Guide to Authors

Welcome to the electronic manuscript submission website for Oncogene. The instructions below are structured so you can quickly and easily answer the following questions:

1. Is my manuscript suitable for Oncogene? (Scope)
2. How do I format my manuscript for Oncogene? (Format of Papers)
3. How do I submit my manuscript to Oncogene? (Submission of Papers)

OTHER LINKS

• About the journal
• Format of papers
• Preparation of Original Articles
• House style
• Submission of papers
• Editorial policy
• Ethics and bioethics
• Peer review policy
• Corrections
• About npg online services

ABOUT THE JOURNAL

Scope

Topics Covered
Oncogene covers all aspects of the structure and function of oncogenes, especially:

• Cellular oncogenes and their mechanism of activation


• Structure and function of their encoded proteins


• Oncogenes of the DNA and RNA tumour viruses


• The molecular oncology of human tumours


• Tumour suppressor genes


• Growth regulatory genes


• Cell cycle control


• Growth factors and receptors


• Apoptosis


• Immortalisation and cellular senescence

Editor-in-Chief	Douglas R. Green, PhD
Frequency	55-60 issues a year
Abstracted in	Index Medicus/MEDLINE Current Contents Current Contents/Life Sciences Biotechonology Citation Index Elsevier BIOBASE/Current Awareness in Biological Sciences EMBASE/Excerpta Medica Science Citation Index SciSearch BIOSIS Research Alert Index Veterinarius

Oncogenomics
With the completion of the human genome project, it is anticipated that the identification of genes that regulate cell growth, differentiation, apoptosis and transformation will constitute a major effort in cancer research. To facilitate the progress in this field, the editors of Oncogene have decided to publish sequence mapping papers as a separate section in the journal entitled 'Oncogenomics'. Authors interested in publishing novel sequences of genes that regulate cell growth, as well as studies describing positional cloning and chromosomal localization data, may submit their studies to Oncogene. Articles with supporting functional or mechanistic data, or that provide gene signatures with diagnostic or prognostic implications, are particularly encouraged. Articles may be submitted either as original articles or in a short communication format and they will be grouped together in the Oncogenomics section. There is opportunity on the online submission form to state if your submission should be considered for inclusion in this section of the journal.

FORMAT OF PAPERS

Article Type	Description	Max Word Count
Original Article	Manuscripts describing novel experimental findings with more than four display items. Please keep the text as brief and clear as possible, and prepare figures to occupy a minimum of space.	In general, full-length papers should not exceed a total (excluding abstract, references and figure legends) of 4500 words. Please include a word count for your manuscript in your covering letter.
Review	Review articles are summaries of a large field of research and are typically commissioned by the editorial office. Please contact the journal office for any inquiries.	For general review articles, the word count should not exceed 6000 words.
Short Communications	A short communication is for a concise, but independent report representing a significant and timely contribution to cancer biology. A short communication is not intended to publish preliminary results. The results must be of exceptional interest and relevant to be considered for publication. Short Communications have a title page, abstract, main text, conflict of interest statement, acknowledgements, references, tables and legends to figures. The paper should be organized with an introduction and the results and discussion sections combined. Please note that all materials and methods should be included in the figure legends. The text (including references and figure legends) should be succinctly written, and figures prepared to occupy a minimum of space (no more than four display items).	In general, Short Communications should not exceed a total of 2,500 words (excluding the abstract, references and legends). Please include a word count for your manuscript in your covering letter.
Letter to the Editor	Letters to the Editor will be considered for publication, subject to editing. Letters must contain information critical to a certain area or must be confirmatory of data recently published in Oncogene. A Letter must reference the original source, and a Response to a Letter must reference the Letter in the first few paragraphs, as well as the original source. Letters can use an arbitrary title, but a Response must cite the title of the Letter: e.g. Response to [title of Letter]. All Letters must contain a title page including title, all authors’ names and affiliations, and corresponding author contact information.	Text limit of 400 words (not including references). Reference limit of 5. The first reference must be the citation for the original article under discussion. Letters may contain figures or tables (up to 2 each) only if it shows data which refutes the original article’s conclusions. Figures or tables showing unpublished data in support of the original article’s conclusions will not be considered.

Preparation of Original Articles

• Cover letter (must include a Conflict of Interest statement)
  
• Title page (excluding acknowledgments)
  
• Abstract and keywords
  
• Introduction
  
• Results
  
• Discussion
  
• Materials (or patients) and methods
  
• Conflict of Interest
  
• Acknowledgments
  
• References
  
• Tables
  
• Figures
  

Cover letter
The uploaded covering letter must state the material is original research, has not been previously published and has not been submitted for publication elsewhere while under consideration. The covering letter must also contain a Conflict of Interest statement (see Editorial Policy section).

Title page
The title page should bear the title of the paper, the full names of all the authors, highest academic degree obtained, and their affiliations, together with the name, full postal address, telephone and fax numbers and e-mail address of the author to whom correspondence and offprint requests are to be sent (This information is also asked for on the electronic submission form). The title should be brief, informative, of 150 characters or less and should not make a statement or conclusion. The running title should consist of not more than 50 letters and spaces. It should be as brief as possible, convey the essential message of the paper and contain no abbreviations. Authors should disclose the sources of any support for the work, received in the form of grants and/or equipment and drugs.

Abstract and Keywords
The abstract should not exceed 200 words and three to six keywords should be included to aid web searches after publication.

Introduction
The Introduction should assume that the reader is knowledgeable in the field and should therefore be as brief as possible but can include a short historical review where desirable.

Results
The Results section should briefly present the experimental data in text, tables or figures. Tables and figures should not be described extensively in the text, either.

Discussion
The Discussion should focus on the interpretation and the significance of the findings with concise objective comments that describe their relation to other work in the area. It should not repeat information in the results. The final paragraph should highlight the main conclusion(s), and provide some indication of the direction future research should take.

Materials/Subjects and Methods
This section should contain sufficient detail, so that all experimental procedures can be reproduced, and include references. Methods, however, that have been published in detail elsewhere should not be described in detail. Authors should provide the name of the manufacturer and their location for any specifically named medical equipment and instruments, and all drugs should be identified by their pharmaceutical names, and by their trade name if relevant.

Conflict of interest
Authors must declare whether or not there is any competing financial interests in relation to the work described. This information must be included at this stage and will be published as part of the paper. Conflict of interest should also be noted on the cover letter and as part of the submission process. See the Conflict of Interest documentation in the Editorial Policy section for detailed information.

Acknowledgements
These should be brief, and should include sources of support including sponsorship (e.g. university, charity, commercial organization) and sources of material (e.g. novel drugs) not available commercially.

References
Authors are responsible for the accuracy of references. Online publications and articles in press (state the journal which has accepted them) may be included. Within the text, a reference should be cited by author and date; not more than two authors may be cited per reference; if there are more than two authors cite one author and et al. At the end of the manuscript the citations should be typed in alphabetical order, with the authors' surnames and initials inverted.

All authors should be quoted for papers with up to six authors; for papers with more than six authors, the first six only should be quoted followed by et al. References should include, in the following order: authors' names, year, article title, journal, volume number, inclusive page numbers, and name and address of publisher (for books only). The name of the journal should be abbreviated according to the International List of Periodical Title World Abbreviations and underlined to indicate italics. References to web-only journals should give authors, article title and journal name as above, followed by url in full - or doi if known - and the year of publication in parentheses.

• Shaw RJ, Cantley LC. (2006). Ras, PI(3)K and mTOR signalling controls tumour cell growth. Nature 441: 424-430.
• Baba T, Ara T, Hasegawa M, Takai Y, Okumura Y, Baba M et al. (2006). Construction of Escherichia coli K-12 in-frame, single-gene knockout mutants: the Keio collection. Molecular Systems Biology. 10.1038/msb4100050.
• Jumppanen M, Gruvberger-Saal S, Kauraniemi P, Tanner M, Bendahl PO, Lundin M et al. (2007). Basal-like phenotype is not associated with patient survival in estrogen receptor negative breast cancers. Breast Cancer Research. http://breast-cancer-research.com/content/9/1/R16.
• Beyaert R (ed). (2003) Nuclear Factor-kappaB: Regulation and Role in Diseases. Kluwer Academic Publishers: The Netherlands.
• De Bosscher K, Vanden Berghe W, Haegeman G. (2003) Beyaert R (ed). Nuclear Factor-kappaB: Regulation and Role in Diseases. Kluwer Academic Publishers: The Netherlands, pp 221–239.
• Oshima H, Matsunaga A, Fujimura T, Taketo MM, Oshima M. (2006). Carcinogenesis in mouse stomach by simultaneous activation of the Wnt signaling and prostaglandin E2 pathway. Gastroenterology. in press.

Personal communications should be avoided. Manuscripts in preparation or submitted, but not yet accepted, may be cited in the text and should NOT be included in the list of references.

House Style

SUBMISSION OF PAPERS

Colour charges

Page charges
The cost for each printed page of published manuscripts is £59 ($118) per page for pages 1-6, then £118 ($235) for each additional page.

EDITORIAL POLICY

Statement of Ethics

Peer-review policy

Correction and retraction process

Non-Native Speakers of English
Researchers who are not native speakers of English who submit manuscripts to international journals sometimes receive negative comments from referees or editors about the English-language usage in their manuscripts, and these problems can contribute to a decision to reject a paper. To help reduce the possibility of such problems, we strongly encourage such authors to take at least one of the following steps:

• Have your manuscript reviewed for clarity by a colleague whose native language is English.
• Use one of the many English language editing services that are available, such as that offered by Nature Publishing Group Language Editing. An editor will improve the English to ensure that your meaning is clear and to identify problems that require your review.

Please note that the use of Nature Publishing Group Language Editing is at the author's own expense and in no way implies that the article will be selected for peer review or accepted by an NPG journal (or any other journal). The decisions that the editors of any NPG journal make based on the quality and suitability of a manuscript for that journal are entirely independent of whether that manuscript has been language-edited by Nature Publishing Group Language Editing.

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