Organization and Format

Instructions to Authors (PDF)

Editorial Style

The editorial style of ASM journals conforms to the ASM Style Manual for Journals (American Society for Microbiology, 2020, in-house document [you may find the ASM Word List helpful]) and How To Write and Publish a Scientific Paper, 7th ed. (Greenwood, Santa Barbara, CA, 2011), as interpreted and modified by the editors and the ASM Journals Department.

The editors and the Journals Department reserve the privilege of editing manuscripts to conform with the stylistic conventions set forth in the aforesaid publications and in these Instructions. Please note that ASM uses the serial comma.

On receipt at ASM, an accepted manuscript undergoes an automated preediting, cleanup, and tagging process specific to the particular article type. To optimize this process, manuscripts must be supplied in the correct format and with the appropriate sections and headings at the revision stage (for initial submissions, see the first paragraph of Submission, Review, and Publication Processes).

Type every portion of the manuscript double-spaced (a minimum of 6 mm between lines), including figure legends, table footnotes, and References, and number all pages in sequence, including the abstract, figure legends, and tables. Place the last two items after the References section. Manuscript pages should have continuous line numbers. The font size should be no smaller than 12 points. It is recommended that the following sets of characters be easily distinguishable in the manuscript: the numeral zero (0) and the letter “oh” (O); the numeral one (1), the letter “el” (l), and the letter “eye” (I); and a multiplication sign and the letter “ex” (x). Do not create symbols as graphics or use special fonts that are external to your word processing program; use the “insert symbol” function. Set the page size to 8.5 by 11 inches (ca. 21.6 by 28 cm). Italicize any words that should appear in italics, and indicate paragraph lead-ins in boldface type.

Manuscripts may be editorially rejected, without review, on the basis of poor English or lack of conformity to the standards set forth in these Instructions.

Authors who are unsure of proper English usage should have their manuscripts checked by someone proficient in the English language or engage a professional language editing service for help.

Manuscript Submission Checklist for Modified Manuscripts and Resubmissions

  • Double-space all text, including references and figure legends.
  • Number pages.
  • Number lines continuously.
  • Present statistical treatment of data where appropriate.
  • Provide accession numbers for all newly published sequences in a dedicated "Data availability" paragraph, and if a sequence or sequence alignment important for evaluation of the manuscript is not yet available, provide the information as a Miscellaneous File Not for Publication or make the material available on a website for access by the editor and reviewers.
  • Format references in ASM style.
  • Provide references for accession numbers and code (with URLs).
  • Confirm that genetic and chemical nomenclature conforms to instructions.
  • Include as Miscellaneous Files Not for Publication in-press and submitted manuscripts that are important for judgment of the present manuscript.

Supplemental Material

Supplemental material will be peer reviewed along with the manuscript and must be uploaded to the eJournalPress (eJP) peer review system at initial manuscript submission. The decision to publish the material online with the accepted article is made by the editor. It is possible that a manuscript will be accepted but that the supplemental material will not be.

All supplemental text, tables, and figures should be combined in a single self-contained document (PDF), and no supplemental material should be included in the main manuscript. Supplemental data set and movie files may be uploaded separately. The number of supplemental material files is limited to 10. Supplemental files should be submitted in the following standard formats.

  • Text, figures, tables, and legends should be included in a single PDF file. All figures and tables should be numbered independently and cited at the relevant point in the manuscript text, e.g., "Fig. S1," "Fig. S2," "Table S1," etc. Do not duplicate data by presenting them in both the text of the manuscript and a supplemental figure. Each legend should appear below its corresponding figure or table. The maximum file size is 8 MB. Please review this sample file for guidance.
  • Data set (Excel [.xls]) files should include a brief description of how the data are used in the paper. The maximum file size is 20 MB. Please review this sample file for guidance.
  • Movies (Audio Video Interleave [.avi], QuickTime [.mov], or MPEG files) should be submitted at the desired reproduction size and length and should be accompanied by a legend. The maximum file size is 20 MB.

Unlike the manuscript, supplemental material will not be edited by the ASM Journals staff and proofs will not be made available. References related to supplemental material only should not be listed in the References section of an article; instead, include them with the supplemental material. Supplemental material will always remain associated with its article and is not subject to any modifications after publication.

Material that has been published previously (print or online) is not acceptable for posting as supplemental material. Instead, the appropriate reference(s) to the original publication should be made in the manuscript.

Copyright for the supplemental material remains with the author, but a license permitting posting by ASM is included in the copyright transfer agreement completed by the corresponding author. If you are not the copyright owner, you must provide to ASM signed permission from the owner that allows posting of the material, as a supplement to your article, by ASM. You are responsible for including in the supplemental material any copyright notices required by the owner.

See also “Publication Fees.”

Research Articles

Title, running title, byline, affiliation lines, and corresponding author. Each manuscript should present the results of an independent, cohesive study; thus, numbered series titles are not permitted. Exercise care in composing a title. Avoid the main title/subtitle arrangement, complete sentences, and unnecessary articles. On the title page, include the title, the running title (not to exceed 54 characters and spaces), the name of each author, all authors' affiliations at the time the work was performed, the name(s) and e-mail address(es) of the corresponding author(s), and a footnote indicating the present address(es) of any author(s) no longer at the institution where the work was performed. Place a number sign (#) in the byline after the affiliation letter(s) of the author to whom inquiries regarding the paper should be directed (see "Correspondent footnote" below). Indicate each author's affiliation with a superscript lowercase letter placed after the author's surname in the byline (separate multiple affiliation letters with commas but no space). Each affiliation should have its own line and its own superscript affiliation letter preceding it. Do not consolidate different departments at one institution into one address with a single affiliation letter, even if all affected authors belong to all of those departments. If more than one co-first author is designated, authors are required to state how the order of names was decided as an additional footnote on the title page.

Please review this sample title page for guidance.

Study group in byline. A study group, surveillance team, working group, consortium, or the like (e.g., the Active Bacterial Core Surveillance Team) may be listed as a coauthor in the byline if its contributing members satisfy the requirements for authorship and accountability. The names (and institutional affiliations, if desired) of the contributing members may be given as a separate paragraph in Acknowledgments.

If the contributing members of the group associated with the work do not fulfill the criteria of substantial contribution to and responsibility for the paper, the group may not be listed in the author byline. Instead, it and the names of its contributing members may be listed in the Acknowledgments section.

Correspondent footnote. The e-mail address for the corresponding author should be included on the title page of the manuscript. This information will be published in the article as a footnote to facilitate communication and will be used to notify the corresponding author of the availability of proofs and, later, of the PDF file of the published article. No more than two authors may be designated corresponding authors.

Abstract. Limit the abstract to 250 words or fewer and concisely summarize the basic content of the paper without presenting extensive experimental details. Avoid abbreviations and references, and do not include diagrams. Include a succinct description of the microbe and its associated disease. When it is essential to include a reference, use the format shown under “References” below (see the “Citations in abstracts” section). Because the abstract will be published separately by abstracting services, it must be complete and understandable without reference to the text.

Introduction. The introduction should supply sufficient background information to allow the reader to understand and evaluate the results of the present study without referring to previous publications on the topic. The introduction should also provide the hypothesis that was addressed or the rationale for the present study and include a succinct description of the microbe and its associated disease. Choose references carefully to provide the most salient background rather than an exhaustive review of the topic.

Results. In the Results section, include the rationale or design of the experiments as well as the results; reserve extensive interpretation of the results for the Discussion section. Present the results as concisely as possible in one of the following: text, table(s), or figure(s). Avoid extensive use of graphs to present data that might be more concisely presented in the text or tables. For example, except in unusual cases, double-reciprocal plots used to determine apparent Km values should not be presented as graphs; instead, the values should be stated in the text. Similarly, graphs illustrating other methods commonly used to derive kinetic or physical constants (e.g., reduced-viscosity plots and plots used to determine sedimentation velocity) need not be shown except in unusual circumstances. All tabular data must be accompanied by either standard deviation values or standard errors of the means. The number of replicate determinations (or animals) used for making such calculations must also be included. All statements concerning the significance of the differences observed should be accompanied by probability values given in parentheses. The statistical procedure used should be stated in Materials and Methods. Limit photographs (particularly photomicrographs and electron micrographs) to those that are absolutely necessary to show the experimental findings. Number figures and tables in the order in which they are cited in the text, and be sure to cite all figures and tables.

Discussion. The Discussion should provide an interpretation of the results in relation to previously published work and to the experimental system at hand and should not contain extensive repetition of the Results section or reiteration of the introduction. In short papers, the Results and Discussion sections may be combined.

Materials and Methods. The Materials and Methods section should include sufficient technical information to allow the experiments to be repeated. When centrifugation conditions are critical, give enough information to enable another investigator to repeat the procedure: make of centrifuge, model of rotor, temperature, time at maximum speed, and centrifugal force (× g rather than revolutions per minute). For commonly used materials and methods (e.g., media and protein concentration determinations), a simple reference is sufficient. If several alternative methods are commonly used, it is helpful to identify the method briefly as well as to cite the reference. For example, it is preferable to state "cells were broken by ultrasonic treatment as previously described (9)" rather than "cells were broken as previously described (9)." This allows the reader to assess the method without constant reference to previous publications. Describe new methods completely, and give sources of unusual chemicals, equipment, or microbial strains. When large numbers of microbial strains or mutants are used in a study, include tables identifying the immediate sources (i.e., sources from whom the strains were obtained) and properties of the strains, mutants, bacteriophages, and plasmids, etc.

A method or strain, etc., used in only one of several experiments reported in the paper may be described in the Results section or very briefly (one or two sentences) in a table footnote or figure legend. It is expected that the sources from whom the strains were obtained will be identified.

As noted on ASM Journals' Data Policy page, a paragraph dedicated to new accession numbers for nucleotide and amino acid sequences, microarray data, protein structures, gene expression data, and MycoBank data should appear at the end of Materials and Methods with the paragraph lead-in "Data availability." Please also provide references (with URLs) for the accession numbers.

Acknowledgments. Statements regarding sources of direct financial support (e.g., grants, fellowships, and scholarships, etc.) should appear in the Acknowledgments. A funding statement indicating what role, if any, the funding agency had in your study (for example, “The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.”) may be included. Funding agencies may have specific wording requirements, and compliance with such requirements is the responsibility of the author. In cases in which research is not funded by any specific project grant, funders need not be listed, and the following statement may be used: “This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.” Statements regarding indirect financial support (e.g., commercial affiliations, consultancies, stock or equity interests, and patent-licensing arrangements) are also allowed. It is the responsibility of authors to provide a general statement disclosing financial or other relationships that are relevant to the study.

Recognition of personal assistance should be given in the Acknowledgments section, as should any statements disclaiming endorsement or approval of the views reflected in the paper or of a product mentioned therein.

In addition to acknowledging sources of financial support in the manuscript, authors should list any sources of funding, in response to the Funding Sources question on the online submission form, providing relevant grant numbers where possible, and the authors associated with the specific funding sources. In the event that your submission is accepted, the funding source information provided in the submission form may be published, so please ensure that all information is entered accurately and completely. (It will be assumed that the absence of any information in the Funding Sources fields is a statement by the authors that no support was received.)

Authors may include a statement that specifies contributor roles as a separate paragraph in the Acknowledgments section. ASM encourages transparency in authorship by publishing author contribution statements using the CRediT taxonomy as recommended by CASRAI. For some manuscript types, authors have the option of assigning CRediT roles during the online submission process.

Appendixes. Appendixes that contain additional material to aid the reader are permitted. Titles, authors, and references sections that are distinct from those of the primary article are not allowed. If it is not feasible to list the author(s) of the appendix in the byline or the Acknowledgments section of the primary article, rewrite the appendix so that it can be considered for publication as an independent article. Equations, tables, and figures should be labeled with the letter "A" preceding the numeral to distinguish them from those cited in the main body of the text.

References. In the reference list, references are numbered in the order in which they are cited in the article (citation-sequence reference system). In the text, references are cited parenthetically by number in sequential order. Data that are not published or not peer reviewed are simply cited parenthetically in the text (see section ii below).

(i) References listed in the References section. The following types of references must be listed in the References section:

  • Journal articles (both print and online)
  • Books (both print and online)
  • Book chapters (publication title is required)
  • Patents and patent applications
  • Theses and dissertations
  • Published conference proceedings
  • Meeting abstracts, posters, and presentations
  • Letters (to the editor)
  • Company publications
  • In-press journal articles, books, and book chapters
  • Data sets
  • Code

Provide the names of all the authors and/or editors for each reference; long bylines should not be abbreviated with “et al.” All listed references must be cited in the text. Abbreviate journal names according to the PubMed Journals Database (National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health; available at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/journals), the primary source for ASM style. Do not use periods with abbreviated words. The EndNote output style for ASM Journals’ current reference style can be found at https://endnote.com/style_download/american-society-for-microbiology-asm-journals-2/; save it to your EndNote Styles folder (it should replace any earlier output styles for ASM journals [all ASM journals use the same reference style]). Note that DOIs are not needed for most references. ASM copy editors will automatically insert DOIs on all references in the CrossRef and PubMed databases during copyediting. URLs for government reports and other references not indexed in these databases should be provided if desired; URLs for citations of database accession numbers and code/software should be provided by you.

Follow the styles shown in the examples below.

  1. Caserta E, Haemig HAH, Manias DA, Tomsic J, Grundy FJ, Henkin TM, Dunny GM. 2012. In vivo and in vitro analyses of regulation of the pheromone-responsive prgQ promoter by the PrgX pheromone receptor protein. J Bacteriol 194:3386–3394.
  2. Bina XR, Taylor DL, Vikram A, Ante VM, Bina JE. 2013. Vibrio cholerae ToxR downregulates virulence factor production in response to cyclo(Phe-Pro). mBio 4:e00366-13.
  3. Winnick S, Lucas DO, Hartman AL, Toll D. 2005. How do you improve compliance? Pediatrics 115:e718–e724.
  4. Falagas ME, Kasiakou SK. 2006. Use of international units when dosing colistin will help decrease confusion related to various formulations of the drug around the world. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 50:2274–2275. (Letter.) {“Letter” or “Letter to the editor” is allowed but not required at the end of such an entry.}
  5. Cox CS, Brown BR, Smith JC. J Gen Genet, in press.* {Article title is optional; journal title is mandatory.}
  6. Forman MS, Valsamakis A. 2011. Specimen collection, transport, and processing: virology, p 1276–1288. In Versalovic J, Carroll KC, Jorgensen JH, Funke G, Landry ML, Warnock DW (ed), Manual of clinical microbiology, 10th ed, vol 2. ASM Press, Washington, DC.
  7. da Costa MS, Nobre MF, Rainey FA. 2001. Genus I. Thermus Brock and Freeze 1969, 295,AL emend. Nobre, Trüper and da Costa 1996b, 605, p 404–414. In Boone DR, Castenholz RW, Garrity GM (ed), Bergey’s manual of systematic bacteriology, 2nd ed, vol 1. Springer, New York, NY.
  8. Fitzgerald G, Shaw D. In Waters AE (ed), Clinical microbiology, in press. EFH Publishing Co, Boston, MA.* {Chapter title is optional.}
  9. Green PN, Hood D, Dow CS. 1984. Taxonomic status of some methylotrophic bacteria, p 251–254. In Crawford RL, Hanson RS (ed), Microbial growth on C1 compounds. Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium. American Society for Microbiology, Washington, DC.
  10. Rotimi VO, Salako NO, Mohaddas EM, Philip LP. 2005. Abstr 45th Intersci Conf Antimicrob Agents Chemother, abstr D-1658. {Abstract title is optional.}
  11. Smith D, Johnson C, Maier M, Maurer JJ. 2005. Distribution of fimbrial, phage and plasmid associated virulence genes among poultry Salmonella enterica serovars, abstr P-038, p 445. Abstr 105th Gen Meet Am Soc Microbiol. American Society for Microbiology, Washington, DC. {Abstract title is optional.}
  12. García CO, Paira S, Burgos R, Molina J, Molina JF, Calvo C, Vega L, Jara LJ, García-Kutzbach A, Cuellar ML, Espinoza LR. 1996. Detection of Salmonella DNA in synovial membrane and synovial fluid from Latin American patients using the polymerase chain reaction. Arthritis Rheum 39(Suppl 9):S185. {Meeting abstract published in journal supplement.}
  13. O’Malley DR. 1998. PhD thesis. University of California, Los Angeles, CA. {Title is optional.}
  14. Stratagene. 2006. Yeast DNA isolation system: instruction manual. Stratagene, La Jolla, CA. {Use the company name as the author if none is provided for a company publication.}
  15. Odell JC. April 1970. Process for batch culturing. US patent 484,363,770. {Include the name of the patented item/process if possible; the patent number is mandatory.}
  16. Harrison F, Roberts AEL, Gabrilska R, Rumbaugh KP, Lee C, Diggle SP. 2015. A 1,000-year-old antimicrobial remedy with antistaphylococcal activity. mBio 6:e01129-15. {Original article that describes how data submitted to a database were generated.}
  17. Harrison F, Roberts AEL, Gabrilska R, Rumbaugh KP, Lee C, Diggle SP. 2015. Data from "A 1,000-year-old antimicrobial remedy with antistaphylococcal activity." Dryad Digital Repository https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.mn17p. {Citation for the database where the data in the previous reference were deposited; the URL is necessary.}
  18. Wang Y, Rozen D. 2016. Colonization and transmission of the gut microbiota of the burying beetle, Nicrophorus vespilloides, through development. bioRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/091702.

*A reference to an in-press ASM publication should state the control number (e.g., IAI00123-20) if it is a journal article or the name of the publication if it is a book.

In some online journal articles, posting or revision dates may serve as the year of publication; a DOI (preferred) or URL is required for articles with nontraditional page numbers or electronic article identifiers.

Magalon A, Mendel RR. 15 June 2015, posting date. Biosynthesis and insertion of the molybdenum cofactor. EcoSal Plus 2015 https://doi.org/10.1128/ecosalplus.ESP-0006-2013.

Note: a posting or accession date is required for any online reference that is periodically updated or changed.

Citations of accepted ASM manuscripts should look like the following example.

Wang GG, Pasillas MP, Kamps MP. 15 May 2006. Persistent transactivation by Meis1 replaces Hox function in myeloid leukemogenesis models: evidence for cooccupancy of Meis1-Pbx and Hox-Pbx complexes on promoters of leukemia-associated genes. Mol Cell Biol https://doi.org/10.1128/MCB.00586-06.

Other journals may use different styles for their publish-ahead-of-print manuscripts, but citation entries must include the following information: author name(s), posting date, title, journal title, and volume and page numbers and/or DOI. The following is an example:

Zhou FX, Merianos HJ, Brunger AT, Engelman DM. 13 February 2001. Polar residues drive association of polyleucine transmembrane helices. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.041593698.

To encourage data sharing and reuse, ASM recommends reporting data sets and/or code both in a dedicated “Data availability” paragraph and in References. The components of a complete data citation include the

  • Responsible party (senior author, collector, agency),
  • Publication year,
  • Complete name of a data set, including the name of the database or repository and its URL, or the name of the analysis software (if appropriate), including the version and project,
  • Publisher (if appropriate), and
  • Persistent unique identifier(s) (e.g., URL[s] or accession number[s]).

The following templates may be helpful.

Author. Year. Description of study topic. Retrieved from Database URL (accession no. ••••••). {Unpublished raw data.}
Author. Year. Description or title of software (version). Repository URL. Retrieved day month year. {Software or code.}

Examples follow.

Christian SL, McDonough J, Liu C-Y, Shaikh S, Vlamakis V, Badner JA, Chakravarti A, Gershon ES. 2002. Data from “An evaluation of the assembly of an approximately 15-Mb region on human chromosome 13q32-q33 linked to bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.” GenBank https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/AF339794 (accession no. AF339794). {Accession number.}
Sun Z. 2013. Reprocessed: in-depth membrane proteomic study of breast cancer tissues. ProteomeXchange http://proteomecentral.proteomexchange.org/cgi/GetDataset?ID=RPXD000665 (accession number requested). {Unassigned accession number.}
Hogle S. 2015. Supplemental material for Hogle et al. 2015 mBio. figshare https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1533034.v1. Retrieved 16 March 2017. {Code and/or software.}
Nesbitt HK, Moore JW. 2016. Data from “Species and population diversity in Pacific salmon fisheries underpin indigenous food security.” Dryad Digital Repository https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.ng8pf. {Data set in repository.}

(ii) References cited in the text. References that should be cited in the text include the following:

  • Unpublished data
  • Manuscripts submitted for publication
  • Personal communications
  • Websites

These references should be made parenthetically in the text as follows:

. . . similar results (R. B. Layton and C. C. Weathers, unpublished data).
. . . system was used (J. L. McInerney, A. F. Holden, and P. N. Brighton, submitted for publication).
. . . as suggested by the World Health Organization (https://www.who.int/campaigns/immunization-week/2017/en/).

URLs for companies that produce any of the products mentioned in your study or for products being sold may not be included in the article. However, company URLs that permit access to scientific data related to the study or to shareware used in the study are permitted.

(iii) Citations in abstracts. Because the abstract must be able to stand apart from the article, references cited in it should be clear without recourse to the References section. Use an abbreviated form of citation, omitting the article title, as follows.

(P. S. Satheshkumar, A. S. Weisberg, and B. Moss, J Virol 87:10700 –10709, 2013, https://doi.org/10.1128/JVI.01258-13)

(J. H. Coggin, Jr., p. 93–114, in D. O. Fleming and D. L. Hunt, ed., Biological Safety. Principles and Practices, 4th ed., 2006)

“... in a recent report by D. A. Hopwood (mBio 4:e00612-13, 2013, https://doi.org/10.1128/mBio.00612-13) . . . .”

This style should also be used for Addenda in Proof.

(iv) References related to supplemental material. If references must be cited in the supplemental material, list them in a separate References section within the supplemental material and cite them by those numbers; do not simply include citations of numbers from the reference list of the associated article. If the same reference(s) is to be cited in both the article itself and the supplemental material, then that reference would be listed in both References sections.

Minireviews

Minireviews are brief (limit of 6,000 words, exclusive of references) biographical profiles, historical perspectives, or summaries of developments in fast-moving areas. They must be based on published articles; they may address any subject within the scope of IAI.

Minireviews may be either solicited or proffered by authors responding to a recognized need. Suggestions for minireviews of subjects that have not been recently published in IAI or elsewhere may be e-mailed to the IAI Minireview Editors Karen Ottemann (ottemann@ucsc.edu) and Tony Richardson (anthony.richardson@pitt.edu). Such suggestions should be accompanied by an annotated topical outline; a one- or two-paragraph statement describing the aim, scope, relevance, and how this minireview differs from any recently published; a list of key references showing the author’s contributions to the field, as well as other investigators’ findings; and a curriculum vitae for the corresponding author and, if desired, any additional authors. Irrespective of origin, Minireviews are subject to review and should be submitted via the eJP online manuscript submission and peer review system. The cover letter should state whether the article was solicited and by whom.

Minireviews must have abstracts. Limit the abstract to 250 words or fewer. The body of the Minireview may have section headings and/or paragraph lead-ins.

Author bios. At the editor’s invitation, corresponding authors of minireviews may submit a short biographical sketch and photo for each author for publication with the article. Biographical information should be submitted at the modification stage.

  • The text limit is 150 words for each author and should include WHO you are (your name), WHERE you received your education, WHAT positions you have held and at WHICH institutions, WHERE you are now (your current institution), WHY you have this interest, and HOW LONG you have been in this field.
  • The photo should be a black-and-white head shot of passport size. Photos will be reduced to approximately 1.125 inches wide by 1.375 inches high. Photos must meet the production criteria for regular figures.
  • To submit, upload the text and photos with your modified manuscript in the eJP online manuscript submission and peer review system. Include the biographical text after the References section of your manuscript, in the same file. Upload the head shots in the submission system as a “Minireview Bio Photo”; include the author’s name or enough of it for identification in each photo’s file name.

Contact the scientific editor if you have questions about what to write. Contact the production editor if you have questions about submitting your files.

Commentaries

Commentaries are invited communications that provide perspectives on research articles in IAI. Reviews of the literature and methods and other how-to papers are not appropriate. Commentaries are subject to review.

The length may not exceed 4,000 words, and the format is like that of a Minireview (see above) except that the abstract is limited to 75 words.

Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor are intended only for comments on articles published in the journal and must cite published references to support the writer's argument.

Letters may be no more than 500 words long and must be typed double-spaced. Refer to a recently published Letter for correct formatting. Note that authors and affiliations are listed below the title.

All Letters to the Editor must be submitted electronically, and the manuscript type (Comment Letter) must be selected from the choices in the submission form. The cover letter should state the article's DOI, the title of the article, and the last name of the first author. Letters to the Editor do not have abstracts. The Letter must have a title, which must appear on the manuscript and on the submission form. Figures and tables should be kept to a minimum.

The Letter will be sent to the editor who handled the article in question. If the editor believes that publication is warranted, he/she will solicit a reply from the corresponding author of the article and make a recommendation to the editor in chief. Final approval for publication rests with the editor in chief.

Please note that some indexing/abstracting services do not include Letters to the Editor in their databases.