INFORMATION FOR AUTHORS

Aims and Scope
The aim of Cancer Genetics is to publish high quality scientific papers on the cellular, genetic and molecular aspects of cancer, including cancer predisposition and clinical diagnostic applications. Specific areas of interest include descriptions of new chromosomal, molecular or epigenetic alterations in benign and malignant diseases: novel laboratory approaches for identification and characterization of chromosomal rearrangements or genomic alterations in cancer cells: correlation of genetic changes with pathology and clinical presentation: and the molecular genetics of cancer predisposition. To reach a basic science and clinical multidisciplinary audience, we welcome original full-length articles, reviews, meeting summaries, brief reports, and letters to the editor.

Online Submission
All manuscripts should be submitted via the online submission system at http://ees.elsevier.com/cg/.

Manuscript Categories

Review Articles. Review articles fitting within the Aims and Scope of the journal will be considered for publication. Authors wishing to submit an unsolicited review should send a brief, 250-word synopsis of the planned review to cancergenetics@elsevier.com for pre-submission approval by the editor.

Original Research. Original research manuscripts must include the following sections: Abstract (up to 200 words), Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, and References. Acknowledgments (optional) and figure legends should also be included in the manuscript file. Authors should include a cover letter clearly stating the novel findings described in the paper.

Meeting Summaries require pre-submission approval by the Editor. Please email proposals for meeting summaries to cancergenetics@elsevier.com.

Commentaries require pre-submission approval by the Editor. Please email proposals for meeting summaries to cancergenetics@elsevier.com.

Brief Communications must be less than 2,000 words, with a maximum of two tables and/or figures. Brief communications must include the following sections: Abstract (up to 200 words), Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, and References. Authors should include a cover letter clearly stating the novel findings described in the communication.

Letters to the Editor must be less than 750 words, with no figures or tables.

Manuscript Requirements
Title page. The title page should include the paper's title, names of all authors (no degrees), and their academic or professional affiliations. Superscript letters in alphabetical order should designate each author to the corresponding affiliation. An asterisk should be placed after the superscript letter to designate the corresponding author. The affiliation of the corresponding author, given on a footnote, should include a complete address with street name and number, telephone and fax numbers and e-mail address of corresponding author. Please include a brief running title and up to 5 keywords on the title page.

Illustrations. Electronic art can be submitted as EPS, JPG, PDF, TIFF, or Postscript. Authors must label in black (solid numbers should be used) the chromosomes on the karyotype using arrows to indicate the abnormal chromosome(s). Authors are encouraged to refrain from using annotations within the karyotype itself and include these in the appropriate legend. The legend to the figures must be typed on a separate page. The legend must match the information presented in the corresponding picture. For more information on submission guidelines for figures, visit http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.

Color art. Upon submission of the manuscript, authors must state their intent to pay for the publication of figures with color. Once the article is accepted for publication, the exact charge will be determined by the publisher and an agreement e-mailed in the form of a PDF file. As a guideline, there is a $650 charge for the first color figure and $100 for every additional color figure in the article. Color artwork will appear in color on the web site at no charge.

Tables. All tables, numbered with Arabic numerals, should have descriptive titles. Use vertical rules only. Use superscript letters in alphabetical order in the table footnote section.

Acknowledgments. All funding sources should be declared in the Acknowledgments section, directly preceding the References.

References
Authors are responsible for the completeness and accuracy of all references. References are to be listed and numbered consecutively in the order in which they are cited in the text. Citations in the text are listed consecutively using numbers in parentheses, i.e. (1), or (2, 3), or (4-6). Periodical abbreviations should follow those given by Index Medicus. For references that have more than 3 authors, list the first three authors followed by et al. Samples of reference styles are given below:

Journal: 1. Tirado CA, Meloni-Ehrig AM, Edwards T, et al. Cryptic ins(4;11)(q21;q23q23) detected by fluorescence in situ hybridization: a variant of t(4;11)(q21;q23) in an infant with a precursor B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia; report of a second case. Cancer Genet Cytogenet 2007;174:166-169.

2. Biegel JA. Cytogenetics and molecular genetics of childhood brain tumors. Neuro Oncol 1999;1:139-151.

Book: 3. Sandberg AA, Stone JA. Cytogenetics and molecular biology of neural tumors. Austin: RG Landes Co., 2008.

Edited book: 4. Schaffer LG, Slovak ML, Campbell LJ, editors. ISCN 2009: an international system for human cytogenetic nomenclature. Basel: Karger, 2009.

Chapter: 5. Sandberg AA, Chen Z. Cancer cytogenetics: nomenclature and clinical applications. In: Kurzrock R, Talpaz M, editors. Molecular biology in cancer medicine. London: Martin Dunits Ltd. 1995; pp.54-84.

Online publication: 6. Meloni-Ehrig AM. dic(17;20)(p11.2;q11.2). Available at: http://AtlasGeneticsOncology.org/Genes/dic1720p11q11ID1485.html. Accessed on November 8, 2008.

Supplementary Materials
Cancer Genetics accepts supplementary data files to accompany the online article, allowing authors to support and enhance their papers. Supplementary materials may include additional images, tables, datasets, video clips, etc. All supplementary materials are subject to peer review, however, supplementary materials will not be edited, and will be posted as provided by the authors. There are no limitations for length, figures and references in Supplementary Materials.

Nomenclature
The journal will adhere to the cytogenetics nomenclature of the latest version of the International System of Human Cytogenetic Nomenclature (ISCN 2009). One exception to the ISCN is to use a hyphen (-) instead of a tilde (˜) when a break occurs between separate bands. This exception, which is only applicable to the title and abstract, is necessary because some abstracting and indexing databases, including PubMed, do not support the tilde (˜). Human genes should be referenced according to HUGO and written in uppercase letters and italicized (e.g. TP53). RNA and proteins should be written in uppercase letters but not italicized. Commercial fluorescence in situ hybridization probe names should also be written in uppercase letters, not italicized. When referring to the probe itself, please use the name provided by manufacturer (e.g. TEL/AML1, AML1/ETO); however, the FISH nomenclature should be written using the gene symbols according to HUGO. All abbreviations should be defined when first used. Mutation descriptions must follow the Human Genome Variation Society (HGVS) nomenclature, available at http://www.hgvs.org/mutnomen/.

Language Quality and Editing
Authors not fluent in the English language should have their manuscript edited by an expert in the language prior to submission to the journal, thus avoiding delays in the review and publication of their paper. Poor quality of English masks the possible scientific merit of some papers, and can delay publication or lead to outright rejection of the paper. More on language editing and quality may be found at http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorsview.authors/languageediting/, and information on language editing services can be found at http://webshop.elsevier.com/languageediting/.

Peer Reviewers
Authors must include three suggestions for peer reviewers and their contact information.

Other Information

Ethical Considerations
Cancer Genetics considers research and publication misconduct to be a serious breach of ethics, and will take such actions as necessary to address such misconduct. Authors should refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors for full information. Authors are also encouraged to visit Elsevier's Ethical Guidelines for Journal Publication.

Plagiarism and duplicate submission are serious acts of misconduct. Plagiarism is defined as unreferenced use of published or unauthorized use of unpublished ideas, and may occur at any stage of planning, researching, writing, or publication. Plagiarism takes many forms, from 'passing off' another's paper as the author's own paper, to copying or paraphrasing substantial parts of another's paper (without attribution), to claiming results from research conducted by others. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable. Duplicate submission/publication occurs when two or more papers, without full cross-reference, share the same hypothesis, data, discussion points, or conclusions.

Competing Interests
Effective February 1, 2012, each author must complete and sign the Research Funding Support, Conflict of Interest Disclosure, and Authorship Agreement form (pdf, doc, additional authors pdf, doc) at the time of manuscript submission. All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding.

Requirements for Studies Involving Live Human or Animal Subjects
The manuscript should contain a statement that the work has been approved by the appropriate ethical committees related to the institution(s) in which it was performed and that subjects gave informed consent. Studies involving experiments with animals must state that their care was in accordance with institution guidelines. Patients' and volunteers' names, initials, and hospital numbers should not be used.

Copyright. Upon acceptance of an article by the journal, the authors will be asked to transfer copyright of the article to the publisher. This transfer form is to be signed and returned to the publisher at the address shown on the form, which will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information under the U.S. Copyright Law.

Article Tracking for Accepted Manuscripts
Authors seeking information about the status of their accepted paper can log-in at http://www.elsevier.com/authors. The reference number needed to track the paper will be sent by Elsevier as soon as the paper is received from the editorial office. Please note that the number assigned from production will differ from the manuscript number assigned during peer review.

NIH Public Access Policy Compliance
To comply with the NIH Public Access Policy, Elsevier will deposit to PubMed Central (PMC) author manuscripts on behalf of authors reporting NIH funded research. The NIH policy requires that NIH-funded authors submit to PubMed Central (PMC), or have submitted on their behalf, their peer-reviewed author manuscripts, to appear on PMC no later than 12 months after final publication. Elsevier will send to PMC the final peer-reviewed manuscript, which was accepted for publication and sent to Elsevier's production department, and that reflects any author-agreed changes made in response to peer-review comments. Elsevier will authorize the author manuscript's public access posting 12 months after final publication. Following the deposit by Elsevier, authors will receive further communications from the NIH with respect to the submission.

Note: Authors must declare their NIH funding (or the other funding bodies listed below) when completing the copyright transfer form.

Other Funding Body Policies
Elsevier has also worked with the following funding bodies to ensure that our authors can comply with their policies:

- Arthritis Research Campaign (UK)
- British Heart Foundation (UK)
- Cancer Research (UK)
- Chief Scientist Office
- Department of Health (UK)
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute (US)
- Medical Research Council (UK)
- Wellcome Trust (UK)

For full details on how these policies are implemented, please see complete information at: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorsview.authors/fundingbodyagreements

Sponsored Articles
Cancer Genetics offers authors the option to sponsor non-subscriber access to their articles on Elsevier's electronic publishing platforms. For more information please view our Sponsored Articles page.

Contact Information
Jaclyn A. Biegel, PhD, Editor-in-Chief
Editorial Office: cancergenetics@elsevier.com

Cancer Genetics Online Submission:
http://ees.elsevier.com/cg/



Updated December 2010