INSTRUCTION FOR AUTHORS

SUBMISSION TO ASIA-PACIFIC JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND BIOTECHNOLOGY (APJMBB)

IMPORTANT!!! Please scroll down for updates regarding our 2025 Article Processing Charges

The Journal aims to promote research in all relevant areas of molecular & cellular biology and biotechnology in the Asia Pacific region through publication of research articles, both basic and applied. Papers must be written in English. Standard papers, research notes and review articles will be considered for publication. Submission of a manuscript will be taken to imply that it reports unpublished work that is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that all authors have agreed to its submission and that, if accepted, it will not be published again in the same form in any language without the consent of the Malaysian Society for Molecular Biology & Biotechnology. It is the Journal's policy that copyright be assigned to the Malaysian Society for Molecular Biology & Biotechnology in respect of all papers accepted for publication. Statements and opinions expressed in the articles and communications herein are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the Editor(s) or the publisher. No responsibility can be accepted for any inaccuracies or omissions, and no guarantee is made in respect to the contents.

The Journal will publish the following types of papers:

Research Paper
Research findings in respect to Biotechnology (Agriculture, Environmental, Food, Industrial, and Medical Biotechnology) and Molecular Biology (Methods – short, detailed notes on experimental protocols). Supplemental materials can be published if necessary.

Short Research Communication
A concise research study that is less substantial than a full research paper. The word count should be less than 2500 (excluding references and figure legends) and the number of references is limited to 30.

Review / Mini Review articles (invited and submitted)
An authoritative article on the respective field of study and of high interests to the readership. The total word count should be 5000-8000 (Review) and 3000-5000 (Mini review) excluding references and figure legends. A minimum of two figures should be included.

Letters to the Editor
A descriptive write up on a research finding that is insufficient to be published as research paper or short research communication. The word count should be less than 500 words with a maximum of two figures or tables. Limit the total references to 5.

Commentary
A write up to share your thoughts and comments on the progress in molecular biology and biotechnology and how it is bringing change to our society. The word count should be less than 1000 words with a maximum of 1 figure/table and 10 references

 IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS

COVER LETTER TEMPLATE 

RESEARCH PAPER/ SHORT RESEARCH COMMUNICATION TEMPLATE

REVIEW/ MINI REVIEW TEMPLATE

 MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION

Formatting Prior to Acceptance

Do prepare your manuscript in Word format with proper citations. It should be typed double spaced and each sheet should be numbered consecutively. Figures and legends should be placed at the end of the manuscript with one figure per sheet. Supplementary figures can be saved in a separate file in Word/PDF format.

TITLE PAGE

Manuscript Title

The title of manuscript should be concise with not more than 20 words.

Author Information

Author's full names should be written with the first name and middle name before surname or last name.
E.g. “Andrew William Carter” (not “Carter, Andrew William”; not “Carter, A.W.”; not “A.W. Carter”); “Wai Ling Lee” (not “Lee Wai Ling”; not “Lee, Wai Ling”; not “A.L. Lee”).

The complete information for all authors should also be provided. This includes the author's institutional affiliation and email. For corresponding author, a complete postal address, telephone and fax numbers should be provided too. A notification will be emailed to all authors informing them about the manuscript submission. However, only the corresponding author will be notified on the decision of review.

Abstract

The abstract should be a concise write up with 250 words or less on the manuscript. The content should highlight the background, problem statement, hypothesis, methodology, findings and conclusion of the study.

Keywords

A maximum of 6 keywords in alphabetical order suitable for indexing should be provided.

CONTENT

Units/ Abbreviations

Authors should follow the SI system of units. Non-standard abbreviations should be employed only where multiple use is made, and should be defined on their first appearance in both the main body of the text and in the Abstract.

Tables

Tables should be numbered consecutively (Table 1, Table 2, etc) and typed double-spaced on a separate sheet. Tables should bear an appropriate caption, contain horizontal rules only, (one above and one below column headings) and all abbreviations clearly explained in the footnote.

Figures and Photos

Illustrations and photographs of high quality (300 dpi) and with good contrast should be submitted in soft copy to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. following acceptance of a manuscript for publication. Figure numbers must be clearly labelled. Colour photographs are accepted.

References

Formatting of references can be done after acceptance of publication has been received. Article and journal titles should be cited in full. References should be listed in alphabetical order according to the surname or last name of the first author and expressed as indicated below:

Journal citation:
Abd-Aziz, N., Stanbridge, E. J., & Shafee, N. 2016. Newcastle disease virus degrades HIF-1α through proteasomal pathways independent of VHL and p53. Journal of General Virology 97(12): 3174-3182

Book Chapter:
Chan, T. K. 1992. Plasmids of enterobacteria. In: Pathogenesis of bacterial infections. Ed. Ramirez, A. & Aquino, S. pp. 235-243. Kuala Lumpur: Protea Press.

Book:
Herlina, S. & Tan, F.H. 1992. Molecular aspects of typhoid fever. Kuala Lumpur: Protea Press.

Personal Communications:
These should be mentioned in the text in the following form: (U. Laopinkarn, pers.comm.)

Ethics Committee Approval and Patient Consent

Experimental research involving human or animals should have been approved by author's institutional review board or ethics committee. This information can be mentioned in the manuscript including the name of the board/committee that gave the approval. If the manuscript contains photos or parts of photos of patients, informed consent from each patient should be obtained. Patient's identities and privacy should be carefully protected in the manuscript.

Conflict of Interest

Competing interests that might interfere with the objective presentation of the research findings contained in the manuscript should be declared in a paragraph heading "Conflict of interests" (before References). Examples of conflict of interest are ownership of stock in a company, commercial grants, board membership, etc. If there is none, please use the statement "The authors have declared that no conflict of interest exists".

 SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPT

Plagiarism

It is the journal policy to exercise zero-tolerance towards plagiarism (including self-plagiarism). Manuscripts are screened for plagiarism throughout the process and will be rejected if it is found. In case that a paper is already published in our journal and plagiarism is still detected, it will be retracted from our journal and the authors’ institutions and department heads will be notified to take actions. The journal has set a maximum threshold of 20% similarity in manuscript with published articles and will be screened using Turnitin. Authors are advised to make sure it has not exceeded the limit.

Copyright Policy

The Asia-Pacific Journal of Molecular Biology & Biotechnology requires the corresponding author to sign a copyright transfer agreement and a letter of undertaking on behalf of all authors. These documents are sent to the corresponding author when the manuscript is accepted and scheduled for publication. These documents must be signed by the corresponding author to enable publication of the manuscript.

Review Process
The journal follows a single-blind peer review process. Please note that manuscripts sent out for review will be sent to Reviewers complete with author names and affiliations. A flowchart of the review process is shown below. The corresponding author will be notified, generally within 3 months after submission, of the reviewers’ decision to accept, reject or require modification. When a manuscript is returned to the corresponding author for modification, it should be returned within 2 weeks, failing which the manuscript is considered withdrawn.

Article Processing Charge

With effective of 1 January 2020, all accepted manuscripts (submitted on 1 January 2020 onwards) will be incurred an article process charge (APC) of RM250 or USD70 prior to publication. Authors are advised to make the payment and send the proof of payment to us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We will proceed with the typesetting process immediately and send the Galley Proof of your manuscript in two weeks. 

Authors are requested to submit the manuscript for publication in softcopy to Dr. Michelle Teo, Managing Editor of APJMBB at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Along with the submitted manuscript, a Cover Letter should be sent, addressed to Asia-Pacific Journal of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, and including the following text:

On behalf of all the authors, I declare that:

• The enclosed manuscript in its present form has not been published elsewhere, either as a whole or in part;
• It will not be submitted to another journal unless it has been officially rejected or withdrawn from consideration by APJMBB;
• I agree on the transfer of the copyright to the Publisher on acceptance of this manuscript for publication.
• I agree to pay the Article Processing Charge (APC) after the manuscript is accepted for publication.

Authors must provide names, full addresses, and corresponding emails of 3 suggested reviewers in respective field with no or potential conflict of interests in the Cover letter when submitting a manuscript. The reviewers should not be your colleagues, collaborators, or anyone from the same university. The final choice of reviewers will be at the discretion of the Chief Editor and the Associate Editors.

Formatting by Authors Upon Acceptance

Upon acceptance for publication, authors are advised to provide a final version of the manuscript in accordance to the journal formatting in Microsoft Word. Please provide high resolution figures with 300 dpi. In case where graph or chart are prepared using Microsoft Excel, a softcopy of the Excel should be provided.

 ARTICLE PROCESSING CHARGES

All accepted manuscripts (submitted on 1 January 2020 onwards) will incur an article process charge (APC) of RM250 or USD70 prior to publication. The authors are advised to make the payment and send the proof of payment to us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We will proceed with the typesetting process immediately and send the Galley Proof of your manuscript within two weeks.

The APC fee will be discounted for MSMBB ordinary and life members. The APC of APJMBB is listed as below:

* Fee discount is only applicable to the MSMBB member who is the corresponding author. 

All accepted manuscripts that are submitted and reviewed before 1 January 2020 will still enjoy free-of-charge APC even though the manuscript is published in the year 2020 volume 28. Do not miss this opportunity to submit your manuscript as soon as possible.

*Starting 1st January 2025, there will be a revised Article Processing Charge (APC) for all accepted manuscripts.

 But don’t worry! If you submit your manuscript before the deadline, you’ll still benefit from the old APC rate, even if your work is published in the 2025 volume. Now’s the perfect time to get your research in!