Instructions for Contributors: Types of Manuscripts

RNA will consider papers in five categories: Communications (Letters to the Editor, Hypotheses, and Perspectives); RNA and Gene Expression; RNA Therapeutics and Disease; Bioinformatics and Databases; and Reviews.

Within the category Communications, Letters to the Editor are intended as a forum for raising or clarifying issues of specific interest to the RNA community, Hypotheses outline novel concepts or new ways of integrating existing data, and Perspectives outline a novel way of looking at existing literature. As for all our published papers, manuscripts within this category are subject to peer review.

Manuscripts in the categories RNA and Gene Expression, RNA Therapeutics and Disease, and Bioinformatics and Databases can be in the format of Articles, Reports, Methods, or Resources. There are no explicit length limitations to Articles and length is not a criterion for evaluation. Reports document significant new results that lend themselves to succinct presentation and can be documented with one to four figures. Irrespective of the length or the number of figures, all Reports will be evaluated using the same criteria as for Articles; preliminary observations that require further experimentation to support the major conclusions will not be accepted. Methods papers outline significant new approaches, well benchmarked against existing methodology, with documentation of robustness and limitations. Resource articles describe significant technical advances and/or databases that are important to the RNA biology field.

Manuscripts in the category Reviews are usually by invitation, but pre-submission inquiries to the Reviews Editor are welcome. Reviews can be comprehensive or focused, preferably with a unique slant and of general interest to a wide range of readers.

Submission of a paper implies that it has not been published previously and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Closely related papers that are in press elsewhere, or that have been or will be submitted elsewhere, must be included with the submitted manuscript. It is understood that researchers who submit papers to this journal are prepared to make available to qualified academic researchers materials needed to duplicate their research results (DNA, cell lines, antibodies, microbial strains, mouse lines, etc.). Authors should submit nucleic acid and protein sequences, NMR and X-ray crystallographic data to the appropriate database.


[Back to main Instructions page]

Current Issue

  1. July 2026, 32 (7)
  1. Current Issue
  1. Alert me to new issues of RNA