Submissions checklist

Cover letter

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Cover letters are encouraged for all research and review article submissions. The cover letter should highlight the findings of your study, the advance it brings and its relevance to the field. If your cover letter includes reviewer suggestions and exclusions, these must also be added to the appropriate section when prompted in the submission system. 

Title page

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Article title
The title should succinctly reflect the content of the paper and must not exceed 20 words in length. Please do consider the wording of your title to ensure maximum impact.

Abstract
Abstracts must not exceed 250 words. Please ensure that there are no references included in the abstract. Our journals do not consider graphical abstracts.

Keywords
During the submission process you will be asked to provide a subject area and keywords that best represent your submission. Please select these carefully, as they will help to improve the discoverability of your paper should your paper be accepted for publication.

Author list
The Journal follows ICMJE’s recommendations on authorship, as detailed in our Editorial Policy. Please ensure that the authorship is correct, that authors are listed in the desired order and that author names are listed exactly as you would like them to appear on the published paper. 

Corresponding authors
Our journals mandate that the Corresponding Author must have an institutional email address as a requirement. If the author is unable to provide an institutional email address, the corresponding author’s institution must provide a letter (on institutional-headed paper) that includes the following:

• The full title of the paper
• The full author list
• The date of submission
• Confirmation that the institution is aware of the work being submitted to the Journal
• Confirmation of where the work was performed
• Confirmation of when the work was completed
• Confirmation of the corresponding author’s employment at their affiliated institution 
• Contact details of the corresponding author
• Contact details, signature and job title of the person who wrote the letter (This letter must be completed and signed by a research officer or department head, not an author of the paper)

The corresponding author is responsible for all communication with the Journal. The corresponding author must also ensure that all authors are aware of, and agree to, the submission and (if accepted) publication of the paper. The corresponding author is required to provide an ORCiD during submission of a revised paper. The email address of the corresponding author will be published in the paper and the corresponding author must also act as the point of contact for queries regarding the paper after publication. The submission system only allows for one corresponding author to be added, if the paper has more than one corresponding author, please clearly indicate this in the manuscript file and cover letter. 

Main article

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The main text of research papers should include an Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion section. 

Clinical Science asks that authors of research articles prepare a ‘Clinical Perspectives’ summary section within the main text of your manuscript and within the submission system. This section should be structured as three bullet-pointed sentences, covering the following:

• Background as to why the study was undertaken
• A brief summary of the results
• The potential significance of the results to human health and disease

The Biochemical Journal asks that the methods be placed at the end of the article, after the Discussion.

Methods (research papers only)

The Methods section must include enough detail for the study to be replicated, including (as appropriate):

• Catalogue number and supplier of critical reagents and kits, for example, drugs, hormones, inhibitors, substrates, and purification kit
• Antibody origin (company), catalogue number, and dilution used
• NCBI (or other accessible database) reference number for DNA/RNA sequences used, and nucleotide range for fragment
• UniProtKB (or other accessible database) reference number for protein sequences used, and residue range for fragment
• Sequences of every oligonucleotide used for PCR, RT-qPCR, cloning, siRNA, miR-RNA, mimics, etc. with 5’-3’ orientation
• Origin and catalogue number of cell lines used
• Detail on culture conditions such as media, serum, and supplements for every cell line used and specific cell reagents, such as for gene transfer experiments and siRNA
• Number of cells seeded in wells or Petri dish for cellular assays, incubation time before treatment, drug concentration used, time of harvest after treatment
• Web address of databases with details on the parameters used to perform specific searches
• Number of independent repetitions, statistical tests used, including for multiple comparison

Ethics (research papers only)

For experiments with animals, please ensure that within your methods you state where the ethics approval has been sought/obtained from, the site where the animal work has taken place and the approval number obtained from the appropriate institutional review board. Please also specify the details of any anaesthetics used, and how the animals used in the study were euthanised.

Papers describing any experimental work with humans should include a statement that the research has been carried out in accordance with the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki, and that all subjects provided written informed consent.

Data Availability statement (research papers only)

Upon submission, Authors agree to make any materials, data, code and associated protocols available. For more information, please see our full Data Policy which outlines what types of data deposition are mandatory.
All research papers submitted to the Biochemical Society’s research journals require a Data Availability statement. Please ensure this statement is included immediately after the Conclusions, within the main manuscript text. 

This Data Availability statement should indicate to the reader where data associated with the paper are available and how to access the data (including links and a reference citation, where applicable, to the online dataset or software).  

If data sharing is not applicable to the paper for any reason, please indicate this in your cover letter and explain why this is the case. Any restrictions on the availability of materials or information must be disclosed to the Journal at the time of submission. If your research/submission cannot comply with the data type specific deposit requirements, or if you require data to be deposited following an embargo period, please write to the Editorial Office in the first instance. 

Figures
Figures may be embedded into the main text or provided as separate files. Please ensure all Figures have a title and legend (where appropriate). All Figures must be referred to in the main text. Figures must be provided at high resolution and the formatting of the labels should be consistent throughout the Figures. 

Images should not be enhanced or manipulated. Figures assembled from multiple images must be clearly indicated by white or black lines between each image.

For any paper that includes Western blots, the outer edges of the membranes should be visible and the blots should include the molecular mass markers. Fully uncropped and unedited versions of the blots may be requested by the Editorial Office, as required.

For more information on preparing your Figures, please see our Figure Preparation guide and full Data Policy.

Tables
All tables should include a title and (where appropriate) a legend. References included in tables must follow the Vancouver style (please see the References section below) and be included in the main Reference list.  

Acknowledgements
The acknowledgements should note assistance from contributors that do not meet the criteria for authorship. 

References
Please use the Vancouver style for all references. Please format your reference list to include the relevant DOI (digital object identifier) wherever possible. All references must be numbered consecutively within the text and listed in numerical order in the reference list. Where a reference includes more than six authors, please list the first six names followed by ‘et al’. 

Example:
1. Walker, N., Manwaring, Z., Rowe, O., Rodriguez, J., Glaister, K., Raanan, D, et al. (2023) Emergent reference pathways and citation explorations. Port Pubs. 67, 1-3 10.1042/PPL_12345678

If using Endnote to format your references, this Biochemical Society Vancouver.ens file can be used to format the references accordingly. 

Preprints should be cited using their DOI. The format should be: Author(s). (Year) Title. bioRxiv (or other preprint server name). DOI, posted date. For more information, please see our full policy on preprints. There is no limit on the number of references included.

Supplementary Files

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All Supplementary Figures and Tables must include a title and (as appropriate) a legend. Supplementary files should not include any methods, all methods must be included in the main article file.

Author contributions

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During submission, you will be asked to detail the contributions of all authors listed on the manuscript using the CRediT taxonomy.

Funding

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During submission, you will be asked to detail the funding that you received. If no funding has been received, this should also be stated. 

Revised Papers

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Please ensure all files are uploaded with your revised paper, including any Figures, Tables or Supplementary files. These will not be brought forward with the revised submission automatically.

Response to reviewers
You will be required to provide a response to the comments made by the Associate Editor, Reviewers and Editorial Office. Please ensure these are included within a single file and that every comment is responded to and/or address in the article file as appropriate.

Tracked changes version
Please provide a tracked changes version of your revised paper, a version with the changes highlighted, as a separate file from the main article.

Changes to authorship
If there are changes to the authorship of the paper during the revision, an Authorship Change form must be completed. Please include your fully completed form with your revised submission. All changes are subject to moderation by the Editorial Office. More information on changes to authorship can be found on our Editorial Policy page. 

Review articles

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Normally invited, although non-invited reviews will be considered for publication. Prospective authors should complete our pre-submission enquiry form or contact the Editorial Office providing a draft of their article if available. Please note that meta-analyses, systematic and bibliographical reviews are generally not considered for publication in our journals.

Reviews submitted to the Biochemical Journal, Clinical Science and Bioscience Reports should be full-length reviews of broad interest. Full-length reviews are usually 6,000–8,000 words (excluding references and figure legends) and should include at least one Figure.

Biochemical Society Transactions and Essays in Biochemistry publish mini-reviews, which should generally not exceed 4000 words (excluding references and figure legends). Mini-reviews should include a summary section consisting of three bullet points with each bullet point no more than one or two short sentences, not replicating the abstract but covering the following points:

1. Highlight importance of the field
2. Summary of the current thinking
3. Comment on future directions

Inclusion of figures in any article is welcomed and the use of colour for these is encouraged. There is no limit on the number of references that can be included.