cell_press_style.md
108 lines · skills/venue-templates/references/cell_press_style.md at 5f2bc03
Cell Press Writing Style
Reviewed: 2026-10-01. The verified requirements below concern Cell; Neuron, Immunity, Molecular Cell, Developmental Cell, Cell Reports, and other Cell Press journals have their own article types and instructions.
Raw lines 1 to 6Official sources and stage
The author hub separates initial submission, revision, and final production. Do not impose all production files on a format-flexible first submission. The Cell revision and final pages were extracted in full during this review.
Raw lines 7 to 17Summary, Highlights, and eTOC
| Element | Cell instruction | Drafting approach |
|---|---|---|
| Summary | One paragraph, at most 150 words, no citations | Context, question, principal findings, bounded significance |
| Highlights | Up to four; each at most 85 characters including spaces | One independently understandable finding per bullet |
| eTOC / In Brief | At most 50 words, two sentences, third person | Explain the finding and its relevance to non-specialists |
“In Brief” and eTOC are names for the same short summary in the current Cell instructions. Do not manufacture a separate one-sentence requirement or a 30-word minimum. Count actual text, not approximate visual line length.
Avoid unsupported priority claims such as “first” and “novel.” The Summary should stand alone without abbreviations the reader cannot interpret. Illustrative, unexecuted templates are in assets/examples/cell_summary_example.md (relative to the skill root); they contain placeholders, not reported experiments.
Graphical abstract
Use the current final-file checklist and graphical-abstract instructions linked by the target journal. Show the evidence-supported relationship or mechanism, identify uncertainty, and ensure labels remain readable when reduced. Do not imply whole-organism rejuvenation from a cellular assay. The current Cell final-file checklist specifies a 1200 × 1200 pixel graphical abstract at 300 dpi, supplied as TIFF, PDF, or JPG. This Cell final-submission requirement is not a publisher-wide rule; follow the current checklist linked by the target journal.
Raw lines 35 to 41Writing the scientific narrative
Cell readers span biological specialties. Define specialized terms even when technical methods matter to the argument. A useful sequence is:
- Establish the biological question and the specific evidence gap.
- State the tested hypothesis or research objective.
- Organize Results by supported finding, with figures and controls tied to claims.
- Explain which results discriminate among mechanisms and which remain correlational.
- Discuss alternative explanations and a specific Limitations of the Study section.
Choose section length and figure count to fit the actual study and article type. There is no universal five-to-eight-section, six-to-eight-figure, or animal-study requirement across Cell Press. Computational, observational, and methods studies need evidence appropriate to their claims, not an unrelated in vivo experiment.
Raw lines 42 to 57Methods and resources
Cell requires STAR Methods for revision and acceptance. Use the official article template for section order. Keep Resource Availability with its Lead Contact, Materials Availability, and Data and Code Availability subsections, and follow current instructions for the Key Resources Table and STAR Methods.
The Key Resources Table identifies resources essential to reproduction; it is not an inventory of every standard buffer. Record verified supplier identifiers, RRIDs where required, software versions, and data accessions. Do not copy example catalogue numbers as if they identified a real reagent. Resources in the table must also be described in the methods.
For quantitative results, report the experimental unit, biological/technical replicates, exclusions, analysis, uncertainty, and multiple-comparison handling. Hundreds of cells from three cultures do not establish hundreds of independent biological replicates. State what error bars represent.
Raw lines 58 to 75Figures and legends
Use uppercase panel letters (A, B, C) for the Cell convention, and check the exact journal's final artwork guide. Legends should define conditions, sample sizes, scale bars, estimands, uncertainty, and statistical methods. Keep supplementary figures identified according to Cell's supplemental-information instructions; Nature's “Extended Data” convention is not a general Cell convention.
Do not infer image resolution or physical dimensions from a remembered pixel count. Check the production guide at the intended display size.
Raw lines 76 to 86References and declarations
Current Cell uses sequential reference numbers and superscript in-text citations. The legacy author-year recommendation is obsolete. Generate the selected current Cell reference style with a reference manager and verify each record against its source. Preserve accurate publication status and use the published version when it supersedes a preprint.
Check Resource Availability, author contributions, interests, funding, Limitations of the Study, and applicable AI-use declarations. A declaration is not a substitute for accuracy, authorship responsibility, or journal permission. Use CRediT if appropriate; do not infer author roles from author order.
Raw lines 87 to 99Final review
- Confirm the exact journal, article type, and submission stage.
- Check Summary, Highlights, and eTOC limits separately.
- Compare figure files and editable tables with the final-file checklist.
- Confirm each mechanistic claim has evidence and appropriate controls.
- Check resource identifiers and data/code access conditions.
- Use numbered citations and the journal's current style.
- Review the compiled submission preview and every supplementary file.