Instructions To Authors
Manuscripts must be submitted online. Once you have prepared your manuscript according to the instructions below please visit the online submission website . Instructions on submitting your manuscript online can be viewed at Submission Online.
Scope and policy of Mutagenesis
Mutagenesis is an international multi-disciplinary journal designed to bring together research aimed at the identification, characterization, and elucidation of the mechanisms of action of physical, chemical and biological agents capable of producing genetic change in living organisms (encompassing human, terrestrial and ecological species). The journal's scope includes the study of the consequences of such changes on public and environmental health, also extending to human risk assessment and applied mutagenesis. The development and application of novel technologies for assessing hazard and/or risks following exposure to exogenous agents are also of interest, including (but not limited to):
* High-throughput/high-content approaches,
* Quantitative modelling approaches
* Artificial intelligence,
* Error-corrected next-generation sequencing,
* Population based biomonitoring,
* 3Rs technologies aimed at replacing in vivo testing,
* Omic-technologies (e.g., transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics etc).
Furthermore, Mutagenesis welcomes high-quality, robustly conducted studies that report negative results.
A variety of different types of manuscripts are published in Mutagenesis:
Original articles, reporting the results of fundamental and molecular studies upon the mechanisms of induction of point, chromosomal, genomic mutations and epigenetic change, and their roles in inherited and somatic disorders. In addition to investigating DNA damage and genetic instability, the journal is interested in studies on DNA repair, genomics, epigenomics, cancer research, molecular and environmental toxicology.
Papers on guidelines for mutagenicity testing of environmental agents, which describe and discuss new and emerging techniques, quality control and standards necessary for adequate testing of environmental agents.
Cell lines, strains, DNA probes etc. The submission to and acceptance of a manuscript for publication in Mutagenesis implies that the authors will provide samples of such materials as cell lines, strains, mutants and DNA probes described in their publication to other investigators for research purposes.
Ethics. In reports of investigations in humans or animals, authors must explicitly indicate (in the appropriate section of the Methods) their adherence to ethical standards and note the approval of an ethics committee when this is relevant.
Animal husbandry. Papers that report experiments involving live animals must include a statement that the animals were treated and housed in accordance with approved guidelines (giving the source) or supervised by an animal care committee (giving the name) or both.
Letters to the Editors may be submitted on current topics. Such letters may cover theoretical, social and practical aspects of mutational change, but should aim for a concise presentation.
Reviews. The Editors welcome the submission of reviews of topics covering all aspects of mutagenic change.
Meta-analyses. Mutagenesis publishes well-written systematic reviews on gene variants that conform to standards such as the Meta-analysis of Observational Studies in Epidemiology standards (Stroup DF, Berlin JA, Morton SC; et al. Meta-analysis of observational studies in epidemiology: a proposal for reporting: Meta-analysis of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (MOOSE) group. JAMA. 2000;283(15):2008-2012). However, due to a change in policy, single gene SNP and single miRNA studies will no longer be published, except in exceptional circumstances. The Editorial Board selects reviews of exceptional quality on very relevant topics only.
All manuscripts submitted to Mutagenesis are refereed for their pertinence, content and relevance to the scope of the journal.
Submission of manuscripts
Mutagenesis accepts submissions online at submission system.
Author Self-Archiving/Public Access policy from May 2005.
For information about this journal's policy, please visit our Author Self-Archiving policy page.
For instructions on how to submit your manuscript online please see Submission Online.
For any queries please contact the editorial office:
Professor Shareen H. Doak, Institute of Life Sciences, Swansea University Medical School, Singleton Park, Swansea, SA2 8PP, UK.
Click Editorial Office email to email the Editorial Office.
Submission of a paper implies that it reports unpublished work and that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. If previously published tables, illustrations or more than 200 words of text are to be included, then the copyright holder's written permission must be obtained. Copies of any such permission letters should be enclosed with the paper.
Language editing
If your first language is not English, you may wish to have your paper professionally edited. This will ensure that the academic content of your paper is fully understood by journal editors and reviewers. Language editing is optional and does not guarantee that your manuscript will be accepted for publication. For further information on this service, please see language services. Several specialist language editing companies offer similar services and you can also use any of these. Authors are liable for all costs associated with such services.
Open access options for authors
Mutagenesis offers the option of publishing under either a standard licence or an open access licence. Please note that some funders require open access publication as a condition of funding. If you are unsure whether you are required to publish open access, please do clarify any such requirements with your funder or institution.
Should you wish to publish your article open access, you should select your choice of open access licence in our online system after your article has been accepted for publication. You will need to pay an open access charge to publish under an open access licence.
Details of the open access licences and open access charges.
OUP has a growing number of Read and Publish agreements with institutions and consortia which provide funding for open access publishing. This means authors from participating institutions can publish open access, and the institution may pay the charge. Find out if your institution is participating.
Please note that you may be eligible for a discount to the open access charge based on society membership. Authors may be asked to prove eligibility for the member discount.
Conflict of interest declaration
At the point of submission, Mutagenesis policy requires that each author reveal any financial interests or connections, direct or indirect, or other situations that might raise the question of bias in the work reported or the conclusions, implications, or opinions stated - including pertinent commercial or other sources of funding for the individual author(s) or for the associated department(s) or organization(s), personal relationships, or direct academic competition. When considering whether you should declare a conflicting interest or connection please consider the conflict of interest test: Is there any arrangement that would embarrass you or any of your co-authors if it was to emerge after publication and you had not declared it?
The corresponding author is responsible for submitting a conflict of interest statement on behalf of all authors of the paper. This should be included in the main text document, before the references, under a separate ‘Conflict of Interest Declaration’ heading. If there are no competing interests to disclose, the author should state that ‘The authors report no competing interests’.
Please follow this link for further information on conflicts of interest.
Proofs
Authors are sent page proofs electronically as a PDF file, or by post if required. To avoid delays in publication, proofs should be checked immediately for typographical errors and returned to the publishers by express (special delivery) post. Alternatively, to save time, corrections may be given to Oxford University Press by fax: +44 (0)1865 353773. Essential changes of an extensive nature may be made only by insertion of a Note added in proof.
Licence to publish
It is a condition of publication in the Journal that authors grant an exclusive licence to UK Environmental Mutagen Society. This ensures that requests from third parties to reproduce articles are handled efficiently and consistently and will also allow the article to be as widely disseminated as possible. Authors may use their own material in other publications provided that the Journal is acknowledged as the original place of publication, and Oxford University Press is notified in writing and in advance.
Upon receipt of accepted manuscripts at Oxford Journals authors will be invited to complete an online copyright licence to publish form.
Please note that by submitting an article for publication you confirm that you are the corresponding/submitting author and that Oxford University Press ("OUP") may retain your email address for the purpose of communicating with you about the article. You agree to notify OUP immediately if your details change. If your article is accepted for publication OUP will contact you using the email address you have used in the registration process. Please note that OUP does not retain copies of rejected articles.
Preparation of manuscripts
Manuscripts should be in their final form when they are submitted so that proofs require only correction of typographical errors.
Sections of the manuscript
Regular full-length papers should be subdivided into the following sequence of sections: Title page, Abstract, Introduction, Materials and methods, Results, Discussion, Funding (if applicable), Data Availability Statement, Acknowledgements, Conflict of Interest Declaration, References, Legends to figures, Tables. The Title page must include the telephone and fax numbers and E-mail address of the corresponding author. The Materials and methods section must give precise details of strains, concentrations and solvents. Where an activation system has been included it is necessary to know (i) the source, (ii) the inducer and (iii) the concentration treatment time, and incubation time with conditions should be given. Positive and negative controls together with their concentrations must be included. The number of replicates and the number of repeat experiments should be stated. Additional factors for in vivo tests should include age, weight, sex and total number of animals used in each experiment. A detailed dose regime is required. Papers for the Mutagenicity testing section should conform to the above requirements. In addition, results should be presented in tabular form.
General format
Prepare your manuscript text using a Word processing package (save in .doc or .rtf format). Use double spacing (space between lines of type not less than 6 mm) throughout the manuscript and leave margins of 25 mm (1 inch) at the top, bottom and sides of each page. Number each page. Please avoid footnotes; use instead, and as sparingly as possible, parenthesis within brackets. Enter text in the style and order of the journal. Type references in the correct order and style of the journal. Type unjustified, without hyphenation, except for compound words. Type headings in the style of the journal. Use the TAB key once for paragraph indents. Where possible use Times for the text font and Symbol for the Greek and special characters. Use the word processing formatting features to indicate Bold , Italic , Greek, Maths, Superscript and Subscript characters. Clearly identify unusual symbols and Greek letters. Differentiate between the letter O and zero, and the letters I and l and the number 1. Mark the approximate position of each figure and table.
Check the final copy of your paper carefully, as any spelling mistakes and errors may be translated into the typeset version.
Abstract
The second page of every manuscript must contain only the Abstract, which should be a single paragraph not exceeding 300 words. Please abide strictly by this limitation of length. Published papers will only have the first 300 words of their abstracts incorporated into Medline, text in excess of this limit will be lost. The Abstract should be comprehensible to readers before they have read the paper, and abbreviations and reference citations should be avoided.
Funding
Details of all funding sources for the work in question should be given in a separate section entitled 'Funding'. This should appear before the 'Acknowledgements' section.
The following rules should be followed:
- The sentence should begin: ‘This work was supported by …’
- The full official funding agency name should be given, i.e. ‘the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health’ or simply ‘National Institutes of Health' not ‘NCI’ (one of the 27 subinstitutions) or ‘NCI at NIH’ (full RIN-approved list of UK funding agencies) . Grant numbers should be given in brackets as follows: ‘[grant number xxxx]’
- Multiple grant numbers should be separated by a comma as follows: ‘[grant numbers xxxx, yyyy]’
- Agencies should be separated by a semi-colon (plus ‘and’ before the last funding agency)
- Where individuals need to be specified for certain sources of funding the following text should be added after the relevant agency or grant number 'to [author initials]'.
An example is given here: ‘This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health [AA123456 to C.S., BB765432 to M.H.]; and the Alcohol & Education Research Council [hfygr667789].
Oxford Journals will deposit all NIH-funded articles in PubMed Central. See Author resources for details. Authors must ensure that manuscripts are clearly indicated as NIH-funded using the guidelines above.
Crossref Funding Data Registry
In order to meet your funding requirements authors are required to name their funding sources, or state if there are none, during the submission process. For further information on this process or to find out more about the CHORUS initiative please see CHORUS at Oxford University Press.
Acknowledgements
These should be included at the end of the text and not in footnotes. Personal acknowledgements should precede those of institutions or agencies.
References
Authors are responsible for the accuracy of the references. Published articles and those in press (state the journal which has accepted them) may be included. In the text, references should be cited, in order of appearance, as a number in brackets, e.g. (1). These should be on the line, do not use superscript. At the end of the manuscript the citations should be listed numerically. References should include, in the following order: all authors' names (with surnames and initials inverted), year, paper title in full, journal title, volume number and inclusive page numbers. If a book, the name and address of the publisher should be given. The name of the journal should be abbreviated according to the World List of Scientific Periodicals and underlined to indicate italics.
References should therefore be listed as follows:
- Hartley-Asp,B. and Hyldig-Nielsen,F. (1984) Comparative genotoxicity of nitrogen mustard and nor-nitrogen mustard. Carcinogenesis , 5 , 1637-1640.
- Kirk,J.T.O. and Tilney-Bassett,R.A.E. (1978) The Plastids. Their Chemistry, Structure, Growth and Inheritance , 2nd revised edn. Elsevier/North Holland, New York.
- Warren,W. (1984) The analysis of alkylated DNA by high pressure liquid chromatography. In Venitt,S. and Parry,J.M. (eds), Mutagenicity Testing - a Practical Approach . IRL Press, Oxford, pp. 25-44.
Personal communication (J.Smith, personal communication) should be authorized by those involved, in writing, and unpublished data should be cited as (unpublished data). Both should be used as sparingly as possible and only when the unpublished data referred to is peripheral rather than central to the discussion. References to manuscripts in preparation or submitted, but not yet accepted, should be cited in the text as (B.Smith and N.Jones, in preparation) and should NOT be included in the list of references.
Tables
Tables should be typed on separate sheets, and numbered consecutively with Roman numerals. Tables should be self-explanatory and include a brief descriptive title. Footnotes to tables indicated by lower case letters are acceptable, but they should not include extensive experimental detail. An arrow in the text margin should be used to indicate where a table should be inserted in the text.
Illustrations
All illustrations (line drawings and photographs) should be referred to in the text as Figure 1 etc., which should be abbreviated to 'Fig. 1.' only in the figure legend. Figures must be prepared at publication quality resolution, using applications capable of generating high-resolution TIFF files of at least 300 pixels per inch at the final printed size for colour figures and photographs, and 1200 pixels per inch for black and white line drawings. Although some other formats can be translated into TIFF format by the publisher, the conversion may alter the tones, resolution and contrast of the image.
Photographs . Photographs These must be submitted in the desired final size so that reduction can be avoided. The type area of a page is 248 x 185 mm (width) and photographs, including their legends, must not exceed this area. A single column is 88 mm wide. A double column is 185 mm wide. Ideally, photographs should fit either a single column or a double column. Please indicate the magnification by a rule on the photographs.
Line drawings. Please provide these as clear, sharp prints, suitable for reproduction as submitted. No additional artwork, redrawing or typesetting is done. Therefore, all labelling should be on the original drawing. Ensure that the size of lettering is in proportion with the overall dimensions of the drawing. Ideally, line drawings should be submitted in the desired final size to avoid reduction (maximum dimensions 248 x 185 mm including legends) and should fit either a single (88 mm) or a double column width (185 mm).
Figure legends . These should be on a separate, numbered manuscript sheet. Define all symbols and abbreviations used in the figure. Common abbreviations and others in the preceding text should not be redefined in the legend.
Figure accessibility and alt text
Incorporating alt text (alternative text) when submitting your paper helps to foster inclusivity and accessibility. Good alt text ensures that individuals with visual impairments or those using screen readers can comprehend the content and context of your figures. The aim of alt text is to provide concise and informative descriptions of your figure so that all readers have access to the same level of information and understanding, and that all can engage with and benefit from the visual elements integral to scholarly content. Including alt text demonstrates a commitment to accessibility and enhances the overall impact and reach of your work.
Alt text is applicable to all images, figures, illustrations, and photographs.
Alt text is only accessible via e-reader and so it won’t appear as part of the typeset article.
Detailed guidance on how to draft and submit alt text.
Requirements for images
The Journal recommends, but does not require, authors to make available full blots as supplementary data - to avoid the risk of claims from readers in the future with respect to image manipulation. As with all data being reported, editors may request to review original data/images either during the review process or post-publication. Authors are advised of their responsibility to archive original data for 10 years after study results have been accepted for publication in Mutagenesis.
Image manipulation beyond minimal processing (for instance, to add arrows to a micrograph) is strictly forbidden. All digitized images submitted with the final version of the manuscript must be of high quality and have resolutions of at least 300 d.p.i for colour, 600 d.p.i. for greyscale and for .eps format 1200 d.p.i. for line art.
All images must accurately represent the original data in line with the latest standards now expected by the research community.
Please list in the methods all tools and software used to acquire images, including image-gathering settings and any required processing manipulations.
Single images created from separately acquired (eg, different times or from different locations) are not permitted unless it is clearly stated in the legend that the combined image is, for example, time-averaged data or a time-lapse sequence. If comparative images are required in one figure then separate images must be demarcated in the whole figure and described in the legend.
Changing contrast or brightness may be acceptable when it is applied evenly over the whole image including over the controls. Reducing or increasing contrast to hide data is forbidden. Processing to emphasize a region in an image to the detriment of other regions is inappropriate, particularly where an attempt is made to reinforce significance of experimental data relative to the control.
Use of cloning and healing tools, such as those available in Photoshop, or any feature that deliberately obscures manipulations, is considered inappropriate. Where such tools are used by necessity, for example to remove identifying data about patients from an image, then this should be explicitly mentioned in the figure legend.
Electrophoretic gels and blots
Mutagenesis allows cropped gels and blots, but cropping must be indicated in the image and mentioned in the figure legend. If a manuscript is accepted, the Journal recommends, but it is not compulsory, that full-length gels and/or blots are made available as supplementary data.
All gels must include positive and negative controls, as well as molecular size markers; where these are not visible in the cropped figure then such controls must show clearly in the expanded data supplementary figure.
Please provide a citation for characterized antibodies. Where a citation is not yet available, then a detailed characterization demonstrating the specificity of the antibody and the range of reactivity of the reagent in the assay, should be supplied as supplementary information. Mutagenesis recommends submission of data and linking with an antibody profile database (e.g., Antibodypedia, 1DegreeBio).
While Mutagenesis discourages quantitative comparisons between samples on different gels/blots, if this is part of the experiment reported, then the legend must state that the samples derive from the same experiment and that gels/blots were processed in parallel. Sliced images that compare lanes that were non-adjacent in the original gel must have a dark line delineating the boundary between the gels. Loading controls (eg, GAPDH, actin) must be run on the same blot. Sample processing controls run on different gels must be identified as such, and distinctly from loading controls.
Cropped gels/blots in the paper must retain important bands, and Mutagenesis recommends at least six band widths above and below the band under investigation.
Overexposure may mask additional bands and high-contrast gels and blots are therefore discouraged. Gray backgrounds are expected as the norm. If high contrast is unavoidable then multiple exposures should be presented in supplementary information.
For quantitative comparisons, appropriate reagents, controls and imaging methods with linear signal ranges should be used.
Conventions
In general, the journal follows the conventions of the CBE Style Manual (Council of Biology Editors, Bethesda, MD, 1983, 5th edn).
Follow Chemical Abstracts and its indexes for chemical names. For guidance in the use of biochemical terminology follow the recommendations issued by the IUPAC-IUB Commission on Biochemical Nomenclature, as given in Biochemical Nomenclature and Related Documents , published by the Biochemical Society, UK. For enzymes, use the recommended name assigned by the IUPAC-IUB Commission on Biochemical Nomenclature, 1978, as given in Enzyme Nomenclature, published by Academic Press, New York, 1980. Where possible, use the recommended SI (Systeme International) units.
Genotypes should be italicized; phenotypes should not be italicized. For bacterial genetics nomenclature follow Demerec et al. (1966) Genetics , 54 , 61-76.
Abbreviations
Try to restrict the use of abbreviations to SI symbols and those recommended by the IUPAC. Abbreviations should be defined in brackets after their first mention in the text. Standard units of measurements and chemical symbols of elements may be used without definition in the body of the paper.
Availability of Data and Materials
Where ethically feasible, Mutagenesis strongly encourages authors to make all data and software code on which the conclusions of the paper rely available to readers. Authors are required to include a Data Availability Statement in their article.
We suggest that data be presented in the main manuscript or additional supporting files, or deposited in a public repository whenever possible. For information on general repositories for all data types, and a list of recommended repositories by subject area, please see Choosing where to archive your data.
Data Availability Statement
The inclusion of a Data Availability Statement is a requirement for articles published in Mutagenesis . Data Availability Statements provide a standardised format for readers to understand the availability of data underlying the research results described in the article. The statement may refer to original data generated in the course of the study or to third-party data analysed in the article. The statement should describe and provide means of access, where possible, by linking to the data or providing the required unique identifier.
The Data Availability Statement should be included in the endmatter of your article under the heading ‘Data availability’.
More information and examples of Data Availability Statements.
Data Citation
Mutagenesis supports the Force 11 Data Citation Principles and requires that all publicly available datasets be fully referenced in the reference list with an accession number or unique identifier such as a digital object identifier (DOI). Data citations should include the minimum information recommended by DataCite:
[dataset]* Authors, Year, Title, Publisher (repository or archive name), Identifier
*The inclusion of the [dataset] tag at the beginning of the citation helps us to correctly identify and tag the citation. This tag will be removed from the citation published in the reference list.
Preprint policy
Authors retain the right to make an Author’s Original Version (preprint) available through various channels, and this does not prevent submission to the journal. For further information see our Online Licensing, Copyright and Permissions policies. If accepted, the authors are required to update the status of any preprint, including your published paper’s DOI, as described on our Author Self-Archiving policy page.
Author self-archiving/public access policy
For information about this journal's policy, please visit our Author Self-Archiving policy page.
