TopAuthor Guidelines

Information for Contributors

Microbial Biotechnology invites original research articles related to the following subject areas:

Biocatalysis and green chemistry
Primary metabolites
Food, beverages and supplements
Fungal biotechnology
Secondary metabolites and natural products
Pharmaceuticals
Diagnostics
Agricultural biotechnology and feedstock formation and conversions
Algal biotechnology
Bioenergy
Biomining, including oil recovery and processing
Bioremediation
Biopolymers, biomaterials
Bionanotechnology
Biosurfactants and bioemulsifiers
Compatible solutes and bioprotectants
Biosensors, monitoring systems, quantitative microbial risk assessment
Technology development
Protein engineering
Functional genomics
Metabolic design
Systems analysis, modelling
Process engineering
Biologically-based analytical methods
Microbially-based strategies in public health
Microbially-based strategies to influence global processes

It is a sister journal of the premier microbiology journals Molecular Microbiology, Environmental Microbiology and Cellular Microbiology.

The types of articles published in the Journal are:

Research Articles
Brief Reports
Rapid Communications
Reviews
Minireviews
Correspondence

In addition, "Microbial Genomics Update" and "Web Alert", plus other items relating to the journal content and biotechnological applicability, will be regularly featured.

Special Issues
Each year, one or two issues will be Special Issues devoted to particularly topical subjects, and edited by expert guest editors.

Submission of Manuscripts

Manuscripts must be submitted online at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/microbio. Full instructions and support are available on the site and a user ID and password can be obtained on the first visit. Support can be contacted by phone (+1 434 817 2040 ext. 167), e-mail (support@scholarone.com) or at http://mcv3support.custhelp.com. Except in extenuating circumstances, only manuscripts submitted via the Journal's online site will be considered for publication. If for some reason online submission is not possible please contact the Editorial Office for assistance.

Papers must be submitted exclusively to Microbial Biotechnology, and are accepted on the understanding that they have not been, and will not be, published elsewhere. The corresponding author must give consent to publication in a cover letter sent with the paper, which also should explicitly state that the content and authorship of the submitted manuscript has been approved by all authors.

No page charges will be levied, and essential colour illustrations may be included in the manuscript without charge.

Presentation of Manuscripts

Please note that authors should always retain a copy of all material. Papers should be as concise as possible, compatible with clarity and completeness, and should not normally exceed eight printed pages. As a guide, this corresponds to 17 pages of double line-spaced manuscript with three figures/tables, 15 pages of manuscript with six figures/tables or 14 pages of manuscript with eight figures/tables. The text should be double-spaced. Important material that would make the paper excessive in length, or that is not absolutely essential to document the main findings of the paper, may be submitted as "Supporting Information" (see below).

The title page should include the author's name(s), affiliation(s) where the work was conducted, and the address to which all correspondence and proofs should be sent. Telephone and fax numbers should also be supplied, along with an e-mail address, if available. Present addresses of authors should appear as a footnote. A running title of not more than 50 characters should be provided.

All original research papers must include a Summary not exceeding 200 words. The Summary should not include extensive background or describe what was done, but clearly formulate the principal findings and articulate the advance achieved. The main text of full papers should be subdivided into Introduction, Results, Discussion and Experimental Procedures, and can include additional subheadings. The Results and Discussion sections may be combined. Experimental procedures should be sufficiently detailed to enable the experiments to be reproduced.

In Brief Reports and Rapid Communications , Results and Discussion are combined, there is no section Experimental Procedures, and essential experimental details should be incorporated into the corresponding figure and table legends.

All pages must be numbered consecutively. Acknowledgments, References, Table and Figure legends should follow the main text, each starting on a new page. The preferred position of tables and figures should be indicated in the margin of the text. Footnotes should be avoided.

Text
Files should be formatted double-spaced with no hyphenation and automatic word-wrap (no hard returns within paragraphs). Please type your text consistently, e.g. take care to distinguish between '1' (one) and 'l' (lower-case L) and '0' (zero) and 'O' (capital O), etc.

References
Authors should use the system illustrated below. Only full articles that have been published or are 'in press' may be included in the reference list. In the text, unpublished or submitted studies should be referred to as such (e.g. J. M. Smith, unpublished), or as a personal communication. It is the author's responsibility to obtain permission from colleagues to include their work as a personal communication. In the text, references should be inserted in parentheses in date order, as follows: (Pugsley, 1996; Matsunaga et al., 1997). The reference list should be in alphabetical order according to the first-named author. Papers with two authors should follow those of the first-named author, arranged in alphabetical order according to the name of the second author. Articles with more than two authors should follow those of the first named author in chronological order; with multiple references from the same first author in a given year, please list the references in cited order. The title of the article must be included. For papers with up to seven authors, the names of all authors should be listed. For papers with eight or more authors, the first six names should be listed, followed by 'et al.'. Standard abbreviations of journal titles should be used, as in the Index Medicus. Please see the following examples:

Straetz, M., Mau, M., and Timmis K.N. (1996) System to study horizontal gene exchange among microorganisms without cultivation of recipients. Mol Microbiol 22: 207-215.

Sahm, K., MacGregor, B.J., Jørgensen, B.B., and Stahl, D.A (1999) Sulphate reduction and vertical distribution of sulphate-reducing bacteria quantified by rRNA slot-blot hybridization in a coastal marine sediment. Environ Microbiol 1: 65-74.

Finlay, B.I., Fenchel, T., and Embley, T.M. (1993) Methanogen endosymbiosis in anaerobic climates. In Trends in Microbial Ecology. Guerrero, R., and Pedros-Alio, C. (eds). Barcelona: Spanish Society for Microbiology, pp. 285-288.

References to material available on the World Wide Web can be given, but only if the information is available without charge to readers on an official site. Authors will be asked to provide electronic copies of the cited material for inclusion on the Microbial Biotechnology web site at the discretion of the Editors. The format for citations is as follows:

Beckleheimer, J. (1994). How do you cite URLs in a bibliography? [WWW document]. URL www.nrlssc.navy.mil/meta/bibliography.html

Tables
Tables should be typed as text, using 'tabs' to align columns. The use of table editors should be avoided. Do not use graphics software to create tables.

Figures
Please send us digital versions of your figures. The best quality of reproduction both in print and online can be achieved if files are saved in formats that are appropriate for the content of the image. More details are available on our Digital Illustration Page at http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/illustration.asp. EPS and TIFF files are preferable, but please consult our web site for further details. Please note that your paper will be processed more quickly if the figures are supplied according to these standards, and do not have to be relabelled or redrawn. Please ensure that electronic artwork is prepared such that, after reduction it will fit across one or two columns or two-thirds page width (80 mm, 169 mm or 110 mm, respectively) as required. Please also ensure that all lettering will be clear and easy to read at the final reproduction size, i.e. no labels should be too large or too small. Avoid using tints if possible; if they are essential to the understanding of the figure, try to make them coarse. No artwork should be incorporated into the text files.

In the full-text online edition of the journal, figure legends may be truncated in abbreviated links to the full-screen version. Therefore, the first 100 characters of any legend should inform the reader of key aspects of the figure.

Supporting Information
It may be possible to publish online additional material, such as multimedia adjuncts, large data sets, extra colour illustrations, bibliographies, or any other material directly related to the submitted article, for which insufficient space in Microbial Biotechnology is available. Please clearly label all Supporting Information files to ensure they are given Editorial consideration. There is a maximum file size of 5 MB except in the case of video clips which are requested to be limited to 10 MB. For more information please visit http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/suppmat.asp.

Genomics Data Submission
Any nucleotide sequence data reported or referred to in a submitted manuscript must be deposited in one of the three major collaborative databases-DDBJ/EMBL/GenBank-which exchange data on a daily basis. The suggested wording for referring to accession number information is: "These sequence data have been submitted to the DDBJ/EMBL/GenBank databases under accession number U12345". Micro-array experiments should be standardized (e.g. see: http://www.mged.org/Workgroups/MIAME/miame_checklist.html), and the data reported should be deposited in one of the principal public data bases, such as GEO (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/) and ArrayExpress (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/) and the corresponding accession number given.

Distribution of Strains
The publication of an article in Microbial Biotechnology is subject to the understanding that authors will distribute freely any strains, clones, antibodies or other reagents not readily available described therein, for use in academic research.

Mathematics
In-line equations should be typed as text. The use of graphics programs and aftermarket 'equation editors' should be avoided. Displayed equations are rekeyed by our typesetter.

Standard abbreviations should be as recommended in Quantities, Units, and Symbols (The Royal Society, 1988). Abbreviations of non-standard terms should follow, in parentheses, their first full usage.

External URLs
As web site content and addresses are constantly changing, we would prefer that authors, wherever possible, do not include external URLs in the main body of the manuscript. If possible please include necessary URLs as references as shown above.

Genetic Nomenclature
Standard genetic nomenclature should be used. For more detailed information, authors should consult Bachman (Microbiol Rev 47: 180-230, 1983) for E. coli K-12; Sanderson and Roth (Microbiol Rev 47: 310-453, 1983) for Salmonella typhimurium; Holloway et al. (Microbiol Rev 43: 73-102, 1979) for Bacillus subtilis; Perkins et al. (Microbiol Rev 46: 426-570, 1982) for Neurospora crassa; and the Handbook of Genetics Vol. 1 (R. C. King, ed., Plenum Press, 1974) for Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Restriction Enzymes
Microbial Biotechnology has adopted the revised convention of naming restriction enzymes without italics. The previous style was EcoRI, KpnI, HindIII, SacII, etc. These should now be written EcoRI, KpnI, HindIII, SacII. For more information on the updated guidelines to naming restriction enzymes please consult Roberts et al. (Nucleic Acids Res 31: 1805-1812).

Accepted Manuscripts
Authors must ensure that all sections of their paper are submitted in editable formats. The main text, excluding figures, should be provided in a single Word or Rich Text Format file, updated to incorporate all revisions. Accepted manuscripts are transmitted by the Editor to the Production Office, which deals with all subsequent enquiries related to publication.

Word 2007
A document created in Word 2007 can result in compatibility problems with typesetting systems. Authors who are using Word 2007 to create their documents should follow the instructions below to ensure their article is processed as efficiently as possible:

1. You should not use the 'Insert Equation'‚ feature on the Ribbon as this renders maths in a format that is unsuitable for typesetting. Instead, click Insert->Object->Microsoft Equation 3.0‚. After clicking on 'Object'‚ you will be shown a drop-down menu from which you must select 'Microsoft Equation 3.0'‚ to create your equation in the usual way.
2. When saving your file, you should use Word's 'Save as'‚ function and save your document as an older (.doc) file type and not as the new (.docx) format.

Exclusive Licence Form
A condition of publication is that the publisher is granted an exclusive licence to publish the paper. Authors must therefore send a completed Exclusive Licence Form (ELF) to the Production Office immediately after acceptance of a manuscript. A delay in providing the signed ELF will entrain an unnecessary delay in publication. Please note that signature of the ELF does not affect ownership of copyright in the material. After submission, authors will retain the right to publish their paper in various media/circumstances (please see the form for further details). Government employees in both the US and UK need to complete the Box C section, and copyright in such cases does not need to be assigned. Authors can download the form through ScholarOne Manuscripts (formerly known as Manuscript Central), or may like to download a copy of the form at http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/pdf/MBT_ELF.pdf.

OnlineOpen
OnlineOpen is a pay-to-publish service from Wiley-Blackwell that offers authors whose papers are accepted for publication the opportunity to pay up-front for their article to become open access (i.e. free for all to view and download) via Wiley Interscience. Each OnlineOpen article will be subject to a one-off fee of £1300 (USD $2600), excluding colour charges, to be met by or on behalf of the Author in advance of publication. Upon online publication, the article (both full-text and PDF versions) will be available to all for viewing and download free of charge. The print version of the article will also be branded as OnlineOpen and will draw attention to the fact that the paper can be downloaded for free via the Wiley Interscience service.

Any authors wishing to send their paper OnlineOpen will be required to complete the combined payment and copyright licence form available from our website at:

http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/pdf/MBT_OOF.pdf

(Please note this form is for use with OnlineOpen material ONLY.)

Once complete, this form should be sent to the Production Office, along with the colour work agreement form, if required, at the time of acceptance or as soon as possible after that (preferably within 24 hours to avoid any delays in processing).

**IMPORTANT: Please do not inform the Editorial Office or Editors prior to acceptance whether or not you intend to take up the Online Open option.**

NEW: online production tracking is now available for your article through Wiley-Blackwell's Author Services.
Author Services enables authors to track their accepted article through the production process to publication online and in print. Authors can check the status of their articles online and choose to receive automated e-mails at key stages of production so they don't need to contact the production editor to check on progress. On receipt of the article at the publisher, the author will receive an e-mail with a unique link that enables them to register and have their article automatically added to the system. Please ensure that a complete e-mail address is provided when submitting the manuscript. Visit http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/ for more details on online production tracking and for a wealth of resources including FAQs and tips on article preparation, submission and more.

Proofs
Page proofs will be despatched about four weeks after acceptance of papers and should be corrected and returned within two days of receipt. Proofs will be sent via email notification of a link with a downloadable Acrobat PDF (portable document format) file. Only corrections and essential changes can be made at this stage. The cost of any extensive changes will be charged to the authors. The Journal reserves the right to make minor modifications to manuscripts that do not conform to accepted standards. Such alterations will always be submitted to the authors for approval at the proof stage. Online publication will normally be within 2 weeks of receipt of corrected proofs by the Production Office.

Early View
The journal is covered by Wiley-Blackwell's Early View service. Early View articles are complete full-text articles published online in advance of their publication in a printed issue. Articles are therefore available as soon as they are ready, rather than having to wait for the next scheduled print issue. Early View articles are complete and final. They have been fully reviewed, revised and edited for publication, and the authors' final corrections have been incorporated. Because they are in final form, no changes can be made after online publication. The nature of Early View articles means that they do not yet have volume, issue or page numbers, so Early View articles cannot be cited in the traditional way. They are therefore given a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), which allows the article to be cited and tracked before it is allocated to an issue. After print publication, the DOI remains valid and can continue to be used to cite and access the article. More information about DOIs can be found at http://www.doi.org/faq.html

Offprints
A PDF offprint of the online published article will be provided free of charge to the corresponding author, and may be distributed subject to the Publisher's terms and conditions. Paper offprints of the printed published article may be purchased if ordered via the method stipulated on the instructions that accompany the proofs. Printed offprints are posted to the correspondence address given for the paper unless a different address is specified when ordered. Note that it is not uncommon for printed offprints to take up to eight weeks to arrive after publication of the journal.

Electronic offprints are sent to the corresponding author at his or her e-mail address on the title page of the paper, unless advised otherwise; therefore please ensure that the name, address and e-mail of the receiving author are clearly indicated on the manuscript title page.