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About

Central European Journal of Biology (CEJB) is an international journal publishing works of wide significance, originality and relevance in all areas of the biological sciences, from molecules to ecosystems (see Aims and scope).

CEJB considers submissions of Research Articles, Communications, Rapid Communications, Reviews, Mini-Reviews, Commentaries, Letters to the Editor (see Publication formats).

Electronic Submission

All submissions to CEJB must be made electronically via Editorial Manager - an online submission and peer review system at http://CEJB.edmgr.com. First-time users must create an Author account to obtain a user ID and password required to enter the system. All manuscripts receive individual identification codes that should be used in any correspondence with regard to the publication process. If you experience difficulties with the manuscript submission Web site, please contact the Managing Editor.

All authors of the manuscript are responsible for its content; they must have agreed to its publication and have given the corresponding author the authority to act on their behalf in all matters pertaining to publication. The corresponding author is responsible for informing the coauthors of the manuscript status throughout the submission, review, and production process.

Transfer of Copyright Agreement

Once the paper is accepted, authors are assumed to have transferred the copyright of the paper to the publisher, Versita. A properly completed Transfer of Copyright Agreement, signed by the Corresponding Author on behalf of all the authors, must be provided for each submitted manuscript as a condition of publication. A form can be downloaded from the journal’s webpage. Authors are asked to email a scanned copy of the signed original to the Managing Editor of the journal, together with the manuscript submitted.

Electronic Formats Allowed

For initial submissions, we accept text, tables and figures as separate files or as a composite PDF file. If you are invited to submit a revised manuscript, please provide us with individual files: an editable text and tables and publication-quality figures.

Text files and tables can be submitted in the following formats: MS Word - standard DOCUMENT (.DOC); RICH TEXT FORMAT (.RTF); PDF (not applicable for re-submitted manuscripts); note that straight Excel files are not accepted as tables. Graphics files can be submitted in any of the following graphic formats: EPS; BMP; JPG; TIFF; GIF or PDF; note that Powerpoint files are not accepted.

Any articles that have been prepared in LaTeX will be accepted for review, but only in PDF format. Post acceptance, editable text files of the revised manuscript and tables are required for use in the production.

First-Time Submission of Articles

Each newly submitted manuscript should be accompanied by a cover letter which should explicitly state that the authors have the authority to publish the work and that the manuscript (or one with substantially the same content, by any of the authors) has not been previously published in any language anywhere and that it is not under simultaneous consideration by another journal (if related work has been submitted, then a preprint must be included). Please explain why you consider your manuscript as suitable for publication in CEJB, why will your paper inspire the other members of your field, and how will it drive research forward.

Manuscripts that have been previously rejected, or withdrawn after being returned for modification, may be resubmitted if the major criticisms have been addressed. The cover letter must state that the manuscript is a resubmission, and the former manuscript number should be provided.

The letter should contain all important details such as:

• your full name (submitted by)
• full title of article
• full list of authors with affiliations
• e-mail of the corresponding author
• contact address, telephone/fax numbers of the corresponding author
• number of attached files
• status: new, reviewed, previously rejected or withdrawn (with reference ID)
• area of biology you would like to submit your manuscript in

To ensure fair and objective decision-making, authors must declare any associations that pose a conflict of interest in connection with evaluated manuscripts (see Editorial Policy for details). Authors may suggest up to two referees not to use and in such cases additional justification should be provided in the cover letter. Authors are encouraged to recommend up to five reviewers who are not members of their institution(s) and have never been associated with them or their laboratory(ies); please provide contact information for suggested reviewers.

Submission of Revised Articles

When revision of a manuscript is requested, authors are expected to deliver the revised version of the manuscript as soon as possible. The manuscript should be uploaded directly to the Editorial Manager as an answer to the Editor's decision (and not as a new manuscript).

Resubmitted manuscript should be accompanied by a letter outlining a point-by-point response to Editor's and reviewers' comments and detailing the changes made to the manuscript. A compare copy of the manuscript should be included if the Editor requested one. If it is the 1^st revision authors need to return revised manuscript within 60 days; if it is the 2^nd revision authors need to return revised manuscript within 14 days. Additional time for resubmission must be requested in advance; further 14 days may be given to authors for further improvements. If the above mentioned deadlines are not met, the manuscript will be treated as a new submission.

Please provide us with an editable text. Tables also need to be included within an editable article file or be submitted separately as editable files. Supply any figures as separate high-resolution, print-ready digital versions.

Authors are asked to take care that they have prepared the revised version according to the Journal's style. Please adopt numbered citation (citation-sequence) style referencing.

Preparation of Manuscripts
 

General rules for writing

The work must demonstrate its novelty, and its importance to a particular field - as well as its interest to those outside that discipline - and conclusions that are justified by the study. Make your argumentation complete and be self-critical as you review your drafts.

CEJB encourages the submission of both substantial full-length bodies of work and shorter manuscripts that report novel findings that might be based on a more limited range of experiments. There are no specific length restrictions for the overall manuscript or individual sections; however, we urge the authors to present and discuss their findings in a concise and accessible manner.

Use simple and declarative sentences and commonly understood terms, and avoid long sentences and idle words. CEJB recommends that for clarity you use the past tense to narrate particular events in the past, including the procedures, observations, and data of the study that you are reporting. Use the present tense for your own general conclusions, the conclusions of previous researchers, and generally accepted facts. Thus, most of the Abstract, Experimental Procedures, and Results should be in the past tense, and most of the Introduction and some of the Discussion should be in the present tense. Editors may make suggestions for how to improve clarity and readability, as well as to strengthen the argument.

Organization of the Manuscript

Articles should be organized into the following sections:

• Title page with: Title (and running title); Author's name(s); Affiliation(s); Address(es)
• Abstract
• Keywords
• Introduction
• Experimental Procedures
• Results
• Discussion
• Acknowledgments (if applicable)
• References
• Figure Legendsand Table Captions
• Tables
• Figures
• Supplemental data (if applicable)

We draw particular attention of authors to the importance of carefully preparing the title, keywords and abstract as these elements are indicators of the manuscript content in bibliographic databases and search engines.

Title

The title should be informative, specific to the project, yet concise (75 characters or less). Please bear in mind that a title that is comprehensible to a broad scientific audience and readers outside your field will convey to wide readership of your article. Avoid specialist abbreviations and non-standard acronyms. Titles should NOT be presented in title case (words should not be capitalized). Please also provide a brief "running title" of not more than 50 characters.

Authors, Affiliations, Addresses

Provide the first names (or initials - if used), middle names (or initials - if used), surnames for all authors. Affiliations should include:

• Department, University or organization
• Postal code
• City
• State/province (if applicable)
• Country

Place an asterisk after the name of the corresponding author and provide us with a valid e-mail address. Please note that a change in authorship (order of listing, addition or deletion of a name, or corresponding author designation) after submission of the manuscript will be implemented only after receipt of signed statements of agreement from all parties involved. If the article has been submitted on behalf of a consortium, all consortium members and affiliations should be listed after the Acknowledgments.

Abstract and Image accompanying abstract

The abstract should be succinct; it should not exceed 200 words. The abstract should give the idea of the basic content of the paper and is usually conceptually divided into: Background, Methodology, Principal Findings/Results, and Conclusions/Significance. Mention the techniques used without going into methodological detail and summarize briefly the most important items of the paper. Please do not include any citations or references to tables or figures, and avoid specialist abbreviations and symbols. Because the abstract will be published separately by abstracting services, it must be complete and understandable without reference to the text.

Authors may provide a striking image to accompany their article, if one is available. If the image (photo, graph, scheme) is judged by the editors to be suitable for publication, it may be featured on the web to highlight the paper online. It is preferable, but not essential, that these should be related strictly to the subject reported in the manuscript. The image could originate from the experimental findings reported in the manuscript but does not have to constitute a part of the original work and need not be reprinted in the article. Images must be original and should be submitted as separate files.

Keywords

List keywords for the work presented (maximum of 10), separated by commas.

Introduction

The introduction should put the focus of the manuscript into a broader context and should supply sufficient background information to allow the reader to understand and evaluate the results without referring to previous publications on the topic. As you compose the introduction, think of readers who are not experts in this field. Include a brief review of the key literature - use only those references required to provide the most salient background rather than an exhaustive review of the topic. Relevant controversies or disagreements in the field should be mentioned so that a non-expert reader can delve into these issues further. The introduction should conclude with a brief statement of the rationale for the study, the hypothesis that was addressed or the overall purpose of the experiments reported and should provide a comment about whether that aim was achieved.

Experimental Procedures

This section should include sufficient technical information to enable the experiments to be reproduced. Protocols for new methods or significant modifications to existing methods should be included, while previously published or well-established protocols should only be referenced. Describe new methods completely and give sources of unusual chemicals, equipment, strains etc. Studies presented should comply with our recommendations for Distribution of materials and data (see below). In theoretical papers comprising the computational analyses, technical details (methods, models applied or newly developed) should be provided to enable the readers to reproduce the calculations.

Results

This section should provide details of all of the experiments that are required to support the conclusions of the paper. Reserve extensive interpretation of the results for the Discussion section. Details of experiments that are peripheral to the main thrust of the article and that detract from the focus of the article should not be included. Present the results as concisely as possible in text, table(s), or figure(s). Avoid extensive use of graphs to present data that might be more concisely presented in the text or tables. Graphs illustrating methods commonly used need not be shown except in unusual circumstances. Limit photographs to those that are absolutely necessary to show the experimental findings. Number figures and tables in the order in which they are cited in the text, and be sure to cite all figures and tables. Styles and fonts should match those in the main body of the article. Large datasets, including raw data, should be submitted as supporting files.

The section may be divided into subsections, each with a concise subheading.

Discussion

The Discussion should provide an interpretation of the results in relation to previously published work and to the experimental system used. It should not contain extensive repetition of the Results or reiteration of the Introduction. This section should spell out the major conclusions of the work along with some explanation or speculation on the significance of these conclusions. The discussion should be concise and tightly argued.

The results and discussion sections may be combined into one section and can include additional subheadings.

Acknowledgments

This section should describe sources of funding that have supported the work. Recognition of personal assistance should be given as a separate paragraph: people who contributed to the work, but do not fit the criteria for authors should be listed along with their contributions. You must ensure that anyone named in the acknowledgments agrees to being so named.

References

Because all references will be linked electronically to the papers they cite, proper formatting of the references is crucial (see Reference Guide for details). A complete reference should give the reader enough information to find the relevant article. Please pay particular attention to spelling, capitalization and punctuation.

References to unpublished or submitted work, unpublished conference presentations, personal communications, patent applications and patents pending, computer software, databases, and websites should be referred to as such only in the body of the text. These should be kept to the minimum. The examples are as follows:

• (J. Smith, unpublished data)
• (J. Smith and P. Brown, submitted for publication)
• (J. Smith, personal communication)
• (J. Smith and P. Brown, presented at the Fourth Symposium on Food Microbiology, Overton, IL, 13 to 15 June 1989)
• (J. C. Odell, April 1970. Process for batch culturing. U.S. patent 484,363,770)
• (J. Smith, 20 June 1999, Australian Patent Office)
• . available in the GenBank database
  (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Genbank/index.html)
• . using ABC software (version 2.2; Department of Microbiology, State University
  [http://www.stu.micro])

Published or accepted ('in press') manuscripts, books and book chapters, theses should be included in the reference list. References to published meetings abstracts should be kept to the minimum.

For all references, list the first six authors; add "et al." if there are additional authors. Standard abbreviations of journal names should be used. Please use the following style for the reference list:

Published Papers

• Kulig P., Zabel B.A., Dubin G., Allen S.J., Ohyama T., Potempa J., et al., Staphylococcus aureus-derived staphopain B, a potent cysteine protease activator of plasma chemerin, J. Immunol., 2007, 178, 3713-3720
• Kulig P., Zabel B.A., Dubin G., Allen S.J., Ohyama T., Potempa J., et al., Stafopaina B Staphylococcus aureus, aktywator chemeryny osoczowej, J. Immunol., 2007, 178, 3713-3720, (in Polish)

Accepted Papers

• Kulig P., Zabel B.A., Dubin G., Allen S.J., Ohyama T., Potempa J., et al., Staphylococcus aureus-derived staphopain B, a potent cysteine protease activator of plasma chemerin, J. Immunol., (in press), DOI: 12.3412/01
• Kulig P., Zabel B.A., Dubin G., Allen S.J., Ohyama T., Potempa J., et al., Stafopaina B Staphylococcus aureus, aktywator chemeryny osoczowej, J. Immunol., (in press, in Polish), DOI: 12.3412/01

Electronic Journal Articles

• Dionne M.S., Schneider D.S., Screening the immune system, Genome Biol., 2002, http://genomebiology.com/2002/3/4/reviews/1010

Books and book chapters

• Sambrook J., Russell D.W., Molecular cloning - a laboratory manual, 3rd ed., Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Cold Spring Harbor, 2001
• Sambrook J., Cloning and sequencing, In: Sambrook J., Russell D.W. (Eds.), Molecular cloning - a laboratory manual, 3rd ed., Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Cold Spring Harbor, 2001

Theses

• Agutter A.J., Analysis of sigma factors in S. aureus, PhD thesis, Edinburgh University, Edinburgh, UK, 1995
• Nowak A., Analiza czynnikow sigma S. aureus, PhD thesis, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland, 1995, (in Polish)

Conference proceedings

• Smith J., Brown P., Reference style guide, In: M. Scott (Ed.), Proceedings of Biochemical Society Conference (11-13 July 2007, Warszawa, Poland), Versita Warsaw, 2007, 1335-1791

Newspaper articles

• A. Sherwin, The post-genomic era, The Times, 13 July 2007, 1-2
• M. Dzierżanowski, Horyzonty, Wprost, 8 July 2007, 18 (in Polish)

References are listed and numbered in the order that they appear in the text. In the text, citations should be indicated by the reference number in brackets. Multiple citations within a single set of brackets should be separated by commas. Where there are more than three sequential citations, they should be given as a range. Example: ".has been shown previously [1,4-6,22]." Figure captions and tables should be at the end of the manuscript.

Before submitting your article, please make sure you have carefully checked the manuscript for any relevant references you may have missed.

Figures and Figure Legends

Authors may use photographs, schemes, diagrams, line graphs and bar charts to illustrate their findings. Figures should be suitable for onscreen viewing and desktop printing, high resolution images should be provided on manuscript acceptance. The figures and their lettering should be clear and easy to read i.e. no labels should be too large or too small. Photomicrographs should include a scaled bar and indicate the size. Composite figures must be clearly marked and explained in the figure legend. Figures should be numbered consecutively using Arabic numerals and referred to in the text by number. Authors should indicate location of figures in the text.

Each figure legend should have a concise title and should provide enough information so that the figure is understandable without frequent reference to the text. It should inform the reader of key aspects of the figure, but the figure should also be discussed in the text. The legend should be succinct, while still explaining all symbols and abbreviations. Avoid lengthy descriptions of methods. Citations should be indicated using the same style as outlined above.

Tables and Table Captions

Tables must include enough information to warrant table format and should be used only where information cannot be presented in the text. Tables should be typed as text, please do not use graphics software to create tables. Do not use picture elements, text boxes, tabs, or returns in tables. Tables that contain artwork, chemical structures, or shading must be submitted as figures. Tables occupying more than one printed page should be avoided, if possible; larger tables can be published as appendix. Tables should be numbered consecutively using Arabic numerals and referred to in the text by number. Authors should indicate location of tables in the text.

Each table should have an explanatory caption which should be as concise as possible. The headings should be sufficiently clear so that the meaning of the data is understandable without reference to the text. Footnotes can be used to explain abbreviations but should not include detailed descriptions of the experiment. Citations should be indicated using the same style as outlined above.

Equations

In-line equations should be typed as text. The use of graphics programs should be avoided.

Abbreviations

Please keep abbreviations to a minimum. Non-standard abbreviations should not be used unless they appear at least three times in the text. List all non-standard abbreviations, acronyms and symbols in alphabetical order, along with their expanded form. Define them as well upon first use in the text. Syst?me International d'Unités (SI) units of measurement, other common units (e.g., bp, kb, and Da), and chemical symbols for the elements should be used without definition.

Supplementary Material

Supplementary files that support the authors' conclusions can be submitted along with their manuscripts. In such cases, the manuscript submitted should include a distillation of the results so that the principal conclusions are fully supported without referral to the supplemental material. All supporting information should be referred to in the manuscript, with titles (and, if desired, legends) for all files listed under the heading 'Supplementary Material'. The decision to publish the material with the article if it is accepted will be made by the Editor. Supplemental material will always remain associated with its article and is not subject to any modifications after publication. Supporting files of no more than 10 MB may be submitted. Material that has been published previously is not acceptable for posting as supplemental material.

Supporting files should fall into one of the following categories: dataset, additional figure or table, text, protocol, multimedia - Audio/Video/Animations (AVI, MPEG, WAV, Quicktime, animated GIF or Flash).

If the software required for users to view/use the supplemental material is not embedded in the file, you are urged to use shareware or generally available/easily accessible programs. To prevent any misunderstandings we request that authors submit a text file (instruction.txt) containing a brief instruction on how to use the files supplied.

Nomenclature

We strongly recommend the use of correct and established nomenclature wherever possible. Always report numerical data (length, weight, and volume) in the appropriate SI units. Please refer to International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) recommendations available at www.iupac.org for standard metric units. For these units and for molarity, use the prefixes (p= 10^-12, n = 10^-9, μ = 10^-6, m = 10^-3, c = 10^-2, d = 10^-1, h = 10², k = 10³, M = 10⁶, G = 10⁹, etc.). Use µg/ml or µg/g in place of the ambiguous ppm. When fractions are used to express units, it is preferable to use whole units, such as 'g' or 'min', in the denominator instead of fractional or multiple units, such as µg or 10 min (for example 'pmol/min' is preferable to 'nmol/10 min', and 'µmol/g' is preferable to 'nmol/µg'). It is also preferable that an unambiguous form such as exponential notation be used; for example, 'µmol g^-1 min-1' is preferable to 'µmol/g/min'. Units of temperature are presented in degrees centigrade (i.e. 37°C).

The recognized authority for the names of chemical compounds is Chemical Abstracts. For guidelines to the use of biochemical terminology, consult IUPAC Biochemical Nomenclature and Related Documents. For enzymes, use the recommended name assigned by the Nomenclature Committee of the International Union of Biochemistry. Use the EC number when one has been assigned.

For genes, proteins, strains, clones etc. use the recommended name by consulting the appropriate genetic nomenclature database. Genes, mutations, genotypes, and alleles should be indicated in italics; protein products of the loci are not italicized. It is sometimes advisable to indicate the synonyms for the gene the first time it appears in the text.

Formatting and Typesetting

All pages must be numbered consecutively. The whole text should be formatted double-spaced with no hyphenation and automatic word-wrap (no hard returns within paragraphs). Please type your text consistently, e.g. take care to distinguish between '1' (one), 'I' (capital I) and 'l' (lower-case L) and '0' (zero) and 'O' (capital O), etc. Manuscript pages should have line numbers. The font size should be no smaller than 12 points.

Footnotes and endnotes should be avoided. Allowable footnotes/endnotes may include: the designation of the corresponding author of the paper, the current address of an author (if different from that shown in the affiliation), abbreviations and acronyms.

Do not create symbols as graphics or use special fonts that are external to your word processing program; use the "insert symbol" function. Indicate paragraph lead-ins in bold type and italicize any words that should appear in italics. All latin names should be italicized, including species names and common structures such as: et al.; in vivo; in vitro; ex vivo; in silico; etc.; de novo; a priori; ab initio; vice versa; in situ; ad hoc; sensu stricte; i.e.; ca. /circa; n.b. /nota bene.

Decimal multiples or submultiples of units are indicated by the use of prefixes Most units are spaced off from the number, the only exceptions are: 1%, 1‰, 1°C, 1°, 1', 1".

Distribution of materials and data

The publication of an article in CEJB is subject to the understanding that authors make all data and associated protocols available to readers on request. The Experimental Procedures section should include details of how materials and information may be obtained.

The authors are encouraged to distribute freely any materials used in experiments (cells, strains, clones, antibodies etc.) to academic researchers for their own use. Authors are expected to use established public repositories wherever possible. All newly reported data including datasets, images, and information (Nucleotide and Amino Acid Sequences, Structural Determinations, Microarray Data, Genomic and Proteomic studies, Taxonomy etc.) should be deposited in public resources and must be accessible without restriction from the date of publication. Authors must deposit their data before submitting their manuscripts, or update data already available, so that editors and referees can retrieve the information directly from the database. Please provide the relevant entry name, accession number or identification code in the Experimental Procedures section. Suggested databases include, but are not limited to: ArrayExpress, BioModels Database, Center for Information Biology Gene Expression Database (CIBEX), Database of Interacting Proteins, DNA Data Bank of Japan (DDBJ), EMBL Nucleotide Sequence Database, fMRI Data Center, GenBank, Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), Nucleic Acid Database, Protein Data Bank, UniProtKB/Swiss-Prot etc.

In addition, as much as possible, please provide accession numbers or identifiers for all entities such as genes, proteins, mutants, diseases, etc., for which there is an entry in a public database, for example: Ensembl, Entrez Gene, FlyBase, InterPro, Mouse Genome Database (MGD), Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM) etc.

In the case of new software, source code should ideally be made available, for example as supporting information with the rest of the paper, or by deposition at a publicly accessible resource. For a new algorithm a detailed description should be published in the paper.

Authorization for the use of experimental animals or human subjects

Manuscripts containing information related to human or animal use should clearly state that the research has complied with all relevant national regulations and institutional policies and has been approved by the authors' institutional review board or equivalent committee. These statements should appear in the Experimental Procedures section (or for contributions without this section, within the main text or in the captions of relevant figures or tables). Copies of the guidelines and policy statements must be available for review by the Editor if necessary. The editors reserve the right to seek additional information or guidance from reviewers on any cases in which concerns arise.

The research using animal subjects should be conducted according to the Principles of Laboratory Animal Care. For manuscripts reporting experiments on live vertebrates or higher invertebrates, authors must identify the committee approving the experiments, and must confirm that all experiments were performed in accordance with relevant regulations.
Clinical investigation with human subjects must have been conducted by following the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki. For manuscripts reporting experiments involving human subjects, authors must identify the committee or review board approving the experiments, and provide a statement indicating approval of the research.

Our human participant policy conforms to the Uniform Requirements of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Patients have a right to privacy that should not be infringed without informed consent. Identifying information (patients' names, hospital unit numbers) should not be published unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. Information about thesigned form of Informed Consent obtained from subjects participants should appear as an appropriate statement in the published article. We encourage authors to submit a sample of a patient consent form, and may require submission on particular occasions.

Outline of the Production Process

Once an article has been accepted for publication, the manuscript files are transferred into our production system to be language-edited and formatted. Language/technical editors reserve the privilege of editing manuscripts to conform with the stylistic conventions of the journal. Once the article has been typeset, PDF proofs are generated so that authors can approve all editing and layout.

Electronic Proofs

Proofreading should be carried out once a final draft has been produced. Since the proofreading stage is the last opportunity to correct the article to be published, the authors are requested to make every effort to check for errors in their proofs before the paper is posted online. Please note that only essential changes can be made at this stage and extensive corrections, additions, or deletions will not be allowed. Limit changes to correction of spelling errors, incorrect data, and grammatical errors and updated information for references to articles that have been submitted or are in press. If URLs have been provided in the article, recheck the sites to ensure that the addresses are still accurate and the material that you expect the reader to find is indeed there. Important new information that has become available between acceptance of the manuscript and receipt of the proofs may be inserted proof with the permission of the editor. Additionally, authors may be asked to address remarks and queries from the language and/or technical editors. Queries are written only to request necessary information or clarification of an unclear passage or to draw attention to edits that may have altered the sense. Please note that language/technical editors do not query at every instance where a change has been made. It is the author's responsibility to read the entire text, tables, and figure legends, not just items queried. Major alterations made will always be submitted to the authors for approval.

Corresponding author receives e-mail notification when a PDF file is available and should return the comments within 2 days of receipt. Comments must be submitted via email.

Online publication

CEJB is covered by Springer's OnlineFirst service. Online First articles are complete full-text articles published online in advance of their publication in a fully assembled online and printed issue. The manuscripts are considered to be ready for publication online when the final proofreading has been performed by authors, and all concerns have been resolved. Online publication will normally be within 2 weeks of receipt of corrected proofs by the production office. Authors should note that OnlineFirst articles are complete and final and thus no changes can be made after online publication. The nature of OnlineFirsty articles means that they do not yet have volume, issue or page numbers, so OnlineFirst articles cannot be cited in the traditional way. They are therefore given a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), which allows the article to be cited and tracked before it is allocated to an issue. After print publication the DOI remains valid and can continued to be used to cite and access the article.