The Open Biology Journal

Research articles should be of 4000-6000 words with 75 or more references excluding figures, structures, photographs, schemes, tables, etc.

The length of a published comprehensive review article is from 35000 to 40000 words with 100 or more references excluding figures, structures, photographs, schemes, tables etc.

Systematic Reviews include systematic updates in review protocols, methods, research and results from all relevant fields for any studies and updates on already published issues. The total number of words for a published systematic review is from 35000 to 40000 words with 100 or more references excluding figures, structures, photographs, schemes, tables etc. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses must be reported according to PRISMA guidelines; (www.prisma-statement.org).

Letters should be 3000-6000 words with 40 or more references excluding figures, structures, photographs, schemes, tables, etc.

The title should be precise and brief and must not be more than 120 characters. Authors should avoid the use of non standard abbreviations and question marks in titles. The title must be written in title case except for articles, conjunctions and prepositions.

As recommended by the Reporting guidelines information about the study should be a part of the title (particularly for systematic reviews).

Authors should also provide a short ‘running title’. Title, running title, by line correspondent footnote and key words should be written as presented in the original manuscript.

Title page should include paper title, author(s) full name and affiliation, corresponding author(s) names complete affiliation/address, along with phone, fax and email.

The abstract of an article should be its clear, concise and accurate summary, having no more than 250 words, and including the explicit sub-headings (as in-line or run-in headings in bold). Use of abbreviations should be avoided and the references should not be cited in the abstract.

All the original research articles and systematic reviews must be accompanied with a structured abstract. Ideally, each abstract should include the following sub-headings, but these may vary according to requirements of the article.

• Background
• Objective
• Methods
• Results
• Conclusion

The headings can vary, but must state the purpose of the study, details of the participants, measurements, methods, main findings and conclusion.

6 to 8 keywords must be provided. Choose important and relevant keywords that researchers in your field will be searching for so that your paper will appear in a database search. In biomedical fields, MeSH terms are a good ‘common vocabulary’ source to draw keywords from https://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/meshhome.html.

The main text should begin on a separate page and should be divided into title page, abstract and the main text. The text may be subdivided further according to the areas to be discussed, which should be followed by the List of Abbreviations (if any), Conflict of Interest, Acknowledgements and Reference sections. For review, the manuscript should be divided into title page, abstract and the main text. The text may be subdivided further according to the areas to be discussed, which should be followed by the Acknowledgements and Reference sections. The Review Article should mention any previous important recent and old reviews in the field and contain a comprehensive discussion starting with the general background of the field. It should then go on to discuss the salient features of recent developments. The authors should avoid presenting material which has already been published in a previous review. The authors are advised to present and discuss their observations in brief.

For Research Articles the manuscript should begin with the title page and abstract followed by the main text, which must be structured into separate sections as Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Ethics Approval and Consent to Participate, Human and Animal Rights, Conflict of Interest, Acknowledgements and References.

All randomized clinical trials must include a flow diagram and authors should provide a completed randomized trial checklist (see CONSORT Flow Diagram and Checklist; www.consort-statement.org) and a trial protocol.

For case reports, the authors should follow the CARE guidelines. The CARE checklist should be submitted as a separate file.

The manuscript style must be uniform throughout the text and 10 pt Times New Roman fonts should be used. The full term for an abbreviation should precede its first appearance in the text unless it is a standard unit of measurement. The reference numbers should be given in square brackets in the text. Italics should be used for Binomial names of organisms (Genus and Species), for emphasis and for unfamiliar words or phrases. Non-assimilated words from Latin or other languages should also be italicized e.g. per se, et al., etc.

If abbreviations are used in the text either they should be defined in the text where first used, or a list of abbreviations should be provided.

In case there is a need to present lengthy, but essential methodological details, use appendices, which can be a part of the article. An appendix must not exceed three pages (Times New Roman, 10 point fonts, 900 max. words per page). The information should be provided in a condensed form, ruling out the need of full sentences. A single appendix should be titled APPENDIX, while more than one can be titled APPENDIX A, APPENDIX B, and so on.

We do encourage to append supportive material, for example a PowerPoint file containing a talk about the study, a PowerPoint file containing additional screenshots, a Word, RTF, or PDF document showing the original instrument(s) used, a video, or the original data (SAS/SPSS files, Excel files, Access Db files etc.) provided it is inevitable or endorsed by the journal's Editor.

Published/reproduced material should not be included unless you have obtained written permission from the copyright holder, which must be forwarded to the Editorial Office in case of acceptance of your article for publication.

Supportive/Supplementary Material intended for publication must be numbered and referred to in the manuscript but should not be a part of the submitted paper. In-text citations as well as a section with the heading "Supportive/Supplementary Material" before the "References" section should be provided. Here, list all Supportive/Supplementary Material and include a brief caption line for each file describing its contents.

Any additional files will be linked to the final published article in the form supplied by the author, but will not be displayed within the paper. They will be made available in exactly the same form as originally provided only on our Web site. Please also make sure that each additional file is a single table, figure or movie (please do not upload linked worksheets or PDF files larger than one sheet). Supportive/Supplementary material must be provided in a single zipped file not larger than 4 MB.

Authors must clearly indicate if these files are not for publication but meant for the reviewers'/editors' perusal only.

Anonymous images, that do not identify the individual directly or indirectly, such as through any identifying marks or text, do not require formal consent, for example, X-rays, ultrasound images, pathology slides or laparoscopic images.

In case consent is not obtained, concealing the identity through eye bars or blurring the face would not be acceptable.

Unethical behavior and misconduct may be pointed out by anyone to the Editor and Publisher with sufficient evidences. The Editor, in consultation with the Publisher, will initiate investigation against this Unethical misconduct, complete the procedure till an unbiased decision is reached, and maintain confidentiality throughout the process of the investigation. The Author should be given the opportunity to reply to all minor or major accusations.

In case of serious breaches, the employer may be informed where appropriate, by the Editor/Publisher, after reviewing all available information and evidences or after seeking help from experts in that field.

• Author(s) and Reviewers must be informed in case of misinterpretation or mishandling of International Acceptable Standards.
• A strict notice should be sent to the author and reviewer to avoid future unethical misconduct.
• An Editorial on the reported misconduct should be published or official notice of unethical behavior should be posted on the website.
• Official letter about this misconduct should be issued to the Head of Departments, Funding Agencies of the accused author and the reviewer, as well as Abstracting & Indexing Agencies.
• Where required, retraction and withdrawal of publication may be undertaken from the Publisher’s journal in discussion with the Head of the Department of the author or reviewer, and other higher authorities should be informed.
• The Publisher may impose restrictions for some period on future publications from the accused author in the journals.

Different reference formats have different rules for citation. See below for some common format examples.

The minimum required information for a journal article reference is author, abbreviated journal title, year, publication, volume number, and initial page of cited article, though complete pagination is possible. Journal abbreviation and volume are italicized. Year of publication is bold. All authors must be cited and there should be no use of the phrase et al. Journal abbreviations should follow the Index Medicus/MEDLINE.

• [1]  Bard, M.; Woods, R.A.; Bartón, D.H.; Corrie, J.E.; Widdowson, D.A. Sterol mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae: chromatographic analyses. Lipids, 1977, 12(8), 645-654.
• [2]  Zhang, W.; Brombosz, S.M.; Mendoza, J.L.; Moore, J.S. A high-yield, one-step synthesis of o-phenylene ethynylene cyclic trimer via precipitation-driven alkyne metathesis. J. Org. Chem., 2005, 70, 10198-10201.

• [3]  Crabtree, R.H. The Organometallic Chemistry of the Transition Metals, 3^rd ed.; Wiley & Sons: New York, 2001.

• [4]  Wheeler, D.M.S.; Wheeler, M.M. D. Stereoselective Syntheses of Doxorubicin and Related Compounds In: Studies in Natural Products Chemistry; Atta-ur-Rahman, Ed.; Elsevier Science B. V: Amsterdam, 1994; Vol. 14, pp. 3-46.

• [5]  Jakeman, D.L.; Withers, S.G.E. In: Carbohydrate Bioengineering: Interdisciplinary Approaches, Proceedings of the 4^th Carbohydrate Bioengineering Meeting, Stockholm, Sweden, June 10-13, 2001; Teeri, T.T.; Svensson, B.; Gilbert, H.J.; Feizi, T., Eds.; Royal Society of Chemistry: Cambridge, UK, 2002; pp. 3-8.

• [6]  National Library of Medicine. Specialized Information Services: Toxicology and Environmental Health. sis.nlm.nih.gov/Tox/ToxMain.html (Accessed May 23, 2004).

• [7]  Hoch, J.A.; Huang, S. Screening methods for the identification of novel antibiotics. U.S. Patent 6,043,045, March 28, 2000.

• [8]  Mackel, H. Capturing the Spectra of Silicon Solar Cells. PhD Thesis, The Australian National University: Canberra, December 2004.

• [9]  Citations for articles/material published exclusively online or in open access (free-to-view), must contain the accurate Web addresses (URLs) at the end of the reference(s), except those posted on an author’s Web site (unless editorially essential), e.g. ‘Reference: Available from: URL’.

Some important points to remember

• All authors must be cited and there should be no use of the phrase et al.
• Date of access should be provided for online citations.
• Punctuation should be properly applied as mentioned in the examples given above.
• Abstracts, unpublished data and personal communications (which can only be included if prior permission has been obtained) should not be given in the references section. The details may however appear in the footnotes.
• The authors are encouraged to use a recent version of EndNote (version 5 and above) or Reference Manager (version 10) when formatting their reference list, as this allows references to be automatically extracted.

Different reference formats have different rules for citation. See below for some common format examples.

The required information for a journal article is author, abbreviated journal title, year, publication, volume number, and initial page of cited article, though complete pagination is possible. It is necessary to list all authors if the total number of author is six or less and for more than six authors use three authors and then et al (the term "et al." should be in italics). Journal abbreviations should follow the Index Medicus/MEDLINE. Capitalize the first letter of the first word in the title. The rest of the title is in lower-case, with the exception of proper names.

• [1]  Al-Habian A, Harikumar PE, Stocker CJ, Langlands K, Selway JL. Histochemical and immunohistochemical evaluation of mouse skin histology: comparison of fixation with neutral buffered formalin and alcoholic formalin. J Histotechnol. 2014 Dec;37(4):115-24.
• [2]  Guilbert TW, Morgan WJ, Zeiger RS, Mauger DT, Boehmer SJ, Szefler SJ, et al. Long-term inhaled corticosteroids in preschool children at high risk for asthma. N Engl J Med. 2006 May 11;354(19):1985-1997.

• [3]  Blaxter PS, Farnsworth TP. Social health and class inequalities. In: Carter C, Peel JR, Eds. Equalities and inequalities in health. 2nd ed. London: Academic Press 1976; pp. 165-78.

• [4]  Phillips SJ, Whisnant JP. Hypertension and stroke. In: Laragh JH, Brenner BM, Eds. Hypertension: pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management. 2nd ed. New York: Raven Press 1995; pp. 465-78.

• [5]  Larsen CE, Trip R, Johnson CR. Methods for procedures related to the electrophysiology of the heart. US Patent 5529067, 1995.

• [6]  Kimura J, Shibasaki H, Eds. Recent advances in clinical neurophysiology. Proceedings of the 10th International Congress of EMG and Clinical Neurophysiology; 1995 Oct 15-19; Kyoto, Japan. Amsterdam: Elsevier 1996.

• [7]  Borkowski MM. Infant sleep and feeding: a telephone survey of Hispanic Americans. PhD dissertation. Mount Pleasant (MI): Central Micihigan University 2002.

• [8]  Aylin P, Bottle A, Jarman B, Elliott, P. Paediatric cardiac surgical mortality in England after Bristol: descriptive analysis of hospital episode statistics 1991-2002. BMJ [serial on the Internet]. 2004 Oct 9; [cited: 15 October 2004]; 329: [about 10 screens]. Available from: sis.nlm.nih.gov/Tox/ToxMain.html

• [9]  Frangioni G, Bianchi S, Fuzzi G, Borgioli G. Dynamics of hepatic melanogenesis in newts in recovery phase from hypoxia. Open Zoo J 2009; 2: 1-7. Available from: www.benthamscience.com/open/tozj/openaccess2.htm [cited: 26^th Jan 2009]
• [10]  Abood S. Quality improvement initiative in nursing homes: the ANA acts in an advisory role. Am J Nurs [serial on the Internet]. June 2002 [cited: 12^th Aug 2002]; 102(6): [about 3 p.]. Available from: www.nursingworld.org/AJN/2002/june/Wawatch.htm

Some important points to remember

• Date of access should be provided for online citations.
• Avoid using superscript in the in-text citations and reference section.
• Abstracts, unpublished data and personal communications (which can only be included if prior permission has been obtained) should not be given in the references section. The details may however appear in the footnotes.
• The authors are encouraged to use a recent version of EndNote (version 5 and above) or Reference Manager (version 10) when formatting their reference list, as this allows references to be automatically extracted.

Illustrations must be provided according to the following guideline:

• Illustrations should be embedded in the text file, and must be numbered consecutively in the order of their appearance. Each figure should include only a single illustration which should be cropped to minimize the amount of space occupied by the illustration.
• If a figure is in separate parts, all parts of the figure must be provided in a single composite illustration file.
• Photographs should be provided with a scale bar if appropriate, as well as high-resolution component files.
• All the numbers, symbols and letters in figures should be consistent and clear throughout and large enough to remain readable when the size is reduced for publication.
• It must be ensured to cite each figure in the text in sequence.

Line Art image type is normally an image based on lines and text. It does not contain tonal or shaded areas. The preferred file format should be TIFF or EPS, with the color mode being Monochrome 1-bit or RGB, in a resolution of 900-1200 dpi.

Halftone image type is a continuous tone photograph containing no text. It should have the preferred file format TIFF, with color mode being RGB or Grayscale, in a resolution of 300 dpi.

Combination image type is an image containing halftone , text or line art elements. It should have the preferred file format TIFF, with color mode being RGB or Grayscale, in a resolution of 500-900 dpi.

Illustrations may be submitted in the following file formats:

• Illustrator
• EPS (preferred format for diagrams)
• PDF (also especially suitable for diagrams)
• PNG (preferred format for photos or images)
• Microsoft Word (version 5 and above; figures must be a single page)
• PowerPoint (figures must be a single page)
• TIFF
• JPEG (conversion should be done using the original file)
• BMP
• CDX (ChemDraw)
• TGF (ISISDraw)

Bentham OPEN does not process figures submitted in GIF format.

For TIFF or EPS figures with considerably large file size restricting the file size in online submissions is advisable. Authors may therefore convert to JPEG format before submission as this results in significantly reduced file size and upload time, while retaining acceptable quality. JPEG is a lossy format. However, in order to maintain acceptable image quality, it is recommended that JPEG files are saved at High or Maximum quality.

Zipit or Stuffit tools should not be used to compress files prior to submission as the resulting compression through these tools is always negligible.

Please refrain from supplying:

1. Graphics embedded in word processor (spreadsheet, presentation) document.
2. Optimized files optimized for screen use (like GIF, BMP, PICT, WPG) because of the low resolution.
3. Files with too low a resolution.
4. Graphics that are disproportionately large for the content.

Technical requirements for graphic/ figure submissions.

There are many software packages, many of them freeware or shareware, capable of converting to and from different graphics formats, including PNG.

General tools for image conversion include Graphic Converter on the Macintosh, Paint Shop Pro, for Windows, and ImageMagick, available on Macintosh, Windows and UNIX platforms.

Bitmap images (e.g. screenshots) should not be converted to EPS as they result in a much larger file size than the equivalent JPEG, TIFF, PNG or BMP, and poor quality. EPS should only be used for images produced by vector-drawing applications such as Adobe Illustrator or CorelDraw. Most vector-drawing applications can be saved in, or exported as, EPS format. If the images were originally prepared in an Office application, such as Word or PowerPoint, original Office files should be directly uploaded to the site, instead of being converted to JPEG or another format of low quality.

[As according to the ACS style sheet]

The text of every submitted manuscript is checked using the Content Tracking mode in iThenticate. The Content Tracking mode ensures that manuscripts with an overall low percentage similarity (but which may have a higher similarity from a single source) are not overlooked. The acceptable limit for similarity of text from a single source is 5%. If the similarity level is above 5%, the manuscript is returned to the author for paraphrasing the text and citing the original source of the copied material.

It is important to mention that the text taken from different sources with an overall low similarity percentage will be considered as a plagiarized content if the majority of the article is a combination of copied material.

There may be some manuscripts with an overall low similarity percentage, but a higher percentage from a single source. A manuscript may have less than 20% overall similarity but there may be 15 % similar text taken from a single article. The similarity index in such cases is higher than the approved limit for a single source. Authors are advised to thoroughly rephrase the similar text and properly cite the original source to avoid plagiarism and copyright violation.

The publication fee for each published Research article is US $960.

The publication fee for each published Review article is US $1,060.

The publication fee for each published Mini Review article is US $750.

The publication fee for each published letter articles / short communications / case reports submitted is US $750.

The publication fee includes basic copy editing services. Once the paper is accepted for publication, the author will receive an electronic invoice via email. Subsequent submissions from the Bentham OPEN Authors will receive a discount of US$ 100 on the total publication charges providing their previous submission did not avail any discount off the listed full author open access fee rate. The fee form is also available on the Web site at FEE FORM

An optional fast publication fee-based service called “QUICK TRACK” is available to authors for their submitted manuscripts.

QUICK TRACK allows online publication within 1 week of receipt of the final approved galley proofs from the authors. The total publication time, from date of first receipt of manuscript to its online publication is only 6 weeks, subject to its acceptance by the referees and modification (if any) by the authors within one week.

The Authors will be charged US $300 processing fee (non-refundable) and an additional $450 publication fee (refundable if paper is not accepted for publication). The quick track publication fee together with the Bentham OPEN publication charges, will be payable before online publication of the paper. If the paper is rejected, there will be no further charges other than the $300 already paid.

Please note that whether the author opts for the QUICK TRACK facility or not, standard reviewing practices will be followed, which will not in any way affect the acceptance or rejection of the manuscript by the reviewers.

Authors who have availed QUICK TRACK services in a Bentham OPEN journal will be entitled for an exclusive 30% discount if they again wish to avail the same services in any Bentham OPEN journal within the next 12 months.

For more information please contact the Editorial Office by e-mail at quicktrack@benthamopen.net

Bentham OPEN offers a 50% discount off the Quick Track Fee for manuscripts of all corresponding authors who reside in countries which are categorized as low-income economies by the World Bank. To see if you qualify for the discount, please refer to the complete list of these countries click here.

Antimicrobial resistance represents a significant challenge to future healthcare provision.An acronym ESKAPEE has been derived from the names of the organisms recognised as the major threats although there are a number of other organisms, notably Neisseria gonorrhoeae, that have become equally challenging to treat in the clinic. These pathogens are characterised by the ability to rapidly develop and/or acquire resistance mechanisms in response to exposure to different antimicrobial agents. A key part of the armoury of these pathogens is a series of efflux pumps, which effectively exclude or reduce the intracellular concentration of a large number of antibiotics, making the pathogens significantly more resistant. These efflux pumps are the topic of considerable interest, both from the perspective of basic understanding of efflux pump function, and its role in drug resistance but also as targets for the development of novel adjunct therapies. The necessity to overcome antimicrobial resistance has encouraged investigations into the characterisation of resistance-modifying efflux pump inhibitors to block the mechanisms of drug extrusion, thereby restoring antibacterial susceptibility and returning existing antibiotics into the clinic. A greater understanding of drug recognition and transport by multidrug efflux pumps is needed to develop clinically useful inhibitors, given the breadth of molecules that can be effluxed by these systems. This review discusses different bacterial EPIs originating from both natural source and chemical synthesis and examines the challenges to designing successful EPIs that can be useful against multidrug resistant bacteria.