BIOSCIENCE OF MICROBIOTA, FOOD and HEALTH
INSTRUCTION TO AUTHORS
BIOSCIENCE of MICROBIOTA, FOOD and HEALTH (BMFH) is the official joint scientific journal of the Japan Bifidus Foundation, Japan Society for Lactic Acid Bacteria and Japanese Association for Food Immunology. BMFH publishes original research and review articles, quarterly, in English, pertaining to all areas of intestinal microbiota of humans and other animals, food immunology, food function, and lactic acid bacteria. The aim of this journal is to exchange information on scientific and technological findings and to accelerate new borderless investigation/collaboration in these wide research areas.
Topics of each area covered include:
- Intestinal microbiota of humans and animals
- composition, ecology, metabolic activities and taxonomy of intestinal microbiota/bacteria
- factors affecting intestinal microbiota
- roles of intestinal microbiota in host immunity, physiology, health and disease
- development and use of probiotics, prebiotics and biogenics
- Lactic acid bacteria (LAB)
- taxonomy, ecology, metabolism and applications of LAB
- biotechnology, molecular biology and omics of LAB
- fermentation, fermented foods and starter cultures
- health effects of LAB and fermented foods
- Food immunology and food function
- effects of food on innate and adaptive immunity
- food modulation of immune diseases and health
- evaluation methods of immune responses and food function
- intestinal immune responses
- etiological surveys and clinical studies of food allergy and life style-related diseases
Mode of publication. The BMFH journal is published principally on the web; the printed version of the journal is issued in black and white and colored images are converted into black and white.
Editorial Policy. A manuscript is considered for publication on the understanding that:
- By submission of a manuscript the author(s) automatically grant(s) the exclusive right to the publisher to publish the manuscript in all forms (including electronic) and in all languages throughout the world.
- The author(s) transfer(s) copyright of the paper to the publisher.
- The manuscript is approved by all named authors.
- The manuscript reports original, unpublished work that is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.
- The manuscript will not be published elsewhere in any language or form without the permission of the publisher.
- The manuscript does not contain any table or figure or any other material that has been published elsewhere unless copyright permission has been obtained by the author(s).
Papers describing experimental work with humans must include a statement that the Ethical Committee of the institution where the work was done had approved it, and that the subjects gave their informed consent to the work. Also, experiments with animals or with genetically manipulated organisms must have been performed in accordance with the legal requirements of the relevant local or national authority, and procedures must be such that experimental animals do not suffer unnecessarily.
Submission. All submissions to BMFH must be made electronically. Requirements for submission are detailed at the home page of BMFH (http://www.bmfh.jp). Articles should be divided into files as described below, and uploaded to the ScholarOne ManuscriptTM (SM) website (http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/bmfh). SM automatically creates a single pdf file from files uploaded individually. This pdf file is used in the reviewing process. Ensure that the text of the pdf file is accurate and that all images are sharp enough.
The following files should be prepared.
* Text of the manuscript: The file should contain all the text from the cover page to the references.
– Manuscripts in Microsoft WORD are preferred. Standard fonts (Times New Roman, Century, Helvetica and Symbol) should be used.
* Figures: Files should be submitted to SM in PowerPoint, WORD, EXCEL, Photoshop, (JPEG, TIFF), etc.,formats. Note that SHS, EXE, COM, VBS, ZIP formats and files with the new extension (.pptx) will not be accepted.
* Tables: The use of Excel is recommended. The titles of Tables should clearly reflect the contents.
Form of manuscripts. Manuscripts should be typed in English with wide margins using double spacing. Four types of manuscript will be accepted:
- Full papers: It is recommended that Full papers should be divided into the following headings: Abstract,Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgements, and References. The abstract should not exceed 250 words.
- Notes: The Note format is intended for the presentation of brief observations that do not warrant Full papers. Each Note must have an abstract of no more than 100 words at the beginning of the paper. Section headings should not be added.
- Reviews: These may be accepted, when appropriate. Reviews, however, will generally be published by invitation only. Each review must have an abstract of no more than 250 words at the beginning of the paper.
- Letters to the editor: The Editor-in-Chief will consider letters which will provide further debate on a particular topic arising from the publication of a paper in the BMFH. They should be no more than 500 words long. If the Editor-in-Chief believes that publication is warranted, a reply will be solicited from the corresponding author of the article. Case reports and technological reports can be submitted by letter to the editor.
The cover page of the manuscript should contain the (a) title, (b) authors’ full names, (c) complete mailing address of institute, corporation, or laboratory, (d) proposed running head not exceeding 60 letters, and (e) 3 to 7 key words for indexing.
When author(s) are requested to revise the manuscript, they must resubmit it within 2 months after receiving the comment, otherwise the paper will be considered as having been withdrawn.
Abbreviations for measurable units should be (without period) as follows: m, cm, mm, mm, nm, l, dl, ml, ml, kg, mg, mg, ng, pg, °C, %, hr, min, sec, etc. Genus or species names, drugs, or any other abbreviations should be spelled out in full when first used in the text and in the Abstract. The Editors reserve the privilege of editing manuscripts to make them conform to the adopted style.
References. In the text, references should be cited by number. References should be listed in the order in which they appear in the article, and numbered as follows:
- Miki T, Okada N, Danbara H. 2004. Two periplasmic disulfide oxidoreductases, DsbA and SrgA, target outer membrane protein SpiA, a component of the Salmonella pathogenicity island 2 type III secretion system. J Biol Chem 279: 34631-34642.
- Yonezawa H, Osaki T, Kurata S, Fukuda M, Kawakami H, Ochiai K, Hanawa T, Kamiya S. 2009. Outer membrane vesicles of Helicobacter pylori TK1402 are involved in biofilm formation. BMC Microbiol 9: 197. Available at: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2180/9/197 (accessed 2011-08-02)
- Salminen S, von Wright A, Ouwehand A. (eds). 2004. Lactic Acid Bacteria: Microbiological and Functional Aspects, Marcel Dekker, New York.
- Hirayama K, Rafter J. 2006. Probiotics in cancer prevention. In Probiotics in Food Safety and Human Health, Goktepe I, Juneja VK, Ahmedna M (eds), CRC Press, Boca Raton, pp. 365-381.
Citations of “unpublished data,” “personal communications,” “abstracts,” and “theses,” will not be accepted as References, but may be used parenthetically in the text.