Author guidelines Scope Editorial policy Open archiving and online repositories Copyright General instructions Preparation of manuscripts Reproduction Reviews Offprints Online submission Scope Reproduction is the official journal of the Society of Reproduction and Fertility (SRF). It was formed in 2001 when the Society merged its two journals, the Journal of Reproduction and Fertility and Reviews of Reproduction. Reproduction publishes original research articles and topical reviews on the subject of reproductive biology. Its focus is on cellular and molecular biology of reproduction, including the development of gametes and early embryos in all species including the human; developmental processes such as cell differentiation, morphogenesis and related regulatory mechanisms in normal and disease models; assisted reproductive technologies in model systems and in a clinical environment; reproductive endocrinology; and reproductive physiology. Emerging topics including cloning, the biology of embryonic stem cells, environmental effects on reproductive potential and health, and epigenetic effects on reproductive and developmental processes are encouraged. There are no page charges and colour is free. Editorial policy Reproduction publishes research papers that extend our understanding of mechanisms of reproductive biology. Papers of a descriptive or technical nature will only be published when they open new lines of research and are of interest to the wide readership of the journal. When submitting your manuscript please explain clearly and succinctly in the covering letter how your research advances present knowledge of reproductive biology. This will be important for the expert editor handling your paper to determine its suitability for the journal. Papers that are not within the remit of the journal may be rejected by the relevant experts on the editorial board. Decisions to reject papers at this stage will be taken by two editors, normally within a week of the manuscript being submitted. A brief explanation as to why the manuscript does not meet the journal's requirements for publication will be returned to the author. The editors of Reproduction are committed to publishing high-quality research. In the last three years the number of manuscripts submitted to the journal has nearly doubled. Editorial policy has responded by becoming more selective to ensure that only the highest-quality papers are accepted. Open archiving and online repositories Please note the journal’s policy on self archiving. Acceptance of this policy is a condition of publication. Copyright Articles are considered on the understanding that, if they are accepted for publication, the entire copyright shall pass to the Society for Reproduction and Fertility. All authors are asked to sign a copyright agreement to this effect. To facilitate the processing of your manuscript please submit the completed form with your paper. Requests for permission to reproduce any part of papers published in Reproduction should be emailed to the Permissions Secretary. General instructions Include a covering letter (PDF file) stating that the work has not been and will not be submitted for publication elsewhere until the Editorial Board has decided whether to publish the paper Acknowledge all of the major sources of funding relevant to the research reported. Please include this before the reference list in the Acknowledgements section Papers quoted as ‘In Press’ must be provided as additional files Give the names of up to five reviewers; include contact details, particularly e-mail addresses where possible. These scientists may be asked to referee the paper If you are unable to submit online please contact the editorial office. BioScientifica is not responsible for loss or damage to manuscripts, illustrations and disks. It will be assumed that submitted manuscripts carry the approval of all the authors. Preparation of manuscripts Manuscripts should be divided into the following sections: Title page, Abstract, Introduction, Results, Discussion, Materials and Methods, Acknowledgements, References, Figure legends, Tables, Figures. Use double spacing throughout (including reference list and figure legends) Spelling should conform to the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary or Merriam-Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary Number all pages, and number the lines continuously throughout the entire manuscript down the left-hand side of each page Define all abbreviations when first mentioned When preparing a revised manuscript, please highlight the changes to your manuscript within the document by using the highlighter function or coloured text Gene nomenclature Manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with accepted gene nomenclature. Mice and rats Gene symbols should be in italics with only the first letter capitalised. Protein designations should be the same as the gene symbols except that all letters should be capitalised and in roman (i.e. not italicised). For example: Gene symbol: Sox2 Protein designation: SOX2 Gene symbols and protein designations should conform to the Rules for Nomenclature of Mouse and Rat Strains. Humans, non-human primates and domestic species Gene symbols should be in italics with all letters capitalised; protein designations should be the same as the gene symbols but not italicised. For example: Gene symbol: SOX2 Protein designation: SOX2 Gene symbols and protein designations should conform to HUGO Gene Nomenclature guidelines. Title page Include a separate title page with the title, authors’ names and full addresses; use superscript numbers after authors’ names for addresses Provide a short title of not more than 46 characters as a running head Indicate the person to whom correspondence should be addressed (include telephone and fax numbers, and email address) Abstract The abstract should be a single paragraph of not more than 250 words State clearly the objective of the study or review, the methods used (where applicable), and summarize results and conclusions Avoid abbreviations and references Introduction The introduction should set the study in context by briefly reviewing relevant knowledge of the subject; follow this with a concise statement of the objectives of the study Materials and Methods Animals The full binomial Latin names should be given for all experimental animals other than common laboratory animals. State also the breed or strain and source of animals, and give details of age, weight, sex and housing Ethics of experimentation Human subjects: Authors should indicate in the text that investigations have been approved by the local ethical committee and that consent has been obtained from patients Animals: Experiments with animals should be performed in accordance with UK legal requirements. Details of procedures and anaesthetics used and doses given should be provided Methods Sufficient information should be provided so that other workers can repeat the study. If well-established methods are used give a reference to the technique; full details of any modifications should be provided Include the source of chemicals, reagents and hormones and give the manufacturer’s name and location (town, country) in parentheses. Give the generic name, dose and route of administration for drugs Specify the composition of buffers, solutions and culture media. SI symbols must be used, concentrations should be given in mol 1-1 and the term % must be defined as w/v or v/v for all solutions. For international units iu should be used (U should be used for enzyme activity) Statistical analyses Sufficient details of the experimental design and analysis should be given so that the reader can assess their adequacy and validity for testing the hypotheses of interest. In particular, the numbers of experimental units used and the way in which they have been allocated to treatments should be described. The omission of any observations from the analysis must be justified. Methods of analysis should be described precisely and any necessary assumptions stated clearly, as these may affect the conclusions that can be drawn from the experiment Acknowledgements Acknowledge all of the major sources of funding relevant to the research reported in the Acknowledgements section, giving grant numbers where appropriate References All references cited in the text should be included in the reference list and vice versa Unpublished work Any unpublished work (personal communications, manuscripts in preparation and manuscripts submitted but not yet accepted for publication) should be referred to in the text and not listed in the references: (A Stone, unpublished observations), (J Brown, personal communication) Articles accepted for publication but not yet published may be listed as ‘In Press’ in the reference list In the text Cite references in the text in chronological order and use et al. for more than two authors, eg: (Davies & Smith 1999; Frost et al. 2001; Williams 2001) In the reference list List references in alphabetical order. Papers by the same author should be given in the order: (i) single author; (ii) two authors alphabetically according to the name of the second author; and (iii) three or more authors chronologically, with a, b and c etc. for papers published in the same year, in the order in which they are cited in the text Reference in the following format: Kelly RW, King AE & Critchley HOD 2001 Cytokine control in human endometrium. Reproduction 121 3-19. Byskov AG & Hoyer PE 1994 Embryology of mammalian gonads and ducts. In The Physiology of Reproduction, edn 5, pp 75-86. Eds E Knobil and JD Neill. New York: Raven Press. Journal names should be given in full, not in their abbreviated forms. Tables Tables should be concise and informative The title should be a single sentence at the head of the table and should include the name of the organism studied Tables should be self-contained, and not require further explanation; they should be numbered (arabic numbers) and cited in the text Give a short heading for each column, and do not use internal horizontal and vertical lines Any additional explanatory material should appear as footnotes, cross-referenced to the column entries Explain all abbreviations used in the table in the footnotes Figures Reproduction is committed to publishing high quality figures. EPS or TIFF files are preferred; files should be exported in Illustrator compatible format Any Photoshop (TIFF or JPEG) or PDF files should be at least 300 dpi at the final published width (avoid using PowerPoint files) Amino acid, DNA, RNA and PCR primer sequences should use Courier or similar non-proportional font; highlight sections of homology between sequences with grey shading Label figure sections as A, B etc in the top left-hand corner Indicate magnification by a scale bar in the bottom right-hand corner of the image; give the measurement in the legend Use the preferred symbols of closed and open circles, squares and triangles. Ensure that symbols are large enough to be read clearly when the figure is reduced for publication. Do not enclose figures in boxes. Arial font is preferred for text labels Include legends to all figures, giving the figure number, keys to any symbols used and the name of the organism studied Colour Colour figures and illustrations are printed without charge to the author at the discretion of the editorial office and a member of the editorial board Supply colour figure files in the following format: CMYK not RGB EPS files for graphical data, TIFF for photographs and colour images, or high-quality JPEG files where neither EPS nor TIFF files can be generated Resolution of 300 dpi for print; avoid importing files into PowerPoint or Word for submission Additional information regarding the submission of figures can be found here. Supplementary data Supplementary data too large for print publication or exceeding the bounds of the manuscript may be submitted for online publication Supplementary data files intended for online publication should be submitted online to Manuscript Central as ‘Supplemental File for Review’, and referred to as supplementary data in the text Supplementary information will be reviewed as part of the manuscript, evaluated for its importance and relevance and, if accepted, should be referenced in the text of the article, directing readers to the web site There is a charge to the author of £50 for the first file and £10 for subsequent files Reproduction Reviews Reproduction publishes topical reviews on basic mechanisms, recent developments and new hypotheses in the field of reproductive biology. Articles are commissioned by the Reviews Editor and undergo peer review by experts in the field. If you would like to submit a review please approach the Reviews Editor with a brief outline of your topic. Manuscripts should, in general, conform to the requirements for original research papers and be of interest to specialists and comprehensible to non-specialist students, university teachers, research workers and clinicians. They should be in the range of 20–30,000 characters (excluding spaces and References), with 20–50 references and 2–6 figures or tables. Original summary diagrams and illustrations of proposed models (in colour where appropriate) are encouraged. Line drawings may be redrawn. Boxes can be used to separate detailed explanations and background information from the main part of the text. Offprints A free PDF will be emailed to the corresponding author. Offprints can be ordered on the form accompanying the proof. Online submission See our online submission guidelines. Please prepare the content of your article as described above.