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CBE—Life Sciences Education Instructions for Authors
CBE—Life Sciences Education (CBE-LSE) is an online, quarterly journal owned and published by the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB). The journal publishes original, previously unpublished, peer-reviewed articles on life sciences education at the K–12, undergraduate, and graduate levels. The ASCB believes that learning in biology encompasses diverse fields, including math, chemistry, physics, engineering, computer science, and the interdisciplinary intersections of biology with these fields. Within biology, the editorial board of CBE-LSE is particularly interested in how students are introduced to the study of life sciences, as well as teaching approaches in cell biology, developmental biology, neuroscience, biochemistry, molecular biology, genetics, genomics, bioinformatics, and proteomics. One goal of the journal is to encourage teachers and instructors to view design of educational projects the way scientists view their research, as an intellectual undertaking with results that can be measured based on evidence of student learning. The target audience includes those involved in K–12 outreach; community college, comprehensive college, or university teachers; and graduate students, postdocs, and students in teacher training at any level.
CBE-LSE is published online four times a year, in March (Spring issue), June (Summer issue), September (Fall issue), and December (Winter issue). CBE-LSE also prints a highlights issue each year in December, featuring contributions selected from the four online issues. Submissions are accepted at any time. Articles are assigned to particular issues by the editors. To be included in an issue, manuscripts must be accepted in final form at least two months prior to the publication date.
All published articles are available freely online without subscription. In addition, published articles are indexed in PubMed and available through PubMed Central. A goal of CBE-LSE is to stimulate dialogue. CBE-LSE invites readers to send comments that will be considered for publication in the Letters to the Editor column.
The journal publishes the following types of manuscripts:
Articles. CBE-LSE publishes research articles and descriptive articles. Research articles focus on theoretically grounded questions of science education and incorporate either quantitative or qualitative methods of analysis. Descriptive articles detail educational innovations (e.g., inquiry laboratory courses, Web-based courses, and interdisciplinary curricula). These must be “tried and tested,” normally will include samples of course or lab materials, and must include some level of assessment to gauge efficacy of the course in terms of student learning. In planning a new course or laboratory exercise, instructors who contemplate subsequent publication of their educational innovations in CBE-LSE should give careful thought to how they will assess student learning. Articles that lack an assessment component will be returned to authors without review.
In addition, research and descriptive articles are expected to display (1) pedagogical content, (2) clear description of goals and expected student outcomes, (3) transferability to other settings, (4) application to a defined audience of teachers, and (5) references to related educational literature.
Because the concept of course assessment may be unfamiliar to many instructors, some suggestions for how to generate assessment information are presented below.
Three simple questions at the start of a project can lead to effective assessment: (1) What are your goals? (2) What would your students be able to do if you met your goals? (3) How can you measure whether your students met these goals?
Authors should present their innovations in the same way that they present their basic research, where data do the convincing. What is the background for your project? Does it meet a previously unmet need, or provide a test of some educational theory? What was your goal in developing it? How do you know if you have succeeded? Can you show success to readers? Is this outcome worth others adapting or adopting?
Assessment can address many variables, e.g., effectiveness of a course or lab project compared with the previous version if this was a revision or replacement, how well learning goals were met, what new skills students acquired, cost or faculty FTE per student, postgraduation outcomes, minority enrollment, etc. Assessment can be based on many kinds of measurement instruments: satisfaction surveys (faculty, staff, and/or students), interviews, comparison of pretest and posttest scores, etc. As long as authors can enumerate their initial goals and then demonstrate the degree of success, they have conducted assessment.
Essays. Essays describe approaches to various educational challenges, including assessment methods, student engagement, curriculum innovations, the K–20 pathway, and other topics. Essays are framed by personal experience and provide specific examples, but describe a problem or approach of general interest. The problem or approach should be presented within a scholarly context, citing references and resources that address the topic.
Electronic Resources. CBE-LSE publishes original electronic resources such as animations, 3D visualizations (e.g., chime or protein explorer tutorials), databases that can be used by students, collections of educational images (e.g., histology micrographs, useful methods and equipment, data files, movies [streaming or small mpeg/QT files], and similar materials), free downloadable software (platform neutral is preferred), and other interactive Web-based materials. Submissions should include descriptions of how the materials have been used and student responses to them. On acceptance, electronic resources become freely available. See “Guidelines for Preparing Electronic Resources” below.
Features. CBE-LSE publishes the regular and occasional features described below, written or edited by members of the editorial board as indicated. Features submissions are generally considered by invitation only. Authors wishing to contribute a feature article should contact the editorial office.
Approaches to Biology Teaching and Learning. A regular column that discusses teaching methods and the educational research that supports them, as well as other topics that relate to pedagogy (K. Tanner, D. Allen).
Book Reviews. Reviews of books relevant to all aspects of education in the life sciences. Reviewers are urged to include specific examples of successful use of books in the classroom or laboratory. Book reviews are assigned by the book review editors (R. Wright, K. Kalumuck).
WWW.Life Sciences Education. Reviews of current websites of interest to life sciences instructors at all educational levels (D. Liu, L. Stark).
Video Views and Reviews. Reviews of recently published, Web-accessible videos of educational interest (C. Watters).
Points of View. Invited commentaries exploring different views of controversial topics in life sciences education.
Meeting Reports. Summaries of meetings, presentations at meetings, or meeting sessions focused on pedagogical topics. Ideally, these summaries should include supplementary materials such as html or PowerPoint files presented at the meeting or should provide guidance in accessing resources described at the meeting (M.L. Ledbetter).
From the National Academies. Reports on activities at the National Academies that impact life sciences education (J. Labov).
Educator Highlights. A series of profiles of educators who teach students in the life sciences with inspiration and panache (L.M. Hoopes).
Current Insights: Recent Research in Science Teaching and Learning. Highlights of articles from other science education journals of likely interest to CBE-LSE readers (E. Dolan).
Letters. Reactions to published articles or other comments of interest to readers of the journal should be submitted electronically in the form of a Letter to the Editor. A letter may include one figure or table. The authors of an article that is discussed in a Letter to the Editor will be given an opportunity to respond.
Announcements. CBE-LSE accepts noncommercial announcements of meetings, workshops, and conferences and of funding opportunities and fellowships open to all.
All submitted manuscripts and educational materials are subject to peer review. After a manuscript has been submitted to CBE-LSE, the Editor-in-Chief selects an editorial board member to guide the paper through the review process. Editorial board members select either two reviewers (for articles and electronic resources) or one reviewer (for essays) to submit written evaluations. The board member will assess the peer review(s) and determine whether the submission will be accepted as is, accepted with suggested revisions, temporarily rejected with suggestions for improvements before resubmission, or rejected with reasons explaining this decision. The corresponding author can usually expect an initial response within four weeks.
Authors are required to sign a License and Publishing Agreement when a manuscript is accepted for publication. Under the terms of that agreement, authors retain copyright but grant the ASCB a perpetual license to publish the manuscript. Authors also grant to the general public the nonexclusive right to copy, distribute, or display the manuscript subject to the terms of the Creative Commons–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 Unported license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0).
By submitting a paper to CBE-LSE, an author acknowledges that he or she is subject to the ASCB Policy on Research Misconduct by Authors. The policy is posted at www.ascb.org/files/research_misconduct.pdf.
Manuscripts reporting on studies involving human subjects must include explicit assurance that the research reported was approved by a local Institutional Review Board, including an Institutional Review Board number, unless the research is exempt from such review according to U.S. Department of Education guidelines. Prospective authors are advised that permission must be obtained in advance.
General Instructions. Submitted papers must be original (i.e., not published or submitted for publication elsewhere). Previously published material will not be considered. Publication of a short abstract does not constitute prior publication, nor does presentation of data at a scientific meeting or in a webcast of such a meeting. The posting of a manuscript on an author’s personal website or in an online institutional repository prior to submission of the manuscript to CBE-LSE is not considered prior publication. Publication of a paper in the proceedings of a scientific meeting generally does constitute prior publication.
The text should be written in clear, concise, and grammatical English. Manuscripts ordinarily begin with an overview of how the work presented is relevant to the classroom, laboratory, or curriculum and what student outcomes are expected. Whenever possible, incorporate materials by citing relevant publications, without repeating already published works. Manuscript files must be submitted in either .doc or .rtf format.
Tables and illustrations should convey information effectively. Graphs and figures should be provided digitally as separate TIF or EPS files. Authors are encouraged to take advantage of the online nature of CBE-LSE. Video, audio, databases, images, animations, molecular structures, and other electronic resources may be linked as supplemental material for further consideration by readers.
International authors may wish to consider using an editorial service, such as ScienceDocs (www.sciencedocs.com), The Medical Editor (www.themedicaleditor.com), American Journal Experts (www.journalexperts.com), or Squirrel Scribe (www.squirrelscribe.com). CBE-LSE does not endorse any particular service, and cannot be held responsible for the services they provide.
Length Guidelines. The following manuscript submission lengths are intended to aid authors in preparing their manuscripts; however, submissions outside these ranges will be considered.
Articles: 30,000–60,000 characters (with spaces), or 5–10 journal “pages”; typically do not exceed 20 journal pages, or 120,000 characters.
Essays: 12,000–30,000 characters (with spaces), or 2–5 journal “pages”; typically do not exceed 10 journal pages, or 60,000 characters.
Features: 6,000–12,000 characters (with spaces), or 1–2 journal “pages.”
Letters: 3,000–6,000 characters (with spaces), or up to half a journal “page.”
Cover Letter. Authors should submit a cover letter from the corresponding author stating that the work is being submitted exclusively to CBE-LSE and indicating why it is appropriate for the journal. If there is a connection between an author and a commercial product being used or reported, full disclosure is required in the cover letter and appropriate statements should be included in the manuscript. (See "Title Page" below.) Authors are invited to suggest reviewers (please include institution and email address).
Title Page. Page 1 should include the title of the manuscript, the type of manuscript being submitted (e.g., article, essay, feature, letter to the editor, response), the number of characters in the manuscript, a shortened running title (not to exceed 42 characters and spaces), the name of the corresponding author, and the names and affiliations of all other authors. For the corresponding author, give complete postal and email addresses and telephone and fax numbers. Keywords should also appear on page 1. Include at least five keywords selected from the text of the article. If possible, include a keyword that indicates the target student group (primary, secondary, undergraduate, graduate, or postdoc) and a second keyword that indicates which cells or organism are studied in the course or lab exercise (e.g., bacteria, fungi, plants, yeast, Drosophila, nematodes).
If one or more of the authors of a research paper that assesses the effectiveness of a product or curriculum was also involved in producing the product or curriculum, readers need to be fully aware of this potential conflict of interest. Therefore, any potential conflicts of interest should be clearly stated on the title page of the manuscript. The author and the product should be identified, and a statement included that no promotion of a particular product to the exclusion of other similar products should be construed. This will be noted under the byline if the manuscript is accepted for publication.
Abstract. Page 2 should contain the abstract, which should be no more than 200 words long and should summarize the important points in the manuscript.
Manuscript Text. The text of the paper should begin on page 3. CBE-LSE follows the style guidelines of the Council of Biology Editors Style Manual. For chemical nomenclature, follow the Subject Index of Chemical Abstracts. Capitalize trade names and give manufacturer names and addresses. Do not include figures or tables within the body of the manuscript. A format of Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and References is encouraged, but other formats may be more appropriate for some topics. All pages must be numbered.
Accessing Materials. Describe how to access new educational materials if the study or use of such materials is the subject of the paper. If materials are online, provide a URL to the material. Any registration requirements or agreements inherent in the use of the materials should be described. If there are no online materials, simply state “No additional materials available online.” For other new educational materials presented in the manuscript, authors should describe how readers can access the materials, what format is available (e.g., DVD, CD-ROM, PDF files, and html pages), how to request copies, and if there are any costs. CBE-LSE encourages provision of materials on a nonprofit basis, but recognizes that this is not always feasible. Please contact CBE-LSE with any questions regarding this policy.
Acknowledgments. Identify financial sources and other sources of support for the research being reported in the manuscript.
References. Place the reference list immediately following the manuscript text (beginning on a new page). Consult the most recent issue of CBE-LSE for reference citation formats. Cite references in the text alphabetically by name and date (e.g., Jones and Smith, 1987; Smith et al., 1988). Only published articles or manuscripts accepted for publication can be listed in the Reference section. References should contain complete titles and inclusive page numbers and should be listed in alphabetical order. Abbreviate the names of journals as in PubMed. The abbreviations can be found at LinkOut Journal Lists.
Citations to online websites are acceptable reference links. In the text, include the name of author for the cited website and the date accessed (e.g., National Center for Biotechnology Information, 2005). The citation should include the author (if known), date of latest modification (if known) or copyright, title of page, title of complete work (if appropriate), URL (e.g., www.website.org), and date of access. For example: National Center for Biotechnology Information (2005). NCBI Home Page. www.ncbi.org (accessed 5 February 2005).
Unpublished results, including personal communications and submitted manuscripts, should be cited as such in the text. Personal communications must be accompanied by permission letters unless they are from the authors' laboratory. If you cite no references, include the results of a literature search that cites your own and others' work that has a bearing on the manuscript you are submitting and explain why no citations are needed. Include in this section only material that has been published in the literature or on the Internet.
Footnotes. Call out footnotes at the appropriate place in the text with a superscript numeral. The footnote text should be placed on a separate page after the References.
Tables. All tables must be cited in order in the text of the manuscript. Table files need to be uploaded separately.
Figure Legends. Figure legends should appear in numerical order after the References. Figure legends should provide an overview of the figure and details that describe any component parts.
Book reviews should include the complete book title, publisher information, author detail, ISBN, and retail price. The reviewer should suggest a title for the book review, but the title should be informative and descriptive of the book to most readers.
Digital artwork must accompany the manuscript submission. Figures should be uploaded as separate files with the manuscript through the online manuscript submission system. Because artwork must be of sufficient quality for print reproduction, CBE-LSE asks that all artwork be prepared using professional graphic art software. Word processing and presentation software packages (such as Word and PowerPoint) are inadequate for preparing high-quality digital artwork.
Prepare all digital artwork as RGB TIF images, at 300 dpi resolution or EPS images:
Figure Size. Prepare figures at the size they are to be published.
Up to 1 column wide: Figure width should be 4.23-8.47 cm.
1 to 1.5 columns wide: Figure width should be 10.16-11.43 cm.
2 columns wide: Figure width should be 14.39-17.57 cm.
The figure depth must be less than or equal to 23.5 cm.
It is possible for authors to submit for peer review electronic works including, but not limited to, animations, Chime tutorials, movies, interactive websites that may include quizzes, images (electron micrographs, photomicrographs, etc.), Java Applets, searchable databases, etc. Articles that describe new educational uses of existing resources (e.g., Expression Connection, FlyBase, Database of Interacting Proteins, etc.) are also of interest. Manuscripts of this type should provide detailed instructions for use of the resource by the target audience.
For works using someone else's electronic resource (such as a database), a letter from the creator or curator of the resource indicating their willingness to support free pedagogical use of their work must be included. The same general rules for evaluation will apply to all electronic submissions. All submissions will be evaluated for (1) pedagogical content, (2) clear description of goals and expected student outcomes, (3) transferability to other settings, (4) appropriateness for the target audience, and (5) references to related educational literature. After publication of the electronic work(s), the authors will be encouraged to submit the work to other databases (National Digital Library, BEN, etc.); however, it is expected that the CBE-LSE publication citation will remain associated with the work. This will allow viewers to read a more in-depth discussion of the work.
All such electronic works must be freely available, and will be hosted on the CBE-LSE server or on the ASCB server, with the exception of large databases. This will ensure stable access to the works with a nonchanging URL.
A manuscript should accompany any electronic submission. The manuscript should describe (1) the learning goals or purpose of the electronic work, (2) the target audience, (3) development of the electronic work (describe hardware and software used), (4) platform availability (see below), (5) a description of any necessary hardware or software, with links to the appropriate sites for downloading (e.g., plugins, helper applications, etc.), and (6) assessment of the work's impact on student learning.
Ideally, submitted works should work on any platform (PC, Mac, Unix) and on all browsers. If there are known restrictions, these should be included in the manuscript. CBE-LSE can help authors test their works for such limitations if they do not have access to certain platforms or browsers. Assessment may come in the form of learning gains (e.g., pre- and posttests) and/or changes in student attitudes toward the electronic work. Length of time spent using the electronic work may be one indicator of student attitudes. If it is possible to measure student responses to online questions, these responses (number of submissions before correct answer, typical errors, etc.) may further a reader's understanding of how the electronic work could be incorporated into his or her teaching.
The electronic work may have been hosted previously on any website, but the authors may not have previously published any description of the electronic work other than the associated Web pages. Published journal descriptions of the electronic work will preclude publication in CBE-LSE, with the exception of abstracts or presentations at professional meetings.
The manuscript should include an abstract and any figures deemed helpful when the published work appears as a PDF file.
The online publication will include hyperlinks to the work that will appear in a new browser window, if appropriate. This capacity could be helpful to the authors since they could provide directions for readers as needed to illustrate particular aspects of the work. The layout and submission process for the manuscript accompanying an electronic work should follow the same general format as other categories. The electronic work should be submitted to CBE-LSE at the same time as the manuscript. If this presents a problem, contact CBE-LSE staff for assistance.
Publication of a manuscript in CBE-LSE implies that the authors agree to make available, to the extent legally permissible, all propagative materials such as mutant organisms, cell lines, recombinant plasmids, vectors, viruses, and monoclonal antibodies that were used to obtain results presented in the article. Prior to obtaining these materials, interested scientists will provide the authors with a written statement that they will be used for noncommercial research purposes only. Instructional materials that were developed in the course of a project described in a CBE-LSE article should also be made freely available, preferably in electronic format. Authors are encouraged to share raw data with qualified researchers who wish to reproduce or further analyze the authors’ work for noncommercial purposes. Sharing of data on human subjects should be consistent with the conditions of the Human Subjects protocol approved by the authors’ Institutional Review Board (and any other agreements made with the subjects) for the work reported.
Electronic Submission. Authors must submit manuscripts online at www.cellbiologyeducation.org. Specific instructions on how to submit your manuscript are available at the submission site. Authors should submit the manuscript in either .doc or .rtf as two text files, the first containing the cover letter and the second containing the manuscript file. Figures, tables, and Supplemental Material, including Appendixes, must be submitted as individual files. Do not embed figures in the manuscript. If you are submitting a feature that does not contain an abstract or keywords, write “There is no abstract” in the required abstract field and “one,” “two,” and “three” in the keyword fields.
Questions regarding submission guidelines can be directed to: cbe@ascb.org or 301-347-9304.
At any stage in the submission process, authors with questions should contact the CBE-LSE Editorial Office at 301-347-9304 (phone); 301-347-9350 (fax); cbe@ascb.org; or The American Society for Cell Biology, 8120 Woodmont Avenue, Suite 750, Bethesda, MD 20814-2762.
You are encouraged to contact editorial board members or the Editor-in-Chief by email to discuss submissions to CBE-LSE.
The CBE-LSE website is an additional resource to authors; see earlier issues of CBE-LSE for examples of the different types of manuscripts published.
Last updated on 5/12/10.
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