Instructions for Authors

Main Text
● Figures and Tables

Order

1. Figures and tables should be numbered consecutively using Arabic numerals and placed within the text immediately following their first citation to maintain a seamless flow and clarity in the presentation, and the first citation of figures and tables in the main text must follow a sequential order (as well as text Boxes and Tables). In the published article, the figures are inserted based on the placement of the first citation and caption.
2. The lettered subpanels of whole figures may be cited in any order in the text following the first mention of each whole figure in numerical order. For example, any subpart of Fig. 3 may be cited in any order (e.g., Fig. 3C before Fig. 3A) provided that Figs. 1 and 2 have already been cited.

Content

1. The figure content should be complete and the characters should not be masked. Unnecessary marks such as red wavy lines and hard (soft) returns are not allowed in figures;
2. Any special characters or icons in an image/table (e.g., *, **, ***, #, …) need to have a corresponding explanation (can be added in the image or caption);
3. Please remove all non-English terms or add a definition for them;
4. References in the form of “[xx]” are not allowed in images. “Author + Year” format can be used in the image, and all mentioned references must be cited in the caption if necessary;
5. No specific feature of an image should be augmented, altered, enhanced, obscured, moved, or removed. The focus should be on the data rather than its presentation (e.g., background, imperfections, and non-specific bands should not be “cleaned up”);

Resolution and Format

1. Figures should be scaled to a maximum width of 16.51 cm (6.50 in) and height of 20 cm (7.87 in), preserving their original proportions without distortion. Any excess white space surrounding a figure should be removed before calculating its size. The preferred format is .tif, with RGB color space, a DPI of 500+ (accepted image resolutions: Line Art ≥ 900 dpi, Halftone ≥ 300 dpi, Combo ≥ 600 dpi), no alpha channels, and flattened layers;

2. To avoid any errors during position changes, please provide the combined image instead of editable pieces in the figure;
3. Please provide an editable table in MS Word format, not images (including algorithms, listings, etc.);
4. RGB (8 bit/channel), CMYK, or greyscale mode are acceptable;
5. Do not use Photoshop or such software to change the color or appearance of figures.

Labels and Captions

1. Figure labels must be sized in proportion to the image, sharp, and legible. The label size should be no smaller than 8-point and no larger than the font size of the main text;
2. Labels must be saved using standard fonts (Arial, Helvetica or Symbol font) and should be consistent for all the figures;
3. All labels should be in black, and should not be overlapped, faded, broken or distorted, feature unnecessary gaps or irregular spacing, or appear condensed, expanded, or otherwise distorted either horizontally or vertically;
4. Space must be inserted before measurement units. The first letter of each phrase, not each word, must be capitalized.
5. Provide a short title (in the legend, not on the figure itself) and an explanation in brief but sufficient detail to make the figure intelligible without reference to the text. Statistical evaluations should indicate the test used.
6. Each panel of a multi-panel figure (referred to as, e.g., Figs. 1A, 1B, 1C, and 1D in the text) should be logically connected to the other panels, and all of the panels should be assembled into a single file on a single page. Images that contain large amounts of information should be broken down into multiple figures to ensure that all of the information is visible. To repeat, multiple panels must be assembled and submitted as a single file rather than as separate files.
7. The sublabels for panels (again, referred to as, e.g., Fig. 1A, 1B, 1C, and 1D in the text) should be placed in the top left-hand corner of the panels and contrast clearly with the background. Note that each panel should be labeled with only a letter (e.g., A, B, C, and D—not 1A, 1B, 1C, and 1D).

Scale Bar

1. A scale bar, rather than magnification, must be provided for any micrographs. The scale bar should be explicitly and prominently displayed on each figure; one cannot simply add a line on the figures without any scale bar description or simply add a description of the scale in the figure legend without a scale bar in the figure. This practice is mandatory for all micrographs and petri dish diagrams.

Copyright of Figures and Tables

1. Ensure that permission has been obtained and there is no copyright issue. If copyright is needed, please provide a citation in the following format: “Reprinted/adapted with permission from reference [xx]. Copyright year, copyright owner’s name”. All figures, tables, and images will be published under a Creative Commons CC-BY license, and permission must be obtained for the use of copyrighted material from other sources.
2. If a figure or table has been published previously (even by an author of the manuscript being submitted for review), copyright permission for reuse of the figure or table will often be required. The acknowledgment and written permission from the copyright holder will be required where necessary. It is the responsibility of the authors to acquire the licenses, follow any citation instructions requested by third-party rights holders, and cover any supplementary charges.
3. For any figures (or tables) that contain data from a public database (e.g., Gene Ontology/KEGG), the source should be cited in the caption, legend, or title explicitly. For publicly available DNA sequences, the accession number should be provided.

Images of Gels and Blots

1. Images of gels and blots in figures should not be over cropped around the bands of interest. Rather, figure panels should include some background area above and below bands. Any non-specific bands from the original image should be included in the figure and explained in the text or figure caption or legend..
2. When a comparative analysis of bands is presented, all of the relevant samples should be run on the same gel/blot.
3. Each figure should include all of the relevant controls, and, when appropriate, control samples should be run on the same blot or gel alongside the experimental samples.
4. A figure panel should not include composite images of bands originating from multiple blots, exposures, or gels. If data from multiple blot or gel images are necessary to illustrate the results, the various images should be clearly distinguished as separate panels within the figure (not spliced together), and the caption or legend should make clear that multiple gels, blots, or exposures are being presented.
5. Any rearrangement of lanes from a single blot/gel image during the preparation of a figure as well as any image splicing should be clearly indicated with vertical black lines on the figure, and the caption or legend should explain how the figure was made. The addition of the lines would be appropriate, for example, when fragments of the same original image have been spliced together to re-order lanes or to remove irrelevant lanes.
6. Quantitative comparison of samples across multiple gels/blots is strongly discouraged. If such comparison is unavoidable, the figure legend must state whether the samples derive from the same experiment or parallel experiments and whether the gels/blots were processed in parallel.
7. The rearrangement of lanes that are non-adjacent in a gel must be clearly indicated in a manner that delineates the boundary between the lanes and should be acknowledged in the figure caption or legend.
8. Loading controls (e.g., GAPDH, actin) must be run on the same blot. When sample processing controls are run on different gels, this fact must be acknowledged in the caption or legend. Any cropped images of gels must retain all of the important bands.
9. High-contrast gels and blots are discouraged because overexposure may mask additional bands.
10. Authors should take care to (1) check figures for duplications, (2) check blots and gels for the splicing of lanes, (3) indicate whether panels show sample processing or loading controls, and (4) ensure that the unprocessed scans provided match the figures.

Figure Samples

From: Song Q, Zhang J, Zhang Q, Liu J, Lv K, et al. Exosomes derived from circBCRC-3-knockdown mesenchymal stem cells promoted macrophage polarization. BIOCELL. 2020;44(4):623–29.

Figure 1: Identification of circBCRC-3 in MSCs. (A). The genomic structure indicates that circular RNA BCRC-3 consists of nine exons (1002 bp) from the PSMD1 gene. (B). Agarose gel electrophoresis analysis of PCR product with divergent and convergent primers of circBCRC-3 in cDNA and gDNA. GAPDH was used as the negative control

From: Zhang J, Huang Y, Liu W, Li L, Chen L. Chaperone-mediated autophagy targeting chimeras (CMATAC) for the degradation of ERα in breast cancer. BIOCELL. 2020;44(4):591–95.

Figure 2: The binding of peptide αI to ERα. (A) Design TAT-αI-CTM and TAT-αI peptides. (B) Production of GST and GST-TAT-αI using an E. coli expression system. Coomassie blue staining after SDS-PAGE assessed their purity. (C) Pull-down of TAT-αI and ERα. HEK 293T cells were transiently transfected with plasmids pEGFP-N2-ERα. 48 h after transfection, cell lysates were subjected to GST pull down, and the pull-down fractions were immunoblotted analyzed. (D) Pull-down of TAT-αI and ERα in ERα-positive breast cancer cell lines, MCF-7 and T47D

From: Fu S, Yun T, Ma D, Zheng B, Jiang D, et al. Thylakoid Transit Peptide Is Related to the Expression and Localization of NdhB Subunits in Soybean. Plant Science Review (PSR) -Int J. Exp Bot. 2021;90(1):99–110.

Figure 3: Comparisons of sizes, relative abundance of mRNA and protein, and immunolocalization for NdhB subunits in Melrose and S111-9. (A) Sizes of NdhB subunits were analyzed by SDS-PAGE. NdhB proteins were isolated and purified from the leaves of Melrose and S111-9 extracted with Crosslink IP Kit. (B) Relative mRNA expression level of ndhB in Melrose and S111-9. Bars represent the mean ± SD of three biological replicates. Student t-test was applied to assess difference of means between two varieties. Different letters indicate a significant difference between varieties (p < 0.05). (C) The content of NdhB were analyzed using western blotting in the leaves of Melrose and S111-9. The equal loading of lower pictures is shown by coomassie staining. (D) Immunolocalization of NdhB subunits in S111-9 (a,b) and Melrose (c,d). All immunogold particles were mainly concentrated in chloroplast, not in the cytosol. T, Thylakoid; S, Cytosol Stroma. Scale bars = 0.2 μm

From: Yang Y, Xu K, Zhao B, Liu N, Zhou J. The Bacteria Absorption-based Yolk-Shell Ni3P-Carbon @ Reduced Graphene Oxides for Lithium-Ion Batteries. J Renew Mater. 2021;9(5):855–65. Doi:10.32604/jrm.2021.014525.

●Acronyms/Abbreviations/Initialisms

Acronyms, abbreviations, and initialisms must be defined upon their first use in three sections: the abstract, the main text, and the first figure or table. When first introduced, include the abbreviation or acronym in parentheses following the full term. Accepted abbreviations for statistical parameters are: P, n, SD, SEM, df, ns, ANOVA, t.

● International System of Units

The use of SI Units (International System of Units) is required. Whenever possible, convert imperial, US customary, or other units to SI equivalents.

1. There should be a space between the unit and Arabic number: 5 mm NOT 5mm.
2. There should be a space before and after the operator: 3 cm × 5 cm NOT 3 cm×5 cm.
3. Please use Arabic number and SI Units (International System of Units) in the manuscript: 5 kg NOT five kilograms or 5 kilograms or five kg.
4. Do not use hyphen/dash or any connector symbol between the value and its unit: 5 kg NOT 5-kg
5. Please clarify all units during a calculation or a mathematical relationship: 3 cm × 5 cm NOT 3 × 5 cm, 123 g ± 2 g or (123 ± 2) g NOT 123 ± 2 g, 70%–85% NOT 70–85%.

● Symbols

Greek letters must be inserted using the correct Greek symbol (using Times, Helvetica or Symbol font), NOT written in full, i.e., alpha: α; beta: β, ß, (available in Times and Helvetica); and gamma: γ, etc.

● Equations

For equations, if preparing your manuscript in Word, use the Microsoft Equation Editor or the MathType add-on. Ensure that equations are editable and not inserted as images.

● Statistical Analysis

Appropriate statistical treatment of the data is essential. When statistical analysis is performed, the name of the statistical test used, the number for each analysis, the comparisons of interest, the alpha level and the actual p-value for each test should be provided.

• When the P value is less than 0.001, report as P < 0.001.
• When the P value is greater than 0.99, report as P > 0.99.
• Special care should be taken when reporting P values of P = 0 or P = 1, as these values are rare and may require additional clarification.

● Scientific Naming and Formatting Rules

Linnean scientific names should be in italics, while higher than generic taxa should not. The generic name of drugs, as well as all other common names, should be written in lower case. Gene designations should be in lower case and in italics, while protein designations should be in regular capital letters. All the p in p value, whether in the text or on the figure, should be lowercase and italic.
For more details and examples, please refer to the template.