Science's STKE publishes original Perspectives, Reviews, and Protocols in an exclusively electronic format. New material is published weekly.

STKE Perspectives emphasize the opinions or viewpoints of their authors. More limited in scope than Reviews, they may focus on recently published papers or on methods, books, policy matters, meetings, etc.

STKE Reviews address timely topics of broad interest and of relevance to signal transduction. Unlike conventional reviews, they are updated by their authors as developments warrant. STKE Reviews are accompanied by 'glosses' -- textbook-level summaries for readers who seek a brief introduction to the topic. Reviews should provide new insights as well as summarize the information currently available. The best reviews reflect the unique viewpoint of the author and show how new findings alter current thinking about major issues in a particular field. Reviews are evaluated by peer review for scholarship, accuracy, clarity, and effectiveness of presentation.

Most Perspectives and Reviews are solicited by the editors, but we welcome your suggestions of potential topics and authors.

STKE Protocols provide step-by-step instructions and notes on the techniques of signal transduction research - information often only hinted at in 'Materials and Methods' sections. Protocols should provide the unique viewpoint and experiences of the author.

STKE Teaching Resources can be animations, movies, sample questions, lecture materials, or other resources that may be useful for teaching courses that include topics related to signal transduction and cellular regulation. Many of these resources are created or submitted with STKE articles or Connections Maps. However, we welcome your suggestions and if you have resources that you believe would be appropriate and valuable for the teaching community, please send the STKE Editors a message.


Preparation of Text for Science’s Signal Transduction Knowledge Environment:

Symbols, abbreviations, and acronyms should be defined the first time they are used.

Units of measure should be given in SI units. If measurements were made in English units, give metric equivalents.

References and notes are numbered in the order in which they are cited, first through the text and the references, then through the table and figure legends. List a reference only one time. Any references to unpublished data should be given a number in the text and placed, in correct sequence, in the references and notes. The abbreviations for journal names are taken from the Bibliographic Guide for Editors and Authors (BGEA) or Serial Sources for the BIOSIS Data Base (BIOSIS), a more recent publication. When abbreviating journal titles, follow the periodical title word abbreviations. When in doubt, provide the journal’s complete name. Spell out cities that are listed after a journal name: Acta Zool. (Stockholm) . Do not use op. cit., ibid., 3-m dashes, en dashes, or et al. (in place of the complete list of authors’ names). For author names with Jr. or 2nd, etc. see example number 4 in the Journals section.

Publisher’s names are given in shortened form. “Press” and the like are usually dropped, except Academic Press [“Academic” is an adjective], University Park Press, CRC Press, MIT Press, and Cambridge Univ. Press [for university presses, to distinguish them from the university itself]. Only one publisher’s location is needed. A few world-renowned cities (for example, Amsterdam, London, Philadelphia, Chicago, New York, Baltimore) can be listed without state or country; less well-known cities and those with names that could be confused take state abbreviations (Cambridge alone for the city in the U.K., but Cambridge, MA). Inclusive pages numbers or chapter number must be given when specific articles are referred to within an edited volume.

Citations:
Please use full citations in the following format, which includes the complete list of authors, the full titles, and the inclusive pagination:
Journals
1. E. J. Neer, T. Kozasa, Sites for Gα binding on the G protein β subunit overlap with sites for regulation of phospholipase Cβ and adenylyl cyclase. J. Biol. Chem. 273, 16265-16272 (1998).
2. D. J. Mangelsdorf, C. Thummel, M. Beato, P. Herrlich, G. Schütz, K. Umesono, B. Blumberg, P. Kastner, M. Mark, P. Chambon, R. M. Evans, The nuclear receptor superfamily: The second decade. Cell 83, 835-839 (1995).
3. J. J. Tesmer, R. K. Sunahara, A. G. Gilman, S. R. Sprang, Crystal structure of the catalytic domains of adenylyl cyclase in a complex with Gs·GTP-γ-S. Science 278, 1907-1916 (1997).
4. J. D. Brown, M. R. DiChiara, K. R. Anderson, M. A. Gimbrone, Jr., J. N. Topper, MEKK-1, a component of the stress (stress-activated protein kinase/c-Jun N-terminal kinase) pathway, can selectively activate Smad2-mediated transcriptional activation in endothelial cells. J. Biol. Chem., 274, 8797-8805 (1999).
5. J. Burton, C. K. Goldman, P. Rao, M. Moos, T. A. Waldmann, Association of intercellular adhesion molecule 1 with the multichain high-affinity interleukin 2 receptor. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 87, 7329-7333 (1990).
6. A. Miyawaki, R. Tsien, Monitoring protein conformations and interactions by fluorescence resonance energy transfer between mutants of green fluorescent protein. Methods Enzymol., in press.
7. F. Watson, R. S. Kiernan, D. G. Deavall, A. Varro, R. Dimaline, Transcriptional activation of the rat vesicular monoamine transporter 2 promoter in gastric epithelial cells: Regulation by gastrin. J. Biol. Chem. Papers in Press, published 2000 as 10.1074/jbc.M006697200.
8. K. L. Clark, P. B. Larsen, X. Wang, C. Chang, Association of the Arabidopsis CTR1 Raf-like kinase with the ETR1 and ERS ethylene receptors. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 95, 5401-5406 (1998) [published erratum appears in Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 95, 9060 (1998)]. [style for published erratum]
9. L. C. Cantley, PI3K pathway. Sci. STKE (Connections Map, as seen February 2001), http://www.stke.org/cgi/cm/CMP_6557. [style for citing an STKE Connections Map]
10. H. R. de Jonge, B. Hogema, B. C. Tilly, Protein N-myristoylation: Critical role in apoptosis and salt tolerance. Sci. STKE 2000, pe1 (2000). [style for citing an STKE paper]
Science Express papers
– When published in Science Express but not yet in print:
1. W. Jones, B. Smith, Location and function of DNA binding proteins. Science 20 December 2000 (10.4444/science.1054678).
– When published in Science Express and in print:
1. W. Jones, B. Smith, Location and function of DNA binding proteins. Science 252, 1056 (2001); published online 20 December 2000 (10.4444/science.1054678).
Technical reports
1. D. E. Shaw, Technical Report CUCS-29-82 (Columbia University, New York, 1982).
2. F. Press, A Report on the Computational Needs for Physics (National Science Foundation, Washington, DC, 1981). [unpublished or access by title]
3. Assessment of the Carcinogenicity and Mutagenicity of Chemicals (WHO Technical Report Series No. 556, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland, 1974).
Proceedings
1. Title of Symposium Published as a Book, sponsoring organization, city and state of meeting, inclusive dates and year (publisher, publisher’s city and state, year).
Paper presented at a meeting (not published)
1. M. Konishi, paper presented at the 14th Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Anaheim, CA, 10 to 14 October 1984. [sponsoring organization should be mentioned if it is not part of the meeting name]
Theses and unpublished material
1. B. Smith, thesis, Georgetown University, Washington, DC (1973).
2 J. A. Norton, unpublished material.
Books
1. A. M. Lister, Fundamentals of Operating Systems (Springer-Verlag, New York, ed. 3, 1984). [third edition]
2. J. B. Carroll, Ed., Language, Thought and Reality, Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1956).
3. R. Davis, J. King, in Machine Intelligence, E. Acock and R. Michie, Eds. (Wiley, New York, 1976), vol. 8, chap. 3.
4. D. Curtis, in Clinical Neurology of Development, B. Walters, Ed. (Oxford Univ. Press, New York, 1983), pp. 60-73.
5. Principles and Procedures for Evaluating the Toxicity of Household Substances (National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC, 1977). [organization as author and publisher]

Figures:
Files must be at least 300 dpi in resolution. If files are prepared in software that cannot create files of sufficient resolution (for example, Microsoft PowerPoint), the figures will be redrawn by the STKE art department. Details on figure file preferences are described below in the section on electronic transmission of files. Figures will be presented in the text in a small (thumbnail) format that can be enlarged with a click of the left mouse button. Composite figures should be labeled A, B, C. Line drawings should be labeled on the ordinate and abscissa with the parameter or variable being measured, the units of measure, and the scale. Scales with large or small numbers should be presented as powers of 10. Definitions of symbols should usually appear in the figure legend and not in the figure. Simple symbols (circles, squares, triangles, and diamonds: solid or open) reduce well.

Avoid the use of light lines and screen shading. Instead, use black-and-white, hatched, and cross-hatched designs for emphasis. Use heavy lines or boxes for emphasizing or marking off areas of the figure.

Lettering is in a sans serif font (Helvetica, Arial) for figures. Use boldface type for axis labels and for the labels A, B, C, in composite figures; use italic type only as it would be used in the text (for example, for variables and gene names). The first letter of each entry should be uppercase; otherwise, use uppercase letters as they would be used in the text (for example, for acronyms). Avoid wide variation in type size within a single figure.

Figure Legends should be double-spaced in numerical order on a separate page. No single legend should be longer than one page. Nomenclature, abbreviations, symbols, and units used in a figure should match those used in the text. The figure title should be given as the first line of the legend.

Tables should supplement, not duplicate, the text. They should be numbered in the order of their citation in the text. Each table should be generated on a separate page with its legend double-spaced above the table. The first sentence of the legend should be a brief descriptive title. Three horizontal lines are used in tables: at the top and bottom of the table and between the column headings and the table body. Vertical lines are not used between the columns.

Every vertical column should have a heading consisting of a title with the unit of measure in parentheses. Units should not change within a column. Centered headings of the body of the table can be used to break the entries into groups. (See the section on lettering for use of italic type and uppercase letters.)

Footnotes should contain information relevant to specific entries or parts of the table.

Videos:
Acceptable formats are Quicktime, MPEG, and Flash. Keep videos short and the display window small to minimize the file size of the video. Supply caption information with the videos. Edit longer sequences into several small pieces with captions specific to each video sequence.

Electronic Transmission of Manuscripts and Figures:

Most authors find it easiest to submit their text and figures to the STKE Editor by e-mail. However, files can also be submitted by FTP. If you require assistance or need information on submitting files by FTP, please send the STKE Editors a message.

• File naming: Please name your figures with the first author's name + figure number (examples, SmithF1.eps, SmithF2.eps); please name your manuscript text as Author’s last name followed by the file type extension (example, Smith.doc).
• Figure File Formats: Figure files should be compatible with Macintosh computers Adobe Illustrator (version 3.0 to 9.0) and Adobe Photoshop (version 2.0 to 6.0). We can accept figures in the following formats (in descending order of preference):
  • Illustrator EPS (Encapsulated Post Script) or AI (Adobe Illustrator),
  • Photoshop PSD (Photoshop - with active text layers, do not flatten, do not rasterize text layers),
  • PDF, TIF, PICT, JPG, JPEG, GIF.
  • Submit files prepared in Corel Draw or Macromedia Freehand saved as EPS's.
  • Submit files prepared in PowerPoint as PPT files. (PowerPoint files will be redrawn by the art department to meet resolution requirements.)
• Text File Formats: Microsoft Word accessible file format (.doc, .rtf).