CSSN: ISSN 1000-467X CODEN: AIZHENG4 CN: 44-1195/R

CJC is published 12 times a year.

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Please note: CJC is published in English and Chinese. Manuscripts are published online prior to printing. The citation will change as volume, issue and page numbers are finalized.

Guidelines for Authors

Download PDF of the Journal House Style Manual

Editorial Policy

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Peer Review

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Open Access Policy

Landes Bioscience recognizes that some authors prefer that their research be freely available to all potential readers upon publication, and that certain funding agencies (NIH, Wellcome Trust, Howard Hughes Medical Institute) request open access of agency-funded research within one year of publication.

To address these requests, we provide the following options for our authors and readers:

  1. One year after publication. ALL papers will become open access to ALL users throughout the world after having been published online for one year. If the paper is funded by a NIH or Wellcome Trust grant, authors may deposit a PDF of the final manuscript with the NIH for download at PubMed Central once the paper has been made freely availble at the journal's website.
  2. Immediately upon publication. Papers can be open access immediately upon publication. Authors may purchase open access of their paper at the proof stage and the paper will be made freely available at our website. Again, if the paper is funded by a NIH or Wellcome Trust grant, authors may deposit a PDF of the final manuscript with the NIH for download at PubMed Central. The fee for open access is $750. If the author's institution subscribes to the journal the fee is discounted to $500.

Manuscript Submission

Pre-Submission Inquiries

Pre-submission inquiries are encouraged. These may include either an abstract or a full length manuscript as an email attachment (Microsoft Word). Pre-submission inquiries should be emailed to the Editors, Yi-Xin Zeng or Mikhail Blagosklonny.

General Submission

CJC utilizes an online submission and tracking system which is designed to provide a better, more efficient service to authors.
  • • Authors can submit manuscripts online from anywhere in the world.
  • • Authors can track their manuscript through the peer review process.
  • • Author files are automatically converted into a PDF (Portable Document Format) file and submissions are acknowledged by email.
  • • Editors and reviewers access the PDF files on the website.

Click here to submit a manuscript to CJC: http://cjc.msubmit.net/

Copyright

All submissions must be accompanied by a completed copyright transfer form.
Fax: CJC, 512.355.4189, or Email: cjc@landesbioscience.com

Manuscript Preparation

Click here for more information.

Text should be prepared in MS Word, double-spaced, with page numbers throughout. Papers should be written as concisely as possible in clear, grammatical English and organized in the following manner:

  1. Title page, including titles, author's names, degrees and affilitations
  2. Keywords: 5-10 for indexing purposes
  3. Abbreviations and Acronyms: List those used throughout the text
  4. Abstract: 150-250 words, depending on paper type
  5. Running title: Maximum of 50 characters in length
  6. Text (length depends upon type of paper, see below)
  7. References: Click here to view our reference format.
  8. Tables (with descriptive titles and legends)
  9. Figure legends

Types of Papers

Research Papers

Research Papers should include the following sections:

  1. Key words: Include 5-10 for indexing purposes.
  2. Manuscript Text: Maximum 5000 words
    1. Abstract: A single paragraph of fewer than 250 words, containing subsections entitled "BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE", "METHODS", "RESULTS" and "CONCLUSIONS". The primary goal of the abstract should be to make the general significance and conceptual advance of the work clearly accessible to a broad readership. References should not be cited in the abstract.
    2. Introduction
    3. Patients and Methods/Materials and Methods: Describe selection of patients or experimental animals, including controls. Do not use patient names or hospital numbers. Identify methods, apparatus (manufacturer's name and address), and procedures in sufficient detail to allow other workers to reproduce the results. Provide references and brief descriptions of methods that have been published. When using new methods, evaluate their advantages and limitations. Identify drugs and chemicals, including generic name, dosage, and route(s) of administration. Indicate whether the procedures were approved by the Ethics Committee of Human Experimentation in your country, or are in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975.
    4. Results: Present results in logical sequence in tables and illustrations. In the text, explain, emphasize or summarize the most important observations. Units of measurement should be expressed in accordance with Systeme International d'Unites (SI Units).
    5. Discussion: Do not repeat in detail data given in the Results section. Emphasize the new and important aspects of the study. Relate observations to other relevant studies. On the basis of your findings (and others'), discuss possible implications/conclusions. When stating a new hypothesis, clearly label it as such.
  3. References: Maximum 85.
  4. Tables: Tables should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals and include descriptive titles and legends.
  5. Figure legends

Short Communications

Short Communications are aimed at publishing short, but important, breakthrough data not embedded within a complex story. The paper should be structured as a research paper (see above) but without the headings and subheadings.

Short communications should include the following sections:

  1. Abstract: Maximum 120 words, including
  2. Manuscript text: Maximum 4500 words
  3. References: Maximum 50

Reviews

Reviews should be recognized as scholarly by specialists in the field being covered, but should also be written with a view to informing readers who are not specialized in that particular field, and should therefore be presented using simple prose. Please avoid excessive jargon and technical detail. Reviews should capture the broad developments and implications of recent work. The opening paragraph should make clear the general thrust of the review and provide a clear sense of why the review is now particularly appropriate. The concluding paragraph should provide the reader with an idea of how the field may develop or future problems to be overcome, but should not summarize the article.

To ensure that a review is likely to be accessible to as many readers as possible, it may be useful to ask a colleague from another discipline to read the review before submitting it. Submitted reviews are subject to the same page charges as full-length reports—whether and how page charges will apply for commissioned reviews will be made clear when each review is commissioned.

Reviews should include the following sections:

  1. Abstract: Maximum 150 words
  2. Keywords: Include 5-10 for indexing
  3. Manuscript text: Maximum 5000 words
  4. References: Maximum 100

Perspectives & Points of View

Perspectives may be short and focused opinion articles, commentaries on papers recently published in the journal or elsewhere, or commentaries on significant conceptual changes, important trends or new directions in the field. This section also includes Points of View.

Points of View articles should follow the same general guidelines as reviews, however there is considerable flexibility in the length and content. These articles are intended to address controversial issues, express new ideas, or expand on work already published. They may contain new data, and like other submissions, are subject to peer review.

Like review articles, they should be accessible to a wide readership. Points of View articles are generally commissioned from authors of the most important recent papers to offer additional insights. Unsolicited Point of View articles are also welcome; they may discuss the authors' own work or recent significant work in their field. These should be structured like reviews. Responses to Point of View articles are encouraged and will also be published as Point of View articles. Responses may be considerably shorter and structured as letters.

Perspectives should include the following sections:

  1. Abstract: 150 words
  2. Keywords: Include 5-10 for indexing purposes
  3. Manuscript text: 1500–2500 words
  4. References: Maximum 30
  5. Figures: (optional)

Meeting Reports

Meeting Reports are summaries of presentations from recent meetings in the field. Authors are encouraged to contact the Editor with proposals for meeting reports. Also, please contact the meeting organizers to verify that reports will be permitted.

Meeting Reports should include the following sections:

  1. Abstract: 150-200 words
  2. Keywords: Include 5-10 for indexing purposes

Extra Views

For Extra Views (auto-commentary), the Editorial Board will solicit authors of the most significant recent and forthcoming papers, published elsewhere, to provide a short summary with additional insights, new interpretations or speculation on the relevant topic. These manuscripts may include data or models which due to space limitations were not included or discussed in the original paper. In other words, the authors may provide biased and uncensored points of views, complementing their article. As with other papers published in print, Extra Views will appear online and in print simultaneously, or very soon after publication of the original paper.

They should include the following sections:

  1. Abstract: 150 words
  2. Keywords: 5-10 for indexing purposes
  3. Manuscript text: 500–1000 words
  4. Figure/Table legends (when applicable)
  5. References: Maximum 30

There will be no page charges for Extra-Views and you are encouraged to include figures; however, please note the journal policy regarding color charges below.

Spotlights

The Editors invite members of the scientific community to consider topics of interest to our readers and to organize small series of focused reviews in particular areas. This will involve proposing a topic of interest, contacting potential authors for two - four or more reviews and providing the titles of the reviews, the names of the authors, and when they would be ready. Please also note in writing reviews that we are most interested in content and that there is flexibility in word count, number of references or number of figures. Please contact the Editor-in-Chief if you are interested in organizing a Focused Review Series.

Text Files and Tables

Please save text and table files as Microsoft Word documents. Save tables in a file separate from text. Figure legends, however, should be at the end of the manuscript as text. Tables will be reformatted during production and therefore should only be minimally formatted in your text file.

Figures (Illustrations)

Click here for guidelines on figure preparation and the required formats.

References

There are no limits on the number of references.

Include in the reference list only those articles that have been published or are in press. Unpublished data or personal communications must be cited within the text.

The list of references should be numbered consecutively according to the first time mentioned within the article. Cite only the number assigned to the reference:

Correct: according to Jones.1

Incorrect: according to Jones1.

Correct: noted by Smith et al.1

Incorrect: Smith et al (1).

When referring the reader to specific references as part of a sentence please state:

Correct: For a review see refs. 20-25.

Incorrect: For a review see 20-25

Journal References

Abbreviate journal names according to the style used in Index Medicus or a comparable source and omit punctuation after journal titles. Spell out foreign or less commonly known journal names.

Author's last name (spaces between names, no commas) Author's initials (Spaces between initials; list only the first three authors, followed by ", et al") . Title of article with only the first word capitalized [J]. Journal's standard abbreviated name, Year, Volume, (Issue):Inclusive pages.

For Example:

  1. Lee W I, Kantarjian H, Glassman A, et al. Quantitative measurement of BCR/abl transcripts using real–time polymerase chain reaction [J]. Ann Oncol, 2002,13(5):781-788.

  2. Little M P, Li G. Stochastic modelling of colon cancer: is there a role for genomic instability[J]? Carcinogenesis, 2007, 28(2):479-487.

  3. Romanov S R, Kozakiewicz B K, Holst C R, et al. Normal human mammary epithelial cells spontaneously escape senescence and acquire genomic changes [J]. Nature, 2001, 409(6820):633-637.

Book References

Author's last name (spaces between names, no commas) Author's initials (Spaces between initials; list only the first three authors, followed by ", et al"). Chapter title. In: Editor's last name (spaces between names, no commas) Editor's initials (Spaces between initials), ed(s). Book Title. Number of edition. City:Publisher, Year:Inclusive pages.

For Example:

  1. Ozoren N, El-Diery W S. Introduction to cancer genes and growth control. In: Ehrlic M, ed. DNA Alterations in Cancer: Genetic and Epigenetic Changes. Natick, MA: Eaton Publishing, 2000:3-43.

Supplementary Files

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Page and Color Charges

For original research papers that occupy more than four pages of the journal, publication of the first four monochrome pages is free but papers are published on the understanding that the author will pay a charge of $80 U.S. dollars for each additional page or part-page used.

Publication of color images is free for the online version of the journal, but carries a page charge of $340 US dollars for the initial page and $150 for each additional page in the print edition. If you prefer that color figures appear online only and in black and white for the print version, please make sure that the figure legends for each version of the figure are provided.

For guidance, a four page article with 3 figures (approx 9cm x 9cm, =3.5" x 3.5") and 100 references would consist of approximately 3200 words of text including figure legends.

Under exceptional circumstances, where there are no funds to cover page charges and articles cannot be reduced in size, authors may appeal directly to the Editor for page charges to be waived. This appeal must be supported by a letter signed by finance official at the author’s institution, confirming that no funds are available to cover page charges.

Page Proofs

Page proofs should be returned within two working days, preferably by Fax: CJC, 512.355.4189, or Email: cjc@landesbioscience.com. Corrections should be marked on the actual proof and provided in a numbered list. Lengthy additions should be avoided, but where necessary should be provided in a MS Word file with explicit instructions regarding placement. Please return the Publication Cost form with your corrected page proofs.

Reprints

A reprint order form will be sent to the author prior to the issue going to press or you may download it here.

Cover Image Submissions

CJC publishes cover illustrations that are taken from articles in each issue, or that are designed to accompany an accepted article.

The cover illustration should be scientifically interesting and visually attractive. The illustration need not be a figure from the paper but should be closely related to the subject of the paper. If you are interested in submitting a figure for use as the cover of CJC please email a high-resolution version of your image, conforming to the specifications below, and an explanatory caption of 50-60 words.

CJC Cover Image Specifications

All potential cover images should be sized to fill the entire cover. 12'' high and 9'' wide should be the minimum size. Larger files are even better. Please remove all text, captions, etc. from the image. If you have variations of the image you may send additional files. Please send no more than 2 alternate versions.

Accepted formats and resolution:

  1. .PSD (Native Photoshop, if graphics are built with layers, do not flatten), 300dpi at 100% size, CMYK
  2. .TIF, 300 dpi at 100% size, CMYK
  3. .JPG (highest quality), 300 dpi at 100% size, CMYK
  4. .EPS (Scalable vector line art or native Illustrator or Freehand files)