Materials and Methods

Animals: common names and correct taxonomic names should both be included if the organism is not well known. The breed or strain and source of animals should be stated and details of age, weight, sex and housing should be provided. Experiments with animals should be performed according to approved national guidelines for animal care. Details of procedures and anaesthetics used and doses given should be provided.

Human subjects: Authors must include an assurance that the work was approved by a medical ethics committee and that consent has been obtained from patients.

Methods: this section should contain a careful description of the experimental design. Description of methods and procedures should include all information needed for other workers to reproduce the results. If well established methods are used, a reference to the technique should be given. If the methods used are new or substantially modified, a full description of any modification should be provided. Materials should be named specifically, including the manufacturer, city, state, or country where the equipment or supplies were obtained. The generic name, dose, and route of administration should be given for drugs. The composition of buffers or culture media should be specified. For international units “iu” should be used. For solutions, the term % must be defined as w/v or v/v.

Statistics: The design of the study and the data sources should be clearly identified. Sufficient details of the statistical analyses should be given to enable a reader to asses their adequacy and validity for testing the hypotheses of interest. If nonstandard methods or analyses have been applied, additional details or relevant references should be provided. The numbers of experimental units and the way in which they have been allocated to treatments should be described. If observations have been omitted from the analysis this must be justified.

Results: should be presented in text, tables, and figures as appropriate. All data displayed in the tables or figures should not be repeated in the text, only important observations should be emphasized or summarized. Tables and figures should be cited in the text in numerical order.

Discussion: the meaning of results should be discussed in this section. Observations should be related to relevant studies. New and important aspects of the study should be emphasized. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings should be outlined. The authors are asked to avoid statements and conclusions that are not supported by the data. The conclusions should be clearly linked with the objectives of the study and they should be summarized in a brief statement.

Footnotes: should be avoided if possible but if essential should be designated by superscript Arabic numerals. Each footnote should be placed at the bottom of the manuscript page where reference to it is made.

Acknowledgement: acknowledgement of technical help and of financial support may be mentioned in this section.

References: all entries in the reference list must correspond to references in the text and vice versa. Referenced articles must have been published in peer-review publications that are generally accessible. Articles that are accepted for publication but are not yet published may be listed as “in press” in the reference list. Three copies of papers quoted as “in press” in the reference list must be provided for the referees. Papers presented at meetings and symposia as well as abstracts are not acceptable as references. Exceptions include articles that are three pages long or have been published in a journal. Unpublished work (manuscripts in preparation, manuscript submitted but not yet accepted for publication, personal communication) should be referred to in the text in the following way: (W. Jones, unpublished) or (C. Smith, personal communication).

In reference list: the references should appear in alphabetical order, preceded by an Arabic numeral. The authors’ names are listed in alphabetical order, and in chronological order for each author. If there is more than one author, the order is as follows: publication of the single author in chronological order; publication of the same author with one co-author in chronological order and in alphabetical order of the second author, publications of the author with more than one co-author in chronological order. Journal titles should be given in full. References should be in the format of the following example:

Journal article (all authors must be mentioned) Naz RK 1999 Involvement of protein serine and threonine phosphorylation in human sperm capacitation. Biology of Reproduction 60 1402-1409.

Book
Sambrook J, Fritsch E, Maniatis T 1989 Molecular Cloning. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, New York.

Chapter in a book
Leymarie P, Martial J 1993 The corpus luteum from cycle to gestation. In Reproduction in Mammals and Man, pp 413-433. Eds Thibault C, Levasseur M-C, Hunter RHF. Ellipses, France.

In text: The references are cited in the text with appropriate numbers enclosed in square brackets. When authors are cited in the text, within a phrase and not just between brackets, the following form should be used: Smith [reference number], Jones and Brown [reference number], Williams et al. [reference number].

Tables and figures: should be numbered consecutively, with Arabic numerals in order of mention in the text. The tables and figures, including photographs, should be referred to in the text by their number (tab. 1, fig. 1). The numbering of the tables must not be combined with that of the figures. All terms, abbreviations, and symbols must correspond to those in the text. Each figure should be self-explanatory. Each figure/table should be clearly identified, in pencil, on the reverse by its number, the name(s) of the author(s), and, if necessary, indication of its top. In addition, figure legend should be submitted.

Tables: Each table should have a full and informative heading. Any additional explanatory material should appear as footnotes.

Line-drawings and photographs: Photographs and drawings submitted for publication with the manuscript must be sharp and of high contrast (≥300 dpi). Line drawings should have a white background and should not be enclosed in boxes. Photographs should be presented in the form of plates to be reproduce without reduction (maximum size for “full page” illustration: 16.5×24 cm). Photographs should be originals (i.e. not already reproduced). Their suitability for reproduction is decided by the publisher; special request of the authors will be taken into account if possible.
Color illustrations: Authors are responsible for the cost of color figures. Information on the amount of printing costs will be given by the publisher.