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Guidelines for Authors of FAIR Connect Thumbnail Articles

Creation and Submission Process of Thumbnail Articles

Submissions are welcomed via the FAIR Connect Editorial Manager. Click on Editorial Manager to send us your manuscript. First, please read the Guidelines for Authors below carefully.

Please submit your papers In Word or LaTeX that adhere to the submission guidelines.

Author Information

Submissions should contain the full names, affiliations, and ORCID identifiers for all authors, and email-addresses for the corresponding authors. Co-authors in FAIR Connect are expected to have contributed text, figures or substantial proofing to the Thumbnail Article. Other contributors should be listed in the Acknowledgements section. FAIR Connect will record (in nanopublications) author and contributor roles using the CRediT Contribution Roles Taxonomy.

Thumbnail Article types

  • FSR Description Articles
    These are short and practical descriptions of an existing or novel resource by its creator, or a review about by a user. Articles offer an opportunity to present the background on the FSR, and an indication how the resource is currently being deployed. The idea is to try and make a case for the reuse of the FSR, saving others the time reinventing that wheel and with the aim of driving convergence on FAIR implementations. By assigning DOIs to your published articles, FAIR Connect will open the door to citations and professional recognition to the creators and reviewers of the FSR.
  • Commentary
    These are short essay`s or opinion pieces on any topic in data stewardship with focus on FAIR.

Title Page

  • Title (should be clear, descriptive, concise, and avoid the use of abbreviations)
  • Full name(s) of author(s)
  • Full affiliation(s). Delineate affiliations with super-script lowercase letters following each name. Example: Erik Schultesa [a] FAIR Implementation Lead, GO FAIR Foundation, Leiden, The Netherlands.
  • Present address of author(s), if different from affiliation
  • Running title (45 characters or less, including spaces)
  • Complete correspondence address, including telephone number and email addres

Authorship

To be considered as an author of an article, the following criteria must be met:

  • Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; and
  • Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and
  • Final approval of the version to be published; and
  • Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

When submitting the manuscript, the author listing, and order should be final. If any addition, deletion, or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list does need to be made after submission, this can be done only before acceptance and with the Editor’s approval. To request such a change, the Editor must receive the following from the corresponding author: (1) the reason for the change in author list and (2) written confirmation from all authors, including the affected author, that they agree with the addition, removal, or rearrangement. Only in exceptional circumstances will the Editor consider the addition, deletion, or rearrangement of authors after the manuscript has been accepted. While the Editor considers the request, publication of the manuscript will be suspended. If the manuscript has already been published in an issue, any requests approved by the Editor will result in an Erratum. Please contact the Editorial Office at fairconnect@iospress.com for more information.

Thumbnail Article Form

As the name suggests, the Thumbnail Article is a short-form piece, ranging from only 500 to 2000 words. Exceptions to these word limits are possible if well justified in consultation with the Senior Editors. Title, author lists, figures and tables, figure captions and references are not counted. The Thumbnail Article has a max. 280 characters abstract and other associated metadata that will be made machine-readable.

Serious effort towards the creation of concise, well-composed rhetoric will be encouraged by the editors. The official language of FAIR Connect is English. Authors whose native language is not English are recommended to seek the advice of a native English speaker or English language service before submitting their manuscripts. A language or editing service that we recommend is PeerWith [https://www.peerwith.com/]. However, translations of Thumbnail Articles to other languages by FAIR Connect Associate Editors and/or the community of FAIR Connect are highly encouraged (and of course, will be recognized in FAIR Connect as valued, citable contributions). Translations of existing articles will be subject to the same review process as any article submission in FAIR Connect. Indeed, the crowd-sourcing of reliable and readable translations of FAIR Connect content into multiple languages is seen as an essential activity toward building a globally connected data stewardship community.

Abstract

A short abstract (max 280 characters) is required for both article types. The abstract should provide a clear statement of the Thumbnail article’s main points. Do not include references in the abstract. This abstract can be used also for the tagline metadata field in the accompanying nanopublication.

Keywords

FAIR Connect will use https://www.ebi.ac.uk/ols/ontologies/t4fs for keywords. If suitable terms are not found there please check for other sources for semantic concepts. FAIR Connect is seeking controlled vocabularies focused on data stewardship and FAIR practice that can be reused as keywords for FSRs and Thumbnail Articles. If you have ideas for suggested vocabularies please forward them to fairconnect@iospress.com.

Acknowledgements

This section provides the opportunity to list contributors who are not co-authors, as well as organizational contributions and contributions from associated projects. Include individuals or companies which have assisted with your study, including advisors, administrative support and suppliers who may have donated or given materials used in the study. If there are none, insert the statement: “The authors report no acknowledgments.” This information will also be captured as machine-actionable metadata.

Funding

Include a complete description of all funding sources. If there are none, include the section and insert: “The authors report no funding.”

Disclosures and Conflict of Interest

If there is no conflict of interest to declare, insert the statement "The author has no conflict of Interest to report." For >1 author: "The authors have no conflict of Interest to report." If an author is on the Editorial Board of FAIR Connect at the time of submission, the following statement should be included in this section: “<AUTHOR> is an Editorial Board Member of FAIR Connect; but was not involved in the peer-review process nor had access to any information regarding its peer-review."

References in Thumbnail Articles

References should follow the Vancouver reference style.

  • References are listed in numerical order, and in the same order in which they first appear in the text, with the number in square brackets, e.g., “[4]”.
  • The reference list appears at the end of the paper.
  • Begin your reference list on a new page and title it 'References'.
  • The reference list should include all and only those references you have cited in the text. (Do not include unpublished items such as correspondence.)
  • Use Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) throughout.
  • Abbreviate journal titles in the style used in the NLM Catalog.
  • Check the reference details against the actual source - you are indicating that you have read a source when you cite it.
  • Be consistent with your referencing style across the document.
  • Use of URLs: …. Any other URL representing the referenced work, although generic URLs should include additional metadata such as a descriptive “title”, the sponsoring organization when applicable, and the date when the URL is being referenced. FAIR Connect will supply an explicit format for referencing generic URLs.

Examples of references in the Vancouver style:

[1] Rose ME, Huerbin MB, Melick J, Marion DW, Palmer AM, Schiding JK, et al. Regulation of interstitial excitatory amino acid concentrations after cortical contusion injury. Brain Res. 2002;935(1–2):40–46.
[2] Murray PR, Rosenthal KS, Kobayashi GS, Pfaller MA. Medical microbiology. 4th ed. St. Louis: Mosby; 2002.
[3] Berkow R, Fletcher AJ, editors. The Merck manual of diagnosis and therapy. 16th ed. Rahway (NJ): Merck Research Laboratories; 1992.
[4] Meltzer PS, Kallioniemi A, Trent JM. Chromosome alterations in human solid tumors. In: Vogelstein B, Kinzler KW, editors. The genetic basis of human cancer. New York: McGrawHill; 2002. p. 93–113.
[5] Canadian Cancer Society [homepage on the Internet]. Toronto: The Society; 2006 [updated 2006 May 12; cited 2006 Oct 17]. Available from: www.cancer.ca/.
[6] Tian D, Araki H, Stahl E, Bergelson J, Kreitman M. Signature of balancing selection in Arabidopsis. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. In press 2002.
[7] Fletcher D, Wagstaff CRD. Organisational psychology in elite sport: its emergence, application and future. Psychol Sport Exerc. 2009;10(4):427–434. doi:10.1016/j.psychsport.2009.03.009.

Datasets

All datasets referenced in your manuscript should be cited in the main reference list of your article (not in a separate box or in the article text).

Tables

  • Number according to their sequence in the text. The text should include references to all tables.
  • Provide each table on a separate page of the manuscript after the references.
  • Include a brief and self-explanatory title with any explanations essential to the understanding of the table given in footnotes at the bottom of the table.
  • Vertical lines should not be used to separate columns. Leave some extra space between the columns instead.
  • Citations in the tables should be numbered and included in the "References".

Figure Legends/Figures

  • Number the figures according to their sequence in the text. The text should include references to all figures.
  • Each figure should be provided on a separate page, not included in the text.
  • Figures should preferably be formatted in TIF or EPS format. JPG is also acceptable.
  • Composite figures must be preassembled.
  • Figures should be designed as to allow a reduction of 50%.
  • Line art should have a minimum resolution of 1200 dpi and be saved as an EPS or TIFF:
    • Do not use faint lines and/or lettering and check that all lines and lettering within the figures are legible at the final size.
    • All lines should be at least 0.1 mm (0.3 pt) wide.
    • Vector graphics containing fonts must have the fonts embedded in the files.
  • Grayscale figures (including photos) should have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi, or 600 dpi for combination art (lettering and images) and be saved as a TIF.
  • Figures should be cropped to include the figure only (no blank space).
  • Do not save line art as JPG; this format may lose information in the publishing process.
  • Do not use figures taken from the Internet; the resolution will be too low for printing.
  • For figures to be printed in color, please send a CMYK encoded EPS or TIF.
  • On figures where a scale is needed, use bar scales rather than numerical ones, i.e., do not use scales of the type 1:10,000. This avoids problems if the figure needs to be reduced.
  • Each figure should have a self-explanatory caption, which should be typed separately from the figure in the manuscript.
  • Photographs are only acceptable if they have good contrast and intensity.

Supplementary Material

At this point in time, FAIR Connect Thumbnail Articles do not accept Supplementary Material.

Revisions

Revisions should be returned within 3 working days of receiving a decision. Authors needing more time should email the Senior Editors for an extension. When submitting a revised manuscript, please indicate your revisions in the text (either in revision mode or by highlighting) and provide a point-by-point response to the reviews at the beginning of your manuscript. Also include your previous manuscript number in your cover letter. If you choose not to resubmit to FAIR Connect after receiving a decision, please inform the Editorial Office at fairconnect@iospress.com that you wish to withdraw your manuscript from further consideration.

FAIR Connect Abstracting and Indexing

Thumbnail Articles will receive both a nanopublication and a DOI, and will appear in abstracting/indexing databases in due course. The nanopublication provides a machine-readable FAIR identifier and metadata for the Thumbnail Article, and has the following elements:

  • Title
  • Description
  • Author ORCIDs
  • Contributor Role
  • Reviewer ORCIDs
  • Funder ROR
  • Submission Date
  • Review Date
  • Publication Date
  • FCA Type
  • Links to publications about the FSR
  • Link to FSR Identifier
  • DOI of Article

Open Access Policy

All content will be published open access to readers. Each Thumbnail Article and metadata about FSRs will be freely available from the moment it is published. All open access articles are published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC BY 4.0).