Aims & Scope
Concentrating on molecular biomarkers in cancer research, Cancer Biomarkers publishes original research findings and reviews solicited by the editor on the subject of the identification of markers associated with the prevention, detection, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer whether or not they are an integral part of the pathological lesion. The disease markers may include, but are not limited to, genomic, epigenomic, proteomic, cellular and morphologic, and genetic risk factors predisposing to the disease or indicating the occurrence of the disease. Manuscripts on these risk factors or biomarkers, either in altered forms, abnormal concentrations or with abnormal tissue distribution leading to disease causation, will be accepted. Data science, artificial intelligence, radiomics, and other molecular approaches, such as bulk and single cell genomic sequence analyses for biomarkers discovery, development, and validation in reference to cancer prevention and treatment, will also be accepted.
Editorial Board
Editor-in-Chief
Sudhir Srivastava, PhD, MPH
c/o IOS Press, Inc.
6751 Tepper Drive, Clifton
USA
Fax: +1 703 830 2300
Email: submissions@iospress.com
Associate Editors
Karen S. Anderson, MD, PhD
Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
USA
Liming Cheng, PhD
Tongji Medical College
China
Sam Hanash, MD, PhD
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
USA
Kazufumi Honda, PhD
Nippon Medical School, Tokyo
Japan
Li Jiang, MD, PhD
Sichuan Academy of Medical Sciences & Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital
China
Anna Lokshin, PhD
University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, Pittsburgh, PA
USA
YingYing Lu, MD, PhD
Comprehensive Liver Cancer Center
China
Zhen Zhang, PhD
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD
USA
Lei Zheng, MD, PhD
Southern Medical University, Guangzhou
China
Statistical Editors
Ziding Feng, PhD
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA
USA
Steven J. Skates, PhD
Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
USA
Senior Editorial Board
Timothy M. Block, PhD
Baruch S. Blumberg Institute
USA
Roger Chammas, MD, PhD
University of São Paulo, Instituto do Câncer
Brazil
Claudia Bessa P. Chaves, MD, PhD
Brazilian National Cancer Institute
Brazil
Alexander Borowsky, MD
UC Davis Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
USA
Arul M. Chinnaiyan, MD, PhD
University of Michigan
USA
Xiaohong Han, MD
Beijing Key Laboratory of Clinical Study on Anticancer Molecular Targeted Drugs
China
Tony Hu, PhD
Arizona State University
USA
Aija Linē, PhD
Latvian Biomedical Research and Study Centre
Latvia
Cesar Lopez-Camarillo, PhD
Universidad Autonoma de la Ciudad de Mexico
Mexico
Patrick Nasarre, PhD
Medical University of South Carolina
USA
Norbert Nass, PhD
Brandenburg Medical School Theodor Fontane, University Hospital Brandenburg an der Havel
Germany
Cheng Peng, PhD
University of Queensland
Australia
Wenxin Qin, PhD
Shanghai Cancer Institute
China
Karin D. Rodland, PhD
Professor Emeritus
Cell, Developmental, and Cancer Biology, Oregon Health & Science University
USA
John Semmes, PhD
Eastern Virginia Medical School
USA
Editorial Board
Yoganand Balagurunathan, PhD
H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center
USA
Wei-Min Chang, PhD
Taipei Medical University
Taiwan
Richard J. Cote, MD
Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine
USA
Shubham Dutta, PhD
University of Massachusetts Medical School
USA
Amit Gupta, PhD
All India Institute of Medical Sciences
India
Jyoti Kode, PhD
Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research & Education in Cancer (ACTREC), Tata Memorial Centre
India
Minetta C. Liu, MD
Natera
USA
Tao Liu, PhD
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
USA
Bramanandam Manavathi, PhD
University of Hyderabad
India
Sarah Mazzilli, PhD
Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine
USA
Robert L. Moritz, PhD
Institute for Systems Biology
USA
Adrian O’Hara, PhD
Liverpool John Moores University
UK
John Charles Rotondo, PhD
Department of Medical Sciences, University of Ferrara
Italy
Matthew B. Schabath, PhD
H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute
USA
David Sidransky, MD
Johns Hopkins University
USA
Amit Singal, MD, MS
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
USA
Sanford Stass, MD
University of Maryland School of Medicine
USA
Sebastien Taurin, PhD
Arabian Gulf University
Bahrain
Bechien U. Wu, MD, MPH
Center for Pancreatic Care, Division of Gastroenterology
Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center
USA
Author Guidelines
SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPT
By submitting my article to this journal, I agree to the Author Copyright Agreement, the IOS Press Ethics Policy, and the IOS Press Privacy Policy.
Authors are requested to submit their manuscript electronically to the journal’s editorial management system.
The manuscript should be uploaded as one file with tables and figures included. Please use the journal's manuscript template. Acceptable file formats include Word document or PDF files; in case of large file size, a zip file can be uploaded.
Important note: We only accept submissions from institutional email addresses. Authors who do not have institutional email addresses will be contacted by the managing editor to provide an alternative proof of affiliation.
Required files
A .pdf file of the article is required along with the source files of the text, such as MsWord or LaTeX. If using LaTeX, please use the standard article.sty as a style file and also send a .pdf version of the LaTeX file as well as separate files of all figures (if any). See "Preparation of manuscripts" for the required file formats. LaTeX packages should be compiled into .zip or .rar files.
Publication Fee
Cancer Biomarkers is moving to an Open Access model in January 2024. From July 2023, submitting authors are required to agree to the article processing charge for open access publication on submission. The default pricing is US$1500 / €1500 for a CC-BY NC open access license. There is also an option to select the CC BY 4.0 license for US$2150 / €2150, which is required by certain funders.
Papers submitted to Cancer Biomarkers before July 2023 that are accepted for publication can opt for Open Access as described above, or to publish their papers behind a paywall with the standard publication fee of US$500 / €500 (excl. VAT if applicable). Note that this option is NOT available for authors submitting from July onwards.
Corresponding authors from countries with low-income economies may be eligible for a waiver of the publication fee. The eligible countries are defined by the Research4Life project (https://www.research4life.org/access/eligibility/). Fees are waived on a case-by-case basis. The corresponding author should notify the journal of their inability to pay the publication fee upon submission of the article, otherwise the request will not be evaluated.
Invited articles may be excluded from paying a publication fee. When an article is accepted for publication in the journal, the acceptance letter to the corresponding author will include a link to the journal’s online payment form. Authors can pay the fee by credit card or through bank transfer. After payment of the publication fee, the paper will be taken into production by the IOS Press production office. Payment of the publication fee must be received before an article is published in the journal.
PREPARATION OF MANUSCRIPTS
Organization of the paper and style of presentation
Manuscripts must be written in English. Authors whose native language is not English are advised to consult a professional English language editing service or a native English speaker prior to submission.
Manuscripts should be prepared with wide margins and double spacing throughout, including the abstract, footnotes and references. Every page of the manuscript, including the title page, references, tables, etc., should be numbered. However, in the text no reference should be made to page numbers; if necessary, one may refer to sections. Try to avoid the excessive use of italics and bold face.
Manuscripts should be organized in the following order:
- Title page
- Body of text (divided by subheadings)
- Acknowledgements
- Author contributions
- References
- Tables
- Figure captions
- Figures
Headings and subheadings should be numbered and typed on a separate line, without indentation.
SI units should be used, i.e., the units based on the metre, kilogramme, second, etc.
Title page
The title page should provide the following information:
- Title (should be clear, descriptive and not too long)
- Name(s) of author(s) without abbreviation; please indicate who is the corresponding author. Note that no authors will be added or removed post submission, unless the journal editor and all co-authors are informed and are in agreement to this change.
- Full affiliation(s)
- Present address of author(s), if different from affiliation
- Complete address of the corresponding author, including tel. no., fax no., e-mail address and ORCID ID
- Abstract
- Keywords.
Abstract
The abstract should be clear, descriptive, self-explanatory and not longer than 200 words, it should also be suitable for publication in abstracting services.
The abstract for research papers should follow the “structured abstract” format. Section labels should be in bold uppercase letters followed by a colon, and each section will begin on a new line.
BACKGROUND:
OBJECTIVE:
METHODS:
RESULTS:
CONCLUSIONS:
Materials and Methods
Experimental subjects
When human subjects are used, manuscripts must be accompanied by a statement that the experiments were undertaken with the understanding and written consent of each subject, and that the study conforms with The Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki), printed in the British Medical Journal (18 July 1964).
When experimental animals are used, the Materials and methods section must briefly but explicitly state measures which were taken to minimize pain or discomfort, e.g. type and dose of anaesthetic used. Experiments should be carried out in accordance with the European Communities Council Directive of 24 November 1986 (86/609/EEC) or with the Guidelines laid down by the NIH in the US, available from the Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, RKLI, Suite 360, MSC 7982, 6705 Rockledge Drive, Bethesda, MD 20892-7982, or online (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/olaw/olaw .htm#pol) regarding the care and use of animals for experimental procedures.
All studies using human or animal subjects should include an explicit statement in the Materials and Methods section identifying the review and approval committee for each study. Editors reserve the right to reject papers if there is doubt whether appropriate procedures have been used.
Acknowledgments
This section should contain all acknowledgments, including any funding source to the research.
Author contributions
For every author, his or her contribution to the manuscript needs to be provided using the following categories:
Conception:
Interpretation or analysis of data:
Preparation of the manuscript:
Revision for important intellectual content:
Supervision:
Please read the IOS Press authorship policy for further information.
REFERENCES
Place citations as numbers in square brackets in the text. All publications cited in the text should be presented in an alphabetical list of references at the end of the manuscript in the following style:
[1] B. Newman and E.T. Liu, Perspective on BRCA1, Breast Disease 10 (1998), 3-10.
[2] D.F. Pilkey, Happy conservation laws, in: Neural Stresses, J. Frost, ed., Controlled Press, Georgia, 1995, pp. 332-391.
[3] E. Wilson, Active vibration analysis of thin-walled beams, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Virginia, 1991.
Footnotes
Footnotes should only be used if absolutely essential. In most cases it is possible to incorporate the information in the text.
If used, they should be numbered in the text, indicated by superscript numbers and kept as short as possible.
Tables
Number as Table 1, Table 2 etc., and refer to all of them in the text.
Each table should be provided on a separate page of the manuscript. Tables should not be included in the text.
Each table should have a brief and self-explanatory title.
Column headings should be brief, but sufficiently explanatory. Standard abbreviations of units of measurement should be added between parentheses.
Vertical lines should not be used to separate columns. Leave some extra space between the columns instead.
Any explanations essential to the understanding of the table should be given in footnotes at the bottom of the table.
Figures
Number figures as Fig. 1, Fig. 2, etc. and refer to all of them in the text.
Each figure should be provided on a separate sheet. Figures should not be included in the text.
Color figures can be included in the print version, provided the cost of their reproduction is paid for by the author. The online version has no extra charges for color figures.
For the file formats of the figures please take the following into account:
- Line art should be have a minimum resolution of 600 dpi, save as EPS or TIFF
- Grayscales (incl. photos) should have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi (no lettering), or 500 dpi (when there is lettering); save as tiff
- Do not save figures as JPEG, this format may lose information in the process
- Do not use figures taken from the Internet, the resolution will be too low for printing
- Do not use color in your figures if they are to be printed in black & white, as this will reduce the print quality (note that in software often the default is color, you should change the settings)
- For figures that should be printed in color, please send a CMYK encoded EPS or TIFF
Figures should be designed with the format of the page of the journal in mind. They should be of such a size as to allow a reduction of 50%.
On maps and other figures where a scale is needed, use bar scales rather than numerical ones, i.e., do not use scales of the type 1:10,000. This avoids problems if the figures need to be reduced.
Each figure should have a self-explanatory caption. The captions to all figures should be typed on a separate sheet of the manuscript.
Photographs are only acceptable if they have good contrast and intensity.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright of your article
Authors submitting a manuscript do so on the understanding that they have read and agreed to the terms of the IOS Press Author Copyright Agreement.
Article sharing
Authors of journal articles are permitted to self-archive and share their work through institutional repositories, personal websites, and preprint servers. Authors have the right to use excerpts of their article in other works written by the authors themselves, provided that the original work is properly cited. The consent for sharing an article, in whole or in part, depends on the version of the article that is shared, where it is shared, and the copyright license under which the article is published. Please refer to the IOS Press Article Sharing Policy for further information.
Quoting from other publications
Authors, when quoting from someone else's work or when considering reproducing figures or tables from a book or journal article, should make sure that they are not infringing a copyright. Although in general authors may quote from other published works, permission should be obtained from the holder of the copyright if there will be substantial extracts or reproduction of tables, plates, or other figures. If the copyright holder is not the author of the quoted or reproduced material, it is recommended that the permission of the author should also be sought. Material in unpublished letters and manuscripts is also protected and must not be published unless permission has been obtained. Submission of a paper will be interpreted as a statement that the author has obtained all the necessary permission. A suitable acknowledgement of any borrowed material must always be made.
PROOFS
The corresponding author will receive a PDF proof and is asked to check this proof carefully (the publisher will execute a cursory check only). Corrections other than printer's errors, however, should be avoided. Costs arising from such corrections will be charged to the authors.
PURCHASES
How to order reprints, a PDF file, journals, or IOS Press books
The corresponding author of a contribution to the journal will receive a complimentary PDF Author’s Copy of the article, unless otherwise stated. This PDF copy is watermarked and for personal use only. A free PDF copy will not be provided for conference proceedings and abstract issues. An order form for a PDF file without watermark, reprints or additional journal copies will be provided along with the PDF proof.
If you wish to order reprints of an earlier published article, please contact the publisher for a quotation. IOS Press, Fax: +31 20 687 0019. Email: editorial@iospress.nl.
An author is entitled to 25% discount on IOS Press books. See Author's discount (25%) on all IOS Press book publications.
KUDOS
Authors of published articles (non-prepress, final articles) will be contacted by Kudos. Kudos is a service that helps researchers maximize the impact and visibility of their research. It allows authors to enrich their articles with lay metadata, add links to related materials and promote their articles through the Kudos system to a wider public. Authors will receive no more than three emails: one invitation and a maximum of two reminders to register for the service and link the published article to their profile. Using and registering for Kudos remains entirely optional. For more information, please have a look at our authors section.
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Open Access
By default, articles published in Cancer Biomarkers are available only to institutions and individuals with access rights. However, the journal offers all authors the option to purchase open access publication for their article as part of the IOS Press Open Library. This means that the final published version will be freely available to anyone worldwide, indefinitely, under a Creative Commons license and without the need to purchase access to the article. This is also referred to as “gold” open access.
Gold open access pricing
Authors who choose gold open access publication will be subject to an article publication charge of €1500 / US$1500 for publication under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license or €2150 / US$2150 for publication under the CC BY 4.0 license. Pricing is exclusive of possible taxes. After an article is accepted for publication, the corresponding author will be informed regarding the open access option during the production stages, and will have the opportunity to purchase open access for their article. It could be that the open access fee of an article is waived completely due an institutional agreement IOS Press has with the corresponding authors' institution. Please check the institutional agreements page for details.
Green open access
Authors who do not make use of the gold open access option may still make their article freely available using self-archiving, also referred to as green open access. Authors may make their final accepted manuscript available for free download from their personal or institutional website or institutional archive. This model is free for the author.
Peer Review Policy
Cancer Biomarkers is a peer-reviewed journal. Articles submitted to the journal undergo a single blind peer review process. This means that the identity of the authors is known to the reviewers but the identity of the reviewers is not communicated to the authors. Please visit our reviewer guidelines for further information about how to conduct a review.
After automatic plagiarism screening through iThenticate, all submitted manuscripts are subjected to initial appraisal by the Editor-in-Chief and, if found suitable for further consideration, to rigorous peer review by independent, anonymous expert referees. Reasons to reject a paper in the pre-screening process could for example be that the work does not fall within the aims and scope, the writing is of poor quality, the instructions to authors were not followed or the presented work is not novel.
Papers deemed suitable to be reviewed will be assigned to a handling editor. The handling editor will then invite reviewers to comment on the work. They might consider inviting the reviewers suggested by the author or not. Editors and reviewers are asked to excuse themselves from reviewing a submission if a conflict makes them unable to make an impartial scientific judgment or evaluation. Conflicts of interest include but are not limited to: collaboration with the authors in the past three years; any professional or financial affiliations that may be perceived as a conflict of interest; a history of personal differences with the author(s).
As a standard policy, decisions are based on three reviews, in some specific circumstances a minimum of two reviews may be deemed sufficient to make a decision on a paper. The Editor-in-Chief strives to ensure a typical turnaround time of 3 months.
Reviewers are asked to judge a paper on at least:
- Significance to field
- Relevance to journal
- Methodology
- Data analysis
- Literature review
- Writing style/clarity
Based on the received reviews the handling editor will propose to the Editor-in-Chief a recommendation:
- Accept
- Minor revisions required
- Major revisions required
- Reject
They mean the following:
- The manuscript is suitable for publication and only requires minor polishing; thus, no further reviews are requested.
- The authors are required to make moderate changes to their manuscript. The manuscript becomes acceptable for publication if the changes proposed by the reviewers and editors have been addressed satisfactorily. The revised manuscript will be examined by the Editor in Chief and possibly sent back to all (or a selection of) reviewers for a second round of reviews. Authors are requested to provide a letter to the reviewers detailing the improvements made for the resubmission.
- The manuscript cannot be accepted for publication in its current form. However, a major revision addressing all issues raised by the reviewers may be acceptable for publication. The revised manuscript will undergo a full second round of review. Authors are requested to provide a letter to the reviewers detailing the improvements made for the resubmission.
- The manuscript is rejected as it is deemed to be out of scope, not relevant, or not meeting the journal’s quality standards in terms of significance, novelty, and/or presentation.
Authors are notified by the Editor-in-Chief, whose decision is final.
Do you Wish to Receive Updates? – If you would like to receive news updates about Cancer Biomarkers (CBM), let us know by signing up at: tiny.cc/CBMsignup. To view the latest mailing, click here.
Call for Papers Announcement (Aug 2022) – A special issue is planned on “Single-Cell Proteomics Workflow for Cancer Research” (Guest Editor: Tao Liu, PhD) to showcase perspectives or research on state-of-the-art single-cell proteomics methods, platforms, computational tools, and relevant applications in cancer. Discover more here! (deadline for submission: Aug 1, 2023)
Special Issue Published – The latest special issue in Vol.33, Iss.4 (Apr 2022), on the topic "Collaboration Between US and Japan for the Early Detection of Cancer" (guest editor: Kazufumi Honda), is openly available until Oct 31, 2022. Read the issue newsletter here!
Presentation at IOS Press Symposium – The journal's Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Srivastava was one of the esteemed scholars who participated in the IOS Press 35th anniversary symposium on Mar 31, 2022 in Amsterdam. The focus of his presentation was the journal's history, current developments, and prospects, as well as more broadly the area of biomarkers research. Discover more here!
AI Special Issue – Discover this special issue on the topic "Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Biomarker Research" (guest editor: Karin Rodland, PhD) in Vol.33, Iss.2 (Feb 2022), which was openly available until Aug 31, 2022. View background and testimonials here!
Journal Impact Factor – The latest Journal Citation Reports sees CBM's Impact Factor changing to 3.828 (Source Clarivate, 2022). The journal is listed in the Oncology category of Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE).
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