Instructions for Journal of Cheminformatics authors

Preliminary communication articles

Preliminary communication articles are intended for brief reports of findings.

Manuscript sections for Preliminary communication articles

Manuscripts for Preliminary communication articles submitted to Journal of Cheminformatics should be divided into the following sections:

• Title page
• Text abstract
• Findings
• Competing interests
• References
• Figure legends (if any) - see Figure legends section in main document
• Tables and captions (if any) - see Tables section in main document
• Description of additional data files (if any) - see Additional files section in main document
• Graphical abstract

Title page

This should list the title of the article, which should provide an accurate, clear and concise description of the reported work, avoiding abbreviations; and the full names, institutional addresses, and e-mail addresses for all authors. The corresponding author should also be indicated.

Text abstract

This should not exceed 350 words and should consist of a single section.

Findings

This should be a brief statement of the work and findings of not more than 1,500 words in a single section.

Description of Additional material

A wide range of technical formats is supported. These include formats that allow for the use of colour illustrations, rotatable molecular models, animations and videos. If additional files are provided each should be described in this section of the manuscript, providing the following information:

• file name
• file format (including name and URL link of appropriate viewer if format is unusual)
• title of this dataset
• description of this dataset.

Additional data files may be referenced generically within the body of the article. e.g. "See additional data file 1 for the original data used to perform this analysis".

Graphical Abstract

A graphical abstract must be supplied which, together with the article title, should provide the reader with a summary visual description of the type of chemistry covered in the article.

List of abbreviations

If abbreviations are used in the text, either they should be defined in the text where first used, or a list of abbreviations can be provided, which should precede the competing interests and authors' contributions.

Competing interests

A competing interest exists when your interpretation of data or presentation of information may be influenced by your personal or financial relationship with other people or organizations. Authors should disclose any financial competing interests but also any non-financial competing interests that may cause them embarrassment were they to become public after the publication of the manuscript.

Authors are required to complete a declaration of competing interests. All competing interests that are declared will be listed at the end of published articles. Where an author gives no competing interests, the listing will read 'The author(s) declare that they have no competing interests'.

When completing your declaration, please consider the following questions:

Financial competing interests

• In the past five years have you received reimbursements, fees, funding, or salary from an organization that may in any way gain or lose financially from the publication of this manuscript, either now or in the future? Is such an organization financing this manuscript (including the article-processing charge)? If so, please specify.
• Do you hold any stocks or shares in an organization that may in any way gain or lose financially from the publication of this manuscript, either now or in the future? If so, please specify.
• Do you hold or are you currently applying for any patents relating to the content of the manuscript? Have you received reimbursements, fees, funding, or salary from an organization that holds or has applied for patents relating to the content of the manuscript? If so, please specify.
• Do you have any other financial competing interests? If so, please specify.

Non-financial competing interests

Are there any non-financial competing interests (political, personal, religious, ideological, academic, intellectual, commercial or any other) to declare in relation to this manuscript? If so, please specify.

If you are unsure as to whether you or one of your co-authors has a competing interest, please discuss it with the editorial office.

Authors' contributions

In order to give appropriate credit to each author of a paper, the individual contributions of authors to the manuscript should be specified in this section.

An "author" is generally considered to be someone who has made substantive intellectual contributions to a published study. To qualify as an author one should 1) have made substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; 2) have been involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and 3) have given final approval of the version to be published. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content. Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group, alone, does not justify authorship.

We suggest the following kind of format (please use initials to refer to each author's contribution): AB carried out the molecular genetic studies, participated in the sequence alignment and drafted the manuscript. JY carried out the immunoassays. MT participated in the sequence alignment. ES participated in the design of the study and performed the statistical analysis. FG conceived of the study, and participated in its design and coordination and helped to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance, or a department chair who provided only general support.

Authors' information

You may choose to use this section to include any relevant information about the author(s) that may aid the reader’s interpretation of the article, and understand the standpoint of the author(s). This may include details about the authors' qualifications, current positions they hold at institutions or societies, or any other relevant background information. Please refer to authors using their initials. Note this section should not be used to describe any competing interests.

Acknowledgements

Please acknowledge anyone who contributed towards the study by making substantial contributions to conception, design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data, or who was involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content, but who does not meet the criteria for authorship. Please also include their source(s) of funding. Please also acknowledge anyone who contributed materials essential for the study.

Authors should obtain permission to acknowledge from all those mentioned in the Acknowledgements.

Please list the source(s) of funding for the study, for each author, and for the manuscript preparation in the acknowledgements section. Authors must describe the role of the funding body, if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; and in the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

References

All references must be numbered consecutively, in the order in which they are cited in the text, followed by any in tables or legends. Reference citations should not appear in titles or headings. Each reference must have an individual reference number. A complete list should then be provided at the end of the article. The references should be presented in a style consistent with the ACS Style Guide and must not contain any form of note or comment. Footnotes may not be included, whether in the reference list or elsewhere. If automatic numbering systems are used, the reference numbers must be finalized and the bibliography must be fully formatted before submission.

Examples of the Journal of Cheminformatics reference style are shown below. Please take care to follow the reference style precisely; references not in the correct style may be retyped, necessitating tedious proofreading.

Links

Web links and URLs should be included in the reference list. They should be provided in full, including both the title of the site and the URL, in the following format: Molecular Informatics: Confronting Complexity, Proceedings of the Beilstein-Institut Workshop, May 13th-16th, 2002, Bozen, Italy [http://www.beilstein-institut.de/bozen2002/proceedings]

Journal of Cheminformatics reference style

Article within a journal

1. Koonin EV, Altschul SF, Bork P: BRCA1 protein products: functional motifs. Nat Genet 1996, 13:266-267.

Article within a journal supplement

2. Orengo CA, Bray JE, Hubbard T, LoConte L, Sillitoe I: Analysis and assessment of ab initio three-dimensional prediction, secondary structure, and contacts prediction. Proteins 1999, 43(Suppl 3):149-170.

In press article

3. Betson MS, Clayden J, Helliwell M, Mitjans D: Org Biomol Chem, in press.

Published abstract

4. Clayden, J, Collington EW, Warren S: Kinetic resolution of d-hydroxy allylic phosphine oxides: a stereocontrolled route to allylically functionalised systems [abstract]. Phosphorus Sulfur Silicon 1993, 77:187.

Article within conference proceedings

5. Jones X: Zeolites and synthetic mechanisms. In Proceedings of the First National Conference on Porous Sieves: 27-30 June 1996; Baltimore. Edited by Smith Y. Stoneham: Butterworth-Heinemann; 1996:16-27.

Book chapter, or article within a book

6. Yus M: Arene-catalyzed lithiation. In The Chemistry of Organolithium Compounds. Edited by Rappoport Z, Marek I. Chichester: Wiley and Sons; 2004:647-748.

Whole issue of journal

7. O’Brien P (Ed): Recent developments in chiral lithium amide chemistry. In Tetrahedron 2002, 58:4567-4733.

Whole conference proceedings

8. Smith Y (Ed): Proceedings of the First National Conference on Porous Sieves: 27-30 June 1996; Baltimore. Stoneham: Butterworth-Heinemann; 1996.

Complete book

9. Gutsche C D: Calixarenes. Cambridge: Royal Society of Chemistry; 1989.

Monograph or book in a series

10. Goldfuss B: Enantioselective addition of organolithiums to C=O groups. In Organolithiums in Enantioselective Synthesis. Edited by Hodgson DM. Berlin: Springer; 2003:21-36. [Topics in Organometallic Chemistry, vol 5.]

Book with institutional author

11. Advisory Committee on Genetic Modification: Annual Report. London; 1999.

PhD thesis

12. Westlund N. PhD thesis. University of Manchester 1998.

Link / URL

13. Molecular Informatics: Confronting Complexity, Proceedings of the Beilstein-Institut Workshop, May 13th-16th, 2002, Bozen, Italy [http://www.beilstein-institut.de/bozen2002/proceedings]