Blood, the Journal of the American Society of Hematology, published
online and in print, provides an international forum for the publication of original articles describing basic laboratory,
translational, and clinical investigations in hematology. Acceptance of manuscripts is based on the originality and
importance of the observations or investigations, the quality of the work and validity of the evidence, the clarity
of presentation, and the relevance to our readership and field. All articles are expected to be concise, well organized
and clearly written. Authors submit a manuscript with the understanding that the manuscript (or its essential substance)
has not been published other than as an abstract in any language or format and is not currently submitted elsewhere for
print or electronic publication.
Primary research articles will be published under the following scientific categories: Clinical Trials and Observations;
Gene Therapy; Hematopoiesis and Stem Cells; Immunobiology (see next paragraph); Myeloid Neoplasia; Lymphoid Neoplasia;
Phagocytes, Granulocytes and Myelopoiesis; Platelets and Thrombopoiesis; Red Cells, Iron and Erythropoiesis; Thrombosis and
Hemostasis; Transfusion Medicine; Transplantation; and Vascular Biology. Authors are invited to contact the Editor-in-Chief
prior to submission if they are uncertain whether their work falls within the general scope of the journal.
Immunobiology encompasses a wide spectrum of research, but Blood can accommodate only papers that have clear and
important implications for hematology. Preference is given to papers focusing on human immunobiology and which have
significant implications for understanding of normal or malignant hematologic processes. Papers on tumor immunology and
tumor vaccine development may be appropriate if the target cells are hematologic malignancies, but Blood can no
longer accommodate tumor immunology papers that focus solely on nonhematologic tumor models. Papers focusing on
autoimmunity and utilizing nonhematologic models are not within the scope of Blood. Papers on the immune response to
specific microbiologic pathogens are also generally outside the scope of Blood, except those focusing on the direct
links of Epstein-Barr virus, hepatitis virus, or HTLV to hematologic malignancies. These and other papers felt to be
outside the scope of Blood and more appropriate for an immunology, infectious diseases, or tumor immunology journal
will be returned to the author without full peer review.
back to top
Publisher: The American Society of Hematology
Editor-in-Chief: Cynthia E. Dunbar, M.D.
bloodeditor{at}hematology.org
Editorial Board: Blood Editorial Board
Impact Factor 2007: 10.896 (see Blood Impact Factor for more
details)
Frequency of publication: Weekly, 52 issues annually, published every Thursday, except for the last week of the
year, plus Annual Meeting Abstracts supplement in mid-November; 2 volumes/year (2009: Vols. 113 & 114)
Print journal circulation: 16,000
No. of submissions/year: 5,405 (2008)
No. of published regular research articles/year: 1,177 (2008)
No. of pages published/year: 11,020 (2008)
Avg Acceptance rate: 20.7%
Avg Time to first decision (all papers): 21.3 days
Avg Time to first decision (reviewed papers): 32.4 days
Avg Time from submission to First Edition (after acceptance) to First Edition prepublication: 5–10 days
ISSN (online journal): 1528-0020
ISSN (print journal): 0006-4971
Indexing: Blood is indexed by these major databases: Biosis, Chemical Abstracts, Current Contents/Life Sciences, Current Contents/Clinical Medicine, Excerpta Medica, ISI Science Citation Index, Index Medicus, Medline, Automatic Subject Citation Alert
Blood home page: www.bloodjournal.org
Contact information:
Blood
The American Society of Hematology
1900 M St. NW, Suite 200
Washington DC 20036-3530
Manuscript submissions: Blood Bench>Press
Contact Blood by e-mail:
editorial{at}hematology.org (submission, peer review, First Edition)
production{at}hematology.org (copyediting queries, proofs, print-quality image requirements)
bloodsubs{at}hematology.org
back to top
Regular Articles
Maximum length for a Regular Article is 5,000 words of text, not counting the abstract, tables, figure legends, and
references; abstracts must not exceed 200 words and should be constructed as a single narrative paragraph with no
subheadings or references. Submissions are limited to a total of 7 figures and digital images are required. There is no
limit on the number of tables. References should be limited to 50. The sections of a Regular Article should be ordered
Abstract, Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgements, Authorship Contributions and
Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest, References, Tables, Figure Legends, and Figures. Supplemental files to be published
online-only may include additional information regarding methodology, supplemental figures or tables, or primary data sets.
(See “Data Supplements” below)
Any involvement of medical writers/researchers, particularly those employed or supported by the pharmaceutical industry,
in the writing of an article must be clearly defined and disclosed in the Authorship and/or the Acknowledgements section as
appropriate. This type of involvement must also be disclosed to the Editor-in-Chief in the Cover Letter. For more
information, see Conflict of interest disclosure below and the Authorship information.
Definitive original research articles of exceptional scientific importance may be considered for designation as Plenary
Papers. The decision to highlight an article as a Plenary Paper rests entirely with the Editors.
Brief Reports
Short manuscripts definitively documenting either experimental results or informative clinical observations will be
considered for publication in this category. Single-case reports or case series can almost never be accommodated, unless
they elucidate novel and important disease biology or approaches to therapy. Brief Reports are not intended to allow
publication of incomplete or preliminary findings. The review process is equally rigorous as for Regular Articles and the
acceptance rate is lower. Brief Reports may not exceed 1,200 words of text not counting the abstract, figure legends, and
references; abstracts must not exceed 150 words and should be a single paragraph with no subheadings. Only 2 figures/tables
and 25 references may be included. The sections of a Brief Report should be ordered Abstract, Introduction, Methods sufficiently
informative to allow reproduction of the data, followed by a combined Results and Discussion section,
Acknowledgements, Authorship Contributions and Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest, References, Tables, Figure Legends, and
Figures.
e-Blood
e-Blood is a new manuscript category for publication of very well designed systems biology work (e.g., genomics,
proteomics etc.) that is largely descriptive. Such work will be published as an online-only paper if utilization of the
data by others will significantly advance the field. e-Blood articles will be fully citable, and will represent genuine
Blood publication. They will undergo standard rigorous peer review if deemed potentially appropriate for
publication by Blood editors. Accepted e-Blood articles will be published in First Edition and then copyedited and
composed identical to other Blood papers, but will not be included in a print edition of the journal, although they will be
listed in a printed Table of Contents when their final typeset version is available on line. Papers may be submitted by
authors directly for consideration as e-Blood articles, or may be recommended by editors for publication as an e-Blood
article after being considered for publication as a Regular Article, if deemed more appropriate for the e-Blood article
type. The maximum length for an e-Blood article is 5,000 words of text, not counting the abstract, tables, figure legends,
and references; abstracts must not exceed 200 words and should be a single paragraph with no subheadings. Digital images
are mandatory. References should be limited to 50. Primary data must be deposited in a public repository as described below.
The sections of an e-Blood article should be ordered Abstract, Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, Discussion,
Acknowledgements, Authorship Contributions, Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest, References, Tables, Figure Legends, and Figures.
back to top
Review Articles
Review articles are welcomed by the journal and are generally solicited by the Editor-in-Chief; however, authors wishing
to submit an unsolicited Review Article are invited to contact the Editor-in-Chief prior to submission, in order to screen
the proposed topic for relevance and priority, given other review articles that may already be in preparation. Review
articles should focus on recent scientific or clinical advances in an area of broad interest to those in the field of
hematology. Such articles must be concise and critical and should include appropriate references to the literature. All
Review Articles, even those solicited by the Editors, are rigorously peer reviewed before a final publication decision is
made.
Review articles should not exceed 5,000 words in length, must include an abstract of 200 words or fewer, and may not
have more than 100 references. The use of tables and color figures to summarize critical points is encouraged; the Journal
offers assistance with preparation or improvement of figures by professional illustrators, once the article is accepted.
Any involvement of medical writers/researchers, particularly those employed or supported by the pharmaceutical industry,
in the writing of a review article must be clearly defined and disclosed in the Authorship section. For Review Articles,
this type of involvement must be discussed with the Editor-in-Chief before the submission of the article. Generally,
involvement of medical writers/researchers supported by the pharmaceutical industry is not acceptable for Review Articles
published in Blood. For more information, see Conflict of interest disclosure below.
Perspectives
Perspectives are articles discussing significant topics and controversies relevant to hematology, generally from a more
personal or opinion-based standpoint than a Review Article. Interested authors should
bloodeditor{at}hematology.org prior to submission to discuss the
suitability of the proposed subject matter. The length should not exceed 5,000 words; the abstract must not exceed 200 words;
and references are limited to 100. Typically, Perspectives should state the topic and background information concisely,
discuss opposing viewpoints, and make recommendations for further investigations or actions.
How I Treat
The journal welcomes articles written by expert clinicians offering up-to-date information and guidance regarding
diagnosis and treatment of hematological diseases and clinical situations. Clear distinctions should be made between
evidence-based versus experience-based recommendations. The pieces can be constructed as a standard narrative or be
structured around a case or cases illustrating specific clinical situations. These pieces are generally solicited by the
Editor-in-Chief, but any interested author is invited to correspond with the Editor-in-Chief prior to submission to discuss
the suitability of the proposed subject matter. The length should not exceed 5,000 words; the abstract must not exceed 200
words; and references are limited to 100.
Any involvement of medical writers/researchers, particularly those employed or supported by the pharmaceutical
industry, in the writing of an article must be clearly defined and disclosed in the Authorship section. For How I Treat
articles, this type of involvement must be discussed with the Editor-in-Chief before the submission of the article.
Generally, involvement of medical writers/researchers supported by the pharmaceutical industry is not acceptable for How I
Treat articles published in Blood. For more information, see Conflict of interest disclosure
below.
Blood Work
Blood welcomes submissions of photo micrographs and brief case descriptions to serve as a regular teaching feature
and comprehensive reference accessible to physicians and hematology students around the world. These images and cases will
be published by the journal monthly in the
Blood Work section, generally in the first issue of each month. Each
submission must contain a single, high-resolution figure formatted as a TIFF (minimum 300 dpi) and a discussion of 250
words or less describing the clinical case linked to the image. Generally each piece should have a single or very few
authors and no references. If your submission is accepted, your figure will also be submitted for consideration to the ASH
Image Bank. All other policies governing submissions to the journal apply to
Blood Work. There will be no submission fee
and no color figure charges for publication if accepted. If you have questions about submission to this section, please
contact the journal’s editorial office at
editorial{at}hematology.org.
Letters to the Editor
Constructive comments on published articles or on current topics in hematology are welcome and will be published if
appropriate and based on priority and interest to readership. Letters should include no more than 500 words of text, 5–10
references, and 1 figure or table. No abstract is required, but please include a brief title. Submission fees and page
charges do not apply to Letters. Letters are screened by the Editor-in-Chief and, if deemed appropriate and relevant, may
also be peer reviewed and/or accompanied by a Response from the authors of the initial article.
Inside Blood
The Editors invite experts in the field to write brief commentaries introducing and placing into context several
selected primary research articles included in each issue of Blood.
back to top
Before submitting your manuscript online at Blood
Bench>Press, please read and carefully follow the guidelines below. Any deviations could result in significant delay
in the submission and review process.
Please note that Blood adheres to the criteria of the International Committee of Medical Journal editors, which has
established Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals.
Manuscript length restrictions
Please adhere to the length, figure/table and reference number restrictions described above for each article type.
On the title page, include a text word count, abstract word count, the number of figures and tables, and the number of
references. Submissions exceeding these limits will not be considered for review and will be returned to the author.
Editing services for non-English speakers
For the non-English-speaking authors, a professional editing service may help improve the presentation of the paper.
Papers with serious deficiencies in English may be returned without review. Listed below are a number of organizations
offering these types of services. Please note that Blood does not endorse nor has any direct involvement with any of
the services listed; this information is provided solely for the convenience of the Blood authors.
www.biosciencewriters.com
www.bostonbioedit.com
www.prof-editing.com
www.journalexperts.com
www.biomedicalsciencewriters.com
Manuscript organization
Organize the content of your manuscript file as follows: Title Page, Abstract, Introduction, Methods,
Results, Discussion, Acknowledgments, Authorship Contributions, Conflict of Interest Disclosures, References, Tables,
Figure Legends, and Figures. For Brief Reports, Results and Discussion must be combined. Your text document must include
page numbers, meaning there must be page numbers inserted into the header or the footer of your document.
Title page
Title page must contain the following: article title; short title for the running head (not to exceed 50 characters,
including spaces between words); full and accurate names of all authors (as you want them to appear in online searches
and citations); affiliations of institutions where the research was done, reflecting the order of authorship by using
superscripted numbers; corresponding author’s full name, address, e-mail address, and phone and fax numbers; word
counts for text and abstract, figure/table count and reference count.
Regular Articles and Brief Reports also
include on the title page an appropriate scientific category chosen during submission.
back to top
Abstract
The abstract should contain 200 words or fewer (150 words or fewer for Brief Reports) and succinctly state the
rationale/hypothesis, objectives, findings, and conclusions of the study. Abstracts should be a continuous narrative and
not broken up into subheadings, and should not contain references.
Methods: clinical trials or human subjects research
See below Blood policies regarding reporting of investigations involving human subjects and clinical trial
registration.
Include as appropriate:
A statement that the research was approved by the relevant institutional review boards or ethics
committees and that all human participants gave written informed consent.
A statement regarding the identity of those who analyzed the data and confirming access of all authors
to primary clinical trial data.
The clinical trial registration number and approved registry name for all clinical trials.
For phase 3 randomized clinical trials, we request that the authors provide a flow diagram in CONSORT
format and include all of the information required by the CONSORT checklistwithin the body of the manuscript. When
restrictions on length prevent the inclusion of some of this information in the manuscript, it may be provided as
supplemental material. The CONSORT statement, checklist, and flow diagram are available at
http://www.consort-statement.org.
Methods: microarray studies
See below for more detailed Blood, policies on providing access to original data.
The journal requires that authors deposit their high-throughput microarray data, including mRNA, miRNA, and genomic DNA
(arrayCGH, ChIP-chip, and SNP) arrays into a public database, such as
Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) or
Array Express, or provide open access to their own
Web-based data repository. An accession number or Web site link, with valid access codes must be supplied in this
section of the text.
Acknowledgments
Support received from individuals, organizations, grants, corporations, or any other sources must be acknowledged. For
work involving a biomedical product or potential product partially or wholly supported by corporate funding, a note must be
included stating: This study was supported (in part) by research funding from (company name) to (authors’ initials).
Grant support, if received, needs to be stated and the specific granting institution(s) name(s) and grant numbers provided
when applicable. Any individuals involved in the writing/editing/researching of the paper not named as authors should be
identified, their role specified, and their funding source specified, for instance, “Joseph Smith, a medical writer
supported by funding from (company name), provided drafts and editorial assistance to the authors during preparation of
this manuscript.”
back to top
Authorship and Conflict of Interest Statements
See below for Authorship and Conflict-of-Interest Policies. For each author, include in this section his or her category
of contribution and list any potential conflict of interest. These statements will be printed and posted online in the
First Edition and in the final version in the Authorship section.
List all required author conflict-of-interest disclosures. If the authors declare no competing financial interests, this
must be explicitly stated and will be included in all versions of the article.
References
Include references in numerical order at the end of the article according to the order of citation in the
text. Text citations of reference should consist of superscript numbers. Format references per instructions at
the Blood Style Guide. If you use citation software, check it
carefully to ensure that it formats your references according to the current Blood style.
Authors can now have Medline links in their HTML references for citations that have only been published via
prepublication in Blood First Edition or in other prepublished articles. Since prepublished articles have
PubMed records and a PubMed ID (PMID) is listed at the bottom of every PubMed record as the citation identifier,
an author can include the PMID within his or her manuscript references to link the prepublication citation to its
PubMed record. Citation of a paper prepublished in First Edition must also include its DOI number, as shown in the
prepublished article.
Footnotes and abbreviations
Do not use footnotes; instead, sparingly use parenthetical statements within text. Abbreviations should be
defined at first mention and thereafter applied consistently throughout the article. Do not use nonstandard
abbreviations or abbreviate terms appearing fewer than 3 times. Give the chemical name of a compound after the first use of the
common name. The common name may be used throughout the article. Abbreviate units of measure only when used with numbers. See the
Blood Style Guide for more information.
Figures
When submitting a manuscript for review, image file formats accepted for uploading are GIF, JPEG (.jpg), PDF, and EPS.
PowerPoint (.ppt) files are acceptable but are strongly discouraged due to conversion issues and to poor resolution in the
published article.
High-resolution image files are not preferred for initial submission as the file sizes may be too large. The total file
size of the PDF for peer review should not exceed 5 MB. High-resolution figures are required for accepted articles entering
into print production. To prepare print-quality figures, see
Figure preparation and sizing for the
final print publication. Detailed instructions for submitting digital artwork can be found at
Digital artwork for production in Blood.
back to top
Important guidelines for image preparation
(This set of instructions is adapted with permission from the
Journal of Cell Biology instructions to authors.)
Note that no specific feature within an image may be enhanced, obscured, moved, removed, or introduced. If groupings
of images from different parts of the same gel or microscopic field, or from different gels, fields, or exposures are
used, they must be made explicit by the arrangement of the figure (i.e., by inserting black dividing lines) and in the
text of the figure legend, explaining what steps were taken to produce the final image and for what reason. Adjustments
of brightness, contrast, or color balance are acceptable if they are applied to the whole image and as long as they do
not obscure, eliminate, or misrepresent any information present in the original, including backgrounds. Without background
information, it is not possible to evaluate how much of the original gel is actually shown. Nonlinear adjustments (e.g.,
changes to gamma settings) must be disclosed in the figure legend. The use of special software tools (e.g., erasing,
cloning) available in popular image-editing software is strongly discouraged unless absolutely necessary, and any such
manipulations must be explained in the figure legend.
All images in Figures and Supplemental information from manuscripts accepted for publication are examined for any
indication of improper manipulation or editing. Questions raised by Blood staff will be referred to the Editors,
who may then request the original data from the authors for comparison with the submitted figures. Such manuscripts will
be put on hold and will not be prepublished in Blood First Edition until the matter is satisfactorily resolved.
If the original data cannot be produced, the acceptance of the manuscript may be revoked.
Cases of deliberate misrepresentation of data will result in revocation of acceptance and will be reported to the
corresponding author’s home institution or funding agency.
Figure legends
All legends must begin with a short, descriptive sentence that summarizes the intent and content of the figure. This
sentence should be in boldface. A more detailed explanation of the data contained in the figure
and/or its parts should follow in standard (non-boldface) type.
Whenever possible, the following information should be provided in figure legends regarding the acquisition and
processing of images:
1. Make and model of microscope
2. Type, magnification, and numerical aperture of the objective lenses
3. Temperature
4. Imaging medium
5. Fluorochromes
6. Camera make and model
7. Acquisition software
8. Any subsequent software used for image processing, with details about types of operations involved (e.g., type of
deconvolution, 3D reconstructions, surface or volume rendering, gamma adjustments, etc.).
If some of the information is not available, an explanation needs to be provided.
Tables
Each table should have a brief, specific, descriptive title, giving sufficient explanation to make the data
intelligible without reference to the text. Number all tables and cite in numerical order in the text, using
Arabic numerals.
Display of sequences
Prepare sequences as figures (images), not tables. This will ensure that proper alignment within a sequence is preserved.
Data supplements
The Journal encourages the submission of Data Supplements linked to primary research articles, including videos and short movies,
that enhance the understanding of the science discussed in the manuscript. Data Supplements must be submitted for peer review during
the initial submission of the parent manuscript. The Editors will review the supplemental material along with the manuscript, but acceptance
of the manuscript does not guarantee ultimate acceptance of the supplement. Data Supplements may or may not appear alongside
an accepted article at the time of its publication in First Edition, depending on the time needed to process the supplemental material.
For more information, please see Data Supplements in Blood.
back to top
Author membership in the American Society of Hematology is not a prerequisite for submission or publication in Blood
and is not taken into consideration during the peer review process.
All manuscripts must be submitted online through Blood Bench>Press.
Blood does not accept submissions unless they are made online through this site.
If you have not interacted with this Web site before, you must register a new user account using your
primary and desired e-mail address. That, along with your designated password, will be your entry into the
site at all times, so please make sure that your password is easily available to you. The Bench>Press system
is used by many other journals. If you are registered with another journal on Bench>Press, you must contact
the Blood editorial office with the e-mail address with which you are registered to that other site.
The staff will then help you add Blood to the list of Bench>Press journals to which you are registered.
Please note that the same e-mail address and password will apply for all journal Bench>Press sites, including Blood’s.
Before submitting your manuscript online, you should have on hand the following information:
1. Contact information for all co-authors, including a current functioning e-mail address for
each. An accurate and functional e-mail address is absolutely required for each author, otherwise processing of the
submission will be delayed. If an author is not accessible by email (ie deceased or out of email contact), this must be
discussed with the editorial office prior to submission.
2. Abstract and manuscript files. Be sure that your manuscript text document contains page numbers.
3. Word counts of abstract and text and a reference count (excluding references and figure legends).
4. Related Manuscript number(s) if this manuscript was previously submitted (resubmission) or if this submission
is part of a companion group.
5. Cover letter to the Editor-in-Chief.
6. E-mail addresses of suggested reviewers.
7. All coauthors’ most current e-mail addresses.
8. Mechanism for payment, with all information necessary to pay the submission fee on-line. Payment is required at
submission for all Regular Articles and Brief Reports.
Macintosh users are encouraged to use Safari or Mozilla Firefox instead of Microsoft Internet Explorer to access the
manuscript submission system.
Note that the submission process must be successfully completed before the peer review can begin;
a successful online submission is acknowledged by an e-mail to the corresponding author. In it, the corresponding author
will receive the manuscript number, which needs to be cited in all correspondence, both within and outside Blood
Bench>Press. Please note that you will have 30 days to finish a partial (incomplete) submission of your manuscript.
After 30 days, however, all partial submissions are automatically deleted from the system.
Please note that upon successful submission of a manuscript, all coauthors will receive an automated e-mail message
confirming this submission. Please make sure all authorship issues regarding inclusion/exclusion and authorship order are
resolved prior to submission. If the manuscript is accepted for publication, all coauthors will be contacted again with
instructions for providing their copyright transfer signatures online. Each coauthor will be required to register a user
account in Blood Bench>Press, which will be accessed in order to provide the electronic signature from the Author
Area (see “Manuscript Submission” above). Coauthors’ signatures may be received at any time after
the initial submission of the manuscript, but an accepted manuscript will not be prepublished online or otherwise published
in Blood until all signatures are received. See the online copyright transfer section below.
For additional questions regarding the submission process, consult the
authors’ frequently
asked questions (FAQs) regarding manuscript submission. You can also contact the
editorial{at}hematology.org.
back to top
The primary criteria for judging the acceptability of a manuscript are its quality, novelty, and scientific importance.
However, editorial decisions are based not just on the technical merits of the work, but also on factors such as priority
for publication, presentation of the material, and the relevance to the Journal’s general readership.
At the discretion of the Editors, the manuscript may be returned rapidly, without external peer review, if deemed not
competitive or outside the scope of the journal. All manuscripts are judged in relation to other submissions currently
under consideration.
Manuscripts that have passed an initial screening by the Editors are reviewed by members of the Editorial Board and/or
other experts in the field. The Editors select the reviewers and make the final decision on the manuscript. Referees who
review a manuscript remain unknown to the authors. Every manuscript is treated by the Editors and reviewers as privileged
information, and they are instructed to exclude themselves from review of any manuscript that may involve a conflict of
interest or the appearance of such.
Rebuttals to rejected manuscripts are strongly discouraged, and requests for resubmission of rejected manuscripts are
generally not granted without very significant demonstration of errors in the review or decision process. The majority of
articles are rejected on grounds of insufficient priority or lack of relevance to hematology, not data quality or technical
issues.
back to top
Following initial peer-review, articles judged worthy of further consideration often require revisions, including
additional experimentation. However, articles requiring extensive revisions will be at a disadvantage. Revised
manuscripts generally should be received within 3 months of the date on the initial decision e-mail letter, or they
will be considered as a new submission, with a separate manuscript number and submission fee. An extension beyond this
3-month time period may on occasion be granted in order to complete time-consuming new experiments requested by the
reviewers; extensions must be requested from the Associate Editor at least 2 weeks before the 3-month revision deadline
expires.
If there are any changes to the manuscript’s authorship since the original submission (such as an addition or deletion
of an author, or a change in the order of authorship), the Change
of Authorship form must be signed by all authors and faxed to the Editorial office to 202-776-0549.
When preparing your revised manuscript for submission, please make sure that all revisions stand out in the text and are
obvious on a black and white printout (e.g., you may use different font size, color or underlining). See also
Checklist for Revised
Manuscripts for more information.
back to top
All original research manuscripts accepted through Blood Bench>Press and submitted for
Blood First Edition by the author are prepublished online daily in
unedited form (author’s PDF) once they pass image screening and after all other requirements of the journal submission and
review process are met. Blood manuscripts that are accepted and prepublished in Blood First Edition are
considered to be formally published and citable on the date of the article’s appearance on the
Blood First Edition Web site.
They are searchable in Medline, Google Scholar, Yahoo, and other search engines. All prepublished papers will be published
in the final print and online edition of Blood after undergoing copyediting and composition. The authors will have a
chance and are expected to read the page proofs and return them promptly with corrections, in order not to delay the issue
production.
Please note that Letters to the Editor, Inside Blood, and Editorials are not prepublished as First Edition articles.
Prior to submitting for First Edition prepublication, the submitting author must carefully review the entire manuscript
file, paying particular attention to listing full and accurate names of all authors; including accurate institutional
affiliations for each author; and including all figures, legends, and tables within the uploaded document. Note that
figures for First Edition do not need to be high resolution and may be embedded in the text itself or at the end of the
manuscript. Data Supplements are also published with the First Edition version of the article; they need to be separately
uploaded online by following the instructions.
Blood requires all authors of newly submitted manuscripts to electronically provide their copyright transfer
signatures, or document their status as an NIH or other U.S. federal employee and thus unable to transfer copyright. Upon
acceptance of a manuscript, correspondence will be sent to all coauthors with instructions for logging on to Blood
Bench>Press individually and providing their electronic signatures. The article will not be prepublished online until
all signatures are received via Blood Bench>Press.
Blood articles prepublished in First Edition, and articles listed above not prepublished in First Edition
subsequently undergo the standard production processes, including copyediting, composition, and proofreading. The edited
article is then published in its final form in the first available print and online issue of Blood. e-Blood
articles will be published on-line only but will be listed in a print issue Table of Contents.
A Microsoft Word (.doc) or Rich Text Format (.rtf) file of your accepted manuscript is required to allow the manuscript
to be copyedited and composed. You will be requested to upload the accepted text document during the submission to First
Edition. Please note that publication of your article will be put on hold until you upload a Word or RTF document. You
must make sure that the document you submit is the same as the one accepted. There cannot be ANY content changes from
the final accepted version; however, you should remove any highlighted or red-lined text that may have been inserted to
indicate revisions to the original submission.
back to top
Detailed instructions for submitting digital artwork can be found at
Digital artwork for production in Blood.
Blood accepts digital TIFF and EPS images. Blood STRONGLY discourages submission of figures as Microsoft
PowerPoint (.ppt) files because they result in much lower quality and resolution figures.
All digital print-quality images need to pass an inspection program, Rapid Inspector, to ensure their suitability.
You can freely download the Rapid
Inspector software. To deposit your image files, you may either upload them alongside your First Edition document or
access the Blood FTP site. Specific instructions are sent
in the acceptance letter.
For final publication, lay out figures as compactly as is consistent with conveying the relevant data. Figures will be
sized to fit the smallest possible space, but in order to prevent radical changes in figure content, prepare the figures in
one of two sizes: 8.0 cm (1-column width) or, if necessary, 11.5 cm (1½ column width). Note that these instructions do
NOT apply to figures submitted for online review and prepublication.
Cover illustrations are chosen by the Editor-in-Chief. Authors who submit a manuscript are encouraged to include
a color image they consider suitable for the cover of Blood in the supplemental material, with reference to this
suggested cover figure in the cover letter to the Editor-in-Chief. The author must own copyright to the image. The image
must be sharp enough to allow magnification to the full size of the 6½ × 11 in. image area. Add a brief caption
explaining the content of the figure.
Authors of accepted manuscripts will receive electronic page proofs directly from the printer and are responsible for
proofreading and checking the entire article, including tables, figures, and references. Authors should correct only
typesetting errors at this stage; more extensive alterations will result in publication delay and possible additional fees.
Page proofs should be returned as promptly as possible, preferably within 48 hours to avoid delays in publication.
It is very important to carefully check every facet of the paper at this stage.
back to top
Please note that the submission fee applies to manuscripts submitted for peer review in Blood; however, the page
charges and the color charges apply only to the manuscripts accepted for publication in Blood.
Manuscript submission fee
A nonrefundable fee of $50 is due on submission of Regular Articles and Brief Reports. There is no submission fee
for Review Articles, Perspectives, How I Treat, Inside Blood, or Letters to the Editor. If a fee is required,
you will be asked to pay it online at the time of submission, using a credit card. Please note that purchase orders
and bank wire transfers cannot be accepted for the processing fee.
Page charges
Authors of Regular Articles and Brief Reports are required to pay page charges of $60 per printed page to share in the
high costs of publication. Page charges are waived for any type of Review Article, Perspectives, How I Treat, Inside
Blood, or Letters to the Editor.
Color charges
The cost of printing images in color is in part shared with the Blood authors. Color charges are assessed
for authors who submit a color image with a Regular Article, Brief Report, or a Letter to the Editor. Color charges are
waived for color images included in Review Articles, Perspectives, How I Treat pieces, Inside Blood commentaries, or
e-Blood articles.
Charges to the author are currently assessed at $600 per color figure, even if the figure has multiple panels (A, B,
C, etc.). Color figures included in Supplemental Data, posted online only, do not require payment of the color figure fee.
By submitting color figures at the time of original submission, you are agreeing to pay for color in these figures if
the paper is accepted for publication. It is not acceptable to submit color figures for initial review and subsequent
revisions and, only at the time of acceptance, to change color figures to black and white. You must decide at the time of
submission whether you agree to pay for color in any, or all, of your figures. Please note that the reviewing Editor may
decide that, for a given figure, color is essential for scientific clarity. In such case, the figure will be printed in
color and the color charges will be assessed.
Page and color charges are expected to be paid after receipt of an invoice from Cadmus Professional Communications sent to the
corresponding author at the page proof stage.
Reprint requests
Fees for reprints are handled by Cadmus Professional Communications at the page proof stage. Corresponding authors will
receive a reprint price list and order form with their page proof. Reprints must be ordered at the time that page proofs are
reviewed. Late orders, especially of reprints with color images, will cost significantly more.
Payment options for reprints and publication fees
It is recommended that international authors pay by a credit card (VISA or MasterCard); if they use a check, it must be
drawn from a U.S. bank and made out in U.S. dollars. Domestic (U.S.) authors may use a credit card or pay by check; they will also
have the option to present an Institutional Purchase Order. Make the check out to Cadmus Professional Communications. The
form for Reprints and Publication fees must be returned to the following address:
Cadmus Professional Communications
Reprints and Publication Fees
PO Box 751903
Charlotte, NC 28275-1903
back to top
All authors listed in a manuscript submitted to Blood must have contributed substantially to the work. Upon
submission of the manuscript, the corresponding author must indicate, on the online submission Web site and in the
Authorship section within the manuscript, the specific contribution of each author. This information will be published in
the First Edition as well as in the final print and online versions. Examples of appropriate designations include:
designed research, performed research, contributed vital new reagents or analytical tools, collected data, analyzed and
interpreted data, performed statistical analysis, and/or wrote the manuscript. An author may list more than one type of
contribution, and more than one author may have contributed to the same aspect of the work. The corresponding author takes
responsibility for obtaining permission from all coauthors for the submission of any version of the manuscript and for any
changes in authorship.
If a manuscript reports on the results of a clinical trial run by a study group or collaborative clinical trials network,
those members who meet criteria for authorship should be listed individually on the byline; up to 25 individual authors
may be listed. If more than 25 individuals meet criteria for authorship, please contact the Editor at bloodeditor{at}hematology.org
to obtain approval before completing the submission of your manuscript. In your correspondence, please clearly define the role of each additional author according to
our criteria. Group members who do not meet the formal authorship criteria listed above but who
contributed materially may be cited in the Acknowledgments section, and if the manuscript is accepted, all group members
can be listed in an online supplement.
All individuals share some degree of responsibility for any manuscript they coauthor. Some coauthors have responsibility
for the entire manuscript as an accurate, verifiable report of the research. These include coauthors accountable for the
conception or execution of the research reported in the paper, the integrity and analysis of the data, or the writing of the
manuscript. Coauthors with specific, limited contributions to a paper are responsible for their contributions but may have
only limited responsibility for other results. While not all coauthors may be familiar with all aspects of the research
presented in the manuscript, all coauthors should have in place an appropriate process for reviewing the accuracy of the
reported results.
For more information on this important topic, see the Authorship section in the CSE’s
White Paper on Promoting
Integrity in Scientific Journal Publications.
back to top
All material published in Blood represents the opinions of the authors and does not reflect the opinions of
The American Society of Hematology, the Editors, or the institutions
with which the authors are affiliated.
Authors submitting manuscripts to Blood do so with the understanding that if a manuscript is accepted, the
copyright in the article, including the right to reproduce the article in all forms and media, shall be assigned
exclusively to The American Society of Hematology and that the corresponding author and all coauthors will be required to
sign their copyright transfer online using Blood Bench>Press. This can be done at any time
following initial submission of a manuscript but must be completed before an accepted article can be posted to First Edition or
otherwise published in the journal. Blood allows authors to retain a number of nonexclusive rights to their
published article. See the Copyright Transfer and Conflict of
Interest form for details. Do not fill out this form and fax it. Signatures are collected
online.
The work of the authors who are U.S. Federal Government employees is not protected by the Copyright Act, and copyright
ownership will not be transferred in these cases. The online form to sign on Blood Bench>Press allows authors to
indicate their status as federal government employees.
American Society of Hematology (ASH), the Publisher of Blood, and the Blood Journal are committed to
ensuring the integrity of all their activities. The Conflict of Interest Disclosure policy for Blood contributors
requires each author to disclose all relevant financial and other interests, regardless of amount or value, that
might be construed as resulting in an actual, potential, or apparent conflict in one’s role as contributor to Blood.
At the time of online submission of their manuscript to Blood, authors are required to disclose any potential
financial conflict of interest, which may include one or more of the following: employment; consultancy within the past
two years; ownership interests (including stock options) in a start-up company, the stock of which is not publicly traded;
ownership interest (including stock options but excluding indirect investments through mutual funds and the like) in a
publicly traded company; research funding; honoraria directly received from an entity; paid expert testimony within the
past two years; any other financial relationship (e.g., receiving royalties); membership on another entity’s Board of
Directors or its advisory committees (whether for profit or not for profit).
Examples of conflicts of interest that need to be disclosed include also financial interest in a company whose potential
product was studied in the present work; employment by a company whose potential product was studied in the present work;
and patent related to the work presented in the present work.
Any involvement of medical writers/researchers, particularly those employed or supported by the pharmaceutical industry,
in the writing of an article must be clearly defined and disclosed in the Authorship section of the manuscript, and a
statement thanking the individual included in the Acknowledgements as detailed above. In addition, authors of Review Articles,
Perspectives, and How I Treat Articles must disclose any type of non-author involvement in the preparation of a manuscript
to the Editor-in-Chief before its submission.
If the authors have no conflict of interest to declare, they must also state this at submission. It is the responsibility
of the corresponding author to review this policy with all authors and to collectively list in the manuscript (under the
Acknowledgment section or in the Authorship section) and in the online submission system ALL pertinent commercial
relationships.
It is important to note that this policy and the disclosure statements will not be regarded as creating a presumption of
impropriety in the existence of financial interests or other relationships of a commercial nature. Instead, Blood’s
purpose is to inform its editors, reviewers, and readers of the existence of financial relationships pertinent to the article
in the interest of the full transparency of the peer review and publication processes.
During the peer review process the conflict(s) of interests will be disclosed only to editors and reviewers, who will keep
them confidential. If the paper is accepted for publication in Blood, all disclosures, including statements of no
conflict of interest, will appear in the First Edition, final print, and final online versions of the article, in the
Authorship section.
All authors are asked to electronically sign their copyright transfer using Blood Bench>Press,
which is available to all authors upon successful initial submission. If accepted, an article will not be prepublished or otherwise
published in the journal until all signatures are received.
To read the ASH Conflict of Interest policy, click here.
back to top
Blood accepts only manuscripts that are original work, no part of which has been currently submitted for
publication elsewhere except as brief abstracts. Authors should take care to exclude overlap and duplication of text or
figures between manuscripts dealing with related materials. Copies of existing manuscripts with potentially overlapping or
duplicative material should be submitted together with the manuscript, as Supplemental files, so that the Editors can judge
originality of the material and its suitability for publication. Submission of duplicate or partially duplicate publication
already published elsewhere will be considered as breach of ethical conduct and will trigger severe consequences.
See also Redundant or Duplicate Publication in Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals and Definition of Research Misconduct in the CSE’s White Paper on Promoting Integrity in Scientific Journal Publications.
All studies that involve human subjects must abide by the rules of the appropriate Institutional Review Board (or
equivalent organization in foreign countries) of the institution in which the research was conducted and by the tenants of
the World Medical Association’s (most recently revised) Declaration of Helsinki.
Published studies that involve human subjects should not provide subjects’ identifying information (e.g., names, true
initials, recognizable images) unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent/guardian)
gives written informed consent for publication. If your study requires the appropriate written consent, please submit a
patient-signed copy of the consent to the Editorial Office by fax at 202-776-0549 or via overnight mail to 1900 M St. NW,
Suite 200, Washington, DC 20036. See the Uniform Requirements for
Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals for further information.
Data sharing
Blood supports the efforts of the National Academy of Sciences to encourage the open sharing of
publication-related data. Blood adheres to the belief that authors should include in their publications the data,
algorithms, or other information that is central or integral to the publication or make it freely and readily accessible;
use public repositories for data whenever possible; and make patented material available under a license for research use.
For more information, see the NAS Web site.
Distribution of reagents
Blood policy requires that any readily renewable resources mentioned in a Journal article and not already obtained
from commercial resources will be made available to all qualified investigators in the field. The policy stems from the
principle that authenticity requires reproducibility. Publication in Blood constitutes a de facto acceptance by
the authors of this policy. Included are reagents that can be easily provided; specifically, nucleic acid sequences, cDNA and
genomic clones, cell lines, and monoclonal antibody clones. Small amounts (sufficient for the replication of any in vitro
work reported) of novel protein reagents are also considered transferable.
Although the Editors appreciate that many of the reagents mentioned in Blood may be proprietary or unique, neither
condition is considered adequate grounds for deviation from this policy. Suitable material-transfer agreements can be drawn
up between the provider and the requester, but if a reasonable request is turned down, the corresponding author will be held
accountable. The consequence for continuing noncompliance will be refusal of Blood to publish articles from the corresponding
author for the following three years.
Disclosure of compound structure
Authors must provide the specific chemical structure(s) of synthetic compounds either in the manuscript or through a
Web link to a publicly available source. For natural products, the chemical structure must be similarly provided if it is
known. If it is not known, adequate information on the source and composition must be provided to identify the compound
uniquely.
back to top
Submission of sequences to GenBank
Original DNA sequences reported in Blood must also be submitted to GenBank. Instructions for submission
can be found at GenBank. An accession number must be supplied
parenthetically at a relevant location in text. Besides mRNA gene expression microarrays, other high-throughput datasets
includes miRNA arrays, ChIP-chip arrays, CGH (comparative genomic hybridization), SNP arrays, protein arrays, SAGE, MPSS,
and high throughput quantitative sequence data must also be deposited into a publically-accessible platform such as GEO.
Please contact the editorial office with any questions regarding these policies.
Microarray data presentation and availability
Blood supports the efforts of the Microarray Gene Expression Data Society to standardize the presentation of
microarray data. In compliance with the MGED Society’s
Minimum Information About a Microarray
Experiment (MIAME), the journal requires that authors deposit their microarray data into a public database, such as
Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) or
ArrayExpress. Authors should also include their
microarray data as a supplement with the initial submission of the manuscript (see
Data Supplements). An
accession number must be supplied parenthetically at a relevant location in text.
In accordance with the guidelines published by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE)
and the changes to the policy published in an ICMJE
Editorial in June 2007, Blood requires, as a condition of consideration for publication, that all clinical
trials be registered in one of five ICMJE-approved public trials registries (i.e.,
ClinicalTrials.gov,
www.actr.org.au,
www.ISRCTN.org,
www.umin.ac.jp/ctr/index/htm, or
www.trialregister.nl).
Trials must be registered at or before the onset of patient enrollment.
In addition to accepting registration in any of the above five registries, the ICMJE and Blood will
accept registration of clinical trials in any of the primary registers that participate in the
WHO International Clinical Trial Registry Platform (ICTRP).
Registration in a partner register only is insufficient.
The ICMJE and Blood will begin to implement the WHO definition of clinical trials for all trials that begin
enrollment on or after July 1, 2008. This definition states that a clinical trial is “any research study that
prospectively assigns human participants or groups of humans to one or more health-related interventions to
evaluate the effects on health outcomes.”
Following ICMJE, Blood will not consider results posted in the same clinical trials registry in which the
primary registration resides to be previous publication if the results are presented in the form of a brief,
structured (<500 words) abstract or table.
For more information, see ICMJE Uniform
Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals.
back to top
Research with embryonic stem cells should adhere to the guidelines established by the National Academy of Sciences, as
published in the National Academy Press.
The American Society of Hematology supports free access to Blood on the broadest possible basis, although ASH and
Blood cannot adopt or support a publishing model that is not economically sustainable over a long horizon.
Blood maintains a 12-month access embargo to non-subscribers while offering an inexpensive pay-per-view option;
however, online content older than 12 months is free to all. Also, significant sections of each new issue are immediately
free-to-all online, including abstracts and tables of contents, Inside Blood commentaries, How I Treat articles, and
5 clinically relevant research articles or review articles per issue selected by the Editor-in-Chief. In addition, Blood
ensures that patients looking for pertinent information can access any article without charge by contacting the journal.
Any author (including, but not limited to, those supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute) wishing immediate public access for their accepted paper may pay an additional Public Access manuscript fee of $2,000. Upon receipt of payment, Blood will also deposit on behalf of the author the final edition of the published paper into PubMed Central. This fee does not apply to research funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Blood and the American Society of Hematology (ASH) signed an agreement with the National Institutes of Health
(NIH) that creates a straightforward way for authors to comply with the NIH policy on enhanced access of the public to
biomedical research. This program removes the current burden for NIH-funded authors to submit their manuscripts to
PubMed Central. As a result of ASH’s participation in this program, all Blood authors
who published NIH-funded articles from May, 2005, forward have no obligation to submit manuscripts to the NIH archive because Blood
will do this on their behalf.
Blood manuscripts that are accepted and prepublished in Blood First Edition are considered to be formally published on the date
of the article’s appearance on the Blood First Edition Web site. The site organizes prepublished articles by
posting date and/or by scientific section. Shortly after prepublication in First Edition, the author receives an e-mail notification. There is
no press embargo of an article once it has been prepublished. Any embargo will occur only upon an author’s request and only prior to prepublication.
back to top
