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Submission of Manuscripts

All articles submitted to the journal must comply with these instructions. Failure to do so will result in return of the manuscript and possible delay in publication. Manuscripts should be written so that they are intelligible to the professional reader who is not a specialist in the particular field.

Peer review

This journal uses a single blind review process. All contributions are sent to a minimum of two independent expert reviewers to assess the scientific quality of the paper. The Editor is responsible for the decision regarding acceptance or rejection of articles. The Editor's decision is final. The Editor may decide to reject manuscripts without sending them out for peer review. For more information on the types of peer review, please visit: https://www.elsevier.com/reviewers/peer-review.

Online Submission

All manuscripts should be submitted and revised electronically using the ScholarOne Manuscript system at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ai-jsa

Use of inclusive language

Inclusive language acknowledges diversity, conveys respect to all people, is sensitive to differences, and promotes equal opportunities. Content should make no assumptions about the beliefs or commitments of any reader; contain nothing which might imply that one individual is superior to another on the grounds of age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability or health condition; and use inclusive language throughout. Authors should ensure that writing is free from bias, stereotypes, slang, reference to dominant culture and/or cultural assumptions. We advise to seek gender neutrality by using plural nouns ("clinicians, patients/clients") as default/wherever possible to avoid using "he, she," or "he/she." We recommend avoiding the use of descriptors that refer to personal attributes such as age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability or health condition unless they are relevant and valid. When coding terminology is used, we recommend to avoid offensive or exclusionary terms such as "master", "slave", "blacklist" and "whitelist". We suggest using alternatives that are more appropriate and (self-) explanatory such as "primary", "secondary", "blocklist" and "allowlist". These guidelines are meant as a point of reference to help identify appropriate language but are by no means exhaustive or definitive.

Reporting sex- and gender-based analyses

Reporting guidance
For research involving or pertaining to humans, animals or eukaryotic cells, investigators should integrate sex and gender-based analyses (SGBA) into their research design according to funder/sponsor requirements and best practices within a field. Authors should address the sex and/or gender dimensions of their research in their article. In cases where they cannot, they should discuss this as a limitation to their research's generalizability. Importantly, authors should explicitly state what definitions of sex and/or gender they are applying to enhance the precision, rigor and reproducibility of their research and to avoid ambiguity or conflation of terms and the constructs to which they refer (see Definitions section below). Authors can refer to the Sex and Gender Equity in Research (SAGER) guidelines and the SAGER guidelines checklist. These offer systematic approaches to the use and editorial review of sex and gender information in study design, data analysis, outcome reporting and research interpretation - however, please note there is no single, universally agreed-upon set of guidelines for defining sex and gender.

Definitions
Sex generally refers to a set of biological attributes that are associated with physical and physiological features (e.g., chromosomal genotype, hormonal levels, internal and external anatomy). A binary sex categorization (male/female) is usually designated at birth (""sex assigned at birth""), most often based solely on the visible external anatomy of a newborn. Gender generally refers to socially constructed roles, behaviors, and identities of women, men and gender-diverse people that occur in a historical and cultural context and may vary across societies and over time. Gender influences how people view themselves and each other, how they behave and interact and how power is distributed in society. Sex and gender are often incorrectly portrayed as binary (female/male or woman/man) and unchanging whereas these constructs actually exist along a spectrum and include additional sex categorizations and gender identities such as people who are intersex/have differences of sex development (DSD) or identify as non-binary. Moreover, the terms ""sex"" and ""gender"" can be ambiguous—thus it is important for authors to define the manner in which they are used. In addition to this definition guidance and the SAGER guidelines, the resources on this page offer further insight around sex and gender in research studies.

Prohibition of Double Publication

Papers are accepted for publication in the journal on the understanding that the content has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere. This must be stated in the cover letter. The authors must be cautious even about review articles. Related works should be cross-referenced, and any republished or translated material should indicate the appropriate permissions and acknowledgement. Submitted manuscripts will be checked by CrossCheck (powered by iThenticate), the plagiarism checker software.

Ethical Review for Human Study

Authors must state that the protocol for the research project has been approved by a suitably constituted Ethics Committee (e.g., of the institution within which the work was undertaken). Experiments involving either human subjects or material of human origin should be carried out in accordance with the principles embodied in the Declaration of Helsinki of 1965 (as revised in Brazil 2013). All investigations using human subjects must include a statement that participants gave written informed consent and that patient anonymity was preserved using methods approved by the Ethics Committee. This statement must be included in the text, in the Methods section. Include the approval number given by the Ethics Committee in the statement.

Preregistration for Clinical Trials

Clinical trials using an interventional approach need to be preregistered to a public registry approved by WHO, for example, http://www.clinicaltrials.gov, or http://www.umin.ac.jp/ctr/index-j.htm. The disclosed information should include primary outcomes in order to prohibit post-hoc analysis based on researchers' prejudice. Information on registration must be given in the Abstract.

Guidelines for Animal Experiments

Authors need to follow relevant guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals.

Conflict of Interest (COI)

Each author who is listed on the title page must declare any financial support or relationships that may pose a conflict of interest, using the ICMJE COI Disclosure form. The corresponding author is required: 1) to confirm whether all authors have filled out the form, 2) to write the COI statement covering all the authors' statements in the title page of the manuscript, 3) to submit to the journal each of the saved ICMJE COI in one file via the online submission system. The COI file should be uploaded with a cover letter.

Funding

Articles should declare sources of support for the work, including sponsor names along with explanations of the role of those sources, if any, in study design; collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; writing the report; or a statement declaring that the supporting source had no such involvement. All sources of funding of the study should be reported in the Acknowledgements.

Authorship

All people listed as authors of the manuscript should have contributed substantially to study planning, data collection, or interpretation of results and have written or critically revised the manuscript and approved its final submitted version. Describe each individual's contribution to the work in a short statement of authors' contributions on the title page.

Statement example: AB, CD, and EF designed the study and wrote the manuscript. GH and IJ contributed to data collection. KL performed the statistical analysis and interpretation of the results. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Copyright

Papers accepted for publication become copyrighted by the Japanese Society of Allergology, and all authors will be asked to sign a transfer of copyright form. In signing the transfer of copyright, it is assumed that authors have obtained permission to use any copyrighted or previously published material. All authors must read and agree to the conditions outlined in the Copyright Transfer Form and must sign the Form. Articles cannot be published until a signed Copyright Transfer Form has been received.

Author Rights

As an author you (or your employer or institution) have certain rights to reuse your work. For more information on author rights, please see https://www.elsevier.com/copyright.

Preprint Policy

Articles previously published on preprint servers can be submitted. Authors need to mention the name of preprint server and the URL in the cover letter.

Open access

Please visit our Open Access page for more information about open access publishing in this journal.

Language

Please write your text in good English. Non-native English authors are strongly recommended to have the English of the manuscript checked and improved by a language editing service before submission. Reviewers are not expected to correct grammatical errors and any deficiency in this area may detract from the scientific content and comprehensibility of the paper.

Nomenclature

Upon its first use in the title, abstract, and text, the common name of a species should be followed by the scientific name (genus, species, and authority) in parentheses. However, for well-known species, scientific names may be omitted from the article title. If no common name exists in English, the scientific name should be used. Generic, chemical, and/or proprietary names of drugs may be used. When a proprietary drug name is used, it should be followed parenthetically (at first mention only) by the full name of the manufacturer and the location. Authors need to use the official allergen nomenclature approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS) Allergen Nomenclature Sub-Committee (http://www.allergen.org). When a manuscript includes a new allergen, an author must contact the WHO/IUIS Allergen Nomenclature Sub-Committee for approval of the new name.

Use of Inclusive Language

Inclusive language acknowledges diversity, conveys respect to all people, is sensitive to differences, and promotes equal opportunities. Content should make no assumptions about the beliefs or commitments of any reader; contain nothing which might imply that one individual is superior to another on the grounds of age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability or health condition; and use inclusive language throughout. Authors should ensure that writing is free from bias, stereotypes, slang, and references to dominant culture and/or cultural assumptions. We advise seeking gender neutrality by using plural nouns ("clinicians, patients/clients") as default/wherever possible to avoid using "he, she," or "he/she." We recommend avoiding the use of descriptors that refer to personal attributes such as age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability, or health condition unless they are relevant and valid. These guidelines are meant as a point of reference to help identify appropriate language but are by no means exhaustive or definitive.

Preparation of the Manuscript

Submissions should be doubled-spaced with margins of 30 mm on all sides, using a 12-point font, preferably Times New Roman. All pages should be numbered consecutively in the top right-hand corner, beginning with the title page. Add sequential line numbers throughout the manuscript. MS Word is the preferred format for an electronic file of the manuscript that can be submitted via the online submission system at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ai-jsa. The journal will consider publication of the following article types: (1) ORIGINAL ARTICLE, (2) REVIEW ARTICLE, and (3) LETTER TO THE EDITOR.

(1) Original Article

The manuscript needs to be presented in the following order: title page including COI statement and authors' contributions; abstract and key words; list of abbreviations used; introduction; methods; results; discussion; acknowledgements; references; figure legends; tables (each table complete with title and footnotes); figures and supplementary materials. In general, an Original Article should not exceed 5000 words, not including the abstract, figure legends, and references. Each Original Article may have up to 8 figures and/or tables. For additional figures and tables, you may use Supplementary Materials as described below.

Title page: The title page should contain (i) the title of the paper, (ii) the full names of the authors, and (iii) the addresses of the institutions at which the work was carried out together with (iv) the full postal and e-mail address, plus telephone numbers, of the author to whom correspondence about the manuscript, proofs, and requests for offprints should be sent. (v) Conflict of interest should be disclosed. Even if there is no conflict of interest, the statement should be included. Authors' contributions should also be included. The title should be short, informative and contain the major key words.

Abstract and key words: Articles must have a structured abstract that states in 250 words or less the purpose, basic procedures, main findings, and principal conclusions of the study. Divide the abstract using these headings: Background, Methods, Results, and Conclusions. Do not include references in the abstract. Five key words should be supplied in alphabetical order below the abstract and should be taken from those recommended by the Index Medicus Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) browser list (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/meshhome.html). Information on clinical trial registration should be included (if applicable) in the Abstract.

Abbreviations/acronyms: The abbreviations listed in the AI Abbreviations list may be used without definitions in the manuscript. If you use abbreviations/acronyms not included in the List, provide their definitions in your list, which is to be included after the keywords.

Text: Use subheadings to divide the sections of their manuscript: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgements, and References.

Introduction: Include sufficient background information to set the work in context. The aims of the manuscript should be clearly stated. The introduction should not contain either findings or conclusions.

Methods: Be concise but provide sufficient detail to allow the work to be repeated by others. The source of any materials should be given in detail, where possible. Ethical considerations should be detailed.

Results: Be presented in a logical sequence in the text, tables, and figures; avoid the repetitive presentation of the same data in different forms. The results should not contain material inappropriate to the discussion.

Discussion: Consider the results in relation to any hypotheses advanced in the introduction and place the study in the context of other work.

Acknowledgements: The source of financial grants and other funding should be acknowledged. All people who contributed considerably to the study reported in the manuscript or assisted in its writing but are not listed as authors should be mentioned in the Acknowledgements.


References: Use the Vancouver system of referencing. In the text, cite the reference using superscript Arabic numerals in the order in which they appear. If cited only in tables or figure legends, number the references according to the first identification of the table or figure in the text. In the reference list, the references must be numbered and listed in order of appearance in the text. Cite the names of all authors when there are six or fewer; when there are seven or more, list the first six authors followed by et al. Names of journals should be abbreviated in the style used in Index Medicus. Reference to unpublished data or personal communications should appear in the text only.
For references to 'in press' articles, a final manuscript file of the accepted article should be included in the supplementary files when submitting. Authors must confirm in their covering letter that articles cited as "in press" have been accepted for publication.
List the references in the following form.
Journal articles
l.Colon AR, Ledesma BS, Pardo V, Sandberg DH. Viral potentiation of chemical toxins in the experimental syndrome of hypoglycemia, encephalopathy, and visceral fatty degeneration. Am J Dig Dis 2012; 19: 1091-104.
Non-English journal articles
2.Wakabayashi K, Kakita A, Takahashi H, Obata K, Ikuta F, Saito H, et al. [Immunohistochemical study of synaptic vesicle-specific protein in Jakob-Creutzfeld disease brain]. Shinkei Kenkyu no Shimpo [Adv Neurol Sci] 2010; 36: 503-10 (in Japanese).
Books
3.Antia FP. Clinical Dietetics and Nutrition. 2nd ed. London: Oxford University Press; 1973.
Chapters in books
4.Weinstein L, Swartz MN. Pathogenic properties of invading micro-organisms. In: Sodeman WA Jr, Sodeman WA, editors. Pathologic Physiology: Mechanisms of Disease. Philadelphia: WB Saunders; 2009. p. 457-72.

Figure legends: These should be self-explanatory and typed on a separate sheet. Legends should incorporate definitions of any symbols used, all abbreviations, and units of measurement. Provide a text stating copyright authorization if figures have been reproduced from another source.

Tables: Be self-contained and complement, but not duplicate, information contained in the text. Tables need to be numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals. Each table should be presented in a separate file with a comprehensive but concise legend above the table. Column headings should be brief, with units of measurement in parentheses; all abbreviations should be defined in footnotes. Use the footnote symbols: †,‡, §, ¶ (in that order). Reserve *, **, and *** for P-values.


Figures: All illustrations (line drawings and photographs) are classified as figures.
- Each figure should be presented in a separate file.
- Figures should be cited in consecutive order in the text.
- Figure number should be indicated below or above the illustration.
- Figures should be submitted in their final sizes for print publication. The width should be 1-column (87.5 mm) or 2-column width (180 mm) for each figure.
Formats. Elsevier recommends that only EPS, PDF, TIFF, or JPEG formats be used for electronic artwork. EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) is the preferred format for vector graphics (charts, graphs, technical drawings, annotated images). Adobe Acrobat PDF format (PDF) is increasingly used for distribution of files intended primarily for printing. This format can also be used for the submission of any artwork type to Elsevier. TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) is the recommended file format for bitmap (line art), grayscale, and color halftone images that use solely pixels. JPEG files are accepted for grayscale and color halftone images (photographs, micrographs, etc.). More information can be found at https://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.

The online submission system requires that the combined size of all uploaded files should not exceed 30MB. If your files exceed this limitation, you may contact the Editorial Office by e-mail at [email protected].

Supplementary data may include additional figures, materials & methods, tables, or other items that can be published only online as supplementary data, but cannot be included in the body of the paper. All supplementary data files will be reviewed along with the paper; these will not be published unless they significantly enhance the paper. Supplementary figures and tables should be named Supplementary Figure 1, Supplementary Table 1, etc. The supplementary files of an accepted manuscript will not be finalized by production. The files will be available online as is provided by authors.

Revisions: When submitting the revision, please upload both the marked and un-marked versions of the manuscript on the submission system. Also, respond to all the queries raised by the reviewers and editors via "Author's response" in a point-by-point manner.

(2) Review Article

Review articles can be submitted either upon specific invitation or unsolicited. The manuscript needs to be presented in the following order: title page including COI statement; abstract of up to 250 words with five key words; abbreviations (if applicable), main text with several headings set by the author, acknowledgements, references, figure legends, tables, and figures. In general, a Review Article should not exceed 5000 words, not including the abstract, figure legends, and references. Each Review Article may have up to 10 figures and/or tables. Reviews should present an update of the most recent development in a particular field of allergy.

(3) Letter to the Editor

Letters to the Editor are brief reports of clinical or laboratory observations without sufficient depth of investigation to qualify as original articles; they begin with the salutation "Dear Editor". The average Letter to the Editor fills two pages in the printed journal, although manuscripts that exceed this may be occasionally accepted for publication at the Editor's discretion. The manuscript needs to be presented in the following order: title page including COI statement and authors' contributions, main text without headings, acknowledgements, references, figure legends, tables, and figures. In general, a Letter to the Editor should not exceed 1000 words, not including the figure legends and references. Letters must have no more than ten references and a total of two figures and/or tables. There should be no headings.
Special note regarding case reports: Case reports will only be considered for publication in the Letters to the Editor section of the Journal.

Manuscript required items: Yes or No

MS Type Title page COI statement Authors' contributions Abstract Keywords COI form
1) Original Article Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
2) Review Article Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
3) Letter to the Editor Yes Yes Yes (not published) No No Yes

Publication Fees

Submission Fee: A submission fee $30.00 is charged to the authors. If the Corresponding Author is a member of the Japanese Society of Allergology (JSA), the fee is waived. An author of a Letter to the Editor who submits as a result of a Transfer to Letter is not charged for the second submission.
Page charges: There are no page charges for articles.
Color figures: If an accepted article includes color figures, these figures will appear in color online as well as in print at no additional charge.

General

Any requirements for manuscripts submitted to us that are not mentioned in the Instructions for Authors are in accordance with the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals by International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) available online at https://www.icmje.org.