Guidelines for publishing papers containing theory and modeling

The use of quantitative approaches in cell biology, including modeling and theory, has been increasing steadily in the past decade. A number of seminal works that combine experiments and modeling have made a significant impact on the field (see Hill and Kirschner, 1982; Peskin et al., 1993; Barkai and Leibler, 1997, to name but a few). Mathematical modeling can help when our intuition fails or misleads us. It can provide a precise language for understanding complex cell biological phenomena. Modeling represents a new addition to our repertoire of strategies to understand biological systems