Contact details for submission

Authors must submit their contributions electronically through the Journal website submission system to the Editorial Office: Website: https://acb.journals.pnu.ac.ir/

For questions on the submission and reviewing process, please contact the Editorial Office at, Email: abc@pnu.ac.ir

Type of publishable articles

Research/Original Article, Review Article, Short Communication & Case study.

Authors of original research papers and review articles should report their work accurately. Original research papers should be contained sufficient details to allow other researchers to replicate the work. Review articles should be included important work by researchers in a field and should be objectively written. Short communication must contain original and highly significant work whose high novelty warrants rapid publication. Case report includes a case study that describes a novel situation or add important insights into the mechanisms, diagnosis, or treatment of a disease.

Requirements for new submission

Submission to ACB journal proceeds totally online and authors will be guided stepwise through the creation and uploading of the manuscript files. As part of the manuscript, authors may choose to submit the manuscript as a single file to be used in the refereeing process. This can be a Word document (*.doc or *.docx), that can be used by referees to evaluate the manuscript. All figures, tables and supplementary data should be embedded and included in the main manuscript file. Please note that when you upload the manuscript you also have to upload a Title page containing the title of the paper, author name, affiliation and details regarding corresponding author.

Requirement of revised submission

Regardless of the file format of the original submission, at revision the authors are instructed to submit their manuscript with ACB format and it may be editable. Keep the layout of the text as simple as possible. To avoid unnecessary errors the authors are strongly advised to use the 'spell-check' and 'grammar-check' for the submitted manuscript. Only when the submitted paper is at the revision stage, authors will be requested to put the paper in to a 'correct format' for acceptance and provide the items required for the publication of the manuscript.

Article Processing Charge (ACB)

Publication of articles in the ACB is currently free.

Ethics in Publishing

The ethical policy of ACB is based on the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines. For information on this matter in publishing and ethical guidelines please visit http://publicationethics.org.

For more information, visit the Publication Ethics section of ACB. https://acb.journals.pnu.ac.ir/journal/process?ethics

Speed of Peer Review

All possible effort will be made by the Editors in order to obtain referees' comments rapidly. In principle, the authors will be informed of a decision within 6 weeks.

Pre-Submission Enquiries

Please note that we do not do pre-submission check of the manuscripts before they are submitted to the Editorial System. Please check if the content of the paper is according to the Aims and Scope of the journal and submit the same in our Editorial System. We will review and will get back to you with the comments.

Submission checklist

You can use this list to carry out a final check of your submission before you send it to the journal for review. Please check the relevant section in this Guide for Authors for more details.

• E-mail address
• Full postal address

All necessary files have been uploaded:

Manuscript:

• Include keywords
• All figures (include relevant captions)
• All tables (including titles, description, footnotes)
• Ensure all figure and table citations in the text match the files provided
• Indicate clearly if color should be used for any figures in print

Graphical Abstracts / Highlights files (where applicable)

Supplemental files (where applicable)

Further considerations

• Manuscript has been 'spell checked' and 'grammar checked'
• All references mentioned in the Reference List are cited in the text, and vice versa
• Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Internet)
• A competing interests statement is provided, even if the authors have no competing interests to declare
• Journal policies detailed in this guide have been reviewed
• Referee suggestions and contact details provided, based on journal requirements

Submission declaration and verification

Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously, that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, including electronically without the written consent of the copyright holder. To verify compliance, your article may be checked by Crossref Similarity Check (A service powered by iThenticate—Similarity Check provides editors with a user-friendly tool to help detect plagiarism and other originality or duplicate checking software.

Details of all Authors

Please enter details of all Authors who contributed to the work reported in the manuscript based on their seniority and contribution. The corresponding author of the paper must be indicated in the paper. All communication regarding this submission will be sent to the person who is selected as the Corresponding Author during submission. Please note that we will not be able to make any changes to the author names (adding/removing authors, change of order of authors) after the paper is accepted and moved to typesetting.

Role of the funding source

You are requested to identify who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article and to briefly describe the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication. If the funding source(s) had no such involvement, it is recommended to state this.

Peer-Review Process

In order to sustain the peer review system, authors have an obligation to participate in peer review process to evaluate manuscripts from others.  When appropriate, authors are obliged to provide retractions and/or corrections of errors to the editors and the Publisher.  All papers submitted to ACB journal will be peer reviewed for at least one round. ACB journal adopts a double-review policy: authors are blind to reviewers, and reviewers are also blind to authors. The peer review process is conducted in the online manuscript submission and peer-review system. After a manuscript is submitted to the online system, the system immediately notifies the editorial office. After passing an initial quality check by the editorial office, the manuscript will be assigned to two or more reviewers.  After receiving reviewers’ comments, the editorial team member makes a decision. Because reviewers sometimes do not agree with each other, the final decision sent to the author may not exactly reflect recommendations by any of the reviewers.

The decision after each round of peer review may be one of the following:

1. Accept without any further changes.
2. Accept with minor revision. The revised manuscript may or may not be sent to the reviewers for another round of comments.
3. Decline with resubmission encouraged. Major changes are necessary for resubmission. The revised manuscript will be peer reviewed for another round. Typically, it will be sent to the original reviewers.
4. Decline without encouraging resubmission. The manuscript is rejected for publication by ACB.

Double-Blind Peer Review Guidelines

Acta Cell Biologica (ACB) uses double-blind review, which means that both the reviewer and author identities are concealed from the reviewers, and vice versa, throughout the review process. To facilitate this, authors need to ensure that their manuscripts are prepared in a way that does not give away their identity.  

Information to help prepare the Title Page

This should include the title, authors' names and affiliations, and a complete address for the corresponding author including telephone and e-mail address. 

Information to help prepare the Blinded Manuscript

Besides the obvious need to remove names and affiliations under the title within the manuscript, there are other steps that need to be taken to ensure the manuscript is correctly prepared for double-blind peer review. To assist with this process the key items that need to be observed are as follows:

• Use the third person to refer to work the Authors have previously undertaken, e.g. replace any phrases like “as we have shown before” with “… has been shown before [Anonymous, 2016]”.
• Make sure figures do not contain any affiliation related identifier.
• Do not eliminate essential self-references or other references but limit self-references only to papers that are relevant for those reviewing the submitted paper.
• Cite papers published by the Author in the text as follows:  ‘[Anonymous, 2016]’.
• For blinding in the reference list: ‘[Anonymous 2016] Details omitted for,-blind reviewing.’
• Do not include acknowledgments.
• Remove any identifying information, including author names, from file names and ensure document properties are also anonymized.

Publication Evaluation

In addition to rapid Peer Review Process, the ACB Journal has Post-Publication Evaluation by the scientific community. Post-Publication Evaluation is concentrated to ensure that the quality of published research, review and case report meets certain standards and the conclusions that are presented are justified. The post-publication evaluation includes online comments and citations on published papers. Authors may respond to the comments of the scientific community and may revise their manuscript. The Post-Publication Evaluation is described in such a way. 

Preparation of Manuscripts

Manuscripts must be submitted only in English and should be written according to sound grammar and proper terminology. Manuscripts should be typed in Calibri of 12 pt. font and in MS-Word format in one column with 2.5 cm margin at each side. Manuscript submission must be applied once in order to obtain only one submission ID number. More than one submission for a single manuscript can lose the chance of the manuscript consideration. Manuscript must be accompanied by a covering letter including title and author(s) name.

English Language Writing

All publications in the ACB are in English language. Authors whose first language is not English should make sure their manuscript is written in idiomatic English before submission. Please write your text in good English (American or British usage is accepted, but not a mixture of these). No language and copy-editing services are provided by the ACB; hence, authors who feel their manuscript may require editing to eliminate possible grammatical or spelling errors are encouraged to obtain such services prior to submission. Authors are responsible for all costs associated with such services.

Formatting requirements

All manuscripts must contain the essential elements needed to convey your manuscript, for example Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results and Discussion, Conclusion, Acknowledgement and Conflict of Interest. Artwork and Tables with Captions. Please ensure all figures, tables and supplementary data should be embedded and included in the main manuscript file. 

Manuscript Submission and Declaration

While submitting a manuscript to ACB, all contributing author(s) must verify that the manuscript represents authentic and valid work and that neither this manuscript nor one with significantly similar content under their authorship has been published or is being considered for publication elsewhere including electronically in the same form, in English or in other language, without the written consent the copy right holder. All authors have agreed to allow the corresponding author to serve as the primary correspondent with the editorial office, to review the edited manuscript and proof. All contributing authors must complete and submit an Authorship Statement Form once submitting a manuscript to the ACB. In addition, corresponding author is required to identify all authors’ contribution to the work described in the manuscript. All persons who have made substantial contributions to the work reported in the manuscript (e.g., data collection, analysis, writing or editing assistance) but who do not fulfil the authorship criteria should be mentioned along with their specific contributions in the Acknowledgments Section of the manuscript. It will helpful for determining the nature of the reported work. The contributing author(s) ensures that the presented data should be represented accurately in the manuscript and the manuscript should contains sufficient references to reproduce the concept or work by others. The publisher will not be held legally responsible should there be any claims for compensation.

Manuscript Submission and Verification

Manuscripts are assumed not to be published previously in print or electronic version and are not under consideration by another publication. Copies of related or possibly duplicated materials (including those containing significantly similar content or using same data) that have been published previously or are under consideration for another publication must be provided at the time of online submission.

Manuscript Structure

Manuscript literature and tenses must be structured as: Title; Abstract; Keywords; Introduction; Materials and Methods; Results and Discussion; Conclusion; Author contributions; Acknowledgements; Abbreviation list table; Conflict of Interest; Open Access statement and References. 

Title Page

1. The title of the manuscript is short and descriptive and does not contain abbreviation.
2. Names of all authors and their affiliations and complete addresses are included.
3. Name of corresponding author with affiliation, complete address and email address is included.

The title page should include:
- The name(s) of the author(s)
- A concise and informative title
- The affiliation(s) and address(es) of the author(s)
- The e-mail address, telephone and fax numbers of the corresponding author. 

Manuscript Title

Title of up to 17 words should not contain the name of locations, countries or cities of the research as well as abbreviations. Avoid complicated and technical expressions and do not use vague expressions. The title should be oriented to Environmental issues while not being obscure or meaningless. 

Abstract

An abstract of 200 to 250 words that sketches the purpose of the study; basic procedures; main findings its novelty; discussions and the principal conclusions, should not contain any undefined abbreviations or references and also no abbreviation. ABSTRACT content structures MUST be structured according to:  BACKGROUND; AIM, RESULTS; and CONCLUSION except case study manuscripts.

Immediately after the abstract, provide a maximum of 6, using American spelling and avoiding general and plural terms and multiple concepts (avoid, for example, 'and', 'of'). Be sparing with abbreviations: only abbreviations firmly established in the field may be eligible. These keywords will be used for indexing purposes. Use only words not already present in the title. Use words from Mesh list.

Highlights

Highlights are mandatory for ACB journal. A highlight is a concise, short phrase, conveying the core findings of your research. Please use 'Highlights' in the file name and include 3 to 4 items. The approximate length of each highlight item may be within two lines.

Graphical Abstract

A Graphical Abstract is a single, concise, pictorial and visual summary of the main findings of the article where it can be learnt more from the guideline at the link below or viewing from the ACB published articles graphical abstract: https://www.elsevier.com/authors/tools-and-resources/visual-abstract

A graphical abstract image must be uploaded during submission. A Graphical Abstract should visually summarize the main findings of the manuscript research story in pictorial image, not by presenting with the manuscript figures, tables or maps. It should be relevant to the topic covered and serve to attract readers' attention to the paper.

Text Format

1. The manuscript is in single column (not double column) format.
2. Abstract is brief (one paragraph of between 150 to 250 words), descriptive (a summary of the major findings in the manuscript) and accessible (jargon-free and clear to the readers).
3. No references and abbreviations cited in the Abstract.
4. The pages are numbered consecutively beginning from the title page.
5. The same data are not presented in both Tables and Figures.
6. Terms that are abbreviated are written out completely the first time they are used, and then abbreviated thereafter.
7. Introduction states the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results.
8. Results should be clear and concise.
9. Discussion should explore the significance of the results of the work, not repeat them. Avoid extensive citations and discussion of published literature.
10. Conclusions of the study may be presented the outcome of the research work.
11. Appendices should be identified as A, B, etc. Formulae and equations in appendices should be given separate numbering: Eq. (A.1), Eq. (A.2), etc.; in a subsequent appendix, Eq. (B.1) and so on. Similarly, for tables and figures: Table A.1; Fig. A.1, etc.
12. The author(s) are appealed to provide the source(s) of financial support along with the grand number for the study in the acknowledgements section.

Introduction

The Introduction should state the purpose of the investigation and identify clearly the gap of knowledge that will be filled in the Literature review study. The introduction should have 2-3 paragraphs dependent on the type or category of information delivered, as well as the study's motivation and objectives.  Provide the relevant background information in the introduction chapter to place the author's contribution into context. Date and location of the research carried out throughout the study must be mentioned at the end of this section.  The introduction chapter do not include the following.

1. Other than outlining what was done and achieved in the final paragraph, do not describe methodology, outcomes, or conclusions.
2. A description of the data collection and analysis process.
3. In a nutshell, what was accomplished?
4. A thorough examination of the subject.
5. Cite your own work, work by colleagues, or work that supports your conclusions disproportionately, while omitting research that contradict your findings or work by competitors.

Materials and Methods

Provide sufficient details to allow the work to be reproduced by an independent researcher. Methods that are already published should be summarized, and indicated by a reference. If quoting directly from a previously published method, use quotation marks and also cite the source. Any modifications to existing methods should also be described. The Materials and Methods section should provide enough information to permit repetition of the experimental work. It should include clear descriptions and explanations of sampling procedures, experimental design, etc. This section includes subheadings for each category, method, or procedure employed, as well as study regions, analysis, and so on. This part should be written in the past tense with passive voice and should not contain any study findings.

Results and Discussion

Results should be clear and concise. The Results and Discussion section should describe the outcome and interpretation of the study. Data should be presented as concisely as possible - if appropriate in the form of tables or figures, although very large tables should be avoided. The Discussion should be an interpretation of the results and their significance with reference to work by other authors. Please note that the policy of the Journal with respect to units and symbols is that of SI symbols.  Tables and figures should be used to present the research findings. Each collection of tables and statistics should be discussed in a separate paragraph, with the overall trends and data points of particular importance emphasized. 

The results and discussion should be included the following.

1. It should be brief but well-represented without being overly wordy.
2. To organize all of the data in a methodical way, use Tables and Figures: Tables are used to show exact values, while figures are used to depict patterns or the effect of a connection.
3. Without referring to the text, the reader should be able to understand the figures and tables.
4. Do not use both a Table and a Figure to display the same data.
5. Each table and figure must have a textual representation highlighting the major results. The result section should employ multiple tenses while delivering different information.
   i) Something accomplished throughout the course of the research, in the past tense
   ii) A present-tense element in the document itself.
6. It is frequently instructive to give a discussion of the interpretation's potential flaws.
7. Show how your findings and interpretations align with (or differ from) previously published work.
8. Discuss both theoretical and practical implications.
9. The various works in the literature that cover this topic and how this work contributes to the larger field of research are discussed at the end of the section.

Tables

Do not submit tables and graphs as photograph. Tables should be set within the text. Do not use internal horizontal and vertical rules. Tables should be set within the text and should have a clear and rational structure along with consecutive numerical order. All tables should be numbered (1, 2, 3, etc.). Give enough information in subtitles so that each table is understandable without reference to the text. For each table, please supply a table caption (title) explaining the components of the table. Identify any previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference at the end of the table caption. Tables should be with the captions placed above in limited numbers. Footnotes to tables should be indicated by superscript lower-case letters (or asterisks for significance values and other statistical data) and included beneath the table body. 

Figures

Figures/ illustrations should be in high quality art work, within 200-300 dpi.  As similar to Tables, all Figures must be embedded into the text not as separate submitted into the manuscript dashboard. Ensure that figures are clear, labelled, and of a size that can be reproduced legibly in the journal. Following remarks should be applied to the figures:

- Each figure should have a concise caption describing accurately what the figure depicts. Include the captions in the text file of the manuscript, not in the figure file.

- Figure captions begin with the term Fig. Figures should be with the captions placed below in limited numbers.

- No punctuation is to be placed at the end of the caption. 

- Identify all elements found in the figure in the figure caption; and use boxes, circles, etc., as coordinate points in graphs.

- Identify previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference citation at the end of the figure caption.

Math formulae

Please submit math equations as editable text and not as images. Present simple formulae in line with normal text where possible and use the solidus (/) instead of a horizontal line for small fractional terms, e.g., X/Y. In principle, variables are to be presented in italics. Powers of e are often more conveniently denoted by exp. Number consecutively any equations that have to be displayed separately from the text (if referred to explicitly in the text).

Footnotes

Footnotes should be used sparingly. Number them consecutively throughout the article. Many word processors build footnotes into the text, and this feature may be used. Should this not be the case, indicate the position of footnotes in the text and present the footnotes themselves separately at the end of the article.

Conclusion

The introduction to the work, followed by a concise description of the results found, and the discussion’s points are the most crucial element of the conclusion chapter.  The conclusion chapter further includes the research's uniqueness, limitations, and recommendations for future research. Finally, the authors should convey the highlight in its entirety, with no references to literature.  The concluding chapter should be at least half a page long, both scientifically and in terms of content.

Author contributions

All authors must accept public responsibility for the substance of the material submitted for publication, according to the ACB. The results were evaluated by all authors, and the final version of the manuscript was approved.  The contribution of the author(s) to the research effort must adhere to the authorship standards outlined in the ACB Authorship Guidelines and as advised by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). All contributors who do not match the authorship requirements should be listed in an 'Acknowledgements' section instead.

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments of people, grants, funds with official number, etc. should be placed as a compulsory section. The names of financing organizations should be written in full, and the statement should follow the funding institution's criteria.  Financial support affiliation of the study, if exists, must be mentioned in this section. Thereby, the Grant number of financial supports must be included. 

Conflict of Interest

Conflict of Interest is defined as a set of conditions in which professional judgment concerning a primary interest, such as the validity of research, may be influenced by a secondary interest, such as financial gain. A Conflict of Interest Disclosure is an agreement or notification from the authors that they have not been paid for the work, or if they have, stating the source of their payment. The purpose of Conflict of Interest Disclosure form is to provide readers of authors’ manuscript with information about authors’ interests that could influence how the authors receive the work. The author(s) should submit a conflict of interest disclosure form and is responsible for the accuracy and completeness of the submitted manuscript. Conflict of Interest Disclosure form can be signed by all authors and stating that the submitted manuscript is the authors’ original work, has not received prior publication and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, permission has been received to use any material in the manuscript much as tables, figures etc. or no permissions have necessary to publish the authors’ work.

Conflict of interest statement must be placed at the manuscript as below:

"The authors declare no potential conflict of interest regarding the publication of this work. In addition, the ethical issues including plagiarism, informed consent, misconduct, data fabrication and, or falsification, double publication and, or submission, and redundancy have been completely witnessed by the authors”.

Abbreviations

The list of all abbreviations as well as the chemical symbols which are used in the manuscript text they should be defined in the text at first use (Avoid addition of abbreviation in the manuscript abstract). The list of abbreviations (nomenclatures) must be provided alphabetically. If your manuscript does not contain any abbreviation, just state “Not applicable” in this section. 

References

All the references should be cited throughout the manuscript text as well as in the Reference section organized in accordance with APA Style Reference Citations. For more information click here.

Use of DOI is highly encouraged. Note that missing data will be highlighted at proof stage for the author to correct. Groups of references should be listed first alphabetically, then chronologically. The number of references extracted from each journal should not exceed 3 to 5 citations, which is the average acceptable amount. It is recommended that the number of references preferably is not less than 30 for original paper, not less than 100 for review paper.  For original research paper or case report not less than 30 and for short communication 20 references are required.

 It is also substantially recommended to the authors to refer to recent references in last 10 years rather than old and out of date ones. The majority of manuscript references must not be extracted from a single journal. The acceptable average can be indicated at most 4 to 6 references from each journal

Citing and listing of Web references

No URL, or web are admitted to be mentioned as references. Only the past decade Web of Science or Scopus Journal articles are preferred to be used for study quality and better citations. Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list.  

Text

All citations in the text should refer to:

1. Single author: the author's name (without initials, unless there is ambiguity) and the year of publication; 
2. Two authors: both authors' names and the year of publication; 
3. Three or more authors: first author's name followed by "et al.," and the year of publication. Citations may be made directly (or parenthetically). Groups of references should be listed first alphabetically, then chronologically. Examples: "as demonstrated (Allan, 1996a, 1996b, 1999; Allan and Jones, 1995). Kramer et al. (2000) have recently shown ..."

Authorship

All contributing authors should qualify for authorship. The order of authorship should be a joint decision of the co-authors. Authorship credit should be based on substantial contribution to conception and design, execution, or analysis and interpretation of data. All authors should be involved in drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content, must have read and approved the final version of the manuscript and approve of its submission to this journal.

Copyright

The ACB is made available to the public under the open access policy. The accepted submissions are free to read, reuse, download, copy, distribute, and share as long as the author(s) of the manuscript are credited.  ACB will ask all authors of the acceptance article to sign a Copyright Agreement Form for granting the necessary publishing rights once the manuscript has been accepted. The accepted manuscript is moved into production after the copyright agreement form from the relevant author of the manuscript is received. Because the author(s) publish their manuscript as open access, the author(s) retain(s) certain rights such as patents, trademarks, and designs, while other copyright is transferred to the ACB. The conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License are incorporated into the author(s) contract, dictating what others can do with the author(s) manuscript after it is published. Furthermore, after being properly attributed, the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License allows for unrestricted use, distribution, modification, and reproduction in any medium.

Role of Funding Source

Authors are requested to clearly identify who provided financial support for the conduct of research and/or preparation of the article and briefly describe the role of the funder/sponsor in any part of the work including design and conduct of the study, data collection, data management, data analysis and interpretation, preparation, review and approval of the manuscript. The following rules should be followed: 

1. The sentence should begin with: ‘This work was supported by …’.
2. The full official funding agency name should be given in an expandable form not in an abbreviated form.
3. Grant numbers should be complete and accurate and provided in brackets as follows: ‘[grant number ABX CDXXXXXX]’
4. Multiple grant numbers should be separated by a comma as follows: ‘[grant numbers ABX CDXXXXXX, EFX GHXXXXXX]’
5. Agencies should be separated by a semi-colon (plus ‘and’ before the last funding agency).

Life Science Reporting Guidelines

Authors should clearly report any involvement of hazards, human or animal subjects, patient images, case details, and other materials and information. Their experiments should be performed in compliance with laws and relevant institutional guidelines. When requested, authors should provide the ethics committee with approval documents, consent to release personal information such as images of individuals, and other necessary documents used in the approval process. In addition, it should be stated within the manuscript that proper consent has been obtained for experiments with human subjects.

Errors in Published Papers

When an author(s) discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher to retract or correct the manuscript.  Finally, the corresponding author should be ensured that all appropriate co-authors included on the paper have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

Plagiarism Prevention and Violation of Publication Ethics

All manuscripts under review or published with ACB are subject to screening using Plagiarism Prevention Software called iThenticate. Plagiarism is a serious violation of publication ethics. Other violations include duplicate publication, data fabrication and falsification, and improper credit of author contribution.  Thus, the Plagiarism or Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior are unacceptable and submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable. 

      After the submission of a manuscript, it will be checked by the iThenticate similarity test for a plagiarism detection. The overall similarity (Similarity Index) must not exceeds the limit 15%, and the single paper similarity must not exceed the limit 1%. Otherwise, the paper will be directly rejected by the editor and no other chance will be given to the author(s) to re-submit it. Please visit: www.ithenticate.com/

       The default similarity report view gives the percentage of the text of the manuscript which has overlap with one or more published articles. Figures and equations cannot be checked at present. Note that a high similarity score does not necessarily indicate plagiarized text. A similarity score of 30% could mean 30% text in common with one source but could equally mean 1% text in common with 30 different sources. Re-used text that has been legitimately cited the Bibliography and Methods texts may all contribute to the similarity score. The subject knowledge of an editorial expert is vital in order to interpret the Crosscheck report and determine whether there are any grounds for concern. 

Covering Letter and Essential title page information

• Concise and informative. Titles are often used in information-retrieval systems. Avoid abbreviations and formulae where possible.
• Author names and affiliations. Please clearly indicate the given name(s) and family name(s) of each author and check that all names are accurately spelled. You can add your name between parentheses in your own script behind the English transliteration. Present the authors' affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lowercase superscript letter immediately after the author's name and in front of the appropriate address. Provide the full postal address of each affiliation, including the country name and, if available, the e-mail address of each author.
• Corresponding author. Clearly indicate who will handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication. This responsibility includes answering any future queries about Methodology and Materials. Ensure that the e-mail address is given and that contact details are kept up to date by the corresponding author.
• Present/permanent address. If an author has moved since the work described in the article was done, or was visiting at the time, a 'Present address' (or 'Permanent address') may be indicated as a footnote to that author's name. The address at which the author actually did the work must be retained as the main, affiliation address. Superscript Arabic numerals are used for such footnotes.

General Considerations

1. Read the Journal’s Guide for Authors and make sure that the manuscript (text, tables, figures, and photographs) meets Journal requirements.
2. The manuscript contains the main sections outlined in Journal’s Guide for Authors, e.g., Title, Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results and Discussion, Conclusion, Appendices, Acknowledgments, Conflict of interest and References.
3. Spell-check the manuscript.
4. All authors must read the Ethics in publishing, Plagiarism prevention, Violation of publication ethics and Handling cases of misconduct before being submitted to the ACB.
5. The Manuscript has been read and approved by all listed authors.
6. Not only the Corresponding Author, but also the whole contributors of the manuscript are advised to be registered at the journal website in order to keep their names in the manuscript bio-sketches.
7. A copy right release and conflict of interest disclosure form must be signed by the corresponding author in case of multiple authorships, prior to the acceptation of the manuscript, by all authors, for publication to be legally responsible towards the Journal ethics and privacy policy.

AFTER ACCEPTANCE

Use of the Digital Object Identifier

The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) may be used to cite and link to electronic documents. The DOI consists of a unique alpha-numeric character string which is assigned to a document by the publisher upon the initial electronic publication. The assigned DOI never changes, i.e., When the authors use a DOI to create links to documents on the web, the DOIs are guaranteed never to change.

Online Proof Correction

Corresponding authors will receive an e-mail with a link to our online proofing system, allowing annotation and correction of proofs online. The environment is similar to MS Word: in addition to editing text, you can also comment on figures/tables and answer questions from the Copy Editor.  Use this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the text, tables and figures. Significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission from the Editor-in-Chief. It is important to ensure that all corrections are sent back to us in one communication. Please check carefully before replying, as inclusion of any subsequent corrections cannot be guaranteed. Proofreading is solely the corresponding author responsibility. 

Offprints

The offprints can be downloaded from the ACB website once the final corrected manuscripts are disseminated. 

AUTHORS INQUIRIES

Authors can track their submitted article through ACB website on author’s login section.  It is found at: https://acb.journals.pnu.ac.ir/contacts