The Journal of Pathology

Author Guidelines

1 Aims and Scope

       The Journal of Pathology aims to serve as a translational bridge between basic biomedical science and clinical medicine with particular emphasis on, but not restricted to, tissue based studies. The main interests of the Journal lie in publishing studies that further our understanding the pathophysiological and pathogenetic mechanisms of human disease.
      The Journal welcomes investigative studies on human tissues, in vitro and in vivo experimental studies, and investigations based on animal models with a clear relevance to human disease, including transgenic systems. In general, hypothesis driven studies that appropriately employ multiple investigative techniques are preferred over those that rely on a single methodology. Studies that bring pathological, biological and or clinical sense to genomic discoveries are particularly welcomed.
      As well as original research papers, the Journal seeks to provide rapid publication in a variety of other formats, including editorials, review articles, commentaries and perspectives and other features, both contributed and solicited.
      Purely descriptive papers, including those on diagnostic pathology (including case reports and prognostic papers without mechanistic and experimental insights) are not considered central to the Journal’s purpose. Correspondence relating to papers published in the Journal will be considered, but only if of general interest. Such correspondence may be published in online versions only, at the Editor's discretion.
      In determining content, the primary considerations are excellence, relevance and novelty. As the journal of The Pathological Society, it seeks to reflect the broad scientific interests of the Society’s membership but its ethos, authorship, content and purpose are those expected of a leading publication in the international scientific literature.

2 The Review Process

      An Editorial outlining the review process employed by the Journal of Pathology has been published (Hall PA, Campbell V, Taylor J, Poulsom R, Wixon J. A guide to the Editorial processes at The Journal of Pathology. J Pathol 2009;142:1-6.)
      On receipt of manuscripts an initial assessment by the Editor, Deputy Editor and at least one Associate Editor will be performed. This will focus on whether the submitted work is in accord with the Journal scope and will determine a priority rating. At this point a proportion of manuscripts will be returned to the authors.
      Those manuscripts that enter the review process are assigned sequentially to Associate Editors and are submitted to a similarity search engine (iThenticate) for the detection of plagiarism and duplicate publication. An Associate Editor invites reviewers (typically, two external reviews are sought). The reviewers’ evaluations and Associate Editor’s comments are compiled by the Editor-in-Chief (or the Deputy Editor) for disposition and transmittal to the authors. A decision is made usually within four weeks of the receipt of the manuscript.
      The Editor-in-Chief will advise authors whether a manuscript is accepted, should be revised or is rejected. Minor revisions are expected to be returned within four weeks of decision; major revisions within three months. Manuscripts not revised within these time periods are subject to withdrawal from consideration for publication unless there are extenuating circumstances.
      Those manuscripts that proceed to full review are assigned sequentially to Associate Editors. An Associate Editor invites reviewers (typically, two external reviews are sought). The reviewers' evaluations and Associate Editor's comments are compiled by the Editor-in-Chief (or the Deputy Editor) for disposition and transmittal to the authors. A decision is made usually within four weeks of the receipts of the manuscript. The Editor-in-Chief will advise authors whether a manuscripts is accepted, should be revised, or is rejected. Minor revisions are expected to be returned within four weeks of decision; major revisions within three months. Manuscripts not revised within these time periods are subject to withdrawal from consideration for publication unless there are extenuating circumstances. A number of manuscripts will have to be rejected on the grounds of priority and available space. It should be noted that invitation to submit a revised manuscript should not be assumed to mean that acceptance will automatically follow.
      On occasions the Editors may expedite the review process for manuscripts felt to be of high priority in order to reach a rapid decision. Such ‘fast-track decisions’ will normally occur within one week of receipt of the manuscript.
      Authors may provide the Editor-in-Chief with the names, addresses and email addresses of up to five suitably qualified individuals of international standing who would be competent to referee the work, although the Editorial team will not be bound by any such nomination. Likewise, authors may advise of any individual who for any reason, such as potential conflict of interest, might be inappropriate to act as a referee, again without binding the Editor-in-Chief.
      The Editor-in-Chief’s decision is final. If, however, authors dispute a decision and can document good reasons why a manuscript should be reconsidered, a rebuttal process exists. In the first place, authors should write to the Editor-in-Chief outlining their case.

Author Guidelines

3 Manuscript preparation and submission

The following provides a summary of the requirements for submission of a manuscript to the Journal of Pathology. Each point is developed and expanded in the subsequent Notes section.
Please note that there are no submission charges, page charges or fees for inclusion of supporting information on the internet.

Every manuscript should have:

• A concise cover letter

• A Microsoft Word (or equivalent) file (NOT A PDF), that is presented in English, in a double spaced format using a standard font (e.g. Arial, Helvetica, Times Roman etc 12 point) and has page numbers

• 
  
• A title page (or pages) containing:
  • A succinct and clear title
  • A short running title (75 characters including spaces)
  • List of authors (using given and family name, but not degrees)
  • Full affiliations of all authors and contact details of the corresponding author(s)
  • A conflict of interest statement
  • A word count (from beginning of Introduction to end of Discussion)
• 
  
• The next page should have:
  • An Abstract (not structured and no more than 300 words)
  • Keywords (3 to 10)
  
  The manuscript should have the standard structure of a scientific article and the subsequent pages of a research article should have:
• Introduction
• Materials and methods
• Results
• Discussion
• Acknowledgements which should include a statement defining funding sources
• Statement of author contributions
• List of abbreviations (optional)
• List of online Supporting Information (if any)
• Reference list in the correct format – An Endnote style is available here
• Table(s)
• Figure legends (concise and not repeating material in the Results section)
• 
  As separate files:
• Figures (at the appropriate size and resolution [http://authorservices.wiley.com/electronicartworkguidelines.pdf])
• Supporting Information files (if any)
• Additional Files for Review but NOT for publication

Submission Checklist

The manuscript must be submitted via the online submission system (and not by mail or email), which is located at: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jpath

• Your Journal of Pathology Manuscript Central username and password (unless you are a new user)
• All manuscript, figure and Supporting Information files finalised and ready to upload
• Signed copyright transfer agreement scanned and ready to upload
• Permission to reproduce any previously published material scanned and ready to upload
• Full correct names and E-mail addresses of all of your co-authors.
• The names and full contact details of up to five suggested referees
• Additional files for review but not for publication may be provided

4 Notes on the preparation and submission of the Manuscript

4.1 A cover letter

      Submission of a manuscript will be held to imply that it contains original unpublished work and is not being submitted for publication elsewhere at the same time. Both should be confirmed to the Editor-in Chief in the covering letter. The corresponding author must confirm that all authors have agreed with the submission in its present (and subsequent) forms. The authors should also indicate in their covering letter:

• What is the aim of the study?

• What are the significant and novel findings?

• How do these findings relate to the present state of the field?

      The author must supply a full statement to the Editor-in-Chief about all prior submissions and previous reports that might be regarded as redundant or duplicate publication of the same or very similar work.
      Any other manuscripts by the authors that are relevant to the submitted manuscript and which are currently under review elsewhere or in press must be submitted and designated as ‘Additional files for review but NOT for publication' and listed in the covering letter.

4.2 General points

      The manuscript should be prepared using a word processing package, in A4 page, using a standard font, double spaced with margins of at least 2 cm and have page numbers. Do not use line numbering. The manuscript should be in English using consistent and preferably UK spelling.
      Word 2007 automatically saves files as .docx documents. In order to upload a Word 2007 processed document, you will need to save it as a .doc file. To do this:
1. Open your document in Word 2007.
2. Click the Office button (the button at the top left of the Window) and then click "Save As".
3. Choose "Word 97-2003 Document" in the “Save as type” dropdown.
4. Click "Save" to save your file with a .doc extension and use this file for upload.

4.3 Manuscript title

      This should be clear and simple. Experience indicates that long titles lack impact and shorter concise titles are preferable. Authors should remember that it is the case that many readers will only scan titles (and possibly the abstract) so titles should reflect the content and catch the readers’ attention. It must however be accurate and unambiguous and should focus on the message of the paper.

      Advice on how to optimise your title and abstract for search engines can be found here.

4.4 A short running title

      This should be concise (maximum of 75 characters including spaces) and reflect the main title and content of the manuscript.

4.5 List of authors (using given and family name, but not degrees)

      All persons designated as authors should qualify for authorship and all those who qualify should be listed. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content. One or more authors (deemed to be the Corresponding Author(s)) should take responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole, from inception to published article.
      Authorship credit should be based only on 1) substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; 2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; 3) final approval of the version to be published. Conditions 1, 2 and 3 must all be met. Acquisition of funding, the collection of data or general supervision of the research group, by themselves, do not justify authorship. All others who contributed to the work who are not authors should be named in the Acknowledgements section.
      A statement outlining the specific contribution of each author to the manuscript and the work reported in it must appear after the acknowledgements section (see below).
      Please note: If you are submitting a REVISION and the authors have changed from the original submission, for example: if additional authors are added [or removed] then agreement of all authors is mandatory with justification and explanation required within the covering letter, submitted via the ScholarOne system.

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4.6 Full affiliations of all authors

      This should include the name of the department(s) and institution(s) to which the work should be attributed, and contact details of the corresponding author(s) i.e. the full postal address, phone number and email address.
      A statement of equal contributions by two or more authors can be made if desired and all authors agree. Current addresses may be added for authors who have moved to other institutions.

4.7 Conflict of interest statement

      Authors are responsible for disclosing all financial and personal relationships between themselves and others that might bias their work. To prevent ambiguity, authors must state explicitly whether potential conflicts do or do not exist. Investigators should disclose potential conflicts to study participants and should state in the manuscript whether they have done so. Authors should describe the role of the study sponsor(s), if any, in study design, in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data, in the writing of the report and in the decision to submit the report for publication. If the study sponsor(s) had no such involvement, the authors should so state. A conflict of interest statement must be included in the manuscript (on the title page) that details any conflicts that exist for each author, or declares the absence of conflict for each author. Authors are also directed to a recent Editorial on this subject (Hall PA, Poulsom R, Wixon J. How does the Journal of Pathology deal with conflict of interest? J Pathol 2009; 219: 396-399).
      All authors of any type of article must provide detailed information about any financial interests, relationships or conflicts in the recent past (~5 years) and for the foreseeable future that are relevant to the topic of the manuscript, particularly those present during the research work, the writing of the article and publication.
      If an author’s disclosure of potential conflicts of interest is found to be inaccurate or incomplete after publication, a detailed correction will be published to rectify this. We reserve the right in serious cases to publish a retraction of the article.
      For the purposes of clarity, we provide here details of some example situations or arrangements that the Editors of the Journal of Pathology would deem to result in a conflict of interest:

• Private or corporate funding of any part of the study, or donation or loan of supplies or equipment. In such cases role of the study sponsor or donor(s), if any, in the study design; data collection, analysis or interpretation; or writing of the report must be made clear.

• 
  For each author or their immediate family members:

• Employment by a company which produces a treatment or device used in the study.

• The receipt of financial or other compensation (such as cash, travel/accommodation costs, royalties, fees, stock or stock options) for work; advising or consulting; expert testimony or advocacy/public speaking from companies, organizations, institutions, and individuals, including intermediaries such as sub-contractors or conference organizers that could be construed as gaining from the conclusions of the study.

• The ownership of financial holdings or considerations, such as stocks or bonds in a company that could be construed as gaining from the conclusions of the study. For example, a company that holds a patent or other financial interest in any pharmaceuticals of the class mentioned in the article.

• The holding of a patent on a method, drug or device used in the study, or that employs a principle validated by the study.

• The presence of personal, professional, political, institutional, religious, or other associations that could have a bearing upon the stance taken in the submitted work.

Examples of statements that might be made are:

• Prof. J receives compensation as a consultant for company X, which manufactures drug W

• Dr. K has financial holdings in company Y, which distributes device Z

• Dr L holds a patent on a diagnostic kit for disease V which is based upon the assay approach described in this report

• Prof. M receives payment from company T for speaking at conferences about drug U

• Company X have loaned a machine to the laboratory of Prof. Z

      It should be noted that neither of these lists of examples form an exhaustive list. If there is any uncertainty over what should or should not be disclosed, authors should always contact the Editorial Office for advice (managing_editor@jpathol.org) prior to submission of their article.
      Full details of the conflicts of interest of our Editor-in-Chief, Deputy Editor and Associate Editors are held on record at the journal offices.
      We ask Associate Editors to recuse themselves in respect of any manuscript should there be a real or perceived conflict of interest. Similarly we ask reviewers to similarly declare any conflict of interest and decline invitations to review if this exists.
      With regard to conflict of interest we are guided by the principles laid down by the Committee on Publication Ethics (http://www.publicationethics.org.uk), the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication Updated October 2008 http://www.icmje.org/#conflicts) and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME Editorial Policy and Publication Ethics Committees Conflict of Interest in Peer-Reviewed Medical Journals Posted March 27, 2009. http://www.wame.org/conflict-of-interest-in-peer-reviewed-medical-journals).

4.8 Word count (from beginning of Introduction to end of Discussion)

      Concise articles are preferred. Full articles should usually be no more than 3000 words from the beginning of the Introduction to the end of the Discussion, which is approximately six journal pages, when tables, figures and references are also included. However manuscripts of up to 4000 words will be considered, particularly if they report extensive multimodality studies. Under no circumstances will longer manuscripts be considered. Submissions in excess of 4000 words will automatically be returned to authors.

      Review articles and special features may exceed these limits by arrangement with the Editor-in-Chief. Succinct articles are likely to make a greater impact on readers than long ones and are more likely to be without the delay caused by editing down to the required length.

      The use of online Supporting Information as a route for presenting additional material is available. When using the device of Supporting Information for additional text or data, authors should remember that the main manuscript must contain sufficient information to make the work intelligible without resort to the Supporting Information. For example, it is not acceptable to shorten a manuscript by placing all of the Materials and Methods in Supporting Information. However it is acceptable to place experimental detail (eg. PCR primer sequences) in Supporting Information.

4.9 Abstract (not structured and no more than 300 words)

      After the title page(s) the next page should carry an abstract, in prose form (not structured), of no more than 300 words. The abstract should be concise and clear, stating the purposes of the study or investigation, the basic procedures, the main findings and the principal conclusions. It should emphasise new and important aspects of the study. It should be understandable without reference to the rest of the paper and should contain no citation to references in the reference list. Non-standard abbreviations should be avoided. A list of standard abbreviations is to be found below.

      Advice on how to optimise your abstract for search engines can be found here.

4.10 Keywords (3 to 10)

      Below the abstract, authors should provide and identify as such 3 to 10 keywords or short phrases to assist indexing the article and that may be published with the abstract. MESH headings are a useful guide for authors in considering keywords. In addition, authors should examine the text of their title, abstract and keywords since any term not employed in these sections cannot be employed as a search term to reliably identify the work using standard search engines (including PubMed).

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4.11 Manuscript structure

      Concise articles are preferred.Please see Section 4.8.
      The text of research articles is divided into sections with the headings: Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion. Long articles may need subheadings within some sections (especially the Results and Discussion sections) to clarify their content. Such sections should not be numbered. Other types of articles, such as reviews and commentaries, still need a title and abstract and should adhere as closely as possible to these guidelines.
      Research reports must not omit any important information, raw data (including manuscripts in press) necessary for review must be submitted (as Additional Files for Review but NOT for publication) and submission to the Journal of Pathology is taken to indicate agreement to share novel reagents that are not commercially available with other researchers. Authors are encouraged to consult reporting guidelines relevant to their specific research design, in particular:

• Reports of tumour studies should be fully compliant with the REMARK guidelines http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16106022 and this should be outlined in the cover letter.

• For all types of microarray analyses, follow the MIAME guidelines http://www.mged.org/Workgroups/MIAME/miame.html.

• Authors should note that it is mandatory to make the array data available. This should preferably be via a public database such as the GEO or Array Express databases prior to submission (release embargos until acceptance are permitted), quoting the accession number/s in your manuscript. An alternative is to make the data available via the Journal of Pathology website as Supporting Information.

• For reports of randomised controlled trials, follow the CONSORT statement http://www.consort-statement.org.

• For reports of studies involving animals, follow the ARRIVE guidelines.

      Format a word processing document to A4 paper with margins of at least 2 cm all around. Ensure page numbering is included in either the header or footer and aligned right. Use a standard widely used font such as Times, Helvetica or Arial with Symbol for special characters. The font size used throughout the paper, including Tables and Figure Legends, must be large enough for easy reading (e.g. font size 12). Manuscripts should be double spaced with an additional space between paragraphs.

4.11.1 Structure of Commentaries, Perspectives and Reviews

      These contributions have greater flexibility than standard original articles although a concise clear style is essential. While these contributions are usually invited by the Editors, the editorial team is happy to receive suggestions and outlines of possible material of this kind. All such material, whether invited or not, will undergo peer review.
      Commentaries usually take the form of a brief (typically 2 to 3 journal pages) review that places a paper (or group of papers) published in the Journal into a broader context. They should be focussed and pithy. They should be accessible to a broader audience than the primary papers might be. Diagrams are often useful to illustrate concepts and ideas.
      A Perspective is similar in form (and length) but will usually have a broader remit and is not necessarily linked to a paper (or papers) in the Journal. It may be polemical or provocative in nature. As with Commentaries diagrams can be valuable.
      The nature of a review article is self-explanatory. These might be of variable length from short items (mini-review) through to very detailed, fully referenced contributions. However a key point is that they should be focussed in nature and not simple a literature review: they should have a point!

4.12 Introduction

      Authors should state the purpose of the article and summarise the rationale for the study or observation, providing relevant background. The length of the Introduction is not specified but it should be in proportion to the rest of the manuscript and sufficiently comprehensive to allow a non specialist to understand the setting of the work. Give only strictly pertinent references and avoid the inclusion of data or conclusions from the work being reported. The aims of the study and hypothesis being tested should be stated clearly and objectively.

4.13 Materials and methods

4.13.1 Ethical issues

      A statement describing explicitly the ethical background to the studies being reported should be included in all manuscripts in the Materials and Methods section. Ethics committee or institutional review board approval should be clearly stated and the relevant reference numbers and dates must be given. When reporting experiments on human subjects, indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional or regional) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 1983. Do not use patients’ names, initials or hospital numbers, especially in illustrative material. When reporting experiments on animals, indicate whether the institution’s or a national research council’s guide for, or any national law on, the care and use of laboratory animals was followed. We would ask authors to consider the ethical use of animals in their research and they should be mindful of the "Guidelines for the welfare and use of animals in cancer research" (Workman, Aboagye, Balkwill et al. Br J Cancer 2010; 102: 1555-1577)
      Patients have a right to privacy that should not be infringed without informed consent. Identifying information should not be published in written descriptions, photographs and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. Informed consent for this purpose requires that the patient be shown the manuscript to be published. Identifying details should be omitted if they are not essential but patient data should never be altered or falsified in an attempt to attain anonymity. Complete anonymity is difficult to achieve and informed consent should be obtained if there is any doubt. For example, masking the eye region in photographs of patients is inadequate protection of anonymity.
      The Journal recognises that the requirements and legislation pertaining to all aspects of ethical review may vary between different jurisdictions. If there are any legitimate concerns raised by reviewers or editors about any aspect of the ethical issues of the study that cannot be satisfactorily resolved, the Editor-in-Chief reserves the right to decline to publish the manuscript.

4.13.2 General aspects of Materials and Methods

      Clearly describe your selection of the observational or experimental subjects (patients or laboratory animals, including controls). Identify the age, sex and other important characteristics of the subjects where appropriate. As the relevance of such variables as age, sex and ethnicity to the object of research is not always clear, authors should explicitly justify them when they are included in a study report. The guiding principle should be clarity about how and why a study was performed in a particular way. Authors should avoid terms such as ‘race’ which lacks precise biological meaning and use alternative descriptors such as ‘ethnicity’ or ‘ethnic group’ instead. Authors should specify carefully what the descriptors mean and tell exactly how the data were collected.
      Identify the methods, apparatus (give the manufacturer’s name and address in parentheses) and procedures in sufficient detail to allow other workers to reproduce the results. Give references to established methods, including statistical methods (see below); provide references and brief descriptions for methods that have been published but are not well known; describe new or substantially modified methods, give reasons for using them and evaluate their limitations. Identify precisely all drugs and chemicals used, including generic name(s), dose(s) and route(s) of administration.
      Studies on biomarkers and/ or prognostic and predictive factors must describe the patient selection criteria and provide a detailed breakdown of the cohort(s) included in the study. Reports of randomised clinical trials should present information on all major study elements, including the protocol (study population, interventions or exposures, outcomes and the rationale for statistical analysis), assignment of interventions (methods of randomisation, concealment of allocation to treatment groups) and the method of masking (blinding).
      Studies employing high throughput molecular methods, such as microarray-based expression profiling and microarray-based comparative genomic hybridisation, should provide accurate information about percentage of the cells of interest) in the samples, method of nucleic acid extraction, RNA or DNA amplification methods, details of the platform used and the analysis methods employed. We would anticipate that data from high throughput analyses, whether array based or otherwise should be made available via a suitable database or via files in online Supporting Information. Relevant clinical information should accompany this data.
      Authors submitting review manuscripts should normally include a section describing the methods used for locating, selecting, extracting and synthesising data. These methods should usually also be summarised in the abstract.
Important information that is not essential for the understanding of the manuscript may appear as Supporting Information online. Examples of this would include PCR primer sequences and extraneous experimental detail. As a guide, information required to understand what was done and how, should be in the manuscript. Detail required to fully replicate the experiments can appear as Supporting Information.
      Reliable studies of clinical samples require high quality samples and we anticipate that authors will document BRISQ Tier one variables (see Table 1 in Moore et al. Biospecimen Reporting for Improved Study Quality, Cancer Cytopathology 2011;119:92-101)
      

4.13.3 Statistics and bioinformatics

      Data sets should be made publicly available either via public repositories or online supporting information. Authors should provide complete data annotation including all the clinical data reported in their manuscripts using the same identifiers reported in the paper. Authors are encouraged to create a reviewer secured access link to their data during the review process.

      Describe statistical and bioinformatic approaches for both data processing and analysis with enough detail to enable a knowledgeable reader with access to the original data to verify the reported results. When possible, quantify findings and present them with appropriate indicators of error or uncertainty (such as standard error or confidence intervals). Sample size should always be indicated. References for the design of the study and statistical methods should usually be to standard works (with pages stated) but citation to the papers in which the designs or methods were originally reported may sometimes be appropriate.
Restrict tables and figures to those needed to explain the argument of the paper and to assess its support. Use graphs as an alternative to tables
Restrict tables and figures to those needed to explain the argument of the paper and to assess its support. Use graphs as an alternative to tables with many entries; do not duplicate data in graphs and tables. Data underlying figures and graphs should not be included in the main body of the paper, but may be provided in supporting information. Avoid non-technical uses of technical terms in statistics, such as 'random' (which implies a randomising device), 'normal', 'significant', 'correlations' and 'sample'.

      Open source and publicly available statistical/ bioinformatic software packages, which allow other workers to reproduce the analysis performed, are be preferred. If using a self-developed algorithm, this tool (a workflow of usage and a short documentation) should be made available on request or presented as supporting information, where possible. For high throughput sequencing we recommend consideration of the minimal information to be supplied as outlined by MGED (http://www.mged.org/minseqe/).

      Data derived from array-based experiments must be interpreted cautiously and validated using independent laboratory-based technology. Such validation would ensure that these are not outliers or noise.
Detailed information should be given about the annotation framework used by the authors. Versions or releases of databases, sequences and software packages should be also reported.

      The checklist for statisticians published by the BMJ is a valuable resource (see:
http://resources.bmj.com/bmj/authors/checklists-forms/statisticians-checklist).

4.14 Results

      Present your results in logical sequence in the text, tables and illustrations. Do not repeat in the text all the data in the tables or illustrations; emphasise or summarise only important observations. Figures and tables should be clearly referred to in the manuscript. It is generally the case that interpretation should be reserved for the discussion.

4.15 Discussion

      Emphasise the new and important aspects of the study and the conclusions that follow from them. Do not repeat in detail data or other material given in the Introduction or the Results section. Include in the Discussion section the implications of the findings and their limitations, including implications for future research. Relate the observations to other relevant studies including those that may conflict with the data you present.
      Link the conclusions with the goals of the study but avoid unqualified statements and conclusions not completely supported by the data. In particular, authors should avoid making statements on economic benefits and costs unless their manuscript includes economic data and analyses. Avoid claiming priority and alluding to work that has not been completed. State new hypotheses when warranted, but clearly label them as such. Recommendations, when appropriate, may be included. References to unpublished data should not be included.

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4.16 Acknowledgements

      List all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship, such as a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance or a department chairperson who provided only general support. Financial and material support should also be acknowledged.
      Groups of people who have contributed materially to the paper but whose contributions do not justify authorship may be listed under a heading such as ‘clinical investigators’ or ‘participating investigators’ and their function or contribution should be described.
      The acknowledgements must also contain a statement defining funding sources. This should include source(s) of support in the form of grants, equipment, or drugs, all of these should be clearly and fully defined, including sources of materials, reagents or other resources as gifts.

4.17 Statement of author contributions

      A statement outlining the specific contribution of each author to the manuscript and the work reported in it must appear eg, study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation, literature search, generation of figures, writing of the manuscript. If all authors contributed equally, please state this. An example of the style we would prefer is:
ABC and EF conceived and carried out experiments, JKL and PQ conceived experiments and analysed data. MN carried out experiments. All authors were involved in writing the paper and had final approval of the submitted and published versions.

4.18 List of abbreviations (optional)

      A list of standard abbreviations and symbols is provided these may be used singularly, or in combination, and do not need to be spelt out. For all other abbreviations, the full term for which an abbreviation stands should precede its first use in the text unless it is a standard unit of measurement. A list of such non-standard abbreviations may be added after the acknowledgements section. Avoid abbreviations in the title and abstract.

4.18.1 Units of Measurement

      Measurements of length, height, weight and volume should be reported in metric units (metre, kilogram or litre) or their decimal multiples. Temperatures should be given in degrees Celsius. Blood pressures should be given in millimetres of mercury. All haematological and clinical chemistry measurements should be reported in the metric system in terms of the International System of Units (SI). Concentrations should usually be given as molarity (mol/L, abbreviated M).

4.18.2 Gene names

      Human gene names should be upper case and italic and mouse gene names lower case and italic; protein names should be in plain type.
      Please follow HUGO gene nomenclature for human genes, at: http://www.genenames.org/
      For mouse and rat gene nomenclature please follow the guidelines at:
http://www.informatics.jax.org/nomen/
      For other species authors should take care to use standard internationally accepted nomenclature and we suggest that authors consult Entrez Gene [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene] to check the correct nomenclature for their species, as it lists the different symbols for each known gene.

4.19 List of online Supporting Information (optional)

      A concise title and brief legend (no more than 50 words, with no special characters) as appropriate must be provided for each piece of Supporting Information.

4.20 Reference list (in the correct format)

      An Endnote style is available to assist authors who use this reference managing software. References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. Identify references in text, tables and legends by Arabic numerals in square parentheses. References cited only in tables or figure legends should be numbered in accordance with the sequence established by the first identification in the text of the particular table or figure. All references should be complete and accurate.
References cited in Supporting information must appear in the main list of references even if they are not employed in the main text, and not in a separate list seen only online.
      Avoid using abstracts as references. References to papers accepted but not yet published should be designated as ‘in press’; authors should obtain written permission to cite such papers as well as verification that they have been accepted for publication. Copies of any papers cited as ‘in press’ must be included in the submission. Avoid using unpublished observations and information from manuscripts submitted but not accepted.
Avoid citing a ‘personal communication’ unless it provides essential information not available from a public source, in which case the name of the person and date of communication should be cited in parentheses in the text. Authors must supply written permission and confirmation of accuracy from the source of a personal communication.
      The Journal’s reference style is modified Vancouver used by the NLM in Index Medicus. For articles with more than 3 authors, only the first 3 authors should be listed, followed by et al. The titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the style used in Index Medicus. Title abbreviations can be checked using the PubMed Journals database: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=journals&term=. Articles published online but not yet assigned to an issue may be cited using the DOI (see example 4). Online citations should include the date of access. Examples of our reference style are:

Journal article from an issue
Going JJ, Moffat DF. Escaping from Flatland: clinical and biological aspects of human mammary duct anatomy in three dimensions. J Pathol 2004; 203: 538–544.

Journal article in advance of inclusion in an issue
Strizzi L, Bianco C, Hirota M, et al. Development of leiomyosarcoma of the uterus in MMTV-CR-1 transgenic mice. J Pathol 2006; DOI:10.1002/path.2083

Chapter in an edited book
Watson F, Herrington CS. Blotting techniques: Methodology and Applications. In Molecular Biology in Histopathology, (2nd edn), Crocker J, Murray PG (eds). John Wiley & Sons Ltd: Chichester, 2003; 1–15.

Chapter in a book
Stevens A, Lowe J. Pathology (2nd edn). Mosby: London, 2000; 224–226.

Entry in a database
Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man [Internet]. Johns Hopkins University. Record No. 191170. Tumour Protein p53; TP53; [Accessed February 14, 2010]: Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/dispomim.cgi?id=191170

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4.21 Tables

      Each table should be on a separate page; use landscape orientation only if necessary. Tables should not be provided as photographic images or within graphics. Figures and illustrations must not be included or embedded into the document but uploaded as separate files.
      Type each table on a separate page at the end of the main document. Number tables consecutively in the order of their first citation in the text and supply a brief title for each. Give each column a short or abbreviated heading. Place explanatory matter in footnotes, not in the heading. Explain in footnotes all non-standard abbreviations that are used in each table. Identify statistical measures of variations, such as standard deviation and standard error of the mean. Do not use internal horizontal and vertical rules. Be sure that each table is cited in the text. If you use data from another published source, obtain permission and acknowledge fully.

4.22 Table and figure legends

      Legends for tables, figures and other illustrations should be provided in the main manuscript. These should be clear and concise and not repeat material shown elsewhere in the Results section. Tables, figures and other illustrations must be clearly referred to in the text of the manuscript.
      Type legends for illustrations starting on a separate page with Arabic numerals corresponding to the illustrations. When symbols, arrows, numbers or letters are used to identify parts of the illustrations, identify and explain each one clearly in the legend. Indicate the magnification for light micrographs only if essential. Internal scale markers are recommended for electron micrographs. Indicate the type of stain used only if it is other than haematoxylin and eosin. Gene, BAC or nucleotide names in heatmaps, and other images, should be legible.
      When you submit your manuscript, please remember to copy and paste your figure legends into the "Caption / Legend" field provided when you upload your figures.

4.23 Figures

      Figures must be at the appropriate size and resolution. Figures and illustrations must not be included or embedded into the document but uploaded as separate files.
      Figures should be numbered consecutively according to the order in which they have been first cited in the text.
      If a figure has been published, acknowledge the original source and written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce the material must be supplied. Permission is required irrespective of authorship or publisher except for documents in the public domain. Permission should be requested using the official Permission Request Form. If photographs of people are used, either the subjects must not be identifiable or their pictures must be accompanied by written permission to use the photograph (see Ethics).
      Figures should be professionally drawn, photographed and digitised; freehand or typewritten lettering is unacceptable. Letters, numbers and symbols should be clear and even throughout and of sufficient size that when reduced for publication each item will still be legible. Similarly lines must be of sufficient size that when reduced for publication each item will still be legible. Titles and detailed explanations belong in the legends for illustrations not on the illustrations themselves. Shading and hatches should be used with care and consideration of the final size of the image be made.

4.23.1 Figure Format

      Figures should be prepared to fit either one or two column widths (83 mm and 170.5 mm respectively) with a maximum height of 251.5 mm at the correct resolution:

Black and white and colour images – 300 dpi

Graphs, drawings, etc – 800 dpi preferred; 600 dpi minimum

Combinations of photos and drawings (black and white and colour) – 500 dpi

      Figures should be supplied (uploaded) as TIFF (.tif) files saved preferably using LZW or zip compression in RGB or greyscale mode with no profile embedded and no layers. Authors should be careful to check that their colour images (especially fluorescence) will reproduce faithfully in CMYK print before submission.

4.23.2 Colour images

      The cost of printing colour illustrations in the journal is currently £400 per colour page and will be charged to the author. In exceptional circumstances, if colour reproduction is considered essential by the referees and if the authors and their institutions or funding agencies are unable to meet the full cost, publication of colour may be made available at a reduced rate. The funds available for this purpose are very limited and will be employed at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief. Authors wishing to seek this subsidy should explain the full circumstance to the Editor-in-Chief in the cover letter accompanying submission of the manuscript. Retrospective applications for this subsidy will not be considered.
      Figures submitted in colour must be published in colour and no option for online only colour exists in the Journal of Pathology as we believe the published record must be coherent. If authors wish their illustrations to be printed in black and white, figures must be supplied and reviewed in black and white with appropriate contrast and brightness adjustments made for the best possible reproduction.

4.23.3 Graphs

      In preparing graphs ensure that appropriate formats are used (histogram, points, box and whisker etc) with error bars wherever possible. Ensure that lines and axes are of a width that will be easily seen and the texts and data points are similarly of an appropriate size. Avoid patterned or gradient in-fills in histograms.

4.23.4 Suggestions for the cover image

      Authors are invited to submit candidate cover images with their manuscript. These should be clearly identified with file names such as ‘Cover suggestion 1.tiff’ and designated as ‘Additional Files NOT for Review and NOT for publication'. Please note that the space available for such images is 150mm wide x 95mm high, and the resolution of the image should be no less than 600 dpi for line images, 300 dpi for tone images, and 600 and 300 dpi for the line and tone components of combination images, respectively. Authors should also note that the Editors are under no obligation to use any of the suggested images for the cover, and that the selection of an image for the cover will not affect any colour figure fees due for that article. One free copy of the issue and the PDF file of the cover will be sent to the corresponding author of the article from which the cover image was selected.

4.24 Supporting Information

      Authors may supply additional text or data as Supporting Information files for online publication only, however, the main manuscript must contain sufficient information to make the work intelligible without resort to these files. Authors should note that this material is a formal part of the published manuscript and should not normally then be published again in another paper.
      Our recommended file types for Supporting Information are: .doc/.xls/.ppt/.txt/.jpg/.jpeg/.gif/.tif/.tiff/.png/.bmp/.eps/.ps/.html/.pdf/.mov/.mpg/.wav/.mp3/.wma
      Please note that Supporting Information is not subedited or proof read, so authors should ensure that files are supplied ready for publication online. File sizes must be as small as possible, so that they can be downloaded quickly, and must not exceed 50MB.
When uploaded with your manuscript, these files must be designated as ‘Supporting Information for online publication only’.

4.25 Additional Files for Review but NOT for publication

      Authors should provide to the Editors and reviewers preprints of as yet unpublished articles, or other relevant material, that have a bearing on the review of the submitted manuscript. These should be uploaded and designated as “Additional Files for Review but NOT for publication”.

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4.26 Copyright and Permissions

      To enable the publisher to disseminate authors’ work to the fullest extent, all authors must complete and sign a Copyright Transfer Agreement, transferring copyright in the article from the authors to The Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. If a figure or extract of quoted text has been previously published, written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce the material must be obtained using the official Permission Request Form. The completed forms should be scanned and uploaded with the manuscript, but designated as “Additional Files NOT for Review and NOT for publication”.

4.27 The submission process

      The manuscript must be submitted via the online submission system (and not by mail or email).
      Submission to The Journal of Pathology is only via an online system at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jpath. You will need to create a user account for yourself and have available email addresses for each co-author.
      Prepare your manuscript and illustrations in the appropriate format, according to these instructions. Please also be sure that your paper conforms to the scientific and style instructions of the Journal.
      If you are unsure of your password, click ‘Forgot Your Password?’ If you have an account, you will be asked to enter your contact email and a temporary password will be sent to you so that you can access your manuscript. If you do not have an account, you can create one for yourself in the system at the submission site by clicking on the ‘Create Account’ button. Subsequently, to monitor the progress of your manuscript throughout the review process, just login periodically and check your Author Centre.
      When you are ready to submit your manuscript, let the system guide you through the submission process. Online help is available to you at all times during the process by clicking “Get Help Now” in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. You are also able to exit/re-enter the process at any stage before finally submitting your work.
      All hard copy and emailed manuscripts sent to the Editor-in-Chief, the Editorial Office or The Pathological Society will be returned to authors with instructions to submit online.

4.27.1 Submission of a revised version

      Once authors have completed the revisions to their manuscript, they can only submit it by logging into http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jpath and entering their Author Centre, where they will find the manuscript listed under "Manuscripts with Decisions". Under "Actions" click on "Create a Revision". The manuscript number will then be appended with an ‘R’ to denote that it is a revised version.
      When submitting a revised manuscript, it is essential that authors include a ‘point-by-point’ response to the comments made by the reviewer(s) in the space provided, detailing the changes made. In order to expedite the processing of the revised manuscript, please be as specific as possible in responses to the reviewer(s).
      IMPORTANT: Authors must delete any original files from the manuscript submission that are being replaced by revised files, and ensure that the files are in the correct order.

4.28 OnlineOpen

      OnlineOpen is available to authors of primary research articles who wish to make their article freely accessible to all, or whose funding agency requires grantees to archive the final version of their article. With OnlineOpen the author, the author's funding agency, or the author's institution pays a fee to ensure that the article is made available to non-subscribers upon publication via Wiley Online Library, as well as deposited in the funding agency's preferred archive.
      For the application form, and full details of the service, visit:
http://wileyonlinelibrary.com/onlineopen
(note that you should not try to order OnlineOpen until your manuscript has been accepted for publication).

4.29 Note to NIH and HHMI Grantees

      Wiley-Blackwell will automatically deposit the accepted (not edited and typeset) version of primary research papers funded by these bodies to PubMedCentral. For NIH authors the papers are made freely available twelve months after acceptance and for HHMI authors six months after acceptance, for more details see our full policy statements: http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/CTA.asp#NIH

4.30 English Checking Service for Authors in Asia (from non-English speaking countries)

      A list of recommended English editing services is available for authors who want to have their paper checked and improved before submission. This list and further information on the service is available at http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/english_language.asp Please note that this is an optional service paid for by the author.

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4.31 Further Information

      The e-mail address for the Editorial Office is managing_editor@jpathol.org. This email address is for correspondence and not for the submission of manuscripts.
      Failure to abide by the guidelines for submission to the Journal of Pathology may result in undue delay in the submission, review or publication of your manuscript.

4.32 Post-acceptance procedures

4.32.1 Accepted Articles

      These are peer reviewed articles that have been accepted for publication in the Journal of Pathology and are currently being copy-edited and typeset. They will appear on the journal website on the “Accepted Articles” page as a PDF of the edited manuscript and will have a DOI (digital object identifier). Subsequently the full articles will appear on Early View in a matter of weeks, after proofing by the authors.

4.32.2 Early View

      Early View is Wiley-Blackwell’s exclusive service presenting individual articles online as soon as they are ready before the release of the compiled print issue. Early View articles are complete, citable and are published in an average time of six weeks from acceptance.

4.32.3 Proofs

      Proofs in PDF format will be made available for download by the corresponding author for checking. This stage is to be used only to correct errors that may have been introduced during the production process. Prompt return of the corrected proofs, preferably within two days of receipt, will minimise the risk of the paper being held over to a later issue.
      A complimentary PDF offprint of the final paper will be provided to the author who checked the proofs, unless otherwise indicated. Hard copy reprints (minimum order 50, up to 300 copies) may be ordered online: http://offprint.cosprinters.com/blackwell and hard copies of a chosen issue can be ordered from Customer Services (cs-journals@wiley.com), please remember to provide full details of the journal name and which issue (i.e. volume and issue number) you require.

4.33 Disclaimer

      The validity of the data and the views expressed in articles in the Journal are the responsibility of authors and not of The Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland or the publisher, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

4.34 Notes on Instructions to Authors

      The requirements set out here are in accordance with the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals. International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts submitted to Biomedical Journals. Ann Intern Med 1997; 126: 36-47. A digital version is available on the ICMJE web site.
      For additional tools visit Author Services - an enhanced suite of online tools for Wiley journal authors, featuring Article Tracking, E-mail Publication Alerts and detailed advice on preparing electronic artwork and supporting information files.

4.35 COPE

      

As a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), adherence to these submission criteria is considered essential for publication in The Journal of Pathology; mandatory fields are included in the online submission process to ensure this. If, at a later stage in the submission process or even after publication, a manuscript or authors are found to have disregarded these criteria, it is the duty of the Editor-in-Chief to report this to COPE. COPE may recommend that action may be taken, including but not exclusive to, informing the authors’ professional regulatory body and/or institution of such a dereliction. The website for COPE may be accessed at: http://www.publicationethics.org.uk
      If concerns are raised regarding potential misconduct, such as plagiarism, redundant publication, or fabrication or manipulation of data, authors should be aware that the Journal will follow the COPE guidelines in dealing with the case, which, if the Journal is not satisfied with the authors’ explanation, can lead to the withdrawal of a manuscript from peer-review, or the publication of a retraction, and also to the Journal informing the authors’ professional regulatory body and/or institution of the details of the case.
      If a suspicion regarding the omission of conflicts of interest is raised during peer-review or after publication, the Journal will follow the relevant COPE guidelines to investigate this, and authors should be aware that this can lead to the publication of a correction statement.
      If the addition, or removal, of author name/s is requested during peer-review or after publication, the Journal will follow the relevant COPE guidelines (in verifying that all authors agree to the change), and authors should be aware that a lack of agreement can lead to the suspension of peer-review or publication, or to the publication of separate letters from the authors.

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4.36 Units of Measure, multipliers and standard abbreviations

      The Journal abbreviates all units of measurement for physical and chemical quantities according to standard metric usage (International System of Units (SI) base units and supplementary units). Standard abbreviations for countries (UK, USA etc), organisations (WHO, CRUK, NIH etc) and similar may be used.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W Y

A
a, atto (10-18)
Å, angstrom unit(s) [10–8 cm]
aa, amino acid(s)
Ab, antibody
ABC, ATP-binding cassette
AChR, acetylcholine receptor
ACTH, adrenocorticotropic hormone
AIDS, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome
AMP, adenosine monophosphate (ADP, ATP)
ANOVA, analysis of variance

B
BAC, bacterial artificial chromosome
β-gal, β-galactosidase
BMI, body mass index
bp, base pair(s)
BP, blood pressure
bpm, beat(s) per minute
BrdU, bromodeoxyuridine
BSA, bovine serum albumin
BSE, bovine spongiform encephalopathy
BW, body weight

C
c, centi (10-2)
°C, degree(s) Celsius
cAMP, cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cGMP)
CCL, CC chemokine ligand
CCR, CC chemokine receptor
CD, cluster of differentiation
CDK, cyclin-dependent kinases
cDNA, complementary DNA
CDP, cytosine diphosphate
CFC, colony-forming cell
CFTR, cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator
CFU, colony-forming unit
ChIP, chromatin immunoprecipitation
CHO, Chinese hamster ovary
Ci, curie(s)
CI, confidence interval
cM, centimorgan(s)
CMP, cytidine monophosphate (CDP, CTP)
CMV, cytomegalovirus
CNS, central nervous system
CoA, coenzyme A
COX, cyclooxygenase
cpm, count(s) per minute
CSA, colony-stimulating activity
CSF, colony-stimulating factor
Ct, threshold cycle
CT, computed tomography
CTL, cytotoxic T lymphocyte
CXCL, CXC chemokine ligand
CXCR, CXC chemokine receptor

D
3D, 3-dimensional
d, deci (10-1)
da, deca (101)
Da, dalton(s)
DAB, diaminobenzidine
DAPI, 4’,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole
DEAE, diethylaminoethyl
DLCBL, diffuse large cell B cell lymphoma
DMEM, Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium
DMSO, dimethylsulphoxide
DNA, deoxyribonucleic acid
dpm, disintegration(s) per minute
dsDNA, double-stranded DNA
DTT, dithiothreitol

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E
E1, E2, E3 etc, embryonic day 1, 2, 3 etc
EAE, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis
EBV, Epstein-Barr virus
EC, endothelial cell
ECG, electrocardiogram, electrocardiography
ECL, enhanced chemiluminescence
ECM, extracellular matrix
E. coli, Escherichia coli
ED50, 50% effective dose
EDTA, ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid
EEG, electroencephalogram
EGF, epidermal growth factor
EGFR, EGF receptor
EGTA, ethyleneglycol-bis-(b-aminoethylether)-N,N,N’,N’-tetraacetic acid
ELISA, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay
EM, electron microscopy
EMEM, Eagle’s minimal essential medium
EMSA, electrophoretic mobility shift assay
eNOS, endothelial NOS
ER, endoplasmic reticulum
ERK, extracellular signal–regulated kinase
ES, embryonic stem [cell]

F
f, femto (10-15)
F-actin, filamentous actin
FasL, Fas ligand
FBS, fetal bovine serum
Fc, crystallizable fragment [of immunoglobulin molecule]
FCS, fetal calf serum
FDA, Food and Drug Administration
FFA, free fatty acid
FGF, fibroblast growth factor
FISH, fluorescence in situ hybridization
FITC, fluorescein isothiocyanate

G
g, gram
g, unit(s) of gravity
G, giga (109)
GABA, g-aminobutyric acid
GAPDH, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase
GC, germinal centre
G-CSF, granulocyte CSF
GFP, green fluorescent protein
GFR, glomerular filtration rate
GLUT, glucose transporter
GM-CFU, granulocyte-macrophage CFU
GM-CSA, granulocyte-macrophage CSA
GM-CSF, granulocyte-macrophage CSF
GMP, guanosine monophosphate (GDP, GTP)
GPCR, G protein–coupled receptor
Gy, gray(s)

H
h, hour(s)
h, hecto (102)
HA, haemagglutinin
HBSS, Hanks’ balanced salt solution
HCV, hepatitis C virus (HAV, HBV, HDV)
HL, Hodgkin’s lymphoma
HDL, high-density lipoprotein
H&E, haematoxylin and eosin
HEPES, N-2-hydroxyethylpiperazine-N’-2-ethanesulphonic acid
HGF, hepatocyte growth factor
HIF, hypoxia-inducible factor
HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1, HIV-2)
HLA, human leukocyte antigen
HMG, 3-hydroxy-3-methyl-glutaryl
HPLC, high-performance liquid chromatography
HPV, human papilloma virus
HRP, horseradish peroxidase
HSA, human serum albumin
HSC, haematopoietic stem cell
hsp, heat shock protein
HUVEC, human umbilical vein endothelial cell

I
IC50, 50% inhibitory concentration
ICAM, intercellular adhesion molecule
ID50, 50% infective dose
IDDM, insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus
IDL, intermediate-density lipoprotein
IFN, interferon
Ig, immunoglobulin (IgE, IgG)
IGF, insulin-like growth factor
IκB, inhibitor of NF-κB (IκBa, IκBb)
IL, interleukin (IL-12)
i.m., intramuscular(ly)
i.n., intranasal(ly)
iNOS, inducible NOS
i.p., intraperitoneal(ly)
IP, immunoprecipitate, immunoprecipitated, immunoprecipitation
IR, insulin receptor
IU, international unit(s)
i.v., intravenous(ly)

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J
JAK, Janus kinase
JNK, c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase

K
k, kilo (103)
K, increment on temperature scale Kelvin
kb, kilobase
kcal, kilocalorie(s)
Kd, dissociation constant
kDa, kilodalton(s)
KI, inhibition constant
Km, Michaelis-Menten constant
KO, knockout

L
l, litre
LD50, 50% lethal dose
LDL, low-density lipoprotein
LN, lymph node
lod, log odds ratio
LPS, lipopolysaccharide
LUC, luciferase
LV, left ventricle, left ventricular

M
m, milli (10-3)
m, metre(s)
M, molar (moles per litre)
M, mega (106)
mAb, monoclonal Ab
MALDI, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization
MAPK, mitogen-activated protein kinase
Mb, megabase(s)
M-CSF, macrophage CSF
MD, muscular dystrophy
2-ME, 2-mercaptoethanol
MEK, MAPK kinase
mEq, milliequivalent(s)
MFI, mean fluorescence intensity
MHC, major histocompatibility complex
min, minute
miRNA, microRNA
mmHg, millimeter(s) of mercury
MMP, matrix metalloproteinase
mo, month(s)
MOI, multiplicity of infection
mol, mole(s)
MOPS, 3-(N-morpholino)propanesulphonic acid
Mr, relative molecular mass
MRI, magnetic resonance imaging
mRNA, messenger RNA
μ, micro (10-6)
MW, molecular weight

N
n, nano (10-9)
n, number in group
N, normal [solution]
N, total sample size
N/A, not applicable
NAD, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide
NADH, reduced NAD
NADPH, reduced NAD phosphate
ncRNA, non coding RNA
NF-κB, nuclear factor κB
NHL, non-Hodgkin lymphoma
NIDDM, non–insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus
NK, natural killer
NKT, natural killer T [cell]
NMDA, N-methyl-D-aspartate
NMR, nuclear magnetic resonance
NO, nitric oxide
NOD, nonobese diabetic
NOR, nonobese resistant
NOS, NO synthase
NP-40, Nonidet P-40
NS, not significant
NSAID, nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug
NSCLC, non-small cell lung cancer
nt, nucleotide(s)

O
OCT, optimal cutting temperature [compound]
OD, optical density
ORF, open reading frame

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P
p, pico (10-12)
P, phosphate (PO4)
P, probability
P1, P2, P3, postnatal day 1, 2, 3
PAGE, polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis
PAR, protease-activated receptor
PAS, periodic acid–Schiff
PBL, peripheral blood leukocyte
PBMC, peripheral blood mononuclear cell
PBS, phosphate-buffered saline
PCR, polymerase chain reaction
PDGF, platelet-derived growth factor
PDGFR, PDGF receptor
PE, phycoerythrin
PECAM, platelet–endothelial cell adhesion molecule
PET, positron emission tomography
PFU, plaque-forming unit
PG, prostaglandin
pH, hydrogen ion concentration
pI, isoelectric point
PI3K, phosphatidylinositol-3’-kinase
PIPES, piperazine-N, N’-bis(2-ethanesulphonic acid)
PKC, protein kinase C (PKA, PKB)
PLC, phospholipase C
PMA, phorbol myristate acetate
PMSF, phenylmethylsulphonyl fluoride
PPAR, peroxisome proliferator–activated receptor (PPARg)
psi, pound(s) per square inch
PVDF, polyvinylidene difluoride

R
r, correlation coefficient
RA, rheumatoid arthritis
rad, radiation-absorbed dose
RAG, recombination activating gene
RANK, receptor activator of NF-κB
RANKL, RANK ligand
RANTES, regulated on activation, T cell expressed, and secreted
rbc, red blood cell
RFLP, restriction fragment length polymorphism
RIA, radioimmunoassay
RNA, ribonucleic acid
RNAi, RNA interference
ROS, reactive oxygen species
rpm, revolution(s) per minute
RPMI, Roswell Park Memorial Institute [medium]
rRNA, ribosomal RNA
RT, reverse transcriptase [or reverse transcription in RT-PCR]

S
s, second(s)
SARS, severe acute respiratory syndrome
s.c., subcutaneous
SCF, stem cell factor
SCID, severe combined immunodeficiency disease
SD, standard deviation
SDS, sodium dodecylsulphate
SEM, standard error of the mean
shRNA, short hairpin RNA
siRNA, small, interfering RNA
SIV, simian immunodeficiency virus
SCLC, small cell lung cancer
SLE, systemic lupus erythematosus
SMC, smooth muscle cell
SNP, single nucleotide polymorphism
SOCS, suppressor of cytokine signalling
SOD, superoxide dismutase
SSC, standard saline citrate
STAT, signal transducer and activator of transcription

T
t, time
T, tera (1012)
t1/2, half-life
TBS, Tris-buffered saline
TCA, tricarboxylic acid
TCR, T cell receptor
Tg, transgene, transgenic
TGase, transglutaminase
TGCT, testicular germ cell tumours
TGF, transforming growth factor
Th, T helper [cell] (Th1, Th1)
TLC, thin-layer chromatography
TLR, Toll-like receptor
TNF, tumour necrosis factor (TNF-a)
TOF, time of flight
TPA, tissue plasminogen activator
Treg, regulatory T cell
Tris, tris(hydroxymethyl)-aminomethane
TSG, tumour suppressor gene
TRITC, tetrarhodamine isothiocyanate
TUNEL, terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase–mediated dUTP nick end-labeling
TXA, thromboxane A

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U
U, unit(s)
UMP, uridine monophosphate (UDP, UTP)
UV, ultraviolet

V
V, volt(s)
VCAM, vascular cell adhesion molecule
VEGF, vascular endothelial growth factor
VEGFR, VEGF receptor
VHL, von Hippel-Lindau disease
VLDL, very low-density lipoprotein
Vmax, maximum velocity
vol, volume
VSMC, vascular smooth muscle cell
vWF, von Willebrand factor

W
W, watt(s)
wbc, white blood cell
wk, week(s)
wt, weight
WT, wild type

Y
yr, year(s)

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