Author Instructions
All manuscripts should be submitted via ScholarOne Manuscripts.
Reproduction, Fertility and Development is an international journal for the publication of original work, review and comment in the fields of reproductive biology, reproductive technologies and developmental biology.
Submission of a paper implies that the results reported have not been published and are not being considered for publication elsewhere. Abstracts from conferences would not normally be regarded as publications, but where material has been widely disseminated in report form the Editor should be consulted. The journal assumes that all authors of a multi-authored paper agree to its submission. The journal will use its best endeavours to ensure that work published is that of the named authors except where acknowledged and, through its reviewing procedures, that any published results and conclusions are consistent with the primary data. It takes no responsibility for fraud or inaccuracy on the part of the authors. All papers are refereed to international standards. Authors may suggest the names of suitable referees.
- Publishing Policies
- Peer review
- Authorship
- Licence to publish
- Open access
- Scope
- Submission of manuscripts
- General presentation
- Use of inclusive language
- Title
- Summary text and image for the Table of Contents
- Abstract
- Keywords
- Data Availability Statement
- Conflicts of Interest
- Declaration of Funding
- Acknowledgements
- References
- Units
- Mathematical formulae
- Enzyme nomenclature
- Chemical nomenclature
- Statistical evaluation of results
- Human and animal experimentation
- Quantitative PCR
- Hormone assays
- Flow cytometry
- Tables
- Figures
- Digitisation and manipulation of images
- Supplementary material
- Page proofs and corrections
- Reprints
- Address for submission enquiries
Publishing Policies
Reproduction, Fertility and Development insists on high standards of ethical behaviour throughout the publication process. Our journal editors work within the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). Further information on our policies can be found at http://www.publish.csiro.au/rd/PublishingPolicies.
Peer review
Reproduction, Fertility and Development is a peer-reviewed journal that uses a single-blind peer-review. The Editor-in-Chief is responsible to maintain high-quality peer-review of papers submitted to the journal and work together with Associate Editors to ensure a thorough and fair peer-review and the highest scientific publishing standards. All submissions undergo preliminary assessment by the Editor-in-Chief, who may reject a paper before peer review when it is outside the journal’s scope or is of insufficient quality. Associate Editors select reviewers and after at least two review reports are received, they make the decision whether to accept/reject or send a manuscript for revision. The final decision is made by the Associate Editor.
Under our single-blind policy, reviewers’ names are not disclosed to the authors. To increase transparency, reviewers may choose to sign their reports. We ask reviewers and authors not to directly contact each other while the manuscript is under consideration, rather keep all communication through ScholarOne with the Editor’s involvement.
Authorship
The conditions around authorship for Reproduction, Fertility and Development should follow the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), for more information see http://www.publish.csiro.au/rd/PublishingPolicies.
Licence to publish
For details regarding copyright, please see Copyright/Licence to Publish.
Open access
Authors may choose to publish their paper Open Access on payment of a publication fee. See Open Access for more details.
Scope
See Scope for more details.
Submission of manuscripts
To submit your paper, please use our online journal management system ScholarOne Manuscripts, which can be reached directly through this link or from the link on the journal's homepage. If a first-time user, register via the 'Register here' link, or use your existing username and password to log in. Then click on the 'Author Centre' link and proceed.
A covering letter must accompany the submission and should include the name, address, fax and telephone numbers, and email address of the corresponding author. The letter should also contain a statement justifying why the work should be considered for publication in the journal, and that the manuscript has not been published or simultaneously submitted for publication elsewhere.
Format of manuscripts
Papers must be typed with double- or 1.5-line spacing throughout and with a margin of at least 3 cm on the left-hand side. Line numbers should be included. All pages of the manuscript must also be numbered consecutively, including those carrying references, tables and figure captions, all of which are to be placed after the text. Illustrations, both line drawings and photographs, are to be numbered as figures in a common sequence, and each must be referred to in the text. Figures that are of the same quality as those to be reproduced in the published paper must be included at the end of the electronic file or submitted as separate electronic files in correct order and must be clearly named and numbered (e.g. Smith et al_Fig1).
Authors are advised to note the style of headings, tables and illustrations exemplified in the latest issues of the Journal. Strict observance of these and the requirements listed under 'Preparation of manuscripts' will shorten the interval between submission and publication. Poorly prepared or unnecessarily lengthy manuscripts have less prospect of being accepted. Poor quality figures will be returned for correction and will delay acceptance.
Review articles
The Journal welcomes review articles and they should be submitted in the same way as research papers. They should be formatted as simply as possible, using no more than three levels of heading and normal or body text style for the main text. Summary diagrams should be used where possible to reduce the amount of description required to introduce a topic. Authors should remember the wide readership of the Journal when preparing their article, and are advised to discuss the review with the Editor or a member of the Editorial Board before submission.
Viewpoints
Viewpoint papers are reviewed by the Editorial Board and present a novel view on a topical issue of current international concern. Authors are welcome to take a controversial standpoint but, overall, articles should provide a clear and balanced discussion to inform non-specialist readers about an issue and its new developments. Viewpoints should not be used as a refuge from the trouble of precise thought. The length is usually 1000–1500 words.
Technical reports
Technical reports should present brief descriptions of a significant advance in a methodology used to investigate reproductive biology, or in the workflow in reproductive technology, such as a novel apparatus, a new experimental or computational method, test or procedure, or an improvement or noteworthy modification of an already existing technique or platform. Technical reports should also show a realistic application of the methodology described. 'Supplementary Material' may be submitted with the manuscript, with a note to this effect included at the end of the paper (before the Acknowledgements section).
Word limit: 2500 words maximum including abstract and references. Two figures and one table can be used. References: In general, less than 30.
Comments/Responses
Comments on papers published in the journal within the past 12 months will be considered by the Editors. If the Comment is negative or critical, the authors of the published paper will be offered the right to reply in a Response. Both the Comment and Response will be peer reviewed, and if accepted, will be published in the same issue. In order to be considered for publication, Comment and Response articles must be concise and impersonal, must contribute to knowledge and must advance the discussion beyond opinion. Comments should have a short abstract (<75 words) and should not exceed 2000 words. Responses should have no abstract and should not exceed 1000 words. They should comprise no more than one typeset page in total (including figures, tables and references). If the corresponding or contributing authors of the previously published paper decline their right to reply or fail to do so in a reasonable timeframe, the Comment will be published without a Response.
General presentation.
The work should be presented clearly and concisely in English. The title should reflect the key points of interest in the paper. The names and addresses of all authors should be presented on the first page, together with the email address of the corresponding author. Authors of multi-authored papers may wish to assign relative values to their contributions to the work or to indicate that two or more authors contributed equally to the paper. This can be done in a note at the end of the address field on the paper. The introduction should indicate the reason for the work and include essential background references.
Use of inclusive language
These guidelines should be used to assist in identifying appropriate language, but are by no means exhaustive or definitive. Inclusive language comprises carefully chosen words and phrases that are respectful and promote the acceptance and value of all people. It is language which is free from words, phrases or tones that demean, insult, exclude, stereotype, or trivialise people on the basis of their membership of a certain group or because of a particular attribute. As such, inclusive language should make no assumptions about the beliefs or commitments of any reader, and contain nothing which might imply that one individual is superior to another on any grounds including but not limited to: age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability or health condition. We encourage the use of plural nouns (e.g., 'they' as default wherever possible instead of 'he/she'), and recommend avoiding the use of descriptors that refer to personal attributes, unless there is scientific or clinical relevance. For further guidance on inclusive language see Inclusive language | Style Manual. If there are questions about language use and/or publishing with regards to First Nations people, please contact the Journal.
Title.
The title should be concise and appropriately informative and should contain all keywords necessary to facilitate retrieval by modern searching techniques.
Summary text and image for the Table of Contents. In addition to manuscript files, authors are requested to upload a summary text file and an image file for the online Table of Contents.
This text is a three-sentence paragraph of 50 to 80 words written for interested non-experts, such as journalists, teachers, government workers, etc. The text should be free from scientific jargon, and written at the level of an article in a science magazine. Your first sentence should engage the reader, convincing them that this is an important area. The second sentence should introduce the problem addressed in the paper, and state your main discovery. The final sentence should describe how the results fit into the bigger picture (i.e. implications or impact of the discovery).
The image file should be a colour photograph or other image that highlights an important aspect of the work. This image will be used in the online Table of Contents, email alerts and RSS feeds to promote the paper and assist in providing a context for the reader. If a photo credit is required please provide details to your Production Editor. The image should be submitted as a 96 dpi JPEG file and must be no wider than 9 cm and no higher than 4 cm.
Abstract
Abstracts should be no more than 250 words. Abstracts of Research articles and Technical reports should be formatted to include the following labelled sections: Context; Aims; Methods; Key results; Conclusions; Implications. Using these headings, the Abstract should state concisely why the study was done, what hypothesis was tested, and how the study was undertaken; should give the principal findings and conclusions; and should highlight the implications for future research. Abstracts of Review articles and Communication papers do not need to be formatted with sections but should still provide a concise overview of the full manuscript. As a general rule, avoid including references and abbreviations in Abstracts.
Keywords
A minimum of eight keywords or phrases are required to improve online discoverability of your work. These terms can be repeated from the title – the more times a word is used in the title, abstract, and keyword list, the higher up that paper will appear in search results – and keywords that are not used in the title or the abstract are still strongly recommended. List the keywords under the abstract in your manuscript, with terms separated by commas.
Data Availability Statement
CSIRO Publishing encourages authors to share the research data underlying their papers to support transparency and reproducibility of research. A Data Availability Statement must be included at the end of the manuscript indicating whether the data used to generate the results in the paper are available and, if so, where to access them. For more information on CSIRO Publishing’s data sharing policy and for examples of what to include in the data availability statement please see https://www.publish.csiro.au/journals/publishingpolicies#6.
Authors can get credit for their work by citing their research data in the reference list of their article. Citations should include at a minimum: all authors, year of publication, title of dataset, record ID, publisher. DOI or URL if available. Examples of how to cite research data:
Wang L, Edwards D, Bailey A, Carr L, Boreham C, Grosjean E, Anderson J, Jarrett A, MacFarlane S, Southby C, Carson C, Khider K, Palu T, Henson P (2021). Well log data analysis and interpretation on the pre-Carboniferous succession in Waukarlycarly 1, Canning Basin, Western Australia. Record 2021/003 [Dataset]. Geoscience Australia, Canberra. Available at http://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/144547
Fiddes S, Pepler A, Saunders K, Hope P (2020) Southern Australia’s climate regions (Version 1.0.0) [Dataset] Zenodo. doi:10.5281/zenodo.4265471
Digital Earth Australia (2021). Wetlands Insight Tool Queensland Wetlands Polygons. Version 1.0.0 [Dataset]. Geoscience Australia, Canberra. Available at http://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/144795
Conflicts of Interest. A 'Conflicts of Interest' section should be included at the end of the manuscript. It should identify any financial or non-financial (political, personal, professional) interests/relationships that may be interpreted to have influenced the manuscript. If there is no conflict of interest, please include the statement "The authors declare no conflicts of interest".
Declaration of Funding
Under a subheading 'Declaration of Funding' at the end of the text authors are required to declare all sources of funding for the research and/or preparation of the article, and the inclusion of grant numbers is recommended. Authors should declare sponsor names along with explanations of the role of those sources if any in the preparation of the data or manuscript or the decision to submit for publication; or a statement declaring that the supporting source had no such involvement. If no funding has been provided for the research, please include the following sentence: "This research did not receive any specific funding".
Acknowledgements
The contribution of colleagues who do not meet all criteria for authorship should be acknowledged. Anyone included in the Acknowledgements section should have granted permission to be listed. Sources of financial support should be acknowledged in a separate ‘Declaration of Funding’ rather than here.
References
No editorial responsibility can be taken for the accuracy of the references and authors are requested to check these with special care. In the text, references are cited chronologically by author and date and are not numbered. Names of two coauthors are linked by 'and'; for three or more coauthors, the first author's name is followed by 'et al.'. All references cited must be listed alphabetically at the end of the paper; all entries in this list must correspond to references in the text. Papers that have not been accepted for publication may not be included in the list of references and must be cited either as 'unpubl. data' or as a 'pers. comm.' in the body of text; the use of such citations is discouraged. It is the authors' responsibility to ensure that they have permission to cite material as a personal communication.
If using 'EndNote' software, you can obtain the style file for this journal at http://www.endnote.com/support/enstyles.asp.
References should be in the following formats:
-
Journal article
Fairman TA, Bennett LT, Nitschke CR (2019) Short-interval wildfires increase likelihood of resprouting failure in fire-tolerant trees. Journal of Environmental Management 231, 59–65. doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.10.021 -
Chapter in a book
Carr JD, Fibiger HC, Phillips AG (1989) Conditioned place preference as a measure of drug reward. In ‘Neuropharmacological basis of reward’. (Eds JM Liebman, D Nugegoda, SJT Cooper) pp. 265–320. (Oxford University Press) -
Whole book
Codd E, Papas PJ, Nugegoda D (1968) ‘Cellular Automata. Vol. 1.’ (CSIRO Publishing) -
Conference proceedings
Hayman PT, Collett IJ (1996) Estimating soil water: to kick, to stick, to core or computer? In ‘Proceedings of the 8th Australian Agronomy Conference, Toowoomba’. (Ed. M Asghar) p. 664. (Australian Society of Agronomy) -
Report
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) (2014) Australia’s health 2014, Australia’s health series number 14. Catalogue number AUS 178. AIHW, Canberra. -
Thesis
Winter JW (1976) The behaviour and social organisation of the brush-tail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula Kerr). PhD thesis, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld, Australia. -
Website
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2020) International Classification of Diseases, tenth revision (ICD-10). Available at https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/icd/icd10.htm
Units. Authors are requested to use the International System of Units (Système International d'Unités) for exact measurements of physical quantities and where appropriate elsewhere. Concentrations should be expressed in molar terms where appropriate. The double solidus must not be used in complex groupings of units; the negative index form is preferred.
Mathematical formulae should be carefully typed with symbols in correct alignment and adequately spaced. Equations should not be embedded images; use equation editors that result in an editable format. Each formula should be displayed on a single line if possible.
Enzyme nomenclature. The names of enzymes should conform to the recommendations in 'Enzyme Nomenclature 1992' (Academic Press: San Diego, CA, 1992). Where enzymes are referred to only in the course of discussion, or are obtained from commercial sources and are used solely as a reagent, it will be adequate to use the recommended name without the identifying EC number. For enzymes that are more central to the paper, the recommended names should be used throughout and they should be identified by their EC numbers, at the first mention in body of the paper. If there is good reason to use a name, other than the recommended name, at the first mention of the alternative name in the text, it should be identified by the recommended name and EC number. The Editor should be advised of the reasons for using the alternative name.
Chemical nomenclature. The nomenclature of compounds such as amino acids, carbohydrates, lipids, steroids, vitamins, etc. should follow the recommendations of the IUPAC-IUB Commission on Biochemical Nomenclature. Other biologically active compounds, such as metabolic inhibitors, buffers, etc. should be referred to once by their correct chemical name (which is in accordance with IUPAC rules of Chemical Nomenclature) and then by their most widely accepted common name. Where there is no common name, trade names or letter abbreviations of the chemical may be used.
Statistical evaluation of results. The tests used should be described briefly and, if necessary, supported by references. Numbers of individuals, mean values and measures of variability should be stated. It should be made clear whether the standard deviation or the standard error of the mean has been given.
Human and animal experimentation. Manuscripts reporting work with humans or animals must include a reference to the code of practice adopted for the experimentation. It is expected that reported experiments have been performed according to appropriate ethical and legal standards, and that relevant licences have been obtained. Editors will take account of ethical and animal welfare issues and reserve the right not to publish.
In reporting research regarding human subjects, authors are required to document that a formally constituted review board (Institutional Review Board or Ethics committee) has granted approval for the research to be done, or that the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki regarding human experimentation have been met. Investigators who do not have access to an institutional review board are required to provide a statement to the editor outlining why it was not possible to gain formal ethics approval. If the study is judged exempt from review, a statement from the committee is required. Authors should make an ethics statement within the manuscript to this effect. Authors should also state that the research was undertaken with appropriate informed consent of participants or guardians.
In reporting experiments on animals, authors should indicate whether institutional and national standards for the care and welfare of animals were followed and provide a statement within the manuscript regarding the use of appropriate measures to minimize pain or discomfort. Editors should ensure that peer reviewers consider ethical and welfare issues raised by the research they are reviewing, and to request additional information from authors where needed. In situations where there is doubt as to the adherence to appropriate procedures or approval by the relevant ethics committee, editors are required to reject these papers.
CSIRO Publishing also follows guidelines provided by the CSIRO Animal Ethics committee.
Quantitative PCR. Authors should use the nomenclature outlined in the 'Minimal Information for Publication of Quantitative Real-Time PCR Experiments' (MIQE) guidelines, where appropriate (Bustin et al. (2009) The MIQE Guidelines: Minimum Information for Publication of Quantitative Real-Time PCR Experiments. Clin. Chem. 55: 611-622; available at http://www.rdml.org/miqe.php). Authors should provide the following minimum data for each sub-procedure:
- Nucleic acid extraction: details of DNase or RNase treatments; contamination assessment (DNA or RNA); nucleic acid quantification and purity (A260/280).
- Reverse transcription: amount of RNA and reaction volume; priming oligonucleotide (if using gene-specific primers) and concentration; reverse transcriptase and concentration.
- qPCR target information: location of each primer by exon or intron (if applicable).
- qPCR oligonucleotides: primer sequences or RTPrimerDB Identification Number.
- qPCR protocol: complete thermocycling parameters; manufacturer of qPCR instrument.
- qPCR validation: specificity (gel, sequence, melt or digest); for SYBR Green I, Cq of the no-template control (NTC); if using reverse transcription (RT), Cqs with and without RT; if using standard curves, slope and ?-intercept (PCR efficiency calculated from slope, r2 of standard curve); linear dynamic range (Cq variation at lower limit); evidence for limit of detection (LOD); if multiplex, efficiency and LOD of each assay.
- Data analysis: qPCR analysis program (source, version, and Cq method determination and number of technical replicates); results of NTCs; justification of choice and suitability of reference gene(s); description of normalisation method and if appropriate, conversion to 'relative' changes; data used for statistical analysis.
Note: Cq represents quantification cycle (and replaces the abbreviation Ct). Authors may be required to provide evidence to the editor(s) that quantitative PCR experiments comply with these guidelines. When using the abbreviation 'RT-PCR', authors should clarify whether they mean 'real-time' or 'reverse transcription'.
Hormone assays. Validation should conform to the recommendations set out in 'The Validation of Assays, the Statistical Treatment of Results and Steroid Nomenclature' (Journal of Endocrinology (1977) 72: 1-4). The minimum detectable amount of standard in the assay and the procedure for obtaining this value, and the intra- and inter-assay precisions should all be given. When only a few observations are available the dispersion is better indicated by the range. If the distribution is skewed it may be justifiable to give both the standard deviation and the range. Assessment of specificity is a particular problem with peptide hormones where reference to physicochemical procedures such as GLC-mass spectrometry is not possible. Activity of fractions obtained by column separation should therefore be included whenever possible. When practicable, validation should be repeated for each novel physiological or pathological situation.
Flow cytometry. Authors are strongly encouraged to adhere to the recommendation of the International Society for Advancement of Cytometry on the minimum information necessary for describing a flow cytometry experiment (Lee J et al. (2008) MIFlowCyt: The minimum information about a flow cytometry experiment. Cytometry 73A: 926-930. doi: 10.1002/cyto.a.20623). This recommendation is also summarised in 'Minimum information about a flow cytometry experiment (MIFlowCyt) checklist', published Open Access in Cytometry (2010) 77A: 813. Authors may be required to provide evidence to the editor(s) that quantitative flow cytometry experiments comply with the MIFlowCyt guidelines.
Tables
Editable tables should be prepared in Word using the 'Table' tool (not tabs), without any hard returns within cells, or can be set up in Excel. Number each table and refer to it in the text (Table 1, Table 2, etc.) in order of appearance. There is no need to add instructions on the placement of tables as long as each table is referred to in the text. Do not provide tables as images.
Table titles should be concise and clear and should fully explain the table. Use sentence case throughout the table. Supporting information relating to the whole table should be placed in the headnote. Any symbols, abbreviations or acronyms used in the table should also be defined in the headnote. Additional information relating to specific cells should be placed as table footnotes using superscript capital letters as identifiers. Symbols for units of measurement should be placed in parentheses beneath the column heading.
Tables should appear at the end of the main document, not within the text. Keep tables as simple as possible, without excessive subdivision of column headings.
Figures
Figures should be supplied as separate files but the captions should be included in the main document (at the end). Refer to each figure in the text (Fig. 1, Fig. 2, etc.), and number each figure according to the order in which it appears in the text. There is no need to add instructions on placement of figures as long as each figure is referred to in the text. If your figure has multiple parts label with (a), (b), (c), etc. and place the labels in the top left of each image where possible. Figure parts can be supplied as separate images if needed. Please make sure all images are supplied are at highest possible resolution.
Format
Where possible, line diagrams (graphs, charts, etc.) should be provided as editable files and prepared using either a graphics or chart/graph program such as MacDraw, Illustrator, CorelDraw, Excel, Sigmaplot, Harvard Graphics or Cricket Graph and files should be saved in one of the following formats: encapsulated PostScript (EPS), Illustrator or Excel (provided the Excel files have been saved with the chart encapsulated in it). The submission of scanned images or illustrations prepared in a paint program, e.g. Photoshop (and PICT and JPEG files) is discouraged, because of the difficulty in making editorial corrections to these files. If illustrations must be created in a paint program, save the file as a TIFF or EPS (these files should be 600 dpi for line drawings and 300 dpi for halftone figures). Photographs can be supplied in the highest resolution possible.
Fonts
Please prepare figures using a standard sans serif font. Arial preferred. Font sizes for main axis labels, part labels should not be more than 8pt. Legends and data points should be 7pt font size where possible. Font should never be smaller than 5pt to ensure readability.
Style
- Use sentence case for text within figures
- Use Australian English spelling (ise, not ize, etc.) throughout
- Use 'and' not '&'
- For ranges in numbers (5–10) or minus signs (–20) please use an en rule rather than a hyphen as this is clearer for the reader.
Graphs
Should be prepared with one main x and y axis line. Grid lines are not required. Line weight of x- and y-axes should be ~1.0 (not below 0.7). State on the axes of a graph what is being measured and give the appropriate units in parentheses. Ensure any symbols/colours used are explained in a legend on the figure, or in the caption. Ensure numbers on axes have the same number of decimal places.
Maps
Ensure north is identified and a scale is provided. Ensure any symbols used are fully explained in a legend within the figure, or the caption. If maps are taken from Google Earth (or similar) please ensure attribution information is retained either on the figure, or provided in the caption.
Photographs
Ensure that permission has been gained by the copyright holder of the photograph and include a photographer credit in your caption. If your photograph contains people, please ensure that they have provided permission for their image to be published.
Captions
Captions should be concise and clear and should fully explain the figure. Explain any symbols or abbreviations used in the caption of the figure, or in a legend. If your figure has multiple parts, ensure each part is explained in the caption. If your figure is a photograph, ensure the photographer is credited in the caption.
Colour figures in print
Colour is free of charge in the online versions of your paper. Colour charges are incurred only if you want colour in the print version of the journal, see Publishing Charges for details.
If your figure files are too large for upload to ScholarOne please ensure you let CSIRO Publishing know as soon as your paper is accepted and an alternative transfer will be arranged. Note: Figures used in the final paper will be based on what is provided – if the quality is low in the original, it will remain low in the final publication.
Authors are responsible for obtaining prior permission from the copyright holder for the use of figures/images from other publications. Authors may be charged a fee by the copyright holder for such reuse.
Digitisation and manipulation of images
All digital images in manuscripts considered for publication will be scrutinized for any indication of manipulation.
- No specific feature within an image may be enhanced, obscured, moved, removed, or introduced.
- The grouping of images from different parts of the same gel, or from different gels, fields, or exposures must be made explicit by the arrangement of the figure (i.e., using dividing lines) and in the text of the figure legend. If dividing lines are not included, they will be added by our production department, and this may result in production delays.
- Adjustments of brightness, contrast or colour balance are acceptable if they are applied to the whole image and as long as they do not obscure, eliminate or misrepresent any information present in the original, including backgrounds. Non-linear adjustments (e.g. changes to gamma settings) must be disclosed in figure legends. Non-linear adjustments are acceptable only if they are applied to the entire image, are clearly disclosed in the figure legend, and do not alter interpretation of the original image. Authors must indicate any alterations made to their figures with image processing software, and give the details of the software used.
- Where questions are raised by editors, they will request the original data from the authors for comparison to the prepared figures. If the original data cannot be produced manuscripts may be rejected. Any case in which a manipulation affects the interpretation of the data will result in rejection. Cases of suspected misconduct will be reported to an author's home institution and funding agency, where appropriate.
These guidelines are derived from those provided by the Journal of Cell Biology, to whom we are grateful. Authors are encouraged to read the papers by M. Rossner and K. M. Yamada (2004) J. Cell Biol. 166, 11-15; H. Pearson (2005) Nature 434, 952-953; U.S. Neill (2006) J. Clin. Invest. 116, 1740-1741; D. Parrish and B. Noonan (2009) Sci. Eng. Ethics 15, 161-167.
Supplementary material
Supplementary material of a detailed nature that may be useful to other workers, but which is not essential to the published paper, may be lodged with the Production Editor, provided that it is submitted with the manuscript for inspection by the referees. Such material will be made available online.
Page proofs and corrections
Page proofs are sent to the corresponding author for checking prior to publication. At this stage only essential alterations and correction of printer errors may be undertaken. Excessive author alterations may be charged back to the author at $5 per item.
Reprints
A free PDF reprint will be supplied to the author on publication of the article. Hard copy reprints may also be ordered before publication using the publication charges form, which is sent to the corresponding author with the page proofs.
Address for submission enquiries
For general enquires about submitted papers please contact:
Reproduction, Fertility and Development
CSIRO Publishing
Locked Bag 10
Clayton South, Vic. 3169
Australia
Telephone +[61 3] 9545 8790
Email publishing.rfd@csiro.au
