Enough is enough

The abundance of supplemental material in The Journal of Experimental Medicine is growing. In the May 2011 issue of JEM, all research papers have a supplement, with an average of 5.9 supplementary items per paper. Only 3 yr ago (May 2008 issue), 16% of JEM papers had no supplementary items, and the overall average was 4.6 items per paper. 3 yr before that (May 2005 issue), 57% of papers had no supplementary items, and the average was only 2.4 items per paper. Why the increase in the prevalence of supplementary data? Reviewers frequently ask for it. Editors generally allow it. So authors are compelled to provide it, although some do so grudgingly. Of course, authors are also referees. Why the same individual would demand experiments as a referee that they might balk at as an author seems paradoxical. What we can do to save authors and referees from this supplemental surplus is create a policy to address the problem. Effective immediately, supplementary information in JEM Articles and Brief Definitive Reports (BDRs) will be limited to essential supporting information. This would include: file formats not currently amenable to inclusion in the primary paper (e.g., videos, large datasets, and genomic data), clinical information (e.g., case reports and descriptions of patient populations), and complex detailed methods required to reproduce data in the paper (e.g., chemistry required to synthesize and characterize compounds, evidence of the purity and specificity of new inhibitors or antibodies, or flow cytometry gating strategies). Our aim is to eliminate the use of the supplement as a " data dump. " For example, additional replicates of experiments shown in the primary paper will no longer be included in the supplement. Data documenting that a commercially available antibody does in fact deplete cells bearing its target, as shown by previous publications, will no longer be in the supplement. In some cases, especially with BDRs, the editors may decide that data unravel-ing the mechanism underpinning a reported phenomenon or phenotype are beyond the scope of the current manuscript. In these cases, authors will not be required to include data providing a preliminary " hint " at a mechanism in the supplement. Although we encourage authors to format new manuscripts in accordance with this new policy, JEM will not enforce supplementary information limits at the time of submission. We will, however, provide detailed guidance to authors of manuscripts that are invited back after external …