SCOPE AND AIM
The Blood and Genomics is an international, peer-reviewed journal dedicated to publishing the most important scientific advances in all aspects of experimental, translational and clinical medicine of blood diseases and blood transfusion, and genomics research on blood, etc. The Blood and Genomics is covered by major abstracting and indexing services and welcomes submissions from authors worldwide. Two issues annually feature original research article, review, case report, editorial, comment, technical report and letter to the editor, etc.
GENERAL REQUIREMENTS
All submitted manuscripts should contain original research that has not been previously published partly or fully in print or electronic format and are currently not taken into account for publication elsewhere. Manuscripts from any country are welcome, but they need to be written in English. The Blood and Genomics also publishes reviews which are mainly written upon invitation. Original articles should summarize results of an entire, rigorously designed study supported by experimental and/or clinical data. The recommended length for a full-length article is 3000 to 5000 words, excluding abstract, references, tables, or figures. Case reports are intended to shed light on unusual cases and promote knowledge about unknown or novel disease processes or manifestations, which help contribute to a far better understanding of such diseases, or provide up-to-date knowledge about rare and uncommon diseases. Submissions shouldn't exceed 2000 words or three published pages including figures, diagrams and references. Letter to the Editor is typically written to discuss a current controversial issue or express the point of view of the author, and it should be limited to 2000 words.
DETAILS OF SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
A cover letter from the corresponding author must accompany the manuscript and should briefly describe what is known in the field, the conceptual advances provided by and the significance of the reported findings. The authors are encouraged to suggest appropriate reviewers and are permitted to make a request for exclusion of up to three reviewers. Cover letter should state that the submitted material is original research, has not been previously published, and has not been submitted elsewhere while under review by Blood and Genomics. The cover letter is confidential and will not be sent to the reviewers. The cover letter should contain the names of all the authors and their complete mailing addresses and identify the correspondence author.
MANUSCRIPT COMPONENTS
Manuscript should be arranged in the following order: (1) Title section, including Title, Running Title, Authors, Author Affiliations, and Correspondence; (2) Abstract; (3) Keywords; (4) Introduction; (5) Materials and methods, (6) Results; (7) Discussion; (8) Footnotes, including acknowledgments and abbreviations; (9) References; (10) Figure legends; (11) Figures; (12) Tables; (13) Supplemental data.
Text components of the manuscript should be prepared using Microsoft Word in 12 pt with one point five line-space on one side of A4 (297×210 mm) sheets with all pages numbered. Manuscript must be converted into PDF format when first submitted. Figures should be converted to TIF, PDF or JPG format. Tables should be prepared in Microsoft Word with single space. The manuscript can be submitted through the online submission system (www.blood-genomics.com).
RESEARCH ARTICLE FORMAT
Title The title should accurately advertise the paper’s content and contain 150 characters or less including spaces.
Running title A running title that describes the key meaning of the paper should be provided and kept within 60 characters (including spaces).
Authorship Please clearly indicate the given name(s) and family name(s) of each author and check that all names are accurately spelled. You can add your name between parentheses in your own script behind the English transliteration. Present the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lowercase superscript letter immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name and, if available, the e-mail address of each author. Clearly indicate who will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication. This responsibility includes answering any future queries about Methodology and Materials. Ensure that the e-mail address is given and that contact details are kept up to date by the corresponding author.
Abstract The first page of the manuscript should begin with the abstract, which should be a concise summary of the paper. Avoid reference citations in the Abstract; if mentioned, the full reference must be given. The Abstract should contain 150 words or less.
Keywords Please provide 4 to 6 keywords which can be used for indexing purposes.
Introduction State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results.
Materials and methods
Materials
Reagents: The names of the suppliers for reagent or kit used in the research should be given along with the country of the supplier (e.g., FITC-conjugated rat anti-goat IgG was purchased from Santa Cruz Biotechnology, USA.).
Drug names: The Recommended International Non-proprietary Name (RINN) should be used for medicinal substances unless the specific trade name of a drug is directly relevant to the discussion.
Species nomenclature: The scientific name [genus, species (in italics) and authority] for all microorganisms and animals should be given. Simple chemical names may be used in certain places, for example, CO2.
Experimental subjects: The grade of the animals used and the certificate number of the animal breeder should be indicated and provided. Rats and mice of at least Grade II can be reported. The sex, age, and body weights of tested animals or humans should be expressed as mean, standard deviation, and total range.
Ethical considerations: When reporting experiments on human subjects or animals, authors should include an ethical statement in the Materials and Methods section. Authors should indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration. Human experiments may be performed only in accordance with the ethical standards provided by the responsible committee of the institution at which the work was carried out and in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki (as revised in Edinburgh 2000), available at http://www.wma.net/. If doubt exists whether the research was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration, the authors must explain the rationale for their approach and demonstrate that the institutional review board explicitly approved the doubtful aspects of the study. The patients’ names, initials, or hospital names or any information that may lead to the identification of the patients should be omitted. Animal experiments should follow the guidelines for the care and use of animals established by the authors' affiliated institution(s). For enrolled subjects, each should voluntarily sign an informed consent based on the full understanding of the research. When researches were conducted on animals, authors should indicate whether the institutional and national guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals were followed.
Methods
The methods section should include: the aim, design and setting of the study; the characteristics of participants or description of materials; a clear description of all processes, interventions and comparisons. Generic drug names should generally be used. When proprietary brands are used in research, include the brand names in parentheses; the type of statistical analysis used, including a power calculation if appropriate.
Units Please always use internationally accepted signs and symbols for units (SI units).
Results This should include the findings of the study including, if appropriate, results of statistical analysis which must be included either in the text or as tables and figures. Simple data may be set forth in the text with no need for tables or figures. Results can be described using text, tables and figures. The text should complement the materials given in the Tables and/or Figures, and should not be simple, direct repetition of the information in the Tables and/or Figures. Please provide full details of statistical analysis either in the text or in the Tables and/or Figure legends. Please include the type of test, the precise data to which it was applied, the value of the relevant statistics, the sample size and/or degrees of freedom, and the probability level.
Discussion This section should discuss the implications of the findings in context of existing research and highlight limitations of the study. Emphasize any new and important findings and relate your results to other studies. Discuss the limitations of your experiments. Hypothesis should be rational and evidence-based. Please avoid repeating information in the Results section.
Acknowledgments Please acknowledge anyone who contributed towards the article who does not meet the criteria for authorship including anyone who provided professional writing services or materials. Authors should obtain permission to acknowledge from all those mentioned in the Acknowledgements section.
Abbreviations Any abbreviations should be defined on first usage in the text. Use SI units only. However, some common names, such as GTP, RNA and PCR, may not be defined. All nomenclature, including gene names and symbols, should be used in a scientifically accurate manner following the nomenclature conventions adopted by the scientific community.
References The list of references should only include works that are cited in the text and that have been published or accepted for publication. Personal communications and unpublished works should only be mentioned in the text.
Each reference citation within the main body of the text should be indicated by a superscript Arabic number in square brackets. Authors are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of their references and correct citation in the text. Please pay particular attention to the content, year, volume, page and so on. Journal titles should be abbreviated in accordance with the Index Medicus (www.nlm.nih.gov). The names of all the authors are listed if three or fewer, followed by their initials, and, if there are more than three authors, only the first three authors are listed followed by et al. References published within the past five years are preferred. Do not cite uncompleted work or work that has not yet been accepted for publication as references. All references should be presented using the following format:
[1] Gamelin FX, Baquet G, Berthoin S, et al. Effect of high intensity intermittent training on heart rate variability in prepubescent children[J]. Eur J Appl Physiol, 2009, 105: 731-738. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-008-0955-8.
[2] Smith J, Jones M Jr, Houghton L, et al. Future of health insurance[J]. N Engl J Med, 1999, 965:325–329.
[3] Slifka MK, Whitton JL. Clinical implications of dysregulated cytokine production[J]. J Mol Med, 2001. https://doi.org/10.1007/s001090000086.
Book:
South J, Blass B. The future of modern genomics[M]. London: Blackwell, 2001.
Tables When preparing tables, please follow the formatting instructions below. Tables should be numbered and cited in the text in sequence using Arabic numerals (i.e. Table 1, Table 2 etc.). Tables less than one A4 or Letter page in length can be placed in the appropriate location within the manuscript. Tables larger than one A4 or Letter page in length can be placed at the end of the document text file. Please cite and indicate where the table should appear at the relevant location in the text file so that the table can be added in the correct place during production. Larger datasets, or tables too wide for A4 or Letter landscape page can be uploaded as additional files. Please see [below] for more information. Tabular data provided as additional files can be uploaded as an Excel spreadsheet (.xls) or comma separated values (.csv). Please use the standard file extensions. Table titles (max 15 words) should be included above the table, and legends (max 300 words) should be included underneath the table. Tables should not be embedded as figures or spreadsheet files, but should be formatted using ‘Table object’ function in your word processing program. Color and shading may not be used. Parts of the table can be highlighted using superscript, numbering, lettering, symbols or bold text, the meaning of which should be explained in a table legend. Commas should not be used to indicate numerical values.
Figures The figures should be practically self-explanatory and labeled professionally. Dimensional drawings and diagrams should include only the essential details with as little lettering as possible. The magnification for micrograph should be indicated by scale bars, inscriptions should be legible, and the symbols and letters should be consistent among the panels. Figures should be explained in the text, and should appear in the order cited. Each figure should be a single file. Photographs must be of the highest quality with good contrast. Color photographs are welcome. Photomicrographs should be cropped to show only the essential parts and an inset at higher magnification is usually more informative than a single large one. Scale bars (e.g., 1 mm) should be put inside the photomicrographs. For initial submission, JPG format is preferred. Adequate figure resolution is essential to a high-quality print of your paper. Raster line art should carry an absolute minimum resolution of 600 dpi, and for grey scale and color artworks, a minimum resolution of 300 dpi is required.
Figure legends The figure legends should start with a first sentence that provides key insight and then include additional sentences with key information. Legends should be included at the end of the manuscript text. Define all symbols and abbreviations used in the figure. Common abbreviations and others in the preceding text need not be redefined in the legend.
Supplemental materials Supplemental materials that are directly related to the conclusion are welcomed. However, unrelated data may be removed by editors. Depending on the nature of supplemental data, they can be in plain text, MS Word, MS Excel, JPEG, TIFF, and video. We encourage authors to submit supplemental documents in PDF format if applicable.
POTENTIAL CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
Authors are responsible for disclosing all financial and personal relationships that might bias their work. Authors should state explicitly whether potential conflicts do or do not exist in the manuscript on a conflict-of-interest notification page that follows the title page, providing additional detail, if necessary, in a cover letter that accompanies the manuscript.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
The Blood and Genomics accepts Letter to the Editor, which report original data or may discuss published articles. Submission requirements for Letter are the same as for regular manuscripts. Letter should be less than 2000 words in length, and cannot include more than 8 references and two figures (including tables). A single Figure or Table can be made but should contain no more than 8 separate panels labeled from (a) to (h). One panel may be composed of multiple figures with annotation around individual panels to make viewing easier. An abstract and subheadings should not be included in Letter. Letter to the Editor is subject to editing and possible abridgement. The number of references for Letter to the Editor should be no more than eight.
REPORTING CLINICAL TRIALS
Randomized controlled trials should be presented according to the CONSORT guidelines. At manuscript submission, authors must provide the CONSORT checklist accompanied by a flow diagram that illustrates the progress of patients through the trial, including recruitment, enrollment, randomization, withdrawal and completion, and a detailed description of the randomization procedure. The CONSORT checklist and template flow diagram can be found on http://www.consort-statement.org.
