Clinical Lung Cancer is a peer-reviewed bimonthly journal that publishes original articles describing various aspects of clinical and translational research of lung cancer. Clinical Lung Cancer is devoted to articles on detection, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of lung cancer. The main emphasis is on recent scientific developments in all areas related to lung cancer. Specific areas of interest include clinical research and mechanistic approaches; drug sensitivity and resistance; gene and antisense therapy; pathology, markers, and prognostic indicators; chemoprevention strategies; multimodality therapy; and integration of various approaches.

• Editorial Policies and Practices
• Review Process
• Types of Submissions Accepted
• Submitting a Manuscript
• Editorial Manager™ Online Submissions and Review System
• Manuscript Format

Editorial Policies and Practices

Human Subject Studies: It is the responsibility of the authors to assure that all clinical investigations detailed in manuscripts submitted to the journal are conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and to document that these studies have been approved by the appropriate institutional human research committee. Identifying information within written descriptions, photographs or pedigrees should not be published. If such information is included as essential scientific information, the authors must submit written consent of patient or guardian to publish such photographs in the print and electronic versions of the journal.

Animal Studies: It is the responsibility of the authors to assure that their experimental procedures are in compliance with the guiding principles in the "Care and Use of Animals" (published each month in the Information for Authors of the American Journal of Physiology or available online at http://www.nap.edu/books/0309053773/html/) and to document that these studies were approved by the appropriate institutional animal care and oversight committee.

Authorship: To qualify for authorship, each author should contribute substantially to the intellectual content of the work. Such contribution consists of: 1) participating in the conception and design or analysis and interpretation of data; 2) drafting the article or critically revising it; and 3) approving the final version submitted, and approving any subsequent revisions. All conditions must be met to justify authorship. Each author is required to sign the Copyright Transfer Form indicating their agreement with the submission of the manuscript.

Editorial Assistance, Medical Writers & Industry Sponsorship: Authors must fully disclose any editorial assistance provided for the production of the article. If a medical writer participated in the production of the manuscript, the medical writer must be listed as an author. A medical writer must list all conflicts of interest including any funding or support received personally or by their company which could have influenced the production of the manuscript. Manuscripts written with assistance that includes industry sponsorship must include authors from different institutions and those authors must meet all conditions of authorship required by the journal.

Clinical Trials: To ensure transparency of clinical trial endpoints and preplanned statistical analyses, any manuscript submitted to the journal referencing a study for which recruiting started on or after January 1, 2009, must have been registered at http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Trial data may be submitted by sponsors legally responsible for conducting clinical trials, governmental or international agencies conducting or supporting clinical trials, and lead principal investigators who are responsible for conducting and coordinating the overall clinical study. For multisite studies, submission of data should be coordinated among the sites so that clinicaltrials.gov does not receive multiple copies of the same trial. Each trial should follow the World Health Organization standard for minimal registration data set (http://www.icmje.org/clin_trialup.htm#table1). For more information, please see the frequently asked questions from clinicaltrials.gov ( http://prsinfo.clinicaltrials.gov/faq.html or visit http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/). Authors must state in their cover letter that their study has been submitted to the clinical trials registry. Please include their unique trial number and their trial registration date. Authors must also include their unique trial number and their trial registration date on the title page of their manuscript.

Conflict of Interest: Authors are required to disclose any financial interests, direct or indirect (dual commitment), that might affect the conduct or reporting of the work they have submitted. Such financial interests may take the form of corporate appointments, consultancies, stock ownership, other equity interests or patent licensing arrangements with companies mentioned in or related to the subject matter of the article being submitted. If the authors are uncertain about what might be a dual commitment, they should err on the side of full disclosure. Such financial interests should be disclosed to the Editor-in-Chief in the cover letter and on a separate conflict of interest page in the manuscript (for an example of how to format the conflict of interest page in your manuscript, see under "Manuscript Format" below). It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to ensure that all co-authors provide the necessary disclosure information. Information regarding dual commitments may be made available to reviewers. Conflict of interest information will be published for all accepted manuscripts.

Copyright: The copyright for material published in the journal is held by Elsevier, Ltd. Permission to reproduce this material should be directed to the Copyright Clearance Center: Phone: 978-750-8400, Fax: 978-750-8400, Email: info@copyright.com.

Duplicate Publication: The Journal will not accept duplicate publication of scientific data. If closely related papers could be considered as duplicate publications, they should be submitted with the original manuscript and the authors should provide documentation to justify the originality of the newly submitted manuscript.

NIH-Funded Studies: For all papers accepted on or after April 7, 2008 that report research supported by any funds or grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Elsevier will provide authors with the final, copyedited manuscript for deposit. Authors should not submit their unedited accepted manuscripts to the PubMed Central archive as instructed by the NIH Public Access Policy (NOT-OD-08-033); instead Elsevier will provide a copy of the final, published article to the authors to be made available for public access by PubMed Central 12 months after the date of print publication.

Elsevier reserves the right to change or rescind this policy. Elsevier's copyright transfer agreements are compliant with the NIH Public Access Policy and are not superseded or altered by the NIH's policy. For any questions regarding Elsevier's policy or our submission process, please contact the Editorial Office at 817.592.3748 or dav.allen@elsevier.com. For more information on the NIH Public Access Policy, please go to http://publicaccess.nih.gov.

Prior Publication: The Journal will accept original manuscripts that contain material that has not been reported elsewhere, except in the form of an abstract of not more than 400 words, or an alternative short communication. If any preliminary report other than an abstract has been published or submitted, copies must be submitted with the manuscript and this must be noted in the cover letter to the editor. Prior abstract presentations must be described in a footnote to the title. Initial submissions must be accompanied by the copyright transfer form with original signatures of all authors.

Responsibilities of Reviewers: External peer reviewers should disclose to the Editor-in-Chief any potential conflicts of interest that could bias their opinions of the manuscript. They should disqualify themselves from reviewing specific manuscripts if they believe it to be appropriate, or accept the decision of the Editor-in-Chief, who may elect to consult a designated expert in the subject area of the manuscript regarding disqualification if there is any question regarding a potential conflict of interest. The critical review of manuscripts is an essential component of the scientific publication process, to which every scientist can and should contribute. The review should comprise a critical but impartial scientific and literary appraisal in the fields of your knowledge and skills. You should not review a manuscript outside your expertise or where a personal, scientific or financial interest could be considered likely to bias your judgment. If you have any doubts about these matters please contact the Editorial Office. As a reviewer, you may not use or disclose any unpublished content of a manuscript under review without the express written permission of the Authors obtained through the Editorial office. Under special circumstances, you may wish to consult a collaborator or colleague on some special point. Please clear this with the Editorial Office and then note this fact, and the name of the collaborator or consultant, in your comments to the Editor in your review.

Sequence Data: If submitted manuscripts describe original nucleotide/amino acid sequence data, these data should be submitted to GenBank (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Genbank/index.html) by the authors, and the accession numbers should be included with the submitted manuscript.

Shared Material: As a condition of publication, cell lines, hybridomas, DNA clones, antibodies, biological reagents and animal models described in papers published in the Journal will be made available to scientists in non-commercial institutions for purposes of replicating the reported studies.

Review Process

The Editorial team may triage a manuscript via initial review by the editorial staff, including the Editor and at least one Associate Editor, to ensure the paper meets certain criteria. Reasons for triage may include:

• insufficient direct relevance to the scope of the Journal,
• inadequate or unethical methodology,
• inadequate statistical power or assessment,
• insufficient innovation or contribution to the advancement of the field.

Authors are encouraged to suggest names of appropriate reviewers (include phone/fax/address/e-mail for each reviewer suggested) and may also request that a specific reviewer not be used. Authors will receive a full response on their manuscript detailing any changes required by the Reviewers and Editorial team and the decision about the acceptance or otherwise of the manuscript. Only authors listed on the manuscript may receive information about a manuscript.

Authors who wish to object to an unfavorable decision must do so within two months of notification of a decision. Please note all communications must be addressed to the editorial office via email (dav.allen@elsevier.com). Any materials or communications sent to the Editor or Associate Editors will incur delays because they will be forwarded to the central Editorial Office for handling.

Types of Submissions Accepted

Reviews: Review articles collate, describe, and evaluate prior publications of important clinical subjects, accompanied by critical analysis leading to rational conclusions. These Reviews should contain very little, if any, original data from an author's own study; however, such data can be used to support the overall thesis of the article. We also accept targeted mini-reviews that cover specific topics or therapies.
Mechanics: Reviews articles should contain a short abstract stating the goal of the review, an introduction, discussion, and conclusion. We recommend that Review articles contain 2000-10,000 words, <=7 figures and/or tables, and 50-120 references.

Perspectives: Perspectives are more focused than reviews and seek to review a topic from a particular view or opinion. Perspectives should review a particular field to identify outstanding issues and/or challenges and propose new hypotheses or directions. A Perspective may highlight emerging science, controversial opinions, or issues within the field and seek to address these controversies. They may be accepted from a single individual or a team.
Mechanics: Perspectives should contain a short abstract stating the goal of the review, an introduction, discussion, and conclusion. We recommend that Perspective articles contain 2000-8,000 words, <=7 figures and/or tables, and 45-90 references.

Original Studies: Original Studies articles present results of original clinical and/or translational (basic research with clinical applications) research. Th is article focuses on new data collected by the author(s) during the course of a clinical or preclinical trial, although other studies may be cited for support. The Original Study should contain the following sections: Title Page, Structured Abstract, Introduction, Patients (or Materials) and Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion.
Mechanics: Original Studies should contain a MicroAbstract and a structured abstract with the following sections: Background (or Purpose), Patients (or Materials) and Methods, Results, and Conclusion. Original Studies should also contain a short clinical practice points section after the conclusion of the manuscript. We recommend that Original Studies contain 2000-8,000 words, . 7 figures and/or tables, and 30-60 references.

Case Reports: Case Reports of educational value may describe a single case or a small series of cases. Case Reports should draw attention to important clinical situations, unusual clinical phenomena, new treatment protocols, or new complications in a single patient or in a small number of patients. Case reports may also cover novel diagnostic imaging techniques, eg, MRI, CT, PET, SPECT. Modalities for diagnostic purposes, on outcome according to the pathologic grade or to monitor distant lesions, are of interest to the readership.
Mechanics: Case Reports should contain the following sections: Title Page, Clinical Practice Points, Introduction, Discussion, and Conclusion. We recommend that Case Reports contain 500-1500 words, 1-2 figures and/or tables, and 15-30 references. Imaging articles dealing with individual cases contain 500-1500 and that case series contain 2000-3000 words, 3-5 figures and/or tables, and 30-45 references.

Current Trial Reports: Current trials of educational value describe the rationale, criteria, treatment plan, and anticipated results of a planned or ongoing trial. The format for this article may follow a format similar to that of an Original Study (see above); however, because this type of article discusses an ongoing or planned trial, conclusive data regarding outcomes should not be included.
Mechanics: Current Trial Reports should contain the following sections: Title Page, Structured Abstract, Introduction, Discussion, and Conclusion. We recommend that Current Trial Reports contain 500-1500 words, 1-2 figures and/or tables, and 5-15 references.

Clinical Commentary: Clinical Commentaries focus on clinical topics that are novel or controversial and require rapid dissemination. These articles may also highlight treatment options, protocols, and/or novel case treatments. Authors who wish to submit an unsolicited Commentary should send a brief abstract to the Editor-in-Chief prior to submission in order to receive approval.
Mechanics: Commentaries should contain the following sections: Title Page, Introduction, Discussion, and Conclusion. We recommend Commentaries contain 1,000-2,000 words, 1-2 figures and/or tables, and 15-30 references.

Letters to the Editor: Letters to the Editor should focus on articles published within the journal during the last 12 months. These letters should be timely and seek to engage the authors of the original article in discussion. The authors of the original article will be asked to respond to a Letter to the Editor, commenting on their article. The Letter to the Editor and the Reply to the Letter to the Editor will be published together.
Mechanics: We recommend that letters contain 500-1,000 words, and they may contain 1-2 figures and/or tables and 5-15 references.

Other Items: The journal also publishes highlights/reports of scientific meetings and book reviews. Please contact the editorial office for further information.

Submitting a Manuscript

If you have questions regarding any of the requirements for submitting a manuscript to the Journal, please contact the editorial office at dav.allen@elsevier.com (864-610-0791).

Editorial Manager™ Online Submissions and Review System

All manuscripts must be submitted to the electronic submission and review system at http://www.editorialmanager.com/clc/. Full instructions for online submission are available on the Editorial Manager site. Upon receipt of a manuscript, an e-mail message will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the paper. If you do not receive this confirmation within 48 hours, contact the editorial office (dav.allen@elsevier.com) to confirm receipt.

Manuscript Format

We wish to emphasize the importance of clarity and succinctness of the presentation of material:

• Please respect the relevance of all material to the Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion and avoid unnecessary repetition.
• Do not repeat the results and conclusions in the Introduction.
• Conclusions should NOT be stated throughout the Results section.
• Results should not be restated throughout the Discussion section.
• Avoid simply restating the Results in the Discussion rather than explaining how each result advances the overall conclusions of the study.
• The final part of the Discussion should refer back to the rationale for the study and explain how the findings have advanced the area.

We strongly recommend authors employ the format and guidelines detailed below.

Abbreviations and Nomenclature: Abbreviations and nomenclature should follow the recommendations of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry and the International Union of Biochemistry [see http://www.chem.qmul.ac.uk/iupac/jcbn/]. The International system of Units (SI units) is recommended. It is desirable to include appropriate conversion factors to aid the reader.

Order

Title Page, Conflict of Interest Page, MicroAbstract (Original Studies), Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Clinical Practice Points, Acknowledgments, References, Tables, Figures. (Number ALL pages consecutively).

Title Page

• Manuscript Title
• Authors' names and affiliations
• All funding sources supporting publication of a work or study
• A running title of no more than 45 characters
• Corresponding author's name and highest academic degree (eg, MD, PhD), street address, fax number, and email address.
• Number of Words/Characters in abstract and manuscript

Conflict of Interest Page

Authors should disclose all financial interests, direct or indirect (dual commitment) that might be construed as affecting the conduct or reporting of the work they have submitted. They could be in the form of corporate appointments, consultancies, stock ownership, other equity interests or patent licensing arrangements. The conflict of interest page should take the form of a statement such as the one below. If no author has a conflict, the statement should read: All authors have no conflicts of interest.

Example: Conflict of interest: Dr. Wheels serves as a consultant for X company, Dr. Staples is an employee of Y Company and Dr. Chip owns stock in Company Z. All other authors state that they have no conflicts of interest.

MicroAbstract (Original Studies)

Each manuscript should start its abstract with a microabstract limited to 3-4 sentences (60 words). The microabstract is not included as part of the structured abstract and will be excerpted in the Table of Contents to each issue. It may also be used for wider circulation. It should describe the:

• Area and reason for the study
• Approach taken including sample size aspects
• Overall result
• General significance of the findings

All information should be accessible to a non-expert audience.

Abstract

The entire Abstract should not be more than 250 words. The abstract should be self-explanatory without reference to the text. Original Contributions should include a structured abstract with the following sections: Introduction/Background, Materials (or Patients) and Methods, Results, Conclusion. Five keywords should be listed at the bottom of the abstract page. Words used in the title of the article or journal title may not be used as keywords.

Introduction

This should clearly and concisely review in 1-2 pages the rationale for the study and identify what issues were going to be addressed. It should clearly place the report within the area being studied. It should not describe the outcome of the study (in any detail).

Patients and Methods or Materials and Methods

This section should carefully describe the methods and materials used including sample size and statistical approaches in 1-3 pages. Commonly used techniques should be referred to appropriate references and not described in detail. However, unique experiments should be described in adequate detail to allow repetition by others. Sequence and source of unique constructs etc should be made available to other scientists to allow repetition (see section on Shared Material under Editorial Policies and Practices). The role of any outside organization in the collection of data, its analysis and interpretation and/or in the right to approve or disapprove publication of the finished manuscript must be described in the Methods section of the text. Any limitation to the full access of the Authors to all material must be disclosed, although such limitation may lead to failure to accept the manuscript. This is particularly important for any manuscripts detailing work supported in part or entirety by a pharmaceutical or instrument manufacturer/supplier. The sources of materials should be shown by supplier but, with the internationalization of many suppliers, geographical origin, ie, city, state and country, are NOT required except for smaller perhaps local suppliers.

Results

This section should succinctly state in 2-4 pages the results without any lengthy discussion or interpretation of individual data. Conclusions presented as declarative headings are not preferred. Extensive conclusions do not belong in the Results section.

Where possible, data should be presented in graphical rather than tabular format. Small tables may best be incorporated into the text. Tabular data should not repeat that shown in the Graphs. Graphs should start the y axis at 0 or show a clear scale break in those cases where starting at 0 would be difficult. The numerals on graph scales should be sufficiently large and clear enough and spaced to allow the data to be interpreted and the nature of the scale, eg linear or log, readily appreciated. The scale numerals should be easily readable, even when printed at the reduced size that figures will usually be printed, ie column width.

Statistical tests should be clearly defined and statistical significance should be shown in both figures and tables by superscripts of a, b, c, rather than *, ¶, # or other non-sequential symbols.
Data in text or tables should be shown to numbers of significant digits consistent with the accuracy of each individual measurement and biological relevance. For example weight, usually measured to the nearest 0.5 kg, should be shown in mean and SD to at most one significant digit after the decimal point.

Discussion

The Discussion should summarize in 2-4 pages but not repeat the Results and should distinguish between logical explanations of the results reported and extrapolations or hypotheses drawn from the results. The Discussion should end with a succinct summary of the data and conclusions AND should put the findings into the context of the reason for the study as outlined in the Introduction. Where possible and reasonable, some conclusion should be made about the wider implications of the study findings.

Acknowledgments: Authors should acknowledge in the manuscript all support for the work, including funding, equipment and drugs.

Manufacturer Name: Please provide the manufacturer name of all products used in paper. Geographical location is not necessary unless it is a specific, perhaps local supplier.

Conclusion

In 1 to 2 pages, summarize the findings from the current study, including clinical implications and the need for additional research.

Clinical Practice Points (Original Studies, Case Reports)

Authors should complete a short summary (250 words or less) detailing the clinical importance of the study. The summary should address the following questions:

• What is already known about this subject?
• What are the new findings?
• How might it impact on clinical practice in the foreseeable future?

References

Authors are responsible for the accuracy of the references and significant errors in reference accuracy and/or style will delay publication of an accepted manuscript. Do not list references in alphabetical order, but list and number them as they appear in the paper. If it is necessary to cite an abstract, this should be so designated.
References should be presented in the following style. The reference that is used in the research for the paper (online or print) should be the reference listed.

Journal reference: Rueda-Domínguez A, Márquez A, Gumá J, et al. Treatment of stage I and II Hodgkin's lymphoma with ABVD chemotherapy: results after 7 years of a prospective study. Ann Oncol 2004; 15:1798-804.

Articles in books: Franklin WA, Chanin T, Gonzalez A. Molecular and cellular pathology of lung cancer. In: Pass HI, Mitchell JB, Johnson DH, et al, eds. Lung Cancer: Principles and Practice. 3rd ed. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Williams; 2005:246.

Books (entire): Travis WD, Colby TV, Corrin B, et al. World Health Organization International Classification of Tumours. Histological Typing of Lung and Pleural Tumours. 3rd edition. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1999.

Prescription information: Taxol (paclitaxel) Injection [prescribing information]: Princeton, NJ: Bristol-Myers Squibb; 2003.

Erratum: Loehrer PJ, Sr., Einhorn LH, Elson PJ, et al. A randomized comparison of cisplatin alone or in combination with methotrexate, vinblastine, and doxorubicin in patients with metastatic urothelial carcinoma: a cooperative group study [published erratum appears in: J Clin Oncol 1993;11:384]. J Clin Oncol 1992; 10:1066-73.

Non-English Language Translations: Zhang N, Gong K, Yang XY, et al. Expression of hypoxia-inducible factor-1-alpha, hypoxia-inducible factor-2alpha and vascular endothelial growth factor in sporadic clear cell renal cell renal cell carcinoma and their significance in the pathogenesis thereof. [in Chinese]. Zhonghua Yi Xue Za Zhi 2006; 86:1526-9.

References to Online Material: Online journal: Horton MA, Boyde A, Rimmer EF. What is it all about? Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med [serial online] Available at: http://www.ama-assn.org/sci-pubs.html. Accessed November 10, 2001.

Online reference (website information, not journal related): Williams A, Lea A, Allen D. Kidneys and Cartwheels. Available at: http://www.science.com/. Accessed November 10, 2001.

ClinicalTrials.gov Web Site: Clinicaltrials.gov [Web site]. A Phase 1/2 Study of HKI-272 in Combination With Trastuzumab (Herceptin) in Subjects With Advanced Breast Cancer. Available at: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct/show/NCTOO398567. Accessed: August 20, 2007.

References to articles published online before print: Rueda-Domínguez A, Márquez A, Gumá J, et al. Treatment of stage I and II Hodgkin's lymphoma with ABVD chemotherapy: results after 7 years of a prospective study. Ann Oncol, Published online October 13, 2004; doi: 10.1093/annonc/mdn419.

When the paper is published in the print version, it should be cited as follows:
Rueda-Domínguez A, Márquez A, Gumá J, et al. Treatment of stage I and II Hodgkin's lymphoma with ABVD chemotherapy: results after 7 years of a prospective study. Ann Oncol 2004; 15:1798-804; published online October 13, 2004; doi: 10.1093/annonc/mdn419.

Figures and Tables

Tables and illustrations should complement and not reiterate the text. Tables/ illustrations should not include data that can be given in the text in one or two sentences. Each large figure may comprise about one-half printed page and a smaller figure about 1/4 of page. Type each table on a separate sheet of paper. Use Arabic numerals to number tables. (Multi-part figures must be labeled (i.e. A,B,C). Figures must be sent as TIFF or EPS files at no less than 3 inches wide and 300 dpi. Please use small non-bold, non-italic capital letters and place them in Arial font when using figure headings/labels. Authors who would like to test their figures for publication quality should use Digital Expert: http://dx.sheridan.com/.

Each table must contain all necessary information in the caption, and the table itself must be understandable independently of the text. Details of experimental conditions should be included in the table footnotes, although this should not unnecessarily repeat information in the Patients and Methods section.

Permissions: The authors must obtain permission to reproduce figures, tables, text, and abstracts from previously published material. Written permission must be obtained from the original copyright holder (generally the publisher or the sponsoring society, not the author) of the journal or book concerned. An appropriate credit line should be included in the figure legend or table footnote, and full publication information in the reference list. Written permission must be obtained from the author of any unpublished material cited from other laboratories, and should accompany the manuscript.

Figure Legends

A separate list of figure legends should be supplied at the end of the manuscript. Most figures will be set at single column width (approximately 3-⅛ inches). Please submit figures that are close to publication size to insure that clarity and legibility will be maintained when the figure is reproduced/reduced in size. Figure legends should be brief and should not restate information already in the Patients and Methods section.

Revised Manuscripts

We will make every effort to reduce the time between submission and first response and between submission of revised manuscript and second response. In general, failure to adequately deal with issues raised by reviewers with one revision will preclude acceptance of a manuscript. Revisions are due within 14 days of receipt of the initial decision. Authors who cannot meet this deadline should contact the editorial office (Ph: 864-610-0791, Email: dav.allen@elsevier.com). If a revision is not submitted within 90 days, the file on that manuscript will be considered closed.

Reprints

Reprints may be ordered by using the special reprint order form that will accompany the proofs. (Please note that the address for ordering reprints, which is on the order form, is different from the method with which you return your proofs.)

Clinical Lung Cancer is published bimonthly by Elsevier, 360 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10010-1710. Telephone 864-610-0791; Fax 214-367-3301; Email: dav.allen@elsevier.com