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Microbes and Environments
Instructions for Authors
Microbes and Environments (M&E) is an international journal devoted tothe publication of original and minireview articles regarding all aspects ofresearch on microbial ecology and environmental microbiology. Articles candeal with culturable and non-culturable forms of any type of microorganism:
Bacteria, archaea, fungi, yeasts, protozoa, algae and viruses. M&E is an
open access journal (for online articles), published by Japanese Society ofMicrobial Ecology (JSME), Japanese Society of Soil Microbiology (JSSM),and Taiwan Society of Microbial Ecology (TSME), and Japanese Society ofPlant Microbe Interactions (JSPMI).
1. Types of papers published
Four types of papers are published: Full-length Regular Papers, Short
Communications, Reviews, and Short Reviews. Regular Papers and Short
Communications must represent a report of original research thathas not been published before (except in the form of an abstract or as partof a published lecture, review, or thesis) and is not under consideration
for publication elsewhere. Reviews are normally invited. Authorsinterested in submitting a Review should write to the Editor-in-Chief(E-mail: y.kamagata@aist.go.jp) for approval before its submission. Short
Reviews are completely invited.
2. Copyright and agreement for publication
All authors of a manuscript must have agreed to its submission and areresponsible for its contents, including appropriate citations and acknowledgements. All authors also must have agreed that the corresponding author
has authority to act on their behalf in all matters pertaining to publication of
the manuscript. Unless the Copyright Transfer Agreement is executed, M&E
will not publish the article. The author guarantees that the manuscript will
not be published elsewhere in any other language without the written permission of the copyright holders. Copyright for supplemental material
remains with the authors, but a license permitting posting by M&E will besent, along with the article copyright transfer agreement, to the corresponding author for signing at the acceptance stage.
3. Submission procedure
All manuscripts must be submitted electronically via the online manu­
script submission and peer review system at the following URL: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jsme2 (E­mail submissions will not beaccepted). A user ID and password are required and can be obtained on
the first use of the system. Most of file types are supported, but the following
types are recommended: main document in Microsoft Word or generic richtext format (RTF), figures in high resolution EPS or TIFF. PDF file formain document is not acceptable. Total file size (main document, figures,tables, and supplemental materials) should not be exceeded 20 MB. Stepby-step instructions for submitting a manuscript via the online submission
system are available. Authors in Japan should give their address in Japanese
as well as in English. The Editorial Office will confirm the editorial style ofa submitted manuscript. Authors who are unsure of proper English usage
should have their manuscripts checked by someone proficient in the English
language.
4. Review process
Submitted manuscripts are sent to a Senior Editor with appropriate expertise,
who is responsible for making a final decision on its acceptability. TheSenior Editor will choose an Associate Editor who is in charge of sending
the manuscript to two referees for criticism and further communication withauthors. A manuscript returned to the author for revision should be resubmitted to the Associate Editor within 6 weeks. Otherwise it may be considered
withdrawn or treated as a new submission.
5. Accepted manuscripts
When the manuscript has been accepted, the Managing Editor will correct
the style and the format of the manuscript. The corresponding author will
receive a galley proof for one revision. If the galley proof is not returned
before the deadline, the paper may be printed without corrections.
6. Advance Publication onlineM&E posts online PDF file versions of manuscripts that have been peer
reviewed and accepted but are being copyedited. Advance publication
manuscripts are accessible from the M&E website. No corrections/changes
to the PDF manuscripts are accepted. Accordingly, authors may find differences between M&E advance publication manuscripts and the final, typesetarticles. Supplemental material for publication is not posted until the final,
typeset article.
7. Preparation of manuscripts
Manuscripts should be written in clear and simple English and be doublespaced for all text on A4 size sheets. All pages must be numbered con­secutively, starting with the title page. The lines of the text should benumbered to aid the reviewers. The arrangement of manuscripts forRegular Papers should be in the following order: Title, Author’s name andAddress, Abstract, Key words (no more than 5 words), Introduction, Materials
and Methods, Results, Discussion (or Results and Discussion), Acknowledgements, References, Tables, Figure legends and Figures. Use section headings (e.g. Introduction, Materials and Methods etc.) in the main text. TheAbstract should not exceed 250 words for a Regular Paper, and 100
words for a Short Communication.
Title page: The title page should include the title, the author’s full name,affiliations, address, and the running head. The title should be as concise
and informative as possible. Multiple authors with different addresses must
indicate their respective addresses with numerals. Place an asterisk after
the name of the author to whom correspondence regarding the manuscript
should be addressed. The abbreviated running head must not exceed 40
characters.
Main document: Subheadings can be used in the Materials and Methods andResults sections of Regular Papers. Use of footnotes is not recommended,
but abbreviations, when necessary, can be defined in a single footnote
inserted in the first page of the text.
References: Arrange the citations in alphabetical order by first author, andnumber consecutively. The references should not include personal communications, unpublished data or manuscripts in preparation (can be mentioned
parenthetically in the text). All listed references must be cited parentheticallyby number in the main text. Journal names should be abbreviated according
to the Chemical Abstracts Service Source Index (CASSI). Each citationmust be complete: Do not use ibid., idem., etc. Articles written by more than
10 authors should be edited to show the first three authors, and ‘et al’.
Acceptable styles are shown in the examples below. For additional styles
and formats, consult recent issues of M&E.
1. Saito, A., S. Ikeda, H. Ezura, and K. Minamisawa. 2007. Microbialcommunity analysis of the phytosphere using culture-independent methodologies. Microbes Environ. 22:93–105.
2. Katsuyama, C., N. Kondo, Y. Suwa, T. Yamagishi, M. Itoh, N. Ohte, H.
Kimura, K. Nagaosa, and K. Kato. 11 November 2008. Denitrification activity and relevant bacteria revealed by nitrite reductase gene fragments in soilof temperate mixed forest. Microbes Environ. doi:10.1264/jsme2.ME08541.
3. Sambrook, J., and D.W. Russell. 2001. Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory
Manual, 3rd ed. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, New York.
4. Hiraishi, A. 1989. Isoprenoid quinone profiles for identifying and classifying microorganisms in the environment, p. 663-668. In T. Hattori, Y.
Ishida, Y. Maruyama, R. Y. Morita, and A. Uchida (ed.), Recent
Advances in Microbial Ecology. Japan Scientific Societies Press, Tokyo.
Figures: All figures including drawings and photographs should be of
their intended publication size, and numbered consecutively. Indicate thefigure numbers and first-author’s name in the margin. Titles and legends offigures must be typed separately. Graphs should be made from finisheddrawings not requiring additional artwork or typesetting. Photographs
should be glossy and rich in contrast. Give scales in microphotographs: Do
not report enlargement factors in legends. Figures in 1-column (maximumwidth ca. 8.3 cm) of the printed page are strongly recommended. The maximum width for a 2-column figure should be 17.6 cm.
Tables: Each table must be typed on a separate page, and all tables shouldhave titles. Abbreviations, when necessary, should be defined in table footnotes. The maximum width of a table on the printed page should be 17.6 cm,and thus the author should prepare tables as concise as possible.
Supplemental material: Supplemental material may be posted by M&E for
any types of paper. M&E encourages that supplemental material be uploadedin the online submission system as a single PDF file or a single video imaging file. The maximum size permitted for an individual file is 10 MB.
Supplemental figures and tables should be referred to as Fig. S1 and Table
S1, respectively. A figure for large phylogenetic tree should be basicallysupplied as a supplemental material.
8. Page Charges
Starting January 1st, 2013, authors will be required to pay page charges
for accepted manuscripts submitted after the start date. Instead,authors will NOT be charged for English proofreading. For a corre­
sponding author who is a JSME/JSSM/TSME/JSPMI member, pagecharges are currently ¥4,000 per page. For a nonmember corresponding
author, page charges are currently ¥8,000 per page. Color pages will be
printed at the author’s expense. The cost of publishing colored figuresneeds to be borne by the authors. The costs are ¥50,000 for each printed
color page. The authors may choose a lower-cost color page only for
publication in the online version of M&E. In this publication style, the pagein the printed journal is in black and white, however the web page of theonline journal is in full-color.
9. Permission
The corresponding author is responsible for obtaining permission from boththe original author(s) and the publishers (i.e., the copyright owner) to reproduce or modify figures and tables, and to reproduce text from previous publications. Statements indicating that the material is being reprinted with permission must be included in the relevant figure legend or table footnote of
the manuscript. Reprinted text must be enclosed in quotation marks, andthe permission statement must be included as running text or indicatedparenthetically.
The latest full version of Instructions for Authors is also available throughthe Internet at the following URL: http://www.microbial-ecology.jp/files/
user/Instructions_full_latest.pdf
Copyright (C) 2015, Japanese Society of Microbial Ecology (JSME) /Japanese Society of Soil Microbiology (JSSM) / Taiwan Society of Microbial
Ecology (TSME) / Japanese Society of Plant Microbe Interactions (JSPMI).
All rights reserved