From: Brian Mayall (mayall@cc.ucsf.edu)
Date: Thu Aug 13 1998 - 14:07:58 EST
Hi all: The FACS string started with a request for editorial guidance. Let me give you the guidelines that Cytometry (and most other professional journals) try to follow (with varying degrees of success). Most acceptable scientific publications are generic and strive to communicate information of interest and lasting value to all who are active in a given field. To do this, journals demand standard units, term, etc. Terms that are specific to a given instrument or manufacturer should be avoided as far as is possible; they are not acceptable in the title, abstract (except as a modifier), or key terms. Thus, FACS should not be used in a publication as a synonym for flow sorting(er). The only possible exception may be if a study is exclusively dependent on some idiosyncrasy of B-D instruments such that it does not apply to the greater community of flow sorters; in this case the article would be better suited to distribution through the B-D users group rather than the general scientific literature. Along the same lines, authors should avoid use of instrument specific terms (e.g. Fl-1, Fl-2, etc.), but rather use something more descriptive, such as green fluorescence signal, that then can be linked to the specific Fl designation. Note that editorial guidelines may have little to do with common usage, where every lab is its own master! Brian Mayall Brian H. Mayall, MD Founding Editor, Cytometry 814 Laguna Street Livermore, CA 94550-5230 Tel: (925) 455-6615 FAX: (925) 443-7744 (Attn. Brian Mayall) email: mayall@cc.ucsf.edu
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