Highlights
Highlights are three to five (three to four for Cell Press articles) bullet points that help increase the discoverability of your article via search engines. These bullet points should capture the novel results of your research as well as new methods that were used during the study (if any). Think of them as the "elevator pitch" of your article. Please include terms that you know your readers will be looking for online. Don't try to capture all ideas, concepts or conclusions as highlights are meant to be short: 85 characters or fewer, including spaces.
Highlights offer your paper a considerable advantage in the online world, as they ensure that search engines pick up your article and match it to the right audience. (Nowadays, machines read your work just as often as humans do!). Highlights have been proven to widen the reach of your work and help to ensure that your article is brought to the attention of interested colleagues, both inside and outside your usual research community. Apart from a wider distribution of your research, we hope that this will also lead to new collaborations and help accelerate the pace of science.
The small print
Not part of editorial consideration and aren't required until the final files stage
Only required for full research articles
Must be provided as a Word document— select "Highlights" from the drop-down list when uploading files
Each Highlight can be no more than 85 characters, including spaces
No jargon, acronyms, or abbreviations: aim for a general audience and use keywords
Consider the reader - Highlights are the first thing they'll see
Examples
Highlights
Metastases mostly disseminate late from primary breast tumors, keeping most drivers
Drivers at relapse sample from a wider range of cancer genes than in primary tumors
Mutations in SWI-SNF complex and inactivated JAK-STAT signaling enriched at relapse
Mutational processes similar in primary and relapse; radiotherapy can damage genome
Highlights
Fading of a script alone does not foster domain-general strategy knowledge
Performance of the strategy declines during the fading of a script
Monitoring by a peer keeps performance of the strategy up during script fading
Performance of a strategy after fading fosters domain-general strategy knowledge
Fading and monitoring by a peer combined foster domain-general strategy knowledge