Presubmission Inquiries

Authors interested in getting rapid feedback on whether a manuscript is likely to be published in Cancer Biology & Medicine are encouraged to send inquiries by e-mail (editor@cancerbiomed.org). The inquiries should at least include an abstract and significant figures and tables. A paper that is invited for submission after a presubmission inquiry is still subject to editorial review to assess for external peer review.

Online Submission

We encourage authors to submit manuscripts via our online submission and tracking system: http://mc03.manuscriptcentral.com/cbm. Please avoid sending your manuscript by e-mail attachment.

Questions and required documents in submission process:

● Manuscript type

● Manuscript title

● Running title with no more than 10 words

● Full names including first and middle names of all authors should be provided, and the affiliation of everyone, as well as the e-mail address of corresponding author(s) should be also included

● Abstract is the sketch of core content of the whole paper, particularly, it should offer the purpose of the study, the methods used, and results and conclusions in an original article. References could not appear in abstract, also, abbreviations and acronyms should be avoided

● At least 5 keywords should be provided on the main information of the paper

● A cover letter should be uploaded along with the paper (see more details below)

● The approval from an ethics committee should be offered when the paper, especially original article, refers to clinical trials

● Upload PDFs or other files for Supplementary Data (if applicable)

● Answers to some other questions such as listing the reviewers recommended by author(s) and so on.

Our online submission system will prompt you to upload the components of your manuscript (cover letter, text, figures, supplemental data, etc.) as separate files. Upon completion of this step, the website will build a composite PDF file of your entire manuscript. Authors are responsible to check the format of manuscript and quality of figures in the converted PDF file and approve the submission.

Cover Letter

Each submission must be accompanied by a cover letter, which should contain the following information:

● The title and a brief summary of the significant findings or points of the manuscript

● A statement of exclusive submission and no plagiarism or other misconducts

● A statement that the manuscript has been read and approved for submission by all the authors

● The name, address, and telephone number of the corresponding author

● Suggestions for appropriate reviewers and reviewer exclusions

Status Inquiries

Authors can check the status of the submitted manuscripts at any time in the review process by accessing the system with their account and password. Please feel free to send status queries to the editor@cancerbiomed.org.

Revision Submission  

The revised version of manuscript should be submitted within two months after authors receive the reviewers comments. Please contact the editor if extra time is needed for revision. The journal generally allows only one round of revision. Except for the revisions, authors should upload a point-by-point response to the reviewers’ comments. Please do not upload revised manuscripts as new submissions.

Original Article

Original Articles report significant new findings or important clinical experience in cancer area, which have valuable implications.

● 300-word abstract

● 6,000 words of text

● 50 references or more

● 8 figures and/or tables in maximum

● Results and Discussion must not be combined

● Additional display items may be published as supplementary information

Editorial

Editorials are usually invited, commenting on the leading-edge discoveries in cancer research and significant advances on cancer diagnosis and treatment.

● 2,500 words of text

● 20 references in maximum

● 3 figures and/or tables in maximum

Perspective

Perspectives are written only at the invitation of the Editorial Board. Perspectives focus on a specific field or subfield within a larger discipline and discuss current advances and future directions, sometimes with personal insights.

● 2,500 words of text

● 20 references in maximum

● 3 figures and/or tables in maximum

Review

Reviews discuss recent progress on topics of broad interest to cancer researchers or cancer care professionals. Solicited reviews will also be sent out for peer review.

● 250-word abstract

● 7,000 words of text

● 75 references or more

● 7 figures and/or tables in maximum

Minireview

Minireviews are shorter reviews, usually based on recently published original studies. Solicited minireviews will also be sent out for peer review.

● 200-word abstract

● 4,000 words of text

● 50 references or more

● 5 figures and/or tables in maximum

Letter to the Editor

Readers are encouraged to comment on articles published in Cancer Biology & Medicine, via Letters to the Editor. Letters to the editor will not undergo peer review.

● A Letter should clearly indicate the original source.

● Response to a Letter should reference the Letter in the first paragraphs and its title should include the Letter title.

● 500 words of text

● 5 references or more 

Practice Guideline

Practice Guidelines introduce consensuses or clinical guidelines produced by international authoritative groups or societies about cancer.

Authors should prepare their manuscripts according to the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals established by the ICMJE (http://www.icmje.org) (http://www.icmje.org). The editors have the right to return manuscripts that are not in accordance with the journal’s policies and format requirements. Manuscripts must be written in concise and fluent English. It is suggested that authors have their manuscript polished by colleagues and/or by professional English language editing services before submission.

The manuscript of observational and experimental articles should include title page, abstract, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, acknowledgements, conflict of interest statement, references, figures, tables, and supplementary information. All pages of the manuscript should be numbered consecutively, beginning with the title page.

Title Page

Title Key information should be included in the title, which enables electronic retrieval of the article both sensitive and specific. The title should not contain any abbreviations except for commonly used gene or protein acronyms. The total length of the title should not exceed 20 words.

Authors and Affiliations For each author, the name, mailing address, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address should be indicated clearly; numbers in superscript should be used to indicate the department, institution, city with postal code and country.

Author Contribution Cancer Biology & Medicine requires a statement specifying the contributions of every author on the title page.

Source(s) of Support Any support in the form of grants, equipment, drugs, or all of these should be claimed.

Running Title A running title of no more than 10 words is required.

Abstract

This should be a single paragraph of about 250 words, accurately reflecting the content of the article. Abbreviations and reference citation should be avoided in the abstract. The abstract should describe all key novel findings of the study. Structured abstracts (Objective, Methods, Results, and Conclusion) are preferred for original research articles. For articles on clinical trials, items identified by the CONSORT group should be provided and the trial registration number should be listed at the end of the abstract.

Keywords

Authors should list keywords (up to five) which reflect the key information of the article. Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) should be used as a guide (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/meshhome.html).

Introduction

The Introduction section should provide the necessary background and the specific purpose of the research. Cite references to the most pertinent articles and avoid including data or conclusion of the study being reported.

Materials and Methods

Information about materials and methods should be brief and adequate so that all procedures can be repeated by others. Methods that have been well described in previous publications should be merely cited with appropriate references. Only new and substantially modified methods need detailed explanation. The generic name (s), dose (s), and administration route (s) of all drugs and chemicals should be precisely identified.

Describe statistical methods with enough details. Provide references for the statistical methods when possible and explain whether their data conform to the assumptions of the tests. The computer software used should be specified. Authors should be aware that statistical analysis and presentation is an essential part to review for all referees.

Manuscripts involving humans and animals must include a statement in this section that the research has been reviewed and approved by institutional ethical committee before conduction of research. For manuscripts involving human subjects, a statement that the informed consent was obtained from each subject is required.

Results

The results should be presented in logical sequence in the text, tables, and figures, accurately describing important findings of the study. Concisely summarize the data presented in tables and figures, avoiding excessive explanations.

Discussion

Accurately interpret the new and important findings of the study and discuss the results in a broader context. Avoid repeating materials already showed in the Introduction or the Results section. Pertinent data in previous publications should be appropriately discussed and cited. Discuss the limitations and implications of the study. Avoid drawing conclusions without adequate support by the data.

Conflict of Interest Statement

In this section, whether there is a Conflict of Interest should be stated. Authors must disclose the details of all conflicts if there are any.

Acknowledgements

Contributions of non-authors should be acknowledged. The corresponding author is responsible to obtain the written permission from those mentioned in this section. The funding sources (if any) should be listed, with grant name and number.

References

Cancer Biology & Medicine requires the citation of original research articles wherever appropriate. Number the references in the order of their first mention. References should include only articles that are published or in press. Avoid citing abstracts, personal communication, or retracted articles. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of references and should ensure that the pertinent literatures are appropriately cited and comprehensively discussed. Please use the following style for references:

Article in a Journal: Jiang Y, Yuan H, Li Z, Ji X, Shen Q, Tuo J, et al. Global pattern and trends of colorectal cancer survival: a systematic review of population-based registration data. Cancer Biol Med. 2021;19(2):175–86.

Article in a book: Gradishar W. Male breast cancer. In: Harris J, Lippman M, Morrow M, Osborne C, eds. Diseases of the breast. 2nd ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. 2000: 661-7.

An entire book: Bruce A. Chabner, Dan L. Longo. Cancer Chemotherapy and Biotherapy: Principles and Practice. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. 2006.

Online first articles: Wang S, Liu Y, Zhang L, Sun Z. Methods for monitoring cancer cell pyroptosis. Cancer Biol Med. Published online first: Dec 22, 2021. DOI: 10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2021.0504.

Tables

Type tables on separate sheets and number them consecutively in Arabic numerals according to the order of their first mention in the text. Tables should be self-explanatory and include a brief descriptive title above. Column headings should be concise, with units of measurement in parentheses. Explain all abbreviations in footnotes and use the following symbols, in sequence: †, ‡, §, ¶, etc. *, **, ***, etc. should be reserved for P values.

Figures

The number of figures for each manuscript format should not exceed the limitation as above mentioned. Importantly, graphic models with essential annotations and interpretations, such as pathway illustrations, are needed when the content refers to mechanism, theory, or core research findings, especially in review or original article.

Figures should be labeled in consecutive Arabic numerals and presented in the order they are mentioned in the text. If reuse of a figure in previous publications is necessary, the author must provide the written permission from the copyright holder and indicate the original source in the legend.

The figures should be submitted as separate files, in TIF, EPS, JPEG, or GIF formats and should be sized at 127×173 mm (5×7 inches). High resolution is preferred. At least 300 dpi for color figures and 1,000 dpi for line figures are required. Photomicrographs should have internal scale markers. Symbols, arrows, or letters used in photomicrographs should contrast with the background.

Figure legends should be concise and comprehensive and be listed in a separate page. Ensure that legends and figures match up correctly. Indicate stains and magnifications and clearly explain symbols, arrows, abbreviations, and letters used in the legends.

Figures submitted with a manuscript could be minimally processed, but the published figures must correctly represent the original data [images of electrophoretic gels, Western blots, and microscopy; illustration; flow diagram; other photographs or images of clinical and basic researches; forest plot; as well as statistic figures, for instance, bar graph, line graph, survival plot, box-and-whisker plot (box plot), dot plot, scatterplot, etc. are all included].

All the unprocessed data with raw figures and tables are requested to submit for manuscript evaluation. It may be helpful in resolving the issues in process of peer review and in responding to post-publication issues that may arise with published papers. 

Supplementary Information

Supplementary data should enhance, but not be essential to, a reader's understanding of the paper. Without them, the article also must be complete and clear. Supplementary data will also be sent out for peer review as equal in quality as the main paper.

Supplementary files may consist of the following contents:

● Figures and/or tables

● Materials and methods mentioned in the main paper should be described in details

● Database information

● Electronic multimedia documents (e.g., videos, audios)

Restrictions on number and size of files:

● The number of supplementary files per article should not exceed 8.

● The file size should not exceed 10 MB.

Submit supplementary information as a separate file through the submission system.

Each supplementary item/file must be referenced at least once in the paper. The form of tables or figures in supplementary items should follow the related requirements used for the manuscript, for instance, “Figure S1” stands for supplementary Figure 1, or “Table S3” stands for supplementary Table 3.