Scope

Journal of Molecular Endocrinology publishes original research articles, reviews and commentaries. Its focus is on molecular and cellular mechanisms in endocrinology, including gene regulation; cell biology; signalling; mutations; transgenesis. The journal considers basic and pathophysiological studies at the molecule and cell level

Ethics

All authors must abide by the standards outlined in the journal’s ethical guidelines. In particular, please note the need to avoid duplicate submission, plagiarism and self-plagiarism. Journal of Molecular Endocrinology is a member of, and subscribes to the principles of, the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Bioscientifica is a member of CrossRef (powered by iThenticate). CrossRef is a multi-publisher initiative to screen published and submitted content for originality. Manuscript submissions will be screened against the CrossRef database.

The iThenticate system is also available to researchers, enabling authors to verify originality prior to submission. Please note that screening is not a requirement for submission, but may assist authors to avoid plagiarism/self-plagiarism. Originality of the manuscript submitted is the author’s responsibility.

It will be assumed that submitted manuscripts carry the approval of all the authors.

Any changes to the authorship of the manuscript during the peer review process require the complete agreement of all authors in writing, as per the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines.

Preprint repositories

A preprint is a version of the article prior to submission to the journal for peer review, and has not been copyedited or typeset.

Bioscientifica allows deposition of preprints to recognized repositories, such as bioRxiv, provided that Bioscientifica is informed of this at the time of submission and it does not infringe any subsequent copyright or licence agreement.

Upon final publication, authors are required to add a link from the preprint to the published article (version of record).

Accepted Preprints

An Accepted Preprint (or post-print) is the accepted version of the article, prior to copyediting or typesetting, and is usually published online within 24 hours of acceptance. Bioscientifica allows deposition of Accepted Preprints to recognized repositories provided that an embargo period of 12 months following publication is respected.

Open Access and archiving in online repositories

The journal also offers an Open Access option.

NIH funded papers

The journal automatically deposits articles to PubMed Central on behalf of authors who are NIH funded, for release 12 months from publication, enabling authors to comply with the NIH Public Access Policy.

Copyright

Articles are considered on the understanding that, if they are accepted for publication, the entire copyright shall pass to the Society for Endocrinology. The corresponding author is requested to digitally sign a copyright transfer agreement to this effect.

(Please note that when the Open Access option has been taken, copyright remains with the author(s).)

Permissions

It is your responsibility to clear all copyright permissions for any work reproduced in your article and to pay any permissions fees.

If a figure/table is adapted or reproduced from a previously published work, please include wording to this effect and a citation to the original work in the figure legend. Please forward permission from the copyright holder (usually the publisher) to the editorial office with your submission.

For information on how to request permission to reproduce any part of an article published in Journal of Molecular Endocrinology see the journal’s permissions and commercial reprints page.

Article types

Original research papers, short reviews and commentaries are considered. Journal of Molecular Endocrinology will consider comprehensive articles with large data sets, please send a pre-submission enquiry via the feedback form for a quick response on suitability.

The Editor-in-Chief reserves the right to invite commentaries or critiques on articles accepted for publication.

Original Research

Journal of Molecular Endocrinology considers basic and pathophysiological studies at the molecule and cell level. The journal’s focus is on molecular and cellular mechanisms in endocrinology, including gene regulation, cell biology, signalling, mutations and transgenesis.

The journal will consider comprehensive articles with large data sets; please send a pre-submission enquiry via the feedback form for a quick response on suitability.

Reviews

Journal of Molecular Endocrinology aims to publish critical reviews that bring the reader up-to-date with the current status of the field, highlighting recent advances and indicating future areas of research. Authors intending to submit unsolicited reviews should send an outline of the proposed article to the Editorial Office via the feedback form.

Submission

Submit online using the ScholarOne Manuscripts system.

Manuscripts must be written in clear, concise English. Bioscientifica offers discounted English editing services in partnership with Enago, one of the world’s leading academic editing service providers. Enago will help Bioscientifica authors ensure that their paper is suitable for submission offering two levels of service to select from: Copy Editing or Substantive Editing. To find out more and access the discounted rate, please visit www.enago.com/bioscientifica.

If accepted, your article will be included in the Accepted Preprint service. Please ensure that the details entered in ScholarOne Manuscripts match those in the manuscript itself, as the Accepted Preprint is generated from ScholarOne Manuscripts. In particular, ensure that affiliations are included and that the order, spelling and middle initials of authors are entered as you want them to appear online, as the Accepted Preprint will be indexed in PubMed until the final typeset version is published.

Please prepare the content of your article as described below.

Include a covering letter containing the following:

• A statement that the work has not been and will not be submitted for publication elsewhere until the editorial board has decided whether to publish the article
• A brief explanation of the subject of the article. For original research articles, state the novelty of the findings and why they represent a meaningful advance in the field

Articles quoted as ‘in press’ that are not available online as part of the Accepted Preprint service or a similar scheme must be provided as supplementary files for reviewing purposes.

All Authors are required to provide at least two suggested reviewers. One of these scientists may be asked to referee the article, please only nominate individuals who are active researchers in a field of study related to your manuscript, using their main institutional email address.

Authors should keep copies of everything submitted.

Preparation of manuscripts

General

Manuscripts should be concise and clear. Text for research papers is limited to 5000 words. Please provide a word count on the title page of your manuscript. We recommend a maximum of 10 figures and 60 references.

Manuscripts should be divided into the following sections:

1. Title page,
2. Abstract (maximum 250 words),
3. Introduction,
4. Materials and methods,
5. Results,
6. Discussion,
7. Declaration of interest,
8. Funding,
9. Author contributions,
10. Acknowledgements,
11. References,
12. Figure legends,
13. Tables,
14. Figures.

Please format your manuscript as follows:

• Use double line spacing throughout (including reference list and figure legends).
• Number all pages, and number the lines continuously throughout the entire manuscript down the left-hand side of each page.
• When preparing a revised manuscript, please highlight the changes to your manuscript within the document by using the highlighter function or coloured text.
• Manuscripts can be written in either UK or US English. As a guideline, follow the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary for UK English or Merriam-Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary for US English.
• Bioscientifica offers discounted English editing services in partnership with Enago, an academic editing service. For full details please view our English language editing services page.
• Define all abbreviations when first mentioned.

For further advice on manuscript preparation see the Guidelines published by the European Association of Science Editors.

Gene and protein nomenclature

Manuscripts must be prepared in accordance with approved gene nomenclature.

• In gene and protein symbols, substitute Greek letters with the corresponding roman letter, e.g. TGFBR2 not TGFβR2.
• Avoid hyphens unless they are part of the approved symbol, e.g. IGF1 not IGF-1.
• Use arabic rather than roman numerals, e.g. BMPR2 not BMPRII.

Follow species-specific formatting standards as follows:

Mice and rats

Gene symbols should be in italics with only the first letter capitalised. Protein designations should be the same as the gene symbols except that all letters should be capitalised and in roman (i.e. not italicised). For example:

• Gene/RNA/DNA: Sox2
• Protein: SOX2

Use symbols approved by the International Committee on Standardized Genetic Nomenclature for Mice and the Rat Genome and Nomenclature Committee, which can be queried at the MGI website.

Humans, non-human primates and domestic species

Gene symbols should be in italics with all letters capitalised; protein designations should be the same as the gene symbols but not italicised. For example:

• Gene/RNA/DNA: SOX2
• Protein: SOX2

Use symbols approved by the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC).

Fish

Gene symbols should be in italics with all letters in lower case; protein designations should be the same as the gene symbols but not italicised and with the first letter capitalised. For example:

• Gene/RNA/DNA: sox2
• Protein: Sox2

Use symbols approved by the Zebrafish Nomenclature Committee (ZNC), which can be queried at the ZFIN website.

Title page

Include a separate title page with:

• Title (maximum 15 words). Titles should be as short as possible while still informing the reader about the article content and engaging their interest
• Authors’ names and full addresses. The place where the work was carried out should be listed first. Use superscript numbers after authors’ names to indicate their affiliations
• Corresponding author’s postal and email address
• Short title (maximum 46 characters, including spaces)
• A mimimum of four keywords describing the manuscript
• Word count of the full article, excluding references and figure legends

Abstract

The abstract should be a single paragraph of not more than 250 words, clearly stating the objective of the study or review, the methods used (where applicable), and summarizing results and conclusions.

Avoid abbreviations and references.

Introduction

The introduction should set the study in context by briefly reviewing relevant knowledge of the subject; follow this with a concise statement of the objectives of the study.

Materials and methods

Provide sufficient information for other workers to repeat the study. If well-established methods are used give a reference to the technique and provide full details of any modifications.

• Include the source of chemicals, reagents and hormones and give the manufacturer’s name and location (town, country) in parentheses.
• Give the generic name, dose and route of administration for drugs.
• Specify the composition of buffers, solutions and culture media.
• Use SI symbols, give concentrations in mol/L and define the term % as w/v or v/v for all solutions. For international units use IU (U should be used for enzyme activity).
• Specify the type of equipment (microscopes/objective lenses, cameras, detectors) used to obtain images.
• Specify any image acquisition software used, and give a description of specialized techniques requiring large amounts of processing, such as confocal, deconvolution, 3D reconstructions, or surface and volume rendering.

Animals

Experiments with animals must be performed in accordance with UK legal requirements. Include a statement that investigations have been approved by the local ethical committee.

• Give the full binomial Latin names for all experimental animals other than common laboratory animals.
• State the breed or strain and source of animals, and give details of age, weight, sex and housing.
• Detail the procedures and anaesthetics used, including doses given.

Authors are encouraged to refer to the ARRIVE guidelines, and in particular the checklist within them, when preparing manuscripts detailing animal experiments.

Experiments with genetically engineered mice

In inbred mice, genetic strain effects can have significant effects on phenotype. Because of this the following controls for experiments with genetically-manipulated mice should be used: parental inbred strain, or wild-type littermates.

Cell lines

In general, studies that are based on observations performed in a single cell line will not be considered for publication if other lines of the same general lineage and characteristics are available. If at all possible, observations should be replicated in multiple cell lines.

Authentication of cell lines

We require that all cell lines are authenticated for correct origin. Specifically, the author should include the following information supporting the authentication of lines:

1. Source of cell lines. Gifts of cell lines from individuals will not be acceptable.
2. Please state what the method of authentication is. For example, ATCC uses STRS analysis.
3. State the passage number(s) of cell lines used for the experiments described in the submission. Unless the research is specifically about senescence, lines >35 passages would not be acceptable.

Guidelines for genetic association case/control studies

The Society for Endocrinology has produced guidelines for genetic association case/control studies in order to ensure they are methodologically sound and readers can fully assess their significance.

All Society for Endocrinology journals require data from such studies to be deposited in public databases (eg MIAME or GEO) or the manuscript will not be published. Journal of Molecular Endocrinology supports the public dissemination of gene expression data.

Free exchange of materials

The Society for Endocrinology expects its authors to deposit plasmid constructions in a public repository, such as Addgene.

Statistical analysis

It is the author’s responsibility to document that the results are reproducible and that the differences found are not due to random variation. No absolute rules can be applied but, in general, quantitative data should be from no fewer than three replicate experiments. Appropriate statistical methods should be used to test the significance of differences in results. The term ‘significant’ should not be used unless statistical analysis was performed, and the probability value used to identify significance (e.g. P < 0.05) should be specified.

When several t-tests are employed, authors should be aware that nominal probability levels no longer apply. Accordingly, the multiple t-test, multiple range test, or similar techniques to permit simultaneous comparisons should be employed. Also, in lieu of using several t-tests, it is often more appropriate to utilize an analysis of variance (ANOVA) to permit pooling of data, increase the number of degrees of freedom, and improve reliability of results. Authors should use appropriate nonparametric tests when the data depart substantially from a normal distribution.

In presenting results of linear regression analyses, it is desirable to show 95% confidence limits.

When data points are fitted with lines, specify the method used for fitting (graphical, least squares, computer program). If differences in slopes and/or axis intercepts are claimed for plotted lines, these should be supported by statistical analysis.

Give sufficient details of the experimental design and analysis so that the reader can assess their adequacy and validity for testing the hypotheses of interest.

In particular:

• Describe the numbers of experimental units used and the way in which they have been allocated to treatments.
• Justify the omission of any observations from the analysis.
• Describe methods of analysis precisely and state any necessary assumptions, as these may affect the conclusions that can be drawn from the experiment.

Your article may be sent to the Statistical Advisor for comments.

Declaration of interest, Funding and Acknowledgements

Declaration of interest

Actual or perceived conflicts of interest for all authors must be declared in full.

Please either (a) declare that there is no conflict of interest that could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the research reported; or (b) fully declare any financial or other potential conflict of interest.

Conflicts of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Employment and consultancies
• Grants, fees and honoraria
• Ownership of stock or shares
• Royalties
• Patents (pending and actual)
• Board membership

Funding

Please detail all of the sources of funding relevant to the research reported in the following format:

This work was supported by the Medical Research Council (grant numbers xxxx, yyyy); the Wellcome Trust (grant number xxxx); and Tommy’s Baby charity (grant number xxxx).

Where research has not been funded please state the following:

This research did not receive any specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sector.

Author contribution statement (optional)

Please include a statement specifying the contribution of each co-author.

Acknowledgements

Please be as brief as possible.

References

All references cited in the text must be included in the reference list and vice versa. However, if a reference consists of only a web address do not include it in the reference list but cite it in the text, giving the date the page was accessed.

Unpublished work

Any unpublished work (personal communications, manuscripts in preparation and manuscripts submitted but not yet accepted for publication) must be referred to in the text and not listed in the references.

Give the full list of authors, including their initials. For example:

Articles accepted for publication but not yet published may be listed as ‘in press’ in the reference list, using the current year as the publication year. If an ‘in press’ article is included in the Accepted Preprint service or a similar scheme, then the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) should be included; otherwise, provide a copy of the article as a supplementary file for reviewing purposes. Details of how to cite such articles can be found here.

In the text

Cite references in the text using the authors’ names and publication year. Use et al. for articles with more than two authors. Where there are several citations, list them in chronological order.

In the reference list

List references in alphabetical order. Give articles by the same author in the order:

1. Single author
2. Two authors alphabetically according to the name of the second author
3. Three or more authors chronologically, with a, b and c etc. for articles published in the same year, in the order in which they are cited in the text.

List a maximum of ten authors. Where there are more than ten authors, list the first ten and then use et al.

Reference in the following format:

EndNote

An EndNote style for Journal of Molecular Endocrinology is available. To download the style,

1. RIGHT-CLICK to select this link: Journal of Molecular Endocrinology EndNote style (.zip file, 1.2 KB)
2. Choose ‘Save Target As’ or ‘Save Link As’ from the drop-down menu
3. Save the file to your computer and unzip it to extract the .ens file
4. Copy the .ens file into the ‘Style’ folder within the EndNote program folder (usually found on the computer hard (C:) drive). If using a shared copy of EndNote over a network, the network administrator may need to do this

Tables

Tables should be concise. Tables too large for print publication should be submitted as supplementary data.

• Number tables in the order they are cited in the text.
• Include a title – a single sentence at the head of the table that includes the name of the organism studied.
• Use footnotes to provide any additional explanatory material, cross-referenced to the column entries.
• Give a short heading for each column.
• Do not use internal horizontal or vertical lines, colour or shading.
• Explain all abbreviations used in the table in the footnotes.

Figures

The journal has produced digital image guidelines in order to clarify the standards expected by the journal. All submitted digital images must adhere to these guidelines.

Colour figures will be published online at no charge to the author. Publication of colour figures in the print version will incur a charge that must be paid before publication. Please note the option to print in greyscale is subject to editorial approval, if the meaning of your image is unclear you will be asked to print in colour and a charge will apply.

• Number figures in the order they are cited in the text.
• Include legends to all figures, giving the figure number, keys to any symbols used, the name of the organism studied, the names of any statistical tests used and the probability levels used for comparisons.
• Label figure sections as A, B etc in the top left-hand corner.
• Use Arial or a similar sans-serif font for text labels.
• Do not enclose figures in boxes.
• Indicate magnification by a scale bar in the bottom right-hand corner of the image and give the measurement in the legend.
• Use the preferred symbols of closed and open circles, squares and triangles. Ensure that symbols are large enough to be read clearly when the figure is reduced for publication.
• Use Courier or a similar non-proportional font for amino acid, DNA, RNA and PCR primer sequences and highlight sections of homology between sequences with grey shading.

File types and resolution

Journal of Molecular Endocrinology is committed to publishing high quality figures.

EPS or TIFF files are preferred. Files should be exported in Illustrator compatible format. Avoid using PowerPoint or Word files for figures.

Additional information regarding the submission of figures can be found here.

Line images/graphs

• File types: EPS, TIFF, high-resolution PDF, AI (Adobe Illustrator)
• Resolution at final published size: 1200 dpi

Half-tone (greyscale) images

• File types: TIFF, high-resolution PDF, JPEG
• Resolution at final published size: 600 dpi

Colour images

• File types: TIFF, high-resolution PDF, JPEG. EPS or AI files can be used for graphical data and illustrations that don’t include photographs
• Resolution at final published size: 300 dpi
• Colour format: CMYK (not RGB)

Image acquisition and manipulation

No specific feature within an image may be enhanced, obscured, moved, removed, or introduced. The groupings of images from different parts of the same gel, or from different gels, fields or exposures must be made explicit by the arrangement of the figure (e.g. using dividing lines) and in the text of the figure legend. Adjustments of brightness, contrast, or colour balance are acceptable if and as long as they do not obscure or eliminate any information present in the original. Nonlinear adjustments (e.g. changes to gamma settings) must be disclosed in the figure legend. Adjustments should be applied to the entire image. Threshold manipulation, expansion or contraction of signal ranges and the altering of high signals should be avoided.

This policy is adopted from The Journal of Cell Biology.

Microscopy

Microscope images should be made available to referees in images that are at least 300 dpi at the size which they will be published. 'Pseudo-colouring' and nonlinear adjustment (for example 'gamma changes') are only allowed if unavoidable and must be disclosed.

Standards for Western Blots

Western blot analyses must include molecular weight markers and appropriate loading controls. The band intensity should be quantified from several independent experiments. If only a ’typical’ western blot experiment is shown in the figure, authors should be prepared to provide the other blots used for quantification upon request. As the validity of these analyses relies heavily on antibody specificity, an appropriate control (tissue from knockout mice or protein knockdown in cell lines) must be included, or alternatively a reference should be given in the methods section referring to such a control.

Manipulation of western blot images such as the pasting together of lanes or removal of unspecific bands is not acceptable. In cases where comparions are made across different blots this should be clearly indicated in the image and figure legend. Reuse of loading controls from other experiments or previous publications is unacceptable. Authors may be required to provide the original blots at the request of the Editor-in-Chief.

Videos

The journal is capable of incorporating videos into articles published online. Upload videos to represent those results which are best demonstrated by moving images, such as time-lapse photography, real-time intracellular trafficking or 3D molecular reconstructions. There is no charge for the publication of in-article videos.

Upload your video as a supplementary file when submitting through the ScholarOne manuscripts system. Videos should be less than 1.5 MB

Supplementary data

Supplementary data too large for print publication or exceeding the bounds of the manuscript may be submitted for online publication.

Supplementary data files intended for online publication should be submitted online via ScholarOne Manuscripts as ‘Supplemental File for Review’, and referred to as supplementary data in the text:

Supplementary information will be reviewed as part of the manuscript, evaluated for its importance and relevance and, if accepted, will be referenced in the text of the article, directing readers to the website.

There is a charge for publication of supplementary data.

Reprints

A free PDF will be emailed to all the authors of an article.

Cover art competition

Readers are invited to submit their endocrinology images for entry into the Journal of Molecular Endocrinology cover art competition. Winners will be selected by the Editor-in-Chief and will have their imagery featured on the cover of an issue of Journal of Molecular Endocrinology, both in print and online. Winners will be cited in the journal and will receive a professionally printed copy of the journal cover featuring their scientific image.

To submit an image please email your images to jme-prod{at}endocrinology.org accompanied with a short caption of 25–30 words explaining what the image depicts, its magnification and who should be acknowledged for its production. Images should be of high quality and resolution of at least 300 dpi at the final published size (220 mm (W) × 100 mm (H)).

By submitting an image you warrant that you own the copyright and agree that images may be used in promotional material. Images not selected for use may still be used by the Society for Endocrinology and Bioscientifica for promotional purposes.

Society for Endocrinology Journal Awards

The Society for Endocrinology awards a prize for the best paper published in Journal of Molecular Endocrinology annually. All published papers will automatically be considered for the prize. Further details can be found here.

Article promotion

Where appropriate, published articles are promoted to scientists and clinicians from all over the world to ensure maximum reach and visibility of our authors’ work.

How we may promote your work

• Press releases for papers of high interest and broad appeal.
• Communications to members of the owning society, the Society for Endocrinology, and the endorsing society, the European Society of Endocrinology, via multiple media.
• Bioscientifica journals are promoted at c.40 conferences a year and your article may be picked to feature on our Themed Collection handouts.
• Bimonthly email newsletters, including topic collections, sent to authors, readers, editors, reviewers and anybody else with an interest in the journal.
• Summaries of selected papers feature as Hot Topics.

Tips for promoting your own work

Did you know that a Tweeted article is 11 times more likely to be cited up to 29 months after publication than an un-Tweeted article (source: Eysenbach 2011)?

Get the most out of your published article by considering the following:

• You will receive a link to your published article which you can send to colleagues who may be interested in your line of research.
• Use Kudos to maximize the impact of your article.
• Add your article to the list of publications on your institution’s webpages.
• Use of social media: tweet your article and mention @soc_endo for a retweet.
• Link to the paper in work-related blogs and professional websites.

Kudos

Bioscientifica is working with Kudos to help our authors maximize the impact of their published work.

Kudos provides a free set of tools to help you explain your work in new ways and share it both within your networks, and more widely. You can measure the results of these actions and track the resulting increase in downloads, readership and, ultimately, citations.

Authors using Kudos sharing tools receive on average 19% more downloads for their articles than those who dont.

Kudos is free to use and only takes a few minutes of your time.

Article level metrics

Article level metrics are available for articles published in Journal of Molecular Endocrinology. This feature provides traditional usage data (number of article downloads/views) as well as  Altmetric data for individual articles published in the journal. Altmetric provide non-traditional data by tracking a selection of online indicators (both scholarly and non-scholarly) to give a measurement of digital impact and reach. This information is used to generate an article’s Altmetric score.

These article level metrics allow authors to monitor the impact of their research in academia and beyond.