Outlook articles
Outlook articles are short, commissioned articles that, in most instances, highlight a research article(s) that appears in
the same or recent issue of Genes & Development. Outlook articles contain up to 1000 words, a figure, if desired, and a maximum of 10 references.
Review articles
Review Articles occupy 5–8 journal pages (30,000–50,000 characters, including spaces), include an abstract of up to 100 words,
multiple figures and/or tables, and references. Review Articles are generally commissioned; unsolicited contributions will
only be considered as pre-submission inquiries. All of the reviews are accepted subject to favorable review.
Research Communications
Research Communications may have a total manuscript length of no more than 35,000 characters, including spaces. Submit no
more than five figures and/or tables combined. Abstracts will be limited to 100 words or less. Results and Discussion must
be combined. Materials and methods will remain a separate section. References will be limited to no more than 40. The final
revised version must meet the above guidelines.
Resource/Methodology
Genes & Development publishes Resource/Methodology papers that follow the same format as Research Papers (below). This article
format will focus on: (1) novel technical or methodological advances that significantly advance a field of research that is
of interest to the broad readership of Genes & Development; or (2) large data sets that provide validated functional insight
into novel biological paradigms. Please note that articles in this category will follow the same formatting guidelines as a Research Paper. Please refer to all information
under that section for details on page numbers, section headings etc.
Research Papers
Research Papers will occupy up to 12 journal pages and have a manuscript length of not more than 63,000 characters (including spaces). Abstracts will be limited to 200 words. A manuscript of 28-32 typed, double-spaced pages (including Materials and Methods, References, Tables, and Figure Legends)
with a total of seven single-column (7.5 x 7.5 cm) figures and/or tables translates to 12 journal pages. Text should be double-spaced
and of approximately 12 font size.
Form
Please observe the following order: Title page, Abstract, Introduction, Results, Discussion, Materials and Methods, Competing
Interest Statement, Acknowledgments, Author Contributions, References, Tables, and Figures. Please format Figures and tables with the corresponding legend on the same page as the figure or table. If the legend does not fit on the same page as the figure, please insert the titles and legends on the following page. Abstracts
should summarize the aim of the report, the methodological approach, and the significance of the results. Materials and Methods
should be detailed enough to allow qualified researchers to reproduce the results. All manuscripts must include page numbers.
Alterations to data in figures must be kept to a minimum and clearly described in Material and Methods and/or Figure Legends. This includes cell analyses, for example, immunofluorescence studies or protein and nucleic acid analyses using gel systems. Authors may be asked to provide the original data for evaluation.
You must use approved nomenclature for gene and protein names and symbols (including appropriate use of italics [using italics is a standard for genes, so put ALL gene symbols and loci, in italics] and capitalization as it applies for each organism's standard nomenclature format, in text, tables, and figures. Full gene names are generally not in italics. Proteins should appear in Roman type. To help you in doing this, you will find links below to nomenclature sites for a variety of organisms). You MUST submit novel genes and proteins to the appropriate databases prior to submission. Novel gene and protein names must be approved prior to publication. Furthermore, Genes & Development requires that all data and supporting data sets from a publication be made available to the broader community from the date of publication. This should be done through publicly available data sets, when available, or through the Genes & Development website. When using public databases, the entry name/ID or accession number must be referred to in the Materials & Methods section of the paper.
For website links for data submission, or for nomenclature rules or for submission of gene or protein names, see [Instructions Regarding Data Submission, Appropriate Nomenclature, and Additional Resources].
Materials and Methods
Methods should be detailed enough to allow qualified researchers to reproduce any and all of the results presented in the
manuscript. All statistical methods employed must be described. The primary Materials and Methods section must be included
in the body of the main manuscript and not in the Supplemental Material section. If unique methods were used to generate
data only present in the Supplemental Material section, they may be described in a separate Supplemental Material and Methods
section.
Figures and legends
Line drawings, graphs, charts, and chemical formulae should be professionally prepared and labeled. Indicate magnification
with a bar scale. Electronic copies MUST be labeled with the first author's name and the figure number in the top right-hand corner of the figure;
for example, Smith_Fig1. Multipart figures should be submitted as one composite. Number figures consecutively in the order in which they are referred in the text. The figures sizes will be adjusted to fit
the journal format; therefore, please keep labels, symbols, and other callout devices in proportion to the figure size and
detail. Figure legends should be brief and should not contain methods. Symbols indicated in the figure must be identified
in the legend text. If figures are reprinted from another source, permission to reprint is required.
Tables
Tabular data should be presented concisely and logically. Number tables consecutively according to the order cited in the
text. Provide a title for each table. Use only horizontal rules and ensure that column headings are unambiguous in indicating
columns to which they refer. Include table legends and footnotes where needed. If tables are reprinted from another source
or if data included are from another source, permission to reprint is required.
References
Only articles that are published, in press, or posted to a preprint server whose papers are fully citable should be included
in References. Please note that closely related papers that are in press elsewhere or that have been or will be submitted elsewhere must be included with
the submitted manuscript. The reference list should be presented in alphabetical order. ALL authors' names should be included when there are 10 or
fewer names. If more than 10 names, the reference should include the first 10 names, followed by et al. References are name/date
citations in text. Undated citations (unpublished, in preparation, personal communication) should include first initials and
last names of all authors up to three before et al.--e.g., (F Smith, pers. comm.)--and do not appear in the reference list.
Please observe the following reference style for Genes & Development:
Pavio A, Scharf S, Horn GT. 1975. Perceptual comparisons through the mind's eye. Mem Cognit 3: 635-647.
Strunk W, White EB. 1979. The elements of style. Macmillan, New York, NY.
Tymowska J. 1991. Polyploidy and cytogenetic variation in frogs of the genus Xenopus. in Amphibian cytogenetics and evolution (eds. DM Green and SK Sessions), pp. 259-297. Academic Press, San Diego, CA.
For preprint servers: Preprints deposited in bioRxiv, for example, should be cited using their digital object identifier (doi).
Example: Author AN, Author BT. 2013. My article title. bioRxiv doi: 10.1101/123456.
If the paper includes website URLs as references to places where material was obtained for doing the work (with the exception of preprint servers, such as bioRxiv.org, whose papers are fully citable—see details above), the URL should be included next to that information in the text.
The Supplemental Material section should contain only information that is directly relevant to the conclusions of the main manuscript.
Supplemental information can include the following:
An itemized list should be provided of all Supplemental Material provided, detailing how the data relate to the main manuscript.
Please note that Supplemental Material is not copyedited by the journal and is presented on the website as submitted. Furthermore, all Supplemental Material will be held to the same standards used to judge the main manuscript figures, and so should be presented accordingly.
Supplemental files themselves (which include the figure legend and figure) must be uploaded separately and named as follows, with underscores connecting all segments in each filename and with the file-type extension in view: Supplemental_Fig_S1.pdf, Supplemental_Fig_S2.eps, Supplemental_Table_S1.eps, Supplemental_Table_S2.jpeg, Supplemental_Movie_S1.mov, Supplemental_Methods.pdf, etc. Please cite Supplemental files in main text accordingly.