Nation Center for Biotechnology Information Technical Reports Fact Sheet Authors David J. States and David Landsman National Center for Biotechnology Information National Library of Medicine Abstract This report describes the goals and purpose of the NCBI technical report series, presents guidelines for the submission of manuscripts, and describes how manuscripts will be processed and distributed. Purpose The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) has a mission to provide automated systems for knowledge about molecular biology, biochemistry, and genetics, to perform research into advanced methods for data handling and to coordinate access to biotechnology information. As part of its activities, the NCBI is establishing a technical report series to provide a means for disseminating information on work performed at (or in colaboration with) the NCBI. Contents NCBI Technical Reports are intended as a mechanism for the dissemination of information generated in the course of NCBI activities which may be of interest to the biotechnology at large but would not ordinarily be appropriate for publication in peer reviewed academic journals. Examples might include users manuals for software developed at NCBI, descriptions of database formats and designs, detailed descriptions of algorithms or software etc. Technical reports will be subject to review, both by the technical reports editors and by reviewers that the editors solict. NCBI technical reports will also be subject to review and approval by the National Library of Medicine publication review board. We anticipate that material presented in the technical reports series may also appear in peer reviewed academic journals. If this occurs, it is the responsability of authors to ammend the technical reports so that the relationship of the material presented in the report and the peer reviewed publication is clearly stated. Citation of the technical report in peer reviewed publication is left to the discretion of the authors and relevant journal. Editors The current editors of the NCBI Technical Reports are: David Landsman, Ph.D. David J. States, M.D., Ph.D. Visiting Scientist Senior Staff Fellow NCBI NCBI The editors may be reached by electronic mail to: landsman@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov or states@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov or by regular mail to: NCBI Technical Reports Building 38A, 8th floor National Library of Medicine Bethesda, MD 20894 Instructions to authors Authors either within NCBI or working in colaboration with the NCBI, including visiting scientists, are invited to submit manuscripts to the technical reports editors. Four (4) printed copies of manuscripts should be submitted for review. Upon acceptance by the technical reports editors and the National Library of Medicine publication board, the author(s) will be expected to provide: Four (4) printed copies of the final manuscript on 8.5" by 11" paper. An ASCII file containing the full text of the manuscript including the title, authors, abstract, text, table and figure captions, and bibliography. An ASCII file containing the summary of the manuscript which will include the title, authors and abstract A PostScript file which can be used to print the full manuscript including all graphics At least one editable document in electronic form, preferably in MicroSoft Word/Macintosh format or WordPerfect/IBM PC format A Unix directory containing any associated data that the author wishes to have included with the technical report Manuscripts are to be printed on standard 8.5" by 11" paper with at least 0.5" margins on all sides. Color will be considered if compelling reasons for its inclusion can be presented, but the strong preference is for the use of black and white only. The use of fonts should be limited to: Times-Roman, Helvetica, Palatino, or Century-Schoolbook. Distribution and Availability NCBI technical reports will be available in several forms: 1 - printed copy obtained by regular mail with a request to: NCBI Technical Reports Building 38A, 8th floor National Library of Medicine Bethesda, MD 20894 USA or by electronic mail request to "tech-report@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov" 2 - electronically distributed material accessible via Internet on the server "ncbi.nlm.nih.gov". 3 - summaries of newly produced technical reports (title, author(s), and abstract) distributed by electronic mail to all individuals requesting such distribution. Electronically accessible reports will be maintained in several formats. Users may request a subscription to the electonic mail distribution of technical report summaries by sending E-mail to the tech-rep@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov with the subject "subscription" and a message saying "add" with their E-mail address. They may remove themselves from the distribution list via an E-mail request with subject "subscription" and a message stating "remove". The full text and editable files will be made accessible over Internet using the FTP utility. When anonymous FTP is used to access the ncbi server, the user will be logged into a directory with several functions and associated subdirectories. One of these will be "tech-reports". In that directory the individual reports will be archived in several formats. These will initially include: tech-report.####.abs - ASCII listings of the summary including title, authors, and abstract (no graphics). tech-report.####.txt - ASCII listings of the full text (no graphics). tech-report.####.hqx - Macintosh BINHEX-encoded StuffIt archives. The user should transfer the ASCII file to their Macintosh using FTP, then de-encode and unpack the archive using the freeware UnStuffIt version 1.5 utility, and print or manipulate it as a MicroSoft Word document. tech-report.####.arc - IBM PC WordPerfect format documents in archive format. To print these files locally on a PC, the user should transfer the file using FTP, un-archive it using the ARCE utility, and print or manipulate it as a WordPerfect version 5 file. tech-report.####.ps.Z - compressed PostScript files which will print the entire report including associated graphics. To print these files locally, the user should transfer the file using FTP, uncompress it using the Unix "uncompress" command, and print the file using the "lpr" command to send it to a PostScript printer. tech-report.####.fm.Z - compressed FrameMaker files. To print these files locally on a Unix system with FrameMaker version 2, the user should transfer the file using FTP, uncompress it using the Unix "uncompress" command, and print or manipulate the file using FrameMaker version 2. tech-report.####.data - an optional subdirectory of the "tech-reports" directory where the author may deposit data associated with the report. The format and names of files in these data directories will be left to the discretion of the report author and should be described in the report itself. All reports should be available in the .abs and .txt formats. We will attempt to make reports available in as many formats as possible, but the availability of other formats may be limited by incompatabilities between the various document prepartion packages, and will therefore be handled on a case by case basis. While we will attempt to maintain stability in formats and protocols, the introduction of new technologies and software may warrant a change in these procedures. In some cases, authors may wish to distribute a preliminary draft of a technical report with the knowledge that it may be altered in the future. In these cases, the draft version will be made available as "tech-report.####.draft.___" until the final version is completed at which time the draft files will be deleted and replaced by the final report.