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SUBMITTING TO THE ANNUAL DATABASE ISSUE

Since 2005 all articles published in NAR are made freely available online immediately upon publication, under an Open Access model partially funded by author charges. Please visit www.nar.oxfordjournals.org/openaccess for more information.

From 2006 the NAR Database Issue is published online only but print copies are available for purchase separate from the main print subscription.

Nucleic Acids Research devotes its first issue each year to publishing information on database resources of value to the biological community. It contains:

  • brief descriptions of numerous databases, focusing on factual content and the methods by which information can be accessed and retrieved; and
  • the Molecular Biology Database Collection, which provides a broader list of useful database resources, along with short, 1-2 paragraph summaries and information on recent developments. The Collection was instituted as a vehicle through which a broader set of databases could be presented to the readership of NAR. The intent of this compilation is to bring fellow scientists' attention to high-quality, value-added databases that are available throughout the world. It is not intended to be just a lengthy listing of all available databases.

Submission of information for a database to the Database Issue or to the Database Collection does not guarantee that the submission will appear in the compilation; all submissions will be subject to editorial review.

Returning submitters MUST contact Dr Michael Galperin at nardatabase@gmail.com to check the suitability of their proposed submission by July 1st at the latest. No updates for the database issue will be considered after only one year. Update papers must report significant improvements and advances over previous papers. Update papers should be no more than four journal pages in length. The deadline for updates on database articles that have appeared previously is September 15. Manuscripts should not be submitted before June 1st.

New submitters MUST contact Dr Michael Galperin at nardatabase@gmail.com no later than July 1st to check the suitability of their proposed submission. This pre-submission inquiry should include the URL of a fully functional database and a brief description of the database. If NAR Molecular Biology Database Collection, http://www.oxfordjournals.org/nar/database/a/, includes any similar databases, please explain how the new database is different from the existing ones. After receiving an invitation to submit a paper to the NAR Database Issue from Dr. Galperin, the authors should follow the guidelines set forth below for submission. The deadline for new articles describing databases not previously described in NAR is August 15. Manuscripts should not be submitted before June 1st.

Submission

  • Authors should submit their manuscript electronically through Manuscript Central (http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/nar). The manuscript MUST be uploaded as a .doc or .rtf file. It must NOT be uploaded as a .pdf file.
  • Authors should produce a brief description of their database. Again, this description should concentrate on the factual content of the database and provide sufficient information so that the reader can easily access and obtain information from the database. New submissions to NAR are typically 4-5 printed journal pages in length, but authors are urged to be succinct in their writing.
  • The online version of the Database Issue affords the authors the opportunity to provide readers with supplementary data. Authors are encouraged to provide online-only supplementary data to amplify on various aspects of the use of the database or the content of the database. A good way to organize this supplementary data would be to include, within the main text of the printed article, a short table of contents (one line per item) describing the supplementary data. Each topic could then be expanded as appropriate within the supplement. Authors are encouraged to be innovative in their use of such supplementary data, taking advantage of the fact that electronic material, unlike the printed text, does not need to be static. All supplementary data must be available at the time of submission, for editorial review.
  • Authors should try to use the database name as the first word in the title and should include within the article a valid URL through which the database can be accessed. The database must be completely functioning and available for review at the time of submission. If the database has its own homepage, the URL must be included in the abstract and may be repeated within the text of the article. The home page should not be used as a figure in the main text article to be printed, but a representative screen dump showing the output of a particular query would be allowed. The final article will contain a hotlink to the homepage of the database.
  • Citations to other databases should be to the most recent published description. References to URLs are not permitted.
  • References must be in the correct journal format and should be cited in the text by sequential number only, in order of appearance, and listed numerically in the References section. Manuscripts 'submitted' or 'in preparation', unpublished results, and personal communications should not be cited.
  • Authors must supply the names, institutes and email addresses of six suggested referees. They should be scientists working independently (i.e. not a recent collaborator) in areas similar to your own who have relevant expertise, such as those included in your reference list.
  • For more specific information, please consult the general Instructions to Authors.
  • If your paper is accepted for publication, you will receive additional information on submitting an entry to the Molecular Biology Database Collection.
  • Not all databases can be included in the Database Issue as individual articles. If your manuscript is not accepted for publication, but the database is deemed appropriate for inclusion in the Molecular Biology Database Collection, you will receive additional information on how to submit your entry to that collection.
  • Databases must be freely available to all via the web and not be password protected. Authors are encouraged, but not required, to make the contents of their databases freely available as flat or relational files upon request.
  • Authors should include a section on availability of the database, which includes details of methods of access as well as the under what terms of license the data are available.

For further information, please contact Dr Michael Galperin at nardatabase@gmail.com.