The Journal of Bio-education （JBE）, a peer-reviewed and the first bio-education journal in China, is published by Xinhua Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China. It aims to report on important research results, progress and experience in bio-education. It provides a platform for the exploration of scientific collaboration between the biological and educational disciplines, and for the strengthening of multidisciplinary investigations in child development and education. Preference is given to articles that are of general significance or of broad interest across these and related fields, and intelligible to a wide range of readers.

1 Submission

1.1 Scope of contributions. JBE welcomes manuscripts in Chinese and English in all aspects of bio-education from any part of the world. Articles and reviews are especially welcome. Comments, case studies and brief reports are also accepted.

1.2 Manuscript submission. Manuscripts should be sent as an E-mail attachment in a WORD （*.doc） document. The contact E-mail is：bio_edu@126.com.All manuscripts should be accompanied by a cover letter giving details of（a） the title of the manuscript; （b） a statement that the manuscript has not been published in part or whole （except in the form of abstract）or is under consideration for publication elsewhere in any language; （c） a statement that all authors have agreed to be so listed and have approved the manuscript and its submission to JBE; （d） full postal address, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address; and （e） financial arrangements or relationships that may pose and conflicts of interest. Pages should be numbered consecutively, beginning with the title page.

2 Editorial process

2.1 Receipt of manuscripts. Upon the receipt of a manuscript, the JBE Editorial Office will assign a code number, which is to be used in all subsequent correspondence.

2.2 Review. A member of the editorial staff or designated advisory board member will determine whether the manuscript warrants further peer review, in which case the manuscript will be sent to at least two outside reviewers. The peer-review process takes approximately 4-8 weeks. Based on the comments of the reviewers, the journal editor determines whether the manuscript is accepted or rejected, or requires revision before publication, and the decision will be sent to the authors. Authors are welcome to suggest suitable independent reviewers and may also request that the journal exclude one or two individuals or laboratories. It is at the editor-s discretion to determine the choice of reviewers and these decisions are final.

2.3 Revision. If revision is required, the authors should amend and resubmit the manuscript within 30 days. Resubmission after 30 days may be considered a new submission. If the revision is not satisfactory to the reviewers, the author may be asked to make a second revision. Articles are normally published within 3 months of acceptance.

2.4 Rejected manuscripts. If a manuscript is not accepted, the authors will receive a decision letter that may or may not include the reviewers’ comments. Rejected manuscripts will not be returned to the authors.

2.5 Proof reading. The corresponding author of a manuscript to be published will receive proofs. Checking the proofs is solely the author’s responsibility. The publisher is not responsible for any errors not marked by the author on the proof. The proof must be returned to the Editorial Office within 7 days of receipt.

2.6 Copyright assignment. The copyright agreement form should be submitted once the paper has been accepted for publication. The corresponding author is responsible for obtaining signatures of coauthors. Upon acceptance of the paper, the copyright agreement form should be faxed to the Editorial Office of JBE.

2.7 Costs. No charge will be levied on international manuscripts. Page charges are only required for manuscripts written in Chinese from within China.

3 Manuscript preparation

3.1 Title page. The title page should carry the following information： （a） title of the article; （b） name and institutional affiliation of each author; （c） the designated corresponding author’s name, mailing address, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address; and （d） source （s）of financial support for the study.

3.2 Articles

3.2.1 Abstract. An abstract of about 250 words should follow the title page. Abstracts of original experimental research papers should consist of four paragraphs, labeled Objective, Methods, Results and Conclusion.

3.2.2 Keywords. On the abstract page, authors should provide 3 to 8 keywords that capture the main topic of the article. Terms from Medical Subject Headings （MeSH） list of MEDLINE/PubMed should be used.

3.2.3 Text. Word count of original research manuscripts should be no more than 4 000 words in English or 6 000 words in Chinese. The text is usually divided into sections with headings, such as Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, and Discussion. For reports of randomized controlled trials, authors should refer to the CONSORT Statement, which can be found at http：//www.con-sort-statement.org.

3.2.4 Ethics.When reporting experiments on human subjects or animals, the author should include a statement in the Material section. Human experiments must be performed in accordance with international ethical standards, such as the Declaration of Helsinki, and the research protocol must be approved by an institutional review board （IRB）or equivalent human ethics committee. Documented informed consents must be obtained from all human subjects of clinical research prior to any experiment; the confidentiality of patients’ information must be preserved, and a statement to that effect must be included. Laboratory research involving animals must comply with guidelines for animal care and use; the experimental protocol must be approved by the institutional animal care and use committee （IACUC）, and a statement to that effect must be included.

3.2.5 Statistical methods. Statistical methods should be described in sufficient detail to enable a knowledgeable reader to assess the appropriateness of the statistical analysis used. Statistical terms, abbreviations, and symbols must be defined, and computer software must be specified. Lacunae in observations, such as dropouts from the study, should be reported, and the intend-to-treat method should be applied.

3.2.6 Tables. Tables should be numbered consecutively in the order of their first citation in the text and a brief title for each table should be supplied. Abbreviations must be defined in notes. Statistical measures of variations should be identified, such as standard deviation and standard error of the mean. Statistical significance should be identified by superscripts in front of the probabilities （P）, as in:nsP ＞0.05,*P ＜ 0.05,**P ＜ 0.01 vs A. If you use data from another published source, obtain permission and acknowledge them fully.

3.2.7 Figures. Figures should be numbered consecutively in the text. Figures should be professionally drawn or photographed. Drawings must be of a high standard, and only letter-set printed material（not freehand or typewritten）should be employed. Letters, numbers, and symbols in figures should be clear. Titles and detailed explanations should be given in the figure legend. Photomicrographs should have internal scale markers. Legends for figures should be printed out with Arabic numerals corresponding to the illustrations. The internal scale should be explained and the method of staining and magnification of photomicrographs should be identified. When symbols, arrows, numbers, or letters are used to identify parts of the illustrations, each one should be identified and explained clearly in the legend. Abbreviations must be explained. If photographs of people are used, either of the subjects must not be identifiable or written permission from the depicted individuals must be included. If a figure has been published, the original source must be acknowledged and written permission from the copyright holder must be submitted to reproduce the material.

3.2.8 Acknowledgements. Acknowledgement （s） may briefly include assistance from （a） contributors that do not warrant authorship, （b） technical help, and （c） material support, as well as （d） financial supports such as a grant.

3.2.9 References.Authors should check the accuracy of all reference citations. Unpublished data, classified periodicals, and personal communications may not be used as references. References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first cited in the text. References in text, tables, and legends should be identified by superscript of Arabic numerals in parentheses. The authors （surname, initials）, title of the article, name of the journal or book, year, volume （issue）and the first and last pages should also be listed. If there are more than 3 authors, the first 3 authors are followed by “et al”. To illustrate：

Journal article

Hunskaar S, Burgio K, Diokno A, et al. Epidemiology and natural history of urinary incontinence in women. Urology, 2003, 62 （4）: 16-23.

Complete book

Fischer K W, Bernstein J H, Immordino-Yang MH. Mind, brain, and education in reading disorders. Cambridge U K： Cambridge University Press, 2007.

Book chapter

Greenland S, Rothman K J. Introduction to stratified analysis. In： Rothman K J, Greenland S （Eds.）. Modern epidemiology. Philadelphia： Lippincott-Raven Press, 1998：253-280.

Conference proceedings

Kimura J, Shibasaki H, editors. Recent advances in clinical neurophysiology. Proceedings of the 10 thInternational Congress of EMG and Clinical Neurophysiology, 1995 Oct 15-19, Kyoto, Japan. Amster-dam: Elsevier, 1996.

Material from Internet

Jelinic P, Stehle J C, Shaw P. The testis-specific factor CTCFL cooperates with the protein methyl transferase PRMT 7 in H19 imprinting control region methylation. PLoS Biology, 2006, 4 （11）: e355. DOI：10.1371/ journal. Pbio.00 40355.

3.2.10 Units of measurement. Measurements of length, height, weight, and volume should be reported in metric units, i.e., meter （m）, gram （g）, or liter （L） or their decimal multiples. Milliliter or deciliter should be expressed as ml or dl. Red and white blood cell counts are to be expressed as ×106/μL and × 103/μL, respectively. Temperatures should be given in degrees Celsius and blood pressures in millimeters of mercury （mmHg）. All hematological and clinical chemistry measurements should be reported in the conventional system or in terms of the International System of Units （SI）.

3.2.11 Abbreviations and symbols. Only standard abbreviations are used in the text while avoiding abbreviations in the title and abstract. The full term for which an abbreviation stands should precede its first use in the text unless it is a standard unit of measurement. Year, month, day, hour, minute and second should be abbreviated as y, mon, d, h, min, and s in tables, respectively.

3.3 Reviews

Reviews may （a） review new developments in this field that would be of interest to readers in other fields or （b）give perspectives on problems, issues, or new developments pertaining to the field. They should include an abstract of no more than 200 words, and the reference list will normally not exceed 50 items. Three to eight key words to facilitate indexing should be provided in alphabetical order along with the abstract. The text should include introduction, subsections and summary. Reviews may be up to 5 000 words in English or 6 000 words in Chinese.

4 Editorial office

Journal of Bio-education Editorial Office, Xinhua Hospital

Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 1665 Kongjiang Rd. Shanghai 200092, China.

Tel: 86-21-25076479, Fax：86-21-25076483 E-mail: bio_edu@126.com.