TRAFFIC INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

Aim and Scope of Traffic
Traffic focuses on the cell biology of intracellular transport in health and disease. Areas of interest include protein, nucleic acid and lipid traffic, molecular motors, intracellular pathogens, intracellular proteolysis, nuclear import and export, cytokinesis and the cell cycle, protein translocation, antigen processing and presentation, organelle biogenesis, cell polarity and organization, and organelle movement.

All aspects of the structural, molecular biology, biochemistry, genetics, morphology, intracellular signaling and relationship to hereditary or infectious diseases will be covered. Manuscripts must have significant new scientific findings and provide a clear conceptual or mechanistic advance to the field. As a general policy, the editors will reject any paper that requires major changes, including addition of significant experimental data or revision of the conclusions. Authors may resubmit a manuscript one time before it will be considered as a new manuscript. The revised manuscript will be considered a new submission if submitted after 4 months.

Traffic will consider manuscripts of any length, but encourages authors to limit their papers to 16 typeset pages or less (see guidelines for estimation of length below).

Submission of Articles
All articles should be submitted online at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/traffic.
Full instructions for submitting the manuscript are provided on the submission site. Please contact the Editorial Office (see below) or the helpline (directions to contact helpline are provided online) for any concerns or problems. Authors must provide a letter of permission for any personal communication, and permission from the copyright holder for the use of any material previously published. Authors are strongly encouraged to suggest potential reviewers and/or identify persons to be excluded as reviewers for professional reasons at the time of initial submission.

Mailing Address

Traffic Editorial Office
Lisa A. Hannan, Ph.D., Managing Editor
The Scripps Research Institute TPC31
10550 North Torrey Pines Road
La Jolla, CA 92037
e-mail: Traffic@scripps.edu
phone: +1 (858) 784-8661 
fax:   +1 (858) 784-8674

Shipping Address

Traffic Editorial Office
Lisa A. Hannan, Ph.D., Managing Editor
4122 Sorrento Valley Blvd., STE 107
San Diego, CA 92037

Please note: The shipping address should only be used for boxes, packages or mail by courier; the mailing address should be used for all regular mail and correspondence.

Format of Articles
Manuscripts should be formatted to appear similar to a final typeset manuscript. Specifically, univers-light or arial are the preferred font for text and figures, the title (12 point font) and authors (10 point font) should fit across the full width of the first page, and the remaining text (9 point font) arranged in two columns. The document should be single spaced. The figures and supplemental figures should follow the text.

All original submissions should be submitted as a single PDF file that is no more than 5MB in size. This file must include: the manuscript text (including the tables and figure legends and legends for the supplemental materials) and all figures and supplemental materials (excluding movies). The figures should be formatted to fit on a full page, include the figure number and should be provided at 200-300 dpi resolution. JPEG files tend to be smaller and can be more easily incorporated into the single document than TIFF or EPS files.

Preparation of Figures
Images cannot be modified to change the overall appearance or appearance of any specific feature. Adjustments of brightness and contrast or color balance are acceptable but must be applied to the entire image. Features cannot be obscured and any rearrangements must be explicitly indicated by the insertion of dividing lines. All images will be examined for any indication of improper modifications. The final acceptance of all manuscripts is contingent on any concerns raised in our review of the figures being resolved.

Organization of Research Articles
• Title must be concise and contain no more than 100 characters including spaces. The title page should include a running title of no more than 50 characters, 5-10 key words, complete names and institutions for each author, and the name, address, phone number, fax number and e-mail address for the corresponding author.
• Abbreviations and nomenclature - Traffic adheres to the conventions outlined in Units, Symbols and Abbreviations: A guide for medical and scientific editors and authors. Non-standard abbreviations must be used 3 or more times and written in full when first used. Standard genetic nomenclature should be used. Proteins tagged at the N- or C- terminus should be named such that the placement of the tag name corresponds to the location of the tag in the fusion protein (for N-terminal tagged proteins the tag name comes first, eg. GFP-ARFGAP).  Authors are cautioned to use the full name of the fusion protein throughout the manuscript to avoid confusion.
• Abstract is limited to 200 words. References must be cited in full.
• Introduction should be focused; exhaustive literature reviews are not appropriate.
• Results and Discussion can be combined (particularly for short communications) or can be written as separate sections.
• Materials and Methods must contain sufficient detail such that, in combination with the references cited, all experiments reported can be fully reproduced.  All experiments using either experimental animals or human subjects must be approved by the appropriate review boards of the host institution.  For experiments using experimental animals, a statement clearly indicating that appropriate measures were taken to reduce the pain or discomfort of experimental animals must be included in the Materials and Methods.  For studies involving the use of human subjects, the Materials and Methods must indicate that the studies were performed according to the principles outlined by the Helsinki Declaration, and that appropriate informed consent was obtained.
• Acknowledgments - All sources of institutional, private and corporate financial support for the work within the manuscript must be fully acknowledged, and any potential conflicts of interest noted.
• References should be cited in the text parenthetically by number, listed at the end of the manuscript in the order cited and include only articles that have been published or are currently in press. 'In press' manuscripts that are necessary to understand and evaluate the submitted manuscript must be included at the time of submission. 
   Journal Article
   1. Pelkmans L, Helenius A. Endocytosis via caveolae. Traffic 2003;3:311-320.
   Citing Journal Article by DOI
   2. Sossin WS, DesGroseillers L. Intracellular Trafficking of RNA in Neurons.  Traffic 2006; doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0854.2006.00500.x
   Article in Book
   3. Nelson JR, Craig E. SSA hsp70 subfamily. In: Rothblatt J, Stevens T, editors.  Guidebook to the Secretory Pathway. New York: Oxford University   
   Press; 1994, p. 27-29.
   Complete Book
   4. Segel IH. Biochemical Calculations. USA: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.; 1968.
•  Figures should be planned to fit into 1, 1.5 or 2 column widths, and text sufficiently large to be easily visible in the reproduced manuscript.  For the benefit of colorblind individuals we suggest two color images should be presented as magenta and green, and images with three or more colors should be presented as individual panels.
• Figure Legends and Tables should be a separate section of the manuscript. Tables should be double-spaced with no vertical rulings, with a single bold ruling beneath the column titles. Units of measure must be included in the column title.
• Supporting Information All supplemental figures, movies, text and tables must be absolutely required for fully understanding the manuscript. Each item cannot exceed 5MB. Only 5 supplemental figures can be accepted.  Preliminary data that is not essential for understanding the paper will not be accepted as supplemental material.  Please provide a list of all supplemental material submitted that includes (1) an indication of what figure or table it is associated with in the main text  (2) and a short explanation of its significance for the paper.  

Review Articles, Toolbox, Case Report, Transit Authority, Traffic Interchange and Traffic Report Articles
Traffic welcomes proposals for alternative types of articles or correspondence in the following categories:
• Reviews should be focused (4000 word maximum with judicious use of references), represent a critical and balanced view of the field.
• Toolboxes are either a methodological resource/review or a general reference database. They should compile information or review methodological advances.
• Transit Authorities are brief commentaries of interest to the readership of Traffic, and can be up to 1500 words long.
• Traffic Interchanges are brief communications suggesting new conceptual insights or directions for future research, and can include new or recently published data. Topics to be covered can include, but are not limited to, genome analysis, new hypotheses or integration of diverse areas.
• Traffic Reports are meeting reports, and can be up to 1500 words long.
• Case Reports are original research articles on clinical cases relevant to intracellular transport.

Cover Submissions
Authors are encouraged to submit original micrographs, molecular structures or graphic art for consideration as cover art. Submission of cover art is not limited to authors. Black and white or color images can be submitted, should be trimmed to fit into the photograph area of the cover (20.2 cm wide, 16 cm high, 300 dpi or higher resolution), supplied at full size and accompanied by a cover legend. Pictures accepted for covers will be exclusively licensed, and will be made available in the Traffic web site photo gallery.

Accepted Manuscripts
Final submission of manuscripts must include the Word document for all text and tables, including legends for the supplemental materials.  Figures must be provided as individual JPEG, TIFF or EPS files of at least 300 dpi resolution.  Directions for formatting of the final documents will be provided prior to acceptance.

Distribution of Material
Publication of a research article in Traffic dictates that all materials described in the paper, including strains, clones or antibodies, will be made available to the academic scientific community. Nucleic acid and amino acid sequences, as well as X-ray crystallographic data, must be deposited and made accessible in the appropriate database. Nucleotide sequence data can be submitted in electronic form to any of the three major collaborative databases: DDBJ/EMBL/GenBank. It is only necessary to submit to one database.

Duplicate Publication and Scientific Fraud
In cases of suspected scientific misconduct  (fabrication or falsification of data, double publication, or plagiarism), the editors will attempt to clarify the matter with the authors. Should that fail to resolve the situation satisfactorily, the editors will contact the institution and/or funding body of the corresponding author to request that they initiate a formal investigation into possible scientific misconduct. Traffic will not consider publication of any papers by the offending authors for a period of 5 years.

Copyright Transfer Agreement
Authors submitting a paper do so on the understanding that the work has not been published before, is not being considered for publication elsewhere, and has been read and approved by all of the authors. If and when a manuscript or cover art is accepted for publication in Traffic, authors must agree to sign a Copyright Transfer Agreement (CTA). Signature of the CTA is a condition of publication and papers will not be passed to the publisher for production unless a signed form has been received. (Government employees need to complete the Author Warranty sections). After submission authors will retain the right to publish their paper in various medium/circumstances (please see the form for further details).  The appropriate form will be supplied by the editorial office. Alternatively, authors may like to download a copy of the form here www.wiley.com/go/ctaaglobal. Please return your completed form to: Lisa Hannan, The Scripps Research Institute TPC-31, 10550 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA 92037. Alternatively, a scanned version of the form can be emailed to Traffic@scripps.edu, or faxed to +1 (858) 784-8674.  

Accepted Articles
Traffic is covered by the Blackwell Accepted Articles service whereby peer reviewed, accepted articles are published online as within 5 days of acceptance, without having been copy-edited typeset. Accepted Articles appear in PDF-only format, without the accompanying full-text HTML. Each manuscript is assigned 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 continue to be used to cite and access the article.

Traffic is covered by John Wiley & Sons' Early View service
Early View articles are complete full-text articles published online in advance of their publication in a printed issue. Early View articles are complete and final. They have been fully reviewed, revised and edited for publication, and the authors' final corrections have been incorporated. Because they are in final form, no changes can be made after online publication. The nature of Early View articles means that they do not yet have volume, issue or page numbers, so Early View articles should be cited using its DOI.

Online Open

OnlineOpen is available to authors of primary research articles who wish to make their article available to non-subscribers on publication, or whose funding agency requires grantees to archive the final version of their article. With OnlineOpen, the author, the author's funding agency, or the author's institution pays a fee to ensure that the article is made available to non-subscribers upon publication via Wiley InterScience, as well as deposited in the funding agency's preferred archive. For the full list of terms and conditions, please see here .

Any authors wishing to send their paper OnlineOpen will be required to complete the payment form available from our website, here .

Prior to acceptance there is no requirement to inform an Editorial Office that you intend to publish your paper OnlineOpen if you do not wish to. All OnlineOpen articles are treated in the same way as any other article. They go through the journal's standard peer-review process and will be accepted or rejected based on their own merit.

Page Proofs
The corresponding author will receive an email alert containing a link to a web site. A working e-mail address must therefore be provided for the corresponding author. The proof can be downloaded as a PDF (portable document format) file from this site. Acrobat Reader 7.0 will be required in order to read and correct this file on the screen. Further instructions will be sent with the proof. Excessive changes made by the author in the proofs, excluding typesetting errors, will be charged separately.

Page Charges
Upon acceptance of an original research manuscript the authors will be charged page charges according to the schedule below. Page charges are $140 for each typeset page from pages 1-10 inclusive, and $200 for each subsequent typeset page above 10 pages. Each typeset page can be roughly estimated to contain approximately 750 words. There are no charges for color figures. To download a copy of the page charge form, click here.

Offprints
Paper offprints of the printed published article may be purchased if ordered via the method stipulated on the instructions that will accompany the proofs.  Printed offprints are posted to the correspondence address given for the paper unless a different address is specified when ordered.  Note that it is not uncommon for the printed offprints to take up to 8 weeks to arrive after publication of the journal. For further information please contact C.O.S. Printers Pte Ltd, 9 Kian Teck Crescent, Singapore 628875; Fax: +65 6265 9074; E-mail: offprint@cosprinters.com.

NIH-funded authors and Traffic
From April 2008, the NIH is mandating grantees to deposit their peer-reviewed author manuscripts in PubMed Central, to be made publicly available within 12 months of publication. The NIH mandate applies to all articles based on research that has been wholly or partially funded by the NIH and that are accepted for publication on or after April 7, 2008. In order to help authors comply with the NIH mandate, for papers accepted for publication in Traffic after this date Wiley-Blackwell will post the accepted manuscript (incorporating all amendments made during peer review, but prior to the publisher's copy-editing and typesetting) of articles by NIH grant-holders to PubMed Central at the point of acceptance by the journal. This version will then be made publicly available in PubMed Central 12 months after publication. Following the deposit Wiley-Blackwell authors will receive further communications from the NIH with respect to the submission. For further information, see here.