Information for Authors

• Categories of Manuscripts
• Detailed Instructions for Authors
• General Information Regarding Manuscript Preparation
• Policies
• Electronic Submission

Categories of Manuscripts

Science Signaling is a weekly journal that publishes original material pertaining to the broad field of cell signaling. Starting in the fall of 2008, Science Signaling will publish research articles, in addition to the current features, which include Perspectives, Reviews, Protocols, Meeting Reports, Journal Club, Presentations, and Teaching Resources. Of these, most Perspectives and Reviews are solicited by the editors, but we welcome your suggestions of potential topics and authors. Detailed instructions are available as PDFs below the general overview of each type of manuscript.

Research Articles are expected to present a major advance in cell signaling research. They should include an abstract and be structured as follows: Introduction, Results, Discussion, and Materials and Methods. Supplementary Material will be permitted but should be limited to information that is not essential to the understanding and evaluation of the research presented in the paper. See the Call for Papers for more information about the scope and review process.

Perspectives emphasize the opinions or viewpoints of their authors. More limited in scope than Reviews, they may focus on recently published papers or on methods, books, or policy matters.

Meeting Reports, which were originally published as Perspectives, are now published as a separate category. Often written by the meeting organizers, they feature highlights from meetings and conferences related to cell signaling.

Reviews address timely topics of broad interest and of relevance to signal transduction. Unlike conventional reviews, they may be updated by their authors as developments warrant. Reviews are accompanied by 'glosses' -- textbook-level summaries for readers who seek a brief introduction to the topic. Reviews should provide new insights as well as summarize the information currently available. The best reviews reflect the unique viewpoint of the author and show how new findings alter current thinking about major issues in a particular field. Reviews are evaluated by peer review for scholarship, accuracy, clarity, and effectiveness of presentation. Reviews may provide comprehensive coverage of a topic or may be more tightly focused in the form of a mini-review.

Journal Club articles are short, lively overviews by graduate students or postdoctoral fellows that highlight recent exciting developments in cell signaling research.

Protocols provide step-by-step instructions and notes on the techniques of signal transduction research - information often only hinted at in 'Materials and Methods' sections. Protocols should provide the unique viewpoint and experiences of the author.

Presentations, which are part of the Community section, provide a text description along with the slides presented at a meeting or a seminar in the form of a slideshow.

Teaching Resources, which are part of the Resources section, can be animations, movies, sample questions, lecture materials, online tutorials, or other resources that may be useful for teaching courses that include topics related to signal transduction and cellular regulation. Each includes an abstract, a text description of the resource that includes information for indexing these materials at the BioSciEdNet, a catalog of digital resources useful for teaching biology. Although many of these resources are created or submitted with Science Signaling articles or Connections Maps, the pathways in the Database of Cell Signaling, contributions are welcome. If you have resources that you believe would be appropriate and valuable for the teaching community, please send the Editors a message.

Detailed Instructions for Authors

• Research Articles
• Perspectives, Meeting Reports, and Book Reviews
• Review
• Mini-Review
• Journal Club
• Protocol

General Information Regarding Manuscript Preparation

Symbols, abbreviations, and acronyms should be defined the first time they are used.

Units of measure should be given in SI units. If measurements were made in English units, give metric equivalents.

References and notes are numbered in the order in which they are cited, first through the text and the references, then through the table and figure legends. List a reference only one time. Any references to in-press manuscripts or personal communications should be given a number in the text and placed, in correct sequence, in the references and notes. Such references should not, however, be used to support claims or conclusions. Do not use op. cit., ibid., or et al. (in place of the complete list of authors' names). Journal article references should be complete, including the complete list of authors, the full titles, and the inclusive pagination. Detailed information is provided in the detailed instructions for authors for each type of manuscript.

Figures and tables may be included with any type of manuscript. All figures must be called out within the text. Figures should be numbered in the order of their citation in the text. Details about figure and table preparation are included in the detailed instructions for authors, as they vary by manuscript type.

Figure Legends should be included in the text file immediately after the body of the text and preceding the references. Nomenclature, abbreviations, symbols, and units used in a figure should match those used in the text. The figure title should be given as the first line of the legend.

Tables should supplement, not duplicate, the text. They should be numbered in the order of their citation in the text. The first sentence of the legend should be a brief descriptive title. Each vertical column of a table should have a heading and if appropriate include the unit of measure in parentheses. Units should not change within a column. Centered headings of the body of the table can be used to break the entries into groups. Footnotes should contain information relevant to specific entries or parts of the table.

Supplementary Materials may include digital resources, large data sets, or video or audio files. These should be restricted to information that either not essential to understanding and evaluating the article or is not presentable in a printable format. All supplementary materials should be accompanied by a brief text description, similar to a caption. Details about preferred file formats and file sizes are included in the detailed instructions for authors.

Policies: Submission Requirements and Conditions of Acceptance

The policies for publication of original research in Science Signaling will follow those for publication of research in Science (see the Submission Requirement and Conditions of Acceptance on the Science instructions for authors). These are briefly described here with reference to the appropriate pages on the Science instructions for authors.

Authorship All authors must agree to be so listed and must have seen and approved the manuscript, its content, and its submission to Science Signaling. Any changes in authorship must be approved in writing by all of the original authors. Submission of a paper that has not been approved by all authors will result in immediate rejection without appeal.

Prior publicationScience Signaling will not consider any paper or component of a paper that has been published or is under consideration elsewhere. Distribution on the Internet may be considered prior publication and may compromise the originality of the paper. Please contact the editors with questions regarding this policy.

Human studies Informed consent must have been obtained for studies on humans after the nature and possible consequences of the studies were explained. All research on humans must have approval from the author's Institutional Review Board (IRB) or equivalent body.

Animal care Care of experimental animals must be in accordance with the authors’ institutional guidelines.

Related papers Copies of papers submitted to other journals by any of the authors that relate to a research article submitted to Science Signaling must be included with the submission.

Unpublished data and personal communications Citations to unpublished data and personal communications cannot be used to support claims in the paper.

Funding and conflict of interest Authors must agree to disclose all affiliations, funding sources, and financial or management relationships, including those that could be perceived as potential sources of bias. Science Signaling will follow the same policy as that of Science (see http://www.sciencemag.org/about/authors/prep/coi.dtl).

Data deposition Before publication, large data sets, including microarray data, protein or DNA sequences, and atomic coordinates and structure factors for macromolecular or chemical structures must be deposited in an approved database, an accession number must be included in the published paper, and the deposited information must be released at the time of publication. Electron micrograph maps must also be deposited. Science Signaling will follow the same guidelines as those for Science (see Data deposition).

License Authors retain copyright but must agree to grant to Science Signaling an exclusive license to publish the paper in print and online.

Data availability After publication, all data necessary to understand and assess the conclusions of the manuscript must be available to any reader of Science Signaling. Science Signaling will follow the same guidelines as those for Science (see Data availability).

Access policies After publication, authors may post the accepted version of the paper on the author’s personal Web site and are provided one referrer link that can be posted on a personal or institutional Web page, through which users can freely access the published paper on the Science Signaling site. Science Signaling allows deposition of accepted original research papers into the NIH PubMed Central or other PMC International repository 6 months after publication, in accord with the requirements of the funders NIH and Wellcome Trust, provided that a link to the final version published in Science Signaling is included. Original research papers will be freely accessible with registration at Science Signaling 12 months after publication.

Materials sharing After publication, all reasonable requests for materials must be fulfilled. Before acceptance, Science Signaling must be informed of any restrictions on sharing of materials [Material Transfer Agreements (MTAs), for example]. Unreasonable restrictions may preclude publication.

Embargo policy The paper will remain a privileged document and will not be released to the press or the public before publication. Questions should be referred to the AAAS Office of Public Programs (202-326-6440).

Electronic Submission

Authors of invited submissions will be sent information about online submission by the Science Signaling editor. If you wish to contribute an article that has not been invited by the editors, please contact the editors for information about online submission.

Primary research articles may be submitted online www.submit2SciSignal.org.

Detailed information about filenaming conventions, file sizes, and acceptable file formats is included in the detailed instructions for authors of each type of manuscript.

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