Instructions to Authors: Introduction
GENOME RESEARCH welcomes high-quality research papers presenting novel data on the topics of genome structure and function, comparative genomics, molecular evolution, genome-scale quantitative and population genetics, proteomics, epigenomics, and systems biology. The journal also features exciting gene discoveries and reports of cutting-edge computational biology and high-throughput methodologies.
New data in these areas are published as Research, Methods, and Resource reports. Complete data sets are presented electronically on the journal's website where appropriate. The journal also publishes Review articles, Perspectives and Commentaries. All submissions to the journal undergo an initial editorial review. Those selected by the Editor as suitable for the scope and aims of the journal are peer-reviewed.
Average turnaround time for review is thirty days. For papers accepted subject to revision, only one revised version will be considered; it should be submitted within two months of the provisional acceptance. Online publication time for copyedited and journal formatted manuscripts is approximately one month from acceptance. Accepted manuscripts, if eligible, post online within hours of acceptance.
The journal only accepts papers that present original research that has not been published previously. Conference presentations or posting unrefereed manuscripts on preprint servers will not be considered prior publication. Authors are responsible for updating the archived preprint with the journal reference (including DOI), and a link to the published article on the Genome Research website upon publication. Submission to the journal implies that another journal or book is not currently considering the paper. Submitted manuscripts are subject to press embargo.
Material and Data Release Policy for papers published in Genome Research
Material Release
As a condition for the publication of a paper in Genome Research, the responsible author(s) must make relevant materials needed to replicate the published work freely available to requesting
researchers. The corresponding author will be asked to formally agree to this general principle upon acceptance of a paper
for publication. The requests for material must be reasonable, taking into account issues such as limited supplies and costs
associated with preparing and shipping samples. The following are examples of requests for materials that are deemed to be
reasonable:
- DNA and/or cell lines used in large-scale genome studies of individuals or species
- Individual recombinant DNA clones or clone collections
- Tissue samples and/or antibodies used to characterize genes and proteins functionally
- Computational algorithms and in-house software necessary to reproduce work within the manuscript
If materials are held in repositories or if a third-party distribution agreement is in place, then the distributor name and
location should be included in the manuscript.
Data Release
Genome Research encourages all data producers to make their data as freely accessible as possible prior to publication. Available pre-publication data accompanied by fair use enhances the scientific quality of work by the entire research community and benefits society more generally. All data in submitted manuscripts should be made available for review by referees through a private pre-publication link included within the manuscript. Upon publication, reported data must be readily available to the broader research community via public databases, when available, with accession numbers listed in the article's Data access section. When a suitable database does not exist, the data must be available on the Genome Research Website and, if desired, on the author's website (e.g., underlying experimental data necessary to generate genotypes from SNP microarrays). Genome Research will not publish manuscripts where data used and/or reported in the paper is not freely available in either a public database or on the Genome Research website. There are no exceptions. (For details on websites for data submission, see Website References. Accession numbers for data should be included within the manuscript and be made publicly available prior to acceptance to avoid delays in publication.
Authors submitting papers that describe or present a new computer program or algorithm, or papers where in-house software is uniquely necessary to reproduce the work, should be prepared to make that software freely available for academic and nonprofit use. We encourage authors to also make the source code available.
The journal recognizes that issues of informed consent may constitute a barrier against free sharing of all materials and data, nevertheless it is the responsibility of the authors to make arrangements with the requester that allow replication of published findings.
If reasonable requests of Genome Research authors for materials or data are not honored, please contact the Editor (hsussman{at}cshl.edu).
For acknowledging data obtained from publicly held databases, accession numbers and the website for all such data must be included in the Methods and where appropriate in the text or tables of the manuscript. For use of publicly held data, Genome Research follows the guidelines for fair use of community resource data as detailed in the publication produced from the Fort Lauderdale Meeting, 2003. Use of such data requires the material be cited with website and accession numbers as described above, and in cases where a large amount of unpublished information is used from one lab or center, authors should appropriately cite the laboratory or center that produced this information in conjunction with the publicly held site where the data were obtained. Genome Research encourages data users to embrace the spirit of the Fort Lauderdale agreement by using this material in creative new ways rather than producing early and incomplete versions of the producers' aims; the Editors will be considering material in this light.
When using data from a laboratory's or center's private website, the laboratory or center should be contacted for permission and the website should be placed in the text AND in the references, appropriately denoting it as a source of reference material for this work. Clones from centers must be cited by the names associated with the center's nomenclature, which is approved nomenclature.
In any instance where individuals have contributed more than just standard data release information, these individuals should be contacted, shown the manuscript, and their status on the paper (whether they prefer authorship or not) determined prior to submission.
Papers should submitted online via our Manuscript Processing system.
Hillary E. Sussman, Ph.D.
Executive Editor
Genome Research
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
One Bungtown Road
Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724
e-mail: hsussman{at}cshl.edu
Tel: (516) 422-4012; Fax: (516) 422-4092
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