SPARK REPORT GUIDELINES:
v Reports need only be about five pages long in text and may include approximately four figures and tables. Also, the details specific to the actual submission of a manuscript can be ignored.
v Here is the link to JBCs instructions to authors as of April 2009. This link may change and so be prepared to surf around to find the current year's link:
http://www.jbc.org/misc/ifora.dtl#_Organization_of_the_Manuscript
v Reports should be:
1. Formatted for 8.5 x 11 inch paper
2. Single spacing throughout (approximately 5 pages of text)
3. Two column page format including Summary through Discussion sections. Title section as well as references, footnotes, figure legends and tables at the end of the manuscript are in single column format.
4. One-inch left and right margins and 0.25 inch spacing between columns.
5. Text typed in Times New Roman, 11 point
6. Manuscript is to be arranged in the following order:
(a) title, author(s), and complete name(s) of institution(s) and running title
(b) abstract
(c) introduction
(d) experimental procedures
(e) results
(f) discussion
(g) references
(h) footnotes
(i) figure legends
(j) tables
(k) figures
(l) supplemental data ( If applicable: Submit supplemental data file(s) to the Supplemental Data section of the submission site. )
7. Number all pages including figures. Please note: Any paper submitted without page numbers will be deleted and you will be asked to resubmit with pages numbers using the online submission system.
TEXT
v Title Section
It is important that the major findings of your study are intelligible to all JBC readers, including those who are not specialists in the field. The Title should be as short and informative as possible (not to exceed two lines). If acronyms or abbreviations are used, then the name/term should be first indicated in full followed by the short form/acronym (e.g., Visualization of Polarized Membrane Type 1 Matrix Metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP) Activity in Live Cells by Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) Imaging. (A full name is not required for the most common biochemical abbreviations e.g. ATP) Please review your title and abstract carefully to make sure they convey your essential points succinctly and clearly.
v Author
o name
o email address
v Summary
o should succinctly and clearly describe the major findings reported in the manuscript
o must not exceed 250 words
o should be understandable in itself, since it is frequently used as an abstract
v Introduction
o presents the purpose of the studies reported and their relationship to earlier work in the field
o should not be an extensive review of the literature nor, in general, exceed one typed page
v Experimental Procedures
o brief but sufficiently complete to permit a qualified reader to repeat the experiments reported
o only truly new procedures should be described in detail
o cite previously published procedures in References
o modifications of previously published procedures not given in detail except when necessary to repeat the work
v Results
o presented in figures and tables
o some results not requiring documentation given solely in the text
o extensive discussion not in Results section
v Discussion
o concise (usually less than two typed pages)
o focused on the interpretation of the results rather than a repetition of the Results section
v References
o cited in text by number rather than author and date
o numbered consecutively in the order of appearance in the manuscript
o References for journals and books should be in the following styles:
I. MacDonald, G. M., Steenhuis, J. J., and Barry, B. A. (1995) J. Biol. Chem. 270, 8420-8428
2. Sambrook, J., Fritsch, E. F., and Maniatis, T. (1989) Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual, 2nd Ed., Cold Spring HarborLaboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY
Journal names are abbreviated according to Chemical Abstracts (http://www.cas.org/). Authors are fully responsible for the accuracy of the references.