Preparation of Manuscripts
Authors are strongly encouraged to submit manuscripts online. This will allow even quicker and more efficient processing of your manuscript.
Please use the link "Submit Online" on the journal's homepage to upload your manuscripts following the instructions given on the screen.
Please note: if you have submitted an article online before, please hit the "check for existing account" button on the Manuscript Central homepage. You will then receive an automatic e-mail with your user id and password. Otherwise please create a new account and then follow the instructions given on the screen.
Manuscripts should be typewritten or prepared on a word processor, with all material double-spaced, on one side of letter-sized paper, with suitably wide margins. All pages should be numbered consecutively, beginning with page 1, the title page. Tables and figures should be numbered serially, and legends to illustrations should be prepared on separate sheets. Tables and figures will be placed near their first mention in the text; all tables and figures must be referred to in the manuscript.
Title Page: The following elements must be included:
Title of the article;
Name(s) and initial(s) of the author(s), preferably with first names spelled out;
Affiliation(s) of author(s);
Footnotes to the contribution title;
Name, address, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address of the corresponding author.
Abstract: Each article is to be preceded by a succinct abstract, of up to 250 words, that highlights the objectives, methods, results, and conclusions of the paper.
Key Words: To identify the subjects under which the article may be indexed, 4-6 keywords should be provided.
References: In the text, references to the literature should be by author and year; where there are two authors, both should be named; with three or more only the first author's name plus "et al." need be given. The list at the end of the paper should include only works mentioned in the text and should be arranged alphabetically by name of the first author. References should be cited as follows: (APA Style)
Journal papers -- name(s) and initial(s) of the author(s), year in brackets, full title, name of the journal as abbreviated in Chemical Abstracts, volume number, first and last page numbers:
Quiring R, Walldorf U, Koter U, Gehring WJ (1994) Homology of the eyeless gene of Drosophila to the small eye gene in mice and aniridia in humans. Science 265:785
Books -- name(s) of the author(s), year in brackets, full title, edition, publishers, place of publication, page number:
Maizels N, Weiner AM (1993) The genomic tag hypothesis: modern viruses as fossils of ancient strategies for genomic replication. In: Gesteland RF, Atkins JF (eds) The RNA world. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, New York, pp. 577 -- 602
Li W - (1997) Molecular evolution. Sinauer Assosiates, Sunderland, MA
Responsibility for the accuracy of bibliographic references rests entirely with the author, who is requested to use as few "in press" citations as possible. In press, citations must include the name of the journal that has accepted the paper.
Footnotes: Those in the text should be numbered consecutively. Footnotes to the title or authors of the article are marked by asterisks and placed on the title page.
Sequences: Sequences that are used merely as data points in statistical calculations or graphs should, if possible, be referred to by their accession numbers only. Authors should be quoted by name when their sequences are discussed individually or presented in alignments.
Illustrations: These should be suitable for reproduction, and should clarify or shorten the text. Information provided in figure legends should not be repeated in the text. Figures and graphs should always be mentioned in the text and numbered with Arabic numerals. Preferred file formats include .tif and .jpg; please see Manuscript Central for more details.
Color Figures: Color can be used without charge for the electronic edition of the journal but will appear in the printed version of the journal freely.
Computer Software: Any software referred to among methods used must be obtainable either commercially or upon request from the authors. In submitting a manuscript to the Journal, authors accept the obligation to furnish upon request any information necessary for reproducing the methodologies on which their results are based. The methods used for preparing and analyzing alignments must be stated precisely.
Mathematical Equations: These should be clearly prepared and annotated if necessary. Primes and dots must be called to the attention of the typesetter. Differentiate legibly between number 1, capital letter I, and lower-case letter l. Use fractional exponents instead of root signs and the solidus (/) for fractions wherever their use will save vertical space. Use exp () notation when the exponent is sizable. All equations must be numbered sequentially, on the right-hand side of the column, in parenthetic Arabic numerals.
Organisms: Must be identified by their scientific binomen.
Homology: The term should not be used in the sense of structural similarity but only in its biological sense of derivation of structures from a common ancestral structure.
Abbreviations, Symbols, Units, etc.: Acronyms and symbols must be defined at first mention, in titles, abstracts, as well as within the text. For nomenclature, abbreviations, symbols, and units, authors should follow internationally accepted rules, including those adopted by the Commission on Biochemical Nomenclature.
Guidelines for Electronically Produced Illustrations for Print
Upload illustrations separately from the text (i.e. files should not be integrated with the text files).
