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Manuscript Submission Guidelines

The following page provides guidelines for submitting your manuscript to ecancermedicalscience. Please note that when submitting Manuscripts to ecancermedicalscience they must be solely the work of the author(s) stated, they must not have been published in English previously elsewhere, and must not be under consideration by another journal. Contributions should be double spaced and written in English. ecancermedicalscience accepts the following word processor file formats for the main manuscript document:

  • Microsoft Word
  • Rich text format (RTF)
  • Editable Portable document format (PDF)

Note that figures must be submitted as separate image files, not as part of the submitted file.

When initially submitting your manuscript to ecancermedicalscience you will be requested to state if your manuscript is a research paper, policy paper, case study or conference report.

Policy Papers

ecancermedicalscience is keen to attract Policy papers for discussion: online, from individuals, learned societies, charities, advocacy groups or government agencies. They should be looked on as 'Green Papers' which, with the benefit of wide consultation through the journal, may develop into 'White Papers'. When accepted after peer review, they may be subject to editorial comment. Individuals or groups suggested by the authors may be invited to comment alongside the Policy.

Case Reports

As there are ample outlets for written case reports, ecancermedicalscience will only accept those that are accompanied by video or images, preferably in colour. Topics for case reports can be any aspect of clinical care: nursing, diagnostics, imaging, surgical intervention or radiotherapy techniques.

Images should be uploaded when prompted. Video and motion graphics supporting your case study should be sent on DVD to:
Editor at ecancermedicalscience,
Scientific Directorate,
Via Ripamonti 435
2041, Milan, Italy.

When submitting a case report, please ensure that you check the relevant box - when prompted to confirm that you have posted your Video and Motion Graphic to the ecancermedicalscience editor for review - in conjunction with your manuscript.

Case reports in text only will be respectfully declined.

Short Communications

A short communication is a concise, but independent report representing a significant contribution to cancer understanding.

A short communication will be considered for publication if they present results which are of exceptional interest and are particularly topical and relevant. It should be no more than 4 000 words, however there is no restriction on figures, tables or video content.

Short communications may include descriptions of training, of research tools, of novel techniques or presentations of preliminary results such as conference posters. ecancermedicalscience will respect conference embargoes.

Short communications will be peer reviewed and should be prepared following the guidelines for research articles.

Conference reports

ecancermedicalscience will publish conference reports from individuals, learned societies and advocacy groups. All conference reports will be reviewed by the editorial team. A full conference review can be from 1,000 to 6,000 words. Conference reports must be received no longer than 4 weeks after the close of the conference. All names of authors should be included. By submitting a conference report you agree to the ecancermedicalscience general manuscript submission guidelines. Illustrations, images, tables and video may be included and should be uploaded as image files when requested.

If you would like to submit a shorter conference report (under 1,000 words) please email the report to editor@ecancermedicalscience.com and it will be included in our interactive section.

Research papers

Research papers submitted to ecancermedicalscience should be assigned one of the following areas of research:

1. Biology of cancer (oncogenes, tumour suppressor genes, epigenome, receptors, immunity, metastasis. stem cells..)

2. Causes of cancer (exo- and endogenous factors...)

3. Prevention (behaviour, nutrition, chemoprevention, vaccines...)

4. Early detection, Diagnosis & Prognosis (biomarkers, imaging...)

5. Treatment Trials and Management (by organ system)

brain and nervous system
breast
bone
dermatology
gynaecology
urology
head and neck
hepatobiliary
leukaemia and blood
gastrointestinal
lung and pleura
lymphoma
neuroendocrine
paediatric
pancreatic
sarcomas
transplantation
other

6. Cancer Control, Survivorship & Outcomes research (nursing, supportive care, psychosocial, education, communication, ethics, complementary medicine...)

7. Scientific Model Systems

8. Other area
On assigning a specific category to your research paper it should be saved as one document and divided into the following sections, where applicable.

Table of contents


  • Title page
  • Abstract
  • Background
  • Methods
  • Results
  • Discussions
  • Conclusions
  • List of abbreviations used (if any)
  • Conflicts of interest
  • Authors contributions
  • Acknowledgments
  • References
  • Figure legends (if any)
  • Tables and captions (if any)

More information on the requirements for each section of your manuscript is provided below.

For a template manuscript, please click here.

Title page

This should list the title of the article. The title should include the study design, for example:

A versus B in the treatment of C: a randomised controlled trial

X is a risk factor for Y: a case control study

The full names, institutional addresses, e-mail addresses and telephone numbers for all authors must be included on the title page. The corresponding author should also be indicated. Please note that this information will be published alongside the article, unless you request otherwise.

Abstract

The abstract of the manuscript should not exceed 350 words and must be structured into separate sections:

  • Background: the context and purpose of the study
  • Methods: how the study was performed and statistical tests used
  • Results: the main findings
  • Conclusions: brief summary and potential implications
  • Trial registration: if your research article reports the results of a controlled health care intervention, please list your trial registry, along with the unique identifying number, e.g. Trial registration: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN12345678

Background

The background section should be written from the standpoint of researchers without specialist knowledge in that area - and must clearly state the background to the research and its aims. Reports of clinical research should, where appropriate, include a summary of a search of the literature to indicate why this study was necessary and what it aimed to contribute to the field. The section should end with a very brief statement of what is being reported in the article.

Methods

This should include the design of the study, the setting, the type of participants or materials involved, a clear description of all interventions and comparisons, and the type of analysis used, including a power calculation if appropriate.

Results and Discussion

The Results and Discussion may be combined into a single section or presented separately. Results of statistical analysis should include, where appropriate, relative and absolute risks or risk reductions, and confidence intervals. The results and discussion sections may also be broken into subsections with short, informative headings.

Conclusions

This should state clearly the main conclusions of the research and give a clear explanation of their importance and relevance. Summary illustrations may be included.

List of abbreviations

If abbreviations are used in the text either they should be defined in the text where first used, or a list of abbreviations can be provided.

Conflict of interests

A conflict of interest exists when your interpretation of data or presentation of information may be influenced by your personal or financial relationship with other people or organisations. Authors should disclose any financial competing interests but also any non-financial competing interests that may cause them embarrassment were they to become public after the publication of the manuscript.

Authors are required to complete a declaration of conflict of interests. All declared competing interests will be listed at the end of published articles. Where an author declares no conflict of interest, the listing will read: "The author(s) declare that they have no conflict of interest."

When completing your declaration, please consider the following questions:

Financial conflict of interest

Please declare relationships with any organisation that might gain or lose financially from publication of the paper including:

  • Research support or employment (including salaries, equipment, supplies, reimbursement for attending symposia, and other expenses) during the past two years, currently or pending.
  • Any stocks or shares; and other interests, such as consultation fees or other remuneration.
  • Patents or patent applications whose value might be affected by publication should also be declared.

Non-financial conflict of interests

Are there any non-financial competing interests (political, personal, religious, ideological, academic, intellectual, commercial or any other) to declare in relation to this manuscript? If so, please specify.

If you are unsure as to whether you, or one your co-authors, has a competing interest please state the conflict and the editorial team can review.

Authors' contributions

Please complete the Declaration of Contributions to Articles form

An 'author' is generally considered to be someone who has made substantive intellectual contributions to a published study. To qualify as an author one should:

  • Researched data for article
  • Made a substantial contribution to discussion of content or
  • Written elements of the manuscript
  • Reviewed / edited manuscript before submission

An author should have given final approval of the version to be published. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content. Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group, alone, does not justify authorship.

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance, or a department chair that provided only general support.

Acknowledgements

Please acknowledge anyone who contributed towards the study by making substantial contributions to conception, design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data, or who was involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content - but who does not meet the criteria for authorship. Please also include their source(s) of funding. Authors must describe the role of the funding body, if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; and in the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

The role of a medical writer must be included in the acknowledgements section, including their source(s) of funding.

Authors should obtain permission from all those mentioned in the Acknowledgements.

References

All references must be numbered consecutively, in square brackets, in the order in which they are cited in the text, followed by any in tables or legends. Reference citations should not appear in titles or headings. Each reference must have an individual reference number.

Only articles and abstracts that have been published or are in press, may be cited; unpublished abstracts, unpublished data and personal communications should not be included in the reference list, but may be included in the text. Notes/ footnotes are not allowed. Obtaining permission to quote personal communications and unpublished data from the cited author(s) is the responsibility of the author. Journal abbreviations follow Index Medicus/MEDLINE ftp://nlmpubs.nlm.nih.gov/online/journals/lsiweb.pdf. Citations in the reference list should contain all named authors, regardless of how many there are.

Examples of the ecancermedicalscience reference style are shown below.

Links

Web links and URLs should be included in the reference list. They should be provided in full, including both the title of the site and the URL, in the following format: The Genetic Database [http://genetics.links.html]

ecancermedicalscience reference style

Article within a journal

1. Brown B, Taylor P, Jones A: Cancer incidence and mortality in Europe. Oncology 2004, 16:481-448.,

Article within a journal supplement

2. Collins A, Burke S: Decreased Risk of Stroke in Cancer patients. Cancer 2002, Suppl 2:123-140.

In press article

3. Jones S: Clinical aspects of Bortezomib in Patients With Relapsed Mantle Cell Lymphoma. ECJ, in press.

Published abstract

4. Burger JA, Pavarotti J, Taylor A: Gemcitabine Compared With Carboplatin in Patients With Recurrent Ovarian Cancer [abstract]. JDO 2002, 22:s200.

Article within conference proceedings

5. Danby A: Cancer and survival rates. In Proceedings of the Second European Breast Cancer Conference: 21-25 June 2002; Paris. Edited by Jones Y. McKenzies; 2002:15-20.

Whole conference proceedings

6. Smith A (Ed): Proceedings of the Second European Breast Cancer Conference: 21-25 June 2002; Paris: McKenzies; 2002.

Book chapter, or article within a book

7. Wallis S: From flower to treatment. In Origins of Cancer Medicines. Volume 1. 3rd edition. Edited by Veron A. London: McKenzies; 2000:22-33.

Whole issue of journal

8. Bailey B, Copthorne C, Dudley L (Eds): Oncology treatment. In Breast Cancer Res 1990, 9:1-65.

Complete book

9. Dulwich A: Cells. London: University Press; 1999.

Monograph or book in a series

10. Blaire W: Microscopic images. In Human Cells. Edited by Smith R. London: Academic Press; 2000:11-20. [Danby G (Series Editor): Perspectives in Cell Biology, vol 2.]

Book with institutional author

11. Advisory Committee on Animal Cloning: Annual Report. Milan; 1999.

PhD thesis

12. Collins B: Study of Animal Models. PhD thesis. Oxford University, Biology Department; 1996.

Link / URL

13. The Genetic Database [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Genbank/]

Images and figures

Images and figures should be provided as separate files and included when you are requested to 'upload images'. Each figure should include a single illustration. Colour figures are accepted.

Please note that Illustrations and figures can be submitted as jpegs only and maximum size of 1MB each.

Image guidelines

Enhancing digital images using image-editing software can increase the clarity of figures and is deemed by ecancermedicalscience as acceptable practice, provided it is carried out responsibly.

Artefacts are not allowed to be introduced to the image, misrepresenting the original data. Adjustments of brightness, contrast, or colour balance are acceptable, if they are applied to the whole image and as long as they do not obscure, eliminate, or misrepresent any information presented in the original image.

No specific feature within an image may be enhanced, obscured, moved, removed, or introduced. Authors must provide details of significant electronic alterations to images in the text of the article.

Original, un-manipulated source images should be retained by the author. ecancermedicalscience has the right to request the original image files.

Image conversion tools

There are many software packages, capable of converting to and from different graphics formats, including PNG.

Good general tools for image conversion include GraphicConverter on the Macintosh, PaintShop Pro, for Windows, and ImageMagick, which is available on Macintosh, Windows and UNIX platforms.

e illustration

If a figure consists of separate parts, it is important that a single composite image file (jpeg) be submitted which contains all parts of the figure.

Photographs should be provided with a scale bar if appropriate. If photographs of patients' body parts, X-rays or scans are given as part of the manuscript, written and signed consent of the patient should be collected. Patient consent form. Please fill this form and retain it, we reserve the right to request this document at any time.

Figure legends

Figure legends should be included in the main manuscript text file, immediately following the references, rather than being a part of the figure file. For each figure, the following information should be provided:

  • Figure number (in sequence, using Arabic numerals - i.e. Figure 1, 2, 3 etc)
  • short title of figure (maximum 15 words)

Please note that it is the responsibility of the author(s) to obtain permission from the copyright holder to reproduce figures or tables that have previously been published elsewhere.

Tables

All tables must be cell-based, similar to that produced in a spreadsheet. Acceptable program file types are .DOC, .RTF, and .XLS (not .PDF).

There can be no picture elements; no text boxes, no tabs, no returns within in the table. All columns must have a header and subheads should always be in a separate column.

Each table should be numbered in sequence using numerals (i.e. Table 1, 2, 3 etc.). Tables should also have a title that summarises the whole table, maximum 15 words. Detailed legends may then follow, but should be concise.

Smaller tables considered to be integral to the manuscript can be pasted into the end of the document text file, in portrait format. These will be typeset and displayed in the final published form of the article. Such tables should be formatted using the 'Table object' in a word processing program to ensure that columns of data are kept aligned when the file is sent electronically for review. This will not always be the case if columns are generated by simply using tabs to separate text. Columns and rows of data should be made visibly distinct by ensuring the borders of each cell display as black lines. Commas should not be used to indicate numerical values. Colour and shading should not be used.

Larger datasets can be uploaded separately as additional files. Additional files will not be displayed in the final, published form of the article. A link will be provided to the files as supplied by the author instead.

Tabular data provided as additional files can be uploaded as an Excel spreadsheet (.xls) or comma separated values (.csv). As with all files, please use the standard file extensions.

Vector figures

Vector images can be created and manipulated using a wide range of programs, for example; Adobe Illustrator, CorelDRAW and Macromedia Freehand.

Please submit vector figures as a PDF, PowerPoint and doc files.

Illustrations and Video

ecancermedicalscience encourages the submission of movie clips with or without audio facility, to illustrate complicated surgery or new technologies. We especially welcome case studies that are animation and video based.

Please post high quality clips on CD-Rom or DVD to:

Editor at ecancermedicalscience,
Scientific Directorate,
Via Ripamonti 435
2041, Milan, Italy.

ecancermedicalscience accepts video and motion graphics in the following formats:

  • .mpeg
  • .mov
  • .avi
  • .wmv
  • .fla
  • .swf

Video motion clips should have a title, of a maximum of 15 words that summarises the whole clip.

Style and language

General

ecancermedicalscience can only accept manuscripts written in English. Spelling should be US English or British English, but not a mixture.

Gene names should be italicised but protein products should be in plain text.

There is no limit on the length of articles submitted but authors are encouraged to be concise. There is also no restriction on the number of figures or tables that can be included with each article online. Figures and tables should be sequentially referenced.

ecancermedicalscience will edit submitted manuscripts for style or language if they are submitted by non-native English speakers. However authors are advised to write clearly and simply, and to have their article checked by colleagues before submission.

Abbreviations

Abbreviations should be used as sparingly as possible. They can be defined when first used or a list of abbreviations can be provided before the acknowledgements and references.

Typography

  • Please use double line spacing
  • Type the text unjustified, without hyphenating words at line breaks
  • Use hard returns only to end headings and paragraphs, not to rearrange lines
  • Capitalise only the first word, and proper nouns, in the title
  • All pages should be numbered
  • Use the ecancermedicalscience reference format
  • Footnotes to text should not be used
  • Greek and other special characters may be included. If you are unable to reproduce a particular special character, please type out the name of the symbol in full. Please ensure that all special characters used are embedded in the text, otherwise they will be lost during conversion to PDF

Units

SI Units should be used throughout (litre and molar are permitted).

Template manuscript paper

Click here to view or download our template manuscript paper