the European Institute of Oncology
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Research papers and reviews
ecancermedicalscience is committed to publishing innovative studies testing new hypotheses; be it laboratory science, epidemiology, translational medicine, clinical trial reports, nursing research or case reports. What is critical is that the article reports something new, so new, that the authors are in a rush to tell the world about it! The methods section needs to prove that experiments carried out were appropriate to test the hypothesis. The conclusions must reflect whether or not the hypothesis is correct.
As we plan to turn round original articles in under a month, ecancermedicalscience should attract "hot topics", of interest to sub specialists as well as generalists, patient advocacy groups, the media, indeed any one who cares about the scourge of cancer. ecancermedicalscience can also accept video footage for publication, and can peer review it in quick time.
Review articles on "niche" areas will be welcome, and will be subjected to peer review in the same manner as original articles.
Policy papers
ecancermedicalscience is keen to attract Policy papers for discussion on line, from various areas including; 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". Any topic is welcome from any sector of cancer research and care. When accepted after peer review, manuscripts may be the subject of editorial comment, and individuals or groups suggested by the authors may be invited to add views to be included alongside the Policy.
Case reports
While case reports are very interesting, we intend to only accept reports which require extensive colour illustration, preferably with TV or video clips. This will open up the journal to imaging experts in basic and clinical oncology, and render surgical, radiotherapy, nursing and laboratory techniques access to a wider audience. Robotic surgery for instance, would be an example of an excellent exploitation of the multimedia capabilities offered by ecancermedicalscience.
Case reports in text only will be respectfully declined.
Publication and peer review processes
The manuscript will be reviewed by one editor and subsequently one or more experts, with the aim of reaching a first decision as soon as possible, certainly within a month. Decision to "send for review" or "decline" will be communicated usually within three working days. Statistical reviewers from the European Institute of Oncology, and elsewhere may also be used where required.
Reviewers are asked whether the manuscript is scientifically sound and how interesting and innovative it is. The journal allows a maximum of one revision of any reviewed manuscript. The ultimate responsibility for any decision lies with the Editor, to whom any appeals against rejection should be addressed.
Reviewers are also asked to indicate which articles they consider to be especially significant for clinical application or public health. These articles may be given greater prominence and included in an editorial and/or ecancermedicalscience press release.
Once an article is accepted, it is published immediately online at ecancermedicalscience.com. A PDF version will also be available immediately.
Authors will be able to check the progress of their paper through the submission system at any time by logging in.
Data repositories
Chemical structures and assays
Structures of chemical substances can be deposited with PubChem Substance. Bioactivity screens of chemical substances can be deposited with PubChem BioAssay.
Computational modeling
We encourage authors to prepare models of biochemical reaction networks using the Systems Biology Markup Language and to deposit the model with the BioModels database, as well as submitting it as an additional file with the manuscript.
Microarray data
Where appropriate, authors should adhere to the standards proposed by the Microarray Gene Expression Data Society and must deposit microarray data in one of the public repositories, such as ArrayExpress, Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) or the Center for Information Biology Gene Expression Database (CIBEX).
Nucleotide sequences
Nucleotide sequences can be deposited with the DNA Data Bank of Japan (DDBJ), European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL/EBI) Nucleotide Sequence Database, or GenBank (National Center for Biotechnology Information).
Plasmids
We encourage authors to deposit copies of their plasmids as DNA or bacterial stocks with Addgene, a non-profit repository, or PlasmID, the Plasmid Information Database at Harvard.
Protein sequences
Protein sequences can be deposited with SwissProt or the Protein Information Resource (PIR).
Structures
Protein structures can be deposited with one of the members of the Worldwide Protein Data Bank. Nucleic Acids structures can be deposited with the Nucleic Acid Database at Rutgers. Crystal structures of organic compounds can be deposited with the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre.
Article processing charges
ecancermedicalscience does not charge for processing or publishing articles. The costs incurred by ecancermedicalscience are covered by advertising, sponsorship and grants.
Editorial policies
Any manuscript or substantial parts of it, submitted to the journal must not be under consideration by any other journal. The manuscript should not have already been published in any journal or other citable form; with the exception that ecancermedicalscience is willing to consider peer-reviewing manuscripts that are translations of articles originally published in another language. In this case, the consent of the journal in which the article was originally published must be obtained and the fact that the article has already been published must be made clear on submission and stated in the abstract.
ecancermedicalscience will ask authors to sign a sole and exclusive license for all published content. We do not ask authors to transfer ownership of their copyright. We believe this carefully balances the interest of authors and open access principles whilst maintaining the integrity of the journal.
Government employee
If you are a government employee or do not own the copyright of the manuscript please contact editor@ecancermedicalscience.com
ecancermedicalscience exclusive licence agreement
In submitting a research paper ('article') to any of the journals published by ecancermedicalscience ('ecancermedicalscience') I certify that:
- 1. I am authorised by my co-authors to enter into these arrangements.
- 2. I warrant, on behalf of myself and my co-authors, that:
- a. the article is original, has not been formally published in English in any other peer-reviewed journal, is not under consideration by any other journal and does not infringe any existing copyright or any other third party rights;
- b. I am/we are the sole author(s) of the article and have full authority to enter into this agreement and in granting rights to ecancermedicalscience are not in breach of any other obligation. If the law requires that the article be published in the public domain, I/we will notify ecancermedicalscience at the time of submission upon which clauses three through six inclusive do not apply;
- c. the article contains nothing that is unlawful, libelous, or which would, if published, constitute a breach of contract or of confidence or of commitment given to secrecy;
- d. I/we have taken due care to ensure the integrity of the article. To my/our - and currently accepted scientific - knowledge all statements contained in it purporting to be facts are true and any formula or instruction contained in the article will not, if followed accurately, cause any injury, illness or damage to the user.
And I agree to the following license agreement: Exclusive license agreement.
ecancermedicalscience
Brief summary of the agreement
Anyone is free:
- to copy, distribute, and display the work;
- to make derivative works;
Under the following conditions: Attribution
- the original author must be given credit;
- for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are;
- any of these conditions can be waived if the authors give permission.
Statutory fair use and other rights are in no way affected by the above.
Only Cancer Intelligence can make Commercial use of the work
Submission of a manuscript to ecancermedicalscience implies that all authors have read and agreed to its content - and that any experimental research that is reported in the manuscript has been performed with the approval of an appropriate ethics committee. Research carried out on humans must be in compliance with the Helsinki Declaration.
Any experimental research on animals must follow internationally recognised guidelines. Papers disregarding the welfare of experimental animals will be rejected. A statement to this effect must appear in the Methods section of the manuscript, including the name of the body which gave approval, with a reference number where appropriate. Informed consent must also be documented. Manuscripts may be rejected if the editorial office considers that the research has not been carried out within an ethical framework, e.g. if the severity of the experimental procedure is not justified by the value of the knowledge gained.
Authors may find the United Kingdom Co-ordinating Committee on Cancer Research (UKCCCR) 'Guidelines for the Welfare of Animals in Experimental Neoplasia' helpful. These were published in British Journal of Cancer (1998) 77(1): 1 - 10.
Generic drug names should generally be used. When proprietary brands are used in research, include the brand names in parentheses in the Methods section.
We ask authors of ecancermedicalscience papers to complete a declaration of conflicts of interest, which should be provided as a separate section of the manuscript, to follow the Acknowledgements. Where an author states they have no conflicts of interest, the listing will read 'The author(s) declare that they have no conflicts of interest.'
For all articles that include information or clinical photographs relating to individual patients, written and signed consent from each patient to publish must be collected (patient consent form). The manuscript should also include a statement to this effect in the Acknowledgements section, as follows: "Written consent for publication was obtained from the patient or their relative." This information does not have to be sent with the manuscript however ecancermedicalscience reserves the right to request this information at any time.
ecancermedicalscience recommends, but does not insist, that clinical trials are registered prior to submission in a suitable publicly accessible registry. The trial registers that currently meet all of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors guidelines can be found at http://www.icmje.org/faq.pdf.
If appropriate the trial registration number should be included as the last line of the abstract of the manuscript.
A checklist has been developed for randomised controlled trials (CONSORT). Authors are requested to make use of this when drafting their manuscript and peer reviewers will also be asked to refer to this checklist when evaluating randomised controlled trial studies. For authors of systematic reviews, a supplementary file, linked from the Methods section, should reproduce all details concerning the search strategy. For an example of how a search strategy should be presented, see the Cochrane Reviewers' Handbook.
Studies of diagnostic accuracy should be reported according to STARD guidelines.
Authors from pharmaceutical companies, or other commercial organisations that sponsor clinical trials, should adhere to the Good Publication Practice guidelines for pharmaceutical companies, which are designed to ensure that publications are produced in a responsible and ethical manner. The guidelines also apply to any companies or individuals that work on industry-sponsored publications, such as freelance writers, contract research organisations and communications companies.
The involvement of medical writers or anyone else who assisted with the preparation of the manuscript content should be acknowledged, along with their source of funding, as described in the European Medical Writers Association (EMWA) guidelines on the role of medical writers in developing peer-reviewed publications. If medical writers are not listed among the authors, it is important that their role be acknowledged explicitly. Suggested wording: 'We thank xxxx who provided medical writing services on behalf of ABC Pharmaceuticals Ltd.'.
Submission of a manuscript to ecancermedicalscience implies that readily reproducible materials described in the manuscript, including all relevant raw data, will be freely available to any scientist wishing to use them for non-commercial purposes. Nucleic acid sequences, protein sequences, and atomic coordinates should be deposited in an appropriate database in time for the accession number to be included in the published article. In computational studies where the sequence information is unacceptable for inclusion in databases because of lack of experimental validation, the sequences must be published as an additional file with the article.
Any 'in press' articles cited within the references and necessary for the reviewers' assessment of the manuscript should be made available if requested by the editorial office.
General procedures
You will be asked by the electronic manuscript submission's process to upload:
- Your research paper
- Any additional images and tables
- Cover letter
- Author's checklist
- Copyright license agreement
- Declaration of Contribution to Article
Cover letter
When submitting your manuscript via ecancermedicalscience, please attach a cover letter. Use the cover letter to explain why your paper should be published in ecancermedicalscience rather than elsewhere.
Author's checklist
All original research submissions should be accompanied by a completed authors' checklist. Please sign the form by inserting an electronic signature or download the form, manually sign it and save it to your computer to be uploaded.
Copyright exclusive license agreement
Please fill in the exclusive license agreement. Please sign the form by inserting an electronic signature or download the form, manually sign it and save it to your computer to be uploaded.
Authors' contributions and signatures
We ask all authors and contributors to original research to specify their individual contributions. ecancermedicalscience will accept one signature on behalf of the named authors and contributors. Please use the Declaration of Contributions to article form. Please sign the form by inserting an electronic signature or download the form, manually sign it and save it to your computer to be uploaded. You must also have written consent of any cited individual(s) noted in acknowledgments or personal communications.
Patient consent form
If your submission contains images in which a patient is, or might be, identifiable, a completed consent form will be required. Please use the form provided, obtain electronic signatures from the patient or download the form, collect manual signatures and retain the form, ecancermedicalscience have the right to request the form at any time.
Conflict of interest
All conflicts of interest must be included in the conflict of interests form. If there are no conflicts of interest, authors should state that they have none.
Role of the funding source
All sources of funding should be declared as part of the conflict of interest form, and as part of the contributions to article.
Artwork
Eye-catching images that illustrate the general theme of the paper are encouraged. Photographs can also be accepted as good-quality prints or slides. Images that have been published previously should be accompanied by a statement from the publisher indicating permission to reproduce the image. If required, further assistance can be obtained from the editorial team.
Additional information
Acknowledgment
Receipt of your paper will be acknowledged by email within 48 hours. This acknowledgment might contain a decision on acceptability. This email will contain a manuscript number which should be used in all future communications, and when submitting any supplementary material.
Publication
All manuscripts judged eligible for consideration by the journal's staff will be peer-reviewed within three weeks. If the manuscript is accepted and there are no revisions the author will be sent a final version of the article in order for them to make any comments. If the editorial team does not receive any comments after a two day period the manuscript will be automatically published. If the author is required to make any revisions this must be done in a period of one month. Please inform the editorial team if you are unable to meet this deadline. After any revisions, the author will have a two day period to make any comments prior to publication. All accepted Articles will be published online and is citable by the digital object identifier (DOI) assigned at the time of online publication.
Appeals
If an author believes that an editor has made an error in declining a paper, we welcome an appeal. In your appeal letter to the editor, please state why you think the decision is mistaken. At least two editors decide whether to invite a revised manuscript and whether re-review, or otherwise, is indicated.
Authors who have appealed against a rejection but remain concerned about the editorial process can refer their case to COPE.
ecancermedicalscience endorses the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) Policy Statement on Geopolitical Intrusion on Editorial Decisions.
Disclosure of results at a meeting
Presentation of data at a scientific meeting, as a poster, abstract, orally, on a CD, or as an abstract on the web, has no conflict with submission to ecancermedicalscience. However, divulging results in other circumstances (eg, investors' meetings) is discouraged and may jeopardise consideration of the manuscript.
Press releases
Your submission could be chosen for the journal's press release, or there may be additional media interest. It is best for someone familiar with the research to be available for comment. You will receive advance notice if your paper is to be included in an ecancermedicalscience press release. The content of your paper and of any interview you give to the media is subject to a strict embargo, which will be communicated to you by the ecancermedicalscience press office.
Data storage
At any time up to five years after publication of research in the journal, authors may be asked to provide the raw data.
Copyright
Authors will be asked to sign an exclusive license agreement which anyone is free:
- to copy, distribute, and display the work;
- to make derivative works;
Under the following conditions: Attribution
- the original author must be given credit;
- for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are;
- any of these conditions can be waived if the authors give permission.
Statutory fair use and other rights are in no way affected by the above.
Only Cancer Intelligence can make Commercial use of the work
Open access
ecancermedicalscience is committed to support authors in making their research publicly and freely available. The editors encourage authors to post a copy of their peer-reviewed, accepted, and edited paper on their personal or institutional websites anytime after publication online. Your document should indicate the article's citation and a link to ecancermedicalscience homepage.
