Aims and scope
Contact Information
Submission of manuscripts
Manuscript preparation
Review of submitted manuscripts
Authorship
Copyright
Preparation for Publication
Reprints
Page charges
Manuscript format

Aims and scope
SCIENCE CHINA Life Sciences (Science in China Series C) is a journal published monthly in English by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and co-sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.  It is published in both printed and electronic forms by Science in China Press and Springer.
The journal publishes reviews, research articles and short communications. A review article should insightfully summarize the progress of a particular topic. A research article should fully report original observations and discoveries of general interest in any field of life sciences (including biology, agriculture and ecology, and medicine). A short communication should report in a shortened version of discoveries with exceptional interest.
All papers appearing in this journal are strictly peer-reviewed before publication. Papers may come from any country as long as they are written in English.
SCIENCE CHINA Life Sciences(Science in China Series C) is indexed by SCI, Medline, BIOSIS, CA, and other databases.
Contact Information
Editorial Office,
Science in China Series C-Life Sciences,
Science in China Press,
16 Donghuangchenggen North Street,
Beijing 100717, China,
Tel: 8610-64015399;
Fax: 8610-64016350.
Email: life@scichina.org
Submission of manuscripts
All manuscripts should be submitted online at: http://www.scichina. com. Clicking the "Online Submission" will lead you to the "Journal Management System". If you are submitting your manuscript for the first time, you will need to “register” by providing the required information before submitting a manuscript, by simply following the directions provided.
The authors should recommend 3-5 qualified reviewers and may request the exclusion of particular reviewers.
An informative cover letter briefly describing the major discoveries of your work is required.
All manuscripts submitted are assumed not to be published previously or concurrently submitted for publication elsewhere.
Manuscript preparation
Review articles are usually submitted by invitation only. Those who are not invited but intend to submit a review manuscript should contact the Executive Vice Editor-in-Chief of the journal (Professor CHANG Zengyi) at: changzy@pku.edu.cn. Authors writing review manuscripts are respectfully requested to limit article length to approximately 10 printed pages, including a few relevant illustrative figures and tables..

      A manuscript for a regular research article usually includes the following parts: Title, Authors, Affiliations, Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, References, Acknowledgements, Figure legends, Tables and Figures. A manuscript for a short communication should contain a similar structure except in a shortened manner (with less than 3 figures and one table).   
Manuscripts should be prepared for submission in Word or PDF file, single-columned, A4 size, 12 pt, single spaced, with figures and tables inserted in the text.
Review of submitted manuscripts
All the submitted manuscripts will be reviewed by expert referees selected by the editorial board.  The final decision on a manuscript will be made by the editorial board based on the referees’ comments.  The entire review process usually takes 40 days, and the editorial office will inform the author of the decision as soon as the process is completed.
Authorship
Authorship should be limited to those who have contributed substantially to the work. Submission of a manuscript is taken to imply that all the named authors are aware that they are listed as co-authors, and they have seen and agreed to the submitted version. The corresponding author is the one who should take the major responsibility to ensure that the submitted manuscripts are properly prepared in all aspects.
Copyright
A completed form assigning copyright to Science in China Press must be returned to the editorial office of Science in China Series C-Life Sciences when the manuscript is accepted for publication. The copyright covers the exclusive right to reproduce and distribute the article (in various languages), including reprints, translations, photographic reproductions, microform, electronic form (offline, online) or other reproductions of similar nature. The Copyright Transfer Statement is available at: http://www.SciChina.com
Preparation for Publication
After typesetting, the page proof is usually sent electronically as an email attachment to the corresponding author. The proof, together with any possible minor corrections, must be returned to the managing editor within 48 hours. Failure to do this might result in a delay in the final publication of the paper. Corrections can be provided to us by postal mail, faxing or as email attachments.
Rapid publication will be arranged for papers reporting exceptionally significant discoveries.
Reprints
A total of 30 reprint copies will be sent to the corresponding author. Additional reprints will be provided for a fee, upon request to the managing editor.
It should be noted that the full text of any paper published can be freely downloaded by readers in China at  http://www.scichina.com or overseas readers at  http://www.springerlink.com.
Page charges
Each regular printed page will be charged 200 RMB, with color figures charged 1000 RMB per page.
Manuscript format
Manuscripts of full research articles should be well organized, with concise language and avoiding redundant tables and figures. Authors are advised to use standard international nomenclature, express all measurements in SI units (i.e., the International System of Units).
Manuscripts should be divided into the following sections:

• Title page
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Materials and methods
• Results
• Discussion
• Acknowledgements
• References
• Figure legends
• Figures
• Tables

Title Page
The title should be as short and informative as possible, and should not contain non-standard acronyms or abbreviations. Titles are usually limited to no more than 20 words.
Authorship should be limited to those who have substantially contributed to the work reported, and all authors should be substantially familiar with the content of the entire manuscript.
Family names of authors should be written in upper case. The email address of the corresponding author should be provided in the manuscript.
The affiliations of all the authors should be listed, with complete mailing address information, including a postal code.
Abstract
It should be a single paragraph, succinctly and clearly describing the major findings reported in the manuscript, and comprehensible to readers who did not read the paper. Abbreviations and specialized terms should be avoided. Reference citations within the abstract are not permitted.
A list of three to eight keywords should be provided below the Abstract. The chosen keywords should reflect the theme of the manuscript.
Introduction
It should briefly introduce the relevant background of the research conducted (not a comprehensive review of the specific field), purpose of the study reported, and provide a brief summary of the major findings. Please do not use subtitles in the introduction.
Materials and Methods
This part should only contain sufficient details so that all experimental procedures can be repeated by others, in conjunction with cited references. Only truly new procedures should be described in detail here. 
Results
Major observations and conclusions of the reported study should be clearly and logically described here. Informative subtitles should be used in this part.
Discussion
The significance of the reported discoveries in the paper should be discussed with historical and future perspectives. Hypotheses or theories supported by solid evidences might be proposed here.
Acknowledgements
This is for the authors to express their gratitude to those who have helped during their research. Information concerning funding organizations (including the grant numbers) for the reported research is also usually provided here.
References
Only published or in-press papers and books may be cited in the reference list. Unpublished abstracts of papers presented at meetings are not permitted.
References should be cited in numerical order as they appear in text. The full title for each cited article should be included. If there are more than 3 authors, the first 3 names are followed by et al. Please provide inclusive page ranges for journal articles and book chapters. Databases should be cited in the text.
Reference examples are given as follows:
●Journal
Hu C H, Hu W P, Zhang F B, et al. Sediment resuspension in Lake Taihu, China. Chin Sci Bull, 2006, 51(6): 731--737
Payne D K, Sullivan M D, Massie M J. Women’s psychological reactions to breast cancer. Semin Oncol, 1996, 23(Suppl 2): 89--97
●Monograph
Norman I J, Redfern S J, eds. Mental Health Carefor Elderly People. New York: Churchill Livingstone, 1996
●Proceedings
Polito V S. Calmodulin and calmodulin inhibitors: Effect on pollen germination and tube growth. In: Mulvshy D L, Ottaviaro E, eds. Pollen: Biology and Implication for Plant Breeding. New York: Elsevier, 1983. 53--60
Cecil T E, Chern S S. Dupin submanifolds in Lie sphere geometry. In: Jiang B J, Peng C -K, Hou Z X, et al., eds. Differential Geometry and Topology. Lect Notes in Math, Vol 1369. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1989. 1--44
●Conference proceedings
Minor H E. Spillways for high velocities. In: Zurich V E, Minor H E, Hager W H, eds. Proceedings of International Workshop on Hydraulics of Stepped Spillways, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 2000. 3--10
●Dissertation
Tang H J. Ecological studies on phytoplankton of the shallow, eutrophic Lake Donghu. Dissertation for Doctoral Degree. Wuhan: Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2002
●Technical report
Phillips N A. The Nested Grid Model. NOAA Technical Report NWS22. 1979
●Patent
Zhang W P. Experiment Apparatus of Diffraction Imaging. China Patent, 02290557.X, 2003-12-03
●User manual
Wang D L, Zhu J, Li Z K, et al. User Manual for QTKMapper Version 1.6, 1999
●Software
Hemodynamics III: The ups and downs of hemodynamics. Version 2.2. Orlando (FL): Computerized Educational Systems. 1993
●CD
Anderson S C, Poulsen K B. Anderson’s Electronic Atlas of Hematology. Philadelphia: Lippincott Wilkins, 2002
●Electronic version of a journal
Christine M. Plant physiology: plant biology in the Genome Era[OL]. Science, 1998, 281: 331-332[1998-09-23]. http://www. sciencemag.org/anatmorp.htm
Article in press without doi:
Lim E-K, Ashford D A, Hou B, et al. Arabidopsis glycosyltransferases as biocatalysts in fermentation for regioselective synthesis of diverse quercetin glucosides. Biotech Bioeng, 2004 (in press)
Article in press with doi:
Lim E-K, Bowles D J. A class of plant glycosyltransferases involved in cellular homeostasis. The EMBO Journal advance online publication 8 July 2004; doi: 10.1038/ sj.emboj.7600295
Personal communications should be authorized in writing by those involved, and unpublished data should be cited as "J Smith and D Jones, unpublished data, 2008". References to manuscripts in preparation or submitted, but not yet accepted, should be cited in the text as "C Lee and N Jones, in preparation", not as "C Lee and N Jones, submitted", and should not be included in the list of references.
Figure legends
All symbols and abbreviations used in the figure must be defined, unless they are common abbreviations or have already been defined in the text. Experimental details should, where possible, be given in the Materials and Methods section, and not repeated in the figure legends.
Provide these separately from figures. For figures with multiple panels, the first sentence of the legend should be a brief overview of the entire figure.
Figures
Figures should be labeled in consecutive Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3…). Figures divided into parts should be labeled with a uppercase, bold letter (A, B, C…).
Tables
Tables should be typed on separate sheets and numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3…). Tables should be self-explanatory and include a brief descriptive title. Footnotes to tables indicated by lower-case superscript letters are acceptable, but they should not include extensive experimental detail.