The Open Biology Journal :: Instructions for Authors

AIMS AND SCOPE

The Open Biology Journal is an open access online journal, which publishes research, review and letter aticles and guest edited single topic issues, reviews and letters in all areas of biology and at the interface of related disciplines. The core disciplines in biology that are published in the journal are the following: Cell & Developmental Biology; Genetics & Genomics; Molecular Biology; Structural Biology; Bioinformatics; Systems Biology; Immunology; Biochemistry; Ecology; Zoology; Ornithology; Entomology; Marine & aquatic Biology; Plant Biology; Bioethics; Behavioural science ; Microbiology; Reproductive Biology; Glycobiology; Macromolecules; Proteins & Peptides; Theoretical & Mathematical Biology; Evolutionary Biology; Techniques in Biology; Biotechnology, Applied Microbiology, Biodiversity Conservation, Biophysics, Biostatistics, Crystallography of macromolecules., education in biology, Marine & Freshwater Biology, Mathematical & Computational Biology, Mycology, Nanoscience & Nanotechnology, Parasitology, Paleobiology, Astrobiology; Physiology, biopolymers, Soil biology, and Interdisciplinary Applications in biology.

Each peer-reviewed article that is published in a Bentham OPEN Journal is universally and freely accessible via the Internet in an easily readable and printable PDF format.

ONLINE MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION

An online submission and tracking service via Internet facilitates a speedy and cost-effective submission of manuscripts. The full manuscript has to be submitted online via Bentham's Manuscript Processing System (MPS) at https://bentham.manuscriptpoint.com/journals/tobioj/ View Submission Instructions

Authors should ONLY submit their articles directly through our online system as we do not accept articles through intermediary companies or agents.

Manuscripts must be submitted by one of the authors of the manuscript, and should not be submitted by anyone on their behalf. The principal/corresponding author will be required to submit a Copyright Letter along with the manuscript, on behalf of all the co-authors (if any). The author(s) will confirm that the manuscript (or any part of it) has not been published previously or is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Furthermore, any illustration, structure or table that has been published elsewhere must be reported, and copyright permission for reproduction must be obtained.

For all online submissions, please provide soft copies of all the materials (main text in MS Word or Tex/LaTeX), figures / illustrations in TIFF, PDF or JPEG, and chemical structures drawn in ChemDraw (CDX) / ISISDraw (TGF) as separate files, while a PDF version of the entire manuscript must also be included, embedded with all the figures / illustrations / tables / chemical structures etc. It is advisable that the document files related to a manuscript submission should always have the name of the corresponding author as part of the file name, i.e., "Cilli MS text.doc" , "Cilli MS Figure 1", etc.

It is imperative that before submission, authors should carefully proofread the files for special characters, mathematical symbols, Greek letters, equations, tables and images, to ensure that they appear in proper format.

References, figures, tables, structures etc. should be referred to in the text at the place where they have been discussed. Figure legends/caption should also be provided.

A successful electronic submission of a manuscript will be followed by a system-generated acknowledgement to the principal/corresponding author within 72 hours of the dispatch of the manuscript. Any questions with regards to the preparation of and submission of your manuscript to the journal should be addressed to tobioj@benthamopen.net and copied to info@benthamopen.net

NOTE: Any queries therein should be addressed to oa@benthamopen.net and copied to Jalil@benthamopen.net

COPYRIGHT

Authors who publish in Bentham OPEN Journals retain copyright to their work. It is a condition of publication that manuscripts submitted to this journal have not been published and will not be simultaneously submitted or published elsewhere. Plagiarism is strictly forbidden, and by submitting the article for publication the authors agree that the publishers have the legal right to take appropriate action against the authors, if plagiarism or fabricated information is discovered. Once submitted to the journal, the author may not withdraw their manuscript at any stage prior to publication.

Articles are licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode), which permits the copying and redistribution of the material in any medium or format, as well as remixing, transformation, and building upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided appropriate credit is given, a link to the licence is provided, and provided it is indicated if any changes were made.

Copyright Letter:

It is a mandatory requirement that a signed copyright letter also be submitted along with the manuscript by the author to whom correspondence is to be addressed, delineating the scope of the submitted article declaring the potential competing interests, acknowledging contributions from authors and funding agencies, and certifying that the paper is prepared according to the 'Instructions for Authors'. All inconsistencies in the text and in the reference section, and any typographical errors must be carefully checked and corrected before the submission of the manuscript. The article contains no such material or information that may be unlawful, defamatory, fabricated, plagiarized, or which would, if published, in any way whatsoever, violate the terms and conditions as laid down in the agreement. The authors acknowledge that the publishers have the legal right to take appropriate action against the authors for any such violation of the terms and conditions as laid down in the agreement. Download the Copyright letter

PERMISSION FOR REPRODUCTION:

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

For obtaining permission for reproducing any material published in an article by Bentham OPEN, please fill in the request FORM and send to info@benthamopen.net for consideration.

PUBLICATION FEES / QUICK TRACK PUBLICATION

The publication fee details for each article published in the journal are given below:

Research Articles:

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

Review Articles:

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

Mini-Review Articles:

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

Letter Articles / Short Communications / Case Reports:

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

Bentham OPEN offers a 50% discount off the Publication 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.

Quick Track Publication:

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.

MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION

The manuscript should be written in English in a clear, direct and active style. All pages must be numbered sequentially, facilitating in the reviewing and editing of the manuscript.

Manuscripts Published:

The journal accepts original research articles, review articles and letters written in English. Single topic/thematic issues may also be considered for publication.

Manuscript Length:

Research Articles:

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

Review Articles:

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:

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).

Letter Articles:

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

Book Reviews:

This journal publishes open access reviews on recently published books (both print and electronic) relevant to the journal. Publishers and authors of books are invited to contact our book reviews editor at tobioj@benthamopen.net with book review requests. All submitted books will be reviewed by an independent expert in the field. No page charges will be levied to authors for the publication of book reviews.

Case Reports:

Case reports should describe new observations of findings or novel/unique outcomes relevant to the field. The total number of words for a published case report is 1500 to 2000 words with 40 or more references excluding figures, structures, photographs, schemes, tables etc.

Perspectives:

A perspective should provide a short overview of a research topic relevant to the field. The length of a published perspective ranges from 1500 to 1800 words with 20 or more references excluding figures, structures, photographs, schemes, tables, etc.

There is no restriction on the number of figures, tables or additional files e.g. video clips, animation and datasets, that can be included with each article online. Authors should include all relevant supporting data with each article.

Conference Proceedings:

For proposals to publish conference proceedings in this journal, please contact us at email: proceedings@benthamopen.net.

Supplement/Single Topic Issues:

The journal also considers Supplements/Single topic issues for publication. The Guest Edited Thematic Issues are published free of charge.

A Supplement/Single topic issue will be a collection of review/research articles (minimum of 6, maximum of 20 articles) based on a contemporary theme or topic of great importance to the field. Mini-supplements consisting of between 3 to 5 articles are also welcome. The Guest Editors' main editorial task is to invite the contributors to the Supplement and to manage the peer review of submitted manuscripts. A short summary or proposal for editing a supplement should be submitted to the Editor-in-Chief at e-mail to specialissue@benthamopen.net.

MANUSCRIPT SECTIONS FOR PAPERS

Manuscripts for research articles and letters submitted to the journal should be divided into the following sections; however, there can be an extension in the number of sections in review articles in accordance with the requirements of the topic.

Copyright letter
Title
Title page
Structured Abstract
Keywords
Text organization
Conclusion
List of abbreviations (if any)
Consent for Publication
Availability of Data and Materials
Funding
Conflict of interest
Acknowledgements
References
Appendices
Figures/illustrations (if any)
Chemical structures (if any)
Tables (if any)
Supportive/supplementary material (if any)

Title:

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:

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.

Structured Abstract:

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.

Keywords:

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. The keywords should be contained in the title and they should appear several times in the article. In biomedical fields, MeSH terms are a good ‘common vocabulary’ source to draw keywords from https://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/meshhome.html.

Text Organization:

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.

Section Headings:

Section headings should be numbered sequentially, left aligned and have the first letter capitalized, starting with the introduction. Sub-section headings however, should be in lower-case and italicized with their initials capitalized. They should be numbered as 1.1, 1.2, etc.

INTRODUCTION:

The Introduction section should include the background and aims of the research in a comprehensive manner.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

This section provides details of the methodology used along with information on any previous efforts with corresponding references. Any details for further modifications and research should be included. Sufficient details should be provided to the reader about the original data source in order to enable the analysis, appropriateness and verification of the results reported in the study.

It is important for the Method Section should be sufficiently detailed in respect of the data presented, and the results produced from it. This section should include all the information and protocol gathered for the study at the time when it was being written. If the study is funded or financially supported by an organization to conduct the research, then it should be mentioned in the Method Section. Methods must be result-oriented. The statement regarding the approval by an independent local, regional or national review committee (e.g. name of ethic committee and institutional review board) should be part of the Methods Section.

EXPERIMENTAL:

Repeated information should not be reported in the text of an article. A calculation section must include experimental data, facts and practical development from a theoretical perspective.

RESULTS:

The important and main findings of the study should come first in the Results Section. The tables, figures and references should be given in sequence to emphasize the important information or observations related to the research. The repetition of data in tables and figures should be avoided. Results should be precise.

DISCUSSION:

This should explore the significance of the results of the work, and present reproducible procedure. Extensive citations and discussion of published literature should be avoided.

The Results and discussions may be presented individually or combined in a single section with short and informative headings.

CONCLUSION:

A small paragraph summarizing the contents of the article, presenting the final outcome of the research or proposing further study on the subject, may be given at the end of the article under the Conclusion section.

FUNDING:

The authors need to declare the funding sources of their manuscripts clearly by providing the name of the funding agency or financial support along with allotted grant/award number in round brackets (if applied), for instance, “This work was financially supported by [Name of the funding agency] (Grant number XXX).

Similarly, if a paper does not have any specific funding source, and is part of the employment of the authors, then the name of the employer will be required. Authors will have to clearly state that the funder was involved in writing, editing, approval, or decision to publish the article.

Registration of Systematic Reviews:

Bentham Science Publishers supports retrospective registration of systematic reviews, in a suitable registry (such as PROSPERO). The registered systematic review must include the registration number as the last line of the manuscript abstract.

Randomized Drug Clinical Trial Studies:

Randomized drug clinical trial studies are biomedical or health-related interventional and/or observational research studies conducted in phases in human beings who are randomly allocated to receive or not receive a preventive, therapeutic, or diagnostic intervention that follows a pre-defined protocol. The study is intended to determine the safety and efficacy of approaches to disease prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

Authors of randomized controlled trials are encouraged to submit trial protocols along with their manuscripts. All clinical trials must be registered (before recruitment of the first participant) at an appropriate online public trial registry that must be independent of for-profit interest (e.g.,www.clinicaltrials.gov). If you wish the editor(s) to consider an unregistered trial, please explain briefly why the trial has not been registered.

All randomized clinical trials should 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.
Studies of diagnostic accuracy must be reported according to STARD guidelines; (www.stard-statement.org)
Observational studies (cohort, case-control, or cross-sectional designs) must be reported according to the STROBE statement, and should be submitted with their protocols; (www.strobe-statement.org).
Genetic association studies must be reported according to STREGA guidelines; (www.medicine.uottawa.ca)
Systematic reviews and meta-analyses must be reported according to PRISMA guidelines; (www.prisma-statement.org)
To find the reporting guidelines see (www.equator-network.org)

Important points to remember while submitting clinical trials:

Each manuscript should clearly state an objective or hypothesis; the design and methods (including the study setting and dates, patients or participants with inclusion and exclusion criteria, or data sources, and how these were selected for the study); the essential features of any interventions; the main outcome measures; the main results of the study; a comment section placing the results in context with the published literature and addressing study limitations; and the conclusions. Data included in research reports must be original.
Trial registry name, registration identification number, and the URL for the registry should be included at the end of the abstract and also in the space provided on the online manuscript submission form. If your research article reports the results of a controlled health care intervention, list the trial registry, along with the unique identifying number (Please note that there should be no space between the letters and numbers of your trial registration number). Studies designed for other purposes, such as to study pharmacokinetics or major toxicity (e.g., phase 1 trials), are exempted.
All reports of randomized trials should include a section entitled “Randomization and Masking”, within the Methods section.
The manuscript must include a statement identifying the institutional and/or licensing committee that has approved the experiments, including any relevant details.
The SI system of units and the recommended international non-proprietary name (rINN) for drug names must be used. Kindly ensure that the dose, route, and frequency of administration of any drug you mention are correct.
Please ensure that the clinical trials sponsored by pharmaceutical companies follow the guidelines on good publication practice: (www.gpp-guidelines.org)

The editors reserve the right to reject manuscripts that do not comply with the above-mentioned requirements. The author will be held responsible for false statements or failure to fulfill the above-mentioned requirements.

Greek Symbols and Special Characters:

Greek symbols and special characters often undergo formatting changes and get corrupted or lost during preparation of manuscript for publication. To ensure that all special characters used are embedded in the text, these special characters should be inserted as a symbol but should not be a result of any format styling (Symbol font face) otherwise they will be lost during conversion to PDF/XML.

Authors are encouraged to consult reporting guidelines. These guidelines provide a set of recommendations comprising a list of items relevant to their specific research design. All kinds of measurements should be reported only in International System of Units (SI). Chemical equations, chemical names, mathematical usage, unit of measurements, chemical and physical quantity & units must conform to SI and Chemical Abstracts or IUPAC.

List of Abbreviations (if any):

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.

Appendices:

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.

Supportive/Supplementary Material (if any):

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.

RESEARCH ETHICS AND POLICIES

Conflict of Interest:

Financial contributions and any potential conflict of interest must be clearly acknowledged under the heading ‘Conflict of Interest’. Authors must list the source(s) of funding for the study. This should be done for each author.

Acknowledgements:

All individuals listed as authors must have contributed substantially to the design, performance, analysis, or reporting of the work and are required to indicate their specific contribution. Anyone (individual/company/institution) who has substantially contributed to the study for important intellectual content, or was involved in the in drafting or revising the manuscript must also be acknowledged.

Guest or honorary authorship based solely on position (e.g. research supervisor, departmental head) is discouraged

The specific requirements for authorship have been defined by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (www.icmje.org). Examples of authors' contributions are: 'designed research/study', 'performed research/study', 'contributed important reagents', 'collected data', 'analyzed data', 'wrote paper' etc. This information must be included in the submitted manuscript as a separate paragraph under the heading ‘Acknowledgements’. The corresponding author is responsible for obtaining permission from all co-authors for the submission of any version of the manuscript and for any changes in the authorship.

HUMAN AND ANIMAL RIGHTS:

All clinical investigations should be conducted according to the Declaration of Helsinki principles. For all manuscripts reporting data from studies involving human participants, formal review and approval by an appropriate institutional review board or ethics committee are required.

For research involving animals, the authors should indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the standards set forth in the eighth edition of “Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals” (grants.nih.gov/grants/olaw/guide-for-the-care-and-use-of-laboratory-animals_prepub.pdf published by the National Academy of Sciences, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C.).

Research Involving Animals:

Research work on animals should be carried out in accordance with the NC3Rs ARRIVE Guidelines. For In Vivo Experiments, please visit https://www.nc3rs.org.uk/arrive-guidelines

Authors should clearly state the name of the approval committee, highlighting that legal and ethical approvals were obtained prior to initiation of the research work carried out on animals, and that the experiments were performed in accordance with the relevant guidelines and regulations stated below.

US authors should cite compliance with the US National Research Council's "Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals"
The US Public Health Service's "Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals" and "Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals"
UK authors should conform to UK legislation under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 Amendment Regulations (SI 2012/3039).
European authors outside the UK should conform to Directive 2010/63/EU.
Research on animals should adhere to ethical guidelines of The Basel Declaration and the International Council for Laboratory Animal Science (ICLAS) ethical guidelines.
The manuscript should clearly include a declaration of compliance with the relevant guidelines (e.g. the revised Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 in the UK and Directive 2010/63/EU in Europe) and/or relevant permissions or licenses obtained by the IUCN Policy Statement on Research Involving Species at Risk of Extinction and the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

Research Involving Plants

All experimental research on plants (either cultivated or wild), should comply with international guidelines. The manuscript should include a declaration of compliance of field studies with relevant guidelines and/or relevant permissions or licenses obtained by the IUCN Policy Statement on Research Involving Species at Risk of Extinction and the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

Patient Consent:

Compliance with the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors www.icmje.org) is recommended, in accordance with the patient’s consent for research or participation in a study as per the applicable laws and regulations regarding the privacy and/or security of personal information, including, but not limited to, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 ("HIPAA") and other U.S. federal and state laws relating to confidentiality and security of personally distinguishable evidence, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (EU) 2016/679 and member state implementing legislation, Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, India's Information Technology Act and related Privacy Rules, (together "Data Protection and Privacy Laws").

It is the responsibility of the author to ensure that:

Patients' names, initials, or hospital numbers are not mentioned anywhere in the manuscript (including figures).
Authors are responsible for obtaining the patient consent-to-disclose forms for all recognizable patients in photographs, videos, or other information that may be published in the Journal, in derivative works, or on the journal’s web site and for providing the manuscript to the recognizable patient for review before submission.
The consent-to-disclose form should indicate specific use (publication in the medical literature in print and online, with the understanding that patients and the public will have access) of the patient's information and any images in figures or videos, and must contain the patient's signature or that of a legal guardian along with a statement that the patient or legal guardian has been offered the opportunity to review the identifying materials and the accompanying manuscript.
If the manuscript has an individuals’ data, such as personal details, audio-video material, etc., consent should be obtained from that individual. In case of children, consent should be obtained from the parent or the legal guardian.
A specific declaration of such approval and consent-to-disclose form must be made in the copyright letter and in a stand-alone paragraph at the end of the article especially in the case of human studies where inclusion of a statement regarding obtaining the written informed consent from each subject or subject's guardian is a must. The original should be retained by the guarantor or the corresponding author. Editors may request to provide the original forms by fax or email.
All such case reports require by a proper consent being obtained prior to publishing.

Editors may request that authors provide documentation of the formal review and recommendation from the institutional review board or ethics committee responsible for oversight of the study. The editors reserve the right to reject manuscripts that do not comply with the above-mentioned requirements. The author will be held responsible for false statements or failure to fulfill the above-mentioned requirements.

Non-identifiable Images

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

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.

Conclusion

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.

Consent for Publication:

If the manuscript has an individuals’ data, such as personal detail, audio-video material etc., consent should be obtained from that individual. In case of children, consent should be obtained from the parent or the legal guardian.

A specific declaration of such approval and consent-to-disclose form must be made in the copyright letter and in a stand-alone paragraph at the end of the article especially in the case of human studies where inclusion of a statement regarding obtaining the written informed consent from each subject or subject's guardian is a must. The original should be retained by the guarantor or corresponding author. Editors may request to provide the original forms by fax or email.

REFERENCES

References should be submitted preferably in the ACS or Vancouver style. All references must be complete and accurate. The reference numbers must be finalized and the bibliography must be fully formatted before submission.

The references should be relevant to the study and should refer to the original research sources. Self-citation and self-interest should be avoided by the authors, editors and peer-reviewers.

See below few examples of references listed in the ACS and Vancouver Style:

ACS Style

In ACS style, all references should be numbered sequentially [in square brackets] in the text and listed in the same numerical order in the reference section. Superscript in the in-text citations and reference section should be avoided.

Reference Lists

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

Journal Article

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.

Book Reference

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

Book Chapter Reference

[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.

Conference Proceedings

[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.

URL(WebPage)

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

Patent

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

Thesis

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

E-citations

[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.

Vancouver Style

In Vancouver style, all references should be numbered sequentially [in square brackets] in the text and listed in the same numerical order in the reference section. Punctuation should be properly applied as mentioned in the examples given above.

Reference Lists

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

Journal Article

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, et al. Long-term inhaled corticosteroids in preschool children at high risk for asthma. N Engl J Med. 2006 May 11;354(19):1985-97.

Edited Book

[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.

Chapter in a Book

[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.

Patent

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

Conference Proceedings

[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.

Thesis and Dissertation

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

URL(WebPage)

[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

Electronic Material

Journal Article in Electronic Format

[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: benthamopen.com/ABSTRACT/TOZJ-2-1 [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/ana/

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.

AVAILABILITY OF DATA AND MATERIALS

The source of data and materials should be mentioned in the manuscript, in support of the findings. If the data source is not revealed, the authors need to clearly state the reasons. Authors who do not wish to share their data should clearly state that the data will not be shared, and give the reasons.

The statement relating to the data should be presented in the following format under a separate ‘Availability of Data and Materials’ section in the manuscript:

"The data supporting the findings of the article is available in the [repository name] at [URL], reference number [reference number]”.

STANDARDS OF REPORTING

The Authors are encouraged to use industry-recognized reporting guidelines for biomedical and biological research, if applicable, to explain that all requirements for reporting have been adopted.

All authors must strictly follow the reporting guidelines below for preparing the study for publication.

CONSORT: 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.
STARD and TRIPOD: Studies of diagnostic accuracy must be reported according to STARD guidelines; (www.stard-statement.org) and TRIPOD guidelines; (www.tripod-statement.org)
STROBE: Observational studies (cohort, case-control, or cross-sectional designs) must be reported according to the STROBE statement, and should be submitted with their protocols; (www.strobe-statement.org).
CARE: Case report must be reported according to CARE guidelines; (www.care-statement.org)
COREQ: Qualitative research must be reported according to COREQ guidelines; (academic.oup.com/intqhc/article/19/6/349/1791966)
CHEERS: Economic evaluations must be reported according to CHEERS guidelines; (www.bmj.com/content/346/bmj.f1049)
STREGA: Genetic association studies must be reported according to STREGA guidelines; (www.medicine.uottawa.ca)
PRISMA: Systematic reviews and meta-analyses must be reported according to PRISMA guidelines; (www.prisma-statement.org)
MOOSE: Meta-analyses of observational studies in epidemiology must be reported according to MOOSE guideline (http://www.ijo.in/documents/14MOOSE_SS.pdf)
EQUATOR: To find the reporting guidelines see (www.equator-network.org)

FIGURES / TABLES

Figures/Illustrations (if any):

All authors must strictly follow the guidelines below for preparing illustrations for publication in The Open Biology Journal. If the figures are found to be sub-standard, then the manuscripts will be rejected.

The authors are expected to submit good quality figure(s) in PDF, PPT, MS Word, TIFF or JPEG versions, which, if required, should be improved yourself or by professional graphic designers of your organization/ country. You may even consider approaching our contracted service providers Eureka Science for Graphics Enhancement Services.

The Graphics Designing team at Eureka Science can assist in improving the quality of your images at affordable rates. Eureka Science has contracted special rates with us of US $135 for the improvement of up to five figures, with any additional figures being charged at US $21 each.

The quality of Graphic Enhancement Services offered by Eureka Science can be viewed at http://www.eureka-science.com/images/Binder1.pdf, along with valuable feedback on their services at http://www.eureka-science.com/testimonials.php. You may contact Eureka Science at info@eurekascience.net

Note: Availing Graphics Enhancement Services does not guarantee acceptance of the manuscript for publication. The final acceptance/decision on the manuscript is taken by the EiC.

Guideline for Figures/Illustrations

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.

Scaling/Resolution

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.

Formats

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:

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

Technical requirements for graphic/ figure submissions.

Requirement
Width = 8.5 inches (In-between the required size)
Height = 11 inches (In-between the required size)
Pixels/Inches = 300 (minimum dpi)
All figures should be in vector scale (except half tone, photograph.)

Image Conversion Tools

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.

Chemical Structures

Chemical structures MUST be prepared in ChemDraw/CDX and provided as separate file.

Structure Drawing Preferences

[As according to the ACS style sheet]

Drawing Settings
Chain angle	120°
Bond spacing	18% of width
Fixed length	14.4 pt (0.500cm, 0.2in)
Bold width	2.0 pt (0.071cm, 0.0278in)
Line width	0.6 pt (0.021cm, 0.0084in)
Margin width	1.6 pt (0.096cm)
Hash spacing	2.5 pt (0.088cm, 0.0347in)
Text settings
Font	Times New Roman
Size	10 pt
Under the Preference Choose
Units	points
Tolerances	3 pixels
Under Page Setup Use
Paper	US letter
Scale	100%

Tables

Data Tables should be submitted in Microsoft Word table format.
Each table should include a title/caption being explanatory in itself with respect to the details discussed in the table. Detailed legends may then follow.
Table number in bold font i.e. Table 1, should follow a title. The title should be in small case with the first letter in caps. A full stop should be placed at the end of the title.
Tables should be embedded in the text exactly according to their appropriate placement in the submitted manuscript.
Columns and rows of data should be made visibly distinct by ensuring that the borders of each cell are displayed as black lines.
Tables should be numbered in Arabic numerals sequentially in order of their citation in the body of the text.
If a reference is cited in both the table and text, please insert a lettered footnote in the table to refer to the numbered reference in the text.
Tabular data provided as additional files can be submitted as an Excel spreadsheet.
- It is adequate to present data in Tables to avoid unnecessary repetition and reduce the length of the text.
- The citation of each table in the text must be ensured.
- Symbols and nonstandard abbreviations should be explained in the end of the text.
- All references should be numbered sequentially [in square brackets] in the table and listed in the same numerical order in the reference section.

AUTHORS AND INSTITUTIONAL AFFILIATIONS

The names of the authors should be provided according to the previous citations or as the authors would want them to be published along with the institutional affiliations, current address, telephone, cell & fax numbers and the email address. Email address must be provided with an asterisk in front of the name of the principal author. The corresponding author(s) should be designated and their complete address, business telephone and fax numbers and e-mail address must be stated to receive correspondence and galley proofs. Also it is suggested to regularly update the profile on SCOPUS and other databases.

CHANGES TO AUTHORSHIP:

Authors must provide a final list of authors at the time of submission, ensuring the correct sequence of the names of authors, which will not be considered for any addition, deletion or rearrangement after final submission of the manuscript. If a change is essentially required, it can only be done on Editor’s approval, for which the Editor must receive the following from the corresponding author:

(a) the reason for change in the author list and the sequence

(b) a confirmation is a prerequisite from all the co-authors for any amendment or removal.

Any amendment to the authors list will only be considered by the Editor if it is a MUST. Publication of the manuscript will be withheld during consideration of the request. However, if the manuscript has already been published online, requests approved thereafter by the Editor will result in an erratum or corrigendum.

LANGUAGE AND EDITING

Manuscripts containing language inconsistencies will not be published. Authors should seek professional assistance for correction of grammatical, scientific and typographical errors before submission of the revised version of the article for publication. Professional editing services may also be sought by the team available at Bentham OPEN.

PROOF CORRECTIONS:

Authors are required to proofread the PDF versions of their manuscripts before submission. To avoid delays in publication, proofs should be checked immediately for typographical errors and returned within 48 hours. Major changes are not acceptable at the proof stage. If unable to send corrections within 48 hours due to some reason, the author(s) must at least send an acknowledgement on receiving the galley proofs or the article will be published exactly as received and the publishers will not be responsible for any error occurring in the manuscript in this regard.

The corresponding author will be solely responsible for ensuring that the revised version of the manuscript incorporating all the submitted corrections receives the approval of all the authors of the manuscript.

REVIEWING AND PROMPTNESS OF PUBLICATION

All papers submitted for publication are immediately subjected to preliminary editorial scrutiny by the Editor-in-Chief regarding their suitability. The Editor-in-Chief determines if the manuscript:

(a) falls within the scope of the journal and

(b) meets the editorial criteria of Bentham OPEN Publishers in terms of originality and quality.

Manuscripts that appear to be suitable are then subjected to single-blind peer-review by, usually three, neutral eminent experts. The services of eminent international experts are sought through invitations to conduct the peer-review of a submitted manuscript, keeping in view the scope of the manuscript and the expertise of the reviewers. The identity of the reviewers is not disclosed to the authors. The anonymity of reviewers ensures objective and unbiased assessment of the manuscript by the reviewers.

Before sending the manuscripts to reviewers, Bentham OPEN seeks consent from potential reviewers about their availability and willingness to review. Correspondence between the editorial office of the journal and the reviewers is kept confidential. The reviewers are expected to provide their reports in a timely fashion since a prompt review leads to timely publication of a manuscript which is beneficial not only to the authors but to the scientific community as well.

The editorial process and peer-review workflow for each journal are taken care of by a team of Senior Editors, Editorial Board Members (EBMs) and dedicated Journal managers who have the required expertise in their specific fields.

Bentham OPEN Publishers carries out independent review of all articles. The reviewers are selected according to their expertise, from our, regularly updated, referee database.

On the basis of reviewer comments, the Editors may recommend acceptance, revision or rejection of a manuscript.

After review of the manuscript by at least three independent experts, in addition to the views of the Editor, the decision is relayed to the authors, which may be categorized as:

Requires minor changes
Requires major changes
Rejected but may be resubmitted
Rejected with no resubmission

Bentham OPEN requests not to have the manuscripts peer-reviewed by those experts who may have competing interest with the author(s) of a submitted manuscript. It is not possible for Editors to be aware of all competing interests; it is therefore expected that the reviewers would inform the Editor-in-Chief/Handling Editor if they notice any potential competing interest during the course of review of a manuscript. Moreover, the reviewers are expected to inform the Editors or editorial office of the journal if they have a conflict of interest in carrying out the review of a manuscript submitted by any author/contributor of the manuscript.

The authors are usually requested to resubmit the revised paper within 15 days and it will then be returned to the reviewers for further evaluation. The publishers normally allow one round of revision and, in exceptional cases, a second round of revision may be allowed. If further revision is needed, then the manuscript is rejected and the author is requested to resubmit the manuscript for fresh processing.

The final decision regarding acceptance or rejection is that of the Editor-in-Chief, depending on the quality of the revision and his assessment of the quality of the manuscript. In rare cases, manuscripts recommended for publication by the referees may be rejected in the final assessment by the Editor-in-Chief.

The time frame for revision of any article may vary from 2 weeks to 2 months depending on the nature of the revision required (minor or major). However, authors who need extra time for revision should consult the Editor-in-Chief/Handling Editor with valid reasons and the submission date of the revised manuscript may be extended if the request is genuine.

After the successful completion of the review and acceptance of the article, the articles are typeset and proofs are dispatched to authors for any corrections prior to final publication.

PLAGIARISM PREVENTION

Bentham OPEN uses the iThenticate software which detects instances of overlapping and similar text in submitted manuscripts. This software checks content against a database of periodicals, the Internet, and a comprehensive article database. It generates a similarity report, highlighting the percentage overlap between the uploaded article and the published material. Any instance of content overlap is further scrutinized for suspected plagiarism according to the publisher’s Editorial Policies. If the similarity seems legitimate, the article will be proceeded for further review process; however, in cases of superfluous plagiarism, the authors have to revise the text as per editorial instructions.

Bentham OPEN strictly follows the COPE guidelines to detect plagiarism; for more clear insight, authors may refer to flowcharts provided by COPE by clicking here or by visiting COPE website.

Low Text Similarity

The text of every submitted manuscript is checked by 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. If the similarity level is significantly high, then 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.

High Text Similarity

There may be some manuscripts with an overall low similarity percentage, but a higher percentage from a single source. For instance, 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.

TYPES OF PLAGIARISM:

We all know that scholarly manuscripts are written after a thorough review of previously published articles. It is therefore, not easy to draw a clear boundary between legitimate representation and plagiarism. However, the following important features can assist in identifying different kinds of plagiarized content. These are:

Reproduction of others words, sentences, ideas or findings as one’s own without proper acknowledgement.
Text recycling, also known as self-plagiarism. It is an author’s use of a previous publication in another paper without proper citation and acknowledgment of the original source.
Paraphrasing poorly: Copying complete paragraphs and modifying a few words without changing the structure of original sentences or changing the sentence structure but not the words.
Verbatim copying of text without putting quotation marks and not acknowledging the work of the original author.
Properly citing a work but poorly paraphrasing the original text is considered as unintentional plagiarism. Similarly, manuscripts with language somewhere between paraphrasing and quoting are not acceptable. Authors should either paraphrase properly or quote and in both cases, cite the original source.
Higher similarity in the abstract, introduction, materials and methods, and discussion and conclusion sections indicates that the manuscript may contain plagiarized text. Authors can easily explain these parts of the manuscript in many ways. However, technical terms and sometimes standard procedures cannot be rephrased; therefore Editors must review these sections carefully before making a decision.

PLAGIARISM IN PUBLISHED MANUSCRIPTS:

Published manuscripts which are found to contain plagiarized text are retracted from the journal website after careful investigation and approval by the Editor-in-Chief of the journal. A ‘Retraction Note’ as well as a link to the original article is published on the electronic version of the plagiarized manuscript and an addendum with retraction notification in the journal concerned.

APPEALS AND COMPLAINTS

Generally, the editorial decisions are not reverted. However, authors who think that their manuscript was rejected due to a misunderstanding or mistake may seek an explanation for the decision. Appeals must give sound reasoning and compelling evidence against the criticism raised in the rejection letter. A difference of opinion as to the interest, novelty, or suitability of the manuscript for the journal will not be considered as an appeal. The EIC and other relevant editors will consider the appeal and the decision thereafter taken by the journal will be deemed final. Acceptance of the manuscript is not guaranteed even if the journal agrees to reconsider the manuscript, and the reconsideration process may involve previous or new reviewers or editors and substantive revision.

Authors who wish to make a complaint should refer them to the Editor-in-Chief of the journal concerned. Complaints to the Publisher may be emailed to info@benthamopen.net

How the complaint can be filed to Bentham OPEN?

Bentham OPEN is constantly striving to improve its publication practices. If you are not satisfied with any procedure of the processing of your manuscript, then please let us know at the following email address with full details:

For Assistance please contact: info@benthamopen.net

For complaints please contact: complaint@benthamopen.net

ANIMATED ABSTRACT

Extend the scope and visibility of your research by creating an animated abstract. Bentham OPEN has collaborated with Focus Medica, one of the world’s largest publishers of expert animated atlases and videos in medicine and science.

An animated abstract will help summarise the essential discoveries/ key findings of your published research or review article. Each professionally produced full-coloured animated abstract in video format (length 3-5 minutes) is accompanied by an English spoken or foreign language commentary. The animated abstract will be published online along with the published article.

The payment for an animated abstract will be US$ 950 for English language, and US$ 1450 for Foreign language articles. Initially, an advance amount of US$ 500 will be payable to the Publisher to start work on the Animated Abstract, while the balance of US$ 450 (English language) or US$ 950 (Foreign language) will be payable on completion of the Animated Abstract.

Authors will be asked whether they wish to opt-in for this paid animated abstract service, and if not, the article will be published as normal. Animated abstracts are available as open access (free viewing) for maximum visibility and awareness to readers at anytime, anywhere. The animated abstracts are licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

Sample Animated Abstract

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.

SPECIAL FEE WAIVERS AND DISCOUNTS

Bentham OPEN offers waivers and discounts to those corresponding authors who are based in low-income countries*.

The authors who wish to avail this offer should request for a waiver or discount at the time of submission of their manuscripts to Bentham OPEN.

Eligibility:

Bentham OPEN offers 50% discount on Open Access fee for manuscripts of the corresponding authors based in countries categorized as low-income economies by World Bank (list given below).

For more information regarding Publication Fee of Bentham OPEN journals, please click here: https://benthamopen.com/publication-fee.php

List of Countries*:

Afghanistan

Benin

Burundi

Central African Republic

Congo, Rep.

Eritrea

Georgia

Guinea-Bissau

Iraq

Kyrgyz Republic

Madagascar

Mauritania

Mozambique

Niger

Samoa

Somalia

Syrian Arab Republic

Timor-Leste

Vanuatu

Zimbabwe

Albania

Bhutan

Cambodia

Chad

Côte d'Ivoire

Ethiopia

Ghana

Guyana

Kenya

Lao PDR

Malawi

Micronesia, Fed. Sts.

Myanmar

Papua New Guinea

Senegal

South Sudan

São Tomé and Principe

Togo

West Bank and Gaza

Armenia

Bolivia

Cameroon

Comoros

Djibouti

Fiji

Guatemala

Haiti

Kiribati

Lesotho

Mali

Moldova

Nepal

Paraguay

Sierra Leone

Sudan

Tajikistan

Tonga

Yemen, Rep.

Belize

Burkina Faso

Cape Verde

Congo, Dem. Rep

El Salvador

Gambia, The

Guinea

Honduras

Kosovo

Liberia

Marshall Islands

Mongolia

Nicaragua

Rwanda

Solomon Islands

Swaziland

Tanzania

Uganda

Zambia

MEMBERSHIP

Bentham OPEN offers ‘Complimentary Membership’ to International R & D organizations, institutes and universities. Bentham OPEN Membership entitles authors from different member institutes to a special discount of 50% on the open access publication fee on their submissions to Bentham OPEN journals. Additionally, input and contributions from associate institutes would also be recognized and a link to their respective Website would be displayed on the Bentham OPEN membership page. The member institution’s logo will also be published on the same page.

Bentham OPEN Membership provides the following advantages:

Possibility to explore 21 distinct disciplines by means of publishing in 81 open access journals.
Author(s) own the copyrights to their published articles.
Unbound right to read, download or print open access articles.
Extensive peer-review of submitted articles.
Access to a range of articles in printed form such as short communications, full length research articles, reviews or conference proceedings.
Simple steps from submission to publication, leading to fast turn-around.
Possibility of archiving published articles.

The complimentary membership is valid for a span of one year and upon completion of the prescribed period, it is renewed by mutual interest and agreement.

If you find the above mentioned details relevant, then kindly contact us via e-mail at membership@benthamopen.net or oa@benthamopen.net.

GAIN MORE PUBLICATION REACH AND IMPACT VIA KUDOS

Bentham OPEN is a publishing partner of Kudos. All authors who publish in this journal will receive an invitation to join the Kudos platform, an entirely free service for authors. Kudos enables authors to help broaden their audience and readers, increase their professional profile and reputation, and establish an impact for their publications. The website link is www.growkudos.com.

Kudos provides a free platform to researchers to have their publications accessible, read and cited across multiple networks and channels available to researchers for the dissemination of their work. It takes on average 15 minutes and leads to 23% higher growth in full-text downloads.

Authors are encouraged to explain their work in clear English and to attract researchers of the relevant communities, share a trackable link that you can email to your existing network of contacts, or share on social media and academic websites, and track how well the articles are performing through the summary of views, downloads, citations, and altmetrics on the Kudos dashboard.

Authors may also use the new shareable PDF (S-PDF) service. The S-PDF provides researchers with the means to write and share a high-level overview for each of their publications. Kudos thereby provides researchers, and their publishers and institutions, with a rich understanding of which channels and activities are most effective for broadening the reach and impact of published science.

REPRINTS

Bentham OPEN provides excellent professionally printed reprints, each inside a beautiful journal cover, which you can proudly send to colleagues and scientists in your field. These reprints with cover are available at concessionary rates. The minimum limit of reprint order is 25 copies.

SPECIAL OFFERS

Authors who order minimum 100 will be entitled to a 35% discount.
Authors who order minimum 200, 300, 400 and 500 will be entitled to a 15% discount.

COLORED REPRINTS

If the article was originally printed in color, the reprint will be an exact replication of the original for an additional charge.

COMPANY LOGO

Company logos and foreword can be published on the printed reprint cover page in sponsored reprints.

500 OR MORE REPRINTS

Orders Above 500 reprint copies: A quotation for orders above 500 can be obtained by emailing at reprints@benthamopen.net.

PRINTED COVERS

Printed covers are available at extra cost.

AIRMAIL AND HANDLING COSTS

Reprints are dispatched to the customers by airmail. Airmail and handling costs will be invoiced additionally with the reprints. Our shipping department requires the name and telephone number of the recipient of the order. These quotes are in US Dollars and are valid for 30 days.

SHIPPING INSTRUCTIONS

Once confirmed, your order will ship to deliver in 35 business days from the day the proofs, if required, have been approved or from the day of confirmation. Expedited delivery option is also available.