The Chinese Journal of Cancer Biotherapy (CN 31-1725/R, ISSN 1007-385X) is supervised by the China Association for Science and Technology and jointly sponsored by the Chinese Society for Immunology and the Chinese Anti-Cancer Association. It is the only advanced academic journal in China specializing in cancer biotherapy.

The journal has been recognized as a China Excellent Science and Technology Journal (Second Selection), an RCCSE Authoritative Academic Journal of China (3rd and 4th Editions), a Chinese Core Journal, a source journal of the Chinese Science Citation Database (CSCD), a Chinese Science and Technology Core Journal, an Excellent Medical Journal of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, and an Excellent Journal of the Chinese Anti-Cancer Association. It is a peer-reviewed, Open Access (OA) journal and has received support from the Excellent Science and Technology Journal Project of the China Association for Science and Technology.

The journal primarily publishes new findings, theories, technologies, and experience in basic research and clinical applications in the field of cancer biotherapy. Regular sections include Academician Forum, Expert Forum, Rapid Communications, Basic Research, Clinical Research, Techniques and Methods, New Anticancer Drugs, Reviews, and Case Reports. Its readership mainly consists of senior and mid-career clinicians and basic researchers engaged in cancer prevention and treatment, faculty members and students of medical and pharmaceutical institutions, and scientific and technical professionals in related disciplines.

The journal is published monthly, on the 25th day of each month, and is distributed both in China and internationally.

1. Submission and Peer Review

1.1

Authors are requested to read these Instructions for Authors carefully before submission. Submission of a manuscript is deemed to indicate that the authors have read, understood, and accepted all requirements contained herein.

Manuscripts that substantially fail to comply with the journal’s manuscript preparation requirements, or manuscripts with an overall text similarity rate exceeding 20%, will be rejected.

1.2 Manuscript Submission

Manuscripts should be submitted through the journal’s website:

www.biother.cn

The submitting author must be either the first author or the corresponding author.

Simultaneous submission of the same manuscript to more than one journal is strictly prohibited. Manuscripts must not be submitted on behalf of authors by paper mills or similar third-party organizations.

1.3 Documents Required at Submission

The following documents or supporting materials must be submitted together with the manuscript.

A manuscript processing fee of RMB 100 is charged for each submission and must be paid online at the time of submission.

1.3.1 Institutional Certification for the First Author

A certification letter issued by the first author’s institution must confirm that the contents of the manuscript are authentic, that the manuscript has not been submitted simultaneously elsewhere, and that there are no disputes concerning authorship.

Where the manuscript involves confidential or classified information, documentation showing approval for publication by the relevant authority must also be provided.

1.3.2 Research Funding

For research supported by funding at the provincial/ministerial level or above, authors should provide the funding approval document, the official name of the funding program, and the grant number. Where available, a URL to the official funding award announcement should also be provided.

Individuals named in the funded project should be consistent with the authors of the manuscript. The scope of the funded project should correspond to the subject matter of the manuscript, and the funding period should be consistent with the period in which the research was conducted and published.

1.3.3 Figure Files

All figures used in the manuscript should be packaged and uploaded separately. Detailed requirements for figure preparation are provided in Section 2.10.2.

Figures should be submitted as clear electronic images in TIF or JPG format at 300 dpi. Composite figures should be separated into individual image files.

The recommended height-to-width ratio is approximately 5:7.

1.3.4 Conflict of Interest Statement

Authors are responsible for the accuracy and authenticity of their conflict of interest disclosures. The corresponding author is responsible for coordinating the signing of the conflict of interest disclosure form.

At the time of submission, authors must upload an Author Conflict of Interest Disclosure Statement. The same disclosure must also appear as part of the manuscript, after the Discussion section and before the References.

Authors must disclose any actual or potential conflicts of interest, including both financial and non-financial relationships or interests.

1.3.5 Author Contribution Form

An author contribution form must list the contributions of all named authors to the research and preparation of the manuscript.

The form must bear the official seal of the authors’ institution, be scanned, and uploaded with the submission.

1.4 Fast-Track Publication

The journal provides a fast-track publication pathway for highly innovative manuscripts.

Authors wishing to apply for fast-track consideration should submit a statement explaining the innovative aspects of the work together with a novelty search report.

1.5 Academic Integrity and Research Misconduct

The journal fully implements relevant regulations issued by the China Association for Science and Technology, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Science and Technology concerning scientific integrity and the prevention of academic misconduct.

Multiple academic misconduct detection systems are used to screen submitted manuscripts.

Where suspected academic misconduct is identified, the Editorial Office may terminate manuscript processing at any stage after investigation and verification. Depending on the severity of the misconduct, measures may include:

• immediate rejection of the manuscript;

• refusal to consider manuscripts from the author(s) for a period of two years;

• placement of the author(s) on the journal’s blacklist;

• notification of the authors’ institution and relevant journals in the field; or

• formal retraction of an article that has already been published.

1.6 Peer Review after Submission

The journal strictly implements an independent peer-review system and evaluates manuscripts fairly and impartially on the basis of their novelty, scientific quality, and academic value.

To avoid potential conflicts of interest, authors may provide a list of reviewers whom they wish to exclude from reviewing the manuscript. Authors may also recommend potential reviewers for consideration by the Editorial Office.

An acknowledgment of receipt will normally be sent within 3 days after the Editorial Office receives the manuscript.

Each manuscript will be reviewed by at least two peer reviewers. A decision or editorial response will normally be issued within 30 days.

If no decision has been received within 30 days, authors are encouraged to contact the Editorial Office:

Tel: +86-21-81871002, Ext. 22

Authors wishing to submit the manuscript to another journal must first contact the Editorial Office of the Chinese Journal of Cancer Biotherapy.

1.7 Priority Online Publication

The journal participates in the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) Priority Digital Publication System.

Accepted manuscripts considered through peer review to demonstrate sufficient novelty and originality may be published online in advance of the print issue.

1.8 Copyright

1.8.1 Editorial Modification

In accordance with the Copyright Law of the People’s Republic of China, the journal reserves the right to make editorial revisions and abridgements to accepted manuscripts.

Any revision that may affect the original meaning of the article will be made only with the author’s consent.

Following acceptance, the Editorial Office will send editorial and review comments to the authors. Authors are required to revise the manuscript carefully and comprehensively in accordance with these comments.

The first revised version should normally be returned within 10 days, except where additional experiments or other special circumstances are involved.

If a revised manuscript is not returned within one month, the manuscript will be considered voluntarily withdrawn.

1.8.2 Copyright Authorization Agreement

All authors must sign the Copyright Authorization Agreement in the same order as their names appear in the manuscript, and the agreement must bear the official seal of the relevant institution.

By signing the agreement, the authors authorize the journal, following acceptance and formal publication of the article, to exercise the exclusive right to use the article worldwide.

In addition to print publication, the journal is entitled to publish and distribute the article through electronic journals, CD-ROM editions, mobile applications, WeChat, and other media or platforms.

A template of the Copyright Authorization Agreement may be downloaded from the homepage of the journal website.

1.8.3 Publication Charges and Complimentary Copies

After publication of the manuscript has been confirmed, authors are required to pay the publication fee specified in the journal’s notification.

Additional printing charges apply to manuscripts containing color figures in the printed edition.

Following publication, authors may receive an appropriate honorarium, which includes remuneration for publication in other formats.

The journal provides the authors with two complimentary copies of the issue and ten offprints of the article.

2. Manuscript Preparation

Submitted manuscripts should demonstrate novelty, scientific rigor, and readability.

Research materials must be authentic, data must be reliable, arguments must be clear, key points should be prominent, and the manuscript should be logically organized and concise. Figures and tables should comply with relevant standards, and statistical analyses must be appropriate and correctly performed.

Manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals issued by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), as well as applicable Chinese national standards and specifications for scientific and technical publishing.

2.1 Title

The title should be concise, informative, and accurately reflect the main subject of the article.

The Chinese title should generally not exceed 20 Chinese characters, and the English title should convey the same meaning as the Chinese title.

Abbreviations should generally be avoided in the title unless they are universally recognized.

2.2 Authors and Affiliations

The manuscript must list the names of all authors, including their names in Chinese Pinyin, together with their institutional affiliations.

The standardized full names of institutions should be provided in both Chinese and English and should include the department, faculty, or school, as applicable, together with the city, province, county where applicable, and postal code.

Where authors are affiliated with two or more institutions, the institutions should be numbered, and the corresponding number should be indicated in superscript after each author’s name.

2.3 Abstract

Case Reports do not require an abstract.

Brief Reports and Review Articles require only a Chinese abstract.

All other manuscript categories require both Chinese and English abstracts.

The English abstract should be consistent with the Chinese abstract, although it may provide slightly more detail.

Abstracts for Forum articles, Reviews, and Case Reports should be unstructured and approximately 300 Chinese characters in length.

Abstracts for other manuscript categories should generally be structured and approximately 400 Chinese characters, with the following four sections:

Objective, Methods, Results, and Conclusion.

The Objective should briefly state the purpose of the study.

The Methods should describe the study design and experimental methods, including selection and grouping of study subjects, model establishment, interventions, outcome measures, and methods of measurement or detection.

The Results should present the principal findings and data, together with the results of statistical analyses.

The Conclusion should state the main conclusions supported by the study and explain their academic significance.

For clinical trial reports, the structured abstract may be expanded as appropriate. For example:

• Objective may be divided into Background and Objective;

• Methods may include Design, Setting, Patients, Interventions, and Outcome Measures.

2.4 Keywords

All manuscripts must include 3–8 keywords.

Whenever possible, keywords should be selected from the latest edition of Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) maintained by the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

Chinese translations may refer to the Annotated Alphabetical List of Medical Subject Headings compiled by the Institute of Medical Information, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.

2.5 Funding

The official name and grant number of each funding source, together with the title of the funded project where applicable, should be provided.

2.6 Clinical Trial Reports

For all clinical trial manuscripts involving human participants or human biological specimens, the clinical trial registry and registration number (Trial Registration) must be provided beneath both the Chinese and English abstracts.

The manuscript must state whether the clinical trial protocol and procedures were approved by the relevant institutional ethics committee.

A scanned copy of the ethics approval document must be submitted, and the ethics approval number must be reported in the article.

Authors must also state whether informed consent was obtained from participants or their legal representatives and whether written informed consent was signed.

Reports of interventional clinical trials should include all essential items required by the CONSORT Statement checklist and a participant flow diagram.

CONSORT website:
www.consort-statement.org

2.7 Main Text

Manuscripts submitted as Rapid Communications, Basic Research, Clinical Research, Techniques and Methods, New Anticancer Drugs, and Brief Reports should generally be organized into the following four sections:

Introduction, Materials (or Data) and Methods, Results, and Discussion.

Section headings should be expressed as concise phrases and should be structurally consistent and stylistically uniform.

2.7.1 Introduction

The Introduction should briefly describe the current state of research in China and internationally, the rationale for the study, its innovative aspects, and its academic value.

It should not present data, results, or conclusions from the current study and should avoid repeating textbook knowledge or universally accepted theories.

The Introduction should generally be approximately 300–400 Chinese characters and should not contain an excessive number of references.

2.7.2 Materials (or Data) and Methods

The study design and principal methods should be clearly stated.

For survey studies, authors should indicate whether the design is prospective, retrospective, or cross-sectional.

For experimental studies, the specific study design should be identified, such as:

• paired design;

• group design;

• crossover design;

• factorial design; or

• orthogonal design.

For clinical trials, authors should state the phase of the clinical trial and describe any blinding procedures used.

The principal methodology should be summarized in accordance with the four basic principles of experimental design: replication, randomization, control, and balance, with particular attention to methods used to control important non-experimental confounding factors.

Authors should describe:

• selection and grouping of study subjects;

• model establishment;

• interventions;

• outcome measures; and

• methods of measurement or detection.

For clinical trials, the source of participants should be stated, including the time and location of sample collection, as well as inclusion and exclusion criteria.

The implementation of principles such as randomization, control, replication, balance, and blinding should be described.

For studies involving animals, the laboratory animal certificate number should be provided.

Authors must state whether the study complied with the Chinese Guidelines for Ethical Review of Laboratory Animal Welfare (GB/T 35892-2018).

Where ethical approval has been obtained, the approval document issued by the relevant Animal Ethics Committee and the approval number must be provided.

For drugs and reagents, the exact name, source, dose, and route of administration should be specified.

For specialized equipment, the manufacturer, model, and source should be provided.

Routine methods already described in the literature may be briefly summarized with an appropriate citation. New or modified methods should be described in sufficient detail, with the specific modifications or innovations clearly identified.

The name and version of the statistical software and the statistical methods used should be stated.

Normally distributed quantitative data should generally be expressed as the mean ± standard deviation (or standard error). Skewed data should generally be expressed as the median and range.

Statistical analyses must follow appropriate statistical principles and methods.

The exact statistical methods used should be specified, for example, an independent-samples t test for grouped data or analysis of variance for data obtained from a two-factor factorial design.

Statistical terminology and symbols should comply with the relevant provisions of Chinese national standard GB 3358-82, Statistical Terms and Symbols.

2.7.3 Results

The Results section should generally correspond to the experimental or study methods but should not repeat methodological details.

Results should be presented in a logical sequence, emphasizing the most important findings.

Results may be presented as text, figures, or tables, but the same information should not be duplicated in multiple formats.

Information that can be clearly described in brief text generally does not require a figure or table.

All study results and data must be reported truthfully and accurately.

All data must undergo appropriate statistical analysis, and experimental results should generally be presented using statistical summaries rather than raw data.

Categorical data may be expressed using relative measures such as percentages. When the sample size is fewer than 100, the numerator and denominator should also be shown in parentheses after the percentage, for example:

54.41% (37/68).

When reporting statistical analyses, authors should provide both the relevant statistical value, such as t, u, r, or F, and the P value, for example:

t = 3.45, P < 0.01.

When estimating population parameters, such as population means, population rates, relative risks (RR), odds ratios (OR), or hazard ratios (HR), the 95% confidence interval should be provided together with the significance test results.

2.7.4 Discussion

The Discussion should focus closely on the objectives of the study and provide an in-depth interpretation of the results.

It should explain the underlying meaning and patterns revealed by the findings, compare the results with previous reports in the literature, analyze possible reasons for similarities or differences, and emphasize the innovative aspects and new insights arising from the study.

Conclusions should be appropriately supported by the evidence.

The Results section should not be unnecessarily repeated, and excessive citation of the literature should be avoided so that the Discussion does not become a mini-review.

2.8 Medical Ethics and Informed Consent

All research must comply with fundamental principles of medical ethics.

For research involving human participants, authors must state whether the procedures followed complied with the ethical standards established by the responsible institutional, regional, or national committee on human experimentation.

The relevant ethics approval document must be provided, and the approval number should be reported in the manuscript.

Written informed consent from participants or their legal representatives must also be obtained and documented as applicable.

2.9 Medical Terminology

Medical terminology should conform to the terminology approved and published by the China National Committee for Terms in Sciences and Technologies:

www.termonline.cn

Medical terms with Chinese full names exceeding five characters and appearing more than five times in the manuscript may be abbreviated.

When an English abbreviation first appears, it should be presented in the following form:

Chinese full term (English full term, English abbreviation)

The abbreviation may then be used consistently thereafter.

Abbreviations generally recognized within the relevant discipline and closely related disciplines, including those listed in the Common English Abbreviations Used in the Chinese Journal of Cancer Biotherapy, may be used without additional explanation where appropriate.

For terminology not yet officially standardized, authors may refer to the latest editions of MeSH, the Annotated Alphabetical List of Medical Subject Headings, or the Traditional Chinese Medicine Subject Headings.

Where no generally accepted Chinese translation exists, the original term should be provided when it first appears in the text.

Traditional Chinese medicine terminology should comply with the following standards:

• GB/T 16751.1/2/3—1997, Clinic Terminology of Traditional Chinese Medical Diagnosis and Treatment—Diseases/Syndromes/Therapeutic Methods;

• GB/T 20348—2006, Basic Theory Terminology of Traditional Chinese Medicine;

• GB/T 12346—2006, Names and Locations of Acupuncture Points; and

• GB/T 13734—2008, Nomenclature and Location of Auricular Points.

Names of Chinese and Western medicines should conform to the latest editions of the Pharmacopoeia of the People’s Republic of China and the Chinese Approved Drug Names, both compiled by the Chinese Pharmacopoeia Commission.

Where use of a trade name is necessary, the generic name should be stated first.

Chinese herbal medicines should be identified using their officially accepted names. For herbs not included in the Pharmacopoeia, the Latin name should also be provided.

2.10 Tables and Figures

Figures and tables should be concise and should not duplicate information already presented in the text.

Data showing trends, particularly continuous or dynamic changes, are generally better presented as figures.

Data requiring presentation of exact numerical values are generally better presented in tables.

Each figure and table must have a complete, descriptive, self-explanatory, accurate, and concise title.

Titles should generally not exceed 20 Chinese characters.

The contents, titles, legends, and notes of figures and tables should generally be presented in Chinese, except for abbreviations.

Figures and tables should appear after the relevant text in which they are first mentioned and should be inserted at the appropriate positions in the manuscript.

2.10.1 Tables

All tables should use the three-line table format.

Table contents should be standardized, self-explanatory, and concise, with appropriate organization of row and column headings.

Separate “Remarks” columns should not be used. Necessary explanations should instead be included as table notes.

The number of decimal places used for the same variable should be consistent throughout a table.

Quantities and units should be presented at the end of the table title or in the relevant column heading in the following format:

quantity name or symbol/unit symbol

for example:

Time/d

Symbols indicating statistically significant differences should be presented in the following sequence:

*, △, ▲, ▽, ▼ for P < 0.05;

**, △△, ▲▲, ▽▽, ▼▼ for P < 0.01.

These symbols should appear as superscripts to the relevant data, with explanations provided in the table notes.

2.10.2 Figures

Bar charts should be used to present differences in discrete data.

Line graphs, histograms, or scatter plots may be used to illustrate changes in continuous or quantitative data.

Scatter plots may be used to demonstrate relationships between two variables.

Composite figures should include legends explaining each individual panel. Figure legends should be placed below the figure and above the figure title.

Symbols in figure legends should generally be used in the following sequence:

○, ●, □, ■, △, ▲

Control groups should be represented by the corresponding open symbols.

Statistical significance markings in figures should follow the same requirements as those specified for tables.

For coordinate graphs, tick marks on the axes should point inward toward the plotting area rather than outward toward the numerical labels.

Quantities and units in axis labels should follow the same format used for tables.

Gross specimen photographs should include an appropriate scale marker.

Photomicrographs should contain a scale bar, and the length represented by the scale bar should be stated in the figure legend.

If photographs of patients are used, informed consent must be obtained, and identifying facial features must be appropriately obscured so that the patient cannot be recognized by readers.

2.11 Units of Measurement and Numbers

Authors must strictly comply with the Legal Units of Measurement of the People’s Republic of China, relevant national standards concerning Quantities and Units, and national standards governing the Use of Numerals in Publications.

Names and symbols of quantities and units must be used correctly.

Arabic numerals should be used for numerical data, quantitative measurements, ordinal data, identification numbers, numbers of cases, numbers of groups, numbers of experimental repetitions, and similar numerical information.

Numerical presentation should be appropriate and consistent throughout the manuscript.

2.12 References

References cited in the manuscript should be current, high-quality, and sufficiently comprehensive to provide adequate scholarly support for the work.

Retracted articles must not be cited.

References must be formatted in strict accordance with GB/T 7714-2015, Information and Documentation—Rules for Bibliographic References and Citations to Information Resources.

The journal uses a numeric citation system in order of appearance.

For references with three or fewer authors, all authors should be listed.

For references with more than three authors, only the first three should be listed, followed by “et al.”

Authors’ family names should precede given names.

For non-Chinese authors, given names should be abbreviated to initials without periods.

Foreign journal titles should be abbreviated. Abbreviations may follow the format recommended in the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s Citing Medicine:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK7256

Chinese journal titles should be written in full.

For references assigned a DOI, the DOI must be included at the end of the reference.

Examples are provided below.

2.13 Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI)

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) technologies may be used only as auxiliary tools for activities such as:

• literature searching;

• language editing and polishing; and

• reference management.

GenAI must not be used to write the manuscript or to create, fabricate, or manipulate original research data.

GenAI tools must not be listed as authors.

If GenAI tools have been used in the preparation of a manuscript, their use must be transparently disclosed in the manuscript.

Examples of Common Reference Formats

1. Books

Format:
Primary author(s). Title [document type]. Other responsible person(s), e.g., translator(s). Edition (omit for the first edition). Place of publication: Publisher, Year: First page–Last page.

Example:

[1] ABRAMS W B, BEERS M H, BERKOW R. 默克老年病手册[M]. 陈灏珠，王赞舜，刘厚鈺，等. 译. 第2版. 北京：人民卫生出版社，1996: 22-25.2. Contributions in Books

Format:
Author(s) of contribution. Title of contribution [document type]//Author(s) of book. Title of book. Edition. Place of publication: Publisher, Year: First page–Last page.

Example:

[1] WEINSTEIN L, SWERTZ M N. Pathogenic properties of invading microorganisms[M]//SODERMAN W A Jr, SODEMAN W A. Pathologic physiology: mechanisms of disease. Philadelphia: Saunders, 1974: 457-472.3. Journal Articles

Format:
Author(s). Article title [document type]. Journal title, Year, Volume(Issue): First page–Last page. Digital Object Identifier.

Example:

[1] NOBLES K N, GUAN Z, XIAO K, et al. The active conformation of beta-arrestin 1: direct evidence for the phosphate sensor in the N-domain and conformational differences in the active states of beta-arrestins 1 and 2[J]. J Biol Chem, 2007, 282(29): 21370-21381. DOI: 10.1074/jbc.M611483200.4. Patents

Format:
Patent applicant or owner. Patent title: Country, Patent number [document type]. Publication or announcement date.

Example:

[1] 钱其军，李琳芳，吴红平，等. 一种多功能免疫杀伤转基因细胞（PIK）、其制备方法及用途：中国，2010101496839[P]. 2010-10-14.5. Theses and Dissertations

Format:
Author. Title [document type]. Location of degree-awarding institution: Degree-awarding institution, Year.

Example:

[1] 曹新广. Cathepsin L和Cystatin B的表达与大肠癌生物学行为的关系[D]. 郑州：郑州大学，2007.6. Electronic Resources

Format:
Primary author(s). Title [document type/medium]. Journal title, Year, Volume(Issue): First page–Last page (date updated or revised) [date cited]. Available from: URL. Digital Object Identifier.

Examples:

[1] KALOS M, LEVINE B L, PORTER D L, et al. T cells with chimeric antigen receptors have potent antitumor effects and can establish memory in patients with advanced leukemia[J/OL]. Sci Transl Med, 2011, 3: 95-73 [2016-06-08]. http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/3/95/95ra73.long. DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.3002842.

[2] HOPKINSON A. UNIMARC and metadata: Dublin core[EB/OL]. [1999-12-08]. http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla64/138-161e.htm.