Information for Submission

Information for Submission

Online submission and review system at http://mts-boneres.nature.com/cgi-bin/main.plex

Bone Research is supported by

West China School of Stomatology, Sichuan University State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, Sichuan University International Chinese Musculoskeletal Research Society (ICMRS)

Type of manuscript accepted

Review articles provide a comprehensive review of the state of the art on topics selected by the Editor-in-Chief. Reviews should not be submitted without contacting the Editorial Office. A comprehensive review or full review should be thoroughly cover the most recent progress in bone related field.

Original articles should r eport s tudies o riginated b y t he a uthor. Original articles should be no more than 5 000 words (not including the title, author affiliations, abstracts, or r eferences), include no more than 8 figures or tables and no more than 50 references.

Clinical t rials are o riginal r esearch s tudies t hat a nswer specific questions about n ovel therapies o r n ew u ses o f e stablished therapeutic a gents. Bone R esearch will consider m anuscripts i n this category for all phases of clinical trials.

Letters to the editor concern timely and important issues raised in articles prev iously pu blished in Bone R esearch. All L etters a re forwarded to the a uthors of the o riginal article following an initial editorial review in order to provide an opportunity for a response to appear a long w ith t he s ubmitted l etter. N ote t hat t he Bone Research only considers Letters to the Editor that are primarily about papers prev iously pu blished in t he J ournal. L etters s hould be n o more than 900 words (12-point Times New Roman).

Review Process

The ed itors w ill pro mptly rej ect manuscripts t hat repo rt work n ot within the editorial scope of Bone Research or that are likely to fail to achieve a s ufficient p riority s core f or p ublication. All o ther manuscripts will be reviewed by at least two experts and an editor, who w ill r eturn d etailed c omments to t he c orresponding a uthor. Every effort will be made to complete reviews within 30 days of the initial date of submission.

Editorial Policies

To be c onsidered by t he ed itors o f Bone R esearch, m anuscripts must:

· Not have been published before (except in the form of conference abstract or thesis)

· Not be under consideration for publication elsewhere

· List a ll t hose w ho q ualify f or authorship a nd o nly t hose w ho qualify f or a uthorship u nder t he c riteria es tablished by t he International Committee of Medical Journal Editors

· Acknowledge all those who made su bstantive contributions to the w ork, w ith p ermission f or su ch a cknowledgement t o b e obtained by the authors

· Have been a pproved b y a ll c oauthors a s w ell a s by t he responsible a uthorities a t the i nstitution where t he work w as conducted

Authors and Contributors

All those listed as authors must meet all three of the following requirements a nd all those who meet these requirements must be listed as authors:

· Conceived and/or designed the work that led to the submission, acquired data, and/or played an important role in interpreting the results

· Drafted or revised the manuscript

· Approved the final version

Individuals who made direct, substantive c ontributions to the work but do not meet all of the above criteria must be identified, along with t heir contributions, i n t he Acknowledgments se ction o f t he manuscript.

Conflict of Interest Disclosure

All authors must disclose all financial relationships with a ny o rganization or o ther en tity that might be perc eived to h ave influenced the objectivity or integrity of the w ork being rep orted in t he manuscript. S uch r elationships i nclude em ployment, res earch funding, i ncome (e.g., f ees f or consulting, e xpert t estimony, o r speaking), or ownership interests (e.g., stock, patents) in or from an organization that may gain or lose financially from the work being submitted for publication. Disclosures must be included at the time the manuscript is initially submitted to Bone Research.

Electronic manipulation of images

Digital image en hancement i s a cceptable if it e nhances u nderstanding. During manipulation o f images a p ositive r elationship between the original data and the resulting electronic image must be m aintained. I f a f igure h as been s ubjected t o s ignificant electronic manipulation, the specific nature o f the en hancements must b e n oted i n the f igure legend o r i n t he “Materials a nd Methods” section of the manuscript. The editors reserve the right to request original versions of figures from the authors of a paper under consideration.

Human and animal experiments

For pri mary res earch m anuscripts repo rting ex periments o n l ive vertebrates and/or h igher invertebrates, the c orresponding a uthor must confirm that a ll experiments were performed in a ccordance with relevant guidelines and regulations. The manuscript must include a statement identifying the institutional and/or licensing committee approving the experiments, including any relevant details reg arding a nimal w elfare, pa tient a nonymity, d rug side effects and informed consent.

For experiments involving human subjects, authors must identify the committee approving the experiments and include with their submission a st atement c onfirming t hat i nformed c onsent w as obtained from all subjects. All studies involving human subjects must conform to the requirements of the Declaration of Helsinki.

Scientific Misconduct

If a n author violates any of the editorial policies of Bone R esearch, the Editors may reject the manuscript, impose a moratorium on the consideration o f new manuscripts from the authors, issue a statement of concern, or retract an already-published article. In addition, the E ditors m ay c ontact t he r elevant a uthorities a t t he a uthors' home institution.

Organization of Manuscript

Manuscripts must be presented in the following order, with the exception that “Materials and Methods” and “Results” sections are not necessary for a Review.

1. Cover letter Each manuscript must be accompanied by a cover letter including statements that:

· All authors agree with the submission

· The work h as n ot been pu blished or submitted for pu blication elsewhere, either completely or in part, or in another form or language

· If m aterial h as been repro duced f rom a nother s ource, t he authors have authorization from the copyright holder (usually the Publisher) to use it, and have included this authorization with their submission

· The authors have conformed to all the editorial policies of Bone Research

In addition, for revised manuscripts, the cover letter must include a point-by-point response to each comment raised by the editors and reviewers of the original or previous submission.

2. Title page The title page should include a succinct title (less than 25 words); a concise running title (which should normally not exceed50 characters); the full names of all authors including their given names; t he a ffiliations (including c ity, s tate a nd c ountry) o f a ll authors; and the full contact details of the corresponding author (including telephone and fax numbers, and email address).

3. Abstract A bri ef a bstract (200-300 w ords) s hould s tate t he purpose, basic procedures, main findings and principal conclusions of t he st udy. T he a bstract s hould no t c ontain a bbreviations o r references and should not be structured.

4. Introduction Briefly and clearly describe the background and rationale for the stated hypothesis to be tested o r objective to be studied. S ufficient d etail must b e p rovided t o p ermit t he interdisciplinary readers to evaluate the results without review of ea rlier publications. It should be focused, outlining the historical or logical origins of the study and gaps in knowledge. It should close with the explicit st atement o f t he sp ecific a ims o f t he i nvestigation, o r hypothesis to be t ested. Describe a nd c ite o nly the most re levant earlier studies, avoid presentation of an exhaustive review of the field. The Introduction should not contain either results or conclusions.

5. M aterials a nd M ethods To ensure t he ex periments c an be repeated, the experimental or study design, specific procedures, and t ype o f st atistical a nalysis must b e d escribed c learly a nd carefully. Use section subheadings in a logical order to title each category or method. Previously published methods should be named and cited. New methods must be described c ompletely. Present the data that validate the new method.

There i s something ethical the contributor s hould f ollow: First, proprietary names and sources of supply of all commercial products must b e g iven in p arentheses i n t he t ext (name a nd m odel o f product, c ompany, c ountry), re port g eneric n ames a nd t erms wherever possible. Second for protocols involving the use of human subjects or specimens, indicate succinctly that subjects' rights have been protected by an appropriate institutional rev iew board and informed consent was granted. When laboratory animals are used, indicate t he le vel o f in stitutional r eview a nd a ssurance that t he protocol ensures humane practices.

6. R esults Report res ults c oncisely, u sing t ables a nd f igures t o present important differences or similarities that cannot otherwise be presented or summarized in the text. Number tables and figures in the order in which they are described and cited in the text.

All tabular data should identify and report, such as either standard deviation values or standard errors of the means, the number of replicate d eterminations o r h uman o r a nimal s ubjects, and probability v alues a nd n ame(s) of s tatistical t est(s) f or repo rted differences. R estrict pres entation o f ph oto- and electron micrographs to those essential to the results.

7. Discussion The Discussion sho uld no t reiterate Results, but rather should consider them in relation to any hypotheses advanced in the Introduction. This may include an e valuation o f methodology and the r elationship o f ne w i nformation t o the e xisting b ody o f knowledge.

It s hould e nd w ith a b rief conclusion a nd a c omment o n t he potential clinical relevance of the findings. Statements and interpretation of the data should be appropriately supported by original references.

8. Acknowledgments Authors should acknowledge the sources of financial g rants and o ther funding, and declare all organizational links or affiliations. The contribution of colleagues or institutions must also be acknowledged. Personal thanks and thanks to anonymous reviewers should not be included.

9. Disclosures A conflict of interest statement must be included for each contributing author.

10. References References should be cited using Arabic numerals in the o rder in which they a ppear in the text. If c ited in tables or figure legends, references should be n umbered a ccording to the first identification o f the table or figure in the text. References are listed s equentially a t t he en d o f t he pa per, a ccording t o t he numbering and order of citations in the text. Each reference should be listed in the following form: Names and initials of all the authors; Full title of paper followed by a full stop (.); Title of journal in standard abbreviation followed by a full stop (.); Year of publication followed by a semicolon(;); Volume number followed by a colon (:); First and last pages followed by a full stop (.). Following are reference style examples:

1. Endres DB. Investigation of hypercalcemia. Clin Biochem. 2012;45: 954-963.

2. Chapuy MC, Preziosi P, Maamer M, Arnaud S, Galan P, Hercberg S, M eunier P J. P revalence o f v itamin D insufficiency in a n a dult normal population. Osteoporos Int. 1997;7:439-443.

Supplementary Online Material

Additional su pporting material su ch a s d atasets or video may b e submitted for publication in the online version of the Journal. Online supplementary material may c ontribute t o understanding by readers. S upplemental m aterial m ust be i ncluded a t the time o f submission. No supplemental material will be considered once peer review has begun.

File Format of Manuscripts

All manuscripts must be submitted in Microsoft Word format. Use of 12-point Times New Roman font is required. Text, with the exception of f igure a nd t able l egends a nd ref erences, m ust be d oublespaced.

Artwork Guidelines

The editors may n ot require strict adherence to artwork guidelines upon original su bmission. However, revised manuscripts will no t be reviewed unless the images conform to the requirements below.

Color Figures/Images

Color Figures and Image must be supplied in the following format.

For Single Images:

Width: 5 00 p ixels (Select "constrain pro portions", o r equ ivalent instructions, to a llow t he a pplication t o se t t he c orrect he ight automatically.)

Resolution: 300 dpi (dots per inch)

Formats: J PG f or ph otographs, GIF f or line drawings o r c harts. Please save images with a .jpg or .gif extension.

For Multi-Part Images:

Width: 9 00 pi xels (Select "constrain pro portions", o r equ ivalent instructions, to a llow t he a pplication t o se t t he c orrect he ight automatically.)

Resolution: 300 dpi (dots per inch)

Formats: J PG f or p hotographs, GIF f or line d rawings o r c harts. Please save images with a .jpg or .gif extension.

Black and White Figures/Images

Image res olution s hould be a t l east 3 00 d pi a t pu blication s ize. Images sho uld b e scanned at a minimum o f 3 00 dpi. During so ftware manipulation of images, care should be taken that resolution is maintained. Images may be ro tated o r scaled, bu t this must be the same in the x and y dimensions. Contrast and brightness can be adjusted, but this must be uniform across the entire image, and must not result in the loss o f any feature, b and or spot. The background should still be visible. If lanes are removed, and once separate parts of an image are joined together, a black, white or grey line should indicate c learly w here t he i mage w as c ut. I f bl ack bo rders are drawn around the image, the lines should correspond to a ll edges where t he i mage w as c ut. P rotein molecular w eights o r D NA fragment sizes should be indicated for all figure panels showing gel electrophoresis.

Graphs, Histograms and Statistics

Error bars must be d escribed in the figure legend. Axes on g raphs should ex tend t o z ero, ex cept f or l og a xes. S tatistical analyses (including erro r ba rs a nd P values) sh ould o nly b e sho wn f or independently repeated ex periments, and m ust not be shown for replicates of a single ex periment. The n umber of times a n ex periment was repeated must be stated in the legend.