HTML: All Papers (except Editorials)
2. Title
2.1. Check that title is in sentence case.
2.2. Check title spelling.
2.3. Check that title is written in black and bold font.
2.4. Check that capitalization of scientific terms is correct. We suggest you use the following procedure if you are in doubt regarding this or that term.
2.5. Check Latin terms:
The following Latin terms should be formatted in italics: ex vivo, in silico, in situ, in vitro, in vivo.
et al, etc, and via should be formatted in plain text.
Plain text is acceptable for all other Latin terms not noted above.
2.6. Check that species and gene names are written in italics.
3. Author List
3.1. Check that all author names in author list are separated by commas (,). No other separators allowed.
3.2. Check that author’s name does NOT contain titles and/or degrees (e.g. Dr., Ph.D., M.D., etc.).
3.3. Check that there is no period (or any other punctuation mark) after the last author name.
3.4. Check the format of the author name.
Allowed formats:
FirstName LastName
FirstName MiddleName LastName
FirstName MiddleName MiddleName LastName (there can any number of middle names)
FirstName M. LastName (M. is initial of middle name; up to 4 letters; period should be used after each initial)
FirstName M.N. LastName (M.N. are initials of middle names; up to 4 letters; period should be used after each initial)
F. MiddleName LastName (F. is an initial of first name)
F. MiddleName MiddleName LastName (F. is initial of first name and there can any number of middle names)
Important
As a general rule, we don’t want to keep initials for first names. Request the expanded name from the author in this situation. If the authors insist on a first initial, then the middle name(s) must be present and fully expanded.
LastName cannot be presented as initial (even if authors insist on this). LastName should always be presented in full.
Please note that last names can be compound, can have prepositions, suffixes, prefixes or be mononyms. For example:
Compound last names: Garcia-Closas, Gomez Jimenez
Last name related prepositions: Van den Brandt, van der Ent
Suffixes: Williams 3rd, Rowland Jr
Prefixes: McCann, O’Kelly
Mononym: Govindjee
If you see that author name does not comply to these standards or you have a doubt about a name, please contact corresponding author and ask to provide author name in correct format. (PubMed can be used as a resource to clarify doubts about author names, but this method should only be used if the author’s name can be found to appear in one consistent way. Still check with author before making changes other than adding periods after initials.)
3.5. Check that each author name contains a number linked to the affiliation text (i.e. affiliation number). One author name can contain a few affiliation numbers.
If there is only one affiliation text for all authors, then each author name should have “1” next to it.
3.6. Check that all affiliation numbers of the author list are separated by commas (,). No other separator is allowed.
3.7. Check that all affiliation numbers of the author list are formatted in superscript. See below.
Note
Occasionally you may see a symbol (*, #, †, etc.) next to the author name together with affiliation number. This symbol is related to Author Notes.
Author Notes checks can be found below.
4. Affiliations
Note
Contact author for guidance when unsure about a potential correction or in the case of any major changes such as suspected combined/duplicate affiliations, removal of street addresses and renumbering. It’s not necessary to contact author for minor spelling or punctuation errors or ones that can undoubtedly be verified such as the addition of a missing city or zip code.
4.1. Check spelling of English words only.
4.2. Check that there are NO street addresses and house numbers included in affiliation.
4.3. Check that country and city names are present in affiliation. State is also required and should be abbreviated in U.S. affiliations.
4.4. Check that country and city names are NOT written in ALL CAPS (capital letters).
4.5. Check that each individual country is formatted consistently. Allowed variations for China, Taiwan and Hong Kong can be found here.
4.6. Chinese affiliations: zip code is allowed for both city and county/district. If zip code is present, it must be positioned after city/county/district and there must be no comma between city/county/district and zip code. Zip code is optional for any of the elements (city/county/district).
4.7. USA affiliations: check that there is no comma between state and zip code. State must be positioned before zip code. Zip code must be present.
4.8. Non-USA affiliations: check that there is no comma between city and zip code. City must be positioned before zip code. Zip code is optional.
4.9. Check that each affiliation number has only one complete affiliation. One affiliation – one number.
One exclusion: affiliations of Chinese authors, where Key Laboratory combines different institutions. In that case one number can contain two affiliations.
4.10. Occasionally affiliations can contain “Current/Present address:” title. If it is present:
Check that it has a separate affiliation number. One address - one affiliation number.
Check that the title (Current address: or Present address:) is in sentence case and followed by colon (:). No other variations allowed.
All acceptable combinations of “Current/Present address” are depicted on the screenshot below:
4.11. Check that only commas are used to separate parts of affiliations (i.e. department, institution, etc.).
4.12. Check that each affiliation generally maintains a hierarchical order from the smallest to largest unit.
Here is a broad guide that shows the hierarchical order of many types of information you may see where information inside the brackets could appear in any order within that bracket:
[Group/Network/Organization], [Laboratory/Section/Division/Unit/Department], [Hospital/Program], [Faculty of…/School of…/Institute of…], [Campus], [University/Agency], [City], [State/Province] [Zip], [Country]
If you find deviations from this order check PubMed to see if you can find a few consistent listings of the affiliation in question to help in determining if an edit may be necessary.
Please provide your suggested edits to the author for approval before making any changes to affiliation order.
4.13. Special Formatting Notes:
Check that “MD” in “MD Anderson Cancer Center” appears as such (not “M D”, “M.D.”, etc..).
5. Author Notes
Author notes are optional. Article can have several or no author notes.
Note
We never include author notes to indicate corresponding/co-corresponding authors since we have a dedicated section for this information.
5.1. Check that a space (hard return) is used between the last affiliation and the author note(s).
5.2. Check that first word of author notes starts with a capital letter.
5.3. Check that author notes are denoted by symbol (no numbers allowed). Each note should have different symbol.
First author note should be denoted by: *
Second author note should be denoted by: #
Third author note should be denoted by: †
5.4. “&” is also an acceptable symbol in the author list for an author note. However, the note itself should be located in the Editorial Note section with the following text (no other symbol or text allowed):
&This corresponding author has a verified history of publications using a personal email address for correspondence.
5.5. Check that author notes line is written in sentence case.
5.6. Check that there are no punctuation marks at the end of author notes line.
5.7. Check that author notes symbols are formatted in superscript.
5.8. Check that author notes symbol is present next to author name(s).
6. Correspondence
Note
Each corresponding author is only allowed one email (mandatory) and one ORCID iD (optional). ORICID iD’s must be accompanied by an email as they are not a substitute for one.
Important
Do not replace an author’s email for any reason. Notify Christopher anytime an author requests to change their email or if an email fails to be delivered.
6.1. Check that correspondence section has a title “CORRESPONDING AUTHORS” for more than one author or “CORRESPONDING AUTHOR” for one author (ALL CAPS).
6.2. Check that correspondence section has at least one corresponding author with an accompanying email.
6.3. Check that author’s name does not have any punctuation marks at the end.
6.4. Check that email line is located below the author’s name and does not have any punctuation marks at the end.
6.5. Check that ORCID line (when present) is located below the email line and does not have any punctuation marks at the end.
6.6. Check that multiple corresponding authors (along with their accompanying email/ORCID information) are divided by a blank line (hard return).
6.7. Check that author’s name does NOT contain titles and/or degrees (e.g. Dr., Ph.D., M.D., etc.).
6.8. Check that email address is hyperlinked.
6.9. Check that ORCID iD is hyperlinked and leads to a valid ORCID page.
If ORCID page has “No public information available.”, then ask the author if they can add or make the information visible, and also include a link to the ORCID visibility settings page to assist them in making the update. Inform Olga upon approval if authors do not respond or choose to leave the ORCID as is.
Note
It’s OK to send corrections to production in parallel with the author query for ORCID’s. There is no need to send reminders for pending ORCID queries to authors after approval. Forward any replies received from author after approval to Olga.
6.10. Check that author’s name completely matches corresponding name in the author list (including the middle initials if any).
7. Keywords
7.1. Check that Keywords section has a title “KEYWORDS” (ALL CAPS).
7.2. Check that keywords are written in lowercase, unless proper nouns as well as exceptions such as special terms, genes, proteins, species names etc, which normally start with capital letter. Check that capitalization of scientific terms is correct.
7.3. Check that keywords are consistent throughout the article.
We suggest you use the following procedure if you are in doubt regarding this or that term. Please contact the author for guidance if any doubts remain.
7.4. Check that article has at least 1 keyword and not more than 8 keywords.
8. Abbreviations
Abbreviations are optional.
8.1. Abbreviations should not appear in the Abstract section and should only appear in the final sections as is noted in Section Headers.
8.2. Check the format of the abbreviations line:
ABRVTN: expanded text; ABRVTN: expanded text
Check that abbreviation part is separated from expanded part by a colon (:). No other separators allowed.
Check that abbreviation pairs (i.e. abbreviation and corresponding expanded text) are separated from each other by semicolons (;). No other separators allowed.
We suggest you use the following procedure if you are in doubt regarding this or that term. If any doubts remain or any abbreviations are found to be formatted inconsistently throughout the MS when using the previously mentioned procedure, please contact the author.
9. Dates
Note
Published title and date will only be present for Advance papers.
9.1. Check that dates section has titles “Received:”, “Accepted:” and “Published:” (title case and followed by colon (:)).
9.2. Check that month is spelled out as a word and dates are in-line with the following format: Month Day, Year (e.g. June 1, 2017, April 12, 2016, December 31, 2015, etc.) Note: if a day is presented by single digit, there should be no leading 0.
9.3. Check spelling of the month.
9.4. Check that Received date is older than Accepted date (i.e. we cannot accept before we receive).
9.5. Check that Accepted date is older than Published date (i.e. we cannot publish before we accept).
Note
Pay attention to years.
9.6. Check that Received and Accepted dates match JPS.
10. Copyright
10.1. Check that copyright section has a title “Copyright:” (title case).
10.2. Check that copyright string starts with copyright symbol (©) and is followed by a YEAR.
10.3. Check that the YEAR is followed by:
Last name of first author et al.
or
two last names divided by “and” and followed by a period (.) (if there are only two authors in the article)
and followed by:
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
10.4. Check that last name of first author matches last name of the first author in the author list. In case of 2 authors, check that last names match names in the author list.
10.5. Check that “Creative Commons Attribution License” is a working hyperlink that leads to https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.
11. Section Headers
Section headers should comply with below mentioned requirements in respect to order, letter case, color and spelling. Also, no variations (except for alternatives explicitly mentioned in these standards) are allowed. For example, standards have “Author Contributions” section with no alternatives specified, which means that all other variations (like “Authors’ Contributions, Author Contribution, Contribution of Author, etc”) are not allowed.
If you see any deviations of section naming in articles, please contact authors and check whether they agree to change section header in question in accordance with these standards.
Also, if you notice that the order of the sections need to be changed (to comply with the standards), please contact author to confirm section order changes with him/her.
11.1. Check that article has the following sections in the following order:
Research Papers
Abstract - mandatory - [title case, in blue]
Introduction - mandatory - [title case, in white on blue background]
Results - mandatory - (alternatively can be Results and Discussion) - [title case, in white on blue background]
Discussion - mandatory - (alternatively can be Discussion and Conclusions or Discussion and Conclusion) - [title case, in white on blue background]
Conclusions or Conclusion - optional - [title case, in white on blue background]
Materials and Methods - mandatory - (alternatively can be Methods or Patients and Methods) - [title case, in white on blue background] - (Other alternative locations include between Discussion and Conclusions OR between Introduction and Results sections)
Ethics statement - optional - (if present, it should only appear as a subheader in Materials and Methods section) [sentence case, in black]
Supplementary Materials - optional - [title case, in white on blue background]
Abbreviations - optional - [title case, in white on blue background]
Author Contributions - mandatory - [title case, in white on blue background] - (let Olga or Elena know in your corrections email if missing - do not email authors about it)
Acknowledgments - optional - [title case, in white on blue background]
Conflicts of Interest - mandatory - [title case, in white on blue background]
Funding - optional - [title case, in white on blue background]
Editorial Note - optional - [title case, in white on blue background]
References - mandatory - [title case, in white on blue background]
Reviews
Note
Formatting checks for non-standard headings (including all types of subheaders) should be skipped until further notice. Still check for spelling and grammatical errors.
Introduction - optional - [title case, in white on blue background]
Reviews usually have free-style (research related) section headers. These headers should be formatted in sentence case and can be colored in white on blue background.
Abbreviations - optional - [title case, in white on blue background]
Author Contributions - optional - [title case, in white on blue background]
Acknowledgments - optional - [title case, in white on blue background]
Conflicts of Interest - mandatory - [title case, in white on blue background]
Funding - optional - [title case, in white on blue background]
Editorial Note - optional - [title case, in white on blue background]
References - mandatory - [title case, in white on blue background]
Research Perspectives
Note
Formatting checks for non-standard headings (including all types of subheaders) should be skipped until further notice. Still check for spelling and grammatical errors.
Research Perspectives usually have free-style (research related) section headers. These headers should be formatted in sentence case and can be colored in white on blue background.
Abbreviations - optional - [title case, in white on blue background]
Author Contributions - optional - [title case, in white on blue background]
Acknowledgments - optional - [title case, in white on blue background]
Conflicts of Interest - mandatory - [title case, in white on blue background]
Funding - optional - [title case, in white on blue background]
Editorial Note - optional - [title case, in white on blue background]
References - mandatory - [title case, in white on blue background]
11.2. Check the format of all subsection headers in the article:
Check that all subsection headers in the article are written in sentence case.
Check that subsection headers are formatted in bold and colored in black.
Check that there is no underlining or italics (except for Latin terms and gene names) in the headers.
Check that there is no period (.) at the end of the subsection header.
11.3. Check the format of all subsubsection headers in the article:
Check that all subsubsection headers in the article are written in sentence case.
Check that subsubsection headers are formatted in italics, bold and colored in black.
Check that there is no underlining in the headers.
Check that there is no period (.) at the end of the subsubsection header.
11.4. Check the spacing of all headers in the article:
Headers are separated from the following text with a space (hard return).
When multiple headers are present in succession, each header is separated from the next by a space (hard return), and the lowest level header has no space (soft return) between it and the following text.
12. Text
12.1. Check that font type and size is consistent across all sections of the article.
12.2. Check that there is a period (.) at the end of the Abstract text.
12.3. Check that no references are being called out in the Abstract text.
12.4. Check that nothing is hyperlinked in the Abstract text.
12.5. Check Materials and Methods section (or its alternatives - see in Section Headers) for erroneously placed hyperlinks (e.g. hyperlinked numbers in compound names).
12.6. Check Acknowledgments section for misplaced funding information and move to Funding section. Check with Olga or Elena if you are not sure how to separate the information.
12.7. Check Conflicts of Interest section for detailed statement.
If statement is simply “none.” or something similarly vague, then ask the production team to check the COI in the submission system and use the standard statement if applicable:
The authors declare no conflicts of interest related to this study.
12.8. Check all website addresses in article text:
Check with author about nonworking links (see exceptions here). They can choose to replace or remove them. If an author requests to remove a link, then the name of the resource (software, database, tool, etc.) should be/remain present. In cases where the name of the resource is the same as the website URL (ex: MicroRNA.org), the protocol (https:// or http://), “www.” and any other excess information should be removed from the URL, and the remaining resource/website name should no longer be kept as an active link (ex: “http://www.microrna.org/microrna/home.do” would be changed to “MicroRNA.org”).
12.9. Check Latin terms (this applies to all text except References):
The following Latin terms should be formatted in italics: ex vivo, in silico, in situ, in vitro, in vivo.
et al, etc, and via should be formatted in plain text.
Plain text is acceptable for all other Latin terms not noted above.
A period should follow “et al”: et al.
12.10. Name of cities, countries, institutions, books and manuals should not be in italics. (this applies to all text except References)
12.11. Check for consistent formatting of biotech companies in the text (typically appearing in Materials and Methods). Optional elements should be used in all or none, but US and non-US companies can be treated separately with regards to consistency.
USA companies: Company Name, City (optional), State (optional), USA
Non-US companies: Company Name, City (optional), State or Province (optional), Country Name
12.12. British and American English spelling are both acceptable; however, consistency should be maintained.
13. Figures
Note
Acceptable file formats when requesting an updated figure from author are TIFF (preferable), PNG, JPG (not recommended) or EPS format and at no less than 300 ppi.
Any additions or changes outside of spelling, grammar or resolution to the figures need approval from Olga or Elena before implementation.
13.1. Check that figure image has text and graphics which are clear and large enough to read.
If image is hard to read, please contact Production team and ask to provide clearer images. If Production team does not have better images, then contact corresponding author.
13.2. Check whether figures have panel letters.
A panel letter is not required in the case where there is only one image, or panel.
Lowercase and uppercase panel letters are allowed; however, they should be used consistently in the figure and throughout the paper: either all figures have lowercase panel letters or all have uppercase letters.
Lowercase and uppercase subpanel letters as well as numbers are allowed; however, they should be used consistently in the figure and throughout the paper. (Ex. Aa, Ba… OR AA, BA… OR A1, B1). Subpanels are not mandatory.
13.3. Check the figure description text (figure legend):
Check that figure legend has a figure number:
Figure N. (where “N” is a number of the figure)
Check that figure number is labeled as “Figure” and followed by the figure number. No substitutes (Scheme, Chart, Graphic etc.) allowed in place of the word “Figure”. Contact author before making this change while suggesting that we can indicate this detail in the legend notes if they prefer (Ex: Figure 1. Graphic representation of…).
Check that number is followed by period (.).
Check that figure number is formatted in bold and colored in black.
If figure number is followed by text, then check that the first sentence of that text is formatted in bold and colored in black. The rest of the text should be in plain text.
Figure 1. First sentence of legend text in sentence case. Second sentence and rest of text.
Exclusion: if first sentence contains panel letters, then it should be formatted in plain text.
Figure 2. First sentence of legend text containing panel letter (A) and letter (B) in sentence case. Second sentence and rest of text.
If figure image has panel letters, then check that reference to each panel is present in figure legend. Reference is denoted by panel letter and is formatted in bold. Subpanels are allowed (Ex. Aa, Ab, Ac, etc.) but do not require individual callouts in the legend or text.
If a reference to panel letter is missing, then please ask author to provide one.
Check that every panel letter callout is formatted in bold font.
Check that at least the first instance of each panel letter is enclosed in parentheses. Subsequent callouts of the same panel letter can be enclosed in parentheses, but this is not mandatory.
Check with author about rearranging panels/callouts if called out of order. If author has logical reason for keeping as-is, please seek approval from Olga while copying Christopher.
Check that the case of each panel letter callout matches case of the panel letter used in the image. Uppercase or lowercase is fine as long as only one case is consistently used in the figure and throughout the paper.
Check that the first instance of each panel letter is called out in alphabetical order (Ex. A, B, A, C, B, D).
Panel letters can be combined in different ways in the figure legend text (The same variations are allowed for lowercase panel letters):
(A and B)
(A, B)
(A–C)
13.4. Check that figure numbers are assigned to figures linearly (1, 2, 3 and so on) as well as continuously and there are no gaps in a sequence. In other words there should be no situation when there are figures 1, 3 and 4 in the article, but figure 2 is missing.
At the same time, upon authors request, figures can appear in the text in any order. E.g. figure 2 before figure 1 is OK as long as they are renumbered to appear linearly throughout the text.
If you see that there are gaps in number sequence, then check with corresponding author whether some figures are missing or whether it is possible to renumber the figures to eliminate the gaps.
13.5. Check figure callouts in the text:
Check the format of figure callouts (no other variations allowed):
Figure 1
- If figure has panels, then callout can have a letter (letter case should be the same as on figure image):Figure 1AFigure 1a
Examples of callout combinations:Figure 1Figure 3CFigure 2B and 2C (note that there is no “s” at the end of “Figure” word)Figure 5B, 5CFigure 1E–1G
- Check that the word “Figure” as well as number (and letter) are hyperlinked.
Check that each figure has at least 1 callout in the text.
Check that the first instance of each figure’s callout is in numerical order throughout the manuscript (Ex. 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 4).
We’re not concerned with alphabetical order when panels are included.
If one or more callouts are missing or are being called out of linear order in the text, please contact author.
13.6. Check that each figure is placed after its first callout.
13.7. Check that figures and their legends are displaying properly in pop-out window.
14. Tables
Note
Acceptable file format when requesting an updated table from author is Word doc.
Any additions or changes outside of spelling or grammar to the tables need approval from Olga or Elena before implementation.
14.1. Check that table font size is large enough to read.
If table is hard to read, please contact Production team and ask to increase font size.
14.2. Check table title:
Check that there is a title above the table.
Check that title has table number:
Table N. (where “N” is a number of the table)In rare cases table number can contain a letter:
Table 1A. (where Table 1A and 1B, 1C etc are separate tables)
Check that table number is labeled as “Table” and followed by the table number. No substitutes such as “Chart” allowed in place of the word “Table”. Contact author before making this change while suggesting that we can indicate this detail in the table title if they prefer (Ex: Table 1. Chart showing…).
Check that number is followed by period (.).
Check that table number is followed by table title. Table title should be a single sentence. It is not allowed to have more than 1 sentence as a table title.
Table 2. Table title in sentence case.
Check that title has period (.) at the end.
Check that title is written in sentence case and colored in black.
14.3. Check that additional table-related information is presented below the table as a note in plain text.
14.4. Check that table font, title font and notes (additional information) fonts are used consistently within the article (i.e. font should not vary from table to table).
14.5. Check table numbers. Tables should be numbered linearly (1, 2, 3 and so on) as well as continuously, so there are no gaps in the sequence. In other words, there should be no situation when there are tables 1, 3 and 4 in the article, but table 2 is missing.
At the same time, upon authors request, tables can appear in the text in any order. E.g. table 2 before table 1 is OK as long as they are renumbered to appear linearly throughout the text.
If you see that there are gaps in number sequence, then check with corresponding author whether some tables are missing or whether it is possible to renumber the tables to eliminate the gaps.
14.6. Check table callouts in the text:
Check the format of table callouts:
Table 1 (or in rare cases Table 1A)Examples:Table 1Table 2ATables 1 and 2 (note that there is an “s” at the end of “Table” word)Tables 1, 2Tables 3A and 3B (where 3A and 3B are separate tables)
Check that word “Table” (or “Tables”) as well as number (and letter) are hyperlinked.
Check that each table has at least 1 callout in the text.
Check that the first instance of each table’s callout is in numerical order throughout the manuscript (Ex. 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 4).
We’re not concerned with alphabetical order when panels are included.
If one or more callouts are missing or are being called out of linear order in the text, please contact author.
14.7. Check that each table is placed after its first callout.
15. Reference Callouts
15.1. Check reference callouts in the text:
Check the format of reference callouts:
[N] (where “N” is the order number of the corresponding reference)Examples:[1][1, 2][1–3][1, 3–4]
Check that only comma (,) and en dash (–) are used as a separators. No other separators are allowed.
Check that there is a space after comma (,) and no space before and after en dash (–).
Check that all reference callouts are in plain text and a number (or numbers in case of ranges) is hyperlinked (callouts will not be hyperlinked if they appear in figures).
15.2. Check that callout number for each of the references is present in the text or is covered in the range of numbers. i.e. in the range of [1–3] reference 2 is not present in the text, but covered in the range. This case is acceptable.
Callouts can be found in text, figures and tables.
15.3. Check that there are no callouts for non-existing references (i.e. there is a callout, but there is no reference).
15.4. Check that there are no references for which callouts are missing (i.e. there is a reference, but there is no callout for it).
15.5. Check that reference callouts appear in linear order throughout the manuscript. 1, 2, 3 and so on. Once a reference has initially been called out, it can be called out again in any order. For example, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 4 is OK. Sometimes callouts can appear to be out of linear order due to being called out in tables - This is OK as long as all other callouts are following linear order.
If one or more references or callouts are missing or are being called out of linear order in the text, please contact author.
16. References
Note
Please refer to PubMed and the original article when investigating missing or doubtful information in references with the exception of abbreviated journal titles and PubMed links. Email the author for the correct information if there is a discrepancy between PubMed and the original article.
Check that only comma (,) and en dash (–) are used as a separators. No other separators are allowed.
16.1. Automated Formatting Checks
16.1.1. Run reference list through Edifix.
Title Edifix job name as desired, but at least include the PII number.
Compare “Show Changes” tab in Edifix and enter the reference number(s) on our Edifix Notes sheet for any issues found by Edifix that needed to be corrected but Jaguar PubMed feature didn’t.
It’s not necessary to note if Edifix points out an erratum unless it actually helps with a correction we would have otherwise missed.
Cross-check author lists that include collaborators against PubMed and original article.
Notify Christopher if half or more of the references are being flagged as being on Cabell’s list.
16.1.2. Run references that have been reformatted by Edifix through the External References check in the Jaguar tool (only applicable for updated reference lists sent from author).
16.2. Author List
16.2.1. Check that author names in the list of authors are in-line with the following format:
LastName INITIALS optional Suffix (e.g. Sr, Jr, 2nd, 3rd, 4th)
16.2.2. Check author initials:
No more than 3 initials allowed.
Allow the number of initials author has supplied if different from PubMed and/or original article (within the 3 initial limit).
NO hyphens or spaces allowed in-between initials.
16.2.3. Check that all mononyms (names which have no initials) are “true” mononyms (check PubMed site/original article).
16.2.4. Remove any electronic addresses (Ex. Electronic address: easloffice@easloffice.eu).
16.2.5. Check that list of authors contains no more than either:
13 authors followed by “et al.” OR
14 authors
16.2.6. Check that authors are separated by comma (,) followed by space.
16.2.7. Check that et al is separated from list of authors by comma (,).
16.2.8. Check that there is a period (.) either after the last author name (if there are less or equal to 14 authors), or after et al (if there are exactly 13 authors + et al), or after group authorship (if present).
16.2.9. List of authors can contain group authorship (see screenshot below). Check that group authorship is positioned at the end of list of authors. Other positions are not allowed.
16.2.10. Group authorship must be separated from author list by comma (,) and “and” word. Group authorship is not counted against total number of authors in the author list quota.
16.2.11. If there are multiple group authorships, then those should be separated by comma (,) and “and” word.
16.3. Reference Title
16.3.1. Title can be written in sentence case, title case or in ALL CAPS. All these formats are allowed.
Format of title is allowed to be inconsistent across all references in the article.
Proper nouns should have correct capitalization when title is not formatted in all caps.
It’s OK if capitalization of title does not match PubMed/original article.
16.3.2. Check that title is followed by a period (.). There should be a space after period.
16.4. Citation-Data (in-house)
Attention
- This section is applicable ONLY to in-house journals:
Oncotarget, Oncoscience, Aging (Albany NY), Genes Cancer.
Citation data is a part of a reference, which contains journal title, year, volume, pages, doi and PubMed link.
16.4.1. Check that citation data has correct journal title. The following titles are allowed:
OncotargetOncoscienceAging (Albany NY)Genes CancerThis is the only acceptable spelling. No variations are allowed.
16.4.2. Check that journal citation-data has the following elements in this order:
JournalTitle. year; volume: pages. DOI [PubMed]
Journal title should be followed by period (.) There should be a space after period.
Year should be presented in full (4 digits) and should be followed by semicolon (;). There should be a space after semicolon.
Volume should be followed by colon (:). There can be a space after colon (but this is not mandatory).
Page numbers must be written in shortened format (12063-74) and followed by a period (.). There should be a space after period. Occasionally, there are cases where a reference may only have one page number, which is fine.
DOI must be present and in “https://doi.org” format. It should be highlighted in blue and should be an active link leading to the correct article page. There must be no period at the end. Alphabetical letters that appear in DOI numbers can be in uppercase, lowercase or a mixture of both cases (this excludes the “https://doi.org” URL).
“[PubMed]” link must be present (when available), should be highlighted in blue and should be an active link leading to the article page on the PubMed website. There must be no period at the end.
16.4.3. There can be references to the articles which have been published “ahead of print”. The format of citation data for such articles is as follows: JournalTitle. year. [Epub ahead of print]. DOI [PubMed]
Check that there is a period (.) after year followed by a space.
Check that there is a period (.) after “[Epub ahead of print]” followed by a space.
Check that “[Epub ahead of print]” appears after year and before DOI.
If you come across an Epub reference, be sure to verify whether publishing information has since been released. If publishing information is available, then please add vol, pg numbers, etc. and format as directed above in section 16.3.2.
16.5. Citation-Data (other journals)
Attention
This section is applicable to all journals except for in-house journals.
Citation data is a part of a reference, which contains journal title, year, volume, pages, doi and PubMed link.
16.5.1. Check that journal citation-data has the following elements in this order:
JournalTitle. year; volume: pages. DOI [PubMed]
Journal title should be followed by period (.) There should be a space after period.
Journal title can be abbreviated or written in full. If abbreviated, check that it is written the same way as on PubMed site. You can look up journal titles here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals.
If both full and abbreviated title are present in the reference, then delete abbreviation and leave full title (you can spot such cases by presence of colon (:) in the title; e.g. Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry : RCM.)
Year should be presented in full (4 digits) and should be followed by semicolon (;). There should be a space after semicolon.
Volume should be followed by colon (:). There can be a space after colon (but this is not mandatory).
Page numbers must be written in shortened format (12063-74) and followed by a period (.). There should be a space after period. Occasionally, there are cases where a reference may only have one page number, which is fine.
DOI must be present (when available) and in “https://doi.org” format. It should be highlighted in blue and should be an active link leading to the correct article page. There must be no period at the end. Alphabetical letters that appear in DOI numbers can be in uppercase, lowercase or a mixture of both cases (this excludes the “https://doi.org” URL). When checking for missing DOI’s, you can consult PubMed, https://www.crossref.org/ or the applicable journal website.
“[PubMed]” link must be present (when available), should be highlighted in blue and should be an active link leading to the article page on the PubMed website. There must be no period at the end.
16.5.2. There can be references to the articles which have been published “ahead of print”. The format of citation data for such articles is as follows: JournalTitle. year. [Epub ahead of print]. DOI [PubMed]
Check that there is a period (.) after year followed by a space.
Check that there is a period (.) after “[Epub ahead of print]” followed by a space.
Check that “[Epub ahead of print]” appears after year and before DOI.
If you come across an Epub reference, be sure to verify whether publishing information has since been released. If publishing information is available, then please add vol, pg numbers, etc. and format as directed above in section 16.4.1.
16.6. General Checks
16.6.1. Check for duplicates in the reference list.
If you find duplicate references, please contact author and ask to correct the reference list along with renumbering reference call-outs.
16.6.2. Check for references translated into English from another language (usually you can spot those by keywords: translation, translated from, in Chinese, in French etc). Those references should comply to the following format:
Author list. [Title of the article]. Journal Name. 1072; 1: 1-2. (doi, if available) (PubMed link, if available)Example:34. Yang XM, Yang H. [Expression of high mobility group box-1 in the lung tissue and serum of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis]. Zhonghua Jie He He Hu Xi Za Zhi. 2013; 36:497-500.
16.6.3. Check for references containing journal title in English and original language (e.g. “International journal of cancer” and “Journal international du cancer”). Remove title in original language and leave English version. If there is just a “foreign language” version present, it is OK to leave that version (no need to find English one). Consult PubMed/original article if in doubt of the correct journal name.
16.6.4. Check for extra information in the references (i.e. in addition to “standard” information). Remove all extra information.
Example:“:official publication of the society of…”
16.6.5. Remove any instances of “Available from”, “[Internet]”, “[pii]” Accessed dates (ex: “Accessed November 6, 2017.”) and empty (blank) doi.
16.6.6. Remove “PMID” and “PMCID” details, if present in any reference.
16.6.7. Check formatting for references that have been cited from supplemental issues. This information should appear in between the publishing year and semicolon in this format:
(Suppl N) (where “N” is the supplemental issue number)
16.6.8. Preprint articles are allowed in references. A couple of examples (not limited to) would be from sources such as BioRxiv and Preprints.
These should be formatted to the same standards as described above in 16.2, 16.3 and 16.5 with the exception that a special ID number will typically be used in place of volume and page numbers.
16.6.9. Retracted articles are allowed in references. If you come across one, check to make sure that is has a retraction note:
If an article is being cited that was later retracted, a note should appear at the end of the reference with the following details about the retraction notice (add a period before the note if one is not present):
Retraction in: JournalTitle. year; volume: pages. DOI [PubMed]
If a retraction notice itself is being cited, “Retracted:” should appear before the title of the paper like this:
Retracted: ReferenceTitle. JournalTitle. year; volume: pages. DOI [PubMed]
If you come across a retracted reference that does not have a note to indicate retraction at all, contact the author to inform them that a retracted article is being cited and that we need to reformat it with the appropriate retraction note.
16.6.10. We prefer all non-journal article references to have a working link when possible. When links are missing, it is fine to search the internet and add if you are sure it is correct; however, it is not necessary to contact the author to provide missing links except where specifically noted to do so in these standards.
16.7. Websites
16.7.1. There is no standard for website references. Authors are allowed to accompany a web link with any information they think appropriate.
16.7.2. Check that website link is valid (i.e. it points to the referenced web resources, rather to error or other irrelevant page).
If the link is not valid, please contact author to provide a working link.
16.7.3. If a link is not present, search the internet and add it if you are sure it is correct. Otherwise leave as-is; it is not necessary to contact author to provide missing links.
16.8. Books and Reports
16.8.1. There is no standard for books and reports. However at least Title and Year (and author name for book references) should be present.
16.8.2. If a link is not present, search the internet and add it (preferably a DOI) if you are sure it is correct. Otherwise leave as-is; it is not necessary to contact author to provide missing links.
16.9. Patents
16.9.1. Check on patent formatting with Christopher before sending corrections to production. Please see example of patent in picture below:
17. Supplementary Materials
17.1. Download File Names
Supplementary materials, figures, tables, etc. are kept as separate downloads in HTML. When possible, a single file is used for each, but it is OK if tables and figures appear in separate files (regardless of size).
Supplementary references should be kept in the file that they are being called out in. If they are being called out in more than one file, then they should be kept in their own file that’s named “Supplementary References”.
Download file names should be descriptive of what is inside the file.
17.1.1. Supplementary Figures
Figures can appear in one file or in separate files (regardless of size).
When all figures are kept in one file, it should be named Supplementary Figures - Title case, blue and bold font.
When a single figure is kept in one file, it should be named Supplementary Figure N (“N” being the figure number) - Title case, blue and bold font.
When multiple, but not all, figures are kept in one file, it should be named Supplementary Figures N, N, N…, Supplementary Figures N–N (“N” being the figure number) or other similar variations - Title case, blue and bold font.
17.1.2. Supplementary Tables
Tables can appear in one file or in separate files (regardless of size).
When all tables are kept in one file, it should be named Supplementary Tables - Title case, blue and bold font.
When a single table is kept in one file, it should be named Supplementary Table N (“N” being the table number) - Title case blue and bold font.
When multiple, but not all, tables are kept in one file, it should be named Supplementary Tables N, N, N…, Supplementary Tables N–N (“N” being the table number) or other similar variations - Title case, blue and bold font.
17.1.3. Supplementary References
When all references are kept in one file, it should be named Supplementary References - Title case, blue and bold font.
17.1.4. Supplementary Materials
Should be named Supplementary Materials - Title case, blue and bold font.
17.1.5. Supplementary Videos
Should be named Supplementary Video N (“N” being the video number) - Title case, blue and bold font. If there is only one video in total, “Supplementary Video” is acceptable as well.
