Guide for Authors
Official Journal of
EORTC, ECCO,
EACR, EUSOMA,
and
ESO
Former title: European Journal of Cancer Part A
The
European Journal of Cancer is an international comprehensive oncology journal that publishes original research, editorial
comments, review articles and news on experimental oncology, translational oncology, clinical oncology (medical, paediatric, radiation,
surgical), and on cancer epidemiology and prevention.
All published papers containing research data are subject to peer-review.
It is a condition of publication that manuscripts submitted to this journal have not been published and will not be simultaneously submitted
or published elsewhere.
These guidelines generally follow the "Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals".
The complete document appears at
http://www.icmje.org
Correspondence on papers published in the
European Journal
of Cancer will be considered, and if accepted, published on the European CanCer Organisation website at
http://www.ecco-org.eu.
Please refer to the "Correspondence" section of this Guide for Authors for instructions on the preparation and submission of correspondence
to the Journal.
Submitting a Manuscript
Manuscripts and accompanying
Author
Forms should be submitted online at
http://www.ees.elsevier.com/ejc and the instructions on the site should
be closely followed. Authors may submit manuscripts and track their progress to final decision. Reviewers can download manuscripts and
submit their reports to the Editors.
The full contact details for the Editorial Office are shown below:
Suzanne Peedell, Administrative
Editor
Editorial Office,
European Journal of Cancer
Elsevier Ltd.
The Boulevard, Langford Lane
Oxford OX5 1GB
U.K.
Tel : +44 (0)1865 843282
Fax : +44 (0)1865 843977
Email :
ejcancer@elsevier.com
In a covering letter,
please identify the person responsible for editorial correspondence (address, telephone and fax numbers and e-mail address). The covering
letter must be signed by the corresponding author on behalf of all authors. All authors should have made substantial contributions to
all of the following: (1) the conception and design of the study, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data, (2)
drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content, (3) final approval of the version to be submitted.
Also include details of any previous submission. Authors should suggest up to 5 reviewers. These suggestions may not always be used.
Receipt of all contributions is acknowledged immediately, with a reference number for enquiries.
Author Form The corresponding
author must submit a completed
Author Form with their
submission. The form must be signed by the corresponding author and uploaded to EES with the manuscript.
Acknowledgements
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship as defined above should be listed in an acknowledgements section. Examples
of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance, or a department chair who
provided only general support. Authors should disclose whether they had any writing assistance and identify the entity that paid for
this assistance.
Randomised controlled trials All randomised controlled trials submitted for publication in EJC should include
a completed Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) flow chart. Please refer to the CONSORT statement website at
http://www.consort-statement.org
for more information. The
European Journal of Cancer has adopted the proposal from the International Committee of Medical Journal
Editors (ICMJE) which require, as a condition of consideration for publication of clinical trials, registration in a public trials registry.
Trials must register at or before the onset of patient enrolment. The clinical trial registration number should be included at the end
of the abstract of the article. For this purpose, a clinical trial is defined as any research project that prospectively assigns human
subjects to intervention or comparison groups to study the cause-and-effect relationship between a medical intervention and a health
outcome. Studies designed for other purposes, such as to study pharmacokinetics or major toxicity (e.g. phase I trials) would be exempt.
Further information can be found at
www.icmje.org.
Ethics Work on human beings that is submitted to the
European
Journal of Cancer should comply with the principles laid down in the Declaration of Helsinki; Recommendations guiding physicians
in biomedical research involving human subjects. Adopted by the 18th World Medical Assembly, Helsinki, Finland, June 1964, amended by
the 29th World Medical Assembly, Tokyo, Japan, October 1975, the 35th World Medical Assembly, Venice, Italy, October 1983, and the 41st
World Medical Assembly, Hong Kong, September 1989. The manuscript should contain a statement that the work has been approved by the appropriate
ethical committees related to the institution(s) in which it was performed and that subjects gave informed consent to the work. Studies
involving experiments with animals must state that their care was in accordance with institution guidelines. Patients' and volunteers'
names, initials, and hospital numbers should not be used.
Conflict of interest At the end of the text, under a subheading
"Conflict of interest statement" all authors must disclose any financial and personal relationships with other people or organisations
that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. Examples of potential conflicts of interest include employment, consultancies,
stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding.
Role of the
funding source All sources of funding should be declared as an acknowledgement at the end of the text. Authors should declare the
role of study sponsors, if any, in the study design, in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript;
and in the decision to submit the manuscript for publication. If the study sponsors had no such involvement, the authors should so state.
Microarray data The data should be made available to our readers/reviewers through a MIAME compliant online database or at
least a website address.
Format Write in English with double line-spacing on one side of single A4 sheets with high-quality
print. Limits on lengths are:
Manuscripts and review articles are up to 3000 words, abstract up to 250 words, up to 30 references
As a rule, there are about 250 words on an A4 page of double line-spaced typing.
EJC will consider manuscripts prepared
according to the Vancouver guidelines (Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical numbers,
N Engl J Med 1991,
324, 424-428). Authors are advised to read these guidelines, especially when deciding on who qualifies as an author. Authors may
also find useful: Guidelines for writing papers,
Br Med J 1991,
302, 40-42. Manuscripts may be altered to meet
EJC
style.
Manuscripts containing research data, generally follow the order: Introduction, Patients (or Materials) and Methods, Results,
and Discussion. Start each section at the top of a new page, and number all the pages.
Title page. The title page should
include a concise but informative title; the authors' names; the department/institution and an address for each author, with a symbol
to link authors and their addresses; the name, address, fax and telephone numbers and e-mail address of the author to whom correspondence
should be addressed; details of sources of support in the form of grants, equipment, and drugs.
Abstract. The second page
should start with the abstract, which should be up to maximum of 250 words and must include the aim of the study, a brief summary of
the methods, results and a concluding statement.
Keywords: Include up to 10 key words from the Medical Subject Headings from
Index Medicus
Text: This should start on the third page and should be divided into the following sections: Introduction,
Patients (or Materials) and Methods, Results, and Discussion.
References. references should be listed on a new page. They
should be consecutively in superscript in the text. 'Unpublished data' and 'Personal communications' are not allowed. As an alternative,
say in the text, for example, '(data not shown)' or '(Dr F.G. Tomlin, Karolinska Institute)'. Accepted but unpublished papers (but not
submitted manuscripts) can be referenced as 'in press'.
The format of references should be that of the Vancouver guidelines.
Include:
The names of all the authors when six or fewer, followed by their initials. Otherwise list only the first three and add
et al
The title of the article or chapter
The journal name abbreviated as in
Index Medicus, the year and volume,
and the first and last pages
For a book, the names of any editors (as for authors), the city and name of the publisher, and the year
and pages Examples for an article in a journal (1) or book (2) or for a book (3) would be:
1. Jiang FN, Liu DJ, Neyndorff H, Chester
M, Jiang S-Y, Luy JG. Photodynamic killing of human squamous cell carcinoma cells using a monoclonal antibody-photosensitizer conjugate.
J Natl Cancer Inst 1991;
83:1218-25.
2. Gullick WJ, Venter DJ. The c-
erbB2 and its expression in human tumours.
In Waxman J, Sikora K, editors.
The molecular biology of cancer.
Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications; 1989: p.38-53.
3. Lumley JSP, Green CJ, Lear P, Angell-James JE,
Essentials of Experimental Surgery. London: Butterworths; 1990.
Figures.
Figures should be cited consecutively in the text. Full details for the electronic submission of artwork can be obtained from
http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.
For figures that cannot be submitted electronically, please contact the Editorial Office. All figures should be original glossy photographs
or professional drawings. Please do not frame the figures. Figures are generally reduced to 84mm wide or less when published. Type the
legends in order on a separate page; limit the legend to 40 words or less.
Colour Illustrations. If, together with your
accepted article, you submit usable colour figures when Elsevier will ensure, at no additional charge, that these figures will appear
in colour on the web (e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites) regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour
in the printed version. For colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt
of your accepted article. For further information on the preparation of electronic artwork, please see
http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.
Please note: Because of technical complications which can arise by converting colour figures to "grey scale" (for the printed
version should you not opt for colour in print) please submit in addition usable black and white prints corresponding to all the colour
illustrations.
Tables. tables should be cited consecutively in the text. Type tables on separate pages with a title. Avoid
white spaces in the table by using footnotes, and ensure all symbols or abbreviation are explained. Take care to distinguish between
'zero' and 'not done' as an entry in the table.
Abbreviations and units. Generally, avoid abbreviations in the Title and
abbreviating single words. Otherwise explain all abbreviations at first mention in the Abstract and text, except for: DNA, RNA, AIDS,
and HIV. Standard SI abbreviations for units do not need to be spelt out.
Drug names. Use generic names for drugs. Commercial
names may be included in parentheses at first mention in the text. Complicated drug names or regimens may be abbreviated, with the abbreviation
in parentheses after first mention.
Copyright
Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to sign a "Journal
Publishing Agreement" (for more information on this and copyright see
http://www.elsevier.com/authorrights). Acceptance
of the agreement will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. An e-mail (or letter) will be sent to the corresponding
author confirming receipt of the manuscript together with a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' form.
If excerpts from other copyrighted
works are included, the author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit the source(s) in the article. Elsevier
has preprinted forms for use by authors in these cases : contact Elsevier's Rights Department, Philadelphia, PA, USA: Tel. (+1) 215 238
7869; Fax (+1) 215 238 2239; e-mail
healthpermissions@elsevier.com. Requests may also be completed online via the Elsevier
homepage (
http://www.elsevier.com/locate/permissions).
Proofs
One set of page proofs in PDF format will be
sent by e-mail to the corresponding author (if we do not have an e-mail address then paper proofs will be sent by post). Elsevier now
sends PDF proofs which can be annotated; for this you will need to download Adobe Reader version 7 available free from
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html.
Instructions on how to annotate PDF files will accompany the proofs. The exact system requirements are given at the Adobe site:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/acrrsystemreqs.html#70win.
If you do not wish to use the PDF annotations function, you may list the corrections (including replies to the Query Form) and
return to Elsevier in an e-mail. Please list your corrections quoting line number. If, for any reason, this is not possible, then mark
the corrections and any other comments (including replies to the Query Form) on a printout of your proof and return by fax, or scan the
pages and e-mail, or by post.
Please use this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the
text, tables and figures. Significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission
from the Editor. We will do everything possible to get your article published quickly and accurately. Therefore, it is important to ensure
that all of your corrections are sent back to us in one communication: please check carefully before replying, as inclusion of any subsequent
corrections cannot be guaranteed. Proofreading is solely your responsibility. Note that Elsevier may proceed with the publication of
your article if no response is received.
Offprints
The corresponding author, at no cost, will be provided with a PDF
file of the article via e-mail. The PDF file is a watermarked version of the published article and includes a cover sheet with the journal
cover image and a disclaimer outlining the terms and conditions of use. Additional paper offprints can be ordered by the authors. An
order form with prices will be sent to the corresponding author.
Funding body agreements and policies
Elsevier has established
agreements and developed policies to allow authors who publish in Elsevier journals to comply with potential manuscript archiving requirements
as specified as conditions of their grant awards. To learn more about existing agreements and policies please visit
http://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies
Correspondence
Letters relating to articles published in the
European Journal of Cancer should be submitted by email
to
ejcancer@elsevier.com. Letters should provide comments, constructive criticism and reference to relevant additional
work that enhances the value of the article that has been published. Letters should not discuss or present unpublished work. Letters
will be reviewed by the Editors and, if accepted, shown to the authors of the relevant original article to give them an opportunity to
respond. Letters, with their responses if appropriate, will be published in online-only format on the ECCO website at
http://www.ecco-org.eu.
Letters will not appear in the European Journal of Cancer itself in either print or electronic format.