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Author Guidelines

All material to be considered for publication in *Highlights in Bioinformatics* should be submitted in electronic form via the Journal's online submission system. Full instructions for manuscript preparation and submission can be found in the sections below also, see manuscript guidelines. If you are unable to submit your manuscript via the online submission system, please contact the Editorial Office (editorial@highlightsin.org).

Types of Articles

1. Research Articles

Research Articles are limited to 5,000 words and should make fundamental contributions to our understanding in all areas of Biology and life sciences. These articles should include the elements described below in the section of the Instructions to Authors.

2. Observations: Observations are short descriptions (maximum 1,200 words with a maximum of 2 figures and 25 references) of research results of exceptional importance and an unusual interest to the broad Biology and life sciences community.

3. Minireviews: Minireviews are brief (maximum 3,000 words with a maximum of 2 figures or tables) summaries of important developments in Biology and life sciences research. They must be based on published articles and may address any subject within the scope of the journal.

Minireviews must have abstracts. Limit the abstract to 250 words or fewer. The body of the Minireview may have section headings and/or paragraph lead-ins.

4. Opinions and Hypotheses: Opinions and Hypotheses are short articles (maximum 2,500 words with a maximum of 25 references) that present original and well-developed insights without complete supporting data. This article type places equal importance on new thought that is formulated in a manner that summarizes a problem, provides a new synthesis, and/or is suitable for subsequent experimental testing.

In this category, the journal provides a highly visible venue for the publication of ideas that have the potential to move fields and to challenge the status quo. The authors should provide an abstract of 150 words or fewer. The body of an Opinions and Hypotheses article may have section headings and/or paragraph lead-ins.

5. Letters to the Editor: Letters to the Editor are intended for comments on articles published in the journal and must cite published references to support the writer’s argument. Letters may be no more than 500 words long and must be typed double-spaced.

All Letters to the Editor must be submitted electronically. The cover letter should refer to the article in question by its title and the last name of the first author. In addition, the volume and issue and/or DOI should be indicated. In the Abstract section of the submission form, put "Not Applicable." Letters to the Editor do not have abstracts. The Letter must have a distinct title, which must appear on the manuscript and on the submission form. Figures and tables should be kept to a minimum.

The Letter will be sent to the editor who handled the article in question. If the editor believes that publication is warranted, he/she will solicit a reply from the corresponding author of the article and make a recommendation to the editor in chief. Final approval for publication rests with the editor in chief.

6. Editorials: Editorials (maximum 500 words) communicated by members of the Highlights in Bioinformatics Board of Editors address issues of science, politics, or policy. Editorials should include an abstract of 150 words or fewer.

7. Methods and Protocols: Methods and Protocols manuscripts (5,000 word limit) describe major technical and methodological developments in BioScience-related research. These can be bioinformatic or laboratory techniques or any protocols that practically advance the field of Biology and life sciences. The description of each method or protocol must include validation of, or application to, a relevant and important question in Biology and life sciences and provide results demonstrating its performance in comparison to existing state-of-the-art techniques. Articles will be selected on the basis of importance to the field, methodological performance, and detailed description to enable application to the field immediately.

8. Resource Reports: Resource Reports (5,000 word limit) describe major technical advances and/or major informational databases that would be of interest in Biology and life sciences fields. The manuscripts should include detailed methods and illustration of proof-of-principle so that the new methodology can be replicated and/or utilized by others. Resource Reports follow the same formatting guidelines as Research Articles.

9. Perspectives: Perspectives are brief reviews (maximum 2,000 words) that offer a succinct overview of a specific topic with an emphasis on opinion and synthesis. The authors should provide an abstract of 150 words or fewer. The body of a Perspectives article may have section headings and/or paragraph lead-ins.

10. Commentaries: Commentaries are short invited articles (maximum 1,000 words) that discuss Highlights in Bioinformatics papers or issues of special interest. These are solicited by editors from reviewers or experts in the field. The authors should provide an abstract of 150 words or fewer. The body of a Commentary may have section headings and/or paragraph lead-ins.

11. Review Articles: Review Articles provide a comprehensive summary of research on a certain topic, and a perspective on the state of the field and where it is heading.  Reviews are often widely read (for example, by researchers looking for a full introduction to a field) and highly cited. Reviews commonly cite approximately 100 primary research articles.


Style and Format

File format: Manuscript files can be submitted in the following formats: DOCX, DOC. Microsoft Word documents should not be locked or protected.

Length: Manuscripts can be any length and there are no restrictions on the amount of supplementary data.

Font: Font type: “Times New Roman”, Font size: 12-pt

Layout and spacing: Manuscript text should be double-spaced. Include page numbers and line numbers in the manuscript file.

Language: Manuscripts must be submitted in English.

Abbreviations: Define abbreviations upon first appearance in the text. A list for all abbreviations must be included before references

Reference style: Highlights use the “Vancouver” style, as outlined in the ICMJE sample references. Where available, URLs for the references have provided.

Nomenclature: Use correct and established nomenclature wherever possible.

Supporting Information: Authors may use almost any description as the item name for a supporting information file as long as it contains an “S” and number. For example, “Supplementary Table1” and “Supplementary Figure1”.

 

Manuscript Organization

Manuscripts should be organized as follows. Instructions for each element appear below the list.

Title page: List title, authors, and affiliations as the first page of a manuscript

Abstract

Introduction

Materials and Methods

Results and Discussion (or separated)

Conclusions (optional)

Acknowledgments (optional)

References

Figures and their captions are inserted after references. Figure files are uploaded separately in the submission system.

Tables and their captions are inserted after figure pages.

supplementary data information captions (if applicable) after table pages. Supplementary data files are uploaded separately.


Parts of a Submission

Title: The title must be clearly intelligible to a non-specialist. The use of jargon and non-standard abbreviations in the title is not permitted.

Short Title: 100 characters

Abstract: The abstract should be a single paragraph, not exceeding 350 words. URLs and references to figures or schemes should NOT be included.

Funding: Details of all funding sources and grant numbers for the work in question should be given in a separate section entitled 'Funding'.

Competing Interests: This information should not be in your manuscript file; you will provide it via our submission system.

Author list: Enter author names on the title page of the manuscript and in the online submission system. On the title page, write author names as following, First name (or initials, if used), Middle name (or initials, if used), Last name (surname, family name).

Corresponding author requirements: The corresponding author must provide an ORCID ID at the time of submission by entering it in the user profile in the submission system.

Cover letter: Upload a cover letter as a separate file in the online system.

Title page: The title, authors, and affiliations should all be included on a title page as the first page of the manuscript file.

Animal research: All research involving vertebrates or cephalopods must have approval from the authors' Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) or equivalent ethics committee(s), and must have been conducted according to applicable national and international guidelines. Approval must be received prior to beginning research.

Software submissions

Manuscripts whose primary purpose is the description of new software must provide full details of the algorithms designed. Describe any dependencies on commercial products or operating systems. Include details of the supplied test data and explain how to install and run the software. A brief description of enhancements made in the major releases of the software may also be given. The authors should provide a direct link to the deposited software from within the paper.

Database submissions

For descriptions of databases, provide details about how the data were curated, as well as plans for long-term database maintenance, growth, and stability. The authors should provide a direct link to the database hosting site from within the paper.

 

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

  1. The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
  2. The submission file is in OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, RTF, or WordPerfect document file format.
  3. Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
  4. The text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
  5. The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines, which is found in About the Journal.
  6. If submitting to a peer-reviewed section of the journal, the instructions in Ensuring a Blind Review have been followed.
 

Copyright Notice

License and Copyright Agreement

Authors who publish with Highlights in Bioinformatics journal agree to the following terms:
  • They are authorized by their co-authors to enter into these arrangements.
  • The work described has not been published before (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture, review or thesis); it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere; its publication has been approved by all author(s) and responsible authorities – tacitly or explicitly – of the institutes where the work has been carried out.
  • They secure the right to reproduce any material that has already been published or copyrighted elsewhere.
  • They agree to the following license and copyright agreement:

Copyright

  • Copyright on any article is retained by the author(s). Regarding copyright transfers please see below.
  • Authors grant International Library of Science a license to publish the article and identify itself as the original publisher.
  • Authors grant any third party the right to use the article freely as long as its original authors and citation details are identified.
  • The article and any associated published material is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0):
Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0)
Anyone is free to:
  • Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
  • Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.
The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.

Attribution. The original authors must be given credit.
  • For any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are.
  • Any of these conditions can be waived if the copyright holders give permission.
  • Nothing in this license impairs or restricts the author's moral rights.
The full legal code of this license.
Copyright Transfers
Any usage rights are regulated through the Creative Commons License. Since International Library of Science is using the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), anyone (the author, his/her institution/company, the publisher and the public) is free to copy, distribute, transmit and adapt the work as long as the original author is credited (see above). Therefore, specific usage rights cannot be reserved by the author or his/her institution/company and the publisher cannot include a statement "all rights reserved" in any published paper.
 
Copyright Notice
  • Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  • Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
  • Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).

 

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