Instruction for Authors

Author Guidelines

Submission of a manuscript implies that the work described has not been published elsewhere (except for conference abstracts). Furthermore, the work is not under consideration for publication anywhere else and its publication has been approved by all co-authors, if any, as well as by the responsible authorities tacitly or explicitly at the institute where the work has been carried out.

Before you decide to publish with Journal of Translational Research (JTR), please read the following items carefully and make sure that you are well aware of Open Access Policies and Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Cover Letter

A cover letter must be included with each manuscript submission. It should be concise and explain why the content of the paper is significant, placing the findings in the context of existing work. It should explain why the manuscript fits the scope of the journal.

All cover letters are required to include the following statements:

  • We confirm that neither the manuscript nor any parts of its content are currently under consideration or published in another journal.
  • All authors have approved the manuscript and agree with its submission to JTR.

Types of Articles

JTR does not require special formatting during the initial submission. Authors may follow any scholarly format or layout. This also includes references, as long as the citation style is consistent throughout the entire manuscript. However, authors are required to follow the specific guidelines based on the article type outlined below.

JTR welcomes novel, timely, substantial contributions in but not limited to the following types:

Article

The work should report scientifically sound experiments and provide a substantial amount of new information. The article should include relevant references in the field. Articles should contain the Title page, Abstract and Keywords, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusions sections. Introduction and Discussion should not contain any subheads.

The following types will be treated as Articles: research article, communication/short communication, etc.

Word count: The suggested minimum word count is 3500 words, not including references, affiliations, tables and figures.

Review

Detailed, critical surveys of published research. A review article may summarize previously published studies and draw some conclusions but will not present new information on the subject. Includes Reviews, Mini-reviews, and perspective articles. Review articles should have appropriate section headings and subheadings chosen by the author.

Reviews should not present unpublished data. The structure may include Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Discussion, Conclusion and Perspective.

Letter

Brief Contributions or correspondence from the readers to the journal editor concerning previously published material. Includes “Readers Write”, “Questions and Answers”, “Letters to the Editor” and “Comments”.

The manuscript should be in the following order:

Title
Authors and Affiliations
Abstract
Graphical Abstract
Keywords
Main Text
Figures and Tables
Supplementary Materials
Author Contributions
Funding
Data Availability and Statistical Reporting
Acknowledgements (if any)
Conflict of Interest Disclosure
References

1. Front Matter

1.1. Title

The title of the manuscript should be concise, specific and relevant. When gene or protein names are included, the abbreviated name rather than full name should be used.

1.2 Authors and Affiliations

Authors’ full names should be listed. The initials of middle names can be provided. Institutional addresses and email addresses for all authors should be listed. At least one author should be designated as the corresponding author. As part of our efforts to improve transparency in authorship, we recommended all corresponding authors of accepted papers to provide their Open Researcher and Contributor Identifier ID (ORCID), before submitting the final version of the manuscript.

1.3 Abstract

Abstract (up to 250 words): The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results and major conclusions, but the presentation of experimental details should be avoided. Please do not present detailed/numbered values.

1.4 Keywords

Two to six keywords should be provided, which are specific to the article, yet reasonably common within the subject discipline.

2. Main Text

Manuscripts should be structured according to the Types of Articles (see above).

2.1 Figures and Tables

Figures and tables should appear in the body of the paper near the place where they are mentioned. High-resolution images should also be uploaded separately as figure files. The figures and tables should be cited in numeric order in the text.

All image files for figures should be labeled with the figure number (label each part if the figures include multiple parts, e.g., 2A, 2B). The figure legend should be placed below each figure and should include descriptions of each figure part and identify the meaning of any symbols or arrows. Terms used for labels and in the legend must be consistent with those in the text.

Color will be used in the journal where needed (e.g., histology slides or surgical photographs). All other figures, such as bar graphs and charts, should be submitted in black and white.

Figures for papers accepted for publication must meet the image resolution requirements. Files for line-based drawings (no grayscale) should ideally be submitted in the format they were originally created; if submitting scanned versions, files should be 1200 dots per inch (dpi). Color photos should be submitted at 600 dpi and black-and-white photos at 300 dpi.

Charts and graphs can be submitted in the original form created (e.g., Word, Excel, or PowerPoint). Photographs or scanned drawings embedded in Word or PowerPoint are not acceptable for publication.

All photographs of patients that disclose their identity must be accompanied by a signed photographic release granting permission for their likeness to be reproduced in the article. If this is not provided, the patient’s eyes must be occluded to prevent recognition.

For tables, the system accepts most common word processing formats. Tables should have a title that describes the content and purpose of the table. Tables should enhance, not duplicate, information in the text.

If you include figures that have already been published elsewhere, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner(s).

3. Back Matter

3.1 Supplementary Materials

Additional data and information can be uploaded as Supplementary Materials to accompany the manuscripts. The supplementary materials will also be available to the referees as part of the peer-review process. Any file format is acceptable, such as data sheet (Word, Excel, csv, cdx, fasta, pdf or zip files), presentation (PowerPoint, pdf or zip files), image (cdx, eps, jpeg, pdf, png or tiff), table (Word, Excel, csv or pdf), audio (mp3, wav or wma) or video (avi, divx, flv, mov, mp4, mpeg, mpg or wmv). All information should be clearly presented. Supplementary materials should be cited in the main text in numeric order (e.g., Supplementary Figure 1, Supplementary Figure 2, Supplementary Table 1, Supplementary Table 2, etc.). The style of supplementary figures or tables complies with the same requirements on figures or tables in main text. Videos and audios should be prepared in English, and limited to a size of 500 MB.

3.2 Author Contributions

Each author is expected to have made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data; or the creation of new software used in the work; or have drafted the work or substantively revised it; AND has approved the submitted version (and version substantially edited by journal staff that involves the author’s contribution to the study); AND agrees to be personally accountable for the author’s own contributions and for ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work, even ones in which the author was not personally involved, are appropriately investigated, resolved, and documented in the literature.

For research articles with multiple authors, a brief paragraph specifying their individual contributions must be provided. Authorship should be limited to those who have contributed substantially to the reported work. The following statements should be used “A.A.: conceptualization, methodology, software; B.B.: data curation, writing—original draft preparation; C.C.: visualization, investigation; D.D.: supervision; E.E.: software, validation; F.F.: writing—reviewing and editing. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.”

3.3 Funding

All sources of funding for the study should be disclosed. Clearly indicate grants that you have received in support of your research work and if you received funds to cover publication costs. Note that some funders will not refund article processing charges (APC) if the funder and grant number are not clearly and correctly identified in the paper.

Please add: “This research received no external funding” or “This research was funded by [name of funder] grant number [xxx]” and “The APC was funded by [XXX]” in this section. Check carefully that the details given are accurate and use the standard spelling of funding agency names at https://search.crossref.org/funding, any errors may affect your future funding.

3.4 Data Availability and Statistical Reporting

JTR aims to publish both experimental and observational research. Submission of study protocols is highly recommended, alongside the statistical codes underpinning the results (ideally available in web repositories, i.e., GitHub, OSF). Results should be reported alongside measures of uncertainty (confidence or credible intervals) and emphasis given on the effect size rather than “statistical significance”. Categorizing of continuous data is not recommended. Authors should clearly state how missing data and multiple testing have been handled and the statistical section should report the software used to perform the analysis, including non-routine packages/commands. Sensitivity analyses are encouraged to assess the robustness of the results.

Authors may be asked to provide the raw data of their study together with the manuscript for editorial review and should be prepared to make the data publicly available if practicable. In any event, authors should ensure accessibility of such data to other competent professionals for at least 10 years after publication (preferably via an institutional or subject-based data repository or other data center), provided that the confidentiality of the participants can be protected and legal rights concerning proprietary data do not preclude their release.

3.5 Acknowledgements (if any)

In this section, you can acknowledge any support not covered by the author’s contribution or funding sections. This may include administrative and technical assistance or in-kind donations, such as materials used for experiments. Authors should obtain permission to acknowledge from all those mentioned in the Acknowledgments section.

3.6 Conflict of Interest Disclosure

Any interest or relationship, financial or otherwise that might be perceived as influencing an author's objectivity is considered a potential source of conflict of interest. These must be disclosed when directly relevant or directly related to the work that the authors describe in their manuscript. The existence of a conflict of interest does not preclude publication. If the authors have no conflict of interest to declare, they must also state this at submission. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to review this policy with all authors and collectively to disclose all pertinent commercial and other relationships during submission.

3.7 References

References must be numbered in order of appearance in the text (including table captions and figure legends) and listed individually at the end of the manuscript. We recommend preparing the references with a bibliography software package, such as EndNote, Reference Manager or Zotero to avoid typing mistakes and duplicated references. We encourage citations to data, computer code and other citable research material.

In the text, reference numbers should be placed in square brackets [ ], and placed before the punctuation; for example [1], [1–3] or [1,3].

The reference list should include the full title, as recommended by the ACS style guide. Style files for Endnote and Zotero are available.

References should be described as follows, depending on the type of work:

  • Journal Articles:
    Author 1, A.B.; Author 2, C.D. Title of the Article. Abbreviated Journal Name Year, Volume, page range.
  • Books and Book Chapters:
    Author 1, A.; Author 2, B. Book Title, 3rd ed.; Publisher: Publisher Location, Country, Year; pp. 298–351.
    Author 1, A.; Author 2, B. Title of the chapter. In Book Title, 2nd ed.; Editor 1, A., Editor 2, B., Eds.; Publisher: Publisher Location, Country, Year; Volume 3, pp. 298–351.
  • Unpublished materials intended for publication:
    Author 1, A.B.; Author 2, C. Title of Unpublished Work (optional). Correspondence Affiliation, City, State, Country. year, status (manuscript in preparation; to be submitted). 
    Author 1, A.B.; Author 2, C. Title of Unpublished Work. Abbreviated Journal Name year, phrase indicating stage of publication (submitted; accepted; in press). 
  • Unpublished materials not intended for publication:
    Author 1, A.B. (Affiliation, City, State, Country); Author 2, C. (Affiliation, City, State, Country). Phase describing the material, year. (phase: Personal communication; Private communication; Unpublished work; etc.)
  • Conference Proceedings:
    Author 1, A.B.; Author 2, C.D.; Author 3, E.F. Title of Presentation. In Title of the Collected Work (if available), Proceedings of the Name of the Conference, Location of Conference, Country, Date of Conference; Editor 1, Editor 2, Eds. (if available); Publisher: City, Country, Year (if available); Abstract Number (optional), Pagination (optional).
  • Thesis:
    Author 1, A.B. Title of Thesis. Level of Thesis, Degree-Granting University, Location of University, Date of Completion.
  • Websites:
    Title of Site. Available online: URL (accessed on Day Month Year).
  • Archived websites
    Unlike published works, websites may change over time or disappear, so we encourage you create an archive of the cited website using a service such as WebCite. Archived websites should be cited using the link provided as follows:
    Title of Site. URL (archived on Day Month Year).

Ethics Approval Statement

JTR fully adheres to the Code of Conduct and the Guidelines of Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). The Editors of this journal have an obligation to assist the scientific community in all aspects of publishing ethics, including plagiarism. As such, we endeavor to ensure the transparent and quality peer review process. More details, please refer to our Publishing Policy. Authors should conform to the publication ethics.

Copyright and Permission to Reproduce Material

If your article makes use of any previously published material (including figures/diagrams, or short extracts, or content taken from websites) then you must first obtain the written permission of the copyright owner. The copyright owner is usually the publisher (for material taken from journal or proceedings articles), website owner/company (for material taken from websites) or the author or their employer (if the work is unpublished). Some publishers will also require that you seek the permission of the original author. You will need to check the terms of the publisher’s permission.

We ask you to submit written evidence:

  • That all necessary permissions have been obtained by providing the actual written permission granted by the copyright owner, or
  • That permission is not required, e.g., where the material is available under one of the Creative Commons licenses which allow commercial reuse and suits the purpose for which you want to reuse the content.

More details please check our Open Access Policy.

Preprints and Conference Papers

JTR accepts submissions that have previously been made available as preprints provided that they have not undergone peer review. A preprint is a draft version of a paper made available online before submission to a journal.

Expanded and high-quality conference papers can be considered as articles if they fulfill the following requirements: (1) the paper should be expanded to the size of a research article; (2) the conference paper should be cited and noted on the first page of the paper; (3) if the authors do not hold the copyright of the published conference paper, authors should seek the appropriate permission from the copyright holder; (4) authors are asked to disclose that it is conference paper in their cover letter and include a statement on what has been changed compared to the original conference paper. JTR does not publish pilot studies or studies with inadequate statistical power.

Intellectual Property and Author Rights

In adherence to the principles of open access publishing and to facilitate widespread distribution, authors submitting to JTR are under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0). This commitment to open access and the utilization of Creative Commons Licenses aligns with our mission to enhance the accessibility and impact of scholarly work within the academic community and beyond, which allows users to unrestrictedly read, print, download, disseminate, reproduce, alter, transform, or build upon the article, including for commercial and non-commercial purposes, as long as the original author is credited. For more information on Copyright Permission click here.

Author Rights & Responsibilities:

  • Intellectual Property Ownership:
    Authors affirm that the submitted manuscript (and any accompanying materials) represents their original intellectual property, and they have not transferred the copyright to any third party.
  • Integrity Assurance:
    Authors certify that the manuscript contains no plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, or manipulated citations and conforms to JTR authorship policies.
  • Copyright Permissions:
    Authors confirm that appropriate permissions have been secured from copyright holders for any copyrighted tables, figures, data, text, etc., reproduced in the manuscript.
  • Confidentiality Agreement:
    Authors commit to keeping confidential all communications, comments, or reports exchanged between authors and reviewers or editors. The privacy of these interactions is paramount to the integrity of the review process.

Update in October 2024