Guidelines for Contributors

Manuscripts containing original material relevant to the genetic, molecular or cellular basis of key physiologic or disease processes are considered for publication if neither the article nor any part of its essential substance, tables, or figures has been or will be published or submitted elsewhere before appearing in Molecular Medicine.

Contributors are encouraged to provide the names of Editorial Board members (view list of Editors) who are knowledgeable in the manuscript's scientific area and able to suggest potential reviewers. Closely related papers that are in press or that have been submitted elsewhere should also be provided.

Upon receipt of an author's submission, the manuscript deemed suitable for the journal will be assigned to a member of the Editorial Board who has agreed to undertake its rapid review, soliciting the opinions of independent referees. After review, the Editors will move to accept, reject or invite a revised submission depending on the novelty, scholarship and general appeal of the work to a broad audience.

Following acceptance of a manuscript, papers will be posted on the web (free on-line access) with PubMed citation prior to the print copy. Contributors may receive 50 free offprints; additional offprints must be ordered when the page proofs are returned to the production office. Offprint orders will be processed once the manuscript is published and payment received.

Contributors must submit their manuscripts on-line. Authors must create an account (or, for previous Molecular Medicine authors or reviewers, check for an existing account) at the Molecular Medicine on-line submission site: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/molmed

The submission system asks for information about the manuscript as noted below, after which contributors will need to upload files related to their submission. While on-line submission can accommodate a variety of file types, authors are urged to provide their manuscripts as original Microsoft Word documents and any tables, figures, and figure legends as original files or as Microsoft Powerpoint slides.  Related manuscripts, figures, or other files should be uploaded separately, and they need not be provided as PDFs. The system allows authors to designate whether material is intended for review by referees or for editorial use only.

A cover letter should identify the person (with address and telephone/fax number/email) responsible for administrative/scientific issues concerning the manuscript. The letter should make it clear that the submitted manuscript has been seen and approved by all authors; that they have taken due care to ensure the integrity of the work; a pre-submission manuscript number (if applicable); that the national and institutional policies of humane care and use of laboratory animals have been abided by conscientiously; and, where applicable, include a statement that all human studies were approved by the appropriate institutional committee or that it complied with the Helsinki Declaration as revised in 1983.

There are no page charges. Authors will be assessed $600 U.S. for the first color page ($200 U.S. for each additional color page) following publication. (At their discretion, at proof stage, authors may choose to present color figures as grayscale images.)

Format of Original Articles

The entire manuscript should be double-spaced with the format following the Council of Biology Editors Style Manual. There is no limit on length or on the number of figures and tables, but the total word count for each article should not exceed 7000; this count includes the abstract, body, references, and tables/figures, with each table/figure counted as 250 words. Each page should be labeled with the first author's name and a page number. The standardized format will be Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgements, References, Figure Legends and Tables. Each section should be started on a new page.

Title and Authors' Names. The title page should include: title of the paper (15 words or less); a shortened version of the title for use as a running head (maximum 45 letter spaces); the name(s) of the author(s), including the first name(s); the name of the department(s) and institution(s) in which the work was done; the institutional affiliation of each author; and the name, address, telephone, fax number and email address of the author responsible for correspondence. Five MeSH-Medline key words not included in the title should be listed.

Abstract. The Abstract (250 words) should include the rationale, objectives, results and conclusions of the study. The Abstract should read as a single, continuous piece and must not be broken into separate sections.

Materials and Methods/Subheading. This section should include sufficient detail to allow another researcher to repeat the experiment.  Biological studies: unambiguous identification of genus, species, and strain; the source of any organisms (cell line, animal stock); and age, sex, weight, and condition of organisms as appropriate. Research on animals should include a statement that the protocol was approved by the appropriate committee or complied with the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. Describe how animals were killed. Describe control and experimental subjects giving age, weight, sex, race, and for animals, breed or strain. Include the supplier of experimental animals.  Clinical studies: pertinent details about human subjects, including methods of recruitment and relevant physical characteristics. Reports of human studies must include a statement that the protocol was approved by the appropriate institutional committee or that it complied with the Helsinki Declaration as revised in 1983. When preparing reports of randomized, clinical trials, authors should refer to the checklist published in the CONSORT Statement and should include a trial profile summarizing participant flow.  General: unambiguous identification of nonbiological materials used (chemicals) including the source of such materials, the types of apparatus used, including model number and manufacturer for specialized equipment, the experimental procedure (by reference to a previous report using the same procedure or by detailed description), including potential hazards, if applicable; and the types of test performed, including statistical tests.

Acknowledgements. Sources of financial support should be included along with any acknowledgements relevant to scientific advice or assistance.

Disclosure: Authors should include any necessary conflicts of interest.

Footnotes. Footnotes should be restricted to the title page (affiliations, corresponding author) and within tables. Footnotes in the title page are assigned consecutive superscript numbers (i.e., 1, 2, 3, etc.). Footnotes in tables are assigned consecutive, superscript capital letters (i.e., A, B, C, etc.).

References. References should be numbered consecutively as they are cited in the text and listed in parentheses. References first cited in tables or figure legends must be numbered so that they will be in sequence with references in the text. References should include full titles of the papers with inclusive page numbers. All authors should be listed when there are seven or fewer; when there are eight or more, the first three should be listed followed by "et al.'' Abbreviate the names of journals according to PubMed. Spell out names of unlisted journals. Do not number references to personal communications, unpublished data, and manuscripts either in preparation or submitted for publication. If essential, such material may be incorporated in the appropriate place in the text. Manuscripts listed as in press should be numbered, but a copy of the text should be submitted to the Editor. Personal communications or unpublished observations can be cited in the text, but must be accompanied with a written permission.

Journal articles 
     1. Goldstein RS, Bruchfeld A, Yang L, et al. (2007) Cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway activity and High          Mobility Group Box-1 (HMGB1) serum levels in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Mol Med. 13:210-5.

Complete books
     2. Tracey, KJ. (2005) Fatal Sequence: The Killer Within. New York: Dana Press. 184 pp.

Articles in books
     3. Forstner JF, Forstner GG. (1994) Gastrointestinal Mucus. In: Physiology of Gastrointestinal Tract. Johnson          LR (ed.) Raven Press, New York, pp. 1255-1283.

Homepages
     4. Molecular Medicine online [Internet]. c1994-2008. Manhasset (NY): The Feinstein Institute of Medical          Research; [cited 11 Apr 2008]. Available from http://molmed.org.

Statistics. Papers with statistical testing should state the name of the test, the n for each analysis, the comparisons of interest, a justification for the use of that test, the alpha level for all tests, whether the tests were one- or two-tailed, and the actual P value for each test.  Data sets should be summarized with descriptive statistics, which should include the n for each data set, a clearly labelled measure of center (such as the mean or the median), and a clearly labelled measure of variability (such as the standard deviation or range).  Graphs should include clearly labelled error bars.  Authors must state whether a number that follows the ± sign is a standard error (s.e.m.) or a standard deviation (s.d.).

Figures. Figures should be cited sequentially in the text using Arabic numerals. Figure legends should be listed one after the other, as part of the text document, separate from the figure files.  Figure legends should include a short title and a brief explanation with sufficient detail to interpret the data presented. Do not exceed 350 words for each legend and provide a key for any symbols.  Authors will be prompted by the system to submit all images or figures as separate documents.  Files should be submitted as Microsoft Powerpoint slides.  The required font for any text in the figure or image is Arial, non-serif.  All image or figure panel labels (A, B, C, et cetera) must be Arial, Bold and in the upper left hand corner of the figure.  All electronic images should be high resolution (300-600 dpi).  For tips on figure preparation, please visit the following websites:
                http://dx.sheridan.com/guidelines/digital_art.html                 http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/bauthor/illustration.asp

Tables. All Tables should be double-spaced each on its own page, portrait orientation, upright, with brief titles. Superscript capital letters should be used in consecutive order as footnotes as described above.

Policies.  Publication in Molecular Medicine implies that readily replaceable material described in the paper will be freely distributed to qualified academic researchers. Nucleic acid and protein sequences should be deposited in an appropriate databank in time for the accession number to be included in the paper.