Author guidelines

 
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EJE is dedicated to the publication of high quality clinical and translational research across adult and paediatric endocrinology.

Topics covered include but are not limited to the following:

  • Adrenal and Steroids
  • Bone and Mineral Metabolism
  • Cardiovascular Endocrinology
  • Endocrine mechanisms in Diabetes and Obesity
  • Endocrine mechanisms of Salt and Electrolyte Balance
  • Growth and Development
  • Hormones and Cancer
  • Pituitary and Hypothalamus
  • Reproductive Endocrinology
  • Thyroid
 
 

Manuscript submission

 

EJE accepts submission in the following article categories:

 

EJE usually does not accept the submission of Case Reports, unless they present exceptional novel insights into the pathophysiology or management of endocrine disease. These can then be considered in the 'Brief Report' category.

Brief Reports are also sometimes used for articles that convey an important, novel message and present interesting data that, however, are limited in scope and size.

 

Editorial Process

 

Peer review

 
Submissions are assessed by the Editorial Board and are subject to external peer review using the single anonymous method whereby the identity of the reviewers and editors is not disclosed to the authors.
 
Due to the high volume of submissions received, the Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board operate a rapid triage system and only the top 30% of papers undergo full external peer review.  This workflow is in place to allow authors to submit to a more appropriate journal with minimal delay.
 
The journal aims to return a decision on a peer-reviewed paper in less than a month.
 

Manuscript Transfer

 
If your paper is found to be outside the scope of EJE you may be offered the opportunity to transfer it to Endocrine Connections or Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism Case Reports for rapid consideration. The offer to transfer is made at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief, and may be made prior to or after full peer review. Authors may accept or decline the offer to transfer. If the offer is accepted after peer review, then the paper will be transferred along with the reviewer reports. This will assist the Editor-in-Chief of Endocrine Connections or Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism Case Reports to assess the suitability of the article for the journal, meaning that it may be possible for your paper to be accepted and published rapidly without further peer review, although acceptance is not guaranteed. All decisions made by an Editor-in-Chief of either journal are final.
 

Appeals

Authors who feel they have grounds to appeal a rejection decision should send a rebuttal letter to the editorial office, detailing the reasons for the appeal. Rebuttals will be considered by the Editor-in-Chief, often in consultation with the Editorial Board Member who handled the paper. Decisions on appeals are final.

If you have any other concerns about the review process, please do not hesitate to bring them to our attention via email to the editorial office, who will make sure that your concerns are promptly reviewed and acted upon by the Editor-in-Chief.

All Bioscientifica journals are members of, and subscribe to the principles of, the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). All Bioscientifica journals adhere strictly to the COPE core practices for good publishing ethics and follow the procedures set out in the COPE flowcharts.

 

 

Submission Checklist

 

Your article

 
  • Structure – Ensure the submission is structured as requested by the journal, and contains all relevant sections. See ‘Preparation of Manuscripts’ for further details.
  • Title page – All submissions must have a title page stating all of the relevant information. See ‘Preparation of Manuscripts’ for further details. 
  • Format – All submissions should follow the journal guidelines for word count, page margins and line numbering. See ‘Manuscript Submission’ for further details.
  • English language – Non-native English speakers are encouraged to have their manuscript professionally edited before submission. See Bioscientifica’s recommended English language editing services.  
  • Reported data – Data accuracy is crucial. Authors are strongly encouraged to double-check all reported data for accuracy and to confirm that all units of measurement are correct and consistent.
  • References – Please see ‘References’ for full details of the journal’s required style. 
  • Graphics – All figures and tables should be presented in a clear and informative manner with accompanying legends.
  • Ethical compliance – All articles are required to meet the requirements outlined in our ethical policy. Ensure you have included all relevant ethical approval statements. 
 
 

Before submitting

 
  • Approval – Ensure all authors have seen and approved the final version of the article prior to submission. All authors must also approve the journal you are submitting to.
  • Open access – The appropriate open-access option must be selected on submission. Authors are responsible for ensuring any funder mandates are followed. For further details, please see the open-access policy.
  • Charges – EJE is committed to keeping costs to authors to a minimum, however some charges may apply. Authors are responsible for familiarising themselves with these prior to submission. Full details are available on our publication charges page.
 
 

Uploading your submission

 
  • Author list – All authors must be listed on the title page and entered on the ScholarOne Manuscripts submission in the correct order. Ensure all author email addresses provided are valid. Author information entered into ScholarOne Manuscripts will be used to generate PubMed listings for published papers.
  • Cover letter – This letter should introduce your paper and outline why your work is important and suitable publication at this time.
  • File formats – Ensure all files are in the correct format for revised submissions. See ‘Preparation of Manuscripts’ for further instructions.
  • Figures and tables – Ensure all figures and table files are present and correct, and that they display clearly in the pdf proof.
 

User account details

 

ORCID iD

All submitting authors are required to link their ScholarOne account with their ORCID iD. The system will prompt the author to do this when creating the submission.
The journal also requests that all authors identified as ‘corresponding authors’ create and link an ORCID iD with their account on ScholarOne prior to article acceptance. We also encourage contributing authors to associate an ORCID iD with their ScholarOne account. Author ORCID iDs will be displayed on the published article.

 

Author email addresses

The journal requires an institutional email address is associated with the account of both the submitting author and corresponding author; please edit the associated ScholarOne accounts to include this before pressing 'submit'. Alternatively please provide an explanation as to why this is not available to the Editorial Office by contacting eje@bioscientifica.com
This policy has been adopted in order to verify the authenticity of article submissions and protect the integrity of EJE.

 

Preparation of Manuscripts

EJE accepts submission in the following article categories:

 

All manuscripts require a Title Page.

 

Manuscripts should:

  • Be concise and clear.
  • Display the word count on the title page.
  • Use double line spacing throughout (including reference list and figure legends), and contain continuous line numbering down the left-side of each page.
  • Define all abbreviations when first mentioned.
  • Be submitted in the correct file type, i.e. main document in an editable Word format.
  • Be written in either UK or US English.
  • Contain a title page.
 
Accepted file types:
  • Please be aware that the combined size of your files should not exceed 40 MB.
  • For article text: txt, doc, docx, rtf. We are unable to accept pdf files for article text for revised manuscripts but can do so for first submissions.
  • For figures: eps, tiff, jpg, pdf.
Changes within revised manuscripts should be highlighted using the highlighter function or coloured text, and should be accompanied by a full response letter to editor and reviewer comments.
 

Declaration of interest, Funding and Acknowledgements

 

Declaration of interest

Actual or perceived conflicts of interest for all authors must be declared in full.
 
Please either (a) declare that there is no conflict of interest that could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the research reported; or (b) fully declare any financial or other potential conflict of interest.
 
Conflicts of interest include, but are not limited to:
  • Employment and consultancies
  • Grants, fees and honoraria
  • Ownership of stock or shares
  • Royalties
  • Patents (pending and actual)
  • Board membership
 

Funding

Please detail all of the sources of funding relevant to the research reported in the following format:
This work was supported by the Medical Research Council (grant numbers xxxx, yyyy); the Wellcome Trust (grant number xxxx); and Tommy’s Baby charity (grant number xxxx).
 
Where research has not been funded please state the following:
This research did not receive any specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sector.
 

Author contribution statement (optional)

Please include a statement specifying the contribution of each co-author.
 

Acknowledgements

Please be as brief as possible.
 

References

 
There is no limit on the number of references per manuscript.
 
Unpublished work
Any unpublished work (personal communications, manuscripts in preparation and manuscripts submitted but not yet accepted for publication) must be referred to in the text and not listed in the references.
 
Give the full list of authors, including their initials. For example:
(A Stone, J Brown & M R Smith, unpublished observations)
(J Brown, personal communication)
 
Articles accepted for publication but not yet published may be listed as ‘in press’ in the reference list, using the current year as the publication year. If an ‘in press’ article is included in the Accepted Preprint service or a similar scheme, then the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) should be included; otherwise, provide a copy of the article as a supplementary file for reviewing purposes.
 
In the text
Cite references in the text in numerical order.
 
In the reference list
List references in the order they are cited in the text.
 
Reference in the following format:
1. Inkster S, Yue W & Brodie A. Human testicular aromatase: immunocytochemical and biochemical studies. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 1995 80 1941–1947.
2. Matthews CH, Borgato S, Beck-Peccoz P, Adams M, Tone Y, Gambino G, Casagrande S, Tedeschini G, Benedetti A & Chatterjee VK. Primary amenorrhea and infertility due to a mutation in the β-subunit of follicle-stimulating hormone. Nature Genetics 5 83–86.
3. Royer P. Hormonal regulation of calcium metabolism: biology and pathology. In Pediatric Endocrinology, edn 2, ch. 6, pp 477–543. Eds J-C Job & M Pierson. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1981.
 
List all authors in each reference in the reference list. Do not use et al. in the reference list.
 
EndNote
Please use Vancouver style (Superscripted number). Do not use an Endnote style which abbreviates the reference list in your submitted article.
 

Tables

Tables should be concise. Tables too large for print publication should be submitted as supplementary data.
 
  • Number tables in the order they are cited in the text
  • Include a title – a single sentence at the head of the table that includes the name of the organism studied
  • Use footnotes to provide any additional explanatory material, cross-referenced to the column entries
  • Give a short heading for each column
  • Do not use internal horizontal or vertical lines, colour or shading
  • Explain all abbreviations used in the table in the footnotes
Please note that the option to print large tables in a final article is subject to editorial approval. If the tables are deemed too large for the final article, you will be asked to publish your tables as supplementary data and charges will apply.
 

Figures

The journal has produced digital image guidelines in order to clarify the standards expected by the journal. All submitted digital images must adhere to these guidelines.
 
Colour figures will be published online at no charge to the author. Publication of colour figures in the print version will incur a charge that must be paid before publication. Please note the option to print in greyscale is subject to editorial approval, if the meaning of your image is unclear you will be asked to print in colour and a charge will apply.
 
  • Number figures in the order they are cited in the text
  • Include legends to all figures, giving the figure number, keys to any symbols used, the name of the organism studied, the names of any statistical tests used and the probability levels used for comparisons
  • Label figure sections as A, B etc in the top left-hand corner
  • Use Arial or a similar sans-serif font for text labels
  • Do not enclose figures in boxes
  • Indicate magnification by a scale bar in the bottom right-hand corner of the image and give the measurement in the legend
  • Use the preferred symbols of closed and open circles, squares and triangles. Ensure that symbols are large enough to be read clearly when the figure is reduced for publication
  • Use Courier or a similar non-proportional font for amino acid, DNA, RNA and PCR primer sequences and highlight sections of homology between sequences with grey shading
 

File types and resolution

EJE is committed to publishing high quality figures.
 
EPS or TIFF files are preferred. Files should be exported in Illustrator-compatible format, avoiding PowerPoint or Word files:
  • Line images/graphs: EPS, TIFF, high-resolution PDF, AI (Adobe Illustrator). Resolution at final published size: 1200 dpi.
  • Half-tone (greyscale) images: TIFF, high-resolution PDF, JPG. Resolution at final published size: 600 dpi.
  • Colour images: TIFF, high-resolution PDF, JPG. EPS or AI files can be used for graphical data and illustrations that don’t include photographs. Resolution at final published size: 300 dpi. Colour format: CMYK (not RGB).
 
 

Gene and protein nomenclature

 
Wherever possible, manuscripts must be prepared in accordance with approved gene nomenclature.
  • In gene and protein symbols, substitute Greek letters with the corresponding roman letter, eg TGFBR2 not TGFβR2
  • Avoid hyphens unless they are part of the approved symbol, eg IGF1 not IGF-1
  • Use arabic rather than roman numerals, eg BMPR2 not BMPRII
 
Follow species-specific formatting standards as follows:
 

Humans, non-human primates and domestic species

  • Gene symbols should be in italics with all letters capitalised, eg SOX2
  • Protein designations should be the same as the gene symbols but not italicised, eg SOX2
  • Please use symbols approved by the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC)
 

Mice and rats

  • Gene symbols should be in italics with only the first letter capitalised, eg Sox2
  • Protein designations should be the same as the gene symbols except that all letters should be capitalised and in roman (ie not italicised), eg SOX2
  • Please use symbols approved by the International Committee on Standardized Genetic Nomenclature for Mice and the Rat Genome and Nomenclature Committee, which can be queried at the MGI website
 
 

Preprint and data repositories

 

Preprint repositories

A preprint is a version of the article prior to submission to the journal for peer review, and has not been copyedited or typeset.
Bioscientifica allows deposition of preprints to recognized repositories, such as bioRxiv, provided that Bioscientifica is informed of this at the time of submission and it does not infringe any subsequent copyright or licence agreement.
Upon final publication, authors are required to add a link from the preprint to the published article (version of record).
 
 

Depositing data in public databases

Authors are strongly encouraged to deposit data sets in appropriate public databases. Authors should include the relevant database identifiers and accession numbers for deposited sequences within the manuscript using the following format: Database: xxxx, e.g: GEO: GSE6364. Authors are also required to provide the URL for the sequence(s). 
 
Below is a list of public databases:
 
This list is not exhaustive. Please contact the editorial office if you have a query about relevant databases.
 
 

Licence and Copyright

 
During the publication process the contact author will be asked to complete a copyright transfer agreement on behalf of the copyright holder for the article. The terms of the agreement will differ depending on whether the article is to be published on a subscription or an open access basis.
  • Subscription. The copyright holder will transfer copyright to the European Society of Endocrinology and grant Bioscientifica an exclusive licence to publish the article.
  • Open Access. The copyright holder will grant the European Society of Endocrinology and Bioscientifica a non-exclusive licence to publish the article. For open access, the copyright is retained by the original copyright holder and is not assigned to the European Society of Endocrinology or Bioscientifica.

Authors may download a copy of this agreement in advance.

 
 

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