Instructions for authors

Our Journal is a peer-reviewed journal that considers research articles and reviews on all aspects of cancer
research.
It is journal policy to publish work deemed by peer reviewers to be a coherent and sound addition to scientific
knowledge and to put less emphasis on interest levels, provided that the research constitutes a useful
contribution to the field.

Criteria
Research articles should report on original primary research, but may report on systematic reviews of
published research provided they adhere to the appropriate reporting guidelines.

Style and language

General
Currently, the journal can only accept manuscripts written in English. Spelling should be US English.
There is no explicit limit on the length of articles submitted, but authors are encouraged to be concise. There
is also no restriction on the number of figures or tables that can be included with each article. Figures and
tables should be numbered in the order in which they are referred to in the text. Authors should include all
relevant supporting data with each article.
The journal will not edit submitted manuscripts for style or language; reviewers may advise rejection of a
manuscript if it is compromised by grammatical errors. Authors are advised to write clearly and simply, and to
have their article checked by colleagues before submission.

Abbreviations
Abbreviations should be used as sparingly as possible. They should be defined when first used and a list of
abbreviations can be provided following the main manuscript text.

Typography
 Please use double line spacing, Times New Roman 12 font on A4 paper.
 Type the text unjustified, without hyphenating words at line breaks.
 Use hard returns only to end headings and paragraphs, not to rearrange lines.
 Capitalize only the first word, and proper nouns, in the title.
 All pages should be numbered.
 Use the journal reference format.
 Footnotes are not allowed, but endnotes are permitted.
 Please do not format the text in multiple columns.
 Greek and other special characters may be included.

Units
SI units should be used throughout (liter and molar are permitted, however).

File formats
The following word processor file formats are acceptable for the main manuscript document:
 Microsoft Word (version 2003 and above)
Note that figures must be submitted as separate image files, not as part of the submitted manuscript file.
Preparing main manuscript text
General guidelines of the journal's style and language are given below.

Overview of manuscript sections for Research articles

Manuscripts for Research articles submitted should be divided into the following sections (in this order):
 Title page
 Abstract
 Keywords
 Background
 Methods
 Results and discussion
 Conclusions
 List of abbreviations used (if any)
 Competing interests
 Authors' contributions
 Authors' information
 Acknowledgements
 Endnotes
 References
 Illustrations and figures (if any)
 Tables and captions

Title page
The title page should:
 provide the title of the article
 list the full names, institutional addresses and email addresses for all authors
 indicate the corresponding author
Please note:
 the title should include the study design, for example "A versus B in the treatment of C: a
randomized controlled trial X is a risk factor for Y: a case control study"
 abbreviations within the title should be avoided

Abstract
The Abstract of the manuscript should not exceed 350 words and must be structured into separate sections:
Background, the context and purpose of the study; Methods, how the study was performed and statistical
tests used; Results, the main findings; Conclusions, brief summary and potential implications. Please
minimize the use of abbreviations and do not cite references in the abstract. Trial registration, if your
Research article reports the results of a controlled health care intervention, please list your trial registry, along
with the unique identifying number (e.g. Trial registration: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN73824458).
Please note that there should be no space between the letters and numbers of your trial registration number.

Keywords
Three to ten keywords representing the main content of the article.

Background
The Background section should be written in a way that is accessible to researchers without specialist
knowledge in that area and must clearly state - and, if helpful, illustrate - the background to the research and
its aims. Reports of clinical research should, where appropriate, include a summary of a search of the
literature to indicate why this study was necessary and what it aimed to contribute to the field. The section
should end with a brief statement of what is being reported in the article.
Methods
The methods section should include the design of the study, the setting, the type of participants or materials
involved, a clear description of all interventions and comparisons, and the type of analysis used, including a
power calculation if appropriate. Generic drug names should generally be used. When proprietary brands are
used in research, include the brand names in parentheses in the Methods section.
For studies involving human participants a statement detailing ethical approval and consent should be
included in the methods section.

Results and discussion

The Results and discussion may be combined into a single section or presented separately. Results of
statistical analysis should include, where appropriate, relative and absolute risks or risk reductions, and
confidence intervals. The Results and discussion sections may also be broken into subsections with short,
informative headings.

Conclusions
This should state clearly the main conclusions of the research and give a clear explanation of their importance
and relevance. Summary illustrations may be included.

List of abbreviations
If abbreviations are used in the text they should be defined in the text at first use, and a list of abbreviations
can be provided, which should precede the competing interests and authors' contributions.

Competing interests
A competing interest exists when your interpretation of data or presentation of information may be influenced
by your personal or financial relationship with other people or organizations. Authors must disclose any
financial competing interests; they should also reveal any non-financial competing interests that may cause
them embarrassment were they to become public after the publication of the manuscript.

Authors' contributions
In order to give appropriate credit to each author of a paper, the individual contributions of authors to the
manuscript should be specified in this section.
We suggest the following kind of format (please use initials to refer to each author's contribution): AB carried
out the molecular genetic studies, participated in the sequence alignment and drafted the manuscript. JY
carried out the immunoassays. MT participated in the sequence alignment. ES participated in the design of the
study and performed the statistical analysis. FG conceived of the study, and participated in its design and
coordination and helped to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an acknowledgements section.
Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, writing
assistance, or a department chair who provided only general support.

Authors' information
You may choose to use this section to include any relevant information about the author(s) that may aid the
reader's interpretation of the article, and understand the standpoint of the author(s). This may include details
about the authors' qualifications, current positions they hold at institutions or societies, or any other relevant
background information. Please refer to authors using their initials. Note this section should not be used to
describe any competing interests.

Acknowledgements
Please acknowledge anyone who contributed towards the article by making substantial contributions to
conception, design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data, or who was involved in drafting
the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content, but who does not meet the criteria for
authorship. Please also include the source(s) of funding for each author, and for the manuscript preparation.
Authors must describe the role of the funding body, if any, in design, in the collection, analysis, and
interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; and in the decision to submit the manuscript for
publication. Please also acknowledge anyone who contributed materials essential for the study. If a language
editor has made significant revision of the manuscript, we recommend that you acknowledge the editor by
name, where possible.

Endnotes
Endnotes should be designated within the text using a superscript lowercase letter and all notes (along with
their corresponding letter) should be included in the Endnotes section. Please format this section in a
paragraph rather than a list.

References
All references, including URLs, must be numbered consecutively, in square brackets, in the order in which they
are cited in the text, followed by any in tables or legends. Each reference must have an individual reference
number. Please avoid excessive referencing. If automatic numbering systems are used, the reference numbers
must be finalized and the bibliography must be fully formatted before submission.
Only articles, datasets and abstracts that have been published or are in press, or are available through public
e-print/preprint servers, may be cited; unpublished abstracts, unpublished data and personal communications
should not be included in the reference list, but may be included in the text and referred to as "unpublished
observations" or "personal communications" giving the names of the involved researchers. Obtaining
permission to quote personal communications and unpublished data from the cited colleagues is the
responsibility of the author. Footnotes are not allowed, but endnotes are permitted.
Journal abbreviations follow Index Medicus/MEDLINE. Citations in the reference list should include all named
authors, up to the first 30 before adding 'et al.'.
Any in press articles cited within the references and necessary for the reviewers' assessment of the
manuscript should be made available if requested by the editorial office.
Examples of the reference style are shown below. Please ensure that the reference style is followed precisely;
if the references are not in the correct style they may have to be retyped and carefully proofread.
All web links and URLs, including links to the authors' own websites, should be given a reference number and
included in the reference list rather than within the text of the manuscript. They should be provided in full,
including both the title of the site and the URL, in the following format: The Mouse Tumor Biology
Database [http://tumor.informatics.jax.org/mtbwi/index.do]. If an author or group of authors can clearly be
associated with a web link, such as for weblogs, then they should be included in the reference.

Examples of the reference style

Article within a journal
Koonin EV, Altschul SF, Bork P: BRCA1 protein products: functional motifs. Nat Genet 1996, 13:266-267.

Article within a journal supplement

Orengo CA, Bray JE, Hubbard T, LoConte L, Sillitoe I: Analysis and assessment of ab initio three-
dimensional prediction, secondary structure, and contacts prediction. Proteins 1999, 43(Suppl
3):149-170.

In press article
Kharitonov SA, Barnes PJ: Clinical aspects of exhaled nitric oxide. Eur Respir J, in press.

Published abstract
Zvaifler NJ, Burger JA, Marinova-Mutafchieva L, Taylor P, Maini RN: Mesenchymal cells, stromal derived
factor-1 and rheumatoid arthritis [abstract]. Arthritis Rheum 1999, 42:s250.

Article within conference proceedings

Jones X: Zeolites and synthetic mechanisms. In Proceedings of the First National Conference on Porous
Sieves: 27-30 June 1996; Baltimore. Edited by Smith Y. Stoneham: Butterworth-Heinemann; 1996:16-27.

Book chapter, or article within a book

Schnepf E: From prey via endosymbiont to plastids: comparative studies in dinoflagellates. In Origins
of Plastids. Volume 2. 2nd edition. Edited by Lewin RA. New York: Chapman and Hall; 1993:53-76.
Whole issue of journal
Ponder B, Johnston S, Chodosh L (Eds): Innovative oncology. In Breast Cancer Res 1998, 10:1-72.

Whole conference proceedings

Smith Y (Ed): Proceedings of the First National Conference on Porous Sieves: 27-30 June 1996; Baltimore.
Stoneham: Butterworth-Heinemann; 1996.

Complete book
Margulis L: Origin of Eukaryotic Cells. New Haven: Yale University Press; 1970.

Monograph or book in a series

Hunninghake GW, Gadek JE: The alveolar macrophage. In Cultured Human Cells and Tissues. Edited by
Harris TJR. New York: Academic Press; 1995:54-56. [Stoner G (Series Editor): Methods and Perspectives in
Cell Biology, vol 1.]

Book with institutional author

Advisory Committee on Genetic Modification: Annual Report. London; 1999.

PhD thesis
Kohavi R: Wrappers for performance enhancement and oblivious decision graphs. PhD thesis.
Stanford University, Computer Science Department; 1995.

Link / URL
The Mouse Tumor Biology Database [http://tumor.informatics.jax.org/mtbwi/index.do]
Link / URL with author(s)
Neylon C: Open Research Computation: an ordinary journal with extraordinary aims.
[http://blogs.openaccesscentral.com/blogs/bmcblog/entry/open_research_computation_an_ordinary]

Dataset with persistent identifier

Zheng, L-Y; Guo, X-S; He, B; Sun, L-J; Peng, Y; Dong, S-S; Liu, T-F; Jiang, S; Ramachandran, S; Liu, C-M;
Jing, H-C (2011): Genome data from sweet and grain sorghum (Sorghum bicolor). GigaScience.
http://dx.doi.org/10.5524/100012.

Preparing illustrations and figures

Illustrations should be provided as separate files, not embedded in the text file. Each figure should include a
single illustration and should fit on a single page in portrait format. If a figure consists of separate parts, it is
important that a single composite illustration file be submitted which contains all parts of the figure. There is
extra charge for the use of color figures.

Formats
The following file formats can be accepted:
 PDF (also especially suitable for diagrams)
 TIFF
 PNG (preferred format for photos or images)
 Microsoft Word (version 5 and above; figures must be a single page)
 JPEG
 BMP

Figure legends
The legends should be included in the main manuscript text file at the end of the document, rather than being
a part of the figure file. For each figure, the following information should be provided: Figure number (in
sequence, using Arabic numerals - i.e. Figure 1, 2, 3 etc); short title of figure (maximum 15 words); detailed
legend, up to 300 words.
Preparing tables
Each table should be numbered and cited in sequence using Arabic numerals (i.e. Table 1, 2, 3 etc.). Tables
should also have a title (above the table) that summarizes the whole table; it should be no longer than 15
words. Detailed legends may then follow, but they should be concise. Tables should always be cited in text in
consecutive numerical order.
Smaller tables considered to be integral to the manuscript can be pasted into the end of the document text
file, in A4 portrait or landscape format. These will be typeset and displayed in the final published form of the
article. Such tables should be formatted using the 'Table object' in a word processing program to ensure that
columns of data are kept aligned when the file is sent electronically for review; this will not always be the case
if columns are generated by simply using tabs to separate text. Columns and rows of data should be made
visibly distinct by ensuring that the borders of each cell display as black lines. Commas should not be used to
indicate numerical values. Color and shading may not be used; parts of the table can be highlighted using
symbols or bold text, the meaning of which should be explained in a table legend. Tables should not be
embedded as figures or spreadsheet files.