INFORMATION FOR CONTRIBUTORS

• Statement on Ethics and Author Responsibilities
• Where to Submit Your Manuscript
• Journal Sections | Sample Manuscript for Fabrication and Laboratory Methods section
• How to Prepare Your Manuscript
• English Language Editing Assistance
• Multimedia Files
• Supplemental Material
• Free Color Online
• How to Prepare Your Illustrations
• Manuscript Preparation Checklist
• Accepted Manuscripts
• Contact Editorial Office
• BMF Style Files
• Sample manuscript

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Statement on Ethics and Author Responsibilities

This journal is published as part of the charter of its publisher, the American Institute of Physics (AIP), to advance and diffuse knowledge of the science of physics and its applications to human welfare. To that end, it is essential that all who participate in producing the journal conduct themselves as authors, reviewers, editors, and publishers in accord with the highest level of professional ethics and standards.

A detailed statement of what this journal expects is available here.

By submitting a manuscript to this journal, each author implicitly confirms that it meets the highest ethical standards.

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Where to Submit Your Manuscript

Submit manuscripts via Peer X-Press, Biomicrofluidics' online manuscript submission system, located at http://bmf.peerx-press.org.

Author instructions are available through a link after you successfully log into Peer X-Press. After registering and submitting information and files, you may use Peer X-Press to check on the status of your manuscript throughout the peer review process.

Unless otherwise stated, submission of a manuscript will be understood to mean that the paper has been neither copyrighted, classified, published, nor is being considered for publication elsewhere. If the manuscript was previously submitted to another journal, please include a copy of the pertinent correspondence with your submission. It is expected that the manuscript does not substantially duplicate material elsewhere, such as a published conference proceedings volume. If there is any uncertainty about this point, please enclose a copy of the relevant related paper with your submission.

Agreement to the terms of AIP’s Transfer of Copyright Agreement form is required for publication in this journal. No claim is made to original U.S. Government works. When submitting your original or revised manuscript to the journal's online submission site (http://bmf.peerx-press.org), you will be able to provide electronic consent to the Transfer of Copyright Agreement.

Journal Sections

Perspectives and Review Articles: Perspectives and Review Articles consist of colloquia that serve to provide an in-depth overview or the anticipated future directions of a particular topic of importance or growth within the field. Papers in these sections are usually solicited from leading researchers in the subject area, although the editors welcome proposals from prospective authors. Whilst there are no strict length limitations for Perspectives and Review Articles, they should not exceed 50 published pages (approximately 35,000 words of text, reduced, however, by allowances for equations, tables, and figures; an average one-column figure with its caption will displace about 220 words of text) as they extend the review process. Manuscripts deemed to be too long or to require excessive time for reviews will not be accepted.

Brief Communications: Brief Communications consist of short reports of significant new research findings within the scope of the journal that constitute a complete body of work. Preliminary work or incomplete data sets, as well as publication of a series of short articles by the same research group on a particular topic, are therefore discouraged. The abstract is limited to 100 words. In addition to the title, abstract, and references, Brief Communications should contain no more than 2000 words of text (approximately 3 published pages), reduced, however, by allowances for equations, tables, and figures. An average one-column figure with its caption will displace about 220 words of text. Authors are cautioned that discovery of excess length might not occur until a late stage in publication and would then result in delay and expense. Circumvention of the length limitation by division of a long article into small parts is considered to be contrary to the purpose of this section.

Regular Articles: Regular Articles are original contributions that disseminate new research findings that constitute a substantial advance in understanding in a subject within the scope of the journal. Whilst there are no strict length limitations for Regular Articles, contributions longer than 15 published pages (approximately 10,000 words of text, reduced, however, by allowances for equations, tables, and figures; an average one-column figure with its caption will displace about 220 words of text) are discouraged as they extend the review process. Manuscripts deemed to be too long or to require excessive time for reviews will not be accepted.

Fabrication and Laboratory Methods: The Fabrication and Laboratory Methods section provides a published forum for revolutionary advances in methods underlying micro and nanofluidics, chemical and biological applications of lab-on-a-chip devices, and in-vitro and in-vivo protocols for biological materials. The articles in this section will carry full citation details, and are limited to 10 published pages (roughly 6500 words of text, reduced as required to accommodate equations, tables and figures) with an abstract limited to 100 words. The editors also welcome proposals from prospective authors on methods review articles, limited to 50 published pages, covering a method with a broader perspective and assessment of future advancements beyond the scope of a standard article. Authors are strongly encouraged to both examine past articles from the section for style and provide additional supporting material for their submission, including multimedia of the method. Questions are welcome on appropriateness of candidate material for this section. A sample for Fabrication and Methods articles is available here.

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How to Prepare Your Manuscript

A sample manuscript is available for download.

English Language Editing Assistance

AIP recommends Edanz for authors who wish to have the language in their manuscripts edited by a native-English-speaking language editor who is also a scientific expert. Edanz is a global editing service with offices in Japan and China. Use of an editing service is neither a requirement nor a guarantee of acceptance for publication. Please contact Edanz directly to make arrangements for editing and to receive a quotation regarding price and time.

Properly prepared, double-spaced manuscript/article files in LaTeX/REVTeX or MSWord format are accepted. Please see the instructions below for submitting LaTeX/REVTeX files. If an author wishes to submit files in a different format, the Editorial Office should be contacted prior to submission.

The speed with which papers are processed in the Editorial Office and prepared for publication by the American Institute of Physics can be increased considerably if authors take care in the preparation of manuscripts. Particular care should be taken when a laboratory report is used as the basis for the preparation of a manuscript. Such reports often include an exhaustive review of previous or related work, extensive information on experimental instrumentation and techniques, details of algebraic operations, numerous figures, data, tables, etc., not appropriate for publication.

Articles which do not meet the criteria listed will not be sent out for review and will either be rejected outright or returned to the authors for resubmission.

For general format and style, consult recent issues of the Journal. Link to the journal's General Editorial Policies here.

Acceptable manuscript file types include Word, LaTeX, and PDF. PDF is acceptable for the review process only and a source Word or LaTex file is required for production. For authors who use LaTeX, REVTeX 4.1 is now available and includes style files for AIP journals and associated instructions. REVTeX 4.1 is available here.

Note for TeX users:

Please note that AIP does not compose/typeset pages in TeX. Instead we use the generic markup language XML (Extensible Markup Language). As a result, the format and layout, especially math, may look somewhat different to what was originally created in TeX.

While we appreciate the benefits to authors of preparing manuscripts in TeX, especially for math-intensive manuscripts, it is neither a cost-effective composition tool (for the volume of pages AIP currently produces) nor is it a format that can be used effectively for online publishing.

XML is critical to ensure that online content is discoverable, searchable, and accessible well into the future. It is a W3C standard that has been adopted by many publishers as well as by many software industry market leaders. Information in XML can be processed easily by computers and is both hardware and software independent. Tagged XML data is an ideal archive format as identification and extraction of specific content for reuse is relatively easy. A single XML source file is generated from authors’ TeX or Word files and feeds our entire process. All end-products and deliverables, whether print or electronic, are derived from this single XML file, reducing the chance of errors or inconsistencies.

The Manuscript, including the abstract, references, and captions, should be set up for 21.6 x 28 cm (8-1/2 x 11 in. or A4) pages with ample margins. It should be carefully proofread by the author. The manuscript must be in good scientific American English; this is the author's responsibility. Number all pages in single sequence beginning with the title and abstract page. The title page should contain the title of the article, the names and affiliations of the authors, and a short abstract. Parts of the manuscript should be arranged in the following order: title, author, affiliation, abstract, text, acknowledgments, appendices, and references. Figures, with figure captions, may be embedded within the manuscript to assist the reviewers. Papers should not be lengthened by unnecessary descriptions and repetitions, but neither should authors use a telegraphic style detrimental to the clarity and understanding of the paper.

The title of a paper should be as concise as possible but informative enough to facilitate information retrieval. For series publications of closely related papers, the descriptor “Part I,” or simply “I,” will not be included as part of the title of an article unless Part II has already been submitted for publication in the Journal. Part III, IV, etc., are likewise unacceptable unless the prior parts have already been accepted or have appeared in this Journal, and are properly identified in the references.

The Abstract must emphasize the new results and should be self-contained (contain no footnotes). One should not have to read the paper to understand the abstract. It should be adequate as an index (giving all subjects, major and minor, about which new information is given), and as a summary (giving conclusions and all results of general interest in the article). It should be about 5% of the length of the article, but less than 500 words for full-length articles (Perspectives, Review and Regular Articles) and 100 words for Brief Communications. The abstract should be written as one paragraph and should not contain displayed mathematical equations or tabular material.

Authors' names should preferably be written in a standard form for all publications to facilitate indexing and avoid ambiguities.

Authors with Chinese, Japanese, or Korean names may choose to have their names published in their own language alongside the English versions of their names in the author list of their publications. For Chinese, authors may use either Simplified or Traditional characters. Chinese, Japanese, or Korean characters must be included within the author list of the manuscript when submitting or resubmitting. The manuscript must be prepared using Microsoft Word or using the CJK LaTeX package. Specific guidelines for each authoring tool are given here. To ensure that we have processed the manuscript files correctly, you must proof the PDF of the manuscript as produced by the Peer X-Press system on first submission. In addition, it is essential that you check carefully any production proofs you receive prior to the publication of your paper.

Equations should be neatly typed, punctuated and aligned to bring out their structure, and numbered on the right. Mathematical operation signs indicating continuity of the expression should be placed at the left of the second and succeeding lines. Use x rather than a centered dot, except for scalar products of vectors. The solidus (/) should be used instead of built-up fractions in running text, and in display wherever clarity would not be jeopardized. Use "exp" for complicated exponents.

Notation must be legible, clear, compact, and consistent with standard usage. All unusual symbols whose identity may not be obvious must be identified the first time they appear, and at all subsequent times when confusion might arise. Superscripts are normally set directly over subscripts; authors should note where readability or the meaning requires a special order.

References and footnotes are treated alike. The names, including initials, of all authors in each reference should be given. (In the text, the use of et al. is permissible.) Titles of papers in journals are NOT required. For footnotes to titles and bylines, use a), b), c), etc. All text references (excluding tables and captions) should be listed in sequential order of appearance. Avoid lengthy footnotes by inserting them in the text, except for the references. References within tables should be designated by lowercase Roman letter superscripts and given at the end of the table.

Tables should appear on pages separate from the running text. Each table must have a caption that will make the data in the table intelligible without reference to the text. Complicated column headings should be avoided. Footnotes to the table should be indicated by superscripts, a, b, c, etc., and begun anew for each table. The tables should be numbered with Roman numerals in the order in which they are referred to in the text.

Special Notes for LaTeX/REVTeX file submissions:

• A LaTeX/REVTeX submission should be a single .tex file; multiple-(.tex)-file submissions are not supported.
• Commands to include figures may be used. Ensure that the figure filename cited in the command matches that of the actual file upload; use only the simple filename, not a complete directory path; only include figures of .eps format (not .tif or .pdf).
• Submission of custom .sty files is not supported.
• Submission of .bib files is not supported; create your own .bbl file and include it as the bibliography section in the main .tex file.
• Processing and conversion of TeX files generated from Scientific Word ^TM(tcilatex) is not supported, and not likely to proceed successfully.
• Submissions in Plain TeX format or in dvi format are not supported.
• Uploading .sty files or .bib files, e.g., as Supplemental Material file types, does NOT help.
• To redo the TeX processing, e.g., after uploading a new or revised figure file, do a Replace on the .tex Article File. Doing a Rebuild of the Merged PDF file does NOT initiate another TeX processing.

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AUTHOR GUIDELINES FOR MULTIMEDIA SUBMISSIONS

Multimedia files can be included in the online version of published papers. These multimedia files can be viewed by simply clicking on a link in the paper, provided the reader has a video player, such as Windows Media Player^TM, QuickTime Player^TM, or RealOne Player^TM installed.

Please adhere to the following guidelines when preparing multimedia files for submission:

• When incorporating multimedia, note that the paper should be written so that the print version can be understood on its own.
• Submit all multimedia files initially with the manuscript.
• Treat all multimedia files as figures, numbered in sequence as they are referred to in text. (Multimedia files will not have a numbering scheme separate from the figures.)
• All multimedia files must be cited in the text, referred to by their figure number.
• For each multimedia file, provide a figure, which is a static representation of the multimedia file. Also provide an accompanying caption. At the end of the caption, include the phrase, "(enhanced online)."
• Video and other enhanced files should be in a format that the majority of readers can view without too much difficulty. See the multimedia guidelines here for specific submission requirements.

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Supplemental Material

Supplemental files may be of two types:

• Files to aid the reviewer and not for publication.
• Supplementary information for publication alongside the manuscript.

Appropriate items for publication as supplemental material include; multimedia (e.g., movie files, audio files, 3D rendering files), data tables, and text (e.g., appendices) that are too lengthy or of too limited interest for inclusion in the article. Links (URLs) in the online (printed) journal article allow users to navigate directly to the associated files. Note that subdirectories (folders) are not acceptable. Name files appropriately, so that all files can reside at the root directory, allowing successful linking between the published paper and its associated supplemental material.

All supplemental material must be approved by the Journal Editor as part of a manuscript's normal review cycle, and must be listed in the reference section as follows: "See supplementary material at [URL will be inserted by AIP] for [give brief description of material]."

For additional information about depositing or retrieving supplementary material, see the Supplemental Material homepage.

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Free Color Online

If authors supply usable color graphics files in time for the production process, color will appear in the online journal free of charge. A usable color graphics file must be in one of the following formats: Encapsulated PostScript (.eps), PostScript (.ps), Tagged Image File Format (.tif), and Portable Document Format (.pdf). No other type of color illustration is acceptable for production, and only one version of each graphics file will be accepted.

If usable color graphics files are received in time for the production process, authors will see color versions of those illustrations when viewing their author proofs. (The Corresponding Author will receive e-mail notification from AIP when the proof, as a PDF file, is available for downloading.)

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How to Prepare Your Illustrations

For best results, please adhere to these guidelines when preparing your illustrations for submission.

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Manuscript Preparation Checklist

A sample manuscript is available for download. Use this checklist to avoid the most common mechanical errors in submitted manuscripts:

1. The manuscript must be double-spaced throughout.
2. Number all pages in single sequence.
3. Type references in the style used by this journal.
4. Submit manuscript file, illustration files, and any supplemental files via Peer X-Press, the journal's online submission system, located at http://bmf.peerx-press.org.
5. The original figures must be in the final published size, not oversized.
6. Include correspondence concerning the paper's previous history.
7. When submitting your original or revised manuscript to the journal’s online submission site (http://bmf.peerx-press.org), please provide electronic consent to the Transfer of Copyright Agreement.
8. Obtain permission for reuse of any previously published material and include proper citation information within manuscript. For guidelines and blank form click here.

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Accepted Manuscripts

Authors whose manuscripts have been accepted for publication will receive correspondence informing them of the issue for which it is tentatively scheduled. Date of publication may be before the date of the issue. Authors may access publication data for their manuscripts online through AIP's AMSIS service.

Proofs and all subsequent correspondence pertaining to papers in the production process should be addressed to:

Editorial Supervisor

Biomicrofluidics

American Institute of Physics

Suite 1NO1

2 Huntington Quadrangle

Melville, NY 11747-4502, USA

 

Telephone: +1 516-576-2465

Fax: +1 516-576-2233

E-mail: bmf@aip.org

Reference must be made to the AIP identification number (e.g., 001201BMF), title, author, and scheduled issue date. A limited number of alterations in proof are unavoidable, but the cost of making extensive alterations after the article has been typeset may be charged to the author. Please do not address correspondence about proofs, reprints, artwork, etc., to the Editors. To do so simply delays the appropriate action and response.

Through AIP's Accepted Manuscript Status Inquiry Service (AMSIS), authors may access information about significant milestones for their accepted manuscript during the production process at AIP. AMSIS can be used only by authors of accepted manuscripts; authors will use Peer X-Press to monitor their submitted manuscript during peer review.

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Contact Editorial Office

Contact the Biomicrofluidics Editorial Office at:

Biomicrofluidics Editorial Office
American Institute of Physics
Suite 1NO1
2 Huntington Quadrangle
Melville, NY 11747-4502, USA
Tel:    +1 516-576-2616
Fax:    +1 516-576-2223
E-mail: biomf@aip.org

Editorial Staff: Linda Boniello, Benita Hammer, Christine Urso