EDITORIAL POLICIES
General |Responsibilities of Authors |
Registering and Reporting Clinical Trials |
Peer Review |
Revisions and Rebuttals |
Embargo Policy |
Prior Publication |
Self-Archiving |
Archiving |
Announcements |
Top of page
I. General
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, Communications, Review Articles, and Letters to the Editor are standard features. Perspectives and Commentaries are invited by the Editorial Board.
Top of pageII. Responsibilities of Authors
Research Ethics
The authors' Institutional Review Board must have approved human in vivo studies. This should be stated in the Methods section of the manuscript. All patients referred to in human studies should be identified by number, not by name. Identifying information should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, or pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) has given written informed consent for publication. All clinical investigation must have been approved by the author's institution and conducted according to Declaration of Helsinki principles, and written informed consent must have been obtained from all patients. In addition, retrospective studies must have Institutional Review Board approval. This should be stated in the Methods section of the manuscript. All animal studies must be approved by the institutional animal care and use committee, and this should be stated in the Methods section of the manuscript. The editors reserve the right to reject manuscripts that fail to meet these criteria, and to ask for Institutional Review Board approval.
Scientific Integrity
All submissions to and publications in the JID are assumed to be the product of honest observations. By submission, the first and senior authors take full responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole, from inception to the published article. If substantial doubts arise regarding the scientific integrity of any submission or publication it is the responsibility of the Editor to pursue these issues with the author(s). The first and senior authors are responsible for communicating with the editorial office on issues of scientific misconduct or the retraction of a published manuscript, should questions of this type arise. Issues of scientific integrity include but are not limited to duplicate submission and publication, falsification or fabrication of data, and plagiarism. The editors reserve the right to initiate the retraction of a published manuscript, should it be deemed appropriate. If issues of scientific integrity cannot be resolved with the authors to the satisfaction of the Editor, they will be referred to the institution where the work was done and/or the funding agency for further investigation. If the work is deemed to be fraudulent the JID will print a retraction, preferably signed by all authors of the work in question. Alternatively, the Editor may choose to print an expression of concern regarding the work, with explanation.
Scientific Integrity & Image Manipulation
JID subscribes to the guidelines put forth by the Journal of Cell Biology, which state: No specific feature within an image may be enhanced, obscured, moved, removed, or introduced. The grouping of images from different parts of the same gel, or from different gels, fields, or exposures must be made explicit by the arrangement of the figure (e.g., using dividing lines) and in the text of the figure legend. 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. Nonlinear adjustments (e.g., changes to gamma settings) must be disclosed in the figure legend. For more on figure manipulation, see the article by Rossner & Yamada.
Authorship Conditions
Each author should have participated sufficiently in the intellectual content of the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of its content. Authorship credit should be based on: 1) conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; 2) drafting or revising the manuscript critically for important intellectual content; 3) final approval of the version to be published. Conditions 1, 2 and 3 must all be met. The contributions of those who do not meet these authorship requirements may be noted in the Acknowledgments section of the manuscript.
Corresponding Author Responsibilities
Upon submission, the corresponding author must submit a License to Publish form and a Declaration of Conflict of Interest form signed by all authors, with signatures identified. Upon acceptance, the Corresponding Author will be asked to provide the editorial office with the text of the final, accepted manuscript in a Word (.doc) or other document file and one complete set of publication-quality figures as well as an Artwork and Supplementary Materials form. Failure to provide these materials will result in a delay in publication. Author proofs and queries will be sent to the Corresponding Author by email, and will require a 48-hour turnaround. No substantive changes may be made in the proof stage without the written approval of the Editor.
Medical Writers
The journal allows the participation of medical writers in the preparation of manuscripts. The role of the medical writer and identity of the entity that paid for this assistance should be disclosed in the Acknowledgments section of the manuscript. For more on medical writers, refer to the editorial.
Changes in Authorship
Any changes in authorship must be communicated to the Editor in a letter signed by all authors.
Conflict of Interest
Each author must indicate on the Conflict of Interest Disclosure 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. Sources of support or declared conflicts should be indicated under a separate heading entitled 'Conflict of Interest,' between the Materials & Methods and References sections. If the authors have nothing to declare, this should be noted using the standard phrase, "The authors state no conflict of interest."
License to Publish
Authors are not required to grant the copyright in their articles to the Society for Investigative Dermatology. Instead, authors provide the Society with an exclusive license and are free to reuse their own papers in any future published work and on their own website.
Submission of DNA Sequences
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.
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. Details regarding license to publish.
Statistical Guidelines
The standard error of the mean should be presented only when the intent is to quantify the precision of the sample mean as an estimate of the population mean. The standard deviation should be presented when the intent is to present a descriptive statistic about the sample or an estimate of the population standard deviation. As much as possible, summaries in tables and figures should indicate the sample sizes upon which they are based. For more guidance on statistical methods, refer to the New England Journal of Medicine Instructions to Authors.
Top of pageIII. Registering and Reporting Clinical Trials
JID subscribes to the standards set by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors in the Lancet (364:911-912, 2004), requiring that all trials that start enrolling participants after July 1, 2005 must be registered in a suitable publicly accessible register before that date in order to be considered for publication in the Journal. Those trials that started enrolment before July 1, 2005 must register before September 13, 2005 to be considered for publication. Suggested registers include: ClinicalTrials.gov, the Cochrane Skin Group Ongoing Trials Register, and Current Controlled Trials. Registration in the former is free, while registration for trials that do not emanate from developing countries carries a $144 charge in the Current Controlled Trials. Access to search entries on all three registries is free. Registration site and number must be stated in the materials and methods section of the manuscript.
UPDATE: Preliminary randomized studies on humans that begin enrolment on or after July 1, 2008 must also be registered. For details click here.
Submissions reporting randomized controlled clinical trials MUST include:
- Registration number and registration site
- Statements in Materials and Methods confirming
- Declartion of Helsinki protocols were followed;
- Participants gave written, informed consent;
- Ethical (institutional review board) approval of the study;
- Subhead sections titled: protocol, assignment, masking, participant flow and follow-up, analysis (see CONSORT statement)
- CONSORT flowchart
- CONSORT checklist
Contact the editorial office with any questions concerning the registration or submission of reports of clinical trials.
Top of pageIV. Peer Review
Manuscripts submitted to the JID will be evaluated by at least two reviewers, one of whom will be a JID Editorial Board member. The identity of reviewers is confidential and manuscripts are considered privileged information. Papers may be rejected without external review at the Editor's discretion. Authors may suggest the invitation or exclusion of up to four reviewers at time of submission.
Top of pageV. Revisions and Rebuttals
The JID editorial policy allows for one revision of a manuscript, and revisions are due within two months of receipt of the decision letter. Manuscripts not received within this time will be dated and treated as new submissions. Any extension must be requested in writing and may be granted at the discretion of the editor. If after reconsideration the manuscript is not suitable for publication with only minor editorial changes, the paper must be resubmitted as a new manuscript to be reconsidered. Rejected manuscripts may be resubmitted for consideration if significant new data is presented. In such cases, the paper will be given a new manuscript number and date of receipt, and it will be treated as a new manuscript. Editorial decisions are rarely reversed. Authors with serious concerns about potential scientific errors in the review process may send a rebuttal letter to the editor. Only written appeals will be considered. Any extension must be requested in writing and may be granted at the discretion of the editor.
Top of pageVI. Embargo Policy
All articles accepted for publication in The Journal of Investigative Dermatology are embargoed until the date of online publication.
Top of pageVII. Prior Publication
JID considers results to have already been published if they have appeared in sufficient detail to allow replication, are publicly accessible with a fixed content, and have been validated by review. A summary of work in a review, a perspective, a commentary, a newspaper or magazine article, does not constitute prior publication. Data presented at a national scientific meeting or a webcast of such a meeting, where the data is not published in full, does not constitute prior publication. Our guiding principle is that journals should interfere minimally in such exchanges.
Top of pageVIII. Self-Archiving
The Society for Investigative Dermatology does not require authors of original research papers to assign copyright of their published contributions. Authors grant SID an exclusive license to publish, in return for which they can re-use their papers in their future printed work. Our publisher's author license page provides details of the policy and a sample form. Authors are encouraged to submit the accepted, peer-reviewed manuscript to their funding body's archive for public release six months after publication. In addition, authors are encouraged to archive the manuscript in their institution's repositories (as well as on their personal web sites), also six months after the original publication. Authors should cite the publication reference and doi number on any deposited version, and provide a link from it to the published article on the JID website. This policy complements the policies of the US National Institutes of Health, the Wellcome Trust and other research funding bodies around the world.
Top of pageIX. Archiving
The Editorial Office will retain an electronic file of each manuscript and related correspondence for 12 months following the final editorial decision, or, in the case of accepted manuscripts, publication.
Top of pageX. Announcements
Brief announcements of scientific meetings, availability of fellowship grants, and awards for research relevant to the readership will be published at the discretion of the Editor. Announcements much reach the editorial office at least 8 weeks before their anticipated publication. In general, announcements will be published only once.
