Information for Contributors

2.1. Peer-Review Policy

Applied Biosafety adheres to a double-blind reviewing policy in which the identity of both the reviewer and author is always concealed from both parties. Please remove authors’ names and other identifying information from the manuscript, including the title page, text, and acknowledgments. Manuscripts are blinded to reviewers. Manuscripts that are not blinded will be returned to the author without review. The Editor or members of the Editorial Board may occasionally submit their own manuscripts for possible publication in the journal. In these cases, the peer-review process will be managed by alternative members of the board and the submitting editor/board member will have no involvement in the decision-making process.

2.2. Authorship

Papers should only be submitted for consideration once consent is given by all contributing authors. Those submitting papers should carefully check that all those whose work contributed to the paper are acknowledged as contributing authors.

The list of authors should include all those who can legitimately claim authorship. This is all those who:

Made a substantial contribution to the concept or design of the work or acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data

Authors should meet the conditions of all of the points above. When a large, multicenter group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship.

Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute authorship, although all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgments section. Please refer to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) authorship guidelines for more information on authorship.

2.3. Acknowledgments

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgments section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help or a department chair who provided only general support.

Please list acknowledgments separately to facilitate blind peer-review. Acknowledgments will be published at the end of the article, prior to your Declaration of Conflicting Interests (if applicable), any notes, and your references.

2.4. Funding

Applied Biosafety requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading. Please visit the Funding Acknowledgments page on the SAGE Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state the following: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

2.5. Declaration of Conflicting Interests

A Declaration of Conflicting Interests statement must be included with your manuscript. If no conflict exists, please state the following: “The author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest.” For guidance on conflict of interest statements, please see the ICMJE recommendations. The Declaration of Conflicting Interests statement appears in published articles after any acknowledgments and prior to the references.

2.6. Research Ethics and Patient Consent

Medical research involving human subjects must be conducted according to the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki.

Submitted manuscripts should conform to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, and all papers reporting animal and/or human studies must state in the methods section that the relevant ethics committee or institutional review board provided (or waived) approval. Please ensure that you have provided the full name and institution of the review committee, in addition to the approval number.

For research articles, authors are also required to state in the methods section whether participants provided informed consent and whether the consent was written or verbal.

Information on informed consent to report individual cases or case series should be included in the manuscript text. A statement is required regarding whether written informed consent for patient information and images to be published was provided by the patient(s) or a legally authorized representative.

Please also refer to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Protection of Research Participants.

2.7. Clinical Trials

Applied Biosafety does not publish clinical trials.

2.8. Research Involving Animals

All research involving animals submitted for publication must be approved by an ethics committee with oversight of the facility in which the studies were conducted. The journal has adopted the Consensus Author Guidelines on Animal Ethics and Welfare for Veterinary Journals published by the International Association of Veterinary Editors.

2.9. Dual-Use Agents of Concern

Dual-use research of concern (DURC) is defined as life sciences research that, based on current understanding, can be reasonably anticipated to provide knowledge, information, products, or technologies that could be directly misapplied to pose a significant threat with broad potential consequences to public health and safety, agricultural crops and other plants, animals, the environment, materiel, or national security (http://osp.od.nih.gov/office-biotechnology-activities/biosecurity/dual-use-research-concern). The editorial policies of Applied Biosafety support the minimization of biosecurity risk while promoting the exchange of information required to improve public, occupational, and environmental health.

3.1. Publication Ethics

SAGE is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the SAGE Author Gateway.

3.2. Contributor’s Publishing Agreement

Before publication, SAGE requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. SAGE’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive license agreement, which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants SAGE the sole and exclusive right and license to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than SAGE. In this case, copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information and the policies for government employees, please visit our Frequently Asked Questions on the SAGE Journal Author Gateway.

3.3. Open Access and Author Archiving

Applied Biosafety offers optional immediate open-access publishing via the SAGE Choice program. For more information, please visit the SAGE Choice website. For information on funding body compliance and depositing your article in repositories, please visit SAGE Publishing Policies on our Journal Author Gateway. All articles published in Applied Biosafety become open-access 2 years after publication.

3.4. Permissions

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures, or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information, including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please visit our Frequently Asked Questions on the SAGE Journal Author Gateway.

4.1. Word Processing Formats

Preferred formats for the text and tables of your manuscript are Word DOC, RTF, and XLS. LaTeX files are also accepted. The text should be double-spaced throughout. Text should be standard 10 or 12 point. Word and LaTeX templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.

4.2. Journal Style

Prepare manuscripts according to the AMA style. Double-space all material, including the abstract, endnotes, references, quotations, appendixes, and tables. Do not use footnotes. Citations in the text should be numbered in the order of appearance in the text; references are then listed in numerical order. Endnotes and references should follow the text. Each table and figure should appear at the end of the document file.

4.3. Title, Keywords, and Abstracts

For Applied Biosafety, include an abstract of no more than 250 words. To facilitate anonymous review, the name, affiliation, mailing address, phone and fax numbers, and email address of each author should appear in a separate title page that is not included in the main document of a submitted paper. Please also list 4 to 6 keywords and any acknowledgments on the title page. For more information, see Section 1 above.

4.4. Author Names, Affiliations, and Corresponding Author

Where the family name or surname may be ambiguous (eg, a multiword name), please indicate this clearly. Author affiliations should only reflect the institution(s) where the research was done and will not be changed post publication. Clearly indicate who will handle correspondence at all stages, and the corresponding author should list a permanent email address (which is not related to his or her institution) so that readers can reach the corresponding author after any future job/institution shifts.

4.5. References

Applied Biosafety adheres to the AMA reference style. View the AMA guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.

4.6. Artwork Guidelines

For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures, and graphs in electronic format, please visit the Artwork Guidelines section in SAGE’s manuscript submission guidelines page. Figures supplied in color will appear in color online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in color in the printed version. For specifically requested color reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from SAGE after receipt of your accepted article from the production editor.

4.7. Guidelines for Submitting Supplemental Files

This journal is able to host approved supplemental materials online, alongside the full text of articles. Supplemental files must be provided at submission so that they can undergo peer-review alongside the article. For more information, please refer to SAGE’s Guidelines for Authors on Supplemental Files.

4.8. Maximizing Online Discoverability

The title, keywords, and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article online through online search engines such as Google. Please refer to the information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract, and select your keywords by visiting SAGE’s Journal Author Gateway Guidelines on how to Help Readers Find Your Article online.

4.9. English Language Editing Services

SAGE Language Services can help authors with editing, translation, and formatting of the manuscript prior to journal submission. An author’s use of these services in no way guarantees that his or her submission will ultimately be accepted, and any costs incurred are the sole responsibility of the author. For further information, we encourage the authors to visit the SAGE Language services link.

6.1. SAGE Production

SAGE production editors maintain regular communication with journal editors and authors throughout the production process. Proofs of the article will be sent to the corresponding author for review.

Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence, and contact details, is correct and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.

6.2. E-prints

SAGE provides authors a link to the electronic PDF, as well as opportunities to purchase reprints.

6.3. Online First Publication

Online First allows final revision articles (completed articles in queue for assignment to an upcoming issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a final journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. For more information, please visit our Online First Fact Sheet.

6.4. Promoting Your Article

If you think your article may be suitable for promotion, please flag this for the journal editor or your production contact at SAGE as early as possible in the publishing process. We have a variety of different promotional channels at our disposal to ensure your article reaches the widest possible audience. See https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/promote-your-article for more information.