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Journal of Leukocyte Biology Instructions for Authors

Journal of Leukocyte Biology requires online submissions. After reading the following information, visit www.jlb-submit.org to begin the online submission process.

Types of Papers Accepted

Open Access Option

Editorial Policy

Rebuttals

Electronic Submission

Technical Requirements

Types of Papers Accepted [BACK TO TOP]

Pivotal Advance
The Journal of Leukocyte Biology is pleased to introduce a new manuscript category: Pivotal Advance. A manuscript may be considered for publication as a Pivotal Advance when authors believe that their work represents a relatively high level of accomplishment. A manuscript submitted for consideration as a Pivotal Advance is subjected to additional review by JLB’s editors. If a manuscript is accepted as a Pivotal Advance, the corresponding author will be contacted by associate editor, Helene F. Rosenberg, or an editorial board member for an interview that will be published online and in print with the article. A manuscript submitted in the Pivotal Advance category that is acceptable for publication, but does not qualify as a Pivotal Advance will be published as regular research article. 

To have a manuscript considered for the Pivotal Advance category, authors should include a paragraph in their cover letter indicating why they consider their findings to represent a very high level of accomplishment. 

In addition, manuscripts may be nominated for consideration from the regular manuscript pool by JLB’s editors and editorial staff.

Research Articles
The journal considers manuscripts dealing with the cell and molecular biology of granulocytes, mononuclear phagocytes, lymphocytes, NK cells, and other cells involved in host defense. Papers covering pathophysiology, cell development, growth and differentiation, extracellular mediators and effector molecules, and receptors, signal transduction, and genes are also considered. 

Articles submitted by authors must stand on their own as complete studies, not works in progress. Authors should suggest the names of five potential reviewers (with a current  e-mail addresses and the name of the potential referee’s institution),) when they submit their manuscripts. Authors may appeal decisions concerning their manuscripts to the Editor-in-Chief. Authors are expected to make cell lines and products available to qualified investigators.

Manuscripts should be organized as follows: 

• Abstract: summarizes the paper concisely
• Introduction: gives reasons for doing the work
• Materials and Methods: details the experimental procedure
• Results: describes the findings in detail
• Discussion: explains the relationship of findings to the current body of knowledge
• Acknowledgements: provides credit to contributors as well as funding sources
• References: lists literature relevant to the article

Brief Communications
Brief Communications are short reports that relate to new and important findings and will be published within 70 days of acceptance. They should consist of an abstract, text without sections, and not exceed eight double-spaced pages of 10-point type (Times New Roman font) including figures, tables, and references. They will be reviewed expeditiously by experts in the field who will either accept (with minor modifications) or reject the manuscript.

Reviews
The journal publishes full-length review articles and welcomes mini-reviews of no more than eight double-spaced pages with 10-point type (Times New Roman font) including figures, tables, and references.

Letters to the Editor and Commentaries
Letters to the Editor and Commentaries are welcome and will be published at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief who reserves the right to make minor changes in the text to improve the composition.

Open Access Option [BACK TO TOP]
Authors of accepted manuscripts may have their articles made freely accessible on journal’s web site immediately upon final publication by paying an open access fee. The fee is $2,500 per article and is in addition to other author fees, such as page charges, color charges, reprints, etc.
 
If you are interested in this option, please click here to download and complete this form.
 
Authors who received funding from agencies with open access publishing requirements may comply with funding requirements by selecting the open access option. (The journal will make a reasonable effort to help authors comply with these requirements, but ultimate responsibility, however, remains with the authors.) For these authors, upon payment of the fee, the journal will deposit the final version of the author’s article in PubMed Central (PMC) and will authorize public posting on PMC and PMC mirror sites immediately upon final publication of the article. Please note that pre-print versions of article are not the final versions and will not be deposited.

Editorial Policy [BACK TO TOP]
ALL Manuscripts submitted to the Journal of Leukocyte Biology must be submitted solely to this journal, may not have been published in other publications of any type, professional or lay, and become the property of the Society of Leukocyte Biology (SLB). When the manuscript is accepted for publication, the authors must sign an agreement transferring copyright to SLB, which reserves copyright. No material published in the journal may be reproduced or published elsewhere without the written permission of SLB and the author. The journal will not be responsible for the loss of manuscripts. All statements in, or omissions from, published manuscripts are the responsibility of the authors, who will assist the copy editors by reviewing proofs before publication. One copy of a manuscript will be returned on request.

Misconduct
The Journal of Leukocyte Biology only accepts research papers that are original studies, no part of which has been submitted for publication elsewhere except as brief abstracts. Duplicate publication, falsification, plagiarism, or fabrication will be considered actionable misconduct. Misconduct does not include honest errors or honest differences in interpretations or judgments of data.

If there is a suspicion or an allegation of misconduct directed toward any author the Journal of Leukocyte Biology reserves the right to forward relevant material to the appropriate authorities at the author's institution for investigation. The Journal of Leukocyte Biology recognizes its responsibility to ensure that the suspicion of misconduct has been addressed, but the journal does not make such determinations.

The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for the specific editorial conduct of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology and compliance with the relevant policies and procedures. When a report of suspected misconduct has been sent to the Editor-in-Chief, the following course of action will be taken:

If the manuscript has yet to be published, all work on the manuscript will stop. No immediate action to already-published material (such deleting or amending a preprint) will be taken until the matter is resolved. In all cases, the Editor-in-Chief will then contact the author asking for an explanation in a nonjudgmental manner. If at all possible, the author and the person(s) who reported the issue will be asked to work together to arrive at an acceptable solution. Should this fail to resolve the situation satisfactorily, the Editor-in-Chief will contact the institution of the author. The institution should then make an inquiry and report back to the Editor-in-Chief. Until the matter is clarified, no papers by any authors on the disputed manuscript will be considered for publication.

If scientific misconduct is confirmed by institutional review, appropriate action will be taken. Violations considered severe may warrant official withdrawal of a published article or rapid rejection of a manuscript at any stage before publication. If the infraction is less severe, the Editor-in-Chief will send the corresponding author a letter of reprimand. If the Journal of Leukocyte Biology has violated the copyright of another journal, the Editor-in-Chief will write a letter of apology to Editor-in-Chief of the other journal and retract the article from the Journal of Leukocyte Biology. If no scientific misconduct is found, the manuscript (if unpublished) will be scheduled for publication. For errors in a published article not deemed to be misconduct, an Erratum or Letter to the Editor will be published.

Embargo Policy
For articles published in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology, the official date of publication is the date of online posting. Contact the Society for Leukocyte Biology at slb{at}faseb.org or call 301-634-7288 for more information.

Press Access
Credentialed members of the press may request free online access to the journal. Contact the Society for Leukocyte Biology at slb@faseb.org or call 301-634-7288 for more information.

Rebuttals [BACK TO TOP]
When authors believe that a serious scientific error or misunderstanding has occurred during review, a letter of rebuttal may be sent to the Editor-in-Chief.  This letter must explain in detail the reasons why the decision should be reconsidered. If appropriate, the matter will be referred to the initial Section Editor (and reviewers, if necessary) for reevaluation.  Alternatively, when authors of a rejected manuscript are able to make new advances that go far beyond an original submission, consideration of the paper may be expedited through the submission of a completely new manuscript.

Electronic Submission [BACK TO TOP]
The journal's manuscript electronic submission process facilitates and accelerates the review process, allows authors to check the status of submissions, eliminates costly mailing fees, allows for more well-defined figures, affords online correspondence with the editor and editorial office, and is completely secure.

Throughout the system, red arrows reflect pending action items that should be addressed. If additional help is needed, context-sensitive “help” links are located throughout the system.

Online Review Process
The online manuscript submission and peer-review process goes through the customary steps.

Manuscript Submission
The following information must accompany a submitted manuscript:

• Corresponding Author, including first and last name, postal address, work telephone numbers, and e-mail address. Contributing Authors, including first and last name and current e-mail address.
• Title and Running Title (you can copy and paste this from your manuscript).
• Abstract (you can copy and paste this from your manuscript).
• Manuscript files (see Technical Requirements for file preparation guidelines and restrictions).
• Figure files (see Technical Requirements for file preparation guidelines and restrictions). Figures files MUST BE LABELED ON THE TITLE LINE AS FIGURE 1, 2, ETC in order for the figures to be published in the proper order. For easy uploading and review, figures/images embedded in the manuscript file are recommended.
• Cover letter that includes contact information (e-mail address and institution) of suggested peer reviewers.

The manuscript submission process involves a series of four screens, which gather detailed information about a manuscript and allow authors to upload pertinent files. The sequence of screens is as follows:

1. An online form asking for author, title, abstract, and file quantities.
2. A screen that facilitates file uploading (via an open file dialog). After completing this screen, your files will be uploaded to our server.
3. A completion screen that gives authors a manuscript number.
4. An approval screen that allows authors to verify that the manuscript was uploaded and converted correctly.

After a manuscript is submitted, authors are taken to a page on which they are able to review converted manuscripts. If the conversion is not correct, authors can replace or delete manuscript files as necessary. After the converted files have been reviewed, authors will be asked to approve the manuscript by clicking the “Approve manuscript” link. This link will have a red arrow next to it.

Manuscript Status
After an author approves a manuscript, the status of the manuscript will be available in one of the following ways:

• By logging onto the system with a username and password.
• By clicking on the link represented by the manuscript tracking number and abbreviated title.
• By clicking on the "Check Status" link at the bottom of the displayed page.

Ready to Submit 
Once an author has gathered all the required manuscript information described above, go to www.jlb-submit.org and follow the prompts.

Cover Letter
Suggest 3–5 reviewers and 3–5 key words that do not appear in the title. The preferred file formats for cover letters are Word, WordPerfect, or Rich Text Format. The editorial office may be able to access other formats, but authors may be requested to resupply their cover letter in one of the preferred formats if attempts to access the files are unsuccessful.  Cover letters should be named as follows: baker_cover_letter.doc; baker_cover_letter.wpf; etc., where "baker" is the corresponding author's last name. Note the use of underscores between words.

Manuscript
Manuscripts should be submitted in Word, WordPerfect or Rich Text Format (RTF). The editorial office may be able to access other formats, but authors may be requested to resupply their manuscript in one of the preferred formats, if attempts to access the files are unsuccessful. Manuscripts should be named as follows: baker_ms.doc; baker_ms.wpf, etc. Note the use of underscores between words.

Using Times New Roman font, will reduce introduction of errors in file conversion and the editing process. Set paper size to letter 8-1/2 inches by 11 inches.

Page 2 should contain an abstract not exceeding 250 words.

Explanatory footnotes should not be used.  Include the information within the text of the manuscript.

Generally accepted abbreviations should be used whenever possible. No sentence should begin with an abbreviation or Arabic numeral. The Journal of Leukocyte Biology follows the standard abbreviations established by The Journal of Immunology (http://www.jimmunol.org/misc/authorfulllength.shtml#standard).

Figures and Tables
Manuscript files with embedded figures are acceptable in Word, WordPerfect, and Rich Text formats.

Figure files, if submitted separately, should be in TIFF, JPG, PDF, Postscript, or EPS format, AND MUST BE LABELED ON THE TITLE LINE AS FIGURE 1, 2, ETC. to ensure that the figures are presented in the proper order. Please keep the figure files as small (72 dpi) as possible to convey the desired information.

Original figures should be numbered with Arabic numerals and treated consecutively in the text. Authors are expected to pay the net cost of publishing color figure, which is $450 for the first printed page of color and $300 for each additional page.

Legends to figures should be typed on a separate page.

Number tables consecutively with Arabic numerals in the order of their appearance in the text. Tables must be typed double-spaced on separate pages in Word, WordPerfect, or Rich Text Format and must have a short descriptive title. Footnotes should be labeled with lowercase superscript letters.

Original figures, tables, or graphs submitted with a manuscript will not be returned to authors.

Videos
Inclusion of videos with the online version of the published paper is at the discretion of the editors; the editors also may determine that some videos should be published online as supplemental information. Discs, videotape, etc. containing videos will not be inserted into the printed journal.

Video submissions for viewing online should be one of the following formats: Audio Video Interleave (.avi), MPEG (.mpg), or Quick Time (.qt, .mov). Videotape and film will not be accepted.

• AVI and MPEG Files can be displayed via Windows Media Player
  http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/players.aspx
• Quick Time files require Quick Time software (free) from Apple, Inc.
  http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/index.html

Videos should be brief whenever possible (2–5 minutes or shorter). Longer videos will require longer download times; editors, reviewers, and general readers may have difficulty playing online. Videos should be restricted to the most critical aspects of your research. A longer procedure can be restructured as several shorter videos and submitted in that form.

Please compress files to use as little bandwidth as possible and to avoid overly long download times. It is recommended that video files be no larger than 5 megabytes.

A caption giving a brief overall description of the video content should be provided for each video.

If a paper is accepted for publication authors may wish to supply the editorial office with several different resolutions of the video files. This allows viewers with slower connections to access the video.

Microarray Data
Microarray Data The Journal of Leukocyte Biology will not publish descriptive manuscripts that report microarray data, unless such information can be considered of unusual immunological significance and/or include functional experiments that provide novel insight into mechanism. As with other scientific approaches, current experimental, quantitation, verification, and statistical analyses are expected. Microarray experiments should be Minimum Information About a Microarray Experiment compliant MIAME. Whereas limited online space may be available for supplemental tables associated with the manuscript, complete microarray data must be deposited in the appropriate public database (e.g., GEO, ArrayExpress, or CIBEX), and must be accessible without restriction from the date of publication. An entry name or accession number must be included in the paper before publication. The accession number should be accompanied by the website address of the databank

References
Reference citations should appear in numerical order in brackets throughout the text. The reference list should be typed double-spaced on a new page at the end of the text, and references should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are cited. List all authors and inclusive pages. Unpublished experiments, personal communications, or papers submitted for publication should not be included in the reference list but should appear parenthetically in the text as "unpublished results." Written approval by the person(s) cited in personal communications must accompany the manuscript. Papers accepted but not yet published may appear in the reference list with the name of the journal followed by the words "In press." One copy of each reference in press must be submitted with the manuscript. Abbreviations of journals should conform to those used in Index Medicus, National Library of Medicine. The following style should be used:

Journal Articles: First author's last name, initials, second author's last name, initials, etc. (Year) Title of article, Name of journal. Volume, inclusive pages. [Example: Kashara, K., Strieter, R. M., Chensue, S. W. (1991) Mononuclear cell adherence induces neutrophil chemotactic factor/interleukin-8 gene expression. J. Leukoc. Biol. 50, 287–295.]

Books: Authors' names as above. (Year) Title of Book, Publisher, City, State. Inclusive pages cited. [Example: Darnell, J., Lodish, H., Baltimore, D. (1990) Molecular Cell Biology, Scientific American Books, New York, 261–313.]

Chapters in Books: Authors' names as above. (Year) Title of article. In Title of Book. Initials and last name(s) of editor(s). Publisher, City, State. Inclusive pages of article. [Example: Stewart, C. C. (1990) Multiparameter Analysis of Leukocytes by Flow Cytometry. In Methods of Cell Biology (Z. Darzynkiewicz and H. A. Crissman, eds.), Academic Press, San Diego, 427–450.]

Costs
Alteration costs to page proofs in excess of 5 percent of the composition cost will be charged to the author.  Page charges are as follows:

Up to 8 pages:
For SLB members: $35/per printed page
For non-SLB members: $50/printed page

9+ pages:
For SLB members: $70/per printed page
For non-SLB members: $100/printed page

PLEASE NOTE that you have the option of joining the society when you submit your accepted paper. Click here for an application form.

The first page of color will be billed at $450. Additional pages in the same articles will be billed at $300 each. Checks should be made payable to the Journal of Leukocyte Biology.

Reprints
Reprints may be ordered in multiples of 100. The author will receive an order form for reprints with the page proofs.