SCOPE OF JOURNAL
The Journal of Protozoology Research publishes original research, invited review and mini-review articles, and short communications in the fields of protozoology and protozoan diseases. The purpose of the Journal is to encourage interdisciplinary discussion of topics which are of interest in these fields. Preference will be accorded to papers which correlate the findings of research conducted in a given discipline with those in related fields. Two issues (June and December) are to be published per year.
Ⅰ.GENERAL
1) Original papers must report the results of original research. Manuscripts must not present work which has been published, accepted for publication or is currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. Submission of a manuscript must be approved by all authors.
Manuscripts should be emailed as attached MS Word files (Text and Tables), MS PowerPoint (Figures and Tables), or picture objects (JPG or TIFF format: Figures) to Dr. Yoshifumi Nishikawa (nisikawa@obihiro.ac.jp).
2) If all figures will be embedded in MS Word file, all figures should be embedded as objects on separate pages at the end of the MS Word file for submission; high resolution files will be requested after acceptance. These must be separated from the accepted text file. The details are given in the Instructions to Authors.
3) Papers should be written in English with good sentence structure and correct spelling. Correct English is the responsibility of the author. Typescripts should be single spaced throughout. There is no restriction in the length of the article for invited reviews and mini -reviews; while original articles should not exceed 12 printed pages including References, Acknowledgments, Footnotes, Tables, Figures and Legends. For short communications，captions such as Abstract and Introduction should not be given and References should follow the text. The length of short communications, including Tables, Figures and any other appendixes, should not exceed 6 printed pages. Longer papers will be considered for publication only under special circumstances. Each page should be numbered at the bottom.
4) Publication in this Journal is free of charge.
Ⅱ.TEXT
1) The title, name(s) of the author(s), the address(es) of the institution(s) where the work has been carried out, and running title of no more than 40 characters and 5 or less key words should be typed on a separate sheet of paper. These will be typeset by the publisher to a standard format. To permit this, the first 10 cm of the title page should be left blank.
2) Full length articles should be arranged in the following order:
(a) Abstract, not to exceed 200 words.
(b) Introduction, should be brief and concise and defines the scope of the work in relation to other work done in the same field.
(c) Materials and Methods, should provide sufficient information to permit duplication of experiments.
(d) Results and Discussion, should include results concisely presented and accurately interpreted.
(e) Acknowledgments.
(f) References, should be listed in alphabetical order citing all authors according to the following examples:
f-1) Articles from journals and other periodic publications (e.g., Annual Reviews): Author(s), year, title, abbreviated name of the journal, volume and inclusive pages. Abbreviations of names of journals should conform to the List of Serial Title Word Abbreviations (ISBN 2-904938-00-1) or Chemical Abstract Source Index.
Example (NOTE THE PUNCTUATIONS):
Sakurai H, Igarashi I, Omata Y, Saito A, Suzuki N. 1983. Effects of neonatal spleen cell products on the multiplication of Toxoplasma in rat peritoneal macrophages. J Immunol. 131: 1527-1530.
f-2) Articles from non-journal collective publications (encyclopedias, symposia and etc.): Author(s), year, title, inclusive pages of article (pp.) followed by In: title, volume, name(s) of editor(s) followed by Ed(s), publisher (name, place).
Example (NOTE THE PUNCTUATIONS):
Canpen CC. 1978. Tumors of the endocrine glands. pp.272-429. In: Tumors in Domestic Animals, 2nd ed. Moulton, J.E. (Ed), Univ. California Press, Berkeley.
Nakayama A. 1978. Rhythm of the body temperature. pp. 140-154. In: Biorhythm and its Mechanisms. Suda M, Hayashi O, Nakagawa H. (Eds), Kodansha, Tokyo (in Japanese).
f-3) Books: Author(s), year, title, edition (edn) if appropriate, publisher as above.
Example (NOTE THE PUNCTUATIONS):
Bloom W, Fawcett DW. 1969. A Text Book of Histology, 9th ed., B. W. Sauders, Philadelphia.
3) Main headings (Introduction, Materials and Methods, etc.) should be placed on separate lines. They should be typed in CAPITALS and underlined or in BOLD.
4) Literature citations in the text should be by author(s) and year. When there are more than three authors, only the first should be named in the text, followed by “et al.”.
Examples:
Suzuki (1989) has demonstrated …….., Experiments in this laboratory (Suzuki and Saito 1990) have demonstrated ………, Suzuki et al. (1989) have demonstrated …….
5) Abbreviations should be used only when absolutely necessary except in the title or abstract. Abbreviated words must be spelled out in full when they first appear in the text.
6) Scientific names should be typed in italic.
7) UNITS and SYMBOLS. Temperature must be expressed in degrees Celsius (℃); time may be expressed in second (s), minutes (min), hours (hrs), days (d), weeks (wk), months (mo) or year (yr). Otherwise, the International System of Unit (SI) should be used.
8) Tables should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numbers. Footnotes to tables should be indicated by superscript letters, beginning with a in each table. Tables should be typed as part of the text. Tables should be prepared as editable text, not as images. Vertical rules should not be used.
9) Illustrations should be limited to materials essential for the text. All figures should be numbered consecutively (Fig. 1, Fig. 2, ……) and should be submitted as ‘Save as’ or convert the images to one of the following formats. Note the resolution requirements for line drawings, halftones, and line/halftone combinations given below:
EPS (or PDF): Vector drawings, embed all used fonts.
TIFF (or JPEG): Color or grayscale photographs (halftones), keep to a minimum of 300 dpi.
TIFF (or JPEG): Bitmapped (pure black & white pixels) line drawings, keep to a minimum of 1000 dpi.
TIFF (or JPEG): Combinations bitmapped line/half-tone (color or grayscale), keep to a minimum of 500 dpi.
10) Double documentation of date or figures and tables is not permissible.
11) Photographs and electron micrographs should exhibit high contrast. Micrographs should have magnification indicated either in bars or with magnifications stated in the legend.
12) Each illustration should be provided with a concise, but descriptive legend. The legend should appear directly below the respective figure and in the section of figure legend at the end of manuscript.
13) IMPORTANT: References should include ONLY publications cited in the text. Please make sure that all references cited in the text are in the list of references.
14) Ethics in publishing
Authors should include a statement about human and animal rights in the manuscript:
If the work involves the use of human subjects, the author should ensure that the work described has been carried out in accordance with The Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki) for experiments involving humans, http://www.wma.net/en/30publications/10policies/b3/index.html; Uniform Requirements for manuscripts submitted to Biomedical journals, http://www.icmje.org. Authors should include a statement in the manuscript that informed consent was obtained for experimentation with human subjects. The privacy rights of human subjects must always be observed.
All animal experiments should be carried out in accordance with the U.K. Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act, 1986 and associated guidelines, EU Directive 2010/63/EU for animal experiments, or the National Institutes of Health guide for the care and use of Laboratory animals (NIH Publications No. 8023, revised 1978) and the authors should clearly indicate in the manuscript that such guidelines have been followed. All animal studies need to ensure they comply with the ARRIVE guidelines. More information can be found at http://www.nc3rs.org.uk/page.asp?id=1357.
Example ethics statement
This study was carried out in strict accordance with the recommendations in the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals of the National Institutes of Health. The protocol was approved by the Committee on the Ethics of Animal Experiments of the University of Minnesota (Permit Number: 27-2956). All surgery was performed under sodium pentobarbital anesthesia, and all efforts were made to minimize suffering.
15) Conflict of interest
All authors are requested to disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest including any financial, personal or other relationships with other people or organizations within three years of beginning the submitted work that could inappropriately influence, or be perceived to influence, their work. Authors should include a statement about conflict of interest in the manuscript.
16) Submission declaration and verification
Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis or as an electronic preprint), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, including electronically without the written consent of the copyright-holder. Authors should include a statement about this declaration and verification in the manuscript.
Ⅲ.REPRINTS
A PDF file of the final version of the paper will be provided free of charge. The PDF file is for authors’ personal or professional use, for the purposes of scholarly or scientific research or study. Printed offprints may be purchased if required.
Ⅳ.COPYRIGHT
The copyright for articles which appear in this Journal is held by the National Research Center for Protozoan Diseases.
SOME EXTRA TIPS
Frequently committed errors are cited below. Kindly take note to avoid them while preparing the manuscript.
(a) References cited in the text are sometimes found missing in the bibliography section.
(b) The year of publication of articles cited in the text is often found to be inconsistent with that cited in the bibliography section.
(c) The style of citation of the references, both in the text and in the bibliography listing, does not often follow that required by the Journal. (please adhere strictly to instructions Ⅱ-2)-(f) and Ⅱ-4).
(d) Scientific names and terms like in vitro and in vivo should be italicized or underlined.
Dr. Yoshifumi Nishikawa, Ph.D.
National Research Center for Protozoan Diseases,
Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine
Obihiro, Hokkaido 080-8555, Japan
E-mail: nisikawa@obihiro.ac.jp
Telephone: (81)-155-49-5886, Fax: (81)-155-49-5643