INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS

Aims & Scope |
Article Types |
Manuscript Submission |
Manuscript Preparation |
Registering and Reporting Clinical Trials |
English Language Editing |
Publication Charges |
Advance Online Publication |
Proofs |
Offprints |


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Aims and scope

The Journal of Investigative Dermatology (JID) publishes papers describing original research on all aspects of cutaneous biology and skin disease. Topics include biochemistry, biophysics, carcinogenesis, cell regulation, development, skin structure, extracellular matrix, genetics, immunology, melanocyte biology, microbiology, molecular and cell biology, pathology, physiology, pharmacology, photobiology, percutaneous absorption, clinical research, epidemiology and other population-based research. Original Articles, Review Articles, and Letters to the Editor are standard features. Perspectives and Commentaries are invited by the Editorial Board.

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Article Types

Original Articles

Original articles should not exceed 3500 words and 6 figures or tables - not to exceed 7 printed journal pages. (For detail on word limits, see section B below).

Investigative studies should be organized as follows: Title page, Abstract, Introduction, Results, Discussion, Materials & Methods, Conflict of Interest, Acknowledgments, References, Tables, Figure Legends, Supplementary Material.

Mini-Review and Review Articles

Mini-reviews are 3000-4000 words and describe recent developments in the field. Such reviews should be accessible to readers not intimately familiar with the subject under review, and should increase readers' interest and describe important recent developments rather than provide an encyclopedic reference. Longer reviews are also considered; authors are encouraged to consult the Editor before submission.

Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor may report original data, discuss published articles, or present hypotheses (doi.10.1038/jid.2008.79). Letters are not to exceed 1000 words and two figure or tables, and 15 references - not to exceed 3 printed journal pages. (For detail on word limits, see section B below). Letters should not have an abstract. The Editor may solicit comments from authors if the letter refers to an article in JID. Letters that report original data will be reviewed. All Letters to the Editor are subject to editing and possible abridgment.

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Manuscript Submission

JID requires electronic submission of manuscripts. Detailed instructions are at our Manuscript submission website. For assistance with the site, contact Manuscript Central at +1 434-964-4100. For questions regarding your submission, contact the Editorial Office at +1 919-843-3094.

Complete submissions contain all items below, and submissions are dated according to receipt of all items. No editorial decision will be communicated to the authors until the submission is complete. Authors are encouraged to read JID's Editorial Policies before submitting papers.

All Submissions MUST Include:

• Cover letter stating:

1. The data in the manuscript is original and the manuscript is not under consideration elsewhere;
2. None of the manuscript contents have been previously published except in abstract form;
3. All authors have read and approved all versions of the manuscript, its content, and its submission to the JID;
4. If the submission contains color figures, the authors should state their willingness to pay color publication fees ($550/color page), should the manuscript be accepted for publication;
5. If the submission contains supplemental files, the authors should state their willingness to pay online fees ($125/file). This is payable at proof stage;
6. The corresponding author's address, telephone, fax, email (email address required).

• License to Publish, signed by the corresponding author.
• Declaration of Conflict of Interest, signed by all authors.
• Manuscript Submission Fee of $50 (payable at time of submission)
• Artwork and Supplementary Materials form

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Manuscript Preparation

A. General

The manuscript should be double-spaced throughout with wide (1" or larger) margins. Set your word processing software to 8.5 x 11 inch paper. Number pages consecutively (with the title page as page 1). Begin a new page for reference lists, tables, and figure legends. The file should use the wrap-around end-of-line feature, e.g., returns at the end of paragraphs only. Place two returns after every element, such as title, headings, paragraphs, figure and table callouts. The paper should be concise, economical of references, figures and tables, and formatted as described below. Investigative studies should be organized as follows, within the stated word limits: Title page, Abstract, Introduction, Results, Discussion, Materials & Methods, Conflict of Interest, Acknowledgments, References, Tables, Figure Legends, Supplementary Material. Manuscripts that do not conform to these specifications will be returned to the authors for correction prior to review.

B. Word Limits

Word limits will be instituted for all manuscripts accepted after 1 January 2010.

• Original articles should not exceed 3,500 words and 6 figures or tables—not to exceed 7 printed journal pages.
• Letters to the Editor should not exceed 1,000 words, 2 figures or tables, and 15 references—not to exceed 3 printed pages.
• Word counts include text only; the abstract, references, figure legends, tables, and supplemental data are excluded (note that figure legends are limited to 125 words each, and 500 words of article text may be exchanged for 1 figure or vice versa).
• There may be exceptions, which will be handled at the discretion of the Editor.
• Submissions that do not comply with these guidelines will be returned to authors for revision.

C. Title

The title page should include the following:

• Brief, informative title of 120 characters or less (brand names may not be used in the title)
• Authors' full names, departments, and institutions (indicate affiliations numerically with numbers placed after authors' names and before the institutions)
• City, state and country in which the work was done
• Corresponding author's address, telephone, fax and email (email address required)
• Short title of 45 characters or less, including spaces
• Abbreviations used (see item M below for detail on abbreviations)

D. Abstract

• Do not exceed 200 words
• Briefly summarize the background, purpose, results and conclusions of the study, in that order, without headings
• Do not include nonstandard abbreviations, acknowledgments of support, or refer to footnotes or references
• Write with a general scientific audience in mind
• Brand names may not be used in the abstract

E. Introduction

The article should begin with a brief introductory statement that places the work to follow in historical perspective and explains its intent and significance.

F. Results and Discussion

The Results section should briefly present the experimental data in text, tables or figures (for details see items J and K below). The Discussion should focus on the interpretation and significance of the findings with concise objective comments that describe their relation to other work in the area. It should not repeat information in Results. Results and Discussion may be presented separately or combined into a single section.

G. Materials and Methods

Readers should be able to reproduce the experiments from the information in the methods section, figure legends, table footnotes, and references. Provide the manufacturer's name and location (city, state if within the US; city, country if outside the US) for materials purchased. This would normally include access to the identity (chemical formula) of all reagents employed. Manuscripts must include a statement that all human and animal studies have been approved by the authors' Institutional Review Board, and, for human studies, JID requires a statement confirming the Declaration of Helsinki protocols were followed and that patients gave their written, informed consent. See the Editorial Policies for details.

H. Clinical Trials

Reports of clinical trials must conform to the Editorial Policies concerning the registration and reporting of clinical trials.

I. Conflict of Interest

Financial or personal involvements that pose a potential duality of interest for authors should be clearly disclosed under a separate heading entitled 'Conflict of Interest.' If no conflicts exist, please use the standard phrase, "The authors state no conflict of interest." Prior to submission, all authors must complete and sign the Conflict of Interest Disclosure Form. Each author must indicate on this form whether they have financial, equity, patenting or other relevant relationships or arrangements with a product or sponsor of research that might constitute a conflict of interest. More information on conflict of interest can be found on the form and in The Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors.

J. Acknowledgments

A note of acknowledgment is appropriate recognition for contributors who may not be listed as authors. For details on authorship, see JID Editorial Policies. Conflicts of interest should not be listed here; please list these under the 'Conflict of Interest' heading.

K. References

References should be listed alphabetically on a separate page at the end of the manuscript. To save space, the citation of appropriate recent review articles is encouraged. Only published articles and abstracts, and manuscripts in press should be cited in the references. References for abstracts should be followed by the designation "(abstr.)". In the reference list, references with three or fewer authors should list all names; for more than three authors, list the first three names followed by et al. Abbreviations of journal names must conform to those adopted by Index Medicus. The names of unlisted journals should be spelled out. Show inclusive page numbers. For papers in press, give the title of the publication and the journal name. If the article is published online-only, or online ahead of print, provide the digital object identifier (doi). Unpublished citations such as theses, "personal communications", "in preparation", etc. should be given as a footnote to the text, and must be approved in writing by the individuals cited. Refer to publications in the text as "(Schmidt and Jones, 2000)" or as "(Schmidt et al, 2000)" in the case of three or more authors. Authors should use the latest version of Reference Manager or Endnote for JID reference style.

Example references:

Journal article:
Yawalkar N, Karlen S, Hunger R, Brand CU, Braathen LR (1998). Expression of interleukin-12 is increased in psoriatic skin. J Invest Dermatol 111: 1053-57.

Advance online publication of a journal article:
Author(s). Article title. Journal Title advance online publication, day month year (DOI)

Book chapter:
Eady RAJ (1992) Electron microscopic immunocytochemistry in dermatology. In: Electron microscopic immunocytochemistry (Polak JM, Priestly JV eds) Oxford University Press: Oxford, 254-63.

Entire book:
Stein DG, Rosen JJ (eds) (1974) Basic structure and function in the central nervous system. Macmillan: New York, 246 pp.

Website (in the text only):
A partial search of EH sequences from the Phytome database (http://www.phytome.org/, accessed 10 July 2007) showed that...

L. Footnotes

Any citations to abstracts or unpublished works must be shown as footnotes to the text, not in the reference list. Footnotes should be listed consecutively at the foot of the page on which they fall, designated by superscript numbers (e.g., 1,2,3).

M. Tables

Tabular presentations should be self-explanatory and not duplicate content in the text. Tables should be presented at the end of the manuscript (one table per page), numbered sequentially (1, 2, 3) and cited in chronological order in the text. The table should include an informative title. Do not provide a table legend, but supply information such as the description of the experiment, definition of columns or abbreviations, etc. in footnotes to the title and table contents. Label footnotes ^{1, 2, 3,} etc. Define errors in the table by a footnote, e.g., "mean +/- SD" or "mean +/-SEM". Authors should ensure that the data in the tables are consistent with those cited in the relevant papers in the text, totals add up correctly, and percentages have been calculated correctly.

N. Figures

Illustrative material should be intelligible without reference to the text and should complement the text. Figures should be labeled sequentially (1, 2, 3) and cited in the text, but not embedded within the text. Figures should be submitted as separate files.

Artwork guidelines.

Detailed guidelines for submitting artwork for publication can be found by downloading the artwork guidelines. Please submit production quality artwork with your initial submission. Following peer review, if your paper is accepted for publication, we will not require artwork to be resubmitted if you have followed the guidelines. Please note: file size limitations may require that publication-quality figures be compressed for submission and peer review purposes. Refer to the ScholarOne guidelines for assistance.

Appropriate scientific conduct concerning images.

• No specific feature within an image may be enhanced, obscured, moved, removed, or introduced.



• Adjustments of brightness, contrast, or color balance are acceptable if they are applied to the whole image, and as long as they do not obscure or eliminate any information present in the original.



• The grouping of images from different parts of the same gel, or from different gels, fields, or exposures must be made explicit by arrangement of the figure (i.e., using dividing lines) and in the text of the figure legend.



• If the original data cannot be supplied by the author upon request, the acceptance of the manuscript may be revoked.



• Refer to the article "What's in a picture? The temptation of image manipulation" by Rossner and Yamada (J Cell Biol 166: 11-15, 2004) for details.

Figure sizing.

To avoid size reduction, authors should submit artwork of exact column measurements and crop out unnecessary areas (1 column = 87.50mm; 2 columns = 180mm). Most figures should be presented at 1 column width (or quarter page in size).

Figure labeling.

Figure parts should be noted as a, b, c, etc., in a lower case non-serif font. For more on labeling of figures, see the artwork guidelines.

Figure legends.

Captions should be presented in a separate section of the manuscript. The figure title (a brief, overall description of the figure) should be given in the legend, not on the figure. Legends should explain how an experiment was done and identify parts of the figure (i.e., a, b, c), not interpret the figure. Indicate the meaning of all symbols, keys and abbreviations used in the figure. Error bars should be defined in the legend as "mean +/- SD" or "mean+/-SEM". If you use SEM give n for each point.

DNA Sequences.

DNA Sequences must have an EMBL or Genbank database accession number, and this number should be given in the legend to the figure showing the sequence.

Line drawings.

Drawings should have clear, uniform lines of thickness. Curves should be smooth. Do not use 3-dimensional graphs unless the third dimension is used for data. Label axes parallel to the axis, not at the top of the graph. Labels must be clearly legible. Use only black and white, not gray, in charts and graphs. The inside of bar graphs should use a patterned black and white print.

Photomicrographs.

A scale bar, not magnification, must be placed on micrographs and the scale indicated in the legend, e.g., "scale bar = mm".

O. Permissions

If a table or figure has been published or copyrighted, the authors must obtain written permission from the copyright owner to reproduce the material in both print and electronic formats and submit the authorization with the manuscript. This applies to quotes, illustrations and other materials taken from previously published works not in the public domain. The original source should be cited (if reprinting a figure or table, citation should be in the figure legend or table footnote).

P. Abbreviations

Terms used more than five times may be abbreviated and listed with their abbreviations on the title page. Abbreviations not listed in the Standard or Recommended Abbreviations webpage should conform to those listed in Scientific Style & Format, 6th ed. (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1994). Capitalize trade names, but use generic names if possible. Trade names may not be used in the title or abstract. The trivial names of chemicals may be used if the formal chemical name is given with the first use of the trivial name.

Q. Deposition of Microarray Data

Authors submitting manuscripts containing microarray data may be asked to supply these data as supplementary information at the request of the reviewers. At the time of submission, the microarray data should be presented in a MIAME-compliant standard format. Before publication, the microarray data must be deposited in an approved database and an accession number provided for inclusion in the published paper. Approved databases include Gene Expression Omnibus and ArrayExpress.

R. Supplemental Data

At the Editor's discretion, large tables, data sets, etc. of accepted manuscripts may be published as supplemental data on the JID website only. The charge for publishing supplemental data is $125 for the first file and $75 per file thereafter. Authors are encouraged to provide supplemental material in a single pdf file. A legend for each figure, table or other data should be included within the file. Each component should also be clearly labeled. Authors will be charged once the paper is accepted and in the proofing stage.

What is Supplemental data?

Supplemental data is peer-reviewed material directly relevant to the conclusion of an article that cannot be included in the printed version owing to space or format constraints. It is posted on the journal's web site and linked to the article when the article is published and may consist of data files, graphics, movies or extensive tables. The printed article must be complete and self-explanatory without the supplementary information. Supplemental data enhances a reader's understanding of the paper but is not essential to that understanding.

Supplemental data must be supplied to the editorial office in its final form for peer review. Supplemental data should be cited in the text as "Figure S1, S2, etc.," "Table S1, S2, etc." or "Supplementary Materials and Methods, etc."

Guidelines for preparing supplemental information

All figures, tables and text should be compiled into a single .pdf. Provide titles for each and include captions or legends under each figure or table. Exceptions to this include Excel files, videos, audios and any other items that cannot be reduced to a flat file format. Please check the final version carefully, as supplementary information cannot be modified by authors after acceptance. Supplementary information is not copyedited by the journal, so please ensure that it is clearly and succinctly presented, and that the terminology conforms to the rest of the paper. Publication may be delayed if these guidelines are not followed.

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English Language Editing

Authors who are not native speakers of English may receive negative comments from referees or editors about English-language usage in their manuscripts. Difficult language use may distract readers from the science being communicated and may lead to less favorable reviews. To reduce the likelihood of this possibility, we encourage authors to have manuscripts reviewed for clarity by colleagues whose native language is English. When this is not possible, authors may wish to use an editing service such as one of those listed below. The use of such services is at the authors' expense and does not guarantee that articles will be accepted. While the services listed below have been vetted, other commercial editing services may be employed instead. JID cannot accept responsibility for the interaction between authors and service providers or for the quality of the work performed.

American Journal Experts
BioScience Writers
Inter-Biotec
Inter-Biotec also provides a free online writing course for researchers whose first language is not English, to help them write for and publish papers in English-language journals
SPI Professional Editing Services
Write Science Right

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Publication Charges

JID does not make the payment of page charges a condition for acceptance of a manuscript for publication. The authors will be assessed $50 per printed page, but in extraordinary cases, upon appeal by the author before publication of the article, the Editor may waive the assessment. The cost to authors for publishing color art is $550 per page. Supplemental data files are charged at $125 for the first file and $75 per file thereafter.

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Advance Online Publication

All original articles and letters to the editor are published ahead of print on Advance Online Publication. This is the final version of the manuscript that will subsequently appear, unchanged, in print.

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Proofs

An e-mail will be sent to the corresponding author with a URL link from which proofs can be collected. Proofs must be returned by fax within 48 hours of receipt. Failure to do so may result in a delay to publication. Extensive corrections cannot be made at this stage.

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Offprints

Offprints may be ordered using the form accompanying the proof.

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