If you are unsure whether or not your paper is suitable, you may wish to consider carefully the descriptions of the Sections of Biometrics given below.
NEW: Sections of Biometrics have been reformulated, effective with the March 2008 issue! Biometrics will now accept papers to the following sections, effective immediately. Also, the descriptions for the Reader Reaction and Letters to the Editors sections have been recently modified.
Biometric Methodology
The Biometric Methodology section is designed for papers that focus on the development of new methods and results of use in the biological sciences. These should where possible be made accessible to biologists and other subject-matter scientists by the inclusion of an introductory section outlining the application and scientific objectives on which the new methods focus, with discussion of real data or settings that exemplify the issue being addressed. The journal typically insists on illustration of new methods with real data wherever possible. Extensive mathematical derivations and proofs should be removed to an appendix.
Biometric Practice
The Biometric Practice section is designed for the following types of papers: (i) They demonstrate innovative applications of existing methods to areas in which such a method has not been previously employed. Consequently, new insights or findings are provided.
(ii) They creatively illustrate the proper use of different methods under various explicit/implicit assumptions. Consequently, clearer guidance and understanding of the use of different methods is offered.
(iii) They propose innovative and practical data analysis strategies, based on a combination of experience, intuition, and methodological arguments.
(iv) They re-examine from a new perspective statistical practices that are widely used in biometric applications, providing useful alternatives to the current standard.
Papers in this section may, but do not need to, contain new methodology. The key of a successful publication in the section is its ability to provide practical contributions, biological insight, and/or significant new findings.
Reader Reaction
The Reader Reaction section is designed for papers that refer directly to an article recently published in the journal (including Early View articles), typically within up to three years of the original publication date. These papers directly respond to a previously published article, either (1) by describing important extensions or improvements to methods developed in the original article; (2) by offering alternative perspectives; or (3) by raising key issues left originally unaddressed. There always should be appropriate justification. In contrast to papers in the Biometric Methodology or Practice sections, where new methods or ideas may be based on a compendium of previous work appearing in several outlets, Reader Reaction papers should be in direct, focused response to the content of a published Biometrics article. The key to a successful publication in this section is the demonstration that the work is clearly a direct reaction to the original article and the provision of important commentary or additions to the topic addressed in that article.
Letters to the Editors
The Letters to the Editors section welcomes letters providing short comments in direct response to articles appearing previously in the journal, typically within two years of publication of the article. The section also accepts letters relating to general scientific/editorial matters within the ambit of the journal.
We will not publish letters dealing with journal format and presentation issues, but readers with comments on such topics may send them to us for our consideration.
Authors for whom email submission is not possible may submit five copies of the manuscript plus five copies of any additional relevant papers to the Central Office location: Biometrics, Ann Hanhart, Editorial Manager, Department of Physics, University of Texas at Arlington, P.O. Box 19059, Arlington, Texas 76019-0059, U.S.A.
A sample issue of the journal can be found at http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0006-341X, under the link "View sample issue."
It is understood that the submitted manuscript is not identical or similar in substantial part to a paper being handled by another journal. It is also expected that the submitted manuscript contains no passage of text or other material that is virtually identical to that in a publicly-available or published work by another author(s), unless proper citation to the source is made. The submitted manuscript will be rejected by Biometrics if these requirements are violated (more detail on the Biometrics Policy on Plagiarism and Scientific Misconduct).
Authors should include a cover letter stating explicitly the section of the journal for which the paper is intended to be reviewed (see above, types of submissions accepted). If no preferred section is stated, the Co-Editor will determine the section for which the paper will be considered.
Papers should be typed on one side of each page, with one-inch margins, in 12-point size letters and no more than 25 lines per page, double-spaced throughout. A one-paragraph summary should be included, followed by a list of key words, in alphabetical order. The author’s name should be followed by a full postal address and email address. Authors should use the [{( )}] convention in delimiting equations. To save space, display equations only if necessary. References should be typed in Biometrics style. Figures and tables should be separated from the main text, and placed at the end of the manuscript. Detailed algebraic derivations should be placed in an appendix.
Biometrics has a limited number of journal pages. Normally, newly-submitted Biometric Methodology or Biometric Practice papers exceeding 25 pages and Reader Reaction papers exceeding 12 pages in the style described above will be returned to the authors without review. (These page counts include acknowledgements, references, and brief appendices, but not tables and figures. The page counts do not include the title page and abstract.) During the review process, it is common for Editors to request that papers be shortened, and authors should be aware that the typical accepted Biometrics paper is usually considerably shorter than 25 pages. It is also common for Editors to ask that most appendices be moved to Supplementary Web Materials. Authors are encouraged to move appendices and other appropriate content to Supplementary Web Materials at the time of submission in order to achieve a shorter main paper (the page count applies to the main paper only and not to Supplementary Materials).
Papers appearing in the journal rarely have more than six (6) tables or figures combined; about three-fourths have 4 or less. When papers contain numerous tables and figures, editors will always ask that the number be reduced or that some tables and figures be moved to Supplementary Materials. Authors are strongly encouraged to be judicious in the use of tabular and graphical displays and should not combine what ought to be several tables or figures into very large single ones. Authors should also consider moving some tables and figures to Supplementary Material at the time of submission. Papers with an extreme number of tables and/or figures may be returned by the co-editor without review. It is recognized that graphical depictions or images are essential for conveying the message in some substantive areas. In such circumstances, more figures than in the typical submission may be appropriate, and authors should note this explicitly in a covering letter.
Statistics on time to first review of papers and time to review of revisions can be found under the "Journal Statistics" link.
In the light of increasing pressure on journal space, Biometrics is using the Journal's website (http://www.biometrics.tibs.org) to post supplementary material for published papers. These instructions describe the general policy and guidelines for supplementary materials. Specific questions regarding supplementary materials should be sent to biometrics@tibs.org.
Supplementary material may be submitted by the authors at the time of submission of a manuscript. Before submission, it is in the interest of authors to consider what material can be extracted from the main body of the paper and posted on the website. It is important that authors should retain the readability and integrity of a paper while implementing this process.
As discussed in detail below, supplementary web material may include some or all of: additional written exposition, tables, and figures. All such supplementary material should be placed in a single document entitled “Web-based Supplementary Materials for (title of manuscript) by (authors).” This document should then have sections entitled “Web Appendix A,” “Web Appendix B,” and so on for written appendix material (e.g., technical derivations and proofs, see below); followed by “Web Table 1,” “Web Table 2,” etc. for supplementary tables; and “Web Figure 1,” etc., for supplementary figures. Web Tables and Figures should have descriptive captions in the same style as those for tables and figures included in a main manuscript. Web Appendices, Tables, and Figures may be referenced in the main manuscript as, for example, “See Web Appendix A for the derivation of Equation (1)” or “Web Tables 1-4 present results of additional simulations.”
The supplementary material will be regarded as part of the submission for the review process and may need to be modified in the same way as the material in the main body of the paper. Such revisions may be requested during the review process. Authors should be aware that well thought out, clear and concise web supplementary materials are likely to speed up the review process, whereas lengthy, unclear materials could slow down the process. Accordingly, authors preparing Web Appendices should pay careful attention to length. Although there is no strict page limit for such material, excessively long web appendices may be returned by the Co-Editor for shortening prior to review of the paper. Full tabular and/or graphical presentation of numerical results from a set of extensive simulation studies (see below) is acceptable, but authors should be mindful of excessive length by avoiding reporting of results over many scenarios where the results and their implications are very similar.
Supplementary material may also result from a request by the Co-Editor during the review process. S/he may ask that some material submitted originally as part of the main manuscript be extracted and reformulated as supplementary material. This material would be referenced in the revision of the manuscript as described above.
Authors whose papers reference supplementary material should create a section labeled “Supplementary Materials” immediately prior to the “Acknowledgements” section and include a statement indicating where these materials may be accessed, as in the following example:
“Web Appendices, Tables, and Figures (limit to the types of material actually in question) referenced in Sections (give section numbers) are available under the Paper Information link at the Biometrics website http://www.biometrics.tibs.org.”
It is sufficient to provide this link only in this section; it should not be provided each time a Web Appendix, Table, or Figure is referenced in the body of the main paper. The version of the paper published online at Blackwell Synergy will contain a hot link to the Biometrics website from this Section.
After a paper is accepted, the supplementary material will be published "as is" and will not be subject to copy-editing.
The following are three examples of the type of supplementary material appropriate for posting on the web. Authors should consider posting any materials that are relevant, but not central, to the main development of the paper.
(1) Technical details of mathematical results.
We encourage authors to post on the web in a Web Appendix technical assumptions, proofs and detailed calculations involved in their results.
This does not eliminate the possibility of appendices appearing in the parent paper. Although most technical appendices will best suited to appear as supplementary material on the web, short appendices (ordinarily no more than a few paragraphs) may still be appropriate for inclusion in the main paper. The length of appendices suitable for inclusion will depend on the overall length of the main paper.
(2) Results from simulation studies
Detailed descriptions of, and some results from, simulation studies may be appropriate for posting on the web. Authors ordinarily might present in the main paper a representative subset of a larger body of simulation studies and post the remainder as supplementary web material, providing key summaries and relevant points from all simulation studies in the main paper. The availability of this facility can be particularly helpful when faced with difficult choice of which results to include from extensive simulation studies. Alternatively, in some circumstances, it may be appropriate for a written summary of the main implications of simulations to appear in the paper, with the actual numerical results available as supplementary material. In either case, the web-based material can be more extensive than that appearing in a conventional publication.
(3) Figures and Graphs
While it is important that essential figures are included in the main body of a paper, there may be additional graphs and figures that support statements made but that are not part of the central development.
The IBS will own the copyright for all supplementary web-based material described above, as it will for the parent paper.
On acceptance of a paper, authors are encouraged to submit to Biometrics the data used in their illustrative examples and also any computer code used in the analysis. If such data and/or code are provided, authors should include in the Supplementary Materials section of the main paper a statement like that in the following example:
“The toenail fungus data analyzed in Section (give section number) and a SAS macro implementing the new robust method are available under the Paper Information link at the Biometrics website http://www.biometrics.tibs.org.”
Data and code are not subject to review and will be posted “as-is.” IBS will not own copyright of these materials.
As research increasingly is a multidisciplinary enterprise, situations will arise where papers in Biometrics will report on methodological developments that were conceived in the context of research conducted by a formal research group. In this case, the primary authors of such a paper may list the authors of the papers as themselves (explicitly) along with the name of the formal research group; e.g., a standard presentation would be
Author1, Author2, ..., and AuthorN for the XXXXX Study Group
and the goal is to acknowledge the contributions of members of the research group. Such listings are commonplace in journals in medicine and other areas where articles report on results of large cooperative projects.
This sort of listing has not been traditional in Biometrics nor, more generally, statistics journals. Biometrics recognizes that there may be situations where such a listing is warranted. The following are guidelines on how authors should proceed if they wish to include such an author listing.
(i) Biometrics only allows such an author listing when the primary authors of the article, who are listed explicitly, make an acceptable case that there is a genuine reason for listing the group in the author list and when the group is a formal entity with official standing. For example, the group may be a cooperative group running a clinical trial, or a formal group created and sanctioned by a grant or contract to carry out work in a specific area or on a specific research project.
If members of the group mainly provided data used in the article but did not contribute intellectually in a significant way to the methods development reported, then listing of the group is not appropriate. If the primary authors feel very strongly that members of the group played a key intellectual role in the conception of the methods through substantial interactions taking place in the group, this may be an acceptable reason. If the group is merely a collection of individuals who are working together on a research project, this is not acceptable as a "group."
The primary authors should provide a written explanation to the Co-Editor handling the paper that (a) provides evidence that the group is a formal, official entity and (b) states clearly their reasons for wishing to include a "group" as part of the author list. The Co-Editor will make the final determination of whether the listing will be permitted.
(ii) If the Co-Editor agrees that inclusion of the group in the author list is appropriate, the author listing should simply state, e.g., "for the XXXX Group." The names of the primary authors whose names are listed explicitly and their affiliations should be listed as usual for a Biometrics article. However, there should be no footnote on "for the XXXX Group" connecting to a listing either at the bottom of the first page or in the affiliations part of the title section of the article of members of the groups and their roles. The explicit listing of names of group members contributing to the article and their roles should be placed in the Acknowledgements section of the article.
(iii) Each of the primary authors of the article will be asked to complete a specialized copyright assignment form that includes the following additional stipulation:
"In signing this Agreement, you hereby warrant that in the case of an article acknowledging in the list of authors a study group or other cooperative body that you have obtained from all members whose names are listed in the Acknowledgements section of the Article, in writing, authorization to enter into this Agreement on their behalf and that all have read and agreed to the terms of this Agreement."
A current issue may be used as a general guide to style. The following notes summarize some of the principal points.
A summary, one paragraph long, should be included completely summarizing the paper without repeating, verbatim, sentences from the paper. Mathematical symbols should be avoided and any references to previous work should be given in full. Key words following the summary should be listed in alphabetical order and typed using exactly the style and punctuation in a recent issue.
References in the text should be ordered by author’s surname and publication date. In publications by three authors, all are listed the first time, and et al. used subsequently. For four or more authors, et al. is used throughout. In the list of references at the end of the paper, authors should be listed alphabetically by last name. Journal titles should be complete and not abbreviated. Careful attention should be given to the format used in recent issues.
Tables and figures should represent only essential material. They should be placed on separate sheets at the end of the paper after appendices and identified by Arabic numerals and a short descriptive title. Their pages should not be numbered. Diagrams or graphs created by common computer software packages such as SAS, Splus, R,MATLAB,GAUSS, etc. are usually acceptable, and should be in black on white. The only lines appearing on a table should be horizontal. No vertical lines are allowed. All decimals and numbers should be aligned in columns. For printing, illustrations may be reduced to 1/2 or 1/3 their original dimensions; therefore, for all types of illustrations, lines should be of sufficient thickness, and lettering, numbering, decimal points, periods, dots, and plotting symbols should be large enough to reproduce well and be legible when reduced in size.
Author alterations on proofs may be charged to the author. To minimize these, please check your manuscript thoroughly.
Books for review should be sent to:
Thomas M. Loughin
Department of Statistics & Actuarial Science
Simon Fraser University
8888 University Drive
Burnaby, BC, CANADA V5A 1S6
email: tloughin@sfu.ca
News and announcements should be sent to:
Urania Dafni
Biometric Bulletin
Laboratory of Biostatistics
Department of Public Health
School of Nursing
University of Athens
123 Papadiamantopoulou St
Goudi 11527
Athens, Greece
Tel: +1-30-210-746-1456
Fax: +1-30-210-746-1461
email: udafni@nurs.uoa.gr