Writing Guidelines

Each submission should define a term from the list of terms which has not been assigned an author already. Each submission should include an overview of at most 500 words, with links to relevant databases and references. Please use the author template and confirm the Editorial Policies below. Note that all submissions will be assigned an editor who will have it reviewed by two experts in the field.

Sample documents are available in this Google Drive.

Editorial Policies

Editorial Board

Content collection and peer-review is managed by the editorial board. Current editorial board members include:

• Kiyoko F. Aoki-Kinoshita, Soka University, Japan (bioinformatics, databases, web resources)
• Evan E. Bolton, NCBI, NLM, NIH
• Sabine Flitsch, Univ. of Manchester, UK (Carbohydrate synthesis, Carbohydrate active enzymes, carbohydrate sequencing, enzymatic synthesis)
• Jun Hirabayashi, Nagoya University, Japan
• Frederique Lisacek, SIB Geneva
• Nicki Packer, Macquarie Univ., Griffith Univ., Australia
• Sriram Neelamegham, State University of New York- Buffalo
• Michael Tiemeyer, GlyGen, CCRC (glycosphingolipids, protein glycosylation, developmental, glycobiology, neuroglycobiology, glycomics, glycomics)
• Natasha Zachara, Johns Hopkins Univ. (O-GlcNAc, Intracellular Glycosylation, Stress glycobiology)

Submission Types

Submissions are exclusively of the review type, rather than of research-based studies. All submissions will take the same format using the provided template which can be downloaded on the website (Insert URL). Sections are as follows:

Authorship: Chapters should have no more than 3 authors. Please fill out the auxiliary form which provides names, contact details, and a brief biography. This form (authors) also enables authors to acknowledge any conflicts of interest.

Title (Required):

Abstract (50 words; Required): A short definition of the structure or process being described.

Overview (500 words; Required): A short entry providing an overview of the structure or process being described.

Description/Definition:

• Structures and Identifiers (Required): Glycans drawn using SNFG, chemical compounds drawn using ChemAxon and stored as an SVG file. Where possible, provide a link to the GlyTouCan entry.
• Synomyms (Required).
• Related Encyclopedia Records (when known).
• References (required). Provide 10 citations focusing. Use the standard format from PUBMED. For example: “Campbell MP, Aoki-Kinoshita KF, Lisacek F, York WS, Packer NH. Glycoinformatics. 2017. In: Varki A, Cummings RD, Esko JD, Stanley P, Hart GW, Aebi M, Darvill AG, Kinoshita T, Packer NH, Prestegard JH, Schnaar RL, Seeberger PH, editors. Essentials of Glycobiology [Internet]. 3rd ed. Cold Spring Harbor (NY): Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press; 2015–2017. Chapter 52. PMID: 28876860.”
• Biological Sources (when appropriate): All biological materials, e.g., cells, tissues, organs, bodies, as well as their extracts and body fluids.
• Diseases (when appropriate):
• Enzymes (when appropriate): Please provide CAZy entry
• Reactions (when appropriate): Crosslink to Rhea

Other notes:

• Abbreviations should be provided at first use. Please provide a table of all abbreviations used.
• Figure Legends: A brief title and legend (less than 100 words) should be provided.
• Cross linking: Authors should endeavor to provide up to date cross links (URLs) to “Essentials in Glycobiology” and Databases.
• Copyright: Authors must transfer copyright (Form).

Submission and Review Process

All documents submitted to eGlyc will be reviewed critically and it is the responsibility of the Editorial Board to determine the suitability for publication. After receipt, documents will be assigned an Editorial Board member who will solicit reviewers. Manuscripts will then be assigned to one expert in the field and one trainee (Graduate Student, Post-doctoral fellow). The goal of the review is to ensure:

• the accuracy of the scientific content;
• the appropriateness of citations which are expected to be recent reviews in the field;
• the quality of writing and the intelligibility of the text to non-specialists;
• that the content follows the content guidelines.

The Board member will endeavor to collect and collate comments within one month of submission making a recommendation for acceptance, revision, or declination based on the quality of the entry. All referees who review manuscripts will remain unknown to the authors and every manuscript will be treated privileged communication. Ideally, updated text will be provided within one month. Chapters requiring significant updates will be re-reviewed. Finalized chapters will be reviewed by an independent Board Member prior to publication.

Once published, documents will be freely available through PUBChem and will receive a PMID number.

There are no publication fees.

Updates:

The editorial board will solicit the original authors every 5 years to provide updates to chapters with an aim to maintaining scientific accuracy and relevance. In the absence of the original authors, the board will select authors with similar credentials and experience in the field.

The scientific community is encouraged to submit ideas for additional chapters and feedback on chapters that contain inaccuracies or expired links to URL. Simple issues will be addressed by the editorial board, whereas significant issues will be forwarded to the authors for comment. Chapter updates will be reviewed in a manner analogous to original submissions. This link for ideas & issues will be monitored weekly.

Ethical Policies

eGlyc considers the following a breach of its ethical policies:

Conflict of interest: defined as, not disclosing actual or perceived conflicts that could affect scientific judgement;

Plagiarism: Using another person's text, figures, graphs, or data without citation. We note that use reproduction of figures, graphs, or data requires permission from the appropriate journal.

Self-plagiarism: Re-using text and figures from your own previously published or submitted work without appropriate citation. We note that use reproduction of figures, graphs, or data requires permission from the appropriate journal.

Author list: The list of authors should match the contributions made.

Figures

Please use original art.

All structure figures should use the SNFG nomenclature and should be stored as an SVG file. Structure figures should be accompanied by a title.

All other figures should be provided as an EPS file and should be accompanied by a figure legend. Use Arial or Helvetica for text labels. Use a font no less than 10 point. Again, SNFG nomenclature should be used. Figures should have a >300 dpi resolution.

Figures should be no wider than 178mm.

Authors should obtain permission to reuse any published figures. Please fill out the form to report images which have been reused and to document your permission to reproduce these images.

Sponsorship

eGlyc will require that at the time of submission, each author reveal any financial interests or connections, direct or indirect, or other situations that might raise the question of bias in the work reported or the conclusions, implications, or opinions stated - including pertinent commercial or other sources of funding for the individual author(s) or for the associated department(s) or organization(s), personal relationships, or direct academic competition.