Organization and Format

Instructions to Authors (PDF)

Editorial Style

The editor and the Journals Department reserve the privilege of editing manuscripts to conform with the stylistic conventions followed by ASM journals and outlined in these Instructions.

Type the manuscript double-spaced, and number all pages in sequence, including the abstract.

Manuscripts may be editorially rejected on the basis of poor English or lack of conformity to the standards set forth in these Instructions.

Authors who are unsure of proper English usage should have their manuscripts checked by someone proficient in the English language or engage a professional language editing service for help.

Announcement Format

An announcement is a brief report (limit of 500 words exclusive of the abstract and acknowledgments) describing the resource and providing a citable record of the corresponding public repository accession number or stating the availability to the scientific community of other microbiological resources. Announcements must include an abstract and accession number(s) or a statement describing how the community can access the software, culture collection, or other resource; no text headings should be used except for "Acknowledgements" and "References." Sequences and other resources must be made publicly available before an announcement will be considered for publication. An accession number(s) and/or a statement of public availability must be provided in a separate paragraph at the end of the text [see "Public availability and accession number(s)," below]. Communication from the relevant database confirming public data availability must be included with the initial submission as a Data Release Email file. Announcements may include one figure or table to help summarize the data set or provide a context for the resource, but supplemental material is not permitted. Detailed results or comparative analyses are not appropriate. However, multiple related sequences and their accompanying accession numbers and URL may be presented in tabular form.

Announcements should include the following elements.

Title, running title, byline, affiliation line(s), and corresponding author. On the title page, include the title, the running title (not to exceed 54 characters and spaces), the name of each author, all authors' affiliations at the time the work was performed, the name(s) and e-mail address(es) of the corresponding author(s), and a footnote indicating the present address of any author no longer at the institution where the work was performed. Place a number sign (#) in the byline after the name of the author to whom inquiries regarding the paper should be directed (see "Correspondent footnote" below). Indicate each author’s affiliation with a superscript lowercase letter placed after the author’s surname in the byline (separate multiple affiliation letters with commas but no space). Each affiliation should have its own line and its own superscript affiliation letter preceding it. Do not consolidate different departments at one institution into one address with a single affiliation letter, even if all affected authors belong to all of those departments. Please review this sample title page for guidance. Note that articles with significantly similar titles and bylines published in the same journal may result in indexing difficulties for programs such as Google Scholar.

For Chinese and Korean authors, you may include Unicode Chinese or Korean characters in parentheses after each author's name in the submitted manuscript. If you choose this option, please provide the native expression for the original written form of the transliterated name; do not include any associated degree, rank, or title information in the native format. ASM hopes to expand this option for other languages in the future.

Study group in byline. A study group, surveillance team, working group, consortium, or the like (e.g., the Active Bacterial Core Surveillance Team) may be listed as a coauthor in the byline if its contributing members satisfy the requirements for authorship and accountability. The names (and institutional affiliations if desired) of the contributing members may be given as a separate paragraph in Acknowledgments.

If the contributing members of the group associated with the work do not fulfill the criteria of substantial contribution to and responsibility for the paper, the group may not be listed in the author byline. Instead, it and the names of its contributing members may be listed in the Acknowledgments section.

Correspondent footnote. The e-mail address for the corresponding author should be included on the title page of the manuscript. This information will be published in the article as a footnote to facilitate communication and will be used to notify the corresponding author of the availability of proofs and, later, of the PDF file of the published article. No more than two authors may be designated corresponding authors.

Abstract. Limit the abstract to 50 words or fewer and concisely summarize the basic content of the paper without presenting extensive experimental details. Avoid abbreviations and references, and do not include diagrams. When it is essential to include a reference, use the format shown under “References” below (see the “Citations in abstracts” section). Because the abstract will be published separately by abstracting services, it must be complete and understandable without reference to the text.

Public availability and accession number(s). The description of how the community can access the announced resource should be provided in a separate paragraph at the end of the text, with the paragraph lead-in "Data availability." This should include accession numbers for public repositories and Web links for software and databases. For culture collections that cannot be housed within a public repository, authors must provide contact information and a protocol for procuring the described strains. The resource(s) must be made publicly available before the submission will be considered for publication. Authors are encouraged to comply with community metadata standards, such as the "Minimum Information about any (X) Sequence" (MIxS) checklist, when submitting to GenBank, ENA, or DDBJ. For example, for genome sequence submissions, the accession number(s) should be reported in the following format: "Data availability. This Whole Genome Shotgun project has been deposited in DDBJ/ENA/GenBank under the accession no. [XXXX]00000000. The version described in this paper is the first version, [XXXX]01000000." Please also provide references (with URLs) for the accession numbers.

Acknowledgments. Statements regarding sources of direct financial support (e.g., grants, fellowships, and scholarships, etc.) should appear in the Acknowledgments. A funding statement indicating what role, if any, the funding agency had in your study (for example, “The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.”) may be included. Funding agencies may have specific wording requirements, and compliance with such requirements is the responsibility of the author. In cases in which research is not funded by any specific project grant, funders need not be listed, and the following statement may be used: “This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.” Statements regarding indirect financial support (e.g., commercial affiliations, consultancies, stock or equity interests, and patent-licensing arrangements) are also allowed. It is the responsibility of authors to provide a general statement disclosing financial or other relationships that are relevant to the study.

Recognition of personal assistance should be given in the Acknowledgments section, as should any statements disclaiming endorsement or approval of the views reflected in the paper or of a product mentioned therein.

In addition to acknowledging sources of financial support in the manuscript, authors should list any sources of funding in response to the Funding Sources question on the online submission form, providing relevant grant numbers where possible, and the authors associated with the specific funding sources. In the event that your submission is accepted, the funding source information provided in the submission form may be published, so please ensure that all information is entered accurately and completely. (It will be assumed that the absence of any information in the Funding Sources fields is a statement by the authors that no support was received.)

References

In the reference list, references are numbered in the order in which they are cited in the article. In the text, references are cited parenthetically by number in sequential order. Data that are not published are simply cited parenthetically in the text (see section ii below).

(i) References listed in the References section. The following types of references must be listed in the References section:

  • Journal articles (both print and online)
  • Books (both print and online)
  • Book chapters (publication title is required)
  • Patents
  • Theses and dissertations
  • Published conference proceedings
  • Meeting abstracts (from published abstract books or journal supplements)
  • Letters (to the editor)
  • Company publications
  • In-press journal articles, books, and book chapters
  • Data sets
  • Code

Provide the names of all the authors and/or editors for each reference; long bylines should not be abbreviated with “et al.” All listed references must be cited in the text. Abbreviate journal names according to the PubMed Journals Database (National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health), the primary source for ASM style (do not use periods with abbreviated words). The EndNote output style for ASM Journals’ current reference style can be found at https://endnote.com/style_download/american-society-for-microbiology-asm-journals-2/; save it to your EndNote Styles folder (it should replace any earlier output styles for ASM journals [all ASM journals use the same reference style]). Note that DOIs are not needed for most references. ASM copy editors will automatically insert DOIs on all references in the CrossRef and PubMed databases during copyediting. URLs for government reports and other references not indexed in these databases should be provided if desired; URLs or DOIs for citations of database accession numbers and code/software should be provided by you.

Follow the styles shown in the examples below.

  1. Caserta E, Haemig HAH, Manias DA, Tomsic J, Grundy FJ, Henkin TM, Dunny GM. 2012. In vivo and in vitro analyses of regulation of the pheromone-responsive prgQ promoter by the PrgX pheromone receptor protein. J Bacteriol 194:3386-3394.
  2. Bina XR, Taylor DL, Vikram A, Ante VM, Bina JE. 2013. Vibrio cholerae ToxR downregulates virulence factor production in response to cyclo(Phe-Pro). mBio 4:e00366-13.
  3. Winnick S, Lucas DO, Hartman AL, Toll D. 2005. How do you improve compliance? Pediatrics 115:e718-e724.
  4. Falagas ME, Kasiakou SK. 2006. Use of international units when dosing colistin will help decrease confusion related to various formulations of the drug around the world. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 50:2274-2275. (Letter.) {"Letter" or "Letter to the editor" is allowed but not required at the end of such an entry.}
  5. Cox CS, Brown BR, Smith JC. J Gen Genet, in press.* {Article title is optional; journal title is mandatory.}
  6. Forman MS, Valsamakis A. 2011. Specimen collection, transport, and processing: virology, p 1276-1288. In Versalovic J, Carroll KC, Jorgensen JH, Funke G, Landry ML, Warnock DW (ed), Manual of clinical microbiology, 10th ed, vol 2. ASM Press, Washington, DC.
  7. da Costa MS, Nobre MF, Rainey FA. 2001. Genus I. Thermus Brock and Freeze 1969, 295,AL emend. Nobre, Trüper and da Costa 1996b, 605, p 404-414. In Boone DR, Castenholz RW, Garrity GM (ed), Bergey's manual of systematic bacteriology, 2nd ed, vol 1. Springer, New York, NY.
  8. Fitzgerald G, Shaw D. In Waters AE (ed), Clinical microbiology, in press. EFH Publishing Co, Boston, MA.* {Chapter title is optional.}
  9. Green PN, Hood D, Dow CS. 1984. Taxonomic status of some methylotrophic bacteria, p 251-254. In Crawford RL, Hanson RS (ed), Microbial growth on C1 compounds. Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium. American Society for Microbiology, Washington, DC.
  10. Rotimi VO, Salako NO, Mohaddas EM, Philip LP. 2005. Abstr 45th Intersci Conf Antimicrob Agents Chemother, abstr D-1658. {Abstract title is optional.}
  11. Smith D, Johnson C, Maier M, Maurer JJ. 2005. Distribution of fimbrial, phage and plasmid associated virulence genes among poultry Salmonella enterica serovars, abstr P-038, p 445. Abstr 105th Gen Meet Am Soc Microbiol. American Society for Microbiology, Washington, DC. {Abstract title is optional.}
  12. García CO, Paira S, Burgos R, Molina J, Molina JF, Calvo C, Vega L, Jara LJ, García-Kutzbach A, Cuellar ML, Espinoza LR. 1996. Detection of Salmonella DNA in synovial membrane and synovial fluid from Latin American patients using the polymerase chain reaction. Arthritis Rheum 39(Suppl 9):S185. {Meeting abstract published in journal supplement.}
  13. O'Malley DR. 1998. PhD thesis. University of California, Los Angeles, CA. {Title is optional.}
  14. Stratagene. 2006. Yeast DNA isolation system: instruction manual. Stratagene, La Jolla, CA. {Use the company name as the author if none is provided for a company publication.}
  15. Odell JC. April 1970. Process for batch culturing. US patent 484,363,770. {Include the name of the patented item/process if possible; the patent number is mandatory.}
  16. Harrison F, Roberts AEL, Gabrilska R, Rumbaugh KP, Lee C, Diggle SP. 2015. A 1,000-year-old antimicrobial remedy with antistaphylococcal activity. mBio 6:e01129-15. {Original article that describes how data submitted to a database were generated.}
  17. Harrison F, Roberts AEL, Gabrilska R, Rumbaugh KP, Lee C, Diggle SP. 2015. Data from "A 1,000-year-old antimicrobial remedy with antistaphylococcal activity." Dryad Digital Repository https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.mn17p. {Citation for the database where the data in the previous reference were deposited; the URL is necessary.}
  18. Wang Y, Rozen D. 2016. Colonization and transmission of the gut microbiota of the burying beetle, Nicrophorus vespilloides, through development. bioRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/091702.

*A reference to an in-press ASM publication should state the control number (e.g., MRA00123-19) if it is a journal article or the name of the publication if it is a book.

In some online journal articles, posting or revision dates may serve as the year of publication; a DOI (preferred) or URL is required for articles with nontraditional page numbers or electronic article identifiers.

Magalon A, Mendel RR. 15 June 2015, posting date. Biosynthesis and insertion of the molybdenum cofactor. EcoSal Plus 2015 doi:10.1128/ecosalplus.ESP-0006-2013.

Note: a posting or accession date is required for any online reference that is periodically updated or changed.

Citations of accepted ASM manuscripts should look like the following example.

Wang GG, Pasillas MP, Kamps MP. 15 May 2006. Persistent transactivation by Meis1 replaces Hox function in myeloid leukemogenesis models: evidence for co-occupancy of Meis1-Pbx and Hox-Pbx complexes on promoters of leukemia-associated genes. Mol Cell Biol doi:10.1128/MCB.00586-06.

Other journals may use different styles for their publish-ahead-of-print manuscripts, but citation entries must include the following information: author name(s), posting date, title, journal title, and volume and page numbers and/or DOI. The following is an example:

Zhou FX, Merianos HJ, Brunger AT, Engelman DM. 13 February 2001. Polar residues drive association of polyleucine transmembrane helices. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A doi:10.1073/pnas.041593698.

To encourage data sharing and reuse, ASM recommends reporting data sets and/or code both in a dedicated “Data availability” paragraph and in References. The components of a complete data citation include the following:

  • Responsible party (senior author, collector, agency),
  • Publication year,
  • Complete name of a data set, including the name of the database or repository and its URL, or the name of the analysis software (if appropriate), including the version and project,
  • Publisher (if appropriate), and
  • Persistent unique identifier(s) (e.g., URL[s] or accession number[s]).

The following template may be helpful.

Author. Year. Description or title of software (version). Repository URL or DOI. Retrieved day month year. {Software or code.}

Examples follow.

Christian SL, McDonough J, Liu C-Y, Shaikh S, Vlamakis V, Badner JA, Chakravarti A, Gershon ES. 2002. Data from “An evaluation of the assembly of an approximately 15-Mb region on human chromosome 13q32-q33 linked to bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.” GenBank https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/AF339794 (accession no. AF339794). {Accession number.}
Sun Z. 2013. Reprocessed: in-depth membrane proteomic study of breast cancer tissues. ProteomeXchange http://proteomecentral.proteomexchange.org/cgi/GetDataset?ID=RPXD000665 (accession number requested). {Unassigned accession number.}
Hogle S. 2015. Supplemental material for Hogle et al. 2015 mBio. figshare https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1533034.v1. Retrieved 16 March 2017. {Code and/or software.}
Nesbitt HK, Moore JW. 2016. Data from “Species and population diversity in Pacific salmon fisheries underpin indigenous food security.” Dryad Digital Repository https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.ng8pf. {Data set in repository.}

Manuscript submissions that have appeared in preprint archives should cite the preprint in References, and the fact that a paper has appeared online before should be mentioned parenthetically at the end of the introductory section: (This article was submitted to an online preprint archive [1].) The reference should take the form noted above in reference 18.

(ii) References cited in the text. References that should be cited in the text include the following:

  • Manuscripts submitted for publication
  • Personal communications
  • Patent applications and patents pending
  • Websites

These references should be made parenthetically in the text as follows:

... system was used (J. L. McInerney, A. F. Holden, and P. N. Brighton, submitted for publication).

... as described previously (M. G. Gordon and F. L. Rattner, presented at the Fourth Symposium on Food Microbiology, Overton, IL, 13 to 15 June 1989). {For nonpublished abstracts and posters, etc.}

... this new process (V. R. Smoll, 20 June 1999, Australian Patent Office). {For non-U.S. patent applications, give the date of publication of the application.}

... as suggested by the World Health Organization (http://www.who.int/campaigns/immunization-week/2017/en/).

URLs for companies that produce any of the products mentioned in your study or for products being sold may not be included in the article. However, company URLs that permit access to scientific data related to the study or to shareware used in the study are permitted.

(iii) Citations in abstracts. Because the abstract must be able to stand apart from the article, references cited in it should be clear without recourse to the References section. Use an abbreviated form of citation, omitting the article title, as follows.

(P. S. Satheshkumar, A. S. Weisberg, and B. Moss, J Virol 87:10700–10709, 2013, doi:10.1128/JVI.01258-13)

(J. H. Coggin, Jr., p. 93–114, in D. O. Fleming and D. L. Hunt, ed., Biological Safety. Principles and Practices, 4th ed., 2006)

“. . . in a recent report by D. A. Hopwood (mBio 4:e00612-13, 2013, doi:10.1128/mBio00612-13) . . . .”

This style should also be used for Addenda in Proof.

Commentaries

Commentaries are short invited articles (limit of 500 words) that discuss MRA articles of special interest. These are solicited by the editor from experts in the field.

Authors should provide an abstract of 50 words or fewer. The body of a Commentary may have section headings or paragraph lead-ins.

Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor are intended for comments on articles published in the journal and must cite published references to support the writer's argument. They should contain significant and substantive comments. Comments on technical issues should use the online comment format.

Letters may be no more than 500 words long and must be typed double-spaced.

All Letters to the Editor must be submitted electronically. The cover letter should refer to the article in question by its title and the last name of the first author. In addition, the volume and issue and/or DOI should be indicated. Letters to the Editor do not have abstracts. The Letter must have a distinct title, which must appear on the manuscript and on the submission form.

The Letter will be considered by the editor, and if the editor believes that publication is warranted, he/she will solicit a reply from the corresponding author of the article. Final approval for publication rests with the editor.