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    General Information for Authors

/Science/ is a weekly, peer-reviewed journal that publishes significant
original scientific research, plus reviews and analyses of current
research and science policy. Our main offices are in Washington, D.C.,
and Cambridge, U.K. We welcome submissions from all fields of science
and from any source. Competition for space in /Science/ is keen, and
many papers are returned without in-depth review. Priority is given to
papers that reveal novel concepts of broad interest. We are committed to
the prompt evaluation and publication of submitted papers. [Download PDF
copy <0107InfoContrib.pdf> of Information for Contributors from 5
January 2007 print issue.]

    * Categories of signed papers <#categories>
    * /Science/ Express <#express>
    * Manuscript selection <#manuscript>
    * Submission Requirements <#submission>
          o Authorship <#authorship>
          o Prior Publication <#prior>
          o Human research studies <#human>
          o Animal Care <#animal>
          o Related Papers <#related>
          o Unpublished data and personal communications <#unpublished>
    * Conditions of acceptance <#conditions>
          o Funding and conflict of interest <#funding>
          o Database deposition policy <#datadep>
          o License <#license>
          o Data availability <#dataavail>
          o Access policies <#access>
          o Materials sharing <#materials>
          o Embargo policy <#embargo>
    * /Science/ contact information <#contact>


      Categories of Signed Papers

/[Note: Unless otherwise stated, word-count limits cited in the
following paragraphs include text, references, notes, and table and
figure captions.]/

*Reviews* (4 journal pages, on average) describe new developments of
interdisciplinary significance and highlight unresolved questions and
future directions. All Reviews undergo peer review. They include an
abstract, an introduction that outlines the main point, and brief
subheadings. A maximum of 40 references is suggested. Most Reviews are
solicited by the editors, but unsolicited submissions may also be considered

*Brevia* are brief contributions of 600 to 800 words of text (including
authors' names, affiliations, and references) accompanied by one
illustration (a maximum of four panels) or table and not more than six
references. Titles should be no more than eight words in length. Authors
should also submit an abstract of 100 words or less, which will appear
online only. Supporting online material <prep_online.dtl> is allowed (no
more than one illustration or table or 500 words of text). Brevia
present research results on subject matter attractive to, and
understandable by, scientists from a wide range of fields.
Interdisciplinary work, or experiments or analyses that produce a result
of general interest, are especially appropriate for this section.
Authors should avoid highly technical presentations and jargon specific
to particular disciplines. Manuscripts are peer-reviewed in the usual
manner.

*Research Articles* (up to ~4500 words, Including references, notes and
captions, or ~5 journal pages) are expected to present a major advance.
Research Articles include an abstract, an introduction, up to six
figures or tables, sections with brief subheadings, and a maximum of 40
references. Materials and Methods should usually be included in
supporting online material <prep_online.dtl>, which should also include
information needed to support the paper's conclusions.

*Reports* (up to ~2500 words or ~3 journal pages) present important new
research results of broad significance. Reports should include an
abstract, an introductory paragraph, up to four figures or tables, and a
maximum of 30 references. Materials and Methods should usually be
included in supporting online material <prep_online.dtl>, which should
also include information needed to support the paper's conclusions.

*Technical Comments* (up to 1000 words, excluding references and
captions; up to 15 references), which are published only on /Science/'s
Web site, /Science/ Online, discuss papers published in /Science/ within
the previous 6 months. Technical Comments should have no more than two
figures or tables; authors should submit a brief abstract (less than 50
words) to accompany their comment. The authors of the original paper are
given an opportunity to reply. Comments and responses are peer reviewed
and edited as needed. As noted, the full text of comments and responses
is published online only; abstracts of the discussions appear in the
Letters section of the print journal.

The following /Science/ sections offer broadly accessible commentary by
scientists and other experts on issues of interest to /Science/ readers.
With the exception of Letters and the Education Forum, most items in
these sections are commissioned by the editors, but unsolicited
contributions will be considered on occasion.

    * *Letters* (up to 300 words) discuss material published in
      /Science/ in the last 3 months or issues of general interest.
      Letters should be submitted using our Web submission form
      (www.submit2science.org <http://www.submit2science.org>), although
      we can also accept letters by postal mail. Letters are not
      acknowledged on receipt, nor are letter authors generally
      consulted before publication. Whether published in full or in
      part, letters are subject to editing for clarity and space.
      E-letters are online-only, 400-word contributions for promoting
      rapid, timely discussion.
    * *Policy Forum* (1000 to 2000 words plus 1-2 figures or
      illustrations) presents issues related to the intersections
      between science and society that have policy implications.
    * *Education Forum* (approximately 2000 words) presents original
      research and, occasionally, essays on science education and its
      practice. Unsolicited submissions are welcome.
    * *Books /et al./* (up to 1000 words) presents reviews of current
      books, multimedia, exhibitions, and films of interest to /Science/
      readers.
    * *Perspectives* (up to 1000 words plus 1 figure) highlight recent
      exciting research, but do not primarily discuss the author's own
      work. They may provide context for the findings within a field or
      explain potential interdisciplinary significance. Perspectives
      commenting on papers in /Science/ should add a dimension to the
      research and not merely be a summary of the experiments done in
      the paper. Although many of the Perspectives that comment on
      research published in /Science/ are solicited, we welcome
      inquiries regarding new advances and fresh insights. As these are
      meant to express a personal viewpoint, with rare exceptions,
      Perspectives should have no more than two authors

Back to Top <#ContentTop>


      /Science/ Express

Each week, /Science/ selects several papers for rapid online publication
in advance of the scheduled print publication date. These papers are
published essentially as supplied by the authors, with minimal
copyediting by /Science/; a fully copyedited version appears later In
print. The official publication date of these papers Is the date that
they are posted online; the print version of a paper originally
published on Science Express indicates the date the paper was published
online and gives access and citation information. Papers published
online are available free to AAAS members
<http://www.aaas.org/membership/>, and others on a pay per view basis or
through institutional site license subscriptions to Science Express.

Back to Top <#ContentTop>


      Manuscript Selection

/Science/ is committed to prompt evaluation and publication of submitted
papers. Our submission and review process is now fully electronic.
Papers are assigned to a staff editor who has knowledge of the field
discussed in the manuscript. Most submitted papers are rated for
suitability by members of /Science/'s Board of Reviewing Editors
<http://www.sciencemag.org/about/editorial_board.dtl>. The editors at
/Science/ consider this advice in selecting papers for in-depth review;
priority is given to papers that reveal novel concepts of broad
interest. Authors of papers that are not highly rated are notified
promptly, within about 1 to 2 weeks. Authors are notified of decisions
by e-mail only. (Membership in AAAS is not a factor in selection of
manuscripts for publication.) Repeated submissions of the same
manuscript will not be acknowledged. /Science/ treats all submitted
manuscripts as confidential documents. /Science/ also instructs and
expects our Board of Reviewing Editors and reviewers to treat
manuscripts as confidential material. Our peer review process is also
confidential and identities of reviewers are not released. (Letters and
Technical Comments are sent to the authors of papers on which they
comment for response or rebuttal, but otherwise are treated in the same
way as other contributions with respect to confidentiality.)

Papers are reviewed in depth by at least two outside referees. Reviewers
are contacted before being sent a paper and asked to return comments
within 1 to 2 weeks for most papers. We are able to expedite the review
process significantly for papers that require rapid assessment. Selected
papers are edited to improve accuracy and clarity and to shorten, if
necessary. Papers cannot be resubmitted over a disagreement on interest
or relative merit. If a paper was rejected on the basis of serious
reviewer error, resubmission may be considered.

Press coverage and presentation at scientific conferences can affect
consideration of papers at /Science/. Reporting the main findings of a
paper in the mass media may compromise the novelty of the work and thus
its appropriateness for /Science/. Authors are free to present their
data at scientific meetings but should not overtly seek media attention
or give copies of the figures or data from their manuscript to any
reporter, unless the reporter agrees to abide by /Science/'s press
embargo. If a reporter attends an author's session at a meeting and
writes a story based only on the presentation, such coverage will not
affect /Science/'s consideration of the author's paper. (For more
information, please see the embargo entry
<http://www.sciencemag.org/about/authors/faq/embargo_faq> in the
/Science/ Contributors FAQ <http://www.sciencemag.org/about/authors/faq/>.)

Some papers may need additional editorial oversight or present potential
security concerns. Such papers will be brought to the attention of the
Editor-in-Chief for further evaluation. If necessary, outside reviewers
with expertise in the area will be consulted.

Most papers are published 4 to 8 weeks after acceptance; selected papers
are published online within 2 weeks of acceptance on /Science/ Express
<#express> (www.sciencexpress.org <http://www.sciencexpress.org>).

Back to Top <#ContentTop>


      Submission Requirements

*Authorship* All authors must agree to be so listed and must have seen
and approved the manuscript, its content, and its submission to
/Science/. Any changes in authorship must be approved in writing by all
the original authors. /Science/ will send an email to all authors to
confirm receipt of each paper. Submission of a paper that has not been
approved by all authors may result in immediate rejection without appeal.

*Prior publication* /Science/ will not consider any paper or component
of a paper that has been published or is under consideration for
publication elsewhere. Distribution on the Internet may be considered
prior publication and may compromise the originality of the paper as a
submission to /Science/. Please contact the editors with questions
regarding allowable postings. Also see section on press coverage above
under manuscript selection.

*Human research studies* Informed consent must be obtained for studies
on humans after the nature and possible consequences of the studies were
explained. All research on humans must have IRB approval.

*Animal care* Care of experimental animals must be in accordance with
the authors' institutional guidelines.

* Related papers* Copies of papers submitted to other journals by any of
the authors that relate to the paper submitted to Science must be
included with the submission.

*Unpublished data and personal communications* Citations to unpublished
data and personal communications cannot be used to support claims in the
paper.


      Conditions of Acceptance

When a paper is accepted for publication in Science, the following
conditions apply:

*Funding and conflict of interest* Authors must agree to disclose all
affiliations, funding sources, and financial or management relationships
that could be perceived as potential sources of bias, as defined by
Science's conflict of interest policy <coi.dtl>.

*Database deposition policy* /Science/ supports the efforts of databases
that aggregate published data for the use of the scientific community.
Therefore, before publication, large data sets (including microarray
data, protein or DNA sequences, and atomic coordinates or electron
microscopy maps for macromolecular structures) must be deposited in an
approved database and an accession number provided for inclusion in the
published paper.

    * /Molecular structure data./ Atomic coordinates and structure
      factor files from x-ray structural studies or an ensemble of
      atomic coordinates from NMR structural studies must be deposited
      and released at the time of publication. Three-dimensional maps
      derived by electron microscopy and coordinate data derived from
      these maps must also be deposited. Approved databases are the
      Worldwide Protein Data Bank <http://www.wwpdb.org/> [through the
      Research Collaboratory for Structural Bioinformatics
      <http://www.rcsb.org/pdb/>, Macromolecular Structure Database
      <http://www.ebi.ac.uk/msd/> (MSD EMBL-EBI), or Protein Data Bank
      Japan <http://www.pdbj.org/>], BioMag Res Bank
      <http://www.bmrb.wisc.edu/>, and Electron Microscopy Data Bank
      <http://www.ebi.ac.uk/msd-srv/emdep/index.html> (MSD-EBI), and for
      synthetic molecules, the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre
      <http://www.ccdc.cam.ac.uk>.
    * /DNA and protein sequences./ Approved databases are GenBank
      <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Genbank/index.html> or other members
      of the International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration
      <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/projects/collab/> (EMBL
      <http://www.ebi.ac.uk/> or DDBJ <http://www.ddbj.nig.ac.jp/>) and
      SWISS-PROT <http://www.expasy.org/sprot/>.
    * /Microarray data./ Data should be presented in MIAME
      <http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/298/5593/539b>-compliant
      standard format. Approved databases are Gene Expression Omnibus
      <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/> and ArrayExpress
      <http://www.ebi.ac.uk/microarray/ArrayExpress/arrayexpress.html>.
    * Large data sets with no appropriate approved repository must be
      housed as supporting online material <prep_online.dtl> at Science,
      or when this is not possible <prep_online_special.dtl>, on the
      author's web site, provided a copy of the data is held in escrow
      at /Science/ to ensure availability to readers. For answers to
      questions regarding allowable supporting online material, please
      see our guidelines <prep_online.dtl>; further questions can be
      directed to Stewart Wills <mailto:swills@aaas.org>, Online Editor.

* License* Authors retain copyright but agree to grant to /Science/ an
exclusive license <
http://www.sciencemag.org/about/authors/prep/license.dtl> to publish the
paper in print and online.

*Data availability* After publication, all data necessary to understand,
assess, and extend the conclusions of the manuscript must be available
to any reader of /Science/. We recognize that discipline-specific
conventions or special circumstances may occasionally apply, and we will
consider these in negotiating compliance with requests. Any concerns
about your ability to meet /Science/'s requirements must be disclosed
and discussed with an editor. For further information about
accessibility of data and materials, see the following resources.

    * Cech, T. R. (2003), /Sharing Publication-Related Data and
      Materials: Responsibilities of Authorship in the Life Sciences
      <http://www.nap.edu/books/0309088593/html>/.
    * American Psychological Association, /Responsible Conduct of
      Research: Data Sharing and Data Archiving
      <http://www.apa.org/science/data/homepage.html>/.
    * National Science Foundation Policy on Data Sharing
      <http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2001/gc101/gc101rev1.pdf> [PDF].

*Access policies* After publication, authors may post the accepted
version of the paper on the author's personal Web site and are provided
one referrer link that can be posted on a personal or institutional Web
page, through which users can freely access the published paper on
/Science/'s Web site. For research papers created under grants for which
the authors are required by their funding agencies to make their
research results publicly available, /Science/ allows posting of the
accepted version of the paper to the funding body's archive or
designated repository (such as PubMed Central) six months after
publication, provided that a link to the final version published in
/Science/ is included. (Details on this can be found in the license
agreement <license.dtl> for authors.) Original research papers are
freely accessible with registration on /Science/'s Web site 12 months
after publication.

*Materials sharing* After publication, all reasonable requests for
materials must be fulfilled. A charge for time and materials involved in
the transfer may be made. /Science/ must be informed of any restrictions
on sharing of materials [Materials Transfer Agreements or patents, for
example] applying to materials used in the reported research. Any such
restrictions should be indicated in the cover letter at the time of
submission, and each individual author will be asked to reaffirm this on
the Conditions of Acceptance forms that he or she executes at the time
the final version of the manuscript is submitted. The nature of the
restrictions should be noted in the paper. Unreasonable restrictions may
preclude publication.

*Embargo policy* The paper will remain a privileged document and will
not be released to the press or the public before publication. Questions
should be referred to the AAAS Office of Public Programs (202-326-6440).
(For more information, please see the embargo entry <
http://www.sciencemag.org/about/authors/faq/embargo_faq> in the
/Science/ Contributors FAQ
<http://www.sciencemag.org/about/authors/faq/>.) /Science/ also provides
a free electronic reprint service.

Back to Top <#ContentTop>


      /Science/ Contact Information

*Editorial Inquiries:*

*Washington DC, USA office:*

    * *Phone* 202-326-6550
    * Fax 202-289-7562

*Europe office, Cambridge, UK: *

    * *Phone* + 44 (0) 1223 326500
    * * Fax* + 44 (0) 1223 326501

*E-Mail:*

    * science_editors@aaas.org <mailto:science_editors@aaas.org>
      (general editorial queries)
    * science_letters@aaas.org <mailto:science_letters@aaas.org>
      (queries about letters to the editor)
    * science_bookrevs@aaas.org <mailto:science_bookrevs@aaas.org>
      (general book review queries)

*Contact information for individual editors* can be found on the
/Science/ Magazine Meet the Editors
<http://www.sciencemag.org/about/meet_editors.dtl>page.

*Manuscript Submission:*

Manuscripts and Letters to the Editor for Science should be submitted
online at submit2science.org <www.submit2science.org>. We do not accept
submissions by email or postal mail. Before submitting, all prospective
contributors should carefully read the detailed article guidelines,
formatting instructions, and uploading directions found on the /Science/
Author Help Site <http://www.sciencemag.org/about/authors/>.

Back to Top <#ContentTop>
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