Resources for Editors and Authors

Resources for Editors and Authors

Journals: Publish with us 

Informa Healthcare publishes more than 180 peer-reviewed journals spanning the complete spectrum of drug discovery to clinical medicine – from bench to bedside and beyond. If you are looking to submit research, then we have a publication to match.

Other reasons to publish with us include:

  • We strive to publish manuscripts as rapidly as possible – in some cases this can be as little as 5 weeks following submission.
  • We are dedicated to facilitating and improving scholarly communication.
  • Our friendly, professional staff will make publishing your article a trouble-free and rewarding experience.
  • We are renowned for our stringent peer review process.
  • Our production staff adds further value to your paper through the copy-editing process, which minimizes stylistic errors and improves readability.
  • We have a fully electronic workflow for articles. Some journals have online submission and peer review through Manuscript Central™ and some articles feed into our proprietary Central Article Tracking System (CATS). Authors and editors can see exactly where their article is at any stage in the production process.
  • We have many high-impact journals.
  • Our linking program extends to many Abstracting and Indexing databases, library sites, and includes participation in CrossRef™.
  • We operate our business on environmentally sound principles.
  • We are continuously working to improve the search engine rankings for our journals.

 


Submit a manuscript 

Before submitting a manuscript, please ensure that it complies with the author guidelines for the specific journal to which you are looking to submit. These guidelines, along with further instructions on how to submit your manuscript, can be found on the journal ‘Aims and Scope’ pages under the ‘Instructions for authors’ section. To review a complete list of publications, click here.


ScholarOne Manuscripts guide

In order to help address some of the frequently asked questions we receive about the submission and peer-review process, we have developed a guide that provides valuable tips and tricks, and  step-by-step instructions so all users can optimize their use of the ScholarOne Manuscripts system.

The guide aims to help Authors, Reviewers and our Editors, Editorial Assistants and Editorial Boards through the process.

View the guide

 


NIH/Wellcome funded research policy
NIH policy

NIH-funded authors must submit to PMC, or have submitted on their behalf, at the point of acceptance, their peer-reviewed author manuscripts, to appear on PMC no later than 12 months after final publication. 

 

http://publicaccess.nih.gov/

Wellcome Trust policy

Wellcome-funded authors must submit to UKPMC, or have submitted on their behalf, at the point of acceptance, their peer-reviewed author manuscripts, to appear on UKPMC no later than 6 months after final publication.

http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/About-us/Policy/Spotlight-issues/Open-access/index.htm

Informa Healthcare

In consideration of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Wellcome Public and Open Access Policies, the Informa Healthcare journals group acknowledges that the broad and open dissemination of NIH/Wellcome-funded research results may benefit future scientific and medical research.  Because we value the current and future contributions our journals make to the scientific body of knowledge, we have made certain that our policies accommodate NIH- and Wellcome-funded authors who are required to submit to PubMed Central.

NIH/Wellcome-funded authors are invited to submit their funded work to PMC/UKPMC themselves providing they submit only the final peer-reviewed manuscript which was accepted for publication (post-print) (this manuscript must not be altered by Publisher’s copyediting and typesetting services) and stating the 12-month (NIH) or 6-month (Wellcome Trust) embargo period after final publication. Following the deposit, authors will receive further communications from the NIH Manuscript Submission System/UK Manuscript Submission System with respect to the submission.

For instructions on depositing NIH-funded articles to PMC, please see the following link: http://publicaccess.nih.gov/submit_process.htm. Note that the Informa journals follow Method C. The address for submitting such articles is: http://www.nihms.nih.gov/. The address for submitting Wellcome-funded articles is: https://ukmss.mimas.ac.uk/.

Under our Author Rights policy, authors also have the right to post their version of the submitted author manuscript (pre-print), or their version of the final published article (post-print) on their personal or institutional web site. Post-print web postings are subject to an embargo of 12 months. Please note that authors should not deposit post-print manuscripts directly to PMC/UKPMC or other third party sites for any systematic external distribution by a third party (e.g., to a listserv or database connected to a public access server), with the exception of NIH/Wellcome-funded work (see posting policy above).

 

 


 

Declaration /Conflict of interest policy

Informa Healthcare’s journals group has a transparent publications policy and adheres in principle to the Conflict of Interest policy recommended by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). Informa Healthcare does not discriminate on the basis of the source of material submitted, provided full disclosure is provided and appropriate declaration of interest statements and acknowledgments are included in published manuscripts. Thus, we require that authors/submitters include comprehensive ‘Declaration of Interest’ and ‘Acknowledgements’ sections in submitted articles. All authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. It is the sole responsibility of authors to disclose any affiliation with any organization with a financial interest, direct or indirect, in the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript (such as consultancies, employment, paid expert testimony, honoraria, speakers bureaus, retainers, stock options or ownership, patents or patent applications or travel grants) that may affect the conduct or reporting of the work submitted. All sources of funding for research are to be explicitly stated. If uncertain as to what might be considered a potential conflict of interest, authors should err on the side of full disclosure.

 

More specifically, we request for the following:

 

  • All relevant potential conflicts of interest for each named author and/or a statement of no-conflicts if there are none relevant to the contents of the article for any author(s).

  • Disclosure of how the article is funded, and specifically, the disclosure of any and all pharmaceutical company funding (partial or total) OR a statement that there was no involvement of a pharmaceutical/other company (if this is the case).

  • Comprehensive explanation of the role of the sponsors in article preparation (if the article is sponsored in part or whole).

  • Disclosure of any medical writing/editorial assistance with the preparation of the article (the medical communication agency and the individuals involved need to be named).

Please note: for NIH/Wellcome-funded papers, the grant number(s) must be included in the ‘Declaration of Interest’ statement.

Informa Healthcare also strictly requires that all individuals who meet authorship criteria as per ICMJE requirements are included as authors on an article.

Contributions from individuals who do not qualify for authorship should be acknowledged in the ‘Acknowledgments’ section. This should include details (with professional affiliations) of any other contributorship, such as data analysis, statistics, data collection, technical assistance, special thanks, personal assistance, and dedications.

The ‘Declaration of Interest’ and ‘Acknowledgements’ sections will be made available to reviewers and will appear in the published article. Please note that the Editor(s) or Publisher can make or suggest changes to these statements where necessary. If any potential conflicts of interest are found to have been withheld following publication, the journal will proceed according to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidance.

The intent of this policy is not to prevent authors with any particular relationship or interest from publishing their work, but rather to adopt transparency such that reviewers, editors, the publisher, and most importantly, readers can make objective judgements concerning the work product.

 


Copyright 

As the author of your manuscript, you are responsible for obtaining permissions to use material owned by others. Since the permission-seeking process can be time-consuming, it is wise to request permission as soon as possible. A template permission letter is available upon request by contacting the Editorial Office. Please send us, via email or fax, copies of letters or forms granting you permission for the use of copyrighted material so that we can see that any special requirements with regard to wording and placement of credits are fulfilled. Please keep the originals for your files. 

We ask that authors assign copyright or, in the case of US Government employees, license the publication rights in their articles to Informa or the society partner on whose behalf we operate. This enables us to ensure full copyright protection and to disseminate the article, and the Journal, to the widest possible readership in print and electronic formats as appropriate. The copyright transfer agreement can be downloaded by corresponding authors of accepted manuscripts on receipt of proofs. Authors retain a number of rights to re-use their work, details of which can be found here.

 


Guidelines on the Ethics of Journal Publishing 

This section is designed to help everyone engaged in the journal publication process; namely, editors, authors, and manuscript reviewers and referees.

We are confident that unambiguous and consistent guidelines will enhance the quality of published research, and ensure a process is in place to respond to a situation where ethics may have been transgressed.

Editors

We ask editors to make every reasonable effort to ensure the following criteria are taken into account for those submitted manuscripts they deem worthy of consideration by peer review.

 

  • Unbiased consideration should be given to each manuscript, judging each on its merits without regard to the race, religion, nationality, sex, seniority, or institutional affiliation of the author.
  • Manuscripts should be dealt with and processed with reasonable speed and efficiency.
  • Editors have sole responsibility for the acceptance or rejection of a manuscript. While an editor may seek guidance via peer review, she or he may reject a manuscript without review if considered inappropriate for the journal.
  • The peer-review process must be confidential and rendered anonymous.
  • Conflicts of interest must be declared.
  • If an editor receives a challenge to the authenticity of a published article, she or he will consult with Informa, and where appropriate members of the editorial board, in confidence. Where the editor and Informa subsequently secure evidence that authenticity has been compromised, in any of the following ways – the main substance of a published article is erroneous; the article contains material which has not been properly acknowledged or cited; the article’s authorship is incorrect or incomplete; or the article contains a libel – the editor and Informa will facilitate publication of an appropriate correction, a Statement of Retraction, or, in extremis, the withdrawal and removal of the article.

 Authors

  • Authors must present an accurate account of the research performed, and offer an objective discussion of its significance.
  • The article must contain sufficient detail and reference to public sources of information to permit the author’s peers to repeat the work.
  • Authors must cite all relevant references.
  • Authors must identify any hazards inherent in conducting the research.
  • Authors must declare conflicts of interest.
  • Authors must avoid fragmenting research to maximize the number of articles submitted.
  • Authors must not submit the same or similar articles to any other journal or publication medium.
  • While an experimental or theoretical study may sometimes justify criticism of the work of another scientist, in no circumstances is personal criticism appropriate.
  • “Co-authors” are defined as any person who has made a significant scientific contribution to the work reported, and who shares responsibility and accountability for the results.


    We require that, prior to publication, authors sign a set of warranties to these effects via a Copyright Transfer Form. If appropriate, authors should also ensure that patient consent is sort and granted. Authors may use the attached Patient Consent Form. This should be completed, saved, and sent to the Journal if/when requested. 

Referees and Peer Reviewers 

We ask referees and peer reviewers to make every reasonable effort to ensure the following criteria are taken into account for those submitted manuscripts they have agreed to peer review:

  • Unbiased consideration should be given to each manuscript, judging each on its merits without regard to the race, religion, nationality, sex, seniority, or institutional affiliation of the author.
  • Manuscripts should be dealt with and processed with reasonable speed and efficiency.
  • The quality of the manuscript, and its experimental and theoretical work, its interpretations, and its exposition, will be judged objectively.
  • The peer-review process will be kept confidential.
  • Conflicts of interest must be declared.
  • Referees’ judgments must be explained and supported. Any statement that an observation, derivation, or argument had been previously reported must be accompanied by the relevant citation, and unsupported assertions must be avoided.
  • While the review of a manuscript may justify criticism, even severe criticism, under no circumstances is personal or malicious criticism of the author appropriate or acceptable.

 


Post-publication correction policy

The moment an article is published (even if only online) it enters the scientific literature as the “version of scholarly record” and becomes a fixed-state document available for citation by other journal articles. In consequence, Informa Healthcare does not allow amendments to articles after publication, other than by means of publishing an erratum or corrigendum.

If journal articles were to become subject to continued revision after initial publication they would no longer play the role of “the minutes of science”, which capture the authors’ conclusions at a specific point of time.

There are some exceptions to this rule; particularly cases where we may consider it permissible to correct errors in an Early Online (ahead of print) article prior to its publication in a print issue. Examples include:

  • Spelling errors in the article metadata may be corrected, for example author names, article title or keywords.
  • Updates to the corresponding author’s contact information if it has changed since submission (although the affiliation line should still reflect the author’s institution at the point of submission).
  • Poor resolution or black & white figures may be replaced by high resolution or colour versions of the same graphic.
  • “In press” references can be updated with the final citation information.

Significant changes to Early Online articles will normally be accompanied by a Notice of Correction at the end of the reference section detailing post-publication amendments.

Once an article appears in an issue, the option for further amendments is closed off entirely and details such as the corresponding author’s contact information or “in press” reference citations are locked down permanently.

 


Use of colour

Some journals offer a limited number of free color pages within the annual page allowance. If there is no free color allowance, authors are required to pay the requisite charges.

Authors should therefore restrict their use of color to situations where it is necessary on scientific, and not merely cosmetic, grounds.

Any use of color in print shall be at the Editor’s discretion.


Author PDFs

Each corresponding author will receive a token for a gratis PDF file of the final version of their article.  Please note:  downloaded articles are not for sale or commercial distribution.  Authorized users can download, display, view, and print a single copy for internal use only.  Intranet posting is prohibited.

Reprints of individual articles are available for order at the time authors review page proofs. A discount on reprints is available to authors who order before print publication. Further information on reprints can be found by clicking here.

 


References

EndNote is a valuable all-in-one tool used by researchers, scholarly writers, and students to search online bibliographic databases, organize their references, and create bibliographies instantly. EndNote output styles are available for the majority of the Informa Healthcare journals.

 

 

 

 

Editing Resources

 

  • ScienceDocs® is known for editor specialization, journal guideline matching and comprehensive support services which also include language translation and statistical consulting. Their website is www.sciencedocs.com.
  • Bioedit English Language Editing, an online English editing company, offers unprecedented, high-quality English editing of biomedical texts destined for submission to peer-reviewed journals in the life sciences. The texts are edited by a large, expert team of native English-speaking editors with PhDs and years of experience in a broad range of disciplines in medicine and biology. Their website is at www.bioedit.co.uk.
  • Stallard Scientific Editing, based in New Zealand , provides a quality English-editing service for researchers worldwide across the fields of science, technology, medicine, and arts. Their website is www.stallardediting.com.
  • TheMedicalEditor.com offers high-quality medical and scientific editing at reasonable rates for English- and non-English-speaking authors worldwide. Their website is www.themedicaleditor.com.
  • International Science Editing (www.internationalscienceediting.com) have over 20 years experience in helping non-English speaking authors prepare their papers for publication. They only use specific subject specialist, PhD qualified editors. International Science Editing are based in Ireland and provide extensive support for Chinese authors through their dedicated support office in Suzhou , China (www.internationalscienceediting.cn).
  • Semos provides translations, specializing in rush jobs, rarer languages and all technical and scientific texts. Their website is www.semos.co.uk.
  • Englishediting.net offers online English editing and proofreading services for scientists and researchers worldwide. Their editors have completed graduate and postgraduate training, and are experienced in the publication process, guaranteeing that your manuscript will receive the appropriate and suitable attention. Their website is www.englishediting.net.
  • Blue Pencil Science is a scientific and medical editing service that provides English language assistance for journal manuscripts and other research-related documents. Their website is www.bluepencilscience.com.
  • OnLine English offers scientific and academic editing and proofreading services, specializing in helping authors whose native language is not English. Their website is www.oleng.com.au.
  • Clark Scientific Editing is an expert scientific editing service, based in the United Kingdom , for non-native English speakers. In addition to improving the quality of the English, your manuscript will be checked for any discrepancies from a scientific viewpoint. Their website is www.clarkscientificediting.com.
  • Cambridge Language Consultants and Genedits offer language editing, editorial advice, data analysis, and have a great deal of experience in dealing with Asian authors in particular. Their websites are www.camlang.com/profile.cfm and www.genedits.com/profile.cfm.
  • American Journal Experts works with thousands of non-native English speaking authors, helping them edit and polish their articles for publication. AJE has subject-expert editors who will check your manuscripts for spelling mistakes, grammar, punctuation, misplaced modifiers, changes in tense, problems in parallelisms, and use of inappropriate language. In addition, they will make sure that your text sounds natural and your sentences are well constructed. Enter referral code TandF1 to receive a 10% discount. Their website is http://journalexperts.com?rcode=TandF1.
  • Edanz Editing and Liwen Bianji offer professional English language editing services in Japan and China respectively. They also run seminars in China that teach journal editors and authors how manuscripts should be prepared for publication in English journals. Their websites are http://edanzediting.co.jp/home.html and www.liwenbianji.cn.
  • SPI Publisher Services provides English-language editorial guidance and language polishing. Their website is www.prof-editing.com.
  • ATECS – Text Editing offers a professional, confidential and rapid text editing/correction service. They can improve the correctness and clarity of the English in your journal article, research proposal, dissertation, thesis or conference paper. Their website is www.atecs-text-editing.com.
  • English Polishing Ink offers English-language help and language polishing. They can be contacted at [email protected] (Website under construction).
  • The Translation Unit offers translation services in many languages and subject areas. They can be contacted at [email protected].