1. Scope
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These instructions for authors have been substantially revised; this new version was uploaded on 1st April 2011. Areas in which information has substantially changed are highlighted in green in the contents table below. In particular, please note the new word limit for research papers, and the new length charge that is applied to papers that exceed this limit. These new limits and charges will be effective for all papers for which the first version (original submission) was submitted on or after 00.01 PST on 1st April 2011.
Queries or comments about online submission should be sent via the e-mail links from the submission site.
General enquiries should be sent to the Editorial Office:
Microbiology Editorial Office, SGM, Marlborough House, Basingstoke Road, Spencers Wood, Reading RG7 1AG, UK.
Tel: +44 (0)118 988 1804. Fax: +44 (0)118 988 1834. e-mail: micro@sgm.ac.uk
1. Scope
1.1 General
Microbiology publishes high-quality research papers, reviews and mini-reviews on all aspects of microbiology, with a strong emphasis on fundamental studies on the biology of prokaryotic and eukaryotic micro-organisms; papers elucidating molecular mechanisms are particularly welcome. Papers published must make an original and significant contribution to the field and should be of interest to a general readership. Theoretical and predictive papers are considered for publication provided that significant and novel conclusions are drawn or hypotheses formulated. Papers that are preliminary, derivative or merely descriptive, or those that are technically competent but do not make a significant advance in the biology of microbes, are not appropriate for Microbiology and may be rejected without review. Papers on viruses of bacteria and eukaryotic microbes will be considered, but not those on viruses of higher organisms. Authors submitting papers on viruses should explain in a covering letter why their paper is more appropriate for Microbiology than for a virology journal such as Journal of General Virology.
Papers should be written concisely, in English, and contain only figures and tables that are essential for conveying the results. Short Communications as such are not published, but there is in principle no lower limit on the length of papers, provided that they are of an appropriate scientific standard. There is no charge to publish research papers that contain less than 5500 words, and eight figures and tables combined. A length charge is applied for publication of papers over this length. This has changed for all papers submitted on or after 1st April 2011.
1.2 Types of paper considered
Research papers are published under the subject headings shown below. Examples of topics covered by these headings are indicated. Clearly not every topic can be listed; as noted above, the journal welcomes papers on all aspects of microbiology, from the molecular to the systems level.
- Cell and Molecular Biology of Microbes
(gene expression and regulation, signalling and communication, stress responses, secretion, differentiation and development, cell cycles, ultrastructure) - Environmental and Evolutionary Microbiology
(microbial ecology, non-pathogenic plant–microbe interactions, population genetics, community structures and interactions, biodegradation and bioremediation, biodiversity and evolution) - Genes and Genomes
(systems biology, genomics and proteomics, metagenomics, synthetic microbiology, bioinformatics, gene transfer, chromosomes and extrachromosomal DNA, genome announcements) - Microbial Pathogenicity
(mechanisms of human, animal and plant pathogenesis, virulence and virulence factors, cellular microbiology, infections and immunity, antibiotic-resistance mechanisms) - Physiology and Biochemistry
(metabolic pathways and their regulation, bioenergetics and transport, synthesis of macromolecules, metabolomics)
See below for the editorial policy on some specific types of research paper.
Reviews and mini-reviews. Authors interested in submitting one of these should contact the Reviews Editor via the micro{at}sgm.ac.uk . Mini-reviews should focus on a clearly defined topic of current interest, and describe recent developments in the field. They should not exceed about 3500 words (excluding the abstract and references but including figure and table legends), 4 figures plus tables combined, and about 40 references. The Review format is appropriate for authors wishing to give a broader overview of a microbiological topic. Reviews should not exceed about 6000 words (excluding the abstract and references but including figure and table legends), 6 figures plus tables combined, and about 80 references. Click here for guidelines on presentation of reviews and mini-reviews. A length charge is not normally applied to reviews or mini-reviews.
Microbiology Comment. This item provides a forum for discussion of scientific issues arising directly from papers published in Microbiology. The authors of papers under discussion will be offered an opportunity to respond. Contributions to Microbiology Comment should be brief and to the point. A single small table or figure may be included, as may a limited number of references. A short title (fewer than 50 characters) should be provided. Approval for publication rests with the Editor-in-Chief, who reserves the right to edit articles. When submitting a Comment article, select 'Comment' in the Contents Category field of the online submission form.
Meeting Reports. Submission of short reports of recent meetings of interest to microbiologists is welcomed. See the Meeting Reports guidelines for more information. Please contact the Editor-in-Chief before submitting a Meeting Report to determine suitability.
1.3 Policy guidelines on specific types of research paper
Use of data from ongoing sequencing projects. Authors making use of data from ongoing sequencing projects must follow the guidelines set by the project and give appropriate acknowledgement of the data source. Authors should show evidence that they have discussed their findings with the scientists responsible for the sequencing progamme whose data are being used and that the organization has approved what is being submitted.
Papers reporting microarray and other genome-wide studies. Microbiology encourages the publication of papers that use genome-wide approaches to answer important questions in microbiology. However, papers that report the results of such studies without using them to increase our understanding of a system, process or organism are unlikely to be acceptable to the Editors. Papers reporting genome-wide studies must contain sufficient details for readers to understand how the data were acquired, to be able to repeat the analysis, and to place the results in the context of the field. There must be enough replicates to make the data biologically meaningful, and the relevant strain(s) must be made available by the authors to bona fide researchers on request at reasonable cost for non-commercial purposes, or be deposited in a public culture collection.
Data from microarray gene expression studies must comply with the MIAME guidelines, and relevant criteria from the MIAME checklist should be applied to other genome-wide studies.
Authors who submit papers whose conclusions explicitly or implicitly depend on genome-wide profiling should preferably deposit the relevant complete data sets in a public online database such as GEO before submission, with password protection if appropriate (see for guidance), and provide the accession number/password with their submitted paper. The supplementary data files should also include details of organisms, growth conditions, etc. ('metadata'), if these are not given in the paper. If the data sets are not already in a public database at the time of submission, they must be submitted to Microbiology as one or more supplementary files for peer review along with the paper. If the paper is acceptable for publication, it will be a condition of acceptance that the genomics data be posted to a public database if this has not already been done, and that an accession number be provided on the title page of the paper.
Papers reporting original nucleotide or amino acid sequence data. Microbiology will not normally publish DNA sequences from double-stranded genomes unless both strands have been sequenced independently. Descriptions of new examples of genes already characterized from various micro-organisms are inappropriate for Microbiology unless the new gene has unusual features or the description is part of a wider study. Such papers should be accompanied by substantial additional experimentation to characterize the gene(s) and products(s) concerned, and/or substantial computer analysis leading to important, novel conclusions.
Papers reporting new sequence data must include an accession number from one of the public databases (GenBank, EMBL, DDBJ or PIR) and the relevant deposition criteria for the database must be adhered to.
Papers reporting MLST analyses. For papers that report MLST analyses, the MLST gene sequence data for all samples presented in the paper must be available to the reader. If there is an established database for the studied organism (e.g. on or ) then data should be submitted there and details should be provided on submission. Otherwise, data must be submitted for review along with the main paper as a single supplementary file.
Papers reporting new insertion sequences. Authors of papers describing new insertion sequences (whether alone or as part of larger sequencing projects) should deposit the relevant information with the using the online forms provided, and obtain an attribution number. The attribution number should be given on the title page of the manuscript.
Papers describing mathematical models. Authors of papers that include descriptions of mathematical models will normally be expected to supply details of the model to the for validation by the reviewers; see the website for full details. Microbiology’s Editorial Consultant for mathematical modelling, Dr Jacky L. Snoep, Stellenbosch University, South Africa, may be consulted during the review of such papers. Authors should submit their paper in the normal way and wait until they have received an acknowledgement and paper number from the Editorial Office before submitting a description of the model as an ASCII text file to JWS Online. Only the authors, reviewers and Dr Snoep will be able to gain access to the online model during the review stage, via passwords. If the paper is accepted for publication, the model can, with the authors' permission, be made available to all, so readers of the paper will be able to adjust model parameters and run the model over the internet.
Papers describing solely the purification and/or characterization of enzymes. It is editorial policy not to publish papers on the above subject(s) unless they describe some particular aspect that is of significant novelty and of clear relevance to microbiology, e.g. the purification of a previously uncharacterized enzyme; a description of unique properties of an established class of enzyme; the development of a new and broadly applicable purification technique; or a report of properties of direct relevance to the functions or application of the producing micro-organism. Descriptions of well-known enzymes that are already known to be produced by a number of micro-organisms are not appropriate for Microbiology.
Papers on host–microbe interactions. Papers submitted to Microbiology that concern host–microbe interactions, including infectious, symbiotic or probiotic interactions, must increase our understanding of the micro-organism concerned. Papers detailing the host response with minimal reference to the micro-organism or its products do not fall within the scope of Microbiology.
Descriptions of novel taxa. Microbiology does not normally publish papers whose primary purpose is to describe one or more novel species of micro-organism. Authors must state in a covering letter why such papers are not more appropriate for a specialized systematics journal such as the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology. However, descriptions of novel taxa may be published in Microbiology when they form part of a wider study addressing some aspect of ecology, evolution or physiology. Papers reporting novel taxa must include a formal description complying with the appropriate Code of Nomenclature, and should designate the type strain, which must be held in a publicly accessible culture collection. For bacteria, the authors must notify the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology of the publication of the description so that the name can be validated.
2. Submission and publication requirements
2.1 Length restrictions and charges
There is no charge to publish research papers that contain less than 5500 words (including the figure and table legends, in-text citations and any appendices, but not including the abstract, acknowledgements or reference list) and 8 figures and tables combined. Papers that exceed these length limits will be published subject to a length charge which must be paid prior to publication. The charge, assessed on the accepted manuscript, is Ł250 per 500 words or part thereof over 5500 and Ł250 per figure or table over 8 (plus VAT where applicable).
The length charge and word limit has changed for all papers submitted on or after 1 April 2011
Please note that as of 1 April 2011, the word limit for research papers has increased from 4500 words to 5500 words and that the charge applied on papers over this limit has also increased to Ł250 per 500 words or part thereof over 5500 and Ł250 per figure or table over 8 (plus VAT where applicable). All papers for which the first version (original submission) was submitted on or after 00.01 (PST) 1 April 2011 will be subject to the new length limits and the new charging system.
Papers submitted before that date will be charged based on the old criteria, irrespective of when the paper is accepted. The old criteria are as follows: papers that exceed 4500 words (including the figure and table legends, in-text citations and any appendices, but not including the abstract, acknowledgements or reference list) and 8 figures and tables combined will be published subject to a length charge which must be paid prior to publication. The charge, assessed on the accepted manuscript, is Ł100 per 500 words or part thereof over 4500 and Ł100 per figure or table over 8 (plus VAT where applicable)
Papers will not incur colour charges in cases where the use of colour is judged to be necessary for scientific reasons, and no charges are levied on online-only supplementary material.
2.2 Originality, authorship and copyright
Papers submitted must report work that has not been published previously and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Papers submitted to Microbiology that have been published preliminarily online (e.g. in Nature Precedings, Faculty of 1000 posters or PLoS Currents) will only be considered if there is a significant amount of additional novel data and analysis to warrant publication. Microbiology considers preliminary online publication as prior publication, and reviewers and Editors must be able to clearly identify how the paper differs from the preliminary report and that substantially more work is incorporated into the manuscript.
All the authors must have agreed to the submission, and to the order of their names on the title page. They must also have agreed that the corresponding author may act on their behalf throughout the editorial review and publication process. The corresponding author is responsible for obtaining such agreement. Requests for changes in authorship after submission must be accompanied by signed agreements from all the parties involved.
If the paper is accepted for publication in Microbiology, the authors (or other copyright holder) should transfer to the Society for General Microbiology (SGM) the copyright (including electronic reproduction rights) of the paper where it exists, which will then not be published elsewhere in the same form, in any language or medium, without the consent of the Society. Click here to download a Copyright Transfer Agreement form/Licence to Publish.
2.3 Ethics
Papers describing any experimental work with humans should include a statement that the Ethical Committee of the institution in which the work was done has approved it, and that the subjects gave informed consent to the work. Experiments with animals should be done in accordance with the legal requirements of the relevant local or national authority. Procedures should be such that experimental animals do not suffer unnecessarily. Papers should include details of the procedures and of anaesthetics used. The Editors will not accept papers where the ethical aspects are, in their opinion, open to doubt.
2.4 Research integrity
Authors of papers published in Microbiology are expected to make biological materials, such as strains, plasmids and antibodies, that are described for the first time in the paper available to bona fide researchers in reasonable quantities and at reasonable cost, for non-commercial purposes. Supply of such materials must conform to current local and national laws and regulations.
Materials and results obtained from outside the authors’ laboratory. If a paper includes results that were not obtained by the authors' own experiments (e.g. production of antibodies, identification of strains) this must be explicitly stated, and appropriate acknowledgement be included where appropriate.
2.5 Policy on security and censorship
The policy of SGM Council on scientific publication, security and censorship can be found .
3. Preparing and submitting your paper
3.1 General information
Papers must be submitted via Microbiology's online submission system, .
Papers must not be submitted by e-mail, and hard-copy submissions are not accepted. Guidelines on preparing a paper for online submission are available below. To submit a paper, go to . Before submitting, authors should use the checklist below to ensure that they have complied with all the relevant points. All the authors must have agreed to the submission and have agreed that the corresponding author may act on their behalf throughout the review and publication process.
Note that a length charge is applied to papers with more than 5500 words and/or 8 figures and tables combined. This has changed for all papers submitted on or after 1 April 2011; the charge levied has also increased (previously the charge applied to papers with more than 4500 words and/or 8 figures and tables combined). Please see above for full details.
Papers that do not meet acceptable standards of clarity, presentation or conciseness may be returned to the authors without editorial review.
3.2 Pre-submission checklist
Authors must:
- read these Instructions for Authors and ensure that their paper complies with them before submission;
- all agree to the submission and agree that the corresponding author may act on their behalf throughout the review and publication process:
- provide the names and contact details of at least three (and not more than five) potential reviewers;
- obtain permission for any citations of personal communications or unpublished results; this should be confirmed in a covering message;
- indicate the Contents Category for the paper on the title page (it should also be entered in the Contents Category field of the online submission form in );
- include on the title page the word count of both the abstract and the main text (including the figure and table legends, in-text citations and any appendices, but not including the title page, acknowledgements, table bodies and footnotes, or reference list) and the number of tables and figures;
- use continuous line numbering throughout the manuscript, to facilitate online reviewing;
- ensure that citations of references in the text and references list conform to Microbiology style;
- upload any supplementary material associated with the paper as a supplementary file(s) for peer review with the paper;
- upload any cited papers that have been accepted for publication but are not yet published as a supplementary file(s).
3.3 Preparing files for submission
Papers can be submitted initially either as a single PDF file or as separate word-processor and image files, which will be compiled into a PDF by the system. The submission system will also attempt to prepare an HTML version of the reference list with links to papers that it can identify on the PubMed and HighWire databases, for use by the reviewers. This conversion will not work reliably if the reference format is incorrect (see References, below); however, an HTML reference list is not essential for review of the paper to proceed. Supplementary material should be submitted as a separate file(s), rather than being incorporated within the single PDF or word-processor file. When submitting the revised version of a paper, authors should supply the source files for the text and figures, to expedite the publication of the paper if it is accepted.
Submission as a single PDF. Please refer to the on the submission site for guidelines on preparing PDFs for submission, including advice on reducing the size of image files (the submitted PDF should preferably not be much larger than 1 MB).
Submission as separate word-processor and image files. Most standard word-processor files (including .docx files produced in Word 2007) will convert successfully to PDF. Times, Times New Roman, Courier, Helvetica and Arial, and the Symbol font for special characters, are the recommended fonts. Other fonts are not guaranteed to convert successfully convert to PDF. Tables for the main paper must be prepared as part of the word-processor file; they must not be supplied as images or Excel files. (Excel files are, however, acceptable for supplementary data.). Word-processor files including inserted image files will normally be converted successfully to PDF by the system, but please note that files using OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) technology to display information or embedded files are not supported. If the conversion is not satisfactory, either convert the file to PDF yourself, and submit that, or submit the image files separately.
The file types that are supported for submission of separate image files for conversion to PDF are PDF, GIF, TIFF, EPS, JPEG and PPT. A resolution of 300 d.p.i. at a reasonable size of reproduction is recommended; in other words, an image intended to fit in a single column of the journal should be around 1000 pixels wide and an image intended to fit across two columns should be around 2000 pixels wide. The following file types are not supported at the initial submission stage as they cannot be converted to PDF by the system: bitmap (.bmp), PICT (.pict), Excel (.xls), Photoshop (.psd), Canvas (.cnv), CorelDRAW (.cdr) and locked or encrypted PDFs. Image files will be converted to PDF and added to the end of the manuscript PDF produced by the system. If any of the image files are very large, it is advisable to reduce their size before submission if possible: refer to the for guidelines on how to do this.
3.4 General style and layout
The paper must be written in clear and concise English, normally in the past tense, and should normally comprise: (a) Title page; (b) Abstract; (c) Introduction; (d) Methods; (e) Results; (f) Discussion, with Conclusions if appropriate; (g) Acknowledgements; (h) References; (i) Tables; (j) Figures, with legends. A Theory section and Appendices may be included. Where appropriate, the Results and Discussion may be combined. Figures and tables should only be used to illustrate points that cannot easily be described in the text. Note that a length charge is applied to papers with more than 5500 words and/or 8 figures and tables combined. This has changed for all papers submitted on or after 1 April 2011; the charge levied has also increased (previously the charge applied to papers with more than 4500 words and/or 8 figures and tables combined). Please see above for full details.
Authors should consult a recent issue of the journal for the layout of headings, tables, etc. Guidance on the presentation of individual sections is given below.
3.5 Title page
This should carry the following information.
- The title of the paper. A good title is very important. It will attract readers and facilitate retrieval by online searches, thereby helping to maximize citations. The title should include topical keywords and allude to the interesting conclusions of the paper. A title that emphasizes the main conclusions, or poses a question, has more impact than one that just describes the nature of the study.
- A short 'running title', of not more than 55 characters (including spaces), for use as a headline.
- The Contents Category.
- The names of the authors. The author for correspondence must be clearly indicated.
- The name and address of the laboratory or laboratories where the work was done, and present addresses of authors who have since moved.
- An e-mail address and telephone and fax numbers for the corresponding author.
- The number of words in (i) the abstract and (ii) the main text (including the figure and table legends and any appendices, but not the title page, abstract, acknowledgements, table bodies and footnotes, or references) and the number of tables and figures.
- If appropriate, a footnote defining any non-standard abbreviations. A list of abbreviations not requiring definition is given in the At-a-glance style guide (please note that the PDF version does not reflect the most recent changes).
3.6 Abstract
The abstract will be read by more people than the full paper. It must therefore be clear and comprehensible in its own right. References should not be cited, and any abbreviations used must be defined. The abstract should if possible introduce the subject in the first sentence and present the main conclusion in the last sentence: when someone is skimming a block of text, the first and last sentences receive the most attention. The recommended maximum length for the abstract is 250 words.
3.7 Introduction
This should state the objectives of the work, but should not contain a detailed summary of the results. Authors should not assume that all readers will know why an area is worth studying; they should briefly make this clear. Previous relevant work should be sufficiently cited but this should not constitute a full review.
3.8 Methods
Sufficient detail should be provided to allow the work to be repeated. The suppliers of chemicals and equipment should be indicated if this may affect the results. Suppliers' addresses should not be given unless this is considered essential for a particular reason. A source (name and brief address) or reference should be given for each strain used. Authors are encouraged to deposit important strains in a recognized culture collection and to refer to the collection and strain number in the paper.
3.9 Results
There should be sufficient subheadings to make clear how the work was organized, what the key questions being addressed were, how one experiment led to another, and perhaps what conclusions were reached. A reader should gain a clear picture of the work from the subheadings.
Reproducibility of results should be indicated in the Results section. It should be stated how many times an experiment was repeated and whether means or representative results are shown. Variability should be indicated statistically wherever possible; when error terms are given, the measure of dispersion and the number of observations should be stated. Statistical techniques used must be specified, and where necessary they should be described fully or a reference given. If results are expressed as percentages, the absolute value corresponding to 100% should be stated.
3.10 Discussion
This should not recapitulate the results, and should not be too long. Excessive discussion of few facts often gives an impression of poor science. Subheadings should be used where appropriate, to highlight the points under discussion. It may be helpful to list the main conclusions at the end. A combined Results and Discussion section is encouraged where appropriate.
3.11 Acknowledgements
An Acknowledgements section is not comupulsory but may be included. If required, please state the names of funding bodies and grant numbers in this section. Authors may also wish to acknowledge individuals who have contributed materials, expertise or time to the study who are not named as authors.
3.12 References
References in the text should be cited as follows: two authors, Smith & Jones (1996) or (Smith & Jones, 1996); three or more authors, Smith et al. (1996) or (Smith et al., 1996). References to papers by the same author(s) in the same year should be distinguished in the text and the reference list by the letters a, b, etc. (e.g. 1996a or 1996a, b). The style of references in the reference list should follow the examples shown in the At-a-glance style guide (please note that the PDF version does not reflect the most recent changes).
Authors who use EndNote or Reference Manager can download the style for Microbiology by clicking on the links below:
EndNote output style
Reference Manager output style
Please note the following style points:
- References in the list must be given in alphabetical order, except for papers with three or more authors, which should be listed in chronological order after any other papers by the first author.
- References must include the title of the paper as well as both initial and final page numbers.
- Titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the system used by , no stops should be used after abbreviated words.
- References to books should include year of publication, title (in full), edition, editor(s) (if any), town of publication and publisher, in that order. When the reference is to a particular part of a book, the inclusive page numbers of the chapter or section and, if appropriate, chapter title must be given.
- Only papers accepted for publication but not yet published may be cited as 'in press' in the reference list, and the reference must include the name of the journal. Relevant papers cited as 'in press' should be included as supplementary files with the online submission. References to papers not yet accepted should be cited in the text as unpublished results, giving the surname(s) and initials of all the author(s). Such papers should not appear in the list of references.
- Permission must be obtained for any personal communications or citations of other workers' unpublished results.
3.13 Tables
These should be broadly comprehensible without reference to the text, but it is not necessary to repeat detailed descriptions of methods, etc. The symbols * † ‡ § || ¶ # should be used for footnotes, rather than superscript letters or numbers. When results are expressed as percentages, the absolute value(s) corresponding to 100% must be stated. Statements of reproducibility should be included (see above). Tables should not be used to present results that can be described by a brief statement in the text.
3.14 Figures
This section outlines journal policy on figures. See these links for advice on preparing figures for inclusion as a PDF for submission and on the source files needed for publication.
Figures should not be used to present results that can be described by a brief statement in the text. The points outlined above for tables regarding comprehensibility, relative values and reproducibility also apply to figures and their legends. The inclusion of large amounts of tabular data in figures is discouraged and authors may be asked to move such data to the text or a separate table. Authors should be aware that after publication, tabulated data within figures are not accessible via online text searching.
Line drawings. These should be of a quality suitable for direct reproduction. The maximum printed size, including lettering and legends, is 176 x 235 mm. Line thicknesses and symbol sizes should be sufficient to allow for reduction. The preferred symbols for graphs are filled and open circles, squares, triangles or diamonds. Where possible, the same symbol should be used for the same quantity in different figures.
Bar diagrams. Simple bar diagrams reporting only a few values are usually unnecessary; the data can normally be given in a few lines of text. It is editorial policy not to publish bar diagrams with 'three-dimensional' bars unless there is a specific justification for their use.
Sequence data. Figures showing full gene sequences are not published, but selected sequence data, with appropriate annotation, may be published where there is justification (see section above for details). The layout of sequence figures should be designed to fit either the full width of the page (176 mm) or a single column (84 mm). For adequate legibility, the height of the characters should be not less than 1.5–2 mm (or 6–8 point). For printing at full page width with this size of type, a layout with 80–100 nucleotides per line is appropriate (or 60–70 if there are spaces between the codons). For a single-column layout, 50–60 nucleotides per line is about right. The spacing between the lines of sequence should be as close as is consistent with clarity. Note that sequence data must be submitted to GenBank, EMBL or DDBJ.
Microbiology does not publish figures whose principal function is to present primary sequence data, since the data can be accessed through the databases. To merit publication, sequence figures must be justified by the additional annotation they present; they should normally be limited to regions of particular interest. Limited sequence alignments of nucleic acids and proteins are acceptable provided they make a significant point. See above for guidance on presentation of sequence figures. Sequence data that are not suitable for print publication can, where appropriate, be published as online-only supplementary data.
Photographs (halftones). Authors are advised to supply halftones intended for publication as TIFF or EPS files. The resolution should be at least 300 d.p.i. at final size (approx. 1000 pixels wide for a single-column figure; approx. 2000 pixels wide for a double-column figure). For photomicrographs, the scale should be shown by a scale bar.
3.15 Colour figures
These are published at no cost to the author, if the Editors believe that colour is essential to show the results. Colour figures should preferably be supplied as TIFF or EPS files. The resolution should be at least 300 d.p.i. at final size (approx. 1000 pixels wide for a single-column figure; approx. 2000 pixels wide for a double-column figure). The files should preferably be generated as CMYK (4-colour) images, not RGB, as these reproduce better in print.
3.16 Supplementary material
Material associated with a paper but not suitable for print publication (e.g. large datasets, sequence alignments, 3D structures, movie files) can be included as online-only supplementary data. Data that are essential for interpretation of the results of the main paper should be included in the main paper. All supplementary data files will be reviewed along with the main paper; these will not be published unless they significantly enhance the paper. The Editors may sometimes suggest that figures or tables that the author has included within a paper should be converted into supplementary data.
Supplementary data files must not include methods for results that are included in the main paper, nor should they introduce different results or new discussion points. Supplementary figures and tables should be named Fig. S1, Table S1, etc., and be cited accordingly in the main paper. A heading and, if appropriate, a short legend or text description must be supplied for each supplementary data item.
File types and formatting for supplementary data. The contents of the supplementary file should be indicated in the 'File label' field when the file is uploaded. Most file types can be supported but authors should try to avoid files that require unusual software, because these will be of limited use to readers. Very large files should also be avoided where possible because they may be difficult to download. Editorial staff may apply stylistic editing to supplementary files, and will, where possible, convert the files to PDF format for online publication.
4. Style
4.1 Nomenclature of micro-organisms
The correct name of the organism, conforming with international rules of nomenclature, must be used; if desired, synonyms may be added in parentheses when the name is first mentioned. Names of bacteria must conform with the current Bacteriological Code and the opinions issued by the International Committee on Systematic Bacteriology. See the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology Instructions for Authors for more details. Names of algae and fungi must conform with the current International Code of Botanical Nomenclature. Names of protozoa must conform with the current International Code of Zoological Nomenclature.
The following may be useful:
4.2 Chemical and biochemical nomenclature
Authors should follow the recommendations of IUPAC for chemical nomenclature, and those of the Nomenclature Committee of IUBMB and the IUPAC–IUBMB Joint Commission on Biochemical Nomenclature for biochemical nomenclature (see ).
4.3 Enzyme nomenclature
The system published in Enzyme Nomenclature () should be followed. Enzyme Commission numbers should be given where appropriate.
4.4 Genetic nomenclature
The following proposals should be adhered to wherever possible. Bacteria: Demerec, M. et al. (1966) Genetics 54, 61–76 [also J Gen Microbiol (1968), 50, 1–14]. Plasmids: Novick, R. P. et al. (1976) Bacteriol Rev 40, 168–189. Yeasts: Sherman, F. (1981) In The Molecular Biology of the Yeast Saccharomyces. I. Life Cycle and Inheritance, pp. 639–640 (edited by J. N. Strathern et al. New York: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory). Aspergillus nidulans: Clutterbuck, A. J. (1973) Genet Res 21, 291–296. Neurospora crassa: Neurospora Newsl (1978), 25, 29.
4.5 Units
SI units should be used.
4.6 Molecular mass
Mr (relative molecular mass) should be used rather than ‘molecular weight’. ‘Molecular mass’ should be used if values are quoted in daltons (Da) (e.g. molecular mass 20 kDa). Either Mr or molecular mass may be used, but they should not be mixed in any one paper.
4.7 Absorbance, optical density, and attenuance
The term absorbance, A, should be used for the quantity log(I0/I) in UV and visible absorption spectrophotometry of samples in which there is negligible scattering or reflection of light. If scattering is considerable, as in spectrophotometric measurements of microbial biomass, the term optical density, OD (or attenuance, D), should be used; the path length of the cell or cuvette, and the make and model of the spectrophotometer, should be specified, because optical design dramatically influences such measurements. If a sample is diluted prior to measuring optical density, the dilution and the diluent should be stated. Readings obtained with instruments designed for turbid samples, such as nephelometers or Klett meters, should be reported in appropriate units. Whenever A, OD or D is used, the wavelength (in nm) of the incident light must be specified (e.g. A280, OD600).
5. After submission
5.1 Editorial handling of papers
Submitted papers are checked by the editorial staff to ensure that they comply with the journal’s requirements. If any problems are noticed, the paper will be returned to the author for amendment before being assigned to an Editor or Associate Editor (AE). After the above step, papers are assigned by the editorial staff to an Editor or AE with appropriate expertise, who is responsible for making the decision on acceptability. Before sending a paper to reviewers, the AE or Editor will pre-screen the paper to check that it fulfils certain basic criteria that would make it potentially suitable for Microbiology: nature of the study, quantity and quality of data, general conclusions, and standard of presentation. If the paper does not fulfil these criteria, it may be rejected at this stage, so that the authors can submit it to a more appropriate journal without further delay. Papers that pass the pre-screening stage will normally be sent to at least one independent reviewer, but the AE or Editor may also act as a reviewer him/herself. The use of reviewers suggested by authors is at the discretion of the Editor or AE.
5.2 Submitting a revised manuscript
If revision of a paper is requested, the revised version should be returned within the time specified. If more time is required, the author should contact the submit.mic{at}sgm.ac.uk , AE or Editor to discuss a new deadline. If revision is delayed by the author without prior agreement, the revised version will be treated as a new submission. When submitting the revised version of a paper, authors should supply the source files for the text and figures, to expedite the publication of the paper if it is accepted.
5.3 Source files for publication
Our requirements for files intended for publication are different from those for files that will be converted to PDF by the submission system as part of an initial submission. Please see the information on this page for full details. If you are unsure whether your file formats are suitable, please contact the Editorial Office.
5.4 Publication ahead of print
Microbiology has a Papers in Press feature where accepted manuscripts appear online in an unedited format before they are scheduled to appear in print. Unless the authors inform the submit.mic{at}sgm.ac.uk staff to the contrary, it will be assumed that they agree to their manuscript being used in this way. Please note that the PDF used for peer review, and the manuscript title, subject category and author details that authors have entered into the online submission site, will be used to generate the Papers in Press record.
5.5 Author self-archiving
Authors may mount a PDF file of their accepted manuscript on their own or their institution’s website or on a centrally organized repository, provided that the PDF is not publicly available until 12 months after online publication in the journal. The PDF file must correspond exactly to the accepted version of the manuscript. Authors may not mount a PDF of the final published version, although they should include a link to the published version. Author manuscripts must not be mounted less than 12 months after publication in the online version of Microbiology, nor must they be mounted on a server for the purpose of commercial sale or systematic external distribution by a third party (e.g. via an e-print server).
5.6 Open access and PubMed Central deposition
SGM is a signatory of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Portfolio Agreement; as a result, papers that acknowledge funding from NIH will be deposited by SGM in PubMed Central and will be freely available from PubMed Central 12 months after publication. Because SGM has signed the Portfolio Agreement, authors are no longer able to deposit their own manuscripts in PubMed Central. Details of the SGM policy on deposit in other repositories can be found here.
Authors who pay for immediate open access through our Open Option scheme will have their papers deposited in PubMed Central (and mirror sites such as UKPMC) by SGM at the time of publication with no delay to public access, in addition to their paper being freely available to all without a subscription immediately on online publication.
5.7 Proof corrections
Only typographical and absolutely essential factual changes may be made. Authors may be charged for the correction of non-typographical errors.
5.8 Offprints
Authors receive 25 offprints free; further copies may be purchased in multiples of 25.
5.9 Cover illustrations
The Editors welcome the submission of pictures for possible use on the front cover, and will pay Ł75 towards expenses for each one used. Pictures need not be linked with a paper in the journal.
Page last modified 1st April 2011.