Journal of Biological Physics and Chemistry

Abbreviated guidelines for authors (a complete version is published in the first issue of each volume)

GENERAL

The Journal publishes three main categories of papers: regular papers (Research Articles), i.e. reports of completed work; Letters, i.e. preliminary reports (typically not exceeding 2 printed pages; a report of interesting new observations need not be accompanied by an attempted explanation, and conversely a new theory need not be accompanied by supporting experimental evidence); and Reviews (short reviews containing original and interesting new ideas are especially encouraged). Minireviews give a succinct, rather than comprehensively critical, overview of a topical field. Reviews may be written in the form of an essay meant to be read, enjoyed, and discussed, rather than just archived. This category also includes Notes, which are short and sharply focused; they may be a novel presentation of a familiar theme, or a lively discussion of a single issue, which may for example draw the attention of physicists to an interesting unsolved biological problem. The Journal also carries a section (“Forum”) for debating controversial issues and a section (“Technical Notes”) for covering new developments in instrumentation or software. Critical book reviews and conference reports are also welcome.

Papers must not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere. Acceptance of a paper will be determined by its quality and interest. Especially for the Reviews category, clarity of exposition and broad appeal are important criteria for acceptance. All contributions will be assessed by one or more independent referees, and where necessary an adjudicator.

SUBMISSION

Papers should preferably be submitted to the member of the editorial board whose expertise best covers the research reported and with whom the author can communicate efficiently (see inside front cover). Submissions may also be made to the Journal office either in Basel or in Tbilisi, or to the Editor-in-Chief directly.

Figures and Tables must be prepared separately from the text, with their positions clearly indicated, e.g. by a marginal note or a boxed phrase “Figure … near here”.

Papers can be submitted either electronically (preferred) or on paper. They should be accompanied by a covering message or letter, stating the category of paper (see above). Authors are encouraged to suggest the names of referees. Please indicate to whom correspondence and page proofs should be addressed, and include contact telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address.

Electronic submissions should preferably be made via e-mail, but diskettes and CD-ROMs are also acceptable, in which case two paper copies (see below) should also be supplied. Electronic submissions should bear the subject “submit JBPC [corresponding author’s name]”. The source code should be contained within a single file. If figures files are supplied separately, they should be zipped together with the text. If the figures are not encoded electronically at the time of submission, review copies may be faxed.

On paper, two copies are required, of which at least one must be single-sided, of both text and figures, on A4 paper or similar. The text must be double spaced. Two sets of any original photographs should be supplied.

The same provisions apply to the resubmission of revised manuscripts, except that the subject of the e-mail must begin with “resubmit”. Resubmissions should always be accompanied by a letter responding to reviewers’ criticisms.

STRUCTURE

Each paper should contain the following in order:

Title

Authors and full addresses where their work was carried out. Contact information, e.g. an e-mail address, may be given. Current addresses, where different, should also be given.

Summary (abstract) of no more than 200 words not containing references or unexplained abbreviations.

Key index words or phrases (3–6 choices, not including words occurring in the title). PACS numbers are optional.

Short title (max. 50 characters) for page headings.

Main body of the work, divided into numbered sections (and subsections where necessary) described by short headings.

Acknowledgments.

Appendices (if necessary; a list of symbols may be placed here).

References (of all articles cited in the text, preferably numbered in sequence as they first appear, the numbers to be placed in square brackets in the text), on separate sheets. References should be both sufficient and necessary. They should contain some or all of the following elements:

Author surnames with initial(s)

Title of paper (roman) or book (italic)

Journal name (italic), using standard abbreviations where known (if in doubt, give the full title); non-English journal titles should never be translated; if transliterated, provide the original if there is doubt about the transliteration conventions

Volume number (bold)

Year of publication (in parentheses)

First and last page numbers

Examples:

1. Bellman, R. Asymptotic behaviour of solutions of differential-difference equations. Mem. Am. Math. Soc. 35 (1959) 123–134.

2. Bellman, R. & Cooke, K.L. Differential-Difference Equations, 2nd edn, pp. 342–348. New York: Academic Press (1963).

3. Bellman, R., Cooke, K.L. & Dyson, A. Shock dynamics in metals. In: Proc. Int. Conf. on Behaviour of Materials (ed. J.L. Miller & R.F. Smith), vol. 2, pp. 173–183. Oxford: Pergamon Press (1965).

Unpublished material should be referred to in the text as “unpublished data” or “personal communication”.

Footnotes (numbered in sequence as they first appear, the numbers to be superscripted), on separate sheets.

Tables (numbered in sequence as they appear in the text), on separate sheets.

Tables (numbered in sequence as they appear in the text), on separate sheets.

Captions for figures (numbered in sequence as they appear in the text), on separate sheets.

PREPARATION OF FIGURES

All line drawings will be reproduced as supplied wherever possible, i.e. with no re-lettering. They should be scaled for the final published size (the journal is printed in two columns on A4 paper). Electronic versions of all figures are preferred, in the format in which they were originally prepared. Carefully review a printout of each figure before submitting.

PAGE PROOFS, REPRINTS, COPYRIGHT

Page proofs will be sent by electronic mail unless explicitly requested otherwise. Authors are requested to respond by fax, e-mail or express mail within 48 hours of receiving proofs. 

A pdf file of the published article is released and sent to the corresponding author as soon as the journal is printed. Reprints can be ordered when returning the proofs; they will be dispatched about 3 weeks after publication.

Copyright for any paper accepted for publication is implicitly assigned to the Publisher upon submission. Authors reserve the right to use their articles (subject only to normal acknowledgments to JBPC) for internal purposes of their institution. They may use the material for presentations or derivative publications, provided they acknowledge the original publication in JBPC, and are free to post their articles on their own or their institution’s websites once the printed edition has been published, preferably with a link to the JBPC website (www.amsi.ge/jbpc).