ORGANIZATION AND FORMAT

Instructions to Authors (PDF)

Editorial Style

The editorial style of ASM journals conforms to the ASM Style Manual for Journals (American Society for Microbiology, 2019, in-house document [you may find the ASM Word List helpful]) and How To Write and Publish a Scientific Paper, 7th ed. (Greenwood, Santa Barbara, CA, 2011), as interpreted and modified by the editors and the ASM Journals Department.

The editors and the Journals Department reserve the privilege of editing manuscripts to conform with the stylistic conventions set forth in the aforesaid publications and in these Instructions.

On receipt at ASM, an accepted manuscript undergoes an automated preediting, cleanup, and tagging process specific to the particular article type. To optimize this process, manuscripts must be supplied at the revision stage in the correct format and with the appropriate sections and headings (for initial submissions, see the first paragraph of Submission, Review, and Publication Processes).

Type every portion of the manuscript double-spaced (a minimum of 6 mm between lines), including figure legends, table footnotes, and references, and number all pages in sequence, including the abstract, figure legends, and tables. Place the last two items after the References section. Manuscript pages should have line numbers. The font size should be no smaller than 12 points. It is recommended that the following sets of characters be easily distinguishable in the manuscript: the numeral zero (0) and the letter “oh” (O); the numeral one (1), the letter “el” (l), and the letter “eye” (I); and a multiplication sign and the letter “ex” (x). Do not create symbols as graphics or use special fonts that are external to your word processing program; use the “insert symbol” function. Set the page size to 8.5 by 11 inches (ca. 21.6 by 28 cm). Italicize any words that should appear in italics, and indicate paragraph lead-ins in boldface type. Authors who are unsure of proper English usage should have their manuscripts checked by someone proficient in the English language.

Manuscripts may be editorially rejected, without review, on the basis of poor English or lack of conformity to the standards set forth in these Instructions.

Article Word Count

mSystems article word counts are based on the article type. Research Articles, Resource Reports, and Methods and Protocols should be approximately 5,000 words maximum. Minireviews should be approximately 3,000 words maximum (with up to two figures or tables). Opinions/Hypotheses should be approximately 2,500 words maximum. Perspectives should be approximately 2,000 words maximum. Observations should be approximately 1,200 words maximum. Commentaries should be approximately 1,000 words maximum. Letters to the Editor and Replies should each be approximately 500 words maximum. Word counts do not include Materials and Methods, References, tables, or figure legends.

Authors will be asked to shorten overlong papers.

Supplemental Material

Authors should use discretion regarding supplemental material. Data that directly support the main conclusions of the manuscript should be part of the body of the manuscript to the greatest extent possible: both reviewers and readers prefer this practice.

Large or complex data sets or results that cannot readily be displayed in printed form because of space or technical limitations, such as data from gene expression, genomic, metagenomic, structural, proteomic, or video imaging analyses, can be included as supplemental material. In such cases, the manuscript submitted for review should include a distillation of the results so that the principal conclusions are fully supported without referral to the supplemental material.

Supplemental material can be posted by mSystems or, if authors prefer, can be submitted by the authors for posting by a third-party service such as Dryad, figshare, or a similar repository. In the latter case, the assigned accession number(s) must be included in the manuscript submitted for review.

Supplemental material will be peer reviewed along with the manuscript and must be uploaded to the eJournalPress (eJP) peer review system at initial manuscript submission. For initial submission, this material must be uploaded as a single PDF. At the modification stage, however, each item in the supplemental material must be submitted as a separate file; e.g., multiple figures and/or tables should not be zipped together or combined in a single PDF. Legends should not be included in the supplemental files; rather, they should appear at the end of the main manuscript text (see the next paragraph). ASM will post no more than 10 individual supplemental items. The maximum size permitted for an individual file is 3 MB (20 MB for movie and data set files).

To ensure broad access, we ask that supplemental files be submitted in the following standard formats.

  • Text: Word, RTF, or PDF files.
  • Figures: TIFF, EPS, PPT, high-resolution PDF, JPEG, or GIF format.
  • Tables: Word, RTF, or PDF files.
  • Data sets: Excel (.xls), RTF, TXT, or PDF files.
  • Movies: Audio Video Interleave (.avi), Quicktime (.mov), or MPEG files.

At the end of the manuscript text file, include a legend for each item in the supplemental material. If it is necessary to cite references that are relevant only to these supplemental legends, use the style described for “Citations in abstracts”; do not include these references in the References section of the manuscript. Supplemental material should be numbered with an “S” (e.g., Movie S1, Fig. S1, Fig. S2, etc.), and each item should be cited at least once in the text.

Supplemental material posted by mSystems will not be edited by the ASM Journals staff, and proofs will not be made available. Supplemental material posted by mSystems will always remain associated with the article and is not subject to any modifications after publication.

Material that has been published previously (in print or online) is not acceptable for posting as supplemental material. Instead, the appropriate reference(s) to the original publication should be made in the manuscript text.

Supplemental material is covered by the mSystems Author Warranty and Provisional License to Publish; copyright for supplemental material remains with the author. If you are not the copyright owner, you must provide to ASM signed permission from the owner that allows ASM to post the material as a supplement to your article. You are responsible for including in the supplemental material any copyright notices required by the owner.

For information about supplemental material posting fees, see “Publication Fees.”

Research Articles

Research Articles are limited to 5,000 words and should make fundamental contributions to our understanding in all areas of microbial research that use high-throughput and systems approaches. These articles should include the elements described in this section.

Title, running title, byline, affiliation line(s), and corresponding author. Each manuscript should present the results of an independent, cohesive study; thus, numbered series titles are not allowed. Avoid the main title/subtitle arrangement, complete sentences, and unnecessary articles. Indicate the specific organisms under study in the title or abstract as appropriate. On the title page, include the title, the running title (not to exceed 54 characters and spaces), the name of each author, all authors’ affiliations at the time the work was performed, the name(s) and e-mail address(es) of the corresponding author(s), and a footnote indicating the present address of any author no longer at the institution where the work was performed. Place a number sign (#) in the byline after the affiliation letter(s) of the author to whom inquiries regarding the paper should be addressed (see “Correspondent footnote”).

Indicate each author's affiliation with a superscript lowercase letter placed after the author's surname in the byline (separate multiple affiliation letters with commas but no space). Each affiliation should have its own line and its own superscript affiliation letter preceding it. Do not consolidate different departments at one institution into one address with a single affiliation letter, even if all affected authors belong to all of those departments. If more than one co-first author is designated, authors are required to state how the order of names was decided as an additional footnote on the title page.

Please review this sample title page for guidance.

Also include on the title page the word count for the abstract and the word count for the text (excluding the references, table footnotes, and figure legends).

Correspondent footnote. A single e-mail address for the corresponding author should be included on the title page of the manuscript. This information will be published with the article to facilitate communication, and the e-mail address will be used to notify the corresponding author of the availability of proofs and, later, of the PDF file of the published article.

Two-part abstract. Research Articles have structured abstracts consisting of two sections with their own headings: “Abstract” and “Importance.” Because the structured abstract will be published separately by abstracting services, it must be complete and understandable without reference to the text. Please refer to a sample structured abstract for guidance. For a discussion of how to evaluate the importance of a piece of research, see the essay by A. Casadevall and F. C. Fang (Important Science—It’s All About the SPIN, Infect Immun 77:4177–4180, 2009).

The Abstract section should be no more than 250 words and should concisely summarize the basic content of the paper without presenting extensive experimental details.

The Importance section should be no more than 150 words and should provide a nontechnical explanation of the significance of the study to the field. Avoid abbreviations and references, and indicate the specific organism under study. When it is essential to include a reference, use the format shown under “References” below (see the “Citations in abstracts” section).

Introduction. The introduction should supply sufficient background information to allow the reader to understand and evaluate the results of the present study without referring to previous publications on the topic. The introduction should also provide the hypothesis that was addressed or the rationale for the present study. Choose references carefully to provide the most salient background rather than an exhaustive review of the topic.

Results. In the Results section, include the rationale or design of the experiments as well as the results; reserve extensive interpretation of the results for the Discussion section. Present the results as concisely as possible in one or more of the following: text, table(s), or figure(s). Data in tables (e.g., cpm of radioactivity) should not contain more significant figures than the precision of the measurement allows. Illustrations (particularly photomicrographs and electron micrographs) should be limited to those that are absolutely necessary to show the experimental findings. Number figures and tables in the order in which they are cited in the text, and be sure to cite all figures and tables.

Discussion. The Discussion section should provide an interpretation of the results in relation to previously published work and to the experimental system at hand and should not contain extensive repetition of the Results section or reiteration of the introduction. In short papers, the Results and Discussion sections may be combined.

Materials and Methods. The Materials and Methods section should include sufficient technical information to allow the experiments to be repeated. When centrifugation conditions are critical, give enough information to enable another investigator to repeat the procedure: make of centrifuge, model of rotor, temperature, time at maximum speed, and centrifugal force (× g rather than revolutions per minute). For commonly used materials and methods (e.g., media and protein concentration determinations), a simple reference is sufficient. If several alternative methods are commonly used, it is helpful to identify the method briefly as well as to cite the reference. For example, it is preferable to state “cells were broken by ultrasonic treatment as previously described (9)” rather than to state “cells were broken as previously described (9).” This allows the reader to assess the method without constant reference to previous publications. Describe new methods completely and give sources of unusual chemicals, equipment, or microbial strains. When large numbers of microbial strains or mutants are used in a study, include tables identifying the immediate sources (i.e., sources from whom the strains were obtained) and properties of the strains, mutants, bacteriophages, and plasmids, etc.

A method or strain, etc., used in only one of several experiments reported in the paper may be described in the Results section or very briefly (one or two sentences) in a table footnote or figure legend. It is expected that the sources from whom the strains were obtained will be identified.

As noted on ASM Journals' Data Policy page under “mSystems open data policy,” a paragraph dedicated to new accession numbers for nucleotide and amino acid sequences, microarray data, protein structures, gene expression data, and MycoBank data should appear at the end of Materials and Methods with the paragraph lead-in "Data availability." Please also provide references (with URLs) for the accession numbers.

Acknowledgments. Statements regarding sources of direct financial support (e.g., grants, fellowships, and scholarships, etc.) should appear in the Acknowledgments. A funding statement indicating what role, if any, the funding agency had in your study (for example, “The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.”) may be included. Funding agencies may have specific wording requirements, and compliance with such requirements is the responsibility of the author. In cases in which research is not funded by any specific project grant, funders need not be listed, and the following statement may be used: “This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.” Statements regarding indirect financial support (e.g., commercial affiliations, consultancies, stock or equity interests, and patent-licensing arrangements) are also allowed. It is the responsibility of authors to provide a general statement disclosing financial or other relationships that are relevant to the study.

Recognition of personal assistance should be given as a separate paragraph, as should any statements disclaiming endorsement or approval of the views reflected in the paper or of a product mentioned therein.

In addition to acknowledging sources of financial support in the manuscript, authors should list any sources of funding in response to the Funding Sources question on the online submission form, providing relevant grant numbers where possible, and the authors associated with the specific funding sources. In the event that your submission is accepted, the funding source information provided in the submission form may be published, so please ensure that all information is entered accurately and completely. (It will be assumed that the absence of any information in the Funding Sources fields is a statement by the authors that no support was received.)

Authors may include a statement that specifies contributor roles as a separate paragraph in the Acknowledgments section. ASM encourages transparency in authorship by publishing author contribution statements using the CRediT taxonomy as recommended by CASRAI. For some manuscript types, authors have the option of assigning CRediT roles during the online submission process.

References. In the reference list, references are numbered in the order in which they are cited in the article (citation-sequence reference system). In the text, references are cited parenthetically by number in sequential order. Data that are not published or not peer reviewed are simply cited parenthetically in the text (see section ii below).

(i) References listed in the References section. The following types of references must be listed in the References section:

  • Journal articles (both print and online)
  • Books (both print and online)
  • Book chapters (publication title is required)
  • Patents and patent applications
  • Theses and dissertations
  • Published conference proceedings
  • Meeting abstracts, posters, and presentations
  • Letters (to the editor)
  • Company publications
  • In-press journal articles, books, and book chapters
  • Data sets
  • Code

Provide the names of all the authors and/or editors for each reference; long bylines should not be abbreviated with “et al.” All listed references must be cited in the text. Abbreviate journal names according to the PubMed Journals Database (National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health), the primary source for ASM style. Do not use periods with abbreviated words. The EndNote output style for ASM Journals’ current reference style can be found https://endnote.com/style_download/american-society-for-microbiology-asm-journals-2/; save it to your EndNote Styles folder (it should replace any earlier output styles for ASM journals [all ASM journals use the same reference style]). Note that DOIs are not needed for most references. ASM copy editors will automatically insert DOIs on all references in the CrossRef and PubMed databases during copyediting. URLs for government reports and other references not indexed in these databases should be provided if desired; URLs for citations of database accession numbers and code/software should be provided by you.

Follow the styles shown in the examples below.

  1. Caserta E, Haemig HAH, Manias DA, Tomsic J, Grundy FJ, Henkin TM, Dunny GM. 2012. In vivo and in vitro analyses of regulation of the pheromone-responsive prgQ promoter by the PrgX pheromone receptor protein. J Bacteriol 194:3386–3394.
  2. Johnson J, Robinson VR. 2016. Cleavage of JPS-1 in cells infected with human rhinovirus. mSystems 1: e00001-15.
  3. Winnick S, Lucas DO, Hartman AL, Toll D. 2005. How do you improve compliance? Pediatrics 115:e718–e724.
  4. Falagas ME, Kasiakou SK. 2006. Use of international units when dosing colistin will help decrease confusion related to various formulations of the drug around the world. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 50:2274–2275. (Letter.) {“Letter” or “Letter to the editor” is allowed but not required at the end of such an entry.}
  5. Cox CS, Brown BR, Smith JC. J Gen Genet, in press.* {Article title is optional; journal title is mandatory.}
  6. Forman MS, Valsamakis A. 2003. Specimen collection, transport, and processing: virology, p 1227–1241. In Murray PR, Baron EJ, Pfaller MA, Jorgensen JH, Yolken RH (ed), Manual of clinical microbiology, 8th ed. ASM Press, Washington, DC.
  7. da Costa MS, Nobre MF, Rainey FA. 2001. Genus I. Thermus Brock and Freeze 1969, 295,AL emend. Nobre, Trüper and da Costa 1996b, 605, p 404–414. In Boone DR, Castenholz RW, Garrity GM (ed), Bergey’s manual of systematic bacteriology, 2nd ed, vol 1. Springer, New York, NY.
  8. Fitzgerald G, Shaw D. In Waters AE (ed), Clinical microbiology, in press. EFH Publishing Co, Boston, MA.* {Chapter title is optional.}
  9. Green PN, Hood D, Dow CS. 1984. Taxonomic status of some methylotrophic bacteria, p 251–254. In Crawford RL, Hanson RS (ed), Microbial growth on C1 compounds. Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium. American Society for Microbiology, Washington, DC.
  10. Rotimi VO, Salako NO, Mohaddas EM, Philip LP. 2005. Abstr 45th Intersci Conf Antimicrob Agents Chemother, abstr D-1658. {Abstract title is optional.}
  11. Smith D, Johnson C, Maier M, Maurer JJ. 2005. Distribution of fimbrial, phage and plasmid associated virulence genes among poultry Salmonella enterica serovars, abstr P-038, p 445. Abstr 105th Gen Meet Am Soc Microbiol. American Society for Microbiology, Washington, DC. {Abstract title is optional.}
  12. Garcia CO, Paira P, Burgos R, Molina J, Molina JF, Calvo C. 1996. Detection of salmonella DNA in synovial membrane and synovial fluid from Latin American patients. Arthritis Rheum 39(Suppl):S185. {Meeting abstract published in journal supplement.}
  13. O’Malley DR. 1998. PhD thesis. University of California, Los Angeles, CA. {Title is optional.}
  14. Stratagene. 2006. Yeast DNA isolation system: instruction manual. Stratagene, La Jolla, CA. {Use the company name as the author if none is provided for a company publication.}
  15. Odell JC. April 1970. Process for batch culturing. US patent 484,363,770. {Include the name of the patented item/ process if possible; the patent number is mandatory.}
  16. Harrison F, Roberts AEL, Gabrilska R, Rumbaugh KP, Lee C, Diggle SP. 2015. A 1,000-year-old antimicrobial remedy with antistaphylococcal activity. mBio 6:e01129-15. {Original article that describes how data submitted to a database were generated.}
  17. Harrison F, Roberts AEL, Gabrilska R, Rumbaugh KP, Lee C, Diggle SP. 2015. Data from "A 1,000-year-old antimicrobial remedy with antistaphylococcal activity." Dryad Digital Repository https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.mn17p. {Citation for the database where the data in the previous reference were deposited; the URL is necessary.}
  18. Wang Y, Rozen D. 2016. Colonization and transmission of the gut microbiota of the burying beetle, Nicrophorus vespilloides, through development. bioRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/091702.

*A reference to an in-press ASM publication should state the control number (e.g., mSystems00001-19) if it is a journal article or the name of the publication if it is a book.

In some online journal articles, posting or revision dates may serve as the year of publication; a DOI (preferred) or URL is required for articles with nontraditional page numbers or electronic article identifiers.

Magalon A, Mendel RR. 15 June 2015, posting date. Biosynthesis and insertion of the molybdenum cofactor. EcoSal Plus 2015 https://doi.org/10.1128/ecosalplus.ESP-0006-2013.

Note: a posting or accession date is required for any online reference that is periodically updated or changed.

Citations of accepted ASM manuscripts (articles from other, issue-based ASM journals that are published ahead of the issue) should look like the following example.

Wang GG, Pasillas MP, Kamps MP. 15 May 2006. Persistent transactivation by Meis1 replaces Hox function in myeloid leukemogenesis models: evidence for cooccupancy of Meis1-Pbx and Hox-Pbx complexes on promoters of leukemia-associated genes. Mol Cell Biol https://doi.org/10.1128/MCB.00586-06.

Other journals may use different styles for their publish-ahead-of-print manuscripts, but citation entries must include the following information: author name(s), posting date, title, journal title, and volume and page numbers and/or DOI. The following is an example:

Zhou FX, Merianos HJ, Brunger AT, Engelman DM. 13 February 2001, posting date. Polar residues drive association of polyleucine transmembrane helices. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.041593698.

To encourage data sharing and reuse, ASM recommends reporting data sets and/or code both in a dedicated “Data availability” paragraph and in References. The components of a complete data citation include the following:

  • Responsible party (senior author, collector, agency),
  • Publication year,
  • Complete name of a data set, including the name of the database or repository and its URL, or the name of the analysis software (if appropriate), including the version and project,
  • Publisher (if appropriate), and
  • Persistent unique identifier(s) (e.g., URL[s] or accession number[s]).

The following templates may be helpful.

Author. Year. Description of study topic. Retrieved from Database URL (accession no. ••••••). {Unpublished raw data.}
Author. Year. Description or title of software (version). Repository URL. Retrieved day month year. {Software or code.}

Examples follow.

Christian SL, McDonough J, Liu C-Y, Shaikh S, Vlamakis V, Badner JA, Chakravarti A, Gershon ES. 2002. Data from “An evaluation of the assembly of an approximately 15-Mb region on human chromosome 13q32-q33 linked to bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.” GenBank https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/AF339794 (accession no. AF339794). {Accession number.}
Sun Z. 2013. Reprocessed: in-depth membrane proteomic study of breast cancer tissues. ProteomeXchange http://proteomecentral.proteomexchange.org/cgi/GetDataset?ID=RPXD000665 (accession number requested). {Unassigned accession number.}
Hogle S. 2015. Supplemental material for Hogle et al. 2015 mBio. figshare https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1533034.v1. Retrieved 16 March 2017. {Code and/or software.}
Nesbitt HK, Moore JW. 2016. Data from “Species and population diversity in Pacific salmon fisheries underpin indigenous food security.” Dryad Digital Repository https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.ng8pf. {Data set in repository.}

Manuscript submissions that have appeared in preprint archives should cite the preprint in References, and the fact that a paper has appeared online before should be mentioned parenthetically at the end of the introductory section: (This article was submitted to an online preprint archive [1].) The reference should take the form noted above in reference 18.

(ii) References cited in the text. References that should be cited in the text include the following:

  • Unpublished data
  • Manuscripts submitted for publication
  • Personal communications
  • Websites

These references should be made parenthetically in the text as follows:

. . . similar results (R. B. Layton and C. C. Weathers, unpublished data).
. . . system was used (J. L. McInerney, A. F. Holden, and P. N. Brighton, submitted for publication).
. . . as described previously (M. G. Gordon and F. L. Rattner, presented at the Fourth Symposium on Food Microbiology, Overton, IL, 13 to 15 June 1989). {For nonpublished abstracts and posters, etc.}
. . . this new process (V. R. Smoll, 20 June 1999, Australian Patent Office). {For non-U.S. patent applications, give the date of publication of the application.}
. . . as suggested by the World Health Organization (https://www.who.int/campaigns/immunization-week/2017/en/).

URLs for companies that produce any of the products mentioned in your study or for products being sold may not be included in the article. However, company URLs that permit access to scientific data related to the study or to shareware used in the study are permitted.

(iii) Citations in abstracts. Because the abstract must be able to stand apart from the article, references cited in it should be clear without recourse to the References section. Use an abbreviated form of citation, omitting the article title, as follows.

(P. S. Satheshkumar, A. S. Weisberg, and B. Moss, J Virol 87:10700–10709, 2013, https://doi.org/10.1128/JVI.01258-13)

(J. H. Coggin, Jr., p. 93–114, in D. O. Fleming and D. L. Hunt, ed., Biological Safety. Principles and Practices, 4th ed., 2006)

“... in a recent report by D. A. Hopwood (mBio 4:e00612-13, 2013, https://doi.org/10.1128/mBio.00612-13) . . . .”

This style should also be used for Addenda in Proof.

(iv) References related to supplemental material. If references must be cited in the supplemental material, list them in a separate References section within the supplemental material and cite them by those numbers; do not simply include citations of numbers from the reference list of the associated article. If the same reference(s) is to be cited in both the article itself and the supplemental material, then that reference would be listed in both References sections.

Resource Reports

Resource Reports (5,000 word limit) describe major technical advances and/or major informational databases that would be of interest in microbiology or allied fields. The manuscripts should include detailed methods and illustration of proof of principle so that the new methodology can be replicated and/or utilized by others. Resource Reports follow the same formatting guidelines as Research Articles.

Methods and Protocols

Methods and Protocols (5,000 word limit) describe major technical and methodological developments in systems biology. These can be bioinformatic or laboratory techniques or any protocols that practically advance the field of systems microbiology. The description of each method or protocol must include validation of, or application to, a relevant and important question in microbial cell biology or ecology and provide results demonstrating its performance in comparison to existing state-of-the-art techniques. Articles will be selected on the basis of importance to the field, methodological performance, and detailed description to enable application to the field immediately. Methods and Protocols follow the same formatting guidelines as Research Articles.

Observations

Observations are short descriptions (maximum 1,200 words with a maximum of 2 figures and 25 references) of research results of exceptional importance and unusual interest to the broad microbiology community, e.g., reports of a new type of organism, a new organelle, a new association of microbes and disease, etc.

The body of an Observation may have paragraph lead-ins. As with Research Articles, authors should include an abstract of 250 words or fewer as well as an Importance section of 150 words or fewer, providing a nontechnical explanation of why the work was undertaken.

Minireviews

Minireviews are brief (maximum 3,000 words with a maximum of 2 figures or tables) summaries of important developments in microbiology research. They must be based on published articles and may address any subject within the scope of the journal.

Minireviews must have abstracts. Limit the abstract to 250 words or fewer. The body of the Minireview may have section headings and/or paragraph lead-ins.

Opinions/Hypotheses

Opinions/Hypotheses are short articles (maximum 2,500 words with a maximum of 25 references) that present original and well-developed insights without complete supporting data. Although microbiology and allied fields are primarily experimental sciences, this article type places equal importance on new thought that is formulated in a manner that summarizes a problem, provides a new synthesis, and/or is suitable for subsequent experimental testing.

In this category, the journal provides a highly visible venue for the publication of ideas that have the potential to move fields and to challenge the status quo.

Authors should provide an abstract of 150 words or fewer. The body of an Opinion/Hypothesis article may have section headings and/or paragraph lead-ins.

Commentaries

Commentaries are short invited articles (maximum 1,000 words) that discuss mSystems papers or issues of special interest. These are solicited by editors from reviewers or experts in the field.

Authors should provide an abstract of 150 words or fewer. The body of a Commentary may have section headings and/or paragraph lead-ins.

Perspectives

Perspectives are brief reviews (maximum 2,000 words) that offer a succinct overview of a specific topic with an emphasis on opinion and synthesis.

Authors should provide an abstract of 150 words or fewer. The body of a Perspectives article may have section headings and/or paragraph lead-ins.

Editorials

Editorials (maximum 500 words) communicated by members of the mSystems Board of Editors address issues of science, politics, or policy.

Editorials should include an abstract of 150 words or fewer.

Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor are intended for comments on articles published in the journal and must cite published references to support the writer’s argument. Letters may be no more than 500 words long and must be typed double-spaced.

All Letters to the Editor must be submitted electronically. The cover letter should refer to the article in question by its title and the last name of the first author. In addition, the volume and issue and/or DOI should be indicated. Letters to the Editor do not have abstracts. The Letter must have a distinct title, which must appear on the manuscript and on the submission form. Figures and tables should be kept to a minimum.

The Letter will be sent to the editor who handled the article in question. If the editor believes that publication is warranted, he/she will solicit a reply from the corresponding author of the article and make a recommendation to the editor in chief. Final approval for publication rests with the editor in chief.

Please note that some indexing/abstracting services do not include Letters to the Editor in their databases.