please include the name, 
address, telephone number, fax number 
and E-mail address of the corresponding 
author. 

FIGURES 

Each figure can be up to a full page 
(8x11 inches). However, figures that are 1/4 
to 1/6 of a page are preferable. All figures 
should be submitted electronically as .jpg or 

.gif files. Figures that can not be sent to the 
editorial office electronically, can be 
submitted on floppy disk. The files should 
have a professional quality suitable for 
publication. 

VIDEOS AND SOUNDS 

Provide a title for each video or 
sound. If sending by mail, type the legends 
to the videos or sounds in sequence listed 
in the text on a sheet of paper. Videos and 
sounds should be brief. We encourage the 
authors to submit their figures electronically 
as .mpg files. Remember that the longer the 
video or the sound, the longer it will be the 
download time. So, use the shortest video 
or sound segments that demonstrate the 
data. 

GENERAL FORMATTING INSTRUCTIONS 

All manuscripts should be formatted 
according to the instruction provided at: 
http://www.bioscience.org/guides/format.htm 

GENE NOMENCLATURE 

The HUGO Gene Nomenclature 
Committee is responsible for approving and 
implementing unique human gene symbols 
and names, and works closely with the 
Mouse Genome Database and other 
organism databases. Considerable efforts 
are made to approve symbols acceptable to 
workers in the field, but sometimes it is not 
possible to use exactly what has previously 
appeared in the literature. In such cases the 
previously used symbols are listed as 
aliases for the approved nomenclature in 
the Human Gene Nomenclature Database 
(Genew) [http://www.gene.ucl.ac.uk/cgibin/
nomenclature/searchgenes.pl] and 
LocusLink, to allow retrieval of all the 
information available for each gene. 

Approved human gene symbols 
should be obtained prior to submission from 
Dr Sue Povey, HUGO gene Nomenclature 
Committee (HGNC), University College 

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Frontiers in Bioscience, Guidelines to Authors 

London, Wolfson House, 4 Stephenson 
Way, London, NW1 2HE; Tel: 44-20-76797410; 
Fax: 44-20-7387-3496, E-mail: 
nome@galton.ucl.ac.uk; 
[http://www.geneucl.ac.uk/nomenclature/]. 

Approved mouse nomenclature 
should be obtained prior to submission from 
Lois Maltais, The Jackson Laboratory, Bar 
Harbor, Maine 04609-0800; Tel: 01-207288-
6429; Fax: 01-207-288-6132, E-mail: 
nomen@informatics.jax.org; 

[http://wwww.informatics.jax.org/mgihome/nomen/]. 

MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION 

Manuscripts that are ready for 
submission should be scientifically sound, and 
without errors in English or spelling errors. They 
also should follow the FBS style of formatting. 
Detailed instruction for formatting 
documents is available at 
http://www.bioscience.org/forms.htm. Document 
should be pasted into the necessary word 
template available at 
http://www.bioscience.org/forms.htm. 

Properly formatted manuscripts should 
be submitted as E-mail attachment or by 
electronic submission at 
http://www.bioscience.org/submit/submit.asp. 
Figures should be sent as separate files 
named according to the following format: 
fig1.jpg, fig2.jpg, etc. Tables should be 
inserted at the end of the manuscript and 
not sent as separate files. If invited, the 
name of managing editor should be 
provided when submitting an invited article. 

When a manuscript is submitted, the 
corresponding author will get a response 
within a few days regarding the suitability of 
the manuscript for publication in the 
"Frontiers in Bioscience". 

REVIEW PROCESS 

Once the manuscript has been 
received, it will be designated an accession 

number. Please refer to the accession 
number in all correspondence to the 
editorial office . The manuscript will be peer 
reviewed by experts. The manuscript will be 
published if the manuscript gets a high 
priority. Every attempt will be made to keep 
the duration of the review to a minimum. 

RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE REVIEWERS 

Peer review is the means through 
which manuscripts are accepted for 
publication in scientific journals. Therefore, 
the reviewers have the following 
responsibilities: 


The peer review should be performed by experts. 
The reviewer should not review a manuscript if he 
or she is biased for any reason or that there is a 
conflict of interest. 
The reviewer should review the manuscript 
promptly. If the reviewer feels that more than three 
weeks is required for the review, the manuscript 
should be immediately returned. 
The content of manuscript should not be disclosed 
to others. 
The purpose of the review is to 
provide information that is useful to the 
authors. The review process may reveal 
errors or potential problems associated 
with the performance of the experiments, 
and presentation or interpretation of data. 
Therefore, the main value of the review 
process is to offer strategies to correct or 
improve the data or the content of the 
manuscript. Reviewer should point out as 
how to improve the presentation or 
interpretation of the data. All comments 
should be constructive and should not 
contain language that causes the authors 
to become frustrated, depressed or angry. 
Work that is submitted to be published is 
the outcome of hard work and labor and 
should not, by any means, be ridiculed. 
The reviewers can report their decisions 
within the on-line reviewer E-mail box or 
via E-mail. Otherwise it is recommended 
that the evaluation form be sent via fax to 
the editorial office and the original copy 
along with all the figure sets be sent back 
to the to the editorial office. Money and 
labor are invested in generation of glossy 

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Frontiers in Bioscience, Guidelines to Authors 

figures, therefore, such materials should 
be immediately returned to the editorial 
office after the reviewing. 

PROOFS AND REPRINTS 

Once the manuscript has been 
accepted, the galley of the manuscript will 
be submitted electronically as an E-mail 
attachment to the corresponding author. 
The galley should be corrected and returned 
to the editorial office within 48 hours. 

MANUSCRIPT PROCESSING FEE 

Certain fees apply for the preparation 
of various formats and layouts such as those 
prepared for creation of reprints, for creation 
of the Portable Document Format (PDF), and 
for HTML coding of the document. For 
additional information, please contact the 
editorial office. 

The authors may present a video 
summary of their findings as a lecture and 
express their views of the future directions 
of their research. 

PUBLICATION DATES AND CITATIONS 

Manuscripts are published prior to the 
date of their citation in indexing services 
generally before Jan 1, May 1 and Sept 1 of 
each year. The Express Open Access 
(http://www.bioscience.org/current/inpress.htm) 
will make it possible for each manuscript to 
be published and be available as open 
access, 7 days after acceptance. Once 
cited by MEDLINE, each manuscript is 
identified by the specific number assigned 
by PubMed (PubMed number) or UID (such 
as 9159189). CrossRef assigns digital 
object identifier (DOI) to enhance retrieval of 
each document. A manuscript with the 
following citation: 

[Frontiers in Bioscience 10, 1-11, January 1, 2006] 

appears on January 1, 2006 into the 
databases of indexing services. 


CITATION OF FRONTIERS IN BIOSCIENCE 
BY INDEXING SERVICES 

"Frontiers in Bioscience" is being cited by: 

 
National Library of Medicine (Index Medicus and Medline) 

Current Contents and Current Web Contents 

BIOSIS 

Chemical Abstracts Service 

 CrossRef 

MAILING ADDRESS OF FBS 

Frontiers in Bioscience 

PO Box 160 

 Searingtown, NY 11507-0160 

EDITORIAL OFFICE 

S Tabibzadeh, MD 
Frontiers in Bioscience 
PO Box 160 
Searingtown, NY 11507-0160 


Tel: 516-484-2831 
E-mail: fbs@bioscience.org 
URL: http://www.bioscience.org/editoff.htm 


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