Submission Guidelines

STYLE AND FORMAT SUMMARY

File format	Manuscript files can be in the following formats: DOC or DOCX. Microsoft Word documents should not be locked or protected.
Length	Manuscripts can be any length. There are no restrictions on word count, number of figures, or amount of supporting information. We encourage you to present and discuss your findings  concisely.
Font	Use Times New Roman font and a font size  12.
Headings	Limit manuscript sections and sub-sections to 3 heading levels. Make sure heading levels are clearly indicated in the manuscript text.
Layout	Manuscript text should be double-spaced. Do not format text in multiple columns.
Page and line numbers	Include page numbers and line numbers in the manuscript  file.
Footnotes	Footnotes are not permitted. If your manuscript contains footnotes, move the information into the main text or the reference list, depending on the content.
Language	Manuscripts must be submitted in English.
Abbreviations	Define abbreviations upon first appearance in the  text. Do not use non-standard abbreviations unSupporting information files are uploaded separately.less they appear at least three times in the text. Keep abbreviations to a minimum.
Equations	We recommend using MathType for display and inline equations, as it will provide the most reliable outcome. If this is not possible, Equation Editor is acceptable. Avoid using MathType or Equation Editor to insert single variables (e.g., “a² + b² = c²”), Greek or other symbols (e.g., β, Δ,  or ′ [prime]), or mathematical operators (e.g., x, ≥, or ±) in running text. Wherever possible, insert single symbols as    normal text with the correct Unicode (hex)  values. Do not use MathType or Equation Editor for only a portion of an equation. Rather, ensure that the entire equation is included. Avoid “hybrid” inline or display equations, in which part is text and part is MathType, or part is MathType and part is Equation Editor.
Nomenclature	Use correct and established nomenclature wherever  possible. Units of measurement Use SI units. If you do not use these exclusively, provide the SI value in  parentheses after each value. Drugs Provide the Recommended International Non-Proprietary Name  (rINN). Species names Write in italics (e.g., Homo sapiens). Write out in full the genus and species, both in the title  of the manuscript and at the first mention of an organism in a paper. After first mention,  the first letter of the genus name followed by the full species name may be used (e.g., H.   sapiens). Genes, mutations,genotypes, and alleles Write in italics. Use the recommended name by consulting the appropriate  genetic nomenclature database (e.g., HUGO for human genes). Gene prefixes such as those   used for oncogenes or cellular localization should be shown in roman typeface (e.g., v-fes,  c-MYC).

MANUSCRIPT ORGANIZATION

Most manuscripts should be organized as follows. Instructions for each element appear below.

• Title
• Authors
• Affiliations
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Material and Methods
• Results
• Discussion
• Acknowledgments
• References
• Supplementary material

Uniformity in format facilitates the experience of readers and users of the journal.

Please also note that the Results and Discussion can be combined into one Results/ Discussion section, and that a Conclusion section may be also included.

OTHER ELEMENTS

• Figure captions are inserted immediately after the first paragraph in which the figure is cited. Figure files are uploaded separately.
• Tables are inserted immediately after the first paragraph in which they are cited.
• Supporting information files are uploaded separately.

PARTS OF A SUBMISSION

TITLE

Include a full title and a short title for the manuscript.

TITLE	LENGTH	GUIDELINES	EXAMPLES
Full title	150 characters	Specific, descriptive, concise, and comprehensible to readers outside the field. It should not infer result information.	Haplotypes of qGL3 and their roles in grain size regulation with GS3 alleles in rice Association of IL-18 polymorphisms with rheumatoid arthritis: a meta-analysis
Running title	60 characters	State the topic of the study	Haplotypes of qGL3 and their regulatory roles with GS3 IL-18 polymorphisms and rheumatoid arthritis

Titles should be written with capitalized letters only in the first word and species/gene names. Avoid specialist abbreviations if possible. For clinical trials, systematic reviews, or meta- analyses, the subtitle should include the study design.

AUTHOR LIST

Who belongs on the author list

All authors must meet the criteria for authorship as outlined in the authorship policy.

Those who contributed to the work but do not meet the criteria for authorship can be mentioned in the Acknowledgments.

Author names and affiliations

Enter author names on the title page of the manuscript and in the online submission system. On the title page, write author names in the following order:

Initials of the first and middle names

Last name (surname, family name)

Comma between each author except for the last two where “and” is used. There is no space between initials.

Each author on the list must have an affiliation. The affiliation includes department, university, or organizational affiliation and its location, including city, state/province (if applicable), and country (no final periods).

If an author has multiple affiliations, enter all affiliations on the title page only.

Author names will be published exactly as they appear in the manuscript file. Please

double-check the information carefully to make sure it is correct.

Corresponding author

One corresponding author should be designated in the submission system as well as on the title page.

One corresponding author should be designated in the submission system. However, GMR allows the inclusion of one more corresponding author that may be listed on the article in the event of publication. Whoever is designated as a corresponding author on the title page of the manuscript file will be listed as such upon publication.

Include an email address for each corresponding author listed on the title page of the manuscript.

TITLE PAGE

The title, authors, and affiliations should all be included on a title page as the first page of the manuscript file.

ABSTRACT

The Abstract comes after the title page in the manuscript file and should written as one single paragraph. The abstract text is also entered in a separate field in the submission system.

The Abstract of the paper should be succinct; it must not exceed 300 words. Authors should mention the techniques used without going into methodological detail and should summarize the most important results.

While the Abstract is conceptually divided into three sections (Background, Methodology/ Principal Findings, and Conclusions/Significance), do not apply these distinct headings to the Abstract within the article file.

Do not include any citations. Avoid specialist abbreviations.

Key words or indexing terms (up to six) should be included. Each key word uses the  first

letter capitalized and is separated by semicolons.

TEXT

Format

Headings should be bold, and first letters capitalized and left-aligned. All text should be set in Times New Roman font, 12 point, left-aligned, single-spaced. Do not justify the right margin. Leave only one (1) space after periods. Paragraphs should not be indented; there should not be any blank lines between them. Use line returns only at the end of paragraphs. Do not use tabs or spaces to create indents. Use the Symbol font for symbols and special characters. Equations should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals in parentheses on the right hand side of the page.

INTRODUCTION, MATERIAL AND METHODS, RESULTS,DISCUSSION, and ACKNOWLEDGMENTS are considered to be Title 1 (all letters are capitalized).

Title 2, which is a subtitle under Title 1, uses only the first letter capitalized. Title 3, which is a subtitle under Title 2, is in the same format but italicized. All on a separate line.

Try to use abbreviations in the text sparingly. Write out abbreviations in full before the first time they are used in the text. Use the metric system for all measurements without periods (cm, mL, s). Define all symbols used in equations and formulas. Do not abbreviate the word “Figure” or “Table” in titles or text.

Introduction

The Introduction should put the focus of the manuscript into a broader context. As you compose the Introduction, think of readers who are not experts in this field. Include a brief review of the key literature. If there are relevant controversies or disagreements in the field, they should be mentioned so that a non-expert reader can delve into these issues further. The Introduction should conclude with a brief statement of the overall aim of the experiments and a comment about whether that aim was achieved.

Material and Methods

This section should provide enough detail for reproduction of the findings. Protocols for new methods should be included, but well-established protocols may simply be referenced.

Results

The Results section should provide details of all of the experiments that are required to support the conclusions of the paper. There is no specific word limit for this section, but details of experiments that are peripheral to the main thrust of the article and that detract from the focus of the article should not be included. The section may be divided into subsections, each with a concise subheading. The section should be written in the past tense.

Discussion

The Discussion should spell out the major conclusions of the work along with some

explanation or speculation on the significance of these conclusions. How do the conclusions affect the existing assumptions and models in the field? How can future research build on these observations? What are the key experiments that must be done?

The Discussion should be concise and tightly argued.

The Results and Discussion may be combined into one section, if desired.

Acknowledgments

All acknowledgments (including those for grant and financial support) should be typed in one paragraph directly preceding the reference section. Authors of manuscripts submitted to GMR are requested to state the source of all funding that enabled the described research to be undertaken.

Those who contributed to the study but do not meet our authorship criteria should be listed in the Acknowledgments with a description of the contribution.

Authors are responsible for ensuring that anyone named in the Acknowledgments agrees to be named.

Do not include funding sources in the Acknowledgments or anywhere else in the manuscript file. Funding information should only be entered in the financial disclosure section of the online submission system.

References

The references should consist mainly of articles from indexed journals. References for techniques that are essential for understanding or repeating the methods should always be in easily accessible (indexed) journals.

References are listed at the end of the manuscript and listed in alphabetical order.

Do not include citations in abstracts.

References in the text should include the name of the author and the year in parentheses, e.g., (Searle, 1961) or (King and Wilson, 1975). When a reference with more than two authors is cited, only the first author is named, e.g. (Comstock et al., 1958). The references must be cited in the text in chronological order, e.g. (Ideber, 2001; Uetz, 2002; Ottavai, 2004). References to “unpublished results” and “submitted papers” should appear in the text in parentheses following the name(s) of the individual(s). Example: (Pereira KS, Martins PK and Silva TM, unpublished results). No more than 40 references should be cited in a Full-length paper, 20 references in a Short Communication and 60 references in a Review article.

References, under the heading “References”, should include only works referred to in; the text. References should be cited as follows: journal papers – names and initials of the first four authors (after that using et al.), year, journal title abbreviated according to PubMed or Web of Science, volume number, first and last page numbers; books – names of authors, year, full title, edition, publishers, address (city); articles published in symposia – names of authors, year, full title of book, name(s) of editor(s) in parentheses, publisher, address (city), first and last page numbers.

Formatting references

Because all references will be linked electronically as much as possible to the papers they cite, proper formatting of the references is crucial.

Journal name abbreviations should be those found in the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) databases.

SOURCE	FORMAT
Published articles	Hou WR, Hou YL, Wu GF, Song Y, et al. (2011). cDNA, genomic sequence cloning and overexpression of ribosomal protein gene L9 (rpL9) of the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca). Genet. Mol. Res.10: 1576-1588. Devaraju P, Gulati R, Antony PT, Mithun CB, et al. (2014). Susceptibility to SLE in South Indian Tamils may be influenced by genetic selection pressure on TLR2 and TLR9 genes. Mol. Immunol. S0161- 5890(14)00313-7.
Accepted, unpublished articles	Same as published articles, but substitute “In press” for page numbers or DOI.
Web sites or online articles	Huynen MMTE, Martens P and Hilderlink HBM (2005). The health impacts of globalisation: a conceptual framework. Global Health. 1: 14. Available at [http://www.globalizationandhealth.com/content/1/1/14].
Books	Bates B (1992). Bargaining for life: A social history of tuberculosis. 1st edn. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.
Book chapters	Hansen B (1991). New York City epidemics and history for the public. In: AIDS and the historian (Harden VA, Risse GB, eds.). National Institutes of Health, Bethesda.
Deposited articles (preprints, e-prints, or arXiv)	Krick T, Shub DA, Verstraete N, Ferreiro DU, et al. (1991). Amino acid metabolism conflicts with protein diversity. Preprint. Available: arXiv:1403.3301v1. Accessed 17 March 2014.
Published media (print or online newspapers and magazine articles)	Fountain H (2014). For Already Vulnerable Penguins, Study Finds Climate Change Is Another Danger. The New York Times. 29 Jan 2014. Available at [http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/30/science/earth/climate-change-taking-toll-on-penguins-study- finds.html]. Accessed 17 March 2014.
New media (blogs, web sites, or other written works)	Allen L (2006). Announcing PLOS Blogs. 2010 Sep 1 [cited 17 March 2014]. In: PLOS Blogs [Internet]. San Francisco: PLOS 2006 – . [about 2 screens]. Available at [http://blogs.plos.org/plos/2010/09/announcing-plos-blogs/].
Masters’ theses or doctoral dissertations	Wells A (1999). Exploring the development of the independent, electronic, scholarly journal. Master’s thesis. The University of Sheffield, Sheffield. Available at [http://cumincad.scix.net/cgi- bin/works/Show?2e09].
Databases and repositories (Figshare, arXiv)	Roberts SB (2013). QPX Genome Browser Feature Tracks. Database: figshare [Internet]. Accessed at [http://figshare.com/articles/QPX_Genome_Browser_Feature_Tracks/701214].

The link below can be accessed to see how other references should appear.

Examples of reference style

Supplementary material

Authors may use almost any description as the item name for a supplementary material file as long as it contains an “S” and number. For example, “Figure S1” and “Figure S2”, “Table S1” and “Table S2”, and so forth.

Supplementary material files are published exactly as provided, and are not copyedited.

 

Supplementary material captions

List Supplementary material captions at the end of the manuscript file. Do not submit captions in a separate file.

The file number and name are required in a caption, and we highly recommend including a one-line title or a legend (for figures) as well.

Example caption

Text S1. Title/Legend is strongly recommended.

In-text citations

We require that you cite supplementary material in the manuscript text. If you cite supporting information in the text, citations need to be in numerical order.

Figures and tables

Tables and Figures are cited in capital letters, write out in full, not abbreviated, and following the order of citation in text (For ex.: Figure 1, Figure 2, Figure 3, and so on).

Figures

Illustrations/figures (photographs, drawings, diagrams, and charts) should each be in a single file, numbered in a consecutive series of Arabic numerals in the order in which they are cited in the text. Illustrations must be submitted as separate files. All illustrations must be supplied in TIFF (.tiff) format in either color or black and white. Images must be saved as separate, stand- alone files. The image resolution should be 300-600 dpi. Do not embed images within the text file. Indicate each figure location within the text. Do not forget to send the legend in a separate page.

Cite figures in ascending numeric order upon first appearance in the manuscript file. If any of your figures is under copyright, please notify the journal office.

Figure captions

Figure captions must be inserted in the text of the manuscript, immediately following the paragraph in which the figure is first cited (read order). Do not include captions as part of the figure files themselves or submit them in a separate document.

At a minimum, include the following in your figure captions:

•       A figure label with Arabic numerals. Match the label of your figure with the name of the file uploaded at submission (e.g., a figure citation of “Figure 1” must refer to a figure file named “GMR number-f1.tif”).

•       A concise, descriptive title

The caption may also include a legend as needed.

Tables

Special care should be taken to ensure that all tables are properly formatted. Scientific

symbols used should be in Symbol or Times New Roman. Tables should be numbered consecutively

(with Arabic numerals) referred to by number in the text and designed to fit the column or page size of the journal. Use tables with cells to separate columns. Do not use spaces, tabs, or vertical lines. Left justify the title above the table. Indicate each table’s location within the manuscript.

Place each table in your manuscript file directly after the paragraph in which it is first cited (read order). Do not submit your tables in separate files.

Tables require a label (e.g., “Table 1”) and brief descriptive title to be placed above the table. Place legends, footnotes, and other text below the table.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION REQUESTED AT SUBMISSION

Funding statement

This section should describe sources of funding that have supported the study. Please include relevant grant numbers and the URL of any funder’s web site.

Conflicts of interest

The corresponding author is asked at submission to declare, on behalf of all authors, whether there are any financial, personal, or professional interests that could be construed to have influenced the study.

Any relevant competing interests of authors must be available to editors and reviewers during the review process and will be stated in published articles.