Frontiers requires authors to carefully select the appropriate article type for their manuscript and to comply with the article type descriptions defined in the journal’s "Article Types" page, which can be seen from the "For Authors" menu on any Frontiers journal page. Please pay close attention to the word count limits.
If working with Word please use our Frontiers Word templates. If you wish to submit your article as LaTeX, we recommend our Frontiers LaTeX templates.
For LaTeX files, please ensure all relevant manuscript files are uploaded: .tex file, PDF, and .bib file (if the bibliography is not already included in the .tex file).
During the Interactive Review, authors are encouraged to upload versions using “Track Changes.” Editors and reviewers can only download the PDF file of the submitted manuscript.
Frontiers encourages the authors to closely follow the article word count lengths given in the “Article Types” page of the journals. The manuscript length includes only the main body of the text, footnotes, and all citations within it, and excludes the abstract, section titles, figure and table captions, funding statement, acknowledgments, and references in the bibliography. Please indicate the number of words and the number of figures and tables included in your manuscript on the first page.
Frontiers requires manuscripts submitted to meet international English language standards to be considered for publication.
For authors who would like their manuscript to receive language editing or proofreading to improve the clarity of the manuscript and help highlight their research, Frontiers recommends the language-editing services provided by the following external partners:
Editage
Frontiers is pleased to recommend the language-editing service provided by our external partner Editage to authors who believe their manuscripts would benefit from professional editing. These services may be particularly useful for researchers for whom English is not the primary language. They can help to improve the grammar, syntax, and flow of your manuscript prior to submission. Frontiers authors will receive a 10% discount by visiting the following link: https://editage.com/frontiers/.
The Charlesworth Group
Frontiers recommends the Charlesworth Group’s author services, who has a long-standing track record in language editing and proofreading. This is a third-party service for which Frontiers authors will receive a 10% discount by visiting the following link: https://www.cwauthors.com/frontiers/.
Frontiers推荐您使用在英语语言编辑和校对领域具有悠久历史和良好口碑的查尔斯沃思作者服务。此项服务由第三方为您提供,Frontiers中国作者通过此链接提交稿件时可获得10%的特别优惠: www.cwauthors.com.cn/frontiers/.Note that sending your manuscript for language editing does not imply or guarantee that it will be accepted for publication by a Frontiers journal. Editorial decisions on the scientific content of a manuscript are independent of whether it has received language editing or proofreading by the partner services, or other services.
The default language style at Frontiers is American English. If you prefer your article to be formatted in British English, please specify this on the first page of your manuscript. For any questions regarding style, Frontiers recommends authors to consult the Chicago Manual of Style.
There are a few simple ways to maximize your article’s discoverability. Follow the steps below to improve search results of your article:
CrossMark is a multi-publisher initiative to provide a standard way for readers to locate the current version of a piece of content. By applying the CrossMark logo Frontiers is committed to maintaining the content it publishes and to alerting readers to changes if and when they occur. Clicking on the CrossMark logo will tell you the current status of a document and may also give you additional publication record information about the document.
The title should be concise, omitting terms that are implicit and, where possible, be a statement of the main result or conclusion presented in the manuscript. Abbreviations should be avoided within the title.
Witty or creative titles are welcome, but only if relevant and within measure. Consider if a title meant to be thought-provoking might be misinterpreted as offensive or alarming. In extreme cases, the editorial office may veto a title and propose an alternative.
Authors should try to avoid, if possible:
For Corrigenda, General Commentaries, and Editorials, the title of your manuscript should have the following format:
The running title should be a maximum of 5 words in length.
All names are listed together and separated by commas. Provide exact and correct author names as these will be indexed in official archives. Affiliations should be keyed to the author's name with superscript numbers and be listed as follows: Laboratory, Institute, Department, Organization, City, State abbreviation (only for United States, Canada, and Australia), and Country (without detailed address information such as city zip codes or street names).
Example: Max Maximus1
1 Department of Excellence, International University of Science, New York, NY, United States.
Correspondence:
The Corresponding Author(s) should be marked with an asterisk in the author list. Provide the exact contact email address of the corresponding author(s) in a separate section.
Example: Max Maximus
maximus@iuscience.edu
If any authors wish to include a change of address, list the present address(es) below the correspondence details using a unique superscript symbol keyed to the author(s) in the author list.
Equal contributions:
The authors who have contributed equally should be marked with a symbol (†) in the author list of the doc/latex and pdf files of the manuscript uploaded at submission.
Standard statements to include in the author list:
Example: Max Maximus 1†, John Smith2† and Barbara Smith1
†These authors have contributed equally to this work and share first authorship
Consortium/group authorship should be listed in the manuscript with the other author(s).
In cases where authorship is retained by the consortium/group, the consortium/group should be listed as an author separated by “,” or “and,”. The consortium/group name will appear in the author list, in the citation, and in the copyright. If provided, the consortium/group members will be listed in a separate section at the end of the article.
For the collaborators of the consortium/group to be indexed in PubMed, they do not have to be inserted in the Frontiers submission system individually. However, in the manuscript itself, provide a section with the name of the consortium/group as the heading followed by the list of collaborators, so they can be tagged accordingly and indexed properly.
Example: John Smith, Barbara Smith and The Collaborative Working Group.
In cases where work is presented by the author(s) on behalf of a consortium/group, it should be included in the author list separated with the wording “for” or “on behalf of.” The consortium/group will not retain authorship and will only appear in the author list.
Example: John Smith and Barbara Smith on behalf of The Collaborative Working Group.
As a primary goal, the abstract should render the general significance and conceptual advance of the work clearly accessible to a broad readership. In the abstract, minimize the use of abbreviations and do not cite references, figures or tables.
For Clinical Trial articles, please include the Unique Identifier and the URL of the publicly accessible website on which the trial is registered.
All article types require a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 8 keywords.
The entire document should be single-spaced and must contain page and line numbers in order to facilitate the review process. The manuscript should be written using either Word or LaTeX. For templates, see 1.2. Templates.
For more information on LSIDs please see the Code section.
The manuscript is organized by headings and subheadings. The section headings should be those appropriate for your field and the research itself. You may insert up to 5 heading levels into your manuscript (i.e.,: 3.2.2.1.2 Heading Title).
For Original Research articles, it is recommended to organize your manuscript in the following sections or their equivalents for your field:
INTRODUCTION
Succinct, with no subheadings.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
This section may be divided by subheadings and should contain sufficient detail so that when read in conjunction with cited references, all procedures can be repeated. For experiments reporting results on animal or human subject research, an ethics approval statement should be included in this section (for further information, see the Bioethics section.)
RESULTS
This section may be divided by subheadings. Footnotes should not be used and must be transferred to the main text.
DISCUSSION
This section may be divided by subheadings. Discussions should cover the key findings of the study: discuss any prior research related to the subject to place the novelty of the discovery in the appropriate context, discuss the potential shortcomings 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 further information, please check the descriptions defined in the journal’s "Article Types" page, which can be seen from the "For Authors" menu on any Frontiers journal page.
This is a short text to acknowledge the contributions of specific colleagues, institutions, or agencies that aided the efforts of the authors. Should the content of the manuscript have previously appeared online, such as in a thesis or preprint, this should be mentioned here, in addition to listing the source within the reference list.
When you submit your manuscript, you will be required to briefly summarize in 200 words your manuscript’s contribution to, and position in, the existing literature in your field. This should be written avoiding any technical language or non-standard acronyms. The aim should be to convey the meaning and importance of this research to a non-expert. While Frontiers evaluates articles using objective criteria, rather than impact or novelty, your statement should frame the question(s) you have addressed in your work in the context of the current body of knowledge, providing evidence that the findings—whether positive or negative—contribute to progress in your research discipline. This will assist the Chief Editors to determine whether your manuscript fits within the scope of a specialty as defined in its mission statement; a detailed statement will also facilitate the identification of the editors and reviewers most appropriate to evaluate your work, ultimately expediting your manuscript's initial consideration.
Example Statement on: Markram K and Markram H (2010) The Intense World Theory – a unifying theory of the neurobiology of autism. Front. Hum. Neurosci. 4:224. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2010.00224
Autism spectrum disorders are a group of neurodevelopmental disorders that affect up to 1 in 100 individuals. People with autism display an array of symptoms encompassing emotional processing, sociability, perception and memory, and present as uniquely as the individual. No theory has suggested a single underlying neuropathology to account for these diverse symptoms. The Intense World Theory, proposed here, describes a unifying pathology producing the wide spectrum of manifestations observed in autists. This theory focuses on the neocortex, fundamental for higher cognitive functions, and the limbic system, key for processing emotions and social signals. Drawing on discoveries in animal models and neuroimaging studies in individuals with autism, we propose how a combination of genetics, toxin exposure and/or environmental stress could produce hyper-reactivity and hyper-plasticity in the microcircuits involved with perception, attention, memory and emotionality. These hyper-functioning circuits will eventually come to dominate their neighbors, leading to hyper-sensitivity to incoming stimuli, over-specialization in tasks and a hyper-preference syndrome. We make the case that this theory of enhanced brain function in autism explains many of the varied past results and resolves conflicting findings and views and makes some testable experimental predictions.
All figures, tables, and images will be published under a Creative Commons CC-BY licence, and permission must be obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including re-published/adapted/modified/partial figures and images from the internet). 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.
For additional information, please see the Image Manipulation section.
Please note that figures not in accordance with the guidelines will cause substantial delay during the production process.
Captions should be preceded by the appropriate label, for example "Figure 1." Figure captions should be placed at the end of the manuscript. Figure panels are referred to by bold capital letters in brackets: (A), (B), (C), (D), etc.
Figures should be prepared with the PDF layout in mind. Individual figures should not be longer than one page and with a width that corresponds to 1 column (85 mm) or 2 columns (180 mm).
All images must have a resolution of 300 dpi at final size. Check the resolution of your figure by enlarging it to 150%. If the image appears blurry, jagged or has a stair-stepped effect, the resolution is too low.
Please note that saving a figure directly as an image file (JPEG, TIF) can greatly affect the resolution of your image. To avoid this, one option is to export the file as PDF, then convert into TIFF or EPS using a graphics software.
Chemical structures should be prepared using ChemDraw or a similar program. If working with ChemDraw please use our Frontiers ChemDraw template. If working with another program please follow the guidelines given below:
Please note that tables which are not according to the guidelines will cause substantial delay during the production process.
Frontiers encourages authors to make the figures and visual elements of their articles accessible for the visually impaired. An effective use of color can help people with low visual acuity, or color blindness, understand all the content of an article.
These guidelines are easy to implement and are in accordance with the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1), the standard for web accessibility best practices.
A. Ensure sufficient contrast between text and its background
People who have low visual acuity or color blindness could find it difficult to read text with low contrast background color. Try using colors that provide maximum contrast.
WC3 recommends the following contrast ratio levels:
You can verify the contrast ratio of your palette with these online ratio checkers:
B. Avoid using red or green indicators
More than 99% of color-blind people have a red-green color vision deficiency.
C. Avoid using only color to communicate information
Elements with complex information like charts and graphs can be hard to read when only color is used to distinguish the data. Try to use other visual aspects to communicate information, such as shape, labels, and size. Incorporating patterns into the shape fills also make differences clearer; for an example please see below:
Data that are not of primary importance to the text, or which cannot be included in the article because they are too large or the current format does not permit it (such as videos, raw data traces, powerpoint presentations, etc.), can be uploaded as Supplementary Material during the submission procedure and will be displayed along with the published article. All supplementary files are deposited to Figshare for permanent storage and receive a DOI.
Supplementary Material is not typeset, so please ensure that all information is clearly presented without tracked changes/highlighted text/line numbers, and the appropriate caption is included in the file. To avoid discrepancies between the published article and the supplementary material, please do not add the title, author list, affiliations or correspondence in the supplementary files.
The Supplementary Material can be uploaded as Data Sheet (Word, Excel, CSV, CDX, FASTA, PDF or Zip files), Presentation (PowerPoint, PDF or Zip files), Image (CDX, EPS, JPEG, PDF, PNG or TIF/TIFF), Table (Word, Excel, CSV or PDF), Audio (MP3, WAV or WMA) or Video (AVI, DIVX, FLV, MOV, MP4, MPEG, MPG or WMV).
Technical requirements for Supplementary Images:
For Supplementary Material templates (LaTeX and Word), see our Supplementary Material templates.
Frontiers journals use one of two reference styles, either Harvard (Author-Date) or Vancouver (Numbered). Please check this page to find the correct style for your target journal.
Many Frontiers journals use the Harvard referencing system, to find the correct reference style and resources for the journal you are submitting to please go to this page. Reference examples are found below, for more examples of citing other documents and general questions regarding the Harvard reference style, please refer to the Chicago Manual of Style.
Sondheimer, N., and Lindquist, S. (2000). Rnq1: an epigenetic modifier of protein function in yeast. Mol. Cell. 5, 163-172.
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
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.
Cowan, W. M., Jessell, T. M., and Zipursky, S. L. (1997). Molecular and Cellular Approaches to Neural Development. New York: Oxford University Press.
Hendricks, J., Applebaum, R., and Kunkel, S. (2010). A world apart? Bridging the gap between theory and applied social gerontology. Gerontologist 50, 284-293. Abstract retrieved from Abstracts in Social Gerontology database. (Accession No. 50360869)
World Health Organization. (2018). E. coli. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/e-coli [Accessed March 15, 2018].
Marshall, S. P. (2000). Method and apparatus for eye tracking and monitoring pupil dilation to evaluate cognitive activity. U.S. Patent No 6,090,051. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Perdiguero P, Venturas M, Cervera MT, Gil L, Collada C. Data from: Massive sequencing of Ulms minor's transcriptome provides new molecular tools for a genus under the constant threat of Dutch elm disease. Dryad Digital Repository. (2015) http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.ps837
Smith, J. (2008) Post-structuralist discourse relative to phenomological pursuits in the deconstructivist arena. [dissertation/master’s thesis]. [Chicago (IL)]: University of Chicago
Smith, J. (2008). Title of the document. Preprint repository name [Preprint]. Available at: https://persistent-url (Accessed March 15, 2018).
Many Frontiers journals use the numbered referencing system, to find the correct reference style and resources for the journal you are submitting to please go to this page.
Reference examples are found below, for more examples of citing other documents and general questions regarding the Vancouver reference style, please refer to Citing Medicine.
Sondheimer N, Lindquist S. Rnq1: an epigenetic modifier of protein function in yeast. Mol Cell (2000) 5:163-72.
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
Sorenson PW, Caprio JC. "Chemoreception,". In: Evans DH, editor. The Physiology of Fishes. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press (1998). p. 375-405.
Cowan WM, Jessell TM, Zipursky SL. Molecular and Cellular Approaches to Neural Development. New York: Oxford University Press (1997). 345 p.
Christensen S, Oppacher F. An analysis of Koza's computational effort statistic for genetic programming. In: Foster JA, editor. Genetic Programming. EuroGP 2002: Proceedings of the 5th European Conference on Genetic Programming; 2002 Apr 3–5; Kinsdale, Ireland. Berlin: Springer (2002). p. 182–91.
World Health Organization. E. coli (2018). https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/e-coli [Accessed March 15, 2018].
Pagedas AC, inventor; Ancel Surgical R&D Inc., assignee. Flexible Endoscopic Grasping and Cutting Device and Positioning Tool Assembly. United States patent US 20020103498 (2002).
Perdiguero P, Venturas M, Cervera MT, Gil L, Collada C. Data from: Massive sequencing of Ulms minor's transcriptome provides new molecular tools for a genus under the constant threat of Dutch elm disease. Dryad Digital Repository. (2015) http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.ps837
Smith, J. (2008) Post-structuralist discourse relative to phenomological pursuits in the deconstructivist arena. [dissertation/master’s thesis]. [Chicago (IL)]: University of Chicago
Smith, J. Title of the document. Preprint repository name [Preprint] (2008). Available at: https://persistent-url (Accessed March 15, 2018).