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Guide For Authors

EMBO Open

From January 2007 authors of accepted peer-reviewed original articles may choose to pay a fee in order for their published article to be made freely accessible to all immediately upon publication. For further information, please see the EMBO Open FAQs (PDF, 145KB) and also visit the section on Charges (below).

Aims and scope

The EMBO Journal publishes full-length papers describing original research of general rather than specialist interest in molecular biology. The journal encourages submission of articles in the areas of development, immunology, neuroscience, plant biology, structural biology, genomic & computational biology, genome stability & dynamics, chromatin & transcription, RNA, proteins, cellular metabolism, signal transduction, cell cycle, differentiation & death, membranes & transport, cell & tissue architecture, microbiology & pathogens, and molecular biology of disease.

The Editors select those manuscripts that merit urgent publication because they report novel findings of wide biological significance. Reports that are only preliminary or describe, for example, new methods, are considered in the context of this policy. Papers should be intelligible to as wide an audience as possible; particular attention should be paid to the Abstract, Introduction and Discussion sections, which should clearly draw attention to the novelty and significance of the data reported. Failure to do this may result in delays to publication or rejection of the paper.

Submission of a paper implies that it reports unpublished work and that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. The EMBO Journal reserves the right not to publish material that has already been pre-published (either in electronic or other media). By submitting a manuscript to The EMBO Journal, the authors guarantee that they have the appropriate authority from their employers and/or funding agencies to publish the work.

For further information on the journal and the editorial process please read this editorial.

Prior to submission

To avoid unnecessary delays in the review process, please consider the following policies carefully before you submit your manuscript.

Availability of published material

It is understood that by publishing a paper in The EMBO Journal the authors agree to make freely available to colleagues in academic research any of the organisms, viruses, cells, nucleic acids, antibodies, and other reagents that were used in the research reported and that are not available from commercial suppliers.

Conflicts of interest

In the interests of transparency and to help reviewers assess any potential bias, The EMBO Journal requires authors of original research papers to declare any competing commercial interests in relation to the submitted work. Referees are also asked to indicate any potential conflict they might have reviewing a particular paper. Please refer to the Guide for Referees for details.

Electronic manipulation of images

Digital image enhancement is acceptable practice, although it can result in the presentation of quite unrepresentative data as well as in the loss of meaningful signals. During manipulation of images a positive relationship between the original data and the resulting electronic image must be maintained. If a figure has been subjected to significant electronic manipulation, the specific nature of the enhancements must be noted in the figure legend or in the 'Materials and methods' section. The Editors reserve the right to request original versions of figures and the original images that were used to assemble the figure from the authors of a paper under consideration. The following publication is a good reference for acceptable practices:
Rossner M, Yamada KM (2004) What's in a picture? The temptation of image manipulation. J Cell Biol 166: 11-15

Submission to public databases

The EMBO Journal will only review and publish manuscripts if the authors agree to make all data that cannot be published in the journal itself (e.g. novel nucleotide sequences, structural data, or data from large-scale gene expression experiments) freely available in one of the public databases (see Submission to public databases below). Accession codes must be provided at the time a revised manuscript is returned to the Editorial Office. To avoid delays in publication of the manuscript, we encourage authors to deposit relevant data in public databases prior to submission. The authors may request that the data be stored in a confidential section of the database, in which they can request passwords from the database administrators, and these should be passed on to the Editorial Office to allow the editors and referees to anonymously access the information during the review process.

Supplementary information for the editors and the reviewers

Any manuscripts under review or accepted for publication elsewhere should accompany the submission if they are relevant to its scientific assessment. Authors should also provide upon submission any kind of supplementary material that will aid the review process.

Submission

The Editors reserve the right to return manuscripts that are not in accordance with the following instructions.

Manuscripts must be written in clear and concise English and be intelligible to a broad readership.

Authors should include the names of four potential reviewers when submitting their manuscript. Papers are generally reviewed by three appropriate referees selected by the Editors and based on their reports, the decision concerning publication, revision or rejection is taken. Papers may, however, be returned to authors without review if in the judgement of the Editors and the Editorial Board, they fail to meet the criteria of wide biological significance and novelty, or if they are considered too preliminary. The decision of EMBO Council to limit the number of pages published annually means that not all papers receiving a balance of favourable reports can be accepted.

We will acknowledge receipt of a submitted manuscript by e-mail as soon as an Editor has been assigned to the paper. All further correspondence will also be by e-mail.

Presubmission inquiries are not encouraged: this is because it is often difficult to judge a paper based on limited information in the abstract and cover letter and without seeing the relevant data. Instead, we consider electronic submissions of full manuscripts. Submission of the full manuscript allows us to make an informed decision on the manuscript and to give authors a rapid decision in case we feel the manuscript is not appropriate for the journal (within a week), or otherwise proceed with the review of the manuscript.

General format

The total character count (including spaces) for the entire paper, including title page, abstract, figure legends and references (excluding tables and supplementary material) may not exceed 55,000 characters (the exact character count to be printed on the title page). Manuscripts exceeding this limit at submission may be returned to the authors for amendment. Please consider including a Supplementary information section (see below) if your manuscript exceeds the above limitations.

The total length of the paper when published should not exceed 10 pages, and excess page charges will apply for papers longer than six printed pages (see Charges below). Please bear in mind the total page limit when preparing figures and tables.

Please use 'Times' font at 10 or 12 point size for all text pages, 'Symbol' font for non-Latin characters, and 'Arial or Sans-serif' font for lettering on figures. 'Courier' font may be used for sequence data. Number each page at the bottom (Title page is 1).

Manuscripts should be divided into the following sections:

  • Title page
  • Abstract
  • Introduction
  • Results
  • Discussion
  • Materials and methods
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
  • Figure legends
  • Figures
  • Tables
  • Supplementary information

Title Page

The title should be short and informative, and should not contain any abbreviations. The total length of the title should not exceed 100 characters (including spaces). Serial titles are not accepted.

The full name of each author should be given. Numbers in superscript should be used to indicate the department, institution, city with postal code and country, for each author. Any changes of address may also be given in numbered footnotes. It is possible to name more than one author as the correspondent of a published article; at the time of submission, however, it is important to indicate only a single author to whom all correspondence is to be addressed, together with an e-mail address, telephone and fax numbers.

The title page must also state the precise character count of the manuscript.

Please provide a running title of no more than 50 characters including spaces.

Up to five keywords, which may or may not appear in the title, should be given in alphabetical order, below the abstract, each separated by a slash (/).

Subject Categories are used to structure the current and archived online content of The EMBO Journal, and to help readers interested in particular areas of molecular biology find relevant information more easily. Subject Categories are also indicated in the table of contents and on the title page of the published article.

Authors should suggest appropriate Subject Categories for the submitted manuscript. One or two categories may be selected from the following list:

Subject CategoryScope
Developmentmechanisms of developmental processes, investigated at a molecular level
Immunologymolecular mechanisms underlying innate and adaptive immunity in all organisms
Neurosciencemolecular aspects of differentiation, (patho)physiology and (dys)function of the nervous system
Plant Biologymolecular studies focusing on unicellular and multicellular autotrophic organisms
Structural Biologymulti-dimensional structures and dynamics of biological macromolecules
Genomic & Computational Biologylarge-scale analysis of genomes and their expression, modelling of biological processes at all levels of molecular organisation
Genome Stability & Dynamicsprocesses involved in repair, recombination and replication of genomes
Chromatin & Transcriptionnuclear and chromosomal architecture, epigenetics, transcription and its regulation
RNAsplicing, modification, folding, stability and catalytic activity of RNA
Proteinstranslation, protein folding, post-translational modification and degradation of proteins
Cellular Metabolismbioenergetics, anabolic/catabolic processes studied at the molecular level
Signal Transductionmechanisms involved in sending, receiving and integrating biological signals
Cell Cyclemechanisms regulating the division cycle of eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells
Differentiation & Deathmolecular studies on cellular differentiation processes and cell death
Membranes & Transportstructure and function of cellular membranes and compartments, trafficking and transport of (macro)molecules
Cell & Tissue Architecturecytoskeleton, extracellular matrix, cell polarity, migration and adhesion
Microbiology & Pathogensmolecular biology of viruses, bacteria, and unicellular or multicellular pathogens
Molecular Biology of Diseasemolecular mechanisms underlying human or other diseases, cancer

Abstract

This should be a single paragraph not exceeding 175 words. The Abstract should be comprehensible to readers before they have read the paper, and abbreviations should be avoided. Reference citations within the abstract are not permitted.

Introduction

The Introduction should be succinct and provide only the necessary background information, rather than a comprehensive review of the specific field. It should not contain subheadings.

Results and Discussion

These sections should each be divided by subheadings and may be combined into one section if appropriate.

Materials and methods

This section should contain sufficient detail so that all experimental procedures can be repeated by others, in conjunction with cited references. The EMBO Journal encourages detailed descriptions of methodology or additional materials to be included as Supplementary Information. This information should, however, not be of immediate importance for the understanding of the manuscript.

Acknowledgements

These should be placed at the end of the text and not in footnotes. Personal acknowledgements should precede those of institutions or agencies.

References

Authors are responsible for the accuracy of the references. Published articles as well as those in press (please state the name of the journal and enclose a copy of the manuscript) may be included. In the text of the manuscript, a reference should be cited by author and year of publication; no more than two authors may be cited per reference; 'et al' should be used if there are more than two authors (Ferrier & Lunkes, 2003; Wiersdorff et al, 2000).

In the reference list, citations should be listed in alphabetical order and then chronologically, with the authors' surnames and initials inverted; et al should not be used unless there are more than 20 authors. Publications by the same author(s) in the same year should be identified with a, b, c after the year of publication.

The name of each journal should be abbreviated according to Index Medicus and italicized. References should therefore be listed (and will subsequently appear in print) as follows:

Akhmedkhanov A, Toniolo P, Zeleniuch-Jacquotte A, Koenig KL, Shore RE (2002) Aspirin and lung cancer in women. Br J Cancer 87: 49-53

Wendland J (2003) Analysis of the landmark protein Bud3 of Ashbya gossypii reveals a novel role in septum construction. EMBO rep 4: 200-204

a) Example of book chapter:

Price SR, Oubridge C, Varani G, Nagai K (1998) Preparation of RNA–protein complexes for X–ray crystallography and NMR. In RNA–Protein Interaction: Practical Approach, Smith C (ed) pp 37–74. Oxford: Oxford University Press

b) Example of book:

Sambrook J, Fritsch E & Maniatis T (1989) Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual. Cold Spring Harbour Press, Cold Spring Harbour, New York, USA

Citations to articles in press or only published online at the time of submission should be made as follows:

c) Example of article in press without doi:

Lim E-K, Ashford DA, Hou B, Jackson RG, Bowles DJ (2004) Arabidopsis glycosyltransferases as biocatalysts in fermentation for regioselective synthesis of diverse quercetin glucosides. Biotech Bioeng, (in press)

d) Example of article in press with doi:

Eng-Kiat Lim and Dianna J Bowles, A class of plant glycosyltransferases involved in cellular homeostasis, The EMBO Journal advance online publication 8 July 2004; doi: 10.1038/sj.emboj.7600295

Personal communications (J Doe, personal communication, 2001) should be authorized in writing by those involved, and unpublished data should be cited as (J Smith and D Jones, unpublished data, 2001). References to manuscripts in preparation or submitted, but not yet accepted, should be cited in the text as (C Lee and N Jones, in preparation), not as (C Lee and N Jones, submitted), and should not be included in the list of references.

Figure legends

All symbols and abbreviations used in the figure must be defined, unless they are common abbreviations or have already been defined in the text. Experimental details should, where possible, be given in the Materials and Methods section, and not repeated in the figure legends.

Figures

Figures should be labeled in consecutive Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3,). The final size of figures will be between 82 mm and 172 mm wide on the printed page. Please bear this in mind when submitting your manuscript for review and allow for sufficient resolution at a suitable size.

Figures divided into parts should be labeled with an upper-case, bold letter (A, B, C,). Figures with several parts should also be in proportion, with consistently sized lettering so that the whole figure can be reduced by the same amount to the smallest size at which the essential details are visible. Use Helvetica font for all the lettering, Courier font for sequence data and Symbol font for any symbols.

Scale bars, rather than magnification factors, should be used, with the length of the bar defined in the legend rather than on the bar itself. In general, visual cues on the figure itself are preferred rather than verbal explanations (for example, 'broken line' or 'filled black triangles') in the legend.

Detailed instructions for the preparation of electronic figures are provided below (Illustrations).

Tables

Tables should be typed on separate sheets and numbered consecutively with Roman numerals (I, II, III, IV,). Tables should be self-explanatory and include a brief descriptive title. Footnotes to tables indicated by lower-case superscript letters are acceptable, but they should not include extensive experimental detail.

Supplementary information

Authors should ensure that supplementary information is supplied in its FINAL format because it is not subedited and will appear online exactly as originally submitted. It cannot be altered, nor new supplementary information added, after the paper has been accepted for publication.

Supplementary information is peer-reviewed material directly relevant to the conclusions of an article that cannot be included in the printed version owing to space or format constraints. It is posted on the journal's website and linked to the article when the article is published and may consist of additional text, figures, movies or extensive tables.

You may also use this option to supply colour versions of individual figures for online publication. In this case, please include the text "A full-colour version of this figure is available at The EMBO Journal Online" at the end of the respective printed figure legend.

The printed article must be complete and self-explanatory without the supplementary information. Supplementary information should enhance, but not be essential to, a reader's understanding of the paper. While The EMBO Journal encourages authors to supply additional, extensive descriptions of the materials and methods used in a study as supplementary information, it is not permissible to move the entire "Materials and methods" section (or any other section of the manuscript) into the online supplement.

Supplementary information must be supplied to the Editorial Office in its final form for peer review. Supplementary information is not subedited, so authors should ensure that it is supplied ready for publication online. Please see below for acceptable file formats and sizes (Supplementary information).

Supplementary data describing the results of microarray studies or similar large-scale expression experiments should be deposited with one of the public databases (ArrayExpress (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/arrayexpress/) or GEO (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/)) prior to submission of the paper. To avoid delays in publication of the manuscript, we encourage authors to deposit relevant data in public databases prior to submission. The authors may request that the data be stored in a confidential section of the database, in which they can request passwords from the database administrators, and these should be passed on to the Editorial Office to allow the editors and referees to anonymously access the information during the review process. Authors may submit the data in a MIAME format on CD-ROMs in a form accessible on different computer systems at the time of submission if they have not received passwords from the database administrators yet.

Conventions

In general, the journal follows conventions given in Scientific Style and Format: The CBE Manual for Authors, Editors and Publishers (1994) Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 6th edn. Please follow Chemical Abstracts and its indexes for chemical names. For guidance in the use of biochemical terminology follow the recommendations issued by the IUPAC-IUBMB Joint Commission on Biochemical Nomenclature. In general, genotypes should be indicated in italics; phenotypes should not be italicized.

Abbreviations

Try to restrict the use of abbreviations to SI symbols and those recommended by the IUPAC. Abbreviations should be defined in brackets after their first mention in the text, not in a list of abbreviations. Standard units of measurements (SI symbols) and symbols of chemical elements may be used without definition in the body of the paper. Abbreviations of standard biochemical compounds, e.g. ATP, DNA, nucleotides in nucleic acids, and amino acids in proteins, need not be defined.

How to submit

We use an online manuscript submission and tracking system: http://mts-emboj.nature.com

The first thing you need to do, if you have not done so already, is to register for an account. After this, please consult the instructions below to enable you to submit your article through our secure server.

For optimum performance, we recommend that your browser should be either Netscape 4.7 or above, or Internet Explorer 5.0 and above.

Please be sure that your browser is set to accept cookies. Our tracking system requires cookies for proper operation. (If you have Windows XP the defaults will need changing. For more details on this, please refer to the 'Tips' function on this site.)

Please refrain from submitting your manuscript by e-mail attachment. If the site replicates your details on screen, then your paper has been successfully submitted.

For original submissions, you will need to upload a Word file of the text of the manuscript (including figure legends), a PDF file containing all the figures and a cover letter. Alternatively individual figure files can be uploaded separately but please note that this can be more time-consuming than a PDF submission. Additional supplementary files can also be uploaded when applicable (please refer to the section Supplementary information above).

Once you have submitted your files and the conversion is in progress, you may log off the Internet and come back later to check and approve the conversion. This process can take up to 5-10 minutes before the PDF, created in the conversion process, is ready for approval. Please remember that your manuscript will not be submitted until you have approved the converted files.

To avoid any unnecessary delays, please refer to the most current electronic formatting guidelines when preparing your manuscript for submission. Authors using computer systems with non-Western type encoding are strongly encouraged to eliminate all occurrences of non-standard fonts in both the manuscript and the figures. We suggest using only the fonts Times, Symbol, Courier and Helvetica.

Revision

When a manuscript is returned to authors for revision, the revised version should be submitted within three months of the authors' receipt of the referee reports. If a revised manuscript is returned thereafter, it will generally be considered as a new submission. Additional time for revision can be granted upon request, at the Editors' discretion.

Only a single round of revision will be permitted.

Authors will be provided with a URL in the letter of decision regarding the original version of the manuscript. Please use this URL for submission of revised manuscripts.

Format of text

The Editorial Office will only accept text files in RTF or MS Word format. The final character count must be clearly indicated on the title page of the revised manuscript. Manuscripts that do not comply with the formatting guidelines above, or exceed the length restrictions, will not be considered and returned to the authors for amendment.

Please submit the full text (including figure legends, tables, and references) as an MS Word or RTF file, named "<5-digit manuscript number>.doc" or "<5-digit manuscript number>.rtf" (eg "48000.doc" or "48000.rtf").

Saving files with Microsoft Office 2007

Microsoft Office 2007 saves files in an XML format by default (file extensions .docx, .pptx and xlsx). Files saved in this format cannot be accepted for publication.

Save Word documents using the file extension .doc

  • Select the Office Button in the upper left corner of the Word 2007 Window and choose "Save As"
  • Select "Word 97-2003 Document"
  • Enter a file name and select "Save"

These instructions also apply for the new versions of Excel and PowerPoint.

Equations in Word must be created using Equation Editor 3.0

Equations created using the new equation editor in Word 2007 and saved as a "Word 97-2003 Document" (.doc) are converted to graphics and can no longer be edited. To insert or change an equation with the previous equation editor:

  • Select "Object" on the "Text" section of the "Insert" tab
  • In the drop-down menu select "Equation Editor 3.0"

Do not use the "Equation" button in the "Symbols" section of the "Insert" tab.

Illustrations

When submitting a revised manuscript, it is essential to include high-quality computer files for all figures, which will be used for the production process.

We can only accept one file per figure. Composite figures containing multiple panels must be collected into one file before submission and must be scaled such that they can be reproduced on a single printed page.

The figure files must be labeled in the following way: "Fig_1.eps", "Fig_2.tif", "Fig_3.psd", "Fig_4.ai", etc. Please do not use an alternative labelling system and do not include the manuscript number in the file names.

Composite figures may be assembled in Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator and may be submitted in the default formats offered by these programs. If it is not possible to send artwork in the above formats, the Editorial Office can accept line drawings and composite figures in EPS format, and halftone figures in TIFF (please be sure to use LZW compression) or EPS formats. High-quality PDF files for figures may also be acceptable. We cannot proceed to publication with MS PowerPoint files.

All lettering should be done using standard fonts (Helvetica, Times, Symbol, Courier) and retained in a separate layer (if possible) so that the production team can adapt any labels to the Journal's style if necessary. All fonts used for labelling the figures should also be embedded in the final files if the software package offers this option.

All colour artwork must be submitted in CMYK colour mode. When converting files from RGB, please consider that the final figures will be printed on coated paper, using Euroscale process inks. If you are not familiar with these specifications, or are not sure how to apply them within your software package, please consult a local graphics expert. Ultimately, it is important that all colours look satisfactory after conversion to CMYK, both on screen and when printed on different printers.

Non-vector graphics should be preserved at high resolution: 300 dpi minimum at final size for greyscale or colour halftone images, and 1,000 dpi minimum for bitmap (b/w) artwork.

Further information regarding the preparation of electronic figures is available at http://www.nature.com/sj/information/artworkguidelines.pdf (16KB).

Free colour on the web

It is possible to add colour versions of individual figures to the online version of the article, by submitting them as Supplementary information files. Please see the instructions below for details, and enclose the sentence "A colour version of this figure is available at The EMBO Journal Online" at the end of the respective figure legend.

Supplementary information

Supplementary information must be supplied in one of the following file formats:

  • Quick Time files (.mov)
  • Graphical image files (.gif)
  • HTML files (.html)
  • MPEG movie files (.mpg)
  • JPEG image files (.jpg)
  • Sound files (.wav)
  • Plain ASCII text (.txt)
  • Acrobat files (.pdf)
  • MS Word documents (.doc)
  • Postscript files (.ps)
  • MS Excel spreadsheet documents (.xls)
  • PowerPoint files (.ppt)

We cannot accept TeX and LaTeX.

Data supplied in other formats cannot be considered for online publication.

File sizes must be as small as possible, so that they can be downloaded quickly. The number of files should be limited to 10 and individual files should not be larger than 1MB (PDF or Excel files), 8MB (movie files) and 6MB (image files). Please seek advice from the Editorial Office before sending files larger than our maximum size to avoid delays in reviewing and publication.

It is important that you name the supplementary files "Sup_1.pdf", "Sup_2.xls", "Sup_3.mpg", "Sup_3_legend.pdf", etc. Please do not use an alternative labelling system.

The supplementary information may not be altered, nor new supplementary information added, after the paper has been accepted for publication.

Please refer to each supplementary item in the body of the text or the figure legends. You should also include the text "Supplementary information is available at The EMBO Journal Online" at the end of the article and before the references.

Submission to public databases

The EMBO Journal requires submission of novel sequence and structural data to the appropriate public databases. We will not accept an article for publication until the relevant entry codes have been provided. These must be quoted in the text of the article.

Sequence data

Nucleotide sequence data can be submitted in electronic form to any one of the three major collaborative databases:

  1. DDBJ: DNA Data Bank of Japan, Center for Information Biology, National Institute of Genetics, Mishima, Shizuoka 411, Japan. Tel: +81 559 81 6853; Fax: +81 559 81 6849; E-mail: ddbjsub@ddbj.nig.ac.jp (for data submissions); WWW URL: http://www.ddbj.nig.ac.jp/
  2. EMBL: EMBL Nucleotide Sequence Submissions, European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SD, UK. Tel: +44 1223 494400; Fax: +44 1223 494472; E-mail: datasubs@ebi.ac.uk; WWW URL: http://www.ebi.ac.uk/
  3. GenBank: National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, Building 38A, Room 8N-803, Bethesda, MD 20894, USA. Tel: +1 301 496 2475; Fax: +1 301 480 9241; E-mail: gb-sub@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov; WWW URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/

The suggested wording for referring to accession number information in journal articles is "These sequence data have been submitted to the DDBJ/EMBL/GenBank databases under accession No. U12345".

Structural data

The EMBO Journal accepts and follows the recommendations of the International Union of Crystallography (IUCr), with regard to the deposition and release of macromolecular structural data. These guidelines are set out in the article by the IUCr Commission on Biological Macromolecules in Acta Crystallographica (2000), D56, 2. In summary, they state that all publications must be accompanied by deposition of both the atomic coordinates and the structure-factor amplitudes in the appropriate database (PDB or NDB). In the case of low-resolution structures for which only a chain trace is reported, a set of C alpha positions and structure-factor amplitudes may be sufficient.

For NMR structures, data deposited should include resonance assignments, and all restraints used in structure determination (NOEs, spin-spin coupling constants, amide exchange rates, etc) and the derived atomic coordinates for both an individual structure and for a family of acceptable structures.

Structures of biological macromolecules solved by electron microscopy must be submitted to the EMDB database at http://www.ebi.ac.uk/msd/Deposition.html. For a brief description of the database, see Tagari et al. (2002) Trends Biochem Sci 27:589.

Under exceptional circumstances and upon request, the Editors may grant a delay of up to six months for deposition or the release of deposited data.

Microarray data

Authors should refer to the MGED open letter specifying microarray standards (http://www.mged.org/Workgroups/MIAME/miame_checklist.html). The EMBO Journal requires submission of microarray data to the ArrayExpress (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/arrayexpress/) or GEO (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/) databases, and provision of accession numbers before acceptance of the paper for publication.

Publication

Speed of publication

The journal aims for rapid publication of papers, using Advance Online Publication to expedite the process. Please help the Editors and publisher avoid delays by providing e-mail address(es), telephone and fax numbers at which author(s) can be contacted.

Proofs

Authors will be sent an e-mail with a link to download the proof from. These should be printed, annotated for necessary corrections (which should be detailed in a covering letter in case the FAX is unclear), and then returned by FAX to Nature Publishing Group (+44 1256 321638). In the interests of speed, corrections should be returned within 24 hours. Essential changes of an extensive nature may be made only by insertion of a 'Note added in proof', and only with the approval of the Editors. A charge will be made to authors who insist on extensive amendment within the text at the page proof stage. Excessive alterations may delay publication of the article.

Charges

For papers exceeding six printed pages, a per page fee of £125/$250 will be charged to the authors upon publication of the manuscript. Additional charges will be made to the authors to cover the extra costs incurred in reproducing colour illustrations. Prior to publication, authors will be advised of any such charges.

The colour charges for The EMBO Journal (print and online PDF version) are as follows:

Number of colour illustrations 1 2 3 4 5 6 7+
Cost Rest of world
USA
£325
$650
£650
$1,300
£975
$1,950
£1,191
$2,382
£1,407
$2,814
£1,464
$2,928
£163
$326
per additional
colour figure

Note: Multiple part figures are one illustration: e.g. Fig 1(a) & (b) is one illustration, Fig 1 and Fig 2 are two illustrations

It is possible to add colour versions of illustrations in the electronically published journal at no additional cost (see Free colour on the web above)

EMBO Open Charges

Upon acceptance of an article authors are given the option to pay a fee in order to allow their article to become freely available online immediately upon publication. The fee is £1,350/$2,540/€2,000 (plus VAT where applicable). By paying this fee authors are also permitted to post the final, published PDF of their article on a website, institutional repository or other free public server, immediately on publication. For further information, please see EMBO Open FAQs (PDF, 145KB) and Payment Form (PDF, 31 KB).

Author licence agreement

The corresponding author must complete and sign the License to Publish form upon acceptance of the manuscript and return it to the editorial office. Failure to do so will result in delays to the publication of your paper. A copy of the License to Publish form can be found here (PDF, 21KB). Please note: Manuscripts to be published as EMBO Open papers require an EMBO Open Licence to Publish form, a copy of this form can be found here (PDF, 143KB).

Nature Publishing Group does not require authors of original research papers to assign copyright of their published contributions. Authors grant NPG an exclusive licence to publish, in return for which they can re-use their papers in their future printed work. NPG's author licence page provides details of the policy and a sample form. Authors are encouraged to submit their version of the accepted, peer-reviewed manuscript to their funding body's archive, for public release six months after publication. In addition, authors are encouraged to archive their version of the manuscript in their institution's repositories (as well as on their personal websites), also six months after the original publication. Authors should cite the publication reference and doi number on any deposited version, and provide a link from it to the published article on the NPG website. This policy complements the policies of the US National Institutes of Health, the Wellcome Trust and other research funding bodies around the world. NPG recognizes the efforts of funding bodies to increase access of the research they fund, and strongly encourages authors to participate in such efforts.

EMBO Open articles are published either under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 licence or a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 licence, at the free choice of the authors. A copy of the EMBO Open licence can be found here (PDF, 143KB).

Under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 licence, users are free to share (copy, distribute and transmit) and remix (adapt) the contribution under the following conditions (read full legal code):

  • Attribution. Users must attribute the contribution in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they or their use of the contribution is endorsed by the author or licensor).
  • Noncommercial. Users may not use this work for commercial purposes.
  • Share Alike. If users alter, transform, or build upon this work, they may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one.

Under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 licence, users are free to share (copy, distribute and transmit) the contribution under the following conditions (read full legal code):

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