Cellular & Molecular Biology Letters

International Scientific Journal
Established 1996

Cellular & Molecular Biology Letters publishes research articles, communications, review papers and book reviews. Each volume consists of four issues.

Article Processing Overview

Electronic submission is now mandatory for Cellular & Molecular Biology Letters. Manuscripts should be submitted via the Paper Processing System (EDItool), an online submission system available at http://cmbl.editool.com. A short manual on the submission system is available on the EDItool web page and also on our web page.

1. In order to submit a manuscript via the EDItool, authors should first register themselves as new users, and then upload their manuscripts along with a covering letter. The covering letter should contain all the important details about the submission, namely: your full name (as submitting author), the full title of your article, a full list of the authors, your e-mail address and physical contact address, telephone/fax numbers, the number of attached files, the details of any previous or concurrent submissions, and 2-3 names of suggested reviewers.
2. Together with submission, authors are asked to send the Transfer of Copyright Agreement as soon as possible (the pdf file is available for download). The Managing Editor of the journal will send it on to the appropriate Editor.
3. The submitted manuscript is initially reviewed by the Editor. The Editor chosen for the initial review is always an expert in the relevant field. He then sends it on to 2 to 5 selected referees for a specialist review. The Editor decides whether the manuscript can be further considered for publication or not. Next, the Editor asks the authors to make revisions according to the outcome of the peer review.
4. After making corrections, the authors should upload a revised version of the manuscript along with detailed replies to the reviewers’ comments to the EDItool. The revised fragments of the manuscript should be in black font with a yellow highlight.
5. Please note that many acceptable papers require minor revision or condensation. It is in the mutual interest of both the authors and the journal that amended manuscripts be returned promptly. A revised paper will only retain its original date of receipt if it is received by the Editor within 2 months of the date of return to the authors.
6. The Editor refers the revised manuscript back to the referees. Based on those second reviews, the Editor decides whether the manuscript can be accepted for publication or not. If the corrections are satisfactory in general, but the manuscript still requires some revision, the Editor sends it to the authors for final, minor corrections. In the case of the second revision of an article, the authors need to return it within 14 days.
7. The Managing Editor will officially inform the author about the final decision. The manuscript then undergoes language editing (after which it may again return to the authors for final acceptance of changes), technical editing, and proofreading, and is finally published, first online, and later in print form.

All the steps listed above are taken inside the EDItool system. Authors can follow the editorial process in the system using their login and password, which are received during registration and choosing the option “Paper’s history”.

For further details, please contact the Managing Editor at cmbl@cmbl.org.pl.

Charges

It is anticipated that the page charge of 20 EUR (50 PLN) + VAT 22% per page + postage fee will be paid by the authors. However, payment of the charge is not a condition of publication, in particular for research which was not supported by an external grant source. Colour illustrations will be published at the author’s expense and it cannot be a subject of waiver. The actual prices are available from the Editors. The main author will receive 50 free offprints and also obtain free access to the online pdf version of the paper.

First Submission

1. Submit the initial manuscript as a single PDF file (preferably), with the MS Word format (.doc extension) as an optional back-up format. The file should be as small as possible. Please, do not use a non-specific file names as: manuscript/1, paper² or article§ but identify the file by the last name of the first author and first word of the manuscript title..
2. The text should be single spaced, and all the pages should be numbered consecutively, including the references, tables, and figure legends. Conform to the general style of the journal and write in clear and grammatical English.
3. Identify the article type in the submission letter: Regular manuscript or Short communication, Review or Mini review. For Short communications, the number of pages should not exceed 8.
4. Suggest at least 2 competent reviewers, providing their complete contact information, and indicate individuals who may be excluded from the review process.
5. Identify the corresponding author on the title page and provide a complete mailing address, telephone, fax numbers and an e-mail address for correspondence.

Manuscripts should be structured as follows:

Use Times New Roman font. Please right and left justify the body of the text without paragraph indents. All the tables, figures and photographs should be inserted into the body of the text. For figures please, use Arial font.

1. Title (in block capitals except for Latin species names, in bold, aligned centrally), authors’ names and surnames (in block capitals, first name then surname, ‘and’ between last two authors, aligned centrally), and authors’ affiliations (in normal type, aligned centrally).
2. Abstract and key words (first letter of each item in keyword list capitalised).
3. Footnotes should be typed as normal text, not inserted as special fields, on the first page of the text, preceded by a short horizontal line (3 cm long). The corresponding author and a list of the abbreviations (alphabetically) used in the manuscript should be included in the footnotes.
4. Introduction should be as concise as possible, without subheadings.
5. Materials and methods should be sufficiently detailed to enable the experiments to be reproduced.
6. The Results and Discussion section may be combined and may be organized under subheadings.
7. Acknowledgments should be brief and should precede the references.
8. References should be indicated in the text by Arabic numerals in square brackets, e.g. [23], and numbered consecutively in order of appearance. The in-text references should not state the full names. The list of references should be typed at the end of the paper in the citation order in the style indicated below. Journal titles should be in bold. Journal volumes should be underlined. All authors’ names (‘and’ between last two authors) and the full titles of the references should be given. Book titles should be given in full, and in bold. The first and last pages of references cited should be given in full (e.g. 341-347, not 341-7). Please note the positions of commas and spaces. DOI addresses could be helpful in addition. Web site addresses should be included in the References section.

Style in which references are to be cited (papers in journals, books and sections thereof, conference materials):

1. Smith, L.B. and Brown, K.L. A new method for spectrin detection. J. Biol. Chem. 1234 (2003) 2345- 2361.
2. Ferrari, R. and Dieci, G. The transcription reinitiation properties of RNA polymerase III in the absence of transcription factors. Cell. Mol. Biol. Lett. 13 (2008) 112-118. DOI: 10.2478/s11658-007-0041-y.
3. Brown, W.C., Smith, D.J. and Jones, H.L. Production of anti-spectrin antibodies. in: Fundaments of Environmental Sciences (McDonald, L.C., Ed.), 10^th edition, CBLS Publ. Co.,Cecily, 1995, 234-267.
4. Zydel, J. Spectrin-like molecules from E. coli. XXXIX Meeting of the Polish Biochem. Soc., Kielce, 1999, 24-28.

Headings. Main text headings should be typed in bold CAPITAL LETTERS. Second-level headings should be typed in bold upper and lower case letters. Third level headings should be in upper and lower case letters, italics.

Tables, equations and formulae. Type tables in the Word editor as close as possible to the place of reference in the text. Put Tab. 1., etc. at the top of the table in upper and lower case letters. References to tables in the text should be given thus: Tab. 1. All the equations and formulae should be inserted as objects in the appropriate place in the text, and should be numbered

Photographs and figures should be reduced to a suitable size and pasted into the text. The figure captions should be typed underneath the figures, as Fig. 1., etc. in upper and lower case letters. References to figures in the text should be given thus: Fig. 1.

Web site addresses and e-mail addresses should not be in the form of hyperlinks; please turn off the function that automatically reformats such addresses into hyperlinks.

Experiments involving humans or labolatory animals

When submitting a manuscript in which the Authors report on experiments involving humans or laboratory animals, both in their cover letter and in the Materials and Methods chapter of the manuscript, the Authors must confirm that they have adhered to the legal requirements of the country in which the study was conducted.

Accepted Manuscripts

1. Please do not use PDF, DVI, or PostScript files at this stage, as these formats do not allow editing of the text. Most word-processing packages are acceptable; however, we prefer that authors use a recent version of Microsoft Word. Manuscripts saved with formatting intact (.doc extension) are preferred. The rich-text format (.rtf extension) is acceptable, but plain text (.txt extension) files are discouraged
2. Submit each figure as a separate .tiff or .jpg file extension (in addition to those pasted in the text). The .tiff format is preferred. When creating your figures, use the Arial font. Sizes and line weights will reproduce clearly and accurately when the figures are sized to the appropriate width (12 cm or 5 inches). The minimum line weight is 1 point (thinner lines will not reproduce well). Eliminate all excess white space from the borders of each figure. Please note that each graphics item should contain all its details, apart from those explained in the legend, in the same file, i.e. arrows, scale bars, asterisks, molecular weight standard values and indications of the panel, e.g. A, B, C. Number figures consecutively with Arabic numerals.
3. A resolution of at least 600 dpi is required for quality reproduction. Color photographs should be transmitted as CMYK color. RGB images should be converted into CMYK, and all the necessary color adjustments must be made prior to the transmission of the files. Authors must supply a color-correct CMYK printout of all color electronic art if the paper is accepted. Hard copy submissions of color figures must be submitted on paper or flexible board due to the nature of the reproduction process.
4. Use your software’s spell-checking and page-numbering capabilities before final submission.
5. The manuscript will be edited according to the style of the journal, and authors must read the proofs carefully. Proofs will be sent to the corresponding author as a PDF file. To avoid delay in publication, only necessary changes should be made, and proofs should be returned promptly.

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