Instruction for authors has been substantially revised in July 2023.

updated on 2024.5.10

updated on 2024.5.13

1. Scope
2. Editorial policies
3. Publication type
4. Submission system
5. Cover letter
6. Guidance for preparation of manuscripts
7. Data sharing policy
8. Informed consent policy
9. Author contribution
10. Conflict of interests
11. Submission of the revised manuscript
12. Guidance for complete acceptance
13. Proofreading
14. Publication cost
15. Copyright
16. Press release
17. Correction and retraction
18. Editorial office and editor contact information

1. Scope

Cytologia will publish original and review articles in the field of cell science and genetics, including cytology, cytogenetics and cell biology, on a wide range of organisms using a variety of research methods, including imaging, microscopic techniques, molecular cell biological techniques and bioinformatics analyses.

2. Editorial policies

(a) Editorial Manager

All the editorial processes for Cytologia are performed using Editorial Manager®. This system, which was adopted by the Japan Science and Technology Agency, is capable of rapid editing and publishing, in addition to enabling a smooth submission process, and it offers a polite and friendly review process on a universal platform.

(b) Ethics

Cytologia only publishes articles in which the experimental data have been performed in compliance with the appropriate laws and regulations and in accordance with scientific ethics. If the Editor suspects a violation of a law or fraud in the manuscript during the review process, then the Editor will contact the corresponding author. If the response is not satisfactory, then the Editor reserves the right to withdraw the manuscript from publication. Additionally, if any irregularities are revealed after publication, then the Editor reserves the right to withdraw a paper after confirming with the corresponding author.

Authors should respond to the following questions in the submission system:

(i) Does your manuscript include any research misconduct? For example, fabrication or falsification of data, plagiarism, problematic data presentation or analysis, inappropriate claims of authorship, duplicate publication, or overlapping data with another publication.

(ii) If your article includes human or animal research, have you read and followed the policies of the Declaration of Helsinki.

(c) Respect for diversity, equity, and inclusiveness
Cytologia contributes to improving diversity, equity, and inclusiveness. Cytologia also promotes diversity, including the geography, ethnicity, gender, and career stage of authors, reviewers, editors, editorial advisory boards, and readers.

3. Publication type

Cytologia publishes the following five types of manuscript: Regular Article, Short Communication, Karyotype Report, Focus, and Technical Note.

(a) Regular Article

Regular articles describe novel and original work within ten printed pages. If articles exceed ten printed pages, then overage fees will be charged. See Publication cost. The authors should arrange the manuscript in the following sequence from (1) to (8):

(1) Title page
(2) Text comprising the Introduction, Materials and methods, Results, and Discussion
(3) Author contributions
(4) Acknowledgments
(5) References
(6) Tables
(7) Figures with Figure legends
(8) Supplementary information

(b) Short Communication

Short Communications describe novel and original work within four printed pages. If it exceeds four printed pages, then overage fees will be charged. See Publication cost. The authors should arrange the manuscript in the following sequence from (1) to (8):

(1) Title page
(2) Text comprising the Introduction, Materials and methods, Results, and Discussion
(3) Author contributions
(4) Acknowledgments
(5) References
(6) Tables
(7) Figures with Figure legends
(8) Supplementary information

(c) Karyotype Report

Karyotype Reports describe novel and original work on karyotypes within four printed pages. These reports include the description of karyotypes of a species, ecotypes and mutants, and abnormalities of chromosomes by the chemical or radioactive effect and the disease. The toxic effect of the extracts and chemicals on chromosomes and cell division using Allium cepa should be submitted to Karyotype Report. If articles exceed four printed pages, then overage fees will be charged. See Publication cost. The authors should arrange the manuscript in the following sequence from (1) to (8):

(1) Title page
(2) Text comprising the Introduction, Materials and methods, Results, and Discussion
(3) Author contributions
(4) Acknowledgments
(5) References
(6) Tables
(7) Figures with Figure legends
(8) Supplementary information

(d) Focus

Focus articles are mini-reviews that highlight recent findings, new concepts, or an overview of Cytologia articles. An article may have only one figure. The authors should arrange the manuscript in the following sequence from (1) to (5):

(1) Title page
(2) Text (maximum 4,000 words including spaces)
(3) Acknowledgments
(4) References
(5) Figure with Figure legend

(e) Technical Note

Technical Note aim to introduce new techniques and findings with a cover color photo. Please refer to the Cytologia Cover Photo Gallery. Generally, an editor will invite an author to contribute to this type of manuscript; however, submissions by authors will also be considered. Authors describing novel topics, including techniques, and having an impressive figure, are encouraged to contact the editorial office. The sections of a Technical Note should be arranged in the following sequence:

(1) Title page
(2) Text, including acknowledgments and references (less than 1,000 words, including spaces)
(3) A color figure as a cover photo.

4. Submission system

Manuscripts should be submitted online using the Editorial System for Cytologia.

Prior to submission, we recommend that the author obtain an ORCID ID. It is important that the submitted manuscript be written in grammatically correct English, and the editors strongly recommend that articles be checked by an English editorial service or a colleague who is a native English speaker. Manuscripts should be submitted in a complete and finished form.

(a) All manuscripts should be submitted through the Editorial System for Cytologia.

(b) Upon registration, please respond to all the questions during the submission process.

(c) Please suggest potential reviewers for your submission to speed up the selection of appropriate reviewers.

(d) Upload files as “Submission file”.

(i) Item “*Manuscript”: Manuscript file, including all the tables and figures in an MS Word file (.doc or .docx). Please turn “Track Changes” off. This file will be converted by the editorial system to a PDF file for the peer reviewers. Manuscripts must contain a title page, manuscript, tables, and figures. Please check that the PDF file built by the editorial system is complete and contains all the relevant information. Next, upload tables and figures as “Table”, “Figure” or “Color figure” for printing.

(ii) Item “Table”: Tables can be uploaded as MS Word (.doc or .docx) or Excel (.xls or .xlsx) files.

(iii) Item “Figure” and “Color figure”: Figure files can be uploaded in the JPG, TIFF, EPS, PPT or PSD format. Upload regular figures as Item “Figure” and upload figures that need to be printed in color as Item “Color figure”.

(iv) Item “Supplement”: Supplementary data should be uploaded here. Supplementary files are not printed but are supplied through the Cytologia website.

5. Cover letter

The cover letter allows the author to emphasize the importance of the manuscript and explain why it is appropriate for Cytologia. The authors should also provide statements that address any conflicts of interest. Any preprint publication(s) with the URL(s) and a declaration that no related work is in press or submitted elsewhere should also be included.

6. Guidance for manuscript preparation (Revised on July 21st, 2023)

(a) Manuscripts must be written in US English and prepared using MS Word. It is preferable to use a normal, plain font (e.g., 11-point Times New Roman) and 20-point line spacing or double-spaced lines on A4-size pages with 3-cm margins. Page numbers and continuous line numbers should be used throughout the manuscript. Before submission, the “Track Changes” function should be turned off.

(b) Sections should be arranged in the following sequence: (1) Title page, (2) Summary, (3) Keywords, (4) Text comprising the Introduction, Materials and methods, Results and Discussion (for Technical Note and Cytologia Focus papers, the text does not need sectioning), (5) Author contributions (If there are more than two authors, the contribution of each author to the manuscript should be clearly stated.), (6) Acknowledgments, (7) References, (8) Tables, (9) Figures with Figure legends.

(1) Title page
The title page should consist of the following: (a) the title of the article, (b) the full names of all the authors; (c) author affiliations with appropriate addresses. When there are multiple authors, a superscript asterisk should be added to the end of the name of the corresponding author. Authors from different institutions should be identified using a numerical superscript after their name and before their affiliation; (d) footnotes containing the e-mail addresses of the corresponding authors (if any) and their current addresses; (e) the numbers of tables, figures and color figures; and (f) a running title of less than 80 characters (including spaces). (g) If the manuscript has already been opened as a preprint in a server, including bioRxiv and ASAPbio, you should include the URL of the preprint repository.

(2) Summary
The summary should state the scope of the work and the principal findings in no more than 250 words. References, footnotes, and undefined abbreviations should not be included. Do not include detailed numbers of experimental results and conditions.

(3) Keywords
Keywords [not more than six (6) words or phrases] should be provided after the summary.

(4) Text
The text should be clear and concise under the following headings: Introduction, Materials and methods, Results, and Discussion. These should be followed (in order) by Author  contributions, Acknowledgments, References, Tables, Figures with Figure legends.

(a) Units
Units of measurement should be in SI (Système International d’Unités) form.

(b) Citations and references
In-text citations should include the authors’ names (for three or more authors, use et al.) followed by the year of publication (e.g., Kuroiwa et al. 1981).

Examples:
At the beginning of a sentence: Darlington and Wylie (1955) reported.
If there are more than three authors: Kuroiwa et al. (1981a) indicated.
At the end of a sentence: (Darlington and Wylie 1955; Kuroiwa et al. 1981a; Kuroiwa 1989).
References should be arranged alphabetically on the basis of the first author’s family name. A reference with more than 20 authors should be written as the first author’s family name followed by et al. Each reference should be given in the following form:

Book:

• Darlington, C. D. and Wylie, A. P. 1955. Chromosome Atlas of Flowering Plants. Allen and Unwin Ltd., London.

Book chapter:

• Bennett, M. D. 1983. The spatial distribution of chromosomes. In: Brandham, P. E. and Bennett, M. D. (eds.). Kew Chromosome Conference II. Allen and Urwin Ltd., London. pp. 71–90.

Journal articles:
The abbreviations of journal names should follow the style used for Journals in the NCBI Databases.

• Kuroiwa, T., Nishibayashi, S., Kawano, S., and Suzuki, S. 1981a. Visualization of DNA in various phages (T4, X, T7, ø29) by ethidium bromide epi-fluorescent microscopy. Experientia 37: 969–971.
• Kuroiwa, T., Suzuki, S., Ogawa, K., and Kawano, S. 1981b. The chloroplast nucleus: distribution, number, size and shape, and a model for the multiplication of the chloroplast genome during chloroplast development. Plant Cell Physiol. 22: 381–396.

Non-English references:
References in languages other than English, German, Spanish and French must be translated into English followed by the original language in parenthesis:

• Ota, S. and Kawano, S. 2017. Chlorella biomaterials: phosphate, starch, oil and possible involvement of autophagy. Plant Morphol. 29: 57–61. (in Japanese)

Theses, dissertations, proceedings:
Academic theses, dissertations, or conference proceedings cannot be used as a reference..

Websites:
Direct quotations from websites are not acceptable.

(c) Table
Each table should be provided on a separate sheet and presented after the references. Tables should be provided with headings on the same page. Vertical lines should not be used in tables.

(d) Figure
Each figure illustration or image should be prepared at a high resolution using at least 300 dpi for print (Full width = 2008 pixels and half-width = 945 pixels) in JPG, TIF, EPS, PSD, or PPT format. Never use an MS Word file (.doc or .docx). The magnifications of figures must be indicated by scale bars within the images. Use Arial or Helvetica fonts for all figures. Do not use the Times or Times New Roman fonts. Lettering should be large enough to permit reduction during printing. Color figures can be included provided that the author pays the additional cost (see section Publication cost). Color figure files should be uploaded as Item “Color figure”.

(e) Supplementary materials
If the authors wish to publish data beyond that included in the printed six (60 pages, then they may submit a supplementary file, including figures, tables, and text, as a single combined PDF document. The top page of the PDF document should have the same content as the original title page of the main manuscript, including the following: (i) the title of the article, (ii) the full names of all the authors, (iii) affiliations with appropriate addresses, (iv) footnotes containing the e-mail addresses of the corresponding authors (if any) and their current addresses.

7. Data sharing policy

Data sharing allows validation and reproducibility of experimental data and research data preservation. Cytologia recommends authors make all data necessary to replicate the results publicly available when the paper is published in Cytologia. Thus, Cytologia strongly recommends that all data be deposited in appropriate public data repositories. If authors refuse data access and exhibition of experimental data after publication, the editorial office in Cytologia will require the correction, contact the head of authors’ institutions or retract the publication.

8. Informed consent policy

Cytologia generally does not permit the publication of articles containing data that identify or biologically characterize the human subjects studied. We will only allow such information if it is essential for the publication of the article and if the authors have given their informed consent in writing.　Images of pathological cells, chromosomes, etc. of specific individuals should certainly be consented to by the author.　In such cases, confidentiality and the individual’s wishes must also be respected. In addition, when images are reused from a prior publication, the author is responsible for obtaining consent from the publisher of the prior publication and attribution must be made before using the image in the article.

9. Author contributions

All the authors must have made significant and substantial contributions to the manuscript. These contributions can include conceptualization, work design, methodology, investigation, performing experiments, data analysis, and drafting and revising the manuscript. The manuscript must be submitted with the agreement of all the authors. All the authors should give their approval of the revised and final versions. Alterations to the author’s list, including a change of author order and the addition of new authors, must be agreed upon by all the authors.

10. Conflict of interests

If authors have conflicts of interest or financial interests including employment, consultancies, or patent-licensing issues, then these relationships or interests should disclosed in the Acknowledgments section.

11. Submission of the revised manuscript

When the Editor decides the manuscript requires a “Major revision” or “Minor revision” after the peer review, the authors should begin revising the manuscript. The authors should finish the revisions in accordance with the reviewer’s suggestions and submit the revised manuscript. The authors should highlight all revised words or sentences in red and mention the revised Figures and Tables in the accompanying Cover letter.
Moreover, the authors must enter point-by-point responses to each reviewer’s suggestion in Editorial Manager.

12. Guidance for complete acceptance

13. Proofreading

A proof is sent only once to the corresponding author. Proofreading should be limited to the correction of typographical errors. Any setting costs incurred by excess changes will be charged to the author.

14. Publication cost

Cytologia uses an advanced payment system for the publication of accepted manuscripts. If the authors do not pay the publication cost in advance, then the manuscript itself will not be rejected, but the accepted manuscript will not proceed to publication.

(a) Publication fee

The authors pay the following fee for publishing the manuscript. (Revised on July 21st, 2023. The new rates are effective for submissions made on or after August 1st, 2023.)

(b) Page charge

No page charge is published within the above mentioned printed-page limit. If the number of printed pages exceeds the limit, then the excess pages are subject to the page charge. The author is required to pay 5,000 yen per additional page. Changes made at the proofreading stage, except for the correction of typographical errors, are charged to the author.

(c) Color charge

If the manuscript contains one or more color illustrations and/or figures in the printed pages, then a color fee of 20,000 yen for each color page will be charged to the author.

(d) Reprint

Reprints provide authors with a means of obtaining a wider distribution for their work. A reprint order request must be sent together with the proof to the editorial office. It must be received before the journal edition goes to press. Consequently, we advise that you not delay ordering your reprints.

Delivery and invoices: Reprints are normally shipped 3 weeks after publication of the journal edition. Invoices are emailed to the author before shipment. If orders are being charged to an institution, then an official purchase order must be provided before the reprint shipment can be released.

The prices in yen quoted here are for reprints ordered, and paid for, by the author, or by a sponsoring non-profit organization, and only apply if orders are in our possession before the journal edition goes to press. There is a minimum order of 20 copies; quantities greater than 50 copies will be charged for in multiples of 50 copies.

(e) Payment method

Authors should pay the publication fee, page charge and color charge in advance. After the manuscript has been accepted, the editorial office will inform the corresponding author regarding the payment method.

(f) Charge priority for a member of The Japan Mendel Society

If the first author or the corresponding author is a member of The Japan Mendel Society, then publication fees will not be charged for up to two manuscripts per year per person. If you are interested in becoming a member of The Japan Mendel Society, then please see Journal Information.

15. Copyright

The copyright of all content in Cytologia is held by the Japan Mendel Society.

16. Press release

When the authors have a plan to do the press releases based on articles in Cytologia, please contact the editorial office. The office will inform the embargo of your article.

17. Correction and retraction

If corrections or withdrawals occur after publication of a paper, the corresponding author must immediately notify the editorial office with reasons and explanations. Frequent corrections may result in additional charges to the corresponding author.

When an external organization or researcher raises questions about a published article, an investigation committee consisting of the editors and the editorial advisory boards will be immediately set up to conduct a verification process. If the results of the review determine that the article is fraudulent or contains data errors, a deadline will be set to request an explanation and response from the corresponding author. If the response is deemed to be scientifically reasonable, a correction will be allowed. If the response is insufficient, the Editorial-in-Chief will withdraw the paper.

18. Contact information

If you have questions about a manuscript you have submitted to Cytologia, then please contact the Editorial-in-Chief:

Prof. Masahiro HIZUME
Editor-in-Chief
Cytologia
e-mail: ISC-Mendel-Cytologia@edu.k.u-tokyo.ac.jp