The Journal BPB Reports publishes Reports, Regular Articles, and Reviews.

1. Reports:

Papers containing new and important facts but limited research results derived from incomplete or partial studies may be suitable as Reports. Informational data sets obtained from the fields of health sciences (e.g. environmental monitoring and safety testing of foods or chemicals) or small-scale clinical studies are also considered for publication as Reports that should not exceed 3,000 words.

2. Regular Articles:

The manuscript being submitted must consist of original research performed by the authors and the research must include new information that is of significance. There is no restriction on the number of words.

3. Reviews:

(1) Regular Reviews: Reviewing scientific discoveries including the recent results of the author(s).
(2) Invited Reviews: Submitted by invitation from the Editorial Board, and encompass recent important scientific discoveries.

1. Cover letter

The cover letter should include information on the corresponding author (the corresponding author’s name, affiliation, and address, telephone/fax numbers, and e-mail address).

2. Manuscript

The manuscript should be submitted as a single file of Microsoft Word file or PDF file with tables and figures included at the end of the manuscript. (We will move to editing procedure soon after your manuscript is accepted. Therefore we will recommend you to submit it with Microsoft Word file.) Please use Times New Roman font in 12-point size for Word files. All files should have a page setup for A4-sized (210 mm wide × 297 mm high) paper when printed. Tables can be displayed horizontally if necessary. About pagination, sequential numbers should insert at the bottom of the page in the middle, and set the title page as page 1.
(1) Title page
The title page (page 1) should start with the journal name (BPB Reports) and type of manuscript (Reports, Regular Article, etc.). This should be followed by the title, name(s) of the author(s), affiliation(s), and mailing address(es). Please indicate the corresponding author’s e-mail address in the footnote. An asterisk (*) should be added to the right of the corresponding author’s name. Use a dagger (†) to the right of a name to indicate that the present affiliation of an author is different to that of when the paper was written. In the footnotes, show the author’s current affiliation and address.
(2) Summary and Keywords
Page 2 should contain a summary no longer than 250 words as well as 3 to 6 descriptive keywords, listed in decreasing order of importance. The first 3 keywords must be independent, as they will be used in a keyword combination in the index (within 80 characters). Abbreviations should not be used as keywords.
(3) Main text
The text, acknowledgments, conflict of interest, and references should be presented in this order.

1. Affiliations

When there are two or more authors and they belong to more than one affiliation, the connection between each author and his or her affiliation should be indicated by italicized superscripts a, b, c... placed after each author’s name and before each affiliation.
Examples for describing affiliations and mailing addresses:
^a Department of Molecular Biology, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Hokkaido University; Kita 12, Nishi 6, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060–0812, Japan: ^b Biomedical Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST); Central 6, 1–1–1 Higashi, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 350–8566, Japan: and ^c Department of Pharmaceutical Services, Hiroshima University Hospital; 1–2–3 Kasumi, Minami-ku, Hiroshima 734–8551, Japan.

2. Abbreviations

Abbreviations must be spelled out in full at their initial appearance each in the summary and the main text, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses. Thereafter, the abbreviation only may be used. Please limit to a minimum the use of abbreviations in the title. However, the following need not be defined: ADP (adenosine 5′-diphosphate), AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome), AMP (adenosine 5′-monophosphate or adenylic acid), ANOVA (analysis of variance), ATP (adenosine 5′-triphosphate), cAMP (adenosine 3′,5′-cyclic monophosphate), cDNA (complementary DNA), CoA (coenzyme A), CYP (cytochrome P450), DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), ED₅₀ (50% effective dose), ESR (electron spin resonance), FAB-MS (fast atom bombardment mass spectrometry), FAD (flavin adenine dinucleotide), GC-MS (gas chromatography-mass spectrometry), GLC (gas-liquid chromatography), GMP (guanosine 5′-monophosphate), HPLC (high-performance liquid chromatography, high-pressure liquid chromatography), IC₅₀ (inhibitory concentration, 50%), IR (infrared), LC (liquid chromatography), LC/MS (liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry), LD₅₀ (50% lethal dose), mRNA (messenger RNA), MS (mass spectrum), NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance), OTC (over the counter), PCR (polymerase chain reaction), QOL (quality of life), RNA (ribonucleic acid), RT-PCR (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction), TLC (thin-layer chromatography), tRNA (transfer RNA), UV (ultraviolet), WHO (World Health Organization)

3. Units

The following units should be used: length (m, cm, mm, μm, nm, Å), mass (kg, g, mg, μg, ng, pg, mol, mmol, μmol), volume (L, mL, μL), time (s, min, h, d), temperature (°C, K), radiation (Bq, dpm, Gy, Sv), and concentration (M, mM, mol/L, mmol/L, mg/mL, μg/mL, %, % (v/v), % (w/v), ppm, ppb)

4. Spectral and Elemental Analysis Data

5. Nomenclature

The nomenclature used for chemical compounds shall be in accordance with the nomenclature rules formulated by IUPAC. Alternatively, naming may conform to the nomenclature in the index of Chemical Abstracts or the Ring Index.

6. References and Notes

“References” include articles published in journals, books, on the Internet, and others (technical reports, patents, lectures, etc.). References other than those indicated above should be described in the text. References should be numbered consecutively according to the order of citation in the text (one Arabic number should be assigned to each reference or note). An Arabic number followed by a right-hand half-parenthesis should be placed after the last relevant word in the sentence, outside the punctuation mark if any, and all references should be listed in numerical order at the end of the text in the section entitled References and Notes. Journal abbreviations should conform to those listed by PubMed.
Examples of references are as follows:
1) Vasievich EA, Chen W, Huang L. Enantiospecific adjuvant activity of cationic lipid DOTAP in cancer vaccine. Cancer Immunol. Immunother., 60, 629–638 (2011).
2) Shimizu K, Oku N. Brain tumor diagnosis using PET with angiogenic vessel-targeting liposomes. Tumor of the central nervous system. (Hayat MA ed.) Vol. 3, Springer, New York, pp. 169–176 (2011).
3) Brunner A, Greune H, U.S. Patent 1910462 (1993) [Chem. Abstr., 27, 4092–4096 (1993)].
4) International Organization for Standardization. “How we develop standards.” <https://www.iso.org/developing-standards.html>, cited 5 September, 2018.
In the References section, include the last names and initials of the first and middle names for all authors.
For references appearing in the main text, the last names of the first 2 authors only should be written. For references with 3 or more authors, write the name of the first author followed by et al. (Example: Jones et al.).

When structure determination by X-ray crystallographic analysis is a central theme of a paper, the data required for registration with the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre (CCDC) should be attached as supplementary material. Although this does not apply in cases where crystallographic analysis plays only a supplementary role, crystal data (unit cell parameters, space group, Z density) and R-factor should still be noted. Atomic coordinates will be printed when the structure is important. Bond lengths and angles, thermal parameters, and torsion angles will be printed when they are important for the issues addressed in the paper. When papers have been accepted, the authors are advised to register the data with CCDC.

Newly reported nucleotide sequences must be deposited in one of the data banks, (either DDBJ, GenBank, or EMBL) and an accession number must be obtained before the paper will be accepted by the Editorial Board. Access to the information in the database must be available at the time of publication. A footnote will be included in the paper indicating that such a deposit has been made.

A conflict of interest (COI) exists when anyone has financial or personal relationships that could inappropriately influence (bias) a submitted manuscript. All authors are requested to disclose any financial relationship with any company or institution that might benefit from the publication of the manuscript.
This disclosure must be included in the text of the manuscript under the Conflict of Interest heading. If the authors have no conflict of interest, they must state as much, “The authors declare no conflict of interest.” And if they have some conflict of interest, they must state as much, for example: A (author name) received a research grant from O (entire company, institute or personal name); B received non-financial support from P; C serves as a consultant to Q; D received honoraria for writing promotional material for R; E has a patent JP Patent 12345 licensed to S; F is President of T; G has been reimbursed by U for attending conferences; H and I are employees of X; J has no conflict of interest.

1. For manuscripts dealing with scientific investigations involving human subjects and/or human tissues, the experiments should be performed in accordance with the ethical principles for medical research outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki 1964 as modified by subsequent revisions (https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/). Only studies that have been performed after receiving approval from the appropriate ethics committee of an institution will be accepted for publication. Finally, please clearly state in the manuscript that the study was performed according to institutional guidelines and attach to the cover letter a scanned certificate from the ethics committee.
2. Manuscripts describing animal experiments should be conducted in accordance with the experimental animal guidelines of the institution as well as the appropriate government guidelines, such as those published by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Only manuscripts of experiments conducted in accordance with the appropriate guidelines will be eligible for publication. Finally, please state clearly within the manuscript which guidelines were followed and that the study was indeed conducted in accordance with the guidelines.

1. With the exception of Invited Reviews, manuscripts will be reviewed by two or more referees, whose opinions will form the basis of the final decision by the editor.
2. Please submit the revised manuscript no later than two months from the date of notification of manuscript revision by the editor. A manuscript that is not revised within two months may be rejected.

Authors should submit a manuscript through the online submission system at https://www3.e-kenkyu.com/bpb-reports-scied/ but only if a manuscript is a single file of Microsoft Word file or PDF file embedded tables and figures at the end of the manuscript.

The page charge is calculated by adding basic charge, total number of words, and total number of figures, tables, and references. The corresponding author will be sent an invoice before publication. Manuscripts will be published after receiving the page charge. To publish the article quickly, the payment must be done by a credit card. If the page charge is not paid within two months after issuance of the invoice, acceptance of the manuscript is canceled.

Page Charge（excluding tax）
Basic chargea （yen/article）	Number of Wordsb (yen/word)	Number of Figures and Tablesc (yen/figure)	Number of Referencesd (yen/reference)
Members: 30,000 Non-members: 40,000	5	3,000	150

^aThe basic charge will be discounted when a corresponding author is a member of The Pharmaceutical Society of Japan.
^bTotal number of words in the text, legends for figures, tables and references in the manuscript.
^cTotal number of figures and tables in the manuscript.
^dTotal number of references in the manuscript.
*There is no additional charge to publish figures in color.

1. In general, after a paper has been reviewed, no authors may be added or deleted from the paper, and the order of the names of the authors cannot be changed.
2. The authors are given an opportunity to proofread the galley of an accepted manuscript. No additions and revisions are allowed other than the correction of typographical errors.
3. BPB Reports applies the Creative Commons Attribution (CCBY) license to works we published. The license was developed to facilitate open access – namely, free immediate access to, and unrestricted reuse of, original works to all types. Under this license, authors agree to make articles legally available for reuse, without permissions of fees, for virtually any purpose. Anyone may copy, distribute, or reuse these articles, as long as the author and original source are properly cited.