PDF: Editorials

1. Title

1.1. Check that title is in sentence case.

1.2. Check title spelling.

1.3. Check that title is written in blue and bold font. Note: title of editorials is written in smaller font than title of research papers.

1.4. Check that capitalization of scientific terms is correct. We suggest you use the following procedure if you are in doubt regarding this or that term.

1.5. Check that the following Latin terms are written in italics: in vitro, in vivo, ex vivo, in situ, in silico. Via, etc and et al should be formatted in plain text. For other Latin terms either italics or plain text is acceptable.

1.6. Check that species and gene names are written in italics.

2. Author list

2.1. Check that author list contains full names of authors divided by comma (,). If there are only 2 authors, then check that they are divided by “and” word.

2.2. Check that author names are formatted in black and bold font.

2.3. Check that there is no punctuation mark at the end of author list.

2.4. Check that author names do not have affiliation numbers.

2.5. Check the format of the author name.

Allowed formats:

• FirstName LastName
• FirstName MiddleName LastName
• FirstName MiddleName MiddleName LastName (there can any number of middle names)
• FirstName M. LastName (M. is initial of middle name; up to 4 letters; period should be used after each initial)
• FirstName M.N. LastName (M.N. are initials of middle names; up to 4 letters; period should be used after each initial)
• F. MiddleName LastName (F. is an initial of first name)
• F. MiddleName MiddleName LastName (F. is initial of first name and there can any number of middle names)

Please note that last names can be compound, can have prepositions, suffixes, prefixes or be mononyms. For example:

• Compound last names: Garcia-Closas, Gomez Jimenez
• Last name related prepositions: Van den Brandt, van der Ent
• Suffixes: Williams 3rd, Rowland Jr
• Prefixes: McCann, O’Kelly
• Mononym: Govindjee

If you see that author name does not comply to these standards, please notify production team.

2.6. Check that there are no affiliations listed for authors (there must be no affiliations on the page).

3. Reference Callouts

3.1. Check reference callouts in the text:

• Check the format of reference callouts:

[N] (where “N” is the order number of the corresponding reference)
Examples:

[1]

[1, 2]

[1–3]

[1, 3–4]

– Check that only comma (,) and en dash (–) are used as a separators. No other separators are allowed.

• Check that there is a space after comma (,) and no space before and after en dash (–).
• Check that reference callouts are in plain text and are not hyperlinked.

3.2. Check that callout number for each of the references is present in the text or is covered in the range of numbers. i.e. in the range of [1–3] reference 2 is not present in the text, but covered in the range. This case is acceptable.
Callouts can be found in text and figures.

3.3. Check that there are no callouts for non-existing references (i.e. there is a callout, but there is no reference).

3.4. Check that there are no references for which callouts are missing (i.e. there is a reference, but there is no callout for it).

3.5. Check that reference callouts appear in linear order throughout the manuscript. 1, 2, 3 and so on. Once a reference has initially been called out, it can be called out again in any order. For example, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 4 is OK.

If one or more references or callouts are missing or are being called out of linear order in the text, please notify production team.

4. References

4.1. Author List

4.1.1. Check that author names in the list of authors are in-line with the following format:

LastName INITIALS optional Suffix (e.g. Sr, Jr, 2nd, 3rd, 4th)

4.1.2. Check author initials:

• No more than 3 initials allowed.
  • Allow the number of initials author has supplied if different from PubMed and/or original article (within the 3 initial limit).
• NO hyphens or spaces allowed in-between initials.

4.1.3. Check that all mononyms (names which have no initials) are “true” mononyms (check PubMed site).

4.1.4. Remove any electronic addresses (Ex. Electronic address: easloffice@easloffice.eu).

4.1.5. Check that list of authors contains either of the following:

• One author name followed by comma (,) and “et al.”
• Two author names divided by comma (,) and followed by period (.)

4.2. Reference Title

Reference title should not be present.

4.3. Citation-Data (in-house)

Citation data is a part of a reference, which contains journal title, year, volume, pages, doi and PubMed link.

4.3.1. Check that citation data has correct journal title. The following titles are allowed:

Oncotarget
Oncoscience
Aging (Albany NY)
Genes Cancer

This is the only acceptable spelling. No variations are allowed.

4.3.2. Check that journal citation-data has the following elements in this order:

JournalTitle. year; volume: pages. DOI [PubMed]

• Journal title should be followed by period (.) There should be a space after period.
• Year should be presented in full (4 digits) and should be followed by semicolon (;). There should be a space after semicolon.
• Volume should be followed by colon (:). There can be a space after colon (but this is not mandatory).
• Page numbers must be written in shortened format (12063-74) and followed by a period (.). There should be a space after period. Occasionally, there are cases where a reference may only have one page number, which is fine.
• DOI must be present and in “https://doi.org” format. It should be highlighted in blue and should be an active link leading to the correct article page. There must be no period at the end.
• “[PubMed]” link must be present (when available) and must be presented as “PMID:” word followed by hyperlinked PMID number.
• “PMID:” word must be written in ALL CAPS and formatted as plain text (no special formatting) and has a colon (:) at the end.
• PMID number must be hyperlinked to the article on PubMed website.

4.3.3. If you come across an Epub reference, be sure to verify whether publishing information has since been released. If publishing information is available, then please add vol, pg numbers, etc. and format as directed above in section 4.3.2.

4.4. Citation-Data (other journals)

Citation data is a part of a reference, which contains journal title, year, volume, pages, doi and PubMed link.

4.4.1. Check that journal citation-data has the following elements in this order:

DOI [PubMed]

• DOI must be present (when available) and in “https://doi.org” format. It should be highlighted in blue and should be an active link leading to the correct article page. There must be no period at the end. When checking for DOI’s, please consult the PubMed site, https://www.crossref.org/ or the applicable journal website, if necessary.
• “[PubMed]” link must be present (when available) and must be presented as “PMID:” word followed by hyperlinked PMID number.
• “PMID:” word must be written in ALL CAPS and formatted as plain text (no special formatting) and has a colon (:) at the end.
• PMID number must be hyperlinked to the article on PubMed website.

4.4.2. If you come across an Epub reference, be sure to verify whether publishing information has since been released. If publishing information is available, then please add vol, pg numbers, etc. and format as directed above in section 4.3.2.

5. Corresponding Author and Affiliation

Corresponding author and affiliation can be found at the end of the article right after the References section.

5.1. Check that full name of corresponding author is formatted in bold and underlined font and is followed by colon (:) (only one corresponding author is allowed in PDF).

5.2. Check that author’s name completely matches corresponding name in the author list (including the middle initials if any).

5.3. Check that full name of corresponding author is followed by affiliation (only one affiliation is allowed in PDF).

5.4. Check that affiliation is formatted in plain text (no special formatting).

5.5. Check spelling of English words in affiliation.

5.6. Check that there are NO street addresses and house numbers included in affiliation.

5.7. Check that country and city names are present in affiliation. State is also required and should be abbreviated in U.S. affiliations.

5.8. Check that country and city names are NOT written in ALL CAPS (capital letters).

5.9. Check that one of the allowed variations for China, Taiwan and Hong Kong are used if present.

5.10. Chinese affiliations: zip code is allowed for both city and county/district. If zip code is present, it must be positioned after city/county/district and there must be no comma between city/county/district and zip code. Zip code is optional for any of the elements (city/county/district).

5.11. USA affiliations: check that there is no comma between state and zip code. State must be positioned before zip code. Zip code must be present.

5.12. Non-USA affiliations: check that there is no comma between city and zip code. City must be positioned before zip code. Zip code is optional.

5.13. Check that only commas are used to separate parts of affiliations (i.e. department, institution, etc.).

5.14. Check that affiliation generally maintains a hierarchical order from the smallest to largest unit.

• Here is a broad guide that shows the hierarchical order of many types of information you may see where information inside the brackets could appear in any order within that bracket:

[Group/Network/Organization], [Laboratory/Section/Division/Unit/Department], [Hospital/Program], [Faculty of…/School of…/Institute of…], [Campus], [University/Agency], [City], [State/Province] [Zip], [Country]

• If you find deviations from this order check PubMed to see if you can find a few consistent listings of the affiliation in question to help in determining if an edit may be necessary.
• Please provide your suggested edits to Lisa for approval before making any changes to affiliation order.

5.15. Special Formatting Notes:

• Check that “MD” in “MD Anderson Cancer Center” appears as such (not “M D”, “M.D.”, etc..).

6. Correspondence

Correspondence section can be found at the end of the article right after the corresponding author and affiliation section.

6.1. Check that Correspondence section is separated from corresponding author and affiliation section by blank line.

6.2. Check that Correspondence section has a title “Correspondence:” (title case and followed by colon (:)).

6.3. Check that “Correspondence:” is formatted in black, bold and italic font.

6.4. Check that “Correspondence:” is followed by full author name (only one corresponding author is allowed in PDF).

6.5. Check that full author name is formatted in italic font.

6.6. Check that there are no punctuation marks at the end of correspondence line.

6.7. Check that author’s full name matches the author list (at the top of the paper) and the corresponding author and affiliation section (above).

7. Email

Email section can be found at the end of the article right after the Correspondence section.

7.1. Check that there is no blank line between Correspondence and Email sections.

7.2. Check that email section has a title “Email:” (title case and followed by colon (:)).

7.3. Check that “Email:” is formatted in black, bold and italic font.

7.4. Check that “Email:” is followed by hyperlinked email address (only one email is allowed in PDF).

7.5. Check that email address is formatted in blue, underlined, italic font.

7.6. Check that there are no punctuation marks at the end of email line.

8. Keywords

Keywords section can be found at the end of the article right after the Email section.

8.1. Check that there is no blank line between Email and Keywords sections.

8.2. Check that Keywords section has a title “Keywords:” (title case and followed by colon (:)).

8.3. Check that “Keywords:” is formatted in black, bold and italic font.

8.4. Check that “Keywords:” is followed by at least one keyword. (Note: number of keywords is limited to 8).

8.5. Check that keyword (or list of keywords) is formatted in italic font.

8.6. Check that there are no punctuation marks at the end of keywords line.

9. Copyright

Copyright section can be found at the end of the article right after the Keywords section (or last optional section, if present).

9.1. Check that there is no blank line between Copyright and section preceding it.

9.2. Check that Copyright section has a title “Copyright:” (title case and followed by colon (:)).

9.3. Check that “Copyright:” is formatted in black, bold and italic font.

9.4. Check that copyright string starts with copyright symbol (©) and is followed by a YEAR.

9.5. Check that the YEAR is followed by one of the following options:

• single author surname followed by period (.) [in case where paper has only one author]
• 2 author surnames divided by “and” and followed by period (.) [in case where paper has 2 authors]
• one author surname followed by et al. [in case where paper has more than 2 authors]

9.6. Check that author surname (or list of surnames) is formatted in italic font.

9.7. Check that author surname name (or list of surnames) is followed by the following statement:

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

9.8. Check that there are no punctuation marks at the end of copyright line.

9.9. Check that last name of first author matches last name of the first author in the author list. In case of 2 authors, check that last names match names in the author list.

9.10. Check that “Creative Commons Attribution License” is a working hyperlink that leads to https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.

10. Dates

Received and published dates can be found at the end of the article right after the Copyright section.

10.1. Check that received and published dates are separated from Copyright section by blank line.

10.2. Check that “Received:” and “Published:” titles are title case and followed by colon (:).

10.3. Check that “Received:” and “Published:” are formatted in black and bold font.

10.4. Check that “Received:” and “Published:” titles are each followed by a date.

10.5. Check that month is spelled out as a word and dates are in-line with the following format: Month Day, Year (e.g. June 1, 2017, April 12, 2016, December 31, 2015, etc.) Note: if a day is presented by single digit, there should be no leading 0.

10.6. Check spelling of the month.

10.7. Check that there are no punctuation marks at the end of received and published date lines.