Manuscript preparation instructions

As of January 2024, FEMS Yeast Research is fully open access. This means any new submissions that are accepted for publication will be published open access and will therefore be subject to an Article Processing Charge (APC). See the Copyright and licence including Open Access section below for more information.

• Scope
  Subject sections
  Editorial policy
  Peer review process
  Submission
  Manuscript preparation and support
  Manuscript format and structure
  Funding
  Journal copyediting style
  Figures and illustrations
  Featured image
  Reusing copyrighted material
  Supporting information and supplementary data
  Copyright and licence including Open Access
  Proofs
  Advance Access

Scope

FEMS Yeast Research offers efficient publication of high-quality original Research Articles, Mini-reviews, Perspectives and Commentaries. The journal will select for publication only those manuscripts deemed to be of major relevance to the field and generally will not consider articles that are largely descriptive without insights on underlying mechanism or biology. Submissions on any yeast species are welcome provided they report results within the scope outlined below and are of significance to the yeast field.

We will publish articles that

• contribute to improving our understanding of the biology or impact of yeasts
• provide knowledge on any yeast species

We will not consider articles that

• are descriptive surveys, preliminary investigations, or otherwise do not add much knowledge to the field

• report phenomenon or phenotypes without addressing underlying mechanisms
• are too limited in scale, breadth or ambition to have sufficient impact
• are not about yeast nor relevant to the yeast community

Subject sections

All Research Articles and MiniReviews should align with one of the following subject sections:

Food and beverages

This section includes investigations related to the development, understanding, or applications of yeast in beer, wine, and other fermented alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. Also welcomed are studies that increase knowledge of the role of yeast in the production of traditional or new fermented foods, yeast as probiotics, yeast in animal feed, and the use of yeast for production of alternative (food) proteins, vitamins or other nutritional molecules. Studies that report the isolation and identification of yeasts from food matrix without performing other work that adds impact, and survey-type studies that simply report the microbial composition of a matrix or environment without related insights as to their role or impact will not be accepted.

Genetics, cell biology and metabolism

This section covers all aspects of genetics, cell biology and metabolism of yeasts. Gene expression, chromatin structure and remodelling, transcription and translation; gene regulation at all levels; RNA metabolism; metabolic pathways; systems biology and modelling; synthetic biology; genetic crossing and analysis; QTL, GWAS and other mapping approaches. Studies must advance the overall knowledge base, and studies that simply replicate work performed in other yeasts will not be accepted.

Industrial and environmental biotechnology

This section covers all papers concerning use of yeast within industrial and environmental biotechnology. This includes genome engineering; synthetic biology; metabolic engineering and pathway engineering; biosensors; synthetic chromosomes and cells’ cell factories; production of heterogeneous proteins, aromatics, or other biomolecules for application; yeast for biofuels; biomechanical engineering; development or optimisation of bioprocesses; precision fermentation; biomanufacturing; and applications of yeast in environmental biotechnology. Straightforward reports of expression of a single gene for production of a heterologous protein, enzyme, or other product will not be accepted without substantial innovation. Similarly, studies reporting straightforward optimisation of an existing strain or bioprocess without substantial innovation will not be considered.

Pathogenic yeasts

Manuscripts in this section should advance our understanding of the physiology, cell biology, or genetics of pathogenic yeast; increase understanding of the basis of pathogenesis or drug resistance; improve molecular diagnostics. Clinical cases studies will not be considered, nor will articles focused on the host not the yeast; articles reporting the effects of anti-fungals without study of the mode of action; or studies that report the presence or identity of pathogenic yeast without work to advance knowledge in other areas.

Population genomics and ecology

This section welcomes papers on the role of yeast in the environment; the study of yeast populations at the genomic and/or physiological levels; evolution of traits, species or populations; yeast biodiversity; yeast ecology and interactions with biotic or abiotic environments; natural and synthetic yeast communities. Studies reporting the isolation of a single or small number of yeast species from an environment without a larger population study aspect, or survey-type studies that do not significantly advance knowledge or impact understanding will not be accepted.

Sensing, signalling and physiology

All aspects of sensing, signalling and physiology in yeasts are of interest. Nutrient sensing, signal transduction, response systems, and pathways; stress sensing and responses; membrane biology and lipids; transport functions and proteins; protein secretion; mitochondrial function; structure and function of the cell wall, membranes and organelles.

Yeast as a model for biology and disease

This section welcomes manuscripts which use yeast as a model to understand human disease, or as a model to study general biological phenomena of broad interest. Articles without a clear yeast focus will not be considered.

Protocols, tools and methods

Papers in this section should cover the development or application of a new tool or method. Step-by-step protocols can be published as a standalone manuscript, or as a supplementary file to a method or tool development article. Papers discussing new synthetic biology tools, plasmids and methods are welcomed, as are new methods and assays.

Editorial Policy

Please visit our Editorial Policies page for a full list of our Editorial and Ethical Policies 

FEMS Yeast Research will only consider articles that are within the published scope of the journal, are original submissions, are not preliminary or incomplete, and are of significance the field of yeast research. The Editor in Chief or Editors will reject papers, with an immediate decision, that are outside the scope of the journal, lack significance, or which they believe do not meet the required standards for other reasons. Retained papers will be assigned a handing Editor who will make decisions on acceptance, revision, resubmission or rejection based on independent referees’ reports. All manuscripts will be reviewed by at least two qualified members of the Editorial Board or other appropriate experts. Authors who feel that there are substantial grounds for disagreement with an Editor’s decision should contact the Editor in Chief, whose decision will be final. Details of the journal Editors and Editorial Board are available on the journal website.

Artificial Intelligence

Natural language processing tools driven by artificial intelligence (AI) do not qualify as authors. The use of AI (for example, to help generate content, write code, or process data) should be disclosed both in cover letters to editors and in the Methods or Acknowledgements section of manuscripts. Please see the COPE position statement on AI and authorship for more details.

Peer Review Process

All submissions to the journal are initially reviewed by the Editor and his Associates. At this stage manuscripts may be rejected without peer review if it is felt that they are not of high enough priority or not relevant to the journal. This fast rejection process means that authors are given a quick decision and do not need to wait for the review process. Manuscripts that are not instantly rejected are sent out for peer review, usually to two independent reviewers. Based on the feedback from these reviewers and the Editors’ judgment a decision is given on the manuscript.

Manuscripts may also be sent out for statistical review.

The average time from submission to first decision is 35 days.

The Journal operates single-anonymized peer review, meaning that the identity of the authors is known to the editors and to the reviewers, but that the reviewers’ identities are known only to the editors and are hidden from the authors.  

Once a submitted manuscript passes initial assessment by the Journal’s Editor-in-Chief, it will then be passed to a handling editor to undergo peer review before making the final decision.  

During the peer review phase, your manuscript is typically sent to two reviewers. 

You may suggest potential reviewers at submission. However, there is no guarantee the suggested reviewers will be selected by the Journal. 

For full details about the peer review process, see Fair editing and peer review or OUP author FAQs.

Submission

Please read these instructions carefully and follow them closely to ensure that the review and publication of your paper is as efficient and quick as possible. The Editors reserve the right to return manuscripts that are not in accordance with these instructions.

All material to be considered for publication in FEMS Yeast Research should be submitted in electronic form via the journal's online submission system. Once you have prepared your manuscript according to the instructions below, please follow this link for instructions on how to submit your manuscript online.

All manuscripts must be accompanied by a cover letter, which should include a short statement, in 3–4 sentences, describing:

1. how the work related to the scope of journal i.e. why it should be published in this journal?
2. the aims of the study and their significance with regard to previously published work
3. the novelty and originality of the findings.

Manuscripts for MiniReviews may be submitted directly, solicited from international leading investigators or proposals for reviews may be sent to the Chief Editor.

Such proposals should contain: 

• an outline (1–3 pages)
• a short statement describing the aim, scope and relevance of the review, and an indication of why the review is timely
• information on whether there has been any review covering this or a related field in the past few years, and, if so, the specific importance of the proposed review
• a statement as to when the completed review might be expected
• full contact details of four experts in the field who are familiar with the topical list of recent key references showing the contributions to the field made by the author(s).
• a list of recent key references showing the contributions to the field made by the author(s).

The proposals are evaluated and authors may be invited to submit the review if the material is satisfactory and of general interest.

Nominated Reviewers

When suggesting reviewers for manuscripts, members of the Editorial Board and/or suitably qualified scientists should have no close affiliation with the authors and should give an objective review of the manuscript. Professional e-mail addresses must be provided, if available, rather than private e-mail addresses. The Editors retain the right to use their discretion to select reviewers they deem appropriate, which may or may not include those nominated by authors.

Revised Manuscripts

Manuscripts may be returned to authors for modification of the scientific content and/or for shortening and language corrections. Revised versions must be submitted online through ScholarOne Manuscripts by clicking on the link to upload a revised manuscript provided in the authors’ decision letter. This can also be achieved by clicking on the ‘‘create a revision’’ button in the corresponding author’s submitting author centre. A source file is required with text and tables (.doc, .docx or .rtf format, but not .pdf). Information must be provided on responses to Editor’s and referees’ comments through a cover letter. A clear indication is also required of changes that have been made. Authors must also upload a file as a supporting document in which original and revised text are compared using the ‘Track Changes’ facility.

Figures should be uploaded in separate files and at sufficient resolution (see section on Preparation of data). All obsolete files of the previous version should be deleted from the revised submission. If a paper that is returned to the authors for amendment is not resubmitted in revised form within one month after minor and two months after a major revision, the paper will be regarded as withdrawn, unless request for extension is made to the Editor dealing with the paper. Any revised version received after this deadline will be treated as a new, resubmitted manuscript.

Resubmitted Manuscripts

If extensive revision is required, including a requirement for additional experimental work or analysis, the manuscript may be rejected but with a recommendation to resubmit a substantially revised manuscript. A resubmitted manuscript should be submitted as a new manuscript but should include a letter outlining the revisions that have been made in response to the major criticisms of the original article. The article will be treated as a new submission, will typically be edited by the Editor who dealt with the original manuscript, but may not necessarily be reviewed by the same referees.

Manuscript Preparation and Support

Manuscripts must be written in English (consistent with either UK or US spelling) and should be clear and grammatically correct. Authors whose native language is not English should consider having their manuscript read by an English speaking colleague or have it professionally edited. This is not a mandatory step, but may help to ensure that the academic content of your paper is fully understood by journal editors and reviewers. Language editing does not guarantee that your manuscript will be accepted for publication but manuscripts that are not written in clear and legible English may be rejected without peer review.

If you are not confident in the quality of your English, you may wish to use a language-editing service to ensure that editors and reviewers understand your paper. Oxford University Press partners with Enago, a leading provider of author services. Prospective authors are entitled to a discount of 30% for editing services at Enago, through the OUP-Enago partner page.

Enago is an independent service provider, who will handle all aspects of this service, including payment. As an author you are under no obligation to take up this offer. Language editing is optional and does not guarantee that your manuscript will be accepted. Edited manuscripts will still undergo peer review by the journal.

Here are other useful links to help you through the manuscript submission process:

• Online Submission Platform
• Editorial Office: e-mail femsyr.editorialoffice@paeditorial.co.uk
• Production Office: e-mail fems.production@oup.com
• FEMS Journals Portal 
• FEMS (Federation of European Microbiological Societies) website

Availability of Data and Materials

Where ethically feasible, FEMS Yeast Research strongly encourages authors to make all data and software code on which the conclusions of the paper rely available to readers. We suggest that data be presented in the main manuscript or additional supporting files, or deposited in a public repository whenever possible. For information on general repositories for all data types, and a list of recommended repositories by subject area, please see Choosing where to archive your data.

Data Citation

FEMS Yeast Research supports the Force 11 Data Citation Principles and requires that all publicly available datasets be fully referenced in the reference list with an accession number or unique identifier such as a digital object identifier (DOI). Data citations should include the minimum information recommended by DataCite:

• [dataset]* Authors, Year, Title, Publisher (repository or archive name), Identifier

*The inclusion of the [dataset] tag at the beginning of the citation helps us to correctly identify and tag the citation. This tag will be removed from the citation published in the reference list.

ORCID

FEMS Yeast Research requires submitting authors to provide an ORCID iD at submission to the journal. More information on ORCID and the benefits of using an ORCID iD is available. If you do not already have an ORCID iD, you can register for free via the ORCID website.

Preprint and Self-archiving policies

Authors retain the right to make an Author’s Original Version (preprint) available through various channels, and this does not prevent submission to the journal. For further information see our Online Licensing, Copyright and Permissions policies. If accepted, the authors are required to update the status of any preprint, including your published paper’s DOI, as described on our Author Self-Archiving policy page. Please note reuse of the accepted version of your manuscript and the final, published version, is restricted. You may post the accepted version of your manuscript to a personal webpage or to an institutional non-commercial repository immediately on publication on the proviso that this version is not made publicly available until 12 months after publication. Please see our Author Self-Archiving policy page for more information on the acceptable reuse of the manuscript.

Sequencing data

Authors will be asked at submission whether they have deposited their high-throughput sequencing data, DNA or amino acid sequences in an appropriate data bank and made any and all sequencing data (gene, transcript, protein, genome, transcriptome or proteome sequence reads and metadata) available in a public repository. Authors will be required to provide accession numbers in the manuscript. Please note that papers without accession numbers and appropriate deposition of data will be rejected by the Editor.

Manuscript Format and Structure

Manuscripts can now be submitted to FEMS Yeast Research without being formatted into journal style. Manuscripts will need to be formatted for revision, after acceptance. Manuscripts can be submitted in any common document format that can be easily opened and read by others. A single PDF or Word file is usually reliable. At first submission, please ensure your manuscript adheres to the basic formatting guidelines provided below.

After initial review, you may be asked to supply editable files that match journal formatting requirements, and high-resolution figures. For more details, please consult the journal's mini style checklist.

Basic formatting guide

• On the first page please include manuscript title, author names and affiliations including country, and the address (including email) of the corresponding author.
• Provide a short abstract (up to 200 words), avoiding abbreviations and reference citations.
• Define non-standard abbreviations at the first occurrence.
• Number tables and figures consecutively by appearance, and provide a legend for each. Avoid overcrowding in tables and unnecessary clutter in figures. The initial submission can have figures and text in one file, if desired. Upon request, please be prepared to provide high-resolution figures separately, in a common image format (e.g. eps, tif, jpg).
• Videos can be published in the online article, with a still image representing the video appearing in the print version. Submit videos in MP4 format if possible. All videos should have an accompanying legend.
• References can be formatted in any readable style at submission. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of the references. Later, authors may be asked to comply with the journal’s citation convention (as given in the mini style checklist).
• Include acknowledgements, details of funding sources and grant numbers at the end of the text. Use author initials to indicate which authors were in receipt of grants.
• Please include at submission all files containing supplementary material cited in the text.

Funding

Details of all funding sources for the work in question should be given in a separate section entitled 'Funding'. This should appear before the 'Acknowledgements' section. The following rules should be followed:

• The sentence should begin: ‘This work was supported by …’
• The full official funding agency name should be given, i.e. ‘the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health’ or simply 'National Institutes of Health' not ‘NCI' (one of the 27 subinstitutions) or 'NCI at NIH’
• Grant numbers should be complete and accurate and provided in brackets as follows: ‘[grant number ABX CDXXXXXX]’
• Multiple grant numbers should be separated by a comma as follows: ‘[grant numbers ABX CDXXXXXX, EFX GHXXXXXX]’
• Agencies should be separated by a semi-colon (plus ‘and’ before the last funding agency)
• Where individuals need to be specified for certain sources of funding the following text should be added after the relevant agency or grant number 'to [author initials]'.

An example is given here: ‘This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health [P50 CA098252 and CA118790 to R.B.S.R.] and the Alcohol & Education Research Council [HFY GR667789].

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements and details of non-financial support must be included at the end of the text before references and not in footnotes. Personal acknowledgements should precede those of institutions or agencies. Please note that acknowledgement of funding bodies and declarations regarding conflicts of interest (if any CoI exists) should be given in separate 'Funding' and 'Conflicts of interest' sections, respectively.

Article types

FEMS Yeast Research publishes a range of article types, and authors are encouraged to select the most appropriate for their work.

Editorials

By invitation only. written by the EiC or another journal Editor on a topic of relevance to the whole yeast community.

Perspectives

By invitation only. Perspectives are wider in scope than a MiniReview, and authors are able to offer thoughts and opinions of a field or its direction, discuss new conceptual approaches, and, critically, consider future developments.

Commentaries

By invitation only. Short articles which address a current topic or controversy.

Retrospectives

By invitation only. Series of articles which look at the careers of eminent yeast researchers, led by Terrance Cooper.

Research Articles

Research articles describe original experimental work leading to significant advances within one of the subject sections described above. There is no maximum length, but the word count should be justified by the content and authors are urged to be concise. Excessively long reference lists should be avoided, and repetition of information in the text and illustrations should not occur.

MiniReviews

MiniReviews are concise articles reviewing topics of current interest or controversial aspects of subjects within one of the subject sections described above. Articles providing new concepts, critical appraisals, and speculation are welcomed. The maximum length of a MiniReview is 7,000 words with a maximum total of 6 figures and tables. There is no rigid format for MiniReviews, but they should generally include an Abstract and a brief Introductio in which the background to the article is presented. The remainder of the text should be arranged under a single, or maximum two levels of subheading, finishing with a Conclusion or Outlook section that highlights the novelty of the MiniReview.

Protocols

Protocols should cover the development or application of a new tool or method. Step-by-step protocols can be published as a standalone manuscript, or as a supplementary file to a method or tool development article. Papers discussing new synthetic biology tools, plasmids and methods are welcomed, as are new methods and assays.

Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor are brief communications focusing on an article that has been published in the journal within the previous six months. They should focus on some aspect(s) of the paper that is, in the author’s opinion, incorrectly stated or interpreted, controversial, misleading or in some other way worthy of comment. All Letters to the Editor must address a scientific issue in an objective fashion, should have fewer than 1000 words (main body text), and will be externally refereed. Please choose the manuscript type ‘Letter to the Editor’ when uploading through the online submission system. If acceptable for publication, they will be offered to the original authors for comment.

* Word limit is including the abstract but excluding the title page, references and figure legends.

Journal Copyediting Style

This journal follows our standard Oxford SciMed style. By following the mini style checklist you can ensure that your manuscript follows the major style points.

Reproducibility of results and statistical tests

Authors should state how many times experiments were repeated and whether mean or representative results are shown. Variability should be indicated statistically wherever possible as part of, but not in place of, a proper statistical analysis. If results are expressed as percentages, the absolute value corresponding to 100% must be stated. Avoid values with unjustified numbers of significant figures; in most cases three significant figures is consistent with the accuracy attained in microbiological experiments.

Results of statistical tests should be presented wherever possible as evidence for conclusions reached. Such information must be presented concisely to illuminate the results, but not to dominate them. The tests used should be briefly described in the Materials and Methods section. Details of the diagnostic checks made for the assumptions of the statistical tests and for the validity of any transformations used should be stated clearly.

Description of New Species

Papers describing the isolation of new bacterial strains or species will be considered for publication providing they meet the standards specified for such descriptions as outlined in: B.J. Tindall, R. Rosselló-Móra, H.-J. Busse, W. Ludwig, and P. Kämpfer, Notes on the characterization of prokaryote strains for taxonomic purposes, Int. J. Syst. Evol. Microbiol. 2010 60: 249-266 (see this page), and that the strain is deposited in two recognised public culture collections.

In the submission letter the authors should state why the description merits publication in a FEMS journal, rather than publication in a specialized taxonomic journal such as International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology or Systematic and Applied Microbiology.

Nomenclature, abbreviations and units

Authors should follow internationally accepted rules and conventions. Authors should provide evidence for the thorough identification of new isolates and use the most recent acceptable name.

For genes/proteins, please state the full name if known, with the accepted abbreviation in brackets.

Bacteria and Archaea

The spelling of bacterial names should follow the list of Prokaryotic Names with Standing in Nomenclature. If there is a reason to use a name that does not have standing in nomenclature, the name should be printed in roman type and enclosed in quotation marks and an appropriate statement concerning the nomenclatural status of the name should be made in the text (for an example, see Int. J. Syst. Bacteriol. (1980) 30: 547–556).

Fungi

The authors should use recently accepted binomials controlled by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature. Scientific names of yeasts can be found in: The Yeasts: a Taxonomic Study, 4th ed. (C. P. Kurtzman and J.W. Fell, ed., Elsevier B.V., Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1998). Taxonomic texts should cite nomenclatural authorities at the first time a name is mentioned. Please follow this link for information about abbreviation of authors’ names. All taxa should be italicized.

Viruses

Names used for viruses should be those approved by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV). If desired, synonyms may be added parenthetically when the name is first mentioned. Approved generic (or group) and family names may also be used.

Enzymes

For enzymes, please use the Recommended Name (or Common Name) and the Enzyme Commission (EC) number (as defined by the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB) upon first use in the body text and on first use in the Abstract. Do not use the EC number in titles or subheadings though they may be appropriate to use in a table if a large number of enzymes are being assayed for, for example. Names and numbers should be taken from the latest iteration of the BRENDA database. For not yet classified enzymes, use a ‘preliminary BRENDA supplied EC number’. As an example, “thiosulfate dehydrogenase (EC 1.8.2.2)” or, if preliminary “EC 1.8.2.B2”. It may at times be appropriate to list older/alternative names of the enzyme if there is much inconsistency in the literature as this will help readers to find your content – for instance in the case of the above mentioned enzyme, “thiosulfate oxidising enzyme” and “tetrathionate synthase” are still in use in some papers.

Genes

Genetic nomenclature should essentially follow the recommendations of Demerec et al. (Genetics (1966) 54: 61–76), and those given in the instructions to authors of the Journal of Bacteriology and Molecular and Cellular Biology (January issues).

Biochemical compounds 

Consult the European Journal of Biochemistry or the Nomenclature Committee of the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (Queen Mary Undergraduate Chemistry course page).

Abbreviations

Abbreviations should only be used as an aid to the reader and their use should be strictly limited. Define each abbreviation and introduce it in parentheses the first time it is used: e.g. ‘cultures were grown in Eagle minimal essential medium (MEM)’. Eliminate abbreviations that are not used at least six times in the manuscript. In addition to abbreviations to the international system of units of measurements, other common units (e.g., bp, kb, Da), chemical symbols for the elements, and the standard biochemical abbreviations (see Eur. J. Biochem.) should be used without definition. Standard chemical symbols and trivial names or their symbols (folate, Ala, Leu, etc.) may be used for terms that appear in full in the neighbouring text. Abbreviations other than those recommended by the IUPAC-IUB (Biochemical Nomenclature and related Documents, 1978) should be used only when a case can be made for necessity, such as in tables and figures.

Reporting numerical data

The international system of units (SI) should be used; mL is acceptable in place of cm³ for liquid measures. The form for units is mg mL^-1 and not mg/mL, parentheses should be used to improve clarity, e.g. mL (g dry wt soil)^-1 h^-1. The prefixes k, m, m μ, n, and p should be used in combination with the standard units for reporting length, weight, volume and molarity for 10³, 10^-3, 10^-6, 10^-9, and 10^-12, respectively. Use mg mL^-1 or mg g^-1 instead of the ambiguous ppm. Units of temperature are presented as follows: 37°C or 324 K

Figures and Illustrations

Please create your figures and illustrations with reference to the OUP guidelines.

Please be aware that the requirements for online submission and for reproduction in the journal are different: (i) for online submission and peer review, please upload your figures either embedded in the word processing file or separately as low-resolution images (.jpg, .tif, .gif or. eps); (ii) for reproduction in the journal, you will be required after acceptance to supply high-resolution .tif/.tiff files (or .eps for vector graphics). Minimum resolutions are 400 d.p.i. for colour or tone images, and 600 d.p.i. for line drawings. We advise that you create your high-resolution images first as these can be easily converted into low-resolution images for online submission.

Figures will not be relettered by the publisher. The journal reserves the right to reduce the size of illustrative material. Any photomicrographs, electron micrographs or radiographs must be of high quality. Wherever possible, photographs should fit within the print area or within a column width.

Specifications

• Figures should be supplied at twice their final size with wide margins. A single column figure is 80 mm, two-thirds page width is 114 mm and two-column width is 168 mm.
• For line art:

1.  All lines should be drawn at 1.5 point (0.5 mm wide), broken line styles may be used to differentiate multiple plot lines if desired.
2. Letters and numbers should be 16 point (capitals 4 mm high) non- serif (e.g. Windows: Arial, Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Century Gothic and Lucida Sans Unicode; Mac and Unix: Helvetica, Lucida, Avant Garde).
3. Symbols in the figure itself should be 3 mm in diameter. Lines drawn to accompany the points should not go through hollow symbols.
4. Numbers used as axis labels should have minimum significant figures; amounts less than unity must carry a preceding zero (e.g. 0.5 not .5).
5. Larger composite figures may be designed to occupy two columns when this can achieve an overall saving in space. The character, line and symbol sizes should be adjusted accordingly to achieve the same sizes on the printed page.

• Magnification should be indicated where appropriate by inclusion of a bar marker.
• Photographs of electropherograms, etc., in which there is poor contrast may be better replaced by line drawings, but in this case the photographs should be submitted for scrutiny by the Editor.
• If photographs have been digitally processed to enhance their quality, this should be stated.
• Figure legends should consist of a preliminary sentence constituting a title, followed by a brief description of the way the particular experiment was carried out, and any other necessary description of symbols or lines. All abbreviations must be defined.

Figure accessibility and alt text

Incorporating alt text (alternative text) when submitting your paper helps to foster inclusivity and accessibility. Good alt text ensures that individuals with visual impairments or those using screen readers can comprehend the content and context of your figures. The aim of alt text is to provide concise and informative descriptions of your figure so that all readers have access to the same level of information and understanding, and that all can engage with and benefit from the visual elements integral to scholarly content. Including alt text demonstrates a commitment to accessibility and enhances the overall impact and reach of your work.  

Alt text is applicable to all images, figures, illustrations, and photographs. 

Alt text is only accessible via e-reader and so it won’t appear as part of the typeset article. 

Detailed guidance on how to draft and submit alt text. 

Featured Image

Featured images can be an image taken from the paper, or supplied in addition to the paper and therefore not included in the article full text content. Ideally the image should summarize the topics and key findings of your paper. As the image may be used in additional promotion it helps to select an image which is visually appealing and high resolution, (a minimum of 400dpi). The Featured Image should be submitted for peer review as a separate file, selecting the appropriate file-type designation in the journal’s online submission system . The file should be clearly named, e.g. Featured Image.jpg. Please follow the guidance relating to Figure preparation.

Please also ensure you:

• avoid saturated and distracting colours
• image resolution should be a minimum of 400dpi and the aspect ratio should be 600px by 335px to make sure that your image is optimized for use in social media

One-sentence Summary

Short non-technical summary stating the novelty of the article. The One Sentence Summary should be written in non-specialist language, such that it may be understood by a general audience.

Please ensure you:

• use the third person, not first person (i.e. do not use ‘I’ or ‘we’)
• keep it simple
• use short legible text

Videos

Authors may now include videos with their submissions which will be published in the online article (ie: no longer as supplementary data). Please see below for further details. Authors must also submit a still image that can be used in the print article. Videos should be numbered in the order they appear in the text. All figures and videos require a legend. The total playback time for the two videos should not exceed 5 minutes.

Recording

Use the highest possible resolution when creating the original. The use of a standard thoracoscopic camera (digital preferred) fixed on the table and manipulated by an assistant gives excellent magnification and high quality recording. Filming with a head-mounted recording camera is not recommended.

Audio

To improve the understanding of the procedure described, short and clear commentaries can be incorporated into the video file. Commentaries should supplement the complete description given in the legend of the video.

Format

Videos can be submitted in any standard format: wmv, avi, mpeg, mov, etc. Videos must be of high quality and must have a minimum size of 640x480 (preferably higher as we will convert all videos to MP4 to ICVTS specifications). The aspect ratio can be: 4:3 or 16:9.

For full video preparation guidelines, go to our video and media guidelines page.

Tables

All tables should be on separate pages and accompanied by a title, and footnotes where necessary. The tables should be numbered consecutively using Arabic numerals. Units in which results are expressed should be given in parentheses at the top of each column and not repeated in each line of the table. Ditto signs are not used. Avoid overcrowding the tables and the excessive use of words. The format of tables should be in keeping with that normally used by the journal; in particular, vertical lines, coloured text and shading should not be used. Please be certain that the data given in tables are correct.

Reusing copyrighted material

As an author, you must obtain permission for any material used within your manuscript for which you are not the rightsholder, including quotations, tables, figures, or images. In seeking permissions for published materials, first contact the publisher rather than the author. For unpublished materials, start by contacting the creator. Copies of each grant of permission should be provided to the editorial office of the Journal. The permissions agreement must include the following: 

• nonexclusive rights to reproduce the material in your paper in FEMS Yeast Research
• rights for use in print and electronic format at a minimum, and preferably for use in any form or medium 
• lifetime rights to use the material 
• worldwide English-language rights 

If you have chosen to publish under an open access licence but have not obtained open access re-use permissions for third-party material contained within the manuscript, this must be stated clearly by supplying a credit line alongside the material with the following information: 

• Title of content 
• Author, Original publication, year of original publication, by permission of [rightsholder] 
• This image/content is not covered by the terms of the Creative Commons licence of this publication. For permission to reuse, please contact the rights holder.  

Our publisher, Oxford University Press, provides detailed Copyright and Permissions Guidelines, and a summary of the fundamental information. 

Third-Party Content in Open Access papers

If your paper contains material for which you do not have Open Access re-use permissions, please state this clearly by supplying the following credit line alongside the material:

Title of content

Author, Original publication, year of original publication, by permission of [rights holder]

This image/content is not covered by the terms of the Creative Commons licence of this publication. For permission to reuse, please contact the rights holder.

Supporting Information and Supplementary Data

Electronic Supporting Information may be included to support and enhance your manuscript with, e.g. supporting applications, movies, animation sequences, high-resolution images, background datasets or sound clips. Supporting information will be subject to critical review and this facility should be used prudently. Supporting information should not contain data that are critical to the paper. Supporting files will be published, subject to editorial approval, online alongside the electronic version of your article. Authors should submit the Supporting Information at the same time as the manuscript, but in separate file(s). Select ‘Supplemental files’, or ‘MultiMedia’ for the file designation when uploading through the online submission system. Upload a separate .doc or .docx file listing concise and descriptive captions for each file uploaded as Supporting Information. Please indicate that you have uploaded these files in your cover letter and state clearly whether they are intended for eventual online publication as Supporting Information, or are for peer review purposes only.

Supporting material that is not essential for inclusion in the full text of the manuscript, but would nevertheless benefit the reader, can be made available by the publisher online, linked to the online manuscript. The material should not be essential to understanding the conclusions of the paper, but should contain data that is additional or complementary and directly relevant to the article content. Such information might include more detailed methods, extended data sets/data analysis, or additional figures. Select ‘Supplemental files’, or ‘MultiMedia’ for the file designation when uploading through the online submission system. Upload a separate .doc or .docx file listing concise and descriptive captions for each file uploaded as Supporting Information. Please indicate that you have uploaded these files in your cover letter and state clearly whether they are intended for eventual online publication as Supporting Information, or are for peer review purposes only.

It is standard practice for appendices to be made available online as supplementary data. All text and figures must be provided in suitable electronic formats. All material to be considered as supplementary data must be submitted at the same time as the main manuscript for peer review. It cannot be altered or replaced after the paper has been accepted for publication, and will not be edited. Please indicate clearly all material intended as supplementary data upon submission and name the files e.g. 'Supplementary Figure 1', 'Supplementary Data', etc. Also ensure that the supplementary data is referred to in the main manuscript where necessary, for example as '(see Supplementary data)' or '(see Supplementary Figure 1)'.

Supplementary Data

If you have supplementary data for your article, please ensure every supplementary material file contains the phrase “supplementary data” as part of the actual file name. For example, “Figure A1_Supplementary Data.” This is important for production purposes so the files are published in the correct place.

Copyright and Licence Including Open Access

FEMS Yeast Research is now fully open. Any new manuscripts will be published open access and will therefore be subject to an article processing charge (APC). As of 1 January 2024, all articles previously published in the journal are free to read, but maintain the license originally signed by the author.

We want the barrier to entry to publishing in our journals to be around the quality and soundness of the science, rather than a financial barrier. We are keeping one broad-scope journal as a subscription journal, which does not levy any publication fee (FEMS Microbiology Letters); and for the rest of our journals, our APCs are set lower than many other quality journals in our field, and we have put in place generous discount and waiver policies.

The fees, waivers and discounts for FEMS Yeast Research are as follows:

• CC BY, CC BY-NC, CC BY-NC-ND licence - £2,500
• CC BY, CC BY-NC, CC BY-NC-ND licence member discount 20%*

*Discounts

You are eligible for a 20% discount to the open access charge if:

• you or your co-authors are a member of a FEMS member society OR
• you have published a manuscript in FEMS Yeast Research in 2022 or 2023.

Authors will be asked for supporting details during the submission process.

Institutional Agreements

OUP has a growing number of Read and Publish agreements with institutions (universities and research establishments) and consortia around the world that provide funding for OA publishing. This means corresponding authors from participating institutions can publish OA, and, depending on their policies, the institution may pay the charge. Find out if your institution is participating.

Not all institutions are yet signed up to these deals, however it is possible institutions may still support their authors in paying for open access publication. This will depend on your institution’s policies and funding for open access, which vary widely.

Waivers

Corresponding authors based in countries and regions that are part of the developing countries initiative are eligible for a full waiver of publishing fees in our fully open access journals. Applications for a waiver from researchers in other countries will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Outside of these policies, we also invite anyone who wishes to publish with us but who cannot access funding for an APC to apply for a waiver (a process which sits apart from review). 

Waiver requests should be directed to the OA team at openaccess@oup.com and will be assessed entirely independent of the peer review process. For further details, please see our APC waiver policy.

Details of the open access licences and open access charges.

Crossref Funding Data Registry

In order to meet your funding requirements authors are required to name their funding sources, or state if there are none, during the submission process. For further information on this process or to find out more about CHORUS, visit the CHORUS initiative.

Proofs

Authors are sent page proofs by Email. These should be checked immediately and corrections, as well as answers to any queries, returned to the publishers within 3 working days (further details are supplied with the proof). It is the author's responsibility to check proofs thoroughly.

Advance Access

Advance Access articles are published online soon after they have been accepted for publication, in advance of their appearance in the main journal. Appearance in Advance Access constitutes official publication, and the Advance Access version can be cited by a unique Digital Object Identifier (DOI).

Articles posted for Advance Access are published online as they have been submitted. This is before they have been copy edited, paginated and published online in a specific issue of the journal. Once an article appears in an issue, both versions of the paper continue to be accessible and citable.