1. Summary Table

• Please view the table below for a summary on currently accepted article types and general manuscript style guidelines.

  	Abstract max. length (including spaces)	Running title (5 words)	Figures or tables	Manuscript max. length	Final PDF length	Peer review	Author fees	Submitted to PubMed Central or other indexing databases
  Original Research	2000 characters		15	12'000 words	12 pages
  Clinical Trial	2000 characters		15	12'000 words	12 pages
  Hypothesis and Theory	2000 characters		15	12'000 words	12 pages
  Methods	2000 characters		15	12'000 words	12 pages
  Review	2000 characters		15	12'000 words	12 pages
  Technology Report	2000 characters		15	12'000 words	12 pages
  Focused Review (1)	2000 characters		5	5'000 words	5 pages
  Perspective	1250 characters		2	3'000 words	3 pages
  Mini Review	1250 characters		2	3'000 words	3 pages
  CPC	1250 characters		6	2'500 words	4 pages
  Clinical Case Study	2000 characters		15	12'000 words	12 pages
  Classification	1250 characters		10	2'000 words	12 pages
  Editorial			0	1'000 words	1 pages
  Frontiers Commentary (1)			1	1'000 words	1 pages
  General Commentary			1	1'000 words	1 pages
  Opinion			1	2'000 words	2 pages
  Book Review			1	1'000 words	1 pages
  Field Grand Challenge			1	2'000 words	2 pages
  Specialty Grand Challenge			1	2'000 words	2 pages

  (1) Tier 2 article - field level article reserved to authors of selected Tier 1 articles.

   
  Back to top

2. Manuscript Guidelines

• Article Type

  Frontiers requires authors to carefully select the appropriate article type for their manuscript, and to comply to the article type descriptions defined in the journal’s "Article Types", which can be seen from the left menu on any Frontiers journal page. Please pay close attention to the word count limits. Focused Reviews, Frontiers Commentaries and Grand Challenge articles are invited by the chief editor and cannot be part of any Frontiers Research Topic. Unless you were contacted by the chief editor or the editorial office regarding the submission of a paper selected for tier 2 promotion, do not submit a Focused Review or a Frontiers Commentary - instead, submit a Review or a General Commentary.

  Back to top
• Manuscript Length

  Frontiers encourages its authors to closely follow the article word count lengths given in the Summary Table. The manuscript length includes only the main body of the text and all citations within it, and excludes abstract, section titles, figure and table captions, and references at the bottom of the manuscript. Please indicate the number of words and the number of figures included in your manuscript on the first page.

  Back to top
• Title

  The title is centered, and in 16 point bold Times New Roman font at the top of page. Except for special names (e.g., GABAergic), capitalize only the first letter of the title.
  
  For article types requiring it, the running title should be a maximum of 5 words in length. (see Summary Table)

  Back to top
• Authors and Affiliations

  All names are listed together and separated by commas. Provide exact and correct author names as these will be indexed in official archives. Any change requests after publication will incur additional costs and will be solely at the author's charge. Affiliations should be keyed to the author's name with superscript numbers and be listed as follows: Laboratory, Institute, Department, Organization, City, State abbreviation (USA, Canada, Australia), and Country (without detailed address information such as city zip codes or street names).

  Example: Max Maximus, Department of Excellence, International University of Science, New York, NY, USA.

  The Corresponding Author should be marked with an asterisk. Provide the exact contact address (this time including street name and city zip code) and email of the corresponding author in a separate paragraph, as shown below:

  Correspondence:

  Dr. Max Maximus
  International Universityof Science
  Department of Excellence
  Laboratory of High Impact
  Street 2460,
  New York, NY, 59066, USA
  maximus@gmail.com

  If one of the authors has a change of address, list the new address below the correspondence details using a superscript symbol and use the same symbol to indicate the author in the author list.

  Back to top
• Headings and Sub-headings

  Except for special names (e.g. GABAergic), capitalize only the first letter of headings and subheadings. Headings and subheadings need to be defined in Times New Roman, 12, bold. You may insert up to 4 heading levels into your manuscript (not more than for example: 3.2.2.1. Heading title).

  Back to top
• Abstract

  As a primary goal, the abstract should render the general significance and conceptual advance of the work clearly accessible to a broad readership. References should not be cited in the abstract. The text of the abstract section should be in 12 point normal Times New Roman. See Summary Table for abstract requirement and length according to article type.

  Back to top
• Keywords

  All article types: you may provide up to 8 keywords; at least 5 are mandatory.

  Back to top
• Text

  The body text is in 12 point normal Times New Roman. New paragraphs will be separated with a single empty line. The entire document should be single-spaced and should contain line numbers in order to facilitate the review process. Your manuscript should be written using either LaTeX or MS-Word.

  Back to top
• Nomenclature

  • Non-standard abbreviations should be defined when first used in the text.

  • Equations can be left as the image output of the equation editor in the text.

  • Gene symbols should be italicized; protein products are not italicized.

  • We encourage the use of Standard International Units in all manuscripts.

  Back to top
• Sections

  Your manuscript is organized by headings and subheadings.

  • For Original Research Articles, Clinical Trial Articles, and Technology Reports following sections are mandatory. Please note that the Material and Methods section can be placed in any of the following ways: before Results, before Discussion or after Discussion:

    1. Introduction
       Succinct, with no subheadings.

    2. Material and Methods
       This section may be divided by subheadings. This section should contain sufficient detail so that when read in conjunction with cited references, all procedures can be repeated.

    3. Results
       This section may be divided by subheadings. Footnotes should not be used and have to be transferred into the main text.

    4. Discussion
       This section may be divided by subheadings. Discussions should cover the key findings of the study: discuss any prior art related to the subject so to place the novelty of the discovery in the appropriate context; discuss the potential short-comings and limitations on their interpretations; discuss their integration into the current understanding of the problem and how this advances the current views; speculate on the future direction of the research and freely postulate theories that could be tested in the future.

  • For Clinical Case Studies the following sections are mandatory:

    1. Introduction
       Include symptoms at presentation, physical exams and lab results.

    2. Background
       This section may be divided by subheadings. Include history and review of similar cases.

    3. Discussion
       This section may be divided by subheadings. Include diagnosis and treatment.

    4. Concluding Remarks

  • For all other article types there are no mandatory sections.

  Back to top
• Conflict of Interest Statement

  All relationships financial, commercial or otherwise that might be perceived by the academic community as representing a potential conflict of interest must be described. If no such relationship exists, authors will be asked to declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

  Back to top
• Acknowledgments

  This is a short text to acknowledge the contributions of specific colleagues, institutions, or agencies that aided the efforts of the authors. A statement about the principal source of funding should be inserted if appropriate, including grant numbers if appropriate.

  Back to top
• References

  All citations in the text, figures or tables must be in the reference list and vice-versa. Please make sure that the references are accurate and that ALL authors are listed in the reference list. Please note that complete author names must be provided for the references in the list.
  
  Please provide the doi at the end of each reference if the article is registered with CrossRef.
  
  The references should only include articles that are published or accepted. For accepted but unpublished works use in press instead of page numbers. Unpublished data, submitted manuscripts, or personal communications should be cited within the text only. Personal communications should be documented by a letter of permission.

  • SCIENCE: For articles submitted in the domain of SCIENCE please apply Author-Year system for in-text citations.
    Citations should be called according to the surname of the first author, followed by the year. For works by 2 authors include both surnames, followed by the year. For works by more than 2 authors include only the surname of the first author, followed by et al., followed by the year.

    Article in a periodical:
    Sondheimer, N., and Lindquist, S. (2000). Rnq1: an epigenetic modifier of protein function in yeast. Mol. Cell. 5, 163-172.

    Article in a book:
    Sorenson, P. W., and Caprio, J. C. (1998). "Chemoreception," in The Physiology of Fishes, ed. D. H. Evans (Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press), 375-405.

    Book:
    Cowan, W. M., Jessell, T. M., and Zipursky, S. L. (1997). Molecular and Cellular Approaches to Neural Development. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Article in an electronic journal:
    Tahimic, C.G.T., Wang, Y., Bikle, D.D. (2013). Anabolic effects of IGF-1 signaling on the skeleton. Front. Endocrinol. 4:6. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2013.00006.

    For general questions regarding reference style, please refer to the Chicago Manual of Style.

    Frontiers Science Endnote Style

  • MEDICINE: For articles submitted in the domain of MEDICINE please apply the Vancouver system for in-text citations. The citations should be numbered consecutively in order of appearance in the text – identified by Arabic numerals in the parenthesis.

    Article in a periodical:
    Sondheimer N, and Lindquist S. Rnq1: an epigenetic modifier of protein function in yeast. Mol Cell (2000) 5: 163-72.

    Article in a book:
    Sorenson PW, Caprio JC. "Chemoreception,". In: Evans DH, editor. The Physiology of Fishes. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press (1998). p. 375-405.

    Book:
    Cowan WM, Jessell TM, and Zipursky SL. Molecular and Cellular Approaches to Neural Development. New York: Oxford University Press (1997). 345 p.

    Article in an electronic journal:
    Tahimic CGT, Wang Y, Bikle DD. Anabolic effects of IGF-1 signaling on the skeleton. Front Endocrinol (2013) 4:6. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2013.00006.

    For general questions regarding reference style, please refer to Citing Medicine.

    Frontiers Medicine Endnote Style

  Back to top
• Supplementary Material

  Frontiers journals do not support pushing important results and information into supplementary sections. All information in form of additional text, graphs, and tables should be included into the original text. However, supplementary material that cannot be included in the article because it is too large or the current format does not permit it (such as movies, raw data traces, power point presentations, etc.) can be uploaded during the submission procedure and will be displayed along with the published article.

• Back to top
• LaTeX files

  If working with LaTeX please use Frontiers LaTeX.

• Back to top

3. Additional Requirements

• Corrections

  If you need to communicate important changes to an article please submit a General Commentary. Submit the article with the title “Erratum: Original Title of Article”.

• Back to top
• Commentaries on Articles

  At the beginning of your manuscript provide the citation of the article commented on.

  Back to top
• Focused Reviews

  For Tier 2 invited Focused Reviews the sections Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, and Discussion are recommended. In addition the authors must submit a short biography of the corresponding author(s). This short biography has a maximum of 600 characters, including spaces.

  A picture (5 x 5 cm, in *.tif or *.jpg, min 300 dpi) must be submitted along with the biography in the manuscript and separately during figure upload.

  Focused Reviews highlight and explain key concepts of your work. Please highlight a minimum of four and a maximum of ten key concepts in bold in your manuscript and provide the definitions/explanations at the end of your manuscript under “Key Concepts”. Each definition has a maximum of 400 characters, including spaces.

• Back to top
• Human Subject and Animal Research

  All experiments on live vertebrates or higher invertebrates must be performed in accordance with relevant institutional and national guidelines and regulations. In the manuscript, authors must identify the committee approving the experiments and must confirm that all experiments conform to the relevant regulatory standards. For manuscripts reporting experiments on human subjects, authors must identify the committee approving the experiments and must also include a statement confirming that informed consent was obtained from all subjects. In Original Research Articles and Clinical Trial Articles these statements should appear in the Materials and Methods section.

• Back to top
• Clinical Trial Registration

  Clinical trials should be registered in a public trials registry in order to become the object of a publication at Frontiers. Trials must be registered at or before the start of patient enrollment. A clinical trial is defined as"any research study that prospectively assigns human participants or groups of humans to one or more health-related interventions to evaluate the effects on health outcomes."(www.who.int/ictrp/en). A list of acceptable registries can be found at www.who.int/ictrp/en and www.icmje.org

• Back to top
• Inclusion of Proteomics Data

  • Authors should provide relevant information relating to how the peptide/protein matches were undertaken, including methods used to process and analyze data, false discovery rates (FDR) for large-scale studies and threshold or cut-off rates for peptide and protein matches. Further information could include software used, mass spectrometer type, sequence database and version, number of sequences in database, processing methods, mass tolerances used for matching, variable/fixed modifications, allowable missed cleavages, etc.

  • Authors should provide as supplementary material information used to identify proteins and/or peptides. This should include information such as accession numbers, observed mass (m/z), charge, delta mass, matched mass, peptide/protein scores, peptide modification, miscleavages, peptide sequence, match rank, matched species (for cross species matching), number of peptide matches, ambiguous protein/peptide matches should be indicated, etc.

  • For quantitative proteomics analyses, authors should provide information to justify the statistical significance including biological replicates, statistical methods, estimates of uncertainty and the methods used for calculating error.

  • For peptide matches with biologically relevant post-translational modifications (PTM) and for any protein match that has occurred using a single mass spectrum, authors should include this information as raw data, annotated spectra or submit data to an online repository (recommended option).

  Authors are encouraged to submit raw or matched data and 2-DE images to public proteomics repositories. Submission codes and/or links to data should be provided within the manuscript.

  Back to top
• Data Sharing

  Frontiers supports the policy of data sharing, and authors are advised to make freely available any materials and information described in their article, and any data relevant to the article (while not compromising confidentiality in the context of human-subject research) that may be reasonably requested by others for the purpose of academic and non-commercial research. In regards to deposition of data and data sharing through databases, Frontiers urges authors to comply with the current best practices within their discipline.

  Back to top

4. Figure and Table Guidelines

• General Style Guidelines for Figures

  Frontiers requires figures to be submitted individually, in the same order as they are referred to in the manuscript. Figures will then be automatically embedded at the bottom of the submitted manuscript. Kindly ensure that each table and figure is mentioned in the text and in numerical order. Permission must be obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the web). Please note that it is compulsory to follow figure instructions. Figures which are not according to the guidelines will cause substantial delay during the production process. The numbers of figures and tables allowed are shown in the Summary Table.

  Back to top
• Figure and Table Legends

  Figure and table legends are the same as body text (12 point normal Times New Roman, single spaced). Legends should be preceded by the appropriate label, for example "Figure 1" or "Table 4". Figure legends should be placed at the end of the manuscript. Table legends must be placed immediately before the table. Please use only a single paragraph for the legend. Figure panels are referred to by bold capital letters in brackets: (A), (B), (C), (D), etc.

  Back to top
• Image Size

  Figure images should be prepared with the PDF layout in mind, with a width that corresponds to 1 column, 2 columns or 3 columns depending on article type.

  • Articles with an abstract are prepared using the 2 column layout: 2 column articles can contain images 85 mm or 180 mm wide.

  • Articles containing no abstract are prepared using the 3 column layout: 3 column articles can contain images 55 mm, 120 mm or 180 mm wide.

  Back to top
• Format

  The following formats are accepted:
  TIFF (.tif) TIFF files should be saved using LZW compression or any other non-lossy compression method.
  JPEG (.jpg)

  Back to top
• Color Image Mode

  Images must be submitted in the color mode RGB.

  Back to top
• Resolution Requirements

  All images must be uploaded separately in the submission procedure. For black and white line art the minimum resolution should be 900 dpi. For halftone figures (photographs), the resolution should be a minimum of 300 dpi. For any type of graph or drawing in grayscale or combinations between line art and halftone, the resolution of your file should be a minimum of 600 dpi. Check the resolution of your figure by enlarging it to 150%. If the resolution is too low, the image will appear blurry, jagged or have a stair-stepped effect.

  Please see the table below exemplifying the image specifications.

  Image Type	Description	Example	Format	Color Mode	Resolution
  Line Art:	An image composed of lines and text, which does not contain tonal or shaded areas.		TIFF, JPEG	RGB, Bitmap	900 - 1200 dpi
  Halftone:	A continuous tone photograph, which contains no text.		TIFF, JPEG	RGB, Grayscale	300 dpi
  Combination:	Image contains halftone + text or line art elements.		TIFF, JPEG	RGB,Grayscale	600 - 900 dpi

   
  Back to top
• General Style Guidelines for Tables

  Tables should be inserted into the manuscript. If you use a word processor, build your table in word. If you use a LaTeX processor, build your table in LaTeX. An empty line should be left before and after the table.

  Please note that very large tables (covering several pages) cannot be included in the final PDF for reasons of space. These tables will be published as supplementary material on the online article abstract page at the time of acceptance. The author will notified during the typesetting of the final article if this is the case. A link in the final PDF will direct to the online material.

• Back to top
• Legibility

  Figures must be legible. Check the following:

  • The smallest visible text is no less than 8 points in height, when viewed at actual size.

  • Solid lines are not broken up.

  • Image areas are not pixilated or stair stepped.

  • Text is legible and of high quality.

  • Any lines in the graphic are no smaller than 2 points width.

  Back to top