Submissions

Author Guidelines

See the Author Guidelines also at JBB website - http://www.jbb.uni-plovdiv.bg/

AUTHOR GUIDELINES 

Journal of BioScience and Biotechnology is an open access journal that publishes original full-length research articles and invited reviews in various areas of the biological sciences (cellular and molecular biology, biochemistry, biotechnology, immunology, microbiology, virology, animal sciences, plant sciences, ecology and ecotoxicology, genetics, biomedical sciences, computational biology and biological anthropology). The editor may invite survey reviews or mini-reviews concerning recent development in particular areas of interest. All manuscript submissions are peer-reviewed before being accepted for publication by at least two independent reviewers who are either members of the Editorial Board or ad hoc referees. Editors and reviewers will treat all submitted manuscripts in strict confidence.

New submissions are submitted via the online system of JBB and not by email.

The manuscript file should be uploaded both as single PDF document file format containing all text, tables and figures for review and as an editable text in MS Word (.doc, .docx) format. Additionally figures should be uploaded also in separate files as BMP, JPG, TIFF; (minimum 300 dpi). Please note that PowerPoint files are not accepted. The revisions of the manuscript should be uploaded in MS Word format.

Submissions must be accompanied by a cover letter from the principal/corresponding author, on behalf of all the co-authors to confirm that the manuscript (or any part of it) has not been previously published in any language anywhere and that it is not under simultaneous consideration or in press by another journal. The cover letter should clearly describe the questions addressed or hypotheses tested, the significance of the study, and how this contribution is of interest to a broad audience.

Potential reviewers

According to the new peer-review policies of our journal adopted by editorial board on Nov. 15th 2016, it is mandatory to provide, in the cover letter of each submitted manuscript complete names, status and affiliation and e-mail addresses of at least four potential reviewers/referees who have not been advisors, collaborators or co-authors to any of the authors of the manuscripte within the last two years and are not at the same institution as the authors. Ideally the reviewers/referees must have published recently in the area of the paper. Suggesting reviewers with expertise closest to the subject of study will help the editorial office to speed up processing of the submission. As potential reviewers you can draw from researchers you have cited in your manuscript.
The Cover Letter to the editor must be uploaded in the system along manusctipt files.
Please note: The editor retains the sole right to decide whether or not to direct your manuscript to the suggested reviewers.

Manuscripts should be written in good English. This is the responsibility of the authors, not the editors. Manuscripts may be returned without review if the English needs significant improvement. Such problems may be avoided and publication expedited if the authors use "grammar and spell check" software to correct basic errors, and have their manuscripts edited by an English-speaking colleague or a professional editing service before the initial submission.

Journal of BioScience and Biotechnology follows the ICMJE Recommendations for the Biomedical Journals (http://www.icmje.org).

It is essential that authors prepare their manuscripts according to the instructions and specifications presented below.

ORGANIZATION OF THE MANUSCRIPT

All parts of the manuscript should be type-written (font size 12), double-spaced with margins of 2.5 cm. Pages should be numbered consecutively throughout the manuscript.

Articles should be organized into the following parts in the order indicated:

Title page with: Title (and running title); Author's name(s); Affiliation(s); Address(es)
Abstract
Keywords
Introduction
Materials and Methods
Results
Discussion
Acknowledgments (if applicable)
References
Figure Legends and Table Captions
Tables
Figures
Supplemental data (if applicable)
Each of these parts is detailed below. For more information see: http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/manuscript-preparation/

Title (running title)
The title must be concise but informative, as it is frequently used for subject indexing. It should not include abbreviations or chemical formulas. Please also provide a running title of no more than 60 characters.

Authors, affiliations and addresses
Authors should be listed by full first name, middle initial, and full last name (e.g.: David M. Backer). Indicate the location at which the research was conducted (laboratory, department, institute, university, city, country). To indicate the affiliations of different authors to different departments or institutions, use numbers in superscripts after each author's name and before the corresponding department or institution. One of the authors should be designated as the corresponding author. Indicate the full name of the author to whom correspondence should be sent as well as his/her e-mail, telephone and fax numbers.

Abstract
The Abstract should be a brief summary of the significant items of the main paper. It should mention the techniques used without going into methodological detail and summarize the most important results and conclusions. It should not contain literature citations and abbreviations. Remember that the Abstract is what the browsing reader first consults. A comprehensive and well-written abstract will attract a reader to consult the full paper. An abstract should not normally exceed 250 words.

Keywords
Provide three to six keywords to allow the paper to be appropriately indexed. These terms should appear below the abstract, on the same page. Single words or composite terms may be used (e.g.: antigen presenting cells, T-cell hybridomas, collagen, Rattus norvegicus).

INTRODUCTION
Provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results. 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.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
This section should provide enough detail for reproduction of the findings. Previously published procedures should be cited in References and only truly new procedures or modifications of previously published procedures should be described in detail. For special materials and equipment, the manufacturer's name and, if possible, location should be provided. Studies involving human and animal subjects must have been approved by the authors' institutional review board or equivalent committee and that board named by the authors. In the case of human subjects, informed consent must have been obtained and all clinical investigation must have been conducted according to the principles expressed in the Declaration of Helsinki. The use of standardized nomenclature in all fields of biology is an essential step toward the integration and linking of experimental data reported in published literature. The Methods section should also include precise information on the statistical analyses performed. Indicate the manner in which results are expressed (means, ± SDs or SEMs; or medians and ranges or confidence limits); whether parametric (chi-square, Student's t-tests, ANOVA) or nonparametric (Man-Whitney, Kruskall-Wallis, Wilcoxon, Friedman, Quade, Kolmogorov-Smirnoff) tests were used, correlation coefficients (Pearson-s product-moment or Spearman's rank) were employed, etc.

RESULTS
Results should be presented in logical sequence in the text, tables, and illustrations, giving the main or most important findings first. Do not repeat all the data in the tables or illustrations in the text; emphasize or summarize only the most important observations. Extra or supplementary materials and technical detail can be placed in an appendix where they will be accessible but will not interrupt the flow of the text. The section may be divided into subsections, each with a concise subheading. The results section should be written in past tense.

DISCUSSION
This section should be focused on the interpretation of the results avoiding a repetition of the Results section. 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.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Acknowledgements should include all sources of institutional, private and corporate funding of the work. Any potential conflicts of interest should be noted.

REFERENCES
Only published articles or accepted manuscripts should be included in the reference list. Meetings abstracts, conference talks, or papers that have been submitted but not yet accepted should not be cited. In the text, citations should be indicated in parentheses using the following forms for one, two, or more than two authors: (Yamada, 2011); (Steiner & Chang, 2011); (Ivanov et al., 2011). Multiple citations by the same author(s) in the same year should be distinguished by the addition of a, b, c, etc. (Liu et al. 2009a, 2009b). Multiple citations by different authors should be listed by year, then alphabetical: (Hashimoto et al., 1989; Ahlqvist, 2005; Priya & Uma, 2011). References should be listed in alphabetical and chronological order, according to the last name of the first author, in the following sequence: one author, two authors, three or more authors. Please use the following style for the reference list:

Sample journal citation
Andersson IE, Batsalova T, Dzhambazov B, Edvinsson L, Holmdahl R, Kihlberg J, Linusson A. 2010. Oxazole-modified glycopeptides that target arthritis-associated class II MHC A(q) and DR4 proteins. Org. Biomol. Chem., 8(13): 2931-2940.

Sample book citation
Whitton BA, Potts M. 2000. Ecology of cyanobacteria: Their diversity in time and space. – Kluwer, Dordrecht, Netherlands.

Sample chapter-in-book citation
Kuiper-Goodman T, Falconer I, Fitzgerald J. 1999. Human health aspects. – In: Chorus I. & Bartram J. (eds), Toxic Cyanobacteria in Water: A Guide to Their Public Health Consequences, Monitoring, and Management, E & FN Spoon, London, p. 113-153.

FIGURE LEGENDS AND TABLE CAPTIONS
Should contain sufficient details to make the figure or table easily understood, thus be as explanatory as possible. Figures and tables should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals in the order of appearance in the text (Figure 1, Figure 2, Table 1).

TABLES
Each table should have an explanatory caption, which should be as concise as possible. As a rule, tables should be made without vertical lines and should be provided in an editable format i.e. in Word and not as graphic files pasted into Word. Each table must be referred to in the text as, e.g., Table 1 or (Table 1). The same data should not be given in both tables and figures. Tables occupying more than one printed page should be avoided, if possible.

FIGURES
The figures should be clear, easy to read and of good quality. Each figure, or group of figures, should be planned to fit into the area of either one or two columns of text. The maximum finished size of a one-column and two-column illustration is 8 x 23 cm and 17 x 23 cm, respectively. Scanned line drawings must be saved in black-white mode (not RGB colour) at 600 DPI. Morphological illustrations should include a scale bar. Lettering should be of suitable size with capitals at least 1.8 mm in height after reduction for printing. Small photographs should be trimmed, eliminating unnecessary parts and grouped into composite figures. Colour plates can be published at the author's expense only; please consult with the Editorial Office for the actual colour charges. There is no colour charge for the electronic version of the article. After acceptance, the authors may be asked to supply with the figures prepared as JPG, GIF, TIF and/or EPS files at the resolution suitable for printing. Figure files should not exceed 10 MB (average size is about 2 MB). Manipulation of images is strongly discouraged and all figures must accurately reflect the original data. Information should not be enhanced, eliminated, added, obscured or moved. In cases where manipulation is unavoidable, this should be clearly detailed in the Figure legend. Unacceptable manipulation includes, but is not limited to, the enhancement of one feature/band over others, removal of background noise/bands and so on. Authors must be able to produce all data in their raw format upon editorial request.

SUPPLEMENTAL DATA
Authors can also submit supplemental figures and tables that support the interpretation and conclusions drawn in the manuscript. Supplemental Data can be submitted as separate files from the rest of the manuscript in any of the usual formats (PDF, MS Word, GIF, TIFF, etc.). Legends or short explanations must accompany all supplemental data.

ABBREVIATIONS AND NOMENCLATURE
The use of standardized abbreviations and nomenclature in all fields of biology is an essential step toward the integration and linking of scientific information reported in published literature. The authors should follow internationally agreed rules. Use only standard abbreviations. Nonstandard abbreviations should be defined when first used in the text. The abbreviations of some compounds, e.g. DNA, RNA, NADH, ATP etc., and amino acids in proteins, are not necessary to define. Measurements of length, height, weight, and volume should be reported in metric units. Species names should be italicized (e.g. Empis rustica, Anabaena solitaria, Haberlea rhodopensis). Genes, mutations, genotypes and alleles should be indicated in italics. Use the recommended name by consulting the appropriate nomenclature database.

PROOFS

PDF proofs sent by e-mail to the authors must be returned within 48 hours to the editorial office. Delayed dispatch of corrected proofs will delay publication. In order to minimize the corrections and alterations in the proof stage, authors are requested to prepare the manuscript carefully according to the guidelines before submitting it for publication.

ETHICAL GUIDELINES

Submission of a manuscript to Journal of BioScience and Biotechnology implies that all authors have read and agreed to its content, and that any experimental research that is reported in the manuscript has been performed with the approval of an appropriate ethics committee. All experiments on live vertebrates or higher invertebrates must be performed in accordance with these relevant institutional and national guidelines and regulations. Manuscripts containing information related to human or animal use should clearly state that the research has complied with all relevant national guidelines and institutional policies. Copies of these guidelines and policy statements must be available for review by the Editor if necessary. Research carried out on humans must be in compliance with the Helsinki Declaration. A statement to this effect must appear in the Methods section of the manuscript, including the name of the body, which gave approval, with a reference number where appropriate. Informed consent must also be documented. Manuscripts may be rejected if the editorial office considers that the research has not been carried out within an ethical framework, e.g. if the severity of the experimental procedure is not justified by the value of the knowledge gained.

COPYRIGHT

Authors of articles published in Journal of BioScience and Biotechnology retain the copyright of their articles. The journal/publisher is not responsible for subsequent uses of the work. It is the author's responsibility to bring an infringement action if so desired by the author.