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  3. Expert Reviews in Molecular Medicine
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  6. Preparing your materials
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Preparing your materials

Policy on prior publication

When authors submit manuscripts to this journal, these manuscripts should not be under consideration, accepted for publication or in press within a different journal, book or similar entity, unless explicit permission or agreement has been sought from all entities involved. However, deposition of a preprint on the author’s personal website, in an institutional repository, or in a preprint archive shall not be viewed as prior or duplicate publication. Authors should follow the Cambridge University Press Preprint Policy regarding preprint archives and maintaining the version of record. 

Publication Ethics

All authors are required to comply with Cambridge University Press’s publishing ethics guidelines. As part of its editorial processes, this journal may share relevant submission data and manuscript content with in-house or third-party tools to perform research integrity and other submission checks. Any such information sharing is conducted in accordance with the appropriate privacy and processing laws, applicable Terms of Use, and ethical guidance. In cases of alleged or suspected misconduct, the journal will investigate in line with COPE recommendations.

Word Count

The length of the article will depend on the scope of the subject area and its topicality, and both broad reviews and shorter, more focused overviews are published in the journal. The article should aim not to exceed 6,000 words for the main text, and 150 references.

SHORT REVIEWS

For short reviews, please follow the below guidelines: 

  • Maximum 2500 words main text (excluding Abstract, references, figure legends and acknowledgments)
  • Abstract - 200 words maximum 
  • No more than 30 references 
  • Limit of 4 additional objects: figures and tables combined (could be 4 tables, or 4 figures, or 3 and 1, or 2 and 2) 

Preparation of Manuscripts

First page
TITLE

The title page should include:

  • The title of the article, which should be short (preferably up to 12 words) but informative and accurately reflect the content.
  • Authors’ names and contact details: please list a brief affiliation for each author including country (assigned with superscript numbers) below the author names, and in addition, indicate the corresponding author with an asterisk and in this case provide an email address. Please note that the submission will appear only in the folder of the person designated as corresponding author. Other authors will be unable to view/approve or follow its progress online.
  • Word count, including all text but excluding tables, figures and references.
AUTHORS AND CONTACT DETAILS

Authors should meet each of the following requirements by substantial contributions to '(a) the conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; (b) the drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content.’ All authors must have approved the final version of the manuscript submitted. The contribution of individuals who were involved in the study but do not meet these criteria should be acknowledged in the Acknowledgments section.

Abstract

The abstract should introduce and describe the main points of the article in under 200 words. References should not be included. Highlight the translational aspects and/or clinical implications of the subject area.

KEYWORDS

Please supply 5-10 keywords to help others search for your paper.

INTRODUCTION

Ensure sufficient background is included at the start of the review, so that it is accessible to a wide readership; the target audience includes researchers and clinicians from various disciplines, and undergraduate and postgraduate students of biomedical sciences and their educators. Technical terms and concepts specific to your subject area should be briefly defined or explained. Depending on the topic, a brief historical perspective and indication of current issues and aims in the field might be helpful.

BODY

The use of informative subheadings (three levels of subheadings can be used) is encouraged, as well as using tables and figures to summarise findings.

TRANSLATIONAL IMPLICATIONS/ CLINICAL APPLICATIONS

If not discussed throughout the article, a separate section should be included where the translational implications are considered and the clinical trials in the subject area, are described.

EXPERT AND TOPICAL SUMMARY

Whilst evidence of an expert overview should be apparent throughout the article, a summary section should be included, representing a critical evaluation of the field of research, including any unanswered questions or the ethical/clinical issues associated with them. A discussion on how they may be addressed, the existing and/or likely future barriers to doing so and a discussion on the most interesting and innovative approaches being used in current research is encouraged.

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL

Additional material (e.g. data sets, large tables) relevant to the paper can be submitted with your manuscript for publication online, where they are made available via a link from the paper. The paper should stand alone without these data. Supplementary Material must be cited in a relevant place in the text of the paper and must be submitted as a separate file.

Please note that captions or legends should be included for all figures and tables in Supplementary Material. You should number figures or tables with the prefix 'S', e.g. Supplementary Figure S1, Supplementary Table S1. Although Supplementary Material is peer reviewed, it is not checked, copyedited or typeset after acceptance and it is loaded onto the journal's website exactly as supplied. You should check your Supplementary Material carefully to ensure that it adheres to journal styles. Corrections cannot be made to the Supplementary Material after acceptance of the manuscript. Please bear this in mind when deciding what content to include as Supplementary Material.

REVISIONS

When submitting a revision you will be required to also upload an Accepted Manuscript (AM) file. 

The AM file must be a single Word (or similar word processor) file with the abstract, main text, references, tables and figures.  It does not need to be laid out as the final article will be published but it must include all those elements in a single file.  You cannot upload a zip or other format file as the AM file.  It must be a word processor and a single file.  The AM file is processed in a different (and more rapid) way than the other source files which are copy edited and typeset.  We need all the source files and the AM file.

References

Please try to keep the number of references to fewer than 150 for review papers. Number references consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. Identify references in text, tables and legends by Arabic numerals in square brackets (not superscript numbers). References cited only in tables or in legends to figures should be numbered in accordance with a sequence established by the first identification in the text of the particular table or illustration.

Journal article

Chen Z., de Freitas L.B. and Burk R.D. (2015) Evolution and classification of oncogenic human papillomavirus types and variants associated with cervical cancer. Methods in Molecular Biology 1249, 3-26.

Xu B.et al. (2013) Multiplex identification of human papillo-mavirus 16 DNA integration sites in cervical carcinomas. PLoS ONE 8, e66693

 Book

Okpaku SO. Essentials of Global Mental Health. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014, pp. 56.

Book chapter

Fotiadis D.I. (2016) HPV Detection Methods, Handbook of Research on Trends in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Chronic Conditions, IGI Global, Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA, pp. 99-132

 Website

 The top 10 causes of death. http://www.who.int/media-centre/factsheets/fs310/en/ Accessed on November 2016

Tables

Tables should have a simple title. Use lowercase letters to refer to footnotes, and list these alphabetically below the table. Abbreviations used should be defined in a list below the table, in alphabetical order. References cited in the table should be included in the reference list. Either include tables at the end of the same Word document as the main text or as separate files. These need to be in an editable format and not as PDFs.

Figures

Please consider carefully which aspects of your review would benefit most from supporting figures, and include informative diagrams or photographic images with your article. Figures will be reproduced as supplied.

Figure legends

Figures, which should be uploaded as a separate file, should be produced using size 8 point Arial font for the legend.   Any wording within a figure should ideally be in Arial - 8 point size is standard, but this may vary depending on space limitations within individual figures.  

Use a simple title, and a self- standing figure legend that explains the figure in detail and defines all abbreviations used (even if already given in the main text). Use 'a', 'b', 'c' etc. to refer to different parts of the figure.

Error bars should be shown and defined, and statistical tests should also be defined for each figure.

In order to help prospective authors to prepare for submission and to reach their publication goals, we also offer a range of high-quality manuscript preparation services – including figure preparation – delivered in partnership with American Journal Experts. You can find out more here.

Permissions

If you need to include textual or illustrative material not in your copyright and not covered by fair use or fair dealing, permission must be obtained from the relevant publisher for the nonexclusive right to reproduce the material in all forms and media, including electronic publication. This can be done after acceptance of your article, and then correspondence showing permission has been granted should be forwarded to the editorial office with the revised article.

Clinical photos revealing patient identity should be avoided; in cases where this is not possible, patient consent must be obtained.

For further information about rights and permissions, please visit https://www.cambridge.org/core...

Journal Style

Contributors should note the following:


English language editing services 

Authors, particularly those whose first language is not English, may wish to have their English-language manuscripts checked by a native speaker before submission. This step is optional, but may help to ensure that the academic content of the paper is fully understood by the Editor and any reviewers.  

In order to help prospective authors to prepare for submission and to reach their publication goals, Cambridge University Press offers a range of high-quality manuscript preparation services, including language editing. You can find out more on our language services page.

Please note that the use of any of these services is voluntary, and at the author's own expense. Use of these services does not guarantee that the manuscript will be accepted for publication, nor does it restrict the author to submitting to a Cambridge-published journal. 

Authorship and contributorship

All authors listed on any papers submitted to this journal must be in agreement that the authors listed would all be considered authors according to disciplinary norms, and that no authors who would reasonably be considered an author have been excluded. For further details on this journal’s authorship policy, please see this journal's publishing ethics policies.

Author affiliations

Author affiliations should represent the institution(s) at which the research presented was conducted and/or supported and/or approved. For non-research content, any affiliations should represent the institution(s) with which each author is currently affiliated. 

For more information, please see our author affiliation policy and author affiliation FAQs.

Use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools

We acknowledge the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the research and writing processes. To ensure transparency, we expect any such use to be declared and described fully to readers, and to comply with our plagiarism policy and best practices regarding citation and acknowledgements. We do not consider artificial intelligence (AI) tools to meet the accountability requirements of authorship, and therefore generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and similar should not be listed as an author on any submitted content. 

In particular, any use of an AI tool: 

  • to generate images within the manuscript should be accompanied by a full description of the process used, and declared clearly in the image caption(s) 
  • to generate text within the manuscript should be accompanied by a full description of the process used, include appropriate and valid references and citations, and be declared in the manuscript’s Acknowledgements. 
  • to analyse or extract insights from data or other materials, for example through the use of text and data mining, should be accompanied by a full description of the process used, including details and appropriate citation of any dataset(s) or other material analysed in all relevant and appropriate areas of the manuscript 
  • must not present ideas, words, data, or other material produced by third parties without appropriate acknowledgement or permission 

Descriptions of AI processes used should include at minimum the version of the tool/algorithm used, where it can be accessed, any proprietary information relevant to the use of the tool/algorithm, any modifications of the tool made by the researchers (such as the addition of data to a tool’s public corpus), and the date(s) it was used for the purpose(s) described. Any relevant competing interests or potential bias arising as a consequence of the tool/algorithm’s use should be transparently declared and may be discussed in the article. 

ORCID

We require all corresponding authors to identify themselves using ORCID when submitting a manuscript to this journal. ORCID provides a unique identifier for researchers and, through integration with key research workflows such as manuscript submission and grant applications, provides the following benefits:

  • Discoverability: ORCID increases the discoverability of your publications, by enabling smarter publisher systems and by helping readers to reliably find work that you have authored.
  • Convenience: As more organisations use ORCID, providing your iD or using it to register for services will automatically link activities to your ORCID record, and will enable you to share this information with other systems and platforms you use, saving you re-keying information multiple times.
  • Keeping track: Your ORCID record is a neat place to store and (if you choose) share validated information about your research activities and affiliations.

See our ORCID FAQs for more information.

If you don’t already have an iD, you will need to create one if you decide to submit a manuscript to this journal. You can register for one directly from your user account on Editorial Manager, or alternatively via https://ORCID.org/register.

If you already have an iD, please use this when submitting your manuscript, either by linking it to your Editorial Manager account, or by supplying it during submission.

ORCIDs can also be used if authors wish to communicate to readers up-to-date information about how they wish to be addressed or referred to (for example, they wish to include pronouns, additional titles, honorifics, name variations, etc.) alongside their published articles. We encourage authors to make use of the ORCID profile’s “Published Name” field for this purpose. This is entirely optional for authors who wish to communicate such information in connection with their article. Please note that this method is not currently recommended for author name changes: see Cambridge’s author name change policy if you want to change your name on an already published article. See our ORCID FAQs for more information. 

Required Statements

The four sections below must be included in all papers. These statements should be included in the front page, which should be uploaded separately to the main text of the article.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

You may acknowledge individuals or organisations that provided advice, support (non-financial). Formal financial support and funding should be listed in the following section.

FINANCIAL SUPPORT

Please provide details of the sources of financial support for all authors, including grant numbers. For example, "This work was supported by the Medical research Council (grant number XXXXXXX)". Multiple grant numbers should be separated by a comma and space, and where research was funded by more than one agency the different agencies should be separated by a semi-colon, with 'and' before the final funder. Grants held by different authors should be identified as belonging to individual authors by the authors' initials. For example, "This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust (A.B., grant numbers XXXX, YYYY), (C.D., grant number ZZZZ); the Natural Environment Research Council (E.F., grant number FFFF); and the National Institutes of Health (A.B., grant number GGGG), (E.F., grant number HHHH)". Where no specific funding has been provided for research, please provide the following statement: "This research received no specific grant from any funding agency, commercial or not-for-profit sectors."

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

• Authors should include a Conflicts of Interest declaration in their manuscript. If authors do not include this, their submission will not proceed to peer review. • Conflicts of Interest are situations that could be perceived to exert an undue influence on an author’s presentation of their work. They may include, but are not limited to, financial, professional, contractual or personal relationships or situations. • Conflicts of Interest do not necessarily mean that an author’s work has been compromised. Authors should declare any real or perceived Conflicts of Interest in order to be transparent about the context of their work. • If the manuscript has multiple authors, the author submitting the manuscript must include Conflicts of Interest declarations relevant to all contributing authors. • Example wording for a Conflicts of Interest declaration is as follows: “Conflicts of Interest: Author A is employed at company B. Author C owns shares in company D, is on the Board of company E and is a member of organisation F. Author G has received grants from company H.” If no Conflicts of Interest exist, the declaration should state “Conflicts of Interest: Author A and Author B declare none”.

ETHICAL STANDARDS

Where research involves human and/or animal experimentation, the following statements should be included (as applicable): "The authors assert that all procedures contributing to this work comply with the ethical standards of the relevant national and institutional committees on human experimentation and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2008." and "The authors assert that all procedures contributing to this work comply with the ethical standards of the relevant national and institutional guides on the care and use of laboratory animals."

Publication Ethics

Please visit https://www.cambridge.org/core... for information on our ethical guidelines.

Author Hub

You can find guides for many aspects of publishing with Cambridge at Author Hub, our suite of resources for Cambridge authors.