Editorial Policies

Submission of a manuscript implies that it reports unpublished work and that neither itself nor parts of it have been published or are under consideration for publication elsewhere. Posting on preprint servers is, however, encouraged (see beolow). By submitting a manuscript, the authors guarantee that they have the appropriate authority from their employers and/or funding agencies to publish the work. Any related work under consideration, review, revision or accepted for publication elsewhere must accompany the submission if they are relevant to its scientific assessment.

Preprint Servers

Life Science Alliance encourages the posting of primary research manuscripts on non-peer reviewed recognized community preprint servers such as arXiv, bioRxiv, medRxiv, and PeerJ Preprint before - or in parallel with - formal submission to Life Science Alliance.

BioRxiv and MedRxiv posts can be directly transferred for formal submission to Life Science Alliance using the B2J and M2J functionality. Please declare a preprint version of a manuscript in the cover letter accompanying submission to Life Science Alliance.

The evaluation of the conceptual advance of a manuscript submitted for publication in Life Science Alliance does not take into account related manuscripts posted by others to recognized community preprint servers.

We encourage formal citation of preprints in the reference list, where appropriate. In-text citations of work posted on preprint servers must be clearly labeled as non-peer-reviewed work, e.g. (NAME et al., 2017; preprint) or [2; preprint].

This policy applies only to primary research papers. Life Science Alliance reserves the right not to publish material that has already been formally published, completely or substantially, in peer-reviewed journals or in persistent digital media such as blogs that are not recognized as preprint servers. Conference presentations (including summaries, abstracts, and posters) and doctoral (PhD) or master (MSc) theses are exempt.

Scooping Protection

Other papers published in peer-reviewed journals or manuscripts posted on recognized preprint servers after submission of a manuscript to Life Science Alliance are not considered relevant to the editorial assessment of the submitted manuscript.

A manuscript submitted to Life Science Alliance is subject to scooping protection from the day of submission to Life Science Alliance, and this extends through the agreed revision period. For manuscripts invited to be transferred to Life Science Alliance, scooping protection applies from the day of submission to journals at EMBO Press, Rockefeller University Press, or Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, provided the manuscript is submitted to Life Science Alliance within 4 months post transfer invitation.

Scooping Protection also applies from the day of posting a manuscript on a recognized preprint server in substantially the same form as the manuscript submitted to Life Science Alliance, provided the manuscript is submitted to Life Science Alliance within 4 months of posting.

Note that related papers, and where appropriate preprints, have to be cited appropriately if they are published before the manuscript proofs stage.

Note that scooping protection does not apply for related papers with an overlapping set of authors.

Transparent Process

To ensure a transparent editorial process, Life Science Alliance does not ask for 'confidential comments to the editor'; instead, referees are asked to include all comments pertinent to the scientific evaluation of the manuscript in the referee report itself.

To enhance the fairness and consistency of the peer review process, and to ensure that the referees supply constructive, critical analysis to the authors, Life Science Alliance routinely asks referees to comment on each other's reports. As soon as all reports have been received, the referees have two days to consider the other referees' views. This allows extreme opinions to be scrutinized at an early point, mistakes and errors to be detected, and it helps the editor to get back to the author with balanced decisions.

Life Science Alliance makes the editorial process transparent for all accepted manuscripts that were directly submitted to Life Science Alliance or initially reviewed at EMBO Press journals or Journal of Cell Biology (JCB) and subsequently transferred with referee reports to Life Science Alliance. For these manuscripts, all formal correspondence between authors and editors relevant to the decision process, as well as the overall timeline of the editorial and publishing process will be published as an online supplementary document. Referee anonymity will be maintained, unless the referee decides to sign the report (open peer review). Authors who are, for specific reasons or as a matter of principle, not comfortable with these disclosures will be able to opt out of the transparent process at any stage prior to publication. Authors may request that data specifically included in the response to referees and intended for publication elsewhere be redacted from the document. It is the authors’ responsibility to notify the editorial office should such redaction be needed.

Authorship Guidelines

Our authorship policies conform to international standards (see, for example, ICMJE authorship guidelines). Life Science Alliance requires a statement specifying the contributions of every author and uses CRediT nomenclature (https://casrai.org/CRediT/) in published articles.

Submission of a manuscript requires that all authors have seen and approved the manuscript and its contents and that they are aware of the responsibilities connected to authorship. Each of the listed authors has to concur with the text of the submitted manuscript, confirm the integrity of the data and its presentation, and agree with its interpretation as discussed in the manuscript. Signatures from all the authors are not required; it is the corresponding author’s responsibility to obtain agreement from all authors supporting the submission. The editorial office generally corresponds only with the Corresponding Author, whose responsibility it is to communicate information sent from the editorial office with all other authors. Editors may send information such as referee reports to all the authors where they consider this to be essential.

Submission of a manuscript requires that all authors agree to the authorship as listed in the manuscript. The nature of every author’s contribution must be specified both in the manuscript submission system and in the manuscript under the heading “Author Contributions”.

Life Science Alliance supports universal adoption of digital name identifiers to aid name disambiguation. ORCID identifiers are required of corresponding authors prior to publication and encouraged for all co-authors. You’ll be prompted to provide ORCID identifiers by our submission software. Once ORCIDs are added to our system, they will be automatically populated for all future submissions. You can also use your ORCID to log in to our submission system. Your article will be automatically listed in your ORCID record upon publication.

Use of Living Organisms & Animal Welfare

For studies reporting experiments on live vertebrates and/or higher invertebrates, the corresponding author must confirm that all experiments were performed in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations. The manuscript must include a statement in the Materials and Methods identifying the institutional and/or licensing committee approving the experiments. The editors reserve the right to consult with board members or external experts and reject manuscripts that contain animal experiments that do not conform to NIH or MRC guidelines for animal welfare. For further information see Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare; Life Science Alliance encourages authors to follow the ARRIVE guidelines (PLoS Biol. 8(6), e1000412, 2010) for reporting studies involving animals. Please see the equator network website for more information.

Human Subjects

For experiments involving human subjects the corresponding author must identify the committee approving the experiments and include a statement that informed consent was obtained from all subjects and that the experiments conformed to the principles set out in the WMA Declaration of Helsinki and the Department of Health and Human Services Belmont Report. Editors or referees may request further documentation confirming that this is the case.

Any restrictions on the availability or on the use of human data or samples should be clearly specified in the manuscript. Any restrictions that may detract from the overall impact of a study or undermine its reproducibility will be taken into account in the editorial decision.

For clinical trials reporting, the authors should fill out a CONSORT flow diagram and submit it as Supplementary Information. Life Science Alliance also encourages authors to follow the CONSORT reporting guidelines. Please see the EQUATOR website for details. Clinical trials should also be registered as recommended by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, and the trial registration number should be provided.

Reporting Guidelines

Authors are encouraged to follow the EQUATOR Network reporting guidelines for the following:

Type of Study	Guidelines
Animal research	ARRIVE
Parallel group randomized trials	CONSORT
Consensus-based Clinical Case Reporting	CARE
Prognostic marker studies	REMARK
Diagnostic Accuracy	STARD
Meta-analysis of observational studies	MOOSE
Systematic reviews and meta-analysis	PRISMA
Observational studies	STROBE
Genetic association studies	STREGA
Statistical analyses and methods	TAMPL
Microarray/deep sequencing studies	MIAME
Studies using biospecimens	BRISQ

Biosecurity

Planned research and results from experiments should be evaluated at an early stage for possible dual-use concerns. In such cases, authors should first consult with an appropriate local body concerning the implications for biosecurity and public health. For further information see the U.S. National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity's recommendations and the US National Select Agent Registry.

Authors should explicitly describe any potential biosecurity implications and the local body's assessment in their cover letter at submission. The threat posed by the potential abuse of certain experimental data or material for bioweapons, terrorist or other criminal activities may require that editors balance the risks and benefits of publication. The ultimate decision whether to publish the paper as submitted or with suggested changes is the prerogative of the editors after consultation with board members or external experts in biosafety, biosecurity, or public and environmental health.

Availability of Published Material & Data

It is understood that by publishing a paper in Life Science Alliance, the authors agree to make available to colleagues in academic research all new reagents, including organisms (or means to produce them), viruses, cells, nucleic acids and antibodies, that were used in the research reported and that are not available from public repositories or commercial suppliers. Human patient samples and data should be made available in accordance with the relevant ethical standards. Materials must be made available at a reasonable cost that reflects production and distribution. The distribution of published materials does not automatically confer a right of co-authorship.

Datasets obtained by experimentation, computation or data mining, should be made freely available, without restriction.

Software should be described in sufficient detail to allow reproduction of the underlying algorithms by others.

Any restrictions on the availability or on the use of included data, software, and databases should be clearly specified in the paper.

Life Science Alliance will only review and publish manuscripts if the authors agree to make all data that cannot be published in the Life Science Alliance itself (e.g. novel nucleotide sequences, structural data, or data from large-scale gene expression experiments) freely available, where possible in an appropriate public database (detailed guidelines can be found below).

Conflicts of Interest

In the interest of transparency and to help editors and reviewers assess any potential bias, Life Science Alliance requires authors of original research papers to declare any competing commercial interests in relation to the submitted work. Referees and editors are also subject to Conflict of Interest regulations.

Scientific Integrity

Life Science Alliance requests that authors take note of and adhere to national standards, as well as guidelines established by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Research Integrity. Life Science Alliance will investigate suspected instances of scientific fraud, inappropriate image manipulation or processing, plagiarism, misrepresentation, duplicate publication and other cases that violate research ethics in submitted manuscripts or published papers. Depending on the outcome of these investigations, Life Science Alliance may opt to publish errata or corrigenda, or, in cases of serious scientific misconduct, ask authors to retract their paper or impose retraction on them. In such cases, the authors’ current employers and the research institution of the corresponding author at the time of publication of the paper will also be informed. Life Science Alliance may also issue an editorial note attached to the paper to alert readers to an ongoing investigation. As a matter of policy, Life Science Alliance will collaborate with independent institutional investigations into misconduct and, where appropriate, will accept the outcome of such investigations.

Life Science Alliance adheres to principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), and is a member of COPE.

Corrigenda, Errata, Addenda, & Refutations

Correction and additions to a paper are published at the sole discretion of the editors.

An erratum is notification of a significant error made by Life Science Alliance that would mislead the readership if left uncorrected.

A corrigendum is notification of a significant error made by the author(s). A corrigendum may include a communication by the authors and/or an editorial statement.

An editorial note may be used to alert readers to a specific issue related to a paper.

An addendum may be published in rare cases where additional data directly relevant to central aspects of a paper emerge and it is apparent that publication would strengthen the paper in question fundamentally. All additional data is subject to peer review.

Refutations of articles published in Life Science Alliance can be considered for the Correspondence section of the journal. Such correspondence will almost always include data to support the arguments of the correspondent and will have to concern central aspects of a paper. The original authors of the article will be offered the opportunity to respond side-by-side with the correspondence. Both the refutation and the response will be peer reviewed at the discretion of the editor and acceptance depends on the strength of the arguments raised as well as the importance of the matter to a general readership. Publication of the correspondence does not automatically entail publication of a response of the authors of the challenged research paper. After one round of correspondence, Life Science Alliance will consider the matter closed and will not publish further exchanges.

Data Integrity of Images

The editorial staff is committed to maintaining high standards of integrity of the published scientific record. Life Science Alliance staff will undertake routine image analysis of data in manuscripts submitted for publication and may request source data and an author response to image aberrations. Editors reserve the right to forego publication of a manuscript if key data do not meet Life Science Alliance data integrity, ethical or reproducibility standards. When Life Science Alliance staff note potential aberrations in image-based data, the authors will be contacted and depending on the severity of the issue, the authors’ research institution may be contacted.

Authors are expected to follow basic guidelines for preserving data integrity and are requested to:

Prepare figures that accurately reflect the results of the experiments using appropriate controls, markers, and scale bars included in all panels.

Use minimally processed images to create figures.

Retain their unprocessed data and metadata files.

Use clearly demarcated borders when juxtaposing images.

Exercise prudence during data acquisition.

Avoid using touch-up tools, or any feature that deliberately obscures manipulations.

Correctly represent the original data and conform to community standards if image processing must be used.

Originality and Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the misappropriation of intellectual property and the substantial unattributed textual copying of another's work, including ideas, text, images or materials and methods.

The journal reserves the right not to publish material that has already been published, completely or substantially, in peer-reviewed journals, persistent news media or online information platforms and blogs. Posts on recognized non-peer reviewed preprint servers (see Preprint Servers), as well as oral or written conference presentations (including summaries, abstracts and posters), meeting reports, as well as doctoral (PhD) or master (MSc, MA) theses are exempt (if your institution requires formal publication of your thesis, please contact the editorial office).

Manuscripts submitted for publication elsewhere that are conceptually related to a submission to Life Science Alliance, and that feature one of more of the same authors must be declared in the cover letter and included in full with the submission. It is at the discretion of the editors whether publication of such related material prevents publication in Life Science Alliance.

Any text, data, material, images, ideas or quotes must be attributed to the original source, even if it is by the same authors. If necessary, authors should seek permission to use the material from the copyright holder in accordance to licensing stipulations. Life Science Alliance’s policies on attribution follow the standards set by the Associated Press, including formal citation of the primary source and clearly demarked quotation. The journal has no limit on references and all relevant references must be included in the reference list.

Life Science Alliance uses Crossref Similarity Check to screen submitted content for plagiarism (including self-plagiarism) prior to publication. It is at the discretion of the editors whether related text is inadmissible for publication in Life Science Alliance.

Embargo Policy

The content of papers and any associated press releases is strictly embargoed until the official date of publication of a manuscript. Accepted contributions can be discussed with the media from one week before the publication date, provided the journalist respects the embargo date. We may press release selected papers with summaries. Authors may arrange their own publicity but must adhere to the embargo conditions. Further details can be provided by the editorial office.

Citation Policy

Comprehensive and accurate citation of the relevant literature is essential. We require citation of the primary literature wherever appropriate. There are no limits on the total number of references in the bibliography.