Scope of Submitted Manuscripts
Papers published in Molecular Interventions are generally invited by the Editor after consideration of recommendations from the Editorial Advisory Board. Others who have an interest in writing for Molecular Interventions are encouraged to send proposals to the Editor. The proposal should include a detailed outline of the proposed article and a brief curriculum vitae. Articles in Molecular Interventions deal mainly with the current status of the subject under review. They are to be written clearly and concisely and should be intelligible to nonspecialists, with definitions of unfamiliar technical terms and explanations of difficult or controversial points included. At the same time, the review is to be sufficiently precise and detailed to command the attention and respect of experts in the field. Selective rather than exhaustive coverage of the literature is requested. Previous reviews of the subject and of related fields should be cited. Authors are asked to be critical of methods, results, and conclusions and to challenge accepted concepts where warranted. Conflicting points of view are to be presented objectively in good perspective. Deficiencies in the field may be pointed out and avenues for further work may be indicated. The usual length ranges between 8 and 12 printed pages, corresponding to about 24 to 36 manuscript pages. Diagrams, tables, and illustrations should be included to bring out new concepts and important relationships. The Art Director will work with the author to further develop graphics for the article.
Submission of Manuscripts
Submit three (3) collated hard copies of each manuscript (including illustrations) as well as an electronic version to
Dr. Harry B. Smith, Editor
Molecular Interventions
ASPET
9650 Rockville Pike
Bethesda, MD 20814-3995
Diskettes produced on PC or Mac platforms are acceptable. Microsoft Word is preferred. Authors preparing diskettes on Macintosh computers should not use the Fast Save option. Other formats and files in ASCII can be used, but are not encouraged. Identify the diskette by providing the journal name, first author's name, manuscript title, name of computer file, type of hardware, operating system and version number, and software program and version number. Authors are encouraged to supply a digital copy of their illustrations. Image files should be submitted by e-mail or on zip disks (formatted for Mac or PC) or CDs; TIFF and EPS formats are strongly preferred. Illustrations created in Adobe Illustrator, Freehand, or Corel Draw should be saved in EPS format.
A completed copy of the Molecular Interventions Copyright Transfer form signed by all authors should be included with the manuscript at the time of submission (available from the online version of these Instructions to Authors). Submission of a manuscript amounts to assurance that it has received proper clearance from the author’s company or institution, that it has not been copyrighted, published, or accepted for publication elsewhere, that it is not currently being considered for publication elsewhere, and that it will not be submitted elsewhere while under consideration by Molecular Interventions. The corresponding author is responsible for obtaining permission from the copyright owner to reproduce or modify figures and tables and to reproduce text (in whole or in part) from previous publications; permissions must allow electronic reproduction as well as print. A permissions request form is available online from the Instructions to Authors. The signed permissions must be submitted with the manuscript and be identified as to the relevant item in the manuscript (e.g., “permissions for Fig. 1”). In addition, a statement indicating that the material is being reprinted with permission must be included in the relevant figure legend or table footnote of the manuscript. Reprinted text must be enclosed in quotation marks, and the permission statement must be included as running text or indicated parenthetically.
Manuscripts must be in English, typewritten and double spaced throughout, including references, tables, and figure legends, using only one side of 81/2 by 11 inch (ca. 216 by 280 mm) paper, with at least 1 inch (25 mm) margins, and the copies must be collated. Pages should not be stapled. Three (3) sets of figures should be submitted, including one original set (see Figures). Three copies (3) of papers reporting any potentially overlapping earlier work (including relevant “in press” papers) must be included. Rejected manuscripts, figures, and original drawings will not be returned unless specifically requested at the time of submission.
Organization of the Manuscript
Manuscripts should contain the following sections in the order listed. Each section should begin on a new page and all pages should be numbered consecutively.
1. Title page. This should contain the complete title of the article, the names of all authors, and full contact information for corresponding author (address, phone, fax, e-mail). Financial support for the research should be indicated as an unnumbered footnote to the title and included with other footnotes on a separate page following the References section. A running title and at least five keywords should also be given.
2. Abstract. The abstract should be approximately 100 words, and should provide the context in which the topic of the article should be appreciated. The abstract should be intelligible to the general reader without reference to text. Reference citations are not permitted in abstracts, and nonstandard abbreviations should not be included.
3. Body of manuscript. It is highly recommended that the body be divided into conceptual sections, the first of which should be labeled INTRODUCTION and the last of which should be labeled CONCLUSIONS. Section headings should be given in all capital letters, subsection headings in standard title format, and sub-subsection headings in italics.
4. Acknowledgments. The Acknowledgments section is placed at the end of the text. Funding sources are cited in the Acknowledgments section.
Funding information must be in the form of a sentence with the name of the funding agency written out in full. Research funded by the NIH, the Wellcome Trust, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the Research Councils UK and its agencies MUST include the grant number in square brackets:
- This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases [Grant XXXX].
Multiple grant numbers should be separated by a comma and a space. Where the research was supported by more than one agency, the different agencies should be separated by a semi-colon with “and” before the final funder:
- This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust [Grants XXX, YYY]; the National Institutes of Health National Cancer Institute [Grants ZZZ, AAA]; and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute [Grant BBB].
Funding from these agencies may not be cited without a grant number.
When one or more authors are NIH employees, the following sentence must be included:
- This research was supported [in part] by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institutes of Health [name of institute].
5. References. References are cited in the text by number. In the reference list, the references should be arranged in the order in which they are first cited in the text. The names of all authors should be given in the reference list. Abbreviations for journals should conform to the Medline abbreviation list, which is available from the online Instructions to Authors. References to personal communications, unpublished observations, and papers submitted for publication are given in parentheses at the appropriate location in the text, not in the list of references. Only papers that have been officially accepted for publication may be cited as "in press" in the reference list. The authors are responsible for the accuracy of the references. The format for journal article, chapter, book, and publish-ahead-of-print journal article references is as follows:
- Fricks I.P., Maddileti S., Carter S.R.L., Lazarowski E.R., Nicholas R.A., Jacobson K.A., and Harden T.K. UDP is a competitive antagonist at the human P2Y14 receptor. J Pharmacol Exp Ther 325, 588-594 (2008).
- Kappas A. Development of heme oxygenase inhibitors for the prevention of sever jaundice in infants: studies from laboratory bench to newborn nursery, in Heme Oxygenase in Biology and Medicine (Abraham N.G., Alam J., and Nath K.A. eds) pp 3-17, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York (2002).
- Wilson J.H. and Hunt T. Molecular Biology of the Cell: A Problems Approach, 5th ed. Garland Science, New York (2008).
- Hanada K., Ikemi Y., Kukita K., Mihara K., and Ogata H. Stereoselective first-pass metabolism of verapamil in the small intestine and liver in rats. Drug Metab Dispos doi: 10.1124/dmd.107.020339 (2008).
6. Tables. Each table must be on a separate page. The tables are numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals, and designed to fit the column or page size of the journal. A brief descriptive title is provided at the top of each table. General statements about the table follow the title in paragraph form. Footnotes to tables are referenced by italicized, lower case, superscript letters (a, b, c, etc.) and defined beneath the table.
7. Legends for figures. Figures are numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals, with each one displayed on a separate page. Legends must provide sufficient explanation for the reader to understand the figure independent of the text.
8. Figures. Submit illustrations as glossy photographs, original India-ink drawings, or high-resolution laser printer output. Lettering on figures should be large enough to be legible after reduction to single-column width of 21 picas (about 3.5 inches or 9 cm). Letter typesizes after reduction should be 6–8 points. Do not use varying letter typesizes within a single figure; use the same size or similar sizes throughout the drawing. Figures should be ready, in all respects, for direct reproduction. All panels of a multipart figure should be provided on the same page. Although each of the manuscript copies should contain a complete set of figures, only the originals need be of the quality suitable for reproduction. In the case of halftones, three sets of photographs are required. If symbols are not explained on the face of the figure, only standard print characters may be used. The back of each figure should bear its number, the name of the first author, and the word TOP at the appropriate edge. Include figure titles in the legend and not on the figure itself. Photomicrographs and electron micrographs must be labeled with a magnification calibration in micrometers or Angstrom units. A statement concerning the magnification must appear in the figure legend.
9. Author Photographs. Supply a black-and-white or color glossy photograph of each author. Head size (top of head to bottom of chin) should be no smaller than 1.5 inches tall; also allow generous room on all sides for cropping. Write full name on back of photos; identify multiple authors as necessary.
10. Additional images. All authors are encouraged to submit images to be considered for use on the cover of Molecular Interventions. Cover images should be submitted as glossy (8x10) prints, transparencies or negatives, or as high-resolution digital files. Cover submissions should be accompanied by a 100-word description of the image. In addition, the title of each review article will be highlighted by an image selected by the editorial office; authors are encouraged to supply images with an appropriate caption for title treatment. Consult a recent issue of Molecular Interventions for examples.
Abbreviations, Drug Names, Gene Names, Etc.
All abbreviations and technical nomenclature should be explained in parentheses upon their first use in the text. Do not abbreviate terms (other than standard abbreviations) that are used less than three times in the text. Generic drug names are used in text, tables, and figures. Trade names may be given in parentheses following the first text reference, but should not appear in titles, figures, or tables. Whereas trade names are capitalized, generic or chemical names are not.
Receptor Nomenclature
The nomenclature used to identify receptors and ion channels should conform to guidelines of the Committee on Receptor Nomenclature and Drug Classification of the International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology (NC-IUPHAR). These are published periodically in Pharmacological Reviews and are accessible at www.iuphar-db.org/nomenclature.html.
