Your Publication Guidelines Checklist

Tuesday, 4 March, 2020


  • best practices
  • publication guidelines
  • journal recommendations on data submission
  • western blotting

    • Publication guidelines can help you produce and submit reliable, reproducible data. Publishers, such as the Journal of Biological Chemistry (JBC) and Nature, have created valuable recommendations on how to further develop your Western blotting methods (see “Are You Aware of New Publication Guidelines?” for more information) . When planning your next experiment, keep their suggestions and the publication guidelines checklist below in mind.

    “Positive and negative controls, as well as molecular size markers, should be included on each gel and blot—either in the main figure or an expanded data supplementary figure”1

    • Use molecular weight markers. These can help estimate protein and band size, orient the gel or membrane, and monitor the migration of your gel. Depending on the nature of your experiment, there are molecular weight marker options for enhanced chemiluminescence (ECL) and near-infrared fluorescence (NIR).

    “Describe data supporting antibody specificity, including post-translational modifications or neoepitopes”2

    • Validate your antibodies. Ensure that your primary antibodies are specific and selective to the target, and keep a record of all antibody information and assay conditions. This will help mitigate potential sources of variability in your experiment.

    “Housekeeping proteins should not be used for normalization without evidence that experimental manipulations do not affect their expression”3

    • Use internal loading controls. Housekeeping proteins, signaling proteins, and total protein stains are useful in normalizing your data. They can determine whether band intensity changes of the target proteins are due to intrinsic variability of the technique or to biological change.

    “Authors must state the number of independent samples (biological replicates) and the number of replicate samples (technical replicates) and report how many times each experiment was replicated”4

    • Conduct replicates. Replicates are key factors in generating consistent, reliable data. Technical replicates indicate the reproducibility of your assay or technique. Biological replicates address whether your results are sustainable under other biological variables or are an anomaly.

    Publication guidelines are a great tool for generating consistent, credible data. By implementing these simple changes or additions to your research, you can gain a better understanding of your findings and publish valuable contributions for the scientific community.

    The JBC has created revised guidelines that can help get your research published. Learn more as Deputy Editor F. Peter Guengerich, Ph. D., presents “How to Best Present a Quantitative Western Blot for Publication” in the Lambda U® education portal.


    References:

    1. Image Integrity. Nature. Macmillan Publishers Limited, 2016. Web. 31 July 2017.
    2. Collecting and Presenting Data.The Journal of Biological Chemistry. American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Web. 24 September 2018.
    3. Instructions for Authors. The Journal of Biological Chemistry. American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Web. 31 July 2017.
    4. Collecting and Presenting Data. The Journal of Biological Chemistry. American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Web. 9 May 2018
    5. Instructions for Authors. The Journal of Biological Chemistry. American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Web. 31 July 2017.
    6. Collecting and Presenting Data. The Journal of Biological Chemistry. American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Web. 9 May 2018.


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