Guide for Authors

ONLINE SUBMISSION

This Journal accepts only manuscripts through the online submission system. It is easy to use and easy to track, thus by conducting all steps electronically; your submission will be expedient. Contributors can submit their manuscripts via our website. Once you submit an article, it will be forwarded to one of the editors and afterward to at least two peer-reviewers. The author will be notified of the submission process using E-mail. Simultaneously, the "Copyright Transfer  Letter" form should be filled and uploaded on the website.

COVER LETTER

This letter should be uploaded online as a word file. The author should state that the manuscript has not been and will not be published or submitted elsewhere. The financial disclosure should be declared. The letter must include a statement declaring that the study complies with current ethical considerations. Authors should declare that all figures of their manuscripts are original. Authors reporting experimental studies on human subjects must include a statement of assurance in the Materials and Methods section of the manuscript reading that: (1) informed consent was obtained from each patient included in the study and (2) the study protocol conforms to the ethical guidelines of the 1975 Declaration of Helsinki.

MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION

Manuscripts should be provided as a Word Document (Microsoft Word 97, 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013) in English and should follow the style of the uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical Journals, a copy of which can be found at www.icmje.org.

Note 1. Submit your full manuscript with figures and tables. Figures/ Tables should be sent as separate files. 

 

WORD COUNT LIMITS

• Case Report: 1500 - 2000 words (Maximum number of references is 15, Maximum Number of illustrations/Tables is 2)

• Brief Report: 1500 - 2000 words (Maximum number of references is 15, Maximum Number of illustrations/Tables is 2)

• Research Articles: 2500 - 3500 words (Maximum number of references is 40, Maximum Number of illustrations/Tables is 5)

• Review Articles: 3500 - 4000 words (Maximum number of references is 60, Maximum Number of illustrations/Tables is 5)

• Systematic reviews: 3500-4000 words (Maximum number of references is 60, Maximum Number of illustrations/Tables is 5)

• Letter: Less than 1500 words. A maximum of three authors and 10 references are allowed. Neither tables nor figures are allowed.

• Figure legend (including multiple figure parts): maximum 50 words

• Acknowledgments (not including research funding): 45-55 words.

 

FONTS

Use the font Times New Roman size, Line spacing=Double.

  • Manuscript Main Title: Bold 16. The first letter should be Capital.
  • Affiliations: Bold 11. Numbers: Superscript 8
  • Corresponding Author: Italic, Superscript 8
  • Abstract: Regular 10
  • Main text: Regular 11
  • Main text titles: Regular 11. The first letter should be Capital.
  • Subtitles: Italic 11. The first letter should be Capital.

TITLE PAGE

The title page must be provided and uploaded as a separate file and should include:

• Title: Capitalize the initial of each word except prepositions with less than three letters.

• Author(s): full name of all authors should be mentioned.

• Affiliation: Author’s affiliation containing: Department, Faculty/School/Institute, University, City, and Country.

• Corresponding author: One author should be assigned as the corresponding author(a Ph.D. holder). Address (Including P.O.BOX.), telephone and fax number, and e-mail should be written.

Note 2. Academic E-mail address and phone (not cellphone number) and fax number of the Corresponding Author are required.

[required for case reports, brief report/short communication, research articles, review articles]

• Abstract of brief report/short communication and research articles should be structured as below:

Background, Objectives, Materials and Methods, Results, Conclusions.( At least in 5 separate parts).It is necessary to prepared the result and discussion in two separate parts.

A list of 3-6 keywords must be provided for indexing purposes.The initial letter of keywords should be capitalize .The keywords should be ordered alphabetically.  All keywords should be provided according to MeSH terms at: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html.  

 

ARTICLE BODY

Generally, includes the: Background, Objectives, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, Acknowledgments, and References.

The result and discussion should be separate.

Main titles and subtiltles should be numbered.

The first letter of all titles and subtitles should be capitalized.

Capitalize and bold the initial letter of Figure/ Table in the main text. 

1. Background: This should summarize the rationale for the study.

2. Objectives: State the aims of the study.

3. Materials and Methods: This should include the exact method or observation or experiment. If an apparatus is used, its manufacturer’s name and address should be given in parentheses. If a drug is used, its generic name, dose, and route of administration must be given. Statistical methods must be mentioned and specify any general computer program used.

  • For measurement units should follow the journal format in main text and supplementary file.
  • For measurement units, use (L) for Liter, (mL) for milliliter.
  • For introducing units of measurement, use point (.) instead of fraction sign (/) (e.g. mg.L-1). (μl= μL)
  • Consider a space between the value and (ºC).
  • For time measurement use (h) for an hour, (min) for minutes, (s) for seconds.
  • For centrifugation use (x g) instead of (rpm).

4. Results: Must be presented in the form of text, tables, and illustrations. The contents of the tables should not be repeated in the text. Instead, a reference to the table number may be given. Long articles may need sub-headings within some sections .

5. Discussion: This should emphasize the present findings and their differences or similarities with other work done in the field by other workers. Emphasize the new and important aspects of the study and the conclusions.

Note 3. Results and Discussion should come in separate sections.

6. Conclusion: This section provides a succinct explanation of the manuscript from the question of the research to the main finding.

• Acknowledgments: All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be covered in the acknowledgment section. Persons who provided technical help, writing assistance and should also be acknowledged.

 

Tables: All tables must be included at the end of the manuscript.

  • Tables should be formatted using Microsoft Word’s built-in table tools.
  • Each table should have borders with normal style without any colored row or column.
  • Tables in the word file should be separated by page break (each table on a separate page).
  • The style of the table should be simple.
  • Each cell contains only one paragraph or one line.
  • Addressing tables in the text should be in bold.
  • The font of the table should be Arial.
  • Each table should have a short title sentence in bold, can followed by a brief description in detail .

 

Figures: Figures must be submitted as separate files in the form of Tiff. The original data of the figures should be sent as an excel file (.xls) and a high-resolution photo of gel (electrophoresis) should be sent, as well. The figure legends together with the table legend must be provided at the end of the main manuscript file.

  • It is necessary to write the main title for each figures.
  • Colored figures are preferred (with no extra publication fee).
  • High-resolution image files are required.
  • Figure caption should include a tiltle sentence for the whole figure and also continue with a short description a bout the figure.
  • The photographs and line drawings must be in high quality or they will not be published.
  • The font of the figures should be Arial.
  • Addressing figures in the text should be in bold.
  • If a figure is constructed from more than one part, label each part with bold capital letters such as A), B), C), … at the top left corner
  • The resolution should be 600 dpi for a 3* 2-inch figure.
  • digital photographs should be provided as a jpg/Tif or as a Photoshop application file ,at 600 dpi.

 

Units, symbols, and abbreviations: Internationally accepted units (International System of Units), symbols, and abbreviations must be used. Abbreviations should be used sparingly and must be introduced in parentheses upon the first mention.

Drug names: Generic drug names must be used.

 

Check for plagiarism: Please check the final main text of the manuscript with ITHENTICATE software for plagiarism and upload the result as a pdf file along with other files.

 

REFERENCES

Note 4. All references that are referred to the main text should be arranged based on the EndNote software. They also should be numbered based on their allocated numbers in the reference section.

Note 5. All References should have DOI (without https://). Journal names should be used in standard abbreviation.

Put all the references that are mentioned in the text in Paranthesis (   ) instead of [   ].

This Journal accepts references according to Vancouver style (with some minor changes) rules established by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. In the Vancouver system, the only indication required in the text of a paper is a number, allocated in ascending sequence, and presented in the text either in brackets. For example: “Recent randomized controlled trials in primary care showed benefits for patients with depression from increased telephone support, better cooperation between primary care and mental health professionals, and more systematic follow up (7).”If the same source is cited again later in the text, the same number is used once more. If multiple references are cited, use a hyphen to join an inclusive range of numbers thus: (2-5). Use commas without spaces to separate non-inclusive numbers in multiple citations thus: (2-5, 7, 10).

• Books and Other Monographs

The details needed to construct a book reference are presented below. Each author’s surname is followed by the initials (in the same order as they appear on the title page), a comma should separate each author’s name. Title of the book. Edition of the book if there has been more than one. Place of publication or town of origin followed by a colon, Publisher’s name, followed by a semi-colon, Year of publication. For example:

Ford MJ, Munro JF. Introduction to Clinical Examination. 7th ed. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone; 2000.

If only a part is cited, add the page numbers, and volume number in the case of multi-volume works, at the end of the reference. For example:

Meltzer PS, Kallioniemi A, Trent JM. Chromosome Alterations in Human Solid Tumors. In: Vogelstein B, Kinzler KW, editors. The Genetic Basis of Human Cancer. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2002. p. 93-113.

If you need to reference a book written by more than six authors, list the first six authors’ names followed by “et al”. For example:

Cohen J, Brown A, Smith B, Jones G, Murphy M, McKay P, et al.

For standard journal articles, list the first six authors followed by et al., paper title, Standard journal title abbreviation (ISO4) in italic, year of publishing, volume number (bold), issue number in parentheses, page numbers, and DOI should also be presented. For example:

Otto-Hanson L, Steadman JR, Higgins R, Eskridge KM. Variation in Sclerotinia sclerotiorum bean isolates from multisite resistance screening locations. Plant Dis. 2011;95(11):1370-1377.doi:10.1094/PDIS-11-10-0865

For all websites references, you need to note the date that you accessed the information, and the database name or web address (URL). For example:

Royal College of General Practitioners. The Primary Health Care Team.

RCGP website 2003 [cited 2004 Sep 22]; Available from: URL: http://www.rcgp.org.uk/information/publications/information/PDFInfo/21_OCT_03.pdf

 

REVIEW PROCESS

All submitted manuscripts are subject to peer review and editorial approval. Articles will be sent to at least 2 reviewers. Authors are usually notified within 1-2 months about the acceptability of their manuscripts. Once receiving reviewers' comments, authors are requested to send the revised article, and a copy of their reply to the reviewers, including the comment and explaining the replies to questions and changes made to the revised version within 48 hours.

PROOFS

Proofs will be sent to the corresponding author. Galley proofs should be returned within 48 hours from receipt.

The corresponding author is responsible for the accuracy of the manuscript content (including English writing and grammar).  

 

TYPES OF ARTICLES

This Journal publishes Case Report, Brief Report/Short Communication, Research Articles, Review Articles, Systematic Review (Meta-Analysis), and Letter to the Editor

Case Report: A case report is a case study, case report, or other description of a case that should contain a structured/nonstructured abstract. Case reports should comprise sections including Introduction, Case Presentation, and Conclusions in Abstract, and Case Presentation, and Discussion in the text.

Brief Report/Short Communication: Short reports are usually a concise format used to report significant improvements to the existing methods, a new practical application, or a new tool or resource. These need to be reported quickly as the need to communicate such findings is very high. Short communication should comprise sections including a structured abstract of 200 words maximum. A brief report should comprise sections of Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, and Discussion.

Research Articles: Research article or “Original Article” is a detailed study reporting original research conducted by the author. For the research article, the traditional division into sections is required: Title, Keywords, Addresses and which author address for correspondence, Structured abstract, Background, Objectives, Materials, and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion (optional), Acknowledgements and References, Legends for Figures and Tables.

Review Articles: In a review article both abstract and text of the manuscript, include the following items:

◊ Context: Include 1 or 2 sentences describing the clinical question or issue and its importance in clinical practice or public health.

◊ Evidence Acquisition: Describe the data sources used, including the search strategies, years searched, and other sources of material, such as subsequent reference searches of retrieved articles. Explain the methods used for quality assessment and the inclusion of relevant articles.

◊ Results: Address the major findings of the review of the clinical issue or topic in an evidence-based, objective, and balanced fashion, emphasizing the highest-quality evidence available.

◊ Conclusions: Clearly state the conclusions to answer the questions posed if applicable, basing the conclusions on available evidence, and emphasize how clinicians should apply current knowledge.

• Systematic Review (Meta-Analysis)

Authors should report systematic reviews following the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) statement. For Systematic Reviews, the abstract should be subdivided into the following sequential sections:

Context; Data Sources; Study Selection; Data Extraction; Results; Conclusions; and Keywords. Systematic reviews should be 3500-4000 words (abstracts to be structured as above). Consult: The Cochrane Reviewers’ Handbook Meta-analysis of observational studies.

(Review Paper" - This is a paper summarizing the state of research on a topic. These can often be somewhat long, are often but not always by invitation only, and this category can include meta-analysis but doesn't have to. This may also be the umbrella that commentaries fall under, but again, not always.)

• Letter to the Editor: Letters to the editor will be considered if they give significant comments on recent articles published in the Iranian Journal of Biotechnology (IJB) or they contain relevant preliminary data providing new insights. Letters need no abstract and must cite the previous article in IJB that is being discussed and should have no more than 10 references.

  

Language Editing

 Please write your text in good English. In case of requirement for language editing (LE), which will be decided and informed by the IJB executive committee, the author is expected to send the manuscript to a certified agency for language editing and submit the certificate to IJB on a due date.

 

 Publication Fee

 Publication Fee for International Authors

Non-Iranian authors should pay 300 € for the publication of their accepted manuscripts. (For the time being there is no possibility of fast reviewing and publication).

Please send a copy of the payment receipt to this email: ijbnigeb@gmail.com  and upload it on the IJB website (Please mention your manuscript ID on the receipt).

 

Publication Fee for Iranian ŮŽAuthors

From 16 May 2022, Iranian (national) authors should pay 6,000,000 Rials for the publication of their accepted manuscripts.  The first payment (3,000,000 Rials) after acceptance of the manuscript, the second payment (3,000,000 Rials) after the publication of the manuscript. The publication fee for Brief Reports, Short Communications, and letters to Editor is 3,000,000 Rials.

  • Payments should be done through the Bank account number of the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran with the following information (Code Shenaseh is Mandatory)

 Sheba code: IR680100004001024103007689

Deposit ID (Code Shenaseh): 307024182114504000000000000022

Please send a copy of the payment receipt to: ijbnigeb@gmail.com and upload it on the IJB website (Please mention your manuscript ID on the receipt).

 

 

LICENSE

Iranian Journal of Biotechnology applies the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC 4.0) to works we publish. Under this license, MISRC and MMESA retain ownership of the copyright for their content, but permits unrestricted commercial use, distribution, and reproduction of the article in any medium, provided that the original work is properly cited. No permission is required from the authors or the publisher. For any reuse or redistribution of a work, users must also make clear the license terms under which the work was published. This broad license was developed to facilitate free access to, and unrestricted reuse of, original works of all types. Applying this standard license to your work will ensure that it is freely and openly available in perpetuity.