ILLUSTRATIONS AND TABLES
Permissions
The corresponding author is responsible for obtaining permission from both the original author and the original publisher (i.e., the copyright owner) to reproduce or modify figures and tables and to reproduce text (in whole or in part) from previous publications.
Permission(s) must be obtained no later than the modification stage. The original signed permission(s) must be identified as to the relevant item in the ASM manuscript (e.g., “permissions for Fig. 1 in mBio00123-20”) and submitted to mBio staff on request. In addition, a statement indicating that the material is being reprinted with permission must be included in the relevant figure legend or table footnote of the manuscript. Reprinted text must be enclosed in quotation marks, and the permission statement must be included as running text or indicated parenthetically.
It is expected that the authors will provide written assurance that permission to cite unpublished data or personal communications has been granted.
For supplemental material intended for posting by ASM (see “Supplemental Material”), if the authors of the mBio manuscript are not also the owners of the supplemental material, the corresponding author must send to ASM signed permission from the copyright owner that allows posting of the material, as a supplement to the article, by ASM. The corresponding author is also responsible for incorporating in the supplemental material any copyright notices required by the owner.
Illustrations
Image manipulation. Digital images submitted for publication may be inspected by ASM production specialists for any manipulations or electronic enhancements that may be considered to be the result of scientific misconduct based on the guidelines provided below. Any images/data found to contain manipulations of concern will be referred to the editor in chief, and authors may then be requested to provide their primary data for comparison with the submitted image file. Investigation of the concerns may delay publication and may result in revocation of acceptance and/or additional action by ASM.
Linear adjustments to contrast, brightness, and/or color are generally acceptable, as long as the measures taken are necessary to view elements that are already present in the data and the adjustments are applied to the entire image and not just specific areas. Unacceptable adjustments to images include, but are not limited to, the removal or deletion, concealment, duplication (copying and pasting), addition, selective enhancement, or repositioning of elements within the image.
Nonlinear adjustments made to images, such as changes to gamma settings, should be fully disclosed in the figure legends at the time of submission. In addition, images created by compiling multiple files, including noncontiguous portions of the same image, should clearly convey that these multiple files are not a single image. This can be done by “tooling,” or inserting thin lines, between the individual images.
File types and formats. Illustrations may be continuous-tone images, line drawings, or composites. . On initial submission, figures may be uploaded as individual PDF files or combined and uploaded as a single PDF file. Place each legend in the text file, as well as on the same page with the figure to assist review. At the modification stage, production-quality digital files must be provided. The legends will be copyedited and typeset for final publication and should not be included as part of the figure itself at this stage. All graphics submitted with modified manuscripts must be bitmap, grayscale, or in the RGB (preferred) or CMYK color mode. See “Color illustrations." Halftone images (those with various densities or shades) must be grayscale, not bitmap. mBio accepts only TIFF or EPS files for article figures; PowerPoint files will not be accepted.
For general guidelines on creating acceptable EPS and TIFF files, refer to the KGL Digital Art Support page.
Minimum resolution. It is extremely important that a high enough file resolution is used. All separate images that you import into a figure file must be at the correct resolution before they are placed. (For instance, placing a 72-dpi image in a 300-dpi EPS file will not result in the placed image meeting the minimum requirements for file resolution.) Note, however, that the higher the resolution, the larger the file and the longer the upload time. Publication quality will not be improved by using a resolution higher than the minimum. Minimum resolutions are as follows:
- 300 dpi for grayscale and color
- 600 dpi for combination art (lettering and images)
- 1,200 dpi for line art
Size. All graphics must be submitted at their intended publication size; that is, the image uploaded should be 100% of its print dimensions so that no reduction or enlargement is necessary. Resolution must be at the required level at the submitted size. Include only the significant portion of an illustration. White space must be cropped from the image, and excess space between panel labels and the image must be eliminated.
- Maximum figure width: 6.875 inches (ca. 17.4 cm)
- Maximum figure height: 9.0625 inches (23.0 cm)
Contrast. Illustrations must contain sufficient contrast to be viewed easily on a monitor or on the printed page.
Labeling and assembly. All final lettering and labeling must be incorporated into the figures. On initial submission, illustrations should be provided as PDF files, with the legends in the text file and with a legend beneath each image to assist review. At the modification stage, production-quality digital figure files (without legends) must be provided. Put the figure number well outside the boundaries of the image itself. (Numbering may need to be changed at the copyediting stage.) Each figure must be uploaded as a separate file, and any multipanel figures must be assembled into one file.
Fonts. To avoid font problems, set all type in one of the following fonts: Arial, Helvetica, Times Roman, European PI, Mathematical PI, or Symbol. Courier may be used but should be limited to nucleotide or amino acid sequences where a nonproportional (monospace) font is needed. All fonts must be converted to paths (or outlines) in the application with which they were created.
Color illustrations should be supplied in the RGB color mode as either (i) RGB TIFF images with a resolution of at least 300 pixels per inch (raster files, consisting of pixels) or (ii) Illustrator-compatible EPS files with RGB color elements (vector files, consisting of lines, fonts, fills, and images). CMYK files are also accepted. Other than in color space, CMYK files must meet the same production criteria as RGB files. The RGB color space is the native color space of computer monitors and of most of the equipment and software used to capture scientific data, and it can display a wider range of colors (especially bright fluorescent hues) than the CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) color space used by print devices that put ink (or toner) on paper. For reprints, ASM’s print provider will automatically create CMYK versions of color illustrations from the supplied RGB versions. Color in the reprints may not match that in the online journal of record because of the smaller range of colors capable of being reproduced by CMYK inks on a printing press. For additional information on RGB versus CMYK color, refer to the KGL Digital Art Support page, https://www.kwglobal.com/digital-art-support.
Preparing figures for those with color vision deficiency. Based on information on color vision deficiency provided by the U.S. National Library of Medicine, we ask that you design your figures with the following considerations in mind.
- Determine whether color elements are absolutely necessary to convey the data.
- Can the data be displayed using symbols or different line thicknesses, shapes, patterns, or font types?
- Avoid the following color combinations whenever possible: red and green; yellow and bright green; light blue and pink; dark blue and violet.
- Magenta can be substituted for red in fluorescent stain images, which typically use a combination of red and green.
- Search the Internet for a color vision deficiency simulator to see how your image might appear to someone who experiences color vision deficiency.
If you have access to Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator, you can go to View/Proof Setup/Color Blindness, and your images will be transformed to show you how they will appear to someone who has color vision deficiency.
Please refer to the following website for more information: http://jfly.iam.u-tokyo.ac.jp/color/.
Drawings. Submit graphs, charts, complicated chemical or mathematical formulas, diagrams, and other drawings as finished products not requiring additional artwork or typesetting. All elements, including letters, numbers, and symbols, must be easily readable, and both axes of a graph must be labeled.
When creating line art, please use the following guidelines:
- All art must be submitted at its intended publication size. For acceptable dimensions, see “Size.”
- Avoid using screens (i.e., shading) in line art. It can be difficult and time-consuming to reproduce these images without moiré patterns. Various pattern backgrounds are preferable to screens, as long as the patterns are not imported from another application. If you must use images containing screens,
- Generate the image at line screens of 85 lines per inch or less.
- When applying multiple shades of gray, differentiate the gray levels by at least 20%.
- Never use levels of gray below 5% or above 95%, as they are likely to fade out or become totally black when output.
- Use thick, solid lines that are no finer than 1 point in thickness.
- Use type that is no smaller than 6 points at the final publication size.
- Avoid layering type directly over shaded or textured areas.
- Avoid the use of reversed type (white lettering on a black background).
- Avoid heavy letters, which tend to close up, and unusual symbols, which the printer may not be able to reproduce in the legend.
- If colors are used, avoid using similar shades of the same color and avoid very light colors.
In figure ordinate and abscissa scales (as well as table column headings), avoid the ambiguous use of numbers with exponents. Usually, it is preferable to use the appropriate Système International d’Unités (SI) symbols (µ for 10–6, m for 10–3, k for 103, and M for 106, etc.). Thus, representation of 20,000 cpm on a figure ordinate should be made by the number 20 accompanied by the label kcpm. A complete listing of SI symbols can be found in the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) publication Quantities, Units and Symbols in Physical Chemistry, 3rd ed. (RSC Publishing, Cambridge, United Kingdom, 2007), and at https://www.nist.gov/pml/special-publication-811.
When powers of 10 must be used, the journal requires that the exponent power be associated with the number shown. In representing 20,000 cells per ml, the numeral on the ordinate should be “2” and the label should be “104 cells per ml” (not “cells per ml x 10–4"). Likewise, an enzyme activity of 0.06 U/ml might be shown as 6 accompanied by the label 10–2 U/ml. The preferred designation is 60 mU/ml (milliunits per milliliter).
Presentation of nucleic acid sequences. Long nucleic acid sequences must be presented as figures in the following format to conserve space. Print the sequence in lines of approximately 100 to 120 nucleotides in a nonproportional (monospace) font that is easily legible when published with a line length of 6 inches (ca. 15.2 cm). If possible, lines of nucleic acid sequence should be further subdivided into blocks of 10 or 20 nucleotides by spaces within the sequence or by marks above it. Uppercase and lowercase letters may be used to designate the exon-intron structure or transcribed regions, etc., if the lowercase letters remain legible at a 6-inch (ca. 15.2-cm) line length. Number the sequence line by line; place numerals representing the first base of each line to the left of the lines. Minimize spacing between lines of sequence, leaving room only for annotation of the sequence. Annotation may include boldface, underlining, brackets, and boxes, etc. Encoded amino acid sequences may be presented, if necessary, immediately above or below the first nucleotide of each codon, by using the single-letter amino acid symbols. Comparisons of multiple nucleic acid sequences should conform as nearly as possible to the same format.
Figure Legends
On initial submission, each legend should be placed in the text file and be incorporated into the image file beneath the figure to assist review.
Legends should provide enough information so that the figure is understandable without frequent reference to the text. However, detailed experimental methods must be described in the Materials and Methods section, not in a figure legend. A method that is unique to one of several experiments may be reported in a legend only if the discussion is very brief (one or two sentences). Define all symbols used in the figure and define all abbreviations that are not used in the text.
The main text file should also contain a legend for each item in the supplemental material (see “Supplemental Material").
Tables
Tables that contain artwork, chemical structures, or complex shading must be submitted as illustrations in an acceptable format at the modification stage. The preferred format for regular tables is Microsoft Word; however, WordPerfect and Acrobat PDF are also acceptable. Note that a straight Excel file is not currently an acceptable format. Excel files must be either embedded in a Word or WordPerfect document or converted to PDF before being uploaded.
Tables should be formatted as follows. Arrange the data so that columns of like material read down, not across. The headings should be sufficiently clear so that the meaning of the data is understandable without reference to the text. See the "Abbreviations" section of these Instructions for those that should be used in tables. Explanatory footnotes are acceptable, but more-extensive table "legends" are not. Footnotes should not include detailed descriptions of the experiment. Tables must include enough information to warrant table format; those with fewer than six pieces of data will be incorporated into the text by the copy editor. Table 1 is an example of a well-constructed table.
TABLE 1 Distribution of protein and ATPase in fractions of dialyzed membranesa
| ATPase | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Membrane | Fraction | U/mg of protein | Total U |
| Control | Depleted membrane | 0.036 | 2.3 |
| Concentrated supernatant | 0.134 | 4.82 | |
| E1 treated | Depleted membrane | 0.034 | 1.98 |
| Concentrated supernatant | 0.11 | 4.6 |
aSpecific activities of ATPase of nondepleted membranes from control and treated bacteria were 0.21 and 0.20, respectively.
Featured Image
Each collected bimonthly issue of mBio is represented by a featured image, derived from an article in the issue. These featured images are used to represent the issues in the online archives.
Authors may receive an invitation to submit a featured image, or they may submit an unsolicited potential image (to mBio@asmusa.org), after their manuscript has been accepted. The image should be related to the work presented in the manuscript, and it should meet the following specifications:
- TIF or EPS format. Resolution of at least 300 dpi. Square dimensions.
The image should be free of figure elements, e.g., arrows or panel labels. The image should be accompanied by a short legend. A legend of just a few sentences works best (for an example, see https://mbio.asm.org/content/1/5.cover-expansion).
No material submitted for consideration will be returned to the author. Authors will be notified only if their image is selected.