Guide for Authors

Aims and scope

The Cell Journal (Yakhteh) is a peer review and monthly English publication of Royan Institute of Iran. The aim of the journal is to disseminate information by publishing the most recent scientific research studies based on medical and developmental biology including cell therapy and regenerative medicine, stem cell biology, reproductive medicine, medical genetics, immunology, oncology, clinical biochemistry, neuroscience, and tissue engineering. Cell J, has been certified by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance since 1999 and accredited as a scientific and research journal by HBI (Health and Biomedical Information) Journal Accreditation Commission since 2000 which is an open-access journal. This journal holds the membership of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

 

1. Types of articles

The articles in the field of Cellular and Molecular can be considered for publications in Cell J. These articles are as below:

 

A. Original articles

Original articles are scientific reports of the original research studies. The article consists of English Abstract (structured), Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Acknowledgements, Author’s Contributions, and References (Up to 40).  Sample

 

B. Review articles

Review articles are the articles written by well experienced authors and those who have excellence in the related fields. The corresponding author of the review article must be one of the authors of at least three published articles appearing in the references. The review article consists of English Abstract (unstructured), Introduction, Conclusion, Authors Contributions, and References (Up to 70). Sample

 

C. Systematic reviews

Systematic reviews are a type of literature review that collect and critically analyzes multiple research studies or papers. The Systematic reviews consist of English Abstract (unstructured), Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Acknowledgements, Author’s Contributions, and References (Up to 70). Sample

 

 

D. Short communications

Short communications are articles containing new findings. Submissions should be brief reports of ongoing researches. The short communication consists of English Abstract (unstructured), the body of the manuscript (should not hold heading or subheading), Acknowledgements, Author’s Contributions, and References (Up to 30)Sample

 

E. Case reports

Case reports are short discussions of a case or case series with unique features not previously described which make an important teaching point or scientific observation. They may describe novel techniques or use equipment, or new information on diseases of importance. It consists of English Abstracts (Unstructured), Introduction, Case Report, Discussion, Acknowledgements, Author’s Contributions, and References (Up to 30).  Sample

 

F. Editorial

Editorials are articles should be written in relevant and new data of journals’ filed by either the editor in chief or the editorial board.

 

G. Images in biology

Images in biology should focus on a single case with an interesting illustration such as a photograph, histological specimen, or investigation. Color images are welcomed. The text should be brief and informative.

 

H. Letter to the editors

Letter to the editors are in response to previously published Cell J articles, and may also include interesting cases that do not meet the requirement of being truly exceptional, as well as other brief technical or clinical notes of general interest.  Sample

 

I. Debate

Debates are articles which show a discussion of the positive and negative view of the author concerning all aspect of the issue relevant to scientific research. Sample

 

2. Submission process

It is recommended to see the guidelines for reporting different kinds of manuscripts here. This guide explains how to prepare the manuscript for submission. Before submitting, we suggest authors to familiarize themselves with Cell J format and content by reading the journal via the website (www.celljournal.org). The corresponding author ensures that all authors are included in the author list and agree with its order, and they must be aware of the manuscript submission.

 

A. Author contributions statement Sample

It is essential for authors to include a statement of responsibility in the manuscript that specifies all the authors’ contributions. This participation must include: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Resources, Data Curation, Writing - Original Draft, Writing - Review & Editing, Visualization, Supervision, Project administration, and Funding acquisition. Authors who do not meet the above criteria should be acknowledged in the Acknowledgments section.
 

B. Cover letter and Copyright Sample

Each manuscript should be accompanied by a cover letter, signed by all authors specifying the following statement: "The manuscript has been seen and approved by all authors and is not under active consideration for publication. It has neither been accepted for publication nor published in another journal fully or partially (except in abstract form). Also, no manuscript would be accepted in case it has been pre-printed or submitted to other websites. I hereby assign the copyright of the enclosed manuscript to Cell J.

The corresponding author must confirm the proof of the manuscript before online publishing. It is needed to suggest three peer reviewers in the field of their manuscript.

 

C. Manuscript preparation

Authors whose first language is not English encouraged to consult a native English speaker in order to confirm their manuscripts to American or British (not a mixture) English usage and grammar. It is necessary to mention that we will check the plagiarism of your manuscript by iThenticate Software  (guideline). The manuscript should be prepared in accordance with the "International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE)". Please send your manuscript in two formats word and PDF (including title, name of all the authors with their degree, abstract, full text, references, tables, and figures) and also send tables and figures separately in the site. The abstract and text pages should have consecutive line numbers in the left margin beginning with the title page and continuing through the last page of the written text. Each abbreviation must be defined in the abstract and text when they are introduced for the first time. Avoid using abbreviations in the title. Please use the international and standard abbreviations and symbols.

It should be added that an essential step toward the integration and linking of scientific information reported in published literature is using standardized nomenclature in all fields of science and medicine. Species names must be italicized (e.g., Homo sapiens) and also the full genus and species written out in full, both in the title of the manuscript and at the first mention of an organism in a paper.

It is necessary to mention that genes, mutations, genotypes, and alleles must be indicated in italics. Please use the recommended name by consulting the appropriate genetic nomenclature database, e.g., HUGO for human genes. In another word; if it is a human gene, you must write all the letters in capital and italic (e.g., OCT4, c-MYC). If not, only write the first letter in capital and italic (e.g., Oct4, c-Myc). In addition, protein designations are the same as the gene symbol but are not italicized.

 

Of noteCell J will only consider publishing genetic association study papers that are novel and statistically robust. The authors are advised to adhere to the recommendations outlined in the STREGA statement (http://www.strega-statement.org). The following criteria must be met for all submissions:

1. Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium (HWE) calculations must be carried out and reported along with the P-values if applicable [see Namipashaki et al. 2015 (Cell J, Vol 17, N 2, Pages: 187-192) for a discussion].

2. Linkage disequilibrium (LD) structure between SNPs (if multiple SNPs are reported) must be presented.

3. Appropriate multiple testing corrections (if multiple independent SNPs are reported) must be included.

Submissions that fail to meet the above criteria will be rejected before being sent out for review.

Each of the following manuscript components should begin in the following sequence:

 

Authors’ names and order of them must be carefully considered (full name(s), highest awarded academic degree(s), email(s), and institutional affiliation(s) of all the authors in English. Also, you must send mobile number and full postal address of the corresponding author).

 

Changes to authorship such as addition, deletion, or rearrangement of author names must be made only before the manuscript has been accepted in the case of approving by the journal editor. In this case, the corresponding author must explain the reason of changing and confirm them (which has been signed by all authors of the manuscript). If the manuscript has already been published in an online issue, an erratum is needed.

 

Title is providing the full title of the research (do not use abbreviations in title).

 

Running title is providing a maximum of 7 words (no more than 50 characters).

 

Abstract must include Objective, Materials and Methods, Results, and Conclusion (no more than 300 words).

 

Keywords, three to five, must be supplied by the authors at the foot of the abstract chosen from the Medical Subject Heading (MeSH). Therefore; they must be specific and relevant to the paper.

The following components should be identified after the abstract:

 

Introduction: The Introduction should provide a brief background to the subject of the paper, explain the importance of the study, and state a precise study question or purpose.

 

Materials and Methods: It includes the exact methods or observations of experiments. If an apparatus is used, its manufacturer’s name and address should be stipulated in parenthesis. If the method is established, give a reference but if the method is new, give enough information so that another author can perform it. If a drug is used, its generic name, dose, and route of administration must be given. Standard units of measurements and chemical symbols of elements do not need to be defined.

 

Statistical analysis: Type of study and statistical methods should be mentioned and specified by any general computer program used.

 

Ethical considerations: Please state that informed consent was obtained from all human adult participants and from the parents or legal guardians of minors and include the name of the appropriate institutional review board that approved the project. It is necessary to indicate in the text that the maintenance and care of experimental animals comply with National Institutes of Health guidelines for the human use of laboratory animals, or those of your Institute or agency.

 

Clinical trial registration: All of the Clinical Trials performing in Iran must be registered in Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials (www.irct.ir). The clinical trials performed abroad, could be considered for publication if they register in a registration site approved by WHO or www.clinicaltrials.gov. If you are reporting phase II or phase III randomized controlled trials, you must refer to the CONSORT Statement for recommendations to facilitate the complete and transparent reporting of trial findings. Reports that do not conform to the CONSORT guidelines may need to be revised before peer-reviewing.

 

Results:

They must be presented in the form of text, tables, and figures. Take care that the text does not repeat data that are presented in tables and/or figures. Only emphasize and summarize the essential features of the main results. Tables and figures must be numbered consecutively as appeared in the text and should be organized in separate pages at the end of the manuscript while their location should be mentioned in the main text.

 

Tables and figures:

If the result of your manuscript is too short, it is better to use the text instead of tables & figures. Tables should have a short descriptive heading above them and also any footnotes. Figure’s caption should contain a brief title for the whole figure and continue with a short explanation of each part and also the symbols used (no more than 100 words). All figures must be prepared based on cell journal’s guideline in color (no more than 6 Figures and Tables) and also in TIF  format with 300 DPI resolution. guideline

Of Note: Please put the tables & figures of the result in the results section not any other section of the manuscript.

 

 

Supplementary materials would be published in the online version of the journal. This material is important to the understanding and interpretation of the report and should not repeat material within the print article. The amount of supplementary material should be limited. Supplementary material should be original and not previously published and will undergo editorial and peer review with the main manuscript. Also, they must be cited in the manuscript text in parentheses, in a similar way as when citing a figure or a table. Provide a caption for each supplementary material submitted.

 

Discussion: It should emphasize the present findings and the variations or similarities with other researches done by other researchers. The detailed results should not be repeated in the discussion again. It must emphasize the new and important aspects of the study.

 

Conclusion:

It emphasizes the new and important aspects of the study. All conclusions are justified by the results of the study.

 

Acknowledgments:

This part includes a statement thanking those who contributed substantially with work relevant to the study but does not have authorship criteria. It includes those who provided technical help, writing assistance and name of departments that provided only general support. You must mention financial support in the study. Otherwise; write this sentence "There is no financial support in this study".

 

Conflict of Interest:

Any conflict of interest (financial or otherwise) and sources of financial support must be listed in the Acknowledgements. It includes providers of supplies and services from a commercial organization. Any commercial affiliation must be disclosed, regardless of providing the funding or not.

Of Note:  If you have already any patent related to the subject of your manuscript, or you are going to apply for such a patent, it must be mentioned in this part. 

 

References: The references must be written based on the Vancouver style. Thus the references are cited numerically in the text and listed in the bibliography by the order of their appearance. The titles of journals must be abbreviated according to the style used in the list of Journals Indexed in PubMed. Write surname and initials of all authors when there are six or less. In the case of seven or more authors, the names of the first six authors followed by "et al." must be listed.
You can download Endnote file for Journal references style from here: Endnote File

The reference of information must be based on the following order:

Article:

Surname(s) and first letter of name &middle name(s) of author(s) .Manuscript title. Journal title (abbr).publication date (year); Volume & Issue: Page number.

Example: Manicardi GC, Bianchi PG, Pantano S, Azzoni P, Bizzaro D, Bianchi U, et al. Presence of endogenous nicks in DNA of ejaculated human spermatozoa and its relationship to chromomycin A3 accessibility. Biol Reprod. 1995; 52(4): 864-867.

Book:

Surname(s) and first letter of name & middle name(s) of author(s).Book title. Edition. Publication place: publisher name; publication date (year); Page number.

Example: Edelman CL, Mandle CL. Health promotion throughout the lifespan. 2nd ed. ST Louis: Mosby; 1998; 145-163.

Chapter of book:

Surname(s) and first letter of name & middle name(s) of author(s).Chapter title. In: Surname(s) and first letter of name & middle name(s) of editor(s), editors. Book title. Edition. Publication place: publisher name; publication date (year); Page number.

Example: Phillips SJ, Whisnant JP. Hypertension and stroke. In: Laragh JH, Brenner BM, editors. Hypertension: pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management. 2nd ed. New York: Raven Press; 1995; 465-478.

Abstract book:

Example: Amini rad O.The antioxidant effect of pomegranate juice on sperm parameters and fertility potential in mice. Cell J. 2008;10 Suppl 1:38.

Thesis:

Name of author. Thesis title. Degree. City name. University. Publication date (year).

Example: Eftekhari Yazdi P. Comparison of fragment removal and co-culture with Vero cell monolayers on development of human fragmented embryos. Presented for the Ph.D., Tehran. Tarbiyat Modarres University. 2004.
 

Internet references

Article:

Example: Jahanshahi A, Mirnajafi-Zadeh J, Javan M, Mohammad-Zadeh M, Rohani M. Effect of low-frequency stimulation on adenosineA1 and A2A receptors gene expression in dentate gyrus of perforant path kindled rats. Cell J. 2008; 10 (2): 87-92. Available from: http://www.celljournal.org. (20 Oct 2008).

Book:

Example: Anderson SC, Poulsen KB. Anderson’s electronic atlas of hematology.[CD-ROM]. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2002.

 

 

D. Proofs:

Proofs are sent by email as PDF files and should be checked and returned within 72 hours of receipt. It is the authors’ responsibility to check that all the text and data as contained in the page proofs are correct and suitable for publication. We are requested to pay particular attention to author’s names and affiliations as it is essential that these details be accurate when the article is published.

 

E. Pay for publication:
Publishing an article in Cell J requires Article Processing Charges (APC) that will be billed to the submitting author following the acceptance of an article for publication. For more information please click here.

 

F. Ethics of scientific publication:

Manuscripts that have been published elsewhere with the same intellectual material will refer to duplicate publication. If authors have used their own previously published work or work that is currently under review, as the basis for a submitted manuscript, they are required to cite the previous work and indicate how their submitted manuscript offers novel contributions beyond those of the previous work. Research and publication misconduct is considered a serious breach of ethics.

The Journal systematically employs iThenticate, plagiarism detection and prevention software designed to ensure the originality of written work before publication. Plagiarism of text from a previously published manuscript by the same or another author is a serious publication offense. Some parts of text may be used, only where the source of the quoted material is clearly acknowledged.


3. General information:

A. You can send your manuscript via online submission system which is available on our website. If the manuscript is not prepared according to the format of Cell J, it will be returned to authors.

B. The order of article appears in the Journal is not demonstrating the scientific characters of the authors.

C. Cell J has authority to accept or reject the manuscript.

D. Corresponding authors should send the manuscripts via the Online Manuscript Submission System.  All submissions will be evaluated by the associated editor in order to check scope and novelty. If the manuscript suits the journal criteria, the associated editor would select the single-blind peer-reviewers. The reviewers of the manuscript must not share information about the review with anyone without permission of the editors and authors. If three reviewers pass their judgments on the manuscript, it will be presented to the associated editor of Cell J. In the case of having a favorable judgment on the manuscript, reviewers’ comments will be presented to the corresponding author (the identification of the reviewers will not be revealed). After receiving the revision, the associated editor would choose the final reviewer among the previous ones. The final decision will be taken by editor-in-chief based on the final reviewer’s comments. The review process takes between 2 to 4 months in Cell J. The executive member of journal will contact the corresponding author directly within 3-4 weeks by email. If authors do not receive any reply from journal office after the specified time, they can contact the journal office. Finally, the executive manager will respond promptly to authors’ request.

After receiving the acceptance letter, the abstract of the paper would be published electronically. The paper will be in a queue to be published in one Cell J. At last, the corresponding author should verify a proof copy of the paper in order to be published.


The Final Checklist :

The authors must ensure that before submitting the manuscript for publication, they have to consider the following parts:

1. Title page should contain title, name of the author/coauthors, their academic qualifications, designation & institutions they are affiliated with, mailing address for future correspondence, email address, phone, and fax number.

2. Text of manuscript and References prepared as stated in the "guide for authors" section.

3. Tables should be on a separate page. Figures must be sent in color and also in JPEG (Jpg) format.

4.  Cover Letter should be uploaded with the signature of all authors.

5. An ethical committee letter should be inserted at the end of the cover letter. 

 

 

 

The Editor-in-Chief:

Ahmad Hosseini, Ph.D.

Cell Journal (Yakhteh),

P.O. Box: 16635-148, Iran

Tel/Fax: + 98-21-22510895

Emails: Celljournal@royaninstitute.org ,info@celljournal.org